← The Breakfast Club
The Breakfast Club
INTERVIEW: Christopher Williams On Return To Music, Health Struggles, 'New Jack City,' 'The Book of Akbar'+More
01:28:16
Loading summary
Transcript68 lines
- [00:00]
A
This is an I Heart podcast. Guaranteed human. When the holidays start to feel a bit repetitive, reach for a Sprite Winter Spice Cranberry and put your twist on tradition. It's a refreshing way to shake things up. This sip in season and only for a limited time. Sprite, obey your thirst. This is Sophie Cunningham from Show Me Something. Do you know the symptoms of moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea, or osa, in adults with obesity? They may be happening to you without you knowing. If anyone has ever said you snore loudly, or if you spend your days fighting off excessive tiredness, irritability, and concentration issues, it may be due to osa. OSA is a serious condition where your airway partially or completely collapses during sleep, which may cause breathing interruptions and oxygen deprivation. Learn more at. Don't sleep on OSA.com this information is provided by Lilly, a medicine company. You know what your customers are doing right this second? The exact same thing. You are listening to me, which, let's be honest, is kind of flattering. But my point Is ads on iHeartRadio actually get heard in the car, at the gym, on the couch while people are walking their dogs. Who's a good boy? Who's a good boy? You're a good boy. That's right, dude. You're a good. So why not make the next ad about you? Get started today. Call 844-844-IHEART or go to iheartadvertising.com that's 844-844-I or iheartadvertising.com Atlanta is a spirit. It's not just a city. It's where Crunk was born in a club in the West End. Before world star, it was 55 9. Where preachers go viral and students at the HBCU turned heartbreak into resurrection. Where dreamers brought Hollywood to the south and hustlers bring their visions to create black wealth. Nobody's rushing into relationships with you. I'm Big Rude. Listen to Atlanta is on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. I'm Robert Smith and this is Jacob Goldstein, and we used to host a show called Planet Money. And now we're back making this new podcast called Business History about the best ideas and people and businesses in history and some of the worst people, horrible ideas and destructive companies in the history of business. First episode, how Southwest Airlines use cheap seats and free whiskey to fight its way into the airline business. The most Texas story ever. Listen to Business history on the iHeartRadio app. Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Hold up. Every day I wake up. Wake your ass up. The Breakfast Club. Y' all finished or y' all done? Morning everybody. It's DJ Envy. Just hilarious. Charlamagne, the guy. We are the Breakfast Club. Lon Larose is here with us as well. We got a special guest in the building. Yes indeed, the educated brother from the bank.
- [02:49]
I never liked you anyway, pretty. Mr. Christopher Williams, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome. What's up? I'm so glad to have another light skinned brother in here. So glad, man. To the right of you, he hates on us all day, every day. I don't hate, but I did cheer when Nino Brown stabbed your hand.
- [03:07]
On New Jackson. He tells me about it, reminds me about it all the time. You know, Charlamagne has a difficult job. He got the hottest seat in America. How you feeling, bro? I'm great. I'm super great, man. How you feeling? Everything is good, man. I don't think people realize how much your voice defined an era. Thank you. You know what I'm saying? Like how intentional was your sound in the new Jack swing movement versus just being a product of that moment? It was intentional. I mean, I think we were just trying at the time to fuse. My thing was so confusing. Cause you know, everybody categorized me with Al B. Shaw, Elder Barge, Chico Shamal, every light skinned dude. That was. I was just saying how y' all happened to kind of all resemble during time the voice of perceived dark skinned dude. I sound like Teddy Pendergrass a little bit. So it was kind of difficult. And I couldn't dance. I'm from the Bronx, I can't even two step. Damn. So my rhythm is in other areas. And I just. That was the most difficult thing earlier defining that. And once we got with Stanley Brown and I was able to start honing in on exactly what that meant frequency wise, what it sounded like. We came up with dreaming and songs like Every Little Thing and that kind of like set the pace. And then I came home because first I was signed to a rock label. I couldn't get signed in New York because Al B. Was so hot. So I had to go to la cause the similarity was, you know, diff. Really close. Even though we're really different. And I got a deal on a rock label with David Geffen. They treated me like Elvis Presley, but they didn't understand what we make. So I had to come back home to Russell and Andre. Didn't have to, but Russell and Andre would court me the whole time. And when I came Back home to Uptown and did changes. That's when I think the real defining happened. Cause if you look at the timeline of my record in my whole career, a lot of it is misconstrued. Like every dude on that record, from Tony Dot to Puff to Devonte to Vincent Herbert to Corey Rooney, Mark Morales, other than Corey and Mark, everybody was basically new, and we knew what they were gonna be. And we made a record that we thought would compete with records like Ma Ma Mai or Keith Sweat's first album. Cause at that point, those were the marks. Like you need to make a record as hot as that first Keith Sweat record or Johnny Gill's My, My, My. And I thought we did it, but internally, there was just a lot of things going on in Uptown. And, you know, Russ, Andre's soul. We at the time, didn't really. After the project was made, we didn't see eye to eye. But honestly, Andre was the first guy who saw me as an executive and that lived shortly. It was a short lived thing. And then it was time for me to just move on because I kind of like, at that point, I'm. I'm from the Bronx and I'm. You know, a lot of people talk about being from a certain environment, certain circumstances, but I'm really from that. Oh, oh, rest in peace to Andre Harrell. Andre told me a story one time, man. He said, don't let that light skin and that curly hair fool you with Christopher Williams, okay? He said Christopher Williams was a goon. He told me a story. I heard your boy Tyson on here one day talking. I was like, damn, Tyson. He told me a story one time. I don't know what you was upset about, but you came to the Uptown Records upset, and I don't know. I don't know what you was in there doing, but I know they called Andre. He was on the way to the airport. He said, well, call the police.
- [06:16]
You know, I'm gonna tell you the truth, Charlemagne. Back then, I think it's one of the things that I'm on now. You know, we have been taught to knock each other down. And I love Dre with all my. I love Dre to life, man. But, you know, as brothers, sometimes we don't get along. I experience it up here a lot. And I know you have a job to do. You're great at. Well, you guys are great at what you do, and there's a space for everything. But at that time, the rubber had hit the road, and it was only my one career, and I didn't Realize how MCA had Andre bent over, for lack of better words. So we have to sometimes look at what somebody else is dealing with with their shoes. But I was young then and full of gas, and I didn't. I just wanted out. And, you know, I basically shut Uptown down. And basically that resulted in Mary getting free, Jodeci getting free. And they were able to go ahead and make. Oh, my God. They were able to go ahead and make Casey and Jojo. Cause, you know, everybody. You said make them free. What did you mean, shut it down? Well, there was no more uptown. There was no offices. There was. I mean, there was a paperwork that bad deal that Andre had, but there was really no more uptown. The offices were destroyed. There was no uptown. And I think people then saw that there was something wrong, and I got all the blame for it. I got crucified for it. I got blackballed for it. But for me, what was the blame? Was you destroying it? Was it? Yeah, yeah. Destroying. You know, just. I wanted out my deal. So basically, for me at that point, it was like, I'm getting out my deal. I ain't Kunta Kinte. I don't. I don't know Kunta Kinte. There's no Kunta Kinte in me. I'm a person. I'm not a God, but I'm a soldier. I believe in fair play. But I'm at a point in my life now, and this has happened years ago, where I'm about picking my brothers up too many. We've been taught to knock each other down. Everybody has a gift set. So that's where I'm at now. So in hindsight, looking back on the Uptown thing, yeah, I'm open to talking about anything, but I want people to understand that that whole experience at Uptown was dope. Creatively, it was a moment in history. That's my favorite record label ever be created again. Like, if we had to just film the meetings on Wednesday. It's comedy for a century of comedy. Like those meetings on Wednesday. I was there when Jimmy Love was yelling at Puff to go get cheesecake, and that reenacted itself again. And that's no diss to Puff. I'm just saying.
- [08:33]
Me and Heavy D were like the elder statesmen at the label. I was a free agent who came in. Mary and Jodeci, Heav and Father were there, and there were other artists there who had not gotten the light of day at that time, like Anthony Hamilton.
- [08:48]
Lord Jamal, Terry Robinson and them who went on the Right Candy Rain and a bunch of hits so there's like a long story in Uptown. And to me, it is the second greatest black label other than Motown. And the only thing I think I used to call Andre Baby Berry because the only thing I think Dre was missing was the fortitude to stand up to make his brand be treated like it should have been treated. Andre's whole deal was cross collateralized. So that's like you guys having a show here and it's successful. You know what your analytics are, and they tell you that your worth is based upon something going on CBS or something. You're like, wait a minute, this is I heart. We have our own thing. So everything was cross collateralized. And that's when I started reading about the business. Not that I had enough, but I started seeing all the landmines in this record game. So not that I wanted to step out and have a long hiatus, but I truthfully never believed that I was gone. And I always knew my career and would rekindle. Like when I saw Charlie Wilson come back, I had just done a play with Charlie. We was doing urban theater, and I think they was paying Charlie. And no dis to Charlie. I think they painted $2,000 a week and he had gotten sick. Same thing happened in the urban theater with Ollie Woodson. Ollie Woodson, whose son treated like a lady for the Temptations. He was also going through that, and then he got sick, but he died. So I saw Charlie go from the grave back to who he is today. And record company people will say, you know, I knew it. You're lying. You didn't know anything. You had no idea. There was no circumstantial evidence that Charlie Wilson returned like that. But, you know, when you have a gift that's given to you, man can't stop it. That's right. It's just your perspective. You know, the prophet Bob Marley said you only you can free your mind from mental slavery. All this stuff. I listen to you guys all the time and the topics and political things and, you know, things you have to. And it's interesting because again, it all relates back to this system that has been created for us to exist in. People don't realize this whole thing is a system. The Rothschilds and the Rockefellers created the economy, they created Washington, they created the language. They named us what they thought our name should be. And when you start reading and understanding who you really are and going back to oneself, you find real love. And then you can love your brother and your sister. So I believe that, you know, I hear, like earlier, you Guys were talking. It's like, well, how do you still have hope? It has to be in. It has to be within, and your perspective has to be yours. You know, it's easy to be a Big Mac. Anybody could be a Big Mac, because you look at what's trending and you go, okay, I'm gonna put two all beef patty, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on me, and then I'm cool. But. But do you really feel like yourself? And biblically, you could relate it to the simulation of David when he went before King Saul. He was like, I'm gonna give you all the gold and the chariots to slay the giant. He was like, I've been slaying giants. You just don't know it. I've been slaying giants. You just don't know it. I come from eating wall projects. I was born to slay a giant, but now I don't slay him with this no more. I slay him with this. So my journey in this thing and what I mean to the culture and it always touches me, and I'm humble because I really feel the best is yet to come.
