Transcript for:
Ice Cube: Life, Music, and Impact

first of all Hollywood Walk of Fame groundbreaking songs Straight Out of Compton [ __ ] the police boys in the hood Players Club Ride Along Straight Out of Compton 21 Jump Street three kings it is a pleasure to have you here man I'm trying to be like you when I grow up no man I I never said I wanted to do movies so then how they discover I really want to find out who took Pac out or who took big out mind your own business and you live longer who has the most power in the entertainment industry you know you got to have balance you know what I mean have a little R&B with your hip-hop got to have a little Funk with it a little soul yeah you know what I mean how much they are invested in all these big labels in the the prison industry I'm not saying that the CIA is sitting there writing Rhymes talked about some things that I've never talked about in the interview [Music] so as a kid who grew up in La I follow his story very closely Cube and I've seen a lot of the podcast at the end of the podcast he said I shared certain stories today I've never shared before the three close calls he had as a kid almost died the the story I said why did you leave the life and why did you not go become a gangster he told the story about what happened to his steps sister and what her husband did to his step sister that was such a life-altering event that got him to say I'm not doing this anymore how he got recruited to boys in the hood for the movie which makes no sense I played him a clip of the timear night called into the podcast and I said here's what shook said about a story with e e and Dre Dre said this on speaker that got easy to cry do you believe this story and I asked him who he trusted out of the three the most he broke it down and kind of went through it we talked so many different things we talked Lakers we talked uh politics a little bit we talked politics I brought up a couple names in Hollywood on who were the most powerful people and and seeing how he would maneuver through some of these questions was just interesting to watch I I think you're going to enjoy this interview just as much as I did so having said that here's Cube did think you make it I feel tast Victory I know this life for me why would you bet on Goliath when we got bet David value taming giv values contagious this world are entrepreneurs we G no value toomie look what I become I'm the one all right so we got a special guest in the house and I want to properly introduce this guest and uh when when he you know we we first spoke you know they called they said look all Cube wants to talk about is politics I said I don't like politics I said no that's all he wants to talk about I said I want to talk about his career his life business other things so let me properly introduce you this may be one of the coolest resumés you could have here we go so first of all Hollywood Walk of Fame he's earned the rock and roll Hall of Fame nmid Basketball Hall of Fame the amount of movies sold 10 million records nwa's groundbreaking songs Straight Out of Compton [ __ ] the police what else we got here movies he's been in boys in the hood over 40 films by the way higher learning All About the Benjamins barber shop next Friday Players Club right along Straight Out of Compton 21 Jump Street three kings what else can I tell you all those being there we hear you know there's a possibility of another one coming out here with which we're going to talk about uh you got the big three you got movies music you got so many things going on it is a pleasure to have you here man I'm trying to be like you when I grow up no man I I I was saying how busy you are and by the way probably the most impressive one out of all of this when I saw this I said there's no way this is true and then I had to go you know have our team take a look at it so check this out you probably already know this so obviously we're going to talk about a lot of different things today but I want to share this with the audience here we go so the longest lasting marriages in Hip Hop okay so Jay-Z and Beyonce since 08 TI and tamaa 2010 IC tea and coco 2005 jahu and Aisha 2001 Method Man and tamaa 2001 Snoop and Shante 97 LL coj and Simone 95 Rev Run and Justin 94 the only one that's ahead of you and Kimberly cuz you you guys are 1992 is E40 and Tracy 91 you've been married for 32 years yeah yeah you guys got what five kids four four kids yeah how how the hell do you make marriage work in Hip Hop movies the life how do you make that work for 32 years well you make the marriage the most important out of all that um you don't get distracted by The Glitz and the Glamour and the the the the promises of the industries but you you focus on what's important and you do your work and then you uh make sure you know your most important um priority uh is happy healthy and and comfortable with the journey comfortable with the journey was there was there a certain uh agreement where there's certain values that you guys kind of speak about where when you guys look at each other you kind of understand each other anything that helped the two of you guys last for 32 years um you know you know I'm saying like if you argue let's do this if you any anything like that we just you know made a a real commitment to each other um you know People Like Us come out of South Central Los Angeles and you know some of the odds are stacked against so when you find a likeminded person Soul who um um want to you know want to beat the odds you make a pack and you um make a commitment to each other to uh to win and not to lose out here and um and so you know my my wife Kim is is amazing she she can care less about the business as far as being a part of Hollywood and the glitz and the Glamour and this that and the other you know that don't turn her on you know she uh but she's down to help me uh make it to the top and so um I appreciate her for that and um like I said I wouldn't be here without her you know how'd you guys meet um first time we met it was at a mall a spot called The Fox Hill Mall I used to sell at Fox Hill Mall yeah Fox Hill mall and um I saw her coming down the escalator and uh something in my head this has never happened to me ever in my life something in my head said that can be a woman so I didn't really approach her after that you know she kind of was shopping and I was shopping we ran into each other in the Foot Locker and I had my friend T-Bone T-Bone talks a lot so he was like talking the head off and uh so I went to shoot my shot and she had a a man she had a boyfriend so she was like nah it ain't happening so um about 3 4 months later driving down CR Shaw me and T-Bone and uh this car kept swooping on us and it was my wife Kim she was riding with her cousin and uh they pulled up on the side and uh you know the cousin was trying to get at me but I saw Kim and I'm like yo uh remember her from the Fox Hill Mall you know I'm I'm going to try it again see if she see if she uh still with this dude and um they had broke up so that was my perfect opportunity how old were you 19 19 years old so I used so you know the escalator coming down right when you enter I think through Macy's or whatever it was I used to sell B memberships uh right next to the escalator that was my spot when people would come down I used to work at the b in cover City used to be a nautilus years ago yeah right across from Sony with Dexter McLendon Ruben Rimer Francisco Davis all these guys and they would send me to Fox Hills to sell memberships yeah right to go to you know Fox Hill you know my mall was really the hard Thorn mall that was near my house but whenever we wanted to go look at the cute girls we would go to Fox Hills so quality was better at Fox Hill yeah the quality was better at Fox Now cube when when I talked to Cuban Jr we had him on and you guys at the movie you know boys in the hood yeah and he told me the story where he says you know I I keep calling him Moshe and he says listen man don't call me o you call me Cube and he said it's kind of complicated because he's Cuba and you're Cube so you guys are doing a movie together uhhuh and he he says one of the scenes you come up to him and you say after the you know the the death and you kind of don't know how to handle the loss you know loss of the loved one and he says you went up to said listen Cuba I'm not the crying type and I come from the hood and I'm not one that's going to cry what feedback can you tell me about this scene and he says just think about the brothers you lost in the hood yeah and he says you said to him I got it I'm good from here and then you went and did your thing yeah growing up for you to be able to tap into you know what you produce with music with movies who were you at 14 years old were you ever part of a gang were you a gangster and if yes who were you with well you know growing up in the neighborhood you make choices um now everybody in the neighborhood is Affiliated like you can't you canot be um you can't be neutral so the neighborhood I come from is called neighborhood Crips and you know we growing up we figuring out which direction we want to go we 10 12 11 um I start playing sports I'm in the football I'm in the basketball and then I get into this rap stuff now now not too many people in my neighborhood was into it as far as doing it they all loved it you know the pros Run DMC and the fat boys and you know LL coolj but only sir Jinx which is Dr Dre's cousin that lived down the street he was the only one into the music he did it all he did break dancing graffiti uh DJ and only thing he really didn't do was rap so you know at that point where it's go hard for the hood or explore this new music at 13 14 years old and hang out with Dr Dre my choice was to go with music hang out with Dr Dre so them years when when banging would have took over my life I had something to replace it with like uh great music and learning the music business and doing you know DJing parties and and just doing something way more interested in the gang banging now at the time who was Dre how was Dre seen in the streets not not to the to the people that you know he was a local DJ that was one of the best in La that's it he was known as you know it was a few DJs that were the best um Egyptian lover uh bobcat Jo [ __ ] uh you know these are are you know some of the best DJ po Battlecat um and Dre was you know close to the top when it came to to being a coveted DJ that everybody dig loved and wanted to do their parties did you did you like how could you differentiate him against Egyptian lover or others because they're all there so you kind of picking who you want your running mate to be why did you choose Dre over you know whatever the life may be or other you know well tent out there I knew Dre you know I didn't know them mother cats I got you not to the point where I can hang with him and and be a part of it you know I could go to you know Uncle Jam's Army you know they had a they was the biggest crew Uncle Jam's Army uh they had Egyptian lover they had Arabian Prince they had uh you know a bunch of DJs they would do big you know concerts at the sports arena and so out in Compton you know you had Lon O Williams who uh ran the wrecking crew and they did parties mostly in Compton uh lingwood uh Carson you know them them areas in that that way and so that's who I was hanging with you know I would leave South Central and go to Compton and hang with with Lonzo and The Wrecking Crew Trey DJ yella clientel uh the the unknown DJ uh DJ unknown sorry about that and um and you know just learning you know the the Compton side of Hip Hop you know where they had tidy te and they had uh Mix Master spade and you know they were starting to Bubble you know as far as making a name for Compton in the music industry so um you know it was just circumstances you know were were you a guy that uh uh Cube I mean when when you see uh uh the way you rap you see you in the movies you see reading about you yeah there there's different sides to you there's a side that you can play a serious role like you did in boys in a hood then there's a side to you where you know ride along or you know some of the other funny comedy stuff they all about the Benjamins you know you see these things and still a serious side but there's also a comedian side to you yeah I I if I if we had 10 guys here right now that knew you at 13 14 15 how would they profile you would they say he was feared he was respected he was liked he was cool what's the first thing they would say about you at that age um I hope they say I was respected you know for my age group you know not too many people can handle me in anything you know Sports uh you know fighting you know I was I was able to clean out my age group so you had to be able to do that or you would really get you know bullied and and and uh picked on