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Welcome to another episode of Empowered Purpose Podcast.
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And today our guest is Stephen Sticks Josie.
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And he's here with us today.
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Thank you so much for joining us today.
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For having me today.
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Yes, absolutely.
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Tell us about a little bit about yourself.
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Well, as you said, my name is Stephen Styx Josie.
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Um, half Italian, half black.
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Um, born to an Italian woman in New York back in the day.
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But um, I can get more into that as we go along because I don't want to tell everything about me in the beginning.
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So just want to say that I'm a man that loves God.
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I'm a man of God first, you know, and I I keep my faith, and that's what keeps me going.
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So that's uh So you are an actor, producer, director, like the list goes on, right?
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I mean, I mean I'm I'm multitask, you know, I write, you know, I produce, I direct, I act, I um do music, I score, you know, I do a lot of different things.
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I I train, you know, I do a lot of different things.
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So out of everything that you do, what is your ultimate favorite?
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Music.
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Music, really?
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Music first.
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That's that was your main passion, that's what you started off with.
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At six years old, I started off with music.
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Oh, tell us about that.
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Well, I was in Boston, Massachusetts with my mom.
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We went through a park, and at that time, they were having a concert.
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So the drummer got off the drums.
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They had an intermission.
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And I said, you know what?
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Let me go run and jump on them things.
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Now everybody's out there.
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We're on, you know, so like an outdoor concert.
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I run up on the stage and get on the drums.
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Start banging them at six years old.
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My mom comes running up to the stage, like, boy, if you don't get off them drums.
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And I'm like, still banging.
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Then as she was coming to grab me, that's when the drummer came out.
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He was got long hair.
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He was kind of like a hippie.
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He came out to me and he just said, No, he's fine.
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Let him play.
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He's okay.
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He's like, What's your name?
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And I gave him my name.
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He said, Are you right handed or left handed?
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So I put up both hands.
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So he started laughing.
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And so he said, You know what?
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Okay, let me tell you a little bit about these drums.
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So he started telling him, This is a kick, this is a snare, da-da-da.
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He said, Hold on a second.
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He had a bag sitting on his floor, Tom.
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And he grabbed two drumsticks out of that bag and came to me.
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He said, You know what?
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I see you're doing some things in life, some good things.
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I'm gonna call you little sticks.
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And he handed me the drumsticks.
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And to this day, that's where I get the name sticks from.
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So you got it from that name.
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And after that, I was just going around banging on everything until my mom brought me a drum set.
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Isn't that amazing?
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Like the power of manifestation when you speak life, especially to the little kid, like how like how it's stuck with you, right?
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To him, it's probably just him interacting with the little child.
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But I wonder if that man even knows what a lifetime impact he had on you.
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I don't know, but you know what I'm saying?
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Yeah, but he would probably be in his hundreds right now.
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Exactly.
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I'm 60, so I didn't think maybe he's watching over me, but uh he did he did start it though.
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He did, he did tell me, you know, you know, it it it inspired me, you know, and just to see, and at that time there was a lot of racism going on in Boston.
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And my mother was Italian, so here's this Italian woman with this young African-American child.
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And this is a white guy who's taking time.
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Oh, it was a white guy, that white hippie guy, and he took time with me, and that meant a lot to me, you know.
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Because I I'd never seen race or anything like that.
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So that meant a lot to me.
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So as a child, you you didn't experience racism as a child.
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Oh, really?
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You did so we bring You said you've never seen racism.
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No, I didn't see racism there, but let me bring it, let me bring it to the beginning.
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Tell us about that.
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Yeah, my mom was Italian.
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Okay.
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So when she got pregnant with my dad.
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Yeah.
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From my dad, um, her family found out that it was a black guy.
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Wow.
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And so they wanted her to abort me.
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And by this time, I'm already inside of her moving, and they said, abort him.
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So she went in the room and she felt me.
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You know, she felt me move, and she just started crying, and she said, No, and kicked her off.
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So she got on a bus to Massachusetts from New York.
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Nowhere to go.
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So some people, some homeless people took her in.
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So she was around with homeless people, and then she started doing drugs, shooting up heroin while she's pregnant with drinking, because that was the that was what they that's how they lived and survived because they lived on the streets.
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And so from there, before I was conceived, before I came to life, they said, let's get her back to her family.
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So they put her on a PDP and bus back to New York.
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And when she got back to New York, her family wanted nothing to do with her.
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So she was back on the street again, but then she ended up in the hospital.
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She gave birth to me.
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So my father found out he came to the hospital and he cracked.
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Took me from the hospital and brought me to his mom.
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Because by the time I was born, I was his eighth child.
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And by the time he died 25 years ago, he had 19 kids.
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And I was his first mixed kid.
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And so brought me to his mom to live with his mom.
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And then from there, that's when everything just went crazy.
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Wow.
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So I did experience the racism before I was conceived.
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You know, then I experienced some other trauma when I got to my um to my grandmother's house.
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So your grandma's house, so nine all 19 of you were there?
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Oh no, my father had he had 19 kids.
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He had multiple women.
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Yeah, I was his first mixed child.
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So I mean he had multiple women.
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I mean, my father was a white stone.
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He was now he wasn't even in Pimp, he was just rolling.
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He was in Pimpin.
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Because he's a rolling father when the papa was a rolling father.
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The pimps make money.
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He was making the money.
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That brother was not, that brother was driving a bus.
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I'm gonna get this one pregnant, I'm gonna get that one pregnant.
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By the time it came down to I was we were 19 kids deep.
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Wow.
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That's crazy.
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Tell us about your childhood growing up, because a lot of times, you know, our childhood kind of shapes us to where we are today, right?
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So, and this podcast is about being built from the scars that try to break us and how we overcame that.
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So it sounds like you had endured some things um in your childhood from not being wanted from birth, and then now in your your father's home.
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My grandmother's home.
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Your grandmother's home.
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Your father was there as well, living.
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No, he would come over.
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Okay, he just would come over.
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So when I was with my grandmother, we had some of my other brothers and sisters were living here.
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I shared a bed with one of my older brothers, and my other brother had a roll a bed, and my other sister was in the room.
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And my father would come over and he just started beating me from the beginning.
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For no for what?
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No reason.
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Come over, just trying to come here, white boy.
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I got marks on my hands to this day.
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He was like, give me some of that chocolate chip cookie and just bite my hand, spit it out.
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And then when I turned three years old, he's like, you know, I'm gonna kill this kid.
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So he took a pump shoe.
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The hill back then they had still, they were still hills.
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Yeah.
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He took it and put it through my skull.
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Left me to die, threw me in the tub to die.
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And one of my brothers' mothers got me to the hospital before I died.
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I got blood, gave me blood and everything like that.
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And God wanted me here.
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So he continued to abuse me.
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To this day, at 60 years old, I'm still I'm disabled because of that.
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I have to take seizure pills like every every hour or two just to function.
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You know, whether I'm on TV, whether I'm doing music, whatever I'm doing.
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Yeah, if I'm just hanging, I got seizure pills in my pocket.
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I have to in order to maintain from something that he did to me at three years old that I had no control of.
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That's true.
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But my mother did at six years old.
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She got off the drugs.
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So she found the strength and the will to go ahead and come get me.
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So I was on my mother, my grandmother's back porch.
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Six years old playing with a puppy my grandmother had got me and a friend.
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And so an orange road runner car comes riding down the street.
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And I see my mother in the passenger seat and some strange black man driving.
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So she says, Steve, come here.
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She says, Come on, baby, we're gonna go to the back.
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I said, Let me go tell grandma.
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She said, No, I already talked to her.
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And I knew she was deceiving me, but I had to be obedient.
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I got in the back seat.
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Because they ain't had no cell phones back there.
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So I know she ain't telling anywhere.
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She told the man to drive off.
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The stranger drove off, she turned around to me.
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She said, Babe, you ain't never going back there again.
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And I'm sorry.
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So we went to um another city or town over.
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When we got to that city, my mother said, I need you to play like you're asleep.
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I need you to stay like you're sleeping.
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She said, No matter what, she said, Mommy loves you.
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So she put me in a bed and a hotel with this man and she had sex with this man in front of me because she wanted me to pretend like I'm sleeping, because that was her payment to him.
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So the next day he could put us on a bus.
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So the next day he put us on a Peter Pan bus, two one-way tickets to Boston.
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And we got to Boston, all she had was one little pocketbook bag that she had where I know where to go.
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So we lived on the street.
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So we went on the street because she knew how to live on the street.
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So I got to experience that with her for a week.
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And then there was a an older white gentleman that would always come and drive.
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I mean, walk by us, and he looked at us.
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Then one day, a week later, he said, Come on, come on eat.
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He took us to get something to eat.
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He fed us.
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The first time we had a real meal, I had a real meal in a week.
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And then he took us to a shelter.
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And we stayed in that shelter for months upon months.
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Now here's my mother in Italian, white woman, you know, with a black child, 24 years old at that time.
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You know, nowhere to go.
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And then in the shelter, different things going on in the shelter.
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And then we finally got the good news.
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We got our first apartment.
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My mother got her first apartment.
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And how old were you at that time?
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I was six years old.
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So we move into a project.
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We go to the projects.
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And at that time, that's when she ended up taking me to the park.
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And she ended up being a gentleman whose mother was a missionary of a church.
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Okay.
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So I ended up being able to play the drums for the church.
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So that started off at six.
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So I started doing the music at that point.
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But my mother was still on, she still had an addiction.
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It went from the drugs and alcohol to now it's bingo.
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Okay.
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So my mother believed me by myself at six years old, by myself.
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She would lock the door, put a still bar to lock me in.
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So I'm safe.
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And I started talking to God.
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Because what happened was she started telling me to get do our prayers at night, get on her knees.
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She said you could talk to God for anything.
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Wow.
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I've been talking from every single day.
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Wow.
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That's amazing.
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So I got past that because she never abused my mother.
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Yeah.
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She didn't hit me, nothing, none of that.
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Because I wasn't a bad kid.
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Right.
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You know, so whatever happened to your father after that?
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Did you ever see him again?
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Or I did see him about five years later.
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Right.
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So they were looking for us.
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Yeah.
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So five years later, I actually was able to go to my grandmother's house.
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And you know, when I seen him, you know, he stopped by or whatever, but he still was mean or whatever.
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And by this time, you know, I'm a little bit older, you know, and I'm like, okay, if you come at me, I'm looking at whatever I can pick up.
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Right.
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So he didn't come at me.
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But if he would have, I would have picked something up.
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He never got in trouble for that or anything.
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Back then they did, they did not care.
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This is insistance.
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What?
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They did not care about.
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He couldn't even, she couldn't even get me back.
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She had she she she had they gave her custody back to me, whatever.
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My grandmother wouldn't even give me back.
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She had to come abduct me.
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Wow.
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Yeah.
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So she was already healed for a year.
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She had gone off to the narcotics.
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But when I was five, she had stopped.
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And then let me back up.
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When maybe she would come visit me, she would have to bring gifts for my brothers and sisters in order to come see me.
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Wow.
