Latest / The Breakfast Club / INTERVIEW: Shyne Talks New Doc 'The Honorable Shyne;' Prime Minister of Belize, Diddy; Incarceration, Rap + More

Transcript

INTERVIEW: Shyne Talks New Doc 'The Honorable Shyne;' Prime Minister of Belize, Diddy; Incarceration, Rap + More · The Breakfast Club

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Wake that answer up in the morning.
• 0:02
  Speaker 2: Breakfast Club Morning, Everybody's DJ Envy Jess hilarious, Charlamagne the guy.
• 0:09
  Speaker 3: We are the Breakfast Club. You got a special guest
• 0:11
  Speaker 3: in the building.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Yes, indeed you have Shine.
• 0:13
  Speaker 3: Welcome brother.
• 0:14
  Speaker 4: I'm so happy to be here, happy to have you
• 0:16
  Speaker 4: here in the morning. I feel great. Hello Brooklyn, Hello
• 0:20
  Speaker 4: New York City, and hello Blease.
• 0:23
  Speaker 5: Last time I saw you, I think it was the
• 0:24
  Speaker 5: first time I ever met you. I believe was ter
• 0:27
  Speaker 5: South Carolina. Yes, right, it was the grand opening the
• 0:29
  Speaker 5: International African American Museum.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: We was in bourbons and bubbles together.
• 0:32
  Speaker 5: Okay, yeah right, brother Bacari Sellers Bakari, absolutely, my guy.
• 0:37
  Speaker 5: How you feeling, man, I'm feeling great.
• 0:39
  Speaker 4: You know, we got this documentary coming out on Monday
• 0:42
  Speaker 4: on Hulu, and I believe that, you know, the journey
• 0:46
  Speaker 4: that I've had a forty six years very inspirational, and
• 0:53
  Speaker 4: I believe that, you know, part of wanting to get
• 0:56
  Speaker 4: this story told now is that I have so much
• 0:59
  Speaker 4: more want to go and do. So the next phase
• 1:02
  Speaker 4: of my life is becoming the Prime Minister of Belize,
• 1:06
  Speaker 4: and that's going to be an entirely different story and
• 1:09
  Speaker 4: narrative as to how well I do as Prime Minister
• 1:13
  Speaker 4: to transform Belieze and to create greater connections with the
• 1:19
  Speaker 4: United States and all the different people I know around
• 1:22
  Speaker 4: the world and see that unfold. But you know, the
• 1:25
  Speaker 4: last forty six years have been cinematic. You know, we've
• 1:30
  Speaker 4: had tragedies, we've had triumphs, and I believe there's so
• 1:34
  Speaker 4: much to take away from that from somebody right now,
• 1:36
  Speaker 4: the young Shine that's out there, or whoever that's dealing
• 1:40
  Speaker 4: with a difficulty, you know, that's stuck, that's going through
• 1:45
  Speaker 4: the most devastating period of their lives, to understand the
• 1:49
  Speaker 4: resilience that lies within all of us. And so I
• 1:52
  Speaker 4: think it's a very timely story.
• 1:53
  Speaker 5: I've heard you say, I've heard you say that what
• 1:56
  Speaker 5: you've done since your incarceration is and has been in
• 2:00
  Speaker 5: the name of believe right, So it's kind of like
• 2:02
  Speaker 5: a two part question. I want to know what that means,
• 2:04
  Speaker 5: But I also want to know, you know, what were
• 2:06
  Speaker 5: you doing in the name of before incarceration.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: Well.
• 2:12
  Speaker 4: Before the younger Shan. You know, I wanted to be Shane.
• 2:16
  Speaker 4: I wanted to be a great musician. I wanted to,
• 2:20
  Speaker 4: you know, make my mark on the world through my music.
• 2:23
  Speaker 4: The quietest kept when I prayed. You know, I used
• 2:26
  Speaker 4: to always pray to be a billionaire. I pray because
• 2:29
  Speaker 4: I wanted to be a billionaire. I remember having this
• 2:30
  Speaker 4: discussion with my father, you know, telling him that you know,
• 2:34
  Speaker 4: what's the what's the what's your debt? You know, I
• 2:37
  Speaker 4: know some billionaire friends. It's back in like two thousand
• 2:40
  Speaker 4: and nine that you know, we'll cancel the debt of beliefs.
• 2:46
  Speaker 4: So I always thought about believes but more from you know,
• 2:50
  Speaker 4: being a great musician and then philanthropically I would be
• 2:54
  Speaker 4: able to give back. But I was thinking about, you know,
• 2:57
  Speaker 4: my art and how I can be successful. Whereas now
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: my success is becoming a politician, becoming the Prime Minister
• 3:08
  Speaker 4: in order to create policies, to create a society for beliezings.
• 3:14
  Speaker 4: That's everything I do. My success is not a documentary.
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: My success is not investments. It's not anything to do
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: with personal gain. My personal gain is how do I
• 3:27
  Speaker 4: make housing a reality as a human right for beliezings
• 3:31
  Speaker 4: that right now can't afford it. How do I make
• 3:34
  Speaker 4: you know, MSM a capital available for people who want
• 3:37
  Speaker 4: to do startups? How do I make sure that people
• 3:40
  Speaker 4: you have students and beliefs that can't afford a tertiary
• 3:43
  Speaker 4: education when they graduate high school and they're brilliant, but
• 3:48
  Speaker 4: right now, the facilities that they get for a loan
• 3:51
  Speaker 4: they have to pay immediately, Whereas if they were able
• 3:54
  Speaker 4: to pay those facilities after they got their degrees and employment,
• 3:59
  Speaker 4: that will make a world of a difference. That'll help
• 4:01
  Speaker 4: grow economy because the more skilled our people are, the
• 4:04
  Speaker 4: more they can contribute to the GDP, and GDP is
• 4:08
  Speaker 4: everything because that pays the taxes so that we can
• 4:10
  Speaker 4: guarantee the student debth loans, we can transform the public
• 4:13
  Speaker 4: health care system, and we can make housing as a
• 4:16
  Speaker 4: human right of reality, et cetera, et cetera. So that's
• 4:19
  Speaker 4: what I live for right now, and that's that's Belieze.
• 4:23
  Speaker 4: And even here talking about Belieze when I first traveled
• 4:27
  Speaker 4: to the States and today that brings so much tourism
• 4:31
  Speaker 4: to believes. And you know, even if I wasn't in
• 4:35
  Speaker 4: a political space, I'd still be doing whatever I could
• 4:39
  Speaker 4: to promote beliefe. But certainly in that political space in
• 4:43
  Speaker 4: my life period, it's all dedicated to believes.
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: I want to I want to go back if you
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: don't mind for for shine. So your mother came here
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: from Belize and you.
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: Guys moved to Brooklyn, right, and you fell in love
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: with music.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, tell us about.
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: When you started rapping and how you ran into you know,
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: Rest in Peace, Clark Catt and how that, how that
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: kind of you know, accumulated your your whole rap career
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: and why you wanted to become a rapper.
• 5:13
  Speaker 4: So, you know, my Pops was a DJ. You know,
• 5:17
  Speaker 4: my Pops was a DJ. We always that's the only
• 5:19
  Speaker 4: thing I have over him because obviously, you know, he
• 5:21
  Speaker 4: was a prime minister for three consecutive terms of retiring
• 5:26
  Speaker 4: parliamentarian for over thirty years, and I said, you know,
• 5:28
  Speaker 4: I might never be able to compare to you as
• 5:31
  Speaker 4: prime minister, but you can't compare to me as a musician, right,
• 5:34
  Speaker 4: But he was a DJ, So you know, being a
• 5:36
  Speaker 4: musician was innate. It was my DNA, my genetics, and
• 5:41
  Speaker 4: you know I listened to a lot of dance all
• 5:42
  Speaker 4: music obviously being from Belize, Uh, you know, heavily influenced
• 5:47
  Speaker 4: by you know, Shaba Ranks. That's what they used to
• 5:49
  Speaker 4: call me. My name used to be Shaba because I
• 5:51
  Speaker 4: always had the baritone, and I knew every single Shaba song.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: Did you feel intilted when they first started calling you?
