Camp Gagnon - Teenage Kingpin Made $10,000,000 Off Celebrities

Episode Date: April 17, 2023

Former teenage kingpin, Coss Marte, explains how he made millions off of celebrities in NYC, how he got out of kingpin charges, survived prison, and created a physical fitness empire. WELCOME TO CAMP.Thanks to Morgan & Morgan for sponsoring today's episode!Mark Gagnon is our HostWill Schwartz is our Content Producer and Lead EditorSudhanshu Kumar Jha provides Additional EditingSpencer Weinstein & Gabriel Reyes are our Community ManagersKostis Zacho, Gabriel Reyes, & Theodore Bukvi...

So the day I got caught, I went into the precinct, and they started, like, clapping and like, we got them, we got them. And there's like multiple cells on one corridor, and I'm just seeing, like, all my drivers. And what are you thinking as you're walking down the hallway? I was screaming, I was like, y'all don't say, because they would bring people for interrogation. I was sitting there, stressed the fuck out.

They took my possessions, but they brought me back my wallet and my wallet. I had 10 pieces of acid. So I type all 10 pieces of acid, I had a whole strip. All 10? All 10. That kicked in about an hour later, and that's when they called me to the interrogation.

room and I got a smile on my face. I'm tripping. They started asking me like, where did I get all my stuff? Just give somebody up. And I'm like, you, I don't give a f-they were like, you know, you're facing life. I was like, I don't give a f***. Give me 25. I don't care. The district attorney is there. There's like 10 DA agents. I was like, you f-idiots gave me 10 pieces of acid right now. I was doing my f***ing a lot of dumb asses. That's one I just threw it back to myself. But when I get to see the judge, the judge is like, yeah, so we're here. You're on a little bit of LSD. And I'm like, Yeah.

This is Cas Marte. He was a teenage drug kingpin that made millions selling to celebrities in New York City. And today, I learned the whole story about how he built his empire, what it was like being in Juvi on 9-11. The time he was tripping on acid while being interrogated by the police in prison and how he turned his entire life around to build a fitness franchise on the very same corner that he first got arrested. This is an amazing convo. So without further ado, enjoy Cosmarte. Welcome to camp. Thank you so much for joining me, bro.

I appreciate it. No, thank you for having me. I appreciate you, bro. I've watched the Vice Doc, and it was wild. I was, like, intrigued immediately. I didn't even think it was coming out. They actually sold it to, like, Channel Forum in the UK, and it was, I recorded that, like, four or five,

four years before even came out. Oh, really? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So a lot has happened since that recording. Yeah, there's parts of the story that I'm, like, so curious about just from watching it that I feel like, You know, it's only 45 minutes. Yeah.

So I feel like there's a lot of stuff that probably got cut out. Yeah, yeah. It was three days of recording. Really? Yeah. Oh, that's wild. Yeah. And I mean, and you're just like, your storytelling and everything was just like so intriguing.

So I just want to get into it. And I want to start with back in the DR where your parents are from, where you were conceived, technically. Yeah. Your folks are both from Dominican Republic. Yep. And you were telling me before your dad's a beekeeper. Yep. That is awesome.

Yep. And like back back then like they didn't use suits and shit like he like literally had like Like something covering his face. Yeah, yeah, yeah he was one with the bees. Yeah, absolutely like he'll take machetes when they bite them and like he'll have to cut off the the stingers a certain angle like just Shave it off as Bro, Dominicans are different for you. Yeah, different they're animals dude, you're shaving up their arms, you get stingers out? Yeah, that's wild.

And so basically your dad saves up enough money. He is able to send your mom and you while she's pregnant with you to New York. Yep. You end up in Lower East Side. Yep. And my, like the perception now, I grew up in Florida, I moved to New York recently. Lower East Side is nice. Yeah.

It's very nice. It's very cute. There's like a dog spa. It's a boogey. Yeah, exactly. But when you moved here, it was not the case. Hell no. What was lower East?

said like when you were coming up? I mean heroin was everywhere like it was just so much needles every 10 steps you took there was just a needle on the floor like I remember there was one of my friends he he fell on a heroin needle and got hepatitis off of it just like playing in the street rollerblading and tripped up that's what you get for rollerblading yeah that's what you get for rollerblade you shouldn't rollerblading in the park you know that was your time that rollerblading was hot back Yeah, hell yeah. I loved roll-blading. Did you roll-blades a kid? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I loved the solomons.

Were you able to, like, hit the rails and stuff? I was not a good grind. I was doing, yeah, half-pipes, but I was not. Were you really? Yeah, yeah. Oh, sick, but you never got the, you never got the heroin needle. No, no, no, thank God. You were a dude just dodging, bobbing and weaving through their needles. But no, there was like blocks where, like, you'll see a hundred people, like, like two blocks long of heroin addicts.

Not an out. No, no, waiting to buy heroin. Oh, really? Yeah. And sometimes it would be like these metal doors and they would just stick the money through it and like they get the shit, you know? And just push it out through the like apartments. Bo, boom, yeah. Oh, that's crazy.

And so you came up seeing all that. Yeah. And was your mom like, was she telling you like, yo, stay away from it or was she busy with her work and kind of let you run? Mom thought, like, drugs was, she still thinks like weed kills people. Like, she thinks is the devil, you know, and like. Is she religious? Super religious. Like, you know, like, and not super religious, but she's religious.

Took you to church growing up, like, the old, yeah. She tried, and I used to, like, fight and not want to go. Yeah. You know. And so, and you have, how many siblings? Well, four of us from my parents and then my dad, you know. Gotcha. Yeah.

And so how many were living in the, in the spot? the Lowery side? Four of us. All in the house. All in the tenement apartment. Just like a small... Sleeping head to toe. Yeah.

And you were going to school in the area? Same area, yeah. Gotcha. And so you're coming up and all of a sudden you see people like selling heroin, selling drugs. Those family members that were doing it. Oh, really? Yeah. Folks, you knew of like cousins and stuff?

In the same floor. My same building. You know, so like my... I grew up in the fifth floor. My mom still lives in the same. building, same apartment, rent control. She's probably paying 700 bucks for two-bedroom apartment. Oh, really? She's still in the same spot.

Yeah, never going to leave. That's sad. And that's like generational wealth, right? Yeah, New York. Other people now from New York don't understand. Like, yo, that is the hookup of hookups. Hell yeah. And back then, like, they were offering people money to leave.

But anyway, long story short, like my cousins were, we had the whole fifth floor. So every apartment, there was five apartments there. And then we have family on the sixth, the fourth. So we grew up just going from apartment to fire skates to hanging in the rooftops all day. roaming free. All day. Yeah, yeah. Like my playpen was literally the fire skate.

Like, my mom used to put me and I used to pee on people from the fire skate. That's what he did. Just putting toys up there. Just like, yo, be free. This is where you were supposed to be. Yeah, no, like, get the fuck away from going to fire skate. I'm like, all right. And so you're like, you have family members that start kind of getting involved.

and just doing like little flips here and there. Yeah, most of my cousins that I grew up with were older, maybe like five, six years older. So they were out already in the street. And they were rocking chains. They already, you know, they were living that lifestyle that I thought was success. Yeah.

And then you mentioned in your TED talk, you were like, my goal as a kid without really any means be rich. Absolutely. That was like the end all. Especially because you see all your family members like rock and chains, they got watches, they got the sneakers.

And I'm broke. Yeah. Like, I might have got a hammy down, you know. I was wearing, like, my sister shit. Yeah. Were you getting picked on and stuff? There's been times that I was made fun of, but I was not like, I was not getting bullied. Right.

You know. Did you have to fight at all, like, growing up? Yeah, yeah. I mean, fighting was, that was inevitable, you know. And that was just, like, kid shit, like at school. Yeah, school kids. And then just, like, running with clicks. Yeah.

And shit like that. And then did you start as, like, a lookout? No, I started, so the way I started selling drugs was weed. It was a supply and demand. I was 11 years old smoking and like I'm going to junior high and like kids used to call me Smokey the Bear because I was always fucking high. And your cousins were like, yo, hit this. And you were like, well, my cousin was the one that like, well, he was like, oh, you want to smoke. And I was like, hell yeah.

And I didn't really know how to smoke. But then I started smoking and then I became like really addicted to smoking. And all the kids in my school were like, see me with red eye. I used to joke. I used to come with weed and all the shit. And so they wanted to smoke and, you know, other kids were smoking. So we were all, I'd be like six people on a nickel bag, you know. So everybody would give me a dollar, a dollar, and I would go to my cousin and be like,

yo, I need a nickel bag, let me get it. I'll pay for back then, you could buy a Philly for a quarter. So I go to the local bodega by a Philly, you know, be the only one that pretty much knows how a row so I would roll smoke and it became like I was that middle man and I'm like fuck it I'm at 13 I bought my first ounce of weed and made almost 300 bucks off of it like in what time spirit like it took me about a week yeah so going from nothing all of some 300 bucks is yeah oh hell yeah yeah that's crazy it's a lot and then you start buying like little things yeah I was buy more weed yeah I'm wearing sneakers now you know like I'm just continue to

hustle and then I went from like an ounce to quarter pound to half a pound to a pound to multiple pounds but mostly just the kids at school uh no and people in the neighborhood got so I was like hustling in the corner or I'm I'm in the park or whatever and then I had my beeper I'm giving out my you know we used to like rip pieces of paper out and just like y'all beat me boom and is that like still 13 14 yeah that's crazy and and 14 was the one the first time I really touched coke like sold coke and that was like that was also a supply in demand I was I was hanging out on the corner with like the coke dealer a lot and this guy comes up and he's like oh was kev and and I was like oh he's gonna come back and he's like now I got to go I need a couple bags here okay you got it and

I was like nah nah no he's coming back he was like I'm out I was like oh hold up let me get the bread I'll go get it for you so I went down the block bought it made a little profit and And I was like, all right, I think I could do this shit too. And then once a sudden you realized the margins. The margins were way better. And the amount you got to carry is like nothing. Yeah. And it doesn't smell.

Yeah. So you're all of a sudden like, yeah, this is a superior product. This is like the businessman in you. Well, I never stopped selling weed. Like weed and coke was like always. And you were pushing both at the same time? Yeah, always. Gotcha.

And then you would stash like at your parents crib? Yeah, the building, my parents crib. you know just wherever ever and then you had family and cousins on the floor that would have stuff so if you needed stuff you could just go run it from them uh yeah but i wouldn't trust fully trust all of them oh really what do you mean some of them became users and and stuff like that so you know there was times where like mustache weren't missing you know because i have now my cousins are addict got you and so does your mom know about any of this at this point uh my mom found out i was selling weed when I got locked up for weed at 13.

And I was with my little brother at the time. And we were, you know, we were walking in the park. And I sold a couple bags of nickel bags to my boy. And we started smoking and got locked up. And then she got a call from the precinct. Gotcha. And that was over. Yeah.

And I got home and she was like, you're doing that. And she was, you know. Yeah, she was screaming. Not happy. Crazy. And that was what you? My dad was way more cooler about it. Oh, really?

Yeah. What was his, what was his energy? He was like, if you're going to do it, just do it and, you know, do it in the fire skate, you know, don't go outside, don't hang out in the corner, you know, blah, blah, blah. They just thought I was smoking. They didn't think I was making money off of it. Yeah, of course. And, but my dad, he left through it.

Like, he saw, so my dad got my mom over here, but he's been in New York. like early early 80s, you know, when like it was bad. He worked in a bodega, went back to DR, of my mom. So he's back and forth. And, and his best friend got deported for like selling kilos out of the bodega that he was working. So I know he was like, come on. Yeah. Yeah.

And he understands the game. He did some shit, you know. Of course. So he's not as shocked. He's not as shocked by this. Yeah. Got you. And so that first time that you get jammed up, just like a cop basically just like saw,

you guys smoking was like no i was actually detectives like they were like like t and t squad um so what's tn tn t squad uh tuesdays and thursdays that's when like they there was like tax drug task enforcement coming out and like doing sweeps got you and they'll put you in a paddy wagon so they will have like the the paddy wagon would just roam around the neighborhood and you know tuesdays and thursdays they were coming out and they were and and and you're staying in that paddy wagon till they're picking up more people oh so literally it's just like you know the people were jumping in the car yeah yeah yeah like oh fuck they got you too bro like damn that shit is crazy and you yeah with cuffs and so what do you think when you're sitting in the back of this paddy wagon

all these kids for the neighborhood are getting locked up and you're just like fuck I was not scared I don't know I was just like well I know I'm I'm young I'm gonna get the fuck out like right you know I got caught with a two bags of weight like you know and they let me go out of the appreciate it. And you were with your little brother? My brother, they brought home. Okay. I was literally across the street. You're right. And was he scared? He started crying.

