The Breakfast Club - INTERVIEW: Dontay Banks & Kevin Freeman Talk Lil Durk's Indictment, Swizz Mentorship, Wallo + More

Episode Date: April 18, 2025

The Breakfast Club Sits Down With Dontay Banks & Kevin Freeman Talk Lil Durk's Indictment, Swizz Mentorship, Wallo. Listen For More!YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BreakfastClubPower1051FMSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 2020, a group of young women found themselves in an AI-fuelled nightmare. Someone was posting photos. It was just me naked. Well, not me, but me with someone else's body parts. This is Levittown, a new podcast from iHeart Podcasts, Bloomberg and Kaleidoscope, about the rise of deepfake pornography and the battle to stop it. Listen to Levittown on Bloomberg's Big Take podcast. Find it on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey kids, it's me, Kevin Smith. And it's me, Harley Quinn Smith. That's my daughter, man, who my wife has always said is just a beardless, d***less version of me, and that's the name of our podcast, Beardless D***less Me. I'm the old one. I'm the young one.

And every week we try to make each other laugh really hard. Sounds innocent, doesn't it? A lot of cussing, a lot of bad language. I'm the young one. And every week we try to make each other laugh really hard. Sounds innocent, doesn't it? A lot of cussing, a lot of bad language. It's for adults only. Or listen to it with your kid. Could be a family show. We're not quite sure. We're still figuring it out.

It's a work in progress. Listen to Beardless S***less Me on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever. You get your podcast. The number one hit podcast, The Girlfriends, is back with something new, The Girlfriends Spotlight. Each week you'll hear women triumph over adversity. You'll meet Tracy, who survived a terrifying attack.

I remember that feeling of, okay, this is how I die. And turned that darkness into light. I want to take over the world and just leave this place better than I found it. So come and join our girl gang. over the world and just leave this place better than I found it. So come and join our girl gang. Listen to The Girlfriend Spotlight on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Sam Mullins, and I've got a new podcast coming out called Go Boy, the gritty true story of how one man fought his way out of some of the darkest places

imaginable. Roger Caron was 16 when first convicted. I spent 24 of those years in jail. But when Roger Caron picked up a pen and paper, he went from an ex-con to a literary darling. From Campside Media and iHeart Podcasts, listen to Go Boy on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Listen to go boy on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Wake that ass up in the morning. The Breakfast Club. Morning everybody is DJ NV Jess Hilarious, Charlamagne the guy we are the Breakfast Club. Lorna Rosa is here. And we got some

special guests joining us this morning. We have Dante Banks, and we have Kevin Freeman. Welcome, fellas. Good morning. How you guys doing this morning, we have Dante Banks, and we have Kevin Freeman. Welcome, fellas. Good morning. How you guys doing this morning? Oh, that's good. Tell the people who y'all are, first of all, so they get some context. I'm Dante Banks. I'm Little Dirk's father.

And I'm Kevin Freeman. I'm the executive director for Little Dirk's Nonprofit Neighborhood Heroes. Okay. Okay. Well, how is Dirk doing, first and foremost? Oh, he's doing great, wonderful. I just seen him this Sunday, this past Sunday. His spirit is up, he's looking forward, you know,

his day in court freedom as you know as this is going to turn out to be you know releasing him. But he's doing great. Now you have a story as well for people that don't know your story. You want to put them on to a little of your story and who quote unquote Big Dirk is. Well Big Dirk is known in Chicago and the streets of Chicago not for good, you know, but back in 1993 I got caught in the Feds myself, caught up in the Feds and I received a life sentence and it took me almost 24 years, or 26 years to get up out of there. So I spent most of my life, more life in jail

than I did on the street. You got out in 2019 and at the time, your son was this huge musician. Yes sir. So how did coming back into society work with you? And you're, because I mean, you evolved. You've been in there for 24 years, 26 years, and you came home, so talk about that a little bit.

I'm studying right now, today, study learning. Even with the cars and the technology of the cars, the telephone, you know, I hit send, pick up, and type, you know, find a figure, all the rest of it, it's just a little bit much for me. Even with the car, you know, I put it in drive and go, make sure that the heat is working, but everything else, it takes some time.

