 Now, I'm Ms. Mila, Muhammad-e-la wa-salaatu wa-as-salam, Shebrava Amir. I'd like to welcome y'all to the Perspective Podcast. Now, the Perspective Podcast is where we engage in intimate, intricate, and even controversial conversations without any judgment. Just our perspective, our view, our opinion. And hopefully, the listener, the watcher, could take away some benefit from the discussion. So without no further delay, I want to introduce somebody very, very special to me. Since I met him, his passion for the things he loved has been unmatched. And although the environment we live in, the society we live in, a lot of times, those passions can get misinterpreted and sometimes even overlooked. So with no further delay, my brother. Love you to death, bro. You know that. Like cook food and all that good stuff. Yes, sir. Steven Jackson, Stack Five, also known as Umer, for my brother in this land. How you doing, Al? It's mandatory I be here the first episode. Umer Al-Farouk is my name that you gave me. So it's mandatory that I be here to open this episode with you. And I'm honored to be here, bro. It's only right. So listen, I just want to cut right in it because you know me and you, we always talk offline. Yes. And even though we might joke a lot sometimes, we always get to that point where we engage in serious conversations about things that not only impact us, but pack the lives around us. And I think it's only right that I initiate this conversation about giving you flowers. Because since I came home, I've definitely encountered a lot of people who play a significant role in my life, prior to Islam, prior to the music business, streets, whatever the case may be. But a lot has a very unique way of putting certain people in your life that add to that list. And I definitely would say, by far, you're one of those individuals. Since I met you, it's like I said, your passion for the things you love, the things you care about, you know what I'm saying? Your stance on those things is unwavering. And I know a lot of times you might get into some messy disputes with individuals, defending your honor, defending the honor of your family, and all those things. I always saw it as a form of nobility. So I want to get right into the state of the youth because it's something that I know you invested in. And I think a lot of people don't understand that we have our obligation as elders, saying to leave some gems behind, to leave some guidance behind, saying to establish some type of rapport and actually bridge the generational gap. So you've done a lot of charity work that slides right by, nobody notices it. But I notice it because I'm in that space as well. I know that you'll visit any friend or anybody that asks for your aid and assistance and a heartbeat. You just recently displayed that with the passing of our brother Gilly, his son, saying young cheese, may Allah have mercy on him. And that was very big for you to step away from money, opportunities, to ring side one of the biggest fights of our generation. Just to aid and assist another man in his time in need. So inshallah to Allah, I just want to know, how was that experience in Philly? Philly was a great experience. But before I've answered that question, let me give you a follow-up. It's very few people, when I took my Shahada, that embraced me and didn't judge me. I think what made my walk and my journey in Islam a little better and what's making it easier is having people like you around me that don't judge me, to understand I'm not perfect, to understand it's a marathon and not a sprint. And you've been telling me that from the jump. So at times, it has been frustrating with so many people telling me what to do and what not to do and coming down on me. But I wouldn't be more happier to say I'm a Muslim today if I didn't have people like you in my life. So thank you. I think for me, we all have a duty, bro, for what I've overcame for the things that I was able to slide through in life and to be here today, to be able to give anything back positive is a blessing. I said, and I chatted with him earlier, the favor of our lives undefeated. Absolutely. You know what I'm saying? And that's why I feel it's mandatory for me to always keep my heart in the right place and to always feel like, yeah, I might not be perfect, but I know the things that I speak on, I'm speaking from experience and I'm speaking to help, not to demean or hinder anybody. And a lot of times, the real experience that we try to share, it might offend people because a lot of people are not strong enough to go through those things and still keep going. Absolutely. So some people might take it as an insult, but I think at the end of the day, we need to have conversations like this because a lot of people might not understand, but I care what people think. Not to the fact where it's gonna determine how I move in my life, but I care about what people think because just like you say, a lot of people are looking at my opinions and using it and the things I say as for advice, as for guidance and stuff like that. So I have to scroll back on some of the things I say and the way I look at things because I wanna be that light to people. I love the fact that people are on my page to see what I'm gonna say about certain situations. I never thought I would be that person at 45 when I was a teenager. I never could see the things where I'm at now. So the favor I'll allow will take you some places that you never thought you would be, bro. So I'm embracing it and I'm just trying to be the best at it. I don't know, I don't have all answers. It's not a playbook, you know what I'm saying, but I'm just trying to keep my heart right and just do the best I can. Definitely. I remember like, you took me to a few rallies, revolved around, and I like to say this with contentment, the murder of George Floyd. So that's exactly