He started fucking crying. So the whole story is I was walking with my little brother and my little cousin actually. My little brother was nine. My other cousin was eight. And I was basically got a beep at home, called the number. I was like, yo, yeah, I want to go to the park? I went. And

I met up with my boy Chuck and we rolled it up, started smoking and I'm walking with the blunt in my hand and they grabbed my arm, they threw me in the ground, they cuffed me and Chuck tried to get away. He kept walking where they grabbed him up and Chuck was 14. I was 13 and they took both of us and so my brother at that time started crying hysterically and he had a DARE shirt on. And he had a starter jacket, one of those old school starter jackets, and he opens up his shirt,

and he's like, don't take my brother, I'm part of the DARE program, please. And we crack jokes about it all the time because he was hysterical. My brother's actually the city council member for downtown Manhattan now.

Oh, really? Yeah. Oh, that's hilarious. Dare program worked. Yeah. That's what it is, bro. Well, that incident worked because that shit scared them straight.

and me it didn't work. No. Oh, that's wild. Bro. The Dare program shirt while you're actually on the corner is so funny. And I'm curious, like, how did you, were you not worried about, like, because when, if you're on the corner selling drugs, the thing you got to worry about more than the cops probably, especially in that time, is just like other drug dealers just like running you. Just like robbing your shit. So, like, how did you protect yourself from other people taking it?

Weed was not a, was not an issue. like it was what it like I grew up in the neighborhood like everybody my family was there like that was not an issue coke was the issue like if you ran a coke block or heroin block you couldn't sell on that corner so I've had fights for like hustling on one corner because my corner was two blocks away you know and and that was an issue did you ever stay protected like have like a little knife or like anything like that i've had guns and knives all that shit right but were you doing that at like before your first little one my first gun i had was 14 oh got you and that was when you switched to cold revolvers smith or wasn't fucking wild and you got that just from like

family member that was like uh a friend got you yeah and that was when you were doing coke or when you were selling when i was selling gotcha and so you do like the little juvie thing nothing really happens like yeah i mean i got i got caught up um So I did two months in Juvie and then I also did. They gave me an opportunity to do a program. All in total was a little bit over a year. And I actually learned how to cook crack while I was there. In Juvie?

Yeah. Well, when they referred me, mandated me to the program. And from Juvie to the program that helped me get out early. And there was like escort visits. So one of the kids that was there, here basically I had an escort to Red Hook Projects. And the only Chinese kid in Red Hook, like Red Hook Projects now is still fucked up, but it was fucked up over there.

Like, like gangs were like crazy, you're hearing gunshots every night. Like, shit was wild. And so we get to his spot and he was like involved with the bloods and all this shit. And so he's like, yo, let's go see my boy. We go to another apartment. and they cook and crack over there. And so he was like, yo, you know how to cook. You can help me.

And like, you know, pass me the baking soda. Like, boom, boom. And like right there, I'm like. That's wild. Yeah, learn how to cook crack. And so what is the escort program? Like, what does that even for? Well, it was like towards the end of your release.

You could get somebody to come with you for a home visit for the weekend. And so that was like a home visit that we got, you know. And so you get like maybe. maybe five home visits the whole time you're there, but like you get it towards the end of your release. Got you. And this was a Chinese kid that was like affiliated. Yeah.

Really? Yeah. I feel like that's kind of unique. Yeah. Well, he grew up in the projects. Right. He grew up there. He sold crack for them.

Do you still keep in touch with him? I haven't spoken. This is 2002. Whoa. 21 years ago. So then that's where you learn it. So then now you're not in school. Mm-hmm.

Like, what is Juvie even like? It's gladiated school. Really? You just got to get ready to fight. Like, I fall every day, every day. So what's the deal? Is it like cells? Are you, like, in...

Yeah, you're in, like, rooms, little cells, basically. Oh, shit. You're in bed. And this is all other, like, kids, like, 12 to 15. Or is it, or if it's, uh, or if you're in Rikazalin is open, like, I've been in both sides, but, uh, open door rooms where you have just beds side by side. And there's like 60 kids, you know. And then what are you even doing there?

Like, are they doing school still? If you don't have a GED, you're going to school. Okay. Yeah. And you're trying to get, you know, your GED. Gotcha. But it's not really school. Like, you're going in there and it's just like people are just fucking around.

Yeah. They're just like kids locked in a room that all have like a criminal record. And just it's all like gangs. Like it's rent. And I was not never part of a gang. So that was always a problem with me. Like, and, um, did you fit in with, like, other Dominicans or, like, other people from your block? Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, like, so it's very segregated, like, blacks with the blacks, but, like, not even blacks with the blacks because you got separate gangs in blacks. And then you have, like, separate gangs with Latino, but, like, the Latino, like, have, like, their own thing. And I was always, I hung out with a lot of black people, like, my bunky was black, you know, like, we kicked it all the time. And I got offered to be in a gang and I was like, how much are you gonna pay me? And they were laughing and I'm like, no, I don't do shit for free.

Yeah, for real? At 14? No, this was when I was a little bit older. I mean, just having like the savvy to be like, oh, you want me? Like, I'm gonna bring a lot. Like, how much are you gonna pay me? I'm not gonna work for free.

I'm not gonna go stab somebody. Oh, that's crazy. And that's what usually happened was like there's some people that want to rise up. or they're a soldier and you send them on the dummy mission and they're cutting stabbing the fucking people up yeah just for a rep yeah what was that that shit like it was more popular in New York back in the day like probably around that time but I forgot what it was like a punch and slash or some shit where like you would literally just like knockout yeah knockout game

yeah and like basically you got like young kids literally just have to like swing on someone yeah and then someone would have to see it yeah and then that's okay knock up you can rise up yeah that's grade but you didn't fuck with any of that no got you and so you get out of Juvie and then you got to go back to school again yep and now you're like now your whole perception of school I feel like it's probably completely different oh man I was I always did well in school oh really yeah always did well in school like I knew my times tables before first grade you know got so my mom was a teacher in the Dominican Republic and she always like in fourth school school school

on us but I was just like this is a fucking waste of time for me yeah but you're just like a smart dude so like school up until a certain point it's pretty easy yeah you can just kind of go and get your homework done in 20 minutes I got my high school diploma and I graduated on time oh cool I sell drugs even with like juvie even with selling drugs all the time so then you get back out and then immediately back to the corner so I get back out I go to public school I go to So a park. So a park is like, at that time, in 2002, it was the highest dropout rate of any public school in the city.

My graduating class was supposed to be 500 kids. And it was me and 66 Asians. Bro. And I'm talking about my whole school was like black and Latino. That's wild. the Asians and me graduated. Oh, that's crazy. It was crazy.

Wow. So every other name is just like Korean, Chinese name, and then Kha's Marte. Yeah. And you walk. Yeah. Oh, that's wild. I went to school because I saw all my clientele was in school. Right.

Like, I came home with the mentality. I'm like, I'm going to hustle. I'm going to not get caught. You know, and I'm going to sell weed again. Yeah. And so I started, I had two of my friends running the hallways. I'm like, I had the next tells in class, like telling people like, you go here, go there.

In class. In class. Bro. And like we had different floors where like, you know, so I was already operating something crazy. Yeah, that's insane. But you just have like a business mind, I feel like. Like, is that fair to say?

Like you just see things I feel like in business terms. I think I'm just not a person. I guess that procrastinates, you know, and I see every opportunity, every time, as an opportunity to make, money. Yeah. You know, like I'm not even, not today is different, but like, you know, that's how I saw. Yeah, exactly. And then now the money's coming in and you're doing weed and Coke. And are you like using Coke at all at this point? No. You never touched it? No. Really? And why? Like if you're smoking

weed, why would you never? I just saw family members and people in my neighborhood like really get messed up. Yeah. And then I was selling crack too. Um, so after high school, uh, around that time like actually before like while I was in high school I started selling crack and who taught you how to like cut the coke uh a friend of mine got but we didn't we didn't like when I was operating a big business I didn't cut the coke everything was raw oh really yeah oh crazy like straight off the they package it and like fucking like this brown bag and you know plastic wrap and it's like and you were getting supplied from like Colombian dudes in New York or something?

No, I was coming straight from overseas. Oh, really? And you were corresponding with them to actually get product? Oh, really? That's crazy. And you just got the connects just through people that you knew? My partner, basically. Oh, that's wild.

And they just drop it off, like FedEx, like DHS packages and shit? There was times that happened. There was times where they were sending kids that were like 14, 15-year-old on the plane with it you know back then you didn't have like the bio whatever machine that you walk through the airport it was like you clear the mag you're good bro so they were every kid it would send like four or five kids together with half a brick of coke and their underwear each and this is like 2003-ish 2007 this is oh four oh four oh five this is actually a random question not even related to this shit you were in new york during like 9-11 I was locked up really in juby

What did you think? Like, you heard about it? You were just like... It was fucking crazy. It was crazy in there. Because where was the Jupi Center? That's when I got referred to Rimeback, New York. Got you.

So you're out of the city. Yeah. But everyone you know is like... Yeah. And wherever the phones are shut down. Everybody's calling. Everybody's like, wiling up there. I was actually in class up there.

And the teachers that was in our class, his wife was in one of the towers. Bro. My neighbor in my building that lived right under me, she was in the towers. She passed away. And my sister was working downtown and like came home, like all powdered up, you know.

That's insane. And you have no contact. You can't even... The phones were not working. Do nothing about it. Yeah. And then there's a couple hundred, you know, people. And there's only a couple of phones.

Right. And everyone else has family that's in the city too. Yeah. Bro. That sounds crazy stressful. Yeah, it was crazy. Yeah, that sucks. And we were in a room watching this shit in the fucking TV, I remember. And we just, we saw the first hit and then they put us in the, no, we saw the second hit.

So they put us in the room, they were like, oh, shit, one of the towers. We're watching, I think it was like CNN at the time. And then while we were watching the second one, and we're like, oh, fuck. It was crazy. Because it's like war time. Like you're probably watching it being like, oh, we're going to war. No, I had no concept at that time. I was 16 years old.

You know, I didn't think like, you know, I was like, I didn't think it was a terrorist attack. Right. We just thought it was like, what the fuck? An accident or some shit. Yeah. Bro, that's crazy. So then back to the story. You graduate.

Now you're like moving more product. You're on the same corner still. You don't ever move around. Well, I'm more. moved around, you know, like I was on a bicycle, you know, moving around and doing deliveries sometimes if people beeped me or called me or stuff like that, but I was on the corner.

Yeah. And then at what point did you meet your partner and then actually like start doing deliveries? So my partner and I, we met, I mean, we knew each other for a very long time before that. But we met and became partners after he came up to me and was like, yo, I need some work. And so I gave my work.

He went, sold it, came back an hour later. He was like, yo, I need more. Gave him, came back, sold it. And I was like, and he was like, yo, what's up? Where can I get more? And I'm like, yo, I don't got no more. Motherfucker, you just ran out. And so we're like, yo, let's go uptown and buy something.

You know, and so we called the connect that I had. and we put both our money together, we split it, and then it was just like, there was no, we're gonna write a contract. Yeah, handshake. There was no handshake. It was like, I trust you, like, we grew up together, like, you know, we're doing this together.

Right, and you can see that he was hustling, that he wasn't, like, hooked on product, he was just trying to, like, make money. Yeah, yeah. And you were the same way, so it was like, perfect. I mean, I've never seen or met anybody with, the same hustle mentality that I had and he was smarter than me

more intellectual but more way more riskier which made him dumber in the sense. It balanced out his intelligence. Yeah, yeah. He was like, you're just going to take these kilos like ride around just like biking in the city

with cash on them. Yeah. Yeah, that's crazy. Yeah. Or like rock men colts and fucking right around in a fleetwood Cadillac with pearl white seats with 22-inch gold rims and the loudest system down Times Square and playing porno on DVDs with all the TVs

and the fucking cars just screaming with the windows down. Shit like that, you know, with drugs on us. Yeah, exactly. Just attention, just like, yo, look at us, look at. But were you flashy like that? Were you flexing the same way? I was flashy, but he was way more flashy than me. Yeah, yeah.

I mean, he liked the lifestyle. We all loved the lifestyle. He was just like, he was just, you know, we all went to the stores and bought shit, but like he was just like always, you know, going crazy. Yeah. And then you mentioned like the turning point, like the reason why you got really successful in a time where maybe some of the other people on the block might not have been is like business cards and started selling to white people.

Yeah. And how does that happen? So we were like writing our name. numbers and pieces of paper and like giving it to it so how it happened I had a clientele base before he came in um with like a lot of crackheads and and a couple like white like like like Natasha line uh from like oranges dino black with the frizzy big hair like she was one of my main clients like she brought paris hilton over to buy shit from us like i've sold to like a lot of people like that but like this was before me and my partner were operating so I had you know the people that were

hitting me up and um it all popped off because this this club called happy endings uh was on it was actually like a weed lounge now uh and I went into the other day I'm like man I used to sit right here fucking get serve coke right off the fucking lounge here anyway so um that club turned crazy like it was like straight hipsterville like it was Tuesday nights it was weird because we'll have like a whole bunch of hipsters come in with fucking bicycles and they will park their bike and we like our crackheads used to steal their bike and then sell it to us it was fucking nuts like one time we had like literally like 50 mountain bikes in the backyard like and didn't know what the fuck to do with it um And anyway, so yeah, we in happy endings.

