Locked In with Ian Bick - 13 Years in New York’s Most Dangerous Prisons | Melo

Episode Date: July 21, 2025

Melo grew up in poverty on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, raised in a single-parent household and surrounded by the harsh realities of the streets. By 16, his life took a dangerous turn — leading to 13 years behind bars in some of New York’s most notorious maximum-security prisons. In this conversation, Melo shares what it’s really like inside the system: the violence, the survival tactics, the mental toll, and the lessons he learned the hard way. Now free and determined to turn his life around, he’s using his story to inspire change. #PrisonStories #LifeAfterPrison #RedemptionStory #InnerCityStruggles #RawTruth #PrisonReform #FromTheStreets #RealLifeLessons Hosted, Executive Produced & Edited By Ian Bick: https://www.instagram.com/ian_bick/?hl=en https://ianbick.com/ Big thanks to SHADY RAYS for sponsoring this episode: Get 35% off polarized glasses at https://shadyrays.com/ - code LOCKEDIN Get 50% off the Magic Mind offer here: https://www.magicmind.com/IANB50. #magicmind #mentalwealth #mentalperformance Presented by Tyson 2.0 & Wooooo Energy: https://tyson20.com/ https://woooooenergy.com/ Buy Merch: http://www.ianbick.com/shop Timestamps: 00:00:00 Raw Realities of Life in a Violent Jail System 00:04:31 The Legacy of a Coney Island Gangster 00:09:27 The Evolution from Petty Crime to Dr*g Trade 00:14:31 The Rise of K2 and Its Impact in Prisons 00:19:18 Legal Troubles and Confrontations 00:23:41 Shocking Encounters with Inmates 00:28:41 The Reality of Prison Life and Job Training 00:33:35 Experiences of Solitary Confinement 00:38:44 Discovering Contraband in Prison 00:44:29 Unexpected Setback: Losing Good Time 00:48:54 Navigating Life in Prison: Establishing a Routine 00:53:27 Life in Solitary Confinement: Reading to Survive 00:58:49 Life Lessons from Incarceration 01:03:19 Life Lessons from Prison: Growth and Self-Improvement 01:07:11 Overcoming Adversity After Prison 01:11:13 Mike Tyson Stories: Truth Behind the Legend 01:15:29 Anticipation for the Launch Party Powered by: Just Media House : https://www.justmediahouse.com/ Creative direction, design, assets, support by FWRD: https://www.fwrd.co Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Immediately my first day into the recreation girl I've seen a guy get cut And he passed him the weapon And the guy he passes the weapons who cuts him Mello grew up in poverty on the Lower East Side The streets got him as a teenager And prison held him for 13 years From Rikers to Max Security

He's exposing the raw, brutal truths Of life behind bars And how he's fighting for redemption Mello, welcome to Lockton, man. NEMS' cousin hooked us up. If you guys haven't watched that NEMS episode, it's out now. Everyone's been raving about it. And I'm so glad he drove you up here today to do this again.

Yeah, I'm glad to be here. I enjoy your content, watch a lot of your stuff on the road. Awesome. Were you guys, I know he was, but did you watch it before that we all linked together? I seen, yeah, shorts. I seen all your shorts and all that. But when we left, I looked more into it in depth. That's awesome.

I watched your interview that whose channel was out? Um, Pistol Pete, dog in the yard. I just found out that there's a couple Pistled Pets, right? Yeah, there is. Okay, I didn't know that someone was telling me about Pistel P, and I was telling them about your interview, and they're like, oh, no, this is a different Pistol Pete. Probably talking about from the Bronx.

Okay. He's like a sex money murder. Okay. Did you grow up in the Bronx? I grew up in the Lower East Side. Lower East Side. Who do you grow up with? I grew up with my neighborhood friends.

my guys, we just like our family. Mom and dad in the picture? My dad died when I was three. A single, single parent household, just me and my sister growing up in nature. Just regular projects, regular neighborhood, regular upbringing, low income, just coming from poverty, public schools. You know? What did your mom do for work? My mom was, she actually worked in the bank.

And then when she had me, she developed chronic asthma. So she was on disability. And that's how it was growing up. I remember the food stamps. You ever seen the food stamps? No. It was like coupons. And it came in colors.

And when you whip them out your pocket, people make fun of you in the store because they know you were broke. Your mom was on food stamps. Were your friends living that way, too? I don't really know how my friend's upbringing was. We would just be outside, just killing time, getting into shit. How would people describe you at a young age? What were you like as a kid? I was pretty smart.

I had a lot of spunk little, I was very, very nosy, very involved, very mixing. Always into stuff. Where do you think you got that from? I mean, probably my dad. They say the apple don't fall too far from the tree. So I heard a lot of stories growing up about my dad that there was a lot of similarities, things that we did. What do you know about your dad? I know my dad was addicted to drugs,

but he was a fiend, but he was a gangster fiend. And he was highly loyal and well respected in the neighborhood growing up in Coney Island. Did you want that kind of lifestyle, hearing those stories from people? Well, he passed away when I was around three years old. So I wasn't privy to none of that. But my uncle came, his brother, and snatched me out of Low East Side, took me to Coney Island,

show discipline me, show me how to be a man, and showed me how to do things. So, that was my uncle that I got a lot of attributes from. And he was, he was legendary. He was like a gangster coming out of Coimson. He passed away recently 23 days before I was released. He died from ALS. And he was a drug dealer from the 80s that he would have been one of the ones that got away. But showing the end of his career, he got locked up.

a guy set him up one of his one of his right hand man he had a camera and his shame and um my uncle was out of the game out of the drug business and um he kind of wheeled him back in like sort of an entrapment but it was illegal and my uncle went to the feds for seven years he did about like five out of that and um that was right that was right Right before I went to prison, I got shot. I was in high school in Coney Island. And he told me, like, he said, yo, he said, yo, you got shot. I heard you got shot.

You're going to go back to the projects or you're going to stay out here and go back. I get you back into school. And he knew I was going to go back to the projects or whatever. And he told me, all right, when you get locked up, don't call me and don't ask me for money. Straight like that. I said, I ain't no problem. I was like 16 at the time. And then he went to prison literally like six months before me.

Do you think if you stayed in Coney Island, you never would have went to prison yourself? 100%. Were you getting involved in criminal activity in Coney Island? Never. So you were on the straight and arrow and he wanted a better life for you? 100%. Do you think it's ever possible to get out of the game like that? I've seen it.

It was like one out of a million. Not very rare. Very rare. He never was flashy, very smart, strategic. Took everybody. If an ice cream melted and it was 100 sun degrees, it'd take everybody to a whole block to the Doney Park. Five cars deep, 50 people, have the time of our life.

