 It's a unique hustle. Check it, check it, check it. It's a unique hustle. It's your boy, E-C-E-O. And I'm here with the lovely, amazing official, Mr. Makeup. What's going on? None of them are there. Man, hey man, we are here today celebrating, man. It's going down, man. Hey man, something I've been trying to do ever since I started this whole podcast world, man. It was something that was dear to me. I wanted to give people their roses while they were here, man. And this guy right here, I didn't get to meet. And so I had wanted to bless whoever I could find that connected with him when he was here. So who better to do that than Runny and my boy Wendell Strug. What's going on, baby? What's going on, man? These guys are here, man. Save, man. And we're here in love and memory of C. Strug's, man. That's what's up with him. Man. So, man, hey man, you know the show, man. Like I said, the music in the city, the love in the city was on a different level when C. Strug's was here, really. It was some stuff happened after that. They kind of really spent this thing out of control. You know what I mean? After his passing, you know, in Dallas, you know. But I just want to celebrate his birthday today, man. You know, dope, man. I mean, his lyrics, the way that he brought it. Bruh, I mean, he put his heart into the music, man. So I want to ask y'all a few questions about it, man. I started to run it like, when did y'all know that he loved music? Man, that's a little boy. That's a little boy? Man. Bro, just throw a party to this little boy and he just. How old when you say little boy? I'm talking little, like, probably nine years old, eight years old. Nine or eight? Nine, yeah. He loved party. Yeah, he just drew attention, man. He just got a mic. And go in. Go in. Just go in. From eight to nine years old. Eight to nine years old. We just, y'all just had that voice to draw people in. Where did he get it from, though? And this big bro listen to the OGs run the house. The UGKs, those are the OGs, you know what I'm saying? Get old boys. Who was his biggest inspiration? Biggest inspiration, man, or, I want to say, bro was one of them, you guess. Who was? Bro, my big bro. Oh, you was, oh, you was it? You used to rap? Bro, no, not like it. Just his inspiration to keep pushing toward the music. You know what I'm saying? And grinding, but the inspiration to rap is like Scarface. I knew I'd seen that Brad Jordan, Jr. Yeah, Brad Jordan, yeah, Scarface. Yeah, you know, UGK, 8-Ball, you know what I'm saying? Oh, man. He loved it. You listen to all those guys, man, just. Man. And just, but then, you know, when you look at it, Wendell, man, you didn't, you ain't had many to come with that sound, man. I had a guy in here the other day, Ty Harris. And Ty Harris plays to the PM, with my boy. And Ty was like, man, cause I told him it was this one cat that kinda, you know, he doing his thing in the city. I say, you're a big guy. Like, see Strug, he say, see Strug, that's some big shoes to, to, to, to feel, nigga. So he, he pretty much put it out there right exactly as soon as I said that. Who was that big boy? Big Ex the Plug. Big Ex the Plug. That nigga going hard, ain't he? Yeah, he hard like that. You like him? Yeah, I like him. Yeah, he both been on the show, but he, he did, he canceled. Something happened, yeah. And then he went to jail that night. Yeah. I sure hope he at home. Cause I need him to be on the show 2022 early. All right. You know what I'm saying? So that's your guy? Yeah, he doing his thing though. Man, I love when he niggas be right. So why, so y'all never got into the music. Y'all just supported see Strug. Nah, just supported a little role. Yeah, that's it. How many brothers? Three. Is there any sisters? Just one. She passed away. Oh, okay. She passed away as well. What did she pass away from? She was like a diabetic, you know. She was diabetic. Yeah, different health issues along the years. So, you know. Like pneumonia and... How old was she when she passed? 