 So we're still in out, well, no, we're receiving things out the trailer. ID me for everything. They have 15 police cars around me one time and told me I robbed this lady. We'll talk about that in a minute. You made me go through the same struggle. Oh, for sure. Ten years later, I married my wife, which is one of the owners of the fields I was picking there. So now we're back to sleep in the car. We sleep in the car, sleep in the car, sleep in the car. We sleep in a friend's house back and forth. Anyway, lose everything, sleep in the car. We sleep in another friend's house on the floor and everything else. I said, we'll never see this day again. I called DJ. I was like, you know, this dude named Drake. This one I was in high school. Yeah, I was going to say where do we begin? But I feel like the best thing is I'm going to let you in. I let everybody else introduce themselves. So I'm going to let you introduce yourself, how you want to introduce yourself. And then we'll start from the beginning. Hey, I'm Big D as they know somebody, you know, called me DJ's dad. I get that all the time. I don't even have a name anymore. I'm actually D Darren senior. It is what it is. I'm ready for the journey that we about to go on. OK, so what do you do? Yeah, as you guys know, this is my dad. So start from the beginning before I was born. The beginning of what? Before I was born. Tell us about the times when you were, you know, let's say five, six, seven, eight years old. I don't know, whenever you want to start from that point. Well, first of all, we got to talk about sneakers, too. So incorporate that a little bit. We'll talk about it. Let's go ahead. So obviously, I'm a twin. A lot of people don't know I'm a twin brother. My twin brother named David is what it is, Deuce. I'm the oldest by two minutes. A lot of people don't know that. People have literally introduced me to my twin brother because they didn't know we were twins. Right. And you guys have different last names. And yeah, so that's a whole other story. I got to tell you that a little bit later. We'll get to that later. So so yeah, we got different last names. But and we don't look like now now. But he was when we was kids, he was taller to me and bigger than me. And now I'm taller to him. But he outweighed me. So how tall are you? Well, I'm still six, five. My wife say I'm only six, four. Well, with shoes on, I'm six, five for sure. Hope you didn't shrink everywhere. Oh, no, I don't have a problem. They still call me Big Daddy. OK, so so you're a twin. You're born in 71. Born in 71. I'd be 52 years old. So you remember the 70s vividly. You remember the 80s vividly. For sure. So give me that times growing up and talk about AKA your mom as well. So but I got to give you a little bit to on a shoe deal in a shoe deal. Because back in the day when we were kids, I'm telling you like this, like we have pro wings, kids, skips, shoes that was hard plastic on the bottom. No, like nothing comfortable. Like like them as the shoes had to be like cracking in half. Like split like my brother one time had his shoes on because we couldn't afford them. We was poor. We was pretty poor. But he had his shoes on so long that the holes in the bottom of the shoe is so bad. We put newspaper in the bottom of the shoes. And we will wear white socks. You know the white socks with the stripes on this? Like blue, red, whatever. Right, right, right. The print from the cartoon section was on his socks from the sweat. Oh, my god. So you pull them off. It was literally on the socks. We had the comics in the socks. Oh, my god. Literally, like. We will put newspapers in the shoes because you wouldn't have no bottom in the shoe. Right. Like that's where we went to school with. Right. So this was like grade school? Yeah, early 70s. OK, early 70s, grade school. And then like y'all was twins. So they was like, share. Oh, no. We shared like everything like a school coat. Like if you get cold, you take that coat off and you give it to him. And then when you got cold, take it off and give it to him. One coat, two bodies. And then you know how we got a second coat? We went to Lost and Found and said, oh, that's my name inside the jacket and take the coat. Ain't nobody else claiming it. It's been in there for a minute. So that's how we would get coats. Because we didn't get coats every year. We get coats like every two to three years. We got a pair of shoes every two to three years. We got two pair of jeans per year and three shirts. And look at us now. We get to go hand out first. We have the opportunity to go do stuff like that and give back to people, which is super dope. But it's a journey to get to here. We'll get to that, yeah. You know, it's a journey to get, it's a blessing. Like people don't realize like it's a blessing to be where we are today from where we came from. Right. That work ethic and everything else that comes with it. It's not just handed to you. So also you grew up in Portland, from Portland, stayed in Portland forever. Okay. That's it. And so at one point I was mowing lawns. I met this lady. She's like, oh, you mowing my lawn. Now, mowing the lawn. And this is when they had the Nike dunks first came out. Early 80s. The Vandals came out. Like when they first came out, this is before Jordan area. Like this stuff was coming out and they was like, okay. So the lady was telling me, at that time I was like a nine, size 919. And she was like, oh, I'll give you a pair of shoes to mow my lawn. Oh, I'm like, I'll fit up on a lawn. I'm gonna get some Nikes. All right. But let me tell you this, I'll have to go backwards a little bit. Yeah. Right before that happened, before I started getting those shoes, my stepdad came in. My mom married him like a couple of times, whatever, blah, blah, blah. But he came in and we had saved up some money so we can get shoes. We find that we're gonna finally get some Nikes. We're gonna finally get some Nikes. We was all happy. Because Nike was hot at the time and Nike is here. Right. That was, what's the other shoe? The white ones with the red at the bottom. What was it? What was it like, kids or something? No, no, no, no, the Nikes. Oh, the Cortezes? The Cortezes. Yeah. So on Cortezes. Yeah, there's some Cortezes over there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So when the Cortez first came out, we was like, we finally been getting some shoes. Now we in the early 80s, right? Yeah, yeah. So we finna get these shoes. And then my stepdad come in there and talk about some, what's y'all doing? It's like, we all excited about to get these shoes. And he said, y'all been getting shoes and volumes. You're gonna keep getting shoes and volumes. I'm taking the money and go gamble. We didn't get no shoes. That's crazy. Like literally finally finna get some shoes. So how old was you at that time? This is early, this was like 84, five or something? So you like just about to be like teenager just coming in like middle school time. Yeah, so like every shoe I got in high school, I paid for. Like mama, I'm never paid for a pair of shoes for me. Like my first pair of Nike's, I paid for. Like it was never nobody paying for those shoes for me. And you made me, we'll talk about that in a minute. You made me go through the same struggle. So I'm mowing the lawns for the lady and she gave me the free shoes. You're literally getting samples. Samples, samples of all the shoes that come out. I was getting them from online. Didn't even realize what it was. What it was then and now. No. It was just like, I was like, oh, I got new shoe and wear it. And then I don't know if you guys know the real sample still. So back in the day, we modeled and did sample shoes because I was a cross country team runner too for Adidas, Avila and Nike. And so they would have us take the shoes after this lady and we got into actual samples. What samples really was about. Right, right, right. What samples really was about for us were testing the shoe. So we would run the shoes, run 500 miles per shoe and give the shoe back. We had to return the shoes. And then they could tell you how the shoe broke down, everything else. And so we did that for those three companies. And nobody else was doing that. And you're a low key building the foundation of running shoes and sampling and running shoes. And again, not even realizing the impact of it today. Nope, nope. And how it changed. You had a part of changing the game for running shoes as well. And that started in 1986. 1986, we start testing shoes, running testing shoes. Crazy. 500 miles, return the shoe. And not only did you do that, you guys won state. Yes. And my name still up in the high school energy on the flag. Actually, we got it. I don't know if you, did I tell you? They just called and said they want us to do an interview. This is 30 years later. I graduated in 1989 to talk to the students now because they can have a team again. We broke all the records. That was 30 years old and older from my crew. And I was a team captain, everything else. And then now they got a new team that they think might be able to do something. What were we doing? So you were cold at track. Yeah, I did my share. You could hoop a little bit. Oh, no, I was the baddest at hoop. I was the baddest hoop. Hey, if nobody know. So, okay, I have to do this real quick. So back in the day, I was the man at hoop. But a lot of people didn't know that. Because I was pretty modest. I'm a Scotty Pippin. I'm not Michael Jordan. I'm Scotty Pippin. I did have a conversation with, what's the name? There used to be the head of NBA. And I called him because I was still trying to get an NBA and he said, are you Michael Jordan? I said, no, he said, I ain't got nothing to talk to you about that. He hung up on me. Damn. Because back then you had numbers and you can call, this was way before the cell phone, big cell phone era. You still could just make a phone call. You trying to get into league and John to do the stuff. I remember when that was all happening when I was a kid, when you was going to camp. I went out to Philly. I got hurt in Philly trying out NBA. I got hurt in LA trying out in LA. But I was cool. I thought I was going to be that man. You was cool. I ain't going to lie. I was dunking old fools, blocking fools. Hey, he was cool. I remember back when I was a kid, this dude got bounced, bro. Triple doubles. He'd be a walking triple double, wherever he went. And he would be like, it'd be like a block party, blocking everybody, dunking on everybody, like literally like crazy. Tell him you're proud of this basketball. No, I got to give two. I'll tell the second one first. The first one is, I got multiple triple doubles in the tournament for blocks, steals and points. People ain't doing that. Blocks, steals and points. Not assists. Blocks. People not doing that. Right. Now the other one, there was another time we was out and my son was dressed. He dressed in head to toe. Because I used to model. Yeah, he used to model to Indiana. Well, I could have a family. Me, you and your sister. Everybody used to model. I took second in the world though. You did. Yeah, I took second in the world. 