But now things are different. Everything is like digitalized. Cameras everywhere. So I don't know. It's not like the 80s and 90s or 2000s. Tell us about that shooting when you were 16. Oh, 2005, 2006. 2006, my best friend.

In 2006, my best friend, and he got this girl pregnant. And the girl was telling him that he's the father. And the other guy is the father. My boy is the father. They start beefing. We jumped him. Like, you know, we seen them. We jumped him.

He came back shooting. And from there, it was always a gunfight, always fireworks from there. And then, I wound up getting involved on behalf of my friend. The guy shot me. I shot the guy. I was on a run. Cops came looking for me. I jumped out the fifth floor window.

But I was young. I was 16 years old. I had no record. I was released on my own with continents. And I came back outside and did it again. Were you in a gang? I never was in a gang in my entire life. My friends were, but I was always neutral.

What was about that lifestyle that you were drawn to? Just being a product of my environment. Go outside from elementary school, just just we used to play Skelesies What's that

Skeleses is when you take a water bottle and you take the top and you put wax or clay in it and you play Skelesies and you got to put

the top in the box from 1 to 16 back from 16 to 1 again so you got to shoot inside the box and we used to play them games but um

we used to go to the supermarket and steal the tops. This is like fifth, fourth, sixth grade. We will go in there, 12 of us, take the tops off the water bottles and the milk bottles, gallons, and run out. And that was like the beginning, the introduction of criminal behavior.

Just little things like that is fun, but we're stealing and we're being criminally involved and doing things of that nature. and just that frame of thinking grows into selling crack and bussy your gun and things like that. It starts off small. 10 years old playing scowseys, kickball, dodgeball, manhunt, then Cilow. I love Ceyla. I learned in prison.

I was in me in Ceylo in prison. But shooting dice. you know then selling weed then you find out coke is double then you find out crack is triple then you find out heroin is quadruple then you find out his other guys selling what you're selling making money and then you find out that the shit is saturated right everybody has more or less the same customers and then people begin beefing like that just like when you know they was beefing the cars was beefing over you the Connecticut car and New York car It's like that in the neighborhood.

People are competing with each other and it turns violent. You have good memory. I noticed you listen and you take things in. And that was something from a couple weeks ago when I saw you that story. And you remember it. Yeah, because I was in prison with guys like you. And they were all my friends. Guys from upstate New York that used to talk about oasis and waterfalls and shit like that,

shit that I never heard of, fishing and fucking hunting and shit like that. That's pretty cool. I was probably never the type of person that you would hang out with or associate with in prison, right? No, maybe not outside, but in prison, yeah, I was like, I used to help guys like you get on the phone. I was like, I used to harbor guys like you because guys get bullied quick. Like, God's get a predator and pray. And once they see you go in a commissary and they're not, you know, they try to befriend you, you know what I'm saying?

They try to friendly extort you. You know how that goes. You know how that shit goes. I did 13 years. I was incarcerated from 17 years old to 26 years old. And then I went back when I was 28 to 33. So literally 13 years in my life. That's why I like this stuff because everything that you.

you talk about I live. Before we jump more into today's episode, I need your help. If you're watching on YouTube, make sure to like, comment, and subscribe. Let me know your thoughts in the comments. And great news, you can now comment on Spotify episodes too. So drop a comment and a review and let me know what you think of this episode. If you're listening on Apple Podcasts, a rating and a review also goes a long way in helping us grow.

Also, quick shout out to Shady Rays. They are giving out their best deal of the season exclusively for Loll. Locked in listeners. Head to Shadyrays.com and use code locked in to get 35% off polarized sunglasses. We will talk more about them later in this episode. I like that it's real, raw, emotional. Like, we don't edit, like what you say. I mean, everything NEM said in his interview was kept in the interview.

You know, we don't sugarcoat it. The raw and emotion you're speaking in your interview now is just real, you know? It comes right from the source. You can't find that anywhere. But I love your concept because people overlook the story of the other guy, right? Because I remember vividly in prison the guys that weren't from the hood. You know what I'm saying? The guys that was in there for white collar crimes and things of that nature, right?

they would be the ones that was always creative making tattoo guns out of radios making fucking dice out of fucking cereal brand flakes you know things of that nature so I always like I always used to gravitate towards them guys because them guys typically would be out of trouble

you know what I'm saying but one thing you don't really talk about is the the drugs in prison a lot you have a it was K2 prominent yeah actually um It's funny you said that. I have an episode coming out in a couple days. It'll be out by the time your episode comes out. This guy, the mortgage crisis happened and he was in real estate, lost everything, gets into the K2 business. He's selling K2 legally. Then they change all the laws or whatever. He ends up getting a few years in prison for selling. He was 69 years old. Goes to prison for starting like a K2 empire. He's making a lot of money. And then come to find out he gets to federal prison and the K2's run rampant. But yeah, it was so bad. They would put up a chair. in the bathroom because guys would just be hunched over during count time messed up you would have to carry the person to the cell make them stand up it was really bad they were lacing it with

PCP all of that because originally when i was 2012 i want to say that's the first time i ever even heard a k2 it was called amyly cyrus right it was calling it myly cyrus because you would smoke it and it wouldn't pop up in the urine so it was synthetic marijuana So you would smoke the K2, be high, cotton mouth, red eyes, munchies, laughing. And it wouldn't come out in the urine. So that's why guys, it was so hot, you know? And then guys started hitting it eventually by 2014, 2015, everything was sprayed with fentanyl. I don't know what they were spraying, what kind of chemicals was to have them type of, I don't know, we used to call it upstate New York.

they call it epies when you have an episode or whatever the case and um did they call out in the feds an epi no i never heard of that time so when somebody trip out and they gotta take them to an infirmary or whatever the case there's no name for that maybe like an incident or a crash out

maybe crash out was the right word or I think they they called a deuce too yeah duke too so he dused out things like that or everyone just knew what was going on these guys would lose it you know I remember the first time, like I was saying, walking in the bathroom and guys just slumped over. Incoherent. All off a K2.

What they do is they drug test and bring them in the shoe. It comes back clean. They got to let them go. There's nothing they can do until they started testing for PCP. Now they, yeah, now they, um, upstate, they just hit you for intoxication because you're intoxicated or whatever the case. But guys is making fucking thousands. of dollars off a sheet of paper now they do the photocopies at least in the feds um they photocopy the mail but before people get a sheet of paper and sell strips they could make 10 grand off of one piece of paper

or ID cards yeah they saw ID cards or stamp size 50s and they used to do the uh what was that called the uh because they was at one point spraying it with backo so you were just coming to the yard or your program or wherever you're with your pouchabacco and the officers didn't even know that that shit was fucking sprayed they called on eventually but they didn't they didn't uh know so people walk around with contraband everybody's just getting hot the whole jail was fucking deuce out their mind and um it looked like a fucking good time it really did you got guys that were making heavy money cash at western union you cash that wasn't even a thing it didn't even a thing it didn't even It was everything was money, money Graham and western union, and you had some guys living better in prison than they did in the town.