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And a bottle of vodka for my grandmother.
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Like, yeah, it's crazy.
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I seen my father beat my grandmother, all types of stuff.
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Oh my god.
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I've seen a lot.
00:12:59.440 --> 00:13:02.320
So what it did for me, never hit my kids.
00:13:02.559 --> 00:13:04.399
I have four adult children.
00:13:04.559 --> 00:13:05.919
I have five grandkids.
00:13:06.080 --> 00:13:07.360
I've never hit any of them.
00:13:07.600 --> 00:13:08.480
No women in my life.
00:13:08.559 --> 00:13:10.480
I don't that because I took enough for them.
00:13:10.639 --> 00:13:10.799
Yeah.
00:13:11.039 --> 00:13:12.879
You know, and I learned how to you could talk to them.
00:13:13.120 --> 00:13:13.440
Exactly.
00:13:13.759 --> 00:13:14.240
Talk to them.
00:13:14.320 --> 00:13:17.039
You know, and they can see that that you're see you're serious about it.
00:13:17.120 --> 00:13:18.960
And then it's all in your actions too.
00:13:19.039 --> 00:13:21.120
You know, you got to walk the walk as you're talking to talking.
00:13:21.519 --> 00:13:24.320
You know, you can't say don't do this, but they see you doing it, you know.
00:13:24.399 --> 00:13:27.120
So I was always consistent and firm in my life.
00:13:27.360 --> 00:13:39.279
That's that's that's awesome because a lot of people, you know, it's like that saying hurt people, hurt people, but it's like, but you did the opposite, and you're like, I don't want to be like that.
00:13:39.440 --> 00:13:42.399
You know, I'm not gonna be a product of what I came from.
00:13:42.720 --> 00:13:42.879
Right.
00:13:43.200 --> 00:13:48.480
And so it's a choice, and people have to realize you do have choices in life, you know.
00:13:48.799 --> 00:13:51.679
You can either go this way or you can go this way.
00:13:51.919 --> 00:13:54.399
But we all have choices that we have to make and live with.
00:13:54.720 --> 00:13:55.279
Gotta live with them.
00:13:55.519 --> 00:13:55.759
Yeah.
00:13:55.919 --> 00:13:59.679
So then you continue to live with your mother at six on up.
00:13:59.919 --> 00:14:00.799
Up until 14.
00:14:00.960 --> 00:14:02.240
Okay, it would happen at 14.
00:14:02.639 --> 00:14:02.879
Last.
00:14:03.200 --> 00:14:03.679
Last yeah.
00:14:04.000 --> 00:14:09.039
Because by that time, you know, like my mom, you know, God rest her so she passed 14 years ago.
00:14:09.360 --> 00:14:10.399
But she never worked.
00:14:10.559 --> 00:14:16.080
She never had, you know, like she was always so used to her family gave up on her.
00:14:16.159 --> 00:14:18.080
So she gave up on herself, but she didn't give up on me.
00:14:18.159 --> 00:14:20.639
And I thank her for that, you know, and God rest her so.
00:14:20.960 --> 00:14:28.879
But I was like, my my stepfather's um brother that came to visit us, okay, and I asked my mom, you know, can I go stay with her?
00:14:29.840 --> 00:14:40.799
Go to school with so I did that, stayed there for a little while, and then went back to the projects, you know, because by the time we were out of the project, I went back to the projects and stayed with some friends and some family members over there.
00:14:41.120 --> 00:14:44.720
Well, my step step family, because it was my mother's boyfriend's family.
00:14:45.360 --> 00:14:46.480
Stayed there with them.
00:14:46.639 --> 00:14:52.320
And as I was there with them, I ended up, you know, played football, I played basketball.
00:14:52.480 --> 00:14:57.360
I guess that I went to school, did everything I had to do, but then I ended up dating someone.
00:14:57.600 --> 00:15:02.799
So at 16, you know, I ended up I'm in the 12th grade, I ended up with a baby out of the way.
00:15:03.360 --> 00:15:10.879
So so I guess I'm playing football, playing basketball, playing the drums for the school, all these different things.
00:15:10.960 --> 00:15:12.480
I'm doing acting and all that.
00:15:13.039 --> 00:15:19.039
And then um, well, I turned 17 and I ended up joining my the army, you know, and my mother signed for me to go.
00:15:19.360 --> 00:15:19.440
Wow.
00:15:19.600 --> 00:15:23.279
So that was so I could take care, and plus get into this growth discipline that I need.
00:15:23.440 --> 00:15:23.679
Absolutely.
00:15:23.919 --> 00:15:25.600
So that's when I'm going into the army at 17.
00:15:25.759 --> 00:15:29.840
So you went to the army at 17, you had a baby around the thing.
00:15:30.240 --> 00:15:30.639
Same time.
00:15:32.080 --> 00:15:32.879
Oh my goodness.
00:15:33.120 --> 00:15:36.399
I couldn't even see him for like six, six months because I wasn't married to her.
00:15:36.879 --> 00:15:40.799
So you see if you ain't married, you ain't coming to, you know, so when I gotta leave, I was able to come see him for a while.
00:15:40.960 --> 00:15:43.759
Oh, the military wouldn't like back to see the baby.
00:15:44.080 --> 00:15:44.799
They don't let they don't do that.
00:15:44.879 --> 00:15:48.240
If you're not married, if I was married, I could have took like um three or four days off.
00:15:48.480 --> 00:15:48.639
Okay.
00:15:48.799 --> 00:15:50.080
Yeah, but uh okay.
00:15:50.240 --> 00:15:53.120
So I heard I heard you mentioned um acting.
00:15:53.279 --> 00:15:55.200
So you that's when you started your acting?
00:15:55.440 --> 00:15:56.960
I started in high school, yeah.
00:15:57.039 --> 00:16:02.159
In high school, yeah, just doing theater and things like that, and just always learn and observe and you know, how was this done?
00:16:02.240 --> 00:16:04.559
You know, how how how do they put this together, the structure?
00:16:04.639 --> 00:16:05.759
How is that written and whatever?
00:16:05.919 --> 00:16:09.440
Okay, so I started the directing, the acting all through the tight.
00:16:09.759 --> 00:16:15.120
That's when you like started having I didn't really have the love yet, not yet, but I just did it.
00:16:15.200 --> 00:16:16.399
So it was like an introduction.
00:16:16.639 --> 00:16:16.960
Got it.
00:16:17.039 --> 00:16:19.919
The music is what I had a love for because I'm playing drums for the school and everything.
00:16:20.000 --> 00:16:20.399
I'm playing.
00:16:20.559 --> 00:16:22.399
I was on my first gospel album at 14.
00:16:23.279 --> 00:16:25.360
I was a major gospel group in Boston.
00:16:25.440 --> 00:16:29.039
So 14 years old on a real album, you know, traveling and touring with them.
00:16:29.120 --> 00:16:32.240
So that that really gave me the inside of the business.
00:16:33.600 --> 00:16:34.320
So it's pretty cool.
00:16:34.559 --> 00:16:36.559
So you still have that album?
00:16:37.039 --> 00:16:39.519
I haven't heard that album since my father passed.
00:16:39.600 --> 00:16:42.240
He passed, like my stepfather passed, what, 22 years ago?
00:16:42.399 --> 00:16:43.120
Oh, your stepfather.
00:16:43.360 --> 00:16:45.039
So were you close to your stepfather?
00:16:45.120 --> 00:16:46.879
Was he kind of like the male figure in your life?
00:16:47.039 --> 00:16:47.919
He was the male figure in my life.
00:16:48.080 --> 00:16:48.159
Okay.
00:16:48.960 --> 00:16:50.240
He was just as bad as my father.
00:16:50.399 --> 00:16:50.639
Wow.
00:16:50.799 --> 00:16:51.919
But he didn't abuse me, he beat me.
00:16:52.240 --> 00:16:52.399
Okay.
00:16:52.639 --> 00:16:53.120
Oh my god.
00:16:53.279 --> 00:16:59.519
So I would see him take ashtray metal ashtrays, broke her jaw, seen him smash her head.
00:16:59.600 --> 00:17:01.200
I mean, my mother went through a lot.
00:17:01.279 --> 00:17:01.519
Yeah.
00:17:01.679 --> 00:17:01.759
Wow.
00:17:02.720 --> 00:17:10.400
She would get beat sometimes, and then my my mother and I would, she would, we'd go run away for about a week, go stay at a neighbor's house.
00:17:10.559 --> 00:17:14.079
Then a week later, he's coming in and he finds her, and she's right back with him.
00:17:14.480 --> 00:17:16.160
Each and every time I'm like, man.
00:17:16.319 --> 00:17:17.279
And I was too young.
00:17:17.359 --> 00:17:19.839
I could because if I was older, oh man.
00:17:20.240 --> 00:17:22.880
Yeah, that's that that's that cycle of abuse.
00:17:23.119 --> 00:17:29.599
They tend to go back and get drawn to certain types of men andor women, you know.
00:17:29.839 --> 00:17:32.880
Um, so then what's next for you after military?
00:17:32.960 --> 00:17:34.240
So how long were you in the military?
00:17:34.559 --> 00:17:34.960
Seven years.
00:17:35.200 --> 00:17:35.680
Seven years.
00:17:37.119 --> 00:17:42.720
I ended up going to job core because the military didn't give me no skills that I needed to live in life.
00:17:43.119 --> 00:17:46.319
It gave me skills to survive and to do what I needed to do for them.
00:17:46.559 --> 00:17:54.400
So I ended up going to job core and I took a business and then I played basketball, and I ended up getting um the ACT program, which is advanced career training.
00:17:54.559 --> 00:17:57.440
So I ended up going to college for free, you know, playing ball.
00:17:57.599 --> 00:18:01.359
And um, from there I just became a store manager out of college.
00:18:01.599 --> 00:18:06.319
So uh I was the first black store manager for a company called Wall Bumps Food Mark with A P.
00:18:06.480 --> 00:18:09.519
So I became a store manager, so I did that for many years.
00:18:09.759 --> 00:18:15.519
And then I went at that company, then I went to another um company, Shaw's, which is another, you know, food chain.
00:18:15.680 --> 00:18:16.000
Okay.
00:18:16.240 --> 00:18:19.119
So then I always had a love for music, so I had a keyboard.
00:18:19.200 --> 00:18:24.240
And by this time I had I had already had um like four kids, I didn't know what four kids.
00:18:24.319 --> 00:18:24.640
Oh, wow.
00:18:25.119 --> 00:18:26.880
So and so and so I knew what four K.
00:18:27.039 --> 00:18:30.480
So I had my two old two baby mothers, and I had my my two oldest living with me.
00:18:30.720 --> 00:18:30.960
Nice.
00:18:31.119 --> 00:18:36.079
And so by this time, I'm playing the keyboard all the time, you know, taught myself how to play the keyboard.
00:18:36.160 --> 00:18:42.559
So I'm playing the keys, and then I end up wanting to really, really do this.
00:18:42.720 --> 00:18:42.960
Yeah.
