Episode 155 - Ray Daniels

Summary

Grits and Eggs Podcast — Episode 155 Host: Deante’ Kyle
Guest: Ray Daniels
Date: June 19, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this raw, wide-ranging conversation, Deante’ Kyle and guest Ray Daniels dive deep into Black culture, manhood, hip hop’s evolution, generational trauma, economic empowerment, and the unique dualities of being Black in America. Unfiltered and energetic, the episode covers everything from southern rap’s impact and masculine vulnerability to the obstacles and solutions for Black advancement in society. Both men reflect on their upbringings, hard-won lessons, and the necessity for new standards and councils within the Black community.

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Major Discussion Themes & Key Points

1. Hip Hop’s Southern Rise & Cultural Dynamics

• Southern Rap's Impact:
  The hosts compare legendary acts (T.I., Jeezy, Lil Wayne, Juvenile) and discuss how Southern rap shifted the hip hop landscape.
  • “Juvenile may be the reason why the south took over hip hop.” — Ray Daniels [11:56]
  • The “trap” lane: Jeezy’s authenticity vs. T.I.’s crossover strategy and New York embrace.
• Music’s Layered Influence:
  Music as a cultural voice and vehicle for generational wisdom, especially for Black men who grew up fatherless — “I learned how to deal with chicks because of Juvenile, bro.” — Deante’ [21:46]
• The Power of Representation:
  Reflecting on his own youth and the guidance hip hop offered, Deante’ underscores the genre’s capacity to shape identity and provide blueprints for living.

2. Masculinity, Vulnerability & Generational Trauma

• Father-Figure Dynamics:
  Discussion of pivotal Black movie moments (Boyz n the Hood, Friday) and how permission from strong male figures created space for vulnerability.
  • “The reason we’re not moving forward is emotional intelligence. It’s the father’s voice.” — Deante’ [26:01]
• Sacrifice and Pressure:
  Conversations about how Black men are taught from youth to carry responsibility, often at the expense of their own well-being.
  • “I thought my job was to live to die for my family.” — Ray Daniels [41:19]
• Freedom to Quit / Redefining Success:
  The hosts advocate for Black men to feel permitted to step away from struggle and stereotypes, emphasizing emotional honesty and support.
  • “Black men need permission to not participate and be a stereotype.” — Deante’ [26:56]

3. Community, Money & Economic Strategy

• Personal Branding & Self-Empowerment:
  The importance of building value in one's name as a hedge against systemic exclusion and volatility in entertainment industries.
  • "I make more money off of Ray Daniels than I make off of any of them [labels].” — Ray Daniels [59:28]
• Invisible Success and Wealth-building:
  The contrast between visible, performative wealth and discreet, generational accumulation.
  • “There’s women out here getting money and you don’t know who they are.” — Ray [61:59]
• Rethinking “Come Up” Culture: The pitfalls of hustling for fast money versus stability, standards, and community building.
  • “We gotta get away from hustling and start doing business.” — Ray [76:02]
  • Reflection on supporting Black-owned businesses and putting resources into family rather than status displays [97:27-98:17].

4. Struggle Identity & Black Advancement

• The Romance of Struggle:
  Why some Black folks cling to narratives of hardship, even in success, and the need to embrace starting “in the middle.”
  • “Your idea of overcoming the odds is your kids starting in the middle.” — Ray [51:46]
• Importance of Council & Intergenerational Cohesion:
  Imagining a “council” of successful Black people, regardless of wealth level, to harmonize efforts and perspectives.
  • “Ain’t nobody bigger than the program.” — Ray [62:55]
• Hierarchy of Needs:
  Using Maslow’s framework as a community tool: focus on food, shelter, and real connection over spectacle.
  • “Fellowship...completes the hierarchy of needs.” — Ray [93:58]

5. Systemic Obstacles, Gatekeeping, and Solutions

• Industry Gatekeepers and White Validation:
  How systemic forces co-opt Black excellence, and internal competition is stoked to maintain division.
  • “They need us to doubt ourselves. As long as we think there’s a need for others, Black people will never be in control.” — Deante’ [69:39]
• Information Sharing & Mentorship:
  Lack of resource and knowledge flows between generations and socioeconomic classes within the Black community.
  • “We don’t have any channels that we think are valuable enough to talk to each other.” — Deante’ [73:52]
  • Example: Calling out the need to share info about deal structures instead of keeping it exclusive (Buy-Sell deals) [74:42–75:33].

6. Permission, Mentorship, and Standard-Setting

• Breaking Old Patterns:
  Both hosts stress granting “permission” for Black men, especially, to be themselves, show vulnerability, and set new personal and financial standards.
  • “Just baby steps. If your mama made $40,000 a year, and you figure out how to make a hundred, you won." — Ray [90:54]
• Celebrating Everyday Success:
  The importance of recognizing and supporting “regular” achievements, not just outlier success stories (i.e., Jay-Z, NBA stars).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Southern Rap Shaping Hip Hop
  "Juvenile may be the reason why the south took over hip hop." — Ray Daniels [11:56]
• On Fathers and Vulnerability
  “Furious, being his father, gave Trey the permission to get out the car.” — Deante’ [23:53]
• On Sacrifice and Self-Neglect
  “I thought my job was to live to die for my family.” — Ray Daniels [41:19]
• On Community Wealth
  “Ain’t nobody bigger than the motherfucking program.” — Ray Daniels [62:55]
• On the Flaw of Lottery Thinking
  “We have to stop chasing these low probability outcomes. It’s okay. A young man needs to understand...if you make $100,000 a year, you’re a success.” — Ray Daniels [93:09]
• On Black Men Needing Permission to Be Themselves
  “Black men need permission to not participate and be a stereotype.” — Deante’ [26:56]
• On Standard Setting and Growth
  “We need new standards. Just because you came from struggle doesn’t mean your kid should have to.” — Deante’ [52:00]
• On Emotional Honesty
  “We have to give ourselves permission to be okay with being vulnerable with one another.” — Ray Daniels [86:22]

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Key Timestamps

• 04:05 — 06:43: Southern rap, Jeezy vs. T.I., what makes a timeless catalog
• 07:36 — 09:00: The culture vs. pure hit records in Verzuz battles
• 13:15 — 16:29: Ray’s dual upbringing in Bronx and Atlanta, Goody Mob & the lessons of southern hip hop
• 22:10 — 23:52: Hip hop as a manual for young Black men; learning about consent, relationships, masculinity
• 26:01 — 28:21: Emotional intelligence as the key missing ingredient for Black men; the difference between shame management in white vs. Black communities (bar fight vs. nightclub shooting)
• 41:19 — 43:49: The deep-seated drive to sacrifice for family, and the anxiety of “waiting to die”
• 51:13 — 52:36: The unspoken rule to always claim struggle; kids from privilege aspiring to “hood” street cred
• 61:52 — 62:27: The wealth in silence: women building empires and “winning” off the radar
• 86:22 — 87:35: On giving “permission” to be vulnerable, being honest about not having it all figured out
• 97:27 — 98:17: Shifting support from flashy spending to investments in the next generation
• 109:30 — 110:55: On respecting transactional business, not seeking white validation
• 113:12 — 115:35: Building your own brand, moving from “collared dog” to “wolf” mentality

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Final Thoughts & Takeaways

• True advancement in the Black community demands new standards of vulnerability, mentorship, and economic thinking.
• Success should not be defined through struggle but through building platforms, sharing knowledge, and supporting each other at every level.
• The need for permission and positive affirmation—especially for Black men—to break cycles of trauma and embrace vulnerability cannot be overstated.
• The rise of personal brands and platforms outside of legacy institutions is creating new opportunities and autonomy for Black creators and leaders—but collective action, council, and open resources are still key.
• Challenging old systems and building new ones—within families, communities, and economics—remains the path forward.

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“I do this to show every young Black man what freedom looks like... Just be yourself.”
— Ray Daniels [116:06]

“We ain’t here for the company, nigga. We’re here for the people.”
— Deante’ Kyle [117:00]

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Transcript

[Ray Daniels]

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[Deontay Kyle]

Chime.com disclosures this episode is brought to you by Starbucks. That is fire. Whoa, that's good.

[Ray Daniels]

This might be the drink of the summer. Okay, I like this one too.

[Deontay Kyle]

I'm rocking with it. Okay, try it for yourself. Starbucks refreshers concentrates are coming home. Find them in the coffee aisle and make it yours.

[Ray Daniels]

Yayo woke up in the morning and to God be the glory Thankful for another day to tell my story Put my opinions in the universe and let them orbit I'm from the dirty soul

[Deontay Kyle]

with a dirty mouth my knee or

[Ray Daniels]

a bit miss things things on me like a Norbit had to refuse them cause my no rest Fusion she gorgeous as I doubt my sons up and kiss my daughter forehead tell them we gonna get this money to my pockets

[Deontay Kyle]

morbid Remember living in apartments now we playing mortgage. Ti's a trap nigga but he a trap nigga that made trap hits. Jeezy's a trap nigga that stayed in the trap nigga lane. So that way when they go against each other, Jeezy's gonna hit him a little different because he's gonna hit culture and Tip gonna hit hits.

[Ray Daniels]

Tip got some culture shit though.

[Deontay Kyle]

I'm not saying he don't, but what I'm saying is you think.

[Ray Daniels]

You think Jeezy. You think Jeezy beat TI in the versus?

[Deontay Kyle]

I think Jeezy's catalog has aged better than TI's. Yes. Look at it from this standpoint. So. So I think Like, T, I only

[Ray Daniels]

got one hit song that I don't like.

[Deontay Kyle]

Which is what?

[Ray Daniels]

That Louis Rash.

[Deontay Kyle]

I only consider that a hit.

[Ray Daniels]

I'm saying this. This is a single. This is a. This is a set, commercial hit. We're gonna get TI With Swiss beats, and we gonna make a hit like that. So a single. Yes, yes. But what I'm saying is formulaically, like, the formulaic version of this is a hit.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yeah.

[Ray Daniels]

We put big artists with big hits,

[Deontay Kyle]

but even then, Tip goes and gets the Swiss Beast record. Right. Tip was the Atlanta nigga that was smart enough to know it was a bigger world out there. So he was playing the bigger game. That works because he became a big.

[Ray Daniels]

Yeah, because he did. Because Swizz did. To bring him out shit. That's what kind of like, took the shit together. That's my point.

[Deontay Kyle]

Like, Tip was always the Atlanta nigga that New York embraced. So my only thing I'm saying is that he embraced their sound.

[Ray Daniels]

Yeah.

[Deontay Kyle]

And that's. And to me, it's like. Nothing wrong with that.

[Ray Daniels]

But he could rap his ass off, though. But okay, so in A versus, though. This is my. This is my thing.

[Deontay Kyle]

Please. I like. By the way, I like talking like this about. About music. I feel like the reason why music is not as big as it should be is because we don't talk enough in depth about what it is that it means.

[Ray Daniels]

Well, I think the thing is this. And this song I had to learn growing up.

[Deontay Kyle]

Okay.

[Ray Daniels]

So the street is a very small percentage of the music based off. It might be the thing that gets you bubbling. It might be the thing that push you to it. Push you to prominence in the sense where a record label or Ray Daniels might. You might get on Ray Daniel's radar.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yeah.

[Ray Daniels]

Cause he tapped in with the street.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yeah.

[Ray Daniels]

You go. You basically, what your career has been is taking this shit from the street and put it in front of the corporate people, letting them aware, making them aware of this is what's hot.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

So. But once I get you into the corporate world, I done opened you up to the whole of America and beyond, which ain't got shit to do with the streets. And nor do they give a fuck. They like everything. Black is the streets to them.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

So it don't matter if TI Make a Swiss Beats track. They gonna still call that a trap song if they not from the hood.

[Deontay Kyle]

Exactly.

[Ray Daniels]

You see what I'm saying?

[Deontay Kyle]

Exactly.

[Ray Daniels]

So the majority. And then we gotta account for women who. It can be hit or miss with them. With the street shit where she Might like, she might like. If you find a girl that like standing ovation From Thug Motivation 101, I already know. We could ride around, work we could do. I still have my pistol for me.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

You know what I'm saying? But if she like whatever you like, this might be the same girl.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

So it's like it can go either way where she might fuck with standing ovation, but whatever you like might be like something that this one ringtones was popping.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

A nigga had that as her ringtone. And she gonna forever remember that. And then that's what Sway shit. So I would say in A versus long form, the hits gon they gonna beat out whatever. Like the street. Whatever the street feel more than anything.

[Deontay Kyle]

I disagree.

[Ray Daniels]

Okay?

[Deontay Kyle]

What made me disagree was when Jermaine Dupri and Puff were about to do the verses. And I remember Jermaine was like, what you gonna do when I play Usher? Right? And it was like, yo, bro. He goes. And it was like, like. And I looked at it through this lens, right? So he's like, what you gonna do when I play Usher? What you gonna do when I hit with Mariah? And I'm like, what is he gonna do? And Puff said, I'm gonna do this.

[Ray Daniels]

Now hit me up. Now hit me up.

[Deontay Kyle]

Now hit me up.

[Ray Daniels]

That's not fair though.

[Deontay Kyle]

No, but that's my point. So you start looking at it like. So when that changed my thoughts, I was like. Because I'm like, there's no way. Because Jermaine had all of the hits. When Puff said, when I play. And you start thinking about the culture. See that? I'm glad you said that about music. Right. You said there's a mute. It's like there's a girl who might hear Jeezy standing ovation. And you know she a trap girl. Same girl getting to call the different nigga playing whatever you like. Same girl gives a different. A different experience. It's the same thing. So it's like when we look at hits, we like them folks like that shit too. That's how we factor in his. Them folks like that too. Right? But when it becomes. When it's the culture and it's like. And the Locks taught me that.

[Ray Daniels]

When it was like, okay, that is a perfect example. Because I say this. I'm the person that's gonna go to bed. Just. I try to be objective about it now. Cause shit do go ways that you don't think it's gonna go for sure. But I feel like when J the Kiss did the all praises, all burners, all raises. And I'm like, yo. He. I said, yo, there's nothing they can do. It don't matter what song you play, nigga, it's nothing you can do.

[Deontay Kyle]

And what I'm telling you is that I think. And I always looked at it like, I always looked at Tip. To me, like, Tip is. Tip is the most important rapper in southern rap history. I think Tip beats Wayne by just a few points because Wayne's running was vass. Tip run was his run was dirty. South king of the south, trap music. It was like his stain is still here. Wayne was a rapper. So if you a rap nigga, you love Wayne. But Tip gave everybody the template on what the followers.

[Ray Daniels]

I'm gonna tell you something. I'm gonna tell you another thing though too, that T I did is that he made very cohesive albums.

[Deontay Kyle]

True.

[Ray Daniels]

His albums were his albums gave you every part of what he does well. So if it's trap music, he got it. If it's booty shaking music, he got it. If it's the song for the girls, he got it. If it's the. If it's. If it's bars, quantifiable single, he got it. And if it's bars, he gonna come out on every intro, he gonna give you straight bars, period. Just so it's no confusion, period. But then also he raised the stakes with N. When they get on the track with him. There ain't a nigga that got on the track with TI you got some of your. You got one of Young Buck. Best verses come from T.I. yeah, BG's. Some of BG. Best verses come from you see what I'm saying? Even Jeezy early in his career, one of his best verses, especially from a feature standpoint. So I would say with Wayne, the thing about Wayne is his. Like when he took off into the stratosphere, it was mixtapes. So he taking everybody else's.