a lot so you know you had to thump when it was time to thump so I was always down to thump and so um you know a few of them you know I don't I don't won my fair share I don't lost a few too but I was a little out my way class but uh but for the most part you know you just got to be down it ain't really about you know a lot of people that bang they scared they they got to bang cuz it's protection you know uh I always felt like I didn't have to bang because wasn't nobody going to do nothing to me to make me bang got it and um they knew I was down to jump off my bike and thump and so that's that's that's a must you have to be down to get down you might win some might lose some but always be down to get some and so that was attitude most of my friends attitudes as well so you know you I hope it's respect did you witness friends and you know peers dying did you witness close friends yeah shot some you know losing you know losing friends when you in the eighth grade um is just something you don't really think you going to have to go through you know losing friends at a young young age is just crazy but hearing about you know some of the big homies getting getting downed you know um you know writing Rest in Peace on my my notebooks and stuff like that it it just uh was just part of part of the Life part of growing up um I remember when uh one of my homies got shot what's my brother's friends got shot on on our block and I was real young so it was always like yo it can happen right out this door you know right soon as you step out the door it can happen so you know it uh it changed me you know and changed how I looked at the neighborhood when when when I think about guys that make it to different levels in life right you win uh uh you typically have one of three formulas you have the experience unconditional love from somebody could be typically it's a mom right you experience unconditional pain uh could be you could never please somebody or a lifechanging pain where you're like this is going to force me to change and then you chose your enemies wisely the right enemy that brings out the best in you not the worst in you right what was the single most significant event at that age eighth grade nth grade maybe even earlier or later where you said now I'm not doing this anymore I'm out was there something that truly impact maybe you brought rage in you controlled Rage or fear of maybe this could happen to me whichever one of those could be for you to say I'm out of here um you know dodging a few situations that could have went South um you know my my my steps sister was killed by her husband at when I was 12 years old so that that changed my outlook on the world you know before that Dam everything was stuff you heard about you know few things you seen but here it was right you know deaf at your doorstep and um and it like it was really you know a family member that did it so it was uh it was odd and it was crazy to try to process and uh I just knew the world was different for me um and you know when I was about 14 uh was a little little older um you know it was a situation where uh a guy had had taken some money from my mom's and just on a lie you know I'm I'm I'm OA friend from school and I need you know some some money blah blah blah I don't have no money I'm trying to get here trying to get there and just beat her out some money and we found out that he was smoking you know so we went over to kill him like my friend he had a shotgun we put the shotgun in the car we rolled over there knocked on the dude door they his pops came to the door and uh we asked for him and he wasn't there and you know if he was there and came out the door we' have shot him and so whole life would have been different whole life would have changed that day and when it didn't happen I went from being mad to being relieved I I can leave it right here I'll leave right here I I I went from from being mad to being relieved that that I didn't do that cuz I was irrational and we was hot and we was uh about to go to jail you know what I mean and so uh pure luck yeah I just was like yo I need to change my way of thinking you know on on stuff like this you know is it really worth was it really worth it you know and I was caught up on principle and and um it could have went bad I'm 15 years old I'm in uh uh um Vegas in the car with the another guy who was driving a Cadillac and uh his brother is now dead they're with Burbank thi this was a gang in La Burbank because I lived in Glendo and then we pull up and these guys from New York are to our left the guy had no clue had a gun with him our guy pulls out a gun they pull out a gun we run out I'm with my dad in Vegas I go to the hotel and I'm breathing hard you know you're in that kind of a situation this is it it's about to something's going to happen right now yeah and then we go in there and says you good you good I said no I'm totally fine said why are you breathing this way I say totally fine go to sleep and from that moment I'm like I got to change some of the friends this I'm living in La I'm living in parents got a divorce so you're not liking a you know environment that's stable that one situation I wouldn't be sitting here right now talking to you it's pretty wild that you're telling me the situation that if that guy would have opened the door the father says the son is here we don't know Cube yeah it's it's all over right there and um wasn't worth it at all you know and it's it's you know it's it's um it's those situations that I think back and I think thank God that I was you know plucked out of these situations at the kind of in a nick of T what do you think that is you think that is God you think that's pure you know accidental you think someone's looking over you you think it's just got lucky how do how do you there's a book that was written called David and Goliath and in the book it talks about not David versus Goliath he called the David angelite if you can look up this book and the author in the book talks about people who who uh uh had flirted with death and made it they had this feeling of I'm going to do something special with my life right and whether they thought it was Faith whether they what is I'm chosen I'm I'm called to do something did you walk away at 15 16 years old you're like I think I'm protected someone's watching over me or not not really um as a very young kid I didn't understand it I got hit by a car when I was 5 years years old um I went to the ice cream truck with my with my sister and uh she's 15 at the time and she made the mistake of getting my ice cream first giving it to me and then ordering hers so I get mine I I want to go back across the street you know I got what I needed so she said uh I said I want to go back home she said go ahead so I took off running around the ice cream tree oh my God I took off running and when I look I just heard a a car screeching and and the grill of the car looked about this big you're five I'm five so I'm about to die I mean I just to see the grill of the car um and it hit me and I flew and I landed on the curb and um I remember my father somebody came and scooped me up and um they took me to the doctor and I didn't have a bruise I wasn't no bones broke nothing was wrong with me and the doctor kept saying this kid got hit by a car today and it was like yeah and it was nothing wrong with me um so that was one time um I remember when I was young my my my grandmother worked for these people in bail air and I never seen a pool so I took off running as a little kid and ran and jumped in the pool and uh I was drowning and my uncle reached down and grabbed me and pulled me up how you how old you have understand had to be three or four oh wow real young so that's that's another situation and when I was about 11 uh my friend's father had a truck and for a few days when whenever he pulled out we would run jump on the back of the truck and kind of duck down and ride for a house or two and then jump off with him saying get off this truck get off this truck so we went to do it one day and uh I jump we all jump on the truck so he pulling off and when it was time to jump off he had a trailer hitch and it caught my leg it caught my pants leg oh yeah fell flat on my back and he's dragging me down the street oh my God and the kids is yelling wait and I'm hollering wait wait stop stop he's dragging me he's about to pull off into vaness which is a busy street and he end up stopping and and um and it was you know it was another situation where if he didn't see us yell you know he was kind of looking for us to do it so he but he thought we all had jumped off and so he was pulling off because he didn't see nobody back there and I'm being drugged by the car so these are like three situations where you I pretty much should have been dead and for some reason I wasn't and um it wasn't hurt and so you know I look back and say well it's because I had a bigger purpose to do some of the things that I've done and you know hopefully change some of the lives of some of the people that I've come across and you know I just had more to do here was it God or was it just kind of like it's just you know it is what it is I think it's God I think it's God I think it's divine intervention uh it it happens when you when it's just not your time to go you will not go a minute before your time and you will not stay a minute when it's time to go it's like night you know when night come you know the day give me a few more minutes sunlight no it's night you're done you know so you don't have a choice yeah you don't you don't have no choice so um that's what I believe your sister the day you were getting that ice cream 5 years old is that the same sister that got shot up or that's a different no that's my sister s that's not the step sister that's no no okay I got you step sister was named Beverly Beverly okay well may she rest in peace so you're sitting there you're now let's go to 19 mid 80s right what's going on and you know is this colors it's colors right uh yeah I think colors I don't know what your colors came out but I want to say mid 80s somewhere around there were colors 85 yeah so what your does it say Okay 88 okay so colors is 8 pretty interesting that it's later I thought it was earlier yeah so so 88 88 is when you come out you're you're 20 years old I think you're a June you just had had a baby right you just had a birthday and August of 88 you come up with you know uh uh uh nwa's first album which you wrote most of it right that what I read about I wrot a lot of it yeah you got Trey you got you know other guys that but a lot of it was written by you so [ __ ] the police yeah right Straight Out of Compton but let's go to [ __ ] the police M did you write that truly believing [ __ ] the police or did you write that saying I think there is so much anger towards the police I think we're going to disrupt and I think the Market's going to react to this why why did you write that song we didn't we didn't know nothing about market and react we we just this is how we felt we felt that this was our only weapon against what was happening uh getting jacked um as a youngster you know back then that's the you know crack era so you know everybody that look like they got a little something is getting jacked by the by the police you know everybody that got baseball hat or chain on beeper you know anything you getting jacked and so nice cars uh pulling you over and so it was just Overkill and this was our only line of defense like our only weapon is our music and this is how we felt because even making the record we was getting jacked even in torren cuz that the studio was in torren place called audio achievements and um we'd be getting Jack just going to get something to eat pulling up and you know they was just they didn't want us there and so you know the song came out of a real place um but before that we did songs you know like dop man and aball rolling boys in the hood just kind of just talking about the environment that we all was living in and trying to you know maneuver through without without getting killed or thrown in jail boys in the hood 91 right let me see yeah July 2nd 91 obviously you were shooting it before that couple years whenever the time you know movie comes out uh how much of boys in a hood was acting how much of it was just you being yourself um I could have played any of those roles cuz all those roles is a piece of how I grew up you know I grew up my father was there in my life um I did play football you know uh and I could have been a damn good gang banger if I if I put my mind to it you know a boss in it so but I didn't want to go that route but I could have played any of those roles you know I knew knew all those guys and what life was like um maneuvering you know you have to maneuver it's uh you know it's like being in a in a Hot Zone you know