The Breakfast Club - INTERVIEW: Mario & Mandela Van Peebles On 'Outlaw Posse,' Working Relationship, Melvin Van Peebles Impact +More

Episode Date: February 21, 2024

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Starting point is 00:02:40 The Breakfast Club. Morning, everybody. It's DJ Envy, Jess Hilaress hilarious charlamagne the guy we are the breakfast club we got some special guests in the building we have mario and mandela van people's welcome hey man good to be here how's it feeling how y'all feeling good man it's a little cold but we happen to be here okay i'm old enough to remember when it was uh melvin and mario yeah it keep going wow Wow. Yeah. You know, it's interesting.
Starting point is 00:03:10 The other day I looked up and I realized, I was telling Mandela this, my father gave me my first lines ever in a feature film. Wow. And then I gave him his last lines ever in a feature film. Wow. Wow. And I was like, this is a trippy circle. Like, how many people get that in their lives? You know what I mean?
Starting point is 00:03:21 Mm-hmm. And when I did Posse, 30 years ago? 31 years ago? Yeah, 31 years ago i didn't have kids and and but i had my dad and then this time when i did outlaw posse i didn't have my dad but i got mandela that's right so i'm like the connective tissue absolutely you know so is uh outlaw posse the unofficial sequel our official sequel it's posse no it's it's a western okay it's you know like clint eastwood did a bunch of? No, it's a western. It's just, you know, like
Starting point is 00:03:45 Clint Eastwood did a bunch of spaghetti westerns. It's a different western. It's not really. But it is a multi-culti wild-ass group of cowboys and cowwomen, I guess you would say, differently than before. So it's, you know, before we had, like, in Posse
Starting point is 00:04:01 we had Big Daddy Kane and Tone and Woody Strode and the huddle brothers and blair underwood and sally richardson big cast that's the and this time we've got um who got cedric the container get to the mic boy cedric we got dc young fly we got whoopi goldberg she didn't i didn't cast whoopi whoopi cast herself okay i'm playing this role okay um i was shooting something for rizza boutang clan american saga next door in jersey to where whoopie lives so she came over like what's all this racket and then we met and i said she said i've always wanted to do western i said i got this script i'm doing and she said said, Stagecoach Mary, Stagecoach Mary.
Starting point is 00:04:45 And that's how that came about. Really? Yeah. And we just, it was one of those things where you meet someone like me and you, and I'm just like, I want to do it. And then I'm really one of those guys that will really call you up and be like, okay, here's the dates. Let's go.
Starting point is 00:04:57 And she's like, I'm there. Montana, what are we doing? Wow. And because a lot of folks don't know that almost one out of three cowboys was black. You know, you look at the old Westerns. You don't see that because we basically they call black men boys as a derogatory term. So and we got the harder jobs, the dirty jobs. So it's like, take care of the horses, boy. Take care of the cowboy. So once they said cowboy, that's where the name came from. White guys like being called rough riders. And and so once Hollywood glorified cowboys, they flipped it up,
Starting point is 00:05:28 and they didn't have us playing them. Kind of like, you know, we know the heavyweight champs look like Jack Johnson, Ali, Tyson, but they'll make them look like Rocky in Hollywood. Just one of those things. So really, when you look at Outlaw Posse, you'll see, like, real history where you'll see some of the real characters and in the movie you'll see, oh, I thought that guy was made up. No, this is
Starting point is 00:05:49 we based the whole look on this dude. So you'll see the real people at the end and you'll see with Whoopi Goldberg how close she gets to stagecoach Mary. What's the significance of stagecoach Mary's inclusion in the film? Well, she is, you know, she has her own stagecoach line that she ran up through Montana, had a big old cigar and a big old shotgun.
Starting point is 00:06:06 And in the movie, there comes a point where Edward James Olmos is in the movie. And our posse, this knucklehead's with me in the posse, but I don't know he's a spy. Oh, no spoilers. No, okay. I don't know he's a spy. March 1st, I don't know if Ozzy's coming out. Watch it, March 1st. He's going to give away the whole thing. No, I ain't going to give it away. Okay, I'm going to tell He's a smart. March 1st, I don't know if Ozzy's coming out. Watch it, March 1st.
Starting point is 00:06:25 He's going to give away the whole K-Op. K-Op is out. Okay. But, okay, I'm going to tell you what. There's a scene where we go in to buy some dry goods. We've just had a bank robbery go wrong.
Starting point is 00:06:36 All kinds of stuff has gone wrong. He's like, Dad, come on. Hold up. I'm just giving a little fractional stuff. All right. So we go in to the dry goods store and Edward James almost comes out with his gun. He's like, what y'all here for?
Starting point is 00:06:49 And we go in there, and when we come out, all the horses are gone, and we're in the middle of nowhere. And he starts cracking up. We're like, why are you laughing, man? He's like, because the originals, they don't believe. The originals are the Indians. He said, they don't believe that we have the right to own any of God's creatures. But before you get mad, my wife was born enslaved.
Starting point is 00:07:10 Those same native Americans set my wife free. Wow. So it was starts to use. So we lose all our horses and we got to hit your ride with none other than stage. Mary, there you go. Gotcha.
Starting point is 00:07:21 I didn't get way too much. That was a lot. That was a lot. The movie's only 90 minutes. Now now how was working with your dad uh it's good i had a lot of practice to the mic to the mic to the mic yeah it's it's fun um obviously i've been his son for a while now so on camera we don't i don't know if he looks like i don't know know. He just followed me around and asked for shit. Yeah, okay. No, but we have a relationship that luckily we get to wear different hats. And this time we got to wear some cowboy hats and shoot some guns.
Starting point is 00:08:00 And what's cool, actually, working with him at a work thing, usually he's directing or acting, but this time he got to do both. And so he's directing and acting, this time he got to do both and so he's directing and acting and i'm also playing his son so it's a pretty rare one when we work together sometimes you're behind i'm in front or yeah yeah and it's what's cool is that he can ride this he's a cowboy he can he did all his own stunts you're not only when you're doing it like because outlaw posse is a mean ass independent so it's not like you're gonna it, like, because Outlaw Posse is a mean ass independent. So it's not like you're going to see a lot of billboards or anything.
