The 85 South Show with Karlous Miller, DC Young Fly and Chico Bean - Jason Weaver in the Trap | The 85 South Show

Episode Date: February 10, 2023

Multi-talented actor and singer Jason Weaver explains how he got casted to sing as Simba on Lion King and getting a part on Smart Guy. Jason also goes into detail how his mom played a big role in his career by negotiating his contracts and also teaching him about royalties and publishing. || 85 SOUTH App: www.channeleightyfive.com || Twitter/IG: @85SouthShow || Our Website: www.85southshow.com || Custom Merch: www.85apparelco.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Turning River Road on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Summer's here, and with the kids home and off to camp, it's easy for moms to get lost in the shuffle. On good moms bad choices, we're making space to center ourselves with joy, rest, and pleasure. Take the kids to camp. You know what? It was expensive. But I was also thinking, if you have my kid, this is kind of priceless. Take her, feed her, make core memories.

I don't have to do anything. Main thing, I don't have to do anything. To hear this and more, listen to Good Mom's Bad Choices from Black Effect Podcast Network on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Welcome to Pretty Private with Ebeney, the podcast where silence is broken and stories are set free. I'm Ebeney, and every Tuesday, I'll be sharing all new anonymous stories that would challenge your perceptions and give you new insight on the people around you. Every Tuesday, make sure you listen to Pretty Private. from the Black Effect Podcast Network. Tune in on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast,

or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Your entire identity has been fabricated. Your beloved brother goes missing without a trace. You discover the depths of your mother's illness. I'm Danny Shapiro. And these are just a few of the powerful stories I'll be mining on our upcoming 12th season of family secrets. We continue to be moved and inspired

by our guests and their current. courageously told stories. Listen to Family Secrets Season 12 on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. J.O.N., I think it's about time that you play me some pimping, please. Play me some motherfucking pimping.

Some and... I like that. I'm going to eat me. No, go ahead. Eat your food, man. I ain't gonna get you hungry. I'm drinking this right now. It don't matter.

I'm hungry. No, man, you eat, but we got wing. We got fish. I see. I'm trying. Don't put you all in. This ain't the first time. Hey, man.

You know how we got cake. He fucked you. That nigga don't offer his food to no fucking bribe. Right. Right. Right. We didn't have a hundred guests. That nigga ain't never offered nobody.

Shit. Nah, you appreciate it. You heard any voice, though. He said, what that is. You got over there. I tell you, he's on the queens. It's time you see something gold and fried. You better say something.

Man, come on. Yeah, yeah. I fuck with that, J.O.N. My fool, yo, nigga, whatever you want. Yeah. I appreciate you. Whatever you need home. Yeah.

Nah, we're straight. Say no mother. You know what this about. Used to be a manish boy hunting behind the house. Yeah. Hunting behind the house. That's that old school shit. We used to hunch behind the house.

Yeah. If a mama gone, go win, hunt on the house. punch on the couch. Hey. Love in a mouth. What was that really about? Then I got grown and start pulling it out.

Don't get too nasty or don't get too graphic. Because you know I'm black and they want to see me in plastic. See, that'd be trash and tragic. That's what I'm coming with. I'm staying flipping and getting up on that money shit. I came through and I'm whipping. I got a dummy bitch. She'd be dummy thick.

She's taking dummy dick. She's a crash dummy. She got that ass on her. And if you walk around, I swear you ain't gonna pass on her. She'd be thicker than the tension in the room. With a big booty and two big old boots. You might see me on the Channel 6 News. Just being a nigger, just doing what I do.

Like breaking in the foot locker still the display shoe or getting to it in the lunch line. That's what a nigga do. And they then caught me with some drugs on me. Hey, and then they say I had them guns on me. Hey, the judge don't want to put no bun on me. Hey, he needs some info from my other homie. But ain't nobody gonna tell him shit.

That's right. We just gonna be quiet and bon down on this shit. And go to court with the lawyer, beat the fucking charges. And then take the rest and buy two perennial dodgers. Like a challenge or a motherfucking charger. I'd be riding like a motherfucking dodger. Yeah, I'm talking shit like a motherfucking flock. Y'all, you better get off and go home, Roger.

No, nigga, that ain't just, this is the 85 South Show and the vision coming true. Right now, shit, we're doing it behind the face. But give me a little time, I make it all make sense. That's right. Ain't no rent, bitch, we've been bought the studio. And welcome back to the 85 South Show, bitch. Yeah!

But you thought it would. That's just how I just thought about this shit. That shit just came up. Right now. I love that in my spirit. That was all right. That's all right. Yeah.

Man, come on, bro. Come on, man. Come on. All I'm coming for in 2020, and 2023 is what's probably already old to me. Right. Yeah. I'm coming for-round.

Well, I know y'all coming in Toronto in 2020. 2023. This studio is impressive. I mean, you know, y'all ain't seen. Y'all ain't seen it because y'all just see this the backdrop of shit but man these gentlemen this whole team that they got here it's some shit I'm having a real shit you like this I mean man what I respect is I'm seeing growth I'm seeing evolution like you know what I'm saying I'm seeing black entrepreneurship I'm seeing black exes well that's what we brought you in here man because

you are legendary man I appreciate it and niggins legendary some of the most get old legendary shit Now, everybody, I could name off a thousand friends. I told you over there, you know, you're the Black Forest Gump, damn old. You always seem to smoke on the big place at the right time. On his feet and in the right position. And when it's all set and done, man, you're gonna have.

Hit movies. Okay. Hit songs. Hit TV shows. Yeah. Nigger, I'm sure you didn't wrote a bunch of shit. Facts, nigger. And this is the highest honor of all.

This is how I wanted to introduce you to the 8. vibes south you shit nigga did you so cold they let you play black Michael Jackson come on come on come on hey the man sung for symbol yes he did go on man no man he's song for symbol yeah y'all not about to have you start crying in this fuck you don't let me hey hey this was fifth second oldest boy that's From here, you make y'all remember Theos? Theos! That's right, man.

What? Yeah. What? That's right. Mm-hmm. We were only on for nine episodes, but... Nika, this is nine episodes. That's when Brandon had braces.

Come on, man. Brandy hair braces. Yes, she did. Come on, man. Bray, real observant. Don't know. I remember that. Because I remember when she got the Moesian,

I was worried about him. That was early. But she came out on top. This before all that. And for all the people in D.C. age, breath. Nobody look left. Look right. He did all that.

Come on. Come on. Come on. That's right. Come on. We got change for me. Come on. No, man.

I mean, I love y'all. Thank y'all so much. Hey, to everybody out there, too. Even before we start talking. Hey, man, thank y'all everybody. Seriously. especially my community. You know what I'm saying?

Everybody that I have kind of grown up with indirectly in some kind of way. You know, people now randomly run into it, a grocery store, the airport, or whatever, and people take time out of their day to stop and acknowledge you and your work. I know I'm not going to get the opportunity to meet everybody individually out there.

So I just want to take this opportunity on 85 Sout. Yeah. My favorite show. I'm so honored to be. So I want to take this opportunity on 85 South to just thank everybody out there for support my career and especially my black community, my brothers and my sisters. Because throughout this whole journey, y'all have stood by me, man, and supported me even when I've probably done some films that were bullshit. But my community has always...

We'll let you slap on me. We never. No, my community is always stood up for me and bend down for me. So thank y'all, man. Yeah. Jason Weaver in the trap with us. Come on, man. Come on, man.

No, come on. Well, shit, let's take it from the top, bro. How did all of this come about? How did you start? What was your introduction to the game? When did your people recognize your talent? You know what? My talent was recognized.