43 countries. I got some accolades too. Hey, I took second in the world of 43 countries, but we ain't talking about that. And that was on TV too. But anyway, we want to talk about that. No, no, actually, let's talk about that. And let's talk about when you used to be on the solo training show or whatever it was called. So yeah, I was on the shows. I used to see the old clips when they'd be in the background. I was a dancer too. Him and his mom, I mean his mom and my wife, my wife, myself, we used to be on a dancing crew. And we used to do kind of like American Bandstand, like Soul Train, all that stuff. And we used to dance on the show. So like you see us on TV every weekend for that. So now you guys aren't surprised why I do a lot of things in life. We could dance. We could hoop. We could run. We could play football. We could do it all. So we'd do everything. So anyway, where was I? I don't know anywhere else. Oh yeah, second best moment. Oh, second best moment, which was really the first, which is the cake topper. We were actually just finishing up a photo shoot for him. And we were in the mall, we shooting this photo shoot because they wanted some pictures. And he's head to toe. He got the J-zone. He got the whole fit all the way to the towel in the back. And I don't know, he was probably five or something. I used to always have the towel in the back. He had the towel in the back. You know how you got to roll with the towel in the back. He got the towel in the back. And the lady goes, oh, who's your favorite basketball player? Cause you got all Jordan stuff head to toe. He goes, my dad, I was like, for the win. Because back in the day, it was no secret that when I went to the park to play basketball, I would always say, I will leave the court when I lose. And so that way, if I lose, I have to go home. But if I keep winning, I can stay long as I won't. Right. And that was fun for me cause we'd be in a park for a minute. To the sunset. Talking about bro, I was like, switch teams, switch teams. I'm like, we still win. Give me new players. I don't care. I remember, I got to tell you this real fast. I don't know if I told you this one time. We was at the park down there. And this one dude, I was like, let me get him. This white dude, he's kind of moving funny, but he was cool dude. Like, you know, he was cool. But it was crazy because I was like, let me pick him up. And we winning, we winning, we winning. And then this one black dude got mad at him because we kept winning. You know, the white dude just wanted to talk a little mess. Cause we winning. Like that's what we supposed to do. We all talking mess. Right. And he pushed him. And I was like, man, don't be pushing him. Don't push him. And the dude goes, why are you picking on me? I got a fake leg. This dude goes like this. We didn't want all these games. He had a fake leg. Now he's like, you really suck. I was like, that was crazy. I was stuck for a little bit because we had a little, we had a little first, first I'm going to tell a little secret. So when we were kids, we started berry picking at 11. So we picking strawberries, raspberries, cucumbers. I remember I go out there picking pickles, cucumbers, whatever you want to call them. And I was like, I'm tough. I'm a man now. I'm going to go with no gloves. If anybody ever picked them before, I'm going to tell you this, you need gloves. Right. Wrap it up. Just like picking cactus. Man, I got home, my hands were so swollen just from pulling them. Cause I'm a kid but I'm trying to make the money. Right. But no, we, we picked everything. And there was a point that we was doing little things we wouldn't supposed to be doing, you know, still the candy bar or whatever. But there was Frito-Lay, I got to tell this, one night to be one place, one night to be another place, whatever. Okay. So you had to have a little schedule. Schedule, especially on Fridays, you can go just get everybody cause they got the whole trailers all set up for the weekend. So we go and we fill them up so we can eat cause we're trying to eat like we want to, we want food for the week. Like we was broke. Like people don't understand, broke. So we still in out, well, no, we're receiving things out the trailer. So awesome. So awesome. Oops, and I had to do this cart here. Oops, it's in my stomach. We put it in the cart but here's where it got crazy. So we, there's just two stories out this whole thing. So we get it. This is one day I think it's a Friday. We get it. We take it home. We're like, oh, we got baskets full of stuff. We're like, oh, we good. We take it home. My mom was like, what are you guys doing with that stuff? And I was like, what? She's like, we got stuff. She goes, put that in my closet. So we put it all in the closet. She's like, why? And then she rationed out to us. Like she bought it. We was like, this is our food. Right. And she's like, this got to last. Y'all even eat this up. Gotta make this last. So here's what's crazy about that whole story. This is the other part of that. One of my partners, he gonna tell his boys he can't let us to go down there. So they go back the same night. His boy gets spooked. And why he in there? He's like, oh man, man, I'm scared. I gotta take a dump. He goes in there to go take a dump. They all get arrested. Cause he was taking too long. He went in to build him. Oh my God. You got a shit outside of the back. Right. He found a door open. I guess the janitor was so happy I was there to clean up or something. Oh my God. But he didn't found a door open. And he goes in, he's like, I gotta go take a dump. That was bananas. Anyway, they call around to see where we's at. We didn't have nothing to do with it. It was all off the hook. Right. But that's just a moment in time that things could change for you. You could have a record for breaking an entry. For sure. Just that and the other. For sure. And you're trying to survive. And you're literally trying just to eat as a teenager. These are about 13, 14 trying to eat, bring home for the family so everybody else got something to eat. Now I fished a lot. And I sold fish and everything else. But you only eat so much fish. I would say and talk about picking the berries like y'all used to do, literally from the family of. Yeah. Oh. Oh. Oh. Okay. Who knew? Right. So, okay, rewind a little bit. So when I was picking berries and everything and was one of the places we out there, like I said, as a teenager trying to get it, who knew that one day I would marry one of the daughters from that descendant from that family. On the fields I was picking from. You used to pick berries on the surface. Oh, that's crazy. You're talking about 20, probably 20, some, no. I'm wrong. I'm talking about 20 years. No, I'm talking about 10 years later. 10 of the fields I was picking at. That family descent is the owners of all those fields that I was picking at. Who knew? Like that doesn't make sense. Right. Just another part of the story. So, okay, all over the place. This is one. I know. I'm sorry about that. No, this is the part where I take a step back. We exit the story time and then we say, how are you feeling right now? Like what is going on? How are you feeling with everything? Everybody always got a lot of stuff going on in life. So what's going on? How are you feeling? I think for me, I'm happy to position them in. Like I wouldn't trade it with nobody. I have a lot of stress. I have a lot of things going on. But most of that I put that on myself. But for the things that I've done and I've put in place and I feel like you, your sister, you know, now, May May, grandchild, the things that I've done, I feel good about the positions. I feel good about, of course, I have no fingerprints. I've never been arrested. I've never been in jail. I've never been, I've been put in a police car and got out the same day. I've never went to the office. I got out immediately. So I've never put myself in a position enough or been busted for something I should have been doing. So I'm happy to position them in and I'm hoping like you're in a great position, I believe. You're trying to be in a better position, but you got a head start. Your sister's got a head start. And so for me, I'm ecstatic of the positions that you guys are in that I helped that you never, I've told you as a kid, I told you, hold on real quick. I told you as a kid, I didn't want you guys ever to see the days that I saw. You probably heard me say that a hundred times. A million. Right? At least, I'm gonna just say at least a hundred times. And if most adults would say that, I'd never want my kids to see the days that I saw, the whole world would be better. If you do things to put your kids in position, it'd just be better. So you say you put stress on yourself from things that you've created. You chose to put the stress on yourself from those things. Something that I do as well. But how do you deal with the stress when you know, like yeah, you got all these other good things, but at the same time, you still have to find ways to, whether it's coping with it or whatever the words you like to use to manage it. How do you go about dealing with that stress? Honestly, the funniest thing is, I spend time with you. I spend time with Capri, I spend time, because that's what means so much to me. With the family time. We all go do something. Because that's my payoff. When you was in school, what did I tell you? One of the biggest things I told you while you was in school, I said, I wanna live through your eyes. How many times? Send me everything. I said, send me, I'm telling you, I said this several times, send me the times you're at the party. Send me the times you're, send me the videos, send me, whatever. Me to college parties, everything. Then the days that I'm working late, the days that I'm stressed out, that's the day that it brightens my day. Like, this is what I'm talking about. Like some of the stuff you know, I dropped out of school, I was in college. I dropped out of college. We'll get to that part later. On that other stuff. But I'm saying, you know, like, and I don't wanna feed into that much stuff, but I'm saying, like, so when I see you guys is doing it and having a great time, like, I'm winning. Okay. That's my win. Like, I'm happy in, like, we go golfing on a Thursday, or we go do something. Whenever we get a chance. You know what I mean? We go get a bite to eat, whatever it is. Like the other day you said, I don't care. You tell me what time, I'm dropping everything I'm doing, sending more and more and more time if you guys are much responsible. Right? That's easy. And it's something you can't take back or get back. It's, we