 Hey, J-O-Wee. Special, special one for me, man. She got the eye and eye to try to make sure your shit right. What's the respect? I'm talking the noise, man. You know what I mean? Yeah, we got the man. Yeah, I'm running you off, sweetheart. I just make sure you have enough water in your stream. You know? We'll get you straight over here, man. Yeah, make sure it's right. But like I said, man, this is a very special one for me because, you know, as everybody knows, it's 85% as I'm born and raised in Washington, D.C. Stop playing. Yes, indeed. For what part? Uptown, to be exact. I just want you to say it, because you keep asking me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You don't want to ask me shit. I mean, they know. But this dude right here is a product of Washington, D.C. You know, a lot of people are big on activism and being woke and helping black people now, but it's a lot of people that's been doing it before it was cool. And this brother's one of them, man. He's from a neighborhood that I'm very familiar with. I went to a high school done by a high school that's, you know, close to his neighborhood. And this dude has always been active, always been a product of trying to stop a lot of the violence and a lot of the things that go on in our city. And it's being a helping hand to the streets. And it's something that I think needs to be, you know, a spotlight needs to be put on this brother, man. A bigger one it already has, man. So I need everybody that's in here to make some noise for my big homie Tony George. And you know, it goes without saying, but that's exactly what this platform is for, man. It's to show love and respect to the people that we love and respect, man. So welcome to the trap, 85 South. Chico holds you very high regard, man. So you know. Well, Tony, tell them a little bit about who you are, man, in your background. I'm from the nation's capital. I've been a voice, a supporter, pillar in the community for the last 21 years. I'm 40, right? So that's half my life. The work saved my life. But my history as it relates to Washington, I come from, you know, and I say this with all, you know, sort of deference and humility and not, I'm not somebody to glorify any of that. But I come from a street, hand over place that was synonymous with the drug trade, really sort of the first open-air drug market in our city. And my family members were very responsible for that, right? And my father would grow to be, again, you know, somebody who was regarded as a drug kingpin with the prison when I was nine years old on the biggest drug conspiracy in the history of our city. You know, it got life without the possibility of parole, right? Been in prison 32 years. That was significant for me. Changed the trajectory of my life. My mother pretty much, you know, started to battle severe mental illness. We growing up in, and in D.C., you know, crack impacted the whole country, every urban community in the country, but nowhere it didn't impact anywhere like what it did to D.C., right? You know, when you talk about incarceration rates, addiction, murder rates, infant mortality, all of that data speaks to how the crack epidemic punished us in our generation, right? And so I was able to navigate through something that most people weren't, you know what I'm saying? And being able to become a public servant, a violence interrupter, being able to become the person that women return from, the nation that I was there, along with others obviously, right? To help get people stable, to make sure that when those mothers and fathers returned to the community, they wouldn't leave again. Somebody who spoke up, you know, in the correlation between another D.C. has become sort of the gentrification capital of the country, right? And it's a real parallel between being the crack capital or in the murder capital through the 90s and now what we're seeing with gentrification. I've been a translator. I've been somebody who has ensured that legislation and policy changed in order to preserve and protect. Yeah, because it's not just about making noise with me, right? It ain't just about making noise. It's about being able to deliver solutions and holding people that are in positions to change things accountable for doing that. We've, in the age of social media, which is an amazing thing, right? I don't entirely love it, right? I think it's enable people to connect which is beautiful. But I think I come from a place where activism is personal. Activism is something you do every day. You gotta have a base, right? So if you walk through D.C. People out there may never heard of me, but if you walk through D.C. with me, you know, I'm probably one of the most recognizable people because I've helped people, right? Thousands of people. I've helped them. People from grandma to the kids to the uncle who just came home from doing 30, 20, 30 years. I've done something for them. And I say that to say this is that I take a lot of pride in that, right? And sometimes the work and being so attached and connected to the issues is really gotten away sometimes of me being able to do things like this. So I'm just so happy and honored to be here and I really salute and respect what you guys do. You said something that stuck out to me. You say you're a violence interrupter. Yeah. Speak on it. Yeah, so before you even go, I want to say something to that too because that's the point that I was great make. In the city that we come from, D.C. is a very violent city by nature. That's why when he said a violence interrupter. We grow up, you know, very violent. You know what I'm saying? I come out of the streets and was active and lost and plenty of family members that, you know, that I love and hold dear to me and share blood in those streets and what a lot of people don't understand is we have a hard time respecting people who don't come from where we come from and don't understand the things that we go through no matter where you're from. You could be an activist from Atlanta or activist from Chicago, but if you don't know the streets of D.C. and how things operate in the D.C. we're not trying to hit it. So him being a person that can say he's a violent violence interrupter it speaks