• 5:58
  Speaker 4: Nah? It was.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: It was a compliment because I look, you know what
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: I mean, No, no, no, remember when Marlon Wayne did mister.
• 6:07
  Speaker 4: We gotta respect that African bro. That's right, you know,
• 6:10
  Speaker 4: you know Melani his propet. But you know, we gotta
• 6:12
  Speaker 4: respect the license. Guys. I'm yeah watching but so so yeah.
• 6:17
  Speaker 4: So music was always a part of the household. My
• 6:21
  Speaker 4: moms loved music. You know, we were poor, you know,
• 6:24
  Speaker 4: but we were determined people. And you know how in
• 6:29
  Speaker 4: the inner cities we celebrate everything. You know, Saturday, we
• 6:32
  Speaker 4: just go to my aunt's house and music would be playing.
• 6:34
  Speaker 4: And I got to thank my uncle's my uncle Newton.
• 6:37
  Speaker 4: He's in He was in Charston when I met you, uh,
• 6:41
  Speaker 4: and you know, so he was a big munic music.
• 6:44
  Speaker 4: And so I remember I came to America in eighty eight.
• 6:47
  Speaker 4: My moms came here like eighty three, and so eighty
• 6:50
  Speaker 4: eight that was big Daddy came. Ain't no half stepping,
• 6:53
  Speaker 4: that was rock Cam, I ain't no joke. That was
• 6:57
  Speaker 4: LL cool J. I'm bad. I actually bad boys comes
• 7:01
  Speaker 4: from LL COOLJ. Because you know he was, you know,
• 7:05
  Speaker 4: like one of my idols. So yeah, so you know,
• 7:08
  Speaker 4: my life was filled with music and I really took
• 7:12
  Speaker 4: it seriously, really believed that I could do it, Like
• 7:15
  Speaker 4: as I was getting ready to graduate high school, because
• 7:18
  Speaker 4: I was more of a tough guy, you know, on
• 7:20
  Speaker 4: the block, holding the block down, and you know, rappers
• 7:24
  Speaker 4: kind of looked at them like they were coring, like
• 7:25
  Speaker 4: that's not something that you wanted to be. That was
• 7:27
  Speaker 4: like we'd tell the guys here, bust a rap for
• 7:29
  Speaker 4: us and entertain us. And so I wasn't in that
• 7:31
  Speaker 4: mind space, but you know, I'd be in class and
• 7:35
  Speaker 4: just be writing raps and it just became more and
• 7:38
  Speaker 4: more of something that I thought I could do. And
• 7:40
  Speaker 4: I had gotten shot when I was like fifteen or
• 7:43
  Speaker 4: sixteen years old, like the year before I graduated high school,
• 7:47
  Speaker 4: and I made a promise to my moms that i'd
• 7:50
  Speaker 4: stopped going outside, you know, I wouldn't be involved in anything.
• 7:54
  Speaker 4: I just finished high school and I went to New
• 7:57
  Speaker 4: York Tech for like a semester before I dropped out
• 8:00
  Speaker 4: and signed the deal with Bad Boy. And that's how
• 8:02
  Speaker 4: the music thing really became my focus, because that's all
• 8:05
  Speaker 4: I was doing. I was in the house listening to music.
• 8:08
  Speaker 4: That's when Only Built for Cuba Lynx came out and
• 8:11
  Speaker 4: it was written and Ready to Die and Chronic and
• 8:16
  Speaker 4: Reasonable Doubt and Volume one and Hard Knock Life, all
• 8:20
  Speaker 4: these great albums that you know, molded in shape, you know,
• 8:24
  Speaker 4: my music career, and molded and shaped me as a
• 8:27
  Speaker 4: human being growing up at that time. But you know
• 8:31
  Speaker 4: when I used to deliver messages right around here, all
• 8:35
  Speaker 4: up and down these New York City streets as a
• 8:37
  Speaker 4: messenger boy, that's when it really intensified. You know, it
• 8:41
  Speaker 4: was like, I guess a blessing from God. I almost died.
• 8:44
  Speaker 4: I made a promise to my moms to straighten my
• 8:47
  Speaker 4: life out, and I guess that was kind of my
• 8:49
  Speaker 4: blessing because every time I would, you know, ride my
• 8:52
  Speaker 4: bicycle back to Brooklyn, by the time I got down
• 8:56
  Speaker 4: on the Brooklyn Bridge, you know, raps would just come
• 8:58
  Speaker 4: to me. And then I just developed this confidence. I
• 9:02
  Speaker 4: think really, after I got shot and I faced death,
• 9:06
  Speaker 4: even though I'd seen friends get killed and I saw
• 9:09
  Speaker 4: those things, actually having it happen to me, there was
• 9:12
  Speaker 4: nothing I was afraid of. So when I would see
• 9:15
  Speaker 4: the Street Team i'd see the Deaf Jam Street Team
• 9:17
  Speaker 4: or Loud Street Team, I'd run them down literally, you know,
• 9:20
  Speaker 4: jump off my bike and start rapping. If I got
• 9:23
  Speaker 4: into this, if I delivered a message here, I try
• 9:27
  Speaker 4: to sneak and see if I could see Charlemagne and
• 9:28
  Speaker 4: DJ Envy. I remember going to Hot ninety seven doing
• 9:31
  Speaker 4: the same thing, you know, in all the different radio stations,
• 9:36
  Speaker 4: just wrapping. And that's how it happened. You know. I
• 9:41
  Speaker 4: ran up on my brother Austin, bless him. We was
• 9:44
  Speaker 4: at the barber shop that I usually get my haircut,
• 9:47
  Speaker 4: and I wrapped for my barber. You know, if you
• 9:49
  Speaker 4: hid in the barber shop. Yes, yeah, the barbershop merciless.
• 9:55
  Speaker 4: They are ruthless, like they would literally take you out
• 9:58
  Speaker 4: the chair and be like, yo, get up o my trash.
• 10:01
  Speaker 4: Don't ever, don't ever come back to the barber shop
• 10:04
  Speaker 4: rapping that nonsense. But the barbers loved me and that's
• 10:07
  Speaker 4: how you know. That also built my confidence. So there
• 10:10
  Speaker 4: was this gentleman by the name of Austin leaving the
• 10:14
  Speaker 4: barber shop, and you know, I just willed. That's that's
• 10:18
  Speaker 4: one of the good things about this documentary. It shows
• 10:20
  Speaker 4: you how you can manifest, you know, your greatness manifest,
• 10:24
  Speaker 4: where you're going to will yourself into existence in whatever
• 10:27
  Speaker 4: space you want to be. Because I ran up on
• 10:29
  Speaker 4: Austin and it's a dangerous thing to do to people
• 10:32
  Speaker 4: in Brooklyn to run up on somebody and be like,
• 10:34
  Speaker 4: you're in a music industry. And I ran upon him
• 10:37
  Speaker 4: and I said, you know, are you in the music industry?
• 10:39
  Speaker 4: And he said yeah, And I just started spitting for
• 10:43
  Speaker 4: him and he was like, wow, hold up. And he
• 10:47
  Speaker 4: called Don Pooh, who was managing Foxy Brown, who would
• 10:51
  Speaker 4: manage b I G and my boy Manny Manny Hilly's
• 10:55
  Speaker 4: a big time movie producing la now where he was
• 10:58
  Speaker 4: managing Nicki Minaj's future Keisha Kole. And that's how it
• 11:03
  Speaker 4: all came together. You know, they call Mark Pitts and
• 11:05
  Speaker 4: and that was in like maybe August. I dropped out
• 11:09
  Speaker 4: of New York Tech, got my first check from from
• 11:11
  Speaker 4: down Pooh. I taught ten thousand dollars, like a million dollars,
• 11:14
  Speaker 4: So that was my first check.