get the time and enjoy the time. It is what it is. Okay. That's how you enjoy yourself. That's how you enjoy yourself. Okay. And stop my stress. Stop the stress. All right, back to the story. So you are figuring out, you found the sample lady, didn't realize it, we made it to high school at this point, but in middle school, high school time, there was the phase of not having a place to live. You gotta grow up real fast by the time you're 16 years old. Oh, for sure. So walk us through that. So we go to a time of, I was the last one I had three brothers, I have a whole bunch of brothers, but from my mom, it was me and my twin brother, my older brother. And from a mom, it came to a standpoint that we went through some hard times. And she said, y'all gotta figure it out because I'm just not gonna be able to do it. And so we got to a point where my brothers was going, my twin brothers gone, moved out. We're talking about 16. So he moved out first. He moved out. And you're like, damn, I gotta do this too. My other brother moved out. And now I'm coming up on 17 and I ain't moved out. Mind you, when we say 17, getting your own apartment. Right. Not a house, but getting an apartment at 17-year-olds while you're in high school. Working. Working. Working in the state. Yeah. And doing all this other stuff. Everything. You got Cross Country Track. I was on the Cross Country Train basketball team. Even a cheerleading swim team and team captain of every team that I was on. So when you're doing all these different things, you still got to, and I was a boss at 17. I was hiring and firing people at 17-years-old. So when you look at, like you're doing all these things. I got my apartment first, two bedroom apartment at 17-years-old. And I was like, I'm out, I'm doing my thing. But it became the hangout. And this is early. 86, or 89, 88, 88. Yeah, so this is mid-late-80s at this point. Late-80s, yeah. Okay. 88. So you're like. I'm grown. I was the man. I'm grown. Hey, if you got an apartment, two bedroom apartment, there's adults right now with a two bedroom apartment. 40, 50-years-old. You're talking about an apartment at 17, fully furnished. You paying your own bills. Buying new clothes. At 17, new car. I bought the car off the spinner in the showroom at the Mazda dealership. You talking about the one that was spinning around like this? Yeah. How about that car? Yeah. So when you're talking about the age of doing things like you did that and having a good time, all the parties was at my house because all my boys didn't have no place. They couldn't do it. Right, that's like, I remember I was the first one driving. Everybody needed a ride. Right, I got a car at any house. Two bedroom? Yeah. Where's the toilet? Before that though, like talk to me about mindset and like the dog in you that's like, I need to go get this shit because product of your environment says these are not the things you're supposed to be doing. People gonna sit there and go, oh, I would have, and people put their own ceilings on you. So they're gonna say you can't do it because they didn't, right? And if you didn't do something, if you want to do something by the time you want to and they're here and they ain't done it, they're gonna tell you you can't do that. Right. So you don't want that. You just have to just block it all out and believe in yourself, right? I have my great-grandfather and my grandfather believing in me as well as my coaches and stuff. And of course my mom, but I'm telling you like this, I don't care who believes in you, it's not gonna happen until you believe in yourself because you gotta do it. You gotta get up every morning and be dedicated to whatever it is. I can push you in the back and push you in the back as you do it. It's not gonna happen until you believe in yourself. So what do you think? And stay consistent and believe in yourself. What made you like flip that switch? Because like definitely from even sports from middle school to high school because like you weren't really involved in sports in middle school, right? No. Right. So you go from not involved in sports to now all these things, captain, winning stuff, doing things. So you already have to have a flipping switch and that too. I was on no middle school sports. Right. So, you know, there has to be a, that's what I'm saying. Between I'm assuming eighth grade and sophomore year of high school, there had to be a flip switch somewhere, switch flip somewhere that's like. It's gonna be deep, but like, I'm done with this shit. I'm ready to change. I don't wanna get too deep because there's stuff you don't know I didn't tell you. Well, yeah, that's what I'm here for. I don't wanna do that. This is a DNA show. I'm here to hear what you mean. This is, no, this is, it's deep because there was things that was going in, I grew up in the crack era. Mm-hmm. Right. And if you guys didn't watch anything about that era, it was one of the worst times for black folks, minorities, whatever you wanna say. It was that whole era, early 80s through mid 90s, kind of late 90s. That whole era was bad. That was my time. Okay. So growing up in that era, watching people, I was part of the deal, like I'm gonna hit the block, I'll try to do my numbers, my boys, my brothers try to do their numbers. And I tell you this, my brother, my twin brother, he was one of the first at a 17 years old. No, take that back. I think he was 16 because he was at the out the house and he was driving Rolls Royce already. No license. I'm sitting back seat, watching it all. He was driving Rolls Royce at 16 to 17 years old, getting the money on the block, staying up late. And I'm like, oh, so when I'm coming up saying, man, I'm seeing this, that and the other, I went through the thing and said, man, I gotta hit the block too. So I'll try to hit the block. I'm hitting the block. And I said to myself, I'm part of the problem. Right. I start seeing people that was up here, go down here. And I said, oh, wait a minute, you started to become part of what you didn't wanna see. So myself said, you have to get away from everything you see and start over and wipe the slate clean, right? Because it's, you're only taking people down while you're trying to rise. Right. And so when you see certain things, you're like, ah, no, I can't do this. I can't do that. And then I'm only working, working, working and not work. Like sleeping in class and work two jobs going to high school, right? We're in on the team. Yep. So when you're doing, I was working at KFC in the gas station. In the gas station, yep. At the same time, in high school. In high school, paying all my bills and the captain of the team. Yep. Whatever team I was on. But that's what it takes though. And like, that's what I have to commend you for that effort because for me, I could say all work hard and everything, but it's a different type of work hard. Right. And it's a different scenario. Like you said, you set us up to be way far ahead of you. So it's like, my work hard is like, oh, do I wanna make a couple hundred thousand this year or do I wanna try to be a millionaire? Right. Yours is like, all right, I'm not about to be starving no more and I'm about to be on my feet from here. You know, it's a whole different type of thing. Like, you know what I'm saying? It's different. So I'd have to applaud you for that for sure because that's, I mean, I don't know. I feel like you put that in me to be able to do the same thing, but I'm glad I don't have to do that thing in particular. Oh, for sure. I always have for you and your sister, I want you guys to have a head start. And so that way you got a better chance to finish the race, right? You don't wanna start behind and it's hard to finish the race. But I remember when my brothers was driving the fattest cars, twiddy Z-axis, Mercedes, I'm talking about Mercedes, when brothers wouldn't drive a Mercedes back in the day. Right. Like, if you guys go back to the, check this out, you could do this later, y'all could do this. You go back to when Diddy, Pac, Snoop, Dre, whatever, go back in their videos, do this. Go back in their videos and watch the cars that they was driving. My brothers was driving those cars. Right. In the early 80s, not selling records. Right, so it's just like, again, product of an environment and that same environment is gonna be in every good throughout the 80s and it's like hard to get out of it. I saved my money up and bought a $600 bicycle. I remember that, you used to tell me all the stories about the bicycle. I still have the bicycle with us. I bought it was $235 a month. My rent was $235. That's like buying like us. That's like buying an $8,000 bike now. Right? Right. So I bought a $600 bicycle and that story's crazy. I gotta tell you that a little bit. I gotta tell you a little bit of that story. Oh, you. So a little bit of that story, I went in to look at that bicycle and I wanted that bicycle so bad, I wanted that bicycle and I'm just straight legit working these jobs, blah, blah, and I told the dude, I wanted that bicycle. I said, I'm gonna come back and get that bicycle. He said, oh, I go there to get the bicycle. It's gone. It's not in the window no more, it's gone. I'm like, I said on the side of the building, like I'm tripping, like I've been wanting this bicycle. I saved up all this money to get this bicycle and I can't get the bicycle. And you know what happened? It was an old white dude and he was cool. Just cool, right? And he come outside, he see me, he says, what's going on? I said, man, I wanted that bicycle so bad and you sold it. And he goes, no, I got it in the back. Okay. I went in the back, he had the bicycle. He said, I knew when you told me he was gonna get that bike, he was gonna come and get it. I put it on hold for him, yeah. He saved it. It took me months to get that, but he saved it. He believed in me. So I knew that at that point, anything I worked for, I could get it. Right. Get people around you, they believe in you, get what you want. Pretty simple. Makes sense. But that was that. But anyway, going back to the whole thing is like, you, when people believe in you, you believe in yourself. You have to get up and every day and make sure it works. You can't sit there and all the time just like, oh, I got this, I got this. Nah, you have to really just do it. You can't talk about it because there's just no results. Right. You have to get up and do it every morning. And if you, you're yourself, wifey, my daughter, everybody's now, right? If you don't do something every single day towards the craft that you're trying to build, it's not gonna work. Right. And so that's what I did. Every day I worked hard, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah. And I'm here today. Enjoying it. Still doing it. Loving it. Okay, so you get through high school and you got your apartment still. But then you got something that goes on and