 Everybody good. That's the holy, everybody good. You make it to the league, you good. Good, everybody good. And somebody pass it. People be underestimating that shit. But they got that, you've watched like a lot of YouTube shit, they got like, like all the, I don't even know how you would say it, like low budget NBA players, like people usually only know if you were that hard. Yeah, yeah, I get it. Like when they go to the gym and they find people who be talking shit in the comments and they bust their ass. What's the white boy that used to play for the Celtics? The Scalabrine. They call him the white mom. And people are like, oh, he only averaged two minutes a game. He sucks. Now this dude went into a gym and wiped the floor with everybody. Everybody in there. Like, he looked like Jordan. He got a cold following though. Yeah, he does. He does. Like, it's a lot of dudes like that in the NBA though. Like, you know, fan favorites. Fan favorites. And then it's like, if you were basketball nerd, it's like, yeah, this is my guy, but he only averaged like 15 minutes a game. Like, old boy like from the Celtics that just got hurt, wasn't it? Robert Williams? He was nice this year before he got hurt. Everybody know LeBron and KD, to be honest. Of course. Yeah, everybody know them, but it's all. It's a cold world, man. It's a cold world. I know sports is your forte. I try, you know? That's how you got to know all this, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I learned very quickly. I was not gonna be an athlete. I learned very quickly. I was not gonna be Michael Jordan. Man, it took me a while before I gave up on my athlete's dreams. I got hit one day though, at football practice. I was like, I'm good at other stuff. See, I always wanted to play football and it's gonna sound dumb as shit, because it is. I was always afraid of like getting hit. And then I wouldn't be able to get my helmet off because I'm claustrophobic. What? Yeah, it was the dumbest thing in the world. My mom always asked me because I grew up in a football family. My grandfather was a football coach. She was like, Justin, why don't you never wanna play football? I was scared of the helmet. I was claustrophobic and that was the only reason. Then I was like, oh, this shit really just come off like that. I never played football because I always played basketball. So. Man, you missed some great fun. Man, I did. I did. Football is what you find out who really a bitch at school. No, like I remember coming up in high school, like my school had this big rivalry with Petersburg High School. I went to the school called Matoka and we would all be, we'd see each other at the ball every weekend and at the arcade and whatnot. And then sometimes fights will happen at the mall. I'm like, oh yeah, we got y'all next Friday. We gonna whoop y'all ass. We gonna whoop y'all ass. You would really see who would be fighting and who would be like, you know what? Nah, I'mma chill because I ain't trying to go across the middle on this dude. Oh man, that was the most fun. Oh man, look, you get caught across the middle? Yeah, yeah. Especially when you catch the ball and then you truck the motherfucker who's trying to hit you. Like, cause they hold objective is to hit you while you're not looking. So it makes it look like. Oh yeah. It's way more impactful than it is. But if you like, every team got that one motherfucker and all that that's built like that. Can't nobody hit, can't nobody. So as long as you identify who that is early. Yeah. But it can happen at any moment. It can happen at any moment. It can happen to anybody. Like my boys would tell me all the time, like this happened after high school, but it was like everybody want that one hit, especially if you align back or safety or something like that. You remember when Sean Taylor almost killed the punter and the pro bowl? Yeah. Like everybody wants that hit. Yeah. Because I mean now you can't really hit like that no more because the game has changed. But like nah, like my boy told me one time he got hit so hard run across the middle. He was like tense. I thought I was being born again. I ain't know where I was. Like, cause he looked up. It was a night game and all he saw was just like a white light. He was like, huh, this is either the end or this is the beginning. I don't know which one it is, but I have no clue. He was like, I ain't know where I was for the next three quarters. Still played, which is probably, which is an issue. But, you know, yeah, you find out who's a bitch and who's- Yeah, you definitely find out what they've made up. Good show. But it's a glad he had the sport. What position you play? I played like corner and safety and nickel and shit like that. Oh, so did that. I was just playing in any position