I've always had a passion. You know, for people that don't know, I'm born and raised in Chicago. Oh, Shawtown. Shot Town all day. You know, I've always had a passion. passion for the arts. I come from a musical family. My mother started off singing jingles and stuff like that in the jingle industry. Back in the 80s, like late 70s and 80s

a jingle business, especially for black performers. What was her number one? Her biggest dream. Don't tell her you know some of the jingles. What's your head? If the tributes of Dr. King, if we could light a candle, it was something that McDonald's did. I know what you're It was their main campaign every year. And that was actually my first recording session. I was four. I was on the backgrounds on that record. And that was my first recording session

at Chicago Recording Company on Ohio Street. And I was a little kid. And my mother sang the lead on that. So that's what I came up under. Like, you know, my cousin Tricky. Shout out to my cousin Tricky Stewart. People may know his work. When, like, Beyonce was single ladies

to the new one, uh, uh, uh, what is it? Something my soul? Break my soul. Sorry, Tricky. produced it yeah my cousin um produced and uh co-wrote that record with dream uh shout out to dream dream wrote that shit and um that boy calling and the other one the other hit that she got out shout out to shout out to dream i mean all those guys like you know is my fan tricky's my blood but dreams an extended part of our family but yeah i come from a musical background and so i just

grew up looking at movies like looking at et and seeing drew berry more and all them like little kids acting and it just it was fascinating to me and I expressed to my mom I was like you know I think I want to I want to do that I want to try that and just you know based on a relationship she had been able to develop over that period of time and being in the jingle industry it was kind of natural for me to start auditioning for commercials and stuff like that because Chicago in the 80s was a hub for that like all of the ad campaigns were created on Madison Avenue in New York but the music and the energy that would drive people to buy the products.

It was coming from black creators, producers, songwriters, musicians. Still. Still. Yeah. Shout out to Borrell Communications. For people that don't know that history, you can look it up, you can Google it, but Tom Burrell and Burrell Communications was the first major black advertising firm in the country

and it was based in Chicago. Is that what boomerang based off of? It might be. Loosely. It might be loosely based off. I mean, just the company, not the story. No, no, it possibly could be because they were the only black advertisement firms.

So everybody in Chicago that was a singer, actor, or whatever, we all got our start through Burrell Communications doing commercials and jingles. That's how it happened. So shout out to Burrell, man. Yeah, and I definitely got to make sure I get them props because they don't get enough props. It's firms like that to where a performance like myself and others. We stood on their shoulders, man.

to where we could get our opportunity where we could springboard and have careers and they don't get the credit that they rightfully deserve because they were just doing their job but now I'm in a position where I can give them their flowers like I do want to tell them thank you

publicly I hope y'all see this so y'all know that people from the city that took advantage of the opportunities that y'all provided especially young black kids like we still here so man thank you you know what I'm saying? Real shit and so and then from there

I started auditioning for, you know, for films and stuff like that. But that was your first film. The Long Walk Home with Whoopi Goldberg, Sissy Spacie. That's how you jump out the gate in your first film with a motherfucker. That's like, totally, that's like 91? That was, no, that was 89. Okay, damn. That was 89 because that's when to do the right thing and come out.

And we had all gone to the theater and see that. That shit was hard. And, yeah, we shot that in Montgomery, Alabama. It was a period piece. It talked about the two families, during the start of the Civil Rights Movement and the Montgomery Bus Boycott. And it was a phenomenal film to be a part of

because I got to work with Whoopi, got to work with Sissy Space. And I got to do a period piece that meant something, you know, to our story, our particular struggle. And so I got a chance to like even meet people. You know how you have background actors and extras on set and stuff. So usually a lot of those people that's on set

that's in these movies, they don't have a connection to the story that we tell With this film, it was actually women that were there, women and men that were there who were older, but they marched. They were doing the sit-ins. They were, you know, part of the freedom riders. So it was like, I was getting the experience of being on set and training as an actor, but I was learning more about who I was, like, embracing my identity more as a young black boy that eventually was going to come into the world as a black man. So it was like this. My first experience in film was just the shit, man.

It was incredible. They're incredible. God's been good. Amen. All right, got to get a clap on now. God would be good. What would you say you start seeing the early success in first? The music or the acting?

The acting. And it was after... But what's what I was saying? Me and DC, we always talk about this. How did you parlay? Since you said you got the actor first, how did you parlay and like bring the music around to your acting? I did it.

Like, all those opportunities, as it relates to me doing music with organic opportunities and blessings that were just brought into my life through God because there was a time. And see, it's different for you now. And I love that because it's guys like yourself who are ambidextrous

in that regard who have a multi-skill set. It's still hard. But, man, it was so much harder. Right. Because you had people on the music end who were trying to discredit you and saying, well, you're not really a singer because you're not devoting all of your time to this, right?

But then you had people in the film world who weren't really respecting what you were doing in music because they were going, well, you can make so much more money over here. Why do you give a fuck about that? Like, you just want to be a star and be on stage. And so I was always in this weird position of trying to balance myself within that and, like, constantly trying to prove myself.

And even as, like, a young performer, you know, you're already going through adolescence and, like, your body's switching up, your voice has changed. Well, mine didn't, but, you know, in most case, your voice changed. So you're dealing with all these, you know, different insecurities, you know, coupled with the pressure of trying to maintain a career in both of these different genres of entertainment. But again, I give God the credit for that and my mother, because no matter what, it was like, she always supported me. So any time that I would doubt myself, I get to that point where I get discouraged or disheartened, she reminds me of who I was, like, in our legacy

and the family that we come from. And also reminded me, too, that, you know, me being in the business, that doesn't define who I am. That's just a part of who I am. You know what I'm saying? So I was able to, in my mind, put it all together and find a way that still be able to be constructive and be productive and do my thing

without losing myself in the process. What was that first track like when you finally, when you finally displeaded it and they started taking you serious as both? It was, it was the chainy record. No, yeah, it was a chain record, man. I wanted to say the Cheney, but I felt like it was something before that. No, it was the Cheney record because, okay, let me keep it real.

In Chicago, my city know what the fuck I'm about. It was a record that they played and they knew it was you and it got... It was Love Ambition. Right. It was Love Ambition, produced by Keith Crouch and written by Rassan. Simon Patterson and Uncle Kipper. Shout out to those guys, Kipper Jones. And that record was released during my 10 year

of Motown, but it didn't reach national acclaim or success. 10 years? No, 10 year. Oh, 10 year. I'm sorry. Go ahead. But you were on Motown, but 10 years. No, I wasn't on it that long.

But what ended up happening was is that the record didn't really take off on a national level, But Chicago, because it was a Stepper's record, and it had that groove to it, and in the city, like, we support our own. We may look crazy sometimes on the news, but when it all boils down to it, Chicago, we support our own. So when that record came out, it was like,

radio kind of got behind it, but it was the people that got behind it. And so when you hear Chicagoans talk about Love Ambition, that's a very personal record for us. Because that was... Especially with the Stepper, I know that was like my coming out party as an artist. And at that time, Chicago was the only city,

with the exception of like New Orleans, maybe a couple others, that really embrace me, man, and made me feel confident in my journey moving forward. That'd be hard. We ought to throw a steppers ball. Y'all should. That will be hard. You know how to step.

There's a lot of Chicago trs plan down. Somebody like a step of ball. You know how to step. You didn't go host it. We can have the people who want to come, like we can come and do like some sessions. would like step a coach. Yeah.

Oh, you're gonna get them together. But you can only come. You're gonna get me together. You gotta bring your own girl. Don't say y'all gonna do that shit, then you're gonna do it. Of course. You gotta bring your own in Chicago

looking at this right now. Oh, no. And then we'll talk about your head. What are you're talking about? Stepping. I thought you're talking about like, hey, no, no. No, no.

No. No. You think, no. No. No, I'm talking about stepping. Like step in the name of love. Yeah, step in the name of love. Oh, okay, okay, Tuesday like five.

Yeah, okay. So that's a big thing. If you got to be dressed in like and you gotta have your own partner. Like we're not letting no singles in. And you gotta have a routine. Yeah, yeah. It's real classy.

A real routine, yeah. It's something that you do with your lady, you have a nice neaving out. Y'all had a little matching suits on. You go dance and step, you got your fly gaiters on. That's real Chicago shit. Shout out to the crib. Rest of the piece, my nigga's gonna bubble, man.

Like, I wanted you to talk about Chicago a little bit because, like you said, it's so much negative press out there. negative press out there, bro. I'm about your experience. As a Chicago and some of the, you know, like, nigga put on for the city basically right now. Let motherfuckers know from somebody who really from there. Let me tell you y'all something, man.

