 Yeah, that's what happens when it's so legendary. Uh. Back. I, I, I, I, I, I. Legend in the Kim, I, I, I, I, I, I. We got a legend in the Kim. I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I. We gotta get this man his proper intro man. Come on man. This dude is a legendary not only actor, producer, I mean director. Icon. We talkin' about Detective Stone from New Jack City. Come on, come on young. I'm talking about Jesse Lee from Posse. I mean, Stokely Carmichael in Panther. What? Man, the man played Muslim X in Ali. Come on now. One of the legendary, I'm talking about man, one of the most legendary black performers that ever lived. He was before, before, before, before they was before. Before they was before. I need to know what it was like to be light-skinned in the 80s. What? For real, for real, for real. The son of Sweepback. Sweepback badass, all. Come on now. That's it. No more. You own the song. That's the son of Sweepback, man. You own the song. We have none other than the legendary, the one and only, and the star of the new movie with my brother DC. Yes, sir, I love Posse, man. Because I love Posse. The one and only Mario Van. Sweepback. Come on, I got a damn body count. Floyd Hill. Oh, man. That's the best intro I've had. Oh, man, that's beautiful. Yeah, let me see what we all gonna do with this dude. Oh, man. He's the son of Sweepback. He's the son of the junior. He's the son of the son of all my guns. You know what I mean? He is, if you ever was thinking who was in the black pyre range, it's this nigga. That nigga was the black man. Come on, come on. They want to try to tell you, man. He's been here. Mandela Van Peeley. Yeah. Yeah, that nigga got it. It's a little early, man. That nigga young with all ass snails. Mandela is the hell of a name. I know they stop him at every airport. Hey, hey, wait a minute. Mandela Van Peebles, that's two hell of a names put together. That's amazing, man. It's an honor to have you here at the 85 South Stoke Show, man. 85 South Waze Studio, man. I just want to say it's an honor again, man, to be in the presence of somebody. New Jack City was the first movie I saw that I wasn't supposed to watch when I was little. I don't even know what to call it. It's beyond a cultural, iconic film. It's one of the films that shaped the generation. It's showing what it looked like to go through that era, the crack era, and what crack did to the community. And y'all showed that in a way that lives on forever, man. I just got to ask, like, did y'all know during the time of y'all making that movie that it was going to become what it became? You know what? It was interesting. When I got the script for New Jack, what I wanted to make sure, I didn't know the level it would hit on, but what I wanted to make sure was it should... Hold tight. Do y'all hear that ring? Yeah. I thought that was true. What is it? Is it speaker? I think it's the speaker, ain't it? Cut that speaker off. So I got an ear for music, so I hear everything. Go ahead, Stevie Wonder. Ha! You did. You did. I'm not tripping, and I'm not about to pass out. Ha! Yeah. So when I got the script for New Jack City, I didn't know what level it might hit on, but I knew that, you know, Crack was a killer in the community, and I had to make sure that we showed both sides of the equation. I didn't want to just do glamorize the drug dealer, right? Although that would be the badass role. Kind of like if you remember the movie Untouchables? Yes. Okay. So kind of like in that, I was like, well, rather than doing more of a scar-faced version, in the Untouchables, if you wanted folks to say no to drugs, you had some role models to say yes, too. There's John Cobb and Andy Garcia. Well, in New Jack City, you had Nino, of course, in his group, but you also had some New Jack cops. Now the trick was to get the audience to also connect with the victim, so the crime would be victimless. And there were two brothers that came in to audition for it, and I was like really interested. I was like, one had big old ears and big eyes, and one had big old eyes, and the one with big old ears and eyes was Martin Lawrence. And the other dude was Chris Rock. Wow. And so I spent time with them, and I started hanging out with Chris, and I saw that Chris had sort of a little bit of a political side that I could see early on, and I was like, I think I could work with this dude. And so I used, I wound up going with Chris Rock. And when Chris Rock's character, Pookie, in New Jack City gets addicted to crack, we had kids watching the movie standing up and saying, just say no motherfucker. And that's what I knew we had done the right thing. That people who saw how we handled cracking that movie said there was nothing glamorous about it. You think about Pookie in the alleyway? It was like nothing. And that's what I wanted to make sure was that you saw that everyone who touched crack dies, you know what I mean? And in a weird way, you mentioned Panther earlier, the movie Panther, which is so hard to find. It's like the movie they don't want you to see. Panther, in a way, is the prequel to New Jack because when we started having they started letting drugs or whatever reason drugs started coming into our communities. And the Panthers were pushing back on that because they knew that drugs could be used to medicate. And that's why you got to figure out now, how come in every urban city we don't have poppy fields and we don't have gun manufacturing plants but we have guns and drugs. But if you follow the money it very quickly leaves black hands and goes to other places, you feel me? It's an accident that they want us to medicate us. They want us to be dumbed down. They want us to buy some stupid ass sneakers. They want us to eat food that's bad for us. So part of what I try to do with film is say let me give you film that will entertain you but also have something to say in it with a little nutritional value. You know what I'm saying? A little something you can't get strong just eating Cheetos. You can have a snack because you got to get strong eating good stuff and feel the same way with film, like we can use film and say but if you want to make it a classic have something to say. You did that. Hit that pipe at the end of the movie. I was like, yeah, I don't never want to do that. I don't ever want to do that. You did exactly what you supposed to do. You did what you supposed to do on that one, man. For sure. When you was casting, how did you like grasp all these people? That's a great question. I initially wanted to play the cop and Ice-T didn't like cops. He had a record called Cop Killer and the trick was to have them switch roles and let Ice-T bring all his street credibility to that role and Wesley played you know, like he's sweeping new of the Panthers, do you know what I mean? Like it's like if you look at that scene and then I would say I'd give him the themes to work with like you look at New Jackson and you're like you know what I mean if I said was pretend like Nino is a vampire if you think of it and you watch New Jackson again you'll see it. Nino's a vampire and all the drug addicts are the lost souls. Do you know what I mean? And so when we had to do when we're doing the scene where you know, Chris rock tied up with the bomb on his chest. So it was 6 in the morning and I always thought that Ice-T wouldn't sound like Ice-T earlier in the morning, but he does. He came to me and he goes yo, Ice, we should call a movie killing up shit, make a sequel call, killing up lots more shit. And I said Ice-T you're gonna go in and you gotta go save Chris Rock's character, Pookie. All the lost souls are there, you don't want to get them lost and blown up. Nino's there, he killed your mother. You got all these people as hostages and if I look at you that people's you giving my face too much shit to do. So you know I just had to simplify it for him, but he wound up playing the role so well, but I think he's made a whole career kind of playing you know, characters that remind you of Scotty in New Jack City. For sure. And it was hard. Wesley Snipes ended up being Blade so that nigga was a vampire. See? Yes, yes. Speaking of vampires. Oh, it's my shit. Okay, yeah, he plays a vampire. Did you know that? Not just because he sucks up my finances. No. But on Reginald the Vampire he plays a vampire. Oh, that lit. Yeah. Season 2 comes out March 8th. Pop your shit. That's dope. But I always gotta give you credit OG because you are an icon man. You know what I'm saying? I'm president in things that you've done in the game and you don't pave the way even for mainstream actors like we rock with Chris Rock, Wesley Snipes you know what I'm saying? To Mr. King, you know what I mean? And it's like you helped others to become major superstars and you're still in the game doing it even with our movie Outlaw Posse. You know what I'm saying? You're a great at directing. Like I watched you. We was on set. I was majority watching you more so than actually working and being in the character because I was like alright he directed actor producing staying overnight being here earlier. I'm in my trail. He come in. Hey man, you good? Can't wait to have you. I'm like I always happy. The energy that you put out there I'm just saying like I want to be great and I want others to be great around me and the heart you got for the culture of telling a story. You are a storyteller all your movies you've told and you put in some type of black education in it where we can learn from it and we don't get to tell our pioneers thank you enough. So I just want to say thank you. Bruh. Thank you. And to that end man, I mean like I see your work ethic. I appreciate it. I hear all the stuff that y'all are doing and really this is my father's dream is that we would learn to do for self and say they can make money from us like y'all bought your studio man y'all got these get this equipment going you can come in and give us a voice you feel me so that's beautiful but we don't have to rely on folks outside of the culture because then we don't have to try to temper our stuff and modify it but they're liking you know I mean we can still do that but we could talk to us directly you know which is dope and so that's why in this interview you're with family you can ask us anything man but yeah