[Deontay Kyle]

See, here's the thing. I see Wayne differently. See what I'm saying? Like I'm Wayne, I'm two years older than Wayne. So I remember 14 year old Wayne. I remember, you know what I'm saying? Loud pipes, big rims, nigga, that's my life. He was just a south nigga. And then he started hanging with east coast niggas and N from different places and he started changing his approach. Cause what people don't understand is that when Cash Money came out, Juvenile was the star.

[Ray Daniels]

He was the nigga.

[Deontay Kyle]

BG was really the first star. Juvenile caught the peak and then Wayne just slowly just took the rock and kept going.

[Ray Daniels]

I'm gonna ask you something before we can pedal back to that Wayne conversation. I had made a statement, and people loved it and people hated it. That's how I knew it was a good one.

[Deontay Kyle]

Okay.

[Ray Daniels]

I love that I said that Juvenile may be the reason why the south took over hip hop.

[Deontay Kyle]

Absolutely. Absolutely.

[Ray Daniels]

Okay, so listen. And this is my. This is my thing.

[Deontay Kyle]

Perfect.

[Ray Daniels]

He give you high. Yep. Which is a look into New Orleans that you've never seen before.

[Deontay Kyle]

A whole different way.

[Ray Daniels]

It's the real. These niggas got a Lamborghini in the project in the middle of a puddle.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

And he got that no shirt, gold teeth. Okay, cool.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

Then he come. He followed up with Back that Ass up, which is a generational classic song. And then the hot boys come, and they tearing over everything. And at the same time, you got Ludacris, you got Outkast, where they coming with they hits. And everything in the south just look better than everything we had seen before. Like, this is the first time we see a. This is the first time we seeing niggas having space to move around. Like, the bombs off the back, that video, these niggas is running through the projects, but they got space to do that in New York. It's like concrete buildings. Everything, like, tall structure is very, like, cagey. Where in the south, everything was spread out. So, like, all Ludacris videos was super fi. And it's like, okay, cool.

[Deontay Kyle]

It's funny because what you said about the tip thing, like. Like, I feel like I always. I always look at, like, why did God put me here? Right. And I have dualities that I can understand that makes me unique to everybody else. Right. Like, I lived in the Bronx from 79 to 91, so I. I remember block parties when we hip hop, like, was bubbling. Like. I remember hearing Rakim for the first time. Like, I came in the door, I said. And I. But I hated it, though. I knew I was in the projects. I hated it. We was the. We was the family in the projects that had more money because my uncle was a big dope boy. But we were still in the projects.

[Ray Daniels]

Right?

[Deontay Kyle]

Right. So then I moved to Atlanta. October 91, I just turned 12, and I moved to Atlanta. And now we at the bottom of the pile because my uncle goes to jail six months after we move here. And at the bottom of the pile. So now I gotta. So now I'm basically dropped back off the gen pop. But now I'm in the South Right. So now when I'm in the south, had teachers, right. It was like, I always tell ma', am, I don't think Goody Mob and Outkast know how much they mean to us. Like, when you 15, 16, and you could go. When you listen, on one hand, you listening to Kingpin Skinny Pimp that's talking about, y' all niggas ain't no killers. Y' all niggas some hoes. And that's all we bumping.

[Ray Daniels]

Yeah.

[Deontay Kyle]

Listen to that shit and then go from that to Atlanta. It was my Atlanta brothers that was saying, you need to get up, get out, and get something. So that was my voice of logic. In the middle of. I bet you won't hit a motherfucker.

[Ray Daniels]

Hit him.

[Deontay Kyle]

It's like in the middle of that, I still got CeeLo voice chargers. The part of my day, it's like, I remember that. So.

[Ray Daniels]

Yeah, because this the thing I would say that help you understand this from being down here, is that these niggas are repeating things our grandmothers are saying to us.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

They repeating shit that church folks saying us.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

And the shit that we would normally be like, man, we ain't trying to hear that shit. But when somebody your age that you respect say, it's like, well, we all know. We all know better.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

So it's like the first time when I hear cell therapy, and he say, I don't know if these. If these gates is to keep them out or keep our ass in. I say, ooh, hold on, man.

[Deontay Kyle]

Cause everybody in Atlanta lived in gated communities, but it was like the hood gated communities. So I remember living in Hidden woods being like. Cause we. That was something we bragged on. We live in a gated community. Yeah. And you hit a nigga, say, I don't know if these gates to keep them out or keep.

[Ray Daniels]

Yo, hey, that fucked me up.

[Deontay Kyle]

It changes your kids.

[Ray Daniels]

Yes, I was a kid.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes. Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

So it's like. And then you hearing this stuff as a kid. And then as you get older and more mature, it's like, it's so put in your brain that, like, you start noticing it.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes. It start making sense.

[Ray Daniels]

You start noticing that at school, you start noticing your first time you go to jail. You start noticing it when you passing by gated community, it's like, I mean, that's nice and all, but God damn. I mean, what's the point? And then you start knowing where it is about keeping others out and where it is about keeping you contained.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

You start noticing the differences of how they use gaze.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

And so, like, the south was always this thing where it was, like, when it took over, it didn't just take over with one sound and one style. It took over with a multitude of different. Not only personalities, but, like, niggas that could really spit. Cause, like, quiet as kept. Ludacris can really rap.

[Deontay Kyle]

One of the best rappers.

[Ray Daniels]

He can really rap?

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

Juvenile can really rap.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

But BG will give it to you. Like, it's like you talking to a nigga on the corner in New Orleans when you listen to his music, bro,

[Deontay Kyle]

I love that you saying that. Because in the 90s, there has to be a story told of the rise of Southern hip hop. And I think I've seen it firsthand, because so I look at it like this, right? Master P comes in and he's the first established businessman of hip hop. Right. But what we find out is later on in life is that P really wasn't in New Orleans. P was the. No, Nick, the New Orleans guy that went to the west coast to learn how to do it so he can bring it back to New Orleans. Baby and Slim, they was really in the trenches in New Orleans. So once we go from listening to. Once we go from listening to no limit to now, here come cash money, like. And I'm talking about bg, like, get your shine on. Get like. I'm talking about, like, cash money. And then what people don't understand about the south is, is that you had New Orleans and you had Memphis. Those are really the juggernauts. Texas, too. But Texas was spread out, right? Cause UGK was from Port Arthur, Right. So they not from Houston. Right. So.

[Ray Daniels]

And Texas niggas will win in Texas and don't care.

[Deontay Kyle]

Don't have to leave if they win

[Ray Daniels]

in Texas, they don't care about nowhere else.

[Deontay Kyle]

I think in Texas, I don't need to ever leave this state.

[Ray Daniels]

They good.

[Deontay Kyle]

Maybe go to Memphis real quick to get some money in Arkansas.

[Ray Daniels]

Arkansas. They might go to surrounding places that you ignore. Like, they might show up in Lafayette, Louisiana, or Shreveport. But that might be the extent of it.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

Cause they know, like, the Texas own country down there.

[Deontay Kyle]

Exactly. So when you look at it there. And then you have Miami. So you had Luke. Atlanta was more Luke sound. Atlanta was more. The hardest rapper in Atlanta was Hitman Sammy Sam. And if you listen to Rob with some killers, you might think it's some booty shake shit.

[Ray Daniels]

Yeah.

[Deontay Kyle]

But when you hear that nigga Rob, what's the killers, it's like he Was really a street dude.

[Ray Daniels]

But then that's also. We had. We had that. We had, like, our own house music sound.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

And then they were there that. What's up?

[Deontay Kyle]

What's up, Kilo Raheem and Dream.

[Ray Daniels]

It was a lot of cause, like, the vibe. You gotta think, peak. Freaknik.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

We need something for the freaknik.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes. And Atlanta was a place where it had the women. It wasn't street here. I'm telling you. Pastor Troy started it. I don't think Pastor Troy gets enough credit. I was an Atlanta guy. I'm still an Atlanta guy. I remember being a kid when we went places as Atlanta people. We didn't scream anything. Like, you know how, like, you go places and you still hear somebody say, it's Brooklyn in the house. Brooklyn folks like, Brooklyn in the house, you know? Yeah, we didn't have. You didn't have that right. So. So. So when you come to. So I'm sorry. We was talking about. My bad, bro. I lost my train of thought.

[Ray Daniels]

You talking about when he started the down. The South Georgia boy.

[Deontay Kyle]

Shit, DSGB, nigga. I was there. Black College reunion. I was 19. And it was like, you went to Florida, and if you was from Florida, you was playing Trick Daddy. But if you was from Atlanta, you would have been playing three, six, ugk, eight baller, mjg. We would have been playing that. That was the first time we all was playing one person. And it was like wherever you went, it was like. We read. It was like the first time we took pride in being Atlanta. Right outside of Atlanta.

[Ray Daniels]

That was. That was Troy, too. That.

[Deontay Kyle]

No, no, that was.

[Ray Daniels]

No, but.

[Deontay Kyle]

But Usher.

[Ray Daniels]

That sound came.

[Deontay Kyle]

That was the first time that Atlanta went from, like, booty shake to, like, a little serious.

[Ray Daniels]

Nah, that was militant street, like, get your ass beat.

[Deontay Kyle]

You gotta understand. Atlanta's the city too busy to hate. And then here come Pastor Troy saying, hey, yo. He didn't say, tell him Troy wants war he said, tell them all the down south, that's us. Yeah, we can't fuck with no Limit no more which makes it easy for

[Ray Daniels]

cash money to get no more playing

[Deontay Kyle]

Ga N. We can't fuck with no Limit no more so now here comes 400 degrees, which I think 400 degrees is probably in the last four years of the 90s, is the. Probably the most important Southern rap album.

[Ray Daniels]

What I'm telling you, bro, it's most important.

[Deontay Kyle]

It's the most important Southern rap album.

[Ray Daniels]

It's an amazing. It's a classic album. But you gotta think what it did this is like certain artists. This is the point that you making about TI this is the point that niggas can make about Ludacris. This the point you can make about Juvenile. These niggas understand how to put everything about them in the album.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

And they give you all parts. So you like worst Jay Z verse of all time. Where's Jay Z Versus all time? That High remakes. I don't know why we did that.

[Deontay Kyle]

Please.

[Ray Daniels]

But that show you the power of a nigga from in 99.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

Could get that Jay Z burst.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

You did what I'm saying.

[Deontay Kyle]

That was a statement. Yeah. Big just died. Jay is the biggest dude in New York, and we got him.

[Ray Daniels]

We got him, bruh. And we got his worst shit, bro.

[Deontay Kyle]

And let me tell you something, man. What niggas don't. What people don't understand is. Is how these rappers gave us the blueprint. I learned how to deal with chicks because of Juvenile, bro. Let's say I'm in the room with a bitch and the hold on one foot like a man. I'mma beat my meat and get my fucking nut for sure. It's like, that's how you do it. Okay. Like, you know, like, as a young dude, you would be mashing. It's like that. I know that sounds crazy. That's why I love. That's why I speak.

[Ray Daniels]

That was a listening on consent.

[Deontay Kyle]

What? Exactly. Like, I'm gonna be my meat and get my.

[Ray Daniels]

Look, I want a nut, but you don't want to let me get it. I'm gonna go get mine myself. I ain't gonna take this shit.

[Deontay Kyle]

You tell her everything else. She gonna be with a. I'm like, bro, these guys were giving young black men the blueprint. That's why I know how important hip hop is. Cause I didn't have a dad around.

[Ray Daniels]

But you gotta also understand how the streets age niggas, too. These is niggas that we getting wisdom from. They 19.

[Deontay Kyle]

That's another thing. You so right, bro. You so hard.

[Ray Daniels]

I'm learning. Everything I'm learning from niggas is like five, maybe, maybe 10 years older than me, bro. That's why I'm like, God damn. Cause when you go back and think about it, like, juvenile. He what, 19, 20?

[Deontay Kyle]

Yeah.

[Ray Daniels]

He ain't no.

[Deontay Kyle]

The man was juvenile.

[Ray Daniels]

You see what I'm saying? BG is baby gangsta, baby gangsta. You see what I'm saying, Lil Wayne? These is essentially kids. But these niggas live. Done live such a life. They wise behind Their years. And so. And the same could be said for all these artists at the peak of their superstardom. The difference between artists nowadays and artists then is that your 19 to 24 year olds had a maturity about them where they had. They had like an understanding of the world around them and themselves.

[Deontay Kyle]

Responsibility. They knew they had a responsibility, bro. Yeah, bro. You one of my favorite people, man. Like, I love talking to you. And what. What I see happening is, is that we as young black men don't understand that we have a responsibility.

[Ray Daniels]

Absolutely.

[Deontay Kyle]

I'm tell you something. I think that Hollywood killed it and music killed it. I know this sounds crazy, but I think the two most important movies for my childhood, for me as a black man, Ice Cube was in both scenes. Boyz na Hood.

[Ray Daniels]

Mm.

[Deontay Kyle]

Furious, being his father, gave Trey the permission to get out the car.

[Ray Daniels]

Yes.

[Deontay Kyle]

As a young man, you gotta. You don't pay attention to nobody else. Father's not in the movie. But because we heard that voice of Furious when they bout to go do something that's gonna basically take Trey from going to Morehouse and living his life to being a murderer. His dad voice. But let me tell you how powerful his dad voice was. His friends respected it.

[Ray Daniels]

They respected it.

[Deontay Kyle]

Hey, let him out. We don't want to hear fear in his mouth either.

[Ray Daniels]

And they didn't. Oh, you bitch ass nigga.

[Deontay Kyle]

Oh, you punk.

[Ray Daniels]

I don't want to do that. I'm not trying to deal with your daddy, bro.

[Deontay Kyle]

I'm not. Bro. Let him out the car.

[Ray Daniels]

And you talking to a nigga. This another thing too. As a father. He had a fathering moment in that movie while teaching gangster niggas about gentrification.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes, bro, Bro. Second part, Second movie Friday. When he about to go grab the gun and his dad is like, put the gun down. And his dad gave him permission to get his ass kicked. Yeah, it's okay to get your ass kicked. Same way Trae dad gave him permission to get out the car. Now let's take that into consideration as young black men. I know you grew up watching those same movies that I did. Those. We place ourselves in those movies as characters. And that makes us think when the last time you saw a furious moment where they told somebody in the movie, said something powerful and said, get out the car. When's the last time we seen that? We don't even tell. It's like our stories can't get told no more.

[Ray Daniels]

No. If Hollywood tell that story. Trey, Trey go. And then Trey, Trey get a 40 ball.

[Deontay Kyle]

Love it.

[Ray Daniels]

Or Trey go. And then he snitch.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

And then he go back to the hood and get killed.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

And the reality is they try to make niggas in the hood seem robotic and animalistic when they not. These niggas have hearts and souls, too. So the reason why they sliding is cause this nigga little brother had such a promising future. Yeah. And got murdered in front of us.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yeah. Oh, and by the way, it was over something so small.

[Ray Daniels]

It was over the pettiest shit ever. And it was over some fuck niggas just trying to prove theyself.

[Deontay Kyle]

I was about to go there. I was gonna ask you this, bro. Like me. Like, when I see us as young black men, I think the one thing stopping us from growth is emotional intelligence. It's the va. It's the father's voice. My mother was like a man in my house. So I didn't have a loving voice. That's why as a young man, I ran to women. I wanted to sleep with as many women as I could because I didn't grow up with love. My mother was more like a nigger.