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: Then why did you sign with bad Because at the time,
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: you know, every every label wanted to sign you. Everybody
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: offered you money, Death Jam Loud, bad Boy, I think
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: they said even Rockefeller. They all offered you money, but
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: you decided to go with Bad Boy, which which at
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: the time could have been a little weird because you
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: sounded like Big a little bit. Yeah, and you know,
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: people didn't know if that was your real voice or
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: if that was a voice that was made up.
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: But Puff was trying to replace Big, trying to find
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: another Big.
• 11:46
  Speaker 4: Right, Yeah, I mean you know I was so hot
• 11:50
  Speaker 4: that like nobody was thinking about that, you know, because
• 11:53
  Speaker 4: I really went through it. So now this is August.
• 11:55
  Speaker 4: I got with with Don poohing them. Now, I didn't
• 11:59
  Speaker 4: sign to Bad Boy until like February of ninety eight,
• 12:03
  Speaker 4: so ninety seven in August it started. But you know
• 12:06
  Speaker 4: I had rap for Park. He was like, yeah, you nice,
• 12:08
  Speaker 4: you know, but I got to teach you how to
• 12:09
  Speaker 4: make hits. That was over the phone office. Pitt's put
• 12:12
  Speaker 4: me on the phone with him. You know, I gave
• 12:15
  Speaker 4: jay Z my tape. He threw it out the window.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: Isn't true when you first made jau Athams, did the
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: others gun on him?
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah?
• 12:20
  Speaker 4: I was. I was a wild boy.
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: Why at them? Now?
• 12:24
  Speaker 4: I mean that's that's the mentality, Like, you know, we
• 12:26
  Speaker 4: street guys and you know, that's how confident I was
• 12:29
  Speaker 4: that my music was incredible and that you know, I
• 12:32
  Speaker 4: was willing to rest my life.
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: That's literally I used to used to two guns on you.
• 12:36
  Speaker 4: You know. I Well, that was that particular night I
• 12:41
  Speaker 4: had gotten shot at. There was a shootout in front
• 12:44
  Speaker 4: of Daddy's house literally like thirty days before the club
• 12:46
  Speaker 4: New York situation happened. And that and after that shootout,
• 12:51
  Speaker 4: that's that's when I started carrying because once I got
• 12:54
  Speaker 4: into the industry, I had kind of forgotten about that
• 12:57
  Speaker 4: life because you know, you in the end the street
• 13:00
  Speaker 4: like this is a fairy tale, this is a fantasy.
• 13:03
  Speaker 4: But that was like a rude awakening. You know, respect
• 13:07
  Speaker 4: to the Mafia and rock and Season everybody. You know,
• 13:11
  Speaker 4: it's all love now.
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: But that shoot out because you sounded like big.
• 13:16
  Speaker 4: You know, that's not the way that it unfolded because
• 13:20
  Speaker 4: we used to all be cool. But you know, I
• 13:23
  Speaker 4: don't know exactly what drove it, because there was a
• 13:27
  Speaker 4: point where everything was good, like we was on tour together.
• 13:30
  Speaker 4: You know, we used to hang out, but you know
• 13:34
  Speaker 4: when left, but you know we recovered that because you know,
• 13:38
  Speaker 4: when Seas came to Ryker's Allen. I took care of him.
• 13:41
  Speaker 4: You'll see all that in the documentary. He's in the documentary.
• 13:44
  Speaker 4: And it's been love ever since. When Rock, when de
• 13:47
  Speaker 4: Rock went up state, you know, made sure that you know,
• 13:52
  Speaker 4: my guys were with him.
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: Everything was good.
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: He was also telling us why you decided to go with.
• 13:59
  Speaker 4: Yeah, So so it was it was a couple of
• 14:03
  Speaker 4: months between getting with uh, you know don Pooh Manny
• 14:09
  Speaker 4: and you know I want to rap for for I
• 14:13
  Speaker 4: went to rap, you know, because we just had a
• 14:15
  Speaker 4: deal with Sony. You know, like I said, I try
• 14:17
  Speaker 4: to wrap for whole. Clau Kent, you know, took me
• 14:21
  Speaker 4: to Clarence Avon the legendary, Yes, the legendary when he
• 14:25
  Speaker 4: was the head of Motown Universal. But nothing was really sticking.
• 14:31
  Speaker 4: So like I was having these meetings, I was rapping,
• 14:34
  Speaker 4: you know, we was moving around, but you know, nobody
• 14:38
  Speaker 4: was presenting an actual deal to sign. And finally with
• 14:44
  Speaker 4: the breaking point was December when Chris Lighty invited me
• 14:49
  Speaker 4: to death cham God bless his soul, and Chris Lighty
• 14:55
  Speaker 4: put on he said, I got this new producer, Swiss Beats,
• 14:59
  Speaker 4: and he put on a Swiss Beats tape. This back
• 15:01
  Speaker 4: in the days where you know, you had to ask yeah,
• 15:05
  Speaker 4: and I wrapped over that and he went crazy. So
• 15:08
  Speaker 4: that's what I'm saying, Like nobody was talking about anything
• 15:11
  Speaker 4: other than how nice I was at that time. Like
• 15:14
  Speaker 4: everybody thought I was nice. Nobody was like, oh, you know,
• 15:17
  Speaker 4: you sound like whatever. Everybody was just like, yo, this
• 15:20
  Speaker 4: kid is incredible. So he took me into Leaw's office immediately,
• 15:25
  Speaker 4: and Leo was, you know, an Israeli voice, You're not
• 15:27
  Speaker 4: leaving here until he signed the deal. And that's when
• 15:31
  Speaker 4: it just went like wildfire. Did he flew me out
• 15:35
  Speaker 4: to Los Angeles? I think it was like the Soul
• 15:38
  Speaker 4: Train Award. It was him and j Lo at the
• 15:43
  Speaker 4: record plant. He was he was calling something came out said, listen,
• 15:49
  Speaker 4: we ain't even got to go back and forth. If
• 15:51
  Speaker 4: you want to sign to me, let's do the deal
• 15:53
  Speaker 4: right now. So he had a party at his muhulland
• 15:59
  Speaker 4: Drive mansion, and Russell le or Chris everybody came to
• 16:04
  Speaker 4: the party, and I was like, you know, I'm gonna
• 16:07
  Speaker 4: just tell him, I'm gonna just go have a little
• 16:09
  Speaker 4: meeting with them and let them know that, you know,
• 16:11
  Speaker 4: just out of respect. And I never came back because
• 16:15
  Speaker 4: I was always a businessman, and so while I appreciated
• 16:19
  Speaker 4: the magnitude of the celebrity and the power, and you know,
• 16:23
  Speaker 4: Puff was the greatest hitmaker at the time, there was
• 16:25
  Speaker 4: nothing even close to him. This is before Death Jam
• 16:29
  Speaker 4: re emerged with with whole Hard Knocked Life and DMX.
• 16:34
  Speaker 4: You know, they was cold at the time, and Puff
• 16:37
  Speaker 4: was the hottest thing on planet Earth. But you know,
• 16:40
  Speaker 4: the numbers that they were talking, you know, it was crazy, unprecedented,
• 16:45
  Speaker 4: the numbers that Death Jam was talking. So I was like, man,
• 16:48
  Speaker 4: you know, as a business there was giving me everything.