- [12:06]
Going back to the conversation earlier with you, Andre Harrell, I saw somewhere that Andre was talking about that he was willing to forgive that whole incident, and y' all move forward. Was that true? Yes, it was. It was very true. Yeah. We loved each other. That's what hurts so bad. Again, when you. When. When it's your brothers, I mean, I think all of us. I know you can envy, and I know you can. You growing up where you grew up with. Who would say, come on, if you would have said this in high school, I'm going to be Charlemagne to God. They would have been like, you put him in the little bus.
- [12:43]
I mean, think about when we all were in sixth grade, if we'd have just said, what do you want to be when you grow up? If you would have said, the President of the United States, everybody in your class would have laughed at you, because that was a ceiling, a perception that had not been touched yet. And the power of what you say and how you. How you do. You said that earlier. Don't let your emotions dictate a momentary thing. Your emotions will lead you to damnation every time. Your ego, your vanity. We're watching this over and over with our great black brothers, whether you like them or you don't like them. So for me, I'm at a season. I have, you know, I've heard all the noise. I've Endured all the noise. It doesn't bother me. I get it. You know, there were things brought up about me that were just absolutely crazy stuff. The people that really know me want to react in a certain way, but I'm always like, listen, this is why they're lighting the match. Because if we continue to blow up on each other, this is what happens. They win. They keep this. Like a dog chasing his tail. He keeps biting that tail till there's no more tail at the end. What do you think people misunderstood the most about you during your peak years? That I had talent. I mean, in my 20s, it was all about either being Al B. Shaw's cousin or looking a certain way or who I dated. I didn't know you had talent, and I get that. But it never really superseded the other stuff. I remember we were going meetings. I remember my first meeting at Geffen. They was like, put on Bobby Brown's pants. They had a stylist there. They were gonna cut my hair in the Gumby. I was like, yo, I can't. I can't dance.
- [14:20]
And I love Bob. Bob knows that for a fact. I rem. It's my first soul trainer. I was like, me, Bob and Al are boys, so the pitting's not gonna work. You know what I'm saying? And I understand that you're gonna say, well, yo, you're the light skinned dude who can sing. Al sings the way he sings. Al has a falsetto, like El DeBarge and Bobby DeBarge and the greats before him. I have a baritone. I sing like Luther James, Jeffrey and Marvin Gaye and people like that. I literally said when I was listening to Good Enough that you sound like you can be Luther nephew. I was like this, giving Luther nephew a little bit. I liked it. I can't wait till you hear woman of the year. Especially you, period. Okay, look. All right. Come on, Chris. I already got a Chris. She love a light skinned crisp. I'm not even joking. Before Chris Brown, her husband now is a light skinned Chris.
- [15:06]
A light skinned. She love her light skinned Big shout to that I Love you gracefully, Mr. Williams. Go ahead now. Go ahead. Thank you, thank you, thank you. But I was gonna ask, you know, with that hiatus, what said this is the time to come back. Cause you were gone for a long time and almost like a lot of your history, I don't want to say was not there, but people forgot about you. And even with some of the younger people back here, when we said Christopher Williams, they had no idea. I had to play Music and go back and be like, nah, this was his song. This was his other song. I had to show them. And they had no idea. So why the comeback? Well, November 5, 2021, I was sick for the first time in my life. I passed out and, you know, I'm a person again. Like a lot of brothers, I don't avoid the doctor, but I'm always looking for indigenous remedy. Okay. You know, so this time I ran out of remedies and my kidneys had actually really failed. I was in Vegas with the guys from Cooling the gang. We were opening up the first gaming park. Huge project we were working on, but it fell through. So at the end we packed up and I think the stress of it, and I was with a bunch of retired Caucasian brothers, super cool guys with Amir band. And we were drinking the finest cognacs and liquors and Louis the 13th and stuff. And I've never been a drinker. I'm a roster I. And my kidneys couldn't take it. So I got sick. And then I woke up 24 days later out of a coma. And what's funny is Al started reporting it first, I'll be sure. And then he fell into a coma. And when I came to, I was 130 pounds and paralyzed. Wow. And I was walking around about 200, you know, I'm 61200. That's only 195, 200. So I woke up in hell, you know. But it was the best thing, I think that could have happened to me because everything got stripped away from me. Everything. You know, I've been paying insurance. Every single thing was like a test for me. It was like revelation to say, Chris, this is what your purpose to do now. Like this music and comeback is just a platform for what I'm really going to do. And one of the main things is that everything has been coming full circle. Like, you know, I hear say we like chase the bag, chase this. I've never chased nothing I don't chase. And if I'm in pursuit, then I'm out of pocket because that means I'm doing something I shouldn't be doing. So full circle. Get out the hospital. I'm not on one pill. My kidneys totally recovered. I'm not on one pill. And all because of me believing that I don't just read things. I really go in and say, okay, let me see how this works for me. And sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it does. But it came full circle because I had went in the studio and then I Ran into somebody that I hadn't seen in a long time. I Knew A kid, 14 years old, named Vincent Herbert. Salute to Vincent. So Vincent came to me with a whole staff, acts, writers, producers. And he was dead serious. We were in Edgewater, I think he came to my. I don't know how he met me. I think through one of the girls I was dating or somebody had flown in and he said, I'm gonna be, you know, like Clive Davis. You know, I thought it was funny. A lot of people come to you when you're hot in music. But he has something about him. Cause again, he had a stylist, writer, staff. Faith Evans was a byproduct of that through Kiama Griffin. And I gave him some bread to go in the studio. He started coming by my house and the rest is history. Now the ironic thing about Vincent, Faith is unlike most people in music, you know that there's a possession in that. So it's like you owe somebody something. But I believe you sow a seed because I know, I hear Christians say, I know where my help comes from. But you want payback for sowing a seed. So I've never been like that. So I sow the seed because I know I had windows open for me. I had grace on me. So to watch Faith Evans and Vincent Herman and these people that I had been instrumental in having the honor of touching, it came full circle because I said, listen, I just went in the studio events with the Goat, Troy Taylor. Big shout to Troy Taylor. And I said. He said, well, let me check the temperature. I want to see what you're doing. You want to see how you sound. Because you know, do you sound out of pocket? You sound like you're trying to make a record too young or you sound dated. And I played a song for him called Woman of the Year. And that's when we started pursuing it. Then I had realized in my hiatus, I had not wasted time. Cause I never stopped working. I just wasn't on the mainstream. And I was no longer invited to the White House, you know what I'm saying? And that's cool because again, I'm from a black house. I might be light skinned, but I'm from a totally black house. Like a kemetic house. That's how black my house is. So fast forward, I said, well, Vince, you know, I remember saying something to Vince, I said, you know, Vince, if you ever got focused on my project, we could do something even greater than maybe Charlie Wilson. Or we, if we come close, we, you know, we're back, we'd win. And that to him was like, focus. Like, nigga, I'm gonna show you. Excuse me, can I say that? I'm gonna show you. I'm gonna show you what focus is. And then we just started, you know, knocking records down. And I knew that the synergy was back because I never wanted to cut the new single Good Enough. And we had great records already. But I was gonna cut this song called Church Boy, ironically, which I was a church boy. I'm not into organized church anymore. Nothing against the church, but we wound up. He said, yo, go on and cut Good Enough. And my first thing was like, man, it sounds like, you know, you sure that don't sound like a. That sound like a breezy song. But part of that was appealing to me. Cause I really, I love Chris Brown. Like, that's my. To me, that's like my musical nephew. Well, if I could pick a musical son, he'd be that son.
- [20:45]
So. But he can dance. Oh, yeah, I can. He does more than dance. I seen Holmes get down for three hours and you know, that's beyond dancing. And the crazy stuff is I didn't see no band, I didn't see nothing. It was just the breezy show. So kudos to that young man for enduring. Because, you know, when a lot is given to you, the swords come out, you know, the vanity's there, but then they want to persecute you as they did Yeshua. And he's taken all of it in stride. He keeps rising above it by showing people his colors, showing them his gifts. That is endless. Whether it's painting, dancing, singing, writing. He's just, he's a voice. He's this generation's Michael Jackson, if you ask me.
- [21:28]
So kudos to Chris. Not to spend too much time, but I found my groove again. Cause I never stopped believing. I never stopped. So in my hiatus, I wrote a movie about my aunt Ella Fitzgerald, which I presented to Vincent. They love it. But the thing that really caught his eye. Eye and HBO's eyes. I wrote a story called the Book of Akbar. So I was in a movie called New Jack City. I played Kareem Akbar where dark skinned dudes snitched on me. Charlemagne.
- [21:54]
He would definitely caught in everything. Why do you do that? Charlemagne. And that's my man. Like Wes put me in college. People don't know I went to Purchase College. I was in the street, Wes and my next door neighbor lived in an apartment down the hall, Theron Cotton. He went to purchase Collins and he knew I could see I could sing. And I used to hang around GQ because they're out of my block too. I used to watch GQ play as a youth. And I was raised in the drummer's household, Paul Sabe, but they called him Paul Service. So I was raised as Jamaican because I'm adopted. I don't know anything else. So even my whole life, they call Nati Chris Nati Wabum. So I had a different perspective. These guys made it so every breadcrumb in my life was showing me that all this stuff is possible. You know, I watched one of my. One of my mentors, my idols, Bill Underwood, discover Johnny Gill. And I saw him start to transition, but. But it caught him. So these were all lessons for me. Hold on, Chris, you speeding a little bit now. Hold on. Your aunt's Ella Fitzgerald, right? Wesley's not paying for you to go through college. Tell us about that. Well, Wesley, Wesley, Wesley didn't pay. He got me to go to school. So him and Theron Cotton was like, yo, you're talented. If you stay on this road, you gonna fuck your life up. And I was having my first child at the time, so it was important for me I was paying attention. So I wound up going to Purchase. While at Purchase, I caught the acting and music bug actually through Wes, because I got to watch him do a one man play, I'll never forget this, written by John Williams, called the River Niger. And I was like, yo, this dude is a supernova. Then he would stop doing the play. And on Wednesday, he was the dj. Wes was a DJ called west is Best. West is Best. And every Wednesday night he would perform and he would vogue all night while DJing. So I caught the entertainment bug there. And I literally at that point was like, I'm not going back to no hustle. I'm not going back to no street activity, no nothing. I was dating. And I'm not name dropping. I was dating Stacey Dash at the time. I was going to. That was on my list to see if that was true. We had a child. I was living, and actually I was living. I think I forgot about this. I'm sorry. True. I mean, true. So we were living on 82nd in York. I used to actually wake up every morning and walk by Mayor Koch's house and I would talk to security. So all of this stuff was evolving and I was seeing my dreams coming true. But at that very summer, it was April, it was spring, my best friend Greg Chandler was murdered on College Avenue. And that changed everything for me. It was like that Very second, shut everything down, went straight to California with Stacy. And that's how I got my record deal. I was hanging out one night in Danceateria. We were visiting for the holidays, and Stacy had Marisa Tomei and Lisa Bonet and all her girlfriends were hanging out. So Michael Rosenblatt from Geffen Records comes up to me, and he's like, who are you? Cause I got a bunch of fine girls with me. And I was like, who are you? And he was like, I signed Madonna. And I was like, yeah, and I'm King Tut.