This is for everybody who's coming out of prison for that long time. All this gonna be new to us, it's gonna take us time to know and adjust to this new society. One of the things I tell everybody, I spent almost about two weeks in Wal-Mart. Doing what? Just each aisle.

You're going from, in prison you're going from two supes. Now you're going there, it's 20 supes. So you're sitting there trying to figure out, oh man, so many choices. You're going from one cereal to a whole shelf of cereal and you trying to figure out, oh I never know these cereals existed. So you going from aisle to aisle, it's all adventures,

it's all like going to an amusement park. So many choices where you didn't have choices before. So it takes time to go through there and you really just get some choices. You just buying stuff to be buying it because you can get it now. These type of things. What was it like when you were locked up

and Dirk is here or was out and he's climbing and he's rising as a star and you're seeing it but you're not seeing it but you're calling home, you're feeling it, what was that like? Oh, that was amazing. At first, I'm on the phone as any father would. Go to school, get a trade, go to college. You know what I mean?

That's so old school, get a trade. That's what your parents said, get a trade, that's right. I don't wanna hear about this, right? Everybody said he was gonna be a rapper. You know, everybody said he was gonna play ball and different things like this. You know, that's every kid's dream. So I didn't really take it seriously.

I'm focused upon what I know to be a true career. You know, get something up under your belt. And every time, I wanna rap, I wanna rap. And then I asked his brother, his older brother, which was the thing at the time, Dante Banks Jr. I said, is he good? Is he good, is he gonna go anywhere with this? He said, yeah, he's good.

And then it was on 10, what was that? 106 and Park? 106 and Park. I'm in prison, I look up there, he said, I'm gonna be? 106 and Park? 106 and Park. I'm in prison and I look up there, he said I'm gonna be on 106 and Park. And I said okay, everybody in prison, he gonna be on 106 and Park, so every TV is on 106 and Park, we waiting on him.

And then that's when we found out, yeah, he got a little buzz. He got buzz, he got a big buzz. And I see you even just in talking about it, you're smiling and it's just, I can imagine, just as a parent, it's like, I want my child to be successful and it's happening. And then you're in a predicament that you're in

and seeing it, it feels good to know that he's carrying the family and things are working out. And then everything that we are seeing now happens. How did that feel when you heard the indictment come down and things of that nature? You know, from being in there and knowing what he up against now, you run right there so I can be one of them

to help him through this. Because this is, being in the feds ain't no small task. You know, this is a big thing. They don't give no room, they just snatch you up with almost and put you in a hopeless situation. You know, everybody that goes in kinda got to fight their way out to show and prove that this is what it is.

But it hurts to know that he have to go through what I just went through. Had to deal with his system now. It hurts real bad, first losing the oldest son to the streets and now losing him to the government. So that's why I'm there hands on, lawyers, hands on with him, telling him every step of what to do now and how to the government. So that's why I'm there hands on, lawyers, hands on with him telling him every step of what to do now and how to fight this.

Being a person of faith, you know a lot as the best knower and planner, but when you lose a son to murder, then you lose a son to the jail system. How does that make you feel? Like just your faith, how does that touch your faith? Oh, it does, it does touch your faith. It touches your faith in how does that test your faith? Oh it does, it tests your faith. It tests your faith in a way that's,

you have to be a parent to understand what I'm saying here. It really tests you, you know. But just like you said, that faith, you know, everything belongs to Allah. It don't actually belong to me, he just used me as a vessel, but it belongs to him. So I just got to be patient for what's going on here and trusting him and continue to make do

out with your supplication that he brings about the victory that we are looking for in this situation, the relief that we're looking for. When you came out, you made it your business to change, right, to make sure you were out there telling kids the right way to go about things and to try to be a positive in the community. Do you ever look back and be like,

do you wonder if it was ever karma, what happened to your kids because of some of the things that you did, even though and be like, do you wonder if it was ever karma, what happened to your kids because of some of the things that you did, even though that you changed, you're a different person. Do you ever think about that or look at life like that? No, you try to, not as in karma, but you look at it as though like,

I'm on the phone with them, I'm visiting, telling them, don't go this way, don't go this route. I'm frowning upon this, I'm talking against this. Gang banging, selling drugs, what we doing to the community. You know, you go to prison, you become a man, you see things that you ain't see before. You know, you enlightened now, you know, you see your wrong.