Yeah. So that first shooting happens at 16. You get released. You were mentioning that there was a second shooting that put you into prison? Yeah, it was my first time in prison, Rikers Island. I was facing 15 years. I was 17 years old facing 15 years. What was the shooting that happened?

Bill was 250,000. It was just a neighborhood misunderstanding. A lot of pride and ego. I had a reputation to uphold. So any type of act of violence or disrespect, I was quick going to draw. Then I was doing stuff and getting away with it, so it just enhanced my, my, my,

my demon. It's just when you get that power, when you get away with shit and you just keep on doing it and it just grows and people start treating you with respect and it feeds your reputation. It's a beast.

And if I didn't go to prison, I probably would have ended up a lot worse. Probably wouldn't even be here because I ultimately wound up six months later wound up going to prison for another shooting. So there's three altogether? No, two.

Okay. I didn't go to you. I didn't get in prison. I didn't go to prison for the first one. That was what you were on bail for. No. I was already on bail for, I wasn't on bail. I got released on my own recontinence.

So when I jumped out the window, they found 14 grams of Coke. Right? Which came back in the lab, nine grams. So essentially, when I got out, I was looking for the guy. that I got the coke from. Like, yo, you've been fucking shorting me this whole time. And then you know that I've been coming, I've been dealing with you for a long time.

So you've been getting over on me a lot. You owe. And then you know what I've been doing out here. So now you got to pay. The guy kept on shrinking me along. Essentially, I robbed him. I robbed him for his stuff, whatever. And then I went back.

I went to jail for on probation, for jumping out the window for the cocaine. And then, just a prodding ego situation happened over Seelow where God didn't pay the money so a fight broke out between me and a guy and eventually our friends got involved

and it turned into a neighborhood thing this neighborhood versus that neighborhood they were jumping my friends and we were jumping their friends and on this particular day in May in May 2007 I got into the confrontation with the guy who, you know, three years earlier, sold me that gun. He sold me that weapon.

And three years later, we got into it and I shot him. Did he snitch on you or did someone see it? Was there a witness? Yeah, he snitched on me right on the scene. He right on he told the paramedics. Ah, it was mellow. I got away, though. And I eventually, essentially,

my family is the ones that made me turn myself in because NYPD was like harassing them or whatever so I turned myself in and I wound up getting eight and a half years my first introduction to prison I was my first thought was how am I going to do this I can't even I haven't even been here for fucking a month and I'm going to get eight years and uh It was a learning experience. It was a learning experience.

In New York State, if you get sent in to anything over seven years, they put you in the max. And if anything under seven years, you get put to a medium. And the medium is essentially a dorm. 60 inmates, one officer, wreck area, TV room, shower stalls, and bathroom stores, six stinks, six sinks. then in the max over seven years which would be like jails like Clinton Comstock Elmira Green Haven Sing Sing is over seven years

Over seven years And I think 15 years to your minimum release Anything other than that They put you in the medium Or whatever the case one or either or i forget but my first jail was uh clinton dana mora where i got my gd from and that's the famous documentary that's out now about the people that escaped from there yep i was 18 years old

i was a plumber i was i had like the past to the jail the whole jail the cat walked behind upside down i was so young i was looking for the infamous people like fat cat and shine um because they were locked down with us in APPU. So I would go when we would have work orders for a toilet or a sink, stop up. I would always take the APPU, upper H blocks. And I would run around there looking for the guy. Yo, where's fat cat? Yo, where's this guy?

Or whatever the case. Never did I bump into them. I read his book in prison, the one he, the self-published book he did. Fat Cat? Yeah, it was pretty interesting. When he justified what he did, why he did these. Yeah, I read that too. Yeah, it was interesting to see it because I was never exposed to that culture growing up.

So for me to be where I was in prison and everything, a totally different environment, and just to read about that was very fascinating. So when I went to his cell, he wasn't there, but his neighbor was a neighbor, it was a white guy. And I said, yo, what that guy? What that guy do? He don't look dangerous. And the guy had arsenal. He burned the whole family down.

He was doing like multiple life sentences. And that's when I was like, all right, I'm going to stop looking for guys. Like, I'm just mind my business. And plus, so my first visit in Clinton, Danamora, right? Check this out. Because I'm on a visit is December, 2007. My first visit, just me and my mom. she's looking at this guy from across from us

and he got a big scar across his face and in upstate the first two numbers represent the year that you came up north the first year that you came up north so I had a 2007 number it said 07R 2447 so essentially I came up in 2007 this guy had an 88 number

So he'd been incarcerated since he was in 1988. He's been locked up. I told my mom, you got to stop looking at this guy because this guy has been locked up for 1980. I don't know what he did to get that scar. But if he tries to talk to you, it's going to be a problem on his floor because I'm not going to tolerate that disrespect. Tell me, shut up. You don't even know what you're talking about. I know that guy.

Don't tell me who I don't know. I'll birth you. So me and her going back and forth, back and forth, the guy gets up. And she says, Rico, and he looks at my. mom and he says Evelyn and uh from that moment on he put me under the wing until uh for those three years every incident that I got into every infraction he was involved so uh once he checked my paperwork and he seen that I wasn't a rat or anything none of that um he pulled me to the courts because they got courts up there food courts weight courts and everybody can't just

It's not everyone. It's not access to everyone. You have to be somebody. You have to know somebody. So, um, he introduced me to guys. He told me a Spanish stick with the Spanish. There's a lot of racism in the prisons and all that. And, um, he showed me the ropes.

But one thing, one thing about him is that, uh, when he left, soon as he left, he left me. That was my introduction to solitary confinement. minute. Because everything that he was keeping me away from was, uh, was now I was, I was open to, you know what I'm saying? Um, every morning starts the same for me, coffee, a walk with my dog Boone, and of course, throwing on my shady rays. I've got to be honest, I used to just grab whatever cheap sunglasses I had lying around, but once I started wearing shady rays, I got hooked. Want to know what I love the most about them? I've got different pairs for different vibes.

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Go grab a pair before this summer's over. Now let's get back into today's episode. What do you think was the biggest lesson he taught you? As someone that was new in that environment, Mack Security Prison, you're young. Mind your business. Mind your business. That was my biggest thing. Mind your business.