Starting point is 00:08:27 It's more word of mouth, right? And we just won best feature at the Pan African. Thank you. So when you do a feature like this, you really rely on people
Starting point is 00:08:35 to do a lot of, it's not CGI, it's not AI, it's real guy. So when he rides in, not only does he have to, I have to get along with him, but with his horse
Starting point is 00:08:45 because there's a lot of scenes where he's got to race in and we do it in one shot so he'll race in on his horse and he got to save dad you know what i mean and and the thing about working with your son like this is we didn't have to fake the love so when you look at it on camera like we clown and play together we don't have to fake the love and so the so you're going in with people that really get it and know their roles and that's that's fun that all the actors know how to handle and ride horses if they didn't like that dc had to go to cowboys i was gonna ask you dc's from atlanta right no doubt and i don't know if he was on a horse like that like that yeah i had to get on the horse me just because he from the south you think we rode horses no they have horses in atlanta
Starting point is 00:09:21 i know he was on a horse like that they have brothers out there that ride on atlanta and horses in atlanta but he was he was at the he was on a horse like that they have brothers out there that ride on horses in Atlanta he was at the screening and I asked him how many times have you rode since he was like oh I got a horse now oh he does so yeah he had to and Cedric didn't have to ride
Starting point is 00:09:36 so Cedric's in there and oh and Alan Payne Alan Payne can ride from New Jack City I was like calling up all my old connects. Come on out. Let's do it. And it was mad fun. Are you still you mentioned Alan Payne. Are you still surprised at the influence of New Jack City across generations? It's a trip. In fact, we played with it. I'm not going to say nothing. No, it was a little fake ass for collar thing.
Starting point is 00:10:04 You know what I mean no am I surprised yeah I was surprised here's the thing you know in most gangster films you emotionally connect with the gangster right that's easy I mean that's easy to get to the trick in New Jack was
Starting point is 00:10:19 to not make the crime victimless by having the audience connect up with the victim so I was two guys I was looking at one was named Martin Lawrence and one was named Chris Rock make the crime victimless by having the audience connect up with the victim. So I was two guys I was looking at. One was named Martin Lawrence and one was named Chris Rock to play the victim. And when that's what the trick was to say, okay, we see the cost to our community of this stuff where people watch New Jack City. Yeah. They, they, they, they look at West. That's the,
Starting point is 00:10:39 that's the bad-ass character, but they also look at the cops too. You know, you had good role models to say yes to, because if you want folks to say no emotionally, you better have some role models that emotionally say yes to. Right. You feel me? But in the middle to have the victim get addicted to crack and we de-glamorize the heck out of it. You know, so you see him in the alleyway. Well, nothing cute about that. So I've had people come up to me after seeing it said, man, I love the movie.
Starting point is 00:11:02 I never wanted to touch no crack after seeing New Jackson. So that was one of the things that I was proud of is trying to not just entertain us and that's the thing with outlaw posse but edutain us and mandela can tell you yeah you could tell them that there's a lot of stuff in outlaw posse that's really relevant today you know we're so divided as a country they say right now because some of us watch msnbc cnn and they watch fox news or whatever and we have different facts but we all hopefully come together and watch a western we made this gumbo with love so i quoted new jack city i was on uh uh this week uh abc with jonathan carl yeah uh sunday and i quoted new jackson i said uh because i was talking
Starting point is 00:11:44 about how you know the vice president she needs to pivot and start speaking up more and I was like you know I know that historically the role of the vice president is just to parrot the president but I was just like yo for New Jack problems we need New Jack solutions
Starting point is 00:11:58 yeah and we're in a different time with that and you can't come at it you know can't come at it. You know, you got to come at it ready. And that's the other reason I wanted to do outlaw posse now is that there's a whole scene where we go in there and and we deal with some voting right issues. You know, so this stuff you'll find in outlaw posse where it's like, oh, wow, that's happening right now. Yeah. You know, voting right. Uh, even environmental stuff. Right. I don't want to give the spoilers away.
Starting point is 00:12:27 You really got to check it out. March 1st. Yeah. You know, we're seeing a lot more Westerns with black cast. What about that time period? Should black people be tapping into like, what should we be learning from that time period?
Starting point is 00:12:40 Well, I think, well, I think there was a big sense, you know, cause it was after, look, one of the things that comes up is that, uh63, up until then, because we do a scene with Whoopi on the stagecoach.
Starting point is 00:12:54 And she looks at him and she said, boy, you know, you're lucky. You're the first generation of black men that legally gets to have a black father. Because until 1863, you couldn't have a black father legally. The slave master made all the decisions for the kids. You had nothing to do with it. In fact, they sell you as somebody else, somewhere else. So she said, you know, so we've only had since 1863 to get our father game on. Make it 1865
Starting point is 00:13:15 if you're in Texas. So we bring up some interesting points. I think one of the things we can learn from the Western is that there was still this sense of do for self. Yes, some of us were lucky enough to go across the country in covered wagons. Other of us had to wrap some canvas around our feet and walk. You know what I mean? The other thing is that I think is something Mandela mentioned is that, you know, what's interesting
Starting point is 00:13:41 is that the Native American folk and the African folk had a respect for nature. Right. It was only the colonizer was sort of saying, oh, no, just chop down all those tree, kill all the buffalo, do this, commodify it, sell it, chop it up, package it, kill it, wrap it up. And once you once you imitate the people that would buy and sell you, what have you become? And so you kind of look back and wait a minute. We don't have to imitate the people that will buy and sell you, what have you become? And so you kind of look back and go, wait a minute, we don't have to imitate the people that will buy and sell us. And when you look at that and you realize, wow, a lot of us, there were enslaved folks who ran away with the Native Americans and became known as the Black Seminoles.
Starting point is 00:14:19 Now, historically, in a movie, they'd be played as white guys. We're not doing that. We're showing everybody. So I think one of the, you can look back and see, I think it's this. If you don't know where you were, it's hard to know where you're going. That's right.
Starting point is 00:14:33 Right? So having an idea of your history, you go, oh, we overcame that before. We dealt with Tulsa, Oklahoma. Okay, we dealt with reparations. We know what's going on. Reparations really were supposed to go to us, but they gave reparations. They just gave them to the slave owners for loss of property.
Starting point is 00:14:50 That comes up in Outlaw Posse. Wow. Yeah. Why was it important for the film to reflect the diversity of the wild, wild world? There's a great quote by King on Mess Up where he says, we either all learn to live together as brothers and sisters, or we all perish together as fools. And I think once you go, oh, wow, the Chinese brothers and sisters, they built the railroad.
Starting point is 00:15:11 You know, we built everything. Native Americans were here. The border moved across Mexico. You know, once you realize we all had a part in it, then you take a different pride in it. And you're not just fighting for the America you've been. Maybe you're fighting for the America we still can be. And we have an election year coming up. So my hope is that if you make film like New Jack, but film that makes people think, maybe they think when they order food, maybe they think when they drive a car, maybe they think when they vote. Why do you think it's still difficult to make films i mean i've seen i think i interviewed and said it was so difficult to make new jack city back in a day and and this is an independent film is it still very difficult for a black director to get things done and get the money to get the
Starting point is 00:15:59 you know the the necessary promotion and to get the necessary funding? Is it still very difficult? Well, here's the thing. I made a movie a couple of years ago called Badass about my dad. I don't know if y'all saw that, where he made Sweetback. And he made Sweetback at a time when, you know, there was no black leads in movies. You couldn't even have facial hair as a black man in a movie. And he made Sweetback and he found an unknown group named Earth, Wind & Fire
Starting point is 00:16:27 to do the soundtrack. And that movie became a big hit. And then after that, Hollywood made, they said, well, we want to do some more of those. So they made, they had a movie written by two Jewish guys, well-written movie, and they said let's do it in black. And that became Shaft. And they got Isaac Hayes, who was 24
Starting point is 00:16:44 years old from Stax Record. And then after that, they had Superfly. Now, what the Black Panthers said about Sweetback was Sweetback made being a revolutionary hip and made going up against the man in the status quo hip. Shaft, cool movie, imitated the icing, but not necessarily the cake, because that movie makes working with the man hit. And then Superfly made dealing drugs against your own people for the man hit. So the Panthers maintain that the icings look cool.