one of the things about doing this kind of independent film like doing a lot posse was I wanted to make it big put it all on the screen get all the dopest actors but at the end of the day I couldn't have made the same movie if I did it with a big studio because if you take the big studios money they're gonna soften it up they're gonna take out the nutritional value they're gonna take out that a lot of the stuff that we do in the movie we couldn't have done and we just did it because we felt like it if you had something funny to do or something smart to do we could just do it because we the boss we trust each other we trust each other do you know what I mean and and now we got to trust each other say okay if we don't have a million billboards how do we let folks know to ask for outlaw posse at the theater to get out there opening weekend March 1st and go and then Hollywood goes oh they're making money with that do you know what I mean so that's part of the trick is that usually somewhere along the gatekeepers can shut you out and that's what's so dope about what y'all doing is you could reach so many people so man I appreciate it 85% of y'all hear that take y'all ass out there go watch that damn movie go watch it for sure but you come from a legacy of filmmaking you know the father Melvin Van Peeble's like I said sweet back's badass song is you know a class I don't even know if they would consider it a black exploitation film but it came out in that era which what I'm sure was very difficult for any black man to make his own film like your dad did so being as though you come from that legacy what was it like having somebody in the home that you know went through that struggle did that give you a kind of a cheat code of how to navigate through it there's a movie I did call badass if you get a shit where I played my dad I played Melvin and someone else played me and I remember as a kid one time like so my dad had made the back story is my dad had made a movie called watermelon man with Columbia Pictures he was like the first director to make a film black director to make a film in Hollywood and simultaneously with that Gordon Parks was in a movie called come back to me I forgot the name it'll come back to me so Gordon was doing a movie Melvin was doing a movie and Ozzy Davis was doing a movie but Melvin was doing this movie in Hollywood and they had all white all male unions right and so I saw my dad have doing tricks to get people of color in the union and the unions were pissed off and they were kind of coming after so the very next movie my dad says he said he's going to do a non-union he took all his money you know like my college fund all the family and luckily he wasn't a materialistic cat and he was like I don't put my money in a place where they can control me right so he took all his money and said he's going to finance his own movie he found a group that no one had heard of called Earth, Wind & Fire and he had them do the soundtrack and he made Sweet Back now what happened was he had a multi-racial crew those white folks black folks women Latinos and so they got arrested because no one had seen young people like that directing doing a movie so they just thought they stole all the camera equipment they threw them all in jail but they figured with a name like Melvin Van Peoples he must be a Dutch aristocrat and my dad couldn't just go down there immediately and pull them out I remember this when he finally got them out that Monday Big T who was the sound man he was a big dude played by Terry Crews in Badass and Big T stepped in Melvin and he said listen I spent another night in jail I'm breaking some little some little suckers neck I remember my dad stepped in Big T said look T I love you this is the first place I got all my stuff in here all my shit and my children's shit and the college funds everything in here and if we win we're going to change how people think and portray people of color in movies forever and if we lose we lose and I lose all my shit so I want you to stay on the movie but if you threaten me again I got to take you out and I don't fight fair and T stayed and we made that hit but I remembered that as a kid watching my dad and then after that he started getting women in the union and people of color and like his dream would be to see y'all not only being in front of the camera not just us playing ball we know we could play ball it's seeing us own the team seeing us not just act but produce like you are in this or direct or right you know think about those other things because what happens we know this pretty is temporary dumbest forever so get your smart game on you feel me and that's exactly what y'all are doing so I know he'd be really proud of what y'all are y'all are doing and not to blow you up but when I worked with you unarmed I said this guy's got something he's smart he's got work ethic I think you're gonna it's like what I saw when I saw Chris Rock I was like and that's why I wanted you an outlaw posse was I think we're not seeing you in different time periods as an actor and I think outlaw posse shows you you see it shows your man right here as an act funny still doing all that but like taking it forward as an actor and that's really dope. I appreciate it. He sent me a clip it's cool now to the movie out but he sent me a clip of him in his character and I was just like enamored with the fact that just he was able to go into that mode and you know that he challenged himself to go into that mode for you as a director as a producer how do you have that sight to be able to look at somebody and say I can pull this out of you does that come from just time of doing it and just over time you just have figured out how to pick that out or is it just luck or the draw? Well it's also you know my best acting is not just acting it's reacting you know I mean so I was like I have to work with other smart people so when you work with John Carolyn she's a smart dude when you work with Cedric he's a smart dude when you work with Whoopi you know she can handle this role and when you work with DC he's got it covered so I'm working with other people that can think around the corner the trick was he had to think in period so he almost had to go okay I can't just come at it from a modern day sense because the character is it's 1908 I mean you know 1908 so I can't just sound like I sound now right but I knew from talking with him and had it and that's what I saw you at the club remember we saw you perform and I told you because I was like bro you got these you gotta stay in character are you ready to do this and you're like man peoples I'm ready you call me coach because I will be your coach right and you came in and plus I think the advantage is I'm not just a director I'm an actor right when you say Mandela so that I'm able when I'm talking with an actor I'm able to get stuff out of them because I'm in that chair a lot now that doesn't mean every actor speaks the same way but I know this man got it and I know that I can help him get it in case he gets stuck I can help him you know plus with you and with you Mandela y'all don't mind if I show you so I can say I meant like this and once you see it you're so quick he'll be like oh got it you know what I mean yeah that's a great vision man that's amazing vision and you being another generation of the van peoples legacy like how much pressure was on you to be an actor like did you want to be an actor or did did you say you know what man fuck it might as well so well basically as a kid bring your son to work days with a blast you know you don't get to just go see people smoke crackers it's a lot of fun and we got a big family so to know that Pops is out there making a living supporting all of us one doing what he loves you know saying things that changed the world saying stuff he loves with his work and with the people he loves it kind of showed me a career path that after being in that scene you don't really think of I want to go be behind a desk now and that's just me I'm a creative person we have a bunch of siblings they have other paths but for me I don't think it is a pressure it's more inspiring it's like it's a resource I could tap into even agreeing that you know all of the the gems that even you say from him it has a power so it's kind of like you see Milan right when they go to the shrine with the ancestors oh yeah that's kind of it feels like that for me I'm in Reginald the Vampire so I play a vampire I was born in the 70's or 60's so when I was doing that audition I took stuff from Melvin it's like someone who would have been around the panthers what characteristics could I bring into this character instantly just copy and paste some of his sayings you don't need them to go to it's fun stuff that you can kind of ground in someone you know and someone who's empowered you to do something that's beautiful great structure and the thing my dad used to say you know was that the modern day colonizer doesn't put chains on your body the chains are on your mind and the best way to free your mind is take control of your own imagery the image of what you believe you can be and that's what we're doing without La Pasi we're showing that and that's why it's so cool at the end of the movie where you see the real pictures you know we're showing that before women could vote there really were characters like stage coach Mary who had a stage coach line had a big ass shotgun had her own stage coach up through Montana and at the end you see whoopie gobert turn into stage coach Mary like we got real close didn't we and you see the real people so like one out of three cowboys was black we don't know that we think it's just I'm wearing a hat no hell no we're taking our history back one out of three cowboys was black and in fact Clint Eastwood knew that when I worked with Clint and that's when he made he put Morgan Freeman in it and then forgive so or even just the term cow boy tell them how they come out well we all know you know boy regardless of your age back in the day it's kind of like the regulatory term so regardless of an age the white guys didn't want to have the rough jobs they don't want to get dirty go take care of the horse boy go take care of the cow boy and then after a while once that became cool with our swag with