Locked In with Ian Bick - How I Became A Latin King | Ander Pellerano

Episode Date: April 7, 2024

Embark on a captivating journey as we explore the life of a former gang member, from growing up in vibrant New Orleans to navigating the complexities of street gang life and experiencing the repercussions of gang-related charges. Through candid reflections on prison experiences and the consequences of seeking approval, discover a story of resilience and personal growth. Join us as we delve into the transformative journey from a life of violence to finding joy and redemption, leaving behind a legacy of strength and perseverance. Try Magic Mind: https://www.magicmind.com/lockedin And get up to 56% off your subscription for the next 10 days with my code: LOCKEDIN Hosted, Executive Produced & Edited By Ian Bick: https://www.instagram.com/ian_bick/?hl=en https://ianbick.com/ Connect with Ander Pellerano: https://www.instagram.com/andyrebirth/ Creative direction, design, assets, support by FWRD: https://www.fwrd.co Buy Merch: https://lockedinbrand.com Use code lockedin at checkout to get 20% off your order Timestamps: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:06:11 - Growing up around Family and Influences 00:12:39 - Journey into Gang Life 00:18:59 - Life in the Gang 00:25:11 - Joining the Latin Kings 00:31:09 - Street Gang Structure and Conflict 00:37:11 - Charges and Prison Experience 00:43:19 - The consequences of trying to impress others 00:49:25 - A Life Changed by Grace 00:55:35 - Finding Joy in Prison 01:01:35 - Resistance in Prison 01:07:50 - The Approval of Man 01:14:09 - A Life of Redemption 01:20:22 - Praising God for Closed Doors and Unanswered Prayers 01:32:48 - Rehabilitation Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Finish the whole feed and the whole prison. and then he calls me. Paul, come here. Put your hands behind your back. I'm like, what? You could have did that too out. Like, after I didn't clean the whole kitchen for the whole prison, now you're going to lock me up?

I went all the way bananas. They didn't hit the beeper on me. They grabbed me. They had to cuff me, fully restrained me. I'm tossing with all of them. Hit one over against the wall. So now I'm down. So now when I'm down and I'm coming,

they're bringing me out. The 10-19 cell block traffic, they shut the walk down. So when they shut the walk down, so when they shut the walk, I realized he's one of the ones cuffing me. So then I run here. They had pillars in the middle of the walk. I run him into the thing. He runs into the thing because he's holding me.

So I went to the side. He runs into the thing. Next thing you know, they hit the beeper on me again. Now they pick me up in the air and I'm like flying to the cell block. And then I get behind the other door and the lieutenant, they was all waiting for me out there. I thought they was going to kill me. On today's show, we have Andy Pelerano here to share how he ended up. joining the Latin Kings and ultimately got sentenced to prison. This is an exciting perspective

from a former Latin King and we're so excited to dive into this episode with him today. Let's not waste any time getting into this exciting episode and sit back, relax, and get ready to lock in with Andy Pellerano. Andy, welcome to Lockton, man. Pleasure having you today. You reached out, I think, on my Instagram, right, like a month or so ago. Yeah, yeah. And you were featured in the, what was the inside true crime or how crime works. Yep. By Insider, I think. I was watching their episode on YouTube. It's got a lot of views on it.

Oh, yeah. I think it's like, it's over $350,000. It's been like three weeks. Oh, that's awesome. How does that make you feel seeing all those views? Well, you know, it's kind of mixed because it's like I would have rather like the entire content went out, like especially like a lot of the questions I answered. I would actually, I didn't just answer the question.

I went in depth and try to just not leave people there. Like, I'll actually like teach something in it. You know, where I'm not just there sharing a war story. Like, I went to give a little glory. But at the end, you know, it did talk about my transformation. You know, they do have my links on there. You know, I was able to reach out to people like I reached out to you. And it's opened a lot more doors.

So I thank them for supplying the avenue for me to go out there and share, you know. So we can't never be like, I wanted it to be like this. not the director. It's not my show. No, no. You know, so it was good, though. You know, I think, I think it's been good. Well, hopefully this opens up more avenues for you, too. And this is more like, it's my podcast, but you're the director of it because you get to drive.

You're in the driver's seat. Okay. I like to have my guests come on and, you know, share their story the way they want to. And like we were talking about earlier, it's an unedited version of your story. And it's also exciting. I think you are our first Latin King on the show. too. Okay.

I don't think we've ever had one on before. I think we had people that had relatives on that. So it'll be interesting to get into that, too. I'm not a Latin king no more. No, not anymore. A former Latin king. I'm a priest king now. I know what you're saying.

Yeah, of course. Most people aren't active that come on the show. But that was their main hook of the episode that you did for inside. And it was interesting to see that. Because you don't really get to see that from someone that's renounced it and is not a part of that life anymore. more. Right. But yeah, so where are you from? Where do you grow up? Where are you born? West Bank, New Orleans. New Orleans. Yeah. I think we've got a couple of New Orleans people on the show. I've

never been in New Orleans. Oh, you got to come. Yeah, I got to get some food there too. Definitely got to get some food. I tell them up here all the time. We got the best food in the world. Really? Yeah, like, for real. I got to check that out. What was it like to grow up there? It was, you know, growing up, you really don't know different, you know, because this is just, this is your environment and you think this is what it is. But, you know, it was, it was interesting, especially like doing time and getting to travel to nation, like New Orleans is really like a gumbo pot of culture, of ethnicities, you know, like, it's all mixed up over there. So you really don't get, like, when you travel to other places, especially like in prison, too.

Like when you get to Texas and other prisons, like in Florida, like usually your race hangs with your race. But like in Louisiana prisons in New Orleans, it's where you're from. You know, so that's going to be a dumb. That's going to be all kinds of different ethnicities that's riding together. But, you know, it's a lot of culture in New Orleans. You know, they always, you know, one thing, I thought everywhere in the world clubs was open 24-7. I thought you could buy liquor 24 anywhere in the world. I remember first going to, when I first started going to Houston, and it was like, oh, can you get some liquor?

I'm like, yeah. So we went to the store and there's like, it's a dry county. They don't sell liquor on these days or past this time. I'm like, what is this? We go to the club and they shutting it down like at 2 a.m. or 3m. I'm like, I'm used to the lights coming, like you coming outside feeling like a vampire because the sun's out. So I didn't know this was not normal, you know what I'm saying? So coming up, in you all is in just that culture and just the streets.

It was a lot going on. But now I see everything happens for a reason. I know I was geographically, strategically placed right there generationally for such a time as this. Because even with the mixture of cultures, I'm able to travel around the nation, you know what I'm saying? And not really feel like an outcast, if that means sense. Yeah, in Connecticut, the liquor shuts off at 2 a.m. See? Yeah, and they can't sell liquor after, I think, like, six on Sundays in liquor stores.

But that's a good thing now, I see. But I was like, when I was coming up, I just thought everywhere it was just, it was normal, you know. But understanding not, it's not normal, you know? So, and all of that shaped and molded the man I am today. So I have no regrets of where I'm from because I know that's where God called me to be. Did you have a big family growing up, siblings, mom, dad? My mom, my dad, and I had a sister. but I had a lot of cousins, you know, so at one point I remember it was me, my sister, my cousin, his sister, my grandma, my mom and dad all living in the same three-bedroom house, you know, at one time.

But, you know, my dad, he always, like, would throw the parties and stuff, you know, so we always had a lot of family around. I remember a lot of get-togethers, a lot of barbecues, you know, so, and then they had a lot of people, like in my nation, A lot of friends. And I was like, I was one of the youngest ones, you know. So I was always outside, always getting into stuff, you know. So yeah, you know, I grew up around a lot of family. Even when we was on Bienville and Cowlton, you know, by the pink house, I had my uncles and my grandpa and my cousins and my aunties and all of that. So I know how to grow up around community.

Was it a good home? Like, did you guys have money? Were you guys poor struggling? Well, one thing, my dad, my dad is, he's a hustler, he's a go-getter. Like, he always, he was always doing something. Like, he had a nightclub at one time. He was the DJ at a nightclub. Then he ended up selling it because my mom was like ready to leave him behind the club.

So that he chose his family. But it was right at the right time because a little bit after that, the guy that he on the club would ended up getting busted and ended up getting like, I think, 10 years or something. So then he went from there to work. working in the oil field. So then he was always offshore. And then I remember he had another bar in a restaurant.

And then there was the mechanic shop. Then he was trying to sell tires, you know. So he was always doing something. And my mama, she always worked. She started as a teller in the bank and worked her way all the way up to a regional manager. You know, so they were always working, you know. But one thing they did, like we didn't have a lot. But one thing they made sure that we had a good education.

Like they paid for a Catholic school education. And even to this day, I'm like, y'all didn't waste that. You know what I'm saying? Because I'm using it now. But they always was working. So by them always being always working and my sister kind of like watching all of us, I was just outside in the streets. And then there was just a lot of influences around me that was, you know, in the streets.

Like that was older than me. They were, you know, selling guns, selling drugs, doing drugs, robbing people. And just even in the core of my friends growing up, like one of them, he got murdered. He went to kick somebody's door in. Nephew left him. He got murdered right there on the spot. Another one got murdered, got stabbed, shot in the head and sat on fire. Another one overdosed on drugs.

The other one, he got deported. So this is like, these were like my friends, like close growing up and like nobody's really here no more. Yeah, how was the area? Was it like crime infested? Was it a safe spot? It was like we was doing all the crime. You guys were doing all the crime, even at a young age? At a young age.

I was 12, 13 when I called my first felony. So where do you think that came from? Because two hardworking parents that were raising you right, trying to raise you, right? Do you remember like that first moment where you kind of strayed outside of that? Yeah, I do. because it was one thing. It was the movies, Hollywood, and it was the music industry.

And then it was the influences that I had that were older than me that I was gravitating to, you know, because my dad was always at work. So this was the older male figures in my life, and they was gangster, you know what I'm saying? So then it's to being the youngest one, so feeling like I had to prove myself

like I was just as bad. And then like my uncles and all of them, all of them was tough guys. you know what I'm saying? Like, they all, like, the alpha males, you know? So I'm thinking, like, I want to be the baddest one. Like, my dad, he got shot in the leg twice and got a steel plate in his head. Police cracked him in his, cracked his skull.