Starting point is 00:17:17 Same, you know, good looking brother, flashy clothes, good soundtrack. But the revolutionary core of the cake was being drained out. Similar thing happened with hip-hop, right? You may start off saying the revolution won't be televised or fight the power, but at a certain point when the corporations or the corpses get involved, the content gets drained out. So, all that to say,
Starting point is 00:17:38 if you're the kind of filmmaker or the kind of hip-hop artist, whatever, the kind of artist that just wants to do what they tell you to do, you can get the funding. But if you want to make a movie like Outlaw Posse that says, nah, man, you're going to see us a different way. You're going to see some badass women because they were here. You're going to see some badass brothers
Starting point is 00:17:56 because one out of three cowboys was black. The guy who inspired me to make my first Western really was Eastwood. I did a movie called Heartbreak Ridge with Eastwood. And he, in Unforgiven, he put Morgan Freeman in there. my first Western really was Eastwood. I did a movie called heartbreak region with Eastwood. Right. So, and he, and you're unforgiving. He put more than Freeman in there. Literally.
Starting point is 00:18:08 It was almost like one out of three Cowboys was black. So I wanted to do what the kind of movies that I want to do. Not all the time. Sometimes I just want to make the money. Okay. For real. But, but sometimes when I,
Starting point is 00:18:19 when it's all about the heart, I want to make a movie that says something. And when you got to do that, if I take their money if you take mcdonald's money you can't make supersize me you know me if i take the studio's money then i have to do the studio line i wanted this movie to be a la posse be real and gritty and use people that could play the roles and say the stuff we wanted to say that was happening there that we usually just whitewash and we're at a point in history, right, where you, you know,
Starting point is 00:18:45 what are they calling slaves now? Enslaved people? Unpaid workers? Unpaid workers or something, yeah. Yeah. So they're taking, look, it used to be illegal to teach a black person to read,
Starting point is 00:18:57 and now it's going to be illegal to read about an enslaved person. Yeah. You know what I mean? We're getting to a weird place where we need to look at our history and go, okay, we did this before we're all here make the gumbo with love build it and they will come and that's not a movie that necessarily is going to get financing easily i guess i guess
Starting point is 00:19:16 that's also the beauty of a movie like new jack city because when you talk about how people didn't want to you know um use crack it makes you not want to sell it either. Right. When you see somebody oppressing their own people in that way. If your consciousness is there. See, I'm not sure. You have a different consciousness. Depending on what consciousness you have, that's the level of movie you'll see. Do you feel me?
Starting point is 00:19:37 Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like, and that's the same thing with outlaw posse. Depending on your level of consciousness, you're going to go, oh, wow, I tuned into that. But somebody else might just tune into something else. Your consciousness is clearly there because I would look at that and go, yeah, everyone in New Jack that touched crack died. Yeah. Right? Absolutely.
Starting point is 00:19:58 But for some people, it was like, well, we don't see an option. We've got to make our way out of no way. But you've got to figure out a better way. Especially if you're oppressing all those people. You're ruining the whole community. That's what they call a self-cleaning oven. That's right. So when you look at a Western
Starting point is 00:20:16 like this, this takes place in 1908. What's going on in 1908? This brother finally got a chance to be the heavyweight champ, and he whooped everyone's ass. His name was Jack Johnson. That's happening in 1908. Before women could vote, there's a sister named Stagecoach Mary,
Starting point is 00:20:37 got her own stagecoach line. She'd say, if they can make money off me, I can make money off me. I'm going to do my own thing. You know what I mean? And then you have the fictional characters of us. So you got this crazy father and son, and I don't know what his real motivation for riding with me is, but it comes out in the course of the movie.
Starting point is 00:20:55 But don't trust his ass. I know the dynamic between Chief and Angel in the movie represent, like, the interplay between good and evil, right? Or morality and justice how does that dynamic add to the story well it's that's a real layered one man because um he uh the cat that plays uh angel is named william maypother first of all what i wanted and was important for this was to have really smart actors that I wanted that if you looked at them they weren't just playing a role you you could believe they knew a lot about it
Starting point is 00:21:29 and so this cat that I wanted with Angel he's he doesn't really think of himself as the bad guy he's just he you know he's just grown up feeling like an entitled guy like it's all for him. This country is built for me. Women can't vote. Hispanics can't vote because we have the Mexican-American War. Chinese can't vote. We've got the Chinese Exclusion Act. You know what I mean? They do all this trickology to keep you from voting,
Starting point is 00:21:58 just like they do now, just like they're doing in Georgia and they're going to do in Florida. We've campaigned in Florida. We know what that's about. So it's kind of the French have a saying, la plus la change, la plus la reste même. The more things change, the more they stay the same. And you're going to see some of that in the movie and go,
Starting point is 00:22:13 oh, sweat, that's like what's happening right now. But the character, the bad guy, the antagonist, is the guy that believes America's only for him. And when we rob a bank, and we rob a bank, do some crazy stuff. DC Youngfly gets to rob a bank. I'm going to give away one thing. One thing, man.
Starting point is 00:22:37 Come on. He robs a bank and he's in disguise. I'm not going to tell him what the disguise is. Okay. We've seen the disguise on the trailer. No, you haven't. Okay, alright. I don't think you have. Okay, okay. Maybe you have. tell them what the disguise is. We've seen the disguise on the trailer. No, you haven't. I don't think you have. Maybe you have. That wasn't the minstrel show. Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay. But it goes
Starting point is 00:22:54 further than that. So we ride with it. And then the sheriff is totally befuddled when he comes out. He says, man, black and white in cahoots together, working together. Who could have seen that happening? And so in the course of our movie,
Starting point is 00:23:10 the outlaw's strength is their diversity. Part of America's strength is our diversity. You know, good allies come in all colors, man. Yeah, you can't stereotype people. No, you know. You can't say, oh, the criminals right there. No, no, no, no, no. Good allies come in all colors, man.