00:18:43.200 --> 00:18:46.319
So my oldest son was like, Dad, he was at my mother's house one day.
00:18:46.400 --> 00:18:47.200
I came to pick him up.
00:18:47.359 --> 00:18:49.680
He said, That guy right there, he's a rapper.
00:18:50.160 --> 00:18:51.039
I said, Really?
00:18:51.200 --> 00:18:52.079
Yeah, he got a song.
00:18:52.160 --> 00:18:52.960
That's rock waller.
00:18:53.039 --> 00:18:53.440
That's something like that.
00:18:53.519 --> 00:18:55.039
Yeah, that's oh, that's rock waller.
00:18:55.119 --> 00:18:56.880
I said, No, I got a suit on and everything.
00:18:57.119 --> 00:18:58.720
I said, um, let me go talk to him.
00:18:58.880 --> 00:19:00.079
So I went up to Rockwaller.
00:19:00.160 --> 00:19:03.200
I said, hey man, um I heard you do music.
00:19:03.519 --> 00:19:04.720
He said, Yeah, what's up?
00:19:04.880 --> 00:19:07.359
I said, My name is you know Steven, but they call me Sticks.
00:19:07.759 --> 00:19:10.319
I said, you know, I I like music, man.
00:19:10.400 --> 00:19:10.559
Yeah.
00:19:10.720 --> 00:19:11.920
I said, what you doing right now?
00:19:12.240 --> 00:19:14.480
He said, no, I said I got a keyboard up at my mom's house.
00:19:14.559 --> 00:19:15.200
You want to go up there?
00:19:15.440 --> 00:19:15.519
Yeah.
00:19:15.680 --> 00:19:16.720
And we can try to do something.
00:19:16.960 --> 00:19:20.079
So we go up there, I start playing, and then he starts rapping.
00:19:20.640 --> 00:19:23.440
Then he starts rapping about this kid that got killed by the cops.
00:19:24.400 --> 00:19:25.440
So it's called Ben.
00:19:25.519 --> 00:19:27.039
And the cops are he's doing this.
00:19:27.279 --> 00:19:28.160
I said, Yo, you know what?
00:19:28.240 --> 00:19:29.759
But the idea just hit me right there.
00:19:29.920 --> 00:19:30.880
I said, you know what, man?
00:19:31.680 --> 00:19:32.319
Let me call my friend.
00:19:32.880 --> 00:19:35.359
I call my friend Leon who sings really well.
00:19:35.680 --> 00:19:38.640
I said, Listen, man, we gotta recognise about Ben.
00:19:38.960 --> 00:19:40.559
I said, Remember that song ain't no sunshine?
00:19:41.119 --> 00:19:42.480
I said, What about ain't no sunshine?
00:19:43.680 --> 00:19:44.640
So he said, Yeah, let's do it.
00:19:44.799 --> 00:19:45.599
So we ended up doing that.
00:19:46.079 --> 00:19:50.640
So we went and I got in touch with a family member who knew somebody that had a great studio.
00:19:51.359 --> 00:19:52.400
These guys from Germany.
00:19:52.720 --> 00:19:55.039
So we went there, spent a lot of money.
00:19:55.359 --> 00:19:57.440
Um, went there and recorded, because I didn't know any better at that time.
00:19:57.759 --> 00:19:59.200
Spent a lot of money to record there.
00:19:59.599 --> 00:20:02.400
Next thing you know, ordering that the tapes are coming out.
00:20:02.559 --> 00:20:07.440
So now when the tape comes out, all the radio stations in the area have me on there.
00:20:07.519 --> 00:20:08.640
They booking me to come on.
00:20:08.720 --> 00:20:09.519
So I'm on there all the time.
00:20:09.680 --> 00:20:11.519
Next thing you know, there's phone interviews, this thing.
00:20:11.839 --> 00:20:13.440
Next thing you know, there's people coming to see me.
00:20:13.599 --> 00:20:17.680
Then there's people showing up where where I live at to ask me about this.
00:20:17.759 --> 00:20:19.119
So next thing you know, I miss it.
00:20:19.279 --> 00:20:21.359
Yeah, so I'm that so now I become lyrics and beats.
00:20:21.440 --> 00:20:23.119
So it's I'm the beats, they're the lyrics.
00:20:23.279 --> 00:20:23.599
You know what I mean?
00:20:23.759 --> 00:20:24.480
So but I was the boss.
00:20:24.799 --> 00:20:25.920
So I became the boss writer.
00:20:26.000 --> 00:20:27.200
I got all these different groups.
00:20:27.680 --> 00:20:31.119
Next thing you know, this guy from Connecticut said, Hey, now let's connect.
00:20:31.279 --> 00:20:32.160
So we connected.
00:20:32.240 --> 00:20:33.599
Now, next thing you know, do a record.
00:20:33.759 --> 00:20:35.359
So that's what makes my first records.
00:20:35.519 --> 00:20:39.200
And then I ended up leaving that situation because I wanted to kind of do my own.
00:20:39.359 --> 00:20:41.039
So by this time I was married.
00:20:41.119 --> 00:20:41.279
Okay.
00:20:41.440 --> 00:20:44.319
And my ex-wife, she had an NBA friend.
00:20:44.720 --> 00:20:45.839
So she took me to that MBA.
00:20:46.079 --> 00:20:48.960
No, had an NBA friend come to the studio while I was working on some music.
00:20:49.039 --> 00:20:51.440
And he's like, Oh, I definitely want to be a part of this.
00:20:51.759 --> 00:20:55.519
So he's we made we made some records that we're doing really well.
00:20:55.680 --> 00:21:01.119
So now I'm with him and Brian McKnight, and we're going all over the place in New York City, demo drivers and all that.
00:21:01.279 --> 00:21:02.160
We got records out.
00:21:02.319 --> 00:21:04.319
And so now we end up at Sony Records.
00:21:04.799 --> 00:21:05.759
So we're there.
00:21:05.920 --> 00:21:07.839
And Prodigy, God rest his soul.
00:21:08.079 --> 00:21:13.759
Prodigy from Mob Deep was there talking to Steve Ripkin and from Lyle Records about his publishing.
00:21:14.160 --> 00:21:17.279
And so Hooks, there's a guy named Hooks, Mike DeLorean.
00:21:17.599 --> 00:21:20.000
I don't know where I'm there with Tate George Brightman.
00:21:20.240 --> 00:21:21.039
He comes over to me.
00:21:21.119 --> 00:21:22.160
I don't even know this kid.
00:21:22.240 --> 00:21:23.359
He's from Queens, New York.
00:21:23.440 --> 00:21:24.559
He says, Yo, bro.
00:21:24.799 --> 00:21:25.839
I said, What's up?
00:21:26.079 --> 00:21:27.680
He said, You do music?
00:21:27.759 --> 00:21:27.839
Yeah.
00:21:28.079 --> 00:21:28.559
I don't know where.
00:21:28.799 --> 00:21:29.359
Like, right.
00:21:30.000 --> 00:21:32.720
I'm looking at them like, I can't, because you know this is God.
00:21:32.799 --> 00:21:33.519
I'm like, oh yeah.
00:21:33.680 --> 00:21:34.319
I said, yeah, why?
00:21:34.480 --> 00:21:35.680
He said, you got some beats on you?
00:21:35.759 --> 00:21:38.319
Now of course I got music because we're that's why we're at Sonya.
00:21:38.400 --> 00:21:39.039
So they can hear it.
00:21:39.200 --> 00:21:40.079
He said, Come in this room.
00:21:40.160 --> 00:21:41.680
I went in the room, he's playing my music.
00:21:41.759 --> 00:21:42.799
He said, Oh, that's dope.
00:21:43.920 --> 00:21:47.440
He said, Yo, what y'all doing about six o'clock?
00:21:47.920 --> 00:21:49.519
Now mine was like two or three, right?
00:21:49.759 --> 00:21:50.880
And we got a limo driver.
00:21:51.279 --> 00:21:52.640
So you know it's up by the hour.
00:21:52.720 --> 00:21:54.799
And so I looked at them because I'm not paying, you know.
00:21:55.119 --> 00:21:56.160
I'm the talent, you know what I mean?
00:21:56.240 --> 00:21:57.759
I'm with I'm with these dudes, you know what I mean?
00:21:57.920 --> 00:21:59.519
I'm with the NBA guys, you know what I mean?
00:22:00.160 --> 00:24:19.599
So the um I looked at the NBA guy and the NBA guy was like um hey I'll tell you what yeah we can do it what's the address so now we're we're we're down we're downtown you know we're we're you know we're Madison Madison Ab you know we're at we're at it's out in Long Island Oh wow so I looked at the dude the NBA guy he said okay so now we end up showing up at the um studio because back then what they would do then Mob Deep was working on the album so what they would do back in the day with the studios if you they'll give you a budget okay let's say your budget was three million or four million or whatever so what they would do is they rent out a studio for a whole year 24 hours wow three different engineers on three different shifts you know so you got the eight hour shift so anytime that the artists wanted to come in at two or three o'clock whatever time they want to come here there's somebody available there to work to receive them and lay the music down so we end up at Long Island uh music palace you know so we at Cherry Valley so we end up there I'm there with this MBA guy and and Mob Dology ain't there supposed to be at at at six o'clock yeah at 6 30 here he comes he's like hey what I've done's gone because if everything was done he can't what I've done I said oh hey what's up man so he said yo I just you know Lori was telling me you got some good stuff let me hear it I gave him his CD yeah he put it in yeah he's rocking to it it's like oh he said that's you you did this I said yeah he said what what you say where you get that sample from I said no I'm playing that right he said what do you mean well you playing it right so I'm playing every instrument you hit it I'm playing everything you know I mean I said I don't sample I don't know how I don't even know how to sample right I said yo this is fire yeah so now the NBA dude his mind starts erasing so he was doing a show in in Connecticut the next day they were having a benefit concert so now mine at this time Prodigy was getting like 20K a show so he said what are you doing tomorrow you got anything on your schedule tomorrow so peace test looks at me says no I ain't got nothing tomorrow he said why what's up he said I'm doing a show in Connecticut and I would love for you to come you know how much would you charge me so he looked at me looked at his group bars and hooks looks at the NBA guy and he looks back at me he said I'll tell you what I'll come do the show yeah and just give them 500 apiece and set a level for them I'm good.
00:24:19.759 --> 00:24:58.960
Oh wow now this man I got goose watch right now this man has 20 dollars on a show right you understand so this man's like yo just give them 500 and I'm there yeah so so we left it we skirted right up out of here went right to the Marriott booked out the whole top floor because mob deep is really deep so booked out the whole top floor and so now we have sound check so that's the next day or at sound check up did a sound check for my group here comes Mob Deep coming in Prodigy I'm up there doing the sound check for my group because I did the music too and he comes over to me like yo done I want you to do our show he hands me a debt I don't even know their show and like why would you you know I mean like this this is only God.
00:24:59.039 --> 00:25:10.240
Yeah Prodigy gives me his debt so now I'm doing their sound check now you know everybody's looking like oh look at sticks okay now I'm up so I'm doing the I'm doing the I'm doing their music so we had the show that night it went went off really well.