My mom got shot in the butt, you know. Shot the butt? Shot in the butt. The same incident, the dude pulled out a gun, and my dad tries to, like, wrestle the dude down when the dude got a gun and he got two shots off, shot my dad twice in the thigh. And then by that time my dad got to him And then another bullet ricocheted And hit my mom in the butt

What was that a robbery or something? It was a party I think it was the DJ And he wasn't getting paid or something And he was drunk So he started acting crazy And my dad just Think he's Superman

He went to go try to try to get him And so But hearing these stories You know like my dad wasn't soft None of my uncles Like they were all rough So hearing these stories I'm like man

I want to be I want to be the worst one, you know, but not only that, watching these movies, like I'm watching Scarface. I'm watching, I'm watching American Me, blood in blood out at a young age, and see, these are eye gates and these are eargates. What you allow into your eye gaze, got the potential to defile you internally, defile your temple or construct your temple. So when I'm looking at this, I'm like, Scarface got the girls, got this, the world is mine, and I'm like, man, I want that, you know, And then I'm listening to the gangster music and they're doing nothing but degrading women,

selling drugs, killing people. So I'm thinking if this is what I'm listening to, this is what's influencing me, right? So as I'm being influenced by it, I want to be like that, except even worse because I always had, like they always say, I'm an extremist. But the thing is, that's how God wired me.

See, God wired us all distinctively in a specific way, right? So if you're an extremist, it's not to be extreme for the things of the world. It ain't to be extreme for the devil. It's to be extreme for the Lord. So I used to go in any project before I got saved. I would go.

My first time in New York, I went to jail, you know? So there wasn't, you know, it's something that was in me. So when I got saved, I carry that same intensity towards the faith. And that same, I'm that extreme about my faith. So I'll go prison in a project as the Lord Lees. We was baptizing in Rikers Island. You know what I'm saying? We did an outreach in the sound view project, worst project in the Bronx.

You know, so it's that same intensity except now it's to my full potential because it's why I was created. So going back to your question, as I was listening to that music and watching those things, and then the people that I was hanging around was all doing this stuff. So my aspiration was to be the worst one. And that took me. Isn't it interesting that your dad was trying to do the right thing by working so much to provide? and that in a way was kind of pushing you away because you just wanted to have someone to be close to

and be there for you. And he was in his own way, but that kind of just screwed everything up. Yeah, because, you know, he was a provider, you know, and that's one thing, like, he showed me, like, what a man looks like as far as providing for his family, you know, and he only, he did what he had to do with the cards he was dealt because he comes from Cuba, you know, at a young age with nothing.

You know, my mama come from Honduras. with nothing. They worked their way up from the ground up. So in the midst of that, but I just believe I was just living, you know, the path that was set before me, you know,

because at the end of the day, I'm here now and I'm not that, but I got that testimony. So now I can preach to the gangsters. I could preach to the dophines. I could preach to the doughboys, you know, because I was in their shoes, you know?

So it kind of like, it all, see, the Bible's a living word, right? Because Romans 828 says, he will make all things work together for the good for those that love him and live according to his word. So all of that is working together for the good because now I'm here, you know, and I'm in a good space right now. That's awesome to hear. What about the, like when you started to go outside of the lines at a young age, did your family take notice of that right away? Well, yeah, because I was getting it like, you know, 12, 13, we were still in Jabobo jeans.

I don't know if Jabos was popping out here, but in New Orleans, Jabos was it, right? So we were still to Jabos and we'll go sell them on the block. So then we got caught doing that, me and Jonathan, you know, that's he OD eventually. But anyway, he ended up taking his charge at a young age, too. Like we both went to we both got locked up. We both got out, but he ended up taking his charge. But then right after that, 13, 13, 14, 14 is when I got jumped into Latin Kings. 13, I remember they're like, oh, your boy got a gun.

Oh, he got a gun? Man, I'm about to jack him out the gun. So I went over there. I was like, man, you got a gun? He's like, no, I ain't got no gun. I said, man, I got money. And I pull my money out. So he gives me the gun.

So I take the gun from him. I said, this is my gun. He gave me the gun fully loaded So I just put the gun in my waistline And I walk clean out the house Now, in the Bible says the wicked flee When no one is chasing, right? So the next day, my other partner says,

Hey, your boys stole that gun From dude on the next street And the police is over there So they call the police. He's like, you want me to hold a gun for you? So I'm like, yeah, right now He's trying to get me out the gun. I got somebody. I was like, man, man,

you're playing games, da-da-da-da. So then, but kind of find out because I was trying to sell the gun to somebody else, but I was going to jack him when he came for the money. I was just going to, I got the gun in my hand. So he ended up telling a story to his friend on the next street and found out that was the gun that was stolen from their house from a burglary. So next thing you know, I'm sleeping waiting to go to school in the morning.

I'm a freshman in high school, so I was like 13, 14. And next thing you know, the police opened my door. My sister answered the door, brought him straight to my room. knocked out sleeping. Next thing you know, I look up, there's nothing but police all in my room. They cut the lights on. They said, where's the gun?

I said, what gun? He was like, we're going to tell your mama's house up. Where's the gun? I said, I don't know nothing about no gun. And then think about it. I'm 13, 14. I had the gun hidden. You know, like, you take your dresser drawer out

and put some of it and put the dresser drawer back. Like, that's a fire spot, right? The first thing, they moved a dresser drawer, and the gun flies out the bottom. They said, what God? What's that gun? I said, oh, that gun. Yeah, that gun.

So next thing, you know, they lock me out. I go to lock up. Then I end up getting out, you know, and then have to go to court. But I'm 13, 14. They kicking on my mom's door for possession of a stolen weapon. Then I, after that, you know, when I got jumped in, I'm coming house with bruises all over, you know. So they knew, but it was only so much they could do. Like, they told me better, you know, but I still at the end of the day was,

making my own decisions based upon what I thought was fly, what I thought was cool, you know, and understand it ain't cool at all. And that's why I'm so, so much of a spokesman for this, you know, to let these kids know, like, man, look, that ain't was up. You know, I lost a lot of years of my life in prison, which would be like what they would say the best years of your life, you know? So, you know, they knew you can only hide things for so long, you know, and sometimes they don't want to see.

They don't want to believe it's that bad until they realized it was really that bad. Is there something you wish they would have done back then now that you're older and wiser? Or do you think that wasn't on them to do? Nah, bro. My parents are really awesome. Like, they really are.

Like, they had every right to just turn their back on me because of all the stuff I put them through. And they never did, you know? When me and my dad got in a fight when I was 16, and he's like, you think you were, man. get out, you know, so I left, you know, but it's not like they kick. We actually had this conversation the other day. I'm like, you kick me out at 16.

He was like, I ain't kick you out. You left. I said, well, you told me if I think I'm a man then go. He said, yep, and you thought you was a man and you left, you know? And I remember stealing $100 out his wallet because I had just got off a house arrest for a first-degree robbery. I had just got off a house arrest. We're getting this big fight.

And then, you think you're a man, Lisa. I went in and then I went in his wallet. Now, I could have took Buku money, but I just took a $100 bill because I was like, I said, I'm a need to survive. And I took that $100 a bill and scored $100 slab of Coke or crack. And then I just started selling crack, you know, and in the midst of that, I was my friend, his mom, he was like, man, I don't know if, you know, my mom really don't want you over here. So they let me sleep in the garage. So I'm sleeping in the garage. They got big project rats going around.

And I'm like, I'm 16 years old. And I'm like, man, what am I doing? I'm not about to live like this. I'm about to get this money, you know. So then when his mama found out that I was in the garage, she let me sleep in the house. So I'm sleeping on the couch. And then my other partner, he had Buku brothers,

and they all was getting money, you know. So he's like, man, you could come stay with me. So I'm staying with him. Now I'm selling even more drugs. I'm going to school with bally's and Gucci's on. So I'm thinking like, this is it. Like, this is the life. This is what the rap is talking about.

And I'm doing it. Then me and him got in the fight. So then my other partner let me stay by him. But his people didn't want me over there either. So I would have to sleep in the closet at night when we would hang out all day where they'd make sure, man, he's gone. Oh, yeah, make sure to get that boy in my house. It was like, yeah, he's gone.

The whole time I'm in the closet sleeping to wake up to go to school in the morning, you know. So I made my life hard like that. You know what I'm saying? So, yeah, I can't. I can never blame them for anything because they just, They did what they could do with what they had. If we had them here today, how would they describe you at that age? Well, it depends on which one you talk to.

You know, my mom, and she's always like, oh, that's my being. My dad is like, he's crazy. You know what I'm saying? But even when I were getting all that trouble, my dad was like, he's not that bad for a boy. Like, boy, like the men and off, you know, like a bad, you know, because it's a lot, man. man, you know, the Bible talks about generational curses and all that is real. Like, the first dead body I saw was my uncle Cisco.

That was my dad's little brother. And I remember getting a call that night saying Cisco got shot. That was one of my favorite uncles. He was wild. He was charismatic, you know. And I remember going in my room and getting on my knees and praying that he would be all right. And then he was like, Cisco got shot. They didn't say he got killed.

So somebody tried to rob him. didn't want to up it. They end up shooting, getting off one shot, and the bullet travel and hit a major artery. He walked in the hospital and said, I got shot, but the bullet travel hit a major artery. They couldn't stop the bleeding. And I remember getting to the hospital and seeing my uncles, like, like, real hard men crying. And my dad just throws the car and park, and he jumps out, like, they just knew it. And then he's crying. And then the dude that they had, that was with him when the robbery happened. Now, they choking him up. up outside the hospital thinking he had something to do with it or whatever.

So then he ended up letting me go in the room. And I just see his dead body with the tubes and all of that. And I remember touching them. And I remember thinking like, like, man, your spirit, your soul is everything. Like, because he was so much full of life. And it was just like, it was just like this microphone, like just there. Like no life in it, you know? And it kind of like, I kind of, because I was like, I prayed and he still died.

You know what I'm saying? And then, like, my great-grandfather, he migrated from Sicily to Cuba. And that's when Batista had Cuba and they had all the casinos and all of that. Well, he got murdered in Cuba. So then my grandpa was a bootlegger in Cuba. Like, he would, like, their house, they would feed the whole neighborhood. Like, it was an open door to where, so it was still good. Like, you know what I'm saying?

Because he was feeding the whole neighborhood. Everybody would come to Auelo's house, you know, to eat. Like, he was taking care of everybody. And he got my dad and his brothers and his sister. They all flew down here and they ended up in Mid-City in New Orleans, you know? Wow. Yeah. So you ended up joining the Latin Kings at, what, 13 or 14?

14, yo. That's such a young age to be a part of a gang. I know. I know, bro. And before we dive into that, have you ever had these magic mind, these little magic mind energy shots? You ever had one of these? You got to try one of these. So they had sent me these, and I ended up buying some more.