[Ray Daniels]

Yeah.

[Deontay Kyle]

I remember I got a gun put to my head, bro. I went to my mom thinking she gonna cry and give me a hug. My mom says, good for your stupid ass. You ain't no drug dealer. That's not what you do. Go get a fucking job and be a man. And I did it. And it's like, you know, here I am. Right? But I needed those voices to tell me, dummy, Dummy, you bout to go commit a murder. Dummy, you bout to go grab your gun instead of going outside fighting them, dummy. And I think what young black men need, in my opinion, are permission to not participate and be a young black stereotype.

[Ray Daniels]

Yeah. I'll give you out. I wanna build on that. Because I think that we also have a generation of kids that are dealing with a different reality than us. True. Where if me and you get in a fight and I lose, I gotta go sit with that loss. But you get time to realize it ain't as bad. Yeah.

[Deontay Kyle]

Today's on camera.

[Ray Daniels]

If it's on camera, it's a million n just watching me get whooped. So now, even though realistically, in four days, nobody gonna give a fuck, in this moment, I'm going through these comments. You gotta account for the emotional part of it, the paranoia that get uncontrollable. And then you gotta account for the fact that y', all, even your homeboys, when they saying, like, bro, just chill out. You don't even believe them when they Say that.

[Deontay Kyle]

And I'm gonna tell you something. And I'm glad you said that. And I think the answer to that is a man that you respect telling you it's okay. I took a loss. Yeah.

[Ray Daniels]

Yeah.

[Deontay Kyle]

I got beat up when I was younger, too. It's okay. You get up and you fight another,

[Ray Daniels]

it's like, you ain't gonna lose no friends.

[Deontay Kyle]

No.

[Ray Daniels]

And honestly, as long as you ain't run, you ain't nobody gonna lose no reputation. Because here's the thing. Every nigga that's saying what they woulda did or coulda did, they ain't did shit and they ain't gonna do shit. I tell my son that. Like, I got 14 year old, and I tell him, like, look, man, the idea of being a pussy is all in your head.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yeah. Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

It's all in your head.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yeah.

[Ray Daniels]

Because the thing is, is that the fact that you willing to fight it, cancel out 85% of niggas that's around you, period. Because most of them niggas ain't gonna fight, period. Everybody the same. Niggas that's always talking about what they would do in a fight is the same niggas that know exactly how to

[Deontay Kyle]

avoid a fight that's so real. So right, bro.

[Ray Daniels]

They gonna joke they way out of it. Yep. They're gonna say it's not that deep. Yeah. They'll deal with getting punk.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yep.

[Ray Daniels]

As long as we don't gotta just. We ain't gotta put our hands on the line. I ain't gotta put my hands on the line.

[Deontay Kyle]

I will ask you this. I always say this. You see, you heard the term bar fight.

[Ray Daniels]

Yeah.

[Deontay Kyle]

You've heard that. Why is bar fight only a white term? Like, my point is, is that white men can have a fight and beat the shit out of each other, and after it's done. All right. Go home.

[Ray Daniels]

Well, because there's no stigma. You know, white people have incredible pr. The most violent people to ever walk this earth are not seen as violent.

[Deontay Kyle]

Exactly.

[Ray Daniels]

They're almost seen as, like, innocent. And it's like. And a bar fight can be seen as juvenile. Oh, just some kids in a bar. We already understand, like, it's a bar. You know what I mean? Whatever. It's alcohol involved. They give themselves all the excuses. Now with us, we don't have like a. A singular. We don't really do bars. Cause we like to dance.

[Deontay Kyle]

I said bar fight because in our business is a nightclub shooting.

[Ray Daniels]

Right, Exactly. That's what I was gonna say.

[Deontay Kyle]

We have nightclub shootings and My thing is, is we was at a party one night, this dude gets beat up. Like, you know, he fight my brother. They beat this dude up. And as soon as they beat him up, everybody was like, don't go to the car. Security's like, everybody go outside. You run into the car and it's like, that's our problem. I think our problem as black men is we can't take shame. We don't have permission to take shame. And my thing is, that's why I go back to Friday, and that's why I go back to the boys n the hood scene. Cause it's like in those moments.

[Ray Daniels]

Cause the white boy get the shit beat out of him and just be like, okay. They'll be like, dude, he fucking kicked your ass, man.

[Deontay Kyle]

Don't fight him no more. He be like, I know, right? But it's like with us. And I asked you that. Cause like, I'm older now, right? And I got my son with me. He's with me all the time. And I'm always like, I know emotionally who I am. So no one can trick me out my spot, right? No one can make me mad in a moment where I can do something. And now I know my life is altered. I know who I am, but I'm like, if more young men knew who they were, they wouldn't do dumb. So I almost feel like. Like I'm. I think my superpowers. I'm connected to my 16 year old self. Yeah, I remember that. He was sitting right here with me and I remember feeling 16, thinking I got to do stupid because that's what the girls like. They like the. That was in jail. And I'm like, I remember, bro. I'm telling you honest truth, bro. Ask any one of my friends. I used to walk around high, like, acting like I was high because that's what girls like. I ain't never smoke a drink. I didn't smoke until I was 42 years old. But I just. That's what I thought. So it'd be those moments where you see yourself, that you'd be like, man, I'm lame as. Man, I fuck. I'm trying to act like I'm high. Nigga, if you ain't high, don't be high. Why you. I remember the moment I could accept that I'm broke. And I'm like, I finally told the chick I ain't got it. Yeah, I'm trying to figure it out. And then she was like, okay. Like, it was like, damn, I didn't.

[Ray Daniels]

Then you find Somebody you can build with.

[Deontay Kyle]

I never knew that I could tell somebody that.

[Ray Daniels]

But what you was doing is you stripping away the facade and we. Okay, so there's who I feel like I need to be. There's a couple of different things that play into this. So you have a history of people who are being demeaned and brutalized without the ability to retaliate.

[Deontay Kyle]

Talk.

[Ray Daniels]

The ability to retaliate. Even if you take the ability, then you die.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yeah.

[Ray Daniels]

Automatic.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

You know what I mean? Swinging on a white man. That's a death sentence.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

You know what I mean?

[Deontay Kyle]

Life's over. Even if it's not death. Life's over.

[Ray Daniels]

Your life is. It's over.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yep.

[Ray Daniels]

You know, you gotta skip town. You gotta leave everything behind so you have the pride in. This is an ability. This is a place where I can retaliate without a deathly consequence. Right amongst my brother.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

Because we're equal.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

You know what I mean? Now, the second part of this is. Is prison culture being intertwined with street culture, where in prison, nothing can slide. Not a look, not a bump.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

Not nothing. I would say the idea of a nigga stepping on your shoe and you killing him is directly related to prison culture.

[Deontay Kyle]

Bro talk, bro. That's why when I seen you, I'm like, this dude is a hero. Because people are still talking about the. I don't think they're looking at the big picture. The big picture is young black men are lost.

[Ray Daniels]

They lost.

[Deontay Kyle]

And we do. I used to do stupid shit. I did armed robberies when I was a kid because I thought I had to. Yeah. I thought that that's my only way out. And then it's like, you ask yourself, like. Like I always say this, bro. I live to say this. When I was in high school, I was a. My GPA was like 1.2. I graduated at the bottom of my class because the one thing I did was. The one thing you shouldn't do in high school is talk. But now I talk and make money doing it.

[Ray Daniels]

Yeah. You feel me?

[Deontay Kyle]

So it's like what they write, or was I right?

[Ray Daniels]

Nah, they was wrong. 100.

[Deontay Kyle]

That's my point.

[Ray Daniels]

Because I'm telling you, this is the thing. This is the main thing that got me in trouble my whole life. My mother fucking mouth. My mama used to tell me all the time, like, it's gonna be your mouth, nigga. If it ain't nothing else, it's gonna be your mouth, she said, and your mouth could be the thing that gets you out or the thing that gets you put in, she said, because you understand people and how to talk. And she said you could go outside right now. You can either make an enemy or a friend for life. That's the type of nigga you are. So you need to understand how to speak in certain rooms. Like your vocabulary was very important for my momma.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

But just even the ability to articulate. If you gonna talk to street niggas, you gotta be able to talk to corporate niggas too.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

Same here. You see what I'm saying?

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

So like, same thing with the armed robbery shit. I always tell N like, I only rob niggas that's doing illegal shit because I don't wanna break in nobody house.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yeah.

[Ray Daniels]

I don't wanna run a nigga house on a home invasion. And like, they can call the police.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yeah.

[Ray Daniels]

But if I rob a drug dealer, he can't call the police.

[Deontay Kyle]

You can't call the police.

[Ray Daniels]

You can't call the police.

[Deontay Kyle]

Can't do nothing.

[Ray Daniels]

I wanna keep the police out of it. I never understood this N. I never understood niggas. Like, bro, what is we robbing innocent people for? Listen, bro, you know what they can do? They can call the police.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

And they can give you a description of you nigga.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

And it's only gonna take two people before it get back to you.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

Once they describe you. Come on, bro, I'm cool. I'll rob a drug dealer with no mask, come get me. Yeah. Cause you can't call the police. So.

[Deontay Kyle]

Right.

[Ray Daniels]

I always was trying to stay out the police. I was always trying to stay out of jail.

[Deontay Kyle]

I was just a bad drug dealer, bro. Like, I remember my girlfriend at the time, like, I didn't even want to call myself a drug dealer. Like, I was selling weed and I was like, no, I just sell weed. She's like, raymond, you're selling drugs. I'm like, no, I'm not. I'm just trying to get into the music business. That's all it is.

[Ray Daniels]

I was a horrible drug dealer. I'm gonna tell you why I was a bad drug dealer. Cause I ain't care about money.

[Deontay Kyle]

Same here. I just wanted to survive. I just needed to get to it.

[Ray Daniels]

And I just like the freedom of not clocking in and like, these my niggas for real. So it's like I'm just outside, bro. I like being outside. I got a little money to do. Like, I don't got no big responsibilities. And you know what I'm saying? And like, if I'm outside like this you know, I always got somewhere to stay. So when my mom put me out for being in the street, I always got somewhere I can go. But, like, really, more than anything, I was just trying to figure out what I wanted to do. I knew I went in school and I'm relatively smart enough. Like, my thing is this. I was always smart enough to understand, like, it ain't selling drugs that's gonna get me in trouble if I keep it. If I keep to, like, my little half pound, if I keep to my little pills, I'm good. Cause I'm serving the same people all the time. And I just don't accept no new clients unless you come over here with a nigga that I know. You know what I'm saying? So it was like. It was like working a goddamn forklift job. Basically. Like, it's like I'm making the equivalent of like 12 to $14 an hour. When you really break it down. I basically got a job. I know I'm not gonna get caught selling drugs. Cause I'm not hanging in a crack house. Like, these niggas don't sell crack. Everybody sell weed and pills. So we good for real. It's the. That you do the. It's the hot. It's the robbing a house.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

It's the breaking. It's the breaking and entering. Off on plugs, running off on plugs. Stealing, Stealing car. Yeah. It's all the hot that's gonna get you locked up.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yeah.

[Ray Daniels]

Cuz that high stress.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yeah.

[Ray Daniels]

This low stressful. Everybody that come to me want what I got. Nobody want to get robbed.

[Deontay Kyle]

Nobody.

[Ray Daniels]

That's where you create anxiety. Like, damn, we just ran off on this. Well, guess what, dummy? He finna come look for some. And he know who you be with.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yeah.

[Ray Daniels]

So now he looking for me too.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yeah.

[Ray Daniels]

Damn.

[Deontay Kyle]

I have so many homies that I stopped messing with for that reason. It's like, early on, I'm like, dog, why would you run? I mean, like, I went to the country. That was good. I threw the drugs away. I know you ain't throw it away, bro. Like, why you my man, bro? Like, and it's like. And I be. And I ain't gonna lie, bro. I remember coming up and I remember it's a Jay Z line where he says, he said I did. He said I did, but he said I did worse for less. He said, you know, I did bad for good, but we've done worse for less homies. Irf, he said. And then he go, homie, Irf's a test Right. And it's like, I thought about that. So it's like, I reason with it like, yo, God, I'm only doing this to get by. I'm not doing this to be Scarface. I don't want to be Scarface.

[Ray Daniels]

Yeah. And the thing is, is that the world. This what I tell niggas. Like, okay, I did graduate to, like, selling cocaine, but salt powder. You know what I'm saying? I sold crack for, like, two weeks. I was like, this ain't for me. This is a lifestyle. Y' all niggas are out of your mind. This is crazy. Nigga, I feel riddled with anxiety at all times. This is the shit that my mama used to tell me, like, they gonna come kick this motherfucking DOE in.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

And it was like, okay, this ain't for me. But powder cocaine, you know, these is hard working people. These people got jobs. They just bringing me the money. It's cool, right? So, look, I say this like I go pick up something. I have my partner with me, and my partner, he'd be, like, little annoyed. And I said, look, bro, every police officer that's outside right now is living their own individual life. The only thing they looking for is something that's drawing their attention. So if we just drive the car, we're good. We don't have kilos of cocaine. Nigga, we have an ounce of cocaine. They don't give a fuck about us, bro. The only thing that could possibly fuck us up is you being worried about them.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

Because that means you're gonna do something erratic.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

Just go 70 miles an hour, put the cruise control on, keep your hands on the wheel and listen to your music. They don't give a fuck about you and your outs, nigga, when it's out here that have kilos of cocaine, they trunk on this same interstate. They not looking for us. They looking for them.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

And I said, man, and also the police. If you that scared of the police, stop doing this shit.

[Deontay Kyle]

True, Real.

[Ray Daniels]

And that's when it's like. That's why I would weed out from around me. You too scary, bruh. Listen, bro, I'll be scary.

[Deontay Kyle]

I'll be with.

[Ray Daniels]

I can't do it over. Listen, listen, bro, I know if I get caught, I'm going to jail. So this the thing. Just either you do it or you don't. Yeah, if I've already accepted that fate, I'm good. I don't have nothing to worry about. But see, a lot of niggas, they doing it for ulterior Motives, they not really. Cause, like, at this point where I started selling powder, I'm in it for the money.

[Deontay Kyle]

You, like, I'm only here.

[Ray Daniels]

I got kids, I'm paying my bills with this shit. And I got a job. So I know that, like, when I get off at 6 o', clock, everybody else getting off at 6 o', clock, too. This when all my customers start calling. And they gonna be up all motherfucking night, and I'm be up with they ass.

[Deontay Kyle]

I love you, bro.

[Ray Daniels]

You know what I'm saying? But then, even then, I got a wife. She telling me, hey, bro, this is a rough lifestyle you living, my nigga. Yeah. You ain't sleeping. Yeah, the money's cool, but, like, how much money you need? Cause our bills is good. We got a savings. Like, you done did everything you said you was gonna do, so you need to stop. She said, nigga, you ain't Tony Montana N. If you stop selling that little fucking ounce of cocaine, ain't nobody coming looking for you.

[Deontay Kyle]

She's right.

[Ray Daniels]

Yeah. So, you know, you just stopped.

