Club Shay Shay - Mike Epps Part 2

Summary

Club Shay Shay – Mike Epps Part 2

Date: January 7, 2026
Host: Shannon Sharpe
Guest: Mike Epps (Comedian, Actor)

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Episode Overview

In this follow-up conversation, NFL legend Shannon Sharpe sits down with comedian and actor Mike Epps, exploring Epps’ long climb to success, the realities of Hollywood and stand-up comedy, and deeply personal topics—from childhood challenges and family history to sobriety, marriage, and legacy. The episode is both hilarious and candid, as the two share raw stories about failure, perseverance, the entertainment industry, and finding purpose.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Turning Down Movie Roles & Early Career Mistakes

• Missed Opportunities: Mike reflects on passing on roles in "Fool's Gold" (which eventually went to Kevin Hart) and "Double Take" with Eddie Griffin and Chris Kattan.
  • “I shouldn't have never turned down none. I wasn't in a position to turn down no roles. Cause I was just starting, right?” — Mike Epps [01:56]
• Self-Sabotage and Success: Acknowledges how early success can cloud judgment about what opportunities to take.

Notions of Selling Out, Gatekeeping & Race

• Selling Out: The conversation turns to notions of “selling out” and who gets labeled that way.
  • “Quincy Jones said something important. He said you gotta have something to sell... You can't sell out if you ain't got nothing to sell.” — Mike Epps [03:39]
• Working with White People: Mike discusses the stigma around collaborating outside your community and touches on peer pressure and code-switching.
  • “I used to have peer pressure around my own people about being racist... I'm only racist around black people.” — Mike Epps [04:43]
• Gatekeepers in Hollywood: Mike describes “gatekeeping” as people in power—often from within one’s own community—preventing others from getting opportunities.
  • “A gatekeeper is a n*** at the gate that know if you get in there you might take his job.”* — Mike Epps [05:39]

Conspiracies, Fame & Human Nature

• Conspiracy Theories: Mike affirms his belief in conspiracies, referencing real-life experiences.
  • “I done seen shit formulate. That's why I'm a conspiracy theorist.” — Mike Epps [07:46]
• Dealing with Fame: Both men discuss how coming from poverty changes your perspective on success and how fame exposes you to “fake and messy people.”
  • “I've been broke before. And I have been nobody before. And I know how I felt then and how people reacted to it. Right. So can't nobody pull the wool over my head.” — Mike Epps [09:30]

School Life & Early Comedy Roots

• Class Clown Origins: Mike shares stories of being disruptive in class, which foreshadowed his comedic talent.
  • “They used to call it being disruptive. But it turned into being a comedian for me. So my disruption turned into fame.” — Mike Epps [10:43]
• Struggling with Schooling: Openly discusses being placed on Ritalin, being in special education classes, repeated grades, then dropping out.
  • “I stopped going to school. Like, literally. Literally fifth grade.” — Mike Epps [23:10]
• Different Learning Styles: Emphasizes being “unorthodox” and learning differently than others.

Difficult Childhood & Family Circumstances

• Poverty and Family:
  • Grew up on welfare, in a single-mother household of seven brothers.
  • “If you ain't never felt a missed meal cramp, you don't know what hungry is... that's cause you was hungry.” — Mike Epps [39:38]
• First Purchase with Money: Bought his mother a washer and dryer when he found success.
• Buying Back the Block: Eventually bought every house his family was ever evicted from and revitalized his neighborhood.
  • “I made an address list... and I went and bought every last one of them.” — Mike Epps [44:24]

Drug Use, Recovery & Personal Growth

• Time in Jail: Shares stories about dealing drugs, spending two years in jail, and how that shaped his transformation.
  • “I did two years in the county jail. And if you Google Mike Epps mugshots, you'll see it.” — Mike Epps [76:02]
• Addiction Struggles: Open about his battles with substance abuse and daily effort to overcome personal demons.
  • “You have to fight them every day for the rest of your life.” — Mike Epps [79:20]

Comedy, Creativity & Career

• Def Comedy Jam’s Impact: The platform jump-started careers for many urban comedians.
  • “Def Comedy Jam was a platform for young urban comics to do seven minutes and get they shit off and shocked the world...” — Mike Epps [84:19]
• Influence of Legends: Reflects on the impact of Eddie Murphy, Richard Pryor, Martin Lawrence, Robin Harris, Bernie Mac, etc.
  • “That’s my Rushmore: Martin Lawrence, Robin Harris, Eddie Murphy, Richard Pryor, Bernie Mac.” — Mike Epps [21:37]
• Mentorship: Now takes pride in bringing younger comics on tour and helping them get exposure.

Comedy Today vs. Yesterday

• Social Media & Changing Landscape: Notes how internet skits have changed what it means to become a comedian.
  • “To become a real comic takes about 10 years.” — Mike Epps [32:34]
  • “Even if I wanted to do that shit right now, it ain't enough rooms. Comedy clubs would just scare us now like that.” — Mike Epps [34:19]
• Cancel Culture: Believes that authentic connection with an audience provides immunity from being “canceled.”
  • “If you have an audience, you can’t cancel me.” — Mike Epps [34:45]

Personal Life: Marriage, Fatherhood & Regrets

• Evolution in Marriage: Explains how his second wife changed his life, helped him overcome addictions, and provided a sense of calm.
  • “The first time I met my wife. I came in the house high, and she said, if you ever do that again, we'll never be together. And I never did it again.” — Mike Epps [89:49]
  • “Most of us get married, so we don't screw everybody. Let's be honest.” — Mike Epps [48:45]
• Fatherhood: Candid about not always being a great father, especially for his eldest daughter, but striving to do better with his younger children.
  • “Unfortunately, my oldest daughter didn't get the best of me because I was too young and I didn't know what I knew. And I feel so bad about that.” — Mike Epps [55:53]
• Legacy: Hopes to be remembered positively, leaving a legacy for his children.

Navigating the Business

• Entertainment Industry Realism: Urges not to take the business personally, citing advice from Queen Latifah’s manager: “it ain't that serious.”
  • “Get as much as you can get out of it and keep going.” — Mike Epps [39:32]
• Goat Comedians: Mike’s Mount Rushmore includes Martin Lawrence, Robin Harris, Eddie Murphy, Richard Pryor, Bernie Mac.
• On Joke Writing & Stealing: Believes no one can truly write his jokes—he’ll take a premise, but needs to finish it himself.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Selling Out:
  • “You can't sell out if you ain't got nothing to sell.” — Mike Epps [04:03]
• On Cancel Culture:
  • “If you got an audience, you can't be canceled.” — Mike Epps [34:45]
• On Gatekeepers:
  • “A gatekeeper is... at the gate that knows if you get in there, you might take his job.” — Mike Epps [05:39]
• On Making a New Life:
  • “I’m so successful off of nothing. No money, no education, no nothing. That's how I know when God creates something, he don't make no mistakes.” — Mike Epps [26:20]
• On Demons:
  • “You have to fight them every day for the rest of your life.” — Mike Epps [79:20]
• On His Legacy:
  • “I just want to make sure I leave a great name for myself in this business so that my children can hear and live off of my legacy.” — Mike Epps [98:59]

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Segment Timestamps

• Turning Down Early Roles: [01:56]
• Selling Out / Gatekeepers: [03:30]
• Fame, Human Nature, Class Clown Stories: [08:41], [10:40]
• Struggles in School/Childhood: [11:07], [23:10], [65:46]
• Buying Back the Block: [44:00]
• Fatherhood, Regrets, Co-Parenting: [55:51], [56:45]
• Drugs, Recovery, Personal Demons: [76:02], [79:18]
• Def Comedy Jam & Stand-up Industry: [84:19], [32:34]
• Mount Rushmore of Comedy: [21:37]
• Raising Kids & Legacy: [98:59]
• Tour Info (“We The Ones”): [33:00], [94:07]

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Humor, Vulnerability & Candid Moments

• Mike’s stories about getting held back in school for being disruptive, failing military entrance exams, and misadventures trying to “pimp” showcase humility and humor.
• Honest discussion of addiction, failed first marriage, and efforts to improve as a father and husband show growth and vulnerability.

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Final Remarks

This episode is a masterclass in honesty, perseverance, and comedy survival. Mike Epps’ journey—painful, funny, and insightful—offers listeners both laughter and life lessons on humility, not letting mistakes define you, and how to both give back and stay relevant.

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For full tour info: BMNShows.com
**Watch for The Upshaws (Netflix, January 8)]
Key Quote:
“All my life I’ve been grinding...” — Mike Epps [101:17]

Transcript

[Shannon Sharpe]

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[Mike Epps]

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[Shannon Sharpe]

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[Mike Epps]

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[Shannon Sharpe]

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[Shannon Sharpe]

In innovation 11 consecutive years, Arizona State.

[Mike Epps]

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[Shannon Sharpe]

Asu Edu. Thank you for coming back. Part two is underway. Is there a role you auditioned for that you didn't get? Or a role you turned down you wish you hadn't?

[Mike Epps]

Yeah, I turned down a movie called Fool's Gold. It had Matthew McConaughey in it. Kevin Hart did it. Yeah. Damn, I should have did it. I don't know if that would have made a difference. But it was roles like that, There's all kind of roles. I should. I shouldn't have never turned down none. I wasn't in a position to turn down no roles. Cause I was just starting, right? There was another movie with Eddie Griffin and this other guy. Damn, I forget the name. What was the name of that movie? Tz, Eddie Griffin and the guy with the big eyes, Chris Katton. And they had a dog. They was running around the city. That was my role, man. And. Huh. Double take. And I turned the roll down. I turned the roll down.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Why you do that?

[Mike Epps]

I was tripping. I was in my mind. I thought I was. I needed. I deserved something better. You know, sometimes you can get tricked off of success. Like if you get successful, you trick.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yourself or you allow other people to trick you.

[Mike Epps]

I trick myself. I trick my. Sometimes you can get a little too fancy in your head about your success and start demanding more than what you're supposed to get.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Damn.

[Mike Epps]

And end up what you had in front of you. Shit.

[Shannon Sharpe]

What is selling out? We hear that a lot. He sold out. Yeah, I got the Cat interview. I sold out.

[Mike Epps]

Yeah, you.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Hey, you probably heard that you sold.

[Mike Epps]

Out because you and Cat sold out on that. You niggas sold out arenas and sold out shows that n sold out. You sold. Sold out. No, you know what, though? Quincy Jones said something important. He said you gotta have something to sell.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Damn. Ain't that the truth?

[Mike Epps]

You can't sell out if you ain't got nothing to sell. You know what I mean?

[Shannon Sharpe]

I like that.

[Mike Epps]

It's the real talk. Because at the end of the day, you know, who's gonna turn down opportunity to make money to send their kids to college and have a good life?

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yes.

[Mike Epps]

You know, and I think there's levels of compromising that you have to value, you know, I don't think one should compromise themselves with something that makes them uncomfortable for money.

[Shannon Sharpe]

I agree.

[Mike Epps]

But hey, who's gonna turn down opportunities to work with white people in order to send their kids to college and have a good life? I'm not.

[Shannon Sharpe]

No.

[Mike Epps]

You know, nor should you. Yeah. I used to have peer pressure around my own people about being racist. I used to be racist about white people and didn't notice it until I was around. I'm like, damn, I'm only racist around black people.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Right.

[Mike Epps]

And when black people ain't around, I'm white. I act white with my white friends.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah.

[Mike Epps]

So how unfair is that? Like, if black people were sitting in the trees, see me reacting with my neighbor, they'll be like, that, the sellout. Yeah, but you only seen it cause you was in my tree. Stay your ass out my tree. And you won't see me being nice to white people.

[Shannon Sharpe]

I need you to tell. I need. Because you've been, you know, you've been a comedian for 30 years. You've been in Hollywood for damn near as long.

[Mike Epps]

Yeah.

[Shannon Sharpe]

What's a gatekeeper?

[Mike Epps]

A gatekeeper is.

[Shannon Sharpe]

And are there such a thing?

[Mike Epps]

Yeah. A gatekeeper is a nigger at the.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Gate.

[Mike Epps]

That know if you get in there, you might take his job. We talked about this earlier. You might take his job. The people who are the people that are to be might see you and give you better opportunities than the next one.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Right.

[Mike Epps]

And if I'm a. If I'm a guy, black guy, making money for a company who's dishing out a lot of money, and you bring my name up in an office in a room and I say, eh, you won't be making money. It's just that simple.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You believe they out there?

[Mike Epps]

What? Hell yeah. I'm the guy. I make money. I make money for your company. And you another black guy, and they bring your name up and they say, what about Shannon Sharpen? You sure you want to deal with it? You're not making no money, Shannon. Until they catch this nigga doing something, he ain't got nothing to be doing.