The bar, we get cool with the bouncer. The bouncer is like sniffing coke to, so we would give him a couple bags. He would like refer people to us and it would just become like, you know. And you were actually pushing out of the lounge itself? At one point, yeah. Like, because the corner that we had was Eldridge and broom. So we're like literally half a corner away. Right.

And so we were the corner. boys and so now we're like and then once we got cool with the owner now we're fucking in there hustling and now and then the the business cards came about because we were like writing shit and piece of papers and stuff like that and then uh our friend um she worked at kinkos at the time and she lived on the blocks she said hang out with us and um and i don't know like joey my partner at the time like he might have told her like yo or somebody, we had a conversation about cards and then she was like, I could make cards at King Coles.

And so we made happy ending cards. So it was all black, white letters, three full numbers on it. And shit fucking blew up. We ordered 5,000 cards. We gave it out to everybody that was white that looked like they had money and that looked at it was sniffing coke and smoking weed.

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or pound law pound 529. If you're ever injured, you can submit a claim and less than eight clicks. Let's get back to the show. So like you grow up in like a Dominican neighborhood in the lower east side And then all of a sudden, there's like these like hipster white bars that show up. Yeah.

And you're already on the corner. Yep. And these white kids want to do Coke and they got money and they're trying to party. Yeah. And you're like, I'm already here. Yeah, we always like entice them like, hey, buddy, do you smoke? And so like we open that door. Marijuana is a great way drunk.

Dare program. Let's go. And so we're like entice them, hey, buddy, you want to smoke with us? And like, you know, we'll be always, you know, me and my boy smoked 50 blood. lunch every single day, like two packs of cigarettes every day. Just chieffin, in the lounge? No, just on the block. On the block.

All the time, we just didn't stop smoking. But we would be outside and they would come out smoke cigarettes and be like, boom, boom, boom. And then we'd be like, hey, we have a 24-hour delivery service. If you want to use us, call us, blah, blah, blah. And shit just fucking went wildfire. Like it blew up. I mean, that whole delivery system now in New York is very common. Right?

It's like you got seamless, you got Uber Eats, you got Drisly. You can get anything delivered at any time, your groceries, whatever. But you were doing it at a time where like delivery isn't really a thing. Yeah, I mean, the only thing that you were probably delivering was Domino's. Right? Like you couldn't even order from a restaurant. Yeah, literally. Yeah, it'd be like, you got to come pick it up.

Yeah. But you were like, y'all, I'll come to you. Yeah. Now, that seems really risky. Like in terms of like the drug game, like you have your number attached to a card. Obviously there's nothing on the card, but like there's now like a paper. trail literally oh yeah and were people telling you like bro this is stupid don't do this yeah people thought we were crazy yeah but we didn't even get caught like that because of that right you know

we we would uh and and and all the numbers that we were getting like we were we wouldn't even save them by their names most of the time most of the time it would be like what a building number you're in because we would go and we'll put like the building number so we're like right away like when the phone rang we knew like 305 West 26th Street like it's calling I'm hitting up like yo

305 West 26 copy all right give me 10 minutes 10 minutes boom boom you're there and so we had the whole dispatching set up and then we had business suits on

and that came about because I got locked up I got locked up in the projects and I was fighting a case and while I'm going to court, I was wearing a business suit and me and Joey staying up all night fucking selling drugs while I'm going to court

for drugs. And he would pick me up out of the car. He would like, yo, come pick me up. So he'd pick me up. We'll get in the car. And I was just like way more incognito. Like I would step out of the car and nobody would look at me. And so I was like, yo, we got to dress nice,

but we should start dressing like this. And we went to like Ralph Lourke. and got fitted out and all shit. I mean, it's the opposite of standing out. Like, this is, like, the opposite of, like, the drug dealer game. Like, yeah, I'm not wearing the main coats. I'm wearing a suit. Yeah, we stopped, like, like, our Cadillac broke down.

Because we're, like, rocking 22-inch fucking rims in, like, pot holes, and we're, like, driving 30. It's lower to some shit. Like, 100 miles per hour to get to a client and driving on sidewalks and shit. That's hilarious. Seriously, like, we drove on sidewalks all the time. Just popping around. Because we're not waiting for traffic.

Yeah. I had 27 points on my license. No. Still? No, I got, I had to pay like 10 grand. I get it back, but. But you were just getting tickets all the time. I just didn't get a fuck.

Cops pulling you over in the car with product? With product. Yeah. And I'm taking red lights. I'm doing everything. To make sure I have the best customer service. Right. In the name of customer service.

Yeah. And were you, like, what was the, what would happen? But you get pulled over. You're like if I like if you search as a car right now, I'm fucked. No, we would usually have the drugs on us. And our underwear or cheeks or we actually, we had the best dash in that Cadillac Fleetwood. Like so the horn when we bought it, it was a, I don't know if you remember the dub magazines. Oh, yeah.

Like, you know, like it was one of the cars in the dub magazine. Oh, really? And so we had the, when we bought it, like, we hit the horn. after maybe like a week and like it didn't work and it was like p p p p p p like it just didn't work but it was like a cap on it so you opened up the cap and it was like you could stick your fucking like arm oh thing like you're fisting somebody so we were that was the best ass they would never think about throw a key in there and you're good exactly oh that's crazy and so what was the situation where you were dropping drugs off the building oh that was before like me selling crack and coke on the block

And we, you know, like me. So like before the delivery service, I was doing with my boy in Atlanta a couple of days ago. And I was just, I was obsessed with money and I was obsessed with not wasting time. And I used to stay up three days, four, five days out of time. Like, like, because I didn't want to miss a dollar. Because if I would step off the corner, I would miss somebody coming. And it was just like back to back, back. to back. It was just crazy. And so my boy, Spanish, he was on, he used to be on a roof.

We, we knew all the cab undercovers. So the undercovers at that time and 7th Precest and 5th Precran, they had these yellow cabs that were undercover as 2W 64. Like we knew these numbers off the top and the license plate. And their license plate was different from it. So yellow cab has to match the top of it and the plate. And if it's mismatched, then that's a cop. And so he would be a lookout from the roof. And so we would tell people like, you know, come, you know, the boys are coming. Or I would collect the money downstairs.

I'll be like, you know, just turn around the corner. And somebody's throwing that off the roof or throwing that out of an apartment. Whoa. So I had a whole like all my boys were just operating with me. It was crazy. And the thought process with that is actually pretty smart. Like, yo, there's deniability. Yeah, there's no hand-of-hand transaction.

Which is actually, like, kind of smart. If you think about it, like, it's sort of obvious, but it's like, it's a little harder. It puts a little bit of a buffer. Yeah, I mean, you could probably maybe take it a trial and beat it. Right? Yeah, we don't have evidence. He wanted to give me money. Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, exactly. And then he found Coke somewhere. Like, I had nothing to do it. That shit float this guy. God did. God did. That's crazy. Bro.

And so, okay, so now you're doing delivery, though, which is the exact opposite. Yeah. So, like, throwing it off the building is actually not a bad move, but now you're actually, like, having people dispatching. But you're not doing the deliveries anymore once you're in the suit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, at one point, yeah, but then we basically just became dispatchers, and then we hired dispatchers to operate it. And you're hiring people just like you know from the block. Yeah, people that we grew up with, people that were hanging out with us all the time.

So, like, my boy, my partner at the time, was super aggressive about, like, not wasting time. And, like, we used to see our friends just, like, hanging on the corner 24 hours a day, smoking weed. And we're like, and he will get aggressive with them. Like, what the fuck you're doing on the fucking block? You're like doing shit. You ain't getting money. You need fucking money, blah, blah, blah. We over here, we don't got fucking time to waste.

you know, we gotta get this bread. And so literally screaming at people. And I used to be dying. And so he would convince them to sell trucks. Whoa. And so now that like you're doing coke and crack, like pushing coke and crack, how are you not afraid of other people like robbing you at that point? Like how do you prevent the violence?

I mean, I had guns. Like when I was sitting on a corner, when I started the delivery system, it just like there was no violence. I'm dealing with a whole set of new clientele. I don't got to hang out in the corner no more. But when I was sitting on the corner, I had my gun in the mailbox, you know, and, you know, if anything went down.

Did it ever go down? Not really. When we had our delivery service, it went down. One time somebody knew where our stash house was. And they, one of my guys, like, left the apartment, got a gun put up to his head. They made him knock on the door. They tied everybody up. And what was crazy is we had, like, when they went in, it was three guys that robbed them.

They stole all the weed. And there was about a half a kilo of coke on the table, bagged up, and they didn't even touch it. I guess they didn't even know. it. Whoa. Because the weed was just so much. Yeah, you smell it, you find it. Yeah. And that's crazy. That's crazy. Yeah. And at that point, what was the kilo going for?

20, like in New York Street, 22, 23. Yeah. You know. And then at this point, now you're doing delivery. And you're still doing everything pure. You're not like cutting the, you're not cutting it up? Nothing. Whoa. Yeah. So everyone's calling you back.

Everybody. Yeah. You got the best shit. Yeah. And if it comes in, did you have the bags, like, custom at that point? No, custom was, so right after, so, I got so many, yeah, every day was a fucking movie for me, you know, because, I want all the details.

I don't want to skip over, but yeah, no, so after, after high school, I got, I went to college, so I got accepted to college and, and that's when I, like, started dealing, I didn't go with the intentions to go sell drugs at college. Like I went over there to like all right, let me see like go to college, you know, and so I got accepted to University of Albany. This is 2003 and it was the, I don't know if you remember like the MTV fraternity reality shows back that. It was like the name of that. Like they would go in and show all the process of stuff. Yeah.

But we had the number one school in the fucking country. So an MTV was there and I was just party like crazy. But first day I get to college, I have a roommate. I met my roommate. He's from Puerto Rican kid from Flushing Queens. And he's like, yo, man, I wish I had some weed, blah, blah, blah. I had an ounce of weed on me. Yeah, yeah, personal stash.

Yeah, yeah. I was still hustling, but like I just had it, you know. And so I was like, I got some of you want, I had some haze. And so he was like, oh, you got more. So he bought more. And then he told this friend that came to that college shoe, they bought some. And it was like, I'm back into the game. You know, it just followed me around.

And then that first week, somebody asked me for Coke. And I was like, I went back to the city. We threw a crazy party. in my room and one of the kids there got caught the cops raided us they they found like 500 bags of 500 beer cans and uh and they took this kid in this Korean kid he was sniffing coke off the we we actually tempted him to fucking sniff a line of coke from one line side of the desk like this fucking table like he just sniffed it all the way across like a two-footer yeah like big shit yeah and he killed it and we were like oh crazy but we made so much noise that the cops came then they found

like coke in his fucking shit and anyway they take them in um now i'm like the coke guy like i stopped going to school i'm like sitting in my room i'm just getting fucking knocks on the door knocks on the room 1301 like out of the dorm out of the dorm whoa and so this shit was fucking non-stop yeah and then these girls come in they buy a bag of coke a couple bags of coke. They go to their room. They bought weed off of me. They start smoking.

The cops raided them. And they found the Superman bags in their trash can. So they took them in for that. When they went in, they told them everything. Like, yeah, Cross is bringing all this stuff. They already knew because the Asian kid that got caught that first week, they already started an investigation on me. And so when they were like,

oh you got these callbacks from Klaus right and they were like yeah he's bringing all the stuff to the college and all this shit and blah blah I'm in the terror program oh my god and so fucking one of the girls they left her phone with her and she's in the cell and so she contacts me and says like yo I'm so sorry I'm like what the fuck is you talking about I'm so sorry the cops are going to go radio right now they know everything I'm like what the fuck is you talking about and I'm like we're in the pre-sing and they took and she's like stuttering and she and I'm like oh shit I got mad fucking work like so I take all the shit I stash it in the car and they come and this is the day of my birthday and so like it's cleared I had a couple girls in the room when they were singing me

happy birthday I had a cake we were fucking listening on the lime wire and and so they fucking raided the room and And I was like, yes, I beat the motherfuckers. They didn't find shit. And so I had like $1,000 on me. And they saw that. And it was like, what's all the drugs? I was like, I don't know.

What the fuck you're talking about. And so they got, they raided the room. They found my empty bag of Coke, just like the glassy bags. They were empty. Like, it was, you know, but they had the Superman logo. They were like, we fucking know everything. We know everything. Because it was the stack of empty bags.

Yeah. Yeah. And so and then they kept searching And they found a little bottle of like volume pills That I forgot somebody gave me of them shit And they were like, what are you doing with this? Blah, blah, blah. I'm like, oh, I don't know.

I don't know, this is somebody else's medication And this is drug paraphernalia, blah, blah, blah. And so they take me to the precinct And they were like, look, we're going to give you an option. You get the fuck out of school or you want to go to court for this shit. That's a pretty easy choice.

So they banned me. I can't ever go like 100 meters from the school. To this day. Yeah, but I was there like the other day. Yeah, they don't get a shit anymore. But like the rule was like, don't ever come back. You don't ever step into this premises, blah, blah, blah. Right.

And then I went back to the streets and I was like, fuck it. Yeah. I was trapping all day, all night. And that's when you link back in with happy endings. Like that's when you find that spot. Yeah, about a year later, yeah. Got you. And at that point, like you're in college.