You don't do nothing. Don't open no doors. He told me familiarity. familiarity breeds content. You know what I'm saying? And he told me, never, never glorify.

Never glorify the prison thing. Because people turn their back on you when you go incarcerated. You know what I'm saying? Everybody's glorified by the prison life. You know what I'm saying? But it's nothing but destruction that they cause us.

You know what I'm saying? 17, 18, 19, all the way to 26, my family did that time with me, you know, and I couldn't realize that at that age that, you know, my mom and my grandma, they was all hurting with me, you understand? And he used to tell me like, yo, don't pass nothing because the job that we had, it was light-heeding power, right? So this was light heat and power. So this was plumbing.

The glazers, any windows fixing the whole entire jail, they will come to our shop. And lighting and the electricity. So it was electric, plumbing, and glazing, right? 17 years old, I got my GED. So they brought me to the shop as OJT, on-job training. As a plumber, I will carry the toolbox for the plumbers. So I got on-job training. I learned how to un-clock toilets.

Unclock sinks. Disgusting. Right? We had TVs. So Max after Dark is fucking full with fucking come. Stopping up the sinks and stopping up. I would have to clean all that. Right. But the perks of light heat and power, right, is you get to shower every day. You get to do laundry every day. You get to get a hair cut every day. We had ironing boards. We had cooking shit, you know? And this is a facility where it's a cooking facility, but you have to cook. in the yard, right? Or you had to cook an honor block where they have stoves inside the block where the guys escape from essentially, right? Because in B block where it was honor block, instead of where you come back from wreck and you lock in, it's honor where they have TVs on the gallery where you had the option to

stay out on your gallery for an extra hour or so. So extra wreck. So that was the perks of honor doing, right? More freedom, more looseness. Right? So, in light heat and power, the guy, Mr. Plumador, I don't want to say his name though, but the civilian, he said, I don't, I don't never let guys under the age of 25 work here or any guys that's gang affiliated work here. I'm doing this because of Mr. Santiago as a favor for him, that he's been here for 10 years. And this is my guy. Any infraction, any ticket, anything passing on the galleries, you're done. You're not coming back. So I stood there, whatever. One day, God told me, yo, I just flushed something down the toilet,

but it stopped up. If you could grab that for me, I got you. So I'm thinking I'm going to get some weed or whatever the case. I do. I look for check, unclogged the stuff for him. Come to find out there, there. Now he's blaming me. Now I owe him a tab.

So now I owe him a tab for whatever he got or whatever he lost or whatever he didn't have. And it's putting pressure on me to come to the yard and pay him or else. I told the guys, yo, look, I don't even know this guy. I don't know what he's talking about. Come to find out the guys that have been in prison, life is, you know, they know the dude.

They stepped to the dude immediately squashed it, squashed him. For even, you know, trying to insinuate me because he didn't know that I was a young one coming up with them or whatever under them. And I stood in Clinton for 2007, 2008. 8, 2009, February, my classification drop. And I went to Franklin, correctional facility. When you get off the bus in Franklin, they tell you this is a hands-on facility. Before you get an infraction and that ticket comes to you, you will get hands put on to you.

So I told the sergeant, like, you might as well put me back on the bus and send me back to the max. Because I'm not letting nobody put their hands on me. They put their hands on me. They threw me a beat down of a lifetime. Tell us about that first one, what happened? So when I went to the S.HU, no cameras, small box. They, oh, man, they had this guy. He was called the Iceman.

He had a baby, a black baby hanging from a noose, tattooed on his arm. And he was supposedly been on Oprah or one of them shows for a killing image. He still had a job. He came from Lakeview. And he would tell you, because you had to get strip search before you get into the boxes to yourselves, solitary confinement. And he would tell you it would have on the wall where to put your feet and where to put your hands. So he would say you put your hands on the wall, put your feet, whatever.

With your right hand, remove your left shoe without taking your eyes off the wall. So he would say things to confuse you. Let me get your right hand with your left foot or your left foot with your right foot. And as soon as you fuck up, pow, he would fucking assault you off rip. But it wasn't him alone. It would be another 10 guys look like linebackers in a small area, strip search area, with you. So I already know the drill. In my head, I'm like, this guy's going to hit me.

As soon as he hits me I'm taking my hands off the wall and I'm punching him right of the nose They're gonna get me anyway He says with the right hand Remove your left foot Keep your hands on the wall So when I go to remove

I lose balance my hand goes off the wall He goes to strike And then they all bum rush whatever And I said to myself All right If he hits me again I'm gonna turn a

around and I'm a soccer. He gives me a direct order. He tells me, yo, what you in here for? Disrespecting my officers. What did you do? I says, I says, I ain't do shit. He hits me again. BOW! I said, oh shit. If he smacks me one more time, I'm getting off this wall.

And so he tells me, when you talk is sir, yes, sir. You begin with sir. I said, sir, I didn't do shit, sir. He smacked me again. The third time I got off the wall, they bummushed me, they put my legs in the air, they were trying to kick me in my testicles,

they was trying to kick my teeth out. At that point, I was just curling up trying to protect myself as best as I knew how. When I went into my cell, a sense of hopelessness that I never felt before, being taken advantage of. The infirmary came, the nurse came. I explained to her that my wrist was broken.

They didn't feed me for nine days after that. I was on what you would call restricted diet. Is that the loaf? That's the loaf. So after a visit, I had one visit. And I told my family what was going on, but I told him not to make an issue out of it because it's going to make it worse.

And when I came back off the visit, he told me like basically, yo, is there, is it going to be some phone calls, is a superintendent, whatever? And I told him, nah, there ain't going to be none of that. Because I knew they was all against me. So then he proceeded to feed me. After nine days, I got my first meals or whatever the case.

And then from Franklin, my classification rose back up. I was in Comstock 2009 and 2010. And at that point, I was in Electric. And I was bidding, but essentially on my own, 21 years old, 22 years old, two, three years in prison. When you're in the max, you get FRP program. So you get a family reunion program where you get trailers. Anyone from your immediate family could come visit you

and you can spend a weekend with them all the weekday, depending on roughly 72-hour visits. And when I were going to FRP's, my family would sneak me like DVDs and fucking little nips of hours. alcohol and you know what I'm saying and um shit like that contraband like that or whatever the case and to make you feel like you know at home and uh help you with your time or whatever but in Comstock I got into a fight I never lasted six months in the prison so I made a bet with a guy we bet a two packs of cigarettes

on Minnesota Vikings versus wherever the fuck they was when Brett Fav was on the Vikings and um I won he didn't pay me, I socked him out. And then in Comstock, they got this thing where, even when you're not resisting, you're resisting. They're like, stop resisting. And I'm like, yo, I'm not resisting. And they still just bash you. And it was one of those things where I was on top of the guy and I was socking him out. And he was like, they wrote the ticket as a use of force that I had, I went against the police or whatever.