- [24:56]
But the truth was, he had signed Madonna. I never again. I never chased a record deal. It was like the breadcrumbs of my life. So he says, listen, you know, we don't do black music, but I think you're. You got something I just need to hear. Can you really sing? Because at that point, they were gonna sign me sightseeing. Really? Because of Al B. Sure. Cause they were like, whether you could sing or not, we wanna sign you. But then I hooked up with Timmy Allen and Fritz Cadet, two old friends who went on to do R. Kelly. Timmy worked with R. Kelly and the Backstreet Boys. We made a song called Love or Come Back. And I forget the. It's been 36 years, guys. But we made two songs, and that got me my record deal. And. And all along, I started seeing. So the first attorney tried to jerk me. Then I went to my Aunt Ella. So I'm trying to correlate the stories. That was the only time I ever asked my aunt for help. I asked her for legal help, how to deal with the situation I was in. She referred me to somebody. I got a different attorney. Then I made my first major record deal with Geffen Records, and they treated me amazing. They just did not know black music at the time. They had David Peteon and Ray Parker Jr. And Jennifer Holiday. Those were the acts that were there. And we did good, but not great. Cause they did not understand what to make on me. So a lot of the producers, they were coming, they didn't want me dealing with New York because they didn't really want me going back to New York because of what I was just coming out of. So fast forward, we did a little action on Promises. And the first song, I Talked To Myself, which was a rip of Bobby Brown's My Prerogative. So again, they get me in the office, Talk to Myself ain't even on the record. And they're like, you know, they got everybody there shooting the spiel. They got the stylist. With Bobby's pants, the barber who cut Bobby's hair. But I was like, I'm not doing that. I can't do it. But then they gave me a check for 100,000. And I said, okay, let's. Let's go sing. Talk to myself. So we did that. It was a long. I remember trying to break the record. And this is music language. Back then, you had to break the record at radio. It took us about 14 weeks to make Breaker. We finally did it, and then it was like, okay, we got something. Then I dropped a song I wrote called Promises, Promises, which was really the prelim to smile again for Bel Biv Devoe. And I can explain how that happened, but that sort of launched my career and kind of separate me, separated me from the other people they were mentioning me against. Because they were like, wow. Based upon what Promises is, the frequency and Promises. This dude can sing. He can sing. Sing. So Promises hit. Got my first. I think it was top five record. And then it moved on to New Jack City, and the rest was history. I wound up reuniting with Wesley, which was really dope. Did Wesley get you in New Jack City, or did you. No, I auditioned with Pat Golden Warner. But the great thing about it was when they told me I got the job, they were like, nino Brown is gonna be played by a guy named Wesley Snipes. And again, this is the breadcrumbs of my life. I'm like, yo, this. This is crazy. This can't be. And I remember seeing Wes in front on 125th street in front of the old floor Shine before they closed it out. And we were laughing about British walkers not being in style anymore. And he was like, yo, this is gonna be so dope to shoot the movie now. By the time we shot the movie, my record was blowing promises in the first album, and my. My star was shining. So by the time we got to shoot New Jack, they couldn't even put me with the rest of the cast. Cause they were knocking my trailer over, chasing us. I was getting the Bobby Albie Shore treatment. And that's what I used to call it. Cause that's where I first witnessed the power of music for my own. Like, I'd seen it through Michael Jackson and obviously my aunt being Ella Fitzgerald, but I'd never seen it for me in my own eyes. And when I saw Bobby and got a chance to be cool with him. Oh, when I saw Bobby and got a chance to be cool with him, I was like, the pandemonium. He would Cause was crazy. Bobby was the king, and Al B. Was the prince, and I was the enigma. And those times were great. And that's kind of how it came. You know, New Jack was gonna be that big. Yeah. Nah, nah, I did. I mean, it's a staple. And, I mean, it's iconic. Yeah, it's iconic. Cultural impact. Yeah. And, you know, it's funny, now that we're shooting the Book of Aqua, it's funny to see that, you know, New Jack was originally written by a Caucasian brother. Really? Yeah. Dwight. And they had Barry Michael Cooper, rest in peace, Barry, rewrite it. And I was originally Gee Money, really. But kudos to my brother. I was on Al Heyman's superfest, the Budweiser Superfest. And, you know, I wasn't gonna break my deal with Al. For one, New Jack wasn't paying, like, the superfest. And I wanted the opportunity. But I. Cassandra Mills at the time, who was my manager, she got George and Doug to agree that if I did Dreaming, she had found this song from Hiram Hicks and Stanley Brown. If I did Dreaming, could we create a character? And, you know, I think we all were like, yo, there's no 5 percenters of Muslims or anything like that. So they created Kareem Akbar. And that's how I became Kareem akbar. And now, 30 years later, I wrote the book of Akbar. What is that? What is that about? So Kareem's coming out the feds. So at the end of the movie when the tapes were stolen and they were making deals, Kareem actually in real time, had his own deal, but with the real cartel. And he basically took the money that was stolen and invested in gold and silver bars and Bitcoin, which was actually around then, but we didn't know about it. So Kareem stays 10 toes down with the cartel. He doesn't snitch on anybody. Italians, other Mexicans. He comes out 20 some years later, he's a made man. But he's an interesting character because Kareem is really like Abu Bakari. His perspective is to take this street thing and build the youth so that we have a different perspective about each other. So it's a duel between good and evil the whole time. And the young people that we got slated, I want Dave east to play Mustafa, who's Kareem Akbar's son. We got a boogie with the hoodie slated to play Nico, who's the illegitimate son of Nino, which Kareem raised. And then you find out later on it's not really Nino's son. But that's one of the twists. Ice T is interested in still being Scotty. He's now Internal Affairs. So.
- [31:15]
It'S a crazy twist. Talking about a new Jack City sequel. And everything I was hearing was corny, but that's hard. And they waited too long. We all in our late 50s and some of us in our 60s. What we gonna do? The Geriatric street movie? You would have got about 30 years. This is about, right?
- [31:34]
The whole series. If you was the leader of the CMB, you would have got about 30. Yeah. So we. We. We. We basically did it like that. And the story has so much more. Again, this story, in 100 episodes, will go from what we loved in New Jack to a new perspective. It's going to be modern, Kemet, and it's something that we've not seen on television before. Imagine a world where we all were who we really are, where nothing was taken, nothing was indoctrinated, nothing was nothing. No identities, no. No anything. Like really understanding who we are and living in real time in it. Did you know film in New Jack City, that the characters in New Jack City were gonna be as big as they were? Like your Chris Rock, of course. I see. But as an actor, Wesley, as an actor, G Money, as an actor. Did you see that? I'm not gonna lie. Envy. I didn't. We were having fun, man. It was like, you know, again, for me at the time, too, I really didn't get the whole gist of the movie because I had to be separated a lot. Yeah. Because it was disruptive to the shooting. Like, I remember once we were shooting at the Carter, and our trailers were right on 117th Street. They knocked my trailer over. Like, literally. They was like, we're getting in. Damn, we're getting in this nigga's trailer. All women. Oh, I hope so. Whoo. What a vibe we've got, y'. All. As always, it's classic HBCU energy. Nonstop action. The band is rocking and the crowd lit. Chants echoing, drums beating, everybody showing that school pride. Moments like this. Yeah, they call for an ice cold Coca Cola. Crisp and refreshing. That's a game changer right there. Mmm. Yeah, that taste always hit the right note. Just like the band at halftime. Passionate fans, school colors everywhere, and an ice cold Coca Cola. That's a winning combo. No matter the place, no matter the moment. Everybody knows fan work is thirsty work. So grab a Coca Cola and keep that HBCU pride going. This is Sophie Cunningham from Show Me Something. Do you know the symptoms of moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea or osa. In adults with obesity, they may be happening to you without you knowing. If anyone has ever said you snored loudly, or if you spend your days fighting off excessive tiredness, irritability and concentration issues, it may be due to osa. OSA is a serious condition where your airway partially or completely collapses during sleep, which may cause breathing interruptions and oxygen deprivation. Learn more at don'tsleep onosa.com this information is provided by Lilly, a medicine company run a business and not thinking about Radio? Think again because more people are listening to the radio and iHeart today than they were 20 years ago. And only iHeart broadcast radio connects with more Americans than TV, digital, social, any other media, even twice as many teens than TikTok. And that reach means everything. Just think about the universal marketing formula. The number of consumers who hear your message times the response rate equals the results. Now let's get those results growing for your business. Radio's here now more than ever and iheart's leading the way. Think radio can help your business. Think iheart streaming, podcasting and radio where the reach is real. Let us show you@iheartadvertising.com that's iheartadvertising.com or call 844-844 iheart one more time. Just call 844-844, iheart and get radio working for you.
- [35:06]
Hey y', all, it's me, your man, M.G. marcus Grant. And I'm Michael F. Florio. And I'm Laquan Jones. If you're looking to win your fantasy football league, you need to tune in to the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast. It's right there in the name. Every week, Florio, LQ and I bring you the latest news from around the league. We break down every matchup, give you our analysis and advice so you know who to start, sit, drop and trade to bring that championship trophy home. I just want to remind everyone how good Rasheed Rice was last season. In these three healthy games he was the wide receiver. Two in fantasy I think Rasheed Rice just goes off this week. The Chiefs come on a flip pass to Rice near side top. Ramandre Stevens is my sleeper this week. This is a matchup where I think I can slide in Stevenson in my flex position and he could deliver double digit points this week. Drake takes the snap, hands it off for Madre, running it right and running into the end zone. Touchdown. It's never too late to turn your fantasy season around. Subscribe to the NFL Fantasy football podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Eva Longoria. And I'm Maite Gomez Jacon. And on our podcast Hungry for History, we mix two of our favorite things. Food and history. Ancient Athenians used to scratch names onto oyster shells, and they called these ostrakon to vote politicians into exile. So our word ostracize is related to the word oyster. No way. Bring back the ostracon. And because we've got a very mi casa es su casa kind of vibe on our show, friends always stop by. Pretty much every entry into this side of the planet was through the El golf of.