So I'll never wanna have my sons to go down that road. But at the same time, he don't go down that road, he just go down the road, which rap and different things like this, put him in the same time, he don't go down that road, he just go down the road which rap and different things like this put him in the same category or just a little different, you know. They look, they still saying, hey, you might not be selling drugs, you might not be doing these things right here,

but they look at a rapper the same way. You know. I also, you know, I wanted to ask about his case so much because the Dirk that we knew, that I knew personally, he was such into giving back, right? He would call all the time about the things that he wanted to do for Chicago and the area that he grew up in

and the things that he wanted to change and how he wanted to give kids an opportunity that they would think more than the street and have things to do. So, with his organization, is his organization still out there being able to help and opportunity that they would think more than the street and have things to do. So what is organization? Is this organization still out there being able to help or has a lot of those funds and things been pulled from that?

Absolutely, absolutely, Envy. So this goes back to 2020. This didn't just happen yesterday. Sitting down with Dirk Banks, I remember the day when he was like, Kev, you know, this is my vision, this is what I wanna do. Because he was already doing the work. He's like, okay, but let's do it for real for real.

And we say for real for real, let's get a registered 501C3, and let's really truly, you know, look at the impact that we can make. And one thing that we landed on is still to this day is like, Dirk, this is your vision. This is your vision and it's gonna be our jobs. And I say our jobs, my job, the board of directors

and those that support, we're gonna help bring it to life. And to be able to look back and see from 2020 and all the amazing work that he's done. And as you know in media, a lot of folks don't wanna talk about the great things and the positive things that individuals are out here doing and he didn't do it for that. He did it for the fact that he know that,

he said, Kev, these are things that I wasn't able to experience when I was a kid. So now that I'm in position to do it, I'm all in, let's go, I'm the voice. So I'm like, all right, so sitting with him, I mean, all around the clock, when I say around the clock, I mean, as you know, he's coming from the studio at three, four in the morning, he's calling like,

listen, this is what I wanna do, and I'm digested it, and I'm saying, okay, from all the things that I'm hearing, all the things that I feel your passion, we created four foundation pillars based off the things that Dirk Banks was truly invested in wanting to do and it started off with neighborhoods, prosperity, emerging leaders, health and wellness.

So with all those four different pillars, there's a bucket of work that lives within every one So when we talked about real high level, you know neighborhoods, you know, think about all the national Disasters that's happened, you know takes me back to Houston several times with the hurricanes There's a lot of seniors that had to go through the destruction of their properties Where Dirk was like look, let's get some boots on the ground down there Let's get folks that can help restore their community and restore their homes, because it costs money

to get folks out there to cut down trees or stay on the power company to ensure that these lines are fixed and safe. When we look at prosperity, and I can laugh and we laugh about this to this day, when celebrities or athletes, whatever, think about doing non-profits, you always hear, back to school, let's do backpacks, Thanksgiving,

let's do turkeys. And we would say, you know what, good for those that do that. Because it's needed. It helps, absolutely. But for Dirk, he's a thought leader. He's like, you know, prosperity to me for back to school is, let's get thought leader. He's like, you know, prosperity to me for back to school

is let's get some financial literacy programs together. So we took a group of kids that are in our cohort to learn about financial management, money management. Shout out to Bank of America and the City of Chicago Treasurer's Office for spending those hours and weeks with these young boys and girls to be able to educate them on things.

Like Dirk said, he didn't have the information that now that these kids were able to walk away with. When you talk about those turkey drives, Dirk would always say, you know what, Keh? What do people do with these turkeys that they don't got homes to cook them in? You know, what are they doing with them? So we like, okay, let's get some hot meals

that's ready to be served. So shout out to the Boston market of the world where tens of thousands of families got hot meals that's ready to be served. So shout out to the Boston market of the world where tens of thousands of families got hot meals that didn't have to wonder, you know, how am I gonna cook this turkey now that I got it? Where am I gonna cook it at? So, you know, those last two pillars, health and wellness, you know, cancer survivors.

Shout out to his wife, India, my sister, where they got together and said, we're gonna do a Mother's Day honors where we're gonna recognize these black women that are going through cancer. And as you know, unfortunately, sometimes if they go through the route of chemotherapy, they gotta shave their head off.