So I got six months in the box for that. I went to Upstate Box. When I was in Upstate Box, this is my first time being ever introduced to heroin. My first time I seen a bag of heroin was in solitary confinement in Malone, New York, all the way in the mountains. In the two men cell,

my bunkie was doing a year, and I was doing six months. And he showed me a bag of heroin. It was gray. And he said, yo, this is that Afghanistan. And he said, yo, you want a line? You want a bump? And I said, yo, man, I never sniff nothing up my nose in my life.

And from that moment on, I was privy to the contraband shit and drugs and how they got them in. And that six months, after I got our upstate box, solitary confinement, I went to Elmira, one of the worst jails I have ever seen. seen. And when I immediately, my first day into the recreation girl, I seen a guy get cut. And he passed him the weapon. And the guy he passes the weapon to cuts him. And then he gets away with it because the other two guys are fighting.

So immediately, my frame of thinking at that age is that I need a weapon. I need something for protection. And you know what I'm saying? I got to get on the phone, call my family. I got to protect my packages, whatever, this down the third. I got caught up in the incident with another guy. He was affiliated and I bought some cassette tapes off for him and he didn't, he reneged on the deal.

Like I paid him and he gave me different music than what I was supposed to get. One thing led to another and he essentially told me to suck his dick. He sucked my dick. And I cut him up with whatever behind that. I went to the box. And that was my first slashing. I went to the box for that for six months. I went to Easton.

I was in Eastern New York, and that's where, essentially, I learned to live. Wishing you could be there live for the big game, soaking up the atmosphere in the crowd. But too often, life gets busy. Or the price holds you back. Price Line is here to help you make it happen. With millions of deals on flights, hotels, and rental cars, you can go see the game live.

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Find your perfect product at Bose.com. A lot from programming. Why is Elmira so dangerous? Do the guards let it happen to be that way? Or is it the inmates controlling it? What makes a place that dangerous from your perspective? Elmira, wow. Um, I was,

say it's just as dangerous as any other prison. There's no particular reason why it's dangerous. But a lot of prison guards from Elmire, I guess a lot of prison guards are familiar with some of the upstate inmates from that area, from Elmira's a town in New York. Syracuse, you know, I've seen guys wrestling with the, I've seen guys wrestling with the inmates. or COs wrestling with the inmates

And I would think that those inmates are rats But they're not They're actually the guys running shit That are friends with the COs That the COs that crack your cell And let the guys run in And take everything you got Or the COs are turn the blind eye

You know When it's time to come back from programs Or the wreck and the guys are do you filthy So real loose I guess in that controlled environment It's a lot of loose movement. That's what makes it dangerous

in that prison in that particular prison because they have this block called I block which they called Iraq which is like just high I guess is that

high violence and yeah I was in a minor for six months and I called a slashing in there because it was a situation where it was either me or them

and it was never like again I was defending myself. I will always put myself in positions where I would have to defend myself or prove myself to me, you know? And a lot of pride and ego, man, that should get you, it's a big trouble. And when I got the eastern is where a lot of things start changing for me. I started maturing. I went to programs where I was where life is and they were asking me like, who are you? Why are you always going to the box? Why are you doing this?

Why are you doing that? And then that's when the critical thinking, I started analyzing everything. And I started to form a shell, become more of a Tyson. Keep to myself, program, facilitate some programs, participate in all sports activities. And then my classification dropped again. I went to War Hill, which is something. essentially was a church. When you get to War Kill, they give you a key.

There's no rapist. There's no, it's just straight up drug offenders and violent offenders. And War Kill, they give you a key in the room. You lock yourself in the room, right? For count, you got to open your door. And it's free movement. It's a small jail, roughly 500 inmates, 200 to 500 inmates in War Care at the time.

And I was on my way to go home within the next two years. And I got into a big fight, big bra. And they took my good time. And instead of coming home in 2014 of August, I came home in 2015 of February where I was released. And getting back into society, 26 years old, all that prison time. like I still was carrying that rep and I started working construction

saved my money the wintertime came I had about 4,000 or 5,000 in my bank account and I went right back to the street selling drugs and I caught my second felony sale of crack cocaine to an undercover officer Now you were mentioning that the guys that had life are trying to teach a young person like your son the ropes and the lessons.

Why do you think it takes someone to get life in prison to be able to be that influence, that positive influence? Because they know all the ends and out. They run the politics. They run the prison essentially. Well, basically, like,

when I was in Clinton, I would have never survived in Clinton without them guys. Do we guys have, we living like the movies, like mobsters? We had lockers full of food. We would get commissary and packages from the real world that we couldn't allow.

We wouldn't allow bones, tea bone, steaks and all that because the bone could turn into a shink. So you're not allowed that. But the package room officer was our steady relief officer in the light and the shop. So he would let everything get in and the guys will cook for him. The guys will cook for him and give him bowl. He'll take the fucking food so delicious that he will go and go. take a fool to his wife at home. What's I'm saying?

For Christmas and for New Year's. And without these guys to show you the ropes, it would be reckless. It would be no, it would be no hose bars. It would be no rules, no regulations. It would be fucking chaos. But they lost their entire life. Like, you would think when you have, like,

they're able to get that type of knowledge after losing their life. to prison if you know you look at it and you're like why couldn't they have gotten that knowledge before it got to that point well I think that uh it's just a different world is it's is a prison is the real world but under a a controlled environment so these guys learn principles and morals that they didn't have in the street. You understand? They get introduced to Plato and fucking, you know, you never had a fucking philosopher. You never met a philosopher in prison.

You mean them all the time. You know, they bet fucking guys read 100 books in one week. But it's not the 20-year-olds. It's the 60 or 70-year-olds that are on their second 20-piece bid that have finally learned and they're down to their last five, six years left. and that's when they get it and that's when they want to stay out of the way. Yeah, but you see a lot of them sometimes they come home

and they never, their institution allows to the point where they can't function in society. Can't readjust. They cannot readjust. And you think and you look at them and you was like, yo, that guy was somebody in prison, essentially ran prison yards and ran prison, whatever the case. But this guy is, can't even pay rent.

Or this guy can't, you know, can't, you know, It's fucked up. Can't even feed his kids or whatever the case. And, you know, it's all about networking. And nowadays, I don't tell the young guys nothing because they got to go through their own experiences and they got to learn it their way, you know. Just hopefully your mistakes are not permanent.