They help with productivity and energy, and I've been kind of like waning off the energy drinks. Right. Because I always have like this crash. When I take an energy drink, like a couple hours later, I crash from it. Right, right. So I started taking these, and I just shake them up, put them in the fridge. And I feel like focused and like honed in. If you want to try it, you're welcome to.

I'm going to try it right now. But I've been doing these every day, like during my interviews and stuff. And it just like helps engage me, focus more in my work, don't feel hungover at all. And it's all natural? All natural. It's like a macha. It's a macha flavored. And I don't know.

It's good. It tastes way better refrigerated. You have to do it refrigerated. And it's so good. Oh, wow. I just do it in one shot. It's great. You know, you know.

Even, I was reading the ingredients on it, too, and only three grams of sugar. Yeah, that's good because sugar, sugar, kill you. I stay away from the sugar. Yeah, I do. Even some of the drinks that say, like, sugar-free and stuff, they're not actually, like, they use different flavors and whatnot. Right. But you got to check these out, you know, look into that. And anyone listen on the show should definitely check out these magic mine shots.

They're great. I'll have a little, like, coupon link in the description of this so people could check it out. but they're gray I'm telling you definitely give it a shot so Latin Kings at 13 years old I guess the biggest question is how do you even how do you join the Latin Kings at that age because that's a pretty prestigious notorious

street king yeah so I knew so they had a dude that was in the Kings here just got out of LTI and then when he got out like he was with us there was like a party and then we was at the Harvey Loss and we was about to get in a big O'Fie fight and he was just seeing the way I was moving and then he was like yeah he's about that you know

so then as he's saying he's seeing how I'm moving so the next thing you know you know because I was already in the streets I was already I would I would take my I would take guns and like I had guns at a young age and I was like always trying to prove myself and then small man complex and then they'll talk about I'm the youngest one so now I feel like I got to prove that I'm even more bad or whatever so he or I remember him calling me but it goes back to to those movies because American me blood and blood out. I seen like a bunch of gangster Latinos, you know? So then I'm here in Latin Kings.

I'm like, this is like that. Because I aspired to be like that. I wanted to be the baddest, you know? So then he calls me, he's like, man, look, we got five kings. They're over here on his side. You want to get jumped in? And he's like, I vouched for you. And they know, like, his word was solid.

They knew he was solid. He vouched for me. So I'm like, let's do it. So then he came over there, drive around my wife. and then I remember we was on Ames and then the dude, he had his backyard like the fence was knocked down. I was like, well, we could go right back here.

So then the dude was looking like in my neighborhood like a block off of my block. He was like, man, this dude's not even scared. Like these five dudes, like he's just ready to do it. And I was scared, you know, I just didn't show I was scared because I was like, wanting to be down and wanting that respect overrode the fear because I was like,

pain don't last long. respect does, you know, so, you know, in that insanity, because if you knew better, you do better, I just didn't know better. And that's why we go to the hoods in the projects, because how are they going to know better if there's nobody there to show them better, you know, so anyway, they end up like, nah, we can't do it right here. This is too main of a street. Somebody's going to see it and call the police, so then we end up going by another king.

We went in his backyard. They jumped me in. Oh, it took two to three minutes for like the longest two to three minutes of my life. I remember thinking they were giving me more time. Like while we was fighting, I'm like, what's the time? What's the time? And it was like, man, y'all, like, I thought they was giving me more time. But they would let me get back.

They would let me get up. They wouldn't stormed me out. When I fell down, they let me get back up and we'll keep fighting. And, man, I just think about that. Like, come on. Like, how insane is that, right? It's fucking nuts. How whack is that?

Like, all right, I'm going to let five grown, man. I'm going to let y'all jump me so I could be y'all. friend, what would I have to do to keep the friendship? That ended up turning it into attempted murder. You know, so I always tell, when I talk to kids in high schools, I'm like, you got to be yourself. If you got to portray an image, if you got a lie to be somebody's friend, what's going to happen is you're going to end up getting exposed or you're going to end up living a lie.

You're going to turn into that lie. And living a lie is living a life with limitations because we were not created to live a We was created in the image of the truth. So we got to first be true to ourselves. Then we can live the life that we were created to live. And in that life, this purpose and purpose brings fulfillment and you get peace in it. Like I think about that. I'm like, man, that was, that was wild.

Like, just thinking now. Are there rules to it? Like, is there a stopping point? Like, what if you get severely hurt? Yeah, then you don't make it. Wait, so people have been killed getting initiated? No, I'm not saying that. It's strange.

Yeah, yeah, not because it's just to see like, all right, if you can handle your own or if you're in a situation like you can't be soft, you know? So then that process, that's what happens. And then they might like, all right, well, he's just not ready yet, you know. But I've never seen nobody not go to distance with that. Because it's usually you don't just get dropped off there. Like there's work that you've been putting in where they see, all right. All right.

Well, he's bought that. Now, let's just make it, let's make it legit. And it's crazy because, you know what they call, they call that the baptism. Like, it's a lot of religious lingual, you know what I'm saying? And the thing is familiar spirit. So it's like this. Every good lie is based upon some type of truth. If not, you wouldn't believe it.

So by these things being familiar, you know, the baptism and this, you know, and he's thinking about the king and Jesus Christ is king of all kings, you know. So there's so many similarities, but it's a little. little bit of leaven, you know what I'm saying? So that's why, like, when I, when I speak to other kings and there have been a lot of kings than renounce the crown. Some of, someone was threatening me on the, from the, from the inside of thing. But I'm back here in New York where it was threatened because we ain't been given the spirit of fear, but a power, love, and a sound mind. If I wasn't scared when I was running with the devil, I'm definitely not going to be scared and I'm running

with Jesus, you know, so, so yeah, yeah, nah, it's wild, you know, it's, you know, it's, it's, wild and there's rules, there's regulations, you know, it's just like any organization, like Sun Tzu said it in the order war. Anytime the people that you're dealing with are in a state of rebellion, there must be built in pressures, you know, so that's where violations and all of this comes to forth. Like even just getting out, like, I'm not supposed to just be able to walk around like that. But the Bible says when a man's ways is pleasing to the Lord, he'll make even his enemies at peace with him.

So when I said yes to Christ, it was like, I'm ready for whatever he tells me to go, I'm going. Whatever he tells me to say, I'm saying. So what are some of the rules of the Latin Kings that you have to follow? And then what are the repercussions if you don't follow them? Well, you know, like, it's just basic, you know, if one pops off, everybody pops off. You know what I'm saying? Like, if you can't run away or can't back down.

And then if these things happen, you get a violation. And even, like, some of the things was, like, based upon principles and morals. Like, you can't mess with one of your brother's girlfriend. or wife, you know, that families are strictly off limits, you know, and then he wasn't supposed to sell drugs and do drugs either. Like, it started with this Constitution, you know, but just like with anything, it just keeps going, going, and getting further away from the initial purpose of why it was structured.

You know, it's just like sin. It takes you further than you have a plan to go, keeps you longer than you ever plan to stay, and it costs you more than you could afford. What about the money structure of it? Do you guys have to kick money to the top? Is there, like, ahead of it? Like, you know how in the mafia there's a head

and everyone's kind of kicking up money? In biker clubs, there's, like, a president and a vice president and some of these other street gangs. What's the structure like? Yeah, they had, you know, they had structure, but we would have meetings and it would pass a hat, you know, and you'd put money in there, like kind of like paying your ties, paying your dues,

and that would go to other people in prison or just to further the organization. Is there a certain clothes you have to wear? Or you would wear black and gold. So it's black and gold are the colors of a Latin king? Yeah, black and gold and red. What about race? Can you be any race to join a...

It has to be of Latin descent. Okay, so you can't be white in the Latin kids. Right, right. Now in the feds... But then it has some. Yeah, in the feds, I saw white guys rolling with the Latin kings and they would say like a cousin or something was of Spanish descent. But is it possible for a white, 100% white to be in it or no?

It's not supposed to be. Okay. But do you see it? I've seen it happen. Anything's possible. The Latin Kings are very popular in federal prison. Were you in federal or state? I was in state. State.

Or are they popular in the state, too? Well, see, in Louisiana, not really. Because, see, when the Latin Kings was brought from Chicago to Louisiana, they had the Kenner chapter, the Metery chapter, and New Orleans chapter. But then they kind of started beefing with each other, too. So, like, gangs really couldn't survive in New Orleans because there's a big spirit of division, you know? So when you got into the prison, it was more like upstate.

They had a lot of bloods and folks. They had some kings, not a lot of kings. But then when I went into that, the last prison I discharged from, I was able to join the kings with the bloods because they both ride under the five and they considered the people's nation. So what we did was, you know, we was on maximum security, have nothing but time to think and plot right next to the cell with a blood from Houston. And then we ended up joining the kings with the bloods using the same constitution.

And we called it outlawed king blood nation. And we basically ran the entire compound. Interesting. So on the street, who are you guys beefing with directly, if any, in Louisiana? It was folks. It was folks in Crips. What are folks? I know what Crips are.

Folks, they ride under the six. And the six is another type of gang? Yeah. And when we say beef, is it like you guys see each other on the street? It's a shootout? Yeah, it's whatever. It's whatever. Like on site.

you guys have to go. Right. How are the police treating Latin Kings on the street? Oh, no, it was a mess when everything was happening, you know, but that's just like with anything, like, there's crooked, there's crooked in everything. You know, there's crooked police, there's crooked pastors, there's crooked, anything man touches he could corrupt and make crooked, you know, but, and there's also ones that are real, you know, so they had ones, the ones that are real, like, they was cracking down.

Like, when we got busted, they had a gang device. vision, you know, so they had detectives that were strictly just trying to, like, sanitize the entire gang situation. And then when murders and stuff was happening, it was coming into a problem, they was cracking down even more. So then New Orleans is mostly, like, wards in hoods, like, where you from? Like, that kind of, like, banged against each other, you know, so. No, and like in TV shows and in other people's cases, there's always in these big gangs, street gangs, there's CIs. Did you guys encompass a lot of those? Oh, confidence.

Like, aside from the king, I didn't got, like, when one of the times I got busted, it was because the guy was working with the police, you know? Within your own gang. Yeah, but this wasn't,

this wasn't in the gang because this was just in the streets because outside, like, after the Latin King thing, I was just, like, real heavy in the streets. So we was bringing it back from Houston, back to New Orleans, like, you know, just, like, cut through it.