to his character because he come from the streets and he's respected in that space. So when he walks into these neighborhoods people look at him as somebody who understands what we going through and what we dealing with. You know what I mean? They're under there. He's not just coming in for the photo op or coming in to be able to say I was here and I did this for a quota. He actually coming in because he understands that what you going through I'm going through and if you lose your uncle your brother and sister I know what you going through because I felt that pain and that's very rare in our city. Absolutely. I appreciate that. But that's it. Being able to be in a position to save lives or at least attempt to have that sort of buy-in and connectivity where at least somebody would come to the table to try to squash something that could lead to somebody losing their life and then growing that to being able to influence legislation that would create programming because now when I walk in the community or there's other people that came behind me being able to have something to offer too so put that gun down but pick this up. Having programming that's leading to family sustaining employment entrepreneurial opportunities and grants for businesses housing support things of that nature where it's comprehensive because we trying to change lives we trying to save lives and the same thing being able to create relationships with the business community relationships with government where opportunities can be created for many women that we call returning citizens and I spoke about my father being in and me and my dad been able to collaborate on many levels around violence interruption we've done PSAs to young people he was one of the most respected people in the history of the streets in my city he's got a lot of ways right give me a little background on your father because there's a lot of people watching my father Tony Lucy as I spoke to when the prison in 1989 on the drug conspiracy 29 person drug conspiracy at this point there's not a all the other 28 people nobody's no longer serving any time his partner Rayford Edmond who people are more familiar with who continue into criminality after they got in court a new charge and then became a government informant got his sentence reduced on their original case so he's no longer serving time for that particular case right and that's important because my father is still the only person with his original sentence right everybody else is home and none of those people have reoffended either they've come home and done the right thing so like we've done so many restorative and redemptive acts squashing beefs helping children with incarcerated parents getting the guys locked up with him connecting their families with resources in the community helping those guys when they come home and I think in this country we gotta really ask ourselves if we can reward somebody sending 100 people to jail we should be able to also reward somebody who stopped 100, 200, 300 people from coming to jail and stopped maybe another 4, 500 from returning and that's the kind of work that I've been able to leverage I feel like the luckiest man in the world is because in a conservation break all bonds man we've been in this shit 32 years and we still had a bond that we had and to be able to help the people that we've helped I've been able to go into his facility this is a federal facility that we talk about that's unheard of and sit down with him with cameras like this and interview come in bring council members in to see the programs that he was like the vice chair of which meant to a younger inmates and all these things so I remind him, he's been a model inmate you know what I mean and again I'm not naive my father's remorseful, my father broke the law so the shit load of cocaine but he's not in jail for a violent offense in 32 years and I'm out in the community in my work in my work home, listen I work with people coming home from prison I've stated that right but what I gotta it's important to note this I see the whole game I've said in my office, child molesters rapists, murderers, you know people they even killed their own grandmother but that's not on me to judge my point though is that if those egregious crimes people can get a second chance how can my father not get a second chance for selling drugs right and again not to negate or minimize the impact of selling drugs but we know that cocaine coming into this country the data is there now but you're funded by the CIA to fund wars we know this young black men y'all I can see the capital 10 blocks from the capital how can my street be an open-aid drug market and just be able to happen like that young black men get held responsible for that the collateral damage but other people don't so we pay our debt to society and that to say to frame the fact that my father 32 years is enough for whatever he's done the other thing I mean when they went to prison when they went to prison we could talk about El Chapo, Meach, whoever nobody you haven't ever seen anybody housing a military base I've actually been to the Quantico military base they got flown by military helicopter to and from court I had to visit my father at a sale because a marine base ain't got no visiting hall I've been to the sale my father on one side of the bars I'm on this and it's Marines with M-16s Rayford was 24 my father was 26 right again they should have went to prison but to get him life without parole and at that time you know a lot of people talk about Biden's role in the 1994 crime bill but there was a crime bill in 1986 the crime bill that really created the 101 disparity in crack cocaine and powder cocaine so when you look at how many thousands of black and brown people got sent to prison in a disproportionate way because of these laws and people get so caught up like I've never said my father shouldn't have went to prison never said that but how do you take a young man 26 years old who never had been to prison before and you give him life without parole I think people who don't go through this life without parole and it was a show too bulletproof court rules requested news they had Rayford and Kirk bone