our culture we like that we don't want to be rough riders anymore we want to be cowboys and then they don't bring us into play those roles it's like heavyweight champs look like Ali and Tyson but the Hollywood look like Rocky karate was invented by the Japanese right but the karate kid don't get to be Asian you know if you look at it on and on and on they be culturally appropriating stuff Asian teaching a white boy Egyptians is white people totally Egyptian white people you see them wait a minute but part of the fun of us is when we take it back is not just saying I'm going to do on the y'all as you've done on us because I'm not coming at it with hate I'm making this western gumbo with love I think that's what you do with all your movies you always put love and energy into the movie I even said that earlier we'll set them up if we want to but you ain't that type of director you're real you're not irrational with the way you direct movie and the way you bring them together like you told the truth but you told it with a sense of love there were areas that were like this for real totally but they get overlooked because of the destruction and the hate and the segregation but it's like nah it was like damn I really wish I could just say certain things about the movie but y'all got to go see out loud but you know the other fun thing to do is when you've been doing it for a minute is I can call up people whom my dad knew I can call up people like I knew like we're talking about New Jack City so I called up Alan Pay from New Jack City so you'll see people that come up even in smaller roles but then the other thing is to be generous and give each actor their moment each actor their shine don't be afraid to work with people smarter than you or talented than you that just brings everybody's game up bring everybody's game up and there's some badass women too we need to see our sisters in the south Amber does her thing in the movie I'm talking about incredible and you're not afraid to share the spotlight when we were at the premiere and I seen it and just say come produce DC on fly I ain't grasped I ain't seen that I was like yeah I seen that and then they were like you go to the after party I was like yeah but only for one question to ask more of your women was that really DC on fly that's right producer and then when I asked him I was like you really put me as a producer he turned around and I was like yeah man I say happy motherfucker I appreciate that that was a profound thought to do for a young entertainer like where did you get that type of does that come from your own personal trials and tribulations that you went through in Hollywood knowing how difficult it is for a black man to get a producer credit well it does because first of all I see the hustle and the work and there's three stages to making this movie any movie making the movie, working with the people that make the movie and selling the movie at the end as a producer you're involved with all three of those I had someone give me my first directing credit was my Steven Cantal didn't look like me, didn't vote like me tall cool ass white man but someone gave me a break and I gotta turn around and do that for the next gen you know what I mean and that's my guy and he's worth it and he's gonna do stuff with it like you're gonna go on to take that and then you'll produce something else he was coming to act like that I'm calling you every time every film more than that people I need you so that's the beautiful thing is that I remember when my dad said I met a good friend I said how you know he's a good friend because he shares white people with me but when you have your money white people we kinda do like this not me hey little white man you know what I mean we gotta share we gotta and that's the next thing is like there's that old problem my grandfather actually told me the story there was a sheriff in the south and he had these two brothers in jail and he's a lazy sheriff a white southern sheriff and he goes and he wanted to kill them both he went to the first guy and he said listen what you want I'm gonna give you a last meal what do you want and the guy said I want soul food and the other guy said what do you want he said I'm a vegan I want some vegetarian he said well you two boys have to make up your mind and when you make up your mind you let me know and he left a couple of knives there and they kill each other right too often we've done that and not this do you know what I mean and that's the power of this they don't want this when we come together we're gonna find something that's involved Native American and good white folks good allies come in all colors just cause you black sometimes you can you can be skin folk you can be skin folk and not always skin folk I have a question for both of you being as though y'all come from a legacy of entertainment I wanna know when did you feel like you impressed your dad but like you felt like in your career man I impressed my father and same question for you so for me it was I had done New Jack City and then that hit and they were all calling me what do you wanna do next and I said I wanna do it west here cause I knew by the first 44 settlers of Los Angeles 26 were black and we never see that history and I said oh you wanna make Old Jackson boys in the saddle they kept coming up all these days right so I made that and that worked and I got juice from that and then they said what do you wanna do next and I went to my dad my dad had taken me when I was a kid to Black Panther Party meetings and I said you wrote a book on the Black Panthers and the Black Panthers love Sweet Back I'll tell you why cause that's important the Black Panthers love Sweet Back I said let's take your movie on the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense and make your book and make a script and make a movie he said Hollywood ain't never gonna fund it I said I got a little juice now dad let's go out so we went to Hollywood he wrote the script went to Hollywood and Melvin you know he he has a bit of a temper you know what I mean let me do the talking I'm the user friendly guy so we take a meeting with this guy and he said no I love the Panthers I love them doing what they were doing back in the 70's but to make the movie work we have to make one of the lead Panthers white so let's just make doing new white and we'll be good and my dad was like I was like dad dad dad dad I feel you daddy motherfucker you won't forget me fucked up a tree Jack I said daddy no I'm like go dad dad dad I said you know what the other day was authentic I said well you know what that wouldn't really be authentic and he said but yeah the Panthers did have white support too Jane Fonda liked them Bon and Brando liked them you know why don't we have a young woman like a Jane Fonda character and she meets five black guys from the hood and she teaches them how to read and they become the black Panthers so like a white chick saves the hoods like and my dad I was like okay we out and we couldn't make the movie I had to go another way and get funding from the same people I did posse with and that's how I got to do it and we made the story we want to make but when the movie came out it was so controversial that it's like the one movie that's very hard if you look at my filmography it's very hard to find Panther but that's the real one it's not the cartoon this is the real Panther and it sets up the whole thing with New Jack City now here's the trick see when Sweetback came out Sweetback is about a street hustler who goes against the system Raised in a brothel and he's like so he's raised in a brothel and goes against the system the revolution and then after that the studios wanted to make another movie because the movie made money they had a script written by some white guys and they said well let's do this movie as black and like Melvin got that band one person in a car let's get us a guy a music guy and so they called the movie Shaft and they got IZK 24 of them and then after that they had Native Superfly now with the black Panthers Astutely pointed out was Sweetback is about a brother going up against the system Shaft is about a brother working with the system he's not fighting the system he's working with him and he applies the guy dealing poison against his own people for the system so each one of them has the same icing it's like a revolutionary looking brother cool mustache, good soundtrack but the message is the revolutionary core is being drained out same thing with rap music if you started out with the revolution will not be televised or fight the power eventually they drain it out so you're just bopping your head I'm making a film like Outlaw Posse I'm making myself so they can't tamper with it so whoopie says about fatherhood I don't know if you know this that was powerful you couldn't even be a black father until 1863 that was powerful later in Texas 1865 in Texas because when there was slavery the white man made all the decisions for your children and they got rid of your ass so it wasn't until 1863 that you got a father game on at all and that comes up I would never have gotten to do that if I did it with Warner Brothers you're pretty dedicated I'm dedicated right so we have a strong paternal line in the family where we've been teaching each other for a while and that's kind of unusual to see so you have a grandfather father we just have to reshape it for the movie but when I make a movie like Outlaw Posse it's the real thing even that scene we have with the banker brother there's a scene where we go in there and they're not letting our people vote that's going to be coming up this year because it's an election year not only do they need to see Outlaw Posse they need to get out vote but they have a scene where we have to go in and we unblock the vote but that scene would have been stoop but here's a producer I'm a producer you'd have to go against us that's dope that's when he looked at me and he said son you have the opportunity to do anything you want and you're telling a story of the Black Panther Party for self-defense I'm going to dig up and find this guy it's a dope movie it's cool but it's hard to find my uncle Ricky was in the nation of Islam he used to make me watch all the movies so you got to take me