 So I went back to school and I told my man, he was like, well, my dad got DJ equipment, let's do it. So we started DJing and at the time I was five foot four. So they used to call me Shrimp. So I was like, yo, I would be DJ Shrimp. He was DJ Mono. And together we were NV Productions. We went to an all white school. He was Haitian and we would always say people envy us. So we were like, all right, we're gonna be called NV Productions. And we would put out on the tape NV Productions, just NV Productions. And that's how we would sell a tape. We weren't making no money and it wasn't looking good. So he was like, yo, yo, I'm gonna go kick it to the girls. You can do this. So I just kept doing it. And every time I would pass the tapes off to the bootleggers and the Africans on Jamaica Avenue and Harlem, they would be like, oh, you got the new Envy. Oh, Envy. And the name just stuck. You know, I don't wanna sound, you know, show age or anything like that. And like kids today will never know, but kids today truly will never know that mixtape, age and the hype of mixtape and physically having something, you know, in your hands and playing it like that. How much you reminisce about this? You're still heavy in it, but it's different the way the music industry has evolved. Yeah, no, it's definitely different. I mean, now you could just stream a record and keep it moving. I mean, back then you had to, like when you heard somebody's tape came out, it was word of mouth. And you went to the local places. If you were in New York, you went to Jamaica Avenue, you went to Brooklyn or if you were in Virginia, you went downtown, Virginia, like you went to where you went to go buy sneakers. Cause back then you really didn't go to the mall to get sneakers because they were too expensive. You went to the areas where the hood usually where you can nickel and dime somebody. If a pair of Jordans was a hundred dollars back then, you can go to Jamaica Avenue with 80 and homie would give it to you for 80. You know what I mean? And that's what we did where you went and got the beef patties, where you went and got all those stuff. That's where you get your mixtapes. And that's how I grew up. That's how I heard new music. The radio wasn't playing new music. There was no streaming. So the only way you would hear new music is from mixtapes. No man, I missed that era for sure. Now, your meteoric rise and everything that you were doing, man, congratulations on all the success. But I want to go back to those early days of working with Charlemagne and Angela Yee. Hall of Famous now, you guys are, but the chemistry, what was it like in those early stages and did you envision it lasting as long as it didn't be as fruitful as it was? I didn't want to do mornings. I'll be honest with you. I just had left Ms. Jones and I left hot 97 with the power and I was doing afternoons and I was fine with afternoons. I didn't have a team. I didn't have any co-workers. It was just me. And I liked that because my show is, if Ms. Jones didn't want to come to work today, it affects the show. You know what I mean? If Jones was on vacation, it affects the show. So now I got my own show. I'm like, I'm good. Then they wanted to do a morning show. Ed Lover was doing mornings at the time and they wanted to do something different. And they came in and asked what I do. And I was like, hell no, I ain't doing mornings again. I'm good at afternoons. And then, you know, they said Cadillac Jack was like, I'll double your salary. He's the program director at the time. I'm like, it ain't worth it. Now mind you, when I left hot 97 to go to power, they really got me. And the reason they got me was when I left hot, I did not want to leave hot. I just told hot I wanted to leave to get more money. But hot was like, we ain't got no money. See you later. So now when I went to power, they knew I left, they kind of gave me the worst deal ever. Like it was, I was making less than I made it hot. But I told myself, I was like, and I told my program director, I said, look, I'm gonna take this deal, but next year you're gonna have to triple it. Cause you never, you're never gonna see anybody that can outwork me. And he was like, all right. And then the breakfast club came. Then they said, we'll double your salary. I was like, I don't want to double it. There's like, we'll triple it. I said, all right, now we're talking. I was like, I'll do it. I said, but who would it cause? And they said, Charlamagne the God. And I'm like, that man got fired a couple of times. I don't want to do it with Charlamagne. And he was, they was like, nah, we've been talking to him. He's good. And then it was like, well, what about somebody else or female, Angelie? I'm like, nah, they were like, why not? And I'm like, she's on serious satellite radio. So she curses too much. And there's a difference between cursing and this. So I'm like, I don't want to do that either. Then we started talking and they wanted it to be at first more on like the DJ MV show, something in my name, like Steve Harvey show or the Ricky Smiley show. And I'm like, nah. And they were like, why? I said, well, one, if it doesn't work, I need to be able to still maneuver back to me. If it's a collective and it doesn't work, it's not issuing on me is I can still run. I said, and