Starting point is 00:23:29 And that's the maturity when you go, oh, it's something Malkin came to realize, too. It's not your skin color. It's where your heart is, you know. Kind of touching on what you said. Get to that microphone, son. What you mentioned, though, good and evil, that kind of dynamic at play, I was just thinking about that. It's interesting that evil is represented by the law abiding Angel And then the good
Starting point is 00:23:50 Is the outlaws And that goes to our tagline Which says you know slavery Was legal Not allowing women to vote Was legal Jim Crow Legal
Starting point is 00:24:04 Destroying nature still legal when the laws are unjust the just are outlawed like roe v wade now roe v wade now exactly do you know what i mean so the laws really are is more about who has the power versus what's just and what's correct you know what i mean and so we we come into a place in this movie where we have the choice of just going for the gold or stopping to correct a couple things some injustices on the way I didn't say nothing
Starting point is 00:24:33 you can't help yourself you want to watch the movie with you guys yeah I saw I'll be like the dude in the back at 42nd street hollering at the screen. Hollering at my own screen. Why did you decide a major movie as opposed to a Netflix or
Starting point is 00:24:52 streaming service? Here's the thing. When you watch TV, TV is small and man is big. When you watch a movie, man is small. Movie is big. And I like to sit up there. Plus, when you watch a movie, you paid some money to sit in the movie. You put your devices down.
Starting point is 00:25:08 You put your toys down. You know what I mean? You pick your popcorn up. And if the movie doesn't suck, you stay right in there and you get into it. And you're engaged in it. I love that. It is very hard to watch movies at home. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:25:20 I don't know why we think that's a good thing. It's just too distracting. Well, you know, and plus, I'm the kind of dude, I'll be like, shut up, shut up. I want't know why we think that's a good thing. It's just too distracting. Well, you know, and plus I'm the kind of dude I'd be like, shut up. I want to see it unless it's a comedy. Then I like to go see it right straight in the hood. We live right, right. Good in the hood. So I'll go right down this. OK, I know. I know I'm part of the audience is going to be part of the movie. That's right. There's always that joke at the top. In fact, we we just played the Pan-African. I don't know, Posse. And it was certain lines you couldn't hear because people was talking to the screen.
Starting point is 00:25:47 It was fun. You know, so some of that interactive thing. We watch film kind of like we interact with art. And whereas some cultures have grown up being reverential with art, you know, like a museum or something. You get all in there, touch it, take a photo. It's like walking down the street in New York. It's like white folks recognize me and they're kind they kind of have a picture black folks they're related to you come on y'all shut up you
Starting point is 00:26:10 better take it get a zoom get a you know so there's a different there's a different quality you know they you talk about allyship i wonder how does the allyship of stagecoach mary contribute to the development of of chief and other characters right well see well there was a lot of issues right one was that one of her rules was you're gonna ride on my stage coach you gotta stole your weapon so that was all already dealing with you know western we lost our horse at a certain point we got to get him back and i got to stole my weapon it's like wait but that's some second amendment type stuff it's like well you want to be on my stagecoach mary's stagecoach mary's rules you know and and then she asked me she says do you remember your dad your pop after she talks to him and i said yeah man he they they hung
Starting point is 00:26:57 him for trying to teach me to read and then they told me to call some old white priest father and the slave owner master. And they said, by law, I had to take the master's last name. So I knew with all them bullshit laws, I was going to grow up to be an outlaw for sure. You know what I mean? So there's a lot of knowledge that whoopee drops that sort of prompts you. You think about stuff and you go, wow. The white folks need to hear, too. White folks need to hear, too. Black folks need to hear.
Starting point is 00:27:26 But we go, wow, that makes total sense. You know, when you lay it out like that, it's like, remember the beginning of Posse? In the beginning of Posse, Woody Strode, who was the first brother I saw in a Western that didn't shuffle, Woody Strode says, history's a funny thing. They got us thinking Columbus discovered America. But there was already people here. That's like me putting my flag on your car and saying, get out your car.
Starting point is 00:27:51 I'm going to call you evil red savage. You know what I mean? So when you look, when you break down the whole origin story of this country, you really see it's a really all inclusive story. And it's still a wonderful. Is your country falling apart? Feeling tired, depressed, a little bit revolutionary consider this start your own country i planted the flag i just kind of looked out of
Starting point is 00:28:13 like this is mine i own this it's surprisingly easy there are 55 gallons of water 500 pounds of concrete everybody's doing it i am king ernest emmanuel i am the queen of ladonia i'm jackson the first king of capraburg i am the Supreme Leader of the Grand Republic of Mentonia. Be part of a great colonial tradition. Why can't I trade my own country? My forefathers did that themselves. What could go wrong? No country willingly gives up their territory. I was making a rocket with a black powder, you know, with explosive warhead. Oh, my God. What is that? Bullets. Bullets.
Starting point is 00:28:45 We need help! We need help! We still have the off-road portion to go. Listen to Escape from Zakistan. And we're losing daylight fast. That's Escape from Z-A-Q-istan on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, guys. I'm Kate Max. You might know me from my
Starting point is 00:29:06 popular online series, The Running Interview Show, where I run with celebrities, athletes, entrepreneurs, and more. After those runs, the conversations keep going. That's what my podcast Post Run High is all about. It's a chance to sit down with my guests and dive even deeper into their stories, their journeys, and the thoughts that arise once we've hit the pavement together. You know that rush of endorphins you feel after a great workout? Well, that's when the real magic happens. So if you love hearing real inspiring stories from the people you know, follow, and admire? Join me every week for Post Run High. It's where we take the conversation beyond the run and get into the heart of it all. It's lighthearted, pretty crazy, and very fun.
Starting point is 00:29:56 Listen to Post Run High on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. As a kid, I really do remember having these dreams and visions, but you just don't know what is going to come for you. Alicia Keys opens up about conquering doubt, learning to trust herself and leaning into her dreams. I think a lot of times we are built to doubt the possibilities for ourselves. For self-preservation and protection, it was literally that step by step. And so I discovered that that is how we get where we're going. This increment of small, determined moments. Alicia shares her wisdom on growth, gratitude, and the power of love. I forgive
Starting point is 00:30:46 myself. It's okay. Like grace. Have grace with yourself. You're trying your best and you're going to figure out the rhythm of this thing. Alicia Keys, like you've never heard her before. Listen to On Purpose with Jay Shetty on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On Thanksgiving Day, 1999, a five-year-old boy floated alone in the ocean. He had lost his mother trying to reach Florida from Cuba. He looked like a little angel. I mean, he looked so fresh. And his name, Elian Gonzalez, will make headlines everywhere. Elian Gonzalez.
Starting point is 00:31:23 Elian. Elian Gonzalez. Elian. Elian. Elian Gonzalez. Elian. Elian. Elian. Elian. Elian. Elian Gonzalez. At the heart of the story is a young boy and the question of who he belongs with.