29. Yeah. Man, so how does that, and I know, cause take it from my, my, my uncle. All my, all my uncles are passed away except for one from my, from my daddy side. My, my dad had eight brothers and five sisters. And there was only two left. And my, the youngest and the oldest. And the oldest. Everybody in between is gone. And I always wonder like, dang man, I went to so many different funerals over the years, bro. But when I would go, you know, it's like, dang man, it's my family. And it made me think about my health. I'm being real with y'all. I mean, most people don't want to be real. You know what I'm saying? It made me think about me. And I'm like, dang God, you still got me here. And I see niggas, that's my age, that pass away and it'd be like, dang. I gotta, I don't know, I don't know why, but God, He has a way of showing you that there's a purpose and a place for your life, right? So I just, I just be thinking about that kind of stuff. You know what I'm saying? That you still here, and these guys didn't make it to be even your age. And you're like, my mom didn't even make it to be my age. So it's kind of like she passed away with cancer. So it's like, it makes you think, bro. It makes you think, it makes you try to do it, what, eat different, try to figure out some ways to make your life somewhat different. But in reality, it is what it is. Everybody gotta get out of here one day. Period. We all born dying. And that's what people don't really like to look at, that, that reality. But I always tell people, death don't have to be a bad thing. It's bad to us because we don't understand the other side. But if you believe like I believe, then you read and you understand what you had it for. So you have a little glimpse of what's on the other side. But at the end of the day, you have to have a strong faith and belief system in order to even tap into that world. Does that make sense? It makes sense, it makes sense. So I enjoy life every day. Like Roy Lee say, smile, enjoy life every day. Enjoy life, smile every day. Every day. So how did he end up in Dallas and just the way that he, Dallas embraced him? And that's where we grew up. That's where we grew up. You know, we from Interstexas. Okay. We grew up in Dallas, Oaklea. Oaklea. Yeah, Glen Oaks. Wow. And so that's where that tenacity, that pull, that drive come from. Yeah. So what made you, when you first started seeing him in the music, what made you realize, hey, this boy got something? All right. Like when, I'm gonna go back for a minute. Like when he first went to college, he came home, I picked him up from college. I was at the trap or whatever, and he was like, big bro, I want you to listen to something. So I was like, wait a minute, you know what I'm saying? I'm gonna put you in right quick. And so I didn't put him in right then, but later on down the line, I dropped the CD in there, and he went to doing something. Beast of the Clique, a lot of more songs. And so, you know, I was in prison, you know, in and out of prison, their lifestyle, I lived. So I received the album cover from one of my partners. And he was like, look, you're broke on the radio and everything. Him and Rick Ross right now, you know what I'm saying? Listen to it on the radio on the streets where it's where I was like, all right, it's a bit. So Sunday came and there it was. And man, I just broke down, you know, in the middle of it all, you know, and I had May parole at the same time and felt like he made it right then, you know. Wow. So when you was locked up, you used to, you knew he was messing with the music, but you didn't know he had stuff. Right, no, he had like, you know, album after album, you know, mixtape after mixtape, but never, you know, then big hitters, you know what I'm saying? And when I seen him with Rick Ross, man, it was just like a whole nother level. How did that happen? I heard about it when it was going on. I'm like, how in the hell did Rick, I know he was a big guy. So Rick was a big guy. And I'm like, maybe that's hot. What made him connect? You know? It was a, it was a model, Instagram model from Instagram. Okay. And she put up a post, trying to be funny, like, name this rapper. I had my big brother told him to chop it. And so, you know, big guy, they were like, name this rapper, they're trying to be funny. Yeah, yeah. Everybody laughing and giggling. Like, all right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, you know, Rick Ross seen it. Yeah, yeah. You know, in the comments, he seen it. He said, oh yeah. They really gonna hate this Rick Ross. It's his drugs record, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, I see you grinding, big boy. He said, I'm gonna come and do something with you. That's God. That's favor. See, favor ain't fair. See, favor make, see, it was a lot of niggas that wanted to get a feature from Rick Ross. And to be honest with you, for the way God will do it, man, he don't go by standards and set rules, man. You feel me? Like, it'll push you up the line. It don't matter. DJ Calli might have wanted a verse that week. It didn't matter. I said, nah, we gonna put, we gonna put DJ Calli gonna get here, but we gonna put C-Strux up there. You see what I'm saying? Favor ain't fair, man. That's dope, though. That's a dope story. So how did he reach out to