I don't know if you heard of Soldier Slim and all of them. But, you know, we was, We was, like, heavy in the streets with the drug game and the music, too. Like, I opened up for Kevin Gates, had opened up VH1 Loving Hip Hop. I had a song I was doing with Manny Fresh, you know, so all of this, you know, because that life, like, I never did just rap about anything.

Like, I'm not just going to talk about Lambo's if I never had a Lambo. You know, whatever I rapped about, I was actually doing. So basically, like, in the streets and that street life and the drug trade and all of that, Like I ran into a CI and I almost lost my life behind that. Yeah. Now, did you graduate high school? I didn't graduate. I made it to 11th grade and then I got charges as an adult.

But I did get my GED in prison and my wife be making fun of me because I'd be like, because they told me. Yeah, no, no, because they said, I tell her, I said, I had the highest scores in the prison. She's like, Andy, that's in the prison. That's nothing to brag about you had the highest scores in the prison. And I'm like, y'all, man, they got some highly intelligent people in prison. Like, you know it. Like, they got, man, the stuff we didn't came up with or people came up with was genius, you know. It's just they went the wrong route with it.

So when you got charged coming out of 11th grade, was that the crime that kind of put you away for a few years? Well, that was, no, that was first-degree tempted murder, three-counts aggravated assault, one-counted aggravated criminal damage, and it was gang-related. At 11th grade, you got charged with all that. With all of that. How did you get charged with attempted murder and all of the other charges? Well, a whole situation went on and shots rang out. But then dude was in the one, they had more people in the house. It was one dude outside that was really, you know, but everybody else in the house.

So then you got a count on everybody that was in the house plus the house. And then it was like gang related. So it was like six of us on the charge. Then I was like one of the last ones to get caught. I remember that day, like, man, I did not expect to get caught for that because I was living on the West Bank, you know what I'm saying? But when all of that happened and they grabbed me, but then what happened was after three or four months,

I got a bond reduction. So when I got a bond reduction, I was able to bond out. So when I bonded out, I was able to finish my juvenile probation from the first-degree robbery. And Ms. Williams, she was so cool. So she loved me, too. So she's like, let me finish my, I finished my paper as a juvenile, like all my community service. So once I finish my community service, I get violated because one of the officers seen I had a medallion with a crown.

And part of the stipulation was I couldn't have anything to do with the gang. So then they violate me. First I went to sleep by this one house, this one out. But then I just went, turned myself in. So boom, I'm back in there. but my juvenile PO was able to terminate my case because I finished all my community service. So then she just handed me over to the adult system. So then by me getting handed over to the adult system, I was able to be charged as a first offender.

So then I did, you know, I ended up getting credit for time served. But in the midst of that, I remember reading the whole Bible, like from front to back. And that would be like when the lights was out, when everybody was on lockdown, I'd be at the bars trying to get the light all. for the hallway to read the word. But I was just reading it like a novel, and I always say it was that muster see the seed of faith, because I knew I need only God that was going to be able to get me out this situation. I just didn't understand, like, relationship or really understand what I was reading,

but I just know I had to read it, if that makes sense. I just, I noticed power's in this book, and I got to do, like, I'm asking God to do this, so let me read his word, and I read it from front to back. But anyway, I end up getting favor, charges of, a first degree offender and I got five years I got credit for time served and then I got a five year suspended sentence with intensive probation on this special gang thing where it was like real super intensive and then so I get out and I get out I'm out 18 19 and then I go back to prison I go to prison 2021 22 23 24 25 I got out 26 27 I went back 28 29 I got out 30 31 I end up over

on heroin for the third time. I was dead on the floor. They had to cut through the door with the jaws of steel. That's a whole story there, you know. Holy cow. So you were in and out of prison your whole 20s. You weren't kidding when you said you missed the prime point to your life. Yeah.

So for that attempted murder charge, was that like a drive-by or a shootout? Yeah. Yeah, so they dropped it down. They end up dropping it to aggravated criminal damage saying that we just shot up the house, not knowing nobody was in it. Are drive-by is common for Latin Kings? Is that like a normal M.O. Though, like when you guys are going to do something?

Yeah, a lot of people do that. Just like gang life? Like, does it go down how we see it on TV where it's like a group of people in a car, like spraying Uzi's out into a house? No, a lot of times it is. A lot of times it is. How do you feel in those moments? Is it scary?

Like, is your adrenaline pumping? Like, what's that like being in the car? No, yo, it's a lot going. on because so then and then it goes back to the music right like that's why I'm a real advocate against that gangster music you know because those things have spirits and it's like when you think about it like this you're going to you're going to kill somebody you're not going to put on some opera music you're not going to go put on some country western you're not going to go put on some R&B you know you're going to put on something that's going to that's going to like

that's going to buck you up and make you like you know because you you you speak in those things and Those things have spirit. So you listen into the music that already got your adrenaline pumping. You listen to the people that you aspire to be by, be like that's talking about killing and doing this and that. When they ain't killing nothing, you didn't kill 50 people in one song and you ain't never been indicted. You know what I'm saying?

So you're listening to somebody that's basically capitalizing off of pouring death into a whole generation. And you listen to it. You're in there. And then now you got your peers that you're trying to look good in front. front of you're trying to gain that respect and then it's like now you're thinking this is what you aspire to be like because this is what you see this is what's gangster right and so you know like now you're I'm a gangster so and then you got the gun so then you feel like you feel like that's

power because once you pull a gun on somebody and you see the fear that they have you like that's power like you got this gun on you you you're almost fearless because you like but then it goes back to this why do you have the gun on you because of fear so everything has a level of fear attached to it like when you go into prison when i first went to prison that young i'm like man because i was going upstairs i was going on the gang on on the gang unit i was like first person play with me i'm going bust them in a mouth like if i have to grab like i'm gonna get me a tool like so it was out of fear but that fear push see fear's gonna push you it's gonna be fight or flight you know so my thing was pushing me into fight because i wasn't gonna be like the like the stuff that i

See, like I wasn't going out like that, you know. So when you're in the car, your adrenaline's pumping. You got a bunch of people that are all really lost. And now you bucking each other up, you know what I'm saying? You speak. And then you want to look good in front of your peers. And it's just a whole bunch of mess. And then some people end up serving life sentences behind one decision

because they wanted to look cool in front of their friends. And they let this music influence them to do something that they know they shouldn't be doing. That's going to cause you to lose. your life. And then one thing I always say, like, even doing all that time in prison, I remember my people being mad, you know, and I'm like, and me being mad, I'm like, I'm no one in prison. Like, y'all free. Y'all act like I wanted to get caught. You know what I'm saying? Like, I'm no one in here. I'm no one 23 and one. I did 23 months in solitary confinement on extended lockdown. You know, I hear a dude hanging themselves two two cells down from me.

sound like somebody's fighting in the cell and it's a one-man cell because he changed his mind at the last minute but the way he ties the news he couldn't get back on the table and he ended up dying. Like, I'm the one going through all of this but then I realized

I put my family through this too just because I'm the one physically in here everybody that you love is going through it in the process because of the love they have for you and wanting to be with you and wanting aspiring for you to be something productive, not only productive,

but just free, you know what I'm saying? So just understanding all of that, like, man. Yeah, I mean, when you're hopping in that car, and this goes for everyone in life, no one's thinking about everything you just said came after that. Right. That's why that's powerful what you said, because you need to see the before and the after. Right. You were in that car.

You were in that position trying to show off to people and be a part of something that, you know, you got yourself involved in, but then you lived with the consequences of that. Right. And the consequences are what can change people's mind down the road. Right, right. And then some people don't get a chance to come back out. Yeah. And some people, like, don't get lucky where someone actually does get murdered in that drive-by,

and their whole life's thrown away. Overwood. All because you try to impress someone else in that car. Right. And once you're in that car, it's kind of hard to get out of it, right? Like, you can't just, like, say when you're about to pull up on a house, I don't want to be a part of this anymore, right? No, no, it's over with it.

And are you guys in, like, ski masks or are you guys, like, disguised? or anything? Oh, we have bandanas. Bandanas. Yeah. So it really is kind of like the TV shows and movies. Wow.

That's, that's, it's crazy, like to, I'm sure you watched it growing up and then to have lived that. Man, so many, like, see, when of all, like with the confidential informant. So this is fast forward.

We're gonna hop back and forth because there's this situation here. Like, I was in the car, met this dude. He's talking about these. numbers. We go in Houston, bringing it back. So then this dude's talking about these other numbers. So come to find out, he was actually working with the police, but the police were crooked. So I'm in the car. I got my son in the car with me. My son was like, a son was like

six, seven years old. And the only reason he was in the car with me, because I wasn't doing nothing that day. I was just going to pick up money from people like safe houses, right? And then my people calls me and was like, man, look, man, meet me here. I'm about to get this for this. I was like, man, I told you wait. We need to really see who this dude is. And he's like, man, I've been with him all day. It's all good.

So boom, I go over there. So when I go over there and I meet, I left. I got mad because I felt like he jumped the gun. And I didn't feel comfortable about messing with the dude. So then I pull off. But then when I pull off, I felt like something bad was going to happen. So I didn't want to leave my people. stuck out because I didn't know, I didn't think it was the police.

I thought like it might have been a jack move or something. So then I remember grabbing a gun telling the dude, I said, if y'all try to play any games, I'm going to shoot you straight. I'm going to shoot you in the head. No, no, we're not playing games. So then my son's in the car. So then in my head, like, this is my people. I don't want to leave my people stuck out.

So I think I'm going to drive around the block and the parking lot so big. If I got to jump out the car and run around and do. whatever I got to do. It's not going to jeopardize my son, but I don't want to leave my people stuck out, and he ends up getting killed. So I'm like, and I'm just trying to think fat, and I'm smoking, weed, and all of that.

So then I'm in the car, and I'm watching, and I see the dude pull up, see the other dude pull up, and then, like, once the hood came up, all you see was police come from everywhere. It was all, they had one marked car. They have to have to show that it's police presence, but all the other cars was like cars that they were, possessed from like doughboys you know it was like impalas and and all chevies and all of that so they're

jumping out all over the place so when they're jumping out they haven't rushed me they rush in the scene where my people's at with the do so i don't know if if i'm thinking it's the fairs now i only been home nine 10 months maybe at the most after doing the five-year bid so i'm like i'm not about the i'm thinking they still they got a brick in there you know because of what i'm just thinking it's the So then I was like, man, I grabbed a gun and I cocked the gun. I was like, I'm going to shoot out. Like, I'm not going back to jail this quick on a funny style. I'm just going to bang out, you know, so then, and not thinking, just I grab a gun,

I cocked the gun. And when I come up with the gun, my son jumped from the back seat to the front seat because he's like, it's something off a call of duty or something. He's like, wow. And I couldn't pull off because I was blocked in, but they didn't rush the car. They ran to the seat to the other car. So I'm thinking they don't even know it's me, but I can't. So I cocked the gun.