Starting point is 00:31:33 His father in Cuba. Mr. Gonzalez wanted to go home and he wanted to take his son with him. Or his relatives in Miami. Imagine that your mother died trying to get you to freedom. At the heart of it all is still this painful family separation. Something that as a Cuban, I know all too well. Listen to Chess Peace, the Elian Gonzalez story, as part of the My Cultura podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Starting point is 00:32:07 So y'all, this is Questlove, and I'm here to tell you about a new podcast I've been working on with the Story Pirates and John Glickman called Historical Records. It's a family-friendly podcast. Yeah, you heard that right. A podcast for all ages. One you can listen to and enjoy with your kids starting on September 27th. I'm going to toss it over to the host of Historical Records, Nimany, to tell you all about it. Make sure you check it out. Hey y'all, Nimany here. I'm the host of a brand new history podcast for kids and families called Historical Records. Historical Records brings history to life through hip-hop.
Starting point is 00:32:59 Each episode is about a different inspiring figure from history, like this one about Claudette Colvin, a 15-year-old girl in Alabama who refused to give up her seat on the city bus nine whole months before Rosa Parks did the same thing. Check it. And it began with me. Did you know, did you know? I wouldn't give up my seat. Nine months before Rosa, it was called a moment. Get the kids in your life excited about history by tuning in to Historical Records.
Starting point is 00:33:23 Because in order to make history, you have to make some noise. Listen to Historical Records on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Country, we've got all this crazy potential. There's a lot. So, again, the character towards the end says, I'm fighting for the America we can be, not just the America we've been. I love the quote in the film, Angel Says to Willis, that religion is the story we tell ourselves about the future. History is the story we tell about the past and is told by those in power. Right.
Starting point is 00:33:56 Expound on that. Yeah, man. Well, thank you for noticing that. That was something I wrote that line with Melvin in my head. My daddy used to say, history is a book written by the winner. Right. And so once you understand that, you go, oh, so they're telling you a history that sets up how they want you to be. Fana says the the best colonizers always left behind the churches and the schools so that they could socialize the oppressed to the oppressor's point of view right and that one good priest could do the work of a hundred soldiers you know so the thing is you got to read to learn I mean you got
Starting point is 00:34:40 to learn to read but then you got to read to learn and when you really start to read your own books and you read the biography of Malcolm and you read the history of Ethiopia and you understand how they beat back the Italians and were never colonized, we don't learn about that history. You know, the Battle of Adwa. You know what I mean? And you learn about the West and you go, oh, wow, you mean Jack Johnson then went off. You got a white wife and him and his white wife opened up a club called Black and Tan where folks of all colors were welcome. I didn't know that. Do you know what I mean? I didn't know that.
Starting point is 00:35:09 I mean, you just learn so much. And when you learn it, you can't help but go, wow, we were here. We were doing our thing. That's right. So lines like that where you say it's a book written by the winner. We really all can be winners. It doesn't have to be replacement. Like, OK, if if if you you win and then I'm naturally losing. That's not correct. We can actually win together. And actually. Tell the white people that.
Starting point is 00:35:33 Right. And I got white people in my family, for real. I got white, gay. I even got a Trumper in my family. So I got a love with open arms. You know what I mean? So that's why even in New Jack City, man, I mix it up. I paint with all the colors when I make a movie.
Starting point is 00:35:44 I'm not trying to make reactionary film or do unto them like they've done unto us. I want to do unto them as I'd like them to do unto us, but also do unto them in a real way. That quote also shows that basically like the narrative of history can be manipulated or shaped by whoever is in the position of power. Totally. That's what's happening now. Absolutely. I mean, I was just in Cartagena, Colombia. We went to a park called Palenque.
Starting point is 00:36:11 I'd never heard of it before. Brother, everyone looks like us. They just don't sound like us. You know, so you go there, brother comes up to you, hey, what are you saying, brother? And you realize all of us are speaking the colonizers languages. We don't know our own languages. We don't know our name.
Starting point is 00:36:28 But in Palenque, they have this area where all the freed slaves went. And finally, Spain had to cut a deal with them because they were so strong and they couldn't be beaten. They said, we'll let you have your freedom under one condition. You have to keep a white church in the center of your town. And it was like so clear. It was like, if you keep our white deity, we will leave you alone. You know, so when you really look at that, you go, wow, wow. You know what I mean?
Starting point is 00:36:57 The most. Listen, this is one of the last conversations I had with my dad. That was. He said the modern day colonizer doesn't put chains on your body the chains on your mind that's right the first step to freeing your mind is to control your own imagery the image of what you can be the image of what you think you can be if you look at a western go you mean i could be a cowboy i could be in the west i could be this i could be i could do whatever that sets you free your imagination free you know this man grew up Mandela grew up seeing his granddad and his dad as cowboys you know I mean
Starting point is 00:37:33 that's it that's a real dope freedom to have you have to audition for this Mandela for years right he knew what i was gonna say yeah no um i was i was a little bit privy to it as it was still in the writing process so it's something that he knows i have a love for horses and all things nature so i think it was kind of in the back of his mind it was written for you i wouldn't say for me but i would be pretty mad if someone else was playing his son and the thing is this guy can act his ass off he's in that show reginald the vampire he plays a black panther who was turned into a vampire because the the arc of history does bend towards justice but it takes too long so if you're a vampire you're around and he was you were the um what was that mayor of kingston mayor of kingston yeah with jeremyner. Yeah, so he's doing a lot of acting.
Starting point is 00:38:27 So it wasn't just like, I picked him up. Listen, someone's going to be LaToya Jackson. Even if you're Jackson, it doesn't mean you're going to act. You know what I mean? You know, if you're Van Peebles, it doesn't mean you're going to act. And we're kind of like the Jacksons, but we just don't have the talent. Do you feel pressure following in your pops' footsteps? And your grandpa?
Starting point is 00:38:44 It's interesting because that word, I don't feel pressure per se. I feel it's more like a resource I can tap into. More so like even with the self-tapes, the auditioning process, just having him around when I need him is great. Even when I'm out of town or not, um, not around, he can make time to even watch something, just putting eyes on it. And, and I think that's, yeah, not, not so much a pressure, but a resource and kind of like, uh, thank you, man. I was just thinking about, he really, he really helps me out and he wants to see me win. So there is, you know, an external pressure maybe from people looking. I'm happy with myself. I could make it and be happy or I could, you know, have a restaurant and be happy. growing up watching him basically support us and I've got a big family playing make-believe that's a pretty cool job so I've always kind of admired
Starting point is 00:39:50 that and I wouldn't I wouldn't say it's a pressure I would say it's a it's kind of a hope to to live up to that in a certain way Mario for you how important is it to continue to filmmaking lineage within your family by having your son in the film well you know i remember a certain point my dad and i i had i'd done enough new jack city and then i did posse and the movies were doing well and hollywood was sort of saying what do you want to do next when i want to do posse after new jack the critics came after me and they said, oh, he's trying to make Old Jack City. Boys in the saddle. Until
Starting point is 00:40:30 they saw the movie. And then my dad said, what do you want to do next? I said, man, I want to do that because he had written a book on the Black Panthers. I said, I want to turn your book on the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense into a movie. He said, they're not going to let us. Hollywood ain't ready for that. And we went to Hollywood to
Starting point is 00:40:45 do it. And he was right. And we had to get the funding independently. Because what they wanted, this was the craziest, they wanted one of the lead Black Panthers to be white. What? Oh my God. And they said, yeah, man, look, Dances with Wolves is not going to star a Native American.