[Shannon Sharpe]

And then they go come back.

[Mike Epps]

Yeah, they come back.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah. People really do that?

[Mike Epps]

Hell yeah. In every aspect. Not only in the black community. I'm pretty sure they do it in the white community too. You know, that's just. That's what a gatekeeper is. Damn. Somebody that can keep the gate and make sure.

[Shannon Sharpe]

He'S okay, but I don't know if he'll be okay for this role.

[Mike Epps]

That's right. Or you gotta be careful with him. Well, let them decide if they should be careful.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't you help.

[Mike Epps]

Don't you tell the motherfucker. That's why people will say, God, you're so nice. I'm like, what, did you hear something different?

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah, damn.

[Mike Epps]

You know what I mean?

[Shannon Sharpe]

Are you a conspiracy theorist?

[Mike Epps]

Hell yeah.

[Shannon Sharpe]

God damn, Mike. Come on, Mike.

[Mike Epps]

Hell yeah. Cause I done seen shit formulate. That's why I'm a conspiracy theorist. I seen shit. I seen conspiracies come true. So I do believe it too.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You manifested it.

[Mike Epps]

I manifested it.

[Shannon Sharpe]

It's like the roots, you know that people say, oh, they can put root on you.

[Mike Epps]

Yeah, yeah.

[Shannon Sharpe]

If you start to believe in it.

[Mike Epps]

You got a root on you. Yeah, yeah, but you right, that's how the mind, whatever the mind, can conceive. If your mind is strong enough to conceive it, it'll come true.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Cause like, dead man, dead people can't hurt you. No, but they can make you hurt yourself.

[Mike Epps]

That's right. That's right. You're bad pain. And the pain itself.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah.

[Mike Epps]

Sitting there crying over somebody that just don't even know you, crying.

[Shannon Sharpe]

I can't believe you believe in it. Let me ask you. I always want to ask. I like to ask people that came from a very similar background. Came from nothing.

[Mike Epps]

Yeah.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Dealing with fame. What have you learned about fame?

[Mike Epps]

I take it face value. I take it with a grain of salt. I don't. I'm never surprised. I'm never shocked. And I'm very rarely mad about any outcome that happens in that business, you know? I'm not shocked no more that there's ass kissers. I'm not shocked that people act like they know you and don't know you tomorrow. Not shocked that happened to you, Mike. Hell, yeah. I mean, you know, it happens in choke. It happens with success. You know, I got friends and family members and shit that. Hey, you know, one good thing about me, I ain't always been famous and rich.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Right.

[Mike Epps]

I've been broke before.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah.

[Mike Epps]

And I have been nobody before. And I know how I felt then and how people reacted to it. Right. So can't nobody pull the wool over my head.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah. I'm half and half now. I've been poor. I've been well off about as long as I've been poor. So it's about 50, 50 now.

[Mike Epps]

Yeah. You know.

[Shannon Sharpe]

So you. Yeah, you absolutely know.

[Mike Epps]

You fucking.

[Shannon Sharpe]

But I hate that. You know what I hate?

[Mike Epps]

Human.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Hey, man.

[Mike Epps]

Hey.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Hey, man, take my number. Give me a call.

[Mike Epps]

Yeah. What I'm gonna call you about?

[Shannon Sharpe]

And then they change the number. Bro. You.

[Mike Epps]

Oh, yeah, bro.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Why you say. Why you say cop?

[Mike Epps]

Y' all done had that. I done had that done before, but I like, again, Shannon, to keep my stress levels down and to understand. I understand. That's what it is. It's like. It's like trying to change a tiger. Stripes. This business has stripes on it. It's a tiger. You're not changing it. You're not gonna change how people are. That's how people are. People are fake, people are messy, people up. People. That's what it is. Go home, go to bed and understand. That's what it is.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You know, I wanna ask you. When you was growing, were you always funny? Were you always. Were you funny as a kid?

[Mike Epps]

Whole life, any situation.

[Shannon Sharpe]

So you a class clown, huh?

[Mike Epps]

Class clown. Like a. They used to call it being disruptive. Yes. But it turned into being a comedian for me. So my disruption turned into fame.

[Shannon Sharpe]

So when the teacher would call and say, Mr. Epps, it's just Hard to get him to focus. Yeah, I mean, he's just disruptive in class. I mean, he's everybody's friends. He's making jokes. He's constantly. He's. I just. I don't really know what to do with him anymore.

[Mike Epps]

Yeah, well, see, they tried to put me on Ritalin when I was a kid. They tried to put me on a pill.

[Shannon Sharpe]

They had pills back then.

[Mike Epps]

It's called Ritalin.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Nah, they just had ass whipping.

[Mike Epps]

Nah, back then they had.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Mike, you talk about back then. You two years younger than me. You make it seem like you 20 years younger than me.

[Mike Epps]

I am.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Nigga, your mom didn't tear your ass up?

[Mike Epps]

I didn't get whoopings like that. Yes, that's why I didn't get whooping. I have gotten some whoopings, but I didn't get ass whoopings like that. And yeah, I used to take a Ritalin pill and I stopped taking that. Why? Cause I would act like I took it and spit it out. And they told my mother, we need to go up on the volume. It ain't working.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Damn.

[Mike Epps]

And she said, no, he ain't taking shit.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Did you notice a. When you took it, did you notice a change in you?

[Mike Epps]

Yeah, made me tired and made me eat. That's why them kids that's on, that shit will make them fat. And you know that's the government shit. Yeah, man, you know what I needed to do. And I tell people with their kids all the time, let them grow, man. You don't know what they gonna grow into be. You can't really judge a kid when they're young. You think you can. Cause a lot of people thought I was gonna be something else that I'm not. I end up being successful. I got people looking at me so shocked. It's people that look at me like, damn, you are really a different. I never thought you would grow up to be who you are. I thought you would be ignorant and slow and dumb. I've always been smart, but I was very unorthodox. I learned different from everybody. Never learned the same way. Nobody learned. So I picked up a brick way different than you pick a brick up.

[Shannon Sharpe]

So what kind of brick we talking?

[Mike Epps]

One of them red ones.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Oh, okay.

[Mike Epps]

They gonna look me good.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Are you curious? I mean, you know what I'm saying?

[Mike Epps]

You on today, ain't you? Man, that nigga's on. That nigga's on Today.

[Shannon Sharpe]

But you've had some criticisms of comedians publicly. Chris Rock used to say, like, you think he ended Chucky Ducky. I like Chucky Ducky. Quite quack he did.

[Mike Epps]

He Chucky Ducky's career up.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Chucky Ducky.

[Mike Epps]

What little career that it was there. Yeah.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Come on, man. Don't do Chucky Ducky like that, nigga.

[Mike Epps]

Fuck Chucky Ducky.

[Shannon Sharpe]

But I like Chucky Ducky.

[Mike Epps]

A nigga went on one of them shows and said, chucky Ducky needs some jokey wokies. See, that's why Will Smith popped that nigga upside. Come.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Come on, man. Are you condoning that behavior?

[Mike Epps]

I ain't condoning it, but I can pop him upside his head.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Cause he, Chris Rock weigh 132 pounds.

[Mike Epps]

Them be the motherfuckers that know how to get ahold of you. That nigga, that Chris Rock, he know how to say. He said some shit to me one time.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Huh?

[Mike Epps]

Yeah. That motherfucker walked up to me and said, you can't act rich if you ain't rich. I said, huh? What the hell? At the time, I wasn't rich. I understood what he said, but I'm.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Like, but you just upset that he said that.

[Mike Epps]

Yeah. Cause what he didn't understand is I came from a drug dealer world. I always like little.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah, you had little. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You sparkle.

[Mike Epps]

He thinking I'm up here trying to make the people think I got show business money.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah.

[Mike Epps]

And said that shit to me. I said, man, I'm rich in a whole lot of ways. Damn ferret looking ass. I know. I know how I feel about being rich, man.

[Shannon Sharpe]

I'mma try. I'm trying to get Chris Rock on the show. You go, I can't get him that.

[Mike Epps]

Scared that somebody going to pop him. Yo, he's scared you going to reach over here and pop him.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Now that we on Chris Rock, when you saw that.

[Mike Epps]

Yeah.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Did you think it was real?

[Mike Epps]

No, I didn't either. I'm like, damn. That was. I was like.

[Shannon Sharpe]

I was like, that's a skit. I thought it was a skit.

[Mike Epps]

I knew it was real. When I seen Will Smith's face when he sat down, when he said, keep my name, I was like, oh, he was.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Keep my wife's name out you.

[Mike Epps]

He could have got away with that. I would have just caught him in the back somewhere and pow. Nobody would have seen it. He put on stage saying, chris Rock hit me in the. I mean, I would have said, I ain't hit him.

[Shannon Sharpe]

But I don't know a whole lot of comedians that would have let that go. You up there, you ain't letting that go?

[Mike Epps]

Nah. No, but Chris.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Chris, hey, Chris took it. He made a joke out of it.

[Mike Epps]

He was fighting right there. We done tore that whole little area. Yeah, yeah, but see, I wouldn't have said nothing about his wife either. Right.

[Shannon Sharpe]

So you felt that was off limits?

[Mike Epps]

I mean, you know, with all them white people in there, it gets a little rough.

[Shannon Sharpe]

All he said was GI Jane. But I think. But I think it was a culmination. Because remember years before that, Jada say she wasn't coming.

[Mike Epps]

I would have popped that upside his head, too.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Come on, man. Come on.

[Mike Epps]

But I wouldn't have did it in front of everybody. I would have said, hey, man, Chris, don't do that again. Yeah, and in the back, nobody would have seen you.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Don't do that in front of company.

[Mike Epps]

Nah, not in front of the white people.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah.

[Mike Epps]

You know what I'm saying? That's one thing black people. We can't do certain shit in front of the white people. Yeah, we have to look at each other. Nigga, I catch you behind the liquor store, chick fil a or something. But we ain't doing this in front of the white people. Cause it's gonna your money up and my money up.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah.

[Mike Epps]

As soon as the white people see you violent, they done.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah.

[Mike Epps]

They don't like violence unless it's a war. A war.

[Shannon Sharpe]

I'm like, damn. I was shocked. But I thought Chris handled it really, really well. He might have been the only black man that could have handled it like that.

[Mike Epps]

Yeah, I mean, you know, but I'm.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Not so sure Will would have did that to somebody else. But like you said, that's that man's wife. No matter what you. No matter what somebody else might think of her, that's that man's wife. And he loved him.

[Mike Epps]

The thing that coochie will do, make you act a fool. Yeah, yeah. My wife, anybody. That's one thing that'll get me too. And they call it. Can I curse on here? Yeah, they call it a tender dick. Lord help me when you tender dick. You'll kill somebody over a woman. Chris Rock was tender dicked. I mean, Will Smith, yeah, he had tender. He was tender. But I am too. Mother better not say nothing about my wife. You can do anything in the world, nigga. Don't say nothing about the cuz. You got to go home to these women. And if you don't stand up in front of a woman, they going to say that.

[Shannon Sharpe]

What they going to say?

[Mike Epps]

You ain't say nothing to them. One said, see, now you now they looking at you half cop. He.

[Shannon Sharpe]

He bigger than me, though, baby. I don't want to mess up our money. Don't you like living here?

[Mike Epps]

I mean, in the thrust of it, Some pops.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Let me ask you this. Have you talked to Chris Rock? Have y'? All? Y', all? Y', all? Y'. All.

[Mike Epps]

I never really had a relationship with him.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Like, really?

[Mike Epps]

No.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Have you tried?

[Mike Epps]

I don't. I'm telling you when I tell you. Me and him ain't never, ever ain't.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Y' all ain't never been cool like that, huh?

[Mike Epps]

No. I don't think he gets me and I don't get him, and it's cool.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah.

[Mike Epps]

You know what I mean?

[Shannon Sharpe]

Damn, I hate that.

[Mike Epps]

That's how it is. I mean, you know, some people I get some people get me. Some people I don't do. I think he's funny. Yeah.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah. I do, too.

[Mike Epps]

I think he's funny as hell.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah.

[Mike Epps]

But personality wise, I've never met him enough to know how cool he. I really don't know him. And he don't know me like that.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Okay.

[Mike Epps]

Which is cool.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Eddie, you were the Eddie Murphy with Dr. Doolittle. Too Dolemite. You people. What's it like working with Eddie? Because I grew up on. See, I grew up on Eddie. I was in the early 80s when Eddie was at. When Eddie was funny.