Chicago, in my opinion, is the most beautiful city on the planet. And it's not just the city landscape and all of that. It's really the people. And especially the black community that exists there. You know, the families on the south side and the west side, that's what gives Chicago its identity. Chicago is a working-class blue-collar town. Feel with people to keep their head down,

don't complain, they go to work every day, they support their families and they try their best, you know what I'm saying, to get to different points in their life where they view is being successful. But they're unsung heroes, but they're not haters. If they see somebody else coming up and doing their thing, and especially if you're from the city, man, you'll get the support, you'll get the love, you know what I'm saying,

and it won't be a thing where, you know, you have like a bad trail. I mean, look at the shit that's going on with Rob. Like, they won't let them with you. they won't let them go. Like, regardless of whatever, it's going to be some folks still in Chicago that's going to play step in the name of love, regardless of whatever, however you feel about them,

and that's your individual prerogative. But there are some people that are going to continue to support his music and what he does because he's from the town. That being said, there is a lot of violence that happens. There is that gang culture, that gang element. But I think we are getting to a place as a people. I know collectively is black people all over this country and this world.

We're getting to a place where we're understanding that that's just, that's so counterproductive and it's so putting us further behind the eight ball. It just doesn't make sense. But you're beginning to see now a lot of the young cats taking more of an initiative to speak out to be more active in their communities like G. Herbo, you know what I'm saying? Like you see him in the neighborhood doing certain things. Shout out to Englewood Barby. You know what I'm saying?

These are all people from this city. activist, my man Justin Morgan, people that are coming to the forefront now who want to be leaders. I sit on the board of directors for an organization called Hello Baby, which is geared towards keeping the black family nucleus intact.

The headquarters is literally right on East 61st in St. Lawrence in the middle of the shit, like where FBG Duck and all of them is from, like where it go down. But there's a community center there, community center there, where we're promoting unity within the community, especially amongst the youth

and with single mothers and single black fathers. So those of us who grew up in the city that know what it is, and know how beautiful it is, we're trying our best to present a different narrative. And it's gonna take some time because mainstream media still wants to present a certain kind of story, but as long as you got guys like myself, and especially people like Lena Waith,

who are really pushing the line. You know what I'm saying? We're like telling real stories. Like what y'all see on the shy, that's in Chicago, I know. I grew up going to cookouts, going to my grandmother house, hanging out with my friends, going to limbs, barbecue, going to Harold's chicken, shit like that, going to Markham, Skate, and Rink.

Like, that's the Chicago, I know. Yeah, I knew some GDs, I knew some BDs, I knew some Latin Kings and all of that. But I didn't want to be a part of that, so I didn't get wrapped up in it. If you want to be a part of that, you can find what you're looking for. But if you cats like myself and many others,

live there and that are part of that community who are looking for something better and looking to spread a different kind of message man we exist man Chicago is the shit man y'all come see us man don't come during the winter you won't have a good time right right right during summertime shy man we show y'all good time I had to learn that I had to learn that the hard way I went up there doing shows in the winter and I was like oh that's how they do us in the south I didn't know I was just happy to get shows oh no I'm in the south get booked in the north when it get cold in the win they all I know Now I know. Now I know you say no, and then they come back and they hit you with the summer date, and that shit is amazing.

Oh, it's amazing. It's amazing. Yeah. Welcome to Pretty Private with Ebeney, the podcast where silence is broken and stories are set free. I'm Ebeney, and every Tuesday I'll be sharing all new anonymous stories that would challenge your perceptions and give you new insight on the people around you. On Pretty Private, we'll explore the untold experiences of women of color who faced it all. Childhood trauma, addiction, abuse, incarceration, grief, mental health struggles, and more, and found the shrimp to make it to the other side. My dad was shot and killed in his house. Yes, he was a drug dealer.

Yes, he was a confidential informant, but he wasn't shot on a street corner. He wasn't shot in the middle of a drug deal. He was shot in his house, unarmed. Pretty Private isn't just a podcast. It's your personal guide for turning storylines into lifelines. Every Tuesday, make sure you listen to Pretty Private from the Black Effect Podcast Network. Tune in on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Your entire identity has been fabricated.

Your beloved brother goes missing without a trace. You discover the depths of your mother's illness, the way it has echoed, and reverberated throughout your life, impacting your very legacy. Hi, I'm Danny Shapiro, and these are just a few of the profound and powerful stories I'll be mining on our 12th season of Family Secrets. With over 37 million downloads, we continue to be moved and inspired by our guests and their courageously told stories. I can't wait to share 10 powerful new episodes with you, stories of tangled up

identities, concealed truths, and the way in which family secrets almost always need to be told. I hope you'll join me and my extraordinary guests for this new season of family secrets. Listen to Family Secrets, Season 12 on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The OGs of Uncensored Motherhood are back and badder than ever. I'm Erica. And I'm Mila. And we're the host of the Good Mom's Bad Choices podcast, brought to you by the Black Effect Podcast Network every Wednesday. Historically, men talk too much. And women have quietly listened.

And all that stops here. If you like witty women, then this is your tribes. With guests like Corinne Steffens. I'd never seen so many women protect predatory men. And then me too happened. And then everybody else wanted to get pissed off because the white said it was okay. Problem.

My oldest daughter, her first day in ninth grade, and I called to ask how I was going. She was like, oh, dad, all they were doing was talking about your thing in class. I ruined my baby's first day of high school. And slumflower. What turns me on is when a man sends me money. Like, I feel the moisture between my legs when a man sends me money. I'm like, oh my God, it's go time.

You actually sent it? Listen to the Good Mom's Bad Choices podcast. Every Wednesday. On the Black Effect Podcast Network. The IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you go to find your podcast. Do you remember Vine? It changed the internet forever, and it vanished in its prime. I'm Benedict Townsend, and this is Vine.

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And so y'all are tour too. Like y'all really be out you know with the people so you can see how these different cities like they flow and you know their chemistry and how they react to you but Chicago is like one of them places nothing that's like uh you posted something about Detroit like that he was like man if they fuck with you they coming up they're coming out they fuck with you Chicago the same that's why I be tough we were on the road that should be amazing it really be it literally feel like we from 20 different

cities like the country like people ask us like what's your favorite city like man can't describe it because they're in competition with each other like they go out love a motherfucker and they love y'all man that's like It's so beautiful. And I know y'all probably hear that all the time, but, man, it's really dope what y'all doing, man. We appreciate it, family. Because you're giving people a platform,

you know, where they could tell their stories and back stories. Like, I saw the episode with Snoop. Right. Man, that was a great episode. And see, people don't get a chance to hear them Snoop stories like that, to hear the real history.

I can't believe how much stuff of that I hadn't heard. I'm sitting here. I watched it back, and I was still like. I didn't watch it back. I can't believe Snoop ain't ever met Michael Jordan. Yeah. Mother Jordan go hear that shit and be like, there's somebody called this nigger.

Bro. Chupac was on that row for eight months. That's it? Yeah. In my head as a, growing up, that shit was like years. I said, brother,

he was with them for like five years. Yeah. He said, bro, I ain't known a nigga for like eight months. But it was so, they were so active because I was out in California during that time

during the East Coast, West Coast shit. And, but it felt like it was going on forever. Yeah, I'm sure it did. Man, that shit, man, that shit was, that was something. Like, and especially a cat that wasn't from either one of those places and you're kind of in the middle box. Like, God damn, this shit is serious. You're going to learn all that shit.

Oh, yeah, and I stayed out the way. I didn't know that's what they meant. This is a true story. So we out, we out for the Soul Train Awards. I'm on Motown. This is when Andre Harrell was there. So he was putting forth like this whole new media blitz to kind of promote him coming over to Motown. So he had billboards and shit everywhere.

And when the Soul Train Awards came to L.A., he threw a big, like, Motown coming out party. Like, you know, this is my thing. I'm taking over to him. And I would never forget it. It was in Sunset Plaza, that little strip on Sunset Boulevard, and it was a restaurant there where he had this party and was kind of like open.

So we're in there, in module. I'm like 16 at the time. I shouldn't even been in that shit, but I would. Right. And I'm in there dancing with this chick or whatever. Stepping. Stepping. Doing my little thing.

I think I was moon walking. I was sure. You were in there. Yeah. I was still playing my Michael Jackson shit. You know what I'm saying? So, um, I'm dancing and shit. All of a sudden it was just this huge commotion.

You just saw people kind of like fleeing. Right. And going to all these different parts of the clubs. I'm looking around. I'm like, and I just see like a red Bentley pull up and I think it was like a black Bentley and like Shug and Pock jumped out of separate Bentley's. Uh-huh. And they, I mean, they skirted past security and a whole not.