Now, you know, going into a beauty supply store to put a union on your head ain't probably what you wanna do, right? We got him. Right, you don't want. We got him one. Yeah't probably what you wanna do, right? We got him one. Right, you don't want? We got him one. You have no idea how good that one is. You ain't no one.

You ain't no one to put that. You ain't no one to put that. You got your own time to be funny in here. That's the same. He just mad. I feel like he had the job. That's his one. That's a great one.

You have no idea how good that one is. But you know what that would do to one's self-esteem, no one going through that. So what we were able to do is, shout out to India and Kelvin as well, who's on the management side with Dirk's Foundation, is that they were able to get celebrity stylists to create custom units and get hair in advance of Mother's Day.

So now on their day that we recognize them, they can feel good. And we know when you feel good, Dion said you look good, you feel good. And that's what we're able to do. But last but not least, and it ties into one of the things that really I know that lives with Dirk the most is that emerging leaders.

And we talked about those students that Dirk has taken the time and exposed to his college and career readiness cohort. So going all the way back to 2022, we said, you know what, all these young black boys and girls that got passion, what are you passionate about? Because we're not gonna just say go to college, just to go to college.

We wanna make sure that there's programs and opportunities that align to what you're interested in. And now that we know, now when we go take these college trips to Morehouse back in 2022, we flew them from Chicago to Atlanta, and they got to learn about the programs, they got a chance to learn about career day with Atlanta Hawks, their executive office

had a round table with these young men, and educated them about careers in the NBA, and it's not just about being a basketball player, it's about being marketing, it's about being HR, or even real estate, which we didn't know about. So with that being said, and shout out to NASCAR as well because after we left Atlanta, we went over to Talladega College

and NASCAR hosted them for the career day. But the list goes on, year after year, went to DC. Dirk gave over $350,000 in scholarship funds. 350,000 to scholarship funds. So students who are looking to go to Howard and students who are already at Howard that caught a jam to say, you know what? I don't know how I'm gonna be able to finish this semester.

You know, the Grace Grant was able to provide those students with an opportunity. Last year we came to New York, came to Queens with St. John's University. Students had an opportunity to learn about those programs and then their career day was spent at Sony, spent at Alamo Records. So everyone can't be the next Lil Durk,

but everyone can be that guy behind the production. And this is exposing these young black boys and girls that Durk has been doing for a long time. And the lights haven't gone off. Now you can see it. I mean, you can see it, you know, in his faith walk. You know, you can see it, you know, even when he named his last album,

or the album before last, Almost Healed. You can see that he was absolutely, positively trying to make, you know, the right moves and take the right steps to just be a better person. I was gonna ask y'all, the last thing that he did before he was taken into custody was the big prayer event that he had and then he received the keys to the city.

But the mayor, I believe it was the mayor, got a lot of backlash after he was arrested. And I think there were certain people and things that stepped back, so how hard has it been because the organization is tied to Dirk? Are y'all facing opposition or are people still like, no, we know he's a good person? You gotta face opposition just being a young black artist, a young black man, a young black woman.

There's always going to be trials and tribulations and if we allow one situation like that to stop us what we're doing then we're losing the focus of what his true mission was. Yes. I want to ask you something too, uh... In 2020, a group of young women in a tidy suburb of New York City found themselves in an AI-fuelled nightmare. Someone was posting photos. It was just me naked. Well, not me, but me with someone else's body parts on my body parts that looked exactly

like my own. I wanted to throw up. I wanted to scream. It happened in Levittown, New York. But reporting the series took us through the darkest corners of the internet and to the front lines of a global battle against deepfake pornography. This should be illegal, but what is this? This is a story about a technology that's moving faster than the law and about vigilantes trying to stem the tide.

I'm Margie Murphy. And I'm Olivia Carville. This is Levertown, a new podcast from iHeart Podcasts, Bloomberg and Kaleidoscope. Listen to Levertown on Bloomberg's Big Take podcast. Find it on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Yo, K-Pop fans, it's your boy, BOMHAN, and I'm bringing you something epic. Introducing the K-Factor, the podcast that takes you straight into the heart of K-Pop.