you can get shot anytime so so at this point when when did you say you want to do movies because the album comes out said I wanted to do movies so then how did they I was discovered how did they find you John single he came to you he discovered me um I was backstage at Arenal Hall Show I wanted to talk to Areno because he had he had the two Live Crew on his show and he wouldn't have easy and NWA and I was like man you GNA have Luke up there you know what he's doing is uh you know you might as well have us but I never got a chance to talk to him because this intern kept you know talking to me about like you're Ice Cube huh you're in NWA huh and I'm like yeah you know back then it wasn't a lot of videos it wasn't a lot of you know all the focus was on Easy E back then so you know I talked to the dude and he was saying he was a junior at USC and he uh he's in film class and he's going to do a movie and he's going to put me in it and uh he's going to put all of NWA in the movie that's his that was what he said at the time um so you know I'm kind of like you know okay dude I'm you know I'm thinking at the time you have to like go to juliard or something I'm not totally not qualified for this so you've never gone to acting school never never and he um he comes and and you know he disappears so it was just a conversation and I see him a year or two later at a public enemy concert it was a year later and he runs up to me and he's like remember me remember me our c h show I'mma put you in a movie like yeah right man he's like yeah I'm a I'm a I'm a senior now USC and we G to do it I'm like okay man whatever you know and he's telling me trying to tell me about the movie the concert lets out and his ride leaves him and he's like cute man uh it's 2: in the morning we out there in Hollywood at the at the Palladium no the palace uh and and uh he's like man my ride left me can can can you give me a ride home I'm like ah [ __ ] man this the second time met yeah yeah like I don't even know you dude but he was cool you know cool dude you know and I didn't want to leave him out there so I gave him a ride to his dorm and he telling me about the movie the whole time and I'm barely listening it's 2: in the morning I'm trying to get this dude home so I can I can go go home my damn self so another another year go by or some time went by my manager at the time uh Pat shanet she says somebody want to put you in the movie I'm like huh huh you know by then I I had broke up within wa you know I was drama going on it was like I was trying to be the best rapper in the world had just done my first solo album movie huh what yeah so I I forgot all about the dude so she gives me the script I take the script I throw it in my back seat never look at it she give me sides sides are the scene you have to audition so they just give you a few pages see what you got and so I fold that up and put it in my pocket and it stayed in my pocket till it was time for me to audition so she told me on Monday I audition on Thursday so I didn't look at nothing I pull up to the audition I pull out the paper out my pocket I'm trying to read the scene see what they want me to do whatever I go in I'm thinking it's going to be a room full of white people making a movie and it's not it's John Singleton the same dude from the from the from the Arenal Hall Show he's like uh told you I told you didn't I tell you put you in a movie and I'm like I'm looking around I'm like damn they are making a movie around here I'm seeing cast members on this wall and a lot of activi pre-production and uh I go to audition and I'm terrible I mean I suck I can't act a lick and he's looking at me he was like Cube did you read my story did you read my script cuz you suck and I was telling you that yeah he's like man I I'm going have to might have to get another actor man how old is he's 22 at the time I mean yeah he's little little maybe a little older than me a little younger one or two but he's like uh yo you know you you're not good and I was like yeah man I I didn't know what I was saying or reading you know I just I just picked it up on the parking lot he said Q dude go go home read my whole script read the whole script and come back tomorrow give you one more shot at it but if if you're not if you're not better then we G have to find an actor to play this part you know I'm going have to change my mind on you and I was like oh okay I said okay now I'm taking it serious cuz now I've had some conversations with this so you're not offended you're not offended that he's no he right he totally right and I'm glad gave me another shot so I I go right home and I read the script and I couldn't believe it I was like what they're making a movie about how we grew up like a movie about our neighborhood like is this movie worthy wow got it I'm asking Kim she like they making a movie so I guess it's movie worthy so uh I get it so next time I go audition I'm I'm I'm pretty good and I'm bone I just looked him up by the way he's born January 668 obviously he passed away five years ago but he's January 668 he's a he's a year older than you yeah so so you do the movie um what's the difference between the album that took off with NWA versus boys in a hood the the level of Fame and success I mean how much did they pay you for the movie boys in the hood cuz Cuba said he didn't get paid a lot of money like $36,000 or something like that I got I got 100 Grand you got 100 Grand I got 100 Grand so at that time you're a bigger draw than was at the time right cuz they most definitely right so so you got I think the only bigger draw in the movie was Lawrence fbb at the time cuz he was a established pops actor yeah right and so okay so which which of the two put you like out in the Limelight like this the Skyrocket of overnight movie sensation or album sensation which one had a bigger vertical leap um you know I would say NWA because it was like a Adam Bond went off it was just you know so radical for the time that everybody had it everybody was talking about it everybody had an opinion on it um boys in the hood it it um it took me to new heights you know um just as a as an actor you know it's like I was getting respected for my acting ability and so it opened up the door for a new career uh Roger Ebert uh I think Chicago Times you know uh you know said I should have won an Academy Award for my performance so you know by him doing that and recognizing me at his award show it really set me up because you know the thumbs up guys were you know Roger and Cisco Roger Eber Jean Cisco I think they used to you know do the movies and give it a thumbs up or thumbs down so by him kind of giving me a um stamp of approval it it it uh opened up a lot of doors in Hollywood as an actor is that was that like an itch for you where you're like I'm really enjoying this like actually watching yourself on a big screen did you you know the first first time I seen the movie I you know John we we got real cool you know doing the movie cuz he was young and he loved you know NWA he love my solo stuff and we was just same age you know same interest so we got real cool so he showed he was like you want to see the movie before he finished it bad move never show a new actor a movie before it's finished cuz when he showed me the movie it was it was flat it was not the sound you know it had it was no sound mix it was temporary music you know things were raw unfinished un you know edited you know need some more just it was just a unfinished movie and I didn't understand what I was looking at really so it just looked it like uh not a good movie because it looked it wasn't like I I was seeing cups being put down I wasn't hearing the sound and I was what the hell's going on why don't why don't feel like a real movie and so I called my manager P Shan I was like yo this we we should I shouldn't have did this this this was the wrong move you know this is about to be a disaster and um why you let me do this movie you know what I mean I'm not no damn actor I was just just beside myself about it and then I called John and I was just I just wanted the movie to go away I was just like I don't want hear about this movie no more and then he said man just let me finish it I'm not going to show you nothing else just let me finish it and then I'll show you so the the screening I went to I was like man I'm like man I got to sit through this through this thing again you know what I mean and and then night and day it was night and day you know he put the he put the Pol on it you know he put the whoop on it as we say and um it was great you know amazing and I was like so happy that we did it and and uh then he said yo we going to go to the can film festival in in in south of France and I'm like what what what he's like yo we showing the movie in the south of France I'm like what's subtitles you know I'm like it's already a la you know B basically gang bang story on how to survive LA but how are the French going to take this with subtitles they're not going to understand what the hell is going on so I was you know kind of like reserved but then you know we got a stand inovation at the end of the movie and I look over it's Quincy Jones is Eddie Murphy [ __ ] yeah and these dudes were it was Jeffrey I mean uh dang I forget his name Jeffrey Hines or Gregory Hines they all you know man just praising a movie and I was like damn if if the French lettuce and s in in uh in in uh subtitles then when we play this in America they G they gonna love it overnight blew up was it came out line so my guy this morning my trainer I'm with him I'm like so today he's got who who you have on the podcast today I said Q he says really he says yes he says man let me tell you he's 55 years old so think about what age he is right he says when boys in the hood came out in Miami he says Pat I went to the night it came out he says there was a line all the way down he says friends weren't sitting with friends because the place is jam-pack he says the moment he giving me a visual the moment the guy opened the door we broke the door to go into to see he's telling me the story and uh so I mean obviously was a the market was waiting for this yes you know it wasn't a lot of movies out that catered to you know the the core audience you know as far as a hip-hop audience a audience that you know now we were seeing Our Lives you know portrayed on the screen like we had seen with you know uh movies like uh Greece and American Graffiti and you know saying everybody else life basically now we were this movie was showing us our lives um back to us um and so it was exciting you know a lot of people were looking forward to it in these uncertain times if there's anything we need is we need people to believe the future looks bright so you if you've heard about me saying this mission to you we're on a mission to get a million people to wear this gear and this is why we're doing if you buy one of these hats there's a category of buying one hat getting the second one free if you haven't yet worn this gear publicly go ahead and test it out buy some of the gear wear it in public and see how many people will stop by and say you're also you also watch a Val Tim you you also follow pbd podcast I do too place your order go to vt.com click on a link above or below place your order and represent the VT and the pbd podcast gear so Tupac's two years younger than you right you're 69 he's 68 uh uh you're 69 he's 71 so at this moment have have you when was the first time you met Pac when I met Pac he was uh he was like a background dancer for the Digital Underground uh Digital Underground was a group out of the out of the bay um in California actually their role manager a guy named atrian um was their what our role manager was their manager he was like we got a new group called Digital Underground you you should hear it they first song was a song called do what you like and so we ended up meeting them once we went to the bay and you know did you know just checked out their show they did some shows with us and uh they used to have Digital Underground used to have the most entertaining show in Hip Hop yeah they they it was a like a Parliament Funkadelic feel to it a lot of characters a lot of uh unique routines and real real entertaining show and not non- Gang Related it's just this is the Humpty right the just straight I've seen a video with Tupac dancing on stage yeah exactly so that was his role and um you know he would he would rap every now and then him and uh money B would do raps every now and then and uh we just became real cool you know I fell in love with with his energy uh he was he was the kind who stayed up all night never went to sleep always comeing to your room trying to get you to come out you know just that you know ball of energy you know so you and were opposites would you say is a complete opposite of you or