what it was. Yeah, exactly what it was. And I think that your stance on that unofficially put you at the helm of this generation of civil rights movement. And I remember we had a conversation, bro. I was like, yo, bro, let me ask you a question. Remember, I was like, yo, let me ask you a question. You put it in perspective, though, to me right there, too. Yeah, I said, look, man, you might have, I said, you put an individual who's in the biggest gang in America behind bars. And I asked you, like, yo, you don't, like be paranoid, like, you don't be paranoid? Like, you know, cause it's like, if you didn't take your stance, and the law knows best, it probably wouldn't be murals for George Floyd in Japan or wouldn't be, you know what I'm saying, his name being mentioned in the capacity in which it was mentioned. Cause I mean, this stuff happened in our communities. As long as we've been breathing, you know? And that right there intrigued me the most about you because you did it from an organic state. Because normally when we try to mobilize against certain things that impact us as a culture, as a people, you have a lot of opportunities. And they kind of feed off of those who are organic and sincere. And they just kind of swoop in and become the unofficial leaders or black leaders of these movements that become established by the present generation. So for you, you know, to take that stance, that was one of the things that intrigued me. And that's why I know like you, you know, your genuineness and your sincerity when it comes to dealing with these affairs. I watched you weep more than any person, you know what I'm saying? That I know that, you know, has certain things going on for them in their life. If you know what I'm saying? Like certain people, they reach certain accolades in life and they become numb. They become, you know, oblivious to certain emotions and, you know, certain things that transpire, you know, in society. But for you, like I always seem like in a heartbeat. Like if something reach your heart, man, it's like, you know, it manifests your body language, you know, your speech and so on and so forth. So when I asked you about the state of the youth, I guess let's just cut right into it because it's something that kind of bothered me, you know, when you visited Old Block. Now, me, like yourself, I always try to have balance when dealing with the youth because you have to have a balance of being an elder and at the same time being viewed and received as a peer, you know, and like a lot of the talks that I give around the world, I always look at myself like, man, I'm almost 50 years old and these kids still look at what I accomplished in the past and view me as one of their peers. And that's something unique. They're only a lot to provide a person with that type of, you know what I'm saying, gravity to the youth of this generation to where they look at the elders and we're approachable. They can talk to us and they can say things that they wouldn't say even to their peers. So when I seen you, you know, in the basketball court and, you know, you were just, you know, mixing with the youth, like you was one of them. And immediately, you know, saying like the backlash. And I was like, man, it's upon a lot. Me knowing you, I'm like, ah, man, I don't know how a bro gonna handle this one. Checking in with the youngsters, checking in with the youngsters. Yeah. And then people like, you know what I'm saying, my generation, we knew what that meant. It wasn't like we was paying no tax to be there. Never. Yeah, it wasn't none of that. It's like, look, checking in, it's like checking in. I'm checking to see how you're doing. And you know, you know where we from, bro. And to go back to what you said, I get it because I love, well, I respect Loong, but I love and respect Amir. It's a difference. So I get what you're saying. You know what I'm saying? I get what you're saying. But like for me, where I come from, I never seen a professional athlete or anybody successful walking my neighborhood. Where I can see, okay, that's somebody that made it through. I can touch him, I can see him. I've never seen that. So I always said, and I've always, I always said when I was growing up, like, I wish NBA player could come into my neighborhood. I wish somebody successful would come so I could see his real, so I can touch him. And like, you know, I can, so in every city I go to, I try to find some way to interact with the areas where we from. Absolutely. Because I know people don't go there. The whole thing is for us to be successful and they want to brainwash us to not go back to give the people the game on how we made it. Absolutely. They want everybody to stay just basically blind to the fact of what you have to do and how easy it is to be successful. And I took an opportunity with somebody from Chicago, Wilbino. We were hanging out. We were sitting in the lobby, we were sitting in the lobby at the hotel doing the big three week. And I was like, you know what, bro? I want to go by oblock. Like, bro, it's two, three in the morning. I'm like, bro, I want to go to oblock. I ain't worried about no human being. I got the protection of our lot. I want to go because my purpose of going, we going to be all right. I'm not going for the wrong reasons. Y'all going to see when I get there, right? So, and this, and I'm glad you asked me this question, bro, because this is a lot of stuff that people don't even know about this. So as I was there, you know, I played basketball and it's four in the morning. I'm shooting basketball with them, having conversations with them, stuff that they never thought an NBA player would do. I'll pull up. And a lot of stuff that wasn't posted. No, the only thing that was posted was the nonsense. Absolutely. You know what I'm saying? And, you know, I take the good with the bad. You know that, bro. I