[Mike Epps]

Funny. Funny all day. I mean, that's why I was just telling somebody. I've been trying to get Eddie Murphy to go do stand. Every time I work with him in a movie, I'm like, man, go do stand up. Cause he's sitting there telling you jokes while he's standing with you. That motherfucker just sitting there funny. Just in his regular life, he done, man, some of the stories he told me, boy, I was on the floor laughing. I mean, had me. He told me one time, John Amos was at a party. Remember from Good Times?

[Shannon Sharpe]

Good Times, Dad.

[Mike Epps]

Yeah. Said he had a whole suit on with a drink, and it was so many girls in there. They said he stepped right off in the water with the whole suit. They said he kept the drink up.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Like, and got out of the water.

[Mike Epps]

And just kept drinking like nothing happened. Drench soaking wet.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You think Eddie ever do a stand up again?

[Mike Epps]

He should. He's the king of that shit, man. That's one thing about Eddie Murphy, man, his timing and the shit that he. You know, I seen him and Kevin Hart have some words. I don't know how real that is, but I seen them have some words and I'm like, kevin, you can forget it. This dude is the. Eddie Murphy's the king of. He's king of standards.

[Shannon Sharpe]

But he hadn't done it in so long. It's like a surgeon. You don't stop. Like, surgeon, like. Think you can play football? No, not with two artificial hips. I got.

[Mike Epps]

Oh, I forgot about that. Yeah. If I'd have known that when we got into it, nigga, I would have hurry up and found y'. All. Shannon, what the. Had you on that hip. Bam.

[Shannon Sharpe]

No, no, no, they good now. They good. I just can't. I can't. You know, I can't. You know. Can't go below 90 degrees or something like that. But my hips are fine.

[Mike Epps]

I don't.

[Shannon Sharpe]

I'm not in pain anymore. Now. You should have caught me about four, five years ago when I was in pain. You could have got me there, Mike.

[Mike Epps]

I can get you now.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Not. Not a chance.

[Mike Epps]

I seen you up there playing with Crawford. Yeah, in the box.

[Shannon Sharpe]

I ain't want to mess his money up. Hey, I wanted to be whooped.

[Mike Epps]

You could have whooped him.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Oh, I'd have tossed him.

[Mike Epps]

Yeah, I coulda see you talking about grabbing a motherfucker.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah, that's why I already.

[Mike Epps]

I had him.

[Shannon Sharpe]

What you done?

[Mike Epps]

That's why I said I was getting a pistol. Cause that ain't fair.

[Shannon Sharpe]

We supposed to be like this.

[Mike Epps]

But grab the man.

[Shannon Sharpe]

What I'm gonna do that for? It's gotta be quick. I got too much muscle. It's gonna fatigue.

[Mike Epps]

You gotta get rid of it.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. Give me your goat. Comedians. Because you go back a ways. I mean, you get Eddie and then Carlin and all these guys coming forward. So you have a. You know a guy that's 30 years old, he might, like, take this guy because that's all he know. But you get to go back a ways, Mike. So give me your goat, comedian. Give me Mount Rushmore.

[Mike Epps]

Sucky ducky.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Oh, Lord.

[Mike Epps]

Lunel. No. Of course. You know what? I hate saying this shit because everybody say the same guys all the time, but Martin Lawrence, Robin Harris, Eddie Murphy, Richard Pryor, Bernie Mac. That's my Rushmore.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You do most more' cause I only got four heads.

[Mike Epps]

No, that's five. Oh, they only four?

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah.

[Mike Epps]

Damn.

[Shannon Sharpe]

I said you didn't do good in school.

[Mike Epps]

Huh? I did not.

[Josh Whand]

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[Shannon Sharpe]

How many recesses y' all had?

[Mike Epps]

Nigga, I don't remember. I didn't even. I'm telling you, Shannon, I got. This is the honest of God's truth, brother. I stopped going to school. Like, literally. Literally fifth grade.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You just stopped going.

[Mike Epps]

I got held back twice.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Oh, my goodness. How you get held back in that at that age, you ain't doing. I mean, you getting stars for grades.

[Mike Epps]

Doing no work, coming in the room.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Would you go to sleep?

[Mike Epps]

No joke. Spitballs beating on the table.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Oh, my God. I see why they put you on the teacher.

[Mike Epps]

Turn the back. When a teacher turned the back, I say, shut up. I was that dude right there. Always in the hallway. Never had.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah, you're desperately in the hallway. I can tell you.

[Mike Epps]

I stop at your classroom, get Shannon right there. Shannon, what's happening? And the teacher said, keep walking. And I say, shut up. Now I'm in the principal's office. I mean, literally. School was a playground for me, but I was working on being a comedian.

[Shannon Sharpe]

So let me ask you a question.

[Mike Epps]

Yeah.

[Shannon Sharpe]

When you go, you in the principal's office, at some point in time, they had to call your mom or your dad.

[Mike Epps]

Yeah.

[Shannon Sharpe]

So when your parents come to school and they said, mike is being disruptive and he's.

[Mike Epps]

My parents couldn't handle me, Shannon. No, my parents couldn't handle me, my mom or my dad. I was off the hook. I was off the hook. Literally. I got suspended all the time.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Hold up, how you get suspended before the fifth grade?

[Mike Epps]

I made it to the ninth. You know how I Made it to high school. How? They just kicked me out of junior high.

[Shannon Sharpe]

So they just kept. Cause they just keep promoting you. Cause they ain't want to deal with you no more.

[Mike Epps]

I went to junior high. Soon as I got to freshman in high school. I got kicked out of high school.

[Shannon Sharpe]

For what?

[Mike Epps]

Fighting. Crazy shit. Showing up late. Not going to school in high school. I just didn't go to school. I was like, I'm just hung in the cafeteria. And they had a little court where the kids was. Man, I was wild, man. But I was really a comedian. I had people on the floor. I would mimic all the teachers. If it was a cute girl, it was my job to make her feel not cute. That's how I would get her to like me. I'd talk about her toes, her hair. And they come back to me, why did you say that to me? I said, no, I'm just kidding. And then they be my friend. They know if I came around, I was finna talk about they ass.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Did y' all have talent shows?

[Mike Epps]

Yes.

[Shannon Sharpe]

So you would have you as a comedian, you win.

[Mike Epps]

No, we didn't have them talents. The only talent show we had was. I tried to get in a spelling bee one time and got. I think I got to the second stage of that motherfucker. And I think the word was. It really wasn't a big word. But all I remember is I stormed out of that. I was so mad. Cause my mom and them was there. And I couldn't look at my mother like that. I just seen her hands go like this. It was like, damn.

[Shannon Sharpe]

She was like, damn, son.

[Mike Epps]

But I am so happy. Like, I can talk about all of my misfortunes in life. Because I am so successful now. Yeah, I am so successful off of nothing. No money, no education, no nothing. That's how I know when God creates.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Something, you don't make no mistakes.

[Mike Epps]

He don't make no mistakes, brother.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Do you ever think about, like, man, I could have did this. I could have graduated. I could have did with going to college.

[Mike Epps]

No, if I'd have focused none of that shit.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah, but you focus on these roles. You focus on your standup. You focus in this movie business. So when you wanna lock into something.

[Mike Epps]

I can do it, you can do it. But it took me to be an adult and have bills and kids to lock in. I couldn't lock in on just my life. It wasn't enough. I had to see some kids.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah, you had.

[Mike Epps]

Now I got responsibility.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You had other responsibilities.

[Mike Epps]

Living more for more than just myself. That Makes me do the right thing, right? Yeah.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You was gonna play. You gonna do a biop with Richard Pryor? What happened to that? Cause I talked to Damon. I think Damon Wayans was also talking about the biop. And.

[Mike Epps]

Yeah, I mean, you know, I think over the years, man, and I honestly think this about Richard Pryor. I think his spirit was so keen, man. I think that nigga said, I don't want none of them playing me.

[Shannon Sharpe]

But he actually chose you in 2000. He chose you to play me.

[Mike Epps]

I'm pretty sure. But I still think that his spirit and living with this, trying to do his role all these years, I think he literally in his spirit. Cause I don't know why the movie's never been done.

[Shannon Sharpe]

It's gotta be, though.

[Mike Epps]

And I don't care who they pick to do it at this point. I just wanna see the movie done.

[Shannon Sharpe]

But I don't know if anybody can play it because of you. You get that little semi fro. You have the complexion, you have the voice, inflection.

[Mike Epps]

You actually played him before in a movie called. It was with Zoe Zaldow. I forget the name. It was. What was the girl lady's name? Nina Simone. Nina Simone. I played it. I played a small part of him and killed it in that movie. And. And that was enough of me, man. I played enough. I played him again. They had a Lakers series that was on hbo. Remember that Lakers series I played him in? That killed it.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Well, Showtime, I think.

[Mike Epps]

Showtime. So I asked the chance to play him a couple times.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Small roles, but you want to play the big thing. You want to do it, man. You don't want to do it.

[Mike Epps]

Now what? I will kill it.

[Shannon Sharpe]

I will body that. Why won't his wife? Because I mean, you know. Is that to hold up his wife in kind of the direction of the movie?

[Mike Epps]

Well, she definitely owns the rights.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Oh, for sure. Absolutely.

[Mike Epps]

But I don't know why she don't want to do it. I don't know if she wants to do it. I don't know if she found the right person to do it. But she's definitely keeping it from going or seeing if it'll go, you know? But I didn't want nobody to believe nothing. My daddy was Richard prior to me. If you met my daddy, that was the funniest nigga to me right in the world. Hilarious. That's where I got it. That's my Richard Pryor. Before I even get to anybody else, my real father, who gave me my shit, funny as hell, just wasn't a Comedian. Hilarious.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Well, it's funny that you mentioned Zoe Saldano because she played Nina Simone and they said she had blackface on.

[Mike Epps]

Mm.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Why you laugh?

[Mike Epps]

I don't know why she did that shit. That was crazy, listening to white people. See, sometimes you listen to white people, sometimes they be meaning well, but they'll send your ass down a dark hole.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Right.

[Mike Epps]

With your culture.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Cause you could have easily got someone of darker complexion to play that role.

[Mike Epps]

That's what I'm saying. That was somebody that wanted her to play that that bad and was thinking, but didn't know that you can't do that. They should have got somebody like Mary J. Blige, who was really good, that could sing.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Sing, Right.

[Mike Epps]

That was a real black girl that could do it. Yes. You know, and I love Zoey. I just don't think that was the right role to play.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Hell, J. Hud get Jennifer Hudson to play it.

[Mike Epps]

She would have been good, too.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah. I mean, because Drew Ski caught a little flat.

[Mike Epps]

Sexy Red would have did good.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Nah, Sexy Red, he made that part, Skip.

[Mike Epps]

I can see the meaning since the mouth.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Skip. Drew Ski got in trouble for wearing White face.

[Mike Epps]

Yeah.

[Shannon Sharpe]

During the skit.

[Mike Epps]

Yeah, I seen that shit.

[Shannon Sharpe]

What were your thoughts?

[Mike Epps]

He ain't made it all the way. They don't give. He's good. That's what I'm telling you. When you get on the real radar, then you can't do shit.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Right.

[Mike Epps]

But, you know, I don't think a lot of us are on the real radar to get punished because it seemed like.

[Shannon Sharpe]

I mean, it seemed like skits are the thing. I mean, a lot of guys. A lot of guys came up doing the skits.

[Mike Epps]

Yeah. And.

[Shannon Sharpe]

But that's not how you guys. You guys had to get up there. Y' all had to get on the. Sit on the stool or walk back and forth, and you had to tell jokes.

[Mike Epps]

That's right.

[Shannon Sharpe]

It was. No, it wasn't no Ski. You might have, you know, do a voice inflection and you make your boy sound like somebody famous. But you weren't doing no skits.

[Mike Epps]

Hell, no. You have to do joke for joke jokes set up punchline, set up premise. Punchline. How different is Punchline setup?

[Shannon Sharpe]

How different is it now? Is it easier to become a comedian now than it was when you were coming up in the biz?

[Mike Epps]

Hell.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Cause they got social media now.

[Mike Epps]

It's a million comedians. Even for the ones who want to just sit there and tell a joke.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah.

[Mike Epps]

Shit is no joke. I mean, to become a real comic takes about 10 years.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Really?

[Mike Epps]

Yeah. To become a real. To really say, I'm a comic and I've been doing this shit. And you gotta go on the stage a lot, man. I was doing seven shows a week, sometimes two and three in a day.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Damn.

[Mike Epps]

Hell, yeah. That's why, like, right now, I'm on this tour that's coming up, right, called we the Ones I'm headlining. This is our third year doing it.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Okay.