next thing you know, you got nowhere to live. Oh my God, no, it was on the tail end. So I just started college. You know, it's the beginning of the college. And everybody knows school starts, Halloween comes right after, right? Mm-hmm. I'm fresh in school. Got my apartment. I'm working, your team. And then I'm like a, I don't know if you wanna call it a runner up for the hoop team. So I'm in this. My whole setup is for these two things to go back into school. I go to school, Halloween night. I go to a college party. I come home, everything I own, on the 31st is out in the front yard, burnt up in my two bedroom apartment. The other apartment called fire, mine's called fire. I have nothing. They have the thing that says, oh, you can sleep at the Red Cross. You know, Red Cross will help you call this number, right? So I called the number and they said, well, we can't help you because you got a job. I go, no, I just paid all my rent. I paid all my food. I did everything and what burned up was my kitchen. So I have no food. I don't have anything. And so this is where I'm going. And they said, oh, okay. So then I said, oh, okay, cool. My brother's out of town. He's doing his thing, traveling the world doing his thing. He got his place. I'll go to his place. I said, cause I was checking the mail there. I got the keys. I go over there. And the guy goes, the manager goes, who are you? I said, that's my twin brother. I said, my place burned up. So I don't have no place to stay. I'm gonna stay at his place. I've been watching the mail do this and that and the other while he's gone. He said, oh, where's the key? I said, right here. He took it from me. He said, you can't stay here. You're not on the lease. I go, wait, what? I can't stay here either. So I said, okay, your mom, not my wife yet. She down with me. Let's go. We have nowhere to go yet. So I said, babe, let's go to my brother's house. My other brother's house. I go to my other brother's house. He ain't home. He ain't home. He ain't home. That was the first night we slept in the car. We didn't have no money. We shared a bag of funyons and a 32 ounce big gold from 7-Eleven. That was dinner. Like we're gonna, we'll tie it over and he'll get it right. I'll never forget. So then my brother says, hey, you can, you can stay at the house. Excuse me. It's like two days go by his girlfriend, which became his wife says, hey, the manager said, you guys can't stay here. I'm like, what? Joe said we can stay here. No, you can't stay here. So we go, okay. So here's what happened. I goes to the manager. I said, hey man, my place burned up. This is where I'm at. They already took the keys from this. I tells him the whole story all the way back. He goes, this is a nice story, but I didn't even know you was there. I said, what do you mean you didn't? He said, so whoever told you can't stay there, telling you you can't stay there. It was her. Right. She said, you got to go. He said, if she said, you got to go, you got to go. I said, what? So now we back to sleep in the car. We sleep in the car, sleep in the car, sleep in the car. We sleep in a friend's house back and forth. Anyway, lose everything. Sleep in the car. We sleep in another friend's house on the floor and everything else. I talked to this lady, help me get into apartment. We're getting an apartment within one year. Now I'm 19, this was 17, 18, 19. So the way this went down, they said, I'm start trying to figure out how to buy a house. I said, we'll never see this day again. So literally I talked to this lady and I said, I'm buying a house. She calls me. She goes, oh, I got this house. I got this house over the phone. I literally tell her I'll buy it. I haven't seen the house. You told me what it got. I want it. I still have that house today. I'm still living it right now. From 20 years old, you became six months old, six months. And I bought that house. I'm still living it right now from then. But I bought the house over the phone. And I told her, I said, we'll never go through this again. Y'all ain't never had to worry about address change. Phone number, you got the same phone number you ever had. You ain't never changed. Like, some of y'all out there. A lot of people was like, we're a new phone number every six months. But you didn't have the same number for 25 years. Yeah, how do I stay in touch? You're 32. About to be. So my point is the same carrier. My phone got stolen. And then y'all took my phone away from me. And then when I got a new phone, they gave me a different number. Cause y'all had switched. So yeah, cause we switched, but long story short. But basically I had the same number. But long story short, it's close. But you know what I mean? Like you wasn't hopping and running from nobody. No. Oh, it's turned off again. Right. Like how many y'all didn't have the phone turned off just cause. Yeah. And it's funny too, because like for you, you're like excited about that thing. Like, yeah, like y'all got the phone turned off and stuff. But it's like, you know what it felt like to be in that position. So it's okay to be like, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what I'm saying? It's a big deal. Interpret it and be like, oh, are you trying to talk bad? But it's like, no, I was in that same position as you. And that's what I'm saying. You understand. Right. Like you understand when you can't pay this bill, can't pay that bill. And you're struggling just trying to get through it. Like I've been through that, but I made sure it was never gonna happen again. Mm-hmm. Like, yeah, like if anybody know me, I like I work some crazy hours, but we eat at some nice places. All the time. We travel to some nice places. It's not all because of me. I will never say it's all because of me, but I will say that I'm part of the reason why your work ethic is the way it is. Your sisters, some of the people around us, that we actually talk to on a regular basis. I'm not gonna say who, but so that way you take credit for what I did. I'm not doing that. No, yeah, I mean, for sure you've had a huge role in success. Some of the people around us. And honestly, for those that don't know, my parents are still together and they both have had a huge impact on both of our lives in same ways, different ways. They've overlapped in some things. They've had unique traits that have helped both of us in different ways. So there's a lot of different factors from both sides. For anybody that's wondering. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's not all one-sided, but we came from two different sides of the track. For sure. Right, and so you get two different points of views and cultures and everything. So no, I love it. We have been able to help a lot of people in the positions we're in and continue to be able to help people. So I love that part. I just love it. So you were going off about the homeless, bouncing back and forth and everything, but again, very hard time in life. What was going through your head mentally every single night, falling asleep? What do you gotta do? All the different things. Cause I'm sure you were filled with a ton of different emotions, right? Right. So what was you thinking at that time? I can't, I keep saying the same thing, but again, I didn't want you guys to see what I saw. But we weren't born at the time. We weren't even an option yet. No, and that's my point. I knew I was going to have kids. I knew that certain things was going to happen in my life. And I knew that when I get into that position, my kids aren't going to see what I see. My kids are not going to have the problems that I have. They'll have their own problems and struggles because nobody can say, oh, this is perfect. So you're going to have those, but some of those things are self-inflicted because you're trying to get somewhere, do certain things. You ain't never worried about starving. Right. Your friends, I got a sweet side of it for a second. Your friends, you always show up to the house with your own boxes of cereal and eat because we had like 15 boxes of cereal. Right. So, all right, so for those that don't know, I guess we'll jump forward a little bit to deeper into my life at this point. But yeah, when I got to high school, middle school, grade school, any level of school, especially at high school, because now we're growing and becoming men. Men started middle school because Pop Warner, y'all, was playing football. All the homies would pull up. My house had always been like the safe spot. And like you said, like him creating an environment and my mom creating an environment for us to just be comfortable and thrive and be creative and do whatever we want to do and have fun and give us opportunities to like do fun things that don't want us, like we don't even want to be out in the streets and go do stuff because it's like, I'm having more fun here at the house. Like my mommy's over here, like we don't need to be out in the streets. So, like I was just talking to Alexis about that. And I was like, I know people talk about that and they hear the story. And I was like, now think about it like this. My parents was spending $3 on a box of cereal, $4 on a box of cereal. But how much does it cost for me to be in some literally bad activity out in the streets or end up hurt in the hospital or whatever? How much is that gonna cost? Tens of $1,000 or potentially even my life. So for them to spend $3, $4, or $20 or $30 on 10 boxes of cereal. But look, look at the return that they're getting on. You know all the friends, you know everything that's going on, everything. They get to weed through all my homies. Hey, I don't like them. Telling me all this stuff. And he, like, especially about that, he always be like, so-and-so is gonna be like this when you get older. So-and-so is gonna be like that when you get older. And then when I got older, I was like, yep, you was right. They did this, they did that, they did this. But like for me to be able to see that too at a young age and be like, you know, even like from grade school, middle school, it'd be like by the time you get to here, like you're probably not gonna be around them or this gonna, and it's like, not like you're wishing anything bad on them or anything like that. It's just, again, based off of your experiences from the past, environment that you've been on and understanding like, hey, I should share this information because I don't want my son to be like tricked or fooled for something thinking like, oh, everything's fine and dandy. So it definitely made me more aware of a lot of things like growing up. But yeah, back to the box of cereal thing. It used to always go up at my parents' house. Every snack you can think of, you can pull up, you can get some snacks. Homies will pull up to the house and go straight to the kitchen. I go up to my room, they be in the kitchen, eating, and then they come up 20 minutes later and be