Like, you don't get, your first bid, don't be a 25-to-life or 15-to-life. And sometimes when you get these skid bids, a one to three or two to four, you don't learn anything because everything is too fast as an experience. But when you do anything typically more than five years, it's like a permanent stay, you tend to learn that, you know, you have to keep busy. You have to have a routine. You have to be responsible. You have to do things so you don't come back because it's so easy to get caught back up. You know, they say,

I do mine is a devil's playground. And that's what it was for me. Prison. It was like a big fucking playground. Because when I came back for the crack sale, I was on contraband time. So essentially my first prison bid, I was a kid.

Everything was, when I went back at 26 years old, I was a grown man. And everything was about money. with me. Everything was about, I was selling suboxing strips. I was selling K2. I was selling weed. I was smuggled on the visit floor. I was smuggled on the festival. I was smuggled through the legal mail. I was smuggled through the fucking outside clearance. We had a guy, he would get it. He would put it in the ceiling in the CO's bathroom. And then after the shift, when the guys come from the prison to clean up the CO's bathroom, they would get it. They don't get searched. They'll put

They'll put five, six ounces in their shorts and bring it back to us. And we'll make thousands of dollars. We'll make $10,000 in one month, you know, a couple grand in a week. And that's how I was living on my second bid until I got jammed up. How did you get jammed up? The dogs. They had dogs on a visit. And dogs sniffed out my.

visitor. The dog sniffed out my visitor. She got locked up. She did 30 days. And then they didn't come get me to like a week after. I was just incriminating myself on the phone, trying to figure out what's going on, what's happening. And then when they came and got me, when I least expected it, they told me, they was like, yo, IG. He said, he told me, he said, you can't force anybody to do anything. You can't go to jail for forcing anybody to do anything. Right then and there, I knew that was a lot. And then he says, so I picked up 220 to boxing strips in four jails this whole entire weekend.

190 of them were yours. I said, I don't know what you're talking about. And then you sent me to the box. I got out the box. I had no woman. I had no fucking phone privileges. I had no fucking visit privileges. Everything was revoked.

And that's when I got into, I was depressed. I got into depression after that. And then that's when I started working out. Going to the gym faithfully. You didn't go lift weights in prison? The last year, yeah. So we had the weight pit in the first prison I was at, but that was all politiced out. And I never did that.

I didn't care. I was just eating the commissary loading up. I went in. I was like 290 pounds when I went into prison. I was a big boy. But then it was when I got to the camp. I was in a workout car with some guys. We converted the weights outside, like with cinder blocks and everything.

And I was running a couple, three, four miles a day. And I lost all the weight. And what really set it off was when I did six months in solitary. I lost like probably 50, 60 pounds in there. Just eating three meals a day, no snacking. That's why I don't really even snack now. So did you have a bunky and solitary confinement?

Yeah, I had both. I would be solo. One time I had three. It was me plus two, the mattress on the floor in a tiny cell, you know, middle of the summer. But, yeah, it was, I was alone when I became the orderly when I was in Danbury. That's when they had me painting. I was the painter, the prison painter. But solitaire was no fun.

lose all that weight because you're only getting three meals and the only thing you get on commissary because you're restricted is saltine crackers or ritz crackers that's it if it was a bad meal you're eating crackers now things are changing you get commissary in solitary confinement oh you do okay yes they give you tablets they let you get phone calls that's what they need yeah you're to go crazy if you don't have that i got one phone call a month for six months one visit once a week when i was local an hour an hour visit you're in the orange jumpsuit mm-hmm so No contact. No contact, nothing, man.

It's right. Yeah, I lived that, man. I lived that for many years. So when I was in solitary confinement, one thing that helped me to get by was reading. And there's nothing else to fucking do. I read a book a day. Yeah.

John Grissom read them all. I love John Grissom. That's so cool. John Grissom. Fucking. Pelican Brief was my very first one. I like the Cadillac lawyer. Yep.

And you know, a lot of people don't know he did the Christmas with the Cranks one that became the movie that they called it. That's not the name of the book, but they turned it into that movie, which is totally different than his normal lineup of books. Yeah. But I love him. He's really good. It makes it read like a movie. Mm-hmm. Robert Patterson, too.

Robert Patterson, yeah, with his thrillers. And, but again, like, uh, I was introduced to drugs in solitary confinement because you believe that. Fucking first time I've ever seen heroin. And we were fucking fished drugs back and forth, money orders. We got lit. We wound up having two, three ounces in the fucking cell. Don't ask me, we had nothing.

But again, my bunkey, he was seasoned. He had 10 years in. He told the porter like, yo, I got green. And the porter gave him a pouch of tobacco. So when we went to wreck, outside wreck, he told the guys, yo, I got back on, I want some weed. And the guys that was smuggling shit on the visitor floor would trade the green for the brown. And then he would give, he would take some of the green, some of the weed and give it to the other guy. And from there, started a whole line of, for the whole six months.

We fucking got, they came and they ransacked our cell. We put everything in our shoes. and we had about four ounces in our shoes stepping on our shoes shackled they didn't find nothing never and um that's how we lived life and got by why do you think that first prison sentence wasn't enough to deter you i mean you were doing a lot of time in max security inmates saw a lot of violence uh or max security prison saw a lot of violence why was that not a big enough deterrent when you got out that first time because uh i guess i wasn't mature or not enough to keep it simple.

When I got out, I had the right mindset to do things, and I was ambitious and determined. But for a good part of my life, I ain't getting no pussy. So I didn't know what it felt like. I never took a girl to the movies. I never had a job. At 27 years old, I never had a job. Never took a girl to the movies. I missed out on a lot.

So what came with that missing out was like, you know, trying to make up for a lost time. So yeah, I was on track doing the right thing, working, taking care of my family, but on the side, I was always trying to make up for lost time, which essentially let me back to my incarceration because I'm trying to get fast money. You know what I'm saying? How long did you serve the second bid? Five years, four years and 11 months. What changed that second time when you got out? Everything was mundane. When you go to the second time, my first time going up north, my second time going up north, I seen an officer that was my assistant.

from solitary confinement. He was a blue shirt or a CO. And now he was a white shirt on his way out the door out of retirement. And when he looked at me in the reception area with a new number of a 17 number, 2017 number, so it's been, I came up upstate 2007 and I came back again to 10 years later. And everybody in the reception area was new. First time offenders, you know, and he seen me, and he knew that I was seasoned or whatever the case

because he used to escort me to my visits every week. And he was a sergeant now, and he told me, he said, hey, A, or me, or whatever. He said, how was your visit? And I was like, what visit? He was like, your visit, you visit home. Now you're back home. You just went to go visit.