[Mike Epps]

These young comics on this tour, these are young brothers that I would say.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Five, 10 years, they'll be household names.

[Mike Epps]

Yeah, they do pretty good in the culture now.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Right.

[Mike Epps]

But these guys are gonna be some guys that's really, really. You got guys like Mojo Brooks, little young dudes.

[Shannon Sharpe]

I know more. Yep. He go over there, be trying to get back with his baby mama.

[Mike Epps]

Yeah. With the groceries. Yeah. D.C. young. Fly.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah, I know. Yep.

[Mike Epps]

Country Wayne.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yep.

[Mike Epps]

Carlos Miller.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah. Los. I met him.

[Mike Epps]

All on these dudes are. These dudes are young comics of today. And if I could pick any of the comics, these are the guys that are closer to anything that we were to Eddie Murphy. They are speaking on the culture. You know what I'm saying? These dudes really living in the streets. They really live this shit. They know it.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah.

[Mike Epps]

Only difference is we just got the time on them, man. You know? And that makes a difference. Unfortunately, they came in a time of this business that just wouldn't allow them to run around and tell jokes like we did.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Right.

[Mike Epps]

Even if I wanted to do that shit right now, it ain't enough rooms.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah.

[Mike Epps]

Comedy clubs would just scare us now like that.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You know how different is telling jokes now than it was then? Cause there are a lot of stuff you can't say now that you could say back then.

[Mike Epps]

It's different. I mean, they got this whole cancel shit. Yeah.

[Shannon Sharpe]

We are.

[Mike Epps]

Which I don't understand that shit. Because if you got an audience, you can't be canceled.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Right.

[Mike Epps]

Like, can't nobody cancel me. I think the cancellation comes in when you trying to cross over. If you crossed over, I guess you won't get the opportunities that you had on the crossover. But if you have an audience, you can't cancel me. I got people that's gonna watch me. Like, they don't even know the people that's quote unquote, canceled you. There are motherfuckers in the hood, people that watch the Shannon Sharpe show, religious to it. They don't give a. About what anybody else said about you. Right. Same with me.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Right.

[Mike Epps]

These people coming to see me. These people watching Your show, right? They don't. I don't give a fuck what time that come on. And that's what we have to understand and realize and remember you trying to hold on to some shit that wasn't yours in the first place. It wasn't our business. It's a privilege for us to be able to cross over and get some crossover dollars. But this ain't your business.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Right?

[Mike Epps]

That's why I'm on a tour with these guys. This tour right here, this is me with young, hot comics from the hood that come from the urban life. And they are hitting right now. And I make sure I surround myself with them. And I'm. I'm not hanging with the guys who have already made it.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Right.

[Mike Epps]

You know, Even though I can learn from them. But, man, I'm getting the heat off these young dudes. These young dudes are making me funny.

[Shannon Sharpe]

How do you determine who you're gonna. I've always wondered this.

[Mike Epps]

Yeah.

[Shannon Sharpe]

How do comedians determine who they're gonna tour with?

[Mike Epps]

It gotta be the guys that's young and hot and who you like. And you gotta always have an ear to the streets. The street's gonna tell you who's hot. The street's gonna tell you who's funny. The street's gonna tell you who you need to be with. And that's what I use, you know? I've always kept my ear to the streets. My kids, I got young kids, I got teenage kids, young adult kids. They keep me up on what's new and what ain't. Right. Daddy. That ain't Daddy. That ain't Daddy. So, you know, I get a lot of game from them.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Like when you were. Like when you were younger, let's say you were in your 20s, mid 20s, mid. Late 20s, 30s, 40s. How do you determine who you gonna wanna tour with? Or is there a promoter that says. Okay, okay, Mike, I've got this tour together.

[Mike Epps]

I got a comic. Yeah. I got an agent named Chris Smith that's been my agent, particularly, almost my whole career.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Okay?

[Mike Epps]

And what he particularly does, he take a comic like me who already made it, and he'll go get a young comic and put the young comic on my shows, right? Cause he's an agent for both of us, okay? And that's how a young comic gets his name.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Okay?

[Mike Epps]

I opened up for Steve Harvey. I opened up for all of these guys. Earthquake. I've been on tour with Bruce.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Bruce, yeah.

[Mike Epps]

This when I was young.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Mike Epps]

Me and Bruce. Bruce was on tour. We rode all over America, man.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah.

[Mike Epps]

Nobody knew who I was. But that's how young comics get on. You gotta open up for somebody that's on for somebody to see you.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Right?

[Mike Epps]

Yeah.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Sound like, say, I seen Bruce. Bruce and Earthquake.

[Mike Epps]

Yeah.

[Shannon Sharpe]

I used to go to comedy shows all the time. I get back onto that.

[Mike Epps]

Did you?

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah. But the ones I want to go see, they in big play. I like the, like, comedy stuff.

[Mike Epps]

It ain't the same.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah, yeah. I like the small, intimate, like a hundred people.

[Mike Epps]

It ain't the same.

[Shannon Sharpe]

It's different now.

[Mike Epps]

It's different now. So you come from the old school. You remember when it was real comedy?

[Shannon Sharpe]

I do, I do, yeah.

[Mike Epps]

I do, yeah.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Entertainment business. What have you learned about the entertainment business?

[Mike Epps]

The entertainment business is it's gonna give you as much as you put in it, you know. And you can't take it personal, you know? One thing, Queen Latifah's manager, Shaquillem, what he always say, I learned from him one time, he said, man, it ain't that serious, man. You know, it really ain't. I mean, you know, when it comes to you driving yourself crazy and trying to force it and make it be what it is. It is what it is, man. It's entertainment business. It's show business. And you just can't take it to heart, man. You get what you can get out of it. Last as long as you can last and make people happy and you know, pass the baton, man. It ain't yours to keep a lot.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Of people, it's hard. It's hard to pass that baton, though. They just want to keep running, bro. You got four people on here. Bypass the baton. No, bro, I gotta keep this thing going.

[Mike Epps]

Cause they think it's they shit. They think entertainment. This shit was here before we got here, and it's gonna be here when we gone.

[Shannon Sharpe]

After we gone.

[Mike Epps]

Get as much as you can get out of it and keep going.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Mike, what's the broke as you been, sir?

[Mike Epps]

I grew up on welfare. I grew up on welfare. I got six, seven brothers by three different women. My mother had three, four different daddies in our family. We grew up poor. I grew up with a single mother in the house with seven brothers and no money. So I tell a person all the time, if you ain't never felt a missed meal cramp, you don't know what hungry is. Yeah, I'm talking about where it felt like somebody just punched you in your stomach.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah.

[Mike Epps]

That's cause you was hungry.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Every time you swallow your stomach, say thank you.

[Mike Epps]

Hell yeah.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Ain't nothing come down. I mean, people don't understand, like, when you grow up. Like, I grew up in the south, and we had to eat some things, but there are times we miss meal. My grandma just didn't have the money.

[Mike Epps]

That's right.

[Shannon Sharpe]

But it makes you appreciate everything that you get.

[Mike Epps]

Now, I remember when I rob something, he could do one of the two.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You know, when you grow up. I remember we had, like, dirt floor. We had cement floors so it would, you know. You know how it is in a mechanic shop, it get dusty.

[Mike Epps]

Yeah.

[Shannon Sharpe]

And we spray water down to try to keep the dust down. I remember my grandma used to say all the time, son, it ain't much, but let's try to keep the pizza house clean. And I always. I always remember that. And now that I got little piece of house.

[Mike Epps]

Yeah.

[Shannon Sharpe]

I mean, you got cement floors. You ain't got no indoor plumbing. You ain't got no paneling. But that's all we had. We had.

[Mike Epps]

You know, you had to appreciate what you had.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You have to take care of what you have. Now that I got stuff. And I was like, bro, can we. Like I tell my kids and I tell. You know, can we just, like.

[Mike Epps]

I heard your poor story. I seen that place y' all lived in.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah, that was. That. That's. That's how I realized you might have.

[Mike Epps]

Been a little poor today. I'm sitting up here telling these little stories.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Shit. But it makes you appreciate everything. I appreciate everything. I don't think that'll ever leave. I don't care If I got 200 million, $300 million that'll never leave.

[Mike Epps]

Well, that's why you able to survive. That's why you able to survive a lot of things. That's why you able to survive backlash. You able. You know, you was built for this shit. You was built for it mentally. You was built for it physically. You was built for these boulders to come at you and not to kill you, though. They just bounce off of you, bro.

[Shannon Sharpe]

It makes you. It definitely. You understand having gone through what you're going through as a kid, you know.

[Mike Epps]

This would have broke another, right?

[Shannon Sharpe]

Oh, yeah.

[Mike Epps]

You wouldn't be sitting there.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah, for sure.

[Mike Epps]

Somewhere in the Santa's hour.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah.

[Mike Epps]

Up. But you done already seen the worst.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah. I've been in the storm long time.

[Mike Epps]

So.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You know, when you got money, what was the first thing you did when you got money?

[Mike Epps]

I bought my mother a washer and dryer.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You weren't messing up Medicaid, huh?

[Mike Epps]

My mother was on assistance, and I Bought her a washer and dryer. And she was so happy to get that washer and dryer. My mother. We grew up watching Price is Right. And my mother used to. My mother dreamed of having things for us. And I'll never forget Reader's Digest sent us a fake check in the mail.

[Shannon Sharpe]

I'll be able to read.

[Mike Epps]

My mother's got the screaming. And we tried to cash that. We got in the car and went up to the bank. And my mother came out the bank saying. We said, what's wrong, Mama? She said, this wasn't real. It was a. Yep, it was a Reader's Digest check. I'm saying to myself, mama, first of all, it was too much money to be real. Motherfucker had like $5 million or something.

[Shannon Sharpe]

They ain't sending us that.

[Mike Epps]

The way that shit was written on.

[Shannon Sharpe]

The check have a name and everything in it. What.

[Mike Epps]

We thought we had that money, man. I used to take and take scissors and cut Bick wheels out and paste them on the wall. Shit, I wanted.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah.

[Mike Epps]

I said, boy, I just want that shit. And we grew up Jehovah Witness. Oh, man, that didn't make it easy. So we wasn't. I think my mother made us Jehovah Witness. Cause she knew we couldn't afford shit. So she said, I'm gonna give you a religion.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You don't need anything.

[Mike Epps]

You ain't supposed to do it. You gonna feel bad about.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You real estate. You really involved in real estate?

[Mike Epps]

Yeah.

[Shannon Sharpe]

What made you. How did you, like, learn how to invest? Like, okay, I got this money. Ain't no guarantee. If I don't do something with it to make sure I'm gonna be able to keep it.

[Mike Epps]

Yeah, well, you know, growing up as a kid, we rented houses all the time. We ain't never owned no house. My mom didn't. So I always promised myself, if I ever got some money, I was gonna go back and buy all the houses that we got, you know, evicted out of. And I did.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Damn.

[Mike Epps]

I made an. I made. I made an address list in my hometown. I rolled around and I made an address list of all the houses we got kicked out of. And I went and bought every last one of them.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You bought every house?

[Mike Epps]

Every one of them that we got kicked out of. House back.

[Shannon Sharpe]

And you allow family to. You. You. You rent them out?

[Mike Epps]

Yep, I rent them out. You know, I mean, and my family stay in them. And, you know, damn, I went back and got them house. I told my mother that, too. I never forget, man, we used to get kicked out of them house, my mother, we sitting in the back of the cab, she have a big ass bag of clothes. And my mother crying. And we go to my grandmother's house to stay with my grandma. Cause that's every time we got kicked out. We went to my grandmama house and I said, mama, I'mma buy all these motherfucking houses back one day. I thought I was gonna do it with some dope money, but.

[Shannon Sharpe]

But you gonna get them houses.

[Mike Epps]

I was gonna get them houses back and I did. I went back and got them houses. I went and knocked on people's door and bought their ass up out them houses. Yep, I sure did. Me and my wife, we went and we fixed them houses up. We actually had a show on HGTV called Buying Back the Block.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Damn.

[Mike Epps]

Yeah, went and bought them houses. And I revitalized my whole neighborhood, man. You know, and the white people walk down the street, man, and they don't know the history in them houses, right? I told him, man, you know, a little dude named Tony O got killed in that house you live in.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Oh my God.

[Mike Epps]

Yeah, nigga was better come up out of here.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Mike, Mike, did you know your father?