I come up with the gun and my son is to the back of my son's head because he's looking out the window at everything going on. And when it happened like that, I know it's the Holy Spirit now. I didn't know then. But a voice said, you can't do this in front of him. So, and they still hadn't seen me. So I put the gun down and I grab him by his hand and I try to walk him into the blockbuster. so I could like run out the back or whatever. So once I get almost, when I got to the blockbuster,

they then ran up on me, guns drawn. Put your hands on your head. Put your hands on your head. Dude, my six, seven-year-old son got his hands in the air. I got my hands in the air. That kills me to think, like, I'm supposed to be his dad. I'm supposed to be his protector. I'm supposed to be showing him a better way.

and he got they got guns in me and my son's face you know what I'm saying we put our hands in the air man and man next thing you know they end though they said oh call call somebody for you got somebody that can pick him up and he's like he nana and he gives them he gives them which is my cousin but I told you it's like my sister because we all like grew up like real close together calls her I'm in the backseat I didn't I took the phone a little clean up and then I hit the phone in the bottom of the things so that the girls at the house trying to get rid of all of the drugs and all get rid of the guns and all of that and then and then they taking me from there to my house kick that door in

they call the dude coming out there with a ounce of coke they find three more guns in the house i'm like man it is over with you know but then even in that situation i end up getting things dry i had the best lawyer in the city frank de salvo you know what i'm saying but uh situations like that It was a confidential form. And the police end up jacking us out of $15,000 cash that they did not sign the seizure on. They wrote the seizure on like $2,000 that was in my pocket and stole the other money. But by them stealing the other money, it made my case smaller too. And then anyway, I got somebody signed an after-David on one gun.

And the gun that was in the car, they end up dropping the tent possession of a firearm. But just thinking about all of that, like my story could have ended right there. You know what I'm saying? Like I was ready to bet. If my son wasn't in there, I would have banged out with them and it would have killed me right there. And my story would have been over with in 2006. And none of this good. And that's why I'm so adamant about really like living for the Lord because I'm on borrow time.

Like everything, this, not talking about even when I died on the floor overdosing on heroin, like, I shouldn't be here. I'm only here by the grace of God. So no matter where God brings me, I got to all. always give God glory because my best thinking had me about to shoot out with the police. My best thinking had me looking at a life sentence, you know? How many discounts does USAA auto insurance offer? Too many to say here. Multi-vehicle discount. Safe driver discount.

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mintmobile.com slash switch. Up front payment of $45 for three month plan equivalent to $15 per month required. Intro rate first three months only, then full price plan options available. Taxes and fees extra. See full terms at mintmobile.com. I'm saying so, man, that's crazy. Was that the incident that changed your life that it wasn't that it wasn't the wow so not even that was enough to no see that's where it comes into the whole like life and spiritual factor of it it's like you were given an opportunity there that most people don't get to kind of like change and you still didn't take that opportunity you go through more shit but then you're finally able to surpass that and now you're here to tell the story right so it's just incredible like how life works in that fact that some people get a lot of

chances and they are finally able to turn it around and they're used as like the example to save others like maybe that was your destiny that was your journey from the day you were born like it was your job to share your story to overcome all of these obstacles whereas others aren't like i look at my position i literally went through everything that i did so that way i could be given this platform to have people like yourself for people like me and you to connect right and give people that like me and you were talking and you said you did a series and they didn't allow you to kind of like put your whole story out there. Right. So maybe that's a way life's supposed to work where you connect with someone like myself who we both were on completely different paths, but somehow we connect.

And life has this weird way of putting the pieces to the puzzle together. And in return, we're helping someone. So, you know, it's just so fascinating. Yeah, with Ian Bick. It's just like, that's what I think about that every day. You know, I think about just like why and like how literally every single thing played out in my life on the days where I should have been dead or I shouldn't have gotten through that, you know? Right. And now here we are.

Right. It's crazy to think about. You know, you're preaching right now. Yeah, I go off sometimes, you know? Come on past the ear. Yeah. Revelations 1211, we overcome him by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimonies that we love not our life unto death.

Yeah. You know, because at one point, we was loving what we was doing. You know what I'm saying? But we didn't love it unto death. Like there was a point where we woke up, you know what I'm saying? And now we get to share the testimony. You know what I'm saying? And that's biblical right there.

And for me, it was just like I, like, I didn't struggle with, like, addiction or get to the point where like, there was in between, I had lost everything, went to prison, came out and rebuilt the life. but my driving factor for my success now was I'm tired of people looking down on me because of my past. Right. So that's what drove me. That was my breaking point personally. And, you know, in prison, when I was in the shoe, because I did, you know, almost seven, eight months in the shoe,

sometimes all there was to read was the Bible. And that's what I was reading. I would literally read it and I would take notes. I still have my notes in prison where I would like highlight parts and do that. And I'm not necessarily, I'm more spiritual than, you know, religious. But I did read it and I understood it. And a lot of that, like, I'm a big quotes person. And you've been reciting quotes in it.

There's a lot of interesting, inspirational quotes within that. So it's amazing how, like, prison, you know, people always ask me if prison is reformative, if, you know, that could change you. And it's not prison itself. It's just what you can learn in there on your own. It takes yourself to come to those terms. Yeah. Hey, I'm not religious either. you know but uh yeah nah nah it's what you do with it malcolm x said prison penitentiary second

best to college you know so it's like what you do with that time like i remember going in prison and seeing these dudes coming from angola with life sentences like zero's on a rap sheet no out date no parole date but they were smiling like they had the joy they had joy and i don't understand it was the joy of the lord but i remember so you know when you first go you got to go to the different callouts at the prison. So when I go and they're talking about this program that the life was started at the Quincy. It was a chaplain's program. It was a faith-based program. And they was all so happy. I was like, man, these dudes lost their mind. So I'm thinking, this is how they're dealing with a life sentence. They just went crazy. They lost their mind.

But then the Bible says the cross is foolishness to those that are perishing, but to us that believe is the power got into salvation. So really, they weren't the ones that lost their mind. I was the one that was out of my mind. It didn't make sense to me because I was perishing. I was seeking my own selfish desire. I had such a twisted rationale in prison. You know, like when I was in prison, this is what I would say.

What I'm going to be good in prison for? If I wanted to be good, I would have did that on the street. I'm not going to be good now. If not, I would have did that on the street and I wouldn't be here. So I'm just going to be bad in here too. So then I was locked up, locked up, locked up. You know, so then it's like going to extended lockdown. I remember being in De Quincey and then it was like a zero tolerance camp.

They didn't have a cell block. They just had like for an offense or they'll ship you. Like they didn't have extended lockdown. It was medium security prison. And I had five years and they didn't have no drugs on a compound. They didn't have nothing. So I'm like, man, I'm not about to do five years. over here, you know, so then I really just said, and it's funny how when you set your mind or

something, like somebody, you could be having a bad day and just disgust it and be like, if my manager goes off today, today's the day I'm quitting. You know what I'm like? This is how I was in prison. I was like, man, I'm just going off. Next thing happens, I'm just going all the way off. And then it was just, I was working in the kitchen. I went all the way off. It was early in the morning. And the guy was telling me I missed the table. The little sergeant, he did like that. I missed you missed the table and he almost hit me in my face. I'm like, you better watch where you put your hands. So then, uh, so then, uh, he says something and I said something.

But then he's like, he walks off. So then I finished doing all the tables. I finished the whole feed and the whole prison. And then he calls me, palan, come here. Put your hands behind your back. I'm like, what? You could have did that too out. Like after I didn't clean the whole kitchen for the whole prison,

now you're going to lock me up. I went all the way bananas. They didn't hit the beep. on me, they grabbed me, they had to cuff me, fully restrained me. I'm tossing with all of them, hit one over against the wall. So now I'm down. So now when I'm down and I'm coming, they're bringing me out. The 10-19 cell block traffic, they shut the walk down.

So when they shut the walk down, I realize he's one of the ones cuffing me. So then I run here, they had pillars in the middle of the walk. I run him into the thing. He runs into the thing because he's holding me. So I went to the side. He runs into the thing. Next thing you know, they hit the beeper on me again. Now they pick me up in the,

air and I'm like flying to the cell block and then I get behind the other door and the lieutenant they was all waiting for me out there I remember I thought they was going to kill me that's the first that's the second time I got sprayed with deep freeze I'm talking about so it's deep freeze oh it's like worse than May so what it does it just it chokes you it takes your breath and it burns so then they sprayed a whole can came back with another can in my cell now I'm trying to mess up with the thing because I couldn't breathe, you know, and the next thing, you know, I get shipped to Allen. I get shipped to Allen. Once I'm at Allen, prisoners basically run Allen.

It was private owned. It wasn't rained by DOC. And there's no, like, the guards are in the middle. They're not there with you. And I remember being, I got into some stuff over there, you know. And then once I got into some stuff over there, I was about to getting a knife fight, the dude because I end up breaking in the dude's locker next to me. but come to find out he was undercover for another dude and the other dude who had like 50 years plus life.

I had five years. So now he's going to Earth unit trying to buy two knives to come. So I'm trying to get tooled up with my partner. Now we're on the big yard. And I got five years. You know what I'm saying? But look how God works. So now this dude, he wants to kill me.

But I'm like, I'm going to kill him. But I got five years. He's not coming home. So, but I get locked up because I used to play sick call all the time so I could talk to the nurses. You know, like if you make the sick call for the same thing, they only take $2 out your account. But if you make it for the same thing, they can't keep taking the $2 out your account because you're making it for the same thing. And I was making it. I was reading books and they're talking about migraines.

So I was trying to like act like I had a migraine. Not a migraine or, like a tumor in my brain by saying the headaches were coming. I read the book and I knew the sick. symptoms because I was trying to get a trip to go to the hospital on the streets, you know? So anyway, by me making these sick calls, they put me on a, on the, not the sick call, a pill call, but if you don't go to pill call, you get rolled up for aggravated disobedience. But by me just getting out the cell block for the battery on the officer, I was on like a probation period. So I missed the pill call because I was on the big yard waiting for the dude if we was going to get in a knife fight or whatever.

So then I get locked back up because I had the aggravated disobedience and I was on probation. So now I go to the cell block, but the dude's not on the cell block. So look how God got me out the picture, right? Because me and him was going to do because he already knew. So then I'm in the cell block so they send me to working cell block. So you got to do 90 days without a write-up before you get to the compound. So while I'm on the working cell block, they feed in tuna fish, but they gave us one scoop. now the tuna fish was fired.