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Let's go. Hey kids, it's me, Kevin Smith. And it's me, Harley Quinn Smith. That's my daughter, man, who my wife has always said is just a beardless, d***less version of me. And that's the name of our podcast, Beardless, D***less Me. I'm the old one. I'm the young one.

And every week we try to make each other laugh really hard. Sounds innocent, doesn't it? A lot of cussing, a lot of bad language. It's for adults only. Or listen to it with your kid. Could be a family show. We're not quite sure. We're still figuring it out.

It's a work in progress. Listen to Beardless, me on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. On November 5th, 2018 at 6.33 AM, a red Volkswagen Golf was found abandoned in a ditch out in Sleephole Valley. The driver's seat door was open. No traces of footsteps leaving the vehicle. No belongings were found, except for a cassette tape lodged in the player. On that tape were! No, don't arrest me!

You feeling this too. A horror anthology podcast. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I tell you man, I was looking at your bio, and I love this. You said when you got released from prison, your bio said,

you had to first forgive yourself for adding to the demise of your community. What did that realization, when did you get that realization that you had actually caused a lot of problems in your community and how did you know that you know you had to forgive yourself for adding to it? It was actually when I became a Muslim.

Because you got to reflect on your past. You got to change a lot about yourself. So when you're changing a lot about yourself, you start looking within like, oh, I had these principles, I had these morals, I had these values, this is the way I used to think. And you challenge with these things now, because now you see Islam gonna change who I am,

my character, my outlook on life. So these are the things I did. Plus, one of the biggest things is seeing these young guys coming to prison. Coming in, I mean, day by day, every week they bringing a busload in, and my heart just keep going out to them because they don't know what's going on.

They have no idea what they up against right here. So you got to start programs, try to educate them on the legal aspect, start getting in this court and fighting for your life back. Because if you just sit there to fend, you sit there, that's it. You got to get up and fight, you know, and if you don't, and like I say,

you'll be there for the rest of your life. Man, what is needed to break the generational cycle of just violence in Chicago? We working on that daily. I mean, loose is on the ground daily. I work with an organization called Chicago Cred, where we go around and one of the main things we're doing right now with Chicago Cred,

gun violence, gun reducing, gun violence in a transformative way, but at the same time, we start now to program a non-aggression. Teaching them non-aggression. It's hard to tell them young guys to put the gun down, but know what we're gonna teach them is non-aggression, don't be aggressive with that gun. Only use that gun to defend yourself.

Only use that gun to defend people who trying to come in your house. But don't go out looking for nobody. So guys who coming out of prison, guys who know what it's about, we got to stay on the ground. We got to give back. We got to be the ones about that change talk and that change behavior.

We can't be OGs and then hanging out with the young guys doing just as worse as they doing. We got to get out there and tell them. And we got to sacrifice ourself to do this. Because a lot of them going to be hard head. A lot of them going to push us away. A lot of them going to tell you outdated A lot of them gonna tell you out there that you know, go and sit down somewhere.

But we gotta stay on the front line out there. Because we got to get them neighborhoods back to the place where they can be. Where kids can come back out and play. Grandmamas and mamas can sit on the porch and walk. Stores can be utilized for not just hanging around there, used for what they're used for and be a pillar of the community. So, you know, use for, you know, what they use for and be a pillar of the community.

So, you know, we just- Is it a lack of resources, like education, like lack of opportunity, all of that? All of it. All of it. All of it, you know. And what we got now with what's going on in politics is gonna be even harder fight for us, you know. Trying to shut down the board of education, you know.

The Department of Education, yeah. You know, trying to shut down the Board of Education. The Department of Education, yeah. Trying to do these, trying to attack the healthcare, trying to attack the veterans. Now the whole of America is waking up, so it puts more of a burden on us to try to help because people that's already down, finna stay down. We ain't got no opportunities for them to come up

because the administration ain't giving us these opportunities for them to come up. Can administration ain't given us these opportunities for them to come up. Can you give us an update on what you can on Dirk's case and how it's going? I know he was denied bond, but can you give us an update on what's happening and how his fans can support? Because it's been really quiet, you know?