[Mike Epps]

Yeah, I knew my dad, man. Hard working man, Tommy Epps. Worked, worked at a plant, worked at a harvester for 40 years, you know. Yeah. Good, good dude. Man. My father was a hard working dude. And I'll never forget, man, my father did not. He didn't like no street people. And when I became a street dude, I was selling drugs. He had a car wash. I went to his car wash in my Cadillac. And he told the people, don't wash that damn. Cause I sold. I was selling dope.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah.

[Mike Epps]

He called me a dog. He said, you a dog? I said, huh? He said, yeah, you a dog. He said, you ain't worth shit. Cause I was selling dope.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah.

[Mike Epps]

And I got caught. And I'll never forget, I was in prison and I met a dude from Miami that got caught selling kilos and shit. And I'm sitting in the cell with him. He was showing me pictures of his houses and bo. I said, damn. I called my father on. Cause I said, I talked to my father from jail. I said, daddy, I'm in here with a dude that is smart as hell. He said, well, son, if he's so smart, why is he in there with you?

[Shannon Sharpe]

Why is he sitting in jail?

[Mike Epps]

He's sitting there bragging about some in jail with you, talking about he's smart. Yeah.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Damn.

[Mike Epps]

Yeah. My dad always said crazy shit that you know and that shit still I never forget what time too. I told my dad, I said, this is how I learned how to deal with my kids. I used to cuss my dad out. I said, man, you ain't no real. Cause he wouldn't buy me the shit I wanted. Cause I thought I was. Cause it was kids that had go karts and mobile. Yeah. I said, why come I can't have that? I said, man, you ain't no real father. You know what he told me one time that came back? Smacked me in the face. He said, wait till you had some kids. And boy if I be damned, my kids didn't say the same mother. That's crazy how that shit just doubled back.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Mike Epps]

So it just teach you to always honor your parents. And listen, they know what they doing. And most kids be upset with their parents and not realizing their parents be kids too.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yes.

[Mike Epps]

Your mother and father were too young too to be who the. You thought they was young too, right? They were still trying to figure it out. So now that I'm grown and I got kids, that shit just all came clear to me.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You know, you mentioned your wife. How has your wife helped you? Because then you hear a lot of stories like, okay, I got married and she helped me, you know, she helped me find my purpose. You know, Steve speak gloriously about his wife. I forget his wife's name, but he Margie. And he speaks about like I started to elevate when Margie got in my life. I hear you talk about the same thing. That how she calmed you down that you like. It's not that serious, Mike. Yeah, I mean, what you trying. Hey, you got me, I got you.

[Mike Epps]

We good? Yeah.

[Shannon Sharpe]

How is it that when a man finds a wife. The Bible says when a man finds a wife, he finds a good wife.

[Mike Epps]

Most of us get married, so we don't screw everybody. Let's be honest.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Okay?

[Mike Epps]

But I can honestly say that my wife is much younger than me, 20 years younger than me. Is she? Yeah. I don't wanna date nobody my age. Cause that's a hundred years in the bed. So I had to cut the margin down, man. But she's a grown ass woman, right? She's 38 years old.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Right?

[Mike Epps]

You know what I'm saying? So she taught me a lot, you know, she taught me a lot. And sometimes. Sometimes, most of the time your wife is gonna see things that you don't see about yourself all the time. And you need that, right? Cause we're very, very slow when it come to women, man. We think we smart, but they the coldest when it come to holding them and knowing when to fold em, when to walk away, when to be quiet. We'll never be able to figure women out, right? So. So I guess we gotta listen, you know what I mean? We gotta listen to em. And that's what God put him there for. He gave them that extra sense to protect us. I always say women are caretakers for men, right. You know, I don't care how much money we make or how much the king we are. Ain't none of it no good if a woman can't take care of you.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Right. You, this is your second marriage, right? Yeah. After your first marriage, did you think you'd ever get married again?

[Mike Epps]

Yeah.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You did?

[Mike Epps]

Yeah. Soon as I met my second wife, I wanted to marry her. Cause that's. That was. It was like God sent you to me, you know, I could tell sometime when women are. Come through God for me. And I can tell when it's not that. And you know, being young and famous and being in the business, it can, you know, having money, meet a bunch of women. Yes. So, you know, you know, when it's that one, she was that one.

[Shannon Sharpe]

What did you do different in the second marriage that you didn't do in the first marriage that probably caused the split?

[Mike Epps]

I didn't do coke in the second marriage.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Are you serious?

[Mike Epps]

Yeah, I was my first marriage. I was a fool, I'm not gonna lie. Wild, crazy. And again, I just needed to grow up. I couldn't even wait to get to 55. Now that I'm 55, I am so comfortable in my skin, man. I love who I am right now. Right. You know what I'm saying? I love how I think, I love how I feel. I love that. I don't give a. I cared all them years now, and I don't give a. Like everything.

[Shannon Sharpe]

And I love it. Right.

[Mike Epps]

You know, but it. That's what helps me with myself. That's what helps me with my sanity.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Are you and your wife still good? First wife still on good terms?

[Mike Epps]

Yeah.

[Shannon Sharpe]

I like that.

[Mike Epps]

Yeah. We don't talk like friends, but don't have kids together. We ain't arguing. Yeah, we ain't arguing and fighting, you know?

[Shannon Sharpe]

Cause you like the Rock and his first wife, they went into business together. I see Dave Portnoy like his ex wife have access.

[Mike Epps]

Well, you gotta understand, I got multiple women, kids with women.

[Shannon Sharpe]

But I'm saying married, yeah.

[Mike Epps]

Marriage, no.

[Shannon Sharpe]

How many? You only been married twice, though.

[Mike Epps]

Only been married twice. Yeah. But I got A bunch of kids.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah, but I ain't talking about that. No, no, that's different.

[Mike Epps]

Yeah, marriage.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Marriage and co parenting.

[Mike Epps]

Yeah. Yeah. You know, like I said, all my kids, mothers done great jobs with my. I didn't pick bad women.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Right.

[Mike Epps]

Okay, they picked the bad women. Yeah, pretty much. It just didn't work out right. And it's okay.

[Shannon Sharpe]

How many kids you have?

[Mike Epps]

I got seven kids. Damn.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You trying to catch a nickname?

[Mike Epps]

No, I ain't trying to catch that nigga. That nigga need to wear a condom. Nick Cannon is on amoxicillin at this point.

[Shannon Sharpe]

So how old is the oldest?

[Mike Epps]

36.

[Shannon Sharpe]

The youngest? 4. You done?

[Mike Epps]

Yeah, I'm done now. I think I am. I need to go.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You do realize, like when the kid is a senior in high school. What's his name?

[Mike Epps]

Mike.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Mike. They gonna say, mikey, your grandfather out there. That's my daddy, fool. You do realize how old you gonna be, right?

[Mike Epps]

That's why I'm teaching him to say you don't yourself and get out of my face. Don't worry about. I'm teaching him all this shit. Cause he gonna need it. Yeah, don't worry about what the I'm doing. That's the one I've been teaching him. Yeah, don't worry about what the I'm doing. He gonna need that one. But that's why I still try to go to the gym. Cause I mean, I see, man, I see guys right now in their 70s that look really, really good. Black men, we don't all have to grow and be old and brittle. You know what I mean? I can be a 75 year old still walking around here like, I'm 55 right now. And I will run outrun a young out boxes. I do all that shit right now. 55?

[Shannon Sharpe]

What, you ain't finna be playing catch with no 8 year old at 60?

[Mike Epps]

Why not.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Man?

[Mike Epps]

Here, what kind of is you, man?

[Shannon Sharpe]

I can't do that.

[Mike Epps]

As an old ass, at least say I can. Shannon.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Okay, you can do that.

[Mike Epps]

I can't do that, bro.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You can do that.

[Mike Epps]

You being negative now now.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Hey, you, hey. You throw it to him and have him to bring it back to you while you sitting in the chair.

[Mike Epps]

Hey, man, don't do that, Shannon. Don't do that.

[Shannon Sharpe]

But you went all out on this marriage, though. Yeah, it was star studded.

[Mike Epps]

It was star studded.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Was that her or you?

[Mike Epps]

That was me. That was me and her. Shit. We both. You know what? She always loved the whispers, okay? And I went and got the whispers Damn. And I flew my mother out here and, man, I flew my whole family out there, man.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah, you had TI Snoop Dogg.

[Mike Epps]

TI Snoop Dogg. And my mother. My mother never got on an airplane. And my mother came out, rest her. God rest her soul. She not with us now. But that was one thing that I did get to say. I said, boy, I got my mother on that airplane. She came to California, man, and she seen that ocean and oh, man, you know, that was that.

[Shannon Sharpe]

She was like, my baby, my baby did this.

[Mike Epps]

My baby did this. She got on that plane, she came to LA and seen me.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Right?

[Mike Epps]

Yeah.

[Shannon Sharpe]

So what type of dad are you? Cause like you said, you know, you say you cool with your dad, but are you raising your kids kinda like how your dad raised your mom and dad raised you? Or are you like, I've been a.

[Mike Epps]

Different dad through the years.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Okay.

[Mike Epps]

Unfortunately, my oldest daughter didn't get the best of me because I was too young and I didn't know what I knew. And I feel so bad about that. And I see my baby sometime and I wish I could pay her back, but I can't. Cause I just wasn't in that place in my life. But my newer kids, I'm able to do the things that I wish I could have done with my oldest child, you know? So you didn't know.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You could only do.

[Mike Epps]

I didn't know, man. I really did, man. If I could go back and repatch that, I would do it a hundred times, you know, you said you had.

[Shannon Sharpe]

A lot of daughters because that's karma paying you back for all the conniving bull jive stuff that you done.

[Mike Epps]

Yeah, I wasn't that great with women, man, but I didn't have no examples, man.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Was it the money, was it the fame or was it the.

[Mike Epps]

No, I didn't. I didn't have examples of. I didn't know a lot of married people as kids. I'd seen my mom get married once, but, you know, her relationships with men wasn't that great. So I just didn't know what that looked like.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Right.

[Mike Epps]

My dad wasn't in the house, so I didn't know how that felt. I became my own person young.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Right.

[Mike Epps]

You know what I mean? So I became grown really, really too quick.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Right.

[Mike Epps]

So I didn't get a chance to see what a real dad do. So I had to learn as an adult.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Right. You had to learn on the job. You had nobody to teach you the job, but you learn on the job.

[Mike Epps]

Yeah. Unfortunately, my daughters didn't get to you Know what I mean?

[Shannon Sharpe]

So what's the relationship with them like now? Are they resentful? Do they look at you as like, well, we didn't get this dad, but they get the best of dad while we got.

[Mike Epps]

I'm pretty sure. I'm pretty sure, man. I'm pretty sure that my daughter.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Have you talked to them about it?

[Mike Epps]

Yeah, I've tried. You know, I tried. It's hard.

[Shannon Sharpe]

It's hard.

[Mike Epps]

It really is. It's hard to patch that kind of stuff.

[Shannon Sharpe]

It is.

[Mike Epps]

Cause it's time.

[Shannon Sharpe]

It's lost, but you're not trying to patch it up, Mike. You gotta move forward. You can't move back. You can't get what's gone.

[Mike Epps]

Yeah.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Do they understand that?

[Mike Epps]

Yeah, they do. And again, I still applaud their mothers.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yes.

[Mike Epps]

Thank God that my kids had great mothers because they were able to take up the slack for what I didn't.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Do and where I wasn't not being there. Yeah.

[Mike Epps]

Thank God that they had good mothers, grandmothers. They all had good extended family. Like, if you see my kids and met my kids, you don't see no pain on them and none of that shit. Whatever their personal preference is about me, it is what it is. But I got a daughter at usc. I got a daughter go to nyu. I got another daughter about to go to famu.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah, that's their mom. That their mom. Hold on.

[Mike Epps]

You say, nigga, I'm paying for that shit, but I'm the fuck outta here.

[Shannon Sharpe]

But they. But, ma.

[Mike Epps]

No, get the outta here. I'm paying for that shit.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Mike, your grade, you couldn't have got in prison.

[Mike Epps]

Get your ass outta here.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Oh, you did get. But I'm saying usc, nyu, those are not easy places to get into. Whether you got. I know people that got money and they still couldn't get the kids in because the kids didn't meet the academic.

[Mike Epps]

Well, you know what? You. Shannon, I'm not gonna explain to myself to that shit, man.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Ain't no way. Ain't no way they put you down there.

[Mike Epps]

Hey, bro, I had a little something to do with it in there. On the smart side, I just could never see it through myself. You know what I'm saying? I'm smart as hell, but it's a different kind of smart, Shannon. You know what I mean? I'm sitting here with you. Yeah, but I'm saying NFL and all kind of shit. How did I get here with you?