wear everything on my chest, but I built a relationship with a young kid there. For some reason, as soon as I got out of the car, he was following around, stayed on my hip. So, you know, something touched me that, man, let me take care, let me take your number. I see something in you. I want to give you an opportunity to see something different. Stayed in contact with him, ended up getting shot. I've been talking to him, sending him texts, messages, you know, talking about, man, you need to get a, excuse me, let me stop. I even went on Instagram and tried to find somebody to help me get him an ID, because he was in Chicago. And a lot of people reached out because I was trying to get him an ID so I could fly him out the L.A., bring him to all the smoke, try to show him something different. He ends up getting shot. Caused me for about three, four weeks, sending him his mama money, taking care of him. Nobody knows this. Not nobody in the O-Block sending the money. This is me taking care of him. I didn't grow up with this kid. I don't even know his last name. You know what I'm saying? But he just gravitated to me and it felt like it was my duty to try to help him. Get him, get through the hospital, help him, you know, heal up, feed his family and all that. As soon as he gets out of hospital, he gets charged for murder. So my thing is like, yeah, I helped this kid, but it comes to a fine line with me because he hurt a family too. You see what I'm saying? Whether he's charged or not, whatever situation they put him in, I can't be behind that. You know what I'm saying? So one thing about me is I'm willing to help everybody. But if you're not willing to help yourself, I got it back away. And a lot of people don't know that the whole reason for me going to O-Block was for me to try to build a relationship with somebody that didn't see if I could help somebody because I understand how they never see success or somebody like us in real time. And you know what? I felt like I didn't have to explain that, bro, because a lot of people like you and others, real ones, they understood why I went there. You know, checking in, I love to check in with people. And I don't mean it as far as, like you said, where I'm looking for it, paying them to make sure I'm safe. I have people that love me in every city I go to, so I don't respect. I've been with you, and look, you know what's so funny? This is the funniest thing ever because I'll be out with you and it's like, yo, ah, they see you and it's like, yo, can you take a picture? And they'll pass me the phone. Yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? And then while they're sitting there, they be like, oh, man, I gotta get a picture of you too. And with Lawi, yo, I've never been put in the position because I've always been on the opposite side of the camera. But being with you, it never struck for a moment that this is something degrading. I'm like, man, it's good to see people who come from where we come from, reach that level where you love them, receive, not only by your own, because I mean, people are all racist ethnicities, saying, walk up to you. And they love and revere you. They love what you're doing, you know what I'm saying? And even though a lot of times, I be sitting and making a do all that, yo, bro, please don't, I'll be sitting before you even sitting, I'll be like, yo, please don't answer that. I'll be like, yo, next thing you know, here we go. But let's get into perspective. So based on, you know, these efforts you put forth, what do you think as far as us, you know, who are older and we entrusted, you know, with a responsibility to look out for the generation, you know, that's present. What do you think should take place with individuals who have the capacity, the ability, the means to assert themselves in a manner that will help reshape the way a lot of these young kids think, the way they behave, and truthfully how they dream, you know? I think the best way to answer that is first, everybody gotta put their egos aside and understand that it's enough out here for all of us. That's the biggest thing, but for me, I think a lot of stuff can easily be done. We have so many people that point and say, why him and not me, you got those people. Then you got so many people that think because they have success that they're better than the next. So that's what, and then you got people like me and you, we've been to the top, we've been to the bottom, but we know how to be the same person whether we're at the top or at the bottom. A lot of people don't know how to do that. So I think that's what's making it hard for the ones that's in the middle to bring both sides together because they're too busy in competition. I think too many people listen to respond and not listen to comprehend. Yeah, yeah. I think one thing that I learned from you as far as, you forced people to listen, but not been listening the way we understand because of your demeanor. Yeah. So I can, it's been many times where I pulled up on you, turned up by the hour I'm with you, I'm like, yeah bro, you know what I'm saying? You done brought my whole, you know what I'm saying? You done brought my whole and I didn't calm down. I didn't see if things a little different, but as men we gotta be able to still be open to learn from each other. Absolutely, I agree. We gotta be able to put our pride aside and say, you know what, I was wrong, you're right. Yeah. And once we get to that point, we're not in competition and we understand that we can gain something from each other and of course it's not rocket science, we stronger together. Absolutely. But the jealousy and the backstabbing and the trying to get ahead feeling you gotta demean the next to get ahead, that's really what's causing a big problem with us getting a hold of the youth because the ones that's telling them that they need to demean the