back because you know I'm deep in the root take me back to one of them meetings walk me in with you walking with your pops and y'all walking to the facility of Black Panther he used to take me to the meetings I'm like nigga not only did we go to the meeting but when they went after the Panthers like we saw with Brett Hampton they went after them they trumped up some charges against the brother named Geronimo Pratt Geronimo Pratt and me and dad drove up to see Geronimo in prison and when we did the movie Panther we took some of the movie from that to help free Geronimo damn man they didn't like that they didn't like that you know what I mean so dad was just that guy but that was fun with him because we don't give a shit look here I have enough clothes I don't want more material stuff you got to define what you want like what I want to do before I hit it is make each movie like it counts and say things I'll tell you a good moment for me too one more time me and my dad we were in New York brother came out of silver dreads and he said Mr. Van Peebles I love your work and we both turned around and he said I'm sorry to bother y'all I'm a fan I'm not a movie sometimes I go to the movies and I come out and I learn something and that's a good thing sometimes I go to the movies and I come out entertain that's a great thing and very rarely but every now and then I go to the movies and I come out proud to be a man of color I go to your movies I get all free that's cold that's cold that's the check so how about you Brandella what would you say was the moment for you where you was like man I know I impressed my dad oh man he's a hard guy to impress it's tricky because he never pushed this career on any of us in fact quite the opposite before he really gave it a real blessing he wanted me to do the college stuff and have a plan B in case even though it was big on that not just knowing the show but knowing the business of show business so I definitely I'm assuming you mean in acting in entertainment I'm talking about just strictly entertainment I'm sure the first time you made a jump shot you impressed that nigga but I'm talking about the form of the legacy that you got that Van Peebles has left I would say it's interesting because he's a tough guy to impress not in a bad way kind of like what he's saying he's not super materialistic if I were to go out and book some Marvel movie he'd be really happy for me but I think he's more proud or he wants the message he wants to do things that are the three loves in your life so really it's what you do, do you love it what you say with your work is it good, do you love that and who you do it with so I think I'm still kind of pushing pushing more but I don't know you said college that's something that is going to be with me forever and it's informed how I can and the fun stuff, the stuff I enjoy doing but dude what do you think I can tell you, I don't really like you motherfucker you know what, I have moments that some of you don't remember that wore my heart that go wow that's deep so there's been few along the way and he may not remember so I had gone Mandela we never did you never know what your kid's going to be into so as a kid I was taking him to sport stuff and he would like big organized sports he wouldn't do it but we found something called Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and he went in and just started getting this thing off and before you know it he becomes the champ of Southern California undefeated Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, he's a seven year old right and I was like damn so then he said well if it's good for me why isn't it good for you so I started doing it and he coached me and in my first tournament I lost my first fight and he told me, he said you're not visualizing yourself winning enough and then I won the second fight but what happened was then he had to go to school he was going to school and they had a day where you had to dress up as someone you like from history I'll never forget this and Mandela's friend was dressing in a hat like Abraham Lincoln and someone else was George Wajie and Mandela said I'm going to go this badass Hawaiian leader who stood up against colonialism, this badass Hawaiian leader, I said okay cool I like that he's going to someone that stood up against the fight, the power of the colonial basically the white school right but I didn't realize until we get there it was a chick he had on a grass skirt and a coconut bra and a wig and I was like oh no wait I said son, I said hold up I said son, is anyone else going as a female? He said no but daddy I could whoop everyone I'm about to say anyone dog I'm going to do one of y'all touch my titties touch my titties if you want to so it was like he was fearless at seven I was like that's a badass spirit to say no I admire this to happen to be a woman you know what I mean the girls love him but I was just I like that spirit that he's like I can take him anyway and that's the Melton Dan people spirit and I saw that granddad I was like that's something my dad would say and then just along the way people he would help you know what he didn't have to things he would do oh when he first started hustling we have a nice house this day bro him and his brother were having his birthday party I found out they selling tickets to the house they did the project and they were cleaning up and then I went away and I came back and my friend was dating this chick she was a little young and she said secret radius so he's like so how's things going when you was away I could tell he was hitting that stuff I said what do you mean man he said you know I'm just asking because you know I've seen this sweet young thing but she told me there was a big party where? he said it was this young actor his name is big man deli he got chicks in the jacuzzi he got names he shoot videos I thought you said pokeman gonna be here get the poof get the poof I've had women come over I've been here before I was like you got a big man deli big man deli big man deli he was quiet and public he bit out of there they had a dj they had security we had hired the security from our school so we would throw a party every week we'd throw it at the neighbors house too once he got wise too they were cleaning up after it they was making bank I was like no he's a little hustler but it was funny you know when you see stuff like that and you see okay he's got he's furious he's got the business acumen the advantage of watching us but I know this and that's what you gotta be careful is that hard time make it tough soft times can make soft men so I gotta make sure that his biggest fight is like he grew up being around it but don't take it for granted you know what I mean you got that hustle you just gotta do it if you don't make their way it ain't gonna happen I mean you doing that big man deli I'm gonna be with you hey we're going to a bar big man deli that's the thing that most people you know that have you know you might not recognize but coming from somebody who didn't have it my father got killed when I was two so I never had that direct correlation to what makes me who I am as a man so you already ahead of the game by just being able to look to your left and see where you come from like that gives you a level I had to figure it out on my own I didn't have anybody to go ass like pop why I do this so you know why I want to throw a party in your house and call myself big man deli he did some shit like that before when he was young and you get to directly have that moment so that gives you a level of you know especially as a black man that gives you a cheat code that a lot of us don't have so the same way you might look at somebody hustling that don't have it like we looking at you like man I wish I had what you have because a lot of the hustling that we do comes from just out of desperation of not knowing the blind not having the understanding of who you are and just feeling like I got to do every single thing that I can to try to figure out who I am as a man you know I mean you have the direct source of who made you and where you come from and you had your granddad and all of that different you know type of energy that you can get directly passed down to you so it gives you a level of understanding that puts you ahead of so many people in the hustle if you don't lose it you know a lot especially third generation you know I'm not calling you it's true that's the thing it's like how you are with your kids interesting because they're going to grow up with more than what you had you have to decide how much can I help them out without any gap in them you know what I mean and you don't want to have poor little rich kids and you want them to win and get it so part of it is the advantage of what I like is having conversations like this where he gets to see it but that's that hustle that fight I saw that in him so when you say that role I said he'll fight for the movie but he'll fight for the role and fight to make sure the character's right and you know that when I give you a note you know it's coming from a place of love you bring this down every time I'm like oh gee what you want no you good oh gee what you looking for and that's the thing is that a lot of us haven't had relationships with good relationships with our fathers and so that disconnects us you know what I mean so it's great when you can start to get that yes I have a daughter 15 and that's a big reason why I'm so active because I didn't have that direct correlation and I want her to be able to have when I have to go through the blind spots that I had to go through with trying to figure out you know who I was as a man but I also respect the fact that you have to make sure that you don't cripple your children so a lot of the things that I did have to do I passed down to her but it's not a necessity like it was for me this is an option for you to be able to understand and learn and the fact that she loves me so much she embraces anything that I give to her it makes it easier for me to be able to not feel like I'm inadequate because I don't have that you know source to go to but it is also a blessing to have you know like what you were saying about DC like I know that we do this just as black men in this industry the our OGs the