And he said, I got a house. I just bought a house. You guys helped me buy a house. He was just like, you know, trolling me. He's a sergeant now. He's on his way retirement and all that. And that just made me feel ashamed. You understand?

It wasn't my first time coming, my first time as a youngster, I was, um, everything was a learning experience. My second time, it was like I lived it already, the mediums, the maximums, the solitary confinement. I already knew everybody, some of these kids, they never got their first infraction. You know what I'm saying? I don't want to be their first trip to the box. You know what I'm saying? And then just wanting to do better. You know, they say by the age of 25, up to the age of 25, you're judged by potential.

After the age of 25, you're judged by results. So I always subtracted the 13 years that I was incarcerated. I used that as a, like I was suspended in time. and I used that five years to really tap in with my identity because a lot of people don't know their identity you know, they don't know who they are or where they want to go or what purpose they have or whatever the case. So when I tapped in on my second bid or whatever

and I realized that, you know, this is not the same. I don't want to do this no more or whatever the case. And then plus, You know, I got family that, you know, that's successful, that always had my back. Even them used to come visit me on the visit floor. I used to make our other cousin, Tatito, kick off sneakers with me that were contraband. Inside the jail, you couldn't have no sneakers that said air, no Air Jordans, no Nike Uptowns. And I used to have all that stuff because they would come visit me on my birthdays.

And they would kick off on the floor or whatever. And NEMS always tell me, yo, when you get out, yo, I'm doing this. We're busting rhymes. I'm doing this. Yo, when you get out, we're going on the road. We're going to do this. We're going to do that.

And I'll be like, yeah, I bet. I'm down. I'm going to be doing this, yo. And I came out. The bingbong shit happened, and everything he said came into Fuchin. So. How important was having a figure like that,

a figure like NEMS after prison? Like having someone that could actually put you into a good spot, associate with different people than you're used to, help you succeed in life? I mean, because now you work with him, correct, at the store? It's surreal sometimes.

Sometimes I can't even believe it. When you're sitting with Paul Rosenberg and fucking A-Sap Rocky and fucking, uh, some of these guys, I never could have fandom that, traveling 42 states. We did what, 40 states in fucking 45 days.

And making money and getting paid. And being with your family. And being with my family and making memories and stuff like that. It's surreal. And I'm grateful for it. You know what I'm saying? I never try to stand down.

Never try to do too much. I always try to play my position. You know what I'm saying? until opportunity strikes or whatever the case and I've tried to be prepared for it or whatever but until then um the guy like whatever he needs whatever he needs I'm down like I'm saying I support what he got going on he's got a lot of love for you though too yeah because uh I remember when he was doing everything he was doing even now 20 years ago he's doing the same thing he wasn't getting paid telling people don't ever disrespect me all that was just and he was doing it for free trying to

break out and then now he's at this level where he is so i try to support him and help him to get bigger you know what i'm saying and um yeah so every time we go to these platforms with uh to have anything to do a prison he always throws me in there whatever because you know when we go upstairs to your to your prison cell yeah you know what i'm saying i remember having all of that in my locker having all that in other people's lock of, you know what I'm saying? It's cool to see people's reactions when we bring them upstairs to see that. I didn't think when I built that that that would be a thing, and it just brings people back to those times,

and that's something we all have in common. I mean, me and you grew up so differently, but we do share something in common. 100%. And I think it's so cool that, you know, someone like NEMS is bringing along his family or friends along the journey, because that's what I'm doing now with Matt. You know, you met Matt,

And just it doesn't feel real sometimes. Having your best friend, we live together, just working, having fun, hanging out, you know, meeting people. The beauty, I tell them all the time, the beauty behind these things, like, I'm 36 years old. I don't have no ops. I don't have beef for nobody. All my differences have been settled. You know what I'm saying? I try to downplay a lot of what I've done or what I've been through because there's nothing to brag about or there's nothing to glorify.

plus you don't want to open up no old wounds you know what i'm saying i would hate to be with somewhere with my with my family on business and i got a address or you know i'm putting my family on hard's way so i take pride in that we could go all over the country we could go anywhere on god's green earth and there's not too much things that you're going to hear negative and essentially nothing at all that you're going to hear negative about me you know i'm saying uh mostly honorable stand the individual things because prison told me how to be a man, you know. I came in there, I was a little dirty, nigger. My cell was dirty.

I was fucking smoking rollies. I was my fingertips was brown. You know what I'm saying? I had to learn the hallway how to fucking get up and shave and clean and do this and do that and develop a routine. You know what I'm saying? It wasn't until I got to Eastern where I started to develop a routine. I started to get in tune with my inner self.

I started reading. started writing. I started formulating my thoughts, articulating myself for fucking, just working on myself. A lot of self-help. You understand? I participated in a college correspondence. I did desktop publishing typing 60 words, 75 words per minute or whatever the case. When you go to prison, sometimes you become a jack-of-all-trades to things that's so used, that's so, that's useless to you sometimes sometimes you got guys that really make it make it something but for the most part you're learning all these things of how to fucking fix a lawnmower a fucking how the things that's so useless for when you get back out into society but one thing i learned is social capital

you know i'm saying sometimes it's not it's who you know it's not what you know it's who you know and that's what this is with my cousin you know what i'm saying getting to know people like you You know what I'm saying? I'm fascinated at your content. I love it. And that's all because someone slid in my DMs to connect me to NEMs. Right? Is it just crazy how life works?

And the fact that it takes so many, you know, you think about, I always think about this, so many things have to come together for something special to happen. His manager DMing me and then I happened after getting back from a few months working on that project, looking at my DMs that were in spam because I wasn't following him. and then seeing that, setting it up, him responding right away saying, hey, he'll be there that Saturday. Then NEM's bringing you. Then we going out to dinner. And then now we're here a couple weeks later.

It's crazy. Yeah, OD. I love it, man. I wanted to ask you, though. Did you ever get introduced to any prison drugs, boxing or Chinita, none of that? I've never been into drugs, you know. I was always a guy that, you know, faked smoking weed in high school to be cool. And then I did the club stuff, the raves and stuff.

but I was under the Fed's eyes so I couldn't be, you know, doing Molly or anything. And then everything started happening with Coke being laced and stuff. So I don't want to do that. I've just never been into it. I smoke weed now. I do edibles, you know, here and there. But the Mike Tyson stuff. Yeah.

