Speaker 0 (00:00:00) - And welcome back to Double Am Alive. You see the location, man, it's different over here, Mike. Nice. It's real different. We at Rhythm and Raps this week on Double M. What up Justin?

Speaker 1 (00:00:17) - What's good man? I'm glad y'all are here tonight, man. On Friday night, you know what I mean? Good music. Got little Lauren Hill. Got good people, got good food. Gluten food, gluten free. Got some sorrow. You know, we vibing tonight,

Speaker 2 (00:00:32) - So hey man. That's all you can ask for , I tell you. It's pretty damn good. I know about, sir. It's a Caribbean thing. Real Caribbean. Caribbean pumper through my veins. Yes. Yes. Um, so I can't wait to continue to drink this. Can't wait to continue to enjoy the good food. But like Marv said, it's double M. We're back here. Rhythm and raps for Justin. Give a, give him his spotlight tonight. Appreciate. Can't wait to hear. I appreciate it more about Justin, his story, everything about rhythm and raps, everything he has going on in his life. Maybe things in the past, maybe things to come, whatever it is. Right? We gonna give you your flowers here on double M. I appreciate it. So that's what it's all about. Can't wait. Get

Speaker 1 (00:01:12) - Into I'm give it back to y'all too. Of

Speaker 0 (00:01:14) - Course, bro. Yeah. Uh, let me tell y'all how, how we met Justin. See where's at a networking event, you know, you need to, you need some food outta networking event, you know what I'm saying? So I had one of these things right here. One of these babies took a little what?

Speaker 1 (00:01:26) - Mm-hmm.

Speaker 0 (00:01:26) - . And I said, nah, , what is this? And Jessica came up to me, told me, yo, this is, this is my food. I had no idea it was vegan Mike, no idea it was vegan. He was like, yeah, this is, it is all vegan black. I'm like, what? Black owned vegan. This is like, that thought process never came to mind. And we were able to chop it up together. And, um, it's, it's an honor. It's an honor to be here at your establishment. Um, hopefully you guys get to see the story. See how beautiful it looks. It, it feels authentic, um, being here in, in, in the city. So, um, Justin, man, let's, let's, before we go all the way back, let's talk about rhythm and raps where we are right now, you know? Okay. Give us, give us a little gist of how you came to be a part of r and r.

Speaker 1 (00:02:14) - I gotta, I gotta say it was the universe, you know what I mean? Um, during the time I was introduced, before I was introduced to the opportunity. So I, so I grew up in marketing, you know what I mean? A lot of my background, um, has been behind the scenes, just bringing people together, you know what I mean? Um, marketing means a lot of different things, right? Um, but for me, I love connecting people. So I grew up in the music business and, you know, a mutual friend connected me to the opportunity to run the marketing. The reason why I was so open to the opportunity to work with a vegan restaurant when the opportunity was presented to me. Um, this is back in 2017. Why?

Speaker 3 (00:03:03) - But why, why did they go to, were you already vegan?

Speaker 1 (00:03:06) - No, I was gonna ask, know what I was gonna ask? It was the reason why I was open to the opportunity. It wasn't because I was vegan, right? I just recently became vegan. Um, the reason was my father, so my father is my superhero, and right bef like a little bit before I got introduced to the opportunity Mrs. When I, no, no, you're, so when I first got introduced to the opportunity, it was through, it was to be a marketing consultant, right? Mrs. 2017. Now my father's health was declining, and I don't know, I, I found like this fact sheet on plant-based diet that can help reverse diabetes. Mm. So, um, and at the time I wasn't really, you know, that healthy myself, you know, but I wanted to at least try to be an inspiration to my father to change his diet. Um, as, as hard as I worked on that I could never, you know, I, he lived in Tennessee, so I couldn't really, you know, micromanage his, his eating, his eating habits and, you know, and I, and also I, you know, I also saw my father lose his arm.

Speaker 1 (00:04:25) - So yeah. So he had no limb on his last days. So that was a traumatic experience for me. Um, another thing was I wasn't able to give him a kidney. He needed a kidney before he was amputated. He needed a kidney. Wow. I wasn't able to give him a, a kidney because I was a risk of diabetes as well. So what, what, what does that mean? They're gonna say no because I may need that kidney one day. Right? So when I was introduced to the opportunity, now mind you, I was grow. I grew up in a music business. I was so used to really marketing campaigns around music, entertainment, arts and culture. Um, but when I walked in and I met my, my now business partner, Aaron and I ate the food. I knew this was, was meant to be, right? And I wanted to work with them too, because I wanted to live for myself a healthier lifestyle.

Speaker 1 (00:05:30) - And so I felt like, okay, if I can help pump this business up, um, maybe I can act, maybe I can learn some things of, of having a better diet. Right? Um, so fast forward a little bit to 2019, um, my now partner introduced the opportunity to be his business partner. I guess I had show improved and did a lot of things in those two years. Um, you know, where he trusted where I could come in and help anchor take it to the next level, right? So I got into the business, you know, as a owner, I st to this day in 2023, it still hasn't hit me yet that I'm a owner, even though I advocate for us to be owner in ownership. Like, you guys own this content. Yep. This podcast, you know what I mean? We have to be owners. We have a lot of people that say they own this block but don't own the real estate. You know what I mean? And we gotta have, we gotta have ownership. We gotta, you know, take action, you know, of our domains and our communities. So when he, you know, even though I was already a business owner at the time, I had a marketing company, right.

Speaker 1 (00:06:53) - It was full circle because I went to college for restaurant and hotel management. Wow. I worked in restaurants, I worked in Disney World and I dropped out for music to start DJing and becoming a promoter. And then it led into other things in the music business. So it came full circle. It just felt right. Where now I feel like I'm my new journey, um, and being a vegan is, is, is of choice. I I, my choice of being a vegan was, I wanted to be an advocate for wellness.

Speaker 2 (00:07:27) - Okay.

Speaker 1 (00:07:28) - I wanted, I didn't want to just be a successful entrepreneur. I wanted to be, you know, as I said, seeing my father lose that limb Yeah. Was just as traumatic as my, my, my younger cousin and my, you know, my family who have losing into gun violence. It's just as traumatic.

Speaker 2 (00:07:48) - So let me ask you, I mean, I mean, it's pretty self-explanatory. Music and getting in the music industry was your passion. Passion for sure. Yeah. But obviously the whole idea and concept of rhythm and raps and everything to go along with it was definitely something more closer to the heart in terms of what your father was going through. Something that you said you might have been at risk at as well. Passion, and then something that's close to your heart and real personal. Obviously those can, two things can be neck and neck in terms of how you feel, but you didn't get into rhythm and raps just cuz Oh, it's just a business venture. This is something that was real personal for you.