[Shannon Sharpe]

But books. See, you smart. That doesn't. It had like, you're not books. You street smart and you understood how to parlay that into a business. But you gotta be smart. Smart to go to NYU and usc.

[Mike Epps]

You do. You do. And they. And, yeah, maybe their mothers did. Yeah. Yeah. But I.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Co parenting.

[Mike Epps]

Yeah.

[Shannon Sharpe]

I tell people, like, look, when you young, you argue about silly stuff. Cause you look. I look back at it. Like, we argue about stuff that really wasn't that important.

[Mike Epps]

Yeah.

[Shannon Sharpe]

And how difficult was it to look? You're on the road. You're a comedian. You gotta travel, you gotta go to work, and you're not there. And the kids are growing up. Hey, I mean, you might leave and come back. They're like, damn. The kid walking without laughing. The kid barely could crawl. Now he's walking. I can talk, can eat, can ask for this.

[Mike Epps]

It's the unfortunate part about being famous. You gotta give up something, man, you're gonna do.

[Shannon Sharpe]

That's sacrifice.

[Mike Epps]

You gonna sacrifice something for being who? If you are, you know, a factor in this world, you're gonna give up something. This shit ain't free, Shannon.

[Shannon Sharpe]

It ain't.

[Mike Epps]

You know it.

[Shannon Sharpe]

I absolutely know it.

[Mike Epps]

We had to pay for a lot in a lot of different ways for this shit.

[Shannon Sharpe]

What are the goals you're trying to get? I tell people as simple as this, Mike, and I wanna know what you. The greater the goal, the greater the sacrifice that must be to meet said goal.

[Mike Epps]

Say it again.

[Shannon Sharpe]

The greater the goal, the greater the sacrifice to reach the goal.

[Mike Epps]

Real shit. Real shit.

[Shannon Sharpe]

People like, oh, oh, work life balance. Okay, you have work life balance. You doing a 9 to 5. But if you want to be great, great. There is no work life balance. To be great great because it's continuous. And people don't understand that. People think that you could, like, well, look at Jeff Bezos, okay? Ask Jeff Bezos, when he was starting Amazon, did he have a work life balance as Bill Gates, when he was starting Microsoft? Ask all these people in the Walton family, when their dad was starting, did he have a work life balance? They got that now because they got 3,400 billion dollars. But in the beginning, there is no work life balance.

[Mike Epps]

It's all sacrifice.

[Shannon Sharpe]

It is. And you have to have a partner that understands the sacrifice. I had a coach ask me one time, Mike, he said, shannon, do you know why movie stars marry other movie stars? I like.

[Mike Epps]

I guess.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Cause they like each other. He said, that's a part of it. He said, because the other Norties like to live that life.

[Mike Epps]

Yeah.

[Shannon Sharpe]

See, they know how to jump in and out of character. They know they're gonna be gone. My Partner knows I'm gonna be gone for six months. Her partner knows or his partner knows. She knows her partner is gonna be gone for six months out of the year.

[Mike Epps]

Yeah.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You have to understand what it's like. And everybody says that they. Oh, I. I understand sacrifice. I can be number two. Until you ask to be number two, and then it's a problem.

[Mike Epps]

Yeah. And I think my wife understand that. That's why I think she's so important in my life, is. Cause she understands, you know, and she say it all the time. Can't no. Any person be with you.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Exactly.

[Mike Epps]

You know what I mean?

[Shannon Sharpe]

They can't. But you know that it takes a.

[Mike Epps]

Special woman to be with a guy like you, you know, And I respect her for that. You know? I do. I really do. I respect her for having the. I can't say balls. Having the guts.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yes.

[Mike Epps]

With a person like me. So, you know.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Are you ocd?

[Mike Epps]

Yeah.

[Shannon Sharpe]

See, I am, too.

[Mike Epps]

I got the clean. I can't stand dirt. See, it do something to me. It don't do something to me, man.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You, man. Look here. I need everything hung accordingly. I need long sleeves hung accordingly, short sleeve. The darker jeans, the lighter jeans.

[Mike Epps]

I want to your brain up right.

[Shannon Sharpe]

It do, man. I need all the labels to face out. I need everything turned. I need to track. I don't need. I can't see ditches in the sink.

[Mike Epps]

Yeah. It ain't that hard. Yeah.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Is your life gonna end if the.

[Mike Epps]

Dish is in the sink?

[Shannon Sharpe]

Is your life go in?

[Mike Epps]

Pretty much. Now you got flies and gnats and shit. Nah.

[Shannon Sharpe]

I don't know if my life gonna end, but this relationship gonna end nasty. Hold on. You got. It's eight boys. Your mom had eight boys?

[Mike Epps]

Seven boys.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Seven boys I got.

[Mike Epps]

My dad had another son.

[Shannon Sharpe]

So it's eight of y'.

[Mike Epps]

All. Yeah.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Y' all fight all the time, ain't it?

[Mike Epps]

We used to fight. We used to fight all the time. And that's what I'm saying. That sibling comp. That was another thing that got me ready for a show business.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah.

[Mike Epps]

Living in a house with a bunch of competition.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah.

[Mike Epps]

We was all competing to get my mama's attention.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Where you fall in the pecket order. How you the oldest? The middle.

[Mike Epps]

Three up, three down.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Damn.

[Mike Epps]

My mother used to introduce all her kids with a talent, and they used to say, who is that? And she said, oh, that's just Michael. Imagine that shit right there.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Damn. You just Michael. Yeah.

[Mike Epps]

Yeah. Cause she could not. They couldn't identify. My talent was being a comedian. Cause back then, people didn't sought out to be comedians.

[Shannon Sharpe]

No.

[Mike Epps]

So if you seen a kid act being funny, it was like, he's disruptive. They didn't look at him and say, oh, he's gonna be a big comedian star. They like put a paddle on his ass. See what I'm saying?

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah.

[Mike Epps]

So nobody could recognize my talent.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Right.

[Mike Epps]

You know, and now I'm. Hey, man, I'm who I am.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Mike, you got held back in kindergarten?

[Mike Epps]

I think so.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Mike, all you gotta do is come to class. You sleep.

[Mike Epps]

I did.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Mike, how you get hell? Back in kindergarten.

[Mike Epps]

I wiped a booger on a kid. Shannon. I wiped a booger on a kid. And they. From there, it just never stopped, Mike.

[Shannon Sharpe]

But they say you were in the slow classes too, though. Mike.

[Mike Epps]

I was in special ed. I was in special ed. I was in the regular room up to about the fourth grade.

[Shannon Sharpe]

And then you stayed in the same classroom the whole day?

[Mike Epps]

They came and got me out of there and took me to a. Do we gotta do this?

[Shannon Sharpe]

I guess.

[Mike Epps]

All right. They took me out of a regular room and put me in special ed. And I stayed in special ed for the rest of. Up until the ninth grade. Then I stopped going to school.

[Shannon Sharpe]

So you gonna be in special ed in the 9th grade too?

[Mike Epps]

What you think? Nigga, I just told you I was in kindergarten up.

[Shannon Sharpe]

So you was about to get.

[Mike Epps]

You answering your own fucking question.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You was about to get a certificate.

[Mike Epps]

I don't know if they give certificates.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah, they do. Who they say you attended.

[Mike Epps]

For what?

[Shannon Sharpe]

The high school you went to.

[Mike Epps]

They said.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Cypher's Attic. No, no, that's what they would have gave you a certificate for.

[Mike Epps]

What?

[Shannon Sharpe]

Because you don't get a diploma.

[Mike Epps]

Cause I don't get a diploma? No, I don't. I didn't get a diploma.

[Shannon Sharpe]

No, you weren't gonna get one in special ed either?

[Mike Epps]

No, damn. Oh, I would have got a certificate if I graduated.

[Shannon Sharpe]

They just say participation. You came to class.

[Mike Epps]

That's why I dropped out, nigga.

[Shannon Sharpe]

But, niggas, you ain't gonna put that on your wall.

[Mike Epps]

Just in case you knew that.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You taught yourself how to read and write as an adult.

[Mike Epps]

Yeah.

[Shannon Sharpe]

So did you. Was it hard for you in school or you just didn't apply yourself in school?

[Mike Epps]

It was hard. So you know when you weaken one area, you compensate over compensate another area. So that's where the comedy came from?

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah, yeah. So you didn't have to read. You make jokes?

[Mike Epps]

Yeah. Kept people from seeing that I could read. Couldn't read you know I love telling these stories. You know why? Because there are some kids. Kids out there right now watching that's gonna watch this. Ah. I feel good about who I am. Yes. And I ain't different. And you're not alone. It's a bunch of people around here that got all kind of something about them. Motherfucker. They appear to be okay, but something's wrong with everybody.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Take ownership of your imperfections.

[Mike Epps]

Yeah.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Then people can't make you feel inferior about them.

[Mike Epps]

So why are you making me feel inferior about it? Man, your ass grown four or five jokes.

[Shannon Sharpe]

No, I didn't.

[Mike Epps]

Yes, you did.

[Shannon Sharpe]

No, I just asked him like. I was just asking how you got.

[Mike Epps]

All the great slogans. Nigga was just laughing about me being retarded.

[Shannon Sharpe]

No, man, you were slow. But I'm just saying, I was just trying to figure out how you get love back together.

[Mike Epps]

I don't think that I was slow. I think that my interest wasn't there. I was not interested in school.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Right.

[Mike Epps]

I watched tv. I could tell you about every episode of Happy that Good Times and all that. Hell yeah.

[Shannon Sharpe]

I was all in the family, the Jefferson.

[Mike Epps]

So when it was time for me to do tv, my timing was perfect.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah.

[Mike Epps]

That's why I told Wanda I'm like this feel like old school sitcom because that's what I grew up watching.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Right.

[Mike Epps]

Old school sitcom.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Damn.

[Mike Epps]

Yeah.

[Shannon Sharpe]

So because you struggled early on.

[Mike Epps]

Yeah.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Do you think someone took advantage of you like when you first got into the business as far as money wise or putting you in bad contracts?

[Mike Epps]

Yeah. Well, you know what always saved me is I always had a street edge. So whoever dealt with me and dealing with shit like if I was dealing with somebody who was dealing with my money and I was unsure, I would drop a pistol out of my pocket on an accident. Oh, sorry about that. I didn't mean to do. So in my head I was like, this mother ain't finna steal from me. Cause he already know I'm capping your ass. I would do all kind of weird shit like that. You know what I mean? It was like, let me send a subliminal message to save him from stealing from me. Yeah.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Cause I don't wanna have to kill you.

[Mike Epps]

I wouldn't have did that either. But you've seen.

[Shannon Sharpe]

But he don't know that though.

[Mike Epps]

Yeah. You don't.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You see a guy with a. You don't know.

[Mike Epps]

Don't take my money. That don't take advantage of me. So I had tactics of surviving, man.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Right.

[Mike Epps]

Yeah.

[Shannon Sharpe]

With a situation that you were a pimp and you end up. How you a pimp? And you end up owing the lady money?

[Mike Epps]

Because I tried to be a pimp. One time I tried to pimp some girls. And I've always been a nice guy, man. And I don't know, one of the girls said I owed her some money.

[Shannon Sharpe]

But, you know, she gotta make the money and then you take the money and then you give her a cutter.

[Mike Epps]

Boy, I bought some money from her.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You borrowed some money. How you a pimp? Are you borrowing money from the cutter?

[Mike Epps]

One of them was my cousin. One of the girls was my cousin.

[Shannon Sharpe]

How you pimp your cousin out?

[Mike Epps]

Well, I really wasn't pimping him. I was like, I'mma play like the pimp so we can get the money. And they was like, we ain't giving you shit. I don't know if they turned the trick or not, but I didn't get nothing out of it.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Then you tried to run.

[Mike Epps]

That was a bunch of shit that I tried. This is a run of shit that I tried as a kid. Tried to go to the military. I tried to be a.

[Shannon Sharpe]

So what happened in the military?

[Mike Epps]

I flunked the asvab.

[Shannon Sharpe]

So you didn't actually go to the military. You flunked the test to get in the military?

[Mike Epps]

Yes. And two of my friends went. My buddy Ryan Benrie and another guy went and left me. And I was showing people the brochures. I was like, look, I'm going to the army. And I didn't push.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Well, you gotta be really bad. Cause the army take anything.

[Mike Epps]

They didn't take me. Damn right. And I'm glad they didn't. Cause I probably would have got a discharge.

[Shannon Sharpe]

I guess they would.

[Mike Epps]

Soon as one of them dudes would have jumped in my face. I said, get the.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Out my face. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you would have been. Yeah, yeah, you.