00:25:10.400 --> 00:25:20.079
So Prodigy's room was right next to my room so I'm in my room and I had like a loft so my my um ex-wife and I were up in the loft and then two of our artists is down there.
00:25:20.319 --> 00:26:50.160
So it's banging about two o'clock in the morning next door all this bang up so I called Prodigy oh you all right he said yeah man I just got these girls in here wrestling man so they they're wrestling said he had just met some girls I got them in their wrestling so I'm laughing right I'm laughing I'm like okay cool you good though he said I'm good so the next day we're all downstairs you know everybody's down there just gathered you know we're just talking shooting it shooting the breeze and so a guy named Green Eyes comes over to me he says Joe sticks I said what's up he said um prodigy said come to his room and he said bring your drum machine now how you know I got a drum machine right now come on now I'm like for real I go I go you got your drum machine absolutely that's what I was doing my sound check with so I go I go bring my drum machine um get my drum machine I go to his room knock on the door he said yo what up done come on in he said yo you want to need you home be wants a room share yourself I said no I'm good man I said I'm good he said um yeah all right let me see you make a B now mind you I'm I got an NPC right the NPC don't even have any sounds in it but thank god I had my flash drive that had some sounds on it so why I was like no worries because I I set it up I stopped playing and I do a few different weeks yo that's it right there he said you know what man I'm gonna go ahead and get you signed man going to sign you as an NHL producer the Sony infamous style records I said what he said you know if that's cool with you I said I won't let you come back to New York with me today I said but I can't do it today because I'm married now I gotta let me settle something this is a Saturday.
00:26:50.319 --> 00:26:56.559
So he said all right or Monday I need you there by Monday you know and it's back to the same place that we came from you know music palace.
00:26:56.960 --> 00:29:01.519
I said all right so I I get out of here I I go home right I'm heading home I get a call yo can you come back real quick man we need you to take us to that strip club where these where probably she met them girls they stole his phone stop that phone just oh no they was in there just wrestling he had them wrestling oh he just had them wrestling no they weren't fighting they weren't fighting just wrestling just fighting fighting but they they was cocking because back to cell phones i mean you're talking like 30 years ago cell phones was the big thing you know what I'm saying so that's why that yo I gotta get so how how crazy is this we go back and take up to wherever he went to the club they went to yeah the girls were in there now it's daylight like you got that was normally happened that was only God yeah so he came out with his cell phone he was happy so it's good because it would have been really crazy out there but he got his cell phone back and um so then I said I I'll see you Monday so now fast forward to the next day now the NBA guy he's feeling some type of way now this dude's 6'7 I'm five nothing right you know I'm saying like like I you know my my college high school heights five six but I know I'm not even five six you know I mean but this guy's six seven legitimately NBA player everything yeah comes to my house yeah now he's upset with me because I'm like okay I'm gonna go just you know the opportunity and if it if I blow I can help out so me and this guy get into a fist fight oh no guy six seven yeah oh yeah he was pissed it's not because I'm about to go do my thing he could tell I'm about to go do my thing you know so the control is it's gone because he he had the money so he had the control yes so I'm like yo listen you're not gonna stop me so we you know we got we we talked a little bit you know and and that was it you know and then I just walked away from it I said yo you can have the group you can have everything I mean I don't want nothing you know like so nothing so I never I gave up I turned up hey you can have everything and I just walked away so now I end up at Tony I mean at um music palace prodigy's there so we stayed up all night long he's teaching me how to even do tricks and make better beats because he taught Havoc I never knew that because Havoc is one of the illest producers ever.
00:29:01.599 --> 00:29:17.200
Yeah he taught him how to make beats so Prodigy gave me the insight of how I do things and all that we stayed up all night and he said well listen tomorrow I gotta go to Miami I got to show Miami I'll take bars and hooks so if you're gonna be there you'll be okay so I stayed so for two days they were gone.
00:29:17.359 --> 00:29:22.240
So he came back time to came back Thursday I had 30 beats done 30 beats in a few days.
00:29:22.480 --> 00:31:29.440
He came here playing them things next thing you know he took me to Jack Fernando's Congress a lawyer we got the paperwork drafted up got the paperwork signed he took me to the bank Bank of America I got my first pay and I said brother I said listen man I said I never got money before he said you know what don't ever tell nobody that again you know he said because I didn't even know you wasn't making no money man I thought you were making money he said but you're making money now you know he said don't ever tell nobody that again I said all right P you got that he was P was so cool yeah and from there you took me under his wings you know I'm I seen I've seen a lot of things been a lot of places yeah and and I was really inspired you know I would never want to think you can't only see it taught me a lot of things so that was my last experience with so many you know that worked with so many different workers long no I appreciate you sharing no so then you know it was a great experience it sounds like but you know like I truly believe like every part of our life like it kind of transitions us to the next part of our life like every single thing leads up to where we're meant to be like every experience shapes us and like if you think about it if you had not gone through or had those experiences you would not be pushed into your greatness.
00:31:30.720 --> 00:31:31.839
Does that make sense?
00:31:33.119 --> 00:31:42.160
Exactly so I think that sometimes God allows those things and sometimes he uses people to push us out of places.
00:31:42.799 --> 00:32:03.920
Otherwise if we're too comfortable we're gonna miss out on our calling that he really wants us to be in because um I know when I had left um corporate in 2019 the people that I just absolutely got along with all of a sudden it was friction.
00:32:04.160 --> 00:32:11.519
It's like why are we all of a sudden something happened and let's see it's like God allows that to happen.
00:32:11.839 --> 00:32:49.680
Because otherwise if we're too comfortable we're not gonna we're not going to read and so in your case you know it was because your time was up for something right that time and it could be kind of just using them to allow you to see things or feel things that will help you push out because then now you ended up going to the film school and up utilizing your music to go along with the film and then you fast forward to like whoa now you wrote several movies you've acted in several right tell us how how was that experience like for you.
00:32:49.920 --> 00:33:14.960
Well the first one what I did is um I got in touch with a good friend I call it using the wire so I met him through one of my my friends who played first his first films so I met him um it became pretty cool and I said you know what I'm gonna make this movie called Angel's brother I'm gonna be an angel button after this sounds dope.
00:33:15.119 --> 00:34:59.280
So I had a friend that knew somebody that knew a guy named Derek Hammond shout out to Derek Hammond is one of the first cousins Derek Cameron's father was first father's brother but Derek's a director now I've I've never made a movie before movies or whatever I said hey man how would you feel about coming up here mayor for about three or four weeks help me do this movie at Boston Boston I said help me do this movie and you'll be a call director and you can teach me things as a as a normal now I'm a boss I'm a I'll be a storm so I used to be in the league so he came came up there and we bought different ideas like matter of fact like we have no show called boomerang um which is not BT but my movie was his first movie dangerous round so we have James Michael Sama climbers got the lead after so I ended up going out directly learning on an accent you know Derek will ask different questions shout out to Jeremy and um he really can't I gotta give pass a passage to and so from there when I did that on the book as well next to the Philadelphia independent film festival is coming bring the movie in the selected and so now they have the whole package forty or fifty people probably Philadelphia we'll let it but we all ended up showing the movie race and I ended up with it.
00:34:59.599 --> 00:35:27.599
Nice first time director and we I ended up with distribution between nice and those on the big screen and everything what does it feel like for you to think yourself like for the first time on the big movie screen especially like thinking of your rough childhood your journey like to now like wow this is a dream come true like I'm watching my own movie like I'm watching myself in my movie.
00:35:27.679 --> 00:36:12.800
Like what was that first thought first experience how did you feel well I was not really on screen because I was in a movie with uh Michael Winslow and David Rusty and all from the social point and I was an actor so I already saw myself so you already had your first time I think I have nothing to do with this one because that's why I made my first movie that I created one was Angels Ralph because it's always angels round when I was three years old he had that one that came out to go into when I was given the views he had one angels round your angel and everything else and everybody angels work.
00:36:13.199 --> 00:36:17.840
But for me I just came to go with the text like I didn't say that.
00:36:19.920 --> 00:36:22.960
I wasn't I wasn't in all our things I thank you.
00:36:23.360 --> 00:36:38.960
Yeah absolutely and you know it's got like everything that happens is like it's like you know he ordains our stuff or he orders our stuff he orders our steps absolutely so tell us about what's next for you.
00:36:39.280 --> 00:36:51.599
Well we might as well let the catalog is that okay yeah that's fine yes we can so what happened Styx Productions was blessed to line up with Silhouette Creative Studios.
00:36:51.920 --> 00:37:01.199
So we had merged together and so what we're doing we became film and music productions.
00:37:01.519 --> 00:37:52.239
So we were gonna do films and music together but the first project we're doing purpose yes and that's pretty much how we connected right because you were seeing my journey and my story first it started off with my husband's post that went viral with um you know him battling with his cancer six months fight with cancer and then remember you had reached out in July but I was too busy raising all grandkids and trying to launch the business and stuff and so it went one thing went to another we had a great chat conversation back and forth and then I learned a little bit about um your situation and how it ties in with what we're working on right now.
00:37:53.280 --> 00:37:57.440
And then we finally touched bass eight months later.
00:37:57.599 --> 00:38:01.679
Yes yes yes yes and then we FaceTimed you with me me.
00:38:01.920 --> 00:38:12.000
Yep you with me and um I went upstairs I started playing you started playing the piano for us playing some of our music and some things you know giving god God the glory and things like that.
00:38:12.239 --> 00:38:17.519
And from there it was like I just said you know I would I think your story would be awesome.
00:38:17.599 --> 00:38:18.719
I would love to do your book.
00:38:18.880 --> 00:38:23.280
You know I know you got a book out that's I would love to be the director and producer of your life story.
00:38:23.440 --> 00:38:25.199
Yeah and then he said that sounds good.
00:38:25.440 --> 00:38:52.159
And the craziest thing is and we had taught shared this with you as well um the day before or the day of I was already talking about I think I think we should add a film a music uh side you know and make that side like you know more of creating or documentary or different shows and things like that at the space that we had because originally we were going to do something else but that didn't work.
00:38:52.239 --> 00:39:07.599
So we're like let's transition into this and then here you are can we FaceTime and then you're like oh yeah I'm into music and film and Mimi and I just looked at each other like is he listening into our conversation or something?
00:39:07.760 --> 00:39:08.800
Like what is going on?
00:39:08.960 --> 00:39:57.599
Then you start playing your piano and everything showed us your home music production studio and I'm like what's happening now Lord you know that was only good it definitely was and then here we are we coordinated this and now we're working on the movie script co-writing the movie script on the first ever movie about what happened to Laos um which is part of my history but it's also part of our history it's part of the untold history it's part of the the world history that has been left out of the history book and so we're making history happen and we're allowing people to know and so that way next time where are you from Laos is that in Thailand?
00:39:58.719 --> 00:40:04.960
We don't get yes that's what we experienced the other day the lady that we had talked to oh what what are you guys doing here?