two, I feel like a collective show does better because every party has their own equal equity. You know what I mean? If we all 33, 33, 33, we all gonna ride the same. And they threw us in the room and we all started working. And what I think made it work so well, as I tell everybody all the time, we were always somebody's side, right? And what I mean by that is I was Ms. Jones aside. Angela Yee was Cypher Sounds aside and Charlemagne was Wendy Williams side. So we were always used to sharing the spotlight. We were always the side. So we always let each other shine. It was never like, oh, well, now he's doing too much or she's talking too much. We never had that problem because we all had a background of letting somebody else shine which made the show work. There was no animosity or jealousy at all. I mean, with so many years of the past and so much success, I'm sure there's too many to count but is there a favorite story or interview that comes to mind during this breakfast club run? I mean, I think the biggest one ever which is a cultural phenomenon, which is Birdman. I mean, you watch movies now, you watch ESPN or you finish, are you done or tree? You know, you see all of that in movies and that all came from I think a two minute interview. Like the interview was only a minute and 56 seconds or something like that. But that's how big the breakfast club is. Like we create those moments. A lot of times people pull those moments but if you look at the breakfast club's history, we create our own moments if it's not with interviewing or with our own jobs. Like we create our own content which most people can't do. With all the success that you've had going back to your beginnings, could you have accomplished any of this without being by your side? I hell no. Not, I mean, and not only was she my number one supporter and is my number one supporter and she's the one when people don't believe in your dreams, she's the one that pushes you up and all that but regardless of all that because that's the stuff that everybody says. But I remember when I graduated out of college, right? Once you came to university and I graduated and my parents were like, all right, you graduated and I get a job with a hat. Cause they're old black parents. They are like, you graduated. I wanna make sure you got a job with benefits. I wanna make sure you got a 401K retirement plan. That's what most black parents that are older care about. They wanna make sure you're set. And I was DJ. So back then DJing wasn't a career. That wasn't a profession. That wasn't something that was gonna make sure your family was held down. And at that time when nobody believed Gia and her mom was like, nah, if this is what you wanna do, let's do it. Like whatever we gotta do I'm gonna support you. At the time, Gia was making more money than me. And she was like, this is your dream. Like I wanna support your dream. You wanna buy Concord needles? They're $260 a needle, $300 a needle. Okay, let's buy them. You wanna buy turntables at the time. They were $500 for a Technique 1200, $560 now for the 1210s. Okay, I'm gonna help you buy it. And this is what we were doing. And back then I couldn't afford a flight. Oh, you got a party in Virginia. We gotta drive six hours to get $1,000. Well, let's drive. You know what I mean? That's what we did, you know? A party in Syracuse for $700. It probably cost me $150 in gas and 150 in hotels. And I probably only made 300, but that 300 was everything. But she was on my side. You know, when I was dropping off mixtapes, I didn't have security. She was there with the club. And I know a lot of people like the kids don't know what a club is. A club is a device that they used to do to lock the steering wheel so they can't steal it. So she used to be there with the club, like making sure nobody tried to rob us or play it. So she was there holding me down. So to answer your question, hell no. When I left hot to go to power, she was the one that was like, nah, we're gonna go to power. We're gonna make this the best thing smacking. So she was that one. She was the one that had my back. I love it. On that note, let's bring it in this case you do out. I just finished your book today. Real life pillow, amazing, amazing. And I'm curious what this process was like, Gia, putting this together, going through the ups, which I'm sure was easy, and writing down, but going through the downs and reliving some of those moments. What was that like? Well, it was Sean's idea to write the book, just like it was his idea to do the podcast. And the reason that I agreed is because we feel as though as a couple that have been through, as you put it, those high highs and those low lows, in a sense of community to give it back, to teach people through all of our failures. Michael Jackson said something not too, not Michael Jackson, Michael Jordan said something not too long ago that he learned to win by losing. And the same thing applies to us. So a lot of people, they note the content of the book and they say, are you ashamed to share that? Did you have any trepidation? Did anything hold you back? And the writing of the book was very purpose driven. So no, there's no shame, there's no humiliation. There was no trepidation, any of that because we want to teach people how to win through our