 J-O-Wins. Yes, sir. Man, you been busy. Yeah. You're knocking them out. Yeah. What's the count now? We have 14 now. OK. 17 by the end of the year. OK. No, 20. Illustrators don't work as quick as I do. It would be 20. Yeah. We're shooting for 20, though. Yeah. Yeah. Got to make the goal unrealistic, bro. Oh, well, 20 ain't unrealistic. What I'm just saying, what 30 then? OK. 30. That'll work. That'll work. Nah, because you probably got something in the vault, bro. I got a lot in the vault. Word. J-O-Wins used to read when he was a kid. That was an avid reader, man. Why you don't read now? I'll be reading. About what? About cars and guitars and women and shit. Nah, man, that's a hobby, bro. Talking about, like, informative information type. Nah, I've been reading Claude Anderson. There you go. You might learn something. Why so quiet in here today, bro? You ain't got no working music? I was about to say, bro, yeah, at least have some working music. I don't want to have it all quiet and somber in here, bro. We got a very special guest in the black market with us today, man. He's cranking out these books left and right. He is not playing. But before we get into all that, you know what I got to do. Know what that means. I know what that means. The black market is open. That's to let people know the black market is open. And it wouldn't be a black market if we didn't have us in, you know, at least a little corner books, though, but we could grab something for the kids, you know, to further the education. So I had to reach out through, you know, through all the channels of people that I know. We was just sifting through greatness. Sifting through greatness, bro. I was like, who write them children's books? Find my man, Jacob Grover. I'm here with us today. Yes, sir. Bro, it's crazy that you weren't here today with the books, man. We was just talking to Booster about getting some children's books. Some little Booster children books. Now, that'll go hard. Hey, I done reached out to him. Where? As soon as I saw it on the episode, I reached out to him. Man, we're gonna see what we can do to put that together. What should you bring us today, man? So right now, we have the majority of the collection. We got one missing right now, but we got 13 out of the 14 books that I currently have out. Where is the missing 14th book? Made it in Austin. It ain't here. Oh, man, that's the type of stuff that Wizards go and hunt down. You gotta get that 14th book. Yeah. Nah, man, you got some good work over here, though. How did all this come about? So really, it all started in the third grade. My teacher was like, she gave us all a writing assignment. And at that point, we don't really like to write. Yeah. Because it just seemed like work. But then she said, y'all listen to rap. So poetry and rap is the same thing. So if you don't want to write a poem, write a rap verse. And so that's what got me into writing. You was rapping? No, I wasn't rapping. But I wrote a rap verse that started everything. A rap verse started all this. That's what we talk about a lot on the show, man. Just the impact of the culture. Just making things relatable. And you got a lot of, I see you got a lot of topics and subjects in your books that black kids will be able to relate to. Yeah. So part of the whole thing though is when you growing up, if you watch cartoons, especially back in the day, you watch cartoons and you see old stuff like the Flintstones or you see the Jetsons. So black people weren't in the past and they don't see us in the future either. So if you a black kid and you watching this, then you start to doubt yourself. They don't value me. So if they don't value you, then you start to doubt yourself. And so I was like, it has to be my responsibility if nobody else. I have to show these kids that they are valuable. So I'm gonna keep pushing out these projects so every kid will be able to see themselves. Man, I love it. Who are some of your favorite authors growing up? So growing up, I kind of listened to, well, watched and read a bunch of people. Actually, my favorite author is nobody famous. It was my dad, because my dad used to write back in the day. Hey, that's what's up. Yeah, so he was my favorite growing up outside of your normal Dr. Seuss or whatever you were listening to. Dr. Seuss was racist as hell. He was racist, but you don't know that while you were a kid. Yeah, because everyone, a lot of my childhood when I found that out. But you know another author that I started reading pretty young that really got me back excited about reading was Walter Dean Myers. Hoop Dreams. Yeah, he had a lot of falling angels and slam and all that. I used to reread Hoop Dreams every few weeks. Just go back and read the same book over and over. Yeah, Walter Dean Myers is up there. That's dope as hell, bro. Where are your books available at? So on my website, jacobgrovey.com, they're all available there. I mean, the other websites too, Barnes & Noble and all of that, but the preferred method is jacobgrovey.com. How's business been? It's good, but it can always be better. Always be better. That's why this is good, this is good. I mean, what are your plans for the future as far as where you want to take it? So I don't really see a limit on this. I want to be able to get into every school district across the country. I want to be able to get into every school. I want to be able to visit every school and actually read to the kids. The fuck? That's how the impact is. Oh, man, it's heavy. Yeah, it's heavy. It's heavy. But I figure the more people that I can reach in person, then the more people will be inspired to continue moving. Because like I said, not only with the cartoons and stuff, but if kids are reading and they start off, most of us do start off reading stuff, but then you don't see yourself in a book. You're like, what's the point of me reading? I'm not in the book. Hey, that's a deep metaphor right there. I hope somebody called it. What's the point of me reading if I ain't in the book? I'm not in the book. So you stop reading. So by the time you get to be 10, 11, you're done. You only read when you have to. Then you get out of high school. What's been the process as far as getting into the school districts and stuff like that? So it is a very difficult process. So you normally have to have somebody in the district already. I've