Security didn't even, they didn't even ask them what they were doing, their searching, nothing. They breezed past security, and they went around the party looking for, like, members of bad boy, and like, and looking for Andre and shit like that, because that was during that whole, that was at the beginning of the shit. And they left you in there. Man, my right-handed guy. No, I saw this.

I was in there with my cousin, Kevin, okay, okay. My cousin, Kevin Harrell. He was my guardian. He was traveling with me. the time so we we both in the spot hanging out and doing our thing because it was a festive it was the soul trainer right yeah it's supposed to be fun yeah them niggis came through there like it's supposed to be fun but man they they came through on like they were pushing the line what happened man no i seen i've seen Andre and Andre I love you got rest your soul man I saw Andre

because we were laughing about something maybe five minutes prior to that but man when them niggas came through, I didn't see Andre under that, took him back in New York. And I was like, man, Dre, where'd you go? He was like, man, I ain't fucking a man. He was like, man, I was out. But it was one of those situations where I saw all of that, like,

up close and personal, like seeing pocket should, real aggressive out in the L.A. streets were all a death row, like, all of Compton, outside. Pushing the line. It was something to see. But then it was also cool to see bad boying what they were doing. They had such a, you know, an interesting,

like you know shout out to slim pickings all the all the cats in the um super mario all the cats in the street team where they had to picket signs and they'd be going up and down you know streets in new york like a real movement like how y'all got y'all's jackets it was reminiscent when i saw that and that's why i was smiling to myself inside because i've seen that before i saw that with bad boy and that energy and that presence that y'all have just being young black and brilliant and creative and pushing the line like it was that that energy I saw too early on so I've been able to see quite a bit man you grew up in the industry but like me and clayton was talking about earlier bro you got to tell us about your experience working on thea bro man episodes but this shit

gonna live like you said that's one of them ones that the black community ain't gonna never forget about yeah man thea was uh um I got to say that was a great show personally for me to be a part of Don't get too heavy into it. There was a lot of behind-the-scenes drama that went on, not to rehash between, like, Thea and Brandy. There was like somewhat of a negative undertone as far as that's concerned. But the experience of, for me personally,

working at Universal Studios, working on the back lot, being on the same lot of fucking Martin, when me and Brandy would walk down to the Martin set, like on our lunch break, watch them rehearse um to being able to like freely you know walk up to universal studios and get on the amusement rides hold on man y'all watch martin rehearsals right real talk man we go to it go to go right and then go right me and brandy and y'all can ask her this like when the fuck we go ask brandy she'll come on brandy come on come on brandy come on

we love to see brandy come on but what happened was we would we would we would have our lunch breaks and the Martin said like you would come out of stage five I think that was our stage and you could make a right and walk maybe like what would be equivalent of like a half a block and it was Martin stage and then we would just walk in because we were the only other black show on the lot so we all knew we was there together and they never hated on this like they would let us you know Martin Tisha Tommy God rest his soul Carl they would see us walking because we all kids right And they'd be like, man, y'all go up in the stairs and, man, y'all chill out. And so we would see the Martin show like two weeks before that shit would come out. So I would be calling niggas back home like, man, wait till y'all see the shit that happened.

I'd be like, how do you know that? I'll be like, dude, I know that. But watch this shit with Martin to say this. So I was seeing, you know, all of that stuff growing up, and me and Brandy would, you know, walk back to set. And I can't speak for her, but for myself, I would apply the things

that I would learn, watching them. Subtle nuances, little things. It wasn't like jokes. It was a facial expression. It was a mannerism. It was the letting the joke live, whoever the, you know, learning that chemistry of letting your co-star have his or her moment,

learning that space that, in comedy, which we all know, there's a, there's a timing. It's a dance. And especially when you work on, and it's a beat. So I was learning all of that. That was my college, man, was sitting there and watching, you know, them do their thing. And they were so gracious.

I met Eddie Murphy there, too, when we did theater. He was doing Beverly Hills Cop 3 on Universal. That's cool. And me and Brandy walked over there during our lunch break. Y'all got a bench. You know the PA was like, do we have eyes on Brandy? Do we have eyes on Jason? They would know where we would be going because anything that,

was black that would pop up in university. Oh, they knew, they knew. They like, and especially, you saw Eddie Murphy and Martin. Right, right, man, that's Mount Olympus. A black starter. Right, right, right. So, no, we going over there to study and, you know, we know where they are.

Yeah. And Eddie was so nice. He signed, man, I asked that nigga to sign six things. Man, sign this for my best, what I'm gonna do? Me and my teacher won't have, but he. He signed and he asked all our questions. And, you know, for me, that was a lasting impression, man, that taught me how to be gracious.

Like, interacting with your fans and interacting with people who are admires of your work. Like, those guys taught me how to be a star. Right. Because they were like, they're superstars. And they still were taking the time to like, so, man, you know, what you want to do? How y'all like filming over there? Oh, yeah, okay. And, you know, asking a little stupid shit.

But, damn, man, they were cool. Your little brother on theater? Huh? Your little brother? Yeah. Oh, you're talking about his fade. He had the worst hair cut. in a black TV history.

That might have been. That was one of the top three words. They still talk about your hair cut, man. You ain't never going to get a man. He had no choice in that. He did not choose that as a child. I felt like this biological father had a lot to do with that. No, he didn't. He said something.

He was mad. He had to be. His mom, I'm sorry, Grinan, but I got to tell the truth because they do what you dirty out here. No, Brandon didn't want his haircut like that. His mom was cutting his hair like that. You cannot let your mother cut your head, man. That's true. And Brent, and his dad, he was a real one.

He was a nice guy. But you know, he's like one of those quiet guys, like a quiet husband. You shut up and let me cut it up. You would just see him looking at his boy. And you used to see him laughing inside himself like, all right, I can't do it. I can't.

Shit, all right. That's hilarious. All right. Now, how do you get on a smart guy? But first of all, Todd's just got damn light skin. Yeah. The other nigga is light skin. Yeah.

The other nigga is light skin. And you were dark skin. You wasn't, but... I'm like, how in the hell? That happens. That happens. That happened in the family. I'm sitting there like,

oh, yeah. Now, I'm gonna keep it real with you, D.C. Man, that audition was flawless, pro. That's one of the ones where you just knew, you know? No, that audition. You killed that audition. Everybody wanted to be a brother like you. Everybody.

I appreciate. No, and I think that was the thing. I feel like that shit you learned from Martin. Well, you... You, you... Hey, bro. We were tuned in, bro. I ain't gonna hold you.

They should shout out to Omar Gooden, too, like, we, man, we would, after work, we would study other sitcoms and other performances. This show. So, you know, we would study Jamie. And this is the work we were doing after work, because we would go home. We order pizza, smoke a little something. Right. Chill out, you know what I'm saying? And then we'd be like, man, let's look at what so-and-so of them doing.

So we turn on their show. We study, be like, we're going to do that shit better next week. We're going to flip it like this. So me and Omar was, like, doing that all the time. You know, just playing with the craft. Yeah. Like, just trying to figure out how to be better. You know what I'm saying?

Like, how you got young niggas that work on their jump shot? Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're going to lay up, working their left hand. Like, that's what me and Omar would do every day after work. We would just sit down and we look at shows and we look at different performers. And we would just find those different things that maybe weren't in your face. Right. But they were subtle things that we knew that we could play on and make them our own.

Right. He probably was like the best big brother I ever seen growing up. Good looking. It was like, okay, you got your little brother for to come to school with you. Like, he's 10, but it can't fuck up my cool. Yeah. But how can I embrace my 10-year-old little brother? Fuck it.

Not only that, is he catching up to me? It was like it was a lot of shit as a child that y'all taught us as kids. Like, and then it was black fatherhood. Yeah. Black parenting. Man, we didn't know, D.C., man, the kind of example that we were setting, man, just keeping it all the way of hunting. Like, we were just half.

having fun. And I think for me and Omar in particular, we wanted to show young black kids who we really were. Versus like how sitcom TV would try to portray us a lot of times, like hokey and corny or, you know, having just some weird shit that they were saying in the lines. We'd be like, how the fuck they get away with saying that? Right. So it was like, we were the kids where if they gave us a line and we knew that shit wasn't going to fly in the community, we'd be like, I'm not saying it. Right. Like, I'm not saying that, bro. Like, okay, you want to get that kind of joke across? why don't we say it like this

and I'll give them credit shout out to Danny Kalis the creator of the show he listened to it like he went came down the wardrow I was like man ain't no young black kid walking around wearing them shit

on their feet I was like yo I need some jays man I was like I'll be calling up to Nike because they didn't want you to have the little logo with all that shit They wouldn't want to have logos on anything because they didn't want to pay for it right

so they'd be like But you don't make you pay for that. Yeah, and I'll be like, you know, man, who cares? Like, we got to be cool. Right. So, like, I need the Oversons. Right. I need them.