him? Call him. He just called him. Yeah. Like, send me your number. I'm gonna call you. About 15 minutes later. And it called. It called. What did C-Strux say? How did he react to it? Like, wow. You like, you. He messed him up. Yeah, he messed him up. He was like, man, you don't know how much it means for you to call me. I thought, you know, I thought, you know what I'm saying? Playing. Playing, you know what I'm saying? You hit me right. Right there. You know, we both there with the kids. The call, they were made, they were made them so heavy. You'd be there with these kids to get that call, man. They seen that. They seen that. But you can't make this up. Go ahead. That's why sometimes, you know, always, I always say our life is not our own. So many people watch our lives and change because of it. You know what I mean? You can look at that instance of how she was making fun of him and somebody else who didn't even comment but saw that and felt, you know, a certain way because of it because they might be in that same situation, being bullied in a certain way, but then see how something good came out of it. And that could have motivated that person as well. So a lot of times, you know, when we live our lives and we might be affected badly by something, but people are watching you constantly and watching to see how you react, how you overcome. That's why another reason why we love this platform so much because a lot of people are stuck on YouTube, on their phones all the time and going through situations. We all are human beings. Everybody goes through something. And when you're going through things, you think you're the only one who's going through it. Nobody else will ever understand what you're going through no matter what you're going through. But to actually have people come on the platform and say certain things about things that they've been through and how they overcame it. And then that could actually help someone who is listening. You know what I mean? I agree 100%. We was going through something during that time, you know, right before that, Rest in Peace, my nephew, Torey Struggs, Tito, you know, a C Struggs son. He had a drowned in accident in 2014. I've seen that. And so, you know, we was trying to put everything together, you know, and make it past this moment and get somewhere else. And then, you know, God just reward it, you know. Wow. And it's crazy how it happened. So how, he was how 14? How was it? It was 6. It was 6. It was 6. It just happened in 2014. In 2014. And he basically, how did that affect C Struggs, which is so, we know it was terrific, but. Yeah, it's hard. It knocked the fight out of him for a few weeks, months. But after that, he came harder than ever. He was like, hey, this it. Ain't no looking back, you know? Man. And it gave him the motivation he needed to get where he needed to be at, you know? Would you say that that was the most difficult thing he had to face in his life? Yes. Yes. Going through his own medical condition at that time. And then going through that too. Oh man. It made him a monster in the studio. People don't understand how depression can take a toll on your body as well. You know what? Not only mentally, but physically. You know what I mean? Yeah. I know. So he ended up having cancer, right? Yes. And I've seen him on his last interview. But I've seen that video with Smiles, the one you took him down there to do. I was in a room with him. And he was on there. And one thing that stuck out to me about him was the way that he didn't, he didn't, he just left it all, left it all out there on there. Anything he was doing, the music, he didn't, he wasn't, he wasn't. He didn't hide nothing. He didn't hide nothing. That was real. They asked him about his eye. He told him how he felt about it. I ain't checking it or whatever. Was that a part of the cancer that was making that happen, you think? Yeah, it might have been. You see what I'm saying? It might have been. When he said it was some, on that last interview with some tumors and some stuff, that was effective. Yeah, he was dealing with a lot of stuff, but he was like, just music gonna come first before anything. Even when that was going on. Yeah, music, yeah. He's like, I had to get this out. What was the last thing that he was trying to get out that he had to get out and he got it done? Why not hustle too? Yeah, why not hustle too. Why not, I heard him speak on that. Yes. Why not hustle too? He was like, I gotta get this one out, man. All right, this is during the time he was going back and forth. Key love. Key Mo, different things, you know? And right before his surgery. And he said, I gotta