Speaker 1 (00:08:28) - Right. I mean, I think we all have to align with our purpose in life. Um, a lot of us struggle with finding those superpowers in life and finding what they're here to do in life. You know what I mean? And there's so many people that are not here right now in this day that we have to live for sure. You know, I don't know how many days I got, you know, so for me, this, this venture is purpose. And you gotta, you gotta have the intuition to know that like, everything happens for a reason. So you gotta like, have faith and put all your heart and it's not easy the work that we do here, you know, but what keeps us going is the reward. Seeing folks come in, seeing non vegans come in. Cuz we're not trying to convert nobody. We just want to give people more options. Right. Because we're dying out here. Especially if you think about hip hop, you think about some of our heroes, they dying at a young age. How many people in your family just die of old age? No. There's some disease that very rare

Speaker 0 (00:09:33) - Kicks

Speaker 1 (00:09:34) - In. Yeah. You know what I mean? And I can, I can go on for days, but I'm gonna let

Speaker 0 (00:09:37) - Y'all talk a little bit. Yeah. Um, I think just to highlight what you said that's so important and something that I'm trying to tell folks as well. Like, we're we're, we're in our thirties, Mike and I, we just gone in our thirties, man,

Speaker 1 (00:09:49) - Y'all look like you're in

Speaker 0 (00:09:50) - The twenties. Yeah, I know. You look black. Don't crack. You know that brother black don't crack. 44 . He look good, Jesse. Thank you. You

Speaker 1 (00:09:56) - Look, I'm gonna look better in a, you know, another couple months.

Speaker 0 (00:10:00) - And our young, our young brother Tex, he's in his twenties.

Speaker 1 (00:10:02) - Yeah. Shout out to Tex over there

Speaker 0 (00:10:04) - And like something I'm trying to tell people like you, there's no age where you can't pivot. Like you, you, you found a passion and rhythm ra it was like six years ago, five, six years ago. Right. You was an older gentleman at that, at that time. And you pivoted to this. Like, it can, you can pivot at any time in life and continue to find your journey. Like you've continued to find what, what you're looking for. So I love hearing hearing that from you. So I, what I also want to hear now, since we're still on the topic of rhythm and raps, when you came in, what did it look like and how did you change it in within the years? Or how, how did you add your imprint in it to where it is, where it is now?

Speaker 1 (00:10:49) - Well, before I go there Yeah. I want to get back to what you first said. Okay. Yeah. About, um, cuz I was thinking about today about ageism. Right. Um, and I was, sometimes I look, I put too much pressure on myself because I'm like, damn, I'm 44, I gotta get it together. You know what I mean? So, so, but but that's all in my head. Yeah. We, we all have different lived experiences, right. And you, you are reborn a lot of different times. Right. And so I, you know, I gotta do a, uh, after today, this is a good practice for me because on Sunday I'm doing my first workshop at Harvard.

Speaker 0 (00:11:30) - Hey. Oh, hold on now. Yeah. don't just, don't just sleep that in there. Say that two times.

Speaker 1 (00:11:35) - So I don't, that's so God is good. Right? Right. And, and and you bringing that up is, is is amazing because I looked at my, my introduction to River of Raps as my fountain of youth.

Speaker 0 (00:11:48) - Mm.

Speaker 1 (00:11:49) - Right. How can I want to thrive? I want to, there's so many things I wanna do in my life, but in order to do that, I gotta be healthy. Right. And I gotta be what, what, why, why I chose to go and listen. I may eat a piece of chicken in, in the future, you know what I mean? Like, I'm, I'm not against meat, you know what I mean? I'm against process meat and I'm against a, a lot what's happening to the death of a lot of different animals. But we won't, we'll, we'll, we'll get into that maybe later. But, um, I, I had to be reborn. I had, I, I want to live long and I don't want to be, I don't want to be in a situation like my father was. I don't want to, I want to be able to maybe have a shift in my life where I can be a, a living testimonial and I can be out there

Speaker 2 (00:12:45) - Emphasis on living

Speaker 1 (00:12:46) - And, and, and, and just be in a, a vessel. Right. A vessel of information. And I'm not gonna, you know, you see a lot of vegans, a lot of stigmas in veganism where you, you think of protesters, I'm not gonna be out there protesting, talking about don't eat meat, this and that. I just wanna give you other options that taste good because spice is life. And if you season your plants, like you season your meats, they ain't no god damn difference. I know. Who the hell eats chicken without no damn season . You know what I'm saying? That shit don't taste. No,

Speaker 2 (00:13:19) - Not a chance. Just folks too. Not meat though,

Speaker 1 (00:13:22) - , but, you

Speaker 2 (00:13:22) - Know, I cannot,

Speaker 1 (00:13:23) - We all eaten on season chicken, but it don't taste and it ain't good, but it don't taste. No. You know what I mean? But let me get into, when I came into the, so another thing I've been thinking about is like how much I appreciate my, no. So I got a few business partners here, but mm-hmm. , um, Aaron, who's one of the original OGs here, I respect everything he does because working in a restaurant's hard, you know what I mean? Lately I've been full-time, so I'm in here. Sometimes I gotta pull up the sleeves, you know what I mean? I'm moral up behind the scenes guy. So I always been a behind the scenes guy ever since I came in. And so what I felt like what was missing with River Raps was just the connection, you know what I mean? Like, like Carl Malone, the delivery man, I had a, y'all got a sports show, so I gotta use some sports analogy. I like that. So with Pulse, man,

Speaker 1 (00:14:14) - Oh yeah. The post man. But, but we're gonna say delivery man right now. , um, , somebody's a delivery man. I can't think about it right now. But anyways, I wanted to be someone that could plant seeds, you know what I mean? Use everything I learned in the hip hop industry, learn everything I learned in entertainment industry, leverage my relationships, and just start planting seeds. That's why when we met, um, that event, I'm glad that we were invited, but that was us donating food. So sometimes you gotta go out and plant your seeds. Mm-hmm. , you know what I mean? And sometimes you gotta, you have the faith to know that you gotta invest back into yourself. And so one thing I learned at a young age from my grandmother, Gladys, is if you give, you receive. Right? And so that's what I, that's the mantra.

Speaker 1 (00:15:06) - I'm trying to like re-opt in my life and I just been given the last couple years and that's been my marketing. And I let other people do, do our marketing for us. So I work with a lot of foodies. I work with a lot of influences like you guys. Um, I'm all about partnerships. Like, we're about to music. So like, anytime anybody comes to paradise, I'm bright in music hall that I felt like we feel their music. We honored, like recently we, we connected with phony people. I saw that. Yeah. That was just us. That was just us reaching out to 'em and now we're connected with them. Now they're like, yo, y'all gotta come to Brooklyn. You know what I mean? And so that gives us an inspiration to know that we got a global feel. So I gotta keep going. Even for the darkness, even through the times where you don't want to get outta bed, you gotta make it happen. And so I just want to be an inspiration and a representation for people that look like me. You know what I mean? And because we got the wrong representation that we see in mainstream media, you know, we, and as I said earlier, it's a traumatic thing with gun violence. I have, you know, people that I love to death that I've lost to gun violence.