like, what's up, bro? I'm like, and I wouldn't even be tripping. I wouldn't be sitting in the house yet. Yeah, I wouldn't be tripping. Like at least bring me something upstairs. Like, but yeah, all right, go ahead. No, this is good, man. I'm just saying, like, you know it. Some of your friends, quite a few of your friends, like know it. It was like, you want to have, and now you're in a position. Now you married, you know, you starting to see your friends, everybody having kids and all this other stuff. And you know, I can't say I'm the best father ever, but I was the best father I could be, right? And so I'm saying to you and everybody else out there and some of your friends, be the best father you can be, right? Don't try to be somebody else. Be the best you can be. Because you get a different background, you grew up different, everybody grew up different. So there's things you're like, well, I would never do that. And then, well, you don't see what I see. So you're not going to think the way I think. But now you see what you saw and think the way you think. Be the best you can be in your position, right? And then, like, we would get in trouble like a whooping in trouble, because if we kept saying we was hungry, we was hungry. But we couldn't keep saying we was hungry because there was no food in the house. And then when you have food, if you was messing with the food, what happened? You get in trouble for that. And then I remember one time in my brother, we was arguing, whatever, we threw ashes. My mom used to smoke cigarettes. She smoked a pack and a half a day. We threw ashes. We threw the ashes and the cigarettes in each other's food because we was just getting mad at my twin brother. And my mom came in and said, what y'all doing? She said, she said, oh, no, you eating that. You ain't wasting that food. We literally had to take the cigarette butts out because she wanted to go let us eat that. Oh, we had to eat the rest. And then, or when you didn't eat your cereal in the morning. Oh my God. If you didn't eat your cereal in the morning, that's what you eat when you got home from school. Cornflakes. Chai cornflakes, sitting in the milk, eating the refrigerator. All day. All day. We make powder milk. Like I don't know if y'all have made powder milk. Not having made better, man. Yeah, I just heard about the stories. Hey, so back in the day, they used to have the thing you go to the schools and they give you free milk, free cheese, free butter, free rice. And everybody, like if you old school, you remember that five pound stick of cheese. And then, long story short, you get this milk and it's in a powder, it's in a box, like this like white box with blue writing. And they just said milk. They just said milk. It's in a box and you sprinkling it in there. You mix it with water. And they got milk. Got milk? They just said milk. Milk. So we would have the milk on the cereal. And then sometimes we didn't have that because they didn't have money tight. And you know how no milk, just use water. We use water on Captain Crunch, on Cornflakes, everything just add a little water, some sugar. You don't need no milk. And you'll get used to it. I'm telling you, I'll try. You'll be like. You get used to it. Yeah. Now we're like almond milk, please. Yeah, you're like almond milk. I want coconut milk. Unsweetened almond milk, almond milk, please. I don't even eat cereal anymore. No, this is the craziest thing. It's like the box just said milk. The box. Oh man. That's crazy too. Cause like that just made me think about like, I remember people come over and be like, you don't got the bag of cereal. You got the box of cereal. No, we got the boxes. No, we got the real Captain Crunch, like the real Frosted Flakes. They're real coconut. And the bag is saying Crunchberries. Yeah. I can't do that. No, they just say Crunchberries or the berries. Whatever, yeah. Oh my God. Okay, do that with. Okay. So we're kind of all over the place. We gotta get back on track. I know. We're back on task. All right, so you get through high school. You bought the house and you're like, yo, I'm from homeless to literally buying my first house. And I'm about to be, I'm about to change the game. What am I gonna do? And I was working and working and working to change the game. And I didn't, I wasn't in the streets. I wasn't doing nothing. I was working two full-time jobs, right? We're going for the steel factory and the mattress company. Two full-time jobs. The police tried to set me up, saying that I was a drug dealer and this and that because I have bread and I bought a house and they send people over there trying to get me to sell them something and this and the other. It was crazy. Like, that's a whole other story. Yeah, because I mean, growing up, now this is in the early 90s. Like, Portland is not what you're like. I mean, Portland is starting to revert back a little bit but the Portland that people know now, the nice progressed Portland, it wasn't like that before in the early 90s. No, it wasn't predominantly white either. In the neighborhood we live in? Yeah. It was pretty bad. It was pretty black and it was pretty bad. And it was crazy because the police, it was kind of like a sundown town. So like, if anybody know about sundown stuff, like, ain't nobody's supposed to be in that neighborhood. If you just, nationality ain't supposed to be there. It's supposed to be in by this time. And so even the white folks, if they came over into where we was living at and they was passed there about 830, they was getting pulled over because they figured they was there for drugs. Right, what you doing over here? Yeah, you shouldn't be here. You're there for drugs or hookers. Take it back. Right, right. You ain't here for nothing else. Right. You ain't supposed to be here. And so going through that stage was bananas. And like I said, they did everything to try to get me, pulled me over and try to rest me for stupid stuff and ID me for everything. They had 15 police cars around me one time and told me I robbed this lady. I said, you robbed this lady at a knife point. And I said, no, I didn't, I didn't do nothing. I just dropped my wife off at the house. I'm headed to work. Man, they followed me to everything. They had me cuffed and stuffed ready to go. And the lady, I'm glad the lady wasn't present. She kept saying, again, when we started this, we was talking about me being six, five, the lady kept saying, he's too tall. That's not him. And the police was like, you sure? You sure? This is literally like Rodney King was happening. For sure. Like you gotta remember OJ, Rodney King, all the stuff is happening at this time. So like Portland wasn't no different. There was still stuff happening. Yeah. And they tried to do all the stuff to me and they tried to take me down and I was like, no, no, no. And the lady was like, she's like, that's not him. They let me go. This is when we had beepers, when everybody had their pagers, Beech Burr pager or whatever you want to call it. And I had the big cell phone like this. I had that big old cell phone like this. I remember that. With the big rubber and tape. And they was like, what are you doing with a cell phone? Right. What are you doing with a pager? And I was like, what do you mean? I was like, yeah. You had a car phone in the 92. I had a phone with a bag like this. In the car, in the bins. Remember that? I remember that. I remember saying he was clean. He used to always had to S 500s. He had this. I've got one now. Yeah. Yeah, he still got one. I was just thinking about the big body back in the day. With the blue windows, all this stuff. The cream coupe was clear. The craze. The big black one. Anyway, so no. So we went through that era and it was growth for me. And I was so happy that I wasn't part of that lifestyle. They couldn't get me. Again, 1990, I got the car off the showroom floor. So I got this brand new truck. I got a new house. I'm here. The police is trying to set me up. There's no way this can be your house. Right. You got a three bedroom, two bath house, blah, blah, blah, full garage. Starting a six-figure business on the side as well. Right. And so when they looking at you like, there's no way. Just can't be honest. You're 20 years old. Right. Nah, you're doing something wrong. Right. So I made it through all that, doing it the right way, doing it the honest way. Again, you're doing the right way, the honest way. You know, everybody around you. And I tell you all the time, like everybody around you ain't got those friends who's doing the crazy stuff. Right. But that's part of that, seeing it. You're not gonna see the days I saw. Right. And so, all right. So you're progressing in that. You're learning how to remodel your own house. Early 90s. That house has been through some stuff. And then you get into like low riders and cars because you like cars. Yeah, yeah. Right. So, Marty like you. The six-figure sneaker head. It's a eight-week program that takes you through all the steps that you need to know. You have a full community where you can engage with everybody else that's going through the same program as you. Have monthly live meetups where you can connect with me and other members on the inside. And we set goals for each other and held each other accountable. Also, we give away a free pair of shoes every single month with different challenges. If this is something that's for you or you're looking to take your game to the next level or even flip your sneakers to turn that into real estate, this is the place where you need to be. I can help you with finding loans and remodeling properties and getting yourself on the right path to become a millionaire if that's something that you desire. If this sounds like something for you, hit the link down below in the description and get signed up today. This is more than just sneakers. I wanna see people grow and succeed in all aspects of life. Let's get back to the podcast. Again, like I said, I bought the truck in 1990. I, again, I always gotta be captain or head honcho just who I am, because I like to be, I like leadership, I like pressure. When people can't take it, I'll take it. So I had the car club, I won my car club. We put that together, hats off to wifey. She did a hell of a job on help putting that together with me and we had the car club call peer pressure, which started from my truck and led on to our car shows and everything else. It used to be so crazy. So I grew up, I grew up in it. So for me, I saw like entrepreneurship at its finest, hard work at its finest, parents working jobs, doing this on the side, hustling, doing all these things. So for me, it was dope to see like, I would be the one, like when the cars are pulled in, then we get like the custom water bottles, remember? Yeah, yeah, yeah. They get the custom water bottles and I would be like checking them in and handing them their free water