people we look up to we look for that guidance like we like man show us how to do this from your perspective because you've already navigated these waters so if I can figure out how to get to shore without having to swim all the way across to like show me you know what I mean that's just that comes from a level of you know just wanting to have that that support system for me I know fly even though fly had his pops he lost his pops but still you know having that type of connection is important for us because you know we got to give it to the next generation but you know what it is even when I was hearing him speak when you know what I'm saying about your father and it's a level of identity before he can find his own so even if he get lost he still have some source or resource to fall back on you see what I'm saying I feel like when you hearing and you speaking even when you tap into your character you like what my grandfather would have said some people don't have those what if they are we only go to people that we're inspired by you see what I'm saying what we learn from it just so happened that you could learn from at home and not be lied to even before you can go outside right you see what I'm saying so a lot of our knowledge come from outside and a lot of my foundation and my spirituality comes from I watch my parents you see what I'm saying so it's like I didn't seek this on my I seek it on my own but nigga this is rooted through generation like now when I wake up I look over my baby girl is praying before she I'm like it's in her she's seven wait till she get 24 you see what I'm saying so it's like before she can find out who she is she still got something to rely on to guide her through the way and I think that that's what we are missing in the culture because we continue to gravitate to other shit that don't pertain to us and we really don't even know who we are and you got your father not only your father who's learned from your granddad so it's like all this knowledge that you can just take from and be like so how did you get it what did you do I so what did granddad do because now that's them I wish I could have a conversation with my daddy even though I watch my daddy I never really just had those conversations and be like why you think like that why you wear your clothes like that why you eat what you eat why you pick my mama why did you keep me when they said that my mama could have died by having me what's the purpose of your decision making because it can help me when I'm making my decision you see what I'm saying and I have an identity you know what I mean so just to hear the way y'all speaking this really is something that we admire you know what I'm saying because we were talking about that shit earlier don't fucking be used to pick on motherfucker that had both of their parents in the household you got your mom and your daddy bitch you like what you mad because my mother loves my father that's nothing unusual yeah but that's trauma you know what I mean that's a trauma response because you know you had them bring your kids to work day in or bring your parents to work day in you know you only got one parent that can come or you don't have no parents that can come and somebody come with both of them look at you well taking care of ass you know what I mean you get upset about that but you know I know that from watching just the dynamic that y'all have just when you were just like and he finished your sentence like that right there is something that I recognize immediately that you can't fake that that's not something you can practice before y'all walked in I had to look nigga like I don't know you like that's a natural you are actually the next time that is the funny shit that is the funny shit what do you mean what do you mean I don't know you like that you know what I mean but I do want to ask you though Mario like how big is nepotism and you know cause a lot of people like you said you can create a soft you know sun if you will you also want to give him an opportunity exactly ok so my eldest daughter has a voice like Whitney she can sing all these different octaves in her head but but to the rest of us not so much now luckily she's very smart she went to college she started working you know finance working with you know what I mean my mother right is a brand actress in her head my dad could act within a certain parameter you know he's playing something close to Melvin you can hit it my left foot type shit way out the pocket so we don't just because we don't in my family confuse people who love what they think they love as being good at what they think they love I may love food I may love sex it don't mean I'll be a porn star you feel me not everyone's cut out for that you said well man I can't do that this ain't for the regular people man so you gotta be realistic I ain't go play for the Lakers even if you are Jackson someone might be LaDoya you have a record deal so first of all you have to be clear and say I have to look over and say oh this brother's talented when you see out La Pasi you'll go oh yeah he does his thing that's even whether he's my son or not all that stuff so it's not I wouldn't give him something that I didn't think he could do well nor would I do that with DC you know what I mean I'm giving it to folks that I think can really play it and then and then plus he rides you know what I mean so yeah that's your cowboy thing and it wasn't no favoritism you they work so you come early leave late work for the family discount I'm a little bit we kind of like the Jacksons without the talent I'm a user friendly Joe I just can't sing so I don't if someone plays the guitar better or someone's this I'll look at it and listen to it but I don't do favoritism because you're not really doing the favor for anybody at the end of the day right we're back to what you were saying even when you're giving us notes direction we can trust that we can go fully there because we know it's coming from a place of love we know you're putting yourself in our shoes then right so if you say I think I think when we work together whether it's something I've thought of before not having your blessing having you you push and say I know this is something you can do it kind of is almost reassuring push either of us something we would do bad it gives it gives us the confidence to be like alright first of all we know who you are your stature where you come from everything that's come with that up until this point and it's like I'm in a movie with him it's like Superman no matter how many times you don't fall or when you fall right so I'm looking at it as still in that perspective like that was a time when you had this shit unlocked by yourself you did what I'm saying to pave the way with looking like oh now we're looking like Marvel DC we got others that we could depend on but it was a time in period when you was by yourself and then now it's like oh you need more Avengers and you're training more Avengers as you over there like look it's a motherfucker that's bad ass out there but look at that with meal kit if you go left and you go right but I believe that you can fly out the sky with that motherfucker I ain't ever flew out the sky but by you saying it I'ma try it and it gives us the confidence to be like you believe in us as an actor definitely and that is there's a line that we lost that I love which is sometimes that you had and sometimes the family you make is more fun than the family you born with that's very true cause you find brother find sister that's dope and the more we come together and unite the better man and even in this industry it's not enough of that it's not enough of that I believe even when you called you were like I ain't got no money but you know how you before you get a nigga off the phone but this is a movie that's going to put you in a position that we're not going to say there ain't nobody else going but we know how the industry is they don't fuck with us for real man let's just be real I fuck with you and by me knowing that this is a phone call that's one in the lifetime gotta go man it's literally like he wouldn't call you to fight if he didn't think you was a fighter come kick some ass man especially somebody who has been picking fighters for years that's all I'm saying I want to go kick some ass especially all the way and the same when I talked to whoopee and I said whoopee we got this and she like I'm playing stagecoach Mary or Cedric you know Allen we're James almost so where folks want to come out and say that I get to do that with this with us in our way for us in our movie let's do this because we don't get that many chances at him look the last one I did 30 years ago don't come around every day so you're going to look back later on this guaranteed this would be a classic it's a classic I can't wait to watch it but we was at the Pan-African this one we just won Best Feature Film come on somebody as a producer what my principle is what my principle is feature film bitch as a producer that's for my principle and audience award best audience award people are engaged and watching it so that's that's dope we made that and we know how to do it and now we just got to get folks to see it go see it March 1st and just to hear the dynamics of the fatherhood love westerns and it was just one of the ones the whole time I was in it I was like I'm doing this one for my daddy I'm in it for this first you feel me for the job and the experience and to be directed from one of the greats because I ain't get on no Steven Spielberg I don't know all them everybody and I'm coming I'm pulling up and then it was like dang pop we sat and watched Clint Eastwood I don't know nobody else besides Clint Eastwood and the Braves he wanted them if they ain't broke don't fix it I'm watching Clint Eastwood tornado storms and the Braves so it was like by me doing this I was just like I know my daddy he he he that question girl baby like what you what you done to make your pop smile this would be one on one I know my daddy but like I don't see all the other ones son but they got them they were right here that one right there that one right there I'm not gonna lie though you're a good writer I appreciate it I appreciate it I'm a country boy man I told you when y'all had to write