failures. We want to give people a tangible resource so that they can recognize maybe red flags in their relationship. So maybe they can identify a trajectory that their relationship might be on where they can say, hold on a minute. I've seen this before and this is looking like my life. Let's sit down and have a conversation. There are people that don't know how to have that conversation in the book. We teach people how to have a meaningful and effective conversation which creates understanding which is born out of respect so that you get to a place because we went through years of not having that. And I wish that I had a guide. I wish that I had a book that someone could give me or my mother could give me and say, you know what? Poofer thought, read this so that when you decide to become serious in a relationship, you can refer to these chapters and you can understand yourself better and maybe you can understand your partner better and you can do better because now you know better. And that's what we wanted to give. It's kind of like a gift. And if we had to be the sacrificial lands in the process as long, and I know it sounds big but I mean every word of it as long as we're changing lives through those pages and making relationships better and encouraging people to take accountability and have better marriages and avoid bad relationship then it's all worth it. How rewarding is that? You know, I'm a newlywed, I got married last, got married last, so we're learning, we're communicating, we're going through all those early processes in terms of married life or whatnot. And there's a lot of things that I may not have been taught, I may not have seen firsthand. A lot of things I did see, a lot of things that I didn't see were learning on the fly. And so I talk about representation a lot on this show and love obviously is universal but with black love and that representation and being open and being a guy. How rewarding is it that people are reaching out and also appreciative of the help that you're giving them? Well, that was part of the reason when Rashaun said, let's write a book that I agreed because based on our podcast, the feedback that we had gotten was so, for me like earth shattering, like it was to call it rewarding couldn't even begin to suffice, all of the emails, all of the texts. As a matter of fact, tell me if you remember, we were in the Bahamas, we were staying at the Atlantis Hotel and we were taking our kids on a ride and this woman comes running up to me and her family's in tow, but she was ahead of them because she ran up to me and without introducing herself, she gave me the biggest hug and tears literally started running down her face. And I'm like, hi. And she said, I'm so sorry, I'm just overwhelmed to see you in person. I watch your podcast and I just wanna tell you that your podcast has saved our relationship. She said, I'm married today because of things that we learned from your podcast. We wouldn't be here on this family vacation happy if it wasn't for your podcast. And I just want, can we treat you to dinner? Can we take you out tonight? It was just, and I mean, my eyes got watery and it was like the personification of emails and DMs and just other ways that people have found to reach out to us. And there've been other times where people have stopped us on the street. So to understand that your words or your influence that's born out of your experiences that people respect is changing the way that they look at life, they look at themselves, they look at each other. It's very, very gratifying. No, I don't feel guys remember this scene in Martin back in the day. He's having a fight with Gina and they're in the bedroom and he's acting like he's done. You know, he's being the tough guy. He's like, you know what Gina, stand, stand. Yes, yes, yes. Makes way to the door to leave. And he's like, Gina, don't leave, bring it to me. Yes, yes, yes. You know, I wouldn't think this stood out to me from reading the book and I think it helps us as men with Sean as being in touch with our insecurities and being in touch with vulnerabilities. And that's something that you both outline really well in the book. And sometimes we suppress that and things come about. We lash out in different ways, but it all stems from those insecurities and those vulnerabilities and things that we're struggling with on the inside. What have you learned about manhood, not only through this process, but through your relationship with Gina? I would think the most thing, especially for myself is life doesn't have an instruction manual, right? So a lot of this stuff I had to learn on my own. And I always say, you know, I realized, like I just said, I didn't have an instruction manual, my dad didn't have one either. So when it's things to learn, I'm trying to be different for my son. I'm trying to talk to him about some of the insecurities that I had and the problems that I had and the way that I was feeling. And I realized that manhood is not, you know, because when you're a young individual, a young boy or even a young man, you think protect and provide, that's what I gotta do. I gotta protect and I gotta provide. But you also gotta make sure that you're in a good space to be able to do that. And I wasn't in a good space. I was saying I was providing, I