Before everybody else has them on the street. Hey, let's do an episode. How about this? Let's do an episode. He needs to Iversons. But it would be able to change in. But it was ideas like that. They were to toss around.

But yeah. And being that Iverson was such like a controversial figure in sports at that time, They were like, okay, you can wear the shoes. We just don't want to do a lot of bigging up on that, you know, we don't want to go to hip-hop, because we were introducing vernacular and slang. We were bringing all of that to the show, but it was still a Disney show.

So we just had to find the balance. But thankfully, man, like, you know, we have producers. Shout out to Suzanne DePas, who was my former manager. Suzanne DePas, let me give her credit right now because she's another one that doesn't get enough credit. Some of y'all's favorite shows from the Jackson The Jackson's miniseries, the Jackson's an American dream. But you gotta tell me about that.

Sister, sister. Come on. Smart guy. Come on. I'm sure there are a few more after that. But Suzanne DePaschall is a brilliant black woman who's been in this industry since the Motown day, since the 60s. She was the one that discovered Michael Jackson and Jackson 5.

We have those shows right now that everybody can go back and look at. Because of her, she was the one that kicked open the door for Tia and Tamera and and the whole Maury family. She was the one that kicked open the door for me. Hey, Suzanne, thank you. I'm just telling the people because they need to know your name. There was a black woman that blazed that trail. There's a black woman that blazed that trail.

What line, key? How to hell? That was after the Jackson minnie. Boys. Go to the Jackson. Go to the Jackson and leave it right in the god down. Right. Right. Okay, cool.

That's a fucking honor. To play black Michael Jackson. It was an honor. But again, that was another situation. That was another situation. When we talking about the example of me. music where God presented that opportunity. Amen. Amen. Because, and this is just to just bring up the thing about Lion King and I'll go back to the Jackson's. How I got that was I was shooting

the scene, the live scene of who's loving you. And that particular day, we had already pre-recorded it. And all I had to do was just sing with the track. But for some odd reason that day, sound was down and I had to sing that shit live, like all day long. So, You know, man, it was like maybe after like the fourth setup shot, I'm kind of exhausted vocally, but I'm like really warmed up, so I'm belting this shit out. And we're on stage and the lights are shining our way, so we don't see who's out in the audience.

We just kind of see the cameras on the dolly, but we don't see like who's out there, out there. So we get through with the day, we get through with that scene, we're moving on. Me and my mom was walking back to the trail, and she was like, yo, you know who just came up to me and asked me about you? I was like, who, ma. Like, who, Ma? She's like, Elton John.

Elton John was just here. He's saying he's doing some kind of movie with Disney. He's saying that you be perfect for it. I'm like, Elton John, the Benny and the Jets. I'm like, that guy. And I'm sorry, Sir, Elton, but I really wasn't into Elton John like that back then. I was a kid, you know what I'm saying?

So, I mean, I appreciate his work. And I love Elton John, and especially what he did for me. But, you know. But as a kid, you know. She said, she was amazing. As a child, I didn't know. Right. But she walked back, she said he wants you to audition for this singing role and this new animated thing that they're doing for Disney called the Lion King.

She's just silent. And I was just like, oh, okay, cool. Well, let's do it. So we, I think two days later, we wrapped the Jackson's and then Disney had took over everything from that point on like our hotel and everything. And so I'll never forget, man, like the day after we rap, I went down to Burbank at the Disney Recording Studios. That was another song I sang down maybe like three or four times. They had cameras set.

That's what I vividly remember. They had cameras set up like this in the vocal booth. And they were just telling me, they was like, be as animated as you can. Like, if you're just singing it to the world, so any movements you want to do, like even if you're not on the mic, just move around because we're going to put all of that in the character. So I'm like, huh? I don't even make any sense, but I did it anyway.

So there's actually footage that I saw online where they showed me performing the song in the studio that day, and that was one of the cameras. And so a lot of that stuff that you see with Simba in the animation with stuff that I was doing. You ain't jump on no giraffe. I ain't jump on a giraffe. I ain't jump on them here.

You're stupid. You're stupid. You're stupid. But it was a lot of movies. But that shit hard, though. That's crazy because that's what? Because that was a photo motion capture shit, really. This is real animation.

So they had to like... That's crazy. Asking you to say, okay, what would the character look right? Okay, but you said, everybody looked like. Did you catch that? Yeah. And you did that. And the animators, the artists, it was three or four of them.

And they were in the control. drawing that shit. And when I got through with the vocal... What if they would have punched him like, yeah, Jay, we're going to steal your whole sauce on this one, bro. No, but it was cool. Because when I saw what was going on, and then I got really excited, and this is

a true story. After I sang the song, the producers were looking at each other, and they were like, whispering to each other, like, so I'm looking. And like, hey, so would you be able to stay in Los Angeles for a little bit longer? Hell yeah. I was like, yeah, sure. Because I really didn't want to go home. I was just going to go

back to school. So I was like, yeah, sure, you know, I'll stick around. They were like, well, reason why we want you to stick around because we think we may want you to do the voice of this character. Like, you're perfect for Simba. So I'm like, oh, shit, like that sounds kind of big. Like, okay, man, like 15 minutes later, business affairs from Disney had called back and they had just closed their deal with Jonathan Taylor Thomas.

So the deal had been finalized in close. but if if they would have waited, if his agent would have waited another two hours to close that deal, I would have had that role. Oh. So wait a minute, so it wasn't your voice. No, he just seen it.

I was a singer voice. I was just a single voice. The actual voice. The actual voice. The actual voice. He was on, yeah, yep. I met Jonathan and hung out with him on a couple different occasions because home improvement,

their soundstage on Disney was next to smart guy. So like, The voice of Simba was right there, and then the singing voice, the Simba was on the next half stage. Yeah. That's crazy, right. That's what happened.

And then when that came out, you know, people didn't know that it was a black kid behind that voice. And I wasn't really tripping on it because I knew that I was a part of it anyway, and nobody could take that away from you. Right. But if we knew you were black, it's possible. But that just goes to show you.

Everything is supposed to happen. when it's supposed to happen, when God wants it to happen. Because when it was finally revealed, who the voice, the singing was behind it, the singing voice behind it, I think it was more impactful at that time, especially when the community was made more aware of it because this is a black renaissance that we're in now.

And especially here in Atlanta, and you're seeing so many people emerge or come to the forefront that you didn't know were a part of these iconic projects. It just seemed like it was kind of like a snowball effect of all this information coming out that our people could learn and be aware of it. So I don't regret it.

Like, you know, my whole journey in this industry, good, bad, or ugly, man. The journey has just been absolutely incredible. I feel like, you know, we still got a lot more left to do. But man, what God has taken me thus far, man, it's just been nothing short of amazing, especially a kid coming from Chicago. Like, there's not too many of us

they get opportunities like that. You know what I mean? Yeah, bro. Yeah. Yeah. That's shit. Keep you a check, man. Okay.

So, why do you get into ATL? Cause I've been wearing these skates. Hold on, we gotta do, you gotta do the American Dream shit. Oh, oh, okay. Hold on, and then we'll go into ATL. All right, come I go. Because I'm gonna say, too. And I hope they get it together like Warner Brothers.

Man, y'all need to stop playing. Let's do an ATL, too. Come on, man. What we're doing. What we're doing. What we're doing. Hey, Dallas. Stop playing.

We got to figure this out. He didn't go with Germain the prelate night in the game. Oh, yeah. Man, they'd be everywhere together. No, so, man, we got to do ATL, too. But anyway, the Jackson's miniseries, how that came about real quick. My cousin Lainty Stewart, another successful music producer, multi-platin music producer, was being managed by Suzanne DePas at that time.

And he was working with, like, Aaron Hall and Chante Moore and Keith Washington. It was real old-school R&B. They were all coming up to Chicago. working in his studio. And so one of Suzanne's representatives came up to Chicago from L.A. And I was there at the studio, because that's when I first started songwriting. That's when me and Tricky were like, first training him as a producer, me as a songwriter. And I was like, 11 years old.