been reaching out to everybody individually. Bro, this is the black market. We got somebody in the district. Somebody is in the district. Somebody going to see this and reach back because they in the district. Bro, don't even worry about it. We've got to cover it. Yeah, so that's what it is, reaching all of the individual districts, reaching the librarians, the media center teachers or whatever and let them know. And I have these books that your kids will like to read. Here's why. Then explain it to them, basically presenting myself to everybody individually. So because everybody's looking for something different. So I can't go with a generic, hey, I write this. Here you go. Here's why you need me in your school. Here's why your students will appreciate what I do. Bro, that's so dope to see a black man doing this. What other resources you need to make this thing jump? I just need more people to support the work. I hear a lot of people saying, we need more of this. We need more of this. But then they don't support it. And as an indie author, all of this is coming out of my pocket. So a lot of rappers, you'll see they're on the indie grind. And they got to pay for studio time and all of that. But the fans just see why you're not put down music. Right, right, right. It's difficult to come out with the funds to put the stuff out continuously if you don't have the people supporting it. Drop your website again. JacobGrovey.com, J-A-C-O-V-G-R-O-V E-Y.com, JacobGrovey.com. That's the website. JacobGrovey also on social media. OK, so it's going to be somebody watching this that see you doing this and going to be inspired by you. They're writers, they're authors, they're illustrators. What advice would you give to somebody coming behind you in your industry? Write the story that you want to read. Because I can't write what you want to read. And if I try to write what you want to read, then I fail. But if I write what's missing or what I think needs to be out there, I will connect with an audience more efficiently. Because somebody will say, OK, he's writing this. This is genuinely how he feels. Let me see what he's talking about. I can't write what Carlos writes. You're right. Tell me about some of your books that you got here. I want to talk about this one with Mom. With Mom was actually co-written with my mother. And it's a tribute to my grandmother. You got to show some love to all the moms. So my mom wanted to do a tribute to my grandmother who passed back in 2000. And she wanted to talk about how she grew up cooking with my grandmother. And I told her I was going to make her an author, but she didn't believe me. But she supported me because that's my mom and that's what moms do. But then when it came out and she saw it, it was one of those moments where I'm not able to buy her a house or anything yet. But I was able to see how touched she was by that tribute. And that sort of thing is something you can't pay for. Yeah, it's priceless. Yeah, so you have that. You have The Adventures of Austin. This is actually inspired by my niece. And I told her until she turns 18 years old, I'm going to keep releasing those. So by the time she's 18, she's going to have a whole series of books that she's already taken to school. And here's what my uncle did for me. Here's part of my legacy. She got phone posies on? I love it. Exactly, exactly. What else have we got? We've got a whole bunch of different stuff. Petty doesn't pay. Exactly. So it's in the form of a children's book, but it's actually for adults. Petty doesn't pay. There's another one. I'm not one to gossip, so you didn't hear that from me? That's hard. Yeah. So both of those are for adults. The fair isn't fair. Yeah. Everything teaches a different lesson. The fair isn't fair. It talks about patience. The pig, the lamb, and Mr. Feathers talks about anti-bullying. That Adventures of Austin back there is dino land. So you learn about dinosaurs. Here's another one that talks about animals. This one going to space. This is actually a collaboration. You know, if you need a shoe plug, I'll let me later. I'd love a shoe plug. Yeah. A kick in it, sneaker store. A kick in it is a sneaker store in Austin. That's my family's store, so for real, I'll let me. But that's a collaboration with them. Martin started kindergarten. Was a book that somebody basically asked me, hey, do you have a book for kids starting kindergarten? I said, no, but I'll write one for you. So the next day I had that written. So when I say that I have a lot of books in the vault or ready to go, just the illustrators. So like I said, if that one came out or was written the day after she told me, if I was able to put something out as quickly as they are in my mind a year, I'll probably be able to put out 20, 30 books a year. Well, we're going to make sure we help make you make that happen. Yeah. So look, man, I noticed your first time stopping through the black market. Don't let it be your last drop the website one more time so they can go buy the whole box set. JacobGrovey.com, I'ma say it again. JacobGrovey.com, J-A-C-O-B-G-R-O-V-E-Y.com. Instagram, JacobGrovey. Facebook, the writings of JacobGrovey. JacobGrovey, if you just search for me, I'm the only one in the world. You search for JacobGrovey, you'll see my books. Anything else you want to live with? Yeah, I want to talk about these two just before I go. It's your commercial, gee, I'm here for you. So these two are actually collections of poetry. The book of Jacob and my world, my words. And these were written because as a black community, especially black men, we have difficulty expressing what's going on in our lives. And so when I was dealing with suicidal thoughts and just overall pain of life and doubting myself for whatever the case may be, then I said, if I have to be an open book to tell everybody out there that they're not alone and whatever they're dealing with, then I will be that. So if I gotta tell you, I was having thoughts of suicide. So the next person won't think I'm the only one doing it. I'm the only one having these thoughts and not. So they can see my pain in here, they can relate to that, and then they can get the help they need. So you got books for everybody in the house? Everybody, everybody. That's it, man. Well, we appreciate you stopping through here. Jacob Grovey, 85 South Show, Black Market. We out.