next to get ahead are the ones that's looking like they haven't success and looking like their life is great, you know what I'm saying? So they really believe in that because they don't have people from the other side that's made success and that's having success and has been consistent with longevity coming back to tell them, no that's not, that might look good, but that's not it, right? So it's hard because we don't have everybody on the same page and there's too many people in competition. Now I agree. It's a statement that a law makes in the Quran. He says, He says, A law will not change the good condition of a people until they change the good condition of their self. And you said this early about, your willingness to help somebody, If they're not willing to help themselves, then it becomes a wasted effort. And I don't want to necessarily say a wasted effort, but it becomes a tainted effort, because you're trying to cut through certain things that ain't in place in order for whatever effort to resonate and take some type of form. So for me, since I've been home, I've learned that a lot of us as elders, we don't listen and we don't ask the right questions. Now one thing in your appearance, so you know, kids ask the most upfront questions. They don't have no cut, no chaser, right? And then when you explain something to them, they always double back with why. And a lot of us, we ain't prepared for those simple three letters, like why? Cause we think that what we tell them, they supposed to just digest it, you know, and there's no reciprocation of what's being explained. So what I've learned for us being elders, we exercise more of the authority or seniority that we think we have over the youth and we don't level out and talk to them in a manner where you have a genuine understanding of where they coming from. Some of the things they lack. And sometimes a good old fashioned hug, you know, some people don't even reach out and just hug these kids. Cause us as men, we know, I've seen this like floating through the internet was, it was a post where they asked, you know, men, like whenever you in a dark place, like who do you turn to? How many lot we Muslim we turn to a lot? But for the average individual, the average man that walks this planet, he feels he doesn't have no one to turn to. Because as men, we feel like we support the shoulder, everything. Guess what? The youth is the same way. They run around feeling like they have to shoulder all this. And if they express it becomes a sign of weakness. And that sign of weakness can lead to them being prey. And all of these things we don't take in consideration, we approach them. And one other thing I want to touch based on is like the mixed messaging. You know what I'm saying? A lot of mixed messaging. You telling the young boy like, yo, shorty, I bet that cat you spoke it. He looking at you like, come on, man. How important to make sense of that? You know what I mean? Like what's that mean? You know what I'm saying? Don't smoke, that's not what you. Or smoke when I become like you. Or it's mixed messaging. Can't make it make sense. Can't make it make sense. You know what I'm saying? So it's interesting to know that a lot of us out there, and I look at a lot of people who are in positions of influence, definitely trying to put forth good efforts to reach the youth. Sometimes we may stoop a little too low and not bring them up. But as you mentioned collectively, it's definitely a necessity. Because if a kid is searching for answers and they go to two, three, four different sources and they get consistency, they'll know that that particular advice they received in those particular areas, that's it. But if I can go talk to him, get one perspective, talk to him, he's lenient, talk to him. He's not even trying to correct nothing. He's just basically like whatever you want to do. You don't know what to believe. Yeah, not only that. He gonna lean to what's more convenient. So you know, is this saying a lot of older guys like, yo, now I'm out the way. I hate this statement. Yo, yo, now I ain't mess with them young boys. I'm out the way. I'm out the way. No, you need to get in the way. You're supposed to be getting in the way. You know what I'm saying? Because we grew up in communities where you have more than just your parents. They got in the way regardless. Yeah, listen. You have more than just your parents. Whoever your mother and father cool with, they got a permission. Everybody on 18th street, everybody on 17th street and everybody across the tracks got permissions to whip us and bring us home. That's right. And that's about 70 household. No question. Hey look, I done been to heavy rotation. I ain't gon' lie to you. I've been on the West Side. You've been to my grandmother's house. So you see what it's like over there. Yeah, definitely. I've seen it. You know, the grills be out. That's something going down. There's gonna be some burnt burgers and fries and all that. They come out. So yeah. I also wanted to ask you, you know, and this is like, because you know, you definitely in the space, you know, where you rub shoulders. Go back to the question though. Which one? About how I mislead with the weed. Oh yeah, okay. Yeah, go back to that. That's who he was. All right, cool. All right, so yeah, so my question to you is, you know, do these mixed messages play a very significant role in a confusion that's already in place? And do we add to that confusion by putting out these mixed messages? You know, I think for me, for me I always like to lead by example. So it's easy for me to explain it because nine out of 10 times, I know you didn't grow up like me, right? So it's a difference between being something you not or being in a situation where this all, you got to make a choice and this is what's given to you, right? They have more of a choice now. Yeah. They have