President tuna fish is pretty good. Yeah, no. I love the fish. Yeah. So you got to think. But they gave us one scoop. Now the compound gets two scoops. But we're in the working cell block.

So the compound gets two scoops because they work. We're in the working cell block. We still got to go to work. We just got to come back to a cell. So I'm like, we should get two scoops too. So then I was like, yeah, you're right, Paco, bro. We should get two scoed. I'm like, man, I start racking the balls back.

I'm like, man, man, what are we going to do about it? We're just going to let them give us one scoop. So then everybody saw, I got the tier bucked up. So now we racking the cell bars back. They're throwing trays on the hallway. So the other thing coming back. So now we sent the kite to the next tier and the next tier. Now everybody's bucking.

We're going to a hunger strike. We want two scoops. So everybody's throwing the trays back down. They burning stuff. People racking the balls back. So then, Marcelli, he was like, Like, now Paco, you got to do it like this. He's older, I mean, he lays down, and he starts kicking the cell doors with Beaufort.

It sounded like thunder. Tadda-da-da-da-da-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta. I was like, so he's going bananas too, right? So then we bucking all of that evening. Then that night cut, we denied the food. So next thing you know, all you hear. Now, everybody's bucking, they're racking balls back, they burns, trying to throwing stuff on the hallway. Everything's shut down.

People can't come down the tears. Next thing you know, you hear. Doof Dooh We're looking out the window I can see down the wall Because the window was in front of it They called it

They got a special tactical unit From other prisons to come And they're doing this specific It looked like Ninja Turtle suits Because they got the face mask They got the shield They got the electric shock shield And they got like full body on them

And they're doing this march Because it's to embed fear You know and it worked So look So they're coming down there They're doing that So then everybody so they're hitting tear by tear

instead of hitting everybody at one time and all of a sudden you just hear grown men screaming sounding like women like screaming and then so I as people are screaming my sally the one that was said no you kick it like this he was like

call call the man I said what he said I got asthma people I got asthma people call the man call the man I was like what? He's like I got asthma I got asthma so he's like he's having an asthma attack so I start calling son son

I forgot what cell. Cell 5. Man down, man down. So he opens the, the plexiglass from the front of this year. He said, what you said? I said, man down. And I told him what sell? He said, yeah, well, there's going to be a lot more of y'all down in a minute.

So then the dude's like, oh, my God. So he gets on his knees and he starts praying. I start making fun of him. I'm like, man, this dude's on his knees praying in here. He's scared to death. Like it was funny. So next thing, you know, they're doing cell by cell by cell by cell. He's like, Paco, don't let them see your face.

They're going to come in here. They're going to come in here. And sure enough, they stopped in front of my cell. They had a whole five-gallon thing, spraying it into the cell. Next thing, like clouds and deep freezers coming in there. I can't see. I can't breathe.

He didn't hit under the rack. So next thing you know, that when they get in there and they start stomping me down, they put the shackles on, they're hitting the shackles and they're hitting it against the rack, making the shackles bite up all the way. And then I'm cuffed behind my back with shackles. And they said, pick them up. Drop them. Pick them up.

And I can't cover them. I said, because my hands are behind my back and I got shackles on. They picking me all the way up in the air and dropping me on the floor. Picking me up in the air and dropping me on the floor. Then they drag me out by the shackles and lay on top of me with the electric shock shield. I'm going to, I'm like, what is that? And then, boom, like I was out. And the next thing, they dragging me off the tear.

Skull dragging me. I'm looking. And then remember I told you my cell he was praying, right? Yeah. They walk him out the cell. They didn't beat him. They didn't spray. They didn't electrocute him.

They just walk him out the cell. And I thought like not, you know, hindsight's 20-20. Like now that I'm in a position of faith and I know God's real, I'm like, wow. See, I mocked him and laughed at him for praying. And look, he walks out, not even getting touched. And they almost kill me. I was like, man, you can't. make this stuff up.

Like God is real. You know what I'm saying? Jesus Christ is real. Next thing you know, we're all in the hallway. All over all in our faces. And they put us all on the tier, put us all on strip cell,

no clothes, little garment. And then they're coming through the, they're coming through with the food loaf to where it's basically all of the food, the trash from the trash. They mix up all the food together from the compost and put it in the oven.

It stinks. Like when it's just like a big thing or just all food. mixed together with flour and throwing the oven. So we're denying it. We're not eating it. We're on hunger strike. Dude that's working on the halls.

He's taking the food that's coming in and throwing it in the trash can. Then that shift change at night, 10.30 at night, they would pass the trash bag and we would pass the trash bag from cell to sell and eat out the trash bag because they wasn't feeding us, you know? And we did that. We did that for two and a half days on the third day. Now, these records go to DOC headquarters. So before it gets their attention,

it has to be a three to four day time period of this hunger strike. It gets DOC's attention. Then they come see what's going on in the prison. So the warden comes on the tier. Who wants to eat bacon and eggs? It's like, sign this paper and I'm going to serve. Y'all going to get bacon and egg. I was like, man, no, man, don't sign that.

Like, we ain't signing that. And the next thing you don't do is like, man, forget you. I'm hungry. So he's signing it. Next thing, sign in it. I'm, I ain't signing it. But then by the time it got to me, everybody then signed.

There's only three more sentences. So I signed it to. I mean, begging the next thing, you know, the buses come. They put us all on the buses, take us back to Hunt's, A.R. D.C. and split everybody up, you know? So once that happened,

I end up going to DCI. Then I got shit from DCI on disciplinary to WCI. Then, like, so many situations of me going to war with the people. And I always seen because it was like the respect you would get after. Like whenever you, they shut the walk down and people like, Paco, and they're talking about how crazy you are and all of that.

You start getting addicted to that. But Deco falls into the approval of man. So then when I think about my life, why I got jumped into Latin Kings, the approval of man. Why I used to act bad? Because of the dudes that I was coming up under was doing gangster stuff. I wanted the approval of man. And when you live life for other man's approval,

you'll die from their disapproval. So now you basically compromise and do all things that you know that's not even you to do, but because you want their approval. See, God has stripped me from the approval of man. Now, I don't care what man says about me. I live for the approval of one, and that's Jesus Christ. As long as I'm obedient to what he says, because even in the faith, you know, like you was talking about religion, religious folks is the ones that killed Jesus.

It was the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and they're still trying to kill people today. That's the ones that are throw the stones at me. Oh, what you're doing on that show? Oh, why you got a chain on? Or what? Oh, rap. That's not of God.

Man, the devil is a liar. You heard me? Like, I'm quoting scriptures in my music. I got these kids speaking life and not death. If I give you my pain, I give you my solution. If I give you my pride, I give you my fall. I don't just drop you off there. You know what I'm saying?

So, man, like going back to what we were saying, everything happening for a purpose, you know? But in that transition, there was a lot, a lot going on, even in those gaps when I would come home and my grandma saying that, you know, having visions of me preaching and all that. I'm like, man, grandma. Like she really said, like, I remember coming on for five years and she was like, Andy, you're going to be good. I'm like, what you mean? I'm going to be good. She was like, I had a vision.

I was like, who was the vision? God's going to show you. I'm like, Auela, that's grandma in Spanish. I said, you got to tell me what you saw, because I was. I don't see nothing. At this time, I'm pimping. We're dealing with the cartel, bringing it back. I'm a mess, you know what I'm?

I'm doing drugs and nobody knows, so I'm doing it on the slit because I got the drugs. So it's like a lot of, you know, it was just darkness. And she told me that, and I was like, you need to tell me what you saw. She tells me, sit down. I sit down. She said, I was in church.

I was praying. And I looked up and you was on the pope and preaching. I'm like, what? I'm like, oh, poor baby. Grandma fell asleep in church. Like there's no way. I'm not even saved. You're talking about preaching?

But see, she knew who she was in Christ. And John 157 says, if you abide in me and my word abides in you, then you connects any request and it shall be granted. That's reciprocal. You got to do something to obtain it. She was abiding. And her prayer was that I would be a moving shaker

for the kingdom of God. And I wish I could tell you I got it together. I end up going back to prison. and she ended up dying when I was in prison. And I couldn't even go to the funeral because I wouldn't tell the wardens how he was getting the cell phones in. You were getting cell phones into the prison? Yeah, and he was trying to use that as leverage.

When my grandma died, you want to go to the funeral? Well, we know you got a cell phone, and we know how would the cell phones get it because they could never catch me with the cell phone. But they knew because they had confidential informers, but they couldn't catch me with it, and they couldn't get two to corroborate with the same story. but I wouldn't tell them

so I couldn't go to the funeral and then that even kills me because I was like I kept it more street I kept it realer with this cold so to say that we live by than my grandma that basically raised me that has always been there for me I couldn't even go to the funeral

you know but that's how it be man when you're in that life you just get so deluded by your own vanity it's like you blind and that's why the Bible says he calls you out of darkness into his marvel this light. So that means once you come into Christ,

he illuminates things that's always been there. He illuminates you to you. Like, this is what you were created for. Did that vision that she saw end up coming true? Yeah. How many years after that was that? How many years after? That was in 2006, seven.

Yeah, because I went back. That was in like 2006, 7. And they came to pass in 2016, 17, 17. Like 10 years later. Incredible journey you went through just to get to that point on all the stops that you shouldn't have really survived or been able to talk about. Right, right. It's so crazy when you think about it.

When was your last prison sentence? My last prison sentence I discharged in 2010. 2010. And why was that the last one? What did you finally come to terms with that made you say I'm done? Oh, no. I wasn't done. But that was just the last sentence.

Because that's when we joined the Kings with the Bloods. Okay. So then when I got out on the streets, like I took that to the streets and then, you know, we, we dealing with, we dealing with the cartel. We're dealing with this. But in the midst of all of that, my wife, Ashley, she was my girlfriend at the time. She gets pregnant. So when she gets pregnant, I, like, man, she started, she was, she grew up Christian. I grew up Catholic, so I kind of had religion.

I didn't know about having a relationship. So she knew, you know, she would go to Houston with me. Like, you know, she got blind hair, green eyes. I would put the money in the car, get the money over there, deal with them, and then get somebody else to come back. So we're doing all of that, but then she gets pregnant. And then she's like, she's having this baby with her without me. She was like, look, if you want to be there, you don't have to, I'm not killing my baby.