that scene where he's spying on us we had a write on a job man I was expecting you to be I knew how to kick how many times to kick slow down I had to play a white man hey get off that horse nigga I ain't writing I'm a city boy even when we wrote in and we see the Native Americans on the cliff that was cool and you look up and then you see how they looked and we played our Native American brothers they look like royalty and we had actually real skins they had to be car skins so when we were up there shooting the Native Americans we were on these top of these mountains and they had the TPs right and it was getting cold we were around the fireplace and we were going to have to take this peyote so we were going to be tripping and his character was like I don't know about this man it's not like horses but we were about to get messed up so we were up there and it was getting cold and the BAs, the production assistant came over and we were in Montana so a lot of our crew was white not all of it but some of our crew was white so these young white kids are bringing the blankets to keep the Indians warm and the Indian chick looked over and she said I don't know should we take these blankets because last time it didn't work out too well and we were like all the black folks and the Native Americans we were like whoo we all got messed up fuck you asshole we were paying to be here that was a funny shit you got two major people laughing at some history and that was the thing in Outlaw Posse was like saying if you could have in the course of a movie say shit that you couldn't say at a cocktail party in mixed company with white folks because if we can get Americans to come black, white, whatever and laugh at ourselves and our history then we can break the ice and overcome and do this and it's an election year y'all you know so getting folks that's the thing is that I believe check this out when South African apartheid fell you know what they were watching on TV you know what they were watching good times Cosby show and Miami Vice Miami Vice were the white leading man and the black leading man and the Cosby show and I'm not talking about the man I'll litigate the man but the phenomenon apartheid fell and 20 years before there were the huckstables I mean the Obama's there were the huckstables and now you see Will and Grace and Modern Family changing our feelings about getting there so there's a line between what we do culturally how we shape the culture and we do shape the culture and what happens in reality and so if you get folks watching a western especially us going wait a minute you mean we really were there it's not some make believe you see at the end of the movie the real cowboys the real we had real cowboys in the movie and you start to understand we were there then it gives you a power like you were saying about knowing your dad cinematically it's like you now know where you've been you better know where you're going and so you know what you've overcome before and this don't even scare you you know what I mean you go in there and say okay we're not going to be shut out of the boat in Florida we're not going to be shut out in Georgia we're not going to be kept away from the ballot we're not too tired to get up and fight for the America we can have not just the America we've been that's dope if you make our people think and make us wake up don't just give us some sugar high if you make us say oh that's entertaining it tells a good story I'm laughing and I'm getting it but it's also got something to say you wake people up and hopefully they'll get out and make sure we vote the right way talk your tongue go man all the way I want to know from your videographer because I see it's a movie I didn't even know you was in it's a movie you forgot you was in it what was the most memorable movie the one that that stuck out where you were like but that's a bad you know when I first started I was doing a lot of porn they caught me a little mic that's a bad name that's a bad name I'm kidding I'm kidding I think badass man badass was really dope playing my dad when I played Malcolm when I played Malcolm X my father had interviewed Malcolm when he was in Paris so that was really interesting and then I was working with Malcolm's daughter on the portrayal of her dad to humanize him and her father and then my own two daughters were playing Malcolm's daughters wow that is a trick skim over that right my dad interviewed Malcolm X in Paris did he what did they talk about sir totally other question pops so granddad was still around as badass came out so he was watching it did you guys ever have a conversation about how he thought she portrayed it dude Vandela let me tell you so when I went to C-pop this is a trick I go to C-pop because when I was doing the story when I did Malcolm I played Malcolm Muhammad Ali was on the set a lot right obviously and he loved his brother relationship with Malcolm and they had me done up like Malcolm red hair everything you know when I see that movie I don't even look like Mario at all and so he took me to the mosque so we went to this level we went to the mosque and he would ask me to do he'd be like come on do some of that Malcolm shit and so I would do some of the speeches for him and then he said you know he would talk about my dad and he said my dad was still alive right he talked about my dad he said if you could do a movie about me meaning Muhammad Ali the first black power athlete you could do a movie about the first black power film director meaning Malcolm Vandela so it was Ali that thought of the idea to do that and that's why when I brought the idea up and Michael man who was directing Ali heard it he said well if you're doing I'll produce it because I want to see your daddy's movie in Chicago was the first movie I saw was like not going to movies like on the boxing match people go crazy in the movies right so I want to see my dad after doing playing now I want to see my dad and my dad always goes when I'm gonna ask him something I don't know how but he could always tell and he gets quiet right I said daddy I want to do I want to bring your story to light not everyone grew up with a father like I grew up with a black power father and I want to share that with the world and he said aha and I said so I'd like to do it on the making of sweet packet written about a book about thinking today he said okay here's the thing if you make a movie about me while I'm alive and it sucks you know I'm very honest the press is going to come to me and I'm telling oh shit if you want to make a movie about me wait till I'm dead then I don't know shit I mean he was but if you want to do a movie about me I tell you what I want I want you to play that way if I don't like it I'm going to spank you at and so I did you know but that was a real moment where he didn't come down to the set I said no don't come down to the set until the very last day we finally saw the movie we saw badass it was a Toronto film festival kind of like you know how we saw the film festival standing ovation we're watching the movie there was a scene where he's sitting in bed and his partner his buddy is this guy named Bill who was a filmmaker he's a white dude and my dad has a cigar and they're both sitting together my dad look over like what the fuck what's going on and so my dad's got a cigar and he looks at the ceiling and there's a little angel of inspiration played by Mr. Mendella as a kid right and so he's looking up and my dad looks at me at one time he's going up and then this woman comes out in the middle of the bed and then another woman comes out he's like okay I knew he would you were like I gotta get him on one but at the end of the movie he looked over and he said this shit is David versus Goliath he loved it he was like you did it you did it right and he was so proud of it that was a real moment for us and then this executive this reporter came over to him because at the end of Sweetback at the very end of Sweetback a sign comes up at the end of Sweetback he says watch out badass niggas gonna come back and collect some dudes and his agent said I'm leaving I don't know if you're on drugs you can't put that in the movie badass niggas gonna come back across the screen at the end of a movie they can't even cross it out and badass Sweetback's badass though they won't even print it in the newspaper this is Melbourne you're committing suicide Melbourne said no that's what I'm gonna do that's what the people want so it said badass niggas gonna come back and collect some dudes so this dude when Robert Bedford came over the guy you played and he said he looked at the movie he said wow Melbourne and Melbourne said yeah man Mario turned out to be my annuity and he said no he's your continuity and then the reporter said Sweetback's gonna come back and collect some dudes does that mean Sweetback's gonna come back with his son he said absolutely but not just Mario my son Spike my son Singleton all of us it's not just biological it's seeing all of us as Rio's filmmakers telling our stories saying we can entertain you we can entertain us we can have fun but we still gonna give you something something to think about and that was it you know what it is now Mandela you gotta make New Jack City too everybody think it's the social media right I know you had said something earlier Sweetback and the correlation with the Panthers yes so what I was talking about really was New Jack was that Panther is the prequel to New Jack because up until what happened was when the Panthers started getting militant and voting and not just carrying old guns but when they started food back this program and then uniting with the white kids and the brown berets on stuff that's when they got really scary to J. Edgar Hoover and he was the head of the FBI and so that's when they made a deal with the mafia if you will to let hard drugs go into the black community and that creates skies like Meena Brown so once you understand the history of it that's the first Panthers it's a documentary called Bastards of the Party they talk about Bastards of the Party so they talk about the Black Panther Party and the disengaging of Black Panther Party is what created the Bloods and the Crips in LA because you know the Black Panther Party started in Oakland but