bottles and stuff. And I remember we'd be printing out cases of water bottles and trophies and all this stuff and then do the contest and then the watermelon eating contest and the wet t-shirt contest, all this stuff. I remember all that stuff. So I gotta tell you this. So I was slick. The water bottles weren't technically free. Oh, okay. Well, I don't remember. I couldn't sell it a beer. Okay. So I was selling the water bottles with $5 a piece. Fill it up with beer. I was buying the water bottles with 39 cents. Right. I'm selling for $5 beers, all profit. And when they want another one, no free refills, gotta buy another one. Water bottles on deck. So that's why we printed so many water bottles. Right. We had cases of water bottles. You remember it was like so many bottles. I think, I wonder if we got any more of those. Damn. Those big red ones. Yeah. But we had so many water bottles and we print them every year. And so we were selling the beer but we couldn't sell the beer. It was so dope. Cause you got to see that. That was definitely like a huge foundation for me seeing that and experiencing like entrepreneurship at a young age and understanding like, oh, you could do this because then later, when I got to high school, then what? Like you started the restaurant and you were in the music industry, managing artists and we had a studio at the house. Again, you're supposed to tell all these stories, not me. So go ahead, go wherever you like next. Oh my God, I got stories like crazy. Oh, I gotta get you. He said I was in music stuff. I have to tell you this real quick. My best story. No, I got, I got a couple, but I'll tell you my story with prints. I knew that was the one that was coming. Should I tell the one with the game? Either one or Drake or Drake or Cape Cards. Or Kelly. We'll stay after our Kelly. Cape Cards. All right, go ahead. It's your story. No, so I had, so back in the day, I was hooked up with some good people out of LA. And so anything that came up, they would always call me first. So any big shows, any new artists, when they doing a radio sets and they wanna come in, like we would go to the radio stations, meet up with the artists, Ice Cubes, when the, I can't think of the girl's name all of a sudden right now, they had the song, you can do it, put your back into it. Oh yeah, yeah. So we met with her, like, like DJ Quinn, when you an honest dude. Right. There's shady promoters. Right. Right. So which one should I say? I don't know which one I say. Just give us a couple. Okay, I'll go, okay, I like this. Oh, I gotta give you the Drake one. All right, give us the Drake one. So the Drake one, the Drake one, I call DJ, I was like, you know this dude named Drake. This one I was in high school. Yeah. And Drake didn't have an album yet. Y'all check the records to what I'm telling you. Oh man. Drake didn't have an album yet. Drake had songs. And Drake had four or five songs that was on the radio. I could be wrong, it might be three or four. But I'm seeing four or five songs that was on the radio. And Drake didn't have an album yet. Right. But he was popping. Right. Right? Yep. And I ain't gonna say the numbers that I was supposed to have a hookup with, but I will say this. The opportunity was telling me, oh, you know, Drake's coming to town. You know, you wanna do his show in Portland. Oh, I'm just saying, just so that people know, I was a full supporter of this happening. Because I just had a feeling that Drake was gonna be the one. Yeah. So he's like, he's coming to Portland for the first time. They called me first. And he was small. He was small. He was small. Yeah. Right? Drake, no, if he ever see this, Drake, no, you know the first time you came to Portland. Drake, I know you're watching this. It was your first time coming to Portland. Don't act like you don't be watching the DNA show. It was supposed to be with me. Hey, don't act like you don't be watching the DNA show. So anyway, so this will happen in, I'm trying to do this. Okay, I gotta blame the wifey for a second. But I'm trying to do this to the wifey. And she said, no, it's probably not a good investment. Cause I had took some licks. Right? Yeah, you lose sometimes. Right? I take some losses and I take some wins, but I'm still here. So I know I'm like, I can get some more wins in me. So she was like, I ain't gonna work and ain't gonna work and ain't work. And he's like, I talked to everybody at the school. This is going crack. Yeah. He told me in the next day, the next day I was telling all the homies. I'm like, yo, we're about to get drank here. This year about to be live. And this was close to your, was that close to your 16th birthday? Hey, sweet 16s. We'll talk about that in another video. I think it was close to that same time. It was. Because I think we might've even been We was trying to incorporate it or something. We might've, we was thinking about having them at my party. We was trying to incorporate it with your stuff. Because I remember we was at the venue. We was talking about outside. Cause I was like, we could probably do it and didn't do it like this. Yup. So, big old, we got this big old place. This is warehouse. Right. And we threw my birthday party there. It's 16th birthday. Sweet 16 was crazy. Y'all remember on MTV? Remember MTV? They started Sweet 16? And we had OG1. Shout out OG1. He might see this too. Shout out OG. But he was on the radio. He announced your stuff on the radio. Yup. Right at the time. On the hottest radio station. So it's all over the radio. His sweet 16. I'm trying to do this. Wife be like, nah, I don't think that's gonna work. I don't think you should do that. We didn't end up doing it. Somebody else did it. And it cracked. That's crazy. Because that could have been the route to that relationship. But once again, it goes back to like, good people, good things, opportunities get brought to you. Again, you can't win them all. But at the same time, that came simply because of good people, good relationships. Yeah, yeah. And so the people I knew, so don't worry about that. You know, you don't want to do that. You know, we got something else coming. So there's some other things coming up. Long story short, I ends up getting with another friend of mine at the time. We doing music business stuff, kind of setting up shows together, doing this stuff. So Prince is supposed to come. And I said, oh yeah, I call my guy. He says, oh yeah, don't worry about the Prince customer. I got you. So I said, okay. Wife be like, oh, I want to get tickets to the Prince. I said, you don't need to get tickets. We already got that. I said, you know, we'll do the backstage, do all the stuff, it doesn't matter. So long story short, fast forward a little bit. We go down to the Prince concert to get in. We can't get in. And I go, oh no, my dude's supposed to be at the door. He said he got me. I hate those situations. And I'm like, we didn't buy no ticket. She said the whole time, see, I told you we should have got tickets, we should have did this. And I'm like, let me call him. And I go, oh man, my other phone, my production phone is at home. I had two phones and brought the wrong phone. I have to go back home and get my phone. So I goes back home and get my phone. And on the way back down, look, we didn't live super far. Like it's like 20 minutes. Show hasn't started yet, but people feeling in. So when we get back, there's no lines. Everybody's inside. It's thick. Yeah, it's everybody inside. But it ain't started yet. But it ain't no lines no more. She's like, I told you we should have got tickets. We gonna miss the show. And I roll it, I call my guy and he goes, hey, he said, hey man, I got you. I got you, don't worry about it. I'm sorry, I apologize, don't worry about this. I get in, we get there. He goes, hey, I got you guys. I think we like second or third row. I don't know center stage. He walk us all the way down to the front. And we're like, oh, she was like, oh, this is great. She now happy, right? So he says, when we get done, he says, we got another private show. He says, all you gotta do is just see me out here. I'll meet you when we get done. Just come out here and we go to the private show. So we get done. Have a drink, our show was great. We out there, I don't see him. And then I go. My boy. My boy. Okay, okay. At the, where he told us to meet us, where he saw us outside, he said, meet him there. So I didn't see him, I said, oh, it's no big deal. I know where the show spot is. I just go over to the show spot. So at that time, one of my guys, that was my guy, he ain't my guy no more. I won't say his name. He was Whitney. So I said, let's go. So he said, where are you going? I said, we got this private after party. You can go with me because you do music with me at the time. So let's go, we go over there. I get to the place, Prince people, none of the managers, everybody I know, nobody's there yet. I can't get in yet. So I goes to the owner of the building because I've done shows there. I say, man, you know me. What's up? Hey, he said, hey, man. He said, it's sold out. I can't get you in here. He said, they're not letting nobody in because it's a private party. I said, but I know so and so we got this set up and he said, no. And I'm like, dude, you know me. Like I've been doing stuff with you. Why would I lie? As I'm saying that, they're walking up. Prince them people, the bus pull up. They getting off the bus and they said, dear, hey, how many people you got with you? This literally just happened with me and Travis Scott. This literally just happened with me and Travis Scott. Remember when I was at All Star Weekend? Oh yeah. And I was like, I was walking in and I'm like, my homies Jordan brand. They're like, oh yeah, Travis Scott inside. And then they just brought me in. Same exact thing. That's so funny. And it happens. And he goes, oh, just go. And my boy goes, oh, come on. How many people you got? I said, it's four, but she said, come on. We just go in. And the owner of the building that has the whole, he's still owner right now that has the whole spot. He looked at me like, I can't believe this. He mad. Just looking at me. And I walk in, we having a great time. Right. So here's the craziest part of the whole story. The way I remember this story, okay? Some might change the story. If you was there that night, but this how I went. We in there, we in the middle of the room, closer to the front, Prince is playing. You got a guitar, he's doing his solo. He having a good time. Now, if y'all know anything about Prince, he said no cameras, no stuff back then. Nobody really had cell phone cameras like that. He's vibing out. My boy pulls out the camera and he takes a picture of Prince while he's doing his guitar solo. Prince stopped the show. So who just took a picture of me? Cause it flashed it like this. Right. And then security go like this. We over here and security coming like this. And my boy, the one that got me in there goes, oh, he would dare. Prince started by playing the show. They turn around and went the other way. My boy took the camera, put it in his pocket and developed. That's crazy. It did. So later when we see the picture, it was kind of blurry because remember you met him or the pictures, you go like this. Yeah, you gotta wind it. You gotta wind it. He had to wind it like this. And he goes sneak and hurry up, take a picture. So he moved. So it moved a little bit. So a little blurry, but he developed the picture and had the picture. It was crazy. You got through the nineties. 