• 16:50
  Speaker 4: Like I was just making up stuff, you know, I
• 16:52
  Speaker 4: would just just test it because obviously being with Puff
• 16:56
  Speaker 4: is what I thought was the best thing. But it
• 17:00
  Speaker 4: was two the numbers they were talking that the ownership,
• 17:04
  Speaker 4: the publish and everything. Whatever I wanted, they were prepared
• 17:07
  Speaker 4: to give me. Jimmy Ivan, everybody. And so we flew
• 17:12
  Speaker 4: back to New York and I went to the Saint
• 17:15
  Speaker 4: Regis Hotel waiting for the deal to close. And I
• 17:19
  Speaker 4: woke up one day and I was like, you know what,
• 17:21
  Speaker 4: I called mak Pitts and I was like, let's do
• 17:24
  Speaker 4: the deal with Diddy and the reason I did the
• 17:27
  Speaker 4: deal with Diddy, I never forget. I had a meeting
• 17:29
  Speaker 4: with Jimmy Ivan and he said, listen, you know, come
• 17:32
  Speaker 4: to me if you want to be your own boss.
• 17:35
  Speaker 4: You know, I want self contained people. I want you
• 17:38
  Speaker 4: to have your own death row, your own aftermath. You know,
• 17:42
  Speaker 4: I don't want to micro manage you. But I knew
• 17:46
  Speaker 4: I wasn't ready for that.
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 17:48
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I was a young kid. I had a lot
• 17:50
  Speaker 4: of confidence, I had a lot of skills, right, but
• 17:53
  Speaker 4: I wasn't self contained. You know. I wouldn't even know
• 17:56
  Speaker 4: how to put the infrastructure together to run a company
• 17:59
  Speaker 4: at that time. So for me, it was about getting
• 18:03
  Speaker 4: the blueprint, getting the manual, getting the key to unlock
• 18:07
  Speaker 4: the holy Grail from someone who had it. And at
• 18:10
  Speaker 4: that time, Diddy was you know, irrefutably, you know you
• 18:15
  Speaker 4: regret that. No, no, absolutely not, because the things that
• 18:19
  Speaker 4: I learned from Diddy, as far as you know, being
• 18:25
  Speaker 4: a great performer, being a great musician, also transferred into
• 18:31
  Speaker 4: everything else that I do in life. Transferred into my resilience,
• 18:34
  Speaker 4: transferred into my confidence, into manifesting you know, my destiny,
• 18:40
  Speaker 4: into manifesting my way out of you know, challenges and
• 18:44
  Speaker 4: struggles into being an entrepreneur, into being you know, so
• 18:48
  Speaker 4: diverse with the way you look at yourself, understanding that
• 18:51
  Speaker 4: you could be at any table and that you know,
• 18:53
  Speaker 4: there are no boxes for us, especially as hip hop.
• 18:57
  Speaker 4: You know. So despite what he's going through and despite
• 19:00
  Speaker 4: what you know he has done to me in the past,
• 19:04
  Speaker 4: you know, because those things only come up now because
• 19:08
  Speaker 4: when you're telling them a story, you got to tell everything.
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: Well, I mean, it's always come up in your past
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: because we've seen that, you know. And then so you
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: signed with Diddy. Yeah, you sound like Biggie.
• 19:18
  Speaker 4: It sound like me.
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: You sound like you. People think that you sound like
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: Biggy And because.
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: I love that, you sound right, the love that you
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: thought you were going to get, I don't think you
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: first received because at first it was like, is he
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: trying to sound like Biggie? Is he doing that with
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: his voice? And I remember, you know, it was funny,
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: you know, talking to bad Boy people. They were like,
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: you know, it was hard at first with DJs because
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: it was like, a, he sounds like Biggie. But they said,
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: out of any bad Boy artist that ever would signed
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: to bad Boy, you was the only one that would
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: be there before the people that worked at the label
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: and would leave after. You would get on the phone, call,
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: call every DJ, you would go to every club, you
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: would talk to every programmer like you had everything it
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: took to be a super duper star. Sounded like yourself,
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: which you know people say, sounded like big.
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: Was that good?
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: Was that bad?
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: Was it bonus? Was it difficult? How was it getting.
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: Into the industry like that?
• 20:12
  Speaker 4: Well? Remember I didn't come into the industry like that.
• 20:15
  Speaker 4: I came into the industry with everybody wanting to sign
• 20:20
  Speaker 4: me thinking that I was that I was nice. I
• 20:25
  Speaker 4: think the entire comparisons came about because I wasn't putting
• 20:32
  Speaker 4: out music that met the benchmark of greatness and excellence.
• 20:38
  Speaker 4: And the reason I wasn't doing that is because I
• 20:40
  Speaker 4: was an eighteen year old kid who just got a
• 20:42
  Speaker 4: million dollars, you know. So I went from you know,
• 20:45
  Speaker 4: sleeping on my mom's couch. I literally never had my
• 20:48
  Speaker 4: own room as a kid, That's how poor we were.
• 20:50
  Speaker 4: My mom's never my grandmother and my aunt as most
• 20:53
  Speaker 4: immigrant people from the Caribbean do initially, and we was
• 20:57
  Speaker 4: never able to get out of that, you know. So
• 21:00
  Speaker 4: going from uh, you know, literally your couch, the living
• 21:05
  Speaker 4: room is your bedroom. I never had money to go
• 21:08
  Speaker 4: to school. I never had much to getting a million dollars.
• 21:12
  Speaker 4: I spent like the entire ninety eight just running around.
• 21:15
  Speaker 4: That's how I got the name Poe. I was actually
• 21:17
  Speaker 4: dating a woman. She was a music executive who used
• 21:21
  Speaker 4: to date Alpole, and so you know, she was the
• 21:24
  Speaker 4: one that called me autpo because you know, she thought
• 21:26
  Speaker 4: I looked like him, and you know I was wild
• 21:28
  Speaker 4: like I used to you know, do the same thing,
• 21:30
  Speaker 4: like pull up in the six hundred and just hop out,
• 21:32
  Speaker 4: just leave it in the middle of the street, like
• 21:34
  Speaker 4: I was a wild boy. I was living, you know,
• 21:37
  Speaker 4: this fantasy of a young you know, inner city youth
• 21:40
  Speaker 4: with a million dollars in an entertainment world, you know,
• 21:44
  Speaker 4: with my future in front of me that seemed you know,
• 21:47
  Speaker 4: unlimited in its potential. But I lost focus. So when
• 21:52
  Speaker 4: music did come out, it wasn't sounding the way that
• 21:55
  Speaker 4: it was supposed to sound. I keep it, you know
• 21:59
  Speaker 4: as young people's wow with you. That sounded like trash initially,
• 22:04
  Speaker 4: so so when that came out, obviously the people that
• 22:07
  Speaker 4: I didn't sign to, they wasn't happy that I didn't
• 22:09
  Speaker 4: sign to them and and you know, that's when Diddy
• 22:12
  Speaker 4: started to decline as well, because he was so hot
• 22:15
  Speaker 4: and when you when you peak, you gotta come down,
• 22:18
  Speaker 4: and his peak was like, you know, unparallel, and then
• 22:22
  Speaker 4: he started to decline. So a lot of the shots
• 22:25
  Speaker 4: and then that's when hard Knock Life came out. That's
• 22:28
  Speaker 4: when you know X came out, and it was the
• 22:31
  Speaker 4: total contrast of what Bad.
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: Boy was doing.
• 22:35
  Speaker 4: Yeah, so when y'all never forget, when you know, get
• 22:38
  Speaker 4: at Me Dog came out, that was it. That was it,
• 22:40
  Speaker 4: That was that was it for bad Boy, Like you know,
• 22:43
  Speaker 4: if you remember, like that was it. The whole the
• 22:46
  Speaker 4: whole dynamic of the music industry totally transformed into raw
• 22:51
  Speaker 4: and gritty. So a lot of the criticisms were a
• 22:54
  Speaker 4: result of that parademic shift and the result of my
• 22:58
  Speaker 4: lack of focus.