[Deontay Kyle]

You know what she did? She gave you permission. Yeah, that's. I feel like, as men, because we are the first thing we're taught to sacrifice is ourselves. We need permission to, like, like, like, bro, like, up until maybe I'm 46 right now, I'm being honest with you. Up until maybe two years ago, I thought my job was to live to die for my family. So I was kind of just waiting on death. And I'm gonna be honest with you. I was like, man, all my houses is paid off. At least when it come, my kid's gonna be like, my dad did it. Like, we got money. Everything is right. And I was like. And then one day, I was like, man, you don't have to die, Ray. Yeah, like, like, like. Cause you start realizing how much you sacrificed and you start looking around like, nobody sacrifices the way you are.

[Ray Daniels]

And when I'm gonna live.

[Deontay Kyle]

When? Bro, I have been spending 30. My father. My mother broke up when I was 8. That's when I feel like I don't care if we was in the hood. My dad was there. I feel like life was good when they broke up. I've been fighting for 38 years to get stable again. Being a father, I'm talking about, like, stable shit. Just simple shit. Like, we don't know how to grow old.

[Ray Daniels]

Yeah.

[Deontay Kyle]

Like. Like it'd be shit. Like, I don't know, like. Like I don't have a morning routine. Right. You know, like, dad, wake up and Go. I don't have that. I'm like, I gotta get a morning routine, right? I don't know how to be a man, bro. Like, it's like, I really feel like most.

[Ray Daniels]

That's why that's hilarious, man.

[Deontay Kyle]

Most of us men out here trying to just figure out how to be a man, like, it's like a colonoscopy and you can't talk about that. It's like, well, who the fuck do I talk to? And it's like we're all suffering. We're all mentally inside dying for our families and nobody's talking to us and we're not talking to each other. Nigga, we got it wrong.

[Ray Daniels]

We got it wrong. I'm like, it's hilarious that you say that because what I just was telling you, I said I need a routine. Yes, I need a morning routine. Cause like, here's the thing. My morning routine is I wake up and I don't have to worry about bills. Nigga, that to me is like incredible. Why the fuck do I need anything else?

[Deontay Kyle]

How is this? How is. How did I like, bro. I can't believe. Like, bro, I'm not bro, It'd be time, simple. My seven year old daughter, she's eight now. No, she's nine. Sorry, she's turned around. My bad, Miyoki. But I used to do it when she was seven, I started making time. I remember we would just go to Chick Fil A and we just sit down and I order it for here and we'll go sit in the car and we just chill and we just eat. And I'm like, bro, it's like tear coming out of my eyes. And my kids, I'm like, we couldn't afford to do this as a kid.

[Ray Daniels]

Yes.

[Deontay Kyle]

And I wish we could.

[Ray Daniels]

I'd take you a step further though, just to be able to take your child to school in the car.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes, bro. Like, it's like I'm like learning. Like even now, it's like when niggas brag on they dad not being around, that's not a brag no more. I don't know how to get old. Like, I be calling my uncles. Like, what do I do when this happens? Like, I feel like it's like it's weird because my partner, she's a girl, she's a business. My business partner, she says when something happens to my daughter, I don't. She said, I don't care what it is. It could be a lump, it could be a bump, it could be an itch. My Daughter's going to tell me my son will be suffering, bleeding. He not going to say. And I'm like. And she's telling me this. And I'm like, I would too. As boys, we're told to suffer, like, sacrifice, deal with that shit. So sometimes you might want to say, that shit hurts, bro.

[Ray Daniels]

Yeah.

[Deontay Kyle]

And it's like, it's simp. It's like, that's why. And I think about that because I'm getting old, I'm older. And as I'm becoming a man, I'm like, ray, why don't you do that? Why don't you say, I don't want to do that. And I'm like, I don't have a man. I don't have my dad. I'm like, that's why I think about Friday and all these moments. I'm like. Like, I was scary, but I knew I couldn't be scared, right? Dave Chappelle Mother says it has a quote. It says, live. You have to live like a lion so you could be the lamb you really are. Yeah, I have been trying to live like a lamb since I was 8 years old. So when I moved to the south when I was 11, 12, it was weird. Bro, I'm gonna tell you something. I gotta talk to you about this. This is a. This for me and you right here. Yeah. Yeah. Cause you an Atlanta, You. You gonna understand this. So I leave New York at 11. I'm. I just turned 12. I'm in. And I left the real projects. Like, I remember people trying to kick our doors in. My family doesn't talk about why we left New York. To this day, we just got the fuck out of there. 19 of us at once. My uncle had a. Uncle came in the house with 3.2 million in cash and said, get my family out the fucking projects. Like, so now I moved to Atlanta. So now I feel like I escaped. But now I'll go to McNair Middle School. Shout out. TIP. TIP went to McNair with me. He was in sixth grade. I was in seventh. I went to McNair Middle School. School. And when I'm at McNair, I'm sitting in class because I was a really a project. When you in a pro, like, piss on the floor, go downstairs. That's the life we live. So I'm not disappointed in where Atlanta is. I expected it and I knew it. When I was 12, I knew every project in Atlanta because of my fucking middle school classroom. Nobody could just be from College Park. Everybody was like, man, I ain't from College Park. I'm from Bohol, nigga. I'm from Culver Home. I'm from East Lake Metal. I've never been to these places. And I'm in the seventh grade, and nobody in class is just like, man, I'm from College park, man. My mom and dad in my life, I'm good. There's something about black folk that need to come from struggle to be accepted by other black folks. And I remember sitting. I remember when Pointer Ridge went from Pointer Ridge to Shady park. It was 96. I remember the Pointer Ridge kids start acting like the Gobby Road Kids now. And now they call themselves Shady Park. Meanwhile, we Gobby Row kids. We ashamed to admit we ain't got money for the prom. Y' all niggas got money for the prom. Y' all mom got money for the graduation. None of us went to the prom. Nobody in my crew went to the prom. Our mom was like, y' all better figure that shit out. Yeah, we were so busy chasing pussy, we didn't care. We wanted pussy after the prom. But when I think about my childhood and I think about Atlanta, it's like, nobody from Atlanta. It was like where they was at was never good enough. We had to turn Shady Park, Pointer Ridge, into Shady park to feel like we got some hood shit. So when I. My brother, I only have one brother, my real brother got shot in Pointer Ridge, like. And I'm like, I remember when Pointer Ridge was the two parent household kids. And now all of a sudden, it's Shady park and it's hood. And I'm like, I remember that because you had to be that back then to be accepted. I remember when the Bloods and Crips came into Atlanta. I remember all that. I remember. I was like, y' all gonna go for that? Meanwhile, I left New York at 11, and I was running home from the Decepticons, nigga. And you gotta understand, New York is different. Cause they, like, in Atlanta, we shoot in New York, they stabbing.

[Ray Daniels]

Nigga.

[Deontay Kyle]

Nigga might get upon you. You about to have a fight. In the middle of a fight, somebody pull a raise out, and you all of a sudden buck 50. So it's like all these things. So when I get to Atlanta, I escaped. I mean, it was the hood. But I didn't have to worry about nobody getting killed in front of me. Like, I was in Patterson Projects, nigga. I seen people get killed. Like, it was like, get killed nothing. I seen niggas get their head cut off. I seen niggas running and it was like the only rule was you stay 100 yards within 100 yards of your mom, Long as she could see within 100 yards, I could break and run to you. You know what I mean? Tom, some shit was going on, and we broke and run our mom from the project. So I left that in New York to come to Atlanta. And now we really in the suburbs. But everybody's talking about, man, I'm from, man, shawty, you don't understand, bro. We elay metal. We kill you. And I'm like, why do y' all want to be from there? I just escaped the worst of the worst. I don't even talk about it.

[Ray Daniels]

Yeah.

[Deontay Kyle]

Cause I can't believe I came from that. I got cousins still there. Still like, nigga, I'll be. I'll go see my cousin Patterson, bro. Swear to God. They'd be like, ray, let's hang close by your car. I'm like, why? It's nice.

[Ray Daniels]

Kids playing.

[Deontay Kyle]

Oh, nah, somebody get. Somebody got killed two hours ago right there. What? That's New York. And then you get to Atlanta, and it's freedom. We, nigga, we really kill because we want to. Like, we go to club like, you see, I was watching the Knicks and Spurs, and I was like, they was like, that would never happen in Atlanta. Nigga, we got a gun on us. We are coming back to kill all y'. All. New York, they know y' all have guns.

[Ray Daniels]

Or in Texas.

[Deontay Kyle]

Oh, exactly. In the South.

[Ray Daniels]

Only happened in New York. Cause nigga would have got shot, bro.

[Deontay Kyle]

I mean, like, when I look at it. So I have the dualities of being a New York guy that moved to the south and became a Southern man. I like Southern people better. They're more nicer, they're friendly.

[Ray Daniels]

But you gotta also understand what it is. It's conservative culture. Niggas love guns.

[Deontay Kyle]

Talk about it.

[Ray Daniels]

So the thing is, is that for every nigga that live in the projects, they got a granddaddy that's from the deep south or their grandma from the deep South. And everybody there got guns. And so when you in a space where you in a metropolitan, niggas don't talk about this enough. Atlanta is in the forest.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes, it really is.

[Ray Daniels]

They destroying it as much as they can now.

[Deontay Kyle]

They really are.

[Ray Daniels]

But Atlanta is in the middle of a forest.

[Deontay Kyle]

It's like Vegas. It's like black Wakanda in the middle of all this green.

[Ray Daniels]

So the thing is, is that everybody, you know, they got a grandma that they. My grandma is from Thomaston, Georgia, bro. Like, nigga, this. It ain't nothing going on out there.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yeah.

[Ray Daniels]

So I think there, there is a certain thing of like one upping with struggle. That struggle shit. I don't. I don't know why. I don't know. I. I really. I really. It would take somebody that's more in tune with psychology to understand.

[Deontay Kyle]

I'm gonna tell you one thing. I gotta tell you one thing important too. So last summer, my niece, my house, 14,000 square feet. I'm on 20 some acres, my mom house. We live great, right? And you know, I always do shit, let people come over. So, you know, people come over from my hood and I heard my niece telling the kids there that like, yeah, we live in Fayetteville, but we really from College park though.

[Ray Daniels]

You see what I'm saying? You see what I'm saying? It's a. So we've been sold the story, though. We've been sold the story. And that's American. That's the American dream in black people's eyes, is to come from nothing to something.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

That struggle story, that overcoming the odds.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

And it's like, it's not okay to start in the middle when the reality is, nigga, your idea of overcoming the odds is your kids starting in the middle.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

And then your kids try to act like they had to start from the mud. Like, bro, you get your ass whipped, bro. I tell my son, bruh, I walk my son into a motherfucking cul de sac as often as I can. Cause we live in one.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

Nigga, look at this.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

Look at the sky.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

You see how you see the sky? You don't hear nothing. Fucking noise.

[Deontay Kyle]

No gunshots, you don't hear no ambulance,

[Ray Daniels]

you don't hear no nothing. You don't hear nobody arguing. Nigga, this is serenity, bruh. Everything that you think that you want to be in this little phase that you are in life where you trying to figure yourself out as a 14 year old. Every nigga, he would be immensely uncomfortable in this space. Cause he's used to chaos. Yes, you are used to peace. If I go take you into chaos, you gonna be ready to leave?

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

These niggas live in chaos.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

So they nervous system is a. That's why they music sound chaotic.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

So if you actually have the privilege of having an imagination.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

To just imagine whatever this fucking struggle is that's in your mind that don't exist. Because like, the thing is, like for people that's really in it, they don't even have the courtesy of not living in chaos. They don't have the courtesy of an imagination. Life is real as fuck. It's also, it's overly real to the point where I don't have to imagine anything, nigga. Only thing what I have to do is prepare for the worst at all times, right? So we talking about people with unregulated nervous systems. We talking about people who on 10 anxiety. We ain't talking about the PTSD factor of like you not supposed to see your friend die at 10 years old. Yeah, bro, you know what I'm saying?

[Deontay Kyle]

I just made a video this morning. I'm at my house, I'm by my pool. Like I said, I have acres. I can't even see my neighbor's house. Like I don't even know that one of my neighbors is a famous actress, Big Flex. I can't. The other neighbors, the CFO of Chick Fil A. I don't see my neighbors.

[Ray Daniels]

And the thing is this here's the thing. This, this should be a normal conversation.

[Deontay Kyle]

No, but I'm telling you bro, this morning, I just made a video this morning. Deontay. Well, I'm like, I can't help it. I'm like, I'm in my pool, there's no way. But I'm. It's that trauma, that PTSD of like somebody coming. I'm so used to that, that, that mentality of somebody coming to get you. Somebody's coming. It's not your.

[Ray Daniels]

That disability. But I'm gonna tell you what it is. This is why their career up.

[Deontay Kyle]

I know, she's so right.

[Ray Daniels]

They self sabotage. Listen, bro, if I've had to have numerous amount of conversations with the people around me about my own self sabotaging habits, where things get so good, I don't want to expect the unexpected. I don't want to expect it, I don't want to expect it. Like here's the thing, it's like I had made this statement when I was younger. It's like every time I board a ship is when it's about to sink. So it feel like everywhere I go, niggas always talking about how good it was.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yeah.

[Ray Daniels]

And it's like, I don't wanna keep doing so I got you. So now it's like I gotta prepare for ruin. So it's like instead of doing that, you subconsciously start doing shit that'll ruin what you got.

[Deontay Kyle]

I say this, I'm a manager. That's how I made my money. The first job of a manager is to manage expectations. If I manage Deontay. I, I, I rather tell Deontay I'm gonna get him 250,000 and get him half a million. Knowing that if I told him I'm gonna get him a million and I only got him half a million, he's mad. Yeah, same half a million. One coin, he's happy. One coin, he's pissed. Why? Expectations were set.

[Ray Daniels]

Yeah.

[Deontay Kyle]

So for me, I, I, I programmed like. It's funny because my, my business partner always said, stop. Stop. I forgot the term. But it's basically, stop disappointing yourself before you're disappointed, bruh. Stop letting yourself down because you think the world is. Don't. You don't have to let yourself down for the world. The world wants good for you. Let good. It is weird. It's like when you say I think about that, I'm like, I know that that's a curse of mine that I'm man, I let my shit down. I see awards and shit. I don't even think about it because I already told myself that's not for me. Yeah, I don't desire those. I don't desire anything.

[Ray Daniels]

Like, even if you deserve it.

[Deontay Kyle]

Even if I deserve it, I don't desire it because I know it's not mine. Because I'm come from a world where if I want to do something, I'm gonna do it.

[Ray Daniels]

Yeah.

[Deontay Kyle]

I can't wanna do something that y' all have to do for me. I gotta disconnect from that emotion. Yeah, yeah, yeah, y'. All. If y' all do it, when I get it, I get it. But if I don't, I don't.

[Ray Daniels]

And you know, the thing is, is, like, it's one of the things that I feel like fuels me, but it's also a thing that I wish, I wish I could do it when I see others do it. Like, I wish I could see. I wish I could feel that exhilarating feeling that people feel when they get like an accolade or they go on a birthday trip or whatever. Like, they look like they're having a great time, but I've already accepted. Like, my birthday is just another day.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

And, you know, this award is just in place of the one that I wanted and didn't get or the one that I'm a want and not gonna get. Like, it's just like this. Always need to stay neutral so that because my excitement has caused me to

[Deontay Kyle]

experience letdown, be honest with you, it's important to be even killed. Like, for me, my moment was when we won the Grammy. Songwriter of the year, and I'm on the Grammy stage behind Teron, and it's like. I don't know how to explain it, but at that moment, it's like, whatever y' all want to say about me or him or us can never be said. Like, I think the greatest speech of all time is when Kanye said, everybody's saying, what is he going to do if we don't win? How's he going to act? And he said, I guess we'll never know type shit, like, once. So I understand that. It's like. It's like I was thinking about that. I'm like, that moment, for me, the first time I saw a million dollars in my bank account, like, I saw two commas. I'm like, that's what it feels like. Okay? I never want to let that feeling go. So it's those moments of like. But you have to get there. It's weird because.