Speaker 2 (00:16:19) - Amen.

Speaker 1 (00:16:20) - But I tell you what, I don't wanna see, I don't wanna see us dying of diseases no more. I don't wanna see us. I wanna see us die of old age. Can we die of old age? That's the natural life. You know what I mean? So that's my, so that's purpose right there. So I, I'm gonna let y'all talk cuz I, I can go on and on. Oh,

Speaker 0 (00:16:37) - We love, you're, you're, you're, I told you man, you got a story to tell. This is why it was so excited for you to be here. Cause already you are inspiring, inspiring us anytime Michaels, Hey man. Or that means you got him, you got,

Speaker 2 (00:16:52) - Nah, that, that, that gun violence, I'm here with you on that cuz I've had that personal experience as well, losing people in that manner. But I want to ask you another personal question. You know, for someone who, in my younger days, I've always had the vision of possibly opening up a restaurant,

Speaker 2 (00:17:15) - , I've always thought about it. And here we are sitting in your restaurant right now. You made this happen. You made it happen. So for anybody out there who maybe has the idea, maybe has the vision, but don't necessarily go about it, I mean obviously there's probably so much you can tell about what it takes to go this route and get it started and get it off the ground and running. But give somebody listening, myself included, what may be some of the basis things that you may need to know and understand if this is a route you maybe maybe want to go of getting your own establishment and getting this off the ground and really rolling.

Speaker 1 (00:17:53) - Ah, yeah. No. So I can't take full credit for opening this restaurant. I mean, I can take credit for enhancing it. Okay. With, with a great team. But, you know, aside with me, but what I, with my experience in entrepreneurship and helping other entrepreneurs in my past, I would say, you know, anything can happen, right? There's gonna be, people are gonna tell you, oh, restaurants, you're not gonna make money in the first five years. That could be true. Right? But if you feel that you have, so we all have culture and our food, right? A lot of times people think our culture started with slavery and food. But that's another story. What I would say to someone that has that vision is to know that there's resources out there, right? And you gotta tap into those resources before you even, and, and then, and maybe the first step is not thinking about opening up a brick and mortar like this.

Speaker 1 (00:18:52) - Cuz we started as a food truck. So in 2013, Aaron, um, and, uh, oh my goodness, I don't know why his, his name is Oga, excuse me, sorry, OGA, if you're listening. Um, OGA big, big, big value. He brought a lot of the recipes here. So Oga and Aaron, who I believe is right there, um, he's, he's a ninja. Um, you know, they wanted to, you know, both of them being vegans, they wanted to, um, and, and they were both from the street, you know what I'm saying? Both knew a different hustle. So they knew if they could do that different hustle, they can hustle, wellness, you know. And o Shinga is no longer in the business no more. Cuz he went on to holistic health and went on to another purpose. But, you know, they started, they started this business as a food truck. So I would say start as a food truck or maybe even start doing catering, you know what I mean? But before you do all that, there's a lot of resources in the city. There's Commonwealth Kitchen. So if you're still interested, there's a lot of different workshops that Commonwealth Kitchen does in Dorchester. Uh, they help a lot. You probably on Quincy, Quincy app, Quincy Street, you've probably driven by it with the food trucks all in there. Ah, okay. That's Commonwealth Kitchen. I connect you with Jen. I

Speaker 4 (00:20:21) - Do know that area

Speaker 1 (00:20:22) - Very well. Yep. Jen, I'm not trying to swear, but she is the . And um, you know what I mean, she's helped us as well. You know what I mean? So like, what I would first do is at least get yourself in some accelerator programs is what I mean by accelerator programs. There's a lot of business camps, business boot camps, like going back to to school. There's a lot that are for free. So, you know, anyone, even yourself, if you wanna go, I, I'll I'll give you the seeds, you know what I mean? And then you wanna also, which the most important thing is surround yourself with people that are already doing it and pick their brain as well. Cuz every restaurant owner goes through different situations, you know what I mean? Um, and there's a lot that look like you that will take the time.

Speaker 1 (00:21:18) - And so, but it's also just, you know, having the desire to do it and having that purpose attached to it. You gotta make money of course. And that's what you want to, you know, you want to learn, you know, and there's a lot of resources that will support you too. But you gotta have another purpose where like, okay, I'm gonna create a culture in this neighborhood. I'm gonna help people that are maybe incarcerated, get jobs. Right. Gotta have a purpose attached to it. And there's a lot of opportunities out there where you can attach food. Maybe it's food and storytelling or food and sports. That's, it's, there's gonna be a day where, where God is gonna plant something to you brother, and you gonna get it together. But, but, and then, and so once you have that vision, you connect yourself with people like me, I'm gonna connect you with somebody. You know what I mean? That's how it works.

Speaker 0 (00:22:11) - That's,

Speaker 1 (00:22:12) - That's beautiful. A lot of people, I'm sorry, a lot of people don't follow up on their dreams because they don't have someone in that they can go to mentor that can help elevate them. And you got, and they're out there. Sometimes you gotta pull back in your personal life and meditate, take out the people in your life that ain't bringing no value in your life. And then God's gonna bless those people in your life. That's, that's what we call the laws of attraction. You know what I mean?

Speaker 0 (00:22:43) - That's beautiful man. We we're here at Rhythm and Raps. This is Double Am Oh. I live with Justin interviewing here right now. Eating some delicious food.

Speaker 1 (00:22:53) - Y'all need to eat real quick.

Speaker 0 (00:22:54) - Yo. We going, we going eat. We going to eat. Trust me. Listen, we gotta pay the bills. This is Double M Live brought to you by Bet Online ag. We will be right back. And we are back here at Rhythm and Raps with Yeah, he smacked his, he smacked his, his is his is is down. I'm still working on mine. But we getting there, um, before we get to, you know, the city and you know how it helped mold, I just have a question, just getting to talk to you for a little bit. Um, and I, it, I it always fascinates me when I see, um, older people who are, you know, really doing great work with No ego. I see no ego with you. Like there, there's no ego. You're willing to open your arms to everyone. You're willing to say, yo, Mike, Mike, if you really want to get into this restaurant business, like, go ahead. Like I can show you. I can point to you to the right person. You did the same to me when we had a meeting. There was, there was some, a football player here. And you're like, yo, Marv, let me introduce you to da da da. You know, like, you don't have an ego. You don't, you don't, you don't close off. And I, where does, where does that come from?