Starting point is 00:41:02 You know, Rocky is not going to star, you know, a brother. You know, you Rocky is not going to star, you know, a brother. You know, you're just at that point, you know, so I was like, oh, okay, I see what you're doing. The dominant culture has to see itself reflected in film in a dominant way, and you'll be the exotic backdrop. So we didn't do it, and we had to put the funding together a different way.
Starting point is 00:41:18 But when we did that, and I directed it and produced it, and my dad wrote it and produced it and we didn't always agree but you know which fell into his domain I went his way fell into mine we went my way um he turned to me and he said man I love you I like you and I admire that you're courageous because we're doing stuff that we know is going to be controversial because what we showed with Panther was kind of the prequel to New Jack City was that it's not an accident that you can get drugs in almost every minority community in America. And guns. And guns. Guns of that level.
Starting point is 00:41:57 And guns are not made in that community. You know, we don't make Uzis in the hood. We don't grow poppy fields in the hood. So how does it get there on a daily basis? And the minute you follow the money, it leaves black hands, brown hands very quickly. And you realize, wow, they want us to be medicated. And that to a certain degree, that represents a self-cleaning oven. Right. So when we do that kind of film, you're like, whoa. And now Panther is a really hard movie to find. Like you. This is the one movie I made that it's like you can't find that movie. It don't even come up when you Google.
Starting point is 00:42:28 Or maybe I was tripping. I Googled just your films. Yeah. And I was like, I know he did Panther. Yeah. But it don't come up. No, man. It's like there was a right-wing organization that took out ads against it.
Starting point is 00:42:40 It was like they just didn't want us to think. They don't want you to think about that kind of stuff. You just stay in the hood, bopping your head and doing that, and don't think about, why are the drugs here? That's Malcolm's stuff. So what happened was Dad wanted to be a writer. First of all, Melvin wanted to be a tennis player, but he sucked at tennis. He just wasn't good at it.
Starting point is 00:43:03 So he said, I want to be a writer. But then he said he got out of writing to direct film make film i said why daddy he said because folks weren't reading books enough they were watching movies so if in the future they go to some other medium and you want to reach the people you want to reach the folks that are going to get out there and vote and change what tomorrow looks like, then maybe we have to move mediums. So it's not so important what the vehicle is, but what is important is being a griot, telling our stories, right? Telling our stories that set us free, that make us go. And let me just say, you know, we're not really in the business of brain science, brain
Starting point is 00:43:43 surgery, but when apartheid fell, there were two favorite shows they were watching. Miami Vice with a white leading man and a black leading man and the Cosby Show. And I'm not talking about the man. I don't want to litigate that. I'm talking about the phenomenon of the show. Of course. 20 years before there were the Obamas. There were the Cosbys.
Starting point is 00:44:01 There was the Huxtables. Huxtables, yeah. Amen. Now we've got modern family and will and grace whatever it changes how we look at who you love and how you love you feel me so what's that quote I love to mess up
Starting point is 00:44:13 this one by Lincoln he says with public opinion on your side you can do almost anything without public opinion it's very hard to get anything done he who controls public opinion has more power than he or she who makes the laws. We're in the business of culture. I think culture can be healing. If you can make a
Starting point is 00:44:29 Western, say, well, America made more Westerns than any other type of movie. But in most Westerns I saw growing up as a kid, I didn't see us, right? If you looked at a Western, you saw someone black, they were shuffling and not someone you wanted to be. There was a woman, she was pale, frail, and needed rescuing. If there was a Chinese guy, he was hopsing the houseboy.. There was a woman. She was pale, frail, and needed rescuing.
Starting point is 00:44:47 If there was a Chinese guy, he was Hop Sing the house boy. If there was a Mexican dude, he was the oily bandit who didn't need no stinking botches. And if there was a good, only good Indian was a dead Indian. So you were kind of marginalized if you weren't a white guy. But I don't feel the need to diss nobody either, right? So we have some badass white characters in it because that was real. They were there. so i'm just not making reactionary film gotcha outlaw posse is probably more representative of what the west looked like and because of that it feels revolutionary
Starting point is 00:45:13 i like reading reviews you know it's interesting how when you see critics they say the film struggles with effectively managing the shifts between comedy and a more serious tone when i read that i'm like well they don't know what it is to be black man right well here's the other thing life is a dramedy well here's the other thing that's how we survive too someone asked my daddy once my dad all these answers he said he said he said how come you move so fast because he said well they killed all the slow ones daddy why didn't why didn't you get to the top? They didn't let me in at the bottom. But that's real
Starting point is 00:45:49 in that the people that live the longest, centurions, people over 100, have three things in common. The first is sense of humor. We got all these great black comedians. Why? Great Jewish comedians. Why? Because both people went through trauma. You go through trauma you go through
Starting point is 00:46:05 trauma you you either die or you laugh and you and then hopefully you laugh and then you get up and make changes i'm not saying i'm gonna be laughing i'm still gonna get my ass up and make a movie that says something and then you know and that because we believe is you know the three loves what are the three loves son tell your day love what you do yeah so I got closer to the mic there you go yeah love what you do love who you do it with and love what you say with it there you go and I'm good and if those three chakras line up then you're rich no matter what the paycheck I was in I was with dad on 56th Street he had a place on 56 we're walking down the street and his brother came up to us. He had long silver
Starting point is 00:46:46 dreads. And he said, came up behind us. He said, excuse me, Mr. Van Peebles, I have to say I love your work. And we both turned around. We didn't know who he was talking to. And he said, I am talking to both of y'all. I'm a fan, but I'm not a groupie. I have to let you know. Sometimes I go to the movies and I'm entertained.
Starting point is 00:47:02 That's a good thing. Sometimes I go to the movies and I learn something. That's a good thing. Sometimes I go to the movies and I learn something new. And that's a good thing. And every now and then I go to the movies and I come out proud to be a man of color. And that's a great thing. And with your movies, I get all three.
Starting point is 00:47:16 Wow. Wow. How has the loss of your father impacted you personally and professionally? It makes me enjoy doing shit like this. You can. My dad was a clown. I love to love him up.