2000s come around. Now you're talking about your working still. I'm going off to college. My sister's going into high school. Restaurant's going. So what was that like? That experience was like super dope for me. Like I really enjoy. Like if anybody know or like I cook ribs, I cook chicken. I really enjoy doing that part and letting people eat and kind of fellowship with each other and all that. So for people to come to your restaurant and take the time to spend money and we were probably a whole another order to go. Right. Like really think to yourself, like how many times you've ordered food and then while you eat and go, I need to order some of this to go because I want some more of this later. So many people traveling from far. So do we talk about it now or do we talk about it later? What? About me getting fired. No. We'll talk about that in another episode. No, but we can talk about that later, but I think... That was my only job I had. But I think with that whole story, I want to go into it right now. I have to be the highest or the most, the expectation is going to be the highest for those people in building a brand. Like again, like you're building a brand, right? You're not going to let me go out and just do anything in your brand. Right. You've told me sometime, hey dad, you can't say that. Can't say that, can't wear that. You can't wear that, you know what I mean? You're building a brand. I respect you every single time, right? Because I know what it takes to build a brand. I'll even say one time, throw this for a twist, this doesn't even have to do with building a brand, it's about a person building themself from one thing to another, young man to older man or whatever you want to call it. I'm in the car with him and he's driving and I was like, hey, you can't do this. You can't do that. And he go, this is my car, my gas, you don't like it, you can walk. Sorry. And look, I said back, I'm quiet because I understand you're in a young man trying to grow to be an old man, right? Right. And so when you see, he didn't say exactly like that, I'm just kidding, but real close to that. Like this is my duck, you catch the feathers. So long and short, as you're doing certain things like you respect certain things, you see it. And now you're in that position and I've told you a lot of times, you're not going to build your brand or do what you want to do unless you cut something off or cut this off or whatever. And in his, going back to him for a second, he's the head of the snake. And so I had to sacrifice my son for the brand. I had to sacrifice certain things because he's the head of the snake. If anything happens in the world, when you get into a group of people, you got to take out the biggest guy, the baddest guy, the fastest guy, the strongest guy, whatever it is, right? The bully, whoever it is. You have to say, okay, only way you can get other people's attention is take the head off the snake, right? From day one, since she was a little kid, you've always been the head of the snake. Either people go and like you or you go, I don't like him for nothing. We're just the head of the snake. Some people don't like snakes, some people scared to get bit, everything. And I don't know if you guys understand what I'm saying, but it's a metaphor. I'm not a snake. It's like, where you go, things move behind. That's it. And I'll leave the rest alone. Yeah, so basically he fired me. He's trying to tiptoe around it. Now, but okay, so restaurant's going, you got that and then, you know, I'm off the, and then like, tell us what happened and how you felt and I'll tell you my side. On which part? Just about like no longer working there. So the day you found out everything that would happen. So I had went to, I was the head of the Teamsters Union at our location. And so all the negotiating students went through me for every three years, so 15 years or something. So we renegotiate the contracts every three years. And so I was part of that. And so as I seen things evolve in and we was making changes, I told everybody like, hey, like if we don't sign this contract, we'll probably lose our jobs because they implemented, they had us implement so many new things. They made the process faster and it was kind of one of those things you see now, you work yourself out of work. Faster you go, the better you get. They was like, oh, we don't need you no more. Right, right, right. And so once we did that, they go, we're not gonna need these guys. So they literally told us if you don't sign this contract, you guys will have a job. But they told me that because the manager, like most of my bosses, I trained them. At that time we had a lot of, this is Oregon. So we had a lot of people that they didn't let black folks to be the head boss, but we was the middleman. And so I trained all my bosses to be my boss. So they came to me and said, hey, cause we used to be drinking partners hanging out. And they said, hey, if you don't sign this contract, you ain't gonna have a job. So I went back to the union and I plant up to Lacey Washington. This is 2013, beginning to the end of 2012, going into 2013, right? And I'm going, no, this is not good. Everybody's like, oh, you don't know what you're talking about. I'm telling you guys, this was gonna happen. So when it came down to it, they had this board I set on. And I said on this product that you guys can check the newspaper article. I don't remember the number. I'm gonna say 300 million. But it might be 100 million, I don't remember. So I sit on this board and I'm now asking for money to make sure this plant goes back in effect and we can keep all the people here. And they come and tell us, they first told me, they go, hey, Darren, you need, they wrote this script out. You need to say these things. And I look at the script, I go, I don't talk like that. Right. Not racial, but I said, this is hella white. Right. This is how white people talk. Right. I'm black. Don't talk like that. So they says, oh, okay. Well, you know, don't try to say too much off of what we were trying to do. So I went in there and told them straight up. I said, we're in a position now that you guys wanna take this job from us. And we've all, some of our guys, cause we made good money. Some of our guys didn't work. Their wives didn't work. Mm-hmm. Cause we made dough. Right. Fast to work, more to get paid. Right. So we end up going to have the meeting and I have a conversation with these people on this panel after they told me to say all this stuff. And I'm like, I don't speak like that. So they, so when I got done, well, in the midst of that conversation, I actually had everybody on the panel in tears because it was a point that I started crying because I said, I've been doing this for so many years, 23 years, working on my retirement, everything for my kids. I said, but you guys are dealing me a hand that I don't wanna play. Right. I said, I'm able to put my son in college, but now, by taking this job from me, I won't be able to do my daughter the same way. Mm-hmm. And I said, you guys are taking, you're robbing me for something I gave you 100% of. You know? And it was jacked up and they seen it. They didn't give us the money. They didn't change it. You know how that goes. And even the people. Just like to deal with the key back in the day. He said, oh, okay, cool. Give me that. Just like that in the back in the day. They understand your story, but they don't care. Right. Right. So we went through that and again, we lost everything, lost all the jobs and they told us we could move to a different city and get our jobs back. But we come in at the bottom of the total poll. Start all over. Start over with no seniority and new pay at half the wages. What a deal. But you're going to travel an hour and something away. So, yeah, I remember hearing it and I was like, damn, like I wanted to cry too. Cause I'm like, I just saw how much you put into it for so many years. Yeah. From like working there, working at the other job that you was working at that time, which then became the job that you was working, your new job. Well, actually no. That went close too. That closed. It was after. I was working for the steel factory. Yeah. A full-time job in Sealy and the steel factory, which was Freightliner. All three of them closed. All three of them closed at the same, shortly after each other. But Freightliner said, we're going to move all our work to Mexico. And we're going to make all our parts in Mexico and we were making all the steel parts, brake pedals, drums, all the stuff. And when they moved to Mexico, y'all check the records. I keep saying this every time. Freightliner went to, when they moved to Mexico. Cause the parts wasn't US made. They weren't good anymore. Yeah. So it was just, it was crazy to see like that. And remembering like, when you fired me and me telling you like, I'll never work for somebody again. And then like see you have to go through that. Which I made the decision to never do. And I'm like, damn, you have to go through that again and let somebody else control your fate. Which was something I was like, again, like you said, you set me up in her position and never let somebody else control my fate. And then I'm watching it happen. So it's like, oh yeah, I got to figure it out. Whether that's me like getting into the properties with real estate, flipping kicks, starting the channel, building a business online, doing different stuff, but always finding a way to try to like control my destiny as much as I can. So yeah, it was crazy like seeing that. And then yeah, a couple of months later, then I got in the car accident and everything was rough. And then, which is a whole another story. But when you got in your car accident, it was the same month the mattress company closed. It was like all within like a month. Yeah. And so the only thing I said to the wife was, at least I ain't got to go to work. Right, I can take care of him. I can stay. And we went to LA or California during your accident. And I go, I'm not coming home until my son can come home. Right. I ain't got no job. You know, we get, we was hotel to hotel. First we started out. We started out in the fat hotel, dog. We started out in the fat hotel. I was in the hospital. Oh yeah. We was