there was some similarities a lot of similarities you know we both Geminis so a lot of Geminis man you know yeah yeah do you know the famous Geminis yes I yes a lot of them Elvis Brad Pit Angelina Jolie johnf Kennedy biggie Prince Tupac Prince I mean it's a Kanye yeah a ton of you guys yeah everybody so both of you are Geminis okay so you and him are similar and you're hanging out hey he always wants to go out so the experience is good but at this point Pac is not a you know he's not a gangster he's not a tough guy he's an artist he's a talent well you know what he what he used to tell me man he he would be like I want to do the kind of music y'all do I don't or I do I do I do I want to do the kind of music y'all do got it because he said where I'm from uh I think it was Richmond he said man it's raw over there you know what I mean they get down over there and I want to I want to talk about it but he was under shock G who uh you know was like yo you know that ain't really the route you know that's that's NWA and Ice T and king T that's their Lane you know I mean let's let's stick with the more party uh you know upbeat and then he started doing songs like I get around and you know they was real cool and a beat but when he was able to get a solo deal that's when he started doing the music that he wanted to do and that's when he started to you know change and going to you know the PAC we know to short says you know whenever I was with Pac I never knew who was going to show up on any given day one day he's the Revolutionary guy one day he wants to go party with the girls one day day he's a gangster one day he's an artist one day he's a historian philosopher did you kind of experience that as well where you never knew who was going to show up or PAC was just a super creative guy well he was always the same with me you know it was always love respect um you know we was same similar ages and we were all in a similar situation like are you CL ahead of are you like if we're like in high school hip hop are you like a c you know graduating class of 88 he's like class of 90 where he kind of looks up to you yeah know he def well you know it was uh it was mutual love because we looked up to them because what they were doing was you know creatively uh Advanced got it and so you know we appreciate what they was doing they appreciated what we were doing and we were we were both youngsters around you know with you know e was the head of our crew shock G was the head of a crew um and so we were trying to find our voice within the structure that was in place so we would you know conversate about how do we maneuver and do that um so we were we were close in that way you know in a more uh you know Confidant way you know we would we would just build and kind of you know bounce ideas off each other like man I want to do this you know cuz I was waiting for my solo project at the time too so um then I became solo and started doing my thing and then he's he was solo too so now he was in LA a little more and we were uh you know we run to each other at the studio and and just really uh enjoy seeing each other you know you guys ever do anything together or no we did one song together um uh with ice te I think it's on the trespass soundtrack uh forgot what the name of the song is yeah trespass soundtrack you and uh you I T and uh yeah last words got it yeah got it was there ever any talks of doing something else together like hey what if we did this and what if we did that or those types of conversation wasn't really being had with the two of you not not really being hag you know he was you know on his first few albums he was really trying to find his way um and you know I was doing movies and I was kind of trying to build that career and then I think he really put it together with the uh I think it's me against the world album and uh it really started to come together production wise you know always with his first music he would he would he would triple rrap his vocals you know like rap it once then wrap it right on top and then WAP it again and I I always thought it was a little Mucky so when he stopped doing that and just clean clean one track that's when tup Pocky merged as a uh you know one hell of a artist and you know songs like Dear Mama powerful you know it's like two life goes on yeah it's it's uh start to put it together then he starts to do movies um with John Singleton um I was supposed to do Poetic Justice sick with uh Janet Janet Jackson lucky but I had an issue with with the script so uh so he he cast pop and um and it it was it was a a great move you know he's a great actor then he did juice M or it might have been the other way around Jews first but you know he started emerging as a actor and then he um gets shot goes to jail and then def row you know they they get him out and uh you know he just explodes after that what what was your impression of Easy E versus Suge both of these guys are alphas what was different about E versus Suge um easy you know didn't use intimidation he didn't use any intimidation he just was a businessman straight up so it was never any you know at least when I was around never any like yo this got to go to or you know it's going to be consequences to pay so what was his leverage though what was his leverage to keep people around having the best ideas being smart uh being Innovative being able to see around the corner being a Visionary uh having a plan having the resources to execute his plan um letting us be who we wanted to be and not who he wanted us to be um um you know he just to me um he built a better mouse trap you know what I mean so everybody was going to roll with that was he a feared loved or respected guy um all three he was so he's a trifecta yeah what how about shook just feared respected uh I think I think Suge is all three but it might be different different degrees of you know I think you know definitely feared definitely respected and got a lot of people who love sh cuz he pulled him out the mud you know he pulled him out the dirt and so um and you know he he uh helped orchestrate you know one of the greatest erors in in hip-hop with death row so you know got a lot of people um made a lot of people famous and uh and they eaten to this day so you it's interesting you say that Kevin Garnett said about three months ago he says listen every NBA player should be thanking Michael because you know the whole movie air when he negotiates the contract and the mom says 10% of whatever you guys do and Phil ni like what are you talking about and Sunny's like listen this he wants I know you're not going to do it walks away said let's do it he said we're probably going to change the game cuz a lot of people are going to be unhappy with us but if this [ __ ] Works boom we're Tak off and so Kevin Garnett so Suge probably set up a lot of people as well where they are today but easy I remember one story him talking about that when he was a gangster he was a saver and he had $30,000 which is what financed the music and the record business that he got into because he had that kind of money and then eventually he did end up getting he he was on our sen Hall where he put his feet up right that one interview H how much of an influence did you have at getting EZ to sit with Areno n really so how did that happen I don't know I was I was uh I had left the group by then okay got it so I don't know how went down when did you did you ever hear one day it's like three months ago I get a call they said Pat Suge wants to talk to you I said who's what Suge I only know one Suge he said Suge wants to talk to you yeah like d Suge Night yeah it's a collect call he's on the other line mhm I'm like hey sh how you doing yo what up pbd you know hey we know you need the hood for with you he's talking to me what's up I watch a lot of your stuff he said I want to talk to I want to do a podcast with you I said do I come to you do you you say no let's just do collect call yeah so it's six collect calls he makes 15 minutes right and we do the podcast I don't know if you had a chance to see any of it and it goes boom millions of views it's been you know all over the place one of the things he said when I asked him about e and and Dre Rob do you have the clip on what he says is it on that spot on what he says yes this is where he talks about being with E and receiving a phone call from Dre so here's I'm curious to know what your thoughts is on this go and play this I say then I call so has the phone I'm talking to him I said you ready to come up here now what you want done again he was like man shoot that [ __ ] in the head bow his hand off shoot him in the eye take pictures of it you don't got one those things you know phone [ __ ] you know you want cameras and let me see it I want to see it you know blah blah blah when I up that phone I've seen one of the saddest things I ever seen in a man I'm looking at easy ER like he said I bought car phone me nothing and it's like he trying to U hold back to tears because he don't want be in B you see him crying because either he crying because he's scared or he crying because be hurt before another man you know crying in front of another man neverless you you know hear ver those but uh as you know but back to the story he looking he looking so sad you one Tears start coming down a little bit then a few tears start coming down check out here I never do nothing to you you don't like Tri told you you always been St H out together we get all kind of [ __ ] together you know POS so I don't know if you heard a full thing where he's saying he's on a call speaker with Dre EAS he sitting there can you can you see something like this happening um I don't know you know uh it's hard to say a lot of time that went by you know there a my first time hearing this story um I'm lost I don't know whether something whether Dre would throw e under the bus or not I mean that severe for for for contracts for you know n it's it's it's it's hard to believe but you know who am I to say well let me let me ask you this because I've had Samy the bull on and you know when when the FBI brought him in and they said this is what you know uh your boss Gotti said about you and they play the recording yeah and that's when he flips yeah he's like this this this is crazy there's no way you're going to do something like this man and boom what do you need obviously the Gotti family is not happy about that whole convers well you've seen the story you've read about it maybe you haven't but it's out there from your personal experience in life we have folks that you know we can say uh I like that guy but I trust him more I don't like that guy but I trust this guy more than I like this guy I trust him but I like that I trust this guy more right and you kind of score people on who you trust more yeah out of these three people that you've had in your life these specific three which one would you say my experience with him I trust him the most and I can see something like that happening with with Dre easy and should yes well I mean of course I tra I I trust Dre the most he the one brought me in the game um he's never done anything to me as far as contract wise or business wise wise uh foul um neither has sh you know so I mean I would trust Dre the most um and you know out of easy and Su you know I know I'm been knowing them probably both the same amount of time and um you know I trust them you know I never felt any issues with with easy or sh you know with easy we actually had a chance to hug and make up you know when was this this was right before he passed away maybe that February in '94 um how long before he's at the hospital he's I think he's at the hospital in in April or oh wow so this is two months yeah it's a few months and so uh and uh Suge you know we've always been cool always been able to have a dialogue and talk and done you know business together I've you know he's flown me in to do you know videos with Dre you know we did Natural Born Killers On on the murder was the case soundtrack so it's always been a cool relationship um you know I hear the stories but you know all I know as is stories who did you have beef with anybody or no um it depends on when you know I I'm talking in that era in that specific ER oh man I had beef within wa in that era yeah we had beef um above the LW we had beef you know theirs was stem because they was loyal to to ruthless and I had left ruthless um they had a beef with Cypress Hill more of a misunderstanding but um it still went down uh in common we had a it was a real misunderstanding you know I felt like uh he did a record that dissed the whole West Coast so you I felt like I needed to take up for the west coast and but we got past that too um was it a combo was it a reaction was it a face to face it was a face to face um um Minister farak kind had a had like a conference we