You know what I'm saying? Like, you don't have to be with me, but whatever. you know, but she was praying, sincerely praying. I remember this one night, I bonded out on some, some little charges or whatever. It wasn't nothing major. It was like attachments or something. And I'm in a hotel with two girls. They're in there taking a shower.

And I thought about when she's telling me about the doctor's checkup. And I called her two something, three in the morning and tell her to come get me. Now, look, this is God. I got two girls taking a bat together. and I think about her and tell her to come get me so I could make it to the doctor's appointment for her because she was pregnant and then we've been together ever since

you know what I'm saying? Like the girl I was where to end up setting my clothes on fire in my house and I had work in the house and all of that like that was just, guy was just closing all of these doors, you know what I'm saying? But then as I'm doing all of this, so in my head I'm like, man, I want to be there for this kid, you know, because what killed me was not

being there for my other kids. Like prison, you know, prison is prison. Like, I was selling drugs in prison. I was getting money in prison, you know. So I know how to do time. What hurt me was watching my kids growing pictures and my kids coming on visit, not understanding why I got handcuffs and shackles, you know, like, that's what killed me. And then when she was pregnant and I had another opportunity to be there for the kids,

but I still, my cousin ends up getting popped by the feds. He ended up like $290,000 conspiracy for 13 kilos. So when the feds grab him, I'm like, man, we got, like, if they're looking at him, they're looking at, but it wasn't looking at me. It was something that was going on over there, but still scared me enough to where it's too close, so I shut everything down. I remember, man, the guy was with me, man, because I remember shooting some coke. And then when I get the call that that happened, I don't know if this. the feds down here or down there or what. So I had like a quarter brick.

I climbed this tree in my back yard. I had just shot some coke. So raw coke. So then I climbed this tree because in my head, I'm like, if I could hide this coke up in this tree, the dog's not going to be able to smell it. I didn't want to get rid of it because this is all I had. It's like a quarter thing.

So I climbed all the way up this tree to tie it up there. And by the time I get all the way up, I look down. Like I see the whole back of aims from back here. I'm like, and my partner's looking like, dude, what are you doing? And I'm looking at him all the way down. He's like, how are you going to get down? I'm like, how am I going to get down?

Like, because I hide them wore off, you know, like, man, but that was the greatest guy where I climbed down. I hide it somewhere else, but then I was like, I got to shut this all the way down. I'm not going to get back locked up. So then it's too hot. So then I start working with my dad. So now I'm trying to do right without Christ, right?

So then it's just a matter of time to where, man, I start getting in wreck, like getting in rec. So I'm doing the secular rap. I'm opening up for Kevin Gage, opening up for other people. And I totaled the bends. I don't even remember how I got home that night, you know, and I'm going to jail, DWI. The month before I totaled the bends,

I totaled the truck running into the levee doing like 60-70. They didn't give me a DWI. They gave me reckless operation and all of that. Like kept getting these wrecks. And then now the last time I overdosed. on heroin for the third time. Me and her got into it, and I was like, man, I just

want to get away from reality for a minute. You know what I'm saying? That's how I knew how to escape. So I just, so I go to get this coat, I go to get the dope, and I got the rig, and then I know going to the gas station, locking the door, and I shoot the dope. And I shoot the dope, I go out.

Boom. The dude that was with me, he tries to open the door, but I locked the door. He tries to get the manager to open, in the door, the manager lost the key. I'm dead on the floor. The door's like he can't kick the door and it's a steel door and a steel frame. And I found this out just recently. I never even really publicly shared this part of my testimony. One of the cops that responded to that call was a Christian and he was praying for me that day. It was his first time working in the field.

So while I was dead in the store, he was praying for me. Fast forward when I opened up a church in my living room, his daughters was coming to the church. Then he came to the church to see where his daughters was going, had the grand opening, and he realized, I'm the one that he was praying for that OD in the, in the, in the, in the, at the circle. Okay. But watch this. When they call the fire department and the police department because they can't get the

door open, the fire department was responding from another call because that fire department was too far away. I was dead on the floor. If they were had a cane. from way over there, I wouldn't have made it. But they was coming in from another call, get the call, and then pull right into the parking lot, like right there and had the jars of steel, cut through the door, cut the door open.

I'm dead on the floor. They shoot me with two shots of Narcan. Shoot me with one, shoot me with another one. Finally, I come back, but I didn't come back through until I was in the hospital bed with IVs hanging out of my arm. I remember looking, I know I had more dope on me. And I look, and I see the police officer in front, When I look down, I'm not cuffed.

I just got IVs all over the place. So I'm paying possum. I'm waiting for him to move. I said, as soon as he moves, I'm out of here. Because I know I have, and I'm already a tooth. Like, this is going to be my three-time felon. So three strikes you out, right? Well, three strikes brought my salvation and deliverance.

This was the part that really rag me. So then I'm looking as soon as he left to help somebody that came in drunk, I ripped the IVs out my arm and I broke out running. I broke out running. I made it through one. door, but when I got to the other door, they have to buzz you out of that door, and they grabbed me. And it brings me back to the scripture. God will open doors no man can shut, and shut doors no man can open.

A lot of people praise God for open doors, but they need to praise God for the doors he closed. I thank God for some of my unanswered prayers because I was so immature when I was asking for some things, right? But anyway, so boom, I go back to lock up, boom, I bind out. Now, my wife, when she has the kid, we weren't married yet. Our son was born with polycystic kidney disease. There's no cure for it. Life expectancy is three months.

It's basically the kidneys are born with multiple cysts, so they lose function, and they have to take, they have to have a transplant, but their bodies are too little to endure such a procedure because of the immune system. So basically they die. Life expectancy is three months. So when our son was born with that disease, she started going back to church by herself. I remember being in the hospital,

getting loaded, trying to bag up, having stuff in the parking lot. People still trying to make money and, you know, just a mess, like a whole world window, just a mess. So anyway, she's going to church by herself. Then my lawyer, which been my lawyer, he said, look, you better go to N-A-A-A-B-C,

you heard me, AAA, you better go to church, you better get involved with the church. Like you got to give me something to work with because you look like a milestone paper. You're a code six career criminal. So I'm like, man, my girl's telling me to go to church. Now my lawyer's telling me to go to church. I better go to church. You know what I'm saying?

So that's why I started, that's when I started going. And it was just that one time, Pastor Anthony Marquise gave his testimony and I was drawn to that altar. Long story short, man, I end up getting sentenced to the church mandated by the court. In my minutes, they said, if he leaves, if... At Hyundai of Glendale, lease a new, 2026 Hyundai Tucson SC Front Wheel Drive for 269 a month, plus tax for 36 months, with owner's assurance in America's best warranty, 10-year, 100,000 miles. Stubbed by Hyundai of Glendale today or Hyundaiofglendale.net.

36-month lease, 4,49 to its signing. Tax title license and dock fees extra, plus government fees and taxes. 7,500 miles per year, expires 6126. Who available at this payment? PH 715229, pH 714,000. If he gets kicked out, we vacate the sentence, take him back to trial on the initial charge and triple bill him. So I'm like, God just parted the Red Sea of the Louisiana judicial system. You know what I'm saying?

Like, he's real. My whole, like, once I realized how I realized, it was like I changed teams. I took off that devil jersey and I put on that Jesus jersey and I've been starting ever since. You know what I'm? You know, the criminal justice system is so fucked up and unfair and everything. but I will say that states have a lot more power to give someone a second chance than the federal level. They're more willing to make a deal

and give you an opportunity because if that was a Fed charge, you'd be still being in prison right now. Yeah, especially because of my conviction, so my numbers, they would have been too high, but yeah. And that's when the system fails, and that's also when it works. I mean, look at you.

It gave you a second chance. When anyone dies, you shouldn't have been giving a second chance. Not to say you didn't deserve it, but just like the way it looks from. Yeah, black and white. Yeah, you shouldn't have been given a second chance. But now look at where you are today.

So that's the real fucking problem with the criminal justice system, you know? Yeah, no. Even the DA that was hearing the case, like he even said he was commanded to comply. See, he wasn't supposed to say that. You know what I'm saying? That's in my minutes because the article that they found, they said if the third felony is not a capital offense, he's eligible for a suspended sentence with the requirement he completes a one-year in-house treatment program.

Yeah. So when I told you started going to church, I go early and they have a graduation going on. I'm like, what is this? They got a one-year in-house treatment program, discipleship program at their church I was already going to. And they wasn't supposed to accept me because of my jacket, right? But they said the Holy Spirit told them to give me a chance. So all of these things lined down. I remember my lawyer saying, look, I'm going to ask for one more continuance

because the DA was ready to pick a jury. She was like, because they said, look, we're going to give him five years, you know, with his jacket. But then I was talking to Frank. I'm like, but that's going to be with the triple bill, though, because I'm a three-time felon. Like, when I get the DOC, they're going to double bill me. He was like, well, yeah, they can. Probably 10, 15 years.

He's like, but 15 years with your jacket? Like, you could do that. Like, you look, based upon 30 or 40. 40, I'm like 15, I didn't did 8 and a half. Like, it's like I don't even ever been there, you know, because I'm thinking about my kids again. It's like, I've never been there for them. Like,

their whole life. So I remember my daughter, like 13 years old, I let her drive my Cadillac because I wanted to be able to at least say I taught her how to drive because I was going to take the time the next day. I was going to go take that time. And I remember my son not crying and hot.

Like, it just broke me. I remember crying all that night. And I'm telling my girl, which is my wife now, I'm like, look, you don't have to wait for me, you know, just go on with your life, but I'm not going to stop serving God. I'm just going to have the best prison ministry they got. I'm going to serve God in there. And she's like, well, it's not over. It's not over.

So when we get to court, they're all playing simultaneously. My lawyer comes in. He said, look, you're going to need the stars to align just right. Man, my God created the stars. You know what I mean? He's like, you're going to need the stars to align just right. I'm going to ask for one more continuance. So when they're up there, when he actually was continuous, the DA is like,

he don't want the five with his jacket? Oh, no, no, it's not going to get anybody. We could pick a jury today. We could pick a jury today. They're going to lose him. He's like, look, I'm working on some things about a program. I don't know about no program. He said, look, just give me one more continuance.

You know I'm not a liar. So based on the strength of him, they gave me one more continuance, and that's when they find that article, and they got with the DA, and I end up going to the program. So next time I come back, I'm already in the program. And they sentenced me to the program. But as I always say, dude, I got sentenced to the church. Crazy.

I've never heard of this before. I've never heard of it. I'm like, look, and I'm talking to God. I'm like, God, why you ain't been sentenced me to the church? That's what you did. Like, every time I went to the DOC, I don't been in almost every institution in Louisiana. I was at the Quincy.