Speaker 1 (00:24:05) - I definitely do have an ego . Um, but I don't have a, I don't try to have an arrogant ego mm-hmm. , you know what I mean? And the ego really stay within me, which keeps me going. Right. Um, I think it goes back really for me, like, I remember my journey, try, try to come up in the music business. Like there was a lot of people that were not as welcoming. And so I always like, wanted, I always like said to the universe, like, if I was ever an opportunity and I want to be a better gatekeeper, right? But if I have an opportunity to be a boss or, you know, or be in position, I would always be the opposite of how people treated me. Right. You know what I mean? Because it wasn't as z it was hard grow. It was hard growing up, you know what I mean?

Speaker 1 (00:25:05) - There, there wasn't a lot of, I have some good mentors, you know what I mean? But I felt like there should have been more inter intergenerational support. You know what I mean? And so for me, like you never know. I I, I also have encountered so many people in my, in my life that have gone on to do so many great things in life. Right. And I've seen them at when they had nothing, you know what I mean? And so you just never know who en who you meet in your life that can help you get, you know, bring more value to your life. That's what life is about. It's just, we all have, if you look at life, it's, it's about looking at your life brand. Everything's about branding, right? But when you think about your personal life, how you gonna grow? It's only, it's adding value. So you gotta add the right people in your life, they're gonna add value, you know what I mean? So like, you know, I was just telling one of my young bucks as I was driving her home, she's young, she's 18, and I know she has some negativity in her life from ti you know, when you're 18, it's what it is.

Speaker 0 (00:26:15) - You're going through your,

Speaker 1 (00:26:15) - There some, there's some people you gotta outgrow, you know? And I, and so for me, I just want to be, I want to be a, a beacon that I didn't have at times. You know what I mean? And now I had it, don't get me wrong, but I just, you know, for me, you just never know who you may, I, I, I'm just not, I'm just an open book. Because you just never know who may that next genius may be. Or you know, you know, or, or you may, it may be your wife, wife. You know what I mean? You gotta, so you gotta always, but what I was telling my little young buck, I'm sorry if I'm going all over the place, I was telling my young buck like, you know, life is, it's not, it's not what you know, it's who you know.

Speaker 1 (00:26:56) - And so at times, you know, you really gotta take people at your life that are not bringing anything to the table to help you grow. And, um, and so for me, like I also got compassion that I've been blessed with. Sometimes I'm like, man, why I got such a, a strong heart. You know what I mean? But like, as again, as I was taught, you give, you receive. So like, I'm always in a given mode. Yeah. Because I feel like in life, and again, this is why I told my young buck, ain't nobody gonna remember how much money you made when you leave this earth. But what they remember is what people remember is how you treat him, how you impacted on us. And that's legacy. You know what I mean? So like, I may not be one day the, well, you know, so I'm 44.

Speaker 1 (00:27:46) - I'm definitely got some, you know, some age on you. But the people that I'm looking up to, and I look, I look up to people younger than me as well. But the people that I want to kind of model my life are, are, are a dec a couple decades older than me. So like, I know I got time to reinvent myself, you know? And you can, we, we can reinvent ourselves all the time. All the time because you want to be better. You wanna grow. So, like, to answer your question fully, you just never know when a gem is coming in front of you. So you don't want to ever be, you know, you wanna always be welcoming because that person may be, that can, there's been so many people that I've, I've, I've done favors for that has blessed me later on in life.

Speaker 1 (00:28:32) - Mm-hmm. , you know what I mean? So that's the, the given when you give, you don't expect something right away. Right. That receiving will come when God fills. It's the right time. And so like, and, but I also feel like I, God has blessed me with the power of seeing talent. Now mind you, I I meet a lot of people. I don't be giving everybody my number. You know what I mean? Right. But when I see brothers like you, when we first met, I saw the talent, I saw the passion, I saw myself and you guys. And I want to see more media in Boston grow. What's that mean is we need to, we need to control our narrative. Yes. You know what I mean? Like, that's why we got started. I'm tired of talking to people and telling me that Dorchester, Roxbury, they get scared. Yeah. Get outta here with that. You know what I mean? Like, there's so much beauty,

Speaker 0 (00:29:25) - The look they give you, if you say Roxbury

Speaker 1 (00:29:27) - Or Dortch. Right. So y'all gotta continue to put people on the forefront that are, that are projecting that beauty. Yeah. So we can change the stigmas that we see and now we can get kids really seeing what's really cool. Cuz all that gang banging shit's, it's bullshit. And I apologize, but I gotta express myself. You know what I mean when it comes to that, you know what I mean? Because we gotta, we gotta shift our culture, man. You know what I mean? We really do. And it, and it takes you guys and then it takes the kids that are in school right now, gotta bring our lunch boxes. We gotta look out for them. We gotta make sure that their future is straight. So, I don't know if I answered your question.

Speaker 0 (00:30:05) - No, you did. And the reason I asked that is because, you know, so Tex and I, we're part of, we're part of a mentoring Oh,

Speaker 1 (00:30:12) - Y'all came to the

Speaker 0 (00:30:12) - Mfa? Yep. We came to the mfa. We're part of a, um, mentoring program. Mike's an educator as, as well. And it's just like, I, I, I jumped in into it cuz when, when I, when I was growing up, I went to a predo. Even though I was born in Boston, born and raised in Boston, I went to a predominantly white institution. Right. I didn't have any mentors. I didn't have anyone looking up to me, nothing like that. So I always knew that I wanted to be that for some, for for, for students, for kids that looked just like me. Cuz I knew I didn't, I didn't have that. So I always wanted to, I always like to ask, um, people, you know, what pushes them or what gets them to give and such. So you definitely, you definitely answered that for me.

Speaker 2 (00:30:52) - Yeah. A lot of what you're saying, especially the last part that Marv just mentioned, you know, same kind of situation, being from born and raised in Boston. I went, was in the METCO program. So, you know,

Speaker 1 (00:31:04) - What high school did you go to?

Speaker 2 (00:31:06) - Uh, Weston. I, I was in Weston, out there in Wellesley, Weston. I

Speaker 1 (00:31:09) - Already know about

Speaker 2 (00:31:10) - Weston man. I had some beautiful moms out there. You know, being at that school kindergarten all the way up to 12th grade, we had maybe one or two people that you could maybe talk to and, and they want you to rely upon. But you know, there wasn't a space where you could really connect over and over again with people that look like you. Who, I mean obviously there's other students, but we're all students. We're young. We're trying to grow and understand our lives and whatnot. But you know, the world that was presented to us was this suburban lifestyle and everything going out there. So a lot of the knowledge that I have now in terms of who I am, my culture and whatnot, I didn't necessarily get till I graduated high school. Then I really was like, okay, let me dive back into who I am and where I'm from. And I think, you know, all of us sitting here, we're originally from here, from Boston originally from, you know, the city. So keeping that in mind, I want to ask you about, you know, your roots, where you came from, you know, your block, , you know, all of that. Get that little background story from yourself. Block.