[Ray Daniels]

It's weird because I had those moments

[Deontay Kyle]

with myself, bro, let me tell you what I did.

[Ray Daniels]

I swear.

[Deontay Kyle]

So I'm gonna tell you something. 2009, I worked at Motown when I met people. They say, my name is Ray Daniels, Motown.

[Ray Daniels]

Oh, hold on real quick. This is Ray Daniels. We ain't never answered. Yeah, it was Ray Daniels, man. You know, if you. If you don't know, now you know

[Deontay Kyle]

who I am is gonna come out. What I talk. But I always say, 2009, people say, my phone is Ray Daniels from Motown. I needed that. I needed to say, I worked at a label. Then I took a vice president job at Epic. Ray Daniels from Epic. Then I was getting courted, and now Interscope wants me, and they make me senior vice president. And I'm like, I'm really in the game, right? And then that was the first time I dealt with, like, real racism. That's another thing. I didn't deal with racism in the South. I dealt with racism on the West Coast. A different type of racism that we don't talk enough about, but we do. But anyway, I remember my last gig, I was at Warner, and I remember I was like, ray, do you need another title to feel like you can do what you know you are? Do you need another title to say, this is Ray Daniels from this company? Or do you feel like you can just say, I'm Ray Daniels and that's another enough. And that was my only goal. Because you start realizing that we got to put our. That the music business is an ecosystem, that we got to put our mouths on the titty and suck. Not being funny, like, how you Making money. You know how this is. We scaling businesses right now. Like, how are these people making money to be able to live the way they do? You got to kiss the ass of the system. The system keeps money in your pocket. I'll give you a deal. I give you a check. I give you that. And I knew the only way that I would survive me, based on who I am, is if I find a way to eat off of my name and only my name. And right now at this very moment, I make more money off of Ray Daniels than I make off of any of them. And I never had that before, bro. I never had that. So it's like, you start understanding what free is like. And I. And what I'm seeing right now is the slaughter coming of so many of our people who probably looked at us like, I ain't gonna say shit. Y' all deontay, you and Ray get loud and you don't understand. They are calculated people. They already have their plan, bro. That other side is evil because they don't think like we think. We think about each other. When I'm like, if I gotta take food out your mouth, I'm thinking about your kids. Yeah, man, I don't know about. I don't know. I want.

[Ray Daniels]

I'm gonna tell you another thing too, because we come from survival, we thinking about the day.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

We ain't even have the year planned out. These niggas got 20 year planned because they have. They have comfortable.

[Deontay Kyle]

They're comfortable, but they also have rules that they live by. Like, they have rules. Like when I told the story on. On Drink Chance when I was in the middle of a deal and the. The Jewish lady told me I was banned, she banned me. And I called my lawyer and he's a Jewish guy and you know, we all friends. And I'm like, yo, she needs to know her lawyer. And he goes, I'm not getting another Jewish lawyer fired. I'm like, yeah, but I'm blackballed, bro. I'm making you all types of money. He said, I hear you, but I gotta talk to my rabbi before I throw a Jew under the bus. At that moment, it was like, black folks need to understand that. Yeah, like, yo, you want me to take a deal out of. I'm not taking no money out of Deontay. I'm not doing that to him. He got a 14 year old son. I just did his shirt. I ain't doing that to him.

[Ray Daniels]

Yeah, but also, so personal branding has become the sport, right? The Ray Daniels, the Deontay Kyle the Killer Mike. The.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

Ti The. The. The. These. It's a personal branding. And, and it. And, and it becomes. I can generate money off my name. I don't need.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yeah.

[Ray Daniels]

System, quote, unquote. Right. But this is the thing. Anybody that can generate money off their name should be in a council among other men that can do that. And women. And women. Because these women. These women understand business from a very detail oriented perspective. Where these women get money and don't have to be famous.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

A lot of niggas is getting money and famous, bro. It's these women out here is getting money and you don't know who the fuck they are.

[Deontay Kyle]

We need.

[Ray Daniels]

And.

[Deontay Kyle]

And we need.

[Ray Daniels]

This industry showed me that, nigga, you might be losing by being overly famous and getting money. Because just so many niggas that got more money than you.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yep.

[Ray Daniels]

Don't nobody know they name.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yep.

[Ray Daniels]

And so now the goal becomes, how do I go into obscurity? Not get infamous or cancel. Just fade the fuck away and still generate that income. How do you do it?

[Deontay Kyle]

And then you start looking at your kids. How they gonna do it?

[Ray Daniels]

How they gonna do.

[Deontay Kyle]

How My grandkids.

[Ray Daniels]

And then you start talking to these women. You figure out how they did.

[Deontay Kyle]

You gotta figure out.

[Ray Daniels]

They do. There should be. There should be. If we live in Atlanta, why is it There should be? And you know, maybe this is too loud. And maybe, you know, we'll take this underground. We'll take this underground. But why ain't there a council of all these black people that's getting this money? If you making $100,000 or better, you should be in a council. And I don't give a fuck. And ain't nobody bigger than the motherfucking program.

[Deontay Kyle]

Nobody bigger than the program. And that's my problem. Boy, I'm so glad he said that. That's all I've been saying.

[Ray Daniels]

I don't give a fuck. Just. Cause if I got 100k and you got 10 million, that don't mean your opinion more important than mine.

[Deontay Kyle]

Nigga, you're supposed to be helping me get to my 10 million, nigga.

[Ray Daniels]

It should be more of a. And I'm supposed to be helping you understand what niggas that don't got 100k think.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes. And that's how we win.

[Ray Daniels]

Because you don't know the mentality of a nigga that only make $50,000 a year. And I do.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes. Yes, I do.

[Ray Daniels]

So when you out here talking, you talking for other millionaires, nigga.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

And your community don't feel represented by you. They feel like you selling them out.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

And we need a top, bottom, bottom to the top.

[Deontay Kyle]

And we need. It's bro, you.

[Ray Daniels]

It's a council bro.

[Deontay Kyle]

The reason why I talk on the Internet.

[Ray Daniels]

And who's the godfather in that situation. You dig what I'm saying?

[Deontay Kyle]

You right.

[Ray Daniels]

Who's the rabbi?

[Deontay Kyle]

Who's a Clarence ap.

[Ray Daniels]

Who's the rabbi that I go talk to for counsel before I throw a nigga under the bus?

[Deontay Kyle]

Before I throw a nigga under the bus, or before I hurt a nigga

[Ray Daniels]

or before I say no.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes. Who's a man, bro? You speaking my language.

[Ray Daniels]

Because. Because we can't trust the church.

[Deontay Kyle]

Nope.

[Ray Daniels]

So I'm not finna go talk to no pastor nigga, man.

[Deontay Kyle]

I gotta talk to you about something. I gotta bring something to your attention. I never talked nobody about this.

[Ray Daniels]

Yeah.

[Deontay Kyle]

So I feel like I connect with you. Cause I feel like we come from the same place. It's like, that's a hood nigga that figured it out, right? And he. He talks like a hood nigga. He is a hood, but he figured it out. And once you figured it out, you know, the confidence goes through the roof. So let me say that first. So now I have. I. I look at myself like I'm a poor black, right? If you categorize me, I still see myself as a poor black, right? But then, you know, they're church blacks, then they're educational blacks, and then there's elite blacks, right? And I only know all these people exist because. And I'm pretty sure you go through it because I get recruited by them. Now they call me to talk their think pieces. Now they're like, nah, Ray, you gotta get to the church. Nah, Ray, you gotta get. We need the money. And Nah, Ray is education. And I'm like, why are you telling me that? Cause then. So now what I started doing is I started categorizing them, right? So I'll give you an example. Bill Cosby, he's an educational black, right? He thinks that the answer to being the answer to black people getting out is education, right? Then you see some people who, like, you need the money. Jay is like, where the money at? Right? Jay is like, capital. Where the money at? I want all the money. And it's like, all. And by the way, they're all important,

[Ray Daniels]

and all of them are right. Here's the thing. I'm glad. Here's the thing that everybody's right and everybody's wrong. And the reason why everybody's Wrong is because they think their way is the way.

[Deontay Kyle]

And I.

[Ray Daniels]

And if they don't. But we don't come from council. We come from monotheistic mentality where there is a God and there's a singular God and there's one way to get

[Deontay Kyle]

to it's through Jesus and that's it.

[Ray Daniels]

And so. And so every nigga think the way that they won is the way to win, and it's not true. Now, if we had. Then they get introduced to white people and white people money, and white people show them rituals and white people show them councils and white people show them that these things go through all these different channels. Then they think white people got it all figured out, but they don't know how to recreate that system in their space. Because those niggas. These niggas. Because white people. White people went off exploiting others.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

So their counsel is, how do we cause as least damage to ourselves and our reputation as possible and keep while using other people to stay there? Yeah. They pawn. They play chess with other niggas in their reality. And then n get insecure when they get in a room with a nigga with a billion dollars and. Or they just happy to be invited into the room. And they don't care about what little microaggressions they gotta ignore and they don't care about what little things they gotta let slide. Because I'm the nigga that's in the room. And I don't need black faces in high places, nigga. I need black faces in low spaces where they can show other young niggas like, you can go do this and you don't gotta sell out and you can go live in your neighborhood and you ain't gotta take all the resources out your neighborhood. And also, if you want to take it a step further, you don't need. You could let go of this idea of what you think God is. You can let it go. Because if you let that go, then it ain't just one way.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

Because if everybody think they way is the right way, then we arguing about what the way is and ain't shit happening.

[Deontay Kyle]

I ain't going nowhere. I'll go nowhere.

[Ray Daniels]

You got 10 niggas that figured it out trying to tell you which way to figure it out. Hey, how about this? Everybody's different.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

Everybody's gonna go their own way. How about we get this person with the person that's most suited towards they personality, they lifestyle. Because the thing is, I might not, Jay Z might not. Can't tell Me how to make a million dollars because Jay Z came through the rapper path, but Ray Daniels is a creative consultant and have used his motherfucking mouthpiece. You might can tell me how to make a million dollars, bro.

[Deontay Kyle]

Bro, when I tell you.

[Ray Daniels]

And that's okay.

[Deontay Kyle]

It's funny because, you know, I tell people. I'm like, People always say when I do pod, I'm like, just talk. I'm like. Because the voices that you recognized are going to find you like, bro, like when I hit bro, you are speaking on the issue. And it's like, that's why I wanted to talk. I'm like, no one sees. The real problem is, is where the scent, like black people are the. We are the way America goes.

[Ray Daniels]

It's the same. There is no America without black people.

[Deontay Kyle]

Goes the way we go.

[Ray Daniels]

It's no America without black people.

[Deontay Kyle]

Understand that. Let me tell you something. They said it's a. It's. I was talking to somebody that worked with Will Smith and he said that. It's a famous saying. He said.

[Ray Daniels]

He said my type of talk right here.

[Deontay Kyle]

He said that. He said that everybody, every black man that has sat at the table with the white man has been made to think you're only at the table because you're different from them.

[Ray Daniels]

No, you only at the table because they want to figure out how to control your money and influence.

[Deontay Kyle]

No, no, no. I know that, but what I'm telling you.

[Ray Daniels]

But niggas don't know that. Niggas don't know that because that's what they do. So. So, so. So there's. There's films about this where they'll take the. Okay, let's take the smart. Let's take the smart out of the community and get him over here so we can convince him he's different from them.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

So that when he go get his resources, he bringing it back to us.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

He marrying art. He marrying our. So his generational wealth that he's gonna naturally get just because this is one of them, that the God. God can't stop this. Nope. So let's get that nigga in our community. So when he had these babies, two generations, all that money come right back

[Deontay Kyle]

to our neighborhood, look like us, the

[Ray Daniels]

babies look like us, the money gets spent with us.

[Deontay Kyle]

Everything is us and a lot of

[Ray Daniels]

us and all the connections is us.

[Deontay Kyle]

And we have that power. But let me tell you something.

[Ray Daniels]

And if you make this nigga feel better, see, you gotta also understand psychology and ego too. If you make me feel better than a nigga when I get around n, I'm looking for things that make me look better yes, I'm looking for. I would have never talked about that. I would have never wore that, bro.

[Deontay Kyle]

Bro, let me tell you something.

[Ray Daniels]

Oh, this nigga went and got a car. He ain't got no house. I would have never did that. I'm too smart for these niggas, bro.

[Deontay Kyle]

I want you to.

[Ray Daniels]

You start saying dumb shit.

[Deontay Kyle]

Ask anybody in the music business, can you big up a black man in front of white people in the business? It can never happen, dog. I've been in the rooms and I've been arguing with dudes that I know don't have 100 million about how much money Puff got. And they like, puff don't have no money. You don't know. They need us to doubt ourselves. The doubt of ourselves means there's a need for them as long as we think there's a need for others. Black people will never be in control of black people.

[Ray Daniels]

And they also need you to believe. They also need you to believe that your success is a facade.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

They need you to believe that they control the idea of success. Where they could say, puff ain't got a hundred million dollars and a Believe it.

[Deontay Kyle]

Come on.

[Ray Daniels]

But I'm gonna tell you.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yeah, the he do. Yes, he does.

[Ray Daniels]

Yeah, he do. He got more money than you. Yes, he got more money than you. He got more money than your daddy. N period. That nigga came from nothing. He got more money than your daddy.

[Deontay Kyle]

Let me tell you something, bro. Let me tell you why. Atlanta's the greatest. Tyler Perry. Tyler Perry was. And I'm gonna say this. Tyler Perry has been the laughing. Laughingstock of Hollywood. Tyler Perry has been the laughingstock of Hollywood. They all laughed at his movies because he talked. Because his audience was black women. So they undermined him, right? But Tyler Perry, being a Virgo, he is. And as smart as he is, he done let that build in his head. And the greatest move he's ever done is when he flew. He invited the whole Hollywood out. Yo, Spike Lee, I know you said I make coon movies, but I'm gonna call this Spike Lee Theater. I mean, Spike Lee Studio. You wanna know why, Spike? Cause those white folks would never give you that. And even though you laughing at me for doing my monkey shit, I'm doing what I gotta do because it's business, right? So now Tyler Perry comes to Atlanta. Will Smith, everybody here. Do you know everybody got in their private jet. They was all trying to figure out why they flew back to Their white homes and they white cities. And they was trying to figure out how the fuck don't I have that? And I'm bigger than him. And you wanna know why? Cause Tyler had enough confidence in himself and only himself. He said, I'm a scale me. I'm not going to play the game that y' all play trying to get these white folks award. Tyler Perry been telling us, fuck the Grammys and fuck the Oscars from day one. And we still over. He's showing up. The bet was we still complain that they are putting us on the list. Show up to the bet wars. Follow the money. That's what black people. If we just thought like that, the big money is Tyler. What is Tyler doing? He's. He's building an empire that we can all benefit from. I meant your shit. This is an empire. Y' all don't know. Deontay got a setup, bro. This is an empire you building. It's like I'm watching you become the next fucking face of black media. And the whole time, people in LA that look like us is still knocking on the door saying, hey, bro, just give me some funding, all right?