Like you did good in school. Was there ever a mentality of like, you, I should be a doctor. I should go be a lawyer. Yeah, I wanted to be like a stockbroker at one point. Like I was good with numbers. You know, I used to file like Wall Street Journal and shit. Like I was, I used to read. No, I loved school.

I still love educating myself and learning new shit. Yeah. And out of curiosity, well, this is for later, but like how heavy were you? you at that point? So I was not that heavy at that point. I got heavy because my, um, my ex-wife got pregnant and then I basically got pregnant too. That's what happens, bro. Yeah, I ate fucking we and, and then I was just making so much money right that I was just like sitting in the car not doing shit. And then at this point like what percentage of the money is going back into getting new product and like reinvesting and then what percentage is going to like lifestyle and

that kind of thing? all the percentage went to lifestyle. Oh, really? No, I mean, like a lot of it, because we just like, I mean, I saved money and shit like that, but it was not like a significant amount where I was like, damn, I should have had a couple hundred. Yeah.

Are you like taking trips and stuff? We're doing stupid shit, Puerto Rico, and I was on parole, so I was like, I really couldn't leave the country, but I was leaving to, like, you know, technically another state, you know? Right. And they were not, the thing, the trip. was like don't go to another country with a passport because you're going to get caught but you could go to like Puerto Rico works you go yeah go to Guam in Hawaii yeah and so we would do that a lot and then we do

like like snowmobile trips we got obsessed with like we you know we're from the hood we never really fucking rode a snowmobile yeah where did you go snowmobiling uh like vermont upstate like by so we uh i remember going to like vermont and like we snowmobile like once before and when we went hit the trails over there and we ran through these snowmobiles it was like a tour and we're like yo this shit is fucking whack blah blah blah my boy got frustrated so i want a rail ride we know how to fucking ride we know how to do this shit and we had like one experience before and and uh and so the guy was like oh really you guys want to and like the dude look like you like long fucking hair

like straight like woodstocky look. Yeah. And so we go to the fucking trails and we're like fucking this. He's like boom, boom. Like we're zigzagging down the fucking mountain. Deep snow. Yeah, ripping it. Crazy.

And so my fucking thing flipped, like flipped over me. And I landed in the like we were going down a hill like this. And and shit flipped over me. And I just saw the fucking whole thing and it fucking broke. And I'm like, fuck. I'd pay for that. Not a lot. I pay for like four grand for that snowmobile to be fixed.

I mean, not a lot, but like... Yeah, a lot, yeah. From a poor Dominican kid, living in the Lower East Side, all of a sudden, all of a lot. But we were making money. Yeah, it's crazy. And so at that point, is that like the height of it? Around that time, yeah.

Yeah. And then you're like, are you selling like Wall Street dudes? Like, yeah, yeah. Everyone's hitting you up. Yeah, yeah. Stockbrokers all the time. Like, we were going straight to the New York Stock Exchange outside, waiting for them to come out.

Really? Get in the car. We're driving up the block. He has your bags. Whoa. I mean, you're probably dealing with like, now probably guys that are like CEOs of banks and shit. Absolutely. Banks, uh, judges, lawyers, doctors.

Really? I remember this guy fucking so coked up. Like, he called this all night and he was throwing like a coke party in his house on on 9th Street. He was a neurosurgeon. He was a brain surgeon. And so it was like seven in the morning. He was like, you got to come back because I need more.

I got to go to work. I got to do the surgery. And I fucking had to hold him down because he wanted to go to fucking work. I'm like, yo, bro, you're not fucking. You're not. And like his friends were there. Like, we're all holding him down. And I was like, yo, but you called me so you got to pay for this shit.

I saw it Like I saw it It's a home I was like Everybody fucking like Hold this motherfucker down And And bro

Yeah So wait What happened With Paris Hilton Blocke me So Paris So Natasha Lyon

I actually came out In the newspaper I think the New York Post So she got caught Like By her roommates You know

Like Doing a whole bunch of drugs Like she was Like I turned out To doing heroin Um Because I would bring her to the crack houses.

I told her how to cook crack. And I strung her out. And, but she had this nice, beautiful brownstone on 18th Street right in front of the park between first and second. And, um, and her, her, uh, roommates, um, was snitched on her. And so, like, there was like this, this kid always coming in and out and serving her drugs. And so they didn't know my name, but they knew that I was going to. on end there anyway natasha line was like a crazy like crazy client of mine like she was like always hitting me up almost every day there was times where like i would walk i remember walking with my mom

one time and i'm smoking a cigarette and she's like waiting for me in the corner and i'm coming out of my my mom's building and she grabs my leg because i was like y'all get the fuck away with like i'm with my mom right now. Yeah, we're in my family right now. And she grabs my leg and she starts begging me like, please, please, just another one, please. And I'm like trying to kick her off my fucking leg. I'm like, this is like 12 in the afternoon or broad daylight.

And my mom like felt embarrassed and went into the bodega. And like, and I'm like, yo, what the fuck is you doing? Get the fuck out of here. And then I gave her work. And I said, don't know, don't fucking never do that shit again. anyway she calls uh she used a call all the time and then she had paris hilton was a friend and so she brings uh paris to the block and and this is like my friends we were hanging out of 45 allen in the project building there and um she calls us down and i had about 20 bags of coke and she

bought all of it yeah was she cool when she came through i should have sold it for more I was still not increasing my profit margins at that time and I was like I got 20s and she was like how much how many? I was like I got 20 bags of 20

and she was like let me get all of them 400 back whoa and she's probably hella famous at this point that's probably like the height of her yeah that was when she got locked up and all the shit

what's that the other famous lady that got locked up too she did the movie Lindsay Lohan Lindsay Lohan. So Lindsay Lohan touched my shit too. Oh, really? Yeah. Like through that connect?

No, that was another thing. She was, this was when the Bowery Hotel opened up, they were doing a party in the Bowery Hotel, and I got a call from one of my clients. They told me to go to the rooftop, and she was there, and he made the sale, and she was like, hi, and he passed to the drugs. And that was it. Whoa. Robert De Niro. What? What?

Yeah, crazy times. Wait, he hit you up or like one of his people was like, he'll come through to the hotel? This is when I was like semi like working for somebody. And like he referred me. He was like, yo, go go see this guy. He's at the roof. Did you know who it was?

No. So you show up? Yeah. And all of a sudden you see Robert De Niro sitting there. Yeah, a whole bunch of people. They were all partying. Did you hang? No.

I was just like cop and go. Like these people are like dressed in t-sitos and shit like that. Like very nice and I'm like rocking this shit, you know? Like with a triple-X t-shirt does it down to my fucking head. Jordans are fitted in a tall tee and you're like, yeah. I don't fit. Yeah. Oh, that's wild.

And so are you getting nervous at all when you're dealing with these kinds of people? Or is it just business? You're like head down, boom. Did you care? Like, it was like cop and go. Cop and go. Like I got to get to the next person. I got to get to the next person.

And so the customer service is crazy and the product is pure uncut. So everyone's fucking with it. Everyone's like, yeah, this is great. Yeah. I mean, that's wild. And at that point, you're probably up to like, is that when you're doing like two mill a year?

Three million? Yeah. Crazy. And just taking trips. Snowmobiling, Puerto Rico, beach, the whole thing. And then on the block. And then back to it. Yeah.

And then how did you get jammed up from that? So when the operation was running smoothly, my partner actually got locked up and was doing a year in prison so I was handling everything and so actually this is before this before then but like so my

we had a dispatcher the dispatcher was we set them up with a nice fucking condo on the upper west side we set them up with a nice brand new vehicle. And he was also all you had to do was just fucking. We paid him a salary, you know. All he had to do was just pick up the phones

and send people over. That was it, you know. But the drivers were coming in, picking up the work from him. He was giving to them and he was doing that. So anyway, he started another number behind our back. So his boy, his cousin, that was one of our drivers that we really didn't know like that but we trusted him so we were

like all right whatever he was driver so anyway he was doing uh he he made different business cards and was giving out the clientele that was calling us to them and at that time shit was getting a little bit slow and it was weird um so they're giving you know putting the stuff out there and um and then i a call from one of my clients that had my personal number, Dominic, and he lived on Hester and he was like, oh, this shit is trash. Like, these new blue bags, I don't know what the fuck you're doing with this, but I'm like, what are you talking about, blue bag? And it was like, yeah, the guy with the green Jeep, you know, he dropped it off and he gave

me a new number, you know, and I was like, what? Let me get that number. So I called and this motherfucker picks up. And then he hungs up. And then I'm like, yo, we went over there to try to like confront him. Disappeared with a lot of work. Like I think it was maybe 300 grams of coke disappeared, money. And disappeared with the phones.

And so we're like, yeah, we got to get these fucking phones back. So we went back. We went to, we had a T-Mobile like pre-paid connect. And we went over there and we're like, yo, our phone numbers, we need new phone. So we got all the numbers. And then we took that phone that he was using to attract our clients. And that phone was the one that was fucking being tapped. Because his cousin gave one of the cards to undercover DEA agent or some shit.

And so now we're not thinking we're just continuing business as normal. I'm doing all the dispatching. and and we send probably about 40 sales to, you know, these people. And they had 40 undocumented undercover sales. They said, I made a sale. I never met a sale of my life to undercover. I was in the car and one of my guys was like, yo, can you pick me up and drop me off here?

And I was driving and I was like, I pick you up and come see this person. He served him. And my boy never got locked up. He got away with it. Whoa. Yeah, you got lucky. So how do the phones get tapped? So, like, basically you give a car to an undercover.

He then gets the number. Yeah, and they're calling that number. And then they're able to go through the back end and, like, get access to him somehow. Yeah, I'm not. Through some government shit. IT support. So then now he's able to listen on all the calls. and then you're getting pushed work from those numbers

and then they're able to track it. And so the day I got caught, I had about 10 drivers out, and I'm sending all the drivers with my next cell, and then my next hell was getting like this technical, like, it was just not going through. And when it went through it went, it went, you know, and you got to talk.

But it was not going through. it was getting and so I'm sending all my drivers to the destinations and every driver I'm sending it's like getting fucked up and I'm thinking it's like a nextel issue like right so service issue or something so I had about 40 people in the queue to be delivered and like my phones are blowing up blowing up and I'm like fuck I gotta go see all these people like what's going number one thing I hate bad customer service I fucking drive a hundred miles per hour up to this dash house I get up there I grab a hundred bags of Coke and then I fucking I went to go First of all

I went over there My home girl My partner's girlfriend at the time Like she comes and drops off like five pounds of weed Like straight sour And she was in a Cadillac I was in the BMW M3 And she was in the escalate

And so We come out of the house and this white guy stops me and it's like pulls out a badge and he's like this detective Joseph King DA agent your shit is done I'm like what he's like you call smart to him

like what get the fuck out so I turned around I try to like leave and they threw me on top of the hood of the car and then they took her and like went in the escalate and um smell like

Saladiza at that time was Salad diesel like now we can't find that Saudi diesel anymore. Oh really? Yeah you can't get that original strong crazy Saudi diesel smell that was like super loud and the whole car stank but they flipped the whole shit and they let her go. They let her go. Yeah.

They let her go. And how much does she have on her? Nothing. Oh really? Yeah, nothing. She was just coming to do the drop off of the weed but the pounds were upstairs. And so they cuffed me up and they were like we got a warrant and they were like we're gonna go upstairs tell us where all the shit is at

so I'm like I don't know what the fuck are you talking about at that moment they didn't find any drugs on me my phones are fucking blowing up and they were like you guys fucking seven cell phones like they don't stop ringing and they just thought it was one phone and so they brought me up

and it was like where's the stuff at And I was like, I don't know what are you talking about. It was like, come on, though, we're not stupid. They walked in directly to the fucking box. I had maybe a few dozen boxes of Jordans at that time in that stash house and one, that stash house. And one Jordan box had Kato and a half already bagged up. And they were like, we know everything. Bingo.

And I was like, only two or three other people knew about that stash, like knew where that shit was at. you know, because not every driver had access to the spot. Of course. And so I started already speculating, like, who the fuck told, you know? And it was, yeah, somebody told. And so some of the drivers got, they all got jammed up. That's why the numbers weren't working and everything started going down. Yeah, and I found out when I went into the precinct.

And I went into the precinct, they started, like, clapping. They're like, we got them, we got them. and then I walked down the cell so this is Precum PSA 4 on Avenue C and I walk there and there's like multiple cells on one corridor and I'm just seeing like all my drivers I was like they walk me down the fucking stuff

and what are you thinking as you're walking down the hallway and you're like damn they know where the shit is someone snitched and all my people are in here yeah I was like fuck man I was like yo I told people I was screaming I was like y'all don't say shit don't say shit because they would bring people for interrogation, one at a time. But there was another guy that was in a female cell.

So there's a female side. The men's side, the men side is bigger. The female side, they had a cell outside. And I look at him, and he's like, and I just found it a little bit sketchy. And he is the one that told. Not making eye contact and shit. He was just like, damn, it's done, it's done.