Speaker 1 (00:32:17) - Well I'm a product of divorce. Well not me, but I'm not married, but my mom and father. Oh yeah. Lemme make sure I said that right. My mother and my father, uh, divorced, uh, when I was young. So my father is originally from Tennessee, so he moved to Tennessee. My mother at the time when they divorced, I was living in Mount Pen. Jeez. So I was going in kindergarten. I went to, uh, Parkside, which was like a pub.

Speaker 2 (00:32:48) - Uh, hey, my mom used to teach there. Yep. Parkside Christian Academy. My mom used to teach there

Speaker 1 (00:32:55) - Offline. Offline. I've been trying to find where that school was.

Speaker 2 (00:32:59) - Parkside Christian Academy. That's the name, right? Yes. Yep. I know exactly what she's talking about. My mom

Speaker 1 (00:33:04) - Used to, my mom doesn't remember a lot. So like, I've been trying to like re cuz I, you know, I lived in Mattapan and I, you know, I live in JP now, but like, I'm just like, yo, where cuz I, I have so much nostalgia memories. I I was introduced to nature mm-hmm. At Parkside, which is my big thing right now. Okay. You know, how do we get back to nature? We gotta talk offline.

Speaker 2 (00:33:29) - Will do, will do.

Speaker 1 (00:33:30) - I completely forgot the question, but I want my, my, my block. Okay. So again, um, my, that's crazy. Yeah. Yeah. God is good man. Um, so my mom, um, is from Connecticut. But um, when, when they had a divorce, we lived in and she didn't know, she didn't, she wanted to go back to Connecticut, but she had a job at Fidelity. So she wanted to stay in Massachusetts. So the only people she really knew was my father's parents. So we ended up, and this is how good my family is, you know, so my father unfortunately at the time was on drugs and fucked up. He ended up changing his life. He come on a fireman. So he went to Tennessee to change his life. My mom went to go live with my grandparents, his parents in Medford. Not just Medford, but West Medford. So I don't know if y'all know, but West, west Medford is one of the first middle class African American neighborhoods in America.

Speaker 1 (00:34:32) - A lot of people think Medford, Irish, Italian, they there, trust me, they dominate. But there's a little part in Medford West and there's a lot of dope people from West Medford that I, we can go into that should be on your podcast next. Right. That are doing amazing things. Educators, musicians, Grammy winners. Um, so we, so I grew up, um, W L L D, which used to be in Boston, was used to be in Medford first, uh, west Medford. So, so I grew up in west Me and I grew up in Tennessee. So I, it was kinda like the best of both worlds. Racism everywhere. Right? So Tennessee, you know, you got a different type of racism. Um, but I also knew how to adapt with different cultures. And so everything happens for a reason. And so I'm a little country, but I got a little city.

Speaker 1 (00:35:26) - But I lived in Harlem. I've lived in Orlando, Florida, you know what I mean? I lived in Orange, New Jersey. So like all those lived experiences makes you who you are. Yep. So you can be born wherever. And I was thinking when you were talking about Meko, maybe something that you can do in the future and we can maybe all do it together, is like, how do we create like a pipeline of alums or even people that are just mentors. And cuz a lot of kids don't, a lot of kids are not guided to where their passion should lie in. I was, I do films as well, and that's another, we'll talk about that in another interview, . But when I was a kid, I was editing like videos off MTV and b t and so imagine at that time I was led into film school.

Speaker 1 (00:36:14) - Right. But, um, but what I was gonna say about Meco is like maybe something that you can incorporate in the future. Cause I have a lot of friends. Meco is a great program. You know what I mean? Pros in his cons. It is, it has a lot of cons. Yep. Um, but it has pros if you're open to adapting. Right. Because now you can be in every type of room. And that's, that's an opportunity that I had. I, you can put me in any room. You can put me in a room of heavy metal. You can put me in a room of racists and I'll still move around that bitch. You know what I mean? And still be myself, but I'll still will make connections in there. You know what I mean? And I don't know where I just went with that. But at the end of the day, with Mecca, what you can do is really like, create a pipeline of influencers. People that look like us, that are doing in media, that are in maybe television, that are in maybe jobs. Because I'm, I'm tired of these young kids telling me they wanna play basketball or be a hip hop artist. There's so many opportunities in music. The people behind the scenes are the ones making all the money.

Speaker 0 (00:37:19) - Right.

Speaker 1 (00:37:20) - So we gotta, and you know, what we gotta do is like a lot of us have careers and that's great. You don't have to be an entrepreneur, but if you have a career, find a way that everything that you learned or use your job to come back to your community.

Speaker 0 (00:37:35) - Yep.

Speaker 1 (00:37:35) - We gotta come back to our community. Sometimes we make the bread, we, we get

Speaker 0 (00:37:39) - The bag, we stay open

Speaker 1 (00:37:40) - There and we just stay on social media and, and we work. And then we get mad when something happens. But like, we all have the power. Why we waiting for Obama? We all have the power to act as if to to do something for our community. I love, we all got super powers. You know what I mean? We ain't given no more. We taking too

Speaker 0 (00:37:59) - Much. I I, I love that because you, you always hear, well, I hear a lot in this, this time of age. Like we don't have our Dr. Martin Luther King or we don't have our Malcolm X we don't have that big leader to push us as where the timing is now for us to be those leaders. It doesn't need to be at the grand stage of where it was in the sixties at the time where it needed to be. But why not take the on onus of yourself to put yourself there and say, okay, this is what I'm doing. I can set up a, a workshop in, in a school and teach them, okay, I do accounting. How did I get into accounting? Cause there's only a few of us in this, in this accounting field. Now let me show you how much money I can make in this field and how many, and they show these kids different avenues of ways that, okay, this is what it means to be a lawyer.

Speaker 0 (00:38:52) - Lawyer's not only a thing you see on tv, there's, you could be a lawyer in different avenues. There's so many things. This nursing, this is all, there's so many things that we don't know about because growing up in the city of Boston or growing up in the city of Brockton, like these avenues were never there for us to see. We never had people coming to our schools and teacher us. This, that, and the third. We never had financial literacy. I, I promise you, if I had financial literacy, I wouldn't be in the situation I'm in right now in life. We just didn't, we didn't have that. So, um, for you, for you said that that's um, brought, brought that up to me that we

Speaker 1 (00:39:31) - Don't learn nutrition

Speaker 0 (00:39:32) - Either. Nutrition's another one,

Speaker 1 (00:39:34) - Taxes. You know what I mean?