access to social media. Oh man. Financial literacy. We didn't have none of that. None of that. We didn't know what people in the next state was doing. You can find all that now. You can see what anybody doing in a whole other countries. You can be, you can see anything and learn anything from the internet. We had none of these things. Man, you be playing Call of Duty. Yes, yes. You got kids. They got friends in Australia. We got friends. It's never been there. Chody, we got friends that we met. And yo, shout to Chody at their bed. We got friends on the game. We had access to so much more than we had access to. We had to go outside and figure it out. Yeah. For years, just go outside. Y'all need to be in the house. Just go outside. And we had to figure it out. So I think when you have guys like us where we can teach from example, then it shouldn't be a situation where you do as I do instead of doing as I say. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? So I think for me, I'll make it clear. I didn't, what I do now, or if I do do cannabis, that has nothing to do with my success. Yeah. So I don't, that's one thing I always say, the things I do, if I do talk about it, that's not the reason why I'm successful. Yeah. I always go back to the favor of our lie. That is the only reason why I'm here. I got hit by a car, knocked all my teeth out, had plastic surgery on my lips for two hours with no anesthesia. I'm talking right now, being able to talk with my face together because of the favor of our lie. So I'm not perfect, but I know in my heart that I lead in the right way, and I always tell them do as I say and not as I do because our lives and the circumstances and the way we grew up are different. Yeah, a lot of preserving, right? Love you, bro. You know that. It's crazy, man, because when I look at the violence, you know, when I was in the music business, and this is just to give contrast, because you already know I haven't listened to music in almost 15 years. And even when I was in prison, we used to have access to a lot of things. And I used to watch the young boys looking at world star because you got to have headphones in prison. Like the TV is not loud. It's like everybody that wanted tuning got to have headphones. So I used to just be able to sit there without listening to anything going on. I used to ask myself, yo man, if I see another video with a whole gang of kids with no shirts on with assault rifles, with a rave parked in front of a house smaller than the rave, this type of imagery, you know what I'm saying? I used to be looking at it like, yo, this can't be good. And I'm out the loop. I'm a throwback. I could say that with pride. Like it doesn't bother me. Like I'm officially old school. You know, and I used to look at this stuff and I'm like, man, we was trying to show people waterfalls for railing and snooping Brazil. Like we was trying to, the best way we knew how to give messaging that gave hope, you know what I'm saying? Show the good life. Inspired, you know what I'm saying? Aspirations and dreams that listen, man, a passport will take you further than a driver's license. We was trying to show these things. So now, you know, I've missed that gap. And the reason why I'm asking you this because you've been here, you've still been in the trenches. You've still been in the fight. You've been able to be present during this transition. My question to you is like, where did everything go wrong? Like where did all this go? I think it went wrong when there was making millionaires out of people that didn't earn it or didn't work for it. When they found a way to benefit all for culture and basically just using people as pawns and basically, you know, just using people as not really pawns but just putting them in situations to basically ruin themselves and benefit from it. When they found out that, perfect example, Nike. Nike fired Kyrie and got rid of him for being a free thinker. But John Moran can wave guns around and we still gonna put your shoes out. So you saying it's cool to wave guns but it's not cool to think for yourself. So that's where we at. They throwing money around to be a dumb nigger, excuse my friends, but they throw money around to be that but they won't throw you, they taking away education. They taking black history out of schools. So it's easy to see what they doing, bro. And it's easy to see why they giving uneducated, unproven people money because it's not for them to be successful and to create generational wealth. It's for them to continue the nonsense that they doing to make money or also to continue to exploit our talents and be culture vultures because the uneducated is not trying to educate themselves on why they giving them this money. Give it to me. I don't care why you giving it to me. Just give it to me so I can go buy 30 guns or a couple of cars and put all drugs on my homeboys. So and that's what they think success is. So it goes back to we need the people that's having success, that's standing on morals, that's solid people, that's never changed who they are to come back and show these kids that's not success. You know, that's temporary and you're going nowhere fast. It's like everybody talk about having motion. Well, I think I consider that motion is running in place. They're not going nowhere. So let me ask you this. So if a young kid was to approach you right now and ask you to define what success, what advice would you give them? Success to me is being able to put my family in a better position and when I go home, I'm treated like I took care of the whole family. That's success to me. When I go home and all my family is my aunts ask me do I want something to eat or when my grandmother was living, she just sit there and don't fix nobody's food. But the fact that I built that house, as soon as I walk on the door, she running to fix my plate. Like the