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 23:00
  Speaker 4: So I was running around driving the six hundred, driving
• 23:02
  Speaker 4: the road, Platinum ROLLI, platinum ap and living this life.
• 23:07
  Speaker 4: But I wasn't putting in the work. I wasn't disciplined,
• 23:10
  Speaker 4: I wasn't focused, and so the music that would get
• 23:14
  Speaker 4: leaked sounded like trash, and so people were like, you know,
• 23:18
  Speaker 4: come on, you know, it's trash.
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: So the rule that you were forced to sign where
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: bad boy wasn't true.
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: That was on your decision.
• 23:25
  Speaker 4: Tell you, I was in Saint Regis Hotel, listen, I was.
• 23:29
  Speaker 4: Everybody wanted to sign me. I left Puff's mansion. Deft
• 23:34
  Speaker 4: chair put me in the Peninsula Hotel and I was there.
• 23:38
  Speaker 4: We got on the plane, flew back in the same
• 23:40
  Speaker 4: regions for a couple of weeks waiting for the dealer
• 23:42
  Speaker 4: Simon and going to John McNally, you know, like every
• 23:45
  Speaker 4: week to whatever I wanted, you know, tens of thousands
• 23:48
  Speaker 4: of dollars every week waiting to sign the deal. So yeah,
• 23:54
  Speaker 4: I again, Kobe couldn't come into the league. Kobe was
• 24:01
  Speaker 4: on the bench when he came into the league, right,
• 24:04
  Speaker 4: people don't talk about that. And Kobe had Phil Jackson,
• 24:08
  Speaker 4: you know, and that's how Kobe became Kobe. So for me,
• 24:13
  Speaker 4: I wasn't ready to be, you know, a coach player,
• 24:18
  Speaker 4: and something instinctively in me told me that I wouldn't
• 24:21
  Speaker 4: have gotten that tutelage at death cham in my opinion,
• 24:26
  Speaker 4: and again, say what you want about Puff, but the
• 24:30
  Speaker 4: things that he's accomplished in music and entertainment, space and
• 24:34
  Speaker 4: in his entrepreneurship. You know, it'll be it'll live forever, right,
• 24:40
  Speaker 4: and so to get that information from the source itself.
• 24:44
  Speaker 4: And interestingly enough, even though that's why I came EGO
• 24:49
  Speaker 4: got the best of me when I when I got
• 24:52
  Speaker 4: that million dollars because I thought I was puffed. So
• 24:55
  Speaker 4: so I'm telling you there's there's stories I can't say who,
• 24:58
  Speaker 4: but there's stories like of his like main girl that
• 25:03
  Speaker 4: you know, I was dealing with because I thought, you know,
• 25:07
  Speaker 4: I was that guy. You know, I really thought it
• 25:10
  Speaker 4: was about me at the time. Yeah, in ninety eight,
• 25:13
  Speaker 4: like I got on, I got on you you know, No,
• 25:19
  Speaker 4: not her. I'm just saying, OK, all right, but not her.
• 25:23
  Speaker 4: But at the time I got on in ninety eight,
• 25:27
  Speaker 4: and instead of getting in the studio and getting the information,
• 25:32
  Speaker 4: I was living the life. And so that caused a
• 25:35
  Speaker 4: strain between him and I because he was like, like,
• 25:37
  Speaker 4: who does this kid think he is? And there's even
• 25:40
  Speaker 4: situations like with with Mace. Mace was dating the girl,
• 25:44
  Speaker 4: you know, and I started dating the girl, and that
• 25:48
  Speaker 4: caused like a big thing we had to have like
• 25:50
  Speaker 4: a family meeting, and it was like, yo, what you're doing,
• 25:52
  Speaker 4: you know, like Kobe coming to the Lakers and you
• 25:55
  Speaker 4: know you want to go after Shacks joint, Like you
• 25:57
  Speaker 4: can't do that. And that's what I was on for
• 25:59
  Speaker 4: night the eight. I wasn't focused. And it wasn't until
• 26:03
  Speaker 4: ninety nine after that same girl, this is the girl
• 26:07
  Speaker 4: that was also seeing Mace. She's you know, she's selling
• 26:11
  Speaker 4: millions of records. She had like the biggest record that year.
• 26:15
  Speaker 4: And and she said, she said, she's not listen, it's
• 26:22
  Speaker 4: a documentary. Is in the document It's in the documentary.
• 26:25
  Speaker 4: Cat can sense who it is. So and we had
• 26:30
  Speaker 4: an argument and she said, Yo, you're nobody.
• 26:36
  Speaker 3: That's you.
• 26:36
  Speaker 4: Yes, yeah, you're nobody. You ain't selling one record. You
• 26:41
  Speaker 4: think you style and you think you're that, you're nothing,
• 26:44
  Speaker 4: you haven't sold the record. And that hit me like
• 26:46
  Speaker 4: the hand of God just you know, slapped me back
• 26:51
  Speaker 4: into reality because she was she was telling the truth,
• 26:55
  Speaker 4: like what I wasn't there to date you know, R
• 26:58
  Speaker 4: and B divas and pop d is and you know, look, fly,
• 27:02
  Speaker 4: I was there to make hit records and I wasn't
• 27:05
  Speaker 4: doing that. And that shook me up. And I was like, yo,
• 27:08
  Speaker 4: a puff at all? Right? You know I carry your bags.
• 27:12
  Speaker 4: You know what, let's let's get in the studio. And
• 27:15
  Speaker 4: that's what we did. So the entire ninety nine, you know,
• 27:19
  Speaker 4: I was in the gym, I was in the studio,
• 27:22
  Speaker 4: and that's how we made Bad Boy because we were
• 27:26
  Speaker 4: we were in the Hamptons.
• 27:27
  Speaker 3: The song bad Boy Guys, the song back bad Boy
• 27:29
  Speaker 3: by the.
• 27:30
  Speaker 4: Song we We we were in the Hamptons and he
• 27:34
  Speaker 4: gave me the easy p beat and boom boom but
• 27:41
  Speaker 4: boom boom, boom boom, and he's like, yo, if you
• 27:45
  Speaker 4: could kill this, you're gone. And he's like, who's the
• 27:50
  Speaker 4: guy that goes WHOA? And I'm like, Baron Toon Levy.
• 27:56
  Speaker 4: He's like, yeah, we're gonna put him on there. Write
• 27:58
  Speaker 4: the second verse, the second verse, Puff's verse, things dragging
• 28:02
  Speaker 4: on the floor because you know he's the mink guy,
• 28:04
  Speaker 4: the fir guy.
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: And yeah.
• 28:07
  Speaker 4: So so I have no regrets about signing to Bad Boy.
• 28:10
  Speaker 4: I got everything that I came for. Didn't expect that
• 28:14
  Speaker 4: I get a ten year sentence out of it.
• 28:16
  Speaker 5: But it feels like back then, at least to me anyway,
• 28:20
  Speaker 5: if it's lootening at you talk, it felt like it
• 28:22
  Speaker 5: was more important to prove how screeched you were like
• 28:25
  Speaker 5: walking up on Jay and asking j why you still
• 28:28
  Speaker 5: got your gun? Getting in the shootouts with Junior Mafia.
• 28:31
  Speaker 5: I don't know, it didn't feel like you were Anybody
• 28:34
  Speaker 5: was focused on rap back then. It was by like
• 28:35
  Speaker 5: who's can be the toughest.