was protecting, but I really wasn't protecting. I was insecure and I was trying to make sure my wife wasn't trying to leave, which could have pushed her away, could have forced her out. But I had to realize that to be a man, I had to be a man with myself or as a figure who I am. Make sure that I feel worthy, make sure I did the work on myself. And I didn't do that work on myself. You know, coming from, like I said, when I was a kid that was five foot four, glasses, braces, acne, I always felt insecure. I felt like gear wasn't, I wasn't worthy for gear. So the fact that I got her, I always felt like somebody was gonna be smarter. Somebody was gonna look better. Somebody was gonna be more dapper and treat her better. And because of that, I was like, if she doesn't leave, if I'm always with her, she'll never meet that person. And that almost made me lose the best thing that I've ever had in my life. So manhood is figuring out yourself, getting your own insecurities out the way. So you don't push those insecurities on your spouse, on your lover. And for mine, it was my best friend, you know? Losing, if I would have lost gear, it wasn't a matter of losing my lover. Yes, I would have lost my lover. Yes, I would have lost my wife, but I would have lost my best friend. That person that, no matter what you know is in your corner, you know, I'm sure you got friends and you got family members, but sometimes those family and old friends are not in your corner for the right reasons, right? You can't trust sometimes what they say, because you don't know what they say is because they're looking out for your best interests, or if they got a little hate in them. And I have to say that's just life. That's just genuinely how people are. But I know when Gia says something, we're on the same team. I know we're doing something. She's not doing something out of spite. She's not doing something out of hate. She's not being envious. She wants me to win because when she wins, I win. When she loses, I lose. And that's what I almost lost. So those are the situations and the conversations I like to have, especially with my son now, to make sure that he understands that early, because he doesn't want to lose the best thing in his life when he ever finds that. No question. There's so many nuggets in the book. Again, real life, real love. So many nuggets. One that stuck out to me was when you put, I had to find the courage to be the man I was pretending to be. Could you explain that? Yeah, I mean, and this has to do a lot with social media. When I was a kid, I didn't have to pretend nothing. I was in my own house. But now you're out and about. And I'm pretending to be this grandiose man in all aspects of life. I always say I was Reshaun in the house, and I was DJing in the industry. And I didn't want to be DJing in the industry. I wanted to be Reshaun. I wanted to be cool and everything that I wanted to be as a person. But when I looked at the industry back then, the industry wanted you to be a certain way. That's what they told you what was cool. Single was cool back then. Having a bunch of girls at your table was cool back then. Being able to do what you want to do and move, how you want it to move and not be a family man was cool back then. That was all pretending. What I wanted to be was a husband, a father, who I am now. I don't care what people say about me now. I don't care how people look at me now. It doesn't affect me because at the end of the day, I'm me. If somebody doesn't like who Reshaun is or who DJMV is, then honestly, it's like fucking because I'm being myself. And if you don't like me as myself, then you can kiss my ass, honestly. I wanna give the love that you two have and your story in the book and what you went through at a young age and the strength that really just jumps out on the page. What have you, not just within the relationship but just living, what have you learned about yourself? And as you wrote the book and the eloquent things that you put and the beautiful words you have about your mom, just what have you learned about yourself and putting this book together also? To be honest with you, I'm a very self-aware person and I'm a very deliberate person. I'm very intentional and I think about things before I do them and I think about things before I say them. So this book was just a way of organizing my thoughts and articulating my thoughts and putting it down on paper. For me, it was in a way to be a little bit more thoughtful about the collection of everything that I've experienced as it pertains to our relationship, parenting, my love for my parents and what I want people to be able to take away from everything that I've lived through. Amazing story, a fantastic read and a quick read and it's, again, you guys continue to be a beacon of light with everything that you're doing with the podcast and then sharing your story in this book. Save the relationships and quite honestly, saving lives in the process as well. Thank you so much. I appreciate you both. Thank you so much for your time. Thanks for having us, man. Congratulations again on the marriage. Tell your wife you said hello. Well, dude, absolutely, absolutely. She can hear you in the back, she's breathless. Hello. Hey, hi. All right, have a good one. I appreciate you guys. Thank you.