brought in a lot of the rappers to try to work out some of these beefs not is this post piggy or post Tupac this is uh this is post pigy right no no this is this is before before both before both yeah wow cuz I thought there was another one you know the whole when at the award ceremony when Diddy and Snoop are talking and you can tell the look on their face they're both a little bit worried that you know pressure could come back to them and then someone tried to bring everybody together no it wasn't it was um I believe it was it was before that got it yeah got it and that's where comment and all that stuff was squashed yeah yeah it was squash you know um I promised that I wouldn't make another disc right you know they I had made a this song he made it this song I was ready to come back and then we had the meeting and you know I was like you know it's it's better to drop it you know it's you know having a beef in public is very dangerous it's very dangerous why is that because a third party can come in and take one of y'all out and it's going to be blamed on the guy you beefing with and not on the real person or party makes sense you know uh so you beefing with somebody in public and the whole world know now somebody who don't like you or don't like them can come in and do something and and really you already know who's going to get the blame um I've seen you say and what happened to Tupac and bigie you said there was an assassination attempt on them two I don't know what the word you use but it may be that specific word that I'm using you said On Tupac it could have been something about what happened earlier in Vegas that those guys just came back and took him out where it's not like you know somebody did it but on biggie somebody may have taken him out right I think you said correct me on anything I'm saying we know of a big incident before Tupac being killed so you said we know or we don't we do we we saw the tape in Vegas where they were fighting right um so you know when that happens you you you have to think about retaliation and and that that's always a possibility um and so with the biggie he was just out in La you know wasn't no big scuffle before so you know he was targeted he was targeted uh I I have a feeling how you're going to answer this but I'm going to ask it anyways you know you look at Rogan Rogan's fascinated with the John F Kennedy assassination right so you're going around you're doing interviews and hey let me see how this happened I've interviewed a bunch of guys that were part of the johnf Kennedy assassination just curious um curious with what happened with Iran you know why I'm here right there certain events with Jimmy Carter because it affects my personal life so I'm curious right hey I you know certain things happen with my life and marriage my mother's side they were communist my dad's side they were imperialist I'm kind of curious on I spoke to a pretty higher up person from Iran on Sunday because I'm curious what's going on I want to know what happened it's part of my life mhm if somebody says Cube I mean you you're you're on the you're on the in that phase you're one of the faces you're one of the biggest names from that you know influential names mhm did you did it ever was the event that big enough where you're like I really want to find out who took Pac out or who took Diddy out or or biggie out or not at all you're like no listen life happens I got to move on you know if it's a choice between me finding God about other things when I was a kid versus this I I I'm going to let you know God handled this this is not my doing yeah I mean it's it's um you know it's it's events outside of my control it's not my crew um and you know I'm I'm a spectator like everybody else you know it's not my job or my mission to find this stuff out um you know my friend kbo tells me and tells the world and I believe it's some great advice mind your own business and you live longer so I've been taking that advice to hopefully stretch out a few more years of life you remind me of somebody and you're going to see where I'm going to go with this in a minute but uh Diddy you're hearing Diddy everywhere okay yeah so did you ever have any kind of running with Diddy did you ever do anything with Diddy any projects you work on with him produced a few records or had his uh producers do a few records on my um Warren Peace album the peace disc yeah how how was he to work with it was cool you know he uh you know gave us great music we uh flew out to New York and uh I was mainly in in the in the studio with the producer you know he had a stable of producers so I was in the studio with his stable of producers and uh I think we did some great music um and you know I really you know really uh kind of you know lost contact with him and and and really stopped you know dealing with puffy around 94 ho yeah any specific reason yeah I mean you know they was doing their thing I was doing mine um and you know I'm not the partying type you know what I mean I ain't never been to a diddy party ain't never really wanted to go but I don't go to a lot of people parties you know that just ain't what I'm in it for you know I you've been the one you've been to them all are you surprised at what what things are coming out with didy all or you like you have no idea it's none of my business you'll live long is that kind of like the mindset I'm I'm um I mean surprised how could you be surprised with anything that happens in hip-hop you know it's hip-hop is the wild west so you going to have a good you going to have a bad you're going to have a ugly you think he's being targeted or some of the stuff he's got you know there's credibility on what they're coming after with the tapes and the feds and rating his Miami home his La home uh believe he's being targeted you believe he's being targeted yeah he I believe you know somebody you know has the power to pull the trigger to make you know this stuff this domino effect happen okay all right so you you think he's being targeted so you don't think uh uh uh you know shook said you can say what you want about Diddy but Diddy didn't learn to like young boys he learned it from a man named Clive Davis he threw Clive Davis in there you you it doesn't sound like you're part of that camp you're part of the camp that you think he's being targeted you know I don't I don't know enough to even be able to to uh be specific on any of this stuff it's just all speculation I just know he was cool up until a point and then the stuff start happening so I believe somebody you know like I said uh said yo he's our new guy we on this year or whatever maybe let me let me go in a in a different direction with this I'm I'm curious because um for my own curious nature that I have so I think it's about little less than a year ago yeah you a video mhm and I uh uh watched the video I don't even know where you were sitting just seemed like you're sitting at a place and you kind of sharing your frustration and you posted it on Instagram yeah and it goes tens of millions of views right and then afterwards you go and you're like if mainstream media doesn't want to have me on I'm going to go and do my own thing right yeah and then you go on Rogan you go on uh Tucker you go on uh you go all over the place right you go over the place and you're kind of talking and you're doing what you're doing hit Bill Mah you hit Bill Mah which was kind of you've had a Bill Maher situation before where you called him out directly it wasn't this one yeah that was the bill Mah of I think eight years ago seven years ago you guys had a moment you know which one I'm talking about the one that you were very cool and you just kind of put him in your place put him in his place but in a very respectful way yeah I I I called it a teachable moment yeah it teach one moment Rob have you seen this or no if you've not seen this just see if you can find it it's actually very entertaining it's six minutes so we don't need to go through it I think it's worth for the audience to watch for themselves but anyways and and I don't know if it's Tucker you're talking to or whoever you're talking to you said the view didn't want to have me on then you said even Oprah Winfrey didn't want to have me on you know when you're trying to promote your big three you're trying to build your business and all this other stuff and at that time some people are like well you know why why don't they want to talk to this guy why wouldn't they want to talk to him and then you say you give him the you know maybe it's not uh uh if if you were to maybe put a new song a year ago my visualization would have been instead of saying [ __ ] the police maybe the title would have been [ __ ] the mainstream media okay let's just say if you if you if you chose to make a comeback so at this point of being in this business this long Hall of Fame Walk of Fame you name it you got all of them right who has the most power in the entertainment industry [Music] um wow I mean it's it's really hard to say who has the most power um it's some very powerful entities out here you know I don't maybe Black Rock has the most power Hollywood who knows you say black rock I wouldn't disagree with you they're on Black Rock Vanguard State Street those guys maybe they have the most power in entertainment you think more than like acian Grange yeah yeah yeah he's just you know he could be fired he could be fired yeah leor even These Guys these guys could be fired yes okay got it so you're you're going straight to the top who has the most power so you think you think there's so much power that if they wanted to not have a guy like you be heard they would do their best to not have a guy like you be heard um yeah I mean it's a little too late I got a lot of Records out there I'm hurt right right so do you know who Sunny Frances is no who is that so Sunny Frances is Google Sunny Frances uh are you familiar with the Columbo family yeah I've heard of that you ever seen the movie Mobster with Christian Slater with with you know you hear the story about Myer Lansky Frank Costello all those guys okay yeah so Sunny Frances is probably one of the most feared mobsters of the last 100 years mhm and he did 50 5 5 years in jail wow he died I think Rob at 103 or 104 years old if you can go down and see what age he is when he died 103 so he and I met three times in the last two years before he died yeah I was trying to do an interview with him and I'm in New York and I take him out to lunch and we're sitting down we're talking and I'm asking about his experience with my Lansky I'm asking about experience with all these other guys and he was very comfortable throwing you know the uh the the people of power the government or the money people under the bus but he was no way going to throw any of his peers under the bus at all yeah even if you said to him so Sunny what do you think about Bugsy he'd said you'd never call him Bugsy to his face to you you can call him Mr seagull that's how he was yeah that's this guy like oh if you ever read about this man he is as legit as they get some stories about one guy at their house flirts with his wife you can read what he did to that guy afterwards okay so he's he's one of those heavyweights Cube do you think it's necessary for the people of power who abuse their power to be exposed or is it is it not a fight worth having I mean the truth is always um good the truth is always good for the soul you know what's done in the dark will come to light and you know if it's the truth then it's probably necessary you think the entertainment industry is going through major disruption or not yet yeah I mean because we you know the the entertainment industry has to deal with artificial intelligence you know um artificial art artificial influence artificial inspiration artificial you know pictures movies music and we're going to have artificial fun with it yeah that's definitely going to be here if it isn't already right I there's artificial uh uh uh porn wives women I mean there was a movie done called her I don't know if you ever saw this movie her yeah I remember her Walkin Phoenix weird weird movie weird but here we are right exactly so ahead of time right kind of like you know where we're eventually going to be at that you know that time was going to be coming uh Q what's been what's been your experience this last year of going around talking to guys and you know you've spoken openly about a lot of different issues I mean you don't go on Tucker Carlson and not get people to say you know why would you talk to Tucker why would you I you know why would I even think you did a live one time with Alex Jones or you talk maybe you were on like a Twitter X or an X I don't know what it was maybe one was reac to the other but I recall seeing something there so what's what's been your experience is your experience I