[Mike Epps]

That shit wouldn't have worked. I said, what ain't you talking to? He's like, that's what we supposed to do to the army men in here is talk shit to him. You ain't supposed to talk shit back.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Damn, soldier. Do you hear what I was. I was saying? No, I don't hear what.

[Mike Epps]

It's been over with.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah, they just disarmed discharge.

[Mike Epps]

Yeah.

[Shannon Sharpe]

What about the robbery when you call your homeboy's name?

[Mike Epps]

Oh, yeah, my buddy Ray Bob. I went on a robbery.

[Shannon Sharpe]

How you called your partner's name? Mike?

[Mike Epps]

I wasn't a good robber.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You ain't supposed to say nothing. You ain't Gotta call no name.

[Mike Epps]

Well, I was so in the moment. I was in the moment. And I was, get the money and.

[Shannon Sharpe]

I was, get the jewelry.

[Mike Epps]

I was saying, ray Bob, I was saying. And my buddy had a mask on right here. His eyes like, shit, he kept doing big good. I'm like, what you. I didn't know what he was saying.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You call him my name.

[Mike Epps]

You call him my name. He said the next morning, it was 200 niggas in front of his house. To this day that mad at me right now. I swear to God, he should be.

[Shannon Sharpe]

That nigga mad at me right now.

[Mike Epps]

Nigga, like, you almost got me killed.

[Shannon Sharpe]

What happened when you got put in the trunk of the car?

[Mike Epps]

I was at a club called the bottom Line on 38th street in my hometown. And I was sitting there, I was in one of my buddy Jeff's. He had a convertible. He had a Bonneville with switches on and shit. I'm sitting up in the car and I'm in the parking lot talking to her. I'm supposed to be taking the car, taking the car and some money somewhere. I'm in the car riding. And while I'm riding, it's a girl on the side of the car. And I'm talking to her, and I'm like, damn. I don't know how I didn't realize it, but the walked. Excuse me. The girl walked me to the back of the club. I'm like, damn. All of a sudden, we in the dark. Then I heard the dude jump up in the car, like. And the dude had been robbing so much, he had all kind of people shit on his neck, Chains.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Damn.

[Mike Epps]

Yeah. He had been robbing all that day, and he had liquor on his breath. And he was hitting me with the pistol, going like, here, turn that way, turn that way. I'm in the car, turning the car like this. So we get on one street. He said, cut the mother lights off. Cut the lights off. So I cut the lights off, and I got my hands like this on my eyes. So I hear a bunch of other cars pull up. They getting out the car. Why was the fighting over the shit in the car? While I'm in the car like this, I hear, mother.

[Shannon Sharpe]

No, motherfucker. That's my speech.

[Mike Epps]

I'm getting this this time. I'm juju. I'm jujutsu. So they get me out, put me in the trunk. They ride me around, man, I'm in the back of the trunk. Ain't nothing but some. It's some dirty clothes back there. A kicker Box. And when they spare time. Not even. Not even spare time.

[Shannon Sharpe]

I'm.

[Mike Epps]

And they playing dj Quick Black pussy, swear to God. And when they got to the stop sign and stopped the light, turned the music on. I beat on the seat and motherfucker said what? I said, play that again. They bust out laughing. Let me out of the truck. The dude slapped me upside my head. I was running through the field like this. I said, boy, I better get out of this shit, man.

[Shannon Sharpe]

That's when you realize that that life of crime ain't for you, huh?

[Mike Epps]

Yeah. He had to be a certain type of dude to be in the streets. Yeah, I mean, I was in the streets enough, but, yeah, I didn't want to.

[Shannon Sharpe]

But you realized you weren't willing to die for that foolishness.

[Mike Epps]

Nah, I wasn't willing. I wasn't ready to go out there. I was really meddling. Yeah, I was really being nosy. I really didn't have no business in the streets. Mother and father wasn't street people. Right. You know, living in the neighborhood, you gonna learn some shit. Yeah, you pick shit up. You know, your buddy down the street, he's a criminal. You gonna hang with him, you gonna get in trouble.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You. You ended up going doing some time in some jail.

[Mike Epps]

Yeah, I did two years in the county jail. And if you Google Mike Epps mugshots, you'll see it. You'll see when I got caught. 1990, 91, 90 89. One of them years you had drugs.

[Shannon Sharpe]

They caught you with drugs, huh?

[Mike Epps]

I sold some drugs to a dude Undercoat. To an informant. To an informant.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Okay. CI.

[Mike Epps]

He was a drug addict. So we couldn't get him back in court. The judge I had, I mean, the lawyer that I had, his name's Jeff Baldwin. I put him on my second special. I did my special in my hometown. He was sitting in the.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah.

[Mike Epps]

I said, give it up for Jeff Baldwin. Cause I almost got 20 years with that shit. And he got me down and filed an affidavit for the dude to come in. He never showed up. Cause he's a drug addict. And I ended up getting just possession.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Okay.

[Mike Epps]

So they gave me eight years and suspended five. And I had two years served in the county. I did two years in the county jail. You.

[Shannon Sharpe]

One year on probation.

[Mike Epps]

I ended up going to the halfway house. After that. I went to the halfway house. Then I was on probation. But that's when I got out. When I got out, I was sleeping on my sister's couch. And they had a comedy competition on the radio. Deon Cole was the host, okay? He was driving from Chicago to Indiana to host the show. Cause he was on Comic View. They thought he was this big ass star. And two of my buddies, Otis Brown. Otis Brown and Gary Bates, they both got murdered. They both, us three went to the club, Seville's to get in the competition. I signed up for it. They said, you funny at the barbershop, but you funny in front of people. I signed up for it, went up there and blew the club up. Everybody laughing. Next week I came and my name was on the radio. I done invited my mama, friends, all them, man, I go back to the. Go back up there to the comedy club. They booed me off stage.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Damn. What happened?

[Mike Epps]

I seen two, I owe money. When I walked in, they threw me off. Cause I was one of them run off with the plug type of dudes. Cause drug users would catch me and say, boy, you better be glad I like you, Michael. I you up. Cause I was one of them dudes, right? And I ran off with the money. But I seen them and them threw me off. I got booed. I came back the next week and won that competition. And he look back, ain't look back. And I've been, I've been. I've been in the business.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You think that was a sign of God that you had, like, you went there at that time, you like, I get out, I ain't coming back here.

[Mike Epps]

Oh, yeah, that was it. I got tired of that shit. And plus, people was telling me I was funny. And I was watching Comic View and I was watching Def Jam and they had people. I was like, oh, hell no. I'm funnier than them. I just didn't know how to get to it. Cause I was living in Indiana, right?

[Shannon Sharpe]

You ain't know no comedians from Indiana?

[Mike Epps]

No. I would call Def Jam up in New York and say, my name is Mike Epps and I'm trying to get in touch with Russell Center. But I didn't know I couldn't get in touch with him through calling the office. You know what I mean? Right. I was just green, man.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Right?

[Mike Epps]

Yeah. When you.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Those demons and you beat them?

[Mike Epps]

Not really.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You have to fight them every day.

[Mike Epps]

Every day. Every day.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You understand that, that you gotta fight these demons every day. This is a fight. You gotta fight every day for the rest of your life.

[Mike Epps]

The rest of my life. But, you know, the older I get, I learn how to cope a little better, you know, that's why. That's why my care factor is too so low. Cause the more I Care, the more they come around.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Really?

[Mike Epps]

Yeah. Like, you know, it's like demons only come around when you care. When you don't give a. They gone, then you can.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You can have move maneuver how you want to.

[Mike Epps]

Yeah. Soon as they catch you celebrating and having a good time, doing good in life, here they come. As long as you don't care you up, you can't find them.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You know is hereditary in your family.

[Mike Epps]

Yeah, whole family.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Really?

[Mike Epps]

Yeah. All kind of shit in our family.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Damn.

[Mike Epps]

It's in black people, period. Schizophrenia, bipolar. Mm, Criminal. All of that shit. That shit just run in the running our history. But I learned how to deal with it, man. You know? And I remember my mother used to make me go take naps. I never forget that. And I never understood what it was. She said, go take a nap. And I go lay down. And when I wake up, I was a different person. So I still do that. I go take naps. I let it all go. I don't care what's on my family, wife, kids. Ah. I go to bed.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You decompress.

[Mike Epps]

Whatever's wrong with me, I go to bed. And when I wake up, I can deal with it. But I gotta go lay down and I shut that shit off. I don't want to think about the world.

[Shannon Sharpe]

What is it that you wish you knew then that you know now.

[Mike Epps]

That everything was gonna be okay? If I knew everything was gonna be all right, I wouldn't have damaged myself or hurt myself, you know, Because I was unsure about the future. So when you're unsure about the future, you have tendencies of giving up, not giving a. Because you don't know if it's going to be okay. So you make bad decisions.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yes.

[Mike Epps]

Because you. You unsure. And you unsurety makes you not give a. When you don't give a, you hurt yourself. And when you survive hurting yourself, you have to live with you hurting yourself, you know?

[Shannon Sharpe]

Damn.

[Mike Epps]

Yeah.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Help me understand this. Is it okay for comedians to have writers? Or do you look at. Do you look down on guys that have other people write material for them?

[Mike Epps]

I don't think people can write for a real comedian.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Really?

[Mike Epps]

Yeah. I think you can only advance it. You can only nurture it. You can help it, but you can't really write for a comedian. Nobody can write a joke for me. It's gotta be something. They gotta write some shit that. That would really come from me. If it don't come from. If it's something that came from them that they think I should do, I can't do the joke really. No, it's gotta.

[Shannon Sharpe]

It's funny because I see this. A lot of rappers like, well, you ain't hearing a real MC if you don't write. But singers don't look at it. Beyonce have people write for her. Whitney had people write for her. But I'm saying that's a joke.

[Mike Epps]

Yeah, but it's.

[Shannon Sharpe]

But again, but you have to. It has to be personal. Does it have to be personal?

[Mike Epps]

No, I don't have to be personal, but. I'll just take a premise. Just give me the premise. I don't want to hear your punchline. Don't give me a punchline.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Oh, okay, okay, okay, okay.

[Mike Epps]

Cause I can't do anything with that. Cause I need to make it up myself.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Okay.

[Mike Epps]

I need to make my own punchline. I need my own setup. Just. Just.

[Shannon Sharpe]

So you just need the shell.

[Mike Epps]

That's it. That's it. Just give me the shell. Cause I get. People write for me all the time. Regular people that don't even know they writing for me, sitting at the bar, say some shit. I'm saying, I gotta have that. I'm taking that. And he can't deliver it. Don't nobody know who the he is. He'll never see me again. I'll never see him again.

[Shannon Sharpe]

So there's somebody saying, man, I told him that joke at the bar. They done stole my ish. Ain't nobody gonna believe it, huh?

[Mike Epps]

Gone in the win.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You mentioned Def Comedy Jam. You were on those. How did those shows advance Mike Epps career?

[Mike Epps]

Those platforms were my start. That's what got my confidence going. Russell Simmons. Def Comedy Jam was a platform for young urban comics to do seven minutes and get they shit off and shocked the world, you know? Cause back then, it was just Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy. It was always one comic. When Def Comedy Jam came along, it was able to profile all these comics from different cities that were funny.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You're right. Cause that was the only comedians that you knew.

[Mike Epps]

That was it.

[Shannon Sharpe]

I mean, you know, you obviously read Fox, but like it is now. I mean, it was Def Comic View and Def Comedy Jam and Comic View. Yeah, that you Earthquake and the Bruce Bruces and the Bernie Macs and all those. And you saw, you know, you saw the Hope Floods and the. And the S' Mores and the Cheryl Underwoods. Like, damn, man. There's that many comedians out there. Yes.

[Mike Epps]

I mean, a slew of them. And when you think about it, you talk about Ice Cube, Russell Simmons.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Oh, yeah. Adele Gibbons.

[Mike Epps]

Gave everybody a career. Yes, everybody came from that Guy from music to stand up comedy, you can't take that from him.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Right. You mentioned something very interesting. You said that you opened up for Steve Harvey. I've had a lot of guys sit in that chair right there and say, man, Steve did. From Ced the Entertainer to Quaid to so many. Ricky Smiley, Carlos Miller, who's on tour, gonna be on tour with you. Lo's about what he did. So many guys have said what that man did for them in their career. What is some of the best advice? Cause I believe in giving people their flowers. Hey, somebody might have. Just because somebody has a bad experience, it doesn't take away what he's done for other people.

[Mike Epps]

Right?

[Shannon Sharpe]

What is some of the best advice Steve gave you?