I'm like, like, what? And whatever, I'm in there. I'm sitting there. They get me cigarettes. I'm smoking a cigarette. I'm stressed the fuck out. My boys are just screaming outside the cell. And they come back and they took my possessions,

but they brought me back my wallet and my wallet. I had a picture of my son. And I had 10 pieces of acid. And so I fucking, I tell, we used to call it funny, papers and that was like a chord word and um and i i told like a lot of my drivers like we used to trip out too and i was like yo they gave me back the fucking funny papers bro they was like yo pass me one pass me one i was like no fuck that shit so i type all 10 pieces of

acid i had a whole strip and all 10 all 10 pieces of that a whole strip and so that shit kicked in about an hour later and then that's when they called me to the interrogation room And I got a fucking smile in my face. I'm fucking tripping balls. And I'm laughing. And they were like, they started asking me like, where did I get on my stuff? Like, you know, just give somebody up. And I'm like, fuck you.

I don't give a fuck. I'm laughing. I was like, they were like, you know, you're facing life. I was like, I don't give a fuck. Give me 25. I don't care. You know, do whatever you fuck you want. Blah, blah, blah.

The district attorney is there. They're fucking, there's like 10 DEA agents trying to put pressure on me. And I was like, you fucking idiots gave me 10 pieces of acid right now. I was doing my fucking wallet. Dumbasses. I'm fucked up right now. That's when they just threw me back of myself. But when I get to see the judge, the judge is like, yeah, so we're here, you're on a little bit of LSD.

And I'm like, you know? And the DA was like, we're pressing king ping charges. You know, this guy's multi-million dollar drug dealer, blah, blah, blah, all this shit. And, you know. Bro, and you're just zooted. You're, like, finishing out your fucking trip in the cell, just looking at the ceiling. I was tripping. I was tripping for like 20.

The whole sky opens up. 24 hours. Bro. The judge was Jesus. I'm sorry, God. I'm sorry, God. Bro, that's wild. Yeah.

I mean, that's insane. Were you, like, hallucinating crazy in the cell? No, I mean, I was taken that. I said a lot at that time. I was probably taking acid every three days. Yeah. And I was taking like two or three pieces of acid. Oh, whoa.

I was seeing colors. Yeah. That's interesting. How did you, why did you start doing acid? Like, it was just around? You were like, oh, this is cool? I took acid for the first time when I was young, like 14. They used to have these mess tabs.

And so I took that. And then I think it was like 17, my boy started getting them again, and I started just popping at once in a while, nothing crazy. Just for fun. And then my partner got into it, and he was like, you never did that before. I was like, yeah, I have like, let me get that, you know? And so we started tripping all the time. That was our shit.

You ever do like shrooms? Yeah, but we wanted to go see. Outer space. Yeah. I was wild I've never done acid I'm like It's the best thing

Yeah I'm curious about it But it seems intense I have a piece on me right now Seriously No imagine the middle of the pod It's like I'm in your brain I'm like dude

I'm in prison right now Yeah I have You know if you need it Yeah so you still fuck around With stuff like that Just for fun Yeah I don't know Sometimes

Yeah yeah Just just be Like do you like go to concerts And shit Like do you like the party like that I like Yeah I like going to concerts with my wife but I don't really go I would love to do like like a ayahuasca trip

oh yeah like that like my wife is Peruvian and she's never done it and she's like I'm she's scared of that shit but I'm like um you never tried it no oh interesting I've like done DMT LSD streams how's DMT DMT was crazy like that shit was crazy it was it was it's like a short 30 40 minute high but like everything is like animated like like the build so I did it in my boy I did it with my boy like on 34th Street he was staying in the New New York hotel and and I go outside and like all the fucking buildings are like animated cartoon shit like like like it was like a comic book whoa that's wild and you're just walking around and I'm like I was scared I was I'm not he's probably gonna laugh at me

but yeah I was a little bit nervous yeah of course that's why I'm like I wouldn't do it is I'm afraid like I sometimes if I smoke I'll get anxious

if I'm not in the right setting yeah like I told the story before but like I went to Burning Man yeah wish you should go to that shit bro honestly like do acid at Burning Man that shit is crazy but I did uh

I smoked at Burning Man and I was fucking Dwight Howard was with me and I wasn't even with him he just walked up next to me and I was like what's all dude and then he fucking passes me

this joint And I was like, I grew up in Orlando. So I'm like, that's Superman, bro. Like, that's my Superman. So I was like, oh, fuck. So I literally grabbed the joint from him. And I was like, and then immediately I was like, oh, fuck, he hates me. And this immediately got anxious.

And I was like, thanks, bro. And I'm like, looking at him and like seeing if he's looking at me. And like, I just like him so on my head. I'm like, I got to go to sleep. And I just left. But like, it fucked my whole shit up. Yeah. But like, so I'm afraid if I were to do acid, I would get in there and be like.

No, acid makes you laugh hysterically. So, you know, like. E-Pills and Molly gives you like jaw lock. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Asa gives you smile lock. So you're like, you can wanna stop smiling. Yeah, yeah. You watch like funny movies and shit on acid?

Oh, I love like comedy, like all that shit. What was your go-to? What was like the movie you watched acid? You're like, so there was like 80 Eddie Murphy stand-up comedy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Roelier. Yeah, in the red suit? Yeah, red suit.

That was something that we watched a lot. Bro, that's a crazy special. Like on DVD, too. Yeah. Bro, you watch that shit now and you're like, I cannot believe he was able to say all this. Like, it's crazy. Yeah.

Bro, that opening joke where he walks around and he's like, stop looking at my ass. That's insane. And he's like 22 in that. That's the craziest thing. Richard Pryor too. Oh, yeah, yeah. We used to watch fucking Chinese flicks a lot too.

Oh, like kung fu movies? Yeah. Hell yeah. And that was funny to us. Yeah. Yeah, you ever watch it's not really a kung fu movie, like Shaolin soccer? You ever see that one? No.

It's literally a kung fu movie, but they all play soccer. And so, like, they play in the game. And, like, everyone was just like karate chopping, bicycle kick, kick the ball into the goal. That's like the whole movie. That's great. And I feel like, if you pop acid, watch that, you're like, bro, this is the best one I've ever seen. Oh, that's wild, man. So literally you're just like finishing out this trip in the cell.

And you're like kind of coming down. And then what happens when you come down and you're like, bro, I just wanted to the interrogation, like, off my ass. well i didn't come down in that cell like i came down in like three cells after three days later it was like it was like after so that you're you're being held in in the bookings for like two days you know going from cell to cell and it's like a whole fucking process to get you into your main jail cell uh so when i got to that main jail cell that's when i like calmed down and i was just like there by myself and i don't know I was just like, I don't know.

For me, it was like, whatever, you know? Like, I started this shit. I'm in it. You know, this is part of the lifestyle that I have to do. And how we'll do at that point? 23. Gotcha. So you were making, like, crazy money probably from like 17, 18 to 23.

Like, real money. Yeah, 19 was like, 19 was the, like, millions. Peak. Yeah, when. Crazy. And then you got to go to sentencing. And I'm curious, like, even before you got jammed up, like, did your mom, like, She sees like this girl grabbing your leg.

She sees like the car. She sees the trips. Like what does she think? Is she just like? She's so be praying for me and you know, just say like, you know, she didn't want me in that lifestyle. But she knew about it. Yeah. I mean, it was obvious.

Yeah. I was, you know, splurging and she would see me in the street all the time. And I'm not, I'm not living with her anymore. Right. You got a nice place somewhere. Yeah. Yeah. But you're also probably helping her out.

like you're supporting the whole family and stuff no not really really no oh interesting yeah they they were good uh well i know i tried like i've given my mom and she's like no i don't want that oh really she's like totally against it interesting and at this same point like your younger brother but i used to like give my brother money i used to give my little cousin's money i used to give like that family money but like yeah not my mom didn't want yeah to touch any of it like she's She'd rather die broke. That's principled. Yeah.

That's cool of her. That she was just like, not for me. I'm not getting involved. That's wild. And then you like are helping out your siblings and stuff. And your brother at this point, if he's like, you know, in politics now, like he was probably college, like the whole thing. He did college while I was locked up. Yeah.

But he was like a good student, like focus. Yeah. He studied in China, learned Chinese. Oh, really? Like did the international program. Yeah. that same Chinese kid And he would send me postcards

You know, when I was locked up Oh, crazy That's a wild like double life It must be weird for your mom be like all right One of my kids is like a millionaire Then got locked up And my two sisters became very successful I mean y'all are like you guys are all smart

Like you guys are all like super sure They were smarter I was just I just didn't want to waste my time with that That's my thing though you're still smart And you're just like yo what's the best margin Yeah What's like the best product? Like what's the thing can get me to my lifestyle fastest?

That was just my life. You don't want to waste time. That was my mentality. Yeah. And you see this opportunity and this gap in the market. You're like, I could do deliveries to white people with money, fucking celebrities. And my life is good. Yeah.

And go on trips and the whole deal. And still live the same better lifestyle than that graduating for college. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And then you're just like, I'm not going to get caught. And if I do, like I'll just deal with it or try to get out of it. Yeah. And then you eventually get sentenced.

and the judge at that point like what is the deliberation and like how much time were they talking about giving you so they first started like try to scam me with like life you know and uh they dropped it down from a1 felony uh from a kingpin to a one felony um because of kingpin you had to get caught selling a half a kilo to direct officer uh they they we were only selling increment we knew the law too. Like we we knew that we shouldn't be carrying a certain amount. Oh, interesting. We have all our drivers with a certain amount of coke because if they got caught, they would only be sentenced to a certain amount of time. Um, so we mitigated our risk. Yeah, of course. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You hedged it. Yeah. And so, um, they couldn't stick the Kingpin charges on me. They, they charged me with an A1. Um, I pleaded guilty to A2. Um, but first they were, so they, my lawyer, um, they, my lawyer, um, they, they, they, they, my lawyer, was like the minimum drug sentence for the 8-1 was 12 years.

And so I was ready to take 12 years. My lawyer was like, this is the best thing we could do, blah, blah, blah, blah, for the situation, there's your third strike, you know, this is what you're going to get. And I'm like, all right, whatever, I'm going to do 12. And so I go back to, I'm going back and forth to court. And there's news about, there's like rumors in the prison, Governor Spitzer that time like cheated on his wife with the ex-prostitute with the prostitute and all the shit and he got impeached and then there was like newspapers that we were reading and like that they were going to reform the

Rockefeller laws and so governor Patterson reformed the rockafel laws can you explain what that is the rockefellar laws so it was drug mandatory sentencing laws so have you met if you got caught with a certain amount you got you had to be in this this guideline so from what I got caught with and It was 12 to 24 years. So the judge could have said, you know, do 20 years. But usually like if you blew trial and you took it all the way to trial, you know, you're going to get almost the max or max, you know, and you're going to get above 20. I knew I was fucking guilty.

So I was like, I just need to plead out to something and get the best deal I could get. And so the best thing I could get was 12 years. And so that was the mandatory. It's a bare minimum. Bare minimum. And going back and forth to court and dealing with this change of politics, like, I got seven years. And my family, or my brother and my dad was in the back of the courtroom. And I look at them and I say, what's up?

And I turned around and the DA says, we're going to change our offer. We're going to offer him seven years. And my lord looks at me. was like, I better fucking take that shit. I'm like, guilty. Yeah, guilt me. Yeah, I did it. And I'm like smiling.

Yeah, you're on acid again. Yeah, I was like fucking tripping like I'm living in a dream. And my family is like seven years. Yeah. They didn't know that I had minimums and all shit. So they're probably like, oh fuck, that's a long time. Seven years is a lot of time. But you're over here being like, you got five years back.

I'll be out of one of them 30. Seven years. Yeah. And then so seven years out of seven years, they got to do six mandatory. And then they came up while I was incarcerated, they allowed individuals to take the shock program. So the shock program is like ex-marines turned correctional officers. And they beat the crap out of you for six months

and you saved three years from your prison time. I did shock my first time I went up to prison in adult state prison and I got a year for that. Well, I did a year because I got sentenced to three years, but I got, I ended up doing a year because I spent time in Rikers, then I did that six-month program, and then I came home. And you were only allowed to do that one time ever in your life. And when I went in, the second, this third time, well, four, five, it was my ninth time, but technically, but when I went in, they allowed it, they opened up the, the opportunity for you

to take it two or three times. And so I got lucky and I got to do shock again. And that's why I left in four years. And then by the time you're getting put in for that last time, the doctor in the prison tells you like, bro, you're too fat. Like basically what he said, right? Well, when you get into prison, like you go over there, they line you up. You're going from Rikers Island to state prison.

And this is not like, Rikers Island. There's like a lot of black, Latino officers, white officers. There's like a mix of officers. But when you get upstate, that shit is fucking redneck. Yeah, it's a country. I mean like Ku Klux Klan shit. Oh, really? Yeah, like you see swastika signs on the CO's fucking arm tattooed, you know, like real racist shit.