Starting point is 00:47:40 My dad was like, I'm going to wrestle dad when I leave here. He got me in a little lock the other day I was like I'm not strong in it but I'm smarter so I really just had to trick him he didn't want to go one way that I wanted him to go
Starting point is 00:47:57 so he could open up his neck I pushed him the other way so he was closing then he decided I'll open it up he locked me in he locked me in this guy can roll he could rumble he can roll you got a good ground game um don't hurt you props man right he pretty but he got a good ground game um you know what what i miss is our conversation right i'm i mean the you know because towards the end he had Alzheimer's and he was starting to fade.
Starting point is 00:48:29 I could, we could sing songs together because that goes into a different part of the brain. Right. You know, when you learn music, I could hold his hand. He could see, he could know who I was. But I miss, I miss our conversations. Like conversations like this, for real. Like where you can, that's why I could be here all day talking. You'd be like, you're going to have to get me out of here because you'd be like, this nigga talks too much.
Starting point is 00:48:49 But I miss having those good in-depth conversations. And that's, again, something, to go back to the movie, that I wanted the movie to do was to have conversations with America that America's afraid to have with itself. We're afraid to look at stuff and laugh and go, oh, wow, I never looked at it that way. And do that collectively in a room with people that don't vote like you, think like you, act like you. That's important. If everyone around you looks and thinks like you, life will get boring.
Starting point is 00:49:16 You know what I mean? You've got to challenge yourself. You know what I mean? So I miss that because Melvin, dude, I'm going to tell you one. You got a moment? I'll tell you what I miss. This is you one. You got a moment? Of course. Okay, okay. So I'll tell you what I missed. This is one thing I missed.
Starting point is 00:49:27 So dad had done Sweetback. And we had risked, he risked everything. All of our little family savings. I mean, everything. And then the movie blew up. And he invited me and my sister out to L.A. to go to a party. And I was about 14 and my sister was 13 L.A. to go to a party. And I was about 14, and my sister was 13. We had, like, beautiful afros.
Starting point is 00:49:48 We looked like the Jacksons again. I'll go back to that. And she had red hair. So we go to this party, and it's a bat mitzvah. Now, we didn't know what a bat mitzvah was. And it was my dad's agent had this thing. So we go there, and there were all these kids, mostly Jewish kids, standing around the dance floor
Starting point is 00:50:05 all shy, not wanting to dance, being a little timid. They had a DJ, they had a band, but there wasn't nobody dancing. I mean, my sister's like, this is a party? Oh, they don't know. The floor would light up if you stepped on it. We're like, oh. So we went out there like
Starting point is 00:50:21 we were on Soul Train. We were tearing it up. They all started applauding us and they came around and applaud. And my sister, my sister and I were dancing and my dad watching. And you never know what Melvin Van Peebles is going to think. And he signaled us over. And I said, I don't know what this guy's about to say. And we followed him into their library. This family had a McMansion, big old library.
Starting point is 00:50:45 It looked like something out of Beauty and the Beast. And daddy took his cigar out and he said, you know, I love y'all. Y'all are beautiful. And he did. It's like you're on Soul Train. But I feel sorry for you because you're going to miss out on half of life. What? And he said, yeah, man.
Starting point is 00:51:05 He said, listen, we've got to love two things about people. You've got to love who they are, but you've also got to love who you are when you're with them. Right? And the way you're dancing on that floor, it's not inviting other people to dance with you. In fact, it's intimidating. It almost looks like a challenge.
Starting point is 00:51:23 Like if they don't know the latest steps, don't have the perfect this or that, don't even bother coming out on the dance floor. So you're never going to know what that tall Jewish brother is thinking right there. I mean, he's been to Auschwitz. I said, Auschwitz? He said, exactly. You don't know. You're not going to know what that little Asian girl's thinking. You're not going
Starting point is 00:51:40 to know. You're going to miss out on half of life because you're not bringing out the beauty in others. And then he dropped the mic. And I was like, wow. Me and my sister went back on the dance floor. I got the girl up. She got the old dude up. We got people involved.
Starting point is 00:51:53 By the time we left, we had everyone up dancing, hanging out, having fun. And one of those guys at that party later on wound up funding one of my movies when I became an adult. Wow. And he said good good allies come in all colors you know then the lesson was don't leave love on the table someone may not look like you or vote like you your strength is diversity get out there and listen to what other people are doing and sometimes you may learn something you may go oh you know what let me try that let me try his workout or her workout what's she doing i need you know what? Let me try that. Let me try his workout or her workout. What's she doing? I need to know what they're doing. Wow.
Starting point is 00:52:26 So he was such a curious and he had an intellectual curiosity that I miss. A lot of people were happy if we just watch our own show with our own news facts. And we just want to see stuff that confirms what we already think. Right. But the strength is, did you learn a new word today? Man, I agree so much, man. That's why I was even when I, when I bought up the new Jack city reference on,
Starting point is 00:52:49 on a, with Jonathan Carr. That's what I was in reference to. Cause I was saying how the vice president needs to go mix it up on Fox news. Right. The way Obama used to go sit down with O'Reilly. I want to do that with this one. I was like,
Starting point is 00:53:01 you know, put me on Fox. Let me get them. They see Westerns. That's right. You know? And once you hear it, once you, listen, somebody came up to me from Fox News once. I think it was a right-wing radio station.
Starting point is 00:53:14 It was after 9-11. And I was with my kids. And they were like, what do you think of 9-11? I said, well, listen, first of all, they said, what do black people think of 9-11? I said, dude, I can only answer for me. I don't represent black people. I can only represent my own crazy idea. But let me just say this.
Starting point is 00:53:31 If you have children and my eldest daughter says, I'm going to hit my brother because he hit me. My first question as a thinking father would be, did you do anything that might make your brother want to hit you? Before I condone you're hitting him back. You know what I mean? Before you get into a military stance with your brother, did he did you do anything to him that might provoke him? Why did he hit you? Right. That's the simple that's a Republican or Democrat.
Starting point is 00:53:57 I said we got hit in 9-11. OK. But we framed it as not patriotic to ever ask the question, is there anything being done abroad that might make folks want to hit us? And the minute you look at that, the minute you go, oh, wow, why is this going down over here? Why is that? And you have to look at it. You go, oh, there's usually some some some something to it. It's not just people just hate you randomly. You know, it's like you got to kind of look at what's going on. And when you look around, like that thing I was telling you about Cartagena, where they say, yeah, we'll take you.