want to double down and keep going or is your experience no I'm going to back off a little bit and just go about my business well you know I just want to um you know at a certain point you know you speak your mind and you're heard and then you know what's what what need to be said has been said and if you need to keep repeating it um the people obviously is not listening so politics and all that kind of stuff used to be personal religion people didn't talk about that stuff now you know people want to know what you are before they even know who you are so it's become you know whack to talk about politics it's whack everybody especially this time around everybody know what's at stake everybody know who is who you know both guys back and forth what's the talk about you know for me when I made my first round of money you make a million you don't have a few money you know you make 10 million you still don't have a few money you make a few hundred million you officially have a few money right it's kind of like all right you know I don't need to worry about you know and then you don't go to the parties like you don't I'm a married guy four kids you know this and what is today's date that rap I go to the parties when I'm getting paid that's a different story though like you said you can call me OA if you're paying me if not my name is cube right in two days it's going to be my 15 year anniversary I've been married right sweet and and we take it one year at a time you know it's a lot of work that you do it right and and I used to I was the guy you didn't know who was my girlfriend and then if you knew it's cuz I wanted you to know I don't need to you know me and my girl have a relationship it's our business when my wife and I were dating when all of a sudden they found out they're like you guys are together yes for how long no [ __ ] yeah why why don't you tell us it's it's not your business it's it's a wife it's who I'm choosing to be with and the people that I have double dates with we do what we do mhm and then you know plays the role of Faith plays the role of all these other things and what's your politics Pat none of your business with my politics is where I'm at right yeah and I'm kind of going through that phase and then you get kids and you have four of them 12 10 8 she's going to turn two three because our youngest is born on our anniversary date same day and then I read one quote that leveled me remember your friend told you one quote you know if you mind your own business you're going to live a longer life than if you don't I read this quote that said if you think it's foolish to study politics you'll be governed by fools who do so I read that I'm like it's either Socrates or Aristotle Plato one of these guys I'm like man I don't want to do this so we're creating content every time we're creating content my guy Mario who's been with me 19 years i' say I'm going to make content around business if I even say anything about politics stop the video so we're shooting video at 11 o'clock at night and our audience mainly is business we run Consulting consult for 5,000 businesses 60 plus countries but David Consulting we're doing all this stuff and you know there's a lot of businesses we run and um hey Pat you're talking politics again why'd you stop me Pat it's politics damn you're right stay away from it so I'm staying away from it going back to business boom boom Going Back to business boom boom Going Back you're flirting right it's kind of like what's drawing you in and eventually I'm like you know what I'm not I'm not going to let the fear of them trying to ruin your life prevent me from speaking about common sense because if I don't my future grandkids are going to look back and say grandpa how come you didn't do anything about it look at what happened over here right now what's this all about you know I'm an LA kid you know was To Live and Die in LA I'm in RB posi don't give me no bam or weed we don't smoke that [ __ ] on I'm rapping Forte I'm a master Ace it's the Inc ride it's the right I'm a kid Frost right I'm a I'm that guy I'm I'm a 1.8 GPA you know regular guy that's not supposed to do anything in his life there's nothing special about me that I'm you know supposed to do so you give me this life and then I don't want to use all this you gave me for good what am I afraid am I worried about walking on stage and that's the that's what I grapple with right as an individual myself do you ever find yourself grappling with that or not really um you know I I look at the different ways to connect with the public right um you could do you can do a podcast like this I could do my own daily podcast and tell everybody what I'm thinking or I can do music I can do movies something I enjoy doing a lot more and say what I feel in in the art uh and let the art do what it do you know people interpret it the way they want it um and and so to me that's a better place um I don't want to be a politician um I just want to give people good information if I got it so um you know I use the art to do that just like a painter you know you paint it you put it on the wall and whether people like it or not is their problem you know you're gone painting the next painting like you know every picture you walk by the artist is not sitting there saying do you like it did you like it I did this did you like it I did it the artist is long gone you don't even know who he is where he is all you know is you got to deal with what he put on the wall you can look at it not look at it you can love it you can hate it but that's your problem that's something you have to deal with his job is done and that's how I like to express myself through my art and either like the song you don't you like the movie you don't and uh and I'm gone to the next yeah I I think it's it's validated that you're loved bro you're not you're not a liked guy you're a loved guy we love you we don't like you you know what I'm saying and I'm talking from a standpoint of a fan I'm a fan I mean we're not we're not buddies we've never broke bread this is not like hey Cuban our friends we've never had dinner together it's the first time you and I are uh even interacting so I'm coming from a place of you know we we're both we've had both a good life with what we've done and you know we're still in the game you're doing big three you're doing a bunch of other things that you're working on which is impressive we'll get to that in a minute but I think the difference is with the artist is imagine if they took the brush away from the artist that's the problem right what if we get to a point where the artist can't have the brush anymore and that's what a lot of artists feel like you know the entertainment industry uh has flirted with and and that's the frustrating part when I talk to different people I'm in La last week I only go to La two weeks ago two weeks ago Rob I'm in La two weeks ago and I'm speaking at the annual chases small business owner Symposium I'm there with Christina Yamaguchi I don't know if you remember the figure skater and then Shawn White and uh yeah uh uh Sophia vergata speaking at this event so then we go and meet with a uh director of a couple movies you're familiar with I'm like so what's happening with Hollywood how much has changed man it's it's it's a very different life today in California right it's a very different life in La I pulled up numbers to see what homelessness was in uh 88 mid 80s late 80s in LA versus where it's at today okay and then you look at crime versus today you look at the streets you know I used to go to Denny's at Baldwin uh uh uh uh uh uh is it is it Baldwin Park the one with the movie theater where there was a Denny Sizzlers scissors they right there and I used to speak there all the time and uh so that that was my dad had a 99 cent store down the street from Great Western Forum that that's he worked there 15 years they they knew him as David you know and right next to video 2020 if you remember video 2020 my dad store is right next to it wall to wall right so you know I mean you go from that to now today with California you look at the homelessness today in California you see the mess in California and I thought I was going to Live and Die in at it's the place I've lived the longest 24 years yeah minus my time and even in Iran I lived there 10 years year and a half in Germany refugee camp 24 years in La uh uh 2 and A2 years in Kentucky South Carolina Tennessee when I was in the Army 5 years Dallas 3 years Flor Florida but it's 24 years La you tell me the freeway I know you said Lynwood I know Lynwood you tell me all I know these places right and I left went to Dallas and then I'm eventually here do you think you're going to live in Dyan La um I hope to you know I love Los Angeles uh I can't imagine living anywhere else so um I'm going ride and die hopefully it won't fall into the ocean you know what I mean but the big earthquake if it do I'm going be riding it on down to the bottom you know what I mean I'mma ride it on down to the bottom and so you know that's uh my favorite place in the world and so I'm always want to be in California what do you love most about California everything you know the weather you know in in California you can go from the snow to the to the ocean in two hours you know so it's maybe 90 minutes you know yeah so it's uh it's a great place got everything in between the scenery um it's just beautiful uh uh obviously I think you you're a diard Laker fan you almost talk like you own the Lakers you know they they well I'm a lifetime Laker you know them other guys can get TR who by by the way I looked at the list of things that you know favorite musician Michael Jackson right Jaws favorite movie right all these things I'm kind of like you know what are Michael is my favorite singer Prince is my favorite musician interesting perspective favorite song of Michael oh man my favorite song of Michael oh my God like he's got a lot of them it's not like GNA be he got so many hits it's it's it's hard to say um but I guess I would go with um you know it's hard to it's hard to be Billy Jean man it is hard to beat Billy Jean yeah um top five Lakers all time ranking I think you've done this before I think I don't know if you've done this before but I'm assuming you're probably going to have it I think I know who your number one is but I'm actually curious to two three and four I mean my number one is Magic Johnson right my number two is Kobe Bryant um my number three um it would be Shaquille O'Neal um number four uh Michael Cooper Michael Cooper Michael Cooper wow Michael Cooper was no Cooper no rings yeah who's your five number five I would put on uh I would say James Worthy big game James big game James yeah he always played better in the playoffs than the regular season you know I had James on at one of our events 12 years ago and I asked him a question I said so what was the dynamic with you and Magic when you guys were kind of maybe even 13 years ago he says you know when he said when I came to the Lakers I was a number one draft pick like I was better than Michael in college I'm the guy that's coming in right you know you better treat me as that and he says I'm about to be traded and he says one day magic comes in and Magic says hey I just want to tell you James I want you here but this is my my team mhm and if you can understand that we're going to do very well together some Dynamic right that yeah and he says James walked away and he says you know what he's right this is his team after that they had zero problems yeah I mean magic bowed to Kine yeah you know not bowed but uh just said hey you know I'm coming in to help GRE win win and uh you know it's not about me but at that point it was about him you know about Kareem about magic at the point when worthy came in it was about magic so it was only right that magic told worthy what it is makes sense yeah uh hipop would you think Hip Hop you know when you we had this professor here from Harvard uh uh what was his name James frier I want to say uh maybe I'm not saying his name properly uh Dr James frier can you type in I think Dr James fry I don't know if you've heard of him or not uh Cube he's fantastic okay uh if I get his name right is it oh put in Fry Robin you you should be able to pull it up uh you're taking a long ways Rob no oh it's going to take you a while to find him okay so hip-hop okay if we go through hip-hop from day one till today would you say hips Hip Hop's been a net positive to society uh Roland Roland G fryer yeah and he's a professor that wrote a couple different things papers and uh got a lot of controversy behind it I think the Rob what was it the paper that he wrote that he got uh heat from claing gay it was regarding uh statistics regarding police violence when it comes to uh police using violence against black people as opposed to police