Yeah. And so like you go up there and they're calling there like you fucking nigger, spick, all this shit. Like calling me that, calling everybody that. Because we're all black and there's no white people. that are going up from Rikers Island right and they'd be like this is not fucking rikers island you fucking little spick blah blah blah blah and they'll smack somebody on the head and shit like that and then they'll strip you get stripped naked you go into the shower they give you this fucking liquid you rub this shit down your body you get cleaned up they give you

your uniform then they line you up and you go into a medical unit and so when you get to the medical unit they they're drawing all types of blood they do like a TB shot you know and so you go through that whole process and about two weeks later after going through that intake process they called me down to the medical unit and they were like yo you know and that was me

and this older man he was like 75 and they sit me down and then they he guys called Dan and he comes back and we're sitting in the bench talking to each other he's like so what they said and was like yo my cholesterol level is high

And I was like, oh shit, they told me the same shit. And they placed some medication. They said my cholesterol levels were through the roof that I didn't eat correctly or exercise that I could probably die of a heart attack within five years. Fuck. I was only 24 at that time. And how much did you weigh? I was only 231. But I think, you know, the lifestyle that I was living was extremely bad.

I was smoking so much. I was drinking. I was eating. fried food. What was the go-to food, though? I was a, there's this Dominican sandwiches in Uptown called chimis.

Yeah. I don't know if you know about a chimie, but it's like Coastlaw, hamburger, like extra, it's like a better than a mac sauce. Yeah, and it's just take a bite

and it just drips. And then you have like, you don't have like French fries. You have sweet, sweet potato, fry sweet potato, but in Spanish is batata. Yeah.

So, you know, You know, chimi with fucking fried batata, you know. So you was smoke, you're sitting in the car with runners. With a corona. Corona. And then just snacking all day. Just like, what's the go-to snack? What's the best bodega snack?

Best bodega snack. I mean, you know, just thinking about it. And the first thing that comes to my head is like an empanada. Oh. Like, you know, like meat. Yeah, yeah. Like fried, defried. know.

But we, when I was in the corner and I was in the LES and Broomer Eldridge and they still have these little fucking white castle in a plastic bag. Because there was no white castle in my head. We would have to go to Brooklyn or we have to go East Harlem. Yeah. To go to fucking White Castle. So we were like put White Castle and get like, like, Mama is the lady that she's like a hundred years old still working in the register.

Whoa. She's iconic over there. But like, do you, you will get her to. add like extra cheese and that shit was fucking the best banged bro so you were just put down hella chimies and white castle just all dead yeah and you were just racking up and did you feel like before you went to prison like did you feel heavy like did you feel bad like healthy wise

I started getting stretch marks so I got like stretch marks on my side and my stomach here and like my friends used to be like y'all you got fucking stretch marks you fat fuck and I'm like in a beach I didn't even notice until they told me I'm like oh shit yeah damn whatever you know right but you're living good Elon Musk is fat that means I made it you know exactly normal to him you know I mean he doesn't get any shit yeah yeah yeah yeah that's wild so your boys are just clowning you yeah yeah you're just like oh fuck yeah I guess I am a little yeah

but who does a fuck though like you got girls you got like money you got whatever like I'm not going to the I'm not getting checked up who's you know you when you're in the street and you're hanging out you're not going to go see a doctor yeah yeah it's not going to happen and your life is good anyway like you don't like you don't need to like be in shape to get girls but i was i was yeah i would definitely need to get in shape to get girls like at that time i was just spending a lot of money on girls just giving it away but anyway like i was sitting in a i was sitting in a bmw m3 like all day all night and i literally didn't waste my time trying to find parking or didn't go to parking I was not walking from the parking lot to my apartment I was literally leaving it

double parked outside I would face the ticket I might I might have paid like the city maybe like 30 40 thousand dollars in tickets in my lifetime bro just from just 65 bucks at a time yeah just like I'll leave a double park this take it yeah bro and sometimes it'll get told and then that's when I have to walk yeah yeah and heaven forbid you got a walk up you got an elevator building get me a door get me a wheelchair I live in the first floor and it was actually a walk-up. Oh, hilarious. But you were good, though, like, in terms of lifestyle.

So you're like, yeah, fuck it. I don't need, I don't need to be healthy. And then you go to prison, he tells you, you know, you got to figure this out. Yeah, no, so the doctor, it was a, I don't know if she was a doctor, maybe a physician, whatever. But she said, like, what I recommend is to get on a special diet, medication, and exercise. and obviously you don't get the best food in prison so what they did was like if you in the cafeteria line

and this is like intake process so you don't really get to order commissary right away until like another 30 days but while I was there I'm standing on the line and I get to my meal and they said oh you got special diet so they gave me like one piece of fucking wheat bread

and like meat. That's not a cheamy. Yeah, it was definitely. Definitely not a fucking chin. And I just like really started contemplating about like exercising. Like I knew how to work out, you know, and just went out to the yard. And I looked like a fool. Like I was the only person running out there.

And I first started jogging. And then I couldn't jog too much. I started walking. And running, jogging, running, walking, you know. Just literally around the yard. Just did that for two hours a day. And then I started wearing a fucking garbage bag over me so I could sweat. So I had like a sweat suit on.

And I'll put my fucking, my hoodie over that, my jacket over that. And I'm just fucking running. Latino Rocky, bro. Just fucking sweating, sweating. And just going back to my cell and doing pushups and dips and all types of calisetic exercises. And it was until like after I lost all the weight. one gentleman his name was bus he came up to me

I was smoking cigarettes still upstate and so like he comes out to me he's like yo give me a bus down I gave him a half my cigarette we started talking and he's like yo and bus was like ready to die he was like 320

like my height you know it was bad like horrible shit you know and uh and he's like yo I want to start running with you and I was like all right let's come let's run So I didn't think I was like I'm not gonna I'm just gonna run with him so we ran and two of his other friends came out and then one of my other friends came out and then at one point we had like you know I helped over 20 inmates is over a thousand pounds combined. Yeah it's insane so I started like this whole workout thing in the yard just leading workouts or I'm following somebody's workout and it was just camaraderie builder and they left you alone like the other inmates like they didn't fuck with you? Well when I was like running people who were who.

used to call me like fat force gump in the beginning and like make fun of me and it was usually like the solitary confinement units was facing the prison yard so you'll hear like all we used to call them cell gangsters because like when they come out of their cells and they meet you face to face they're not going to talk shit but they could scream out of a fucking cell and be a gangster you know right and so I used to like run and just like fucking give them the middle finger but probably good motivation low key yeah it was it was actually the more shit they would talk you're like all right but some of it was like hilarious and I use it just be like running and just fucking laughing.

Die laughing. They would just go on for hours. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And they probably had good burns too. Like, all they got is time just to be fucking writing down disses. The best comedians are in the system. Bro, that sucks. You just get ripped.

And like, as far as your time in prison, like, when you first got there, were you, like, in a car? Did you know, like, your people that you had to kind of, like, link with? Did you, like, how did you assimilate into the system? I knew I had friends that were in there, the same cell, same like friends that were from my block like literally like Marcos Glenn Glenn was in the vice documentary and he was like I used to see me every morning walking fucking to go to work and he used to be like oh you still fucking out here running and I'm talking about like upstate

like central New York fucking three feet of snow and I'm out there whoa and why did you stay motivated like all this time like did you feel like you were just channeling all of your energy and like hustle mentality into fitness because that's all you could control uh yeah it was a lot of like i'm not my mentality was like i'm always going to try to progress i'm always going to try to progress i have the time to progress my body my mind like read books and exercise read book and exercise what kind of stuff were you reading i read all right i right uh pattern fiction nonfiction Patterson bucks uh uh steaming king bucks and you just been to um i forgot the names um but i've read a lot yeah i i wrote philosophy bucks uh psychology books did you do like any classes and stuff

while you're there so so i was uh i went over there and they had a college program but there was only maybe like 20 people in the college program and the waiting list was like two years so after like two years I got into the college program and then I did the college program for like a year and then I got transferred over got you and then what jobs do you have while you were in there cleaning janitorial I did um like cleaning cemeteries um you know Cutting out trees, fixing the roads. Oh, crazy. They had you, like, out there.

Yeah, you're like straight slave work, yeah. That's insane. That 13th Amendment shit. They're like, no, it's real. That's right. Make you do it. My hat, the 13th. So the B logo.

Oh, that's fire. The 13th. You know, and so we, we, we, I really went in on fucking branding. But you're always been in branding, right? You've had Superman bags and happy ending bags. Like, you, I feel like you're always looking at the brand. Yeah. It's solid.

Yeah. And so they just have you out there just fucking. doing labor. Yeah, with a guard with a gun and just watching your work. Crazy. Do your work detail. Was it demoralizing or were you kind of like, oh, I can kind of keep moving and like do something? It was, no, it was good, you know.

It is, but you're like, you're not seeing the world. So like when you could go on a work site and you're like, you might see a girl, you know, drive by in a fucking car. I'm going to remember that for the next three weeks. I saw a fucking nipple, yo. I caught cleavage a little. That's hilarious. That's like, you're out of nature at least. Like you're not around all these fucking inmates.

Like you got to be out a little bit. Bro. No woman for a long time. Yeah, that's rough. That's just hard, especially going from the lifestyle. Yeah. Which I'm sure it was great.

And then all of a sudden, locked up. Yeah. And did you ever, did you get visits and stuff? Like, were people who come visit? Yeah. Yeah, my ex-wife visited me a lot, you know, on my son. Mm-hmm. My mom came a few times.

Yeah. And what were the combos like when they were coming up? It was just like how's the world, just like basic surface shit, nothing too deep, you know. It was just like hugging, like with my ex-wife was a little bit deeper when my son, you know, I was just seeing him run around. And it was hard, you know. And I think that was a huge change in my life. You know, it's just coming to the visiting rooms. and seeing my son cry and mom and asking me to come home and all the stuff.

It's hard break. Yeah. It's fucked up. And it forces you to kind of reevaluate, like, before you're not necessarily maybe thinking about how your decisions are impacting other people. And then once you're in there and you've got only time to reflect on it, and then you're kind of like, oh, fuck. Like, I got to figure this shit out.

Yeah. And then while you're in there, was there, like, violent at all? Like, did you have to, like, affiliate? Did you have to fight? Like, were you able to kind of keep clear and just focus on working out? Yeah, I kept cleared. I mean, I've had a couple fights while I was there,

but I was nothing too crazy. I actually got in a fight maybe like three days when I got to my block and almost got caught and sent to the box of that shit, but got away with it. But someone just tried to try you, like, as soon as you got there? No, so there's the day room,

there was chairs out. There's this Mexican kid sitting there, and I went to go use the bathroom, and he grabbed my chair and put his, so everybody has their own chair and you bring it to your, you're, just like cubicle areas. And this is when I got to the medium. And he took my chair when I stepped out, and he put his feet on my chair. And I was like, yo, let me get my fucking chair back. And he was like, and so I grabbed it. And it was like, oh, you want to fight? I was like, look, come to the bathroom because the bathroom was where like we got away with a fight.

And so we scruffed it out a little bit. And then the lieutenant was coming in to the unit. And they come to do random checkups. And he saw us through the window. And he walked in. I ran into a bathroom store. The kid got caught. And he had a lot of his,

Lump was over his eye was Sean a little bit. And he was like, what's that mark? Where's that mark? What's the other guys? And there was other people in the bathroom. So everybody walked out. And I walked out with the mix. And they was like, everybody get back to your units.

So I'd go back to my like little cell thing. And I'm standing there. And they're checking everybody's like, they check everybody's hands. And if it's red or if you got cuts or whatever. So they basically strip us, you know, to see if we have any marks. And the kid didn't snitch on me, but he went to the box. Fuck. You saw him after that?

Yeah. It was cool. Yeah, we'll go. Yeah. I've heard that before, like, from other people that, like, you'll get tried as soon as you get in. Like, people will kind of just, like, test if your pussy or not. Yeah. And then depending on how you react to the test is kind of how the rest of your time will go.

Exactly. And then if you kind of shy away, you kind of, like, show your pussy, then your life sucks. You have to, yeah, I've seen people get taken advantage. Yeah. It's sad. I hate it. I hate bullies. Yeah, it sucks.

And the guys you were bunked with, were they cool? Yeah. You still talks about? One of them. Esco, he, Pablo, he, well, his nickname is Esco, but Pablo, this is his real name. And he's actually working at a dispensary. I got him a job at working out a dispensary, one of the legal ones. Oh, that's dope?

Yeah. So he's back to it. Yeah, he's back to it. He came out and like Was struggling find a job and then he was you know he was doing his weed runs too and so I just kept in touch with him and I was like go bro if you haven't need a job Yeah, and he was like yeah, you know, but I'm hustling on here and then I called them I was like yo bro, they have

You know jobs where you could work at a dispensary and when they first open and so he got to work He's still working at the first dispensary He's like you know I appreciate you bro like thank you so much you're doing very well there that's sick yeah and then are you doing the shock program still like all that same stuff that that was towards the end okay got you yeah what even is that like how does that work so you you get three years before your release um you get a letter for consideration and so i got considered to go to shock and you could accept it or not you know some people are like fuck that shit I'm not having nobody scream at me or touch me blah blah blah and they have this

fucking big pride I'm like six fucking months and I'm saving three years of my second I got kids out there like that's fuck out you know like and I did shock before um so I go to shock uh and I actually get kicked out of the shock I went to the box and then I restarted shock after the box and then I came home how long were you in the box for that time 30 days fuck yeah Brutal? Yeah. I mean, the box is always brutal. Just mentally tough, right?