Starting point is 00:54:33 You just have to take our Coca-Cola and our gods and our this and our that. And then you can have your freedom. You know what I mean? So I think what I miss is Melvin's intellectual curiosity. And, and that was a lot of that came through travel, seeing how if you travel around people that you will see, Oh wow,
Starting point is 00:54:54 they're doing the same thing we do, or they, they look at it a different way and you learn a lot when you travel. So part of it is like, and this dude is always traveling. He's been there. That's what he was taught. He was teaching in Africa, man. And he was a kid, you know, got bit by a lion. Right. Wow. Yeah. I got I got two more questions about outlaw policy. Was the disconnect between the chief's public and private identity done on like what did you separate the identities his public
Starting point is 00:55:27 how he wasn't public as opposed to personal with his family did you do that to humanize him more i well well he has yes i mean i i don't know if i did it directly to humanize him you know i was thinking about that johnny cash song theamed Sue, where he grows up. Like there's a great quote by Mark Twain, which says, all my life, my father was an idiot. But at 21, he was a genius, meaning that I got old enough to understand what he was doing. So part of what I wanted in the father son dynamic was an evolutionary vibe where you go, oh, now I've spent time with a cat. Now I understand why he did what he did. But you wouldn't understand it younger. You know, man, just like in my life, I didn't always like
Starting point is 00:56:10 Melvin Van Peebles, especially early on. I thought he was a paternal fascist. But later on when I said, man, I want to act and there were no good roles as an actor. These roles are terrible. You know, I'm getting offered thug one, 2, and 3, and it's not working. So I guess I got to write. So who's going to teach me how to write? I went to Melvin Van Peeble. I wrote this first script. It was a great script.
Starting point is 00:56:35 Gave it to my dad. He said, it's a piece of shit. I said, what do you mean? It needs work? He said, nope. You can't polish a turd, son. He was hardcore. I said, OK.
Starting point is 00:56:44 So I got better, better, better. Then I went to get the script done. Couldn't polish a turd son he was hardcore i said okay so i got better better better then i went to get the script done couldn't get a director so i said well i guess i'll learn to direct and each step that i took i had to go back to him and learn more and finally at the end i realized he had equipped me my mom showed me the mountain and he equipped me to learn how to carry climb the mountain wow so yes there were separations in it with chief's you know public and private persona but they're they're connected it's not like he doesn't it's not you know i tried this in life that the mario i am is at least friends with the mario i try to be that then them two jokers are not in separate rooms you know i mean i'm never going
Starting point is 00:57:22 to be as cool as I'd like to be. But they're close. Especially as you get older, you get more like, man, I'm just going to be myself. You know what I mean? You project that strength and authority in public but sometimes you find difficulty with meeting that expectation in your house. Totally.
Starting point is 00:57:41 Here's the thing. The cleaner you get with it, and this is what i mean by that the more that your dreams and aspirations become your words and then your words become your deeds and then your deeds become your actions then the more you affect your reality in immediate way right so thoughts become your words words become your deeds your deeds become your action And the more you affect your reality in an immediate way. Right? So thoughts become your words. Words become your deeds. Your deeds become your action.
Starting point is 00:58:11 And so I find that, and there's always a gap, but I find the more that I go, like even this morning, like this guy, he said, okay, dad, like last night, he'll be like, okay, let's get 100 in. So we do it. We're going to go eat. We're going to go eat. It's late.
Starting point is 00:58:21 We just flew in from LA, but we're going to do 100 pushups before we go. You know what I mean? So we were just like, but I have to go before lazy mario starts to go well you know i really should make a phone call and maybe i didn't stretch enough because that negro will slow me down i have to get up and go quick before his lazy ass gets up so i realize they're different marios and it just depends on which one i want to listen to gotcha you know i got just one you finish your last question shall weola? Yes, sir. Good questions, by the way, man. Thank you, brother.
Starting point is 00:58:49 New Jack City. Yes, sir. You traumatized me for a long time. Why did the light-skinned brother have to get stabbed in the hand? I loved it. This was a question that Will Smith brought up. Why did the light-skinned brother, you traumatized me for a long time.
Starting point is 00:59:03 I never didn't like you anyway. One of the greatest scenes in cinema history you know what you know what it was this i i i wanted to just when i make a film i want to just let it rip and there were scenes with wesley for real wesley and alan payne and alan payne's in outlaw posse and there were scenes because we laughed and talked about it where they just did their thing and I had the good sense as a director to get the hell out the way no ego
Starting point is 00:59:31 and go man they got magic let me just film the magic you know what I mean and there was just moments that Wesley would do stuff and we like oh that just works it'd be killing it you know I still look back at when I watch that movie and think, man, that's one of his baddest roles. He tore it up.
Starting point is 00:59:48 He really inhabited the role. But I hear what you're saying. Traumatized. I'm not going to say nothing, but you'll see some reference to that. I know you will. I always thought you and Alan was related. Right? I don't even look at him as light-skinned,
Starting point is 01:00:04 but I always thought y'all was related yeah yeah yeah well that's interesting because there's a reason for that too without law policy all roads lead back to it okay so so yeah and alan has a great vibe like we we hang now during you know it's like you the good thing is like the guy that's the same at 20 as he is is 40 didn't grow much you know i mean you got and so the more we grow as man the more we've gotten closer and go man they you saw this and i and i can see that and alan's so smart and thoughtful and he's good in this movie man he did some stuff in this movie that's wow um so i'd be proud to be I'm his cinematic brother absolutely we appreciate you brothers for joining us
Starting point is 01:00:48 our posse is out March 1st Mario Mandela Van Peebles what were you going to say? I was just going to say that again because we're an independent film you're not going to see huge billboards everywhere it's word of mouth so people can go on my Instagram Mario Van Peebles
Starting point is 01:01:02 I'm easy to find but it's going to be March 1st. But it won't be at every theater, so you've got to go out and make it happen. Alright. You know what I mean? Check your local listings. That's right. It's The Breakfast Club. Good morning. Wake that ass up. In the flag. This is mine.
Starting point is 01:01:26 I own this. It's surprisingly easy. 55 gallons of water, 500 pounds of concrete. Or maybe not. No country willingly gives up their territory. Oh my God. What is that? Bullets.
Starting point is 01:01:38 Listen to Escape from Zakistan. We need help! That's Escape from Z-A-Q-istan. On the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey guys, I'm Kate Max. You might know me from my popular online series, The Running Interview Show, where I run with celebrities, athletes, entrepreneurs, and more. After those runs, the conversations keep going. That's what my podcast, Post Run High, is all about. It's a chance to sit down with my guests
Starting point is 01:02:11 and dive even deeper into their stories, their journeys, and the thoughts that arise once we've hit the pavement together. Listen to Post Run High on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I forgive myself. It's okay. Have grace with yourself. You're trying your best and you're going to figure out the rhythm of this thing. Alicia Keys, like you've never heard her before. Listen to On Purpose with Jay Shetty on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Jacqueline Thomas, the host of a brand new Black Effect original series, Black Lit, the podcast for diving deep into the rich world of Black literature.
Starting point is 01:03:07 Black Lit is for the page turners, for those who listen to audiobooks while running errands or at the end of a busy day. From thought-provoking novels to powerful poetry, we'll explore the stories that shape our culture. Listen to Black Lit on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. as Melrose Place was introduced to the world. We are going to be reliving every hookup, every scandal, and every single wig removal together.
Starting point is 01:03:50 So listen to Still the Place on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

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