- [36:47]
El Golfo de Mexico, continuing forever and ever. It blows me away how progressive Mexico was in this moment. They had land reform, they had labor rights, they had education rights. Mustard seeds were so valuable to the ancient Egyptians that they used to place them in their tombs for the afterlife. Listen to Hungry for History as part of the My Cultura podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [37:19]
So Keisha ain't had no daughter. No. But what we do have the guys in is that getting the rights is that he has trouble sleeping after all these years. He did four years in the shoe at different times. And I'll explain why he had to do four years in the shoe because Nino sent people to kill him.
- [37:39]
There's a small twist. Nino's not dead. Okay, okay, I heard that. So. But the thing is, Wesley's never wanted to do another gangster thing. Cause even when we're trying to make new Jack 2 was always Wes saying, I don't want to do another. I'm not interested. I'm not. And even though he did the Dependables, so, I mean, just as a small joke, I don't. If, like, if you're going to do the Dependables, you should do that. So we never got to do it. And then time went on and we would hear other things, and then all of us were kind of like, nah. So basically, the main people are dream sequence. Cause Kareem is an interesting dude. Like, his whole mannerisms, he's gonna remind you of, like a cross between Denzel and the Equalizer and Abu Bakari. Cause his forward thinking is like Billy Carson or Yaqui Awakened.
- [38:25]
His nutrition is like Ares Latham. He's an indigenous dude who's been stripped of everything, kind of like Christopher Williams. But through that, he's not bitter. It makes him better. He gets a different perspective about Oneself, so he's able to interact with people differently. How he takes everything in life different. So back to the original. I didn't want to go around the block, but that's when I died. Charlemagne. That's what happened. Like, everything became precious to me. I literally just started moving this right arm like maybe six months ago. But I was able to mock that it wasn't hurting to get my performance going again because I knew that it would take building a platform because you have to have a voice. And, you know, that's why a lot of times when things would come against me, I wouldn't speak on it, because I was like, if someone knows me, they know me. They know what I stand for, they know what I. They know the man that I am. And as long as my kids and my family are straight, the rest is kind of like, you know, I can't control that narrative. So, you know, I got blackballed. And again, I never felt the chain because I've always been a rebel in a sense, and I know that this whole indoctrination is a chain. Jess was trying to throw a pitch. I don't know if you realize she was trying to throw a pitch to be.
- [39:39]
Keisha's daughter. Keisha's daughter. But, you know, they was like, you know, they had to. They was, you know, fixing up the crack and coke in the building. Yeah. So you want me to be one of them? One of them. Can I ask you about I'm Dreaming. Yes. It's a timeless record. What was happening in your life when you recorded that record? Fun rock, rockstar, rock star, Crazy, amazing record. Again, that was a time like when me, Al and Bobby were hanging out a lot and we was just really on some 22, 23 year old rock star. It was, you know, again, up and down everything. It was feet parting everywhere. There was a lot.
- [40:19]
Feet were parting, they were arching point and all kinds of shit. So we was having fun. And I just was also trying to experience transitioning from the Bronx and the life that I was coming out of. And people don't realize, like, at the peak of my career, I lost my little brother, my grandmother, and my mother back year one one, one year after year. So that kind of slowed me down a little bit. And then when the things from the business started weighing on me and, you know, the heartbreak with Andre, I think sitting out and going in a hiatus or a wilderness, sort of like going through the wilderness, that was my journey. That was to be my thing. And it was a cross that only Christopher could Bear. I started witnessing a lot of artists who were like, you know, bitter. And I was like, I don't. I'm not that guy. I mean, even with cats my age come and do interviews, a lot of times they'll be like, well, yo, what do you think about the crap that's out right now? And I'm like, what are you talking about? Chris Brown ain't crap. Her ain't crap. Jasmine Sullivan ain't crap. Ellie May ain't crap. Summer Walker's not crap. These people are young, gifted people. And just like when we were coming up, we loved hip hop or we loved what we love. And they didn't get that. They said hip hop was from the devil and that it would never last. 50 years later, the whole world, 52 years later, the whole world is honoring it. And these brothers who, who stood for who they.
- [41:48]
Are, not only just icons, like, what do you say about the dialogue and prognostication of KRS1? Chris is a teacher. He's a better teacher than any Board of education teacher ever in history. And no diss to the teachers out here trying to do the right thing. But I remember my godson was on his way to Harvard and in ninth grade, they were trying to literally persecute Drew because they were like, yo, he's cheating. My Godson had read by 13 all the board of education books. So he looked at the teacher straight in his face like, I know the lessons you're giving me before you give them to me. So this is an. There's no teaching. We leave school not knowing taxes or credit. They're not teaching. They're setting you up. We go to an institution where the, the teachers don't know us. It looks just like a prison if you, if you put barb wires and a somebody or Watchtower. It's basically a prison. And the indoctrination that it teaches you, food wise, everything. I stayed in the hospital six months. I was with a dude, old cat from Nebraska. Omaha, Nebraska. Forget his name, honestly, because I washed some of it out. But I remember him having really bad diabetes where they would come at 2 o' clock in the morning, take him and, you know, they take him and get him his treatments and stuff and he was in a lot of pain, but that next morning, they would bring him high fructose corn syrup for breakfast. Oh my God. So I was like, yeah. So I pushed back off of it. They were trying to give me drugs. And it's funny that they're trying to give me drugs. The world is calling Me, a crackhead. I'm fighting for my life, and I don't even want no drugs. I just want a spliff and some goddamn herbs.
- [43:25]
So, again, enduring all of that and saying, okay, you got to stand strong and have the right perspective in order to go forward the proper way. What your. What your path is. So that's really what it was about, man. I just. I started not. This is a society where everybody's looking left and looking right. And I tell Christians this all the time. You so worried about what the bottom line is in the church or with your pastor, you forgot about the work of the Creator. You doing the work of the church. And if you really have faith and you have this relationship, one, where was he from 12 to 30? That shuts the whole. That shuts everything down. Then two, if you. If you're paying attention to him, why are you worried about what Jay Z got? Are you worried about what Puff got? You worried what Michael Gates, what Bill Gates? You were. What. If you paid attention to who you were, you were the first to get a zillion. But you so enamored with the billion or the 600 million, you ain't going to get to it. Because we're so busy looking left and looking right and having contempt and envy and jealousy and this, no pun intended.
- [44:33]
So I had to get out of that, you know, and it was important for me to do that for me as a man and who I am as a man and for my kids, so they could see that music don't make me. I make music. I put my pants on the same way 13 that I do now. So no matter the snare or whatever's going on and I. In doing that, when I came out the hospital, I felt like I was a much better person. And I see things super clear, and it's just my path. I'm not saying I'm right. I'm saying I'm right for me. So that's where I'm at today. Oh, good. When you talk about the time when you were, like, blackballed, you mentioned that your relationships overshadowed a lot of your talent. Is what you said earlier. Yeah, yeah. What from that time of who you were dating? So you mentioned Stacey Dash also. Halle Berry was a person you were dating. Well, I broke up with Halle because of that. Nothing ever happened with me and Halle. Halle's an amazing girl. I heard y' all talking about her earlier with her stand against Governor Newsom. So shout out to my friend. That's always gonna be Sarafi. I hope I'M saying that, right? They call me Mufasa. So these are characters from the Lion King. My son is Simba, my G baby is Kopa. So she's. We've always been friends in that whole thing with both Leos and I always. Again, I remember Vincent coming to me and being like, hey, pal, hey, listen. He used to talk like Burt Bedell. He'd be like, hey, you know, Hal's got a great future in front of her. And I'm like, yeah, she got a great future behind her too.
- [46:00]
So he'd be like, but, man, you know, all the tension in your career, man, you know, you and Russell and Andre fighting. And, you know, I love lior, but, you know, and lior again, lior was like, my man. 50 grand. Lior got me my apartment on Houston Street. And he used to live right around the corner on Avenue A or B. One or the other, I can't remember. But we would politic every day and this was a. A really thriving time. But again, the heartbreak of before the breakup was. So the week before I signed to Uptown, Mark Siegel, who was at icm, told me to stop messing with my brother Mark Cheatham. Don't mess with the help. Because Mark at the time was getting me all the work.
- [46:37]
I never knew Mark Siegel, after signing the Uptown, would become the president of my record label when I had signed to him being my agency. So now I'm in bed with an agency who no longer wants me to work because now the agent who signed me is now running the record. And then the whole dichotomy at Uptown changes. So what me and Andre had agreed to, I was the executive producer. Andre saw me. Cause again, he saw the moves I was making outside of music and just my general heart. Like, I always know that giving people opportunities, a great thing. Now what they do with it is on you. And I have no expectations from it. So then I'm free of it. I've sown the seed. I'm free of it. And that's not how this business works. All of us sitting here know that is not how this business works. So I've always been like, I guess, perceived a little different in music. And that's. That was the whole come about after, when I got out the hospital, just saying I'm. I'm confident in who I am. I'm not. I'm a better man than I was when I was 25. And that's evolution. I think we all, you know, are. I think my daughters grew me up a lot. Big shout to my Oldest daughter, Chrissy. Her birthday was yesterday, and she just got back from Iceland. She's an oceanographer. She dives in the ocean and films. So my daughter's like, you know, my kids are blessed. Everything is in a good place again. I'm sitting here at the breakfast club 29 years removed. Why? Because of your gifts? Yeah, absolutely. So I want to ask you about the coma thing. Right? You said. I know. When Abi Shaw announced that you were in a coma, your team came out and said it wasn't true. Why was that? Well, my sister Belinda. My sister didn't. We don't. You know, I've never involved my family. You know, it's. You know, again, you're to bring your family into what you already endure. Everyone's not made like that. You have a shield. You have a perspective of who Charlamagne is, and you're like, I can deal with this. But a lot of people are not built for this, and it really affects them. We see that all the time with artists. I see artists who are always, you know, like, they're bitter or they're making excuses, and I'm like, this is not life. It is a job, in a sense now. It is an art form, and it's dope to be able to do. Like, when you love something, you don't see it really as a job. You get to make money and take care of your family. So that's the space I've always been in. And.