Yeah, now one thing I can say, well, y'all, the question y'all ask Kevin, can I have people looking at him now? It ain't a place I go. It's not a place that I go a phone call and I don't get, where he get 100% support. Ain't nobody like turning their back on him or saying nothing negative about,

other than a few little blobs here and there or podcasts who trying to get some type of recognition about saying something negative about him. But overall, 90%, everybody's there in a priority support. You get many, many letters of, you know, keep your head, keep going on. You're gonna get up outta this. You know, things of that nature there.

So the support is 100%. And I love that about him, because that tells you what kind of person he is. When no one is trying to, you know, look at his downfall, there as something that we can now say, hey, look at him, we told you about him, not this type of thing here. Oh, that's a beautiful thing.

And one more thing I'd like to speak on, sorry. No, you go ahead, it's your interview. Every time I go visit him or he call, just like Kevin said, he always got a new idea. I said, man, get in there and look at this case, let's get focused on this. but he got a new idea. Hey, what you think about the hospital? What do you think about the school?

What you think, you know, it's always something new what he's trying to do up in there as far as trying to do out here to help. You mentioned just how he has so much positive support from fans and people and people not backing away from what he's doing in the community, but I remember in December when they tried to get the bond that Envy was mentioning,

the prosecutors tried to paint him out to be this super dangerous person and all those things. How do you have conversations with him because you said he's focused on new ideas, but are there ever times where he's like, yo, this is like, I can't believe this is happening to me right now and then things like that happen and he might lose faith or might lose sight.

Like does that happen at all? Well as a human you sitting in there looking at four walls, you know you've been told to stand up for count, you've been told these things, something that you ain't normally used to. It's gonna have this effect on you. But you know you always bounce back. You always look at the greater picture

because as a Muslim we look and say to ourself, what Allah is doing for us is greater than what they're doing to us. What Allah is doing for us right now, building us to be a better man, is greater than what they're trying to do to us and trying to tear us down. So he definitely, he definitely a builder.

He was telling me that when he came in, there was like four Muslims on the block. He said, now it's 17 Muslims on the block. So he in there, he. Oh, people are converting. Converting, you know. Got you. Yeah, so that's a good thing.

So he in there, you know, keeping it going, keeping the work going, you know. What do y'all, when y'all come out here and y'all do these press hits, what are y'all hopes? What are y'all trying to do? We trying to bring a real look. What's really, what is Junior, I call him Junior, what is him, what he's supposed to be looking,

how you supposed to view him. Don't take allegations and make them a fact. Don't take allegations and make it a conviction. Allegations are just that, these are allegations. Give us a chance in court to prove ourselves. Give us a chance, and this one thing again, we shout out the man of Chicago, Brandon Johnson, when they try to attack him.

He said, don't give the brother his chance in court. That's right, due process. Due process, give him his chance in court, and this is what we ask everybody, give our chance in court. That's right, due process. Due process, give him his chance in court and this is what we ask everybody, give our chance in court and we approve that all of this is nothing but falsehood and lies. When you talk about going places and wanting the conversation to be just fair for him,

even if people are gonna have their opinions, how hard is it for you, and you can answer this if you want to, I know it's a legal situation. So for instance, I know I've seen reports of like there were like text messages that allegedly were like between Dirk and the the guys who are Who they threw the murder charges at for deep thing and then they have the verse from his song Aha, and they're trying to pin that like yo

This is you saying what you did how hard is it to go up against stuff like that just because legally they're talking about that every single time he goes into court? It's not hard if you get all the information, but I will refer, I have to refer all of these things, thank you brother, thank you brother, thank you brother. I have to refer all these things to the legal team because this is some of the things

that they would have to answer and give a to the legal team. You know, this is some of the things that they would have to answer and give a deeper understanding to. He got three great lawyers on the case, you know. Drew Finley. That's my guy, love him. Yes, Drew Finley. Jonathan out of Chicago, Brehman, and he got the lady, what's her?

Christy O'Connor. So he got three good lawyers. She outta California, she was outta Atlanta, and Jonathan Raymond is outta Chicago. So they workin' around the clock. They constantly keep us updated. I talk to them regularly about the case, and so it's goin' good.