But other than that, I just, it doesn't amuse me, you know. I'm not interested. Relax and let Ralph's delivery handle your grocery shopping this week. We start with only the freshest items. Then review your list. carefully choose each one. Then we pack it all up and deliver it in as little as 30 minutes, so you can feel confident it's what you ordered. Fresh groceries, your way, with Ralph's delivery and pickup. And right now, you can save $20 on your first delivery or pickup order. Ralph's,

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So, um, it's just, did you ever see yourself, like, do, creating this kind of content after surviving prison? No, bro, I get emotional about it, like, so often. Like, just seeing I'll walk in here and I'll just sit and I'll just stare at everything I built knowing that it came from the hardest thing I've ever had to go through. Like, that shit was hard, like, watching everyone just hate on me on social media, put me through the mud, you know, I lost literally everything, every friend, except for a couple people.

I had two friends visiting me in prison. Family members, bad-mouthing me, relationships. I've lost everything. coming out and literally going and working at Whole Foods for minimum wage, digging myself out, you know, and just grinding for three years doing that, all while people would refer to me as the prison kid, the kid that went to prison, his life's over, to then, because my friend convinced me to quit my job and start talking about prison. And I was, the first six months of making content, I was so embarrassed. People would look at me in the gas station, this is stupid, this isn't

going anywhere, you know? He's just talking about prison. And then when I saw the, that I could turn this into a business and I started meeting people like Mike Tyson and, you know, bigger names and just improving my interviewing skills and paying back so much money towards the restitution from the investors that lost money. That's when I kind of realized I had something. I think this year really made it feel special and there's just so much more I could go. And, you know, I'm just so happy I could bring like my best friend along with it and the relationships that I'm meeting now and the people. And you learn a lot about yourself. You learn a lot of about family. And most importantly, you learn about what really matters in life. You know, I think I

have the wrong values before. Now they're more aligned. And I think when you figure that out in life, you attract people to you that meet those values. You attract the right people in your life. You attract friends. You attract relationships, anything. And when you're ready to get that success, that's when it's going to come. And I feel like now I'm in my era of I'm going to get everything that, you know, that I dreamed about in solitary. You know, I remember sitting in that solitary six, seven years ago, writing down, I still have the notes, you know, this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to be successful. And I didn't become successful based on those things that I thought I would become successful for. But ultimately, I became successful and I got everything I ever

wanted. And it still keeps coming back to me. And there's still so much more to do. And now I just want to give back and I want to do more things than I want to do more good. And I just want to be the best man I could possibly be. 100%. Two things that come to my mind when you say that is, uh, one of Mike Tyson's story when I was in Elmira and two I remember feeling the same way you felt like ashamed and not wanting to glorify or heighten stuff but it comes out organically because prison is such a big part of my life so people want to know we don't want to hear that prison story but it's just such a part of me that it comes out and this is why NEMS always always wants me to do these platforms and stuff because it comes out naturally when we're out and about

and the stories are funny, fascinating, and, you know, worthwhile, you understand? And every story that we make fun of and we laugh about and is about my past or whatever the case, but it's a learning lesson, you understand? And we take pride in knowing and acknowledging and acknowledging. with the things that we've learned so we don't repeat them in the future. You know what I'm saying? And it's important to not let your felonies

disenfranchise you to label who you are. You understand? And you could become whoever you want to become. You understand? And I learned all that. The hallway

throughout years, a solitary confinement and all that. When I was in Omaira, I had a neighbor. His name is Black. Blacko. From Burrower. Brownsville.

And he said that Mike Tyson was his childhood friend. He told a million Mike Tyson's stories. And I never believed none of them, right? Until I read Mike Tyson's book. He gave me. And then Mike Tyson talks about going to DFI and being in juvenile and seeing all his childhood friends and thinking like, oh, my friends is here. All my friends is here, whatever.

He was one of them. because when we got out the cell and I read the book and I started talking to him about the book and we started talking about flying pigeons and all that he says I don't do this but here here shorthy this view check this out when we lock in open that up

and I looked up the photo album his pictures of him and Mike Tyson his mom's apartment in Brownsville when Mike was going back to the neighborhoods I guess whenever he wasn't fighting or whatever he would go fly pigeons with this guy This is back in the days And I seen all the pictures

And I knew, yo, this guy's not lying, man And he was my friend Behind that And we got kind of cool or whatever He was the old dude But we got kind of cool or whatever And I just love how your story is unique Man and it speaks for the other side

It's like predators and prey That was the pride It's like you represent the prey Because you had to be praying For a prison guard to push up on you in the mess hall, you had to be fucking sweet. You had to be one of the most easygoing guys for a prison guard to be plotting on your buns.

Oh, there's women listening to this right now. Yo, that is insane. I know. But it was the best thing that could ever happen to me. I played the prey card because no one else has done that before in this genre, you know. You got all of the shot calls. and the tough ones, and you never had someone like me saying that his buns almost got taken by a male prison guard, not even a woman prison guard, it was a male prison guard.

That's insane. And I own it, you know? And then, for sure, there's definitely booty bandits that's doing life right now that pray on young time is up and coming, whether it be a little touch or a little fear or a honeybone on your bed. That shit is real, you know what I feel like they know what tree to climb, what tree to bark up. Yeah, what tree to bark up. And I guess you would know, you'll be more familiar with that or whatever the case. But, yeah, like, I love it, man.

You give a voice to like... The voiceless. The voice, exactly. Because that's exactly who I was. I would be like... I was like, I always got into problems with oppressors. The people that were running the phones or the people that was running this or what that's the people I were getting into problems with. And it would be like a repeating act until I learned to keep to myself.

I had to learn how to be an onion and that everybody's not valuable of my time or my presence or my opinion. You understand? And then that's why I would get. I would get guys that can't get on the phone. I got decent guys that got families. And I would give them my phone. time. I would get them on the phone. I would get them on the stove. I would get them on to watch a show or whatever the case. And that's the type of guy that I was, you know? And that's why I formed the

bonds and the relationships that I did. And that's how I survived. You know? I love that. Well, Mello, thanks so much for coming on the show today. Yeah, no doubt, man. This was incredible. I love that you just took the lead with your story and you were able to, like, you told it so perfectly, you know? And it's funny because you told me about the first Barry interview. you did after prison and you would learn from that and I feel like a lot of so many people can relate to that 100% and you could tell like you studied it and you learned it and you got it down so in sync so you'll be even better the next one too 100% but thanks again man I'm looking forward to you know continuing our friendship and I appreciate you both you and you and ms very much uh huh and I learned

a lot from you you you heard Ian and I appreciate what you got the old for and I appreciate the knowledge that you've been giving us and putting us on game absolutely and I I look forward to seeing you guys at that launch party next month. Yeah, no question for sure. Awesome.