it migrated down the whole West Coast I mean all over the country really came in and broke up the Black Panther Party and took that element of strength and understanding and wisdom out of the black community then the young guys in the late 60s early 70s created the gang banging and that's why they called them Bastards of the Party and that's why you see what they did was they deliberately cut the head from the body so that if they figured it if we can just get you dealing from the neck down thinking about sex, money this, that, drugs and not thinking from the head up then we can disconnect you like Malcolm said freedom by any means necessary but when we get it twisted and start saying getting paid by any means necessary we're conflating money with freedom but crack make money but it's not good for you fossil fuel make money but it's killing us freedom is a whole different thing so when you buy into a thing where you're just thinking about money now you're starting to sound like the colonizer so when you buy into the values of a people who would buy and sell your people what have you become you feel me? I want to touch on something that I think you were getting at which was because I think it's important for outlaw passing the Panthers kind of how they helped out was sweep back the relationship there correct me if I'm wrong but after the leaders of the Panthers saw the movie and saw the message they made it mandatory viewing for the whole party so kind of like a homework you had to go out and see the movie that changed the dynamic for our family exactly so just like that sweep back didn't have the distribution the studio money to go open a two fit it exactly so with that word of mouth do you remember where the two fit theaters were located I think it was a state lake in Chicago and something else an X rated movie theater and only in two theaters and Mandela you're right the word of mouth the Black Panthers put it on the front of their newspaper you're posting it right same thing the Black Panthers put it on the front of their newspaper and said all of our chapters have to go see this movie and so the Black Panthers went and then the white kids started going and then everyone started going and then more and more theaters wanted it that's the key thing more people see outlaw passing what that movie to play here that'll happen because Hollywood's not just white or black it's green and you know what it is about the newspaper I'm just thinking about right because right now like Instagram right now they can control how far your page go your algorithm like if I go look at my video and I'm like it reached 2 million people but I got 13 million why didn't the other 11 see it are they asleep are they not problem how it only reached 2 million if I got 13 13 million people following me where are the other 11 and you can tell from the content as well when you put up a certain video it go crazy but then you put up some put up a movie wow really okay so it's like even with the Black Panther they got me thinking like maybe we should create a system where we go back to the newspapers where it look vintage but we are in control of the reach yeah I mean in this line they still handing them out on the corners so we know for a fact you're getting it and I also realized that sometimes when we do it ourselves and we have them in the movie we pay for them to be in the movie but they have them three times playing at the same time you remember how you go to the movie why come that playing at 10 that one playing at 11 but they both be sold out but it's at the appropriate time you go at 11 o'clock in the morning and then they have all four of the theaters playing them at that certain time so they can have it in their algorithm to show you where we played it the amount of time that you paid for but you played it during the time where ain't nobody dare you know what I mean you see what I'm saying you played it 10 times from 10 to 12 coming to the movies from 10 to 12 you see what I'm saying so it's like they don't play the game but you just got to know did you do a soundtrack to this movie no okay and the reason why I asked is because the soundtrack to new jack city is you know just as to me just as impactful as the movie was and that's a little different because that wasn't period yeah that's what I mean but I mean you know I was wondering if you still if you still had that type of yeah the score of the movie is dope Dante did a great job he did a fantastic job fantastic but we wanted it to be a real western so the music sounds like the west okay though you know new jack looks like curry yeah all the way well I just you know was wondering because just you know the messaging that you were not only able to put into the movie but the music that you picked to match the you know the actual movie the soundtrack like I said it's an interesting thing because someone was saying to me too was that here we have you know I did the first one thirty years ago right with either Hayes Amgrier you know like posse but now thirty years later we do outlaw posse but the same time we're bringing out outlaw posse Beyonce's blowing up with this country western stuff and Pharrell's doing a whole country western line and just the energy and seem like the energy is kind of and we have these black cowboys in our movie you know I mean it's like something interesting happening with the consciousness you know looking back we do have a connection we have a connection we have a soundtrack to outlaw posse Beyonce album the new one that's going to be the soundtrack to that just to promote each other to go that would be smart you know but that's thinking of where it's like right now you know which is dope so you've been at it you've been at it I think longevity in this in this industry is always prominent and it speaks volumes your career who is it that hasn't made the list that you want to work with you know what I'm always surprised you know new stuff comes up and surprises me that I didn't think about you know I mean there's people that go I want to work with that person but you know like I remember when I first started in the Clint Eastwood we were doing a western we were doing heartbreak princess I really broke out in this act and Pharrell was talking to me about how many platforms were in the west that's what he did but he said something you know no one gets to be flavor of the month for 30 years that means you got something you know what I mean and I've been getting to do what I love doing for a while I did Posse I didn't have a son I did a lot of Posse and my dad I could be the connected tissue I realized I don't know if I told you the DC my dad gave me my first lines ever in a feature film and I gave him his last lines ever so that circle that's the circle of life that's pretty dope black man ago you know three generations and we're still putting our people out there as three-dimensional characters he rose and she rose so it's more about like what's like okay like a lot of us don't know do you know about the battle of Odua a lot of us don't it was the Ethiopians yeah the Ethiopians dude there was something called the Berlin conference I was 1800 late 1889 I think the Berlin conference and the Europeans got together and they looked at a map of Africa and they decided to divide it up like a cake and they drew us okay France you take this Italians you take that Germans you take this there was no Africans invited so that one that when they did when they went in to take over Africa after they'd enslaved and started they wanted to take all the minerals so they had this Berlin conference and so that way they wouldn't be killing each other so they had to it's like someone decided oh take his boots like you had a party or something but you know I like his hat what are y'all talking about hey over there bribing again yo shit straight gangster man how can we so they went in and the Italians got Ethiopia and Eritrea because it was close to where they wanted to go but the Italians went in there and there was a cat an Ethiopian brother named Melanie he had a bad ass wife his wife had her own RV he had his RV and they beat them Italians back so bad they went running and the Italians got so hurt they didn't even take their soldiers home so the Ethiopians let some of them stay and live over there then years later they tried it again and got defeated again and so Ethiopia consequently was never colonized was never run by white folks at all and now what's deep is if you go to Ethiopia apparently those in the jails over there the Chinese because the Chinese the gangsters go over and try to take over and they don't they do not play they don't play that shit and so you look when you're around black people that have never been colonized it's a different thing I was just in Cartagena, Colombia black people look just like me and you except they go hey they talk spanish you're like what did you say there's a place called Palenque where all the freed slaves went and they made a deal with Spain that they could stay there and they got their butts kicked trying to go after these freed slaves they said we'll make a deal with you you can have your freedom under one condition you have to keep a white church with a white statue of Jesus in modern areas other than in your town as long as you pray to a white god we'll let you have your freedom you realize like colonization was deep even when we were talking about the map looking at a map of Africa the real size of Africa isn't that crazy you could fit America, China Russia, all of that inside of Africa the real true size I went to Ghana and when I was over there they showed me a true map of Africa like I got to see how massive Africa was and I was just like man what in the world that's why I don't understand people when you hear the the population numbers in other countries in the United States and you see this damn picture this is an illusion they want you to think the United States is bigger than all that shit how is it more people over there and we got a big ass country do that shit even make sense and then you realize like when you're in Africa too that you don't speak any of your languages at all it's a European country you realize I don't speak any African language they say you could tell who runs the area by