all them niggas walking out the helicopter with tag cuffs on it all types of shit it was just a time in the city and then right after that demurderate skyrocketing this is why that's key I just want to say something important that is this group was responsible for all the violence all the drugs when they went to jail the city got so much worse crazy if you look at the murder rates in Washington DC they went to jail in 89 you look at the murder rates from 1990 to 2000 I went from 10 years old to 20 it was about 4300 murders in Washington and but this is what I'm saying this group had become about young black men this one group and then it went from them to our street then it went to P Street they built these federal cases and made these groups the sole source of all the problems in our community and nobody talks about the divestment in the community nobody talks about the lack of opportunity access to jobs and all these other things that play into these individuals you know coming into being and it is about accountability but I don't make excuses but we also got to give context to why these decisions were made my father grew up on hand of a place just like I did no father but people still can't act like that shit don't matter and you can say and they tell us shit like that go get a job who work around here don't nobody work you'll hear me reference in terms of my life and how I feel so lucky because everybody around me is so cold everybody, my family this is a family dynamics but people have dreams and hopes about me in my neighborhood in my household but there's still one nobody I can point to to say okay this is how you do it I don't think people understand how important that piece is I already asked questions you did like these are the things that you know for me I could have probably done anything I wanted to do in the street but I had a dad that was doing life without parole telling me every day homes you don't want this and in the first 14 years he was in a place called La Park California right that's about an hour away from Santa Barbara how many times you think I went out to California I went out in 92, 96, 99 I'm growing up I just told you I was going on NDC in them years I'm growing up my father 3,000 miles away, my mother back and forth to over St. Elizabeth because she lost her mind my mother lost her mind she couldn't cope with the stress then we got a dude called Jack this which was also symbolic he took the 190 bins like the last little remnant of our old life in terms of like a material thing but more importantly it showed that that would have never happened before we weren't protected our protection was gone and he took her sanity with her, with him when he took the car, she pumping the gas he getting the job just like you, you know what I'm saying put the job to me, I'm 10 my mother snatched me out the car though and he just pulled off with the job and my mother never was the same so I grew up with my father locked up, my mother back and forth to mental institution, you know what I'm saying and even to this day homes like I have to I got two little girls and in order for them to have a relationship I tried but my father still locked up and my mother still going through her thing you know what I mean so when I wrote this book it was about showing the fullness you spoke some collateral damage of mass incarceration and the far reaching impacts that is had on our community not just the person that's locked up but how it destabilized our community probably more than anything a community like mine, not being DC but an impoverished community where incarceration is so normalized and just look at the story you're telling this is one family you know what I'm saying we're talking about everybody because I'm a class of people I give my mother so much credit for not losing her mind when my father was murdered because he was murdered in the streets of DC and she was able to keep her sanity after her first child's father was gunned down and just being in that environment what you just said about not having nobody to follow my whole family was in the streets everybody and I'm talking about I didn't have anybody to look to for any example that was this is what it looks like to do it the way that they say you're supposed to so it's that much more difficult for us because wherever you go it was always there that's why I give you so many flowers because even when I was in a young and in high school I remember seeing you up done by passing out shit and I remember this it was so unusual to see somebody that was not that much older than us that was like nah, y'all trippin because everybody else would be like y'all niggas themselves, y'all out here doing this peaceful shit, these niggas grade take over y'all a whole whatever and that was the narrative so just to have the heart to be different in that environment is something that's kudos to you for that I appreciate it man I saw the carnage though I seen the carnage just about, so I know where it's gonna go, it's gonna go two ways all my homies was in on bodies, the ones that weren't in on bodies we lost a lot of homies because again, our generation I saw that and I knew that I could be a voice that maybe do something different and I always was a leader anyway coming out of my hood because in the Ville I never was curious about the streets because I grew up in I didn't have to come off the porch I was born off the porch, I had access to things and so it's another part to this that people don't talk about these rap dudes, don't talk about it these movies, don't show it I know the real that come along with this life, you know what I mean and no amount of my father's million and all that but when them people come get you bro don't none of that matter people give you life without parole don't none of that matter all the people that was running behind you disappear you understand the homies when I was growing up them dudes, why nobody coming through handover checking on me and seeing what's all right, none of that and when I started doing my thing so many of those guys too they went to jail, they come home, nephew I don't know bro, that's not the type of person I am but my point is to all the people