And Ruth Carson, that's her name. She would come to the studio. And every time she'd seen me, she'd be like, yo, who's that little guy? Like, he's always singing, he's always dancing, like, because I don't know if y'all know this, know if y'all know this but we about to do this biopic about michael jackson and his family and he need to audition for that shit like i'm gonna tell suzanne that he need to audition for that shit so i was like man whatever i'm out of all the kids that could play michael jackson they gonna pick me that's what i'm thinking you know what i'm like man whatever she's just talking sure enough

like i get a call for my agent i had a local agent at the time elizabeth gettys in chicago shout out to elizabeth she called me and say yo um the casting director from the jacks in americans and dream want you to audition and blahz-blah so come down here to the offices when you still had to actually go to someone's office they put you on videotape they have to FedEx the tape out

it was like a whole fucking process you know what I'm saying so I go to go audition maybe about two weeks later ABC and the producer's callback and said they want to fly me out to L.A. for producers callback

go out to L.A. and here's here's some other real shit the minute I was supposed to audition for the Jackson family because even when you got to LA there was a round of audition there was like three rounds of audition that you had to go through before you got to audition for the actual Jackson family so I had to go through that gauntlet

of just like stuff to finally make it to audition in front of them and so when I finally got there there was an assistant casting director who I guess that day had just been having a shitty day and she was just over it. So she was just passing sides out to the kids that were left, and so she wasn't taken into consideration the kids who had been told who they were specifically auditioning for.

So she had handed me some sides for like Randy or some shit. Sorry, Randy, and there's no offense to me. Randy, Jay. You said to me, I'm going to be ready to pick. Hey, oh, no, it was two pages of dialogue, and I was like, no, I'm here to do. I'm here to do Michael. And so I'm saying that in my mind, but I'm scared. You want to see it out loud?

Right, I'm scared. So, I was going to start a little bandy shit. Not real shit. Can you take this little bad? No, no, no, no. He's how old. I'll start with a person of a lady shit. No.

And there was a kid that came out of, I'm about to go in. There was a kid that came out, and I guess he had a horrible audition. No. And he threw his sides in the garbage can next to me. I'm going to couch like this, name with a mic side. So I took them up by the garbage can and I just started reviewing them real quick trying to get reacquainted with the dialogue

and I just did like a quick jam crash course and then they called my name and I went in and I said the lines and that was cool but then that's when they started asking me to sing and I was so like me and my mother rehearsed those routines so much man I could have did that shit in my sleep

and it was just like and I'll never forget I knew I kind of had the part sort of when I saw Mrs. Jackson and smiling at me, and she had looked over at the director, and she was like, he's good. And so I was like, okay, cool. But I didn't get the part that day. They put me on the red eye, me and my mother back to Chicago.

Shit. And we was back in Illinois, and I waited maybe about five months because Michael was on tour, and then Michael had finally seen the tape, and he made the decision to hire me for the role. And that's how I got. Shout out to Mike. So Mike had the, Mike had this. Mike had the...

He had to make the final decision. All three actors that played him, the young one, the middle one, which was me. And my man Wiley Draper got rest Wiley Soul, who was Atlanta native, who was from here in Atlanta. He picked us. Like, we were the ones that Michael personally chose. And so, you know, all we knew we had to do

was when we got on set, we had to live up to his expectations. Because we were just on it like, man, if Michael see something and it's like, we got to be on it. on our shit and we worked hard. I worked seven days a week on that shit. Willingly, voluntarily, let me make this clear. We technically only worked five days a week,

but the cast, we all would get together on Saturday and Sunday and rehearse. Like every weekend, no matter what. And I'm talking about five, six hours a straight dance rehearsal in front of a mirror in the conference room at the hotel we were staying at. And Bumper Robinson was the one who orchestrated shout out the bumper but he was like yo man we about to be portraying the jackson family like this is

black royalty we cannot fuck this up at all right it's like we cannot fuck this up so everybody like being on your shit vocalized every day have your shit together and we were on point by the time that came out and we looked back on the work that we did oh it made sense that's the That's the one they held up. Man, thank you, man. Welcome to Pretty Private with Ebeney, the podcast where silence is broken and stories are set free. I'm Ebeney, and every Tuesday I'll be sharing all new anonymous stories that would challenge your perceptions and give you new insight on the people around you. On Pretty Private, we'll explore the untold experiences of women.

woman of color who faced it all. Childhood trauma, addiction, abuse, incarceration, grief, mental health struggles, and more, and found the shrimp to make it to the other side. My dad was shot and killed in his house. Yes, he was a drug dealer. Yes, he was a confidential informant, but he wasn't shot on a street corner. He wasn't shot in the middle of a drug deal. He was shot in his house, unarmed. Pretty private isn't just a podcast. It's your personal guide for turning storylines into lifelines. Every Tuesday, make sure you listen to Pretty Private from the Black Effect Podcast Network.

Tune in on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Your entire identity has been fabricated. Your beloved brother goes missing without a trace. You discover the depths of your mother's illness the way it has echoed and reverberated throughout your life, impacting your very legacy. Hi, I'm Danny Shapiro, and these are just a few of the profound and powerful stories I'll be mining on our 12th season of Family Secrets.

With over 37 million downloads, we continue to be moved and inspired by our guests and their courageously told stories. I can't wait to share 10 powerful new episodes with you, stories of tangled up identities, concealed truths, and the way in which family secrets almost. always need to be told. I hope you'll join me and my extraordinary guests for this new season of Family Secrets. Listen to Family Secrets Season 12 on the IHeart Radio app,

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It's time to tear the paper ceiling and see the stars beyond it. Find out how you can make stars part of your talent strategy at tear the paper sealing.org. Brought to you by opportunity at work in the ad council. Man, I appreciate y'all, like, real shit. Like, you know, that means a lot to me because I've been in this business a long time

and I think you guys know from being in the industry for the amount of time that you all have been in, you all have vets as well. you can kind of get a little jaded, man, because you go through so much shit, you know what I'm saying, leading up to whatever that opportunity is that takes you into your next chapter of life

and your career. And so when you get the opportunity to meet with your peers, to build with your peers, and they express to you how much they appreciate your work and that they see you. That means a lot to me, man, because like real shit,

when we be working, I would be thinking about y'all, part of you're sitting in your face, But I would be thinking about y'all. I'd be thinking about who's the next generation, like coming up after us. What kind of example are we setting? Like, what are we saying?

Because I want kids to come up after us knowing that they can do it. But, like, man, we got a real responsibility. So now to have this opportunity to meet y'all, and to build with y'all, and to see y'all exceeding past what we've done. Because honestly, look at this whole situation over here, man, this is taking whatever groundwork and foundation that we lay, this young black performance, man, y'all taking this shit to the next level and have an ownership in what it is that y'all doing.

So, right. But even for icing on the cake, this platform, we cherish it because we get to sit here and have people that we're fans of, like, just to see that you say that, it's like, but still, we had to watch out in order for us to know what the blueprint was like for us anyway. You see what I'm saying? And for us to be doing it for the amount of time that we've doing it, and for us to even have people like you to come on and just hear how we make you feel.

We'd really be like, do you hear of the d'nigus say? You know what I'm saying? Like, we'd be on the phone like, you hear of that thing is saying, man. But we had to keep our composure, but we love this job somewhat because it allows us to engage with the people that inspired us. And we get, and y'all get to kick it. Yeah, and we're telling it. And we're like, you know, this is allowed to spread this.

I'm gonna say this too, man. You're one of the people that need to be celebrated more, man. I feel like a lot of times just in our community, a lot of times everything we celebrate is the negative and the worst of the shit. They celebrate the fall off. They celebrate how a nigger fell off. They wanna do what happened to the shit.