• 28:37
  Speaker 4: Well, I'm not sure if it was a competition to
• 28:39
  Speaker 4: be tough or it was a lack of the ability
• 28:43
  Speaker 4: to transition. You can't just go from being on the
• 28:46
  Speaker 4: street getting your getting shot at getting shot, watching your
• 28:50
  Speaker 4: friends die, to just this three sixty adjustment, you know,
• 28:56
  Speaker 4: the healthy, stable human being I am now. It took
• 28:59
  Speaker 4: me forty six years to get here, you know, going
• 29:02
  Speaker 4: from a young kid, you know, fighting for survival that's
• 29:06
  Speaker 4: all you know. So you know, that's just the mindset
• 29:09
  Speaker 4: that you had. So like you know, when I met Jay,
• 29:11
  Speaker 4: I was literally a year before that I almost got killed.
• 29:16
  Speaker 4: So that's just the state of mind. You know, whatever
• 29:18
  Speaker 4: happened at the studio, that's just the state of mind.
• 29:22
  Speaker 4: Like you know, it's very difficult to transition out of
• 29:25
  Speaker 4: that state of mind. So for me, it was never
• 29:28
  Speaker 4: a competition. I wanted to get away from that. I
• 29:30
  Speaker 4: didn't want to go back to that.
• 29:32
  Speaker 5: So why did you care if he had his gun
• 29:33
  Speaker 5: on Like I'm really stuck on that, Like why did
• 29:36
  Speaker 5: you care?
• 29:37
  Speaker 4: It was a it was a figurative thing more than
• 29:41
  Speaker 4: a literal thing about you. But that's but actually that's
• 29:43
  Speaker 4: how we used to do it back then. Like guys
• 29:45
  Speaker 4: in the music were real, Like Jay's was a real
• 29:48
  Speaker 4: like Kingpin, like it was a real streak, you know, hustler,
• 29:53
  Speaker 4: So he might have had his his weapon on him,
• 29:56
  Speaker 4: like that was a reality. Not not everybody was making
• 29:59
  Speaker 4: up their There were some guys that actually lived at
• 30:03
  Speaker 4: and so it wasn't what you were trying to be.
• 30:06
  Speaker 4: That's what you were. Like when I first when I
• 30:08
  Speaker 4: first moved, you know, to there was an apartment that
• 30:13
  Speaker 4: Didy was living on Park Avenue. He had an apartment
• 30:16
  Speaker 4: on on thirty sixth Street, and I was at that apartment.
• 30:21
  Speaker 4: You know, I had a shotgun in an apartment with
• 30:23
  Speaker 4: me because that's that's where I came from. You know,
• 30:27
  Speaker 4: Like these raps are not just things that people make up.
• 30:30
  Speaker 4: You know, I almost got killed. Now I'm getting I
• 30:33
  Speaker 4: just got a million dollars. You know, maybe you know
• 30:36
  Speaker 4: the people that try to kill me in Brooklyn, you know,
• 30:39
  Speaker 4: might try to find where I'm at, and you have
• 30:42
  Speaker 4: forty six year old shine. Of course, now you say,
• 30:45
  Speaker 4: in hindsight, why would you do that? Why would you
• 30:47
  Speaker 4: jeopardize you know, your career, Why it's difficult to make
• 30:52
  Speaker 4: the transition?
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: I get it.
• 30:53
  Speaker 5: I always wanted to. Why was it so hard for
• 30:55
  Speaker 5: you to get your flow back after you got out
• 30:58
  Speaker 5: of prison? I think flowed in the doc a little
• 31:01
  Speaker 5: bit too.
• 31:02
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I think you know I came out with the
• 31:05
  Speaker 4: wrong energy. You know, I came out I was attacking
• 31:09
  Speaker 4: Rick Ross, I was attacking fifty. I was attacking Drake
• 31:14
  Speaker 4: and understandable. No what I'm telling you. I think that
• 31:17
  Speaker 4: was again another slap from the hand of God, because
• 31:20
  Speaker 4: it's like you just did ten joints and the energy
• 31:23
  Speaker 4: you're coming with its dangerous, right, that's not the energy
• 31:28
  Speaker 4: that you're supposed to be putting out there in the universe. Again,
• 31:32
  Speaker 4: lack of focus, similar to when I first did the deal.
• 31:37
  Speaker 4: Just the lack of focus. And so I believe you
• 31:41
  Speaker 4: know that was the most high just saying, come on, man,
• 31:43
  Speaker 4: you ain't learned nothing Like let me let me put
• 31:46
  Speaker 4: you on pause for a minute so that you could
• 31:48
  Speaker 4: figure it out. Because the direction you're going, No, that's
• 31:52
  Speaker 4: not what we that's not what we sat up for
• 31:54
  Speaker 4: ten years for. So I think that was a colossal
• 31:58
  Speaker 4: mistake to come out and focus on other people. Which
• 32:02
  Speaker 4: is one of the greatest things that I've been able
• 32:04
  Speaker 4: to do, is to focus on myself and take responsibility
• 32:09
  Speaker 4: for the things that I've done, take accountability for my
• 32:12
  Speaker 4: life and where I want to go. But I think
• 32:14
  Speaker 4: that's what's happened. That's because I got it back. But
• 32:18
  Speaker 4: now I'm not interested in rapping. But you know, I
• 32:22
  Speaker 4: use my voice now for the people who believes in
• 32:24
  Speaker 4: the House of Representatives, because when I'm writing my speeches,
• 32:28
  Speaker 4: it's similar to writing my rhymes, and the same way
• 32:31
  Speaker 4: my rhymes were based on what I actually experienced, what
• 32:34
  Speaker 4: I actually lived and saw, it's the same thing I
• 32:37
  Speaker 4: do in the House of Representatives. Now I go when
• 32:39
  Speaker 4: I meet people, I send in their homes, I eat
• 32:41
  Speaker 4: food out of their pots, and I listen to the
• 32:43
  Speaker 4: things that are impacting them. And when I go in
• 32:46
  Speaker 4: the house, that's what I talk about. I'm not just
• 32:48
  Speaker 4: attacking the government to attack them. I'm actually reporting live
• 32:52
  Speaker 4: from the streets of Mesopotamia and other parts of beliefs.
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: I always wanted to know when you need to come
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: out now out. You know, it was always said that
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: Puff hisself didn't get on the stand and snitche but
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: witnesses he put on the stand cleared him and pointed
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: at you.
• 33:08
  Speaker 4: Absolutely not that they didn't just clear him. They lied
• 33:12
  Speaker 4: because even today, I'm still not saying anything to get
• 33:18
  Speaker 4: him in trouble.
• 33:19
  Speaker 3: Right, you said you didn't see the shooter.
• 33:21
  Speaker 4: Right, the victim says Puff shot her. So my thing
• 33:27
  Speaker 4: is and I'm still saying here and now, and I've
• 33:30
  Speaker 4: said in interviews, if he did shoot her, he was
• 33:33
  Speaker 4: defending himself. It wasn't intentional because people were trying to
• 33:38
  Speaker 4: kill us that night.
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: Now, the person that that's a fact that y'all alleged
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: got into the argument with. They were saying that the
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: issue was with you and him. Maybe you were signed
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: to him before all the money.
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: That was a story.
• 33:48
  Speaker 4: I don't know what type of drugs Flex is on
• 33:52
  Speaker 4: or what type of mental breakdown he's having, but that
• 33:56
  Speaker 4: is absolutely untrue. This is the first time you've ever
• 34:02
  Speaker 4: heard anybody say such ridiculous, outrageous statements. So Nas is
• 34:09
  Speaker 4: lying when Nad said, you know, I don't like the
• 34:11
  Speaker 4: way Diddy did Shine with different lawyers. Everybody's lying on
• 34:14
  Speaker 4: Diddy now, like, come on, the first Double Excel cover
• 34:18
  Speaker 4: death before this, honor everything that I'm saying now I've
• 34:21
  Speaker 4: been saying. It doesn't mean that I didn't forgive Diddy
• 34:25
  Speaker 4: and move on. But when Little Rod, you know, puts
• 34:31
  Speaker 4: a suit out saying that Diddy is bragging about shooting
• 34:35
  Speaker 4: up the club and making Shine take the rap, that
• 34:39
  Speaker 4: changes things right, And then you're looking at it like, okay, well,
• 34:43
  Speaker 4: you know, is he just saying that? Then the guy
• 34:47
  Speaker 4: that Little Rod said was carrying the drugs for Diddy
• 34:50
  Speaker 4: on the planes, they get them at the hangar and
• 34:55
  Speaker 4: the guy got the drugs on the plane and gets
• 34:56
  Speaker 4: arrested by the fads. So then you're like, okay, well,
• 35:00
  Speaker 4: if he wasn't lying about that, then you know, maybe
• 35:04
  Speaker 4: he is telling the truth.