out there in the street moving that were doing what they do just know homes when you get locked up if the other thing happen your family, your mother, your baby mother your kids, they on their own you know what I'm saying, that's significant the best thing you can be is present, your young is need your babies need you, I needed my father growing up you know what I mean, people don't think about this what's happening, somebody in jail you can't call them you gotta wait for them to call you know what I mean you hear me, hope you in the house when they call but you know, I've been around some the people from our town that people talk about you know what I mean, these people are personal, I know these folks, I grew up under them and so I just always wanted to bring a message and one more thing I know, I just want to say that's important, what I've also tried to be was an example of you talked about that we don't take to people coming from outside I want to be an example for a young dude in Atlanta, Chicago LA, New York that you have the power to change your community even as an activist I don't want to, I don't care what issue going on I don't want to pull up in your hood and speak for your hood I want you to be the voice of your people in the struggle and the nuances and the layers because I could never know that if I ever had a platform where I could bring support to that, I would like to come and support young activists or young dudes from the struggle to help them or share knowledge with them but never to come and speak on their behalf, their voice is enough, you know what I'm saying and I hope that young dudes and women in these communities understand that what can people reach out to you though we got a big platform right here and it's a lot of people with resources and you have a very moving, compelling story it's going to be a lot of people that want to link up with you and say look this is what I have like how can I get in touch with you know with Tony Lewis Jr and keep the movement going so you can link up with some people that can actually bring more light to the movement I hope this is just the first stop I appreciate that Instagram or whatever, Twitter Mr. Tony Lewis Jr Mr. Tony Lewis Jr FreeTonyLewis.com and we got a big rally coming up April 10th petitioning the Biden's administration for clemency for my father and it's a petition or you can sign up FreeTonyLewis.com if you're in the DC area or you're willing to come to the DC area we would love to have you because we're trying to show and again to your point that our situation is thousands of people in this country in that same boat if not millions you know what I'm saying this administration needs to enact a robust clemency program to reunite American families you know what I'm saying I believe this administration how heavy handed the president was as a senator in the creation of the system that we have now from the 86 build to the 94 build he ran on being able to right some of the wrongs and I think it's time I think my dad should be the poster child for that to show that he's serious about that so April 10th in DC FreeTonyLewis.com sign that petition I know you've been active a lot of young brothers you know out of jail so what are the resources would you say that you need that could help your cause yeah really really for me I think the most important thing is access opportunity to be on platforms such as this one and people being able to call on their congressman call on their senator right and the thing about for us in DC right we don't have a voting member in congress right absolutely right so but if you in these states you need to call on your congressman this is what I need in your senators to talk about reform to talk about clemency call on on the white house things like that is what we need we need numbers you know what I mean because this is a lot of black people will be really telling you man it's a segment of black folk man that don't care about people that be locked up they feel like they just you know they broke the law and they deserve it and whatever happened to them happened you know even just right now with COVID and people in prison like with so much you saw that the public just don't think about you it's like you know out of sight out of mind but people really people that's locked up like the walking dead people don't think about them even they family members and so I wanted people to never lose sight of the humanity of the men and women you know what I'm saying that's the cost of it man I'm gonna say this man you know I mean you know coming from the city being born and raised in the city and knowing the type of the energy that we need in our city that we always needed you know I mean it is growing up and knowing it like man you gonna be the mayor we need you to be the mayor DC I say that I say that with all sincerity because you know I always speak highly of Mary and Barry you know the a lot of the public perception is he was a crackhead but I always say this joke he was the greatest crackhead ever because this nigga made sure that every teen in America every teen in the city had a job he made sure that you know a lot of the city was a lot of the people who were able to move to Maryland and do all of that now created the biggest black middle class in America ever in America man just from the history of what you've done in the city from you walking them streets and being a part of it man I'm just honored to be a person that has come from the city so the platform like this to shed light on you before we wrap it up give us a quick on the book let them know what they can get to know Amazon iBook Slug of Boys Life and the age of mass incarceration again follow me Mr. Tony Louis Jr. free Tony Louis dot com and this is the most comprehensive look at mass incarceration man that there is and I'm biased as hell but that's the truth so yeah man bro I'm serious shit don't let this be the last time you come in here and check us out man we want to use this platform to highlight your movement and we're going to do everything we can we got free Tony Louis until Tony Louis is free we still got that we still got that Mr. Tony Louis thank you man thank you yeah thank you