Speaker 0 (00:39:36) - Like how can we learn nutrition when there's fast food or every block next to us?

Speaker 1 (00:39:40) - It's good advertising.

Speaker 0 (00:39:41) - You know what I'm saying? Like, it's

Speaker 1 (00:39:43) - Just good to

Speaker 0 (00:39:43) - Advertising. We don't, we don't, we don't know about nutri. We don't have whole foods near us. We never had none of that. And then it's too expensive to even to have. So

Speaker 1 (00:39:53) - That's why we gotta all use our superpowers to give back to, to society really. You know what I mean? Like, we can't get distracted by technology and, and upgrading or getting a Beyonce tickets. No disrespect to Beyonce.

Speaker 0 (00:40:09) - Yeah. Be careful brother. Don't get us canceled now.

Speaker 1 (00:40:11) - . Nah, no disrespect. You know what I mean? But like, there's so many things, you know, we got good energy up in here. Yo, y'all let borrow that jacket sometime, man. . I'll see you soon. No, we got good, good. We try to create a culture up in here. Sorry, that was one of my, one of my new guys up in here. If I got any problems, I'm going to him. You saw how big

Speaker 0 (00:40:32) - He was. He's a big dude. Shoot. He's a big dude. Shoot. Let me, let me,

Speaker 1 (00:40:36) - I ain't really get him a him and wrestling or something. Yeah. Um, I hope he's not listening to this right now. But, um, but yeah man, I just feel like, you know, we gotta give back yo, you know what I mean? Like, I'm tired of people on Twitter or like no, no disrespect to protesters and all, but what, what do you, what's the plan after the protest? You know what I mean? Like, it's just like we just, we gather and, and that's cool and all, but what's the, what's the action? You know what I mean? And so we gotta, we all got a superpower that we gotta figure out, you know? I mean a plumber, he does some things that I don't want to do. That's a superpower. You know what I mean? So he, you know, if you got skills in HVAC or plumbing, you can help build a school. You know what I mean? There's a lot of things we gotta stop complaining and just regroup, recondition our minds and find a way to work together where we are not relying on government and we create, you know what I mean? We just make too many excuses sometimes and we don't work with each other, you know, but we gotta find ways to save the next generation. When

Speaker 5 (00:41:41) - You say we don't work with each other, who doesn't work?

Speaker 1 (00:41:43) - I'm talking about the, I'm, well I can only speak of the lens of my, my own lived experiences. Our community, black and brown. We don't work. We do, but we don't, if that makes sense. We need to be working.

Speaker 5 (00:41:57) - There's so much more we could be

Speaker 1 (00:41:58) - Doing. I mean, come on man. It's power and numbers man. Absolutely. You know what I mean? Like, there's people that I wish, like I could work with, but like there's, I don't know, I don't want to talk, you know, too much about that. But like, like you just gotta, you gotta believe in a law of attraction and you gotta speak whatever you believe in. You know what I mean? Like whatever your discipline and faith is, you gotta know, you gotta attract the people that are gonna come in your life that gotta help you. Cuz there's a lot of things that you do well and you got attract the people that are gonna help you with your weaknesses. You know what I mean? And then you help and then they, they got weak weaknesses and you gonna help them with reduce absolutely. Your strengths. And like, we can't, none of us can do this all alone. You know what I mean? Like, we gotta all, I mean, we're dealing with mental health, we're dealing with trauma. There's, there's so much that we're dealing with, but we get distracted. We're trying to cancel people that, whoa, why you wasting our time? Like, let's focus on what we gotta do to add value more in our lives. You know what I mean? But man, I could be talking to y'all for hours, man.

Speaker 2 (00:43:06) - Hey man, you, you are really serious. Fired

Speaker 1 (00:43:08) - Up. You fired

Speaker 2 (00:43:09) - Up right now. You blessing us with a lot of knowledge, words of wisdom, a lot of insight on a lot of various topics. One final question, y'all

Speaker 1 (00:43:17) - Should make me a co-host.

Speaker 2 (00:43:18) - . Hey, this ain't gonna be the last time we had this conversation with you. For sure, for sure. One final question I have. I mean, you said you're saying, you know, you're 44 years old. Um, but that doesn't put a cap on anything that you want to do on accomplishing life. So, you know, as we sit in here in your establishment, you know, what other goals, what other visions you have in mind coming down, whether it be the next couple days, couple weeks, couple months, couple years. What, what do you have in store? What's next for, for you and everything you got going on in your life, you know, goals that you have in mind, whatever the case may be.

Speaker 1 (00:43:56) - Well, the next couple days I want to try to get some rest. . Ah, um, I do have, um, um, I do want to prepare for this Harvard pan, um, workshop that I'm doing. And I, I'm hoping that that's, um, I hope that challenges me to do more, you know what I mean? To be a better advocate. Um, not just a better advocate for wellness, but just being a better model. Not a fashion model, but a model of life. You know what I mean? Like, I have so much compassion that I worry about strangers if they're, if, if

Speaker 1 (00:44:44) - If they're doing well, if they're happy. You know, there's so much, you see so much trauma everywhere you go, you see people with their heads down. So like, I just really like what I pray for is like really to be in position. I gotta continue to keep nurturing, you know, and educating myself. But I just really want to be in position to be a gatekeeper that's going to provide opportunities, resources, information. Information is key. Information is the most valuable asset anyway in data. But yeah, man, my goal is, you know, where you're seeing right now, I wanna see this in every city. Yeah. You know what I mean? I wanna, wherever there's food deserts, there's food deserts in Brockton, there's food deserts in Boston. What I'm a, what I mean by food deserts is lack of healthy resources. There's, I want to see kids in the future talking about they wanna be a black fa.

Speaker 1 (00:45:47) - I wanna see black kids talking about they wanna be farmers. We gotta start focusing more on our, our our our our our health is our wealth. You heard that before? Yep. No, I wanna thrive. I want to, I want to, I want to talk to you when I'm 84 and, and what are you, you'll be 70 or whatever you are, but um, I want to talk about my goals. Then I'm like, oh yeah, know because cuz cuz you can live as long as you want. I mean, I shouldn't say that, but you should have the desire to know that you can live this

Speaker 6 (00:46:23) - Far. Give yourself the best chance.