All these text messages, these things here, they on top of all this. And like I said, give them his day in court and they approved, you know What's the what what's the real truth about these text messages? Right? How confident are you? As a Muslim I'm confident in Allah And I just continue to make do I, that this, that we victorious in this case. And you know, that Allah grant us the relief

that we are seeking out of this. So, looking at everything, you know, it's weak. But we make sure, continue to trust in Allah. And what about with the government? Cause you know the government, as we've seen with many cases before, they play a nasty game, where they try to make

somebody look crazy so that the jury looks at them as crazy from the start, you know what I mean? We see that a lot. A whole lot. And who don't know that in a person that's been in the belly of the beast, I know the tricks in the game they play. That's why, like I said, I stay on this case,

looking at it from every angle. Because I know they games, I know what they play, I know their lives, their deception. I know they'll create some things, create some witness. Somewhere out of the blue, it'll be somebody come along, don't nobody know, like who is this dude? And they'll put him up there to say some things,

and everybody be like, you know. So yeah, I definitely know about them. Thank you. And your bio, one of the things that you mentioned here is how much time you didn't get to spend with your kids because of your sentence that you had. Now, like, you know, in present time, hopefully, and like, you know, preferably when Dirk is able to come home,

what are you looking forward to being able to do with him? I know you lost D-thing, but what are you looking forward to do with Dirk and like, you know, prayerfully when Dirk is able to come home. What are you looking forward to being able to do with him? I know you lost D-thing, but what are you looking forward to do with Dirk and like, you know, just your family now? Once y'all get through all the muddy waters. The same thing we was doing when I got out, you know, constantly with them. Now, I don't wanna get my daughters mad, but I got five children.

Yeah. Three daughters and two sons. Then when we get off the show, they be like, you ain't saying nothing about us or nothing. I got five children, three daughters and two sons. Then when we get off the show, they be like, you ain't saying nothing about us. So I got three beautiful daughters and two sons, one passed away and one were. What we looking to do now is we on another whole level now.

Going to see him, talking to him, you know, minds are now combined now. And we just looking forward to doing things now with the grandkids, raising them in the right way, you know. Embedding, putting in them the things that we, his experience, my experience, the do's and the don'ts in life, so. We just looking to be a stronger family bond.

And I know y'all brought up India earlier, and we found out that they were married through like the new music and the photo on the album What conversations do you and Dirk have before he decided to get married and like what are you talking to him as dad? You know what I mean? Like what advice are you giving him or you know, how was that like? Okay now as a Muslim Because it's different for you, right? Right. Uh-huh. You got to get married You cannot lay sleep with a woman that you're not married to.

So these are my conversations to him. You have to be married. It's a great sin in Islam if you're not married. We don't believe in fornication. We don't believe in adultery, you know, sleeping outside, the marriage and different things like that. If you are interested in this sister, then let her know through marriage

that you're ready to take on the responsibility of a husband. As a Muslim, are you on him about the content of his music? Like if he beats his situation and comes home, are you gonna tell him that musically he should go in another direction? He told me. He told me.

So I'm just keep saying, Hamdulillah, every time I talk to him, he learning more about Islam and what he's supposed to be doing as a Muslim. What do you say? He's saying that, hey, I can't talk about these things no more. I can't walk this way of life no more. You know, so he already on point with all this, you know. And that's one of the things about, you know, prison give you time to really reflect, think. Give you time, isolation, to read, study. So now you're able to, you know now you ain't distracted about these weird things.

This is a star, this is a artist. He on the planes all the time, he moving all the time. From the moment he wake up to the moment he go to sleep, he always doing something. So saying he took his shahada, he became a Muslim. In prison, I mean at the prison when he came to see me. But then his life took off from there. So now he got a chance now to study.

So everything that he needs to know, he learning it right now. So he knowing, he telling me like I said, I can't talk about that no more. I can't do this no more. I'm glad that I got married. I'm glad that I went this direction right here because he's trying to see now.

Wow. Well definitely send him our love, man, and tell him that we'll continue to pray for him, man, and support him. Absolutely. No doubt, because when I told him about this, he said, that's beautiful. Them, they right there, they gonna keep it real.