using violence against not yeah not people of color and this is a guy that he says I went back in multiple times and this almost cost me my job he saw there's more police violence towards whites than blacks based on statistics and he broke it down why because the cops are afraid because they're going to get more scrutinized if they do do something to anyways so this article goes and he gets a bunch of heat for it right yeah and he's right now working on the effects of hip hop on society okay and he hasn't done the paper yet the paper's going to come out in the next three to six months yeah and and you read different things you think Hip Hop's had a net positive or a net negative impact on young boys' lives um I think in a lot of ways it's had a net positive it's given a lot of youngsters hope if you think about the world before hip hop it was pretty corny and it was uh it was really no outlets for the young youth to express themselves you know everything was being done by you know grown grown men and grown grown women and there were very few outlets for the Youth to express themselves you know on on a mass level or on a you know major level put it that way and then hip hop changed that hip hop has created an industry where there was none it's created you know more jobs than I can can even speak on um it's created Industries created Talent uh cameramen uh editors uh Engineers um it's created superstars you know from from people who can't sing probably can't sing a lick you know but they can still you know sell out uh stadiums and Arenas um it's giving hope to kids uh just like sports have to change their situation and change their Dynamic you know almost overnight um and look it's uh it's like saying has movies helped people become better you know there's all kind of movies you know there's horror movies there's pornos there's all kind of stuff but overall in general if you don't count all the bad stuff you know movies have done a lot to bring the world together and so I think Hip Hop has done more to bring people together especially of all all different races you know where else can you go and see kids of all different races getting into one thing you know one uh style of music um so you know of course there's the hardcore music and everything bad in the hood is blamed on hip-hop you know a a a bad kid doing something in a baseball hat it has to be or hoodie he has to be hip-hop or it has had to have something to do with hip-hop and it's not true because those things were happening before hip hop now of course the the weapons and all the things that's on the street now wasn't there before but they're there now hip hop don't make weapons hip-hop don't make drugs you know uh hip hop might talk about it might speak about it may glorify it but at the end of the today these things are manufactured by conglomerates and corporations um hiphop don't you know leave um train cars open full of weapons in the in the hood where or U-Hauls or you know it you know that's that has nothing to do with hip-hop that has something to do with uh a power structure that want to keep the status quo so overall I believe hip hop has helped the world uh be a little more honest with itself almost like a form of Comedy I think but maybe the better comparison would be a comedy right where comedy allows you to like you know sometimes Dave Chappelle gets up and he tells some jokes you're like got cross the line right there but you know what maybe it's a form of being honest with the market and you decide if you don't like this look you know I'm for this thing when uh he got up one of the jokes he said he said uh you know ladies I'm kind of with you it should be on you to decide your body your choice if you want to keep the baby or not I agree with you it should be your body your choice now if it's your body your choice I should also have the choice whether to pay child support or not that should be on me as well right and you see the ladies at first they all like screaming with him and then like Bo you know and he's kind wait a minute why you pissed now you know and he gets into his old thing that does I get that you know I think about when I was a kid and I'm listening to hit him up my my workout playlist hit him up right you know and then you listen to EAS e real mother you know and then you listen to Mo you know mo murder Mo or and you remember that one song with um what was it we're not against rap we're not against rappers but we are against those thugs th remember that whole you know who was it Bone Thugs right that came out with that song so you know that's my playlist and as a kid I I to me it was rage I had on why am I living this life and this was my way of connecting right where it's kind of like man there's a there's an outlet to it right so you know uh I was internally friends with these you know these rappers I was I was hanging out with you guys you know to it was a good day right one of the greatest hip-hop songs of all time some say top five top 10 that's you right hey today was a good day all right so but then you know you you F forward and this guy said something very interesting I'm not done with the research but let me tell you what I did find I said what's that he said in the projects and in the hood hip hop did well because it helped spring people out he said but hip hop and again he's not done with it I don't want to quote him on this he's he needs to come out here tell us what it is he says in the areas it hurt is communities that they don't have a tough life you know they're living an okay life and now they're thinking they're gangsters you go going to a private school you're not a gangster now you're going to school and I'm I'm I got a gun let me tell you what I got so it made some of those kids act like they're tough and you're not really tough so it it helped the ones here but it kind of hurt some of the other communities that maybe weren't exposed to this life I mean when you listen to Brenda's Got a Baby yeah that's a you know Brenda's Got a Baby and then the dumpster and you you're like remember that whole scene in a movie you guys did I think did you do it in your was it straight out of comp what movie was it was in Straight Out of Compton when he's NE go maybe no it wasn't in Straight Out of Compton I don't know what movie this is with Tupac where he's negotiating with the producer could have been a documentary where he's like I want Brenda's Got a Baby in the album now we're not going to do it no it's got to be in the album I'm telling you we can't put this in the album they're not going to let us play this on the radio you're not what are you doing P we can't I'm not doing this if it's not you know what see I'm talking I don't know which movie it is but guess what Brenda's Got a baby you know it's telling a story he's not making you said richment earlier right and this is some of the things that he's seen what do you think about that argument that maybe it hurts some sects you know some communities but it hurts some other because it brought in you know mindsets to safer communities that are not dealing with these issues well my thing is what issues are they dealing with in those communities um because it might not be gang banging but it could be be other issues that they dealing with you know this has always happened with art you know sometimes you know life imitates art and art imitates life um you know when I when I think about you know people that do what they do uh you know like a a Stephen King of the world who you know usually makes horror movies or you know sometimes very violent um stories uh and he's allowed to to be that type of artist um without you know without somebody doing a psychop on what what is done to the to the world um you know sometimes guys paint a beautiful picture sometimes they paint an ugly picture but the key is you know you listened to the music you've you've named some of the most hardcore records ever and you've turned out fine it's it's mindset and it's individuals um and you know some people don't know how to take it but that don't mean you should stop doing it cuz a few people don't know how to accept the music and look at it as music and art and continue to live their lives you know everybody walked out the movie you know wanting to be Bruce Lee you know what I'm saying everybody walks out the movie thinking they Bruce Lee yeah and so that happens with good art you know people going to want to you know when when um you know uh Barberino was on TV you know um on on um welcome back Carter you know being you know basically a thug in the in the classroom you know with a red R hanging out his pocket and and uh portraying that you know you had a lot of people that wanted to be Barberino you know FY coming he cool got the leather jacket a lot of people going hey I'm the F uh nobody want to kill happy days cuz you know now they friend out here in the suburbs got a leather jacket on and a and you know and he's saying hey all the time so you know this happens when you do great art people want to imitate it um that don't mean you kill the art for it yeah do you still listen to hip-hop yeah what do you listen to do you do you have like workout playlist or what not on that tip you know um you know I listen to what's hot and you know I'm doing music myself so I'm mainly listening to what I need to do better on my own stuff you listening to any old school stuff or not everything what do you listen to you know I can go back you know Run DMC you know some of the great albums takes a nation of millions to hold us back another great album um L you know L even Fat Boys yeah listen to it all wow uh on the on the the only thing and I want to come back because I want to see who's your uh uh on the top five hip hop rappers I'm curious to know what you'll say about that but you know what it is with me today Cube and it's just I'm just transparent about it with you so man I was so caught up in my life that when I did a 180 for me at least um one day like for me hip-hop stops in 03 I know nothing after 03 with hip-hop when I tell you nothing I'm telling you I know nothing after 03 you tell me Kendrick Lamar I can't tell you a song MH you tell me you know little Wayne I couldn't tell you one if I hear it I know but I can now you go back '90s I'm with you I can hang with anybody even R&B you bring anybody and be Aaron Hall Uncle Sam I can go weird stuff like as yet I can go you know all of that because that was my era that was my crew that's who I was with but then one day I'm like yeah I'm not doing this no more so I replaced everything I listen to in the car radio's not been on in my car since 03 it's been only books and I realized if I listen to Too Much hip-hop the way I would speak would change my rage would change uh my intensity would change and maybe in certain situation that's good thing but when you're running a business and you want to get the creative juices flowing I lowered that up I went back to more 80s I listened to more Grandma's got a you know Grandma's hands with Bill Withers and I go to I love that song it's one of my favorites I go to that you know 70s 80s to just bring it here instead of trying to take it there because I believe words have power mhm you know affirmation it's got a lot of power so even earlier when you were talking about your friend who gave you that counsel you know mind your own business and you live longer and you said it's not necessarily you know what you say publicly it's what another person that's not involved in the debate or the discussion can inter interpret that in a certain way and come back and try to harm certain individual right and they're not even involved this gangster's not even a part of you what are you doing this johnf Kennedy what are you doing it's not even all it's not even a part of you what are you doing and then that can get somebody with certain words to say you know what I'm gonna be the hero and I'm gonna come out there and do XYZ that's the only risk that you know um that when I go there that's that's what I think about in that part well you know mind your own business and you live longer it doesn't mean ignore everything that's going on focus on it means you know you started to mind your own business business when you said okay I'm going turn the radio off and I'm I'm going listen to books and improve myself that way um you know that that to me is what it's all about and also too much of anything is not good yeah too much hip-hop is not good it's like too much sugar it's not good it's it's you got to have balance you know what I mean so you got to have a little got to have a little R&B with your hip-hop got to have little Funk with it a little soul yeah you know what I mean you got to mix it up to have a balance maybe I maybe I I love hip-hop a little too much for me to go to it because you know I go I go yeah we all