the language you speak that's when it got divided up from the brilliant country so when you say to me what I want to do I want to do movies like the Battle of Agua you know what I mean it shows some real shit so the Haitian revolutions and stuff like that they don't get the credit but I know it was crazy but we need one of them revolution and you got a team thank you for just your perspective and the perspective that you've had in the entertainment industry because of that perspective you brought us so much knowledge and so much understanding of us that we wouldn't have had without somebody willing to break down the doors that you broke down so I just want to say thank you man well I turn around and say thank you to you and then thank you to pop thank you to Gordon Parks thank you to Ozzie David Sidney Malcolm King Ali all the folks that showed us different ways that we could stand up to the system and not just believe the hype say okay I know what you taught us about us but now we're going to really learn about us and we'll define it and that's what we would make our we take our country back of who we were and show and get on the big screen because why? because DC images matter bitch come on man and guess what Chico we ain't did this all god damn show we're back to 85 South Shore god damn it god damn we miss you Lo we miss you Ozzie man all the way man but make sure Outlaw posse stop playing man one of us is in it but all of us is in it outlaw posse let's make this movie be the way sweet back went up let's make outlaw posse go up the same way they can't deny put it in the movie theaters let's make it happen appreciate your OG we all actually have a real conversation you would they ain't wait an hour two hours pass sound bike time into some real shit this is what we like to do we want to get comfortable and sit on that catalog the legends come in and not have a real conversation how are they gonna let me back in if they see this man oh yeah we bang head that's right man salute you god damn man man with the world man what's up with y'all scared the shit out of that whole right side let's not get rid of the white man that's what it is white man got a button on all black bitch shut down I want to say salute to you too brother man and you know all that you gonna do you can tell just from the dynamic not only that you had with your dad but just your mental understanding of the business just from you hear you speak you got a long way to go you got that I think we all admire is a sense of identity, a sense of foundation, and you can't be lied to. Can't nobody tell you who you are. You done been too grounded and too structured in a group of some people that done been telling you who you are your entire life. So it's hard for you to go outside your door and then somebody tell you some shit and you lie. My dad or my granddaddy wouldn't have dealt with none of that shit. We're now the granddaddies in our family. You feel what I'm saying? Like I got my dad or I could tell my son, hey boy your granddaddy would've looked. So now he's so eager to know why I'm so structured and guided like I am. You see what I'm saying? So it's like you have that sense of form of doctrine, a form of discipline that you're gonna always look to. I mean I'm spiritual so it's like the Bible. You feel me? If I don't really care about the human form or human life so I'm more so look at the Bible for the references and they tell me the stories so I go back and I'm like I lean on them and of course my father and my mother are praying people. So they wasn't in no trouble. You know what I'm saying? I'm like you know what? They picked the right decisions. I'm more so picking the longevity decisions. You see what I'm saying? So it's like I, how can I do what my dad and my mama did but did think about it for the next 20 years. So I appreciate you for keeping a roof over my head but now I'm trying to make sure, like you say, if the third generation mess up I'm trying to make sure it's there for them even if they mess up they still, somebody get it because it's in our lineage. It's in our bloodline. Somebody gonna get it and I think I'm that somebody where it's like pop. You're like ooh somebody had to get it. I'm like pop I got it. Yes sir. How do you stay so disciplined man? Y'all are working all the time. Yeah, I mean for me it comes from, it was my mother. It was my mother's way of instilling responsibility in me. When I was young I used to have to miss the football game and the bike rides to go to the grocery store and get the groceries because my mother had to catch three buses to go to work every day. You know what I mean? So in that time where I had to figure out how to be okay with not doing something that I wanted to do to do what I had to do it trained me to be okay with doing what I had to do. So once I became a man it's easier for me to adjust to the things that I have to do because I've always been in a position to have to do things that most children wouldn't have had to do because of the way my cars were dealt. So now as a grown man it's so easy for me. One of the things that I believe is I don't have to know what I want. I just have to know what I don't want. And as long as I've identified the things that I don't want to deal with I can dedicate all my time to whatever it is I want to do. Ignorance, negligence, laziness. You know what I mean? Dishonesty. All of those things are things that I have no patience for and I don't subscribe to that at all. So it allows me to have the free time to be able to discipline myself to do everything that I need to do. And some of what I want to do whenever I want to. So just having that freedom comes from me having the stability that my mother gave me and knowing that there are going to be some times where you're going to miss fun to have to take care of business. So what he's talking about is interesting. It's called deferred gratification. And there was a test they did years ago called the marshmallow test. And they would take a kid and they put this kid in a booth with a two-way mirror and they put a dish there and they put a marshmallow. The kid might be five years old, four years old, whatever. And the parents could watch from the other side of the two-way mirror and they tell the kid, listen, put a clock there and the clock would tick down one minute. And they'd say, if you can wait five minutes and not eat that marshmallow in that dish you can give me two marshmallows. Right? One little boy, the quick clock started ticking. He looked at the marshmallow and he was like, wait, crazy. What does that eat it? One little girl, she was like, try not to eat it. She had red braids and she was twisting her braids and hiding under the table to not eat it. They found that the kids that could defer gratification say I'm not going to do the fun thing right now. So I get two marshmallows tomorrow. Turned out to be similar to the kids later on and said, I'm not going to go out to that party. I'm going to study extra hard to get that final exam right. The next kid who said, I'm not going to go to that party tonight because I got to get up early to do the radio show and do this and not miss that interview, blah, blah, blah, blah. So your ability sometimes to defer gratification. I want that black screen TV right now. I want that car right now. I say, no. You know what, like when I first got my first property I didn't have furniture. I said, I want to just buy the property. Have that. I may have some. And I said, I fucking I know what I'm going to do. I got some old car furniture. I had Bobo for it. You can see it in my living room. Put a seat belt on. But people thought it was just being cool. This is funny. I was just looking straight in. Yeah, they were like, oh, this is an interesting theme seen thematically. I like it. Life is like a car ride. So I just came in like that. But it was like having the discipline to not get in debt. Having the discipline to figure this out and not drink, and not smoke today. See, I'm going to do a little tolerance break. Or the discipline to even work out. You don't fall out to your mother with all the muscles. You've got to work out to keep that. That means you've got to have the discipline. But you guys clearly have discipline. And that's why another reason that I bet on you with this was like, this doesn't have to happen by luck. You don't have all this being high and silly and not we motivate each other. Pumps was great. I always say luck is luck is preparation meets opportunity. Yes, it is. And we definitely motivate each other. Like, you know, we do shows. We, you know, we have a whole team here. You know what I mean? But ain't nobody ever missed a show. Ain't nobody ever late. We had to look for nobody. We never had to come find somebody. Ain't nobody oversleeping. When it's time to show up to do what we got to do, we always did. No matter what happens. So we can't, we can't not be motivated to be disciplined when we know each other. We are family. So I know what's going on with him. I know when he's down. I know when he's sad. I know when he's upset. He knows when I'm down. He knows when I'm upset. So we know we have all of the excuses in the world to not show up. But when we still show up, it's like, it's no way I can feel like I don't have the discipline to do whatever's necessary because I'm looking at my brother do it. I'm looking at my partners do it. And that means that we have created an environment where we can lean on each other no matter what it is we going through. We got each other to lean on. And that's the most beautiful thing in the world. Before we go, can we have all your beautiful coupes? Come over here and just get in this picture with us real quick. They black. Come on. Nobody white. Come on. How's your plan? Yeah, the white man didn't make that loud. His noise stayed over here. Erica, we took a picture of us. Come on, man. Come on. Everybody say Allah al-Pasih. Allah al-Pasih. Keep talking about a bitch-ass nigga. Hold on, nigga. I swear on me and nigga. What's happening? Allah al-Pasih in theaters March 1st. Yes, I'm trying to black woman to get your ass up. Come get in this picture. Come on. I don't take the fuck out. No, you know, we got a photographer. OK, cool. Come on, come on, come on, come on. Everybody if you.