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: How do you forgive that?
• 35:07
  Speaker 5: Though?
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: Sitting ten years in the box knowing you know that
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: Diddy's holding with bad Boy and all the artists will
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: say that is it was all about family, right, That's
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: what it was sold on.
• 35:16
  Speaker 3: It was family.
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: We all are family, we're all together, we all listen
• 35:19
  Speaker 2: in this together. But when it hit the fan, it
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: was no family. It was every man for himself. Absolutely,
• 35:25
  Speaker 2: you get out and you forgive him, and you know, no.
• 35:28
  Speaker 4: I didn't forgive him right away. If you notice, when
• 35:31
  Speaker 4: I got out, I was attacking him too. It was
• 35:34
  Speaker 4: one of the most erroneous strategic moves that I made,
• 35:38
  Speaker 4: because I was fighting with Diddy, I was fighting with fifty,
• 35:41
  Speaker 4: I was fighting with Drake, fighting with Rick Ross like
• 35:44
  Speaker 4: I was literally, I was like Samson, you know, pushing
• 35:47
  Speaker 4: the pillars to collapse on me. So there wasn't an
• 35:50
  Speaker 4: instant forgiveness I got out in two thousand and nine.
• 35:52
  Speaker 4: We didn't There wasn't an attempt at reconciliation until twenty
• 35:56
  Speaker 4: twelve when I went to Paris to meet him, and
• 36:01
  Speaker 4: that was the first attempt at forgiveness. But I was
• 36:04
  Speaker 4: still in the place of he owes me, he owes
• 36:08
  Speaker 4: me his life, he owes me. He's a billionaire. If
• 36:12
  Speaker 4: it wasn't for me, he wouldn't have been a billionaire.
• 36:14
  Speaker 4: If I would have cooperated with the district attorney, he'd
• 36:18
  Speaker 4: have went to jail, and heaven knows what would have
• 36:20
  Speaker 4: happened to his career. Right, So, you know, that's worth
• 36:24
  Speaker 4: at least a couple million dollars out of the billion
• 36:27
  Speaker 4: that you're worth. And interestingly enough, you know, one of
• 36:30
  Speaker 4: the things that Cassie alleges in her lawsuit is that
• 36:34
  Speaker 4: when you know he would assault her, then he would
• 36:37
  Speaker 4: you know, take on shopping spreeds. And so I saw
• 36:40
  Speaker 4: that in Paris he spent like a half a million dollars,
• 36:44
  Speaker 4: like in one day shopping for her. And then you know,
• 36:49
  Speaker 4: after I left, he was then that's twenty twelve.
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: Oh, twenty twelve, okay, okay, yeah.
• 36:54
  Speaker 4: Twenty twelve. That's what I'm saying. That was the first
• 36:56
  Speaker 4: attempt at reconciliation. I got out in two thousand and nine,
• 37:00
  Speaker 4: and then it took a couple of years before I said,
• 37:02
  Speaker 4: you know, we reach out. I was actually living in
• 37:04
  Speaker 4: Israel at the time, and but I felt he owed
• 37:09
  Speaker 4: me something. And so it's like, you know, he probably
• 37:14
  Speaker 4: gave me like fifty racks, and I'm like, you know,
• 37:17
  Speaker 4: you can't be serious, Like that's ten years fifty racks.
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: Like that whole ten years you were in jail, he
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: didn't reach out to you at all.
• 37:26
  Speaker 4: He came to see me once, and I think I
• 37:29
  Speaker 4: tried to spin in his face and right because Alance
• 37:32
  Speaker 4: so when he didn't come back, I didn't want I
• 37:34
  Speaker 4: didn't want him to come back. I didn't even want
• 37:35
  Speaker 4: to come see me. I didn't even know he was
• 37:36
  Speaker 4: coming to see me. They just brought me down in
• 37:38
  Speaker 4: the lawyer's office.
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: And you know, so you did an angry bit. I was.
• 37:44
  Speaker 4: I really, you know, my life was destroyed, devastated, and
• 37:51
  Speaker 4: I was figuring out how to continue living, buried alive,
• 37:56
  Speaker 4: and I didn't want anything to do with him. And yeah,
• 38:00
  Speaker 4: it was a lot of hurt and a lot of
• 38:01
  Speaker 4: pain in that. But I wasn't just sitting there. I'm angry.
• 38:04
  Speaker 4: I sat there, I got into my spirituality, got into
• 38:09
  Speaker 4: my Judaism. You know, I did the deal with death Jam,
• 38:12
  Speaker 4: you know, a couple million, a couple million dollars put
• 38:15
  Speaker 4: out god Father, buried a live album album I love,
• 38:21
  Speaker 4: and you know, continue living every day to get out.
• 38:27
  Speaker 5: But yeah, you know I got a if you were
• 38:30
  Speaker 5: because they always said that you and the brother Scar
• 38:32
  Speaker 5: God blessed it Dad.
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: They said y'all were.
• 38:34
  Speaker 5: Cool before you even met, did so exactly, So why
• 38:39
  Speaker 5: didn't you side with him that night?
• 38:41
  Speaker 4: No? But it doesn't work like that, you know, doesn't
• 38:44
  Speaker 4: work like that, like literally it was scared Nino, the
• 38:47
  Speaker 4: whole crew of Brooklyn kids from Saint John to Washington
• 38:51
  Speaker 4: app Yeah, but I know, I know, I know, you know,
• 38:54
  Speaker 4: I know those guys and everything was all good, like
• 38:56
  Speaker 4: we embraced. Everything was good. But but you know, Diddy's
• 38:59
  Speaker 4: my vault us like didd he's you know, he's we
• 39:03
  Speaker 4: remember ninety nine. We spent the entire ninety nine making
• 39:06
  Speaker 4: this record. It's about to happen, be about to shoot
• 39:08
  Speaker 4: the Bad Boys video like you know, and we developed
• 39:13
  Speaker 4: that bond, you know, making the record, and I'm not
• 39:16
  Speaker 4: gonna leave his side and be like, oh man, you're
• 39:18
  Speaker 4: on your own. I'm not gonna do that.
• 39:21
  Speaker 5: Well, Puff was able to get Scar to help his case,
• 39:24
  Speaker 5: but not yours.
• 39:26
  Speaker 4: Now, I don't scared somebody put him out.
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: But I don't have that hippie died at Gumbo.
• 39:33
  Speaker 4: Yeah I don't. I don't remember. I don't think Scar
• 39:36
  Speaker 4: helped the case. If I remember, I think Scar hurt
• 39:40
  Speaker 4: the case. Who helped Diddy and hurt me with Sharise Myers.
• 39:45
  Speaker 4: And again, if you go back to my interviews, I
• 39:48
  Speaker 4: said all this, I've been saying all this. It's just
• 39:50
  Speaker 4: the power of Diddy. The power of his celebrity is
• 39:54
  Speaker 4: his iconic status was just so loud and so nobody
• 39:58
  Speaker 4: cared to listen. There was like, yo, you know you're
• 40:00
  Speaker 4: the mad rapper. You know whatever. I got business going
• 40:03
  Speaker 4: on with him. But again, now I's wasn't lying when
• 40:06
  Speaker 4: he said I don't like the way did he did
• 40:08
  Speaker 4: shine with different lawyers? He was telling the truth.