get this thing out before my surgery. Is it because he felt like he needed to leave a legacy for his kids or why is that? Yes, most definitely. And he knew, you know, he came to realization that his time might have been coming, you know? He knew, did he speak about it? He wrote a song about it, I can feel it. I can feel it. And he knew. Yes, he knew. Wow, man, that's a deep story. And I've never been put in a situation, but I've heard people say it a lot. So when people are going through things where they know what is about to come, does that help prepare you as a loved one to expect that as well? Like, to prepare you for that? For me, for me it did. Like, I just know if he was comfortable and he sat in for him, I was comfortable and I'd be there strong for his boys. Yeah. But it was a tough thing to prepare for. Yeah. I knew it was coming, so I had to be strong for his boys. For his boys. That's what kept him going. He said it was his everything. Yeah, his boys. Yeah. I could only imagine. So I know you keep in touch with them and you guys spend time with them and they come down and what all they get still. He had them all the time. Man, I love it, man. You have boys for yourself? No kids? See, he's smiling down. So they're your kids, too. You don't need none. Now you got here. Yeah, a lot of these are there for you. That's real, man. Yeah, man, I mean, y'all gotta bring them by here. When you do get them, we gotta bless them, bro. We already was in there. I told you about our situation. We ain't gonna go into it, but whenever you get them and y'all riding around, man, just call me, please. And we're gonna rock out. That's how I do it, man. Go back and look at something I helped. I just rock out, man. Because I know already if I do it now, I know I'm doing what I supposed to do. You see what I'm saying? So just please, you know what I'm saying? Call me, bro. And don't be bashful. Just say, hey, I got them boys with me and watch what happened. That's the realness of it. And like I said, we can cut the cameras off. I ain't tripping. I just wanna, you know, I wanna see them. Okay? I appreciate that. Man, no, man, no, dope, bro. So who are y'all listening to in the music now? And who was he really, really tight with? Cause he has songs with everybody from Pooka Leroy to that boy had some with a lot of people. Rick Ross. E-40. E-40. Doesn't grow. Come on, man. How did he get the song with E-40? Man, just re-style. Yeah, just re-style. Bro, I think he know his music. Yeah, I have people listening to bro. Yeah, I remember taking him to a meet and greet at a liquor store in Glen Heights, over there. And him and E-40 was chopping it up. And E-40 was like, hey, let me go and do this, you know? And so one thing led to another, you know? And it's, you know, the type of music he wrote, you know, life story for life story, it's real. You can feel it, you know? But the thing is, he did things that people that's in the Dallas Fort Worth area that got hot as they could get, never done. Yeah, bro. Think about that for a second. Bro, so Tenner, he did a song with a group from Mexico. What? There's been no English. He rapped in Spanish, I remember that. He rapped in Spanish? No, he was like, they had a translator. Okay. And although he knew what they wanted the song to be about, they were like, party. That's it. And he went in. He went in. And that's dope, bro, like those are the stories that you could hold on to, right? Do you see any of his kids wanting to rap? Boy, probably just wanna be kids right now. Yeah, they ain't trying to rap, they're in the kids of the games. That's dope. They play sports, they wanna play basketball, wanna play football. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They was doing that when I talked to them. Are they good? Yeah, they good. That's good. So do you, go ahead. Man, don't get me wrong, like when one of the songs come on or something, they'll go word for word with it. They gonna rock with it. Just like he did when he was young, you know? Yeah, yeah, they gonna rock out with it. Man, that's dope, man. So what has been the hardest time, like have the kids ever came to you, be like, hey, man, about their dad since these years have passed by? Yeah, they'll come and talk to you about it. Y'all get paid. Y'all was like, hey, man, you know. Yeah, we'll talk about it. Cause how many years apart was y'all? We did nine months apart. See what I'm saying? So you knew every single thing, everything that was going on with him, you could speak on it. So that's a blessing, man, for them kids to have that. And then go ahead, you're about to say something. Just built that bond, you