But talk about the motherfuckers that's still here. Talk about the motherfuckers. I feel like it's more the game from somebody who did good business and did continually succeed at they craft than looking at the tragedy and travesty shit. I appreciate that. No, I thank you for saying that. Because there are a lot of us, man, who have been able to maintain careers

without, like, you know, and what we discussed early, we're all human beings. We've all had our shit. You know what I'm saying? But we've been really, really blessed in a way where the mistakes that we've made, that have helped us grow as men, we've been able to do that in private, like, without, you know, having social media and, you know, TNZ, people like that on your back where you could make your mistakes as a human being

and growing evolved. So I was even blessed with that as well where, you know, my mother created a certain type of balance in my life where work was over in Los Angeles and we'd be back on a plane. I'd be right back in the neighborhood. Like, interacting with my friends. Going to school,

going to the grocery store. Having a real life. Having a real life. Right. Right. And where I could, I could see what my neighbors were going doing their everyday lives or whatever struggles

that they may have had and then that would allow me to look back and go, man, I'm really blessed, man. Like, man, I'm getting on the fucking playing tomorrow to go to a place that, man, I never thought I'd go to to do make-believe. Where they make fucking TV yet,

that shit will blow your mind, right? And it blew my mind, man. It's been such a fucking blessing, man. I'm just grateful, man. Just grateful to God for everything. Grateful for the support from the community. I can't stress that enough Because like what you said, we live in a time where, you know,

people kind of find joy in your pain or the struggles that you go through. But I've just been really, really blessed where, with our community in particular, it's all been about celebrating and acknowledging the work that I've done and supporting me and, like, letting me know on the street or let me know on social media. Hey, man, you keep doing your thing. You know what I'm saying? Like, black men coming up to me, like, especially with the show on and all of that and with the character that I'm portraying.

Like, I know a lot of guys like that back home. whose stories never get told like that. So I'm having guys come up to me and be like, hey, Joe, man, I appreciate you, man, because that's how that shit really is. You know what I'm saying? For you to tell a real story like that and presenting in a real way,

you're not glorifying it, you're not glamorizing it, like you're telling it what it is. To hear that shit from other black men. Right. Like, that means a lot. We don't. We don't. We don't.

And even if a nigga like you, he'd be like me, I ain't going to go over there and say, there's a man, nigga. Yeah. I don't want to be like no fan. I don't want to be no fan. Oh, man. You're going in here.

Let me get this picture for my life, man. You're a fan. You're a fan. That's good. Not a good. Man, I don't even do with this whole ass shit. Come on. It's okay.

It's okay. It's okay. It's all you real thing is out there. It's fine. Man, say what's up. But not only that is history. Only lightning. Right.

But even not only that, it's history. Just like you said, miss, what's our name, Susanda? What's her name? Suzanne the past. Susanda, for her to even put the things in place, and we don't know that. You see what I'm saying?

So it's like, so when you hear her name, you're like, okay, she's important. She's part of the history. Like, it's so many iconic and icons out there and pioneers who we don't know about. Oh, but let me tell you, they know y'all, though, because the one thing about those pioneers and people like Susanna Pass, who are trailblazers,

they always keep their ear to the street. They always check in to see what the youth is talking about, where it's relevant in the culture. It may seem like they distant and that they over and just Hollywood, but nah, they're watching because they're the ones that find that talent and go, man, they need to be on a bigger platform.

You know what I'm saying? So, no, just, and I want y'all to know that. Y'all know this already, but, man, please know that the work that y'all doing and the platform that you're providing for guys like myself, for the OGs like Snoop. Man, we appreciate this, man, because we don't get a lot of opportunities

to speak to our community directly like that and give them the real. You know what I'm saying? and for black men to celebrate one another the way that y'all do us. Like, man, the world needs to see that. So that's why y'all winning, because y'all some real niggas with that shit.

What, you heard them? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It sounds different from cinema. To be it. To be it. No, that's good.

Oh, look, we gotta get the ATL. Please, because my skates. He got to get his skates on, man. Yeah, and then I let you all go. I don't know this shit all day, man. And I'll let y'all go. Welcome back today. Shit, I'm gonna go ahead and get some rich.

I was separation, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Chilling with big family, man, none other than Jason Williams. Come on, man, absolutely. Yeah, hell yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Nigel for Chicago, but didn't get none of a JJ.

You know how that shit. That's why he asked. I didn't know you would go to Jake. I thought y'all have the sharks out here, too. We do. Yeah, all of them at the same thing, J.J., Harold. Yeah. In the minute, in Atlanta, you're gonna be able to get at least two restaurants from it,

wherever you're from. Yeah. We got, we got heralds. Yeah, y'all got two heroes. Yeah, yeah. That'll give you enough sauce, though. Okay. Y'all, in Wonder Marietta do it.

Yeah, they want to do it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but the one on Auburn Avenue, they was goddamn rationing out the sauce. Like, look, we get salt once a month. I put sauce to you on. They're talking about most old ends. They try to do they thing. They try to do that.

At the ice bar. Yeah, the ice bar. Yeah, the ice bar. Yeah. No more sauce. Jay Jee, get it to you. In Chicago, they put sauce on your bag. They don't get my fucking.

On the house out. Songs go with everything. Nicar, the bag be thin to the motherfucker. You only have to open that shit. You could just push it out of the way. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Oh, you're talking about ATL, though,

because I'm going to let y'all go. You're going to let us go? Look, I ain't going to home. Yeah, I got to get this out, because this is important Atlanta history. Yeah, we're in Atlanta. Right now. Somewhere.

Listen. Shout out to Dallas Austin. Let me tell y'all something about Dallas Austin. For those of y'all who may not know, Dallas Austin is a mega super producer. Who has been producing some of the biggest records in the music industry since the late 80s, going into the 90s.

He discovered Monica, another bad creation. Boys to men, he was responsible for that. It was a whole movement. Listen, LaFace Records, all that, the foundation of Atlanta, he's one of the founding fathers. He's there with Jermaine. He's there with Organized.

noise he's in with oop camp talk to your shit uh LA baby face uh who else I mean the list goes on and on but he's one of founding fathers yeah the reason why y'all have movies like drumline and ATL is because of Dallas awesome yes sir Nick yes sir he had him on it oh he had the craziest yeah he was he kicked you fit the night in madonna's castle and a ghost was in there yeah oh yeah yeah yeah now Dallas got some fucking crazy start man he don't He told them, both y'all, both y'all, y'all running close with the... Man, Dallas' shit is even crazy.

He'll tell you, loyalty, you grew up in the whole industry. You didn't probably seem the weirdest shit. That's true, but Dallas founded a city. He did. He founded an entertainment capital. Like, we all came down here, cashed them up north, and, like, from the west coast of L.A., we all came down here because we just tried to fuck with Dallas and Jermaine and organized nut. That's why I came down here.

I was trying to fuck with them and, like, learn what this was. and I knew that there was a component to this town where it could be a film and TV town, but those were the guys I had never seen that before. I had never seen niggas pulling up, like young niggas pulling up in Ferraris and shit, and you go into their houses and they're sitting on acres and where they fucking houses all the way back there.

Like, I had never seen that before. And so Atlanta opened my eyes to that, and Dallas was like one of the first people to do that and like to welcome me and my family to this city. So when ATL came up, Dallas and I had already done drumline together. We already did drum lines. So we had had some success on the film side.

But ATL was originally titled Jelly Bean. Yep. And it was about the jellybase thing here. And it was going to be based on the story of Dallas, like discovering TLC and all of that. Because Jelly Bean was like where all of those groups, the Outcast and all that. That's where they went and hung out when they were kids. You know what I'm saying? trying to retell that story

it evolved over time and especially with the studios involvement the script adjusted but Dallas it hit me one day and he was like hey man you know I'm doing another movie down here like you fucking with me because you ain't audition for it and I was like well I didn't even know what was going on and that's

what I got rid of my agent that I was with because this thing would fuck that up drop the ball so I called him I was like hey man they shoot another movie down here in Atlanta a big budget film called Jellybean man like tip supposed to be in it and all these different people i was like how are they going to shoot a movie down here like that and i'm not in it and so they found away from me to audition

right and i came in at the tail end they hadn't um cast teddy yet they hadn't cast esqire or teddy yet so i audition for esquire wasn't really convincing with that one um but teddy it was like i mean because i i know i know that nigga down here like i used to kick it with guys like that at 5, 5, 9, and 112 and shit, like. You know what you're talking back. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

You work, and it goes on the show. I'm not. Yeah. So, you know, I know what it is. So when I auditioned for that role, everything just rolled in a place. Right. And it just made sense.