really. I knew it. That's why you so good at talking shit cause you was a DB. Yeah, I was talking shit, whatever. Like, I would be on the, I would be on the scout team talking shit. Like, as you should. Keep it, keep the same energy at all times. Man, I just had to be doing something, bro. Like- See, look, you may run by me, but you ain't gonna like outjoke me. Like, I'm gonna get under your skin somehow, someway. Right. And however I'm coming, I'm coming like that every time. Exactly. They gonna know that. You gotta earn your respect, bro. You talking about like blind side hits. That's when you really, that's where people like the dirt is shit. That's where it's really, you can really put your name out there. What would be going through your mind right before a blind side hit? Ooh, oh my goodness. Like, we talking about, you playing like safety or some shit. And you see them coming on the poster and they just looking inside. I'm just, I'm lining that shit straight up. I'm talking about a textbook tackle straight across the body. I'm going right there. Like, you see this pose? Like you gotta hit like right there. I'm getting my angle together. You trying to hit like leave with this show. I'm trying to put some pad in it too. I want it to be loud. Yeah. So it was going like, damn. So you said, you said it took a minute for you to realize like, all right, well, I ain't going to. Oh, you were that day? Yeah. What was that day? We was like, you know what? I got to retire. It was, it was actually, this the thing about playing football when you go from ninth grade to 10th grade. That's like from ninth grade football varsity. But you start varsity football at the end of ninth grade. Yup. Yup. So it's like. The game a little faster. It's a lot faster. These motherfuckers been working out three years straight. They on creatine, everything. So one day I was playing corner on this side, right? I was playing left corner. And the quarterback did an option where he came out, faked the pass and took off running the other way. All right, damn. The other side. So as I'm coming across the field. The fucking tight end is coming across the field also. I'm looking at the quarterback. Oh God. Man, the fucking tight end hit me and broke all the snaps on the side of my helmet. Sending me a flag. I was like, he's like, well, I had a good run. And I got up and the coach was like, are you okay? You all right? You know where you are? A big pump of dirt stuck in my helmet. He crashed the shit out of me on that one. Man. That was the one day I was like, this ain't it, bro. Man, for me and basketball, you remember it was like my basketball career ended early. I knew I was like, all right, I got a much better chance to be Stuart Scott than Michael Jordan after this. So you remember it was like 97 when Jordan had the flu game. Everybody played basketball in 97. Yeah, everybody did. Yeah. I mean, literally everybody played. And you know, Jordan had the flu game. I put flu game because I ain't never known a person to catch the flu in June. Yeah, he was just drunk. I thoroughly believe it was the hangover game. And to be quite honest with you, that's not a knock on mic. I think it's even more impressive. If you did it drunk for the flu. Yeah. You gonna come, I mean, it might catch wind it isn't like, I ain't, I ain't drunk. You ain't catching wind drunk. I was on that tequila. Look man, Vegas was a 45 minute flight from Southern. Scottie probably drunk more than him that night. Dennis drink more than all of them. Drunk is one, he just didn't eat. Yeah, that's the thing. They don't get trying to blame it was bad pizza. Like no one, look, I know them yellow eyes. Exactly. You ain't getting yellow eyes from pizza. And he was smoking cigars all night too. Look, I get it. And the Jalen Rose has subscribed to this theory as well. So I'm not alone in this. We are not alone. We are a party of three. It was the hangover game. And that was more impressive than the flu. Hey man, you heard it here first. Mike was drunk. We gonna put it out. He ain't gonna do shit up. Drunk ass. You tricked us as kids. We thought you was the go. But now you really to go cause you did it drunk. You really to go cause you did it drunk. It was one of them drunks where you can't come down. You gotta keep drinking. You gotta keep going cause the moment you stop. And look, to Mike credit, he dropped 40 that game. He dropped 40 in a must win game on the road. Drunk. Side-tied 2-2. That's how you know he was drunk. Cause he hugged Scottie. Didn't have to watch in the documentary. He ain't even focused Scottie like that. Boy that documentary had people pissed the same way the whole winning time joint got people pissed now. Yeah. They telling the truth on this shit. Look man, look, that joint is mad