fact, the way I'm revered by my family and appreciated by my family about making them proud and doing the things I do, what they can rely on me, what I can pick somebody up in my family, somebody fall, somebody need money to go to college. I can be that person. The way I'm revered for my family is how I feel I'm successful. Family is important. Family is extremely important. I just spent nine years in a federal prison away from my family. You couldn't tell. Yeah, and that's the thing. It's crazy to say that because a lot of people just see that I came home and I was able to get re-acclimated. But had it not been for my family, had it not been for that structure, had it not been for that support, because I learned that being incarcerated is the closest thing to being dead. Because even a person like myself, when it first everything took place, I spent my first six months in Belgium. So the letters was abundant. Especially when I got state signed, I was in the Fed. I used to go, they used to call me mail call shorty. Every time mail call visits, people used to see that this guy here has a support system. I definitely believe family is extremely significant to success. But also you and I know, I know it's in your heart, but it's Muslims. The true success is what Allah has prepared for the believers in the end. So we strive for that. We try to make the most of this life because we know this life is temporary. But the conclusion and what follows, the state that we end when that occurs is going to determine the true success. But it's important for these kids that have hope and understanding that there is a way. Is there is a way to escape from these harsh realities that are in the cities of America? It is an escape from having, seeing darker complexion skin than some of your counterparts or whatever the case may be. There is success in your talent and all of the things or capabilities or abilities that you have that those things can be put to good use and you can extend the courtesy and pull other people out of those dark spaces. So I just wanna say, bro, you know, for the first show, like this is, this is, this was beautiful, you know? This is beautiful. Don't be like that for me here, bro. Yeah, cause it's like, you know, we do this all the time. And it's important for people to see that no matter what level we are, or whatever level is perceived. Proceed, we're on the same level. We're on the same level. We have the same aspirations. We have the same goals. We have the same attachment to the things that have true value and that's family, loved ones, never severing the ties of your kinship. You know what I'm saying? Treating your fellow man with the same respect that you would like. All of these moral things, you know what I'm saying? So hopefully the takeaway from this conversation is that there's only one level, you know? And if we look at each other on that level, we'll have no problem seeing eye to eye on a lot of things and we won't always be in disagreements. And when you weigh those things out, you'll see that we agree more than we disagree. Way more. You know, and at that point, we have to be real with ourselves and accept what's evident is that we have a commonality. We have a common objective. And I think that, inshallah, you know, we gonna make it. We gonna be all right. We gonna make it. So many people ask me why I'm why my heart is so big and why I do the things that I do. And I tell them, it goes back to what you said. I wake up every day to show Allah two things. One, I deserve everything He blessed me with and where I'm trying to get. It has nothing to do with no human being. When I give or when I do it's from my heart. It's because I know where I wanna be at the end. And I know that the lot of things that I'm blessing with, I don't deserve because I'm no different than the next. But I'm thankful for them and I'm gonna continue to be appreciative and live my life to show them I deserve it. So that's just how I continue to be, man. I think that'll work for everybody. If you live your life to know where you wanna be in the end and to live your appreciation to show them daily that you appreciate the breath of air. You appreciate the person next to you that can pick you up. The hug that if you appreciate all those little things it'll be easy for you to reach success because the benefits of being real so beneficial. I say that all the time. Me treating people the right way. Me treating the janitor like I treat the boss is the reason why I'm successful. The reason why I'm getting pulled in so many directions and getting opportunities because I always treated the people with the same respect I wanted and that'll get you a long way. Nah, I'm Bismillah. Alhamdulillah wa s-salatu wa s-salam. On today's episode, we touch base on a lot of things. And I think that the takeaway is that this definitely hope for the youth of this generation. And I think that many of us who are elders in positions of affluence, we have to utilize those tools and those abilities to invest in the future of this generation because without them there is no future. We had our shot. We had our chance. So anybody out there trying to chase the last little bit of hip hop, they got left, lo and behold, there's a kid out there who's yearning for guidance, yearning for understanding, want to be told or acknowledged for the things that he do right and that constantly being bombarded about the things he's doing wrong. There's a certain balance that comes with the integrity of men. And in order to instill that in this generation, we have to be just that. We have to be men. I want to thank my guests, Stephen Jackson, AKA Stack Five, AKA my brother in this land, Erumal Farouk for joining me on the perspective podcast. Like, share, but more importantly, comment. I'm very interested to know how you feel and what's your perspective. Bartokalawfi.