- [48:59]
You know, I'm just, again, my journey's been amazing, you know, like any other life. There's been ups and downs and challenges, but, you know, because of grace and mercy, I've always rised to the occasion. And I think this. This comeback for me is going to be kind of strange to a lot of people because why now? Why so long? Why did. Why did they roam around in the wilderness for 40 years before they got to the promised land? And my company has been called promised land for 25 years, and my email for my whole life has been clw, lion of Judah. So again, these breadcrumbs have all come full circle to who I've become as a person, a man and an artist. What did Andre Harrell see in you early on that maybe you didn't even see in yourself? A businessman. And he took. We learned. I learned a lot from Dre and Russell. I really did. But I also learned about the pitfalls of this business. You know, again, we had a lot of fun, but my approach to fun was different. You know, I grew up in A time where you courted women, you know, if you liked each other certain, you know, look, you gave each other whatever. And I got music, and it was like, okay, they're buying girls. I remember Burt Bedell used to call me in the office, be, hey, pal. Hey. How many models made the shopping spree last night with Russell Andre? And I'd be like, bro, I don't know. And not as a disrespect to them or as a disservice, but we were doing the best. People don't realize Russell Dre and the people who had production labels, Dick Griffey, rap a lot. These guys went against all odds, even Suge Knight. Death Row was brilliantly formatted. It had a bad intent. The heart behind it became bad. The vanity became more important than the original mission, which was to be owners. I used to see checks, and people don't realize. Well, me and Deaf, Me and Eric B were the east coast reps for Death Row. No one ever knew that, but it's true if you check. Tupac, when he was going off in New York, he was like, the only niggas in New York. Afterwards, Eric B. And Crisp Williams, we opened up a Death Row East. And I was like, whoa, easy, bro. I'm from New York. I gotta go back home. But it never happened, unfortunately. But fortunately, because there was so much of the same going on in Death Row. Not respecting Dre, discounting who Snoop was discounting the artist, the treachery, the beatings, the debauchery. And I sealed the residue of all this stuff. And again, I was like, I feel fortunate that I'm unscathed in it. You know what I'm saying? I have no malice for marrying Suge. Suge, we were super cool. I remember Suge approached my girl at the time they was at some awards, and he was like, yo, you know who I am? And she was like, yeah, you know who I am? And he was like, oh, you must be from New York. She was like, well, I'm here alone, but I have. You know, I have a man. He was like, who's your man? He's like, Christopher Williams. He was like, his whole energy change. He was like, give him my number. I've been looking for him. But he was being Brutus until. Cause I. I really am one of the titans.
- [52:07]
I've just changed. I've just changed. My heart is different, bro. I'm better. I want to build my brothers. I want to build my sisters. You know what I'm saying? I can't do it. By myself. It's not my mission. But if one person takes that perspective and each one of us take that perspective, then things could change. Now the important key is when this platform comes about and I'm given the autonomy to do that, then I got to stay true to the mission. Because that's when the vanity and all the crazy stuff happens. And that's when you gotta be really strong. I mean, it's no different than any other person's purpose or journey. We're seeing all the stuff that's going on in the world right now. There's no apparent reason why this government should be in the shambles that it's in. But I've never believed in government because I'm well read. The only systems that have ever worked in the history of man is ancient Kemet. That's why all the names have changed. We call it Africa. That's not even the name of the continent.
- [53:07]
It's not. And if anybody doesn't believe me, fact checked everything I'm saying, everything we are indigenous means what? First, it don't mean better. But a black woman is the only woman on earth who can have every race of kid. That's why they sell melanin, that's why it's a commodity. That's why they're poisoning us with food. We're obsessed with deities instead of truth. Because a man says, I've got so much money, he stands, well, I'm Bill Gates, I'm going to put peel on your food. And we say, it's like when Rockefeller said, I'm going to give jobs to all the Negroes. We were like, yeah, and you're going to work for our system. And there's nothing wrong with it. We're all in this system, but it's finding perspective and balance so that it works for you and your family or whatever you're riding for. Now, my family stuff is one thing, but I've been given an assignment on this earth. We all have. What do you think it is? The truth. I think it starts through Akbar and some of the things that I know are true. I think that our kids need to be re educated, all kids, because there's a severe indoctrination. I mean, they spent hundreds. I could go on and on for a million years. Shout out to my brother, Terrence Howard, I mean, you call something multiplication. How can you have three components and multiply like so if you got $3 and I say, charlemagne, I'm your big bro, I want to multiply that $3, I'm going to teach you multiplication. But you're going to have to give me one of the components to get the right answer. You're going to say, that doesn't work for me because I had $3. I multiplied one times one.
- [54:46]
How does it stay one? How does it stay one? There's two components that become one. And that happens in improper mathematics. Same thing that happens in we. We. The Church says it's power and words. So why do you say civilization? Why do you say the word Jesus? The letter J wasn't introduced to the human language till 500 years ago. So who was he before that? And this is not a dis. This is not a diss to Christianity. But even when you read where Christianity comes from, it's from the Spanish Inquisition. They went around in the name of Jesus and murdered people. People and said, you're going to be. And again, don't believe me. Oh, this is the Roman emperor Constantine. Yeah, don't believe it. Like, again. All over the world, October is what, 8. Ocho. Every language same thing with 10D say dies. Why is December 12th in the calendar? If he's lord of the harvest, why would he be born in the middle of the winter? What have you ever seen grow in the middle of the winter? So how could his birthday be December 25th? And we know these things. Most of us know these things. I'm not saying anything really new to anybody. What's the weather in Jerusalem around December 25th? I don't know. It's warm, but not the harvest season. So, you know, the harvest just left. Harvest would be between September, October, somewhere around in there. But again, it's just. Again, we are taught these things because we're thrown off. That's why we're. That's why they don't interject sound into healing. Why do you think we love music? The sound heals us. It literally makes us feel a certain way. If I played a record you love from 1978, you might have not even been born then. But the way it makes you feel never goes away.
- [56:37]
That's why everything with medicine, they're saying, don't do drugs. What do you think is in the drugs? Opioids, heroin and coke. And from my past life, I'm an expert on it. I know how to cut it, mix it, cook it, what you want to do with it. But it's introduced into modern medicine because of the profit. And I'm not even mad in saying it. There are great doctors. Some of them help me, but the whole system is broken. We're the Only Western medicine treats the the case, not the person. How can you take the same medicine for the same sickness? And you have a different body. This disease in your cell, not sickness. So if you have dis ease in the cell, you have to create an alkaline environment to reform the disease. But that's not the approach we take. And I witnessed it for the first time. I should be dead because the three people that were in my room died in that facility in Inglewood. I've been paying insurance since I got a record deal. But because I wouldn't take the shot, I couldn't get my insurance straight. So I had to pay out of pocket. And I learned all these things and not to be mad or shoot at people, but I feel for humans. We're all in a place like everybody has basic common desires to feed their family, be healthy, you know, what are you putting in our water? Why don't you teach us coconut water? And watermelon water is God's water. Why are you teaching us to drink eight glasses or 12 glasses of water a day when you washing all your nutrients out? Why are you drinking water with estrogen in it? And guys are wondering why they getting titties and why they getting disformed and all this stuff. And again, Vincent said he used to have titties.
- [58:23]
He don't got no more. He slimmed down, man.
- [58:28]
So again, I don't say these things like, I'm not on a mission to hurt anybody, anything. I'm on a mission to heal, you know, and there's a lot of people, There's a core people on that same thing. I think internally, we all want to, but in the daily rigors of life, trying to figure out how to pay mortgages and rent, take care of our kids and loved ones, there are decisions that we have to make to keep continuing. And I've been given a hiatus to really, like, sit back and the fact that I'm still okay, my kids are good. I never had to go out begging for record deals or any of that kind of stuff, you know, notwithstanding what people have said about me. But those snares don't bother me. You know, there's been many crazy things said about me, but people who know me, know me, and they know my heart. I was literally about to ask, what's the craziest thing? Yeah, what's the craziest thing you heard? I think the thing with Puff might have been the craziest thing that I heard. And again, I'll say this. A lot of people, a Lot of people. Well, Jaguar Wright allegedly says something crazy about me and Puffy. But again, Puffy's a kid to me, and I even feel for Puff. Like, again, you got a documentary, you got. I didn't. I won't. Because again, I just, you know, I'm not a dude. You in it. You know that I. Word. No, I'm just joking. Nobody tell me that. I just looked it up, what she said. Right? So allegedly it was said that me and Puffy had some kind of homosexual relationship or something. Cause you walked in on you right now. She said. She said a lawyer walked in right now. Again, we could take two theories at this. Is she still talking?
- [59:55]
When was the last time y' all heard from Jaguar Wright? Every day online. Something comes up. But, I mean, is her presence felt like when she's just torturing these A list artists? So again, she included me in a little something. I'm not mad. But again, the security guard said something too. Gene did. Gene. And Gene is actually an old friend of mine. Y' all still friends after he cleared it up? No, he cleared me up. He was like. Like, first of all, he was like, no, he totally said the opposite. Oh, okay. Yeah, I'm looking at it. You're right. But he got into it a little bit with me because he felt like I was saying, like, I sonned him. But me and Gene always have respect for each other. I just don't go into those areas. Again, I'm not part of Puff's business. I knew Puff as a kid. I knew Puff, who used to run behind Mark Barnes in Washington. Cause again, I'm an og. They were like, Groovy Lou and all the people uptown, they're my little brothers. So when it was said my boys like Willie D and Prince, and them was like, yo, you gotta respond. So I wound up going on Willie D's. I don't know if I can say his name. And I said, for this one time, I'm gonna clear the air. Cause I was on the time during the cruise, and there was a gentleman who I think was. You know, he was of the other persuasion. He likes the colors and all that. He was in the front of the audience, and I was like, yo, I don't know why he's out at the front of the stage with all these girls. We were at the Times, and he just kept saying he don't want no girls. He want. You know, he kept saying crazy stuff. So I had to stop the show. And again, I had to figure out, like you said not to Let my emotions of the momentary disrespect dictate what was gonna come out my mouth. So I felt like I cleared it up. But you know how we are. We like, we go to Rome, we wanna see the lion eat the human. That's human nature. That's why we watch mma. That's why we watch Tyson crush people. A part of us is carnivorous, and it's partly because of what we've been taught to eat too. That's a whole nother long story, but basically we just deflected it by clearing it up. But I think that's the craziest thing because for one, puff's always been a kid to me. Again, I was there when Jimmy Love was screaming in his face this close, telling him to go get the cheesecake from Jimmy's. When uptown was in Brooklyn and they were getting threatened by Brooklyn dudes. So they were calling us from the Bronx to come down and help them. So Jimmy and them would come up to College Avenue in the Bronx on 170th street, and they'd be like, yo, we getting pressured. We need help. So again, I wanted to get music. This was my opportunity. And that's how I met Teddy and Al. Me and Al formed a friendship and so did me and Teddy, but Teddy was with Gene Griffin. And Gene, I knew Gene in the street through Bill Underwood. You know, I'm a youngin though, but at the same time, I'm now 20. So the 40 year old was like, he can't handle me, bro. Don't even do it to yourself. So I was like, okay. I was always the champion for somebody getting abused, somebody getting mishandled. And that's how me and Al became friends. And the first thing in my career that I experienced again was his fame. And I was Al's stunt double. So Jimmy Love and Andre would send me out one door. The crowd would be like, oh my God, it's Al B. Shore. And they'd run after me and then they take Al out the back door. So that was my first gist of music. And I wanted to sign uptown, but I realized that was never gonna happen. So at the time I was dating Stacy and she was getting gigs. I think she had just done the Cosby Show. And again, because I was in a different kind of business, I would send Stacey to auditions in town cars and she'd be fly, you know, she wasn't missing a beat. She just wasn't as famous as some of the other girls she was up against. And she finally got a Movie called Enemy Territory. I'll never forget this. Kadeem Hardison, Ray Parker, Jr. Anthony Todd, Peter Wise. A lot of old heads were in it, and they were peeking in Stacy's dressing room, watching her get dressed. So I'm on College Avenue, she calls me. Me and two of my friends ride down on our motorcycles to Alphabet City, shut the whole movie down. So these were things that I had to learn that they were not advantageous to my career, and they were emotional things that I was trying to represent something that really wasn't me. That's honorable, though. You know what I'm saying? If a woman calls you and tells you she feels uncomfortable, well, no, they. They. They were caught. They were literally watching her for days. So again, I was irate. So again, I got blamed for it. But I'm always blamed for a reaction. I'm never again. Oh. Cause the mythical shut down. Oh, no. They never filmed again.