entertaining to me. I'll be watching. I'm like, I get it. It's TV, it's a dramatization. And I get it Jerry West. You don't like it. The thing about it is they didn't put enough in that. That's the thing. It's too specific. They didn't put all the shit in there. No, no, you can't put it all in there. And it's already got renewed for season two. So there's a lot of people watching that joint. And look, Kareem hate it. Now they picked the right team though. Cause it was like, they got the Showtime Lakers. They got a team that was terrible that year. The shit they had going on. That's the documentary you want to see. The 1980 Detroit Pistons before Isaiah Thomas and all them. 84 Milwaukee bucks. The 95 Vancouver Grizzlies. They were they man. Yeah. They were doing ecstasy at halftime. Look, you remember. They trapped a big country. No, big country. Was the French at what? Big country. At least the jerseys was fire. But no, you remember his name? Our test was, he said it himself. He used to drink Hennessy at halftime. I believe it. And I believe every single syllable. 20 pounds just from Dr. He did? Look, what? Well, our test, that's another one. They could do a mini series on like so. But yeah, nah, that flu game. That flu game. Drunk game. Drunk game. Had me believe and I was like, you know what? I drink Gatorade. I eat Wheaties. I drink some right now. Look, look, look. They told me I could be like Mike. If I do this, Mike play with the flu. Damn it, I'm going to play with the flu. So my brother and I, we shared a room growing up. And I'm like, yo, aunt, don't tell mom. I'm cutting the fan on it and I'm cracking the window. He was like, but it's like 30 degrees outside. But like, nah, I need to be sick. So I could play like Mike. I got sick. I got benched the entire second half. I ain't sniff 40 points. I was like, oh, of eight. I ain't even hit the rim. I was turning the ball over. And my mom was like, how'd you get so sick? I ain't say anything. My brother did. You just ain't that smart. No, no. No, because you thought you'd get claustrophobia wearing a helmet. Yeah, I did. You tried to get the flu. Yeah, to play like Mike. I like to think that I've wisened up a little bit over the last 25 years. I mean, you know what? Let me start this shit now. I'm black walking the door. It's a safe space. I'm just being open and honest. It ain't going to always, you know, work in my favor. Hey, man, the black market is open, OK? And you do not need the flu to be great at nothing. Let me check my sad notes, man. I got some info about you over here. OK, all right. Let me see. Well, well, I do know this is your second book. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's the second one I co-wrote while I wrote the Wayne Way's photographic memoir that came out last year. Photographic memoir. Yeah, but. For those of you who don't know, we got my man Justin Tinsley in here with us today. We're over now, author, commentator. Hey, look, he called me over now. So I'm over now. This goes out to the whole world. Yeah, this is going to my LinkedIn. Yeah, we're over now. Yeah, we're over now. Now, he's saying a lot of good things about you. Hey, look, I'm trying to keep it that way. Plus, you're doing it for the culture, man. You're doing, it's all a dream. You got a whole biography right here. Yeah. Definitely need that. Yeah, man. Catch us up. How did you get here? What was the start? The crazy thing is, I'm almost a deleted email away from not sitting on this couch with you, because it's like fall 2019. And I'm just deleting emails, like spam emails and shit. I get one in the subject line says, Biggie Small's biography, you know, interest or something like that. I'm like, the hell is this? And come to find out, it was from the guy who eventually became my editor on the book. His name is Jameson. And he works at Abrams Books out of Manhattan. And it was like, yo, I'm looking to commission somebody to write a book on Biggie ahead of what would have been his 50th birthday next month, May 2022. And I'm like, yeah, that's cool. He's like, would you want to write it? And I'm like, it seems odd, because everything I knew about the process is I come to you with an idea. And you either green light it or pass on it. And I wrote up a quick pitch. And it was like, yeah, we want you to write the book, sign a contract in January 2020. And I'm like, ah, shit. You got deposit money? That check cleared. That was the biggest check I ever had in my life, at least at one time. And I was like, ah, man, this shit is lit. I'm like, yo, I'm going to New York. I'm going to Chilling Brooklyn for a couple of weeks. I'm going to Atlanta, because he had ties down here. I'm going to LA. He had ties out there. I'm going to just travel the country just writing a