know, the kids. So they tell me everything. They're in school, they'll call and tell me what they're going through, what's happening. And I tell them the right thing to do. That's the way I know her, you know what I'm saying? And I'll be there for them, Mama. You know, she called me out the blue every other day. I bet y'all used to be fighting you in there with your brother, man. Man. Cause he's nine months apart. These were my first kids. I tell everybody that. Am I supporting you? I had a lot of brother wars, man. Yeah, and y'all fought other folks. Oh yeah. Oh, they didn't fight each other and fight other folks. Did he get mad? Yeah. How much older are you then there? Oh, that big brother. Oh yeah, I was 10 years when he was born. Okay, 10 years. 10 years. Man, that's dope, man. I tell you, man. Did the kids have to go through counseling or anything like that? I really just talked to them. Just talked to them. They got him. Yeah, they got him. They got ox. Yeah. I think that matters. They call me from time to time, but I'm like the on, just like always on the go, you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I started from scratch when I got out. So I'm, you know, I was trying to get my years back at the same time. Yeah, yeah. When bro passed away, I ain't gonna lie. I got a lot of my mind, you know, for a minute, yeah. How long would you go? Cause you were with him a lot. Yes. I was taking him everywhere, you know? Right. Yeah. To the different shows and stuff. You know, I was actually, you know, right there with him. Me and a couple of Clone Free members also, you know, shout out to Tank, you know, Spiffy, you know, Plug. Yeah. You know, all of them. You know, ATM, D-Love, shout out to the board. Shout out to Clone Free, yeah. That was a guy who, these are guys that still taught the college out. Yeah, D-Love, D-Love. Clone Free, ATM. Yeah. So these guys are gonna still reach out and say, hey man, how you guys doing? Oh, yeah. Is his mom still living? Yes, her mom's still living. So how did she handle losing him? She took it hard. Yeah, she did. She took it hard, you know, after losing, you know, her nephew, her grandson, and then, you know, my brother and then, you know, her son. And then, you know, she lost another brother, her uncle, so, you know, she been through some things. And her aunt, so, you know, her sister. She lost her brother and her sister, they all right after each other. Right after each other. Man, we, but like I said, I've been through that. So I get it. And as far as just the losing the close loved ones, and it takes a toll on you, but like I said, man, God got you here for a reason, for them boys, and you know what I mean, for your mom. And so therefore, you have to stand strong, right? Right. You have to stand strong. Yeah, too. Man, when we here celebrating, man, see Strug's birthday today, man, it's going down, man. My wife, we wanna present you guys with a, just a plaque that we had, we had gotten it. This is what we do here at Balls Talk 101. We try to hand out roses while we have the opportunities to. And this year, what does it say? It says presented to Corey Strug's, aka C Strug's in recognition of not only being the hardest rapper in Dallas with hits like Do It, How You Come and Work, a talented songwriter and musician 2021. Yeah, man. I appreciate that. Yeah, that's the dope part, man. You know what I mean? Hold onto that, man. That with them boys, you share it with them boys, man. Like it's still happening. It's still going down, man. Yeah, I'll feature that job so much. Man, come on, man. This is where it's supposed to go, bro. You know what I'm saying? If we don't do it, who gonna do it? Like that's the thing. Like I don't know what other people do, but we do what God tell us to do. You know what I'm saying? See, that's that. Throw it up to the camera. Yeah, I think that's so much. Yeah, Bust 1-0-1, man. That's what we're doing. We're giving people roses by the ear, bro. And that's the only way we know to do it, man. Like I said, I don't know how else to do it. We just basically come into this game and those guys are the guys that, that's who we thought of, the Dunn Chiefs. The Dunn Chiefs, all of the different people that the Luchin, Pukies, the ones who originated this thing in Dallas, man. You remember Run Seein' There? I don't know nothing about that, man. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, what was that other word? You at least grew up listening to Run Seein' There too. Codmouth? Codmouth. Just the dopest thing to have, the legacy that Dallas holds, man. The Pooka Leroy, like I said, not only him, man, the Trap Boy, Freddy's, the Yellows, man, the Mo' Threes, man. This thing here is real, bro. Did he ever get a chance to work with Mo' Three or any of those younger cats? You got to track with a Trap Boy. A Trap Boy, yeah. No voucher. Yeah, yeah. My boy, yeah. Yeah, yellow, man, I'm trying to get that boy on here, man. And we work, and I rock with his cam. So, Lodeezy be on here. This is, I just talked to him last night. We all, that's his manager, they all. We all rock. I'm an older cat, so I'ma talk to the older niggas, you feel? Oh, really? So, what did you get locked up for? I want to ask you that. Oh, man, that was a trap star, man. That ain't no star. Oh, you like that? I'm a trap station, so. You can hear it, so. My big bro there. I didn't put it down, man. My big brother, they get that up, yeah. Man, it sounds. I mean, it was like we was all in it together, you know what I'm saying? We didn't have no mama, our daddy was gone, you know, mama was gone, so it was just us. Me and my little brothers, you know, we had kids of my own, you know, it's in this song, I can feel it too, so, you know. We had to do it, we had to do it, you know. We had to get it. That I can feel it, that's to be your favorite one? Yeah, yeah. We come a long way from eating, you know, hamburger, hell, but with no meat, you know. Hey, man, that's the part that make it, you know what, don't kill, you make you stronger. Right. So y'all went through some things and shared some strong strengthening times. Right? Yeah. Right? Man, man, so like I said, I think y'all tell me, did y'all tell me who y'all favorite peep person is out doing music right now? Yeah, but y'all don't get it. Yeah, cause y'all niggas don't listen, y'all got an earl. Yeah, I listen to y'all. A lot of these cats, I listen to like Big X one of them. That, yeah, yeah, we talked about that boy, go on. So you think, do we do, cause I made that statement about him being like a sea strug. Do you usually be like, look at him like he bringing it? Yeah, yeah, yeah, he a big nigga. Yeah, yeah, yeah, he a big nigga doing his thing, you know. And that's what I looked at. I see that, I see that how I grew him too, yeah. There you go, so you can see it in him? Yeah. I'm trying, I got that boy, he coming. I seen that wave before his name, we caught the earth. You say, okay. And I'm going across Facebook all the time ago. Yeah. I hear the song, I hear him up like, yeah, you got it, yeah. That's good. You got it, yeah. That's dope, man. So who, what about you big bro? Me and I, you know what I'm saying, I fade them all, you know, all of them sound good to me, but one thing, you know, about mode three, he went through that, it seemed like he went through that struggle, kind of like we did before he made a big. So, you know. That pain in the music, man. Stand in the car for a while, you know, couple of days or whatever, you know. Feel like sometimes your family turned back on you, you know, and just, you know, had to do what you had to do. So this is kind of like, you know, it inspired me and my brother's coming up, you know. Like my brother used to be like, hey man, listen, listen, listen, listen, listen, listen. He said, what you think about mode three, you know, yellow, you know, a trap boy, like, hey, food with them all, you know what I'm saying? He asked you about it. Yeah, I listed it out, man. Everybody. I support this Dallas stuff. That Dallas stuff, real, ain't it, man? For sure. Man, so, man, I want to tell y'all, we love you, man. Runny, Wendell, man, we love you guys, man. If, like I said, don't forget what we talked about on that other deal, just come see me, man. Don't let this be your, you know, last time. Y'all know I'm here, I've been here 15 years. Yeah, really? So it ain't like God had us here 15 years. So, you know, I just say we're here and we love you, we love C-Strux. Happy birthday, C-Strux. I know you're looking down on us, smiling down on us, man. Smiling, man. Smiling down on you. I can hear him now. Let go. Say, man, it's been another great segment of Boss Talk 101, what a boss is talking. Oh, yeah. Boss Talk podcast would like to present you with this award for Corey Scrux. It says presented to Corey Strux, aka C-Strux, in recognition of not only being the hardest rapper in Dallas, with hits like Do It, How You Come, and Work, a talented songwriter and musician, 2021. Hey, man, man. Thank you so much. Happy birthday, C-Strux, man. We saved it for you. Say, man, check it, man. We out here. We're giving roses out wide here, baby. Man, that's the only way we could do it, man. Man, big love, man. Big love. Check out Boss Talk 101. 101, what a boss is talking. Yeah.