What'd you do to stay sharp? Busy. You keep yourself busy, you know? Like, a lot of people are like, oh, you shouldn't consider it, like, related to the pandemic. But, like, when you were locked in in your house and you were bored as fuck and you're tired,

like, you're coming in, there's so many people coming up with new shit, you know? Obviously, I didn't have no fucking TV. I had no TikTok. I had none of that shit. So I'm like, like, my school schedule would be wake up I would work out I would take like you'll get two showers a week maybe three sometimes and I would take a bird bath you know so I would get slow as

bird and like my water's like dribbling out of my fucking little sink and and then I would write I would write for like an hour I wrote my book in there my calm body book like my whole workout routine it's where I came up with calm body like in that cell while you were thinking yeah that's cool And I would just write, write, right, right. And then if I had the opportunity to get a buck from the book cart, like when they were coming down, once a week, I grabbed two bucks and knocked them shit out.

Like I was reading a book a day, like three, four hundred pages. And they would give you books. You could kind of like keep your mind busy. Yeah. Yeah. And obviously, like, I would knock out two bucks in two days. and then I'm sitting there fucking bored. But I, that's when I re-turned to the Bible.

So I had like a spiritual awakening that happened to me and it really changed my life. And my sister at the time, she's still super, my mom's religious, but my sister's like mother Teresa's child, like Jesus, like, birth her or some shit. Well, she's super religious. Yeah. And she finds out I was in solitary,

because I was not calling home. And she writes me a letter, and she's like, I spoke to the people in the prison. We know you're in solitary. Something happened. It's going to be okay. All I want you to do is read Psalm 91 from the Bible. And I was like, Psalm 91 for the Bible.

I don't fucking need Jesus. I need a fucking lawyer to get me out of shit, you know. And out of boredom, I had this Bible that she gave me on early in my prison sentence. never opened it up to read it. In prison, we use Bibles as like our address books because that's the only shit that can't take away. It follows you through solitary,

it follows you through any jail that you go, you know, your Koran tour or whatever religious item is, they cannot take away. And so all I had was this Bible. And at that time, I wrote a letter to my family, letting them know, like, I'm in this situation. I can get the hell out of here.

I'm fighting this case now. I ended up in the box because the officer said I was attempting to assault him. I had a situation with an officer. And so I'm finding this semi-ticket case. And I write this letter and I closed in. I realized I had no stamp to send out this letter with. And I remember like fucking being stressed as fuck. And my sister writes me this letter.

Didn't open up the Bible, but out of boredom after like a week. week in solitary, I opened it up. And I turned to the pages that she told me to read. Psalm 91, he who dwells in the shelter of the most high will rest in the shadow almighty. I will say the Lord, he is my shelter and my fortress, my God and who I trust. As I was reading that, there was a stamp between the pages of my fucking Bible, and it dropped. And it was the stamp that I needed to send out this message to my family, letting them know what really happened. Bro, that's so cool. That's an awesome story. It was crazy.

Damn. And that changed my life. It was that moment you were like, all right, let's get into this a little bit. Yeah, I read the Bible from front to back and like just restarted understanding

like what I needed to do in life, you know? And I'm not somebody that pushes religion or, you know, hallelujah, amen every second, you know, but this is what opened my eyes. Right, it's your personal thing

that helps you stay focused. That's cool. And did you, did you have like a mentor like a pastor that like came to or like you literally were just teaching yourself just through reading the bible yeah just reading well that's crazy do you have like favorite books or like passages that you still think about obviously the song but like were there things as you were reading them like through the gospels you were yeah through the gospels I one thing was like um I don't remember the the verses but like in Paul he talks about

the like money and the rule to all evil and like you know and and that just you know money is good money you know i believe we shall all make money but i shouldn't hurt people to make the money you know and i i really started fructing on like all the damage like having natasha line fucking grabbing my leg in front of my mom you know begging me for crack like like that i was destroying her you know, I introduced it to heroin. I, like, I was destroying so many other people that I didn't really care. I had this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, my soul, my heart was so hardened. And at that point, I felt, like, I felt feelings, you know.

That's interesting. You felt feelings. Like, you could feel the empathy of, like, oh, all these people that I hurt. And all of it, was it intense? Like, having it all happened at once? Do you feel guilty? Yeah. I, I, I, I felt very guilty.

I prayed. And it was weird. A lot of weird shit, I had an out-of-body experience in that cell. I've never mentioned that to people like that. But like, one thing that happened to me was like every time, I was there in the middle of the summer.

It was over 100 degrees. There's no air conditioning, no fan in that cell. You're like sweating. I'm naked all the time, like sweating balls. and um and every time i opened up the bible it felt like i was like 75 degrees in front of a beach like this cool sensation in my body that i've never felt like what happened and when i would close it i was like back to reality back to heat this was the escape you could read it and feel comfortable yeah it like literally physically brought you like

comfort yeah that's wild that's crazy And so you get out of the box, serve the rest of your time, your mentality is now completely different. Like the way you're seeing the world is like you're not the same person even. No, I remember meeting my bunkie. It was like this humongous black man, like six, five fucking 300 pounds. He was on the top bunk. That's scary. You got to check the screws on that one.

You're like, all right, we're good. But I get, they bring me back to general population and he's reading a Bible. And I'm like, y'all, you read it. And then I share my Psalm 91 story. And he looked at me like I was crazy. I was like, y'all a stamp fella on my Bible changed my life. And he's like, how much time you did in the box, bro?

And then I never shared that with anybody where I was incarcerated. and after I felt like I was being judged for it. Nah, bro, that's a beautiful story. That's cool. You got to add that to the branding, bro. Yeah. You got to add a little stamp to the fitted.

Yeah. That's a cool story, man. I like that idea. That's sick. And so you basically are now working out still. The weight's falling off. Like, they got to probably get you new, like, jumps and shit. Like, I would have to tie my pants were, like, falling off.

Yeah. We had sewing kits that we could, like, like, I would like so and I like bunched up here. Yeah. It was crazy. And then and you're still sort of like in this mental state. Now you mentioned before, I don't know if you probably get into this, but like the Susie's that came through.

Like what's the deal with that? So Susie is like your girlfriend in prison. But that was more like a juvie, like young. Oh, that was back. Back before. And like Reikers Island, I was using a Susie. So basically you take like a latex glove, right? you take the latex glove you get try to get the extra large ones no point intended but like you get

the big ones you stick it in uh in a like a towel your bath towel yeah you roll your bath towel and you take the the glove and you fold it outside right and so and then you put lotion in it and then you hold it all together by putting the big long socks oh hilarious yeah and so it's like and then that's your girlfriend like a flashlight kid oh that's that's That's hilarious. And they let you have those? You got to, like, hire. Well, you steal the league takes gloves from the kitchen workers.

You know, so like anybody else working on, y'all break me back in glove. My old gloves running out, bro. My whole shit is ragged. And then you like take you the showers or some shit or like just keep it yourself? Nah, you throw it away. Yeah, yeah. I'm not going to reuse a glove. Now, you reuse a glove one or two times.

I won't tell anyone. I won't tell you. I have multiple suits. That's crazy, man. But there was one time where when I went to the medium and we were in a dorm, I was not in a cell anymore. So I didn't have that privacy to like do me, you know. So in the dorm, you have to, like, people go to the bathroom. They put like a sheet up or they put like a little piece of toilet paper through the cracks of the door so nobody you can focus.

Yeah, yeah. Motherfuckers is making like sex tapes too. Like, so we had like cassette tapes. Yeah. So we're like listening to like porn. Like just like, ah. It's like an audio book. Yeah, like an audio book.

But then you have like your magazine that you're watching. Oh, that's hilarious. But I was like, I've done it. I did it a couple times and I'm like, I'm not doing this shit no more. Like I'm hearing like a dude walk by. I'm like, fuck that. Yeah, you got to make sure you get the recording right. Yeah, yeah.

You straight turn off. But I, so I stop. masturbating, I stopped doing everything for two years. Oh, wow. Two years. That was when you were upstate? Yeah, when I was upstate. You never, two years?

Two years. Two years. I had wet dreams and stuff like that. Of course, bro. But like two years I stopped. And then what made me go and I was like, this is not normal, was that I was on the mess hall line and going to the mess hall. I was like chicken patty day because that was the only time I went to go to mess hall on Thursdays. and I was standing on the line

and I'm not hard or anything chubby nothing and I just feel wetness I literally came on my fucking like my whole shit was wet and I was like oh fuck and my leg is sticky and I'm like

I gotta get back from the unit and I like skip lunch and I fucking ran back embarrassed that's why they called the mess hall bro because you went down there making a mess you were in there thinking about those chicken patties You know, bro.

You gotta get you. Bro. A chicken patty will get you going. I've done that before. I've never even been in prison. I had a chicken patty one time I came in my whole pants. It was crazy. That's true.

My wife made a chicken paddy. I was like, this is a good chicken patty, man. She's sex of your mouth. Exactly, right. That shit killed. That's like my, that's my chimney. That's my version of it. So then, okay, so basically then you're doing the workouts and then you like, okay, I'm ready to leave.

The day comes, they give you a knock. And it's like, you did the shock. So, dish shock fucking literally as soon as you step out of that gate It just, the air tastes different It just feels like You get like so much weight off your shoulders It's like just drops

And so there's a bus that picks us up You know, a group of individuals And they take us to the unit They take us to the bus stop And they drop us off in the bus stop And that bus, so I was let out in Lakeview Correctional Facility, which is like a nine-hour bus. And I was like, fuck that.

I'm taking a flight. And so I took a cab with some other guy and went to Buffalo Airport and got on it. And I like didn't know if I was going to be able to get on the plane because I had like a parole ID. That was bad for like 60 days. So I get on the plane. And I remember like I needed to call my family to see if they could pick me up from the airport. And so I called them and was like, I'm going to take this flight, blah, blah, blah. First of all, I was a shock because I went in with like a flip phone and came out with a touchscreen phone.

And like I had no phone. So when I went into the airport, like I was looking for a pay phone. Yeah. And like there was no more pay phones. That was a fast four years, bro. Yeah, it was like, yo, I, you know, I had no idea with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. none of this shit was. It was 2009 or 2013?

Yeah, like the beginning of 2009. Yeah. And so this is like right after the recession. And like I'm going into prison. And it was just, I had us. The best technology that we had was a sidekick. Yeah, yeah. The one that flips.

Yeah, yeah. You thought you were so hot with the flip. Yeah, like that was my shit. Yeah. Yeah, you were rollerblading with the flip phone. And now all of a sudden, it's like, rollerbladen's gay. Flipflones are gay.

Yeah, you're like, what happened? Yeah. And so I came home and, I mean, I get to the airport. I meet, I'm there and I'm like, I need to call my family. And I asked this lady, I was like, excuse me, miss, can I use your phone? She passed me this touchscreen phone. And I'm like, no, I need a phone. I don't need your little iPad shit.

Yeah, no, I got confused for a second. I was like, I had a sense that it was a phone. But I'm like, no, this is like an iPod or something. bro. You're like an alien, bro. Like, what is this? Seriously. And she was like, what do you mean? I was like, I just came home from prison. And she was like, like, she grabbed the phone.

And she was like, I don't know. But not like that. Not like that. I was like, I'm not going to rob you. Don't worry. Like, I just need to make a call. I need to call my family. So she like dialed it for me and put it on speakerphone.

And you're like talking. Oh, hello? Yeah, exactly. Like, are you in there, mom? Yeah. And, yeah. And then I got on this little raggedy plane. You know, the shit was mad turbulence, but I got to JFK and my family met me there.

You know, my son, my ex-wife, my parents, my sister, my brother. And what's that feeling? It was great, man, like just to hold my son out. But it was hard because when I was in solitary and I got a visit, that was the last time I saw my son. So I didn't see my son for like maybe eight months. So he was a little bit weirded out. And I felt like he just was just weirded out.

Like this guy we're celebrating who, you know, he was six years old. Yeah. I came home. So it was, it was not, you know, for me, I thought he was like, and I'm going to embrace me and be this little, yeah, I got a 15 month. My son is 15 years old now, but my daughter, I got a 15 month year old now. And so like to have that, you know, before I went in, that was, he was on top of me, hugging me and, you know, all this shit. And it was just not the same feeling.

Yeah. But it's going to be interesting now that you get to kind of like, you can never make up that time. Yeah. But now you got your new baby and like you get to kind of have those years that you didn't get to experience. Yeah. And me and my son, we have an incredible relationship. Yeah. How long does it take for him to kind of come around?

Pretty quickly. Yeah. Not to a couple months. Dad is dad at that end of day. Yeah, yeah. Once, you know, teaching him how to swing a bat and shit like that. Exactly. And he sucks, but.