And man, we had a ball. How long would y'all shoot a bit? Uh, two months, but every day was a video shoot. That shit was lit. Man, it was lit. I mean, we had so much fun, man. fun, man. To this day, like, I may not speak to Tip every day. I may not see Lauren every day. I may not see Jackie, but man, let us run into each other in the street somewhere

and just some random shit. Man, we together for the rest of the night. Like, we all became a real family on that show. Yeah. And we just enjoyed, we genuinely enjoyed each other's company. Tip was gracious because, you know, I've been living in Atlanta for a long time, but there was still some things. I didn't know about it. And then the rest of them, they were all out from California shit. Right. So they think of it. After we get through rehearsing that skate town, he'd get everybody in the car.

We would like go through the swats, we'd go through Bankhead. He would like, should we go down Simpson Road? Then we'd go to like Buckhead. He would take us around the city so we could get a feel. Like what's going on with the people and the culture and the energy. And just him being so gracious, big boy, like big boy would always set up where he'd had a masseuse come. If we had like a hard day on set and we've been skating all day, he would have like his private masseus come. and like give everybody back rubs

and you can get your nails done and shit. That's cold. That's cold. That's love. It was some player shit. It was some player shit. We had a ball.

Shout out to Chris Robinson. Shout out to Will Smith, who was one of our executive produce. Shout out to T-Boss. He was one of the EP's and T-Boss. Overbrook did it, right? Overbrook, yeah. Yeah.

Overbrook. James Lasseter. Those guys. Charlie Mac was down here. Charlie Mac. Charlie Mac. It might be skating with us at rehearsal. He'd be fucking tripping all up and down.

Charlie Mac. Charlie Mac. That's right. That's right. That's got to come on this bitch, too. She got to. She got a story to tell him. Chili got to come too.

I feel like you still, the jelly bean movies still need to be made. Fat. Fat, because you said, what you said, that's a different movie. ATL was great. That was my generation. Now you got to understand, when y'all made, look, look, I got to take it back. They said, Cascade, I grew up in the Cascade Skate Skate Rink.

That's my shit. I was the first young skating crew Cascade ever had. We don't want competitions. I don't care what nobody said. That's my shit. Okay. You understand me? The first young skating crew.

I remember when the first opened up, Nick, Dust used to be coming down in our eyes. We couldn't skate, my nigga. You feel what I'm saying? We complained, and we got shit straight in that bitch. So when y'all came down, they were like, ATL, they're about to shoot a movie in this bitch, because we thought it was just our shit. This is our hangout.

And we were like, they're not about to make a movie about skaters, they're like, nigger. They finished shaking this bitch down for about two and a half months, and we ain't got nowhere to go. So we was mad about not having nowhere to go, but we was like, we can't wait to see the movie because we want to see what type of shit

they're gonna portray about ATL. Yeah, nigger, y'all had skate crews who I used to skate with in the movie, all them niggas, Mario, the nigger who took Lauren from in the house party. Yeah. I know that, okay. You see what I'm saying?

He was in that tub of acting like, he's mad. I'm like, nigga, you ain't mad. But it was like, when that shit came out, bro, Atlanta was so, we was excited and we appreciate the movie so, because that's our shit. Yeah. That's like the whole world get to know about ATL through that goddamn movie.

And a lot of people in the movie theater resonated with you more so because you was Eddie. Yeah. did Eddie Gold. Yeah. And Eddie Goes was a nigga that was popping at the time. Yeah. And everybody knew, what's up, Eddie?

I don't know what you said. But don't go to Eddie. You're going to make it goes too big. Yeah, yeah, right. You see what you're going to walk out with the yorkman. That's what we said. You want to know what we said on the rest of this video? Go to that.

Just in case you wonder what we're doing, we are now showing you just how important having the 85 South Show app is. Because you was watching this show thinking, oh, they didn't finally put the shit back on YouTube. on YouTube. They was listening. We weren't. We weren't. It's on the app. It's on the app. The rest of it is, listen. The rest of the audio is on half. Apple TV, wherever you get your subscription. No, it's not. It's just available directly where they sell apps. Or they don't sell apps on Apple TV?

Well, y'all should fuck with us to Apple TV. It's wrong with y'all. It is on Roku. Put it on Roku. Don't say fuck nobody. No, I didn't say fuck. I said put it. Oh, we do.

My house full of Rokoo's. Oh. Roku removes air in the world. Yeah. So, subscribe to the app. It's only $899 a month or $85 a year. So you get a whole year for $85. Did you know that?

It's $8.50 and then you got to pay taxes. Yeah, so, you know, it's $8. You know, we're getting on all type of content. You know what? We're not even going to tell them who you got your bladgette from until they get it on the app. I mean, hey, you got to watch the app. The app is available. All of these people that say we should keep putting this on YouTube for free.

What about the years of freeness that we've already provided upon you? We gave this away for free for years. Let's move together. $85. Come investing the show and put it on another network and you're buying their subscription. You don't ask them why you're buying their shit. So don't ask us. We're putting it on the app.

Who's over the app? Nobody knows. Get the app. Yeah. We saw what you said in the comments. We saw it. We saw everybody. The good, the bad.

And the ugly. So you know what? We're folding under this pressure. We hear you. We hear you. We're winning this. We'll just get the fuck on at y'all way. Just for an hour though.

That's all you get is an hour. So don't you can't play with it. I think they should get 37 minutes. Oh, see, we gotta hurry up. And we just put a whole bunch of ads in between, like long way and there, like five minutes. Hey, how you doing? Uh, you, you're...

Slow motion ass. Slow motion. Waste a motherfucking time. Yeah, uh, let's just, uh, go ahead and make sure. Channel 85.com. I want to make sure I read what they wrote. They wrote some shit out for us. These niggas don't know how to spell or type proper sentences,

but they're trying to get us to get y'all to buy the app. What you think we want to read this shit? Channel 85, man. So we can talk that shit, man. Ladies, don't you like the deep, the rest, cause. Go get it on the app. That's right. On the app.

uncensored, unfiltered, and edited. Can you believe that? I'm talking about with actual production in it. Jump cuts, clips, all types of, type of exclusive shit that they don't even know that we did. They don't even know that we got a show where we be cooking like anxiety foods and shit. That's on the app. You got a sports show, photographer show, documentary.

Chico got a handwriting class that he teaches. Nobody passed it because that's why the shit looked like this. But we're working. on it and you can see it on the app they didn't even tell them about the tax course that we had uploaded on that they don't even know that we got a whole show about wall street right and we got the alternate end until the color purple up there oh man we got the raw dishes all the uncut all the blooms right it's on the app so if you want to see some shit that you know they're trying to have from you go to

that I'm leaving though channel 85.com go get the app you got an hour for free we gave you what you wanted now give us some subscriptions to the app 50 899 with tax 85 dollars a year channel 85.com 85 social get the app well see this what they don't know the app really three dollars but adjusted for inflation is eight done yeah well loci get the app man stop bullshit we out of here man we're not about to keep working all this time for We are going on out, maybe. We are going on air.

We are on your way too, flat. On air. Join IHeart Radio and Sarah Spain in celebrating the one-year anniversary of IHeart Women's Sports. With powerful interviews and insider analysis, our shows have connected fans with the heart of women's sports.

In just one year, the network has launched 15 shows and built a community united by passion. Podcasts that amplify the voices of women in sports. Thank you for supporting IHeart Women's Sports and our founding sponsors, Elf Beauty, Capital One, and Novartis. Just open the free IHeart app and search IHeart Women's Sports to listen now. I knew I wanted to obey and submit, but I didn't fully grasp for the rest of my life what that meant. For My Heart Podcasts and Rococo Punch, this is The Turning, River Road.

In the woods of Minnesota, a cult leader married himself to 10 girls and forced them into a secret life of abuse. But in 2014, the youngest escaped. Listen to the Turning River Road on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Summer's here, and with the kids home and off to camp, it's easy for moms to get lost in the shuffle. On good moms' bad choices, we're making space to center ourselves with joy, rest, and pleasure. Take the kids to camp. You know what? It was expensive.

But I was also thinking, if you have my kid, this is kind of priceless. Take her, feed her, make corporate. memories. I don't have to do anything. Main thing, I don't have to do anything. To hear this and more, listen to Good Mom's Bad Choices from Black Effect Podcast Network on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Welcome to Pretty Private with Ebeney, the podcast where silence is broken and stories are set free. I'm Ebeney, and every Tuesday I'll be sharing all new anonymous stories that would challenge your perceptions and give you new insight on the people around you.

Every Tuesday, make sure you listen to Pretty Private from the Black Effect Podcast Network. Tune in on the IHeart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Your entire identity has been fabricated. Your beloved brother goes

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