00:40:05.119 --> 00:40:15.760
Oh we're he's a director and we're you know he's here we're gonna film a movie we're gonna write a movie and you know and it's about Laos oh where is Laos is that in Thailand?
00:40:16.000 --> 00:43:15.119
Yeah that was crazy oh so I get that often and so I just want to um people to be able to see this movie and know what Laos is like oh okay but I also when they hear what Laos is I don't want them to remember Laos as a you know war-torn country I want them to see our people as resilience and see us as hope as as they as growth as growth and hope for themselves for themselves for themselves so that I want them to be able to see that oh wow you went through that oh wow your family went through that wow we can get through anything because you were able to you know so yeah so that's how we I want them to see us you know and and this poster is just everything is just so right about it with my mom my two brothers my dad and his escape with the barbed wires the the guards and then the boat that he escaped from the mountains crossing over the Mangong River the bombs the helicopter to faith you know family resilience the temple um and then for me transitioning into my corporate yes leadership roles and becoming a leader and building a future impacting lives and just continuing to impact the lives that you know that um that God had purposely right brought me into this world for and so one refugee girl one wavering dream one legacy that's going to empower generations and that is our goal and should we share um who else will be a part of this project okay Cinder Williams that's my girl cinder Cinder's done a lot of great things Cinder Williams uh we've been friends for decades and it was I thought it was just great she came up here with us she's a part of it she's she's producer with us and um she's just doing some amazing things with us and we're as well as we have Mimi Mercedes and Jamila I mean we have some great people here you know but I'm just glad that we said you know what let's join forces unwavering faith and let's do it unwavering faith we got the talent yeah we got the talent we got the group here you know why not let's just do it let's make history together you know and then you know however long it takes a year from now we're gonna be like remember when we sat back in when it first started you know when we were getting ready to launch this thing and we just believed in faith that God will ordain our steps and if this is something that God really wanted out there he's going to position those people in our lives to help push it and make it happen.
00:43:16.800 --> 00:43:46.239
It's done it is done and we thank you Father God for thank you Lord yes for this union thank you father for that we're excited to for what to come what is up ahead yes exactly well thank you all for listening in today um I hope you got a lot of insight that no matter what you are going through no matter what you go through you can grow through it and have the best life ever just by learning from your experience and being built from the scars that tried to break you.
00:00:54.880 --> 00:00:58.640
Welcome to another episode of Empowered Purpose Podcast.
00:00:58.719 --> 00:01:03.200
And today our guest is Stephen Sticks Josie.
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And he's here with us today.
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Thank you so much for joining us today.
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For having me today.
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Yes, absolutely.
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Tell us about a little bit about yourself.
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Well, as you said, my name is Stephen Styx Josie.
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Um, half Italian, half black.
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Um, born to an Italian woman in New York back in the day.
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But um, I can get more into that as we go along because I don't want to tell everything about me in the beginning.
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So just want to say that I'm a man that loves God.
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I'm a man of God first, you know, and I I keep my faith, and that's what keeps me going.
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So that's uh So you are an actor, producer, director, like the list goes on, right?
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I mean, I mean I'm I'm multitask, you know, I write, you know, I produce, I direct, I act, I um do music, I score, you know, I do a lot of different things.
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I I train, you know, I do a lot of different things.
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So out of everything that you do, what is your ultimate favorite?
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Music.
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Music, really?
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Music first.
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That's that was your main passion, that's what you started off with.
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At six years old, I started off with music.
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Oh, tell us about that.
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Well, I was in Boston, Massachusetts with my mom.
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We went through a park, and at that time, they were having a concert.
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So the drummer got off the drums.
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They had an intermission.
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And I said, you know what?
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Let me go run and jump on them things.
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Now everybody's out there.
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We're on, you know, so like an outdoor concert.
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I run up on the stage and get on the drums.
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Start banging them at six years old.
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My mom comes running up to the stage, like, boy, if you don't get off them drums.
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And I'm like, still banging.
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Then as she was coming to grab me, that's when the drummer came out.
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He was got long hair.
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He was kind of like a hippie.
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He came out to me and he just said, No, he's fine.
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Let him play.
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He's okay.
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He's like, What's your name?
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And I gave him my name.
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He said, Are you right handed or left handed?
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So I put up both hands.
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So he started laughing.
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And so he said, You know what?
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Okay, let me tell you a little bit about these drums.
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So he started telling him, This is a kick, this is a snare, da-da-da.
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He said, Hold on a second.
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He had a bag sitting on his floor, Tom.
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And he grabbed two drumsticks out of that bag and came to me.
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He said, You know what?
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I see you're doing some things in life, some good things.
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I'm gonna call you little sticks.
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And he handed me the drumsticks.
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And to this day, that's where I get the name sticks from.
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So you got it from that name.
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And after that, I was just going around banging on everything until my mom brought me a drum set.
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Isn't that amazing?
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Like the power of manifestation when you speak life, especially to the little kid, like how like how it's stuck with you, right?
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To him, it's probably just him interacting with the little child.
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But I wonder if that man even knows what a lifetime impact he had on you.
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I don't know, but you know what I'm saying?
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Yeah, but he would probably be in his hundreds right now.
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Exactly.
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I'm 60, so I didn't think maybe he's watching over me, but uh he did he did start it though.
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He did, he did tell me, you know, you know, it it it inspired me, you know, and just to see, and at that time there was a lot of racism going on in Boston.
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And my mother was Italian, so here's this Italian woman with this young African-American child.
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And this is a white guy who's taking time.
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Oh, it was a white guy, that white hippie guy, and he took time with me, and that meant a lot to me, you know.
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Because I I'd never seen race or anything like that.
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So that meant a lot to me.
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So as a child, you you didn't experience racism as a child.
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Oh, really?
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You did so we bring You said you've never seen racism.
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No, I didn't see racism there, but let me bring it, let me bring it to the beginning.
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Tell us about that.
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Yeah, my mom was Italian.
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Okay.
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So when she got pregnant with my dad.
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Yeah.
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From my dad, um, her family found out that it was a black guy.
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Wow.
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And so they wanted her to abort me.
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And by this time, I'm already inside of her moving, and they said, abort him.
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So she went in the room and she felt me.
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You know, she felt me move, and she just started crying, and she said, No, and kicked her off.
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So she got on a bus to Massachusetts from New York.
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Nowhere to go.
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So some people, some homeless people took her in.
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So she was around with homeless people, and then she started doing drugs, shooting up heroin while she's pregnant with drinking, because that was the that was what they that's how they lived and survived because they lived on the streets.
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And so from there, before I was conceived, before I came to life, they said, let's get her back to her family.
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So they put her on a PDP and bus back to New York.
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And when she got back to New York, her family wanted nothing to do with her.
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So she was back on the street again, but then she ended up in the hospital.
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She gave birth to me.
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So my father found out he came to the hospital and he cracked.
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Took me from the hospital and brought me to his mom.
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Because by the time I was born, I was his eighth child.
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And by the time he died 25 years ago, he had 19 kids.
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And I was his first mixed kid.
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And so brought me to his mom to live with his mom.
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And then from there, that's when everything just went crazy.
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Wow.
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So I did experience the racism before I was conceived.
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You know, then I experienced some other trauma when I got to my um to my grandmother's house.
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So your grandma's house, so nine all 19 of you were there?
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Oh no, my father had he had 19 kids.
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He had multiple women.
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Yeah, I was his first mixed child.
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So I mean he had multiple women.
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I mean, my father was a white stone.
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He was now he wasn't even in Pimp, he was just rolling.
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He was in Pimpin.
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Because he's a rolling father when the papa was a rolling father.
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The pimps make money.
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He was making the money.
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That brother was not, that brother was driving a bus.
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I'm gonna get this one pregnant, I'm gonna get that one pregnant.
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By the time it came down to I was we were 19 kids deep.
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Wow.
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That's crazy.
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Tell us about your childhood growing up, because a lot of times, you know, our childhood kind of shapes us to where we are today, right?
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So, and this podcast is about being built from the scars that try to break us and how we overcame that.
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So it sounds like you had endured some things um in your childhood from not being wanted from birth, and then now in your your father's home.
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My grandmother's home.
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Your grandmother's home.
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Your father was there as well, living.
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No, he would come over.
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Okay, he just would come over.
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So when I was with my grandmother, we had some of my other brothers and sisters were living here.
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I shared a bed with one of my older brothers, and my other brother had a roll a bed, and my other sister was in the room.
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And my father would come over and he just started beating me from the beginning.
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For no for what?
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No reason.
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Come over, just trying to come here, white boy.
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I got marks on my hands to this day.
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He was like, give me some of that chocolate chip cookie and just bite my hand, spit it out.
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And then when I turned three years old, he's like, you know, I'm gonna kill this kid.
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So he took a pump shoe.
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The hill back then they had still, they were still hills.
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Yeah.
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He took it and put it through my skull.
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Left me to die, threw me in the tub to die.
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And one of my brothers' mothers got me to the hospital before I died.
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I got blood, gave me blood and everything like that.
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And God wanted me here.
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So he continued to abuse me.
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To this day, at 60 years old, I'm still I'm disabled because of that.
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I have to take seizure pills like every every hour or two just to function.
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You know, whether I'm on TV, whether I'm doing music, whatever I'm doing.
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Yeah, if I'm just hanging, I got seizure pills in my pocket.
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I have to in order to maintain from something that he did to me at three years old that I had no control of.
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That's true.
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But my mother did at six years old.
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She got off the drugs.
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So she found the strength and the will to go ahead and come get me.
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So I was on my mother, my grandmother's back porch.
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Six years old playing with a puppy my grandmother had got me and a friend.
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And so an orange road runner car comes riding down the street.
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And I see my mother in the passenger seat and some strange black man driving.
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So she says, Steve, come here.
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She says, Come on, baby, we're gonna go to the back.
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I said, Let me go tell grandma.
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She said, No, I already talked to her.
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And I knew she was deceiving me, but I had to be obedient.
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I got in the back seat.
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Because they ain't had no cell phones back there.
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So I know she ain't telling anywhere.
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She told the man to drive off.
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The stranger drove off, she turned around to me.
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She said, Babe, you ain't never going back there again.
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And I'm sorry.
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So we went to um another city or town over.
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When we got to that city, my mother said, I need you to play like you're asleep.
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I need you to stay like you're sleeping.
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She said, No matter what, she said, Mommy loves you.
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So she put me in a bed and a hotel with this man and she had sex with this man in front of me because she wanted me to pretend like I'm sleeping, because that was her payment to him.
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So the next day he could put us on a bus.
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So the next day he put us on a Peter Pan bus, two one-way tickets to Boston.
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And we got to Boston, all she had was one little pocketbook bag that she had where I know where to go.
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So we lived on the street.
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So we went on the street because she knew how to live on the street.
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So I got to experience that with her for a week.
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And then there was a an older white gentleman that would always come and drive.
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I mean, walk by us, and he looked at us.
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Then one day, a week later, he said, Come on, come on eat.
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He took us to get something to eat.
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He fed us.
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The first time we had a real meal, I had a real meal in a week.
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And then he took us to a shelter.
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And we stayed in that shelter for months upon months.
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Now here's my mother in Italian, white woman, you know, with a black child, 24 years old at that time.
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You know, nowhere to go.
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And then in the shelter, different things going on in the shelter.
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And then we finally got the good news.
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We got our first apartment.
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My mother got her first apartment.
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And how old were you at that time?
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I was six years old.
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So we move into a project.
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We go to the projects.
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And at that time, that's when she ended up taking me to the park.
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And she ended up being a gentleman whose mother was a missionary of a church.
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Okay.
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So I ended up being able to play the drums for the church.
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So that started off at six.
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So I started doing the music at that point.
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But my mother was still on, she still had an addiction.
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It went from the drugs and alcohol to now it's bingo.
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Okay.
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So my mother believed me by myself at six years old, by myself.
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She would lock the door, put a still bar to lock me in.
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So I'm safe.
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And I started talking to God.
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Because what happened was she started telling me to get do our prayers at night, get on her knees.
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She said you could talk to God for anything.
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Wow.
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I've been talking from every single day.
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Wow.
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That's amazing.
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So I got past that because she never abused my mother.
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Yeah.
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She didn't hit me, nothing, none of that.
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Because I wasn't a bad kid.
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Right.
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You know, so whatever happened to your father after that?
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Did you ever see him again?
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Or I did see him about five years later.
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Right.
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So they were looking for us.
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Yeah.
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So five years later, I actually was able to go to my grandmother's house.
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And you know, when I seen him, you know, he stopped by or whatever, but he still was mean or whatever.
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And by this time, you know, I'm a little bit older, you know, and I'm like, okay, if you come at me, I'm looking at whatever I can pick up.
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Right.
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So he didn't come at me.
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But if he would have, I would have picked something up.
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He never got in trouble for that or anything.
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Back then they did, they did not care.
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This is insistance.
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What?
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They did not care about.
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He couldn't even, she couldn't even get me back.
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She had she she she had they gave her custody back to me, whatever.
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My grandmother wouldn't even give me back.
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She had to come abduct me.
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Wow.
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Yeah.
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So she was already healed for a year.
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She had gone off to the narcotics.
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But when I was five, she had stopped.
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And then let me back up.
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When maybe she would come visit me, she would have to bring gifts for my brothers and sisters in order to come see me.
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Wow.
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And a bottle of vodka for my grandmother.
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Like, yeah, it's crazy.
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I seen my father beat my grandmother, all types of stuff.
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Oh my god.
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I've seen a lot.
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So what it did for me, never hit my kids.
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I have four adult children.
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I have five grandkids.
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I've never hit any of them.
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No women in my life.
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I don't that because I took enough for them.
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Yeah.
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You know, and I learned how to you could talk to them.
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Exactly.
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Talk to them.
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You know, and they can see that that you're see you're serious about it.
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And then it's all in your actions too.
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You know, you got to walk the walk as you're talking to talking.
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You know, you can't say don't do this, but they see you doing it, you know.
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So I was always consistent and firm in my life.
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That's that's that's awesome because a lot of people, you know, it's like that saying hurt people, hurt people, but it's like, but you did the opposite, and you're like, I don't want to be like that.
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You know, I'm not gonna be a product of what I came from.
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Right.
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And so it's a choice, and people have to realize you do have choices in life, you know.
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You can either go this way or you can go this way.
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But we all have choices that we have to make and live with.
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Gotta live with them.
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Yeah.
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So then you continue to live with your mother at six on up.
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Up until 14.
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Okay, it would happen at 14.
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Last.
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Last yeah.
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Because by that time, you know, like my mom, you know, God rest her so she passed 14 years ago.
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But she never worked.
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She never had, you know, like she was always so used to her family gave up on her.
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So she gave up on herself, but she didn't give up on me.
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And I thank her for that, you know, and God rest her so.
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But I was like, my my stepfather's um brother that came to visit us, okay, and I asked my mom, you know, can I go stay with her?
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Go to school with so I did that, stayed there for a little while, and then went back to the projects, you know, because by the time we were out of the project, I went back to the projects and stayed with some friends and some family members over there.
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Well, my step step family, because it was my mother's boyfriend's family.
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Stayed there with them.
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And as I was there with them, I ended up, you know, played football, I played basketball.
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I guess that I went to school, did everything I had to do, but then I ended up dating someone.
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So at 16, you know, I ended up I'm in the 12th grade, I ended up with a baby out of the way.
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So so I guess I'm playing football, playing basketball, playing the drums for the school, all these different things.
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I'm doing acting and all that.
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And then um, well, I turned 17 and I ended up joining my the army, you know, and my mother signed for me to go.
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Wow.
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So that was so I could take care, and plus get into this growth discipline that I need.
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Absolutely.
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So that's when I'm going into the army at 17.
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So you went to the army at 17, you had a baby around the thing.
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Same time.
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Oh my goodness.
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I couldn't even see him for like six, six months because I wasn't married to her.
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So you see if you ain't married, you ain't coming to, you know, so when I gotta leave, I was able to come see him for a while.
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Oh, the military wouldn't like back to see the baby.
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They don't let they don't do that.
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If you're not married, if I was married, I could have took like um three or four days off.
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Okay.
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Yeah, but uh okay.
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So I heard I heard you mentioned um acting.
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So you that's when you started your acting?
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I started in high school, yeah.
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In high school, yeah, just doing theater and things like that, and just always learn and observe and you know, how was this done?
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You know, how how how do they put this together, the structure?
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How is that written and whatever?
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Okay, so I started the directing, the acting all through the tight.
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That's when you like started having I didn't really have the love yet, not yet, but I just did it.
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So it was like an introduction.
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Got it.
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The music is what I had a love for because I'm playing drums for the school and everything.
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I'm playing.
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I was on my first gospel album at 14.
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I was a major gospel group in Boston.
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So 14 years old on a real album, you know, traveling and touring with them.
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So that that really gave me the inside of the business.
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So it's pretty cool.
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So you still have that album?
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I haven't heard that album since my father passed.
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He passed, like my stepfather passed, what, 22 years ago?
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Oh, your stepfather.
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So were you close to your stepfather?
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Was he kind of like the male figure in your life?
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He was the male figure in my life.
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Okay.
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He was just as bad as my father.
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Wow.
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But he didn't abuse me, he beat me.
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Okay.
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Oh my god.
00:16:53.279 --> 00:16:59.519
So I would see him take ashtray metal ashtrays, broke her jaw, seen him smash her head.
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I mean, my mother went through a lot.
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Yeah.
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Wow.
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She would get beat sometimes, and then my my mother and I would, she would, we'd go run away for about a week, go stay at a neighbor's house.
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Then a week later, he's coming in and he finds her, and she's right back with him.
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Each and every time I'm like, man.
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And I was too young.
00:17:17.359 --> 00:17:19.839
I could because if I was older, oh man.
00:17:20.240 --> 00:17:22.880
Yeah, that's that that's that cycle of abuse.
00:17:23.119 --> 00:17:29.599
They tend to go back and get drawn to certain types of men andor women, you know.
00:17:29.839 --> 00:17:32.880
Um, so then what's next for you after military?
00:17:32.960 --> 00:17:34.240
So how long were you in the military?
00:17:34.559 --> 00:17:34.960
Seven years.
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Seven years.
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I ended up going to job core because the military didn't give me no skills that I needed to live in life.
00:17:43.119 --> 00:17:46.319
It gave me skills to survive and to do what I needed to do for them.
00:17:46.559 --> 00:17:54.400
So I ended up going to job core and I took a business and then I played basketball, and I ended up getting um the ACT program, which is advanced career training.
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So I ended up going to college for free, you know, playing ball.
00:17:57.599 --> 00:18:01.359
And um, from there I just became a store manager out of college.
00:18:01.599 --> 00:18:06.319
So uh I was the first black store manager for a company called Wall Bumps Food Mark with A P.
00:18:06.480 --> 00:18:09.519
So I became a store manager, so I did that for many years.
00:18:09.759 --> 00:18:15.519
And then I went at that company, then I went to another um company, Shaw's, which is another, you know, food chain.
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Okay.
00:18:16.240 --> 00:18:19.119
So then I always had a love for music, so I had a keyboard.
00:18:19.200 --> 00:18:24.240
And by this time I had I had already had um like four kids, I didn't know what four kids.
00:18:24.319 --> 00:18:24.640
Oh, wow.
00:18:25.119 --> 00:18:26.880
So and so and so I knew what four K.
00:18:27.039 --> 00:18:30.480
So I had my two old two baby mothers, and I had my my two oldest living with me.
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Nice.
00:18:31.119 --> 00:18:36.079
And so by this time, I'm playing the keyboard all the time, you know, taught myself how to play the keyboard.
00:18:36.160 --> 00:18:42.559
So I'm playing the keys, and then I end up wanting to really, really do this.
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Yeah.
00:18:43.200 --> 00:18:46.319
So my oldest son was like, Dad, he was at my mother's house one day.
00:18:46.400 --> 00:18:47.200
I came to pick him up.
00:18:47.359 --> 00:18:49.680
He said, That guy right there, he's a rapper.
00:18:50.160 --> 00:18:51.039
I said, Really?
00:18:51.200 --> 00:18:52.079
Yeah, he got a song.
00:18:52.160 --> 00:18:52.960
That's rock waller.
00:18:53.039 --> 00:18:53.440
That's something like that.
00:18:53.519 --> 00:18:55.039
Yeah, that's oh, that's rock waller.
00:18:55.119 --> 00:18:56.880
I said, No, I got a suit on and everything.
00:18:57.119 --> 00:18:58.720
I said, um, let me go talk to him.
00:18:58.880 --> 00:19:00.079
So I went up to Rockwaller.
00:19:00.160 --> 00:19:03.200
I said, hey man, um I heard you do music.
00:19:03.519 --> 00:19:04.720
He said, Yeah, what's up?
00:19:04.880 --> 00:19:07.359
I said, My name is you know Steven, but they call me Sticks.
00:19:07.759 --> 00:19:10.319
I said, you know, I I like music, man.
00:19:10.400 --> 00:19:10.559
Yeah.
00:19:10.720 --> 00:19:11.920
I said, what you doing right now?
00:19:12.240 --> 00:19:14.480
He said, no, I said I got a keyboard up at my mom's house.
00:19:14.559 --> 00:19:15.200
You want to go up there?
00:19:15.440 --> 00:19:15.519
Yeah.
00:19:15.680 --> 00:19:16.720
And we can try to do something.
00:19:16.960 --> 00:19:20.079
So we go up there, I start playing, and then he starts rapping.
00:19:20.640 --> 00:19:23.440
Then he starts rapping about this kid that got killed by the cops.
00:19:24.400 --> 00:19:25.440
So it's called Ben.
00:19:25.519 --> 00:19:27.039
And the cops are he's doing this.
00:19:27.279 --> 00:19:28.160
I said, Yo, you know what?
00:19:28.240 --> 00:19:29.759
But the idea just hit me right there.
00:19:29.920 --> 00:19:30.880
I said, you know what, man?
00:19:31.680 --> 00:19:32.319
Let me call my friend.
00:19:32.880 --> 00:19:35.359
I call my friend Leon who sings really well.
00:19:35.680 --> 00:19:38.640
I said, Listen, man, we gotta recognise about Ben.
00:19:38.960 --> 00:19:40.559
I said, Remember that song ain't no sunshine?
00:19:41.119 --> 00:19:42.480
I said, What about ain't no sunshine?
00:19:43.680 --> 00:19:44.640
So he said, Yeah, let's do it.
00:19:44.799 --> 00:19:45.599
So we ended up doing that.
00:19:46.079 --> 00:19:50.640
So we went and I got in touch with a family member who knew somebody that had a great studio.
00:19:51.359 --> 00:19:52.400
These guys from Germany.
00:19:52.720 --> 00:19:55.039
So we went there, spent a lot of money.
00:19:55.359 --> 00:19:57.440
Um, went there and recorded, because I didn't know any better at that time.
00:19:57.759 --> 00:19:59.200
Spent a lot of money to record there.
00:19:59.599 --> 00:20:02.400
Next thing you know, ordering that the tapes are coming out.
00:20:02.559 --> 00:20:07.440
So now when the tape comes out, all the radio stations in the area have me on there.
00:20:07.519 --> 00:20:08.640
They booking me to come on.
00:20:08.720 --> 00:20:09.519
So I'm on there all the time.
00:20:09.680 --> 00:20:11.519
Next thing you know, there's phone interviews, this thing.
00:20:11.839 --> 00:20:13.440
Next thing you know, there's people coming to see me.
00:20:13.599 --> 00:20:17.680
Then there's people showing up where where I live at to ask me about this.
00:20:17.759 --> 00:20:19.119
So next thing you know, I miss it.
00:20:19.279 --> 00:20:21.359
Yeah, so I'm that so now I become lyrics and beats.
00:20:21.440 --> 00:20:23.119
So it's I'm the beats, they're the lyrics.
00:20:23.279 --> 00:20:23.599
You know what I mean?
00:20:23.759 --> 00:20:24.480
So but I was the boss.
00:20:24.799 --> 00:20:25.920
So I became the boss writer.
00:20:26.000 --> 00:20:27.200
I got all these different groups.
00:20:27.680 --> 00:20:31.119
Next thing you know, this guy from Connecticut said, Hey, now let's connect.
00:20:31.279 --> 00:20:32.160
So we connected.
00:20:32.240 --> 00:20:33.599
Now, next thing you know, do a record.
00:20:33.759 --> 00:20:35.359
So that's what makes my first records.
00:20:35.519 --> 00:20:39.200
And then I ended up leaving that situation because I wanted to kind of do my own.
00:20:39.359 --> 00:20:41.039
So by this time I was married.
00:20:41.119 --> 00:20:41.279
Okay.
00:20:41.440 --> 00:20:44.319
And my ex-wife, she had an NBA friend.
00:20:44.720 --> 00:20:45.839
So she took me to that MBA.
00:20:46.079 --> 00:20:48.960
No, had an NBA friend come to the studio while I was working on some music.
00:20:49.039 --> 00:20:51.440
And he's like, Oh, I definitely want to be a part of this.
00:20:51.759 --> 00:20:55.519
So he's we made we made some records that we're doing really well.
00:20:55.680 --> 00:21:01.119
So now I'm with him and Brian McKnight, and we're going all over the place in New York City, demo drivers and all that.
00:21:01.279 --> 00:21:02.160
We got records out.
00:21:02.319 --> 00:21:04.319
And so now we end up at Sony Records.
00:21:04.799 --> 00:21:05.759
So we're there.
00:21:05.920 --> 00:21:07.839
And Prodigy, God rest his soul.
00:21:08.079 --> 00:21:13.759
Prodigy from Mob Deep was there talking to Steve Ripkin and from Lyle Records about his publishing.
00:21:14.160 --> 00:21:17.279
And so Hooks, there's a guy named Hooks, Mike DeLorean.
00:21:17.599 --> 00:21:20.000
I don't know where I'm there with Tate George Brightman.
00:21:20.240 --> 00:21:21.039
He comes over to me.
00:21:21.119 --> 00:21:22.160
I don't even know this kid.
00:21:22.240 --> 00:21:23.359
He's from Queens, New York.
00:21:23.440 --> 00:21:24.559
He says, Yo, bro.
00:21:24.799 --> 00:21:25.839
I said, What's up?
00:21:26.079 --> 00:21:27.680
He said, You do music?
00:21:27.759 --> 00:21:27.839
Yeah.
00:21:28.079 --> 00:21:28.559
I don't know where.
00:21:28.799 --> 00:21:29.359
Like, right.
00:21:30.000 --> 00:21:32.720
I'm looking at them like, I can't, because you know this is God.
00:21:32.799 --> 00:21:33.519
I'm like, oh yeah.
00:21:33.680 --> 00:21:34.319
I said, yeah, why?
00:21:34.480 --> 00:21:35.680
He said, you got some beats on you?
00:21:35.759 --> 00:21:38.319
Now of course I got music because we're that's why we're at Sonya.
00:21:38.400 --> 00:21:39.039
So they can hear it.
00:21:39.200 --> 00:21:40.079
He said, Come in this room.
00:21:40.160 --> 00:21:41.680
I went in the room, he's playing my music.
00:21:41.759 --> 00:21:42.799
He said, Oh, that's dope.
00:21:43.920 --> 00:21:47.440
He said, Yo, what y'all doing about six o'clock?
00:21:47.920 --> 00:21:49.519
Now mine was like two or three, right?
00:21:49.759 --> 00:21:50.880
And we got a limo driver.
00:21:51.279 --> 00:21:52.640
So you know it's up by the hour.
00:21:52.720 --> 00:21:54.799
And so I looked at them because I'm not paying, you know.
00:21:55.119 --> 00:21:56.160
I'm the talent, you know what I mean?
00:21:56.240 --> 00:21:57.759
I'm with I'm with these dudes, you know what I mean?
00:21:57.920 --> 00:21:59.519
I'm with the NBA guys, you know what I mean?
00:22:00.160 --> 00:24:19.599
So the um I looked at the NBA guy and the NBA guy was like um hey I'll tell you what yeah we can do it what's the address so now we're we're we're down we're downtown you know we're we're you know we're Madison Madison Ab you know we're at we're at it's out in Long Island Oh wow so I looked at the dude the NBA guy he said okay so now we end up showing up at the um studio because back then what they would do then Mob Deep was working on the album so what they would do back in the day with the studios if you they'll give you a budget okay let's say your budget was three million or four million or whatever so what they would do is they rent out a studio for a whole year 24 hours wow three different engineers on three different shifts you know so you got the eight hour shift so anytime that the artists wanted to come in at two or three o'clock whatever time they want to come here there's somebody available there to work to receive them and lay the music down so we end up at Long Island uh music palace you know so we at Cherry Valley so we end up there I'm there with this MBA guy and and Mob Dology ain't there supposed to be at at at six o'clock yeah at 6 30 here he comes he's like hey what I've done's gone because if everything was done he can't what I've done I said oh hey what's up man so he said yo I just you know Lori was telling me you got some good stuff let me hear it I gave him his CD yeah he put it in yeah he's rocking to it it's like oh he said that's you you did this I said yeah he said what what you say where you get that sample from I said no I'm playing that right he said what do you mean well you playing it right so I'm playing every instrument you hit it I'm playing everything you know I mean I said I don't sample I don't know how I don't even know how to sample right I said yo this is fire yeah so now the NBA dude his mind starts erasing so he was doing a show in in Connecticut the next day they were having a benefit concert so now mine at this time Prodigy was getting like 20K a show so he said what are you doing tomorrow you got anything on your schedule tomorrow so peace test looks at me says no I ain't got nothing tomorrow he said why what's up he said I'm doing a show in Connecticut and I would love for you to come you know how much would you charge me so he looked at me looked at his group bars and hooks looks at the NBA guy and he looks back at me he said I'll tell you what I'll come do the show yeah and just give them 500 apiece and set a level for them I'm good.
00:24:19.759 --> 00:24:58.960
Oh wow now this man I got goose watch right now this man has 20 dollars on a show right you understand so this man's like yo just give them 500 and I'm there yeah so so we left it we skirted right up out of here went right to the Marriott booked out the whole top floor because mob deep is really deep so booked out the whole top floor and so now we have sound check so that's the next day or at sound check up did a sound check for my group here comes Mob Deep coming in Prodigy I'm up there doing the sound check for my group because I did the music too and he comes over to me like yo done I want you to do our show he hands me a debt I don't even know their show and like why would you you know I mean like this this is only God.
00:24:59.039 --> 00:25:10.240
Yeah Prodigy gives me his debt so now I'm doing their sound check now you know everybody's looking like oh look at sticks okay now I'm up so I'm doing the I'm doing the I'm doing their music so we had the show that night it went went off really well.
00:25:10.400 --> 00:25:20.079
So Prodigy's room was right next to my room so I'm in my room and I had like a loft so my my um ex-wife and I were up in the loft and then two of our artists is down there.
00:25:20.319 --> 00:26:50.160
So it's banging about two o'clock in the morning next door all this bang up so I called Prodigy oh you all right he said yeah man I just got these girls in here wrestling man so they they're wrestling said he had just met some girls I got them in their wrestling so I'm laughing right I'm laughing I'm like okay cool you good though he said I'm good so the next day we're all downstairs you know everybody's down there just gathered you know we're just talking shooting it shooting the breeze and so a guy named Green Eyes comes over to me he says Joe sticks I said what's up he said um prodigy said come to his room and he said bring your drum machine now how you know I got a drum machine right now come on now I'm like for real I go I go you got your drum machine absolutely that's what I was doing my sound check with so I go I go bring my drum machine um get my drum machine I go to his room knock on the door he said yo what up done come on in he said yo you want to need you home be wants a room share yourself I said no I'm good man I said I'm good he said um yeah all right let me see you make a B now mind you I'm I got an NPC right the NPC don't even have any sounds in it but thank god I had my flash drive that had some sounds on it so why I was like no worries because I I set it up I stopped playing and I do a few different weeks yo that's it right there he said you know what man I'm gonna go ahead and get you signed man going to sign you as an NHL producer the Sony infamous style records I said what he said you know if that's cool with you I said I won't let you come back to New York with me today I said but I can't do it today because I'm married now I gotta let me settle something this is a Saturday.
00:26:50.319 --> 00:26:56.559
So he said all right or Monday I need you there by Monday you know and it's back to the same place that we came from you know music palace.
00:26:56.960 --> 00:29:01.519
I said all right so I I get out of here I I go home right I'm heading home I get a call yo can you come back real quick man we need you to take us to that strip club where these where probably she met them girls they stole his phone stop that phone just oh no they was in there just wrestling he had them wrestling oh he just had them wrestling no they weren't fighting they weren't fighting just wrestling just fighting fighting but they they was cocking because back to cell phones i mean you're talking like 30 years ago cell phones was the big thing you know what I'm saying so that's why that yo I gotta get so how how crazy is this we go back and take up to wherever he went to the club they went to yeah the girls were in there now it's daylight like you got that was normally happened that was only God yeah so he came out with his cell phone he was happy so it's good because it would have been really crazy out there but he got his cell phone back and um so then I said I I'll see you Monday so now fast forward to the next day now the NBA guy he's feeling some type of way now this dude's 6'7 I'm five nothing right you know I'm saying like like I you know my my college high school heights five six but I know I'm not even five six you know I mean but this guy's six seven legitimately NBA player everything yeah comes to my house yeah now he's upset with me because I'm like okay I'm gonna go just you know the opportunity and if it if I blow I can help out so me and this guy get into a fist fight oh no guy six seven yeah oh yeah he was pissed it's not because I'm about to go do my thing he could tell I'm about to go do my thing you know so the control is it's gone because he he had the money so he had the control yes so I'm like yo listen you're not gonna stop me so we you know we got we we talked a little bit you know and and that was it you know and then I just walked away from it I said yo you can have the group you can have everything I mean I don't want nothing you know like so nothing so I never I gave up I turned up hey you can have everything and I just walked away so now I end up at Tony I mean at um music palace prodigy's there so we stayed up all night long he's teaching me how to even do tricks and make better beats because he taught Havoc I never knew that because Havoc is one of the illest producers ever.
00:29:01.599 --> 00:29:17.200
Yeah he taught him how to make beats so Prodigy gave me the insight of how I do things and all that we stayed up all night and he said well listen tomorrow I gotta go to Miami I got to show Miami I'll take bars and hooks so if you're gonna be there you'll be okay so I stayed so for two days they were gone.
00:29:17.359 --> 00:29:22.240
So he came back time to came back Thursday I had 30 beats done 30 beats in a few days.
00:29:22.480 --> 00:31:29.440
He came here playing them things next thing you know he took me to Jack Fernando's Congress a lawyer we got the paperwork drafted up got the paperwork signed he took me to the bank Bank of America I got my first pay and I said brother I said listen man I said I never got money before he said you know what don't ever tell nobody that again you know he said because I didn't even know you wasn't making no money man I thought you were making money he said but you're making money now you know he said don't ever tell nobody that again I said all right P you got that he was P was so cool yeah and from there you took me under his wings you know I'm I seen I've seen a lot of things been a lot of places yeah and and I was really inspired you know I would never want to think you can't only see it taught me a lot of things so that was my last experience with so many you know that worked with so many different workers long no I appreciate you sharing no so then you know it was a great experience it sounds like but you know like I truly believe like every part of our life like it kind of transitions us to the next part of our life like every single thing leads up to where we're meant to be like every experience shapes us and like if you think about it if you had not gone through or had those experiences you would not be pushed into your greatness.
00:31:30.720 --> 00:31:31.839
Does that make sense?
00:31:33.119 --> 00:31:42.160
Exactly so I think that sometimes God allows those things and sometimes he uses people to push us out of places.
00:31:42.799 --> 00:32:03.920
Otherwise if we're too comfortable we're gonna miss out on our calling that he really wants us to be in because um I know when I had left um corporate in 2019 the people that I just absolutely got along with all of a sudden it was friction.
00:32:04.160 --> 00:32:11.519
It's like why are we all of a sudden something happened and let's see it's like God allows that to happen.
00:32:11.839 --> 00:32:49.680
Because otherwise if we're too comfortable we're not gonna we're not going to read and so in your case you know it was because your time was up for something right that time and it could be kind of just using them to allow you to see things or feel things that will help you push out because then now you ended up going to the film school and up utilizing your music to go along with the film and then you fast forward to like whoa now you wrote several movies you've acted in several right tell us how how was that experience like for you.
00:32:49.920 --> 00:33:14.960
Well the first one what I did is um I got in touch with a good friend I call it using the wire so I met him through one of my my friends who played first his first films so I met him um it became pretty cool and I said you know what I'm gonna make this movie called Angel's brother I'm gonna be an angel button after this sounds dope.
00:33:15.119 --> 00:34:59.280
So I had a friend that knew somebody that knew a guy named Derek Hammond shout out to Derek Hammond is one of the first cousins Derek Cameron's father was first father's brother but Derek's a director now I've I've never made a movie before movies or whatever I said hey man how would you feel about coming up here mayor for about three or four weeks help me do this movie at Boston Boston I said help me do this movie and you'll be a call director and you can teach me things as a as a normal now I'm a boss I'm a I'll be a storm so I used to be in the league so he came came up there and we bought different ideas like matter of fact like we have no show called boomerang um which is not BT but my movie was his first movie dangerous round so we have James Michael Sama climbers got the lead after so I ended up going out directly learning on an accent you know Derek will ask different questions shout out to Jeremy and um he really can't I gotta give pass a passage to and so from there when I did that on the book as well next to the Philadelphia independent film festival is coming bring the movie in the selected and so now they have the whole package forty or fifty people probably Philadelphia we'll let it but we all ended up showing the movie race and I ended up with it.
00:34:59.599 --> 00:35:27.599
Nice first time director and we I ended up with distribution between nice and those on the big screen and everything what does it feel like for you to think yourself like for the first time on the big movie screen especially like thinking of your rough childhood your journey like to now like wow this is a dream come true like I'm watching my own movie like I'm watching myself in my movie.
00:35:27.679 --> 00:36:12.800
Like what was that first thought first experience how did you feel well I was not really on screen because I was in a movie with uh Michael Winslow and David Rusty and all from the social point and I was an actor so I already saw myself so you already had your first time I think I have nothing to do with this one because that's why I made my first movie that I created one was Angels Ralph because it's always angels round when I was three years old he had that one that came out to go into when I was given the views he had one angels round your angel and everything else and everybody angels work.
00:36:13.199 --> 00:36:17.840
But for me I just came to go with the text like I didn't say that.
00:36:19.920 --> 00:36:22.960
I wasn't I wasn't in all our things I thank you.
00:36:23.360 --> 00:36:38.960
Yeah absolutely and you know it's got like everything that happens is like it's like you know he ordains our stuff or he orders our stuff he orders our steps absolutely so tell us about what's next for you.
00:36:39.280 --> 00:36:51.599
Well we might as well let the catalog is that okay yeah that's fine yes we can so what happened Styx Productions was blessed to line up with Silhouette Creative Studios.
00:36:51.920 --> 00:37:01.199
So we had merged together and so what we're doing we became film and music productions.
00:37:01.519 --> 00:37:52.239
So we were gonna do films and music together but the first project we're doing purpose yes and that's pretty much how we connected right because you were seeing my journey and my story first it started off with my husband's post that went viral with um you know him battling with his cancer six months fight with cancer and then remember you had reached out in July but I was too busy raising all grandkids and trying to launch the business and stuff and so it went one thing went to another we had a great chat conversation back and forth and then I learned a little bit about um your situation and how it ties in with what we're working on right now.
00:37:53.280 --> 00:37:57.440
And then we finally touched bass eight months later.
00:37:57.599 --> 00:38:01.679
Yes yes yes yes and then we FaceTimed you with me me.
00:38:01.920 --> 00:38:12.000
Yep you with me and um I went upstairs I started playing you started playing the piano for us playing some of our music and some things you know giving god God the glory and things like that.
00:38:12.239 --> 00:38:17.519
And from there it was like I just said you know I would I think your story would be awesome.
00:38:17.599 --> 00:38:18.719
I would love to do your book.
00:38:18.880 --> 00:38:23.280
You know I know you got a book out that's I would love to be the director and producer of your life story.
00:38:23.440 --> 00:38:25.199
Yeah and then he said that sounds good.
00:38:25.440 --> 00:38:52.159
And the craziest thing is and we had taught shared this with you as well um the day before or the day of I was already talking about I think I think we should add a film a music uh side you know and make that side like you know more of creating or documentary or different shows and things like that at the space that we had because originally we were going to do something else but that didn't work.
00:38:52.239 --> 00:39:07.599
So we're like let's transition into this and then here you are can we FaceTime and then you're like oh yeah I'm into music and film and Mimi and I just looked at each other like is he listening into our conversation or something?
00:39:07.760 --> 00:39:08.800
Like what is going on?
00:39:08.960 --> 00:39:57.599
Then you start playing your piano and everything showed us your home music production studio and I'm like what's happening now Lord you know that was only good it definitely was and then here we are we coordinated this and now we're working on the movie script co-writing the movie script on the first ever movie about what happened to Laos um which is part of my history but it's also part of our history it's part of the untold history it's part of the the world history that has been left out of the history book and so we're making history happen and we're allowing people to know and so that way next time where are you from Laos is that in Thailand?
00:39:58.719 --> 00:40:04.960
We don't get yes that's what we experienced the other day the lady that we had talked to oh what what are you guys doing here?
00:40:05.119 --> 00:40:15.760
Oh we're he's a director and we're you know he's here we're gonna film a movie we're gonna write a movie and you know and it's about Laos oh where is Laos is that in Thailand?
00:40:16.000 --> 00:43:15.119
Yeah that was crazy oh so I get that often and so I just want to um people to be able to see this movie and know what Laos is like oh okay but I also when they hear what Laos is I don't want them to remember Laos as a you know war-torn country I want them to see our people as resilience and see us as hope as as they as growth as growth and hope for themselves for themselves for themselves so that I want them to be able to see that oh wow you went through that oh wow your family went through that wow we can get through anything because you were able to you know so yeah so that's how we I want them to see us you know and and this poster is just everything is just so right about it with my mom my two brothers my dad and his escape with the barbed wires the the guards and then the boat that he escaped from the mountains crossing over the Mangong River the bombs the helicopter to faith you know family resilience the temple um and then for me transitioning into my corporate yes leadership roles and becoming a leader and building a future impacting lives and just continuing to impact the lives that you know that um that God had purposely right brought me into this world for and so one refugee girl one wavering dream one legacy that's going to empower generations and that is our goal and should we share um who else will be a part of this project okay Cinder Williams that's my girl cinder Cinder's done a lot of great things Cinder Williams uh we've been friends for decades and it was I thought it was just great she came up here with us she's a part of it she's she's producer with us and um she's just doing some amazing things with us and we're as well as we have Mimi Mercedes and Jamila I mean we have some great people here you know but I'm just glad that we said you know what let's join forces unwavering faith and let's do it unwavering faith we got the talent yeah we got the talent we got the group here you know why not let's just do it let's make history together you know and then you know however long it takes a year from now we're gonna be like remember when we sat back in when it first started you know when we were getting ready to launch this thing and we just believed in faith that God will ordain our steps and if this is something that God really wanted out there he's going to position those people in our lives to help push it and make it happen.
00:43:16.800 --> 00:43:46.239
It's done it is done and we thank you Father God for thank you Lord yes for this union thank you father for that we're excited to for what to come what is up ahead yes exactly well thank you all for listening in today um I hope you got a lot of insight that no matter what you are going through no matter what you go through you can grow through it and have the best life ever just by learning from your experience and being built from the scars that tried to break you.