- [64:29]
They never filmed again. That's honorable. You know, I want to ask him. When we talk about systems, right? That's why no one knows about Enemy Territory. When we talk about these systems that we know exist, how much of this stuff we see with people like Puff is learned behavior. It's. It's learned, and it's sad. That's why I said people. People I know. Listen, I like you, Charlemagne. A lot of the goofy stuff I be like, man, it's sad that this is. Because, again, it's. People are looking at you. People are looking at us. And when you have a success story like Suge or Puff, it's like, you want someone to get it. Like, you want something to be like, yo, I can touch this. This is tangible. I can do this. But then when you start to have an overflow of negative condentation from it, it starts to really be like, damn, why is homes moving like this? But again, I can't dictate or I don't have a real judgment over anything. I have my opinion. Like, I don't get down with nipple milk. You know what I'm saying? I'm just saying I don't get down with that. But at the same time, I'm gonna be honest.
- [65:31]
I hope that whatever he has to go through, he comes out of it, you know, I hope that he realizes who he is and finds a real path for what he is supposed to be doing with his life. Because he's a. Puff's probably the hardest work I ever seen in music. I don't know if I can say he's the most talented person.
- [65:53]
But he's probably one of the hardest workers. But again, I knew Puffy, the kid, I don't know, the icon, the mogul and all that. So just to say as far as him, man, I hope that whatever he has to go through, because again, we all have nice lives. Imagine having to go to a cell and you gotta be around a bunch of dudes all day. And he's now learning a new system. Jail is a different life. Life, It's a whole different life. You know, your head got to be on a swivel 24 7. And that money that you can give to commissary, yeah, that's cool. But if that ever jumps out of pocket, you got a whole nother. You got a whole nother thing. And then it forces you to say, am I going to be the victim or am I going to be the animal? And once you join into that, it's over. Because once you stab a few people and all that, your eye and ear gates open. You send a boy to Ward 18, he's not a killer until he sees murder. But once he sees that and he comes back, you're asking this dude to be a civilian, but he's now a murderer. He's desensitized from murder. So cutting somebody's throat, shooting somebody in the face is Again, this is programmed. And then they make one of these people a poster child for mental illness. No, this is what's bred in him. This is what's bred in him. There's no. These. This government food is left in the urban projects for a reason. They're called projects. And now they're housing authorities for a reason. So again, it's not like, again, I'm not on a mission. These are all things that have been said. We tend to get the popular quote of the day. Like, everybody thinks health comes from Dr. Sebi. No diss. To the late, great Dr. Sebi. But Dick Gregory and people long before Dick Gregory were preaching the same thing. Exactly. You know, and our four. Yeah, our forefathers, Thurgood Marshall, Cryptus, actors, Frederick Douglass. These people fought for our rights. We've been told they were certain things. These were all Republicans. We are the innovative party. All this stuff has been stripped from us. And it's not. Again, I truly believe that if the shoe is on the other foot, the conditions would not be this way. They wouldn't be this way if we were to. We have empathy, we have compassion. And that's how we lost it, by trust. Now there are some people, like, people would argue, well, how did the. Again, we're not all from Africa.
- [68:12]
We're going to prove that the Nile river is the Mississippi River. Oh, no. I believe some of them. If you read how the river runs, it's the only river that operates that way. So all of this stuff has been turned around so that we feel like we're just with the picture. And that Smithsonian dictates you look at this picture is a black kid with beautiful skin, white eyes and white teeth. And they got a seeded watermelon. Watermelon's the fruit of the gods. But it's depicted to be like you a porch monkey, because I want you to feel like a porch monkey. So I watched sisters in the 60s and 70s feel like Naomi Campbell wasn't fine until they said she was fine. Beverly Johnson was as fine until they said she was fine. Now black is fine. Black's always been fine. So now the light skins are not fine. Me and you ugly now, we always fine, brother. Right? We now out of pocket. In the 90s, we had no presence. Obama splash brothers. Nah, we're gone. No, the 90s, y' all was popping. Well, the 2000s. Yeah, but again, Obama splash brothers, where we go? We're all one, Frankie. Beverly said it the best way you can say it. We really are one. When you get to the truth of it all, we're one, but we're not treated like that. You know what I mean? So do you think. I'm sorry, go ahead. I was gonna ask before we get away from the systems thing and hearing what you're saying and you talk about Diddy being able to, like, basically rehabilitate. Do you think being in the system will rehabilitate him the way that he should be or should he have been able to? Only he can free his mind from mental slavery. Only he can. They'll teach him systems. They'll almost make him feel secure. That now he's a. He's had some. Now he got street cred. So they'll pit him into that. And then he's gonna carry the burden of carrying inmates and correcting their lives and giving them opportunities. But only if he leaves. Whoa, what a vibe we've got, y'. All. As always, it's classic HBCU energy. Nonstop action. The band is rocking and the crowd lit. Chants echoing, drums beating, everybody showing that school pride. Moments like this. Yeah, they call for an ice cold Coca Cola. Crisp and refreshing. That's a game changer right there. Mmm. Yeah, that taste always hit the right note. Just like the band at halftime. Passionate fans, school colors everywhere, and an ice cold Coca Cola. That's a winning combo. No matter the place, no matter the moment. Everybody knows fan work is thirsty work. So grab a Coca Cola and keep that HBCU pride going. This is Sophie Cunningham from Show Me Something. Do you know the symptoms of moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea, or osa, in adults with obesity? They may be happening to you without you knowing. If anyone has ever said you snored loudly, or if you spend your days fighting off excessive tiredness, irritability and concentration issues, it may be due to osa. OSA is a serious condition where your airway partially or completely collapses during sleep, which may cause breathing interruptions and oxygen deprivation. Learn more at. Don't sleep on osa.com this information is provided by Lilly, a medicine company Run a business and not thinking about Radio? Think again, because more people are listening to the radio on iHeart today than they were 20 years ago. And only iHeart broadcast radio connects with more Americans than TV, digital, social, any other media, even twice as many teens than TikTok. And that reach means everything. Just think about the universal marketing formula. The number of consumers who hear your message times the response rate equals the results. Now let's get those results growing for your business. Radio's here now more than ever, and iheart's leading the way. Think radio can help your business. Think iheart streaming, podcasting and radio where the reach is real. Let us show you@iheart advertising advertising.com that's iheartadvertising.com or call 844-844-Iheart one more time. Just call 844-844-iheart and get radio working for you.
- [72:22]
Hey, y', all, it's me, your man, M.G. marcus Grant. And I'm Michael F. Florio. And I'm Laquan Jones. If you're looking to win your fantasy football league, you need to tune in to the NFL NFL Fantasy Football Podcast. It's right there in the name. Every week, Florio, LQ and I bring you the latest news from around the league. We break down every matchup, give you our analysis and advice so you know who to start, sit, drop and trade to bring that championship trophy home. I just want to remind everyone how good Rasheed Rice was last season. In these three healthy games, he was the wide receiver. Two in fantasy I think Rasheed Rice just goes off this week. The Chiefs come on. A flip pass to Rice this side. Touchdown. Randre Stevens is my sleeper this week. This is a matchup where I think I can slide in Stevenson in my flex position and he could deliver double digit points this week. Drake takes the snap, hands it off for Madre, running it right and running into the end zone. Touchdown. It's never too late to turn your fantasy season around. Subscribe to the NFL Fantasy Football podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get Michael Lewis here. My book the Big Short tells the story of the buildup and birth of the US housing market back in 2008. It follows a few unlikely but lucky people who saw the real estate market for the black hole it would become and eventually made billions of dollars from that perception. It was like feeding the monster, said Eisman. We fed the monster until it blew up. The monster was exploded. Yet on the streets of Manhattan, there was no sign anything important had just happened. Now, 15 years after the Big Short's original release and a decade after it became an Academy Award winning movie, I've recorded an audiobook edition for the very first time. The Big Short story, what it means when people start betting against the market and who really pays for an unchecked financial system is as relevant today as it's ever been, offering invaluable insight into the current economy and also today's politics. Get the Big Short now at Pushkin FM Audiobooks, or wherever audiobooks are sold.
- [74:29]
Properly. Will he do that? The same thing with the Honorable Elijah Muhammad? He stands before thousands and thousands of men, millions of men around the world. If they find one single hair missing out of pocket. That's not who he says he is. They're waiting for that just like they would they were waiting for Obama. If Obama had it done with Bill Clinton. Done. Oh my God. Get a little head in the Oval Office. Damn. Yeah. You know he's a player.