Speaker 1 (00:46:24) - You should never put a age limit on anything you want to do. You know what I mean? Like, you can be 50, you can, your mom or dad, I hope they're still here. Forgive me. They can leave their job tomorrow and do something that they love to do that makes them happy. You know what I mean? And, and reinvent themselves. It, it don't matter how old you are, you know what I mean? It's just, we only got one life and we try to think about this quote, you may have to edit this, but like,

Speaker 1 (00:46:56) - The moment, like I knew I only got one life, that's when I, I started living. Sometimes we don't, we don't, we don't really sit back and be like, you only got one opportunity. You know what I mean? And it could be taken tomorrow. And if I am taking out tomorrow, and I know I'm not, cuz I know I got, there's a mission for me. I know I did everything in my life. I was successful. We gotta, we look at success in a different lens. Success is not how wealthy you are or how many cars you got or cuz you got a restaurant. Success is being a good son, being a good father, being a good brother, being a good friend. That's success. Because again, at the end of the day, it's not, when you leave this earth, you wanna be remembered on how you treated people. Amen. You know what I'm saying? So everything that I went through in my life, like, I listen, I I've lived, I've slept in my car. I've sacrificed so much. There's been so many. Like, and I'm gonna be able to, and I I just wanna be in position where you can see my success. But I can also tell you my downfalls. And if I can continue to tell my downfalls and be able to provide a GPS of how I got out of it, man, shoot

Speaker 7 (00:48:21) - Anybody, you need

Speaker 1 (00:48:22) - To hear that. That's what, that's what they want. That's what God wants. You know what I mean? And, and, and you being in Western was for a reason. You know what I mean? And, and your, and your, your your, your lived experiences are for a reason. Even the losses, um, you know, the defeats the days when you cried, the, you know, when you lose a family member, like those are to strengthen you. You know what I mean? So like, I wouldn't be able to be sitting here just confident if I didn't go through the trenches, you know what I mean? So you just gotta continue, you gotta embrace the diversity that comes in your, in your future. You gotta be like, all right, cuz that's when God is, is challenging you at that moment to see how your character's gonna be. I failed a lot of times at times where I, I was dealing with adversity. I just gave up temporarily. I always got back up. But when adversity faces you, you gotta just look at it in the face, you know what I mean? And just knock, knock that challenge out and, and learn from it. So like, you know what I will leave at, you know, bef you know, I'll leave, I'll leave it at this is that you got one life every day.

Speaker 1 (00:49:53) - You gotta be better than the the last day. You gotta challenge yourself to be better than the last day. You know? And so for me and everything that you've gone through, that was terrible, traumatic. You gotta tell that story. It doesn't have to be in church. Mm-hmm. , it can be right here, it can be wherever. Yeah. But you gotta help others get out of, and and that's success. And I, and I see that in both of y'all. Thank you brother. Thank you. You're already successful. You doing what you're doing, right? You'll be successful once you finish this sandwich. But, uh,

Speaker 0 (00:50:27) - , you

Speaker 1 (00:50:27) - Know what I'm saying?

Speaker 0 (00:50:28) - Success is success. But you already on the menu success, but

Speaker 1 (00:50:30) - You do it, you're stepping outside the box, you know what I mean? You're not, you know, you're not doing it for the money, you're doing it for the culture. That's success baby. I'm gonna shut up.

Speaker 0 (00:50:41) - You keep saying you gonna shut up. Yeah. It's not happening Brother . I I want to, I want to end it on this note as well. You kind of spoke on it, touched on it briefly when I when you said you needed you, you're gonna rest, you need rest. We here on double M. Like we we're a big advocate obviously on our mental health and you know, we spoke a lot about physical health today. But, um, I would love to know, what do you do for yourself? How do you take care of you? I'm something, it's something that I still struggle with at times. Just trying to find a balance of, you know, taking care of myself. You got your hands in a lot of things. You know, you're, and you're very successful at what you do, but how do you pour into yourself

Speaker 1 (00:51:30) - At the end of the day? Yeah, it's a hard thing sometimes. Sometimes it's hard just to find time for yourself.

Speaker 0 (00:51:35) - It is, um,

Speaker 1 (00:51:36) - When you're just moving a lot. But, um, I grew up like idolizing like Russell Simmons and like P Diddy and when you are like following them movements, they like talk about like how they don't

Speaker 0 (00:51:48) - Sleep. Yeah. That's not healthy. You

Speaker 1 (00:51:50) - Know what I mean? And so like, so for so long I had this wrong conditioning that like, I just gotta go, go, go and not sleep. But that it was wrong information. So one thing I have learned is rest is important. Sometimes you just gotta shut down because like you got, you know, you don't just let your car run all fucking day. Excuse my language, I, but like, and so your body shouldn't go all day like that. You know, you gotta rest, you gotta charge up, you gotta take care of your body. And for me, like yeah, I need, I, I sometimes I, I love what, what what helps me is just meditation. And it's not like, just like what you, the traditional meditation where you like, you know, doing all these practices or whatever. It's just the art of doing nothing. And that could be just me home watching old movies word, you know what I mean? Like calling family, which I gotta do a better job of like

Speaker 0 (00:52:49) - Something I'm trying to work on this year as well as

Speaker 1 (00:52:51) - Calling family. It's discipline. You just gotta like, and, and I'm, and listen, I'm still in my, my journey with discipline as well. So like, I'm not gonna sit here and tell you that I'm doing everything for self care, but I'm, I'm working on it and so I'm working on it harder so I can be able to, to preach that more. You know what I mean? What we can do, we can, we can have a ministry wherever we go. It's a new church, you know what I mean? I don't go to church every Sunday. Right. But I feel like you can still bless people in other ways, you know what I'm saying? So, um, yeah.

Speaker 2 (00:53:31) - I got a real, one quick rapid fire question. You

Speaker 1 (00:53:35) - Said that about 15

Speaker 2 (00:53:36) - Minutes ago. I do. But , you know, anytime we do these spotlights and have somebody on the show, I gotta ask this question because Sure. You never know what kind of answer you're gonna get me in all different, this

Speaker 1 (00:53:46) - Is a rapid

Speaker 2 (00:53:47) - Question. You said rapid question.

Speaker 1 (00:53:48) - I did this early and so I'm, I'm a little

Speaker 2 (00:53:50) - You might be ready. You might be ready. So let's see. You can have a dinner for five

Speaker 1 (00:53:59) - Dinner.

Speaker 2 (00:54:00) - Five dinner, five dead or alive. Anybody you want. Famous, not famous. Whoever you decide. Obviously you are one of the five CSCs taken, so you got four other options. Who would you invite to sit down at that table to dine with you?

Speaker 1 (00:54:16) - My father, Maya Angelou.

Speaker 2 (00:54:22) - Okay.

Speaker 1 (00:54:26) - This is, uh, probably the best question I ever heard in my life. Um, so I said my father Maya Angelou, um, they can be alive as well. Yep. That

Speaker 2 (00:54:40) - Don't matter.

Speaker 6 (00:54:48) - It's

Speaker 2 (00:54:49) - A lot. It's definitely a lot.

Speaker 1 (00:54:50) - Um, bill Belichick

Speaker 2 (00:54:52) - Bill Belichick. Okay. Okay. Now wrong with that.