book. Man, this is like a dream. Then March 2020 happened. OK. And I'm like, you know. I know what happened to March. Yeah, we all know what happened with March. And to make a long story short, I just basically had to do all my research, all my interviews via Zoom. I couldn't go anywhere. And I was just like, it was daunting at first, to be honest with you. I was like, it's Biggie Smalls. Like, it ain't exactly some unknown musician. Like, everybody know Biggie Smalls. And I'm like, what the hell can I say new about this dude that will make people want to read it? And I ain't going to lie to you. There was plenty of nights where I would just be like, I don't know what the hell I'm doing. Like, I got to write 100,000 words on this. And like, this shit probably going to suck. Like, I don't know. But that doubt kicked in. Yeah, that doubt, man. Like, doubt is crippling. And if you would lie yourself to stay in there, it could ruin your entire career. It can mess up personal relationships. It can mess up bags. And I'm like, nah, I like getting the bag. So let me figure out a way to get myself out of this. And I did. And I'm definitely pleased with the final product of it, man. I think people are going to read it. And it's not just, you know, sold some drugs, made some great music, beef with Tupac, and then died in a tragic manner. Like, sure, yeah. A lot of life happened in between. Yeah, like, to tell a story about somebody's life, you just can't talk about their life, you know what I mean? It ain't just like he just jumped off a stoop and sold drugs. It's like a 14, 15-year-old kid in Brooklyn. It's like, this dude was born into a war that he didn't even know existed, which was the war on drugs. And like, so we go back to like Richard Nixon passing legislation that made it easier to imprison people for like 15, 20 years for a small amount of drugs. And like, all of these things played into like who Christopher Wallace was and who Biggie eventually became. So I try to focus more on that than opposed to just the salacious or the sexy headlines, because they're in there, but it's far more than that. Yeah, it's all. That's dope, man. Yeah, man. I wanted to feel like seeing it in the physical form at this point. Bro, so this ain't funny, but it is. So in like September of last year, they started sending me like the early versions of it. It was like paperback. And so they sent me like 10 copies in like a box. And like whoever it was, FedEx, Amazon, I can't remember who it was. They dropped it off on my porch. And I was in a meeting. And my wife, she was taking a shower. And like, so we got like the security cameras like on our doorbells so you can see who's there. And I was like, oh, yeah, you know, my books came. So she opened the door and she was like, I don't see a box here. I'm like, I just saw him drop the box off. Bro, we look on the camera. We live in a transition in neighborhood. Nice people there. Dool came and took the whole box, took the whole box. I don't know if he thought it was like some shoes in there or if it was like a gaming system. I didn't know who it was. So I go across the street to my man. So he'd been living in the neighborhood for years. He was like, yo, let me see the video. He showed me the video. And five minutes later, I get a knock on my door and I show the video to another person and they tell me who it is. Them books was gone. He threw them books away because I was, he was somebody who used to live in the neighborhood and obviously he had fallen on hard times and he's a guy that like he just tries to make money however he can. And so, you know, I was pissed about it at first. I was like, damn man, he got a chance to hold my book before I did. But I started to learn about like his backstory. And I'm like, what's down, man? Whatever his intentions were, I hope he's all right. You ought to write a book about his book still in there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, I didn't have him delivered. And then when you see it and it's... Yeah, he was like a book. He was like, books. So this is what y'all think about me? Yeah, I'm gonna call it September, whatever day it was. Yeah, put his name on there and be like, book still in there. Yeah, I should have thanked him in the line of notes. But yeah, so it, to hold it, like it's one thing to see it like in a Google Doc. It's another thing to, you know, see it come back from the editor with all the edits. But it's another thing to like hold it in your hand. I would imagine it's like, if you're an artist and you're working on your debut album. And especially back during the days when it was like cassettes and CDs, you could actually hold it. That's what I would imagine is the closest feeling to because it's something that, especially your debut