I was in Bogart. I was at Allen. I was at DCI. I was at WCI and everywhere I got shipped was based upon disciplinary action. I did 23 months in solitary confinement on extended lockdown. None of that ever ever helped me. Like when I did the 23 months of solitary, I did nothing but read. But I was reading The Art of War, Sun Tzu.

I was reading McAveli. I was reading I was reading the Quran. I was reading about Buddhism. And I had a Bible. But that was like the last one I picked up because I read it before when I was a teenager, but it was like, I've read everything else because I wanted to go start this empire when I hit the street. But even that, God don't waste none of that because now I can minister to the Muslims because

I know the Hadiths. I was almost a Muslim. I was about to take my shahid in prison. That's a whole other story right there. Yeah, there's so much because you've just experienced so much. How hard was it to renounce gang life and disassociate yourself from that? Man, so the way God moved in my life? I knew he was real.

And then remember my son was born with the disease, right? So they said, my wife, she's my wife now, but she said, she went to the doctors and they said, look, his levels are all the way up. We're going to have to, he's going to need a kidney transplant. Now he's two years old. So basically they're saying he's going to die. And I remember I wanted to leave, but if I left,

I was just going to jail, you know? So then I was like, staying there, but God was showing me how to fight my battles through prayer and supplications. And the other guys in the program, they was watching me go through this battle. I was like, look, we're going to see God move. So I started praying with all of them for my son, praising and worshiping, crying. And I remember grabbing the Bible, the devil battling me, this whole day, I'm visualizing a baby casket and what I'm going to say at my son's funeral.

Like, it was so, it was tangible. Like, I was visualizing it. It was like, what are you? you're going to say at your son's funeral and then it was just weighing on me. So I remember like, no, he's not, I'm not coming into agreement with that. God, I know you're real. I grab my Bible and I throw it, I throw it down. It was outside.

It was on the deck at the church and I throw the Bible down and I'm crying out to the Lord. I'm like, Lord, don't let my son die. Don't let my son die. And as I'm crying out to the Lord, the wind blows. And this is New Orleans, West Bank. Like, it's dry. Summertime, like it's like no cool breeze. It's like dry heat, right?

So then the wind blows. And when the wind blew, the pages of the Bible started flipping open because the wind, the gust of wind came. And I knew God was giving me something right there in that moment. I didn't want to touch it. I'm just looking. As soon as the wind stopped, I looked to see what it fell on. And John 15.7 just like jumped.

It was like illuminated to me. And it says, if you abide in me and my word abides in you, then you can ask any request and it shall be granted. So it was like, all right, I abide in you. I know you real. Like I'm not in Angola, you know, I know you real? And then he said, and my word abides in you. See, that's where he got me.

Because, all right, I knew he was real, but how I'm going to abide in his word if I'm not reading his word? So that's when I understood that it was more than just going to church. I couldn't just read his word. I had to live his word. Abide in his word. I had to live in his word. Then I can ask any requests.

And that's what I was asking for my son to be healed. In that moment, I knew that I couldn't just go to church and just be a church attender, a member. Like, I had to be the church. I had to do exactly what this book says. And that's where one accord jumped off the, like God was just giving me the vision of what I was going to do when I got out the program. And look, my little soldier, he's 12 years old. You hear me? That disease, he's still got the disease, but it's not affecting him the way it should.

Then they battled him. Then they said he was autistic. He didn't talk till he was almost four years old. And now the little dude don't want to be quiet. You know what I'm? He's not in special ed no more. He's an honor roll student. Like, all of this is like how, like I know that I know that.

I know that I know Jesus is real. You know what I'm saying? So in the midst of that, you know, like, man, how could I go back? You had to be done? I had to be done. What do you do now? What's your life like now? I do Christian hip hop, you know,

So I do that. I travel all over the nation. I've been requested outside of the country, but because of my jacket, like I couldn't get my passport. But now I'm in the process of getting my passport back at my lawyer, the dude Frank.

He said, look, if they don't want to get your passport back, I'm going to take you back in front of the sentencing judge, and I'm going to get your expungements. So right now, I do the Christian hip-hop. I'm working on an album right now. Just dropped a couple of new videos. I'm a pastor. You know, a pastor.

church on the West Bank of New Orleans. I'm an evangelist. I travel around preaching. Like, I'm out here because I'm doing a conference tomorrow in the Bronx. And then I'm preaching at Forta Manor Sunday in the Bronx. Then, you know, so I travel with the gospel. I'm first, I'm a man of God. I'm a husband. You know what I'm saying?

I'm a dad to my children. I'm an evangelist, mentor, you know, just however God can use me. You know, we do outreaches in the worst neighborhoods, not only in New Orleans, but in America. You know, we in the pork and stuff. Bean project. We're in the Soundview projects. We in the Bronx. We're in as the Lord leads. We was in Cali ministering to the bloods in the

crypts, you know, baptizing them. So God's really doing it. You know, and the Bible says he chose to despise things of the world to confound the wise, you know, because that's how he gets the glory. Because can't nobody take credit for this but God. If we had your parents here in the room right

now, what would they say about you now? After you've gone through everything you've gone through, you've learned what you need to learn, what would they say? He's a miracle. They say he's a miracle. And they say, they be tripping out all for me, though.

They was like, yeah, he was crazy before. Now he's crazy for Jesus. How was your relationship with him? Oh, it's good. It's good. I work with my dad. You know, he got a sandblasting company, like pipe inspection, NDT testing.

So I get to work with him with my oldest son, you know. So we work like half a day. And then, you know, I still got him a pastor. Like, you know, got a lot, many hats. Like, however, whatever I could do, like, I just want to be used by the Lord. If you could go back to right before when you joined the gang, when you're a teenager, a young teenager, what would you say to him right now? If you were in a room with that version of yourself back then, now. Cool.

If I was looking at little me, I'm like, man, you went for a lot of pain. That life that you think you want to live. is going to bring a lot of pain not only to you but everybody you love in the process. It's not what it's cracked up to be. Those rappers, they're lying to you. They're not really living like that

and you're going to really do those things that they're talking about and it's going to bring destruction to you and everybody that you love in the process the best years of your life you're going to spend in a cage. You don't want to do that. It's not fly.

It's not what's up. It's not cool. The Lord, I'm telling you, it's so much better. Listen to your Awella. Listen to Awella. Jesus Christ is real. It's not a fairy tale. And he wants a relationship with you.

And in that relationship, you're going to get a peace. The peace that you're looking for, the approval you're looking for. Because when you're getting the gang, you're thinking you're going to get this approval. You're thinking that you're going to be a part of it. something so great, but there's nothing great outside of Christ Jesus. There's nothing great outside of him. You can hit these plateaus. You can hit these short-term and long-term goals.

But when you get there, you're only going to realize that it's still empty. When I was in that light, man, you're going to do time. You're going to run a prison gang. And that's what you think that you want to do, watching American me and blood and blood out. And you're going to get there only to realize that this. ain't it. You're going to get a kilo. You're going to break down kilos and you're going to get it. You're going to think your scarface only to realize that's not it. Because I obtain all the things that I aspire to get only to get it and be like, man, I'm still not fulfilled. Like, I still want more.

Like, it's not enough. And then the Bible says, the wicked flee when no one is chasing, but the righteous abode is lying. Then it says, the Lord refuses to satisfy the craving of the wicked. And if you think about it, no matter what I did and obtained, I was never satisfied because my intention was wicked. It was all about me.

It was all about pride. You got to die to yourself. And you got to know that Jesus Christ is the truth. And that's where your life begins. And I'm telling you, It's going to be a fun life. It's going to be a fun life. I'm talking to the younger me.

Like when you get to like 40 something, you're going to live the life at the end of the 30s that you've always wanted only to realize you wasted so much. So don't waste nothing. Man, say yes to Jesus right now. And he's going to give you a peace that surpasses all natural understanding. He's going to fulfill you. Not only does he feel you, he fills you up until you overflow.

So then the people around you, they're going to get splashed. They're going to get the overflow of the joy and the piece that you have, little man. So get your mind right, little dude. You know what I mean? Pick your pants up, boy. You look like a clown. Give me that rag.

You know what I'm saying? Andy, thank you so much, man. This is an absolute pleasure. I love your energy. Thank you. You know, I really hope this opens up some more doors for you and, you know, keep preaching your testimony.

And, you know, just thank you again, man. I'm glad we made this connection. If you need anything, you know, we're here for you. Praise God. Let me tell you one more thing. So there's another thing that I'm in the process of. And it's cool, too. So I want to do a rehabilitation discipleship program like the one I was sentenced to. So I purchased these containers.

Like I got a church that sits on 1.4 acres. So in the back, I purchased these two containers that I'm renovating to where I can disciple men, house them there, teach them a trade. Not just the word. Like, I'm going to give them the word, but I want to give them a skill too. So when they get out, they could just start all the way over and have an upper hand. But this is cool. So the same division that I was facing the temp murder in, I end up going for a dude.

Because I work with a lot of programs. Like I send a lot of people to different discipleship rehabilitation programs, right? So I'm over there advocating for this guy trying to get them in this program that I'm connected with in Indiana, victory. Victory, Vincennes, and Washington. So I'm there. And then I'm trying to call my lawyer because I'm like, it's not looking good for the dude And I'm like, I'm trying to like,

Can I approach the bench? Like, you know what I'm saying? So then he ain't answered And like a boldness came upon me And I look, you know, I'm a three-time felon, right? I raised my hand, I'm like, Your Honor. She's like, yes, sir, Reverend. I said, may I approach the bench?

Let me tell me you see all the TV. She said, yes, sir, I approach the bench And then I'm talking her language Because I said, look, this is a nice third felony conviction he's eligible for suspended sentence with the requirement. He completes a one-year in-house treatment program if the DA's in compliance. Y'all can mandate him to this program under a suspended sentence. She's so impressed.

They sentence him to the program. And then she says, look, Reverend, whenever you open your program up, let me know, get the bulletin to my clerk. And I'm going to sentence people to your program before they go to DOC as a last chance. I'm like, this is crazy. You know, the same device. vision that I could have lost me now. I got favor with. So we're

in the process of that. You know, we hit the first phase, you know, it's just like, you know, just we're waiting for the funds to come into where we could finish doing the whole thing. And then we're going to be doing the same thing like that I was able to do. We're going to be able to do it to others. That's incredible, man. I wish you the best to luck

with that. Thank you, brother. And good luck with everything this weekend. And, man, thank you for having me, brother. Of course, man. It was a pleasure, man. All right.