Speaker 1 (00:54:55) - I, I added white, I added a, I added some whiteness in there. You know, . Um,

Speaker 2 (00:55:00) - Only last seat. Last seat

Speaker 1 (00:55:03) - Only because, uh, you know, there's some things of discipline and coaching

Speaker 2 (00:55:07) - And Understood. For sure.

Speaker 1 (00:55:09) - And, um, man, this is such a great question. Um, I hope you edit this. Um, , I would say I got like a hundred, I gotta put it in this five.

Speaker 2 (00:55:26) - Yeah. Man. Only five seats or four seats. Others?

Speaker 1 (00:55:31) - Um, I would say, give me a second if no worries. I don't wanna give y'all, I want to give y'all a, Hey man, I wanna give y'all,

Speaker 2 (00:55:43) - It's not a easy question. I don't even know some type take.

Speaker 1 (00:55:46) - Let take Bill Belichick

Speaker 2 (00:55:47) - Out. Let's go. Okay. Sorry, bill. You gotta go.

Speaker 1 (00:55:49) - Ain't

Speaker 2 (00:55:50) - On the list. That's crazy Belichick, because I think it's not on the

Speaker 1 (00:55:53) - List. I think it's people that are not here no more. Um, I'd love to have a conversation with, um, man, there's so many. So I said my father Maya Angelou. Yep.

Speaker 2 (00:56:11) - Yep.

Speaker 1 (00:56:19) - I like to meet Richard Pryor.

Speaker 2 (00:56:21) - Richard Pryor. I'm okay. You know what

Speaker 1 (00:56:23) - I mean? Um, gotta have some, okay. Yeah. But he, he, I, he's a, he's a legend, you know what I mean? And, and just what everything that he's gone through, you know what I mean? And,

Speaker 2 (00:56:37) - And he's been through a lot. Yeah, for

Speaker 1 (00:56:38) - Sure. He's been through a lot, you know what I mean? Richard Pryor definitely bring that comedy

Speaker 2 (00:56:42) - Last seat.

Speaker 1 (00:56:43) - Um,

Speaker 2 (00:56:43) - Who you have in there?

Speaker 1 (00:56:45) - I took Bill Belichick out,

Speaker 2 (00:56:46) - So I'm still Belichick's gone.

Speaker 1 (00:56:48) - Um, I like to have dinner with, um,

Speaker 6 (00:57:01) -

Speaker 2 (00:57:02) - Last Running through your mind right now. I can see it. The wheels are turning.

Speaker 1 (00:57:10) - Can I say Gandhi?

Speaker 2 (00:57:11) - Gandhi? Yeah.

Speaker 1 (00:57:13) - I wanna learn the, the power of meditation.

Speaker 2 (00:57:15) - Your father May. Angelou. Gandhi. Richard Pryor. Richard

Speaker 1 (00:57:22) - Pryor. Okay. Um,

Speaker 2 (00:57:25) - That's a solid fool.

Speaker 1 (00:57:27) - I gotta, I gotta pick someone that can cook, right? Um,

Speaker 2 (00:57:30) - Oh, you don't have any more sea slip? That's it. That's it. Unless you're taking somebody out.

Speaker 1 (00:57:36) - Um, man, my, my mind is so blank right now. I don't know why I'm like, like overthinking right now. No, done.

Speaker 2 (00:57:44) - Yeah, he's done. You got your four Cs taken. You're one of the five. I'm, so it's you.

Speaker 1 (00:57:48) - Oh,

Speaker 2 (00:57:48) - Okay. Okay. And those other four. Got you.

Speaker 1 (00:57:50) - Yeah. Yeah. So I think I'm good with that. But like, definitely my father, like, you know what I mean? Like, that was my superhero, you know

Speaker 2 (00:57:59) - What I'm saying? Understood. Understood.

Speaker 0 (00:58:02) - Last question. I promise.

Speaker 1 (00:58:04) - It's all good.

Speaker 0 (00:58:07) - You've been with us hanging out at Double M. Who would you like to see? Double M sit. Have a sit down with next.

Speaker 1 (00:58:16) - Oh, you already know. It's, um, Dietrich wise,

Speaker 0 (00:58:20) - I like that. Dietrich wise. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (00:58:23) - We gotta make that happen. I mean, you met him, you know what I mean? He's ready. Right. You know what I mean? The season's over, you know what I mean? Everything happens for a reason. You were here when he was here. Right. You know what I mean? I like to see that happen.

Speaker 0 (00:58:39) - Awesome, bro. So before we end this off, man, Jess, I just wanna let you know that this was, this was special. Um, didn't know what to come out of it, but I knew that you had a story and that you,

Speaker 0 (00:58:52) - Your story deserved to be heard. There's so much more that we didn't even get into, but just already with that little snippet that we had, I'm, I'm inspired. You got me, you got me inspired. Just knowing that, you know, there's so much more that I can do. There's so much more that's left for me to do that I'm not, I haven't touched the surface yet. So you gave me that motivation. Just having that sit down. I know when people listen and when they watch, they will. So, you know, we want to just give you your flowers, bro. You're someone who's very special in this community. Um, thank you. I said that you, you, you don't have an ego. You obviously you do, but it doesn't come off like that. You, you're very approachable and you know, the world deserves to know who you are. So thank you for just taking the time to sit with us, man.

Speaker 1 (00:59:33) - For real. I appreciate you both, man. Coming down here, coming to the restaurant. We got some Jenna Jackson on the radio right now, you know what I mean? Like, you know, this is gonna be the beginning of more conversations. Yes. It doesn't have to always be online. It can, you know what I mean? So just know moving forward that let me be a resource for y'all as well. And y'all will be a resource for me as well. You know what I mean? So I appreciate y'all just putting yourself in position to give the flowers, you know what I mean? And I know y'all been doing it for a minute, so thank you, man. You know what I mean? I appreciate y'all. I'm glad y'all enjoyed the food. Y'all, you know, we got, we got Big T in the building. How was that? Min Lemonade. How was that? How was that big sugar

Speaker 0 (01:00:19) - Brought it up.

Speaker 1 (01:00:24) - I'm proud of you young men. And um, you know, let's just, just keep the movement going. Awesome. Just keep believing in yourself, you know what I mean? And, um, just work on a live traction.

Speaker 0 (01:00:36) - This is Double M Alive. Shout out to big techs in the building. We got Mr. Mike. Nice. With the Double M gear. Make sure to be, Hey, look out. Look out for this coming. Real coming real, real soon. You know what I mean?

Speaker 1 (01:00:51) - I need

Speaker 0 (01:00:51) - My shirt. Yeah, he got definitely, we got, we got the legend. Justin Springer here at Rhythm and Raps. It's DJ mes. This is double M. We too, the moon.