album, like you spit, you live your entire life creating that. And although this isn't my life, I put a definitely, I put a lot of my life into it because I got memories of big going as far back when I was like in what second, third grade, you know, sneaking and listening to like the unedited version of ready to die. And, you know, singing one more chance. And my mom was like, what the hell are you talking about? I'm like, none. And you know, you just got memories to it. And we're all per, especially within rap and in this culture, man, like, we're all deeply connected to it because we all got memories to it. We all got like, yo, I remember where I was in life when this song came out. I remember walking into a party in high school and, you know, the girl I wanted to dance with, you know, I danced with her to this song. So like music is way more than just sounds over a beat, man. It's just like, it's like part of the best music is part of your soul on wax. And that's, I hope this what this book is for a lot of people as well. What can they pick it up? Man, you can pick it up anywhere books are sold, including the dude who stole my early copies of my book. If you ever, if you ever know where he is, you know, I haven't seen him since, but they say, He know he wrong. He know he wrong. You had to run up on him. Like, yo, I need them books. I need them. He was, he was probably pissed when we started with books too. He was. Yeah, books. Books, anyway. Can't sell no damn books, right? I can't sell, especially not these. Fuck little, man. Right, that's exactly what he said. But no, you can get it anywhere. Like Amazon books a million black on bookstores. I've been trying to push those a lot. But no, a few. Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely. I'm trying to push it to all of those. And just like, I tell a couple of my homeboys hit me up. They was like, yo, Justin, like we want to support, but for I ain't read the books since high school. And I was like, don't worry about it. They got audio books for that now. They read to you. No, read the damn book. I don't care. I don't care. Just pre-order it. Pre-order it. Send it on the coffee table. Yeah, look, do what you got to do. Like it ain't going nowhere. So. Well, there you have it, folks. My man, world renowned artist. You heard it. Get the book. I'm taking this one. Yeah. I'm keeping this one, so I ain't got to wait. Now that's yours, man. It's the illest. What's your social media, man? What's your next project you got coming up? Are you in the book game now? Yeah, yeah, I'm trying to, I haven't decided what the second book is going to be. I'm on a two book contract with my current publisher. So it's just a matter of thinking about what I want it to be. I know I would love to just shout at my man out with his AI shirt. Like you talk about a book, I would love to write. I would love to write Alan Iverson's autobiography. I might have to get with you. I got a book idea. Hey, let's do it. Let's do it, man. No, what y'all got going on here? And I'm not even just saying it because I'm sitting on this set right now. Like, this shit is mad important. Like, I look at this as like the same way my mom and grandma looked at Oprah every day at four o'clock. Oh shit, we done got up there. Yeah. On that Oprah stance. Yeah, no, this shit is that important, man. And I love everything that y'all got going on. Y'all are so important, man, to sit on this couch. I mean, it's like the third most popular couch. It's like Martin's couch. It's Dennis the couch from season one of The Wire. That's how important it is to me. I promise you. I promise you. We love her at the third spot. See? See? We're safe. Longer than we stayed top three, we good. Look, man, y'all are important, man. And y'all are just highlighting just so many parts of our community, whether it's entrepreneurs, whether it's authors, whether it's whatever the educators, like y'all give people a platform that, honestly, otherwise really wouldn't have to be themselves. Because we can go other places and try to get promotion. But like, man, we spent the first, what? Five, six minutes talking about trucks digging people in football. I can't do that everywhere. No, man. And that's what this whole platform is about. Man, it's just getting some exposure inside of our community and letting people take to what they want to take to. Just to let them know there's more options of us out there. Look, and we greatly appreciate y'all. So thank you for real, man. Hey, man, anytime you got anything going on, stop through the black market. Hey, you already know. 85 South, Justin Tinsley. The black market is open. Oh, man. Let's get a photo. Hold the book, man. Strong black granddad and liquor. Hell, yeah. Appreciate you, boss. No problem.