Yeah, bro, that's, you got to get, that's when you realized was your ex, was she Dominican also? Puerto Rican. Bro, he should be able to swing a bat. Yeah. Dominican, Puerto Rican blend. Like, that's bad swing genetics. Literally, our apartment was in front of the Yankee Stadium. Like, so, like, on the fourth floor, you could, we could, we could.

could see the third base line oh really we can see a rod on third base and the empire and so like i thought he loved baseball and like he just was not with it's like nah i was like whatever what's he into though he's like in art or something uh mechanical engineering oh that's cool he loves like building stuff oh nice you know for a moment he got really good at video games and now he's like he likes working with his hands he wants to do like aerospace engineering oh that's amazing Yeah. That's cool. And so when you got out, was there any, like, obviously the temptation is always there

where you're like, yo, I'd seen, you know, all the money I made before. There's guys you know that are probably still on the corner, like still making crazy money. Like, was there any temptation to be like, yo, let me check that out? No. No. You were changed. I was totally, like, convinced that if I trust the process, that things will work out. And I already had this mentality for calm body.

And I literally started the next day. Like I came home, woke up, went to the park, and started training. And then I started seeing people in my neighborhood. I'm like, yo, I'm doing this boot cap out here. Like the next day. And just kept doing it every day. Non-stop. Not stop.

Two and a half years on the park. Rain or shine. Rain, shine. Motherfuckers is not showing up except for me. You know, like I'm out there twice a day. Twice a day. Every day. Not even making money from it, just doing it.

Just doing it. Yeah. I started making, my first sale was like, by mistake a little bit. Like I made a couple of, about 20 bucks, 30 bucks, but like my first like real sale, I made like 200 bucks. And I was like, this like, dude. So I took a piece of pipe and we stuck in between fences, me and my boy Pelo. And we were like doing pull-a-bar training and stuff like that. And so I had that pipe like set.

Like I put a stick on that pipe. And I was there twice a day. And so I was training my mom. I was training my neighbor. I was training like a couple other people. It was like three people out there. And this white dude comes up and runs up to the bar and tries to do a chin up.

And I was like, yo, that's my fucking ball. You got to pay me for that. I was joking around. I was like, I'm so sorry. Like I don't mean to interrupt. I was like, yo, you got to come join the session now. So it's like, hi, can I work out? I was like, go ahead.

And he was like, yo, so how much is the sessions? And I had no concept of like, And I was like, it's like 200. It's like a month for like semi-private sessions. And I was like, yeah. He was like, oh, that's a great deal. And I'm like, yeah. I should have charged for it.

And I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah. We train here twice a day, blah, blah, blah. You know, if you want to do this, like, let's go get the money. So I literally walked in the ATM to him, got 200 bucks. And like, you're hustler, through and through it. Like that never leaves. And I gave my card and, and, um, text to him and that was it.

And then now you're like, all right, $200 a month. Yeah. Let's get 10 more. Yeah. Let's get 20 more. Yeah. And then literally just started leveling up. Yeah.

And then what year is that roughly? It's 2013. 2013. And then at what point do you actually get a facility? Uh, 2015. Okay, so pretty quick. You do that for two years. Yeah.

At 20, the end of 2015, like two and a half years. And then, uh, We opened up January 2016. Damn. And like nobody wanted to rent to me, like, because of my criminal record. Like, I had to, like, check that box all the fucking time. Did you try getting regular jobs? I tried getting rather jobs.

I had jobs, like, where I was working, like, as a legal immigrant, basically. It was crazy. Like, nobody wanted to hire me, so. Which is so annoying because you're sitting here being, like, y'all'm smarter than you motherfuckers. And I didn't. For me, I was not even. Even like I was not, and that that mindset never came to me. It was just like, I just want a job.

Yeah. Like my mom was charging me like 200 bucks a month for the couch. Damn. You know, like I was renting the couch from her at that time. And, and I was doing like housekeeping work. And so my uncle had like housekeeping work at a hotel nearby. And he was basically paying me $8 an hour while he was making like $16 an hour. He was not doing shit.

And I'm doing a fucking work. Yeah. I'm working off the books. Yeah. And so I just kept doing that and doing training. And then I did an internship where I was helping people with their resumes. And I really wanted a desk job because I had a little bit of technical skills. And I told them I know how to do like presentation and spreadsheets.

I had no like fucking idea what the fuck Microsoft Suite was. Yeah. Yeah. You didn't know what iPhone was. Yeah. And I was like literally taking like, I would come home and like be on my brother's laptop and like do like the typing test tape

because I was like typing like this at work, you know? And I was like, boom. And so he taught me how to do spreadsheets, you know, he got into finance and just got in it. And then the spot that you opened up, where'd you open it? On the same corner where I sold drugs at got locked up in the first time. Yeah, that's crazy.

Yeah, Brumman Eldridge. It was a Buddhist temple. in the basement and so I found the Craigslist offering at listing and I went to check it out and that spot

I called the broker the broker spoke to the landlord and the broker is trying to convince the landlord not to rent to me because of my criminal record and what I was trying to do a prison style boot camp with ex-cons in a fucking room you know yeah and so the landlords called me it was like i believe in second chance is and she

gave me a chance and and uh there was like like a big buddha statue on the first lord and temple and like we're in the basement playing like damax and like people are worshipping and you just hear like ex-go what gave it to you you what he was you know what he was he do it that's crazy and then you literally like buying like the gate of the prison like from eBay and like putting it in and like building out the whole brand of it yeah yeah that that became because so there was clients that I was getting a lot of what white women with yoga pants that I was trading at the time and one worked at PR and she was like oh I love your story I want to write a story and she did a story I'm well and good and blew me up and she wrote like you know she asked me what

what do you want to do? I was like, I want to open up my own studio. I had no idea I was going to open up like a studio that looked like a jail. Yeah. It's like, I want to put a jail cell and I have like five minutes showers. I want to put mugshot gates. I want to do this and that. Like, we get into the branding, blah, blah, blah.

And she was like awesome. And she published it. And then I was like, fuck, she put it out there. And now I got to do it. You know, like I was just bullshit. Yeah, I was just like, just freestyle and just kept talking shit. You know, now it's real. And so the time came.

and I did it. Crazy. And then now you have the one spot and the goal is like, yo, keep franchising. Franchising, one thing that we're doing that's huge is we're going inside Rikers Island.

We're going into the juvenile facilities, training the inmates in there, getting them trained so we can give them a pathway when they come out. That's sick. I've been able to hire over 70 people coming out of the prison system. We still have a zero recidivism rate.

Wow. Nobody has gone back. That's amazing. Yeah. Is it a little tough, like, that you are hiring, like, former incarcerated, like, vetting them? Because there are, obviously, some incarcerated people that might not be fit for it. Yeah, I mean, it is hard. Yeah.

And it is what it is. You know, in the beginning, I was just like, I'm going to hire you guys a trainer, and that was it. You know, and then they started facing, like, parole issues. And I'm like, I got to help them. because it's and then like the housing issues right at one point i had like four air mattresses in the boot in the basement like because my staff was all homeless wow you know so i'm like waking up at 5 a.m deflating it at 5 30 like starting class at 6 a.m you know and like bringing peanut bun and jelly sandwiches to the gym to feed everybody wow like and this should's all document

like we have a huge documentary that's coming out oh really yeah with a fourth time i'm Academy Award. She's been following me around for eight years, eight and a half years now. Oh, wow. When is that going to drop? Should be this year. That's great, bro. Six-part docu-series. That's great. And then when did the book? And Derek is in it. Oh, really? Yeah, yeah. Oh, that's sick. Yeah. That's cool, man. Yeah, shout out to Derek. He's one of the best comedians I know. Yeah, exactly, man. So that was actually the first time that I had, not the first time. I heard about it through

Weezy first, and then I went and saw show there. Max and Derek. we're doing a show. And I was like, oh, this place is sick. And then I literally like, looked it up and I was like, watch the vice document.

I was like, bro, I got it like, this is insane. And it's like, it's just cool to like hear the whole story like see the whole arc and the, the full circle moment of getting caught in the corner

to opening up a business to then helping people that were incarcerated. But like really being about the work. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like at this point, it doesn't, it's interesting. I'm curious what your perspective on this is.

Like as your focus isn't only money. Like, obviously you're running. business but the focus before was just money who gives a fuck but now it's like yo let's create a product that really helps people changing people's lives both clients and trainers are you finding that the emotional benefit is actually greater than the pursuit of money absolutely and and i think the biggest thing is like i go go go and i put my head down and i'm just working working working but then sometimes like i guess stopped by one of my trainings

or I get a text message and they're like, y'all, I appreciate the fuck out of you. Like, I got my own place. I got my family. I'm supporting. Like, I'm good right now, you know, because you. And I wouldn't realize that because I'm just going, going, going.

Right. But those moments, like, I feel like, you know, my heart fills up. Yeah. It hasn't been easy at all. It's a lot of work. It's a lot of work. Yeah.

Ten years I've been doing this. Yeah. But it's cool to see the fruits of it and that it's so positive. Yeah. And that, I don't know, that's, that's from the Bible. You'll know, you'll know a tree by its fruits. Yeah.

And like, this is, it seems like a different tree than, you know, the tree we were talking about before. And, and, and the documentary, I haven't seen it. I don't know what she took from it. But, like, she's not only, like, did me, but, like, she filed the people that are hired and them going off to their own journeys and starting their own companies or they're starting to work somewhere else.

And, like, so I'm a very interested. and like see even though i keep in touch with almost everybody like like i'm very interested to see like where's everybody at yeah how everybody's doing so it's like it became like a web of of course and it cycles positively in the way that the negative the web cycle negatively now you got this positive web that's creating positive change without you even knowing it and you're going to be able to see it and one day like 30 years from now you're going to meet some kid that's like bro you hired my dad and he like you got to take us on trips and like changed my life because he was going to go back to the fucking crack game but he had a way out and it's because of

you it's crazy it's gonna be wild and now I'm selling weed yeah yeah yeah so what was combat uh I mean it's just a it's a matrix right it's like I got locked up for selling weed at the time for it and now like um out you know getting a license for it so like new york state is allowing people that have been uh done time for cannabis been convicted for it and then also have a net profitable business for at least two years there's not many people that came home and started the business after doing time for weed you know so like it's a very small pool of us and i got the opportunity to launch a new brand a couple years ago now like called con bud and on Instagram,

but why. But like, I want to hire people that have been justice impacted by the war on drugs to sell drugs legally. Yeah.

And I look at weed as like a plant, you know, like we're not putting any chemicals in it. Like, yeah. From the ground,

it's a, it's a blessing, you know? It's literally medicine. Like, hell of people literally need it to like sleep

for chronic pain. Like, even if you just want to, like, chill after work. Relax. Yeah. Just take a breather. Yeah,

exactly. And it's, is it frustrating to you or was it frustrating to you like thinking about all the people that are still in prison for weed and then you it's like oh but now the state can make money on it yeah well the state doesn't have any more people in prison oh really in new york or federally in new york uh federally yes right so federal prisons in new york there are individuals that have gotcha cannabis charges but in the state they completely legalized it they open up the keys to the game and they expand everybody's old record that's great the

majority of people's yeah of course i mean there's people probably do a multiple shit it's like weed in yeah crack or something yeah but that's cool though that's cool and uh it must be weird for you to walk around like this area now and like everything's nice everyone's smoking weed yeah you're like yeah yeah bro the other day i saw this fucking white dude just go up to a cop and was like where do i go and and like a joint in his hand and I'm like, bro, hide that shit. Like that shit would have been in my ass right now, you know? My present pocket. Bro, those are cops.

He's literally wearing a whole hat. You're like, yeah, what the fuck? It's just, it's wild to me to see like, and I think a lot of these kids take it for granted. You know, like they didn't grow up being, you know, these early 20-year-olds or whatever. Like, they never had to face the prohibition of cannabis. Of course. You had to hide it. Yeah.

I mean, this is a great story, and I think it's a cool arc. And the circle is just insane. Yeah. And I'm excited to see what happens next. I'm excited to see a franchise out and get... Yeah, I'm working on franchises like now. Yeah. I'm just waiting like it's a whole government thing.

You have to wait for the government to approve your franchise to close your documents. Paperwork bullshit. A lot of lawyer shit. Yeah, yeah. I'm working on it for like eight months. But I can see this in like Miami go crazy. I can see it like a lot of the people. big cities just I got over 90 franchise requests really wow yeah that's right that's right it's

crazy so many people hit me out I'm that's amazing bro I'm excited for you thank you yeah it's gonna be cool there your story is seriously like it makes me like it's like it's like is I mean emotional thing about like this kid that had nothing tried to like business savvy got into the wrong shit and then turn it around thank you and then the religious element of it's cool do are you still going to church you still praying I I pray But I don't go to church. Yeah, yeah. We're still in the Bible, though.

Yeah, I teach on Sundays. Oh, for real? Yeah, that's the day I teach classes. And I tell people when they come to my classes, I'm like, when I beat the fuck out of you and they're on the floor and I'm like, you look like you're in a praying position. I'm like, Jesus is not here to save you. I'm fucking you up.

That's your church. That's your church. Man, cause I appreciate you. Thank you so much for coming through, man. This is great. Thank you. Thank you.