like, oh, we're going to stay at the Hilton. We're going to stay here. Whatever, right? About a weekend, like a whole week. Like, oh, this is going to be expensive. It's going to be an air problem. We're going to be here for a couple of weeks. And so then we're like, okay, we're going to notch it down a little bit. We go over to this place. Like she looks up online, and we're going to go to this hotel. We get to the hotel. Y'all ever been to those cheap hotels that smell like bleach? Y'all know what I'm talking about. And the people hanging around outside. And so we got there to the hotel. We pulled up and we was about to go in. We was like, we can't do this. We can't do this. And then we left. We didn't even, I don't think we ever went in the place. We went in, we didn't go into the hotel room. Excuse me, we went into the lobby area. And you could just smell that, that bleach over sanitized, smell nothing fresh, like stench in the, like the stickiness on the floor. It was like, we need to get here. Cause it's like $39, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Off the bridge. Just like, but I didn't do that. Obviously, you know, like you got so much more to live for. But I don't know if y'all got faith in you, but they say the good little room, putting that thing in, you don't believe you can handle it. Right. You know? And I got it all at once. Mm-hmm. I got a lot here once. My restaurant closed, you know, shortly after, you know, the accident. Yeah. You know, my company closed after 23 years that I was at full pension, all the stuff I'm doing. Your car accident. I'm like barely functional. Yeah. You know nothing. Yeah. Like you came from not knowing nothing. And so when you go on through this stuff, you're like, how much more can I handle? Bill's this tight, everything's tight. You're just trying to figure out like, what can I do at this point? Mm-hmm. You know, my business partner had stole so much money from me during the restaurant that when I closed, I was upside down. Right. We're making a half a million dollars a re-year. And I'm upside down and dead when you're thinking you got money. Right. And you find out, cause we took the account, he was doing the account and we find out he was transferring the money, so you don't see it on the bank statement the same way. And he was transferring it online from the company account directly into his bank account. So that if, like I'm not a bank person, so I don't know how to do it. Right, you're like, you literally was the one, still this one, go to the cat, he's the type that still to this day will go to the ATM or to the bank to check his balance. So he was able to just fund all that money, fund all that money and it was messed up. So, like, again, you just got all this, but it's like, all these things compound, teenage, youth, whatever. And it's just like, still like for me, outside looking in, like seeing it all, it's like, we can take touch points from the conversation of like, I remember this, okay, now I see how it allows you to grow from it and then how it impacted you and made you change now. And then again, you got another wave that comes at you. This is like different things. So it's dope to see you like get through it and then like find ways to, you know, still be saying coming out of it. It's tough. But again, if y'all seen any part of the early part of what I said, when I'm going through it and it's easy for me to go, it's weird because you don't even know it happens. But it's weird how some days when like, I'm having a crappy ass day or whatever. And then you'd be like, what are you doing? You'll just hit me or it takes me out of clear blue. Like, what's going on? Like, how nothing, what's up? You're like, oh, I got food. You want to go eat or you want to do this? And I'm like, yeah. Like, get me away from all this right now. Yeah. So it's one of those things like you don't never know. Like, again, you guys got family. You brighten a person's day. You take that moment in time. And it just makes it better. It makes you like, okay, this is what I'm living for. This is what I'm trying to do. And you know, you get that little reward. Sometimes you pay for lunch or I pay for lunch. It's not about who paid for it. It's about the time we got to spend. And so we get that moment in time. It's like, man, I needed that. You know, to have that conversation or whatever, you know, catch up on your day or catch up on my in the same thing with my daughter as well. So, you know, sometimes you do the same thing that I have you ate, you know, because y'all know of me. I'm like, I can get up in the morning and I'll work all day. I'm like, oh, it's 10 o'clock at night. I haven't ate today. So I'm one of those people. So yeah, I'll say, you did this, you did that. Nah, I haven't done that, whatever. Okay. So like, for me, that's my escape a lot of times. And am I looking for it? No, does it happen at the oddest times and be one of the best times? Yes. You know, so I enjoy it. You know, y'all got parents or whatever, take the time to go spend time with them. Definitely, you know. Yes, it's crazy the way life is set up. Like, it's hard to like, I don't know if you say entertain everybody or whatever you want to call it, but just be with everybody. So it's like, whenever somebody's on your mind, you gotta just like hit them in the moment. Whether that's like more often than not or less than somebody wants it to be at the same time, if they can appreciate that like, you're still trying to reach out whenever you can, I feel like that's the most important thing too, because I know a lot of people could be like, well, I still don't hit them enough or I don't do this, I don't do that. Or they can make you feel bad for not hitting them enough. But it's like, some people don't even get to like, oh, I only hit them three times. It's like, some people don't even hit them one time. Right. So it's like, they gotta appreciate that you did hit them three times. Three times is huge, you know? Like everybody, life gets in the way. Yeah. Like we have so much stuff going on. You, you know, we all do, you know? And sometimes it'll be meetings or sometimes it'll be editing or whatever the case may be, the dog is sick or whatever, he gotta do this, groom it. Life gets in the way, but it's kind of dope. Like you can take a moment and go, hey, I'll see you, you know what I mean? And I'm not saying, I'm not saying I don't see my son. Y'all, I see my son a lot. All over the internet. Hey, real quick, I remember one time he was a kid and we were at the store. I think I told you just, we were at the store and one of my friends go, hey man, that's your son. And I was like, yeah, man. You know, we halfway dressed alike doing our thing. And he goes, man, that's kind of dope. You out with your son. And he goes, I ain't seen mine in months. And you was like, looking at him like, you ain't seen your son in months? You're like, that don't even make sense. Cause we together, you know, at that time, he was living at the house and so we was together every day. You know, when I went to go hoop all the time, you'd be at the gym, you know? And so everybody else was taking, they wouldn't take their kids, they'd take them to babysitter. I'm like, you going to the gym? Right. Like you going with me? I think I'll get it in. So anyway, not to bore y'all with that stuff, but it's again, like I said, take the moment in time with people when you can. Cause you know, obviously no day is promised, but every day works out and it be a good thing. So all right, we can continue to go on forever. 90 emotional shit. I mean stuff. We can go on forever and ever about a bunch of different topics. So if you guys again, you guys already, for those that are subscribed, you've seen them on the channel. It was only right that we, you know, got a podcast episode with him, especially since the podcast is new. Got some little fire around questions for you and then you got to rapid fire and then we got the last statement for him. So first question, what is the greatest sneaker of all time? The greatest sneaker of all time. Bread 11 to me. Bread 11, interesting. So Henry said Jordan 11 is on the last one too. That's interesting. Okay, I thought you were going to say Air Force One. For me to wear. But the bread 11, to me, go, I feel it. Okay, so out of all the sneakers that you have in your collection, which one would you wear for like the rest of your life? Like it's like, I can only wear one shoe. This is what I'm wearing. I'm horrible. Air Force One all black. All black? I've got a lot of whites because they get messed up or faster. You could say a valid reason why it's smart to have a pair of all black forces. I get it. I don't know if I'll let you pass, but I'll just wear it. I've been wearing them lately in the ladies' set. I don't trust you. Did you get it all black at Air Force One? Oh, that's funny. That's funny. Okay. How many pairs of shoes do you have in your collection? About 85. You sure? You got to be over 100 right now. Okay, 110. But you might be 150. 150? I think you might be over 100. No, but I'll be wearing my shoes and then I lose count. Okay. Okay. So last question. If you had tip or advice to your young self that you would give to the audience now, what would you say? If I had to tell my young self, what would I say to my young self? Don't change. I'd tell people don't change. When I say that, of course you're gonna evolve, right? But be who you are. In the moment, be who you are. Don't allow somebody else to change you to be something you're not. And not your dog. Be who you are. Allow people to accept you for who you are. You're gonna grow into who you are every day and be a different person 20 years from now. You don't wanna be the same thing as 17 as 50. But don't change a lot. And the reason why I'm saying this is because the worst thing to do is to wake up one day and then you've changed so much. Trying to make somebody else happy, you're not you and you're not happy with you. Okay, I like it. I think that's a good one. So we ended off with make sure you guys subscribe. If you guys enjoy this, share it to your friends, hit that like button. And we got plenty more episodes coming. Appreciate you guys. If you guys have any questions for me, ask me. We'll talk about it later. Yeah, and if you guys wanna check out his channel, go check out his channel as well. I'll link that at the end of the video or down below in the description. We gotta find some new creative ways to get him some videos up because he is not good when it comes to actually creating the videos in most of them. He was my editor. You all have to understand, he's too big now so he can't edit for me no more. Yeah, we'll figure it out. All right, you guys, I'm out. All right, I'm here for editor. You're right. Hey, if y'all wanna edit for me, let me know and we'll get it set up. All right.