[Ray Daniels]

And I'm gonna tell you another thing about you lame ass niggas too. Ain't nobody never had to tell you to wear no suit to the Grammy. You can't stand her. And then you go to the BET Awards and wear with her whatever the fuck you want, nigga. That why I'm glad this year they doing the black tie shit. It's like that from now on, nigga wear a suit, nigga. You'll wear a suit to these white folks. Shit. And you ain't arguing. You ain't trying to alter your shit. None of that. You wanna come to the nigga. Like, if you treat it like it's just a nigga event, then that's all it's ever gonna be.

[Deontay Kyle]

The key is acceptance. When you accept yourself. Like, I love myself. I love what I represent. And that's all that I need. Once I have that, no one can trick me out my spot.

[Ray Daniels]

Bingo.

[Deontay Kyle]

When you're frustrated, when you don't. When they. This is the goal. They make you think you don't need your people around you. They make you think you need their people. Cause their people have access. Now, here's the truth. Their people does access. But you know why they know what they have? Because they talk about it and we don't. So I'm gonna be honest with you. I'm gonna call out something that is actually dope. But I'm gonna just call it out because I think it's important. Ryan Coogler. When Ryan Coogler did that deal for sinners, it was a big deal. He spoke about it loudly. He said it. And you know what? We was all proud, but it was something that we didn't factor in. You don't think Spielsberg got that same deal? He been had it. So my thing is, yeah, Ryan, they gave it to you, but they would have gave it to all of us if you would have told all of us before you got it. Like, sometimes I want to get it to tell y'. All it's out there. Go, yo, bro, they got deals that Spielberg got yo black creatives. They not giving y' all ownership. Rather than. You waited to get Elite and then you went and got it. Don't get me wrong. I get it.

[Ray Daniels]

That's the smart way.

[Deontay Kyle]

You waited to get Elite and then you got it, and then you told us. But why didn't you tell us on the way? Because we don't have any channels that we think are valuable enough to talk to each other.

[Ray Daniels]

Well, I look at that different. I look at. The thing is, if he don't say nothing publicly, they could back those shit by saying it publicly. You actually hold them accountable to seeing that deal through. And you let niggas know what's out there. Because the only reason I say that is because of how white people backlashed against it.

[Deontay Kyle]

I'm glad you said that. So I'mma tell you something.

[Ray Daniels]

My boy Polo, it's almost like they didn't want that to be known.

[Deontay Kyle]

They don't want black folks to have the info.

[Ray Daniels]

They don't want you to know.

[Deontay Kyle]

The people that don't look like black people do not want y' all to know what's in the deal. Because if we know what's in the deals, we're gonna ask for it.

[Ray Daniels]

Yes.

[Deontay Kyle]

And dog, let me, dog, I was doing. I'm gonna tell.

[Ray Daniels]

I feel like that's why he said it, though, because you got it. If you don't know.

[Deontay Kyle]

But what I'm telling you.

[Ray Daniels]

But you feel like he should have

[Deontay Kyle]

said it when he knew it.

[Ray Daniels]

Yeah, okay.

[Deontay Kyle]

He shouldn't have.

[Ray Daniels]

He should have said it before he got it.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

Okay.

[Deontay Kyle]

I got you. More of us would have got it. Right?

[Ray Daniels]

Yeah.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yeah. So I gave you an example. Polo. I did Polo to Don's deal. And I remember Polo cashed out, and it was a buy sale. Cause cash money lawyer Vernon became Polo's lawyer. So now I'm Getting firsthand info on how to structure a deal. So this. I'm an A and R. Polo's asking for something that's above my head in the deal. Like, yo, we need to buy sell. I'm like, well, you got to go to court. I don't know what that is. They got to go to corporate. They approved it because they needed it, right? Polo sells and he sells and he sells his company. And Polo is incredible. But how? What? I go on my podcast about a couple years later, and I'm like, yo, man, why we ain't talking about buy sales? Let me tell you what happened. I had black executives calling me, Swear to God. Why the fuck did you say that, Ray? What you talking about? Why you got these niggas think they could get by sales? You know, that's not for us. That's what I mean by.

[Ray Daniels]

But that's another thing, too. These niggas in these powerful positions accept because they accept the ceiling.

[Deontay Kyle]

You know why they accept the ceiling? Because when they sat down, they say, hey, Ray, I'm gonna let you sit here. Cause you're not like your friends. Stay loyal to me. Do what I need you to do. Watch them. Your friends aren't your friends. So now black folks are just acting like black folks. We desperate as fuck. This nigga might run off with the plug and not share. We not used to the plug being shared with us until it's used up. So now that's why I'm saying, right?

[Ray Daniels]

That's why we gotta get away from hustling and we gotta start doing business.

[Deontay Kyle]

We gotta start being stability.

[Ray Daniels]

They just trying to finesse and finagle at every time because they wanna come up. Because niggas have accepted this reality where the opportunity to come up is a closing window.

[Deontay Kyle]

And it's not.

[Ray Daniels]

But, nah, like I tell my niggas all the time, it's a standard now. Just accept the standard. So if we go out for lunch and this is not no flex, this is just a reality. If we go out for lunch and the tab 300, and we just put the car down and continue our conversation, and we ain't arguing about the bill. That's just our standard now, Nigga.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yeah, I hate that when a car comes.

[Ray Daniels]

No, but I think that. But the thing is, niggas will make content about this. This is very simple, guys. This is very simple. It's a standard.

[Deontay Kyle]

I'm glad you said this. I have my boy with me. Fredo. We was hanging out. He drives me, right? So we driving. And it was this bad chick walking down the street. And Fredo goes, damn, she fine as hell. And I'm like, I go back to my first lesson, shout out to Bitty Barnes. Mark Biddy Barnes. Bitty. I used to hang with him 24, 25. I remember being in the car with him, looking at a girl walking at the bus stop. He would be like, ray, we don't look at girls at the bus stop. That was a standard. We don't look at girls at the bus stop. Me and Fredo in the car yesterday, swear to God, yesterday, Fredo like, yo, see that chick right there? And he's like, you didn't see how fine she was? I said, my OG has trained me not to look at a woman walking. I didn't even see her. But it's like he said, damn, I ain't thought about that. That makes sense. That's the new standard black men. I just said, we've been trying to get. We are trying to figure out how to be old. We were trying to figure out how to live first, man. I'm trying to make it past 21, man. No, now we're like, damn, I'm 40. What the fuck? I didn't know I was going to be 40, and I didn't know I was going to have bills at 40 and have kids and responsibilities. So we're trying to figure out our space in this. But what I think we need more than anything is someone like you or someone like me saying, it's okay, bro, I was having a hard time, man, like a year ago. I'm not going to lie. I got money. But, like, when you got 50, $60,000 of money, overhead, you having a few million ain't no money, bro. You got it. You got three years worth of money. Yeah, you're done, right? So I'm going through this. This struggle. And my lady shout out to her. I remember, I was like, she saw me, bro. I'm sitting down, my head down, like, I'm failing, man. I'm failing. We about to lose. And she walks up to me and she says, such and such and such and such. Our friends, they're struggling, too, bro. It was like I had a relief. It was like I wasn't. I was about to cry. I didn't want to cry no more. I'm like, oh, I'm not alone. There's other men out here struggling to feed their family like me. It made me get more win. It's like sports. Almost like, y' all ain't tired. I ain't tired either.

[Ray Daniels]

It's a game of momentum.

[Deontay Kyle]

And men need that. We need someone to say, yo, Deontay, bro. Like, I remember I was about to lose it all. And my partner, she took a woman. It took a woman to tell me one day, I'm like, I got all these employees. I'm failing. This shit ain't working. And she said, you don't have to hire everybody. You don't have to pay these people. These people. You don't have to do that. You can stop and start over. And I'm like, I can?

[Ray Daniels]

Yeah.

[Deontay Kyle]

Cause in my mind, I just didn't want to stop. Cause I didn't want to fail. I didn't want to. It goes back to that. I didn't want to get killed. Failure to a man is like death. I'd rather die on a field, nigga. Yeah, but at least Deontay gonna be like, yo, Ray was. He was going for his right to get rich and die trying. So when someone told me, you can quit, that's what black men don't hear enough.

[Ray Daniels]

You could just stop.

[Deontay Kyle]

You could stop, bro. You could. You could quit being in the game.

[Ray Daniels]

You don't gotta bleed.

[Deontay Kyle]

You could quit being. You could quit being a Y. N. Yeah. Like, dog, I used to push wheelchairs. Swear to God. Push wheelchairs. 18 years old in the airport. And I used to talk. You did too. I used to talk to people. And you know, when you. When you push your old white folks, you can't be like, hey, what's up, shawty? She ain't got down. You know what I'm saying? Just got down in school. I gotta sell these white people something. I'm somebody to invest in. Give me that 5 to $10 tip. So I had to talk like, hey, how you doing, ma'? Am. I had to learn that out of desperation, nigga. So now I talk in rooms that. They be like, you're so well spoken. I'm like, you can't be from Atlanta. I'm like, I am. I just worked at the airport. And one thing about Atlanta, folks, we not gonna get embarrassed. Ain't no white folks gonna make us look stupid in this city. Not us. So I gained that.

[Ray Daniels]

That's a standard.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes. We need standards.

[Ray Daniels]

Okay. I wanna. I wanna. I wanna bring. This is beautiful. Because there is this mentality of like, I'm not gonna stop the bleeding. I'mma just bleed out.

[Deontay Kyle]

I thought that too.

[Ray Daniels]

You see what I'm saying?

[Deontay Kyle]

Yeah.

[Ray Daniels]

And it's like. As if it's honorable, like. No, the more honorable thing is to Admit I took a hit, I stopped the bleeding, but I lived. Now I'm gonna figure out how not to get no more hits like that.

[Deontay Kyle]

I wanna tell y' all something. We don't talk about this enough and. And people might get mad at me and say I'm controversial. But like, I feel like you're the only brother that I could have this conversation with. I feel like young black men in the hood, specifically from poor backgrounds, almost feel the noble thing to do is to go to jail. The noble thing to do is to hurt someone. It's almost like even if I did it in the name of good, because a lot of people don't understand just cause you in the hood don't mean you bad. Like, I went out robbing as a hood nigga, but that was the only thing I thought I could do. If somebody was around saying, hey man, we can go to garage sale, get in the car. I'm like, I would have done it. I only did black men. We chased low hanging fruit. My only thing I'm saying is I want to say that I feel like we need permission to quit. Every man that I know, a good man, is rooted in sacrifice. He sacrificed himself for his family, right? But when a woman sacrifices, she sacrificed the family for herself, right? So it's like. So it's like a woman to say, I need a break. I'm leaving these kids. Like, I don't need a break from my kids, bro. I work hard to get to them. Like, I can't.

[Ray Daniels]

I don't.

[Deontay Kyle]

My son is with me. I don't want my kids not around me. Like, that's. I think that's the gift of being a hard working father. Like, my son can roll with his dad to work. Like, that's beautiful.

[Ray Daniels]

I think there's a. There's a other side of that where we don't understand how we take breaks subconsciously too.

[Deontay Kyle]

But that's what I'm trying to get to. So that's why I said a good man.

[Ray Daniels]

Yeah.

[Deontay Kyle]

A good man is supposed to sacrifice, right? The dudes, that ain't shit. Those are dudes that basically chose themself, right? Like, nigga, me and you, we decided, like, I didn't even decide to stay stand. Wasn't even leaving. Wasn't an option.

[Ray Daniels]

Crossed my mind.

[Deontay Kyle]

Leave my kids. Like, God gonna have to take me off this earth, right? That's what I mean by a good man. So when a man thinks he's. And I also think that a lot of our problem is rooted in with our mom's teachers in the house. I think that's the biggest problem. And it's hard to talk about because then it's like you're blaming black women. I'm not blaming black women. I was raised. I'm blaming my mama. I'm being. I'm blaming the way I was raised, how I was taught. Like, when we see young black boys hitting women, right? Like, the first person to tell me to ever hit a woman was a woman. A man ain't gonna. You can you see a father tell a man, hey, look here, boy, that girl slapped you.

[Ray Daniels]

You.

[Deontay Kyle]

Cause a father gonna tell you, take the. Hey, that ain't nothing.

[Ray Daniels]

Take that slap.

[Deontay Kyle]

Take that shit. But a woman to tell you, hey, girl hit you, you hit her ass back. Now, I know you might say that because you want to protect your beautiful son who you love, but you're hurting the community when you say that. Hit. If a girl hits you, hit your back. We gotta raise these young boys to be husbands. They not. They. We. I was raised. I could say this. Man, I hope nobody gets mad. I know I was raised to be my son. My mother's son first. That's why when the NBA player gets in the NBA, what's the first thing he can say we're gonna do? Buy mama. I knew for a fact you ain't. I know you ain't doing for no over there if you ain't taking care of your mama first. Like, I took my mom bought. I bought my mama Benz and a Rolex. I mean, a Benz and a pool before I bought myself a Rolex watch, right? So. But it also goes back to how I got to Georgia. My uncle was that he could have took his 3.2 million and said, I'm going to the strip club, get some hoes. He said, get my family out. So I saw that. So I emulate that. Right? But what I'm saying is that when I think about the things my mother told me, I had to almost revamp my relationship with my mother. Me and my mother are like this now. But I had to tell my mother, I'm not your husband.

[Ray Daniels]

Bingo.

[Deontay Kyle]

I am not your husband. I am not. Like when my brother, my sister, going through something, or it's like. Or somebody. A cousin is going through something, she be calling me and I'm like, I am not your husband. Yeah.

[Ray Daniels]

They call that emotional incest.

[Deontay Kyle]

That's so I. So I'm realizing that I have the weight of the world on me because my mother put it there and it's not her fault.

[Ray Daniels]

I'm not being real about the nigga I am.

[Deontay Kyle]

But when I think about the fact that I don't know how to take care of myself because my first thing is to take care of others, I'm like, how do I take care of myself as a man? I got enough now to take. I don't even know. So what's my routine? Yeah, what do you want, Ray? You've taken care of everybody. Everybody got cars and houses. And I'm like, I don't know. I wish my dad was alive so I could ask him, what should I want at 46? Because I don't. I didn't even. The goal was to be 46 and not be a loser. Now that I'm a winner at 46, I'm like, how do you be a regular man and do, like, regular stuff? Like, I don't know how to be a man. I'm so. I've learned from watching you watching other pods. I'm learning how to be a man from watching other men. That's what I'm like, man. More men need to be talking. Yeah, but we're told not to because that's how we was raised in our house. Shut your mouth, boy. That's how I was raised everyone. Hey, what you got to say? Yeah, I tell everybody. And as a black man that has made it in life, I've given women in my world everything. I've given them cars, I've given them jewelry. I've given them money, houses. The one thing that I've given them, that it was always a war, was my opinion. So I can give you the world, but I can't give you me, because my opinion is me. But I can't give you that because now who the. And it's like, no. What black folks need more than anything is conversation.

[Ray Daniels]

Yes.

[Deontay Kyle]

When if you are a black person and you see, say, take the mics off. You are the problem. More mics, more talking. You know how many people, by the way, women might not be lost? Because women. Y' all got it. Women got it down. They talk to each other, but men are lost.

[Ray Daniels]

That was the thing that I was finna say, is that we need to. Again, it goes to our conversation earlier. Somebody have to give Trey Permission.

[Deontay Kyle]

Permission.