[Mike Epps]

You know what? I don't think Steve Harvey ever personally gave me advice out of his mouth, but he definitely showed by example, you know what I mean? He's one of the example guys that if you were smart enough, you would watch him in line, right? You know, I don't think he was a personal guy like that. That would come up to you and yeah, man, and if he's his. He just one of them kind of guys. Cedric and them, they will do it. D.L. hughley. But Steve, not that kind of guy. Bernie, I did his last movie. Did you Soul Man? That was the last movie he was in. He had an oxygen tank. He was dying and him and Sam Jackson was on the.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Did you realize he was that sick then?

[Mike Epps]

Yeah, yeah, he was messed up. And I said, bernie Mac, man, give a young comedian some advice. He said, don't do nothing for money. And I was like, wait a minute.

[Shannon Sharpe]

What we doing it for?

[Mike Epps]

He's rich as hell.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Telling me money. That's the only reason I'm doing this.

[Mike Epps]

I can't take that advice. But he was basically saying, you know, make sure that it's something that you want to do, right? And don't do it because it's just money there, right?

[Shannon Sharpe]

If you had to pinpoint one, the person that do what you do, who's helped Mike Epps the most in his career?

[Mike Epps]

I mean, it's so hard to say because there's so many. There's so many people. I think it's a conglomerate of a lot of people. You know, I got a friend of mine named TC that's been with me. He's seen the whole movie. My brother TC he seen me come to New York before anybody met me. He's seen me before any of the wives that I met. So I would say, my brother TC man, my manager. You know, I always tell young black men, you gotta have a soul brother, man. You gotta have somebody with you, man. A brother that's gonna ride with you, man. And that's what TC's been. He's been a great friend of mine and been with me in some dark times and some great times, you know? So I would say my road manager, TC has been one of the most pinnacle brothers in my people, in my life, you know, when my parents died, all kind of stuff. You know, you think about the moments, man. You know? But of course, my wife, man, My wife, I can't take anything from her, man. She's been a solid person for me and helped me become who I remember one time I came. The first time I met my wife. I came in the house high, and she said, if you ever do that again, we'll never be together. And I never did it again. And that's been some years ago.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Oh.

[Mike Epps]

I thought I was gonna be able to be that person with her. Like, mm, mm. Let me show her this other. Cause she didn't know. I said, let me show her this other side of me. Hi. Come in the house. She was like, if you do that shit, it's over. And I respected that, and I. I wanted to be with her. That.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Is that the type of person that you needed?

[Mike Epps]

Hell, yeah. If I would have been with somebody who thought that was cool, what I did, I probably wouldn't be sitting here.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You'd have been back at square one.

[Mike Epps]

Yeah, probably would have. Anything could have happened. So sometimes you have to have people threaten you with not being in your life. That's right. To make you. It's either this or that. So I picked that. I picked a good wife. She's a beautiful mother to my kids. Great wife, very smart. You know, She's a producer herself.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Okay.

[Mike Epps]

Yanna Van Zant, different shows. So she understands the business, which I got blessed with.

[Shannon Sharpe]

That joke stealing. I hear a lot of. Some say, look, if that's the best joke you ever gonna tell, okay, I guess you can get upset about it, or somebody will say, write a better joke. Where are you on joke stealing?

[Mike Epps]

I don't know. I'll be honest. I don't know how you could steal a joke. I don't know what that is. The problem with that is, is we all think alike. Mm. You know, all the way down. All the way down to telling a joke. The same. Sometimes it's a million jokes in the world, man. Redd Fox used to do whole sets of stock jokes. I Don't know where the he got them jokes, but he was telling them and was loving them.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Right.

[Mike Epps]

Richard Pryor did all the jokes that Paul Mooney wrote for him. I don't know. I don't know how you can steal a joke. You know, I hear people say shit I say all the time, and I just. I recognize it, keep going. But I don't never go to nobody and tell them, hey, man, you can't say that, right?

[Shannon Sharpe]

You don't draw no attention to it. You just like. You keep it moving.

[Mike Epps]

Yeah. Because the reality of that is, is that I can take a joke and tell it, and a little young guy can tell the joke and tell it, and if nobody know who the he is, it ain't his joke no way. Right? It's not. Mm. You know, people stole all kind of shit from me coming up, but I don't can't steal a joke, man. They all joke, they all ideas.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Is it true that you was gambling one time with Oak and you lost.

[Mike Epps]

40 grand with Charles Oakland? Yeah, Hell yeah. Around with him. Remember Charles Gerald Lavert? Yeah, man, them NBA niggas was in a hotel gambling and shit, and I thought I could jump in there.

[Shannon Sharpe]

You pay Oak? Cause I was gonna call Oak, say Oak, I got him here for you. I know that.

[Mike Epps]

That nigga know me too. I know that nigga. Hell yeah.

[Shannon Sharpe]

I was talking to him on the way over here.

[Mike Epps]

Nah, I didn't lose no money to him. I mean, I didn't owe him. I just lost some money gambling. But damn, that was the thing about with them NBA players. They had way more money than me. Yeah, I thought I could jump in there.

[Shannon Sharpe]

No, you can't weather them storms. It's like the casino got up quick.

[Mike Epps]

I got that money and got my ass up out of there. I'm outta there. This nigga Charles Oakley.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Let me ask you this. Why is it important for you to take these young comedians on the road?

[Mike Epps]

You know, I remember when I was young, and I remember how it felt to go on tour with the OGs. And I knew how important it was for them to learn and for me to learn too. You know, like I said, I learned from them and they learn from me. We all learn from each other, man. You know, and unfortunately, we all gotta start somewhere. So I like being on the road with these guys. We the ones tour, you know.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Has the tour started yet?

[Mike Epps]

No, the tour is starting up. What's the date on the tour? February. Huh.

[Shannon Sharpe]

So it's in 26. You kick it off in 2626.

[Mike Epps]

February 6th, we doing a worldwide tour. Like I said, Shannon, this is our third year doing it.

[Shannon Sharpe]

How many cities?

[Mike Epps]

Oh, man, we doing all the major cities. 40 cities. And if I posted it, it's on bmn shows.com bmnshows.com youm want to go on there, Check out all the dates I'm headlining this year. Last year, I was just hosting Bringing up the Young Comics. But this year, I'm coming out OG after everybody. And we got TK Kirkland on the show.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Okay.

[Mike Epps]

You know what I mean?

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah.

[Mike Epps]

We got J Ski, man. We got some of the youngest, hottest comics. It's gonna be the hottest comedy tour out, you know, you ain't gonna see no way, nowhere. Where you gonna see a better tour than this?

[Shannon Sharpe]

Wow.

[Mike Epps]

Young, hot, black comics.

[Shannon Sharpe]

And that's important. That's important. You feel this is.

[Mike Epps]

This is.

[Shannon Sharpe]

This is Mike Epps giving back.

[Mike Epps]

Hell, yeah. And Mike Epps staying in the loop, right? Cause I gotta stay in the loop with these young guys to be funny, too, as well. Teaching and learning.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Were you gifted? Tupac's Jury from All Eyes On Me cover.

[Mike Epps]

Yeah.

[Shannon Sharpe]

How you get that.

[Mike Epps]

Mutar? One of the outlaws.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah.

[Mike Epps]

Gave me that bracelet, and I gave it to Tupac's sister because I kept saying to myself, I can't.

[Shannon Sharpe]

It ain't right for you. It ain't right for you to have.

[Mike Epps]

I hold this man's bracelet. I met his sister set, and I said, I got something for you. And I gave her that. And somebody gave me the original picture of him and Suge sitting in that car. The photographer did, and I gave them to her. And I said, if I would have passed, I would have loved that somebody was real and gave my sister my bracelet, you know?

[Shannon Sharpe]

Wow.

[Mike Epps]

That was the realest thing I could have did, man. You know what I mean? Yeah, it blew her mind, too. She was like, oh, my gosh. Wow. Yeah. I gotta give you that bracelet.

[Shannon Sharpe]

I'm gonna get you out of here on this one. I had. We had two chains on. Two chains that you and him, cousins and Omar Epps. Y' all kidding?

[Mike Epps]

I ain't kidding at them, man. Black ass, big dreadlocks and shit. 2 chain, sat there and you. Yeah. You baited him into that, too. What? How?

[Shannon Sharpe]

I baited him? I said, y' all cousins? He said, yeah.

[Mike Epps]

See, Shannon, everything that you. No. Yeah. No, you. That's what I'm saying. See, I'm glad I finally worked, did this show with you, because you would bring my name up all the Time to different people trying to bait them to say up shit to me.

[Shannon Sharpe]

No, I mean saying, that's your cousin.

[Mike Epps]

Yes, you did.

[Shannon Sharpe]

How the effed up is that your cousin?

[Mike Epps]

Cause every time you ask people about me, they end up saying something up.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Did you say, that's your cousin? That's my cousin.

[Mike Epps]

No. 2 chain sat right on this, on one of these chairs and said, he must be a cousin by marriage. What kind of shit is that? That means somebody married. I married somebody that was like Kenda Chains. Let me tell you something. 2 Chainz and Omar Epps, y' all can have that slave name. I'm sitting there arguing about a damn slave name. My name is Mike X. Fucking two Chain. Said I was married by.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Y'. All by marriage.

[Mike Epps]

When me and Omar Epps, see, we was all supposed to do a TV show. Going to find out who.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Oh, y' all was gonna do a hearing. Louis Gay's show.

[Mike Epps]

Yeah. Cause we were all eps.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah.

[Mike Epps]

And I started thinking about it. I'm like, I don't wanna meet my master. Whoever the EPS is.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Cause I did that DNA, that Ancestry23andMe.

[Mike Epps]

Yes. Like a dummy. And where you from? I'm white. I'm white. That's where I'm from. I thought I was black. I am black, but.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Yeah, you are. But it's get pulled over.

[Mike Epps]

It's some white people. Yeah, my nose ain't as big as yours.

[Shannon Sharpe]

I'm like high 90% Nigerian.

[Mike Epps]

Yeah, I knew you was Nigerian. See, I called you out. I knew you was Nigerian. It takes a while for me to get to the Africans on my shit. All European popped up. So I got a lot of white in me, but I got problems.

[Shannon Sharpe]

We'll get you out of this, Mike. Is there anything that you haven't accomplished that you hope to accomplish before you're done with this business?

[Mike Epps]

Yeah, I just want to make sure I leave a great name for myself in this business so that my children can hear and live off of my legacy. That's all I want to do. I want to make sure I leave out of this business unscathed and alive so that my kids can take what I did and flourish off of it. If I can do that, I'm good. I just want my name to be good. Everybody, when they hear my name and they hear Mike Epps, they say, man, your dad was.

[Shannon Sharpe]

He was all right.

[Mike Epps]

All right, guy. Hell of a actor, comedian, shit starter sometime. But for the most part, all the way around.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Guy, what do you credit your longevity to? How have you been able to stay in this business, stay relevant for so long.

[Mike Epps]

My passion for the business, my passion for the art, I really love. I protect what I have. I protect my art. I protect my comedy. I protect it in my spirit, like, it's all I got. And I protect it and I love it and I honor it. And that. And I. And I. That's why I have. I've had longevity. I'm very passionate about the gift that was given to me, and I protect it.

[Shannon Sharpe]

What can they expect from the tour? We them ones.

[Mike Epps]

We them ones tour. This tour is gonna be the biggest one that we ever did. I'm headlining, and these guys are hilarious. Some of the greatest black young comics in the game right now. Make sure you go get them tickets. We're gonna be in all the great cities. If you went last year, you seen how fun it was. It's gonna be even bigger this year. And I'm headlining. Make sure you go get the tickets.

[Shannon Sharpe]

We the ones kicks off February 6th. What's the first state you hit? What's the first city you hitting?

[Mike Epps]

Indianapolis. Right?

[Shannon Sharpe]

Indianapolis.

[Mike Epps]

Indianapolis, my hometown. Make sure you go get them tickets, man. We the ones. Make sure y' all check out the upshaws. Coming out January 8th, our last season only on Netflix. Shannon Sharp. I appreciate you, boy.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Mike Epps.

[Mike Epps]

Ah, respect, man.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Appreciate you, bro. Appreciate you.

[Mike Epps]

All my life been grinding all my life?

[Shannon Sharpe]

Sacrifice, hustle, paid the price, wanna slice, got to roll a dice that's why.

[Mike Epps]

All my life I've been grinding all my life? Look? All my life, been grinding all my.

[Shannon Sharpe]

Life Sacrifice, hustle, paid the price, wanna slice, got to roll a dice?

[Mike Epps]

That's why all my life I've been grinding.