do you know it's a it's it's an energetic music that really uh can can can give you a nice feeling uh but too much of it you know it's not good for you top five top five rappers in hip-hop who would you who would you put on your top five not album different no order cuz I love them all um Chu D Melly M cars1 Rock Kim IC te H how many times have you given that list uh a few times few times few times yeah how how many times do people think those are the five that are going to be on your list I don't know you know you never know but these are my ogs I would throw LA on there too these are my ogs that uh show me how to use the music and make it powerful and not just not just a nursery Ry yeah yeah I remember one time funny story uh you know Jay King yeah okay so J King club nvo club Nuvo yeah why you treat me so and he had what look at all these rumors right rumors so one day jay King and I start working together he says Pat I want to start selling insurance I hear there's a lot of business and insurance I love Jay King if you've been around Jay King oh he a hustler he a hustler yeah he is yeah so I said Jay we got to go talk to certain people that they have you know reputation and that we can sell them Insurance yeah he says all right so let's go to Beverly Hills I don't know which one it is he takes me to one of these hotels we go there we're sitting there he says uh let's talk to Suge I'm like Jay no insurance company is going to let me sell insurance to sh what are you talking about right and he brings these guys one by one by one and then you realize you know this space is a very interestes I was friends with Reggie Callaway I don't know if you remember Reggie Callaway Callaway Brothers I want to be rich you know and then he had Casanova was it kasanova Casanova yeah that's reg yeah that was them um CIA your first crew your name was CIA crew in action crew in action right we wanted it to be criminals in action but Lonzo was like man stop talking this criminal stuff you know what I mean we going to be crew in action so I like that so after the wrecking crew crew you know W crew crew so CIA and you've said some stuff about the CIA Rob I don't know if you got the clip or I don't know which clip this is we'll play one of these clips if you got it uh uh is this on Bill Rob okay play this clip uh uh you know maybe your positions change but I want to hear your thoughts go forward same people who on the labels on the prisons literally the same people literally the same people who own the labels on private prisons the records that come out are really geared to push people towards that prison industry but they didn't make you write those lyrics it's not about making somebody write the lyrics it's about being there as guard rails to make sure certain songs make it through and certain songs don't you know some records are made by committee meaning record company guys sit around and tell the artist this is hot say that do this we're going to have this guy write the lyrics we going to have that you have you know the record company pushing the narrative you in somewhat you know some social engineering going on here to make sure those prisons Stay full so yeah H H how how much truth is there behind that I think it's a lot of truth if you really remember I was talking about the black rocks of the world the vanguards of the world look how much they are invested in all these big labels and the the prison industry and you know not saying that the CIA is sitting there writing Rhymes but they may have a a deal with with the labels or and to allow certain records to get through I mean it's up to the label who who they blow up the whole industry and so um yeah I mean I've seen records made by a committee when it's not the artist own uh thought process but that's happens that happens with a lot of Records you know a lot of records are you got producers you got anr people you got people who sit there and say okay this go this this sound like a it's a hit this sound like it's uh it's gonna be great uh and so um it's not hard to to imagine uh a record label you know finding a a kid that's talking the hardest and blow him up to the top because they know you know some kids may be out there going to listen and and you know like you said be influenced to do something cuz they this is their favorite rapper so um you know you don't see a lot of happy rappers at the top of the game do you no you know any of these names any of these people that the the CIA fed them or somebody wrote the script for them or no I'm not looking for names I don't know names you know it's just companies who you know they not they're not going to let you put the record out unless they have a say in the production of the music I got you yeah I mean that's kind of like you write a book and they say hey you can't be critical of this guy take this out or hey we got to talk to the lawyers about this land we don't want to get sued by those like that you're not saying necessarily to try to get internally to destroy a community like the African-American Community well you know I mean I'm I'm not saying that it's not either you know I don't know what their plan is I I just know um that the same people who on the labels on the prisons and I believe and it's it's a lot of evidence out there that they make sure that the records that are put out will more than likely uh have a negative effect on the community and create uh you know a prison industry or a prison uh uh Community where you know you you know you got a the the men and women in the community going to jail often um so it happens it's real it's reality last two things before we wrap up Friday 4 how is how was that looking better than it has in the past you know there's new new um leadership up at Warner Brothers and they see the value in making this movie and but it got to be done in the in the right way under the right circumstances so right now we we just working out those circumstances on how this movie is going to be uh you know produced um and you know make sure that and we got a lot of people who are big stars now who want to be in the movie so we got to make sure we got enough to pay them the these influencers you're talking about well you know no I mean Mike EPS is a bigger star C Williams is a bigger star Terry Cruz is a bigger star these guys are a lot bigger than they was when we did the first movie where well cat is now this was this was they this was they shot you know so you know we want everybody to be happy and want everybody we can to get uh we can back in the movie let me tell you which one of your movies I've watched God knows how many times All About the Benjamins I can't say for me yeah that's the one you know which is you ain't got a forhead you got a five head you you don't watch movies do you have dreams yeah hey I bet you never see he you know that movie is one of those gems you know that people love and wherever you catch it you can watch it to I can't help myself he is too good and and big three uh uh how's that how's that looking how's that come along amazing you know big three we in our seventh season we going into week three uh in Baltimore um we're selling teams now so we sold a team in Los Angeles and we sold a team to Heath Freeman in Miami uh so it's going to be a team out here in Miami and we looking at Toronto we looking at Dallas we looking at London New York uh Detroit so you know hopefully we can sell these 12 teams and expand the league and you know unlock a a major fan base how how close were you at signing Caitlyn Clark were you having conversations with her people or yeah we had conversations with our agent you know we we were a little uh disappointing we didn't get a chance to sit down with her and her family cuz we think we could have made a a compelling argument that probably didn't want us to make and tell her how much leverage she really has uh at that time so um you know it didn't happen but you know we we was ready for it if if if she was ready to take that step and it was a big step you know playing against men you know in this new league um you know it was it was a major move if she and she probably just you know didn't need another another challenge you know at the end of the day you know being in the WNBA with a Target on your back is probably challenging enough do you watch the WNBA I catch I catch a game or two every now and then got it yeah yeah it's she's changed the numbers her you know uh average attendance 15,500 that's sweet and um you know people love the women's sports because we know they want to win they're playing to win right and with the men in the NBA we're not sure you know we're not sure if they want to win or are they worried about their brand do they want to be like their load management you know what is it about is it really about bringing home a ring in WNBA or you in the real in the NBA in the NBA that's so you don't think what it's not what it used to be anymore I'm not sure are you do you are you sure that every NBA player is dying to win a championship or do they do they care about their brands did you watch the finals I did all of them few I call them a few games about three games man were you bored out of your mind or not really I wasn't bored you know um but I but you know it didn't feel the same it it doesn't have the same weight for some reason I didn't feel it at all I you know I didn't feel it at all to me you know when's the last time I felt it it's going to sound weird it's when the Bucks play the Suns yeah that was sick yeah they were fighting there was something there you know Giannis wanted it there was something about this one I'm like maybe porzingis just completely changed the game the first couple games when he played remember when he came in you're like dude this guy's got four blocks in the first quarter you know there's no way these get 1644 you know in the first you know half or first quarter I I I'm I'm just not excited with the NBA product today I'm not I don't see the competition I think the last time I watched the NBA Allstar again when they fought in that one fourth quarter where first to 157 I think game ended 155 157 and the the type of Defense you're like this is cool and then they went away again I don't know yeah uh look the last time I rooted for the Lakers and I know this is going to be controversial for you because I know your loyalty where it lies I've been a DieHard Laker fan since Michael made that shot over Sam Perkins oh wow yeah because that's when I came to the states and I mean listen sadale treat I'm talking Nick Van Axel I'm talking elen candle Campbell Kevin Smith I think Kevin Smith was his name 34 Kevin Smith what was his name Kevin uh uh anyways we had a number 34 uh that's my era Travis uh not Travis this is in the 90s if you go to 1994 Lakers Squad 1994 Lakers Squad you would see the sadil treat um Nick Van AEL was was exciting to watch left-handed who was a fighter yeah what's the squad can you zoom in Sam remember Cedric sabales scored that 50 points in a game oh Tony Smith I'm sorry Tony Smith yeah did you ever see Cedric sabales as a rap song do you remember that I think I did see it yeah uh uh flow on was called flow flow on flow on it was terrible but I mean he scored 50 points in a game I liked him he was our guy you know when we we listen to Back in the Days anyways Cube it's been a pleasure it's been an honor having you on uh congrats on an incredible life I don't even want to say career because some people have great careers you've had an allaround great life uh you're part of a community where your son wants to work with you and collaborate with you and do movies with you you're married for 32 years uh you love where you came from you give respect to the people that came from your industry uh there is a lot of strong deep character with you and uh there's a lot of depth with you and I applaud you I respect you and I really enjoy this conversation thank you man thanks for having me on and uh yeah we had a good time you know uh I talked about some things that I've never talked about in the interview so it's a great setting I appreciate it take care everybody bye- bye bye-bye in these uncertain times if there's anything we we need is we need people to believe the future looks bright so you if you've heard about me saying this mission to you we're on a mission to get a million people to wear this gear and this is why we're doing if you buy one of these hats there's a category of buying one hat getting the second one free if you haven't yet worn this gear publicly go ahead and test it out buy some of the gear wear it in public and see how many people will stop by and say you're also you also watch your Val Tim you you also follow pbd podcast I do too place your order go to VT merch.com click on the link above or below place your order and represent the VT and the pbd podcast gear