- [75:00]
Like. Like what she just asked you. I'm glad that you said it because he already has like a program like Free Game. Did he do whatever to you? There's something like that. Like he has like, like inmates can. Like he's giving them game on something. But you can't teach somebody something if you're not well again. I'll go back to the church. They say Jesus was a Hebrew and he spoke in Aramaic. He taught Aramaically. What pastor in the church you go to can speak Hebrew or Aramaic in America? That's not speaking tongues. I don't even know what. Aramaic. No. Tongues is a spiritual connection between the Trinity. That's why it's an utterance as the word Aramaic. Aramaic is a language. It's in the Middle east somewhere. I don't want to say the wrong thing, but again, the way he taught in his journey was a love journey. That's why I was just in the mountains with Benny Hennan, my pastor. When I was going to church in 06, I met a brother named Dr. Dimitri Bradley, who really touched my life because he was a teacher, not a pastor. And we went through the book. And I remember one day I pondered. I started looking at all these great moves of God. Kenneth Copeland. But even when you look at the history of religion, if you ever turn on a religious ceremony from the 60s, you see Billy Graham saying, if you have sin, you die. It'll be burning brimstone and you're gonna go to hell. How would a. How would a gapier loving father talk like that? Would you talk to your kids like that? No. Would you talk to your kids like that? So why would a sovereign father talk to his kids like that? Why? How would he do that? And if he forgives us for all of these things, as a creator of all things, why would he send us to a master? Would you send your kids to a master? But we do it unknowingly. When we send them to public school or we send them to Montes, we feel like, oh, we've arrived. Because now I'm paying for Montessori school or private school. We've arrived. But now they're just. And I learned this by my kids going to Harvard. My children went to Harvard. The biggest systematic joint you can get in. And my son is like, this is garbage. Because all I am is hired at the top tier of this same farm, the same system that was created in 1941, an economy by the Rothschilds. And if you go back in history and check the whole families, the 12, 13 families, the old regards, you'll see all of this stuff. If you look on your birth certificate, you see you're owned by the Crown Corporation. There is a bank account with your name on it with millions of dollars in it that you can never touch. My cousin. That's so crazy. What you're saying is. And I'm be honest. My cousin had tried to tell me about Ralph's child, like a couple years ago. And I thought she was crazy because she went down a rabbit hole. And she ain't really have a lot of friends, me and my cousin, like this, you know? So when she trying to tell me this stuff, I'm not receptive of it. Cause I never heard anything about it. And she's trying to teach me. And I'm just like, come on, you this 13th day. This the 13th day. You calling me about this, Yo, I got other stuff to do. But, like, she's like, yo, you really need to get into it. So to hear you saying it now, you know, I'm sorry. I kept telling her she was crazy. Well, we're all. We all are incorporated into this system because, again, there's only so much time in the day. We got to get to what we're trying to get to. So, again, that's why I say I learned these things with a clean, open heart, not for judgment. I'm not bitter. I understand exactly what it is. But love is the only thing that's going to conquer this thing. We keep searching for a ballot. We keep searching for a savior in government. They're all on the same team. It's all one government. They're all on the same team. Blue, red, all of that stuff, when you mix it together, it's purple. What is the significant purple. What does that mean in the color system of America? They said Prince was weird. It's easy to get to it. It's like the purple was evil. It was some kind of weirdness about it. And people like, well, where you going with the colors? Everything in this system, every word. Okay, let's go at midnight. Who can prove midnight's in the middle of the night one day of the year? I want somebody to do that and call into the show because it never happens. Say that again. Who can prove that the word midnight falls in the middle of the evening one day out of 365 years. It doesn't. We learn words like civilization. They told they spent 400,000. $4 million on milk will do your body good. Milk is the worst thing you could put in your body. We're the only mammals who go past suckling from our mothers. And our mother's milk is designed for us, not other children. But when we were taking care of their children, they were drinking our milk.
- [79:55]
So again, all of this stuff, I call it the porch monkeyism. And it's hard to get out of it because it's covered through everything. We go to church and say we have been given dominion of everything and all therein. We are sovereign. How we sovereign getting taxed? And how does our president escape tax? Because he knows America is a corporation and he uses the corporate law of America to use against America, which we don't. There's a lot of brothers here who sign up to be sovereign. They get their paperwork. They can't be arrested. They have to go to the embassy. But isn't it ironic that if you take that and become free, you can't. Only you can't own anything here. You can't own anything in your name. They don't teach us to open up irrevocable trust, to live through trust. They don't teach us that. And then getting to that is like, you need an opportunity to get to that. So then once you get to it, they're trying to move you so fast through your stardom and your vanity that you're like, oh, I'll catch up later. And then before you know it, you're going through your first tailspin.
- [80:56]
Because you didn't stick to what your path is. I always say, this Ainikamozi is one of the greatest artist I ever met. He got in, got his bread, he robbed them and went back to Jamaica. Here comes the hot step of murderer I'm your lyrical gangster Give me your money and I'm out and if you call me believe you for dead Period. Now that's not my approach, but I respect that. He was like, this is such sewage. It's so bittersweet. Because life is sweet. This business is beautiful. We get to watch creatives. That's why in my hiatus, I was able to sit back and be a fan again. Like when I was a kid watching Marvin Gaye and Luther Vandross and James Ingram, I just became a fan and I was cool with that. And it only sharpened my knife as a creative. And the only person that convinced you that is good, it can't be when they say or when you get an award. It has to be before that ever happens. Because again, before you became Charlemagne, who believed you but you, other than your mother or someone that you had close to you, you believe it. No matter what obstacles were put before you or what things didn't work out. I'm a baseball player. I never care about striking out. I only care about the home run or the triple double or the walk the bunt, whatever I gotta do to advance the game. Now, I think God gives us all clear visions. And at some point, just going through this process of life, if we don't stay focused on that vision God gave us, the world can just distract us. And we start seeing all types of other things and starts seeing ourselves in ways that we aren't naturally designed to be. And it's a beautiful distraction because again, who doesn't like stuff? But it's a matter of whether the stuff becomes a deity. And when that happens, then we start witnessing again, whether it's Bill Cosby or My. My brother who I love, Rob Kelly, my basketball nemesis. Or Puff or Russell. Don't we see the signs.
- [82:59]
Suge? Yo, we used to have an office. We called it the Red Room at Death Row. This dude had publishing checks. I think the lowest check was 280 grand. Wow. And it was a wall full of publishing checks.
- [83:14]
Are you the reason that he was gonna sign Jodeci and Mary J. Blige? Yes, I brought Javonta. Well, me and Eric B. Not just me, Me and Eric B. And again, I'm sorry it happened. You know what's funny? Charlamagne. The night that Tupac got shot, me and Eric B and Snoop's uncle got together, and we were like, we ain't going to Vegas. Cause we could literally feel. You ever been in a room that's so thick.
- [83:38]
Of course, we never would thought it would be Pac dying. But I always say this, like, yo, my nigga, y' all killed hip hop. You killed Biggie and Pac. Imagine if those brothers were making cop movies together or making films or did a record together. Imagine if Michael, Whitney and Prince were here to unite. The whole world would listen to something united with those three people involved. Who is y'? All? You said y' all killed Biggie and Pac. Whoever was behind all of this nonsense about hating each other. And I don't mean us here, and I don't mean to generalize it, but I don't know as a fact, too, of course I have an idea, because I know a lot of stuff. But again, today, I don't know where snitching comes from. There's honor in being a snitch. Now, young brothers is in on IG snitching on themselves. I'm like, where do they get this unmanly behavior? And they think this is hot.
- [84:33]
And it's a setup. Because again, they're like, listen, that money you pull out on the table, that's all you got. You don't even know how to make that money work for you. It's going to work actually against you. So that's what a lot of Akbar is about, too, is like, I want young kids to see, like, yo, instead of getting a fight and killing each other, let's get in a fight and be like, yo, I took your $20,000 and I put it in a Roth IRA. F you, nigga. Damn. F you. What?
- [85:04]
Somebody goes to jail for 20 years, they come home to 800. A million dollars. They ain't got to ask nobody for nothing. You ain't got to be supreme asking People like, yo, I need you to put me back on. You're already on. Because obviously you are. Smart businessman just in an illegal business. Wrong system. Right. We saw that in Trading Places. We saw a bum depicted as Eddie Murphy who outsmarted the Wall street cats. The system. And they laughed so truculently as they did it until they were broke because that's their deity. What they stole. They didn't earn nothing. They stole it. And then they make us feel like we're half. We're nothing, we're less. Y' all trying to get to our bag? No, we trying to get what was ours. And we're dealing with this mentally because we're out of alignment. So I feel for Puff and R. Kelly and these people because again, imagine going from living in Florida in his house or living wherever his homes are to living in a cell. He can't even dye his hair, but it's because Fat Joe can't even get him. No. No color.
- [86:13]
Poor choices they made, though, no doubt. Yeah. Yeah. But again, like you said earlier in the Question Charlemagne, I wonder if sometimes if it was sexy or there were depictions of men who are trying to build men up, respect women. And I'm not saying I've come from that my whole life. I'm saying I had to get over that. Even spreading myself thin as a young person. I don't do that no more. I'm looking for one good one or maybe two, but.
- [86:40]
Big shout out to Neil. Did Pookie have a daughter with the life of. Oh, my goodness. We do have a character that would fit you. Okay. And. And I'm really a fan. Just, like, for real. I've seen your comedy. I never. I was at your show in Detroit. Yeah. And I never said I was in the building. I just was. I wanted to see you do your thing. And I was like, you think I'm funny? I was funny as hell. That's when you had the problem. It's hard to be funny when you're sexy. It's hard to be funny when you're sexy. You're not crazy. She's crazy.
- [87:11]
Hold on. Rest in peace, too. Like you mentioned, Pastor Demetrius A. Bradley. Yeah. He way, right? Yeah. He died one Wednesday. We were talking out Doc. I call him Doc. Doc used to rap. So his testimony was like. He was in the street. They were getting ready to serve him with 25 years. And he said he had been in church his whole life. The first time he ever got on his knees and he prayed, the next day he went to go get sentenced, everything released. Wow. He gave. He made a covenant with the Creator and he says, I didn't make a promise. I made a covenant. It. There's a difference. Just like words of power, they. They had us going, we'll give you liberty. You know what liberty means? I give you permission. Yeah. That ain't freedom. That's liberty. So he taught me what that spiritual freedom was, even though it was through a system that wouldn't work for me per se. It doesn't mean it doesn't work for other people. But I had to get back to the grail of everything. Where we come from, who we are, are what these lands really mean. Like, you know, telling us that 10,000 slaves built pyramids and all that weirdo stuff. All that stuff is. Is just indoctrination and it's lies. And it's not to be hated, but it's to be basically ascertained in oneself and then find the balance in it. And how can you get to a place where your life can be enriched so that you can enrich somebody else's life? That's really what it's about. So liberty, freedom, justice for all. You don't like that phrase? I don't like it because it does. Do. I mean, have you felt free your whole life, Honestly?
- [88:46]
Maybe inside. But when you see the parallels of people and the fact that you're asked to cast a. We're wearing an oppressive system. But I've always felt free. Well, see, that's the power of what's in you. And that needs to be something learned by people. Especially. We see all these kids going through mental health. They've got to be spoken into, because a lot of what's being spoken into them is like, okay, we'll fix you with ADD or this, that, this. You take this drug or you take that drug, you take this drug. It's not helping anybody. It's just going back into a system where drugs are still the most powerful entity, along with hair care products, land value, and all these different things. And these are the things that we are left involved in. They're all in our communities, but we don't own any of it. So that's a strength that you have that maybe just in. That needs to be taught to some kids because young black men are struggling with who they. And having the confidence say, yeah, I see all this. Like, we're asked to cast a vote. You know what cast means? Witchcraft. No, I want you to cast something.