Oh yeah, we've been watching Dirk since the beginning. Literally, absolutely, literally. Dirk been up here watching Dirk since the beginning. Literally, absolutely literally. Dirk been up here with Vaughn and everybody. So it's like we literally watched him grow up. And also we can't forget about our main guy, Swiss. Oh, salute to Swiss, absolutely. Definitely shout out to that brother, man. And that is, Swiss is one of his biggest mentors.

That's the one who talks to him, keep him on point, different things, like he always calls Swizz, they always talking, what direction, what should I do? You know, and it's good to have somebody like Swizz in this corner, you know. Absolutely. We appreciate you guys for joining us.

Thank you very much. I have one more thing I just thought of. That video of Wallo when he's talking to Dirk and it went super, super viral, he's telling him not to retaliate for a D thing and then it went re-viral when all this stuff happened with the case. When you first saw that video, and saw that moment,

I don't know if you were there in person or what, but as a dad, what was that feeling? Just to see somebody pouring to your son like that? Beautiful, and I thank you. Appreciate it, it's exactly like I meant a lot. Truly rewarded for that, because this is what we talk about. This is why we practice.

No retaliation, because it only gonna keep it going. So I love that. I love that you opened up like that. So thank you for that. And I agree with one thing. That's my Wallo. That's my Wallo. I'm sorry.

No, no, no, that's Wallo. I'm thinking about Wallo. He could never, he could never. Wallo is so positive and just does so many great things. A million dollars. Yeah, when they were in the studio and him and Gilly were sitting there. And he was, yeah. Cause that went so super viral

because of everything with the case. And I was just like, dang, as a dad, I wonder like, you know, you watching that, like, that's what's up. Greed with 100%. And those are the things I said. Cause we actually, you know, we lost my son. And I don't know if y'all know,

but when you lose a son in Islam, you have to wash his body. Yes, I know. So we had to wash his body, and washing the body, and it's hurting, you know? To wash my son's body, to get out out of 26 years, and then have to bury your son, you know? That's, that pain there. It's like, you never get used to it,

you never get accepted, but yeah, you accept it as a Muslim, but it's something that's always gonna be deep in you. So I don't want them to see another parent hurt like that. I don't want to see nobody have to go through that, so it got to stop. Do you put any blame on yourself ever? Like you was like, man, you know, because of poor choices I made 26 years ago,

I wasn't here the way I probably needed to be. As a parent, you're gonna always say that. You're gonna say what could I have did? What could I have did better? Could I have said anything? Could I have did anything different to stop this? You know, but then Islam kicking, you were like, you did everything you was supposed to do,

you tried to the best of your ability, but that struggle goes within things all the time. Well, thank y'all for joining us. Dante Banks, Kevin Freeman, thank you so much. And please keep us updated when you can. Yes, sir, will do. And I appreciate y'all from having us. Absolutely.

Appreciate you so much. It's The Breakfast Club, good morning. Wake that ass up. In the morning. The Breakfast Club. In 2020, a group of young women found themselves in an AI-fuelled nightmare. Someone was posting photos. It was just me naked. Well, not me, but me with someone else's body parts.

This is Levittown, a new podcast from iHeart Podcasts, Bloomberg, and Kaleidoscope, about the rise of deepfake pornography and the battle to stop it. Listen to Levittown on Bloomberg's Big Take podcast. Find it on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey kids, it's me, Kevin Smith. And it's me, Harley Quinn Smith. That's my daughter, man, who my wife has always said is just a beardless, d***less version of me.

And that's the name of our podcast, Beardless D***less Me. I'm the old one. I'm the young one. And every week we try to make each other laugh really hard. Sounds innocent, doesn't it? A lot of cussing, a lot of bad language. It's for adults only. Or listen to it with your kid.

It could be a family show. We're not quite sure. We're still figuring it out. It's a work in progress. Listen to Beardless D***less Me on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Hi, I'm Sam Mullins, and I've got a new podcast coming out called Go Boy, the gritty true story of how one man fought his way out of some of the darkest places imaginable.

Roger Caron was 16 when first convicted. That spent 24 of those years in jail. But when Roger Caron picked up a pen and paper, he went from an ex-con to a literary darling. From Campside Media and iHeart Podcasts, listen to Go Boy on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The number one hit podcast, The Girlfriends, is back with something new, The Girlfriends Spotlight, where each week you'll hear women share their stories of triumph over adversity.

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