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, have you ever thought about suing any of the lawyers?
• 40:15
  Speaker 4: I thought about sueing did he?
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: You know?
• 40:19
  Speaker 4: But like I said, I'm focused on Belieze. I'm focused
• 40:24
  Speaker 4: on becoming the next Prime Minister of Belize. And I'm
• 40:30
  Speaker 4: really again, I can't come up here and not talk
• 40:33
  Speaker 4: about my life in totality.
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: I mean, that's actually the beautiful redemption.
• 40:38
  Speaker 5: Absolutely, I think about you saying that you almost got
• 40:42
  Speaker 5: killed back in the day. I think about I heard
• 40:45
  Speaker 5: about a car accident that that that you was in.
• 40:49
  Speaker 5: One of your peoples paralyzed and one got one got killed. Yeah, yeah,
• 40:53
  Speaker 5: I just And then I think about that that happened
• 40:56
  Speaker 5: like a couple of weeks before the shooting, right, No.
• 40:58
  Speaker 4: No, no, no, that happened happened in ninety eight. Yeah, that
• 41:01
  Speaker 4: happened as soon as I got my deal. I got
• 41:03
  Speaker 4: the six hundred. Wow, and you know, the road was slippery.
• 41:07
  Speaker 4: We're actually on the way to the party. And I
• 41:11
  Speaker 4: was because I still go on the block and we're
• 41:13
  Speaker 4: going on the block. After this, I always go see
• 41:14
  Speaker 4: my cousin Ron, do you know, It's like it was
• 41:18
  Speaker 4: one of my childhood heroes on eighteenth in church, and
• 41:22
  Speaker 4: so you know, I would always come on the block
• 41:24
  Speaker 4: and take everybody to go party and get right. And yeah,
• 41:29
  Speaker 4: so it's been a lot of tragedy.
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: In that situation too, Yeah, Scar.
• 41:34
  Speaker 4: Right, Yeah, but yeah, there's been a lot of tragedy,
• 41:37
  Speaker 4: but there's also been triumph. There's also been the ability
• 41:40
  Speaker 4: to be resilient. And you know, you can't tell the
• 41:45
  Speaker 4: story of trumpf you can't tell the Prime minister story,
• 41:48
  Speaker 4: can't tell any of those great things without talking about
• 41:52
  Speaker 4: the obstacles, you know. But I lost my train of thought.
• 41:55
  Speaker 4: But the when you asked whether Scar helped, and I
• 41:57
  Speaker 4: was telling about Sharise Myers. So Sharisse Myres was a
• 42:00
  Speaker 4: security guard and I begged Puff not to call her
• 42:04
  Speaker 4: as a witness because, as I'm saying now, all these
• 42:07
  Speaker 4: years later, despite Puff being in federal custody, I'm still
• 42:11
  Speaker 4: not saying that he did anything wrong. I'm saying, even
• 42:16
  Speaker 4: if he did shoot, he was defending himself because we
• 42:18
  Speaker 4: were all defending ourselves. So why would it have been
• 42:21
  Speaker 4: so difficult for him to call witnesses that were saying
• 42:25
  Speaker 4: the same thing, Because that's the truth. I wasn't in
• 42:28
  Speaker 4: there being belligerent and acting in a depraved want because
• 42:32
  Speaker 4: that's what I got convicted of assault for depravedness, and
• 42:38
  Speaker 4: that was due to him, that was the most damaging witness.
• 42:41
  Speaker 4: And we begged him, wolf begged him, all of us
• 42:44
  Speaker 4: begged them, you know, please don't call this witness. This
• 42:46
  Speaker 4: witness is gonna bury me. And he called the witness.
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: So why why wouldn't you look at everybody?
• 42:52
  Speaker 4: Because you wanted to say to himself the strategy is
• 42:54
  Speaker 4: somebody got to go to jail and it ain't gonna
• 42:56
  Speaker 4: be ditty, so you gotta be shy. And and and
• 43:00
  Speaker 4: the plea agreement that the DA was given because the
• 43:04
  Speaker 4: DA wanted me to testify against uh Diddy, and he
• 43:09
  Speaker 4: called me in for what they call him a profer,
• 43:12
  Speaker 4: so in the profert they wanted me to come in
• 43:13
  Speaker 4: there and be like yo, he had the gun, he
• 43:15
  Speaker 4: passed me the gun he started shooting. It was it
• 43:19
  Speaker 4: was him, and I refused to do that, and so
• 43:22
  Speaker 4: the DA was like, okay, I give you a plead
• 43:24
  Speaker 4: deal for thirteen years. So so yeah, so that's what happened.
• 43:31
  Speaker 5: Have you ever spoken to the woman who was shot
• 43:33
  Speaker 5: in the face, and because she's been speaking.
• 43:35
  Speaker 4: Up, No, I haven't spoken to her.
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 43:38
  Speaker 4: I I apologize and I regret. I think I did
• 43:42
  Speaker 4: a was it Kojack? What's what's the name of the brother?
• 43:49
  Speaker 4: Reggio says he was Pece. I had done a I
• 43:55
  Speaker 4: had done an interview with him, and I extended, you know,
• 43:59
  Speaker 4: sorrow that she got hurt. And I said it in
• 44:02
  Speaker 4: interviews that I've done over the last couple of days
• 44:04
  Speaker 4: when they asked do I have any regrets. I don't
• 44:06
  Speaker 4: regret defending myself, but I regret that people are hurt.
• 44:10
  Speaker 4: And so I said that as far as you know,
• 44:13
  Speaker 4: she's concerned.
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: She said it was Diddy.
• 44:15
  Speaker 4: Yeah, she said Diddy shot her. Yeah, And but we
• 44:18
  Speaker 4: don't know because the bullet fragments were never extracted from
• 44:23
  Speaker 4: any of the victims. Uh. But definitely there were three
• 44:27
  Speaker 4: guns fired, mine and two other guns. Uh. And you know,
• 44:32
  Speaker 4: she she said what she said actually immediately to the doctor.
• 44:38
  Speaker 4: You know, she said, I just got shot by Diddy.
• 44:40
  Speaker 4: But then when she got on the stand, Uh, she
• 44:43
  Speaker 4: was trying to blame the both of us without blaming
• 44:46
  Speaker 4: the both of us. And now she maintains that it
• 44:50
  Speaker 4: was Diddy got paid off. You know, I can't speculate.
• 44:55
  Speaker 4: I don't I don't know. I don't know what happened.
• 44:57
  Speaker 4: I just know that, you know, it's tragic. But you know,
• 45:01
  Speaker 4: like I said, we pivot, we move forward, and that's
• 45:04
  Speaker 4: what I did in the second reconciliation with Diddy, when
• 45:09
  Speaker 4: we reconcile again in like twenty twenty or twenty nineteen.
• 45:15
  Speaker 4: And so that forgiveness was a different forgiveness because I
• 45:18
  Speaker 4: was at a different space.
• 45:19
  Speaker 3: That's when you perform.
• 45:21
  Speaker 4: No, I performed in twenty twenty two. But I'm just
• 45:24
  Speaker 4: telling you how we got to that, because there's a
• 45:27
  Speaker 4: gap from twenty twelve to twenty twenty.
• 45:30
  Speaker 5: But before before we get to that, you have you
• 45:32
  Speaker 5: and Jalo ever had a combo about that night?
• 45:33
  Speaker 4: Yeah? Never, okay, Yeah, I've never seen her since since
• 45:37
  Speaker 4: that night. But the second forgiveness, that was a forgiveness
• 45:44
  Speaