Full Transcript for Spades: The Play feat. Marcus Callendar | Bonus Episode

Speaker 4: I'll tell you that right now. 00:02:40 Speaker 1: Listen, I think Charlamagne might be a little bit more powerful than him. 00:02:45 Speaker 4: Don't say that too loud. Oh, sorry. You're right, you're right, you're right, you're right. 00:02:53 Speaker 2: And Marcus. 00:02:54 Speaker 4: Yes, yes. Welcome. Thanks for having me. 00:02:57 Speaker 1: So happy that we. 00:02:57 Speaker 2: Were able to set this up. 00:03:00 Speaker 1: I want to share just how small this world is, if y'all do not know. So I was getting an email invite to go to Space to Play. And this actually was last weekend. I stacked my calendar too much. I was supposed to go after the WNBA game. 00:03:17 Speaker 4: A bitch got tired. 00:03:18 Speaker 1: So I hit the back and was like, oh, I'm not going to be able to make it. I switched it up, but I want to come next week if possible. So I'm communicating this. And then someone from the team was like asking if I would have you on the show. So I immediately, because I knew you was from New York, this motherfucker right here, he knows every, I don't want to say he know every black person in New York, but this motherfucker know every black person in New York that does anything. And so I was like, do you know Marcus Callender? And he's like, yo, I'm talking to have him come on the pod. This nigga wasn't even talking to me about. 00:03:56 Speaker 4: Bringing you on the pod. He was already scheduling it. Right, so shout out to Taylor. 00:04:01 Speaker 3: Oh, shout out to Taylor. That's my old girl. Shout out to Taylor. 00:04:04 Speaker 1: And shout out Brie. Brie was communicating with me. 00:04:06 Speaker 4: Brie was communicating with you. 00:04:07 Speaker 7: Taylor hit me like, yo, do you think Marcus, talking like her, I was like, who? I was like, that's bro, bro. And I think me and her had this convo before. 00:04:17 Speaker 3: Yeah, Taylor's a really good friend of mine. 00:04:18 Speaker 4: I was like, hell yeah. I said, wait, what's the logistics? He's in Atlanta, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I was like, oh. And then I had to remind, I was like, I saw the play Harlem. What's the dates? 00:04:28 Speaker 7: And then she said, all right, cool, this is good. I said, all right, let me make sure Mandy's calendar will go back to the calendar. Because I was like, because we recorded so much episodes when we were in New York. So we kind of like on the tail end of recording our cycle. And I was like, all right, let me see. And I was like, oh yeah, we are recording on the second, which is the record date, ladies and gentlemen, for those who are going to watch or listen. 00:04:51 Speaker 4: And we worked it out. And we worked it out. 00:04:53 Speaker 1: We worked it out. 00:04:54 Speaker 2: I'm really excited. 00:04:57 Speaker 1: If you can, real quick, just to get the audience also familiar with you, because I know all of y'all have watched Power. All of y'all, the right ones, watched Wu-Tang. Which characters did you play in those two? 00:05:09 Speaker 3: Okay, so on Power, I played... Officer Raymond Jones, also known as Ray Ray. I was the one that killed the little girl. 00:05:17 Speaker 6: I mean, to this day, people still ask me why I did it. 00:05:26 Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying? It's just like, and all I can tell them is, you know, it was in the script. 00:05:31 Speaker 4: It was meant to be. 00:05:34 Speaker 2: It's funny because people are doing that now with Gayle. 00:05:36 Speaker 4: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. 00:05:38 Speaker 3: And they're like, Gayle Bean, and they're. 00:05:40 Speaker 1: Like, they're treating her like the character. So they did that to you too? 00:05:44 Speaker 4: Yeah. 00:05:44 Speaker 1: It was like, Officer Ray Ray, why you did that? 00:05:46 Speaker 3: Yeah, because, you know, people, upon meeting me, they're like, I don't like you. And it's like, hold on a second. Yeah, like relax. It's just a character. You know what I mean? 00:05:55 Speaker 4: But that means you did a good job. 00:05:57 Speaker 1: Okay. 00:05:57 Speaker 4: That means you did a good job. They believed it. 00:05:59 Speaker 3: I'll take that. On Wu-Tang, I played, funny enough, I played Power. Or Oliver Grant, who's one of the co-founders and executive producer of Wu-Tang Clan. 00:06:08 Speaker 1: Yes. 00:06:09 Speaker 2: Okay. 00:06:10 Speaker 4: I'm with it. 00:06:11 Speaker 1: And now you are writing and directing this play. 00:06:16 Speaker 2: I want to get into, of course, Spade's the play. 00:06:19 Speaker 1: But before we get into that, I started by talking about Bustin' Ass. I do want to talk a little bit about culture. What Spade's... We start normally to pot off with an ignorant thought, right? So I wanted to have some fun. around a spades and how you don't allow people who don't really sit with you if they don't know what the fuck they're doing. But I wanted to like throw in some other card games that we like as the black community. 00:06:44 Speaker 3: Okay. 00:06:45 Speaker 2: And then just other things. 00:06:46 Speaker 1: That we've adopted that aren't ours, but are ours now. So like I will start and I feel like it will now be on everyone's Thanksgiving day table. If it's not, I don't know when I'm going to say within the last two years, We, as a community, have adopted Caesar salad. I don't know why. 00:07:03 Speaker 3: So am I like the dish? 00:07:05 Speaker 1: Caesar salad is black. I love Caesar salad. 00:07:09 Speaker 4: It's the salad. 00:07:10 Speaker 3: It's the salad. 00:07:11 Speaker 1: For every black when you sit down at a restaurant. 00:07:14 Speaker 4: Is that an Italian origin? I don't know. 00:07:16 Speaker 1: Wait, you know the backstory of Caesar salad? 00:07:19 Speaker 4: A little bit. Caesar salad is actually Mexican. Oh, yes. Yeah, the guy. It's ours now. Yeah, it's ours now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, he had an Italian restaurant background in Mexico. 00:07:35 Speaker 1: I ain't going to hold you. 00:07:36 Speaker 4: Jalisco? I think it

was in Jalisco. 00:07:39 Speaker 1: I know we talked about it, but I'm not going to hold you. I've noticed it. I think we brought it up a couple times ago. 00:07:45 Speaker 2: And I was like, damn, every time we go out, bitches order, niggas order. 00:07:49 Speaker 4: It's a light food, and that's the way you get your greens in. 00:07:55 Speaker 3: But it's also like delicious, you know what I'm saying? And it's like, and I feel like, you know, when it comes to salad, you know, when we think of salad, it's like greens and like balsamic vinegar. 00:08:04 Speaker 4: And all that type of shit. I didn't know that anchovies was part of the whole, that's how you get that flavor. 00:08:08 Speaker 1: Throw me an anchovy on that. 00:08:11 Speaker 3: It's like the pasta of salads, I feel like. 00:08:13 Speaker 4: Caesar salad. 00:08:14 Speaker 3: Because it, you know, because I like my Caesar salad with heavy dressing. You know what I'm saying? Heavy Caesar dressing. Then you got the cheese on there. You got the croutons on there. You know what I mean? It's a nice... Depending on how good the Caesar salad is, that could be the dish. 00:08:30 Speaker 1: Is there another dish that you think we've adopted as a community that ain't really ours, but we said, nah, this is ours? 00:08:36 Speaker 3: I mean, I think pasta. Pasta is definitely a black thing. 00:08:40 Speaker 4: Spaghetti and fish. 00:08:43 Speaker 1: Only when you bake it. I think. 00:08:46 Speaker 3: Spaghetti? 00:08:48 Speaker 4: Oh, you mean like mac and cheese? 00:08:50 Speaker 1: Like they bake it. 00:08:51 Speaker 4: We bake mac and cheese. 00:08:53 Speaker 1: I think people bake ziti. I don't think Italians put pasta in the oven. 00:09:00 Speaker 3: No. 00:09:02 Speaker 4: Lasagna. Lasagna. Yeah, lasagna. 00:09:04 Speaker 3: I love lasagna. 00:09:05 Speaker 4: Lasagna might be the only one. 00:09:06 Speaker 1: Baked ziti. 00:09:07 Speaker 4: Baked ziti, yeah. 00:09:08 Speaker 1: We bake a lot of pasta. 00:09:09 Speaker 4: So we took their pasta and we took pasta. 00:09:10 Speaker 2: We took pasta. 00:09:11 Speaker 4: And we double remixed it. 00:09:13 Speaker 1: What else? 00:09:13 Speaker 4: Rasta pasta. 00:09:15 Speaker 3: Rasta pasta. 00:09:16 Speaker 4: Exactly. Run that. Put some jerk seasoning in there. 00:09:19 Speaker 1: Jerk seasoning on pasta is crazy. 00:09:20 Speaker 3: Some people put sugar in their pasta. You know what I'm saying? 00:09:25 Speaker 4: Yeah, spaghetti. 00:09:25 Speaker 3: You know what I mean? It's all kind of things you could do with pasta. 00:09:29 Speaker 6: But also, I think we've also taken Alfredo. I think the most basic of us, the chicken finger and fries crowd, I think Alfredo is part of their regimen. 00:09:42 Speaker 4: If you a basic motherfucker, it's like, I got chicken fingers, I got fries, I got Alfredo sauce. 00:09:46 Speaker 2: No, you only basic if you're still using ragu. 00:09:49 Speaker 1: Like, I need you to make, buy the cheese, grate it, get the whole, what is it? 00:09:54 Speaker 2: Half and half, whole milk? 00:09:56 Speaker 4: Clearly, whole milk. Heavy cream. 00:09:58 Speaker 1: But I want all of that. 00:09:58 Speaker 4: Is it ragu? Is it the brand ragu? Or can you do an elevator brand? 00:10:02 Speaker 1: No, nigga. 00:10:02 Speaker 4: You just want it to be homemade. 00:10:04 Speaker 1: Carbone? Alfredo, don't make you more. 00:10:06 Speaker 4: Carbone, yeah. 00:10:06 Speaker 1: If it's out of the jar, babe, no. 00:10:09 Speaker 4: Organic, simple truth. 00:10:10 Speaker 2: See, no. 00:10:11 Speaker 6: Gross. 00:10:11 Speaker 4: Bro. 00:10:13 Speaker 5: Bro. 00:10:13 Speaker 4: 365. 365. Home, food market. 365. 00:10:21 Speaker 2: Now, in terms of clearly games, basketball is ours. 00:10:26 Speaker 3: Of course. 00:10:26 Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, we never let that go. 00:10:28 Speaker 2: And spades is for sure ours. 00:10:29 Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely. 00:10:30 Speaker 1: I don't think I've ever been to a white event. 00:10:33 Speaker 3: Oh, I've played spades with a white person before. You've played spades with a white person? 00:10:36 Speaker 1: That could play. 00:10:36 Speaker 3: The only white person that I've played with. 00:10:38 Speaker 1: Is my mom. I don't like to call her white all the time. 00:10:42 Speaker 6: She's been enriched by... My mom. 00:10:46 Speaker 1: Was always the only white person around, but my mom, that was the only time growing up that I was invited to the adult table. I would be her space partner because she taught me how she. 00:10:57 Speaker 4: She taught me. 00:10:58 Speaker 3: I'm her kid. 00:11:00 Speaker 1: And baby, we will bust some ass. And I would be like 12 with my aunties and all the grown folks playing spades. And now I'm very particular with who my partner is. As you should be. 00:11:12 Speaker 4: As you should be. 00:11:12 Speaker 1: It's important. 00:11:14 Speaker 2: A-King is now my Atlanta spades partner. 00:11:16 Speaker 1: Antoinette is my New York spades partner. 00:11:19 Speaker 3: Okay. 00:11:21 Speaker 2: You had your space partner when we were. 00:11:23 Speaker 4: At your party, right? 00:11:24 Speaker 6: I was playing with my homie, but like I said, he was not... He knows how to play space. I played space with him a million times. I don't know what the fuck he was. I don't know if it was the reposado. I don't know what was wrong with that nigga. I was like, yo, bro, this is a real simple thing. Like, what are we doing right now? 00:11:36 Speaker 1: And listen, all I know is you could have bad memory. You could be drunk. 00:11:40 Speaker 2: You could be high. There is always going to be somebody at the table that catches a renege. 00:11:45 Speaker 4: I think I have a solution to this, though. 00:11:46 Speaker 1: What's the solution? 00:11:47 Speaker 7: Because I think this, even when we sort of play. 00:11:51 Speaker 7: The biggest issue is timing. When you get to the table, we should have already sorted out. 00:11:57

Speaker 4: Joker, Joker, deuce, deuce. The rules. 00:12:00 Speaker 7: Before you even get to the rules, before you get to the rules, we need to do a spades assessment test before we start. 00:12:08 Speaker 4: Oh, an attitude test? 00:12:09 Speaker 7: They'll say they want to play spades, but don't really know how to play spades. 00:12:12 Speaker 1: How do you do an assessment test of whether someone knows how to play spades or not? 00:12:16 Speaker 7: After you get to the deuce, deuce stuff, right? The reneging stuff. Have you ever heard of reneging? 00:12:21 Speaker 4: Yeah. 00:12:22 Speaker 7: If they haven't heard of that, they don't need to be on the table. There's no explanation. You're not ready for this type of stuff. 00:12:27 Speaker 4: I'm going to tell you the truth, though. Everything. Everything. 00:12:31 Speaker 7: Because this is probably one of the most dangerous games outside of dominoes. 00:12:39 Speaker 4: Yeah. 00:12:39 Speaker 7: And even dominoes, don't be playing dominoes with people that's official and you're not. 00:12:43 Speaker 1: Oh, no, no, you get shot. 00:12:44 Speaker 7: Yeah, you might lose your life fucking around here. Like, when you slam a domino on the table... 50-50 chances to squabble up. So spades, I feel like, is getting to that point. 00:12:54 Speaker 4: But you know what, though? 00:12:55 Speaker 6: My problem, honestly, my bigger issue that I think is more dangerous than reneging is counting. Like, you got to count your books. You have to know how to count your books. Do the math. Do the math of, okay, look at your hand and be able to, of course, you don't know what's in the other person's hand. But you should be able to do the math and say, okay, I got all of these diamonds here. 00:13:17 Speaker 1: What's worse to y'all, someone underbidding or overbidding? 00:13:21 Speaker 4: Overbidding. 00:13:21 Speaker 3: No. 00:13:24 Speaker 1: That's a good question. 00:13:26 Speaker 7: I think underbidding, though, because if you got a stacked hand and you playing soft, you like, eh. 00:13:31 Speaker 1: No, hold on. 00:13:32 Speaker 6: Most people don't play bad. 00:13:33 Speaker 4: I think it's, ah. 00:13:35 Speaker 3: That's a good question because it's like, I feel like you run into that all the time. 00:13:39 Speaker 1: You do. 00:13:40 Speaker 3: Because that also, you know, goes to who your partner is. Who your partner is, yes. Based off of who my partner is, like, let's say I'm playing with somebody I feel confident in, I'd rather overbid. You know what I'm saying? Because I feel like, okay. 00:13:53 Speaker 1: If you're confident in your partner. 00:13:55 Speaker 3: Yeah, it's like, I feel like we could get there. You know what I'm saying? Because as we know, that first round bids itself, right? 00:13:59 Speaker 7: Yes. 00:14:00 Speaker 3: For me, it's like, you know, you kind of get a sense of the playing field. We see what we're working with here. So based off of that, it's like, after that, it's like,

all right, I'd rather overbid because based off of how you play, how you putting your cards down, let's just go for it. You know what I'm saying? 00:14:13 Speaker 1: I think that's what I liked about when we played. If I'm not mistaken, we had to lock in all the books. So it had to be 13. 00:14:20 Speaker 6: But that's also why y'all won. Because my partner also overbid. And most people don't play bags. I like to play bags. 00:14:28 Speaker 3: I play bags. 00:14:30 Speaker 6: But bags makes it so that now we're not playing no games. Never mind that one extra point, two extra points. Now really lock in. And if you don't, there's a penalty for keep underbidding, keep underbidding. Let's get to the thing. But when you underbid and they. 00:14:44 Speaker 4: Set you, that's probably why you got set. Ain't nobody ever got set underbidding. 00:14:47 Speaker 1: Okay, well, I love how you're trying to make all these reasons as to why you lost. 00:14:52 Speaker 4: It wasn't me, because I don't do it. 00:14:53 Speaker 1: I mean. 00:14:54 Speaker 3: I'd rather the bag than lose all the points. 00:14:58 Speaker 4: The Knicks didn't really beat us. I mean. 00:15:02 Speaker 3: Where's the line? 00:15:05 Speaker 4: That's what I'm saying. 00:15:09 Speaker 1: Outside of spades, let's throw out some other card games and. 00:15:12 Speaker 4: Then let's get into this shit. 00:15:13 Speaker 3: I declare war. 00:15:14 Speaker 1: No one does I declare war anymore. 00:15:16 Speaker 3: Marcus, you know, I grew up on I declare war. 00:15:19 Speaker 1: When you were six. 00:15:20 Speaker 4: Yeah, and that shit was. 00:15:22 Speaker 1: That shit was intense. And go fish. 00:15:25 Speaker 4: I'll say this. I'll say this. Spades is always going to be, hey, anybody want to play spades? Yeah. 00:15:29 Speaker 7: But if somebody said, yo, let's play I Declare War, I'm like, oh, hell yeah. You fuck with that? 00:15:33 Speaker 4: Let's do it. 00:15:33 Speaker 2: Well, I know we were talking about Tunk, and I didn't realize Tunk made it. 00:15:36 Speaker 4: Out the hood. Oh, yeah. You don't know how to play Tunk? Oh, yeah. 00:15:40 Speaker 2: You didn't grow up around people that went to prison? 00:15:41 Speaker 3: I'm Caribbean, man. So we get a lot of... I mean... We'll get into that when we talk about the play. I don't know how to play Tonk. I don't know how to play Bit Wiz. I don't know how to play that. 00:15:53 Speaker 4: I never heard of that. Bit Wiz is kind of like Spades. Bit Wiz is the. 00:15:56 Speaker 3: Origin of Spades. That's where Spades came from. 00:16:00 Speaker 6: But it's also, generationally, it feels like an older people game. If someone's talking about bid whiz, I'm assuming that they're 65. 00:16:08 Speaker 1: I've never heard that. 00:16:09 Speaker 3: Every time I run into someone who's a bid whiz player, when you mention space in them, they're like. 00:16:13 Speaker 6: That's a child game. Because guess what? 00:16:16 Speaker 3: I've played bid whiz once. It's definitely harder than space. 00:16:20 Speaker 1: Have y'all played Space 10? Space 10 is probably my favorite card game. 00:16:26 Speaker 4: Is that some new shit? 00:16:27 Speaker 1: It's been around for years now. So it's, it's, there's 10, everyone for themselves. So there's no partners. 00:16:35 Speaker 3: Okay. 00:16:35 Speaker 1: You're by yourself. You have a card with 10 phases. It'll be like two sets of three. 00:16:40 Speaker 3: This is like regular playing cards. 00:16:42 Speaker 1: This is, yeah. 00:16:43 Speaker 3: Okay. 00:16:43 Speaker 1: And then, so every, the goal is to get your phase and get all your cards out. 00:16:48 Speaker 3: Okay. 00:16:49 Speaker 2: Now, yes. 00:16:51 Speaker 1: And there's a scorekeeping, like, so the cards in your hands count. 00:16:55 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:16:55 Speaker 2: But you want to be the first to get it out and the first to get the phase. 00:16:58 Speaker 1: So you can go forward. Everyone who doesn't get the phase stays where they're at. 00:17:03 Speaker 4: Is it a four-person game? 00:17:04 Speaker 2: It could be four or five. 00:17:05 Speaker 4: Oh, wow. 00:17:06 Speaker 1: It could take forever. 00:17:07 Speaker 4: I was going to say. It could take forever, but. 00:17:09 Speaker 2: The first person to complete all 10 phases wins. 00:17:11 Speaker 3: Phase 10 is pretty fun. 00:17:13 Speaker 1: But what I remember is it's a long game. 00:17:15 Speaker 3: It's a long game. 00:17:15 Speaker 1: It's fun. It's a long game, but yeah. 00:17:18 Speaker 4: I think we own UNO now. I think UNO is ours. I feel confident about UNO is ours. It's borderline dangerous too. 00:17:24 Speaker 7: That's another game you got to have an assessment test because everybody be changing the rules. 00:17:29 Speaker 4: And it had the rules on the back. 00:17:30 Speaker 1: That's why to me, I'm not going to lie. UNO is an every demo game because I think the Mexicans got the way they play. The Blacks got the way they play. The Whites play it too. It's my setup for a fun evening. 00:17:43 Speaker 3: You know what happened? 00:17:45 Speaker 1: Uno is my game night. 00:17:47 Speaker 2: Freaky Uno? 00:17:48 Speaker 4: Freaky Uno, baby. 00:17:49 Speaker 3: Wait, wait, wait. 00:17:51 Speaker 1: The winner gets to tell everybody else what to do. You either going to do shots or. 00:17:54 Speaker 6: You're going to take off the coat. 00:17:57 Speaker 4: Wait, no, the loser got to eat ass. Oh, the loser got to eat ass. That's crazy. 00:18:01 Speaker 3: Draw four dicks. 00:18:01 Speaker 4: All I know is.... 00:18:07 Speaker 1: If y'all don't know the house that y'all are going to and they say we're going to play Uno, if it's an upside-down pineapple house, just know. 00:18:15 Speaker 3: Things might happen. 00:18:16 Speaker 1: Uno is the way, baby. Uno is the way. Now, Spades is not. Tempers get flared too much. 00:18:22 Speaker 4: Oh, yeah. 00:18:23 Speaker 7: Look, Scattergories, and it's not a card game, but whenever,

oh, you want to play Scattergories? Nope. 00:18:27 Speaker 3: What categories? 00:18:29 Speaker 4: Board game. 00:18:30 Speaker 7: You got to guess the picture. 00:18:35 Speaker 4: Oh, it's like charades and a board game. 00:18:37 Speaker 3: It's all violence. 00:18:37 Speaker 4: Taboo violence. All that shit is violence. 00:18:39 Speaker 1: People don't read well enough to actually be able to say words to get people to guess things. It becomes very complicated. Anyways, let's get into it. This is America, where we all have dreams, okay? We all have dreams, we kinda can do the things we want. And Marcus, you took your moment in time, your experience, one of your true life stories, and put it into a script. Curious to know how long you've been sitting on this, how this one night became something you thought would be something that could be shared with everyone. and kind of how we got to where we are now with Space the Play. 00:19:20 Speaker 3: Oh man, so first of all, I've been working on this script for about 10 years. 00:19:26 Speaker 1: Let people know how long this shit takes. 00:19:28 Speaker 3: 10 years is how long it took me to get this script right. You know, the play is based off of true events in my life. Every single character is based off of a real person, including myself. And the way the idea came about This was back in, what, 2013. I was, um, I had just moved out of my Harlem apartment. I used to live in Harlem. Um, and I was living in Brooklyn. I was staying with the ex-girlfriend of mine, or she's an ex now, but she was my girlfriend at the time. And, you know, I had my friends over. My friend who Gil is based off of, he taught me how to play. Because I didn't know how to play. You know, as a Caribbean person, like, you know, playing space was not something that was in our household. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, of course. 00:20:15 Speaker 4: Don't do that. I'm Jamaican. You Jamaican? 00:20:16 Speaker 1: And I played in and out. 00:20:18 Speaker 5: Okay. 00:20:19 Speaker 4: Look, I don't like that. Hold on. But you got to let them know where, though. You know what I'm saying? 00:20:23 Speaker 1: What? 00:20:24 Speaker 4: Marcus, because he's saying Caribbean. 00:20:25 Speaker 3: Oh, so I'm Jamaican and Bayesian. 00:20:27 Speaker 4: Yeah. Okay, okay. 00:20:28 Speaker 3: Yes, pure Caribbean. So he taught me how to play because it was one of those things where like, yo, we ain't got shit to do. Yo, let's play some space. And I'm like, what the fuck is that? You don't know how to play space? That's the reaction. 00:20:43 Speaker 4: That is the reaction. That is the reaction. 00:20:45 Speaker 3: So we're learning how to play, or they're playing and they're teaching me. And what I found interesting in... Besides playing the game, I was like, yo, watching people play spades is so interesting. 00:20:58 Speaker 1: It is. 00:20:58 Speaker 3: The camaraderie of it. You know what I mean? So I found that interesting. On top of that, every night we will play, the game will never finish because the conversation will override us playing the game. So at the time, I've always wanted to dabble into writing. Acting is my main thing. I came up in theater. Theater is my foundation. But I always wanted to dabble into writing. I just didn't know what to write about. And, you know, in learning how to play or watching people play, I was like, yo, like this would be really dope on stage, I feel like. So that's just kind of what inspired me. Fun fact, the scene two of the play is how the play used to start. It used to start right from the game. 00:21:40 Speaker 4: Okay. 00:21:40 Speaker 5: Yeah. 00:21:40 Speaker 3: So in the development of it, I was like, you know what? I need, I feel like the audience needs to, or actually I had a friend. give me a few notes on the script. And she was like, I want to know who these characters are before the game starts. And I was like, you know what? That's a great idea. So in, you know, being around the game a lot, that's what inspired me. So I started writing it. It started off as a one act. And then I did a reading of it. I did my first ever public reading of it was in 2015. It was at this spot called the Kimberly Project in Brooklyn. I don't think it's there anymore. But it was in Bed-Stuy. And this was before we had the social media where we could advertise our shit. So it was strictly word of mouth in terms of how we got the word out. And we had a packed house up in there. You know what I'm saying? And people came to watch it and people like, yo, this is dope. I feel like. I know these people, like, and you know. 00:22:36 Speaker 2: Was it the version that we got to see this past weekend? 00:22:39 Speaker 4: Oh, hell no. Okay, it was a different version. 00:22:41 Speaker 3: Very different version. I mean, if y'all thought this version was raunchy, that version was even more. 00:22:46 Speaker 1: I will say, so we ended up talking about, and we don't know if it was because of the South. Okay. 00:22:54 Speaker 4: Hear me out. 00:22:55 Speaker 3: Hear me out. 00:22:55 Speaker 7: Okay. 00:22:56 Speaker 1: Here we go. 00:22:56 Speaker 2: The intro character. 00:22:58 Speaker 4: Yes. Gil. 00:22:59 Speaker 3: Gil. 00:22:59 Speaker 1: Whose house this game is happening at. Yep. 00:23:02 Speaker 3: Is gay. 00:23:03 Speaker 4: Yes. 00:23:04 Speaker 1: So his language, the phone call he has. 00:23:08 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:23:09 Speaker 1: It was very interesting to sit in the room yesterday and look at how, I don't know if they were uncomfortable, but the older gentleman, it was an older crowd in there. 00:23:21 Speaker 2: So everyone in the crowd yesterday was probably 40 plus. 00:23:24 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:23:24 Speaker 1: Looking around at these older black men in the South, listening and watching him talk on the phone. Yeah. 00:23:32 Speaker 2: I didn't know if it was they real life or they was uncomfortable. 00:23:35 Speaker 1: So, to give y'all a little bit of

backstory without telling y'all too much, this gay character is talking to a DL person on the phone. 00:23:44 Speaker 4: Right. 00:23:44 Speaker 1: Who was expecting a baby. 00:23:46 Speaker 3: Right. 00:23:46 Speaker 4: With a whole wife and all. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But so. 00:23:49 Speaker 1: Because I think it would have been fine once you just hear a gay guy talking to another gay guy. No. It was the DL element. And when I tell you the uncomfortableness, and again, I don't know if it's because we're in Atlanta, but I was like... looking around and everyone was very taken aback. 00:24:08 Speaker 3: And it doesn't help he was in draws having this compliment. He was at home. 00:24:13 Speaker 4: He was at home. He was at his crib. He was at his crib. 00:24:16 Speaker 3: And that's kind of, that's. 00:24:17 Speaker 1: Like- It seemed very real. 00:24:19 Speaker 2: It was very real. 00:24:20 Speaker 3: That's the point. You know what I mean? The way we stage it is a circling around kind of thing, because I want the audience to feel like they're in the apartment with these actors, with these characters. And for me, in writing it, I remember when I was first writing it, there were moments where I was like, I'm typing away. I'm like, damn. 00:24:42 Speaker 4: Can I do this? 00:24:43 Speaker 3: You know what I mean? Because this is how we talk. This is how me and my friends would talk. In the crib, drinking Henny, smoking weed, talking shit to one another. 00:24:53 Speaker 1: And is. 00:24:54 Speaker 3: And is. 00:24:55 Speaker 1: And I told you. 00:24:58 Speaker 2: Your choice to put that many. 00:25:01 Speaker 2: Niggas and dykes. 00:25:02 Speaker 1: Was on purpose. 00:25:03 Speaker 4: I think Gil's character. 00:25:06 Speaker 2: Or do they get to ad-lib and just keep saying it? Or is all of those in the script? 00:25:09 Speaker 3: It's in the script. 00:25:10 Speaker 4: He's calling the other character his homegirl. 00:25:13 Speaker 2: His homegirl dyke. 00:25:14 Speaker 4: Her real name is Corey. But when she comes in, yo, what up dyke? 00:25:19 Speaker 1: So literally. 00:25:20 Speaker 7: But I think Gil has the key and the license because of his lifestyle. 00:25:23 Speaker 1: To do that. And Gil is a gay guy. 00:25:26 Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right, and that's how that would probably go. 00:25:28 Speaker 3: Because the thing about their relationship, you know, they've known each other since kids. You know what I mean? They grew up together. So they have that relationship. They have that banter. You know, him calling her that is, there's a bunch of reasons for it. One is like, it's kind of making fun of her because she don't never get no nigga. You know what I'm saying? Also too, them being from D.C., it's also like something that's used pretty commonly in that community in D.C. especially. You know what I mean? So that's the thing too. I know, I know it's a shocker for people. I know, but at the same time too, it's like, you know, I'm a big believer in doing what's raw and authentic, especially when it comes to theater, especially when it comes to the arts. I think that's the point. You know what I mean? Like why Sugarcoats? something when it's true, it's what you've lived, it's what my experience was, and I really wanted to depict that. You know what I'm saying? 00:26:20 Speaker 1: When this night happened, you were like, and scene. I have to write this, because when we were on our way back, me and my homegirl were literally like, damn, can I create one of my nights with my first lover? And I was just like, oh, damn. Like our life experience can really be interpreted into art. 00:26:40 Speaker 4: Exactly. 00:26:40 Speaker 3: You know what I mean? Because at the end of the day, it's real. 00:26:43 Speaker 1: Yes. 00:26:43 Speaker 3: You know what I mean? I think people more than anything want what's real, what's authentic. I'm a big believer in writing what you know. Everything that I write is based off of something that I experienced, whether it's from my real life or just something I've been close to. So for me, I was real, of course I had people like, do you feel like you want to edit, take out something? I'm like, no, because this is how we talk. You know what I'm saying? In the play, when each character arrives, what's the first thing they say? Nigga. That's how me and my friends talk. You know what I mean? The character who Gil is based off of, You know, him and I are best friends to this day. You know what I mean? Like, sometimes when we call each other, the first thing we say to each other for like the first 30 seconds is nigga. Because there's a lot of things that can kind of come through that. Like, yo, nigga, nigga, nigga. 00:27:40 Speaker 1: I love that we're seeing more of that too. I know it's been highlighted a lot with the new A Different World, with the gay character being able to exist amongst heterosexual men, which we don't, we haven't seen a lot of that. And so in your play, having just everyone just be able to exist. 00:28:01 Speaker 2: In whatever their sexuality is and it not be contentious or weird. 00:28:05 Speaker 4: Yeah. 00:28:06 Speaker 1: I love that we're seeing more of that and you even just being like, yeah, I call up this motherfucker and it's not a thing. 00:28:11 Speaker 6: And that was going to be one of my questions is, A, how did your friend who's based on Gil react to that? 00:28:19 Speaker 3: How did he take that on? I mean, of course, at first he was nervous because this is based off of conversations we have. you know, in close quarters. 00:28:30 Speaker 4: Privately. Exactly. Right. 00:28:31 Speaker 3: So for him, he was a little nervous about how people would react to that or, like, if he would be judged by it. I'm like, look, nigga, I'm not going to tell people. 00:28:37 Speaker 2: You had to get permission from everyone? 00:28:39 Speaker 3: I haven't get permission, no. 00:28:41 Speaker 1: Okay. 00:28:41 Speaker 3: You know what I'm

saying? 00:28:42 Speaker 2: It's just like- Good, because I ain't asking for y'all. 00:28:44 Speaker 1: To hold permission. When I start to write my shit, you just going to. 00:28:48 Speaker 7: Know it's you, bitch. 00:28:49 Speaker 4: This person, it's him. 00:28:50 Speaker 1: You know what I mean? 00:28:52 Speaker 3: People who know me and know us, know who it is. 00:28:55 Speaker 4: You will understand what it is. 00:28:55 Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying? 00:28:56 Speaker 4: Outside of that, they won't. Exactly. 00:28:59 Speaker 3: And funny enough, for the people who know these characters and watching it, they're like, yo, this is exactly how it was. You know what I mean? 00:29:07 Speaker 5: Right. 00:29:07 Speaker 3: It was almost like, I had a friend who came to see it in D.C. and she was like, yo, this was, she was like, thank you for depicting what felt like our renaissance. You know what I mean? Because this is, we're talking about us in our early 20s, like 23 years old, right out of college and kind of figuring out life. 00:29:25 Speaker 4: Gil. Yeah, no, no, no, no. 00:29:27 Speaker 1: Dre was responding still how niggas respond in their 30s and 40s. There was a character in there. Y'all don't get triggered, ladies. 00:29:35 Speaker 7: But look at the character development. of all of them, especially Dre. Because he was smooth, cool. You know, he had the thing with Corey, but it wasn't until they had the intimate interactions about, and I don't want to give too much away, their intimacy. 00:29:51 Speaker 1: Right. 00:29:52 Speaker 4: And that dialogue, I was like, No. 00:29:54 Speaker 1: The dialogue was very real. It was very good. 00:29:58 Speaker 4: All the women in there, unfortunately, was like, hello? 00:30:02 Speaker 3: Here's the other thing for me, too. The reason why it took me so long, I can't tell you how many drafts of this script I have. The reason it took me so long, because for me, what was important was the dialogue, was the rhythm, how we speak. I wanted people walking away wondering if this was scripted or not. You know what I mean? I wanted people to feel like, yo, it felt like they were just talking. Cause for me, I feel like as black people, you know, there's music to how we speak in our dialogue and our rhythm. So I really wanted to capture that. Like if you see how I wrote the script, I even like spell certain words, not the way it's grammatically spelled. I spell it how it more so sounds. You know what I'm saying? Like, for example, like the way I spell you is Y-U as opposed to Y-O-U. 00:30:44 Speaker 5: Yeah. 00:30:45 Speaker 3: Everything I wrote, the entire script is written in lowercase letters as opposed to like, you know, a sentence starts with a capital. Because, you know, to me it's art. And when it's art, you can do whatever the fuck you want. You know what I mean? So it's like, for me, it's like, I thought it would be cool to fuck with the English language. Kind of. 00:31:03 Speaker 1: Now you wrote the script. It took 10 years. I'd love to talk about the difficulty of what to do with a script. Because once you get a script, It's like, at this point, it could be, and I'm working on, is it a film? Is it a series? Is it a podcast? 00:31:22 Speaker 2: Is it scripted? Is it a play? That's even something so different. 00:31:26 Speaker 1: And I know at one point, you were considering going the podcast route. 00:31:30 Speaker 2: Someone has a script. 00:31:33 Speaker 1: What next? 00:31:33 Speaker 2: And what was the journey for this? 00:31:36 Speaker 6: Ugh. 00:31:36 Speaker 3: Man, I feel like, I mean, the journey has gone all kinds of ways. 00:31:42 Speaker 2: How many no's did you get? 00:31:43 Speaker 3: A lot. You know what I mean? 00:31:46 Speaker 4: A lot. 00:31:46 Speaker 3: Which is why I said, fuck it, I'm going to just do it myself. You know what I mean? Because for me, it's like, you know, at the end of the day, I can't sit around waiting for a yes from somebody. At the end of the day, it's like, I know how hard I worked on this. especially given the pedigree that I have, the background that I have, like I trained in this. I know what the fuck I'm doing. You know what I mean? So for me, it was like having that confidence and being like, you know what? I'm going to just kind of take this on my own and just kind of build from there. So for me, it all started, it really, the journey in terms of producing, it started back in 2021. 00:32:21 Speaker 4: Four. 00:32:22 Speaker 3: I did a stage reading of it in Harlem at the Rock Mill, which is where we did our first official production last year. I did a reading of it and the way we staged it was exactly the same with that table, with those same four chairs and just kind of had everybody sitting around it because I wanted, you know, us to feel like we were in the apartment. with these actors. I also wanted to give a feel. Remember those cyphers back in the day, in the 90s, where it was just, you know, niggas would just be all huddled up and niggas is in the middle going. 00:32:51 Speaker 4: Back and forth? 00:32:52 Speaker 3: I wanted that kind of vibe, too. 00:32:54 Speaker 4: Rob Markman, Jr. 00:32:55 Speaker 1: You remember that, Mandy? Don't do that. First off, I had to. Why are you doing this? 00:33:03 Speaker 4: Rob Markman, Jr. 00:33:04 Speaker 3: Not the BET cypher. I wanted to do something different. I wanted to go against the grain, especially in terms of what we know as traditional theater. You know, we're used to like going to a theater and you sit down and you wait to the play to start. 00:33:15 Speaker 4: It's posh. 00:33:16 Speaker 3: It's stuffy. 00:33:16 Speaker 4: Exactly. Fuck all of that. 00:33:18 Speaker 3: Fuck all of that. It's storytelling at the end of the day. And I wanted to, I wanted for like, as us, as black people, as soon as we walk in, we feel like we're at home. We feel comfortable. We feel like we could be ourselves. You know what I mean? We encourage

audience members to, react, laugh out loud, you know, as you know, because in the play, the actors break the fourth wall sometimes. Oh, I love it. 00:33:38 Speaker 1: You know what I mean? I think that was such a great thing. So, like, imagine going to a play, you seeing what's happening, and the actor looks at you like, Ain't that some crazy shit? 00:33:51 Speaker 2: They were dapping us up. They were sitting with us on the couches. 00:33:55 Speaker 1: It was really dope. 00:33:56 Speaker 2: That was my first time. 00:33:57 Speaker 4: Going to a play. 00:33:58 Speaker 7: I think that was an icebreaker for some of the gentlemen you referenced earlier where they was uncomfortable. 00:34:02 Speaker 4: And they were interacting with them. And they were like, you see this in the phone? Or high fives. Oh, all right. 00:34:06 Speaker 3: Y'all cool. And I feel like, to me, this play is a love letter to the black community and how we commune and how we interact with one another. And there's a lot of just little Easter eggs that just kind of depict black culture. For crying out loud, the play starts with a gospel song playing. You know what I'm saying? Like, you know, I feel like, you know. 00:34:28 Speaker 4: While he's cleaning the crib. 00:34:29 Speaker 1: Right. 00:34:30 Speaker 3: While he's cleaning the crib, smoking some weed, taking a little snort of Coke real quick. You know what I mean? Because why can't you listen to gospel and smoke some weed? 00:34:37 Speaker 1: And smoke some weed. 00:34:38 Speaker 3: I do that all the time. You know what I mean? 00:34:40 Speaker 2: And talk to your DL lover. 00:34:41 Speaker 3: Exactly. 00:34:43 Speaker 1: All of it. 00:34:45 Speaker 3: But the foundation of that is his background. You know, Gil's character is, you know, the person Gil is based off of, his parents are preachers. So he grew up in the church. He grew up with that kind of background. So those kind of things, you know, are instilled in you still. You know what I mean? Like, he has a bunch of, you know, he'll take a shot of Hennessy and he's like, thank you, Lord, or won't he do it? 00:35:06 Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying? 00:35:08 Speaker 3: But these are all phrases that we know in the black community. So it's like, yeah, it starts with a gospel song. The reason I did that was that was my way of trying to disarm the audience a little bit. You know what I mean? Because, you know, you hear that and you're like, oh, okay, you know, we going to church with it. And then the phone call happens. 00:35:27 Speaker 2: Then the phone call happens. 00:35:28 Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying? 00:35:28 Speaker 4: Cold bucket of water, wake your ass up. Right, exactly. 00:35:31 Speaker 3: You know what I mean? Now we kind of shake it up a little bit. And, you know, and I like the fact that sometimes people get uncomfortable. That's the point of theater. You know what I mean? We're supposed to have an experience. You know what I mean? Whether it's uncomfortable, because if you're feeling something, something's happening if you're feeling something. Whether it's a good thing or a bad thing or if it's something that traumatizes you or reminds you of something. Like, we want to leave a theater experience feeling something. 00:35:59 Speaker 2: I even say that about music. 00:36:01 Speaker 4: Yeah. 00:36:02 Speaker 1: And so you, within this play, a. 00:36:07 Speaker 2: Lot of feelings were brought up. 00:36:08 Speaker 1: Again, whether it was your thoughts on a homosexual relationship, whether it was your thoughts on how niggas ain't shit, because that's in there, how friends should be in moments of caring for each other, of showing up for each other. 00:36:25 Speaker 2: At one point, a friend is crying and he got a dick appointment coming over. 00:36:32 Speaker 1: So it's like, I don't know if I really want you to stay right now, friend. We can talk about this later. And there's just so many real... scenarios and emotions that are brought about that literally had all the aunties in the building was like, oh girl, Lee that man. And it was, you could tell people saw themselves in this. 00:36:51 Speaker 7: And you had four characters from, two was from a particular area, D.C., and you had a girl from L.A. 00:36:58 Speaker 4: And a dude from Brooklyn. But the one thing... Why Brooklyn get a bad rap with men? 00:37:02 Speaker 3: I know, I know. 00:37:03 Speaker 4: LA, you Brooklyn niggas ain't shit. 00:37:05 Speaker 1: Are you a Brooklyn guy? 00:37:07 Speaker 3: I'm from Brooklyn. Oh, I'm not going to lie. 00:37:09 Speaker 1: 13 years, I never dated a Brooklyn nigga. 00:37:11 Speaker 4: What? Would not. That's crazy. Would not. Would you date a Bronx? 00:37:14 Speaker 1: Would not. No, no, no, no, no. 00:37:16 Speaker 2: I never dated anyone in the Bronx. I did fuck with a lot of Harlem niggas. 00:37:19 Speaker 4: Same shit. 00:37:20 Speaker 1: And then because I was in the Bronx for so long, I went to the people with cars. So like Mount Vernon, New Rochelle, like above the train line. But never dealt with a Brooklyn nigga, ever. 00:37:31 Speaker 4: Brooklyn dudes are, as a Brooklyn, we are exquisite taste. 00:37:35 Speaker 3: Oh my God. 00:37:37 Speaker 4: We're fine dining. 00:37:38 Speaker 1: Exquisite taste. 00:37:39 Speaker 3: First of all, everybody knows Brooklyn is the best borough in New York. 00:37:42 Speaker 4: Absolutely. A thousand percent. 00:37:44 Speaker 3: It very much is. Still? 00:37:45 Speaker 4: Yes. 00:37:46 Speaker 1: Even with all the gentrification? 00:37:47 Speaker 7: Yes. 00:37:47 Speaker 3: Even with that? 00:37:48 Speaker 1: Even with that. 00:37:49 Speaker 7: Gentrification started in Harlem, thanks to Bill Clinton and Hillary, allegedly. 00:37:53 Speaker 4: And then they trickle down everywhere else. 00:37:54 Speaker 1: All I know is I've never heard of the Brooklyn Renaissance. 00:37:58 Speaker 7: How many black scholars y'all got? 00:38:05 Speaker 1: Who in history

came from Brooklyn? 00:38:08 Speaker 4: Harlem is not a borough. Harlem is part of Manhattan. 00:38:11 Speaker 3: He's from Brooklyn. 00:38:12 Speaker 1: No, no. We're talking about the people who moved. 00:38:15 Speaker 4: Michael Jordan is from Brooklyn. He was born in Brooklyn. Nas was born in Brooklyn. 00:38:20 Speaker 3: You know Riz is from Brooklyn. 00:38:21 Speaker 4: Riz is from Brooklyn. That's true, too. Yeah, Riz was born in Brooklyn. Drinks can go on and on, man. 00:38:25 Speaker 1: Can we talk about anyone great from Brooklyn? J. 00:38:28 Speaker 4: Cole is in. He is not. 00:38:30 Speaker 3: But he's in. 00:38:30 Speaker 1: No, he was in Queens. His office is in. He was in Queens. 00:38:33 Speaker 4: His office is in Brooklyn. 00:38:34 Speaker 2: First off, that's crazy. 00:38:35 Speaker 4: Don't say that. Okay. He ride his bike in Brooklyn. 00:38:37 Speaker 1: He feel comfortable in Brooklyn. Is there anybody from Brooklyn that came about doing anything prior to the 80s or 90s? 00:38:45 Speaker 7: You got the Brooklyn Dodgers. You got man shit in Brooklyn. The pulse of the city, it kind of goes through Brooklyn. Even as somebody that's not from... I know the Bronx can't claim that. The Bronx needs sage. That whole shit, that lamp. 00:38:59 Speaker 1: That's where hip hop started. Really? 00:39:01 Speaker 7: It needed sage then too, apparently. 00:39:04 Speaker 6: Even as somebody that's not from New York, I know that Brooklyn is the one place you could probably be anywhere in America and say, is Brooklyn. 00:39:11 Speaker 4: In the house? And you're going to get some noise. You're going to get some noise somewhere. 00:39:14 Speaker 7: You go to Arkansas in a sundown town, you're going to meet somebody. 00:39:18 Speaker 6: Somebody's going to stand up and be like, yeah. 00:39:22 Speaker 1: No one from Brooklyn is going to be in a sundown town. 00:39:24 Speaker 4: I know. That's the thing. 00:39:26 Speaker 1: And maybe the Bushwick White might be there. 00:39:29 Speaker 7: But no one, to Joc's point, nobody says, yo, is Queens in the house? No disrespect to Queens. I love Queens. 00:39:33 Speaker 4: But it would be quiet. But you're not going to hear overwhelming response. 00:39:35 Speaker 1: Okay, so Marcus, how would you rank then the five boroughs? 00:39:38 Speaker 3: Brooklyn's number one. I'm going to go with Harlem. Shout out to Harlem. You know what I mean? Harlem holds a special place in my heart. I'm going to go with. 00:39:48 Speaker 2: We say Harlem, not Manhattan at this point. 00:39:50 Speaker 4: We're not counting. 00:39:50 Speaker 7: Lower East Side would like to have a chat. Hell's Kitchen would like to have a chat. Spanish Harlem would like to have a chat. You know what I mean? 00:39:59 Speaker 3: I mean, yeah. So Harlem slash Manhattan. Okay. I would say Queens, even though I don't go to Queens that much. 00:40:07 Speaker 1: Nah. 00:40:09 Speaker 4: You have family in Queens, no? 00:40:10 Speaker 3: No. 00:40:11 Speaker 4: I feel like Caribbean... People have. 00:40:13 Speaker 3: Queens got some good food. 00:40:14 Speaker 4: Queens got some good food. 00:40:15 Speaker 3: Queens does have some good food. 00:40:17 Speaker 1: And that's where I left, because they built up Long Island City. Real cute. 00:40:22 Speaker 4: That's the new city home in Queens. Yeah. 00:40:24 Speaker 1: I used to say Midtown East. 00:40:26 Speaker 3: So I'm going to... But I think, yeah, Queens. 00:40:28 Speaker 4: That's a big ginger fire language. 00:40:29 Speaker 3: I'm going to say the Bronx and then Staten Island. You know, no shade to Staten Island. 00:40:33 Speaker 1: No, all shade. 00:40:34 Speaker 2: I was there for 13 years and never went. Because what's there? 00:40:36 Speaker 4: Yo, I'm not going to lie. Staten Island now. 00:40:38 Speaker 3: I ain't been to Staten Island. We shot all of season one in Staten Island. 00:40:42 Speaker 4: Really? Real estate in Staten Island is actually pretty decent. 00:40:44 Speaker 3: That's the most time I've spent in Staten Island. 00:40:46 Speaker 4: The real estate in Staten Island is. 00:40:48 Speaker 3: Yeah, they got nice cribs. 00:40:49 Speaker 7: They got nice cribs for lower than Queens and Long Island. 00:40:53 Speaker 1: Nobody wants to live in Staten Island. 00:40:55 Speaker 4: It's a good investment, property-wise. But wait, hold on, hold on, y'all. 00:40:57 Speaker 3: I want to get back to the journey of this play, because I think it's important for people to know. 00:41:01 Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely. 00:41:02 Speaker 3: The process of it. You know what I'm saying? 00:41:04 Speaker 1: No, no, no. 00:41:04 Speaker 7: We good, we good. 00:41:05 Speaker 4: We not throwing up. 00:41:06 Speaker 1: Just so you know, I'm making you go viral. 00:41:08 Speaker 6: It's cool talking to y'all, but I'm here for some promo. 00:41:11 Speaker 1: No, I just. 00:41:12 Speaker 3: You know, because it's... Because I think this could be really inspiring for people and this is also something, this is also the point of why I wanted to take this on tour and take it to different cities because I wanted to touch other people to know that it's capable. They're capable of doing this. So we started, we did a reading in 2024 that went really well and based off of, then after that we did, I did a reading at Dumbo House. Gayle Bean was in that, she played Corey in that. So that was really cool. And then from there, I said, you know what, I wanna take it back to where we did the reading. At that point, it was pretty clear like, yo, we don't really need a theater per se to tell this story. You know what I mean? The set is pretty simple. It's literally a table and four chairs, then the characters and the dialogue. So once again, shout out to Rock Mill, my friend Milton, who owns it, really good friend of mine. You know what I mean? He blessed me. He was like, yo, you can use this space and make it happen. 00:42:14 Speaker 1: That's dope. 00:42:15

Speaker 2: Yeah. 00:42:15 Speaker 3: Come on, community. You know what I mean? We was like, okay, we're going to do it there. Now, how we were going to do it, I had no idea because I didn't necessarily have the money to do it. But I'm a big believer in where there's a will, there's a way. And relationships is a motherfucker. Relationships definitely helps. Relationships is almost just as good as actual currency. Let me tell you that. So be good to people, y'all. Be good to people, because you never know. So definitely reached out to some people, and it came together beautifully. I had auditions for it, and luckily I had a lot of submissions. A lot of people auditioned for it. We had the callback, the whole audition process. And for me, in choosing the actors for it, the audition process was, before I sent them the sides or the script, I had them send me a video a one minute long video explaining to me what their favorite album is of all time. Because for me- Really? 00:43:15 Speaker 4: Yeah. 00:43:15 Speaker 3: Because I don't want niggas up there acting. You know what I mean? For me, I was like, I need to get people who feel like the character already without it feeling like a stretch. So for me, I was like, what better way to get someone to show their personality than to talk about something near and dear to their heart? 00:43:30 Speaker 2: Their favorite album. 00:43:30 Speaker 3: Their favorite album of all time. So that was the first round. Just send me that. And based off of that is how I decide, okay, I want you to audition for this or Or I want you to listen for this character as opposed to this character, or I don't think you're right for the play. 00:43:44 Speaker 4: So real quick, obviously you want all the characters to be right. 00:43:47 Speaker 7: Mm-hmm. 00:43:48 Speaker 6: But for the person that's playing based off of you, what was the thing that you needed to see? I wrote this shit, so you can't just be me and be fucking it up. 00:44:00 Speaker 4: What was the thing you were looking for? 00:44:01 Speaker 1: Because your ass didn't want to be you. You a whole actor, and your ass ain't acting. 00:44:08 Speaker 3: Well, here's a fun fact. Everything I write, I have no desire to be in. Because to me, if I'm writing it, it means I want to see it, as opposed to being in it. It's not necessarily exciting to me to be in something that I wrote. You know what I mean? Now, if somebody pays me to write something to be in, sure, that's a whole other conversation. But me personally, everything I write, I don't really want to be in. I'd rather just see it. So when it came to Andre, of course, people are like, why don't you. 00:44:38 Speaker 4: Just play Andre? 00:44:39 Speaker 3: Why don't you? Why don't you? 00:44:41 Speaker 2: And I was like, eh. 00:44:44 Speaker 4: I'd rather see it. 00:44:45 Speaker 3: You know what I mean? Because also remember, you know, that character's based off of me at 23 years old. 00:44:50 Speaker 4: It better be.

You know what I mean? 00:44:53 Speaker 1: So for me, you know, it's my younger days. 00:44:56 Speaker 4: I'm reformed. 00:44:57 Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying? You better be. 00:44:58 Speaker 3: I ain't like that no more. So, you know, it was based off of my younger days and it's like I wanted to, for me, I thought it would just be more interesting to see that being played out. It was already one thing having to write the shit. You know what I mean? Because I had to tap back into those times. You know what I'm saying? So in choosing Andre, Derek Alexander, who plays Andre, he came about, somebody sent me an audition tape because he auditioned for it. They sent me the tape and I looked at it and I was like, hmm. there's a vibe there. Cause you know, for me, I'm like looking for like a certain kind of swag or certain kind of, you know what I mean? Like, yeah, it's, it's hard to find someone that reminds me of me. You know what I mean? Cause you know, in my head, I'm like, you know what I'm saying? 00:45:50 Speaker 4: You know what I mean? 00:45:51 Speaker 3: No, he's great. So, um, so initially I had him just come be a reader for auditions when I was auditioning Corey and Nefertiti's. So in him being a reader, um, I was just kind of listening to how he was doing the scenes and then kind of seeing what his chemistry was like with the other actors. So I was like, you know what? I think he would be right for this. This is also his first play. You know what I mean? So yeah, he's very new in the acting world. And that was also something that I was intentional about. I wanted new faces. I feel like we see the same people all the time. Nothing wrong with that, but I feel like we got to give other people an opportunity to shine. You know what I mean? So I wanted new faces. I wanted freshness. You know what I'm saying? So I was willing to take a chance on folks that were either new to it or just didn't have as much credits or anything like that. You know, based off of how he was doing in the readings, I was like, you know what? I think he could take this on. You know what I mean? And then also, too, given my experience, I was willing to coach and, you know, kind of help, you know, in the development of it. So that's how that came about. Akilah Walker, who plays Corey, I've known her since we were about 18 years old. We've known each other for a long time. So she actually knows these characters. She was in Gil's crib at some point. So she is very well aware of what this world I was building, of this world I was building. Very well aware. 00:47:28 Speaker 1: How did you pick the cities you would tour this on? Because touring is expensive. Touring with a crew, a cast. I loved even when we went behind the bar was another one of your producers, even. 00:47:43 Speaker 3: Yes, shout out to Jessica Thorpe. She's also my girlfriend as well. Oh, shout out to her. 00:47:50 Speaker 1: I was like, even just hearing who all was a part of the process, but them working the band, I was like, It's. 00:47:56 Speaker 3: A team effort. It is a team effort. My brother is the stage manager. Jessica's younger sister is the assistant stage manager. Aaron Washington, who plays Nefertiti, she's one of my best friends. So she also is very aware of these characters. So it's very much a family affair. But also, too, it's like, you know, this is a big feat to be doing independently. So it's like, you got to have the right people. You know what I mean? That's going to go with you through the trenches. Because we definitely have our challenges, of course. You know what I mean? But it's like, you. 00:48:29 Speaker 1: Gotta have- You said y'all sleeping four to a room. 00:48:35 Speaker 3: Y'all drunk. 00:48:37 Speaker 1: Hey, who's sleeping on the floor tonight? I get to bed, I want a pillow. If we had to, you gotta have the right people. You gotta have the right people to do that. 00:48:44 Speaker 4: That's how it is. 00:48:46 Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying? Because, you know, to be honest, I honestly see big things happening for this. I saw it for a very long time. But it's like you got to go through the hard part. Nothing worth having ever comes easy, people. Please remember that. Nothing worth having ever comes easy. You got to go through the trenches. You have to. You have to. You have to. 00:49:10 Speaker 1: You have to. There's also something about seeing someone who's done it before you. So is there anyone that you've looked at? I know like Tyler Perry did the Chitlin Circuit and he was touring back in the late 90s, early 2000s with with Madea. 00:49:26 Speaker 2: I know Candy just did it with her. 00:49:30 Speaker 3: Candy Burr? 00:49:30 Speaker 1: Candy Burr. 00:49:31 Speaker 4: She did? 00:49:32 Speaker 2: Yeah, she's been touring. 00:49:33 Speaker 3: We trying to get her to come see the show because I think she'll love it. 00:49:36 Speaker 1: She's doing a play as well now. So is there anyone, specifically a black creator or director, that you've looked at what they've done and their roadmap to kind of help you know what to do or you're just creating your own blueprint here? 00:49:51 Speaker 3: Yeah, I kind of just went on it on my own, I didn't necessarily follow anyone else before me. It was just, for me, it was just something like, honestly, like I feel like this is a part of my purpose on this earth. You know what I mean? Because, you know, because I've sat with this, you know, when I first wrote it, it like flowed out of me, man. You know, it's like, cause I had, it's like the idea came and I had the characters in my head cause these are people I know. So once I started writing it, it just kind of flowed. And through the years of developing it, the way it was coming together and the journey I've been on, space has always been my lifeline. You know what I mean? In the times when I'm not working as an actor, this was always something I could lean on, I could fall back on. It was something I could say

I'm doing. Because one thing in our industry, the first thing people, what are you working on? 00:50:45 Speaker 4: Got to be busy. 00:50:45 Speaker 3: You know what I mean? 00:50:46 Speaker 4: What are you working on? 00:50:47 Speaker 3: You know what I mean? So it was something I could say that I'm doing. But I also knew that it was something special and I knew that it was something that's kind of needed right now in our community when it comes to storytelling. I feel like, you know, when it comes to things that are, you know, on higher scales, when it comes to our stories, it's a little watered down in my opinion. It's a little watered down to appease you-know-who. You know what I'm saying? You know who being white people. You know what I'm saying? When it comes to our stories and how we tell it and how we receive it. So for me, it's like I wanted something to feel like us unapologetically. You know what I mean? Because we deserve that. And I feel like especially in this day and age and where we are at the times now, it's like, yo, fuck it. Let's just be who the fuck we are without feeling like we got to, you know, you know, navigate or make somebody comfortable. You know what I'm saying? 00:51:43 Speaker 4: 100%. 00:51:43 Speaker 3: So that was a part of, you know, why, you know, I kind of had to. 00:51:48 Speaker 4: Do it independently. 00:51:49 Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying? Because it's like, you know, people be like, oh, I don't know about it. It's like, all right, fuck it. Well, I'm going to do it. 00:51:54 Speaker 1: Well, especially when you decide that you're not going to change it. 00:51:57 Speaker 3: Exactly. 00:51:58 Speaker 1: And you. 00:52:00 Speaker 2: You own the IP of it. It's your story. 00:52:03 Speaker 1: I get you being like, yeah, no, I'm not going to compromise this just to bring it over here. 00:52:07 Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly. 00:52:08 Speaker 3: I mean, at least, especially for the theater part of it. You know what I mean? Like, I feel like when it, you know, to me, like there's nothing better than live theater. You know what I mean? That's where things are the rawest and the most impactful because it's happening right then and there, as opposed to like seeing it on television, you can rewind and press pause and all that. Now, That's not to say in the future and other depictions of it, whether it's TV, that I'm not willing to change things or whatever, whatever. But for me, it had to live in its truest form here on stage. You know what I mean? For me, that gives me satisfaction. You know what I mean? On top of that, in touring it, now I can say, yo, I first gave it to our community. You know what I mean? Nobody can say, well, you know, he a sellout. No, I gave it right to y'all. 00:53:01 Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying? 00:53:02 Speaker 3: In the flesh, I came to your city. 00:53:04 Speaker 4: And did it. You know what I mean? 00:53:06 Speaker 3: To give it directly to you. 00:53:08 Speaker 2: And you'll be in Atlanta how much longer? 00:53:09 Speaker 3: We're here till November 15th. 00:53:11 Speaker 1: Okay, so this will come out in time if you're in Atlanta. Somehow, if we can get. 00:53:15 Speaker 4: I want to go again. I want to go again. And we got an open bar, y'all. 00:53:20 Speaker 3: It's open bar. 00:53:22 Speaker 1: And hold on. What else can you ask for? And I'm going to tell y'all to go on a Sunday when they give the brunch. 00:53:28 Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly. 00:53:31 Speaker 1: I don't know if it's always that, but I thought it was just going to be croissants. 00:53:34 Speaker 3: Nah, it's always that. 00:53:36 Speaker 4: It was jerk chicken, mac and cheese. Salmon. 00:53:40 Speaker 1: Salmon. 00:53:40 Speaker 4: Nah, shrimp. 00:53:41 Speaker 1: It was a good time. Open bar. I do love that, too. 00:53:45 Speaker 2: When I stay black, they drink a Hennessy and Teleport. 00:53:48 Speaker 4: And mac and cheese. 00:53:49 Speaker 3: Teleport is one of our sponsors. Shout out to Jim Beam. Yes, Jim Beam, too. Our liquor sponsors. Shout out to Shea Moisture. Shea Moisture's also a sponsor of ours. Shea Moisture. 00:54:00 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I got me a little bit. 00:54:02 Speaker 3: You got to, you know? 00:54:02 Speaker 1: I forgot. 00:54:03 Speaker 3: So, because when's the last time you've been to a play and there's an open bar and you can play space before and after the show? Yeah. Never. And for our Sunday brunch, it's all of that. Plus we got the DJ with the food, catered food. Shout out to Bara out here in Atlanta. Shout out to Melissa. That's my homegirl. She owns that restaurant. 00:54:21 Speaker 2: And what's the next city? 00:54:22 Speaker 3: We're going to New Orleans after this. 00:54:24 Speaker 4: Oh, man. That's going to be crazy. New Orleans, baby. 00:54:27 Speaker 3: New Orleans is one of my favorite cities in the world. 00:54:28 Speaker 2: And so here's the thing, too. 00:54:30 Speaker 1: How can people attend this that don't know about it? I got asked to attend, but how do people support and come to? 00:54:37 Speaker 3: They can find tickets via Posh is where our tickets are. Or they can just go to our Instagram, at Spades to Play. All the information is there. in our bio, or you can just Google the shit. Google the shit. Yes. Tickets via Posh. We're in Atlanta until November 15th. Then we hit New Orleans. We're in New Orleans for about two weeks. And then we ended in Miami during Art Basel. 00:55:02 Speaker 1: You've been to Art Basel? 00:55:03 Speaker 2: I'm going to Art Basel this year. 00:55:04 Speaker 1: You've never been. 00:55:06 Speaker 4: To Art Basel? 00:55:07 Speaker 1: Art Basel is lit. Wait, wait, wait. 00:55:09 Speaker 3: You ready? 00:55:10 Speaker 1: Let me tell you real quick. 00:55:12 Speaker 2: I actually was at Art Basel before the niggas was coming. 00:55:16 Speaker 1: I lived in Miami. 00:55:17 Speaker 4: I lived in Miami. 00:55:18 Speaker 2: So it was when it was real about art. 00:55:20 Speaker 4: So

you not a nigga? You half a nigga. 00:55:24 Speaker 2: I was in Wynwood when it was literally about art. And it was like, now it's about. 00:55:29 Speaker 1: Activation. I was at Art Basel back in like 2010. 00:55:36 Speaker 4: Yeah. 00:55:36 Speaker 1: Before it got accepted. 00:55:37 Speaker 4: Yeah. Wynwood is dope, but to your point, it's definitely corporate. 00:55:40 Speaker 1: Back in the day, it wasn't that. Back in the day, it was literally very artsy. It was not what it is now. 00:55:47 Speaker 3: Yeah. But I am going this year with the Spill app. Have you seen a play done at Art Baseline? 00:55:54 Speaker 7: No. 00:55:55 Speaker 4: No, no, no. 00:55:55 Speaker 3: I'm excited. 00:55:56 Speaker 1: I want to bring the people from Spill to come. 00:55:58 Speaker 5: Yeah. 00:55:59 Speaker 1: They play spades on the app. 00:56:00 Speaker 2: They have a spades thing on the Spill app. 00:56:02 Speaker 3: I heard about the Spill app. It's like a black. 00:56:05 Speaker 1: Twitter, basically. 00:56:06 Speaker 4: Yes, yes. 00:56:06 Speaker 1: And it's black-owned, so I'm going to be down there with them. Yeah, I'll be down there with them, so I want to bring them to this. 00:56:12 Speaker 2: And if you guys are on Patreon... I'll sponsor some tickets. 00:56:16 Speaker 4: Yes. 00:56:16 Speaker 1: I'll get some tickets and hand them out because it was a really good time. 00:56:19 Speaker 2: I'm not, you got money. 00:56:20 Speaker 1: I'm not sponsoring. John, you can pay for your own shit, but I'll sponsor the audience to go and check it out. 00:56:27 Speaker 2: Cause yeah, it really, it really was dope. 00:56:29 Speaker 4: It was fantastic. 00:56:30 Speaker 1: And it was just, it's, it's great to see that. It's great to see also, um, From a creative lens, you investing in your vision and not waiting for the yes from somebody. I think just as a creative, seeing how we can do that is great. I know another example would be an Issa Rae and now seeing where she's come after Awkward Black Girl. 00:56:51 Speaker 2: But to see you're like, nope, I'm going to give it to and it's going to come to me. 00:56:54 Speaker 4: Because it's a good product. It's a great product. 00:56:56 Speaker 7: And what you're doing too, unintentionally, you're doing proof of concept, which is also building leverage in these IPs that haven't been discovered yet. You know what I mean? For those out there listening and watching and talking that talk. But that's what this is about. 00:57:13 Speaker 4: You mentioned TV. 00:57:15 Speaker 7: The pod, all of those things are on the table depending on wherever you feel like this thing can go or should go. 00:57:21 Speaker 3: It's a whole world, I feel like. You know what I mean? 00:57:25 Speaker 4: Space the play. Space the show. Space the TV. 00:57:27 Speaker 3: Space the series. Space the movies. Space the podcast. You know what I'm saying? 00:57:31 Speaker 4: So it. 00:57:34 Speaker 3: Has a lot of legs. You know what I mean? Which is something I was very aware of in the development of it. The idea for the podcast didn't come until I had a conversation. Y'all know Mouse Jones. I had a convo with him and he was like, yo, you should think about making it a scripted podcast. I was like, okay, well shit. I didn't even think to do that. And shout out to A. 00:57:57 Speaker 4: King. 00:57:58 Speaker 3: Now I have that recorded, you know what I mean? And even listening to it is just as entertaining as seeing it. 00:58:05 Speaker 2: It's sound design. 00:58:06 Speaker 4: Fear of the mind. Yeah, exactly. I do have one quick question. I don't want to hold you too much longer. 00:58:12 Speaker 6: I know you're talking about how long it took to develop this and the whole process you went through to finally get this on a stage in front of people. 00:58:20 Speaker 4: Now that people have started to see it now, you're getting audience reactions. What is the... what is the most, what. 00:58:28 Speaker 6: Is the highest praise you feel like you've gotten for this? And what is the harshest criticism that you've gotten for this? 00:58:34 Speaker 4: And what do those mean to you? 00:58:37 Speaker 6: Do they mean anything to you in the process of, you know, what you do next and even how you might refine this for different spaces? 00:58:45 Speaker 4: What do those things mean to you? 00:58:47 Speaker 1: I'll hit you with the journalist question. 00:58:49 Speaker 4: Bring it home. 00:58:49 Speaker 5: Shit. 00:58:56 Speaker 3: I mean, of course the thing I get criticized most is the language. Like, why do you use nigga so much in it? Why is the word dyke in it? And you know, for me, it's like, I'm just like, yo, this is, because that's how we talk. This is how my friends talk. This is how we talk, and I wanted to depict that on stage. Y'all don't say shit when rappers rap and use all kinds of crazy shit. It's okay with rap, but when it comes to a play, which is You know, lyrics and dialogue, you know, still language. Now it's an issue. You know what I mean? 00:59:27 Speaker 6: Which also lends itself to the how plays are thought of, right? 00:59:31 Speaker 4: You talk about you want it to be approachable. 00:59:32 Speaker 6: You want it to be grounded and not so highbrow that people can't. 00:59:36 Speaker 3: You know what I mean? In terms of the highest praise I've received. 00:59:40 Speaker 6: Or anybody who has reached out to you saying that they love it, that you were... surprised it saw it or you were surprised it caught wind of what was going on? 00:59:48 Speaker 3: Recently, so in our L.A. run, we had Regina King come to the show. 00:59:52 Speaker 1: Oh, man. 00:59:53 Speaker 4: Love Regina King. 00:59:54 Speaker 3: We had Regina King come to the show. 00:59:55 Speaker 4: Shout out Regina King. 00:59:55 Speaker 3: She loved it. She really loved it. She gave me some really kind words. 01:00:00 Speaker 4: That's dope. 01:00:00 Speaker 3: We had a Q & A during that show as well. And she was

the first person to ask what. 01:00:04 Speaker 4: No way. Do you remember what. 01:00:07 Speaker 1: Her question was? 01:00:07 Speaker 3: She was just, she asked what. What about the script change from the beginning to now? But she loved it. She had a good time. She came with her family. And they had a great time. And it was just dope to see someone of her stature come and just be with the people and commune and enjoy the storytelling aspect of it. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, we've had Regina King, Wendy, Raquel Robinson, Mario Van Peebles, Stan. No, no. Shante Moore. 01:00:42 Speaker 4: Oh, wow. Yeah, yeah. Shante Moore came to the show. 01:00:46 Speaker 3: Danielle Brooks, she came when we did it in New York. Danielle's a friend of mine. 01:00:50 Speaker 2: Yeah, she's here. 01:00:51 Speaker 4: Yeah, she lives in Atlanta. Yeah, yeah. I hit her up. 01:00:53 Speaker 7: I said, girl. 01:00:56 Speaker 3: Corey Hawkins. You know, the list goes on and on. I love that. Regina King was really dope. 01:01:01 Speaker 4: The culture has tapped in. 01:01:03 Speaker 3: Very much so. 01:01:03 Speaker 4: Love that. 01:01:04 Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying? That's why I'm like, I would love for Kandi to come see this. Because I think she would love this. I'll make that connection. Yeah. 01:01:10 Speaker 1: I'll make that connection. 01:01:11 Speaker 3: I think she would love this. But yeah, man, I just want to keep inspiring people. You know what I mean? I want people to see what we're doing and be like, yo, I want to do the same shit. You know what I mean? You don't have to wait for permission to execute your vision. You just have to have the will to do it and the resilience because it's going to be hard. Know that it's going to be hard. It's not going to be easy. And just because it's not easy doesn't mean it's not worth doing. Commit. 01:01:37 Speaker 1: And go to Indie Rap. 01:01:40 Speaker 4: I mean, you got to start somewhere. You got to start somewhere. 01:01:43 Speaker 1: You know what I mean? 01:01:44 Speaker 3: You got to start somewhere. If you don't believe in yourself, who will? 01:01:46 Speaker 2: If you don't believe it, who will? 01:01:48 Speaker 4: You got to green light yourself. 01:01:49 Speaker 1: Right out my mouth. 01:01:50 Speaker 3: Took that. 01:01:51 Speaker 4: Yes. 01:01:52 Speaker 3: Let's go. 01:01:53 Speaker 2: So you're here for another two weeks. 01:01:54 Speaker 3: Two weeks, yeah. At Revolve Studios. Shout out to Revolve for that. 01:01:57 Speaker 1: Again, we will make sure that the link to purchase tickets is in the description of this episode with the Instagram attached. 01:02:06 Speaker 2: And if you are a patron, I'm going to go ahead and sponsor a pair. 01:02:09 Speaker 1: Of tickets for next weekend or the weekend after, whichever meets anyone's schedule. 01:02:15 Speaker 4: November 15th, correct? 01:02:17 Speaker 3: November through November 15th. 01:02:18 Speaker 1: So this weekend, you're not going to make it? 01:02:19 Speaker 4: You got to catch the following. As soon as I get back in town, I'm coming right to see y'all. 01:02:23 Speaker 2: It is a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful time. 01:02:26 Speaker 3: Yes, yes, yes. 01:02:28 Speaker 2: And I did donate. 01:02:29 Speaker 1: There is a way, if you cannot make it to any of the cities, that you can donate in support of Getting you to reach your. 01:02:36 Speaker 2: Goal, which is $ 100, 000. 01:02:38 Speaker 4: Yeah. 01:02:38 Speaker 2: And this is to, what is that for? 01:02:41 Speaker 3: That is for the, I mean, obviously for the tour now, but then also to, for the, because we got plans for next year as well. Hello. You know, it doesn't stop. 01:02:51 Speaker 1: It doesn't stop. 01:02:51 Speaker 5: It doesn't. 01:02:51 Speaker 3: We got to keep going. 01:02:52 Speaker 4: Let's get it. 01:02:53 Speaker 3: You know, we've built a lot of momentum this year in tour. I mean, because that's the thing. Like the, we had a really successful run last year in Harlem, but, I was like, we got to take this on the road. Other people have to experience this. I mean, we were also getting hit up by people. Yo, you got to come to Detroit. You got to come here. So I was like, yo, we got to touch the people. You know what I'm saying? And, you know, of course, my team was like, a tour? Like, how the fuck are we going to do that? It's like, yo, just, you know, trust me on it. You know what I mean? I'm a big believer in God. And, you know, and I put all of my trust into him because that has gotten me to where I am today. faith in him and just kind of just you know following the path that i know he has given me you know the purpose that he's given me you know what i mean when you know what your purpose is you move different you know what i mean to the point where sometimes people don't even recognize you anymore you know what i mean so then you know you lose friends sometimes because it's like yo i'm following this path and people You know, because they can't do it or they can't see themselves doing it, they put their doubts in you. You know what I mean? But when you know something is in your heart and in your spirit to do, you got to follow that. 01:04:04 Speaker 4: Deciding is a powerful thing. 01:04:06 Speaker 6: Once you decide to do something, that this is what it's going to be, God hears that and things will start moving in your favor. But you have to actually decide that this is what it's going to be. It ain't going to be nothing else. 01:04:15 Speaker 3: Because you decide to do that, but then also, too, he makes things happen in your life where you kind of, have no choice. 01:04:21 Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying? Because think about it. 01:04:23 Speaker 3: When we ended Wu-Tang, You know, I was like, okay, after Wu Tang, I'm about to get this road, this road. Then the writers fucking struck. 01:04:30 Speaker 4: Like right after that. 01:04:33 Speaker 3: You know what I mean? So shit slowed the fuck down.

Then my agency dropped me. My agency dropped me right before I did that first reading in 2024, like a week before. And to me, I took that as a sign. 01:04:43 Speaker 1: I was like, now I have no choice but to commit 100% into this. 01:04:46 Speaker 4: You know what I mean? 01:04:51 Speaker 3: And then thousands of dollars later. 01:04:53 Speaker 6: You know what I'm saying? 01:04:58 Speaker 3: But it's like, I had to do it. So it's like, you know, we going through the trenches, but I see the light on the other side. 01:05:07 Speaker 1: Me too. And we're hoping that Our audience taps in. 01:05:12 Speaker 3: They support. Y'all going to love it. 01:05:14 Speaker 4: No, it was really good. 01:05:15 Speaker 2: It was a really, really, really good time. 01:05:17 Speaker 1: I'm glad I got to spend my Sunday supporting your indie, Spades the Play. Y'all make sure, again, it is coming to a city near you. You got like, what, three or four cities left still? 01:05:31 Speaker 3: Two. Just New Orleans. You already did D.C.? Yeah, we started in D.C., then we went to L.A., in Atlanta now, then we're in New Orleans, and then Miami. 01:05:39 Speaker 2: New Orleans and Miami. 01:05:40 Speaker 3: Miami, I mean, because that's a part of Art Basel, that's going to be like a special kind of thing. But, you know, still try to come out to see that. But we're in New Orleans next. I don't know if y'all been in New Orleans before. 01:05:52 Speaker 6: You sound like the perfect place. 01:05:56 Speaker 3: And the space we're doing it at is this spot called the Firehouse, not the Firehouse Loft. Really dope space. It's like grungy and like arts on the wall and like hardwood. It's, you know, you want this architecture, you know, it's a really dope, dope, dope space. I'm really excited about it. 01:06:14 Speaker 1: Love that. Well, Marcus, thank you. 01:06:16 Speaker 3: Thank you. 01:06:17 Speaker 1: Thank you. Come on, come on. Y'all, we got a studio audience today. 01:06:25 Speaker 2: Where can they follow you? 01:06:27 Speaker 1: Where can they support you? 01:06:28 Speaker 3: So my Instagram is at distantloving. It's a play on Distant Lover. I'm a big Marvin Gaye fan. 01:06:34 Speaker 1: Oh, is that your album? 01:06:35 Speaker 2: Is that what tells us about you? 01:06:37 Speaker 1: You know how you said the album? Marvin Gaye tells us who you are. 01:06:42 Speaker 3: Okay. Yes, yes, yes. So at Distant Loving on Instagram, at Spays the Play on Instagram. We're also on TikTok as well. So yeah, that's where you can find me. 01:06:53 Speaker 1: And y'all already know, by the time y'all hear this episode. 01:06:58 Speaker 2: Votes are back in. 01:06:59 Speaker 1: Votes are in. Hopefully, we did what we were supposed to do. 01:07:01 Speaker 6: Hopefully, it's probably going to be a week of lawsuits and a whole bunch of bullshit that. 01:07:04 Speaker 4: Go on and on. 01:07:05 Speaker 1: A week of recounts. 01:07:07 Speaker 4: Recounts. This ain't all kind of bullshit. But hopefully, y'all did the right thing. 01:07:10 Speaker 1: Hopefully, y'all did the right thing. 01:07:11 Speaker 4: And got y'all ass out there and cast a ballot. 01:07:13 Speaker 1: Facts. Thank y'all so very much. Next week, we have some amazing episodes coming your way. 01:07:19 Speaker 2: It is a week of music. 01:07:22 Speaker 1: We have Mech on the show, followed by Bonsu. 01:07:28 Speaker 2: Who is a part of the Jay-Z documentary. 01:07:30 Speaker 1: So when I say the episodes we have for y'all next week, oh my God. Make sure you tap in. 01:07:37 Speaker 2: It's a lot of, again, black culture, but music. 01:07:41 Speaker 1: Y'all, there's a story about the Uchiwale video set. 01:07:44 Speaker 6: Oh man, that one is golden. I can't wait for people to react to that shit. 01:07:49 Speaker 1: Oh my God. 01:07:50 Speaker 2: So make sure y'all tap in. It's Selective Ignorance, baby. 01:07:54 Speaker 1: Go ahead. 01:07:54 Speaker 2: We're Conversations Matter, Curiosity Thrives. 01:07:57 Speaker 1: And here we go. 01:07:59 Speaker 3: God damn it. 01:08:00 Speaker 4: Wait, wait, wait. What's happening? Hold on, here we go. We're Curiosity Thrives. 01:08:03 Speaker 1: Nope, we're Curiosity Lives. Controversy Thrives. Controversy Thrives. And Conversations Matter. 01:08:08 Speaker 4: There you go. 01:08:09 Speaker 2: See y'all motherfuckers next week. 01:08:11 Speaker 4: We actually do this for real. 01:08:12 Speaker 3: We do. Shit. It's the scenes. 01:08:14 Speaker 2: It's the scenes. 01:08:14 Speaker 1: It's all the scenes. 01:08:15 Speaker 4: Big scenes. 01:08:17 Speaker 2: Selective ignorance. 01:08:19 Speaker 1: A production of the Black Effect Podcast Network. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. 01:08:28 Speaker 5: Thanks for tuning in to Selective Ignorance with Mandy B. Selective Ignorance is executive produced by Mandy B and it's a full court media studio production with lead producers Jason. 01:08:37 Speaker 1: Rodriguez, that's me, and Aaron A. 01:08:39 Speaker 3: King Howard. 01:08:40 Speaker 5: Now do us a favor and rate, subscribe, comment, and share wherever you get your favorite podcasts. And be sure to follow Selective Ignorance on Instagram at selective underscore ignorant. And of course, if you're not following our host Mandy B, make sure you're following her at. 01:08:55 Speaker 3: Full Court Pumps. 01:08:56 Speaker 5: Now, if you want the full video experience of selective ignorance, make sure you subscribe to the Patreon. It's patreon.com backslash selective ignorance.