[Ray Daniels]

Somebody have to give. It's the permission. We have to give ourselves permission to be okay with being vulnerable with one another.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

To be okay and say, hey, I don't got this all figured out.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yeah.

[Ray Daniels]

But I feel like I gotta pretend I do.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yeah.

[Ray Daniels]

And it's causing me to pretend. And I don't wanna pretend.

[Deontay Kyle]

And I wanna kill myself sometimes.

[Ray Daniels]

It's causing me. It's causing me stress to the point I don't wanna live.

[Deontay Kyle]

I'm already aware, bro. And I feel like as a man, I can't be free until I freed everybody around me, right?

[Ray Daniels]

And then I think the thing is, this is one size fits all. Where people will say, we'll just go to therapy. But it's like, hey, man, I can't even tell the truth to niggas I love. I don't wanna tell the truth to a stranger. I' ma definitely put it on with a stranger. I'm gonna put it on with a stranger. Cause even a stranger, even a therapist, I wanna seem like I got it figured out, bro.

[Deontay Kyle]

And let me tell you something. Since we were little boys, the one thing we all were afraid of was being laughed at for attempting. You go talk to that girl, you go, you know, the boys that get past getting laughed at go way further in life. Like, I had to get past, like, I was a failure in school. Cause I didn't want to get laughed at. I didn't want to say out loud, I don't understand this shit. You know what I'm saying? It was like, I didn't want niggas to be like, stupid ass. So I just kept it to myself and was like, I figured out when I get outside the hallways. And that's what I did.

[Ray Daniels]

But it becomes a cycle of. You know, the thing is, my mama always used to. To tell me again, permission. My mom used to say, if you don't know something, ask a question. Because you ain't the only person that got it. She said, you smart enough where if you don't understand, I know at least five other people don't understand, period. Period. So ask the question. Because what you're doing by asking the question is a service to five to 10 other people by asking the question that they too scared to ask. And I had teachers tell me the same shit. You don't understand your influence when you ask a question. I just answered it for 10 people.

[Deontay Kyle]

And let me tell you something, that's why I appreciate rappers and I give them so much credit because as a 15 year old man, Tupac has a line on me against the world where he says, he says, even the genius asks question, be grateful for blessings. That line, even the genius ask questions anytime. I was afraid to talk up that line, even the genius asked questions asked, right? And I started getting smarter and I started figuring out, like, then I Hired these people that showed me who I was and my brand and how to expand myself. And what they told me was, Oprah Winfrey is a billionaire. Because she asked questions.

[Ray Daniels]

Yes. So last night, my 8 year old, she put the pimple patches on her face. Cause she just is like stickers to her. But she was like, and I got pimples. And I was like, you haven't even been through puberty. You don't have pimples. And she was like, yes, I have. I was like, do you even know what puberty is? She was like, yeah. I was like, well, what is it? She was like, well, mama told me, but I just don't remember. I said, so you don't know. If you can't tell me, then you don't know. And she like, but I do know. I said, it's okay to say you don't know. And I said, if you admit that you don't know, I can tell you and then you will know. I said, but pretending. I said, dumb people pretend they know shit they don't know. Smart people admit they don't know and ask questions, period. So if you want to ever be smart in life, period, admit you don't know and ask questions, period. And then she said, okay, I don't know what it is. What is puberty? Then we just went through the whole conversation.

[Deontay Kyle]

Exactly.

[Ray Daniels]

And she left that conversation knowing what it was. And then she said, well, I do just like the pimple patches. Cause they like stickers. I know I don't got pimples.

[Deontay Kyle]

Exactly.

[Ray Daniels]

Okay, cool.

[Deontay Kyle]

You got to the point.

[Ray Daniels]

We just got to the point. But the thing is, I'mma go way back to the conversation we had about the counselors and everybody feeling like they had to figure out there is a template in psychology called the hierarchy of needs.

[Deontay Kyle]

Okay, cool.

[Ray Daniels]

If we approach our community from that aspect, the hierarchy of needs, we'll figure out exactly what we need as people.

[Deontay Kyle]

I so agree. I so agree.

[Ray Daniels]

Because we trying to figure out, you can't undo, you can't undo what's been done in a year. No, you know, you, you talking about people that have stopped. 50 years, 100 years of progress, 200 years of progress. You, you stopped multiple, multiple times. Generational wealth. And you're not going to get it back in one generation. And that's okay. But if somebody can start and get the ball rolling instead of trying to do it all in one generation. Just listen, man. Listen, man. If your mama made $40,000 a year and you figure out a way to make a Hundred. You won.

[Deontay Kyle]

That's real.

[Ray Daniels]

It don't matter if the niggas around you make 500. You could always be ambitious. And the niggas around you that make 500 should be giving you game on how to make it. But what I'm telling you is if you done better than your parents, not only did they job get complete. Cause that was their whole goal.

[Deontay Kyle]

That was their goal to make you better than them.

[Ray Daniels]

Make you better than them. But you did it.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yeah.

[Ray Daniels]

And at 100,000, at 200,000, you literally are in the top 10%. Everybody wanted to be in that top 1%. Like, just start baby steps, nigga. Why we can't. Like, we want it all?

[Deontay Kyle]

Don't look too high in the hill. Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

Because what we've been sold is this lottery mentality. We go for these low probability outcomes. I want to be a rapper, I want to be an athlete. I want to be a billionaire. Nigga, you don't even have $10,000 liquid. You want to be a billionaire, you want to be a billion. Not even a million, Because Jay Z did it. Do you understand? The reason why you know Jay Z is cause he did it.

[Deontay Kyle]

That's why you know him. That's what I don't.

[Ray Daniels]

It's the only reason you know him. He is one nigga. Look, if that was something that was happening in Mass. Okay, name the. Okay, name the best basketball player in China. You see what I'm saying? But you don't even know because it's mad niggas over there playing ball.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yep.

[Ray Daniels]

Because guess what? Because if you good enough, it might not be good enough for the NBA, but damn near you're good enough for China.

[Deontay Kyle]

If you ain't for the NBA, you should.

[Ray Daniels]

J. Cole could go play in China, in Africa.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yep, you're right.

[Ray Daniels]

You see what I'm saying?

[Deontay Kyle]

If you're good enough for the NBA, you're good enough for China. You right.

[Ray Daniels]

Things that have a low entry point, it's easy for everybody. You don't know the people that do it. You don't know the best forklift driver in the world. Cause anybody can do this shit. If anybody could just be a billionaire, you wouldn't know who the fuck Jay Z was.

[Deontay Kyle]

We wouldn't care. Cause everybody is.

[Ray Daniels]

You see what I'm saying? So we have to stop chasing these low probability outcomes. It's okay. A young man needs to understand that, like, if you make $100,000 a year, you're a success.

[Deontay Kyle]

You are.

[Ray Daniels]

And by, you're good.

[Deontay Kyle]

And by the way, where you are today does not mean you have to be there in five years.

[Ray Daniels]

Right.

[Deontay Kyle]

Like, I worked at Delta. When I worked at Delta. Like, I. I. That was the scariest thing in my life, to leave that, like, wow. But I did. It's like, man, I just love.

[Ray Daniels]

And we also come from a place where our community was built on men that was making 50, 60 thousand dollars a year, but were happy with it.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yeah.

[Ray Daniels]

Because they knew what they could do with it. They knew they could count on. But they also had neighbors. They also traded skills. They also made sure that everything didn't have to be a fucking event.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yeah, like.

[Ray Daniels]

Like the. The highlight of the week was when everybody come together and bring their resources together. And we cook and we eat together.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

That's the highlight.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

And you know what that deals with? The hierarchy of need.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yep. The hierarchy.

[Ray Daniels]

You need food and water and shelter.

[Deontay Kyle]

I love that.

[Ray Daniels]

So what are we doing on a Sunday? What is the. What is what? The representation of a Sunday dinner really is Fellowship. It's a fellowship, and it completes the hierarchy of needs. We are in shelter with food and water. That's it. That's why everybody's happy. It is simple. But we get away from the simple. And now it ain't good enough to have fried chicken. We need lobster. I need the pig on the table with the apple in his mouth. I need to be eating like a king. No, you're a king because you have a shelter with your family in there. Everybody love each other.

[Deontay Kyle]

They say, I want to eat. Eat like them.

[Ray Daniels]

Listen, they don't even go look at a king's d. Go look at how a king eats. And a prototypical European king. They eat with their hands. They eat sloppily. They're gluttonous. They don't care about it. They talk with their mouth full. Because the thing is, they have so much of it, it means nothing. What?

[Deontay Kyle]

That's so good, bro.

[Ray Daniels]

That's so good.

[Deontay Kyle]

You so right. And the reason why we act the way we act, because we don't have access to it. And if we.

[Ray Daniels]

We.

[Deontay Kyle]

It's like. It's like, bro, did you. So do you know, I think this. What? Last thing I'll say, at least black people, we. I think our problem is we are united people without systems.

[Ray Daniels]

Yes.

[Deontay Kyle]

So when. When Jewish people came over from the Holocaust, right? They took those people, took the jobs that no one wanted. They didn't say, we need happiness. We deserve happiness. They said, we never gonna let what happened to us happen again. How do we. How do we prevent that, okay? Our kids, Our kids have no choices but three jobs. A lawyer, a doctor, or work in finance. Because if you're a lawyer, you can tell us the laws, you can protect us. If you're a doctor, you can keep us alive. And if you're a finance, we always know where the money is. The hierarchy needs. They knew what they were focusing on, and that's why so many people in the like.

[Ray Daniels]

And they knew what they needed to build the community, right?

[Deontay Kyle]

They knew they needed, but they knew the characters they needed. They knew the system. They were thinking about a hierarchy. They said, lawyers, the law, finance, we need the money and health. Because we who going to keep us alive if no one loves us like that? We don't think like that. As soon as we become a doctor, we want to leave our community. Yeah, as soon as we become a lawyer, we want to leave our community. When it's like, no, we supposed to be teaching our kids to be those things, to give back. We're the only people Jewish people know, they owe it to each other. We don't think we owe shit to each other. And that's bullshit.

[Ray Daniels]

And we've been taught we owe each other nothing. What we do. And here's another thing too. We have a mentality that the ability to plunder resources equals success. So when you 50 years old and you still in a strip club throwing money, you think that means success with like, nigga, you are 50. When you could, okay, you just blew 10,000 and you do that every week. Okay, what if you took those 52 weeks of $10,000, you blow, stacked it up and gave it to a child for tuition. Because you wanna sit here and tell me that you being a philanthropist by tricking n. Get the fuck out my face, bro. Bro, nigga, what you're doing is wasting money trying to feel like a young nigga because when you was 19, you wanted to throw money in the club and now you can. Shut the fuck up, nigga, it's over. You didn't get to do it, bro.

[Deontay Kyle]

I'm gonna tell you something.

[Ray Daniels]

You didn't get to do it. It's okay. None of these bitches in this club look you. They just love to see you coming, bro.

[Deontay Kyle]

I want to tell you something, man. It's. It's. I love this guy. Let me tell you something.

[Ray Daniels]

My bad.

[Deontay Kyle]

No, you great. I was working. Just so you know how, like people tell you, and I want to. It's a message for men. You know how people tell you take care of your community. There Was a certain business that my homie Shaka, Sha. Shaka. I always tell him this story. Shaka is like, yo, Ray, support that business.

[Ray Daniels]

Oh, yeah, Shaka rock with me, too.

[Deontay Kyle]

Shaka tells me. Shaka tells me, support the business. So I support the business. I'm paying the business a few hundred dollars a month, right? Like 500 to, like, 700amonth. I'm supporting it, right? So as I'm supporting the business, I'm watching them get rich. No. No shade to them. But you know what I thought to myself, Ray? You're putting business into their stuff, and their father has money already. So I said, I left the membership of the club. I started putting. I was like, but I'm not cheap. Let me put that money in an account for my kids. Kids. That was about six years ago. You know how much money that is now?

[Ray Daniels]

No.

[Deontay Kyle]

About five years ago, $160,000. That's 160,000 I would have gave to someone else's business. But I said, you know What? Take that 500amonth. Take an ACORNS account. Just take it. I don't care what's going on, because I think like you. I'm like, ray, I don't ever want to look at footage, because I ain't gonna lie. I look at when I was 30, and I'm like, man, I had a S550. I had a CLS. My girl had a Ben's truck. And I'm thinking, I made it. And the whole time I'm like, man, I wish I would have spent that on some Bitcoin.

[Ray Daniels]

Okay, another thing. See, this is the thing. This is the thing. This is the thing. This is what I talked about. The ptsd, the living in the moment. Yep. When you live in a moment, you don't think about accumulation. You don't think about it.

[Deontay Kyle]

No, you don't.

[Ray Daniels]

So the nigga that's throwing $10,000 a week in the strip club because he can. He don't think about what that accumulates to over a year.

[Deontay Kyle]

That's why I did it, by the way.

[Ray Daniels]

That's 52. That's $520,000.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

That's $520,000. That's a half a million dollars.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

Now, you could have put. How many kids can you put? Just get them now, if you care so much. If you care so much.

[Deontay Kyle]

I agree.

[Ray Daniels]

Listen, dawg, after you have 20 pairs of shoes. Shoes mean shit.

[Deontay Kyle]

Nothing. Nothing.

[Ray Daniels]

I have more shoes than I've ever had in my life. I wear the same few shoes all the time. I wear the same two because they're fucking comfortable.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

I wear the same pants because I know where they at.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

Just cause I know where they at. I don't feel like looking through all this shit.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

Because that's what it has become. Where. When I didn't have shit. I wish I had another pair of jeans. I gotta keep these jeans clean. Cause these are the only ones I got. You understand what I'm saying? You get to the place quick, you get there quick, you get to the accumulation quick. But the thing that we end up accumulating is junk.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yeah.

[Ray Daniels]

And so if we get to the point where me and Big Cat just did this. Me and Big Cat did a scholarship. Not a scholarship. We called it a graduate giveaway.

[Deontay Kyle]

Okay.

[Ray Daniels]

I had. I looked at my account. I said, man, I done spent all this money all this year on business. I done made a lot of money this year. I can give away $6,000. I'm gonna give away $6,000. Four kids. That's $1,500 a piece. And I'm gonna pick two boys and two girls from this county that I'm from that's going to college. And I don't care if they going to college or into trades or into the. I don't care what they doing as long as they doing something. When I'm going into the Air Force, another one want to be an aviation tech. I mean, he want to be a pilot. So he going to the Marines because he got an aviation program. The other one going to be an electrician. And the other girl going to be a psychologist. She going to Alabama State or University of Alabama.

[Deontay Kyle]

That's amazing.

[Ray Daniels]

$1,500. Now, listen, I didn't think about. Well, it's only 1,500. What I thought about is it's 1,500 that their parents ain't got to worry about. It's 1500 towards school supplies. There might be some shoes that they want that now they can get. It don't matter what they put it towards. They already know where they going.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yeah.

[Ray Daniels]

And I want to celebrate that. And I want to stop always making time for the niggas that's falling behind, because I do that too. Yes, I go speak to the at risk, but we act like the kids that do it the right way. Well, that's what you're supposed to do. And we don't celebrate them, which is why these niggas don't give a fuck about our approval or trying to strive to do the right thing. Because they always get ignored for the niggas that's falling behind. So I'm gonna celebrate the ones that doing it right. And what that did is had everybody and their mama reach out. How can I help make this bigger next year? Cause somebody just gotta do it.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

Cause if I'd have said, well, I gotta wait until I can get them 10,000 a piece, I don't give a fuck, it's 1500. And what I did is take a picture, a $250 gift card and put it with the check and say, spend that in the mall today. Go spend it now.