- [89:53]
A vote. Who here is pleased with any votes that they've made? In the last. Since they were adults.
- [90:02]
That's something that is an uncomfortable conversation because there's all these systems in place, the blue against the red, the House against the Senate, but it's all the same team. Every brick in D.C. is an indoctrination of slavery. Every brick, every dun that houses kids that are being destroyed under the Getty Museum and all these places. This can't go on in humanity. So, again, music is a soother. So if I've been given the gift of music and my music does something for people, my music usually makes people feel romantic or feel good. But while I'm going in my journey, I gotta be real about what I am in the music. We don't. We become this thing because of vanity and success and money, and it becomes a deity. But like somebody mentioned Bruce Lee earlier. What did he say? Numbers are, what, infinite? So you could chase numbers forever. You become a billionaire, I guarantee you want to be a trillionaire. You become a trillionaire, I guarantee you want to become a zillionaire. So you could go on and on and on, but you're chasing a number. And there's only nine numbers in the whole number system. Other than that, it just goes another, another, another, but it's only zero to nine. Those are the only numbers. So we've been taught time is wrong, our mathematics are wrong. The power of what we speak out of our tongue is wrong. So we're up against a lot of stuff. And then we're going, well, why do I feel off? Why am I mentally depressed? Because this is the crap that we've been served up and we believe it. We're not in divine alignment. No. So when you bring it all back to music, everything that you're saying, right. It is perfect for your album. War and Peace, of course. You teaching through your music. Yep. War and Peace. And because. And that comes out 2026 in March 26th in March, one piece. And I think that it's really a perfect depiction of. We try to assimilate, especially with a Christopher Williams record. I think me and Vince. And Vince sees me. He knows how to simulate who I am as a man. And the message in my music. We're not taking the romance or the good feeling out the music, but there's an assimilation in each message. War and Peace. Who's going to win peace? But we gonna show you the war too, because we gotta keep it a buck. We gotta keep it real. We have to show you that these challenges in a relationship assimilate the same way as the challenges in life and you'll hear that in the music. I think Good Enough is a perfect example of that is basically I just want to. I hope my best is good enough. I don't want to lose your love it could be Eros love, It could be child love, it could be brotherly love. I don't want to lose your love. And it's hard for black men to say that. Like, I love charlamagne. When I was coming in today, you know, my friends were probably like, yo, you know he's going to attack you. He's going to get you. I'm like, I'm like, damn. His reputation proceeds again. And you, you got to have an experience with somebody to say, listen. And I go into it open heartedly. Even if there was a conversation here that wasn't so positive, we could agree to disagree. What they thought that he was gonna talk about the Diddy stuff? Well, I'm open to talking about it again. A lot of it again is the same. Contempt, jealousy. This man is successful. People hear his name every day. People know you not even from here, people know you from different things. You're not just a comedian, you're not just a personality. You're a lot of different things. So people get a preconceived notion. Just like I've heard people walk up to me and be like, I thought you'd be arrogant. Why? Cause I'm light skinned.
- [93:42]
If anybody should be arrogant, it should be Sidney Poitier. Word. Absolutely. Have you seen pictures of this man when he was 24 years old? And no mo or none of that. Yes, but the talent, the wisdom, him and Harry Belafonte should be arrogant. Yeah. God bless the dead. God bless their souls. And again, big shout out to his daughters. I went to purchase with his daughters. So again, all these breadcrumbs. My little dude from eating wall projects. So I've been blessed. Is it a song on the album called Breadcrumbs? Because you love saying breadcrumbs. Uh oh, Vince, you love a little bread. Well, yeah, you know, it's funny day. The other day, Vince was having a conversation and I said, rebirth. He wrote a song. Rebirth.
- [94:18]
Him is sick pit. Don't worry about no food. Vince come a long way.
- [94:25]
Right now. This is good enough. I want the other song. The other song you mentioned all the time too. We can get that song too. Vince. What was that? Gentleman is it. Oh, that's a great record. But this song called Gentlemen is incredible. Chris didn't mention he has Devonte to the mic.
- [94:42]
There you Go. He's. He has Devonte on the album. Swiss Beats.
- [94:47]
Troy Taylor, Troy Oliver, Brian Michael Cox. Who else? Feli Sick Pin, Sean Garrett. Rico Love. Shout out to Rico Love. Just an incredible. This guy's voice is phenomenal. That's due to Vincent. Again, one thing. Again, I get a kick out of Vince because, again, I get a kick out of Vince because again, I met him when he was 14 years old. So, again, to watch him go through this whole gamut and to me, be the again, Vince legend. We don't get to see, like. Like a black man. Usher, the greatest. One of the greatest white artists ever. 170 million albums today. Yeah, Just that talk.
- [95:29]
I'm a black man from Newark, New Jersey. He's the biggest pop star in the world. No, but it's a blessing. Like, Chris don't believe in me. I don't meet him at 14. He doesn't give me my first thousand dollars to go in the studio. I never meet none of you guys. I never meet Gaga. None of that never happens. But this guy believed in me and saw something in me, and I'm like, all I'm doing is paying the fort. You believed in me. You gave me an opportunity when no one knew who I was. Like, I fell in love with Edgewood. I fell in love with a BMW. All because, like you said, we learned from our, you know, our people and our behavior that we're around. And I just used to yell at him and make him take his shoes all the time.
- [96:02]
But no, now I'm able to make this great album with him. Like, this is probably the best R B album I've ever made in my life. Whoa. Like, it's that really good. And even though he talked about the thing for Book of Aqua, just to give you guys, I just brought Jermaine on. Jermaine's gonna be the music supervision for the. For the book. And you definitely, definitely got a role for you. Come on, man. So you already sold the show. Thank you. Yeah. We got a deal right now. Hbo. Wow. Come on. Wow. I'm not. I don't want to sugar Chris. Congratulations. And me and Chris are executive producing and producing it together. And the people there just. It's just a beautiful time to be able to do this with people that have done something for you in your life, like uplifting each other and supporting each other. Like, that's just, like, when I talk to Jermaine about these events. Of course, whatever you guys want to do, I'm just happy to have the opportunity. Jermaine's never did a music supervision for any project in his life. Wow. All these hits. He's done and made all these records and. Yeah. Never did. But we don't get that opportunity because we don't look at each other to help each other. Yeah. It always goes to the other side. And it's like I made Universal $3 billion with Gaga. I gotta make sure this time I'm incorporating my people. Yeah. You know, and making sure that they're able to get a bit like. Because when I met her, she was got dropped from Def Jam. They gave me $250,000 to make an album. I signed 2X that day and spent $8 million on the other girls. There was three little white girls and we sold $170 million to date. And those three white girls, you don't hear from them. Jimmy wanted to make the album. He spent $8 million. I don't know what you know, but that. And then Gaga is nominated. Her fifth time getting nominated for how many year. This is like before my son was born. So now this is like 13 years later. It's a blessing. And it's a blessing for me to be able to do this with Chris and really make this project. The TV show, the movie, the music. The album's phenomenal. He sounds unbelievable. Like people like write our people off and we don't pay attention. But this guy voice is unmatched. Wow. It is not really, really, really special. Good enough. His voice is dopamine. He didn't want to do good enough. I was like, chris, you gotta cut this. Right. That's so crazy. And the fact that you shouted out the artist her. Right. That's what yo he said. He got a role for you already.
- [98:10]
When a beat drops in good enough, it reminds me of her damage. Right. And like you said, that was the second artist that you said out your mouth. That's really good. Oh, yeah. I love her. I'm not just Cause her name is her. Jasmine Sullivan. And all the. A lot of young people, man, like Bruno Mars. And we still a movement. Our culture's still in good hands musically. I think the people in my generation gotta understand they don't make what we make. It's for us to fuse into being relevant today and not being afraid to be new. You don't get stuck. Like, youth needs wisdom. Wisdom needs innovation. So when you take youth out of your life or you take elderly out of your life, there's a part missing that's real. Our ancestors are speaking to us right now. That's why they wrote all those, the stuff they wrote in those caves, and it's still significant. Thousands and thousands of years later. They gonna try to explain how the pyramids in Antarctica are popping up right now, and they gonna lie about that. We ain't gonna lie about this. New music. I look forward to this new act from y', all, man. Congratulations.
- [99:15]
We ready to go crazy with this, this, this, this, this TV show. You know what I mean?
- [99:27]
Christopher Williams. Good enough. It's the Breakfast Club. Good morning. Every day I wake up. Wake your ass up. The Breakfast Club. Y' all finished or y' all done?
- [99:38]
This is Sophie Cunningham from Show Me Something. Do you know the symptoms of moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea, or osa, in adults with obesity? They may be happening to you without you knowing. If anyone has ever said you snore loudly, or if you spend your days fighting off excessive tiredness, irritability and concentration issues, it may be due to osa. OSA is a serious condition where your airway partially or completely collapses during sleep, which may cause breathing interruptions and oxygen deprivation. Learn more at don'tsleep on OSA.com this information is provided by Lilly A medicine company. You know what your customers are doing right this second? The exact same thing. You are listening to me, which, let's be honest, is kind of flattering. But my point Is, ads on iHeartRadio actually get heard in the car, at the gym, on the couch, while people are walking their dogs. Who's a good boy? Who's a good boy? You're a good boy. That's right. So why not make the next ad about you? Get started today. Call 844-844-IHEART or go to iheartadvertising.com that's 844-844-iheart or iheartadvertising.com I'm Robert Smith and this is Jacob Goldstein, and we used to host a show called Planet Money. And now we're back making this new podcast called Business History, about the best ideas and people and businesses in history and some of the worst people, horrible ideas and destructive companies in the history of business. First episode, how Southwest Airlines used cheap seats and free whiskey to fight its way into the airline business. The most Texas story ever. Listen to business history on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. You know the shade is always shadiest right here. Season six of the podcast Reasonably Shady with Gisele Bryant and Robyn Dixon is here dropping every Monday as two of the the founding members of the Real Housewives Potomac. We're giving you all the laughs, drama and reality news you can handle. And you know, we don't hold back. So come be reasonable or shady with us each and every Monday. Listen to Reasonably Shady from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Jingle bells, jingle bells Jingle all the way.
- [101:58]
Can we get a Thanksgiving first? I'm hungry. What's up, y'? All? It's Kadeen and Deval, the hosts of the Ellis Ever after podcast. This holiday season, tune out the noise and tune in to Ellis Ever After. On Ellis Ever after, we get real with our crew about family, love and marriage and everything else in between. Listen to Ellis Ever after on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Follow Ellis ever after and start listening on the free iHeartradio app today. This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.