[Deontay Kyle]

I love that. That's amazing.

[Ray Daniels]

And that's grits and eggs. This is inaugural. This just the first one we doing. But somebody got.

[Deontay Kyle]

Somebody has to.

[Ray Daniels]

Somebody. Because you talk about the community and all your shit is lip service. You don't go talk to the babies. Going to talk to some niggas that's already locked up. That's good. But they working their way back. Let's go talk to the kids that ain't never got locked up.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yeah, I did it the right way. Yeah.

[Ray Daniels]

Because these are the people that they gonna take out of our communities.

[Deontay Kyle]

You know what's so funny? I always say this. It's weird you saying that. Cause I always say this. I say, when I was in school, my whole goal is to speak up for the average man. Because when I was in school, when Deion came to the school, they pulled out the athletes beats, you know, they pulled out the musicians, the kid that could play instruments. They pulled them out, they pulled out the smart kids. Hell, they even pulled out the bad kids because they need somebody. But what about the rest of us? And I was in gen pop. Like I gotta figure gen pop out. I gotta. I'm not special. It's like I'm not 6, 9, 3. It's like I don't have nothing unique about me. So I have to figure it out. So I think that that's also something that we should look at is that because focusing on that everyday guy that no one talks to. Like the first time someone told me I could be something, I believed that shit. I could tell you who it was. It was Ms. Giles. It was in Ms. Giles. I was the first teacher that ever told me I could be something. She said, you should be a stand up comedian. And I was like, what? How do you do that? And she was like, ray, you write the jokes, I'll take you to school, I'll take you to the nightclubs, like. And I just, I didn't want to get laughed at. I needed permission. And I need a dad in the house to say, man, that's a fucking opportunity, son. Fuck these people. Go after it. Who knows where I'm at? I always think about it like that. So it's like we need more people giving other people permission to be free and do what they want. It's almost like, like you said, it's like you might not go to college, you might go to college, you might like. It's so many ways to get there. But get there and know that getting

[Ray Daniels]

there is the goal and stop listening. Listen, here's the thing. A lot of people have a lot of great ideas. I'm not a fan of the military. I am a fan of somebody that say, I don't know what else to do. And I know that this is gonna give me some type of structure and stability towards what I'm doing instead of just staying at home.

[Deontay Kyle]

I will say this. I agree with you. I registered for the US Air Force, I took the ASVAB test, passed it, and my recruiter called me at six in the morning one day, the next day after I passed it, and was like, you need to get used to this. It's gonna be your life. And I remember thinking, before I go for that, Ray, it's something you can do.

[Ray Daniels]

There gotta be something.

[Deontay Kyle]

It gotta be something you can do before you go.

[Ray Daniels]

Nigga, I denied the army to be the charge. I was like, just send me to jail, bro. I'm cool. I'd rather just go ahead and go to jail, bro. You know what I'm saying? Listen, bro. Cause listen, bro, this little six months, this shit don't come with no contract. They know after six months, they gotta let me go. These niggas own me. I think the thing is that if we focus on the hierarchy of needs, if we focus on not just talking about getting together, but actually getting together, and, like, we celebrate our kids, that's doing it. Right? Because here's the thing, what we talked about earlier. They siphon. They siphon the best of us out of our communities to put them in theirs.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

And then they marry them and then they have kids. And in two generations, these ain't even black kids no more.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

I mean, I wonder what Diana Ross see when she see her grandchildren. And that's just not even shade. That's just reality.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yeah. But you know what it is? I think a lot of them, a lot of our people are learning it. Cause you start realizing, like, it's some people in LA and New York that are working for the kid of someone that they started working with. Mm. Like, we work for y' all kids now, but our kids don't have. It's like, you start understanding.

[Ray Daniels]

It's like, well, our kids. Our kids. Our kids don't even understand that they. Daddy. When you see it like that. Come on. Then they realize, oh, my daddy just got a job.

[Deontay Kyle]

Come on. They don't realize it's a purpose, bro. I'm sorry, man. I just love this combo. It's amazing.

[Ray Daniels]

It's amazing, bro. I think the bigger thing than anything is that you have to understand the value that you provide. This is why I talk about the things we've invented. This is why I talk about the black towns that you haven't heard of and how they destroyed them. You know, they didn't destroy every black town. Didn't get destroyed just with mobs. Some of them the government destroyed with eminent domain. Happened right here in Atlanta, happened in Miami, happened in multiple places in South Carolina. It's happening right now in Villarica. This black family, they done had this house for two generations. They want to expand the highway. They don't want to sell, so they finna use eminent domain and take them people's houses. The government will step in and steal your wealth, too. And black people will get to a place where they get discouraged and say, well, well, what's the point of even trying? And that's a piss poor ass mentality. Because if the government got to step in, nigga, how powerful are you? You are a government all within yourself.

[Deontay Kyle]

We are. I'm an own ecosystem, my own everything.

[Ray Daniels]

If the government got to step in, that mean you a government all within yourself. And they understand that. What the power of our collective is, what we don't understand is our value to not only America, but to each other. When we are collectively on the same page, there literally ain't shit that can stop it.

[Deontay Kyle]

Nobody could beat us.

[Ray Daniels]

Listen, my nigga, if we say it's out, it's out. If we say it's in, it's in. That just is what it is. And it's a few niggas that be around white people, and these white people done siphon them out. And these white people, you doing good. You're better than the rest of them. They the ones that we combat with because they feel like white people told me I'm better than y'. All.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yeah, y' all niggas is acting like that. Cause y' all don't get it.

[Ray Daniels]

And I'mma tell you Something. If you accept a compliment from a savage nigga, you gonna let a savage validate you? You gonna let a caveman validate you? Nigga, you gonna let a nigga that used to eat people and probably still do validate you? These niggas like to talk about black people and crime statistics. Let's talk about white people and child pornography statistics. Oh, but now it's, let's talk about white people on cannibalistic statistics. Let's talk about white men and how they'll just kill their whole fucking family if they lose their job. Okay, cool. You wanna talk about crime statistics? Crime statistics come from poverty. Poverty is manufactured. Okay, let's stop there. I don't give a fuck what no cracker told you you was, boy. I'm gonna do what you want. I'm gonna start calling you a boy. Soon as you. Soon as you come around me talking about why people told you about you, I'mma just start calling you a boy. Okay, boy. Good boy.

[Deontay Kyle]

Amazing.

[Ray Daniels]

White folk, you know white folk. Fuck me. Okay, boy. Good boy. Keep up the good work.

[Deontay Kyle]

Okay.

[Ray Daniels]

Okay. Now, when we get this shit popping over here, don't come over here.

[Deontay Kyle]

You'll see.

[Ray Daniels]

Stay over there with them white people.

[Deontay Kyle]

You'll see.

[Ray Daniels]

Please. Because this, the thing, you have to understand, the relationship is. Is as they said, it too. It's transactional. I'll do business with you, nigga, you and your compliments mean nothing to me.

[Deontay Kyle]

Not a damn thing. I don't live for it.

[Ray Daniels]

Oh, fuck. Nigga, fuck you and everything you think about me. What is the business? What's the black and whites? Because the thing is, is after you do business with white people, if they fuck you over, they don't care what you call them. You can call them a devil. You can call them anything you want. Guess what? They got the contract.

[Deontay Kyle]

They don't give a. Give a.

[Ray Daniels]

They don't care. Nigga, this is the business. It was transactional. You the one got wooed and swooned by expensive dinner. Yep, and some compliments.

[Deontay Kyle]

You the one wanted to run so far from your people. You accepted us as family just because you the different.

[Ray Daniels]

You the bitch. I whined and dined you and got you to sign your whole life away. And your talent, well, whoopty doo. I don't care if I'm the devil. You stupid. You naive y'.

[Deontay Kyle]

All. It's.

[Ray Daniels]

It's.

[Deontay Kyle]

It's just the animalistic ways that we operate. And you gotta learn to operate in yours.

[Ray Daniels]

Yeah, and the thing is, what we operate Is. And we operate in nature. Nature. We operate. Operate in abundance.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yes.

[Ray Daniels]

So we don't feel the need to.

[Deontay Kyle]

But. But.

[Ray Daniels]

But. But this isn't an abundant. This isn't a natural world that we live in.

[Deontay Kyle]

I'm glad you said it. It's like the abundance looks the way a young black woman or man child sees it is the abundance is not black. We don't have. So the fact that we minorities and everything that we do has to be accepted by them to be the majority is the problem. Problem. We are the minority. We are the majority.

[Ray Daniels]

Yeah. Go look at the globe.

[Deontay Kyle]

Watch.

[Ray Daniels]

Go look at the globe. These borders. These borders is some. They made up.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yep.

[Ray Daniels]

If you go look at the globe. Data minority.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yep.

[Ray Daniels]

But they. But they. They learn how to put the borders up. They learn how to, you know, do a populace. And now you think because it's you only 5% of Georgia, that mean you a minority. What are you? What percent of you in the world?

[Deontay Kyle]

Yep.

[Ray Daniels]

I think the other thing, too, is that we also have to be very mindful that they have simulated society. We live in a dually simulated society. We live in a society on our phone, and we live in a society under the structure of capitalism. These are simulated societies. So at the end of the day, whatever your instincts are, you gotta question them.

[Deontay Kyle]

Yep.

[Ray Daniels]

You wanna have a baby at 16, because genetically, your instinct is to fall in love, reproduce, and then find resources. Nigga, you don't live in that. You don't live in the village no more. You can't have a baby at 16, especially if you don't come from money. And even though it seem harsh, this is a harsh world. If you don't adapt to the environment, you gonna continue to get ate up by it.

[Deontay Kyle]

Stop trying to figure out what's fair. It's not fair. It's about where you are, the hand you were dealt, and what you're gonna do with it. That's it, man.

[Ray Daniels]

What's up with radar? Where we at with radar right now?

[Deontay Kyle]

Well, you know, I'm pushing. It's funny because I'm not. I don't see myself in the music business anymore, even though I manage the biggest writer and, you know, I'm running all the business we have. My focus is the new world. I see entertainment the same. I see entertainment as the algorithm that we all fit in. It goes back to what I was just telling Dre a little while ago, where it's like, when I see kids watching their phones, they don't care if they're on Tubi. HBO, YouTube, or whatever. So if that's the case, then we're all fighting for eyes. We're in attention economy. So my only thing I'm saying is focus on. Focus on doing. Getting what you have to get and getting light on you and what you're doing. And stop focusing on the world, because a lot of us are too busy. Like, I ain't gonna lie. I don't know what the world's gonna be, bro. Like, I tell us, I look in the camera, say, anybody. I don't know what the world's gonna be. But I do know that I'm close enough to God that every time I need to make the right decision, he'll be right there with me.

[Ray Daniels]

Bingo.

[Deontay Kyle]

But I do also know that they're trying to cut. Nigga, I know that when white people want to survive, they survive by cutting us. You know, like, Sony just let go of all their promo departments. All the black people said, well, I'll source y' all when we need y'. All. Like, they. I'm just watching them erase us. And I'm like, you better start seeing guys like Ray and Deontay as the future. Because we are the only outlet. We are the new bet. We are the ones that are freeing our people right now. And I just hope that people are paying attention. If they not, I know I'm gonna be straight. I know you gonna be straight, and I know everybody with us gonna be straight. But I pray for others. That's why I do God's work. I'm doing God's work now. Hopefully you see it. Hopefully it registered to you. And hopefully you made the change that I had to make to change my life, rather than sitting around hoping that Superman was coming to save me, rather so. Yeah, man.

[Ray Daniels]

Yeah.

[Deontay Kyle]

Doing superhero work, bro.

[Ray Daniels]

I'm trying to be. I'm a conversationalist, not an interviewer.

[Deontay Kyle]

I ain't either.

[Ray Daniels]

And so people get mad. They be like, deontay's not. I'm. Nigga, we are. This is the same conversation I would have if the cameras weren't on.

[Deontay Kyle]

That's why I, like, it's funny. I didn't realize we was in the show. We just started talking, and I was like, hold on.

[Ray Daniels]

You know, we in the show.

[Deontay Kyle]

But my thing is like, bro, I see the future. The future is all breaking down. The system is breaking down in front of us. The hierarchy is breaking down. There used to be one voice, one way. It was two voices, this or that. Now there are millions of voices. Find your voice or create your voice. And build a community with people like you. We have choices now. I think a lot of us was frustrated in the early days because we felt like we had to live amongst each other. Not good. I feel knowing that I could live my life and not deal with nobody but who I want to deal with it. I don't want every black man and woman to feel that freedom. But it comes from within. It can't come from other. Cuz if other give it to you, they control you still.

[Ray Daniels]

And they can take it.

[Deontay Kyle]

And they can take it. It's the collared dog versus the wolf thing. I'm officially a wolf now. So if you ask me what's up with Radar, Radar is in the I'm in a wolf business now. That's the only thing business I'm in. I'm not in the radar collaborating with other companies or ra. You can't hire me now. Yeah, I've never said that out loud. Like I. You can't afford to hire. I make more money for my company now. Like I was looking at my gross. I'm like, man, how the fuck can someone hire me now when I'm grossing this much as a company? Right. You know, like you be thinking to yourself, I'm in a position to say no. I never been in a position to say no. It's a great position to be in.

[Ray Daniels]

Yeah.

[Deontay Kyle]

So I tell every man, that's the goal. Work for your fat. Work to put your family in a position to say no.

[Ray Daniels]

Yeah. I say this and then we'll go. You are the. You. One of the reasons why I wanted to talk to you and one of the reasons I started following you is cause I had this skill set that I never knew was a job. And you, the person that showed me it was a job being a creative consultant. Just a person that knows what works. A person that says, hey, look, that's corny. I love. But if you do it this way, you'll win.

[Deontay Kyle]

You know what you just told me? I swear to God, I love this. You just said, ray, you've shown me authority. That's all I want to do. I don't do this for me. I do this to show every young black man what freedom looks like. Just be yourself. And I'm being honest with you. We are the future. Watch this. They're going to be chasing us in two years. Like, do we need you? You see, Joe Rogan just took over. They just announced he's taking over 60 Minutes. Think about that. Joe Rogan just took over the most powerful news night Sunday night. Night. Night. Nightly News. But why? Because they trust him and Deontay. They trust you and they trust me. And they don't trust the systems no more. Yeah, because the system always protect the company. And we're not here protecting the company. We here protecting our people. Yeah. And I just love you for that, bro. Thanks for having me.

[Ray Daniels]

Love, bro. Thank you, man.

[Deontay Kyle]

I'll come anytime, man. Y' all can come. My, my. I'm.

[Ray Daniels]

We gotta pull up on 20 minutes from here.

[Deontay Kyle]

So y' all pull up anytime.

[Ray Daniels]

Yeah, we gotta come pull up on you. Yeah.

[Deontay Kyle]

My brother.

[Ray Daniels]

Hey, man, most important thing. We ain't here for the company, nigga. We're here for the people. Gris Nays Podcast. I'm Deontay Kyle, who's behind the camera? You hear him in the back? And we got the king, Ray Daniels in this motherfucker, man.

[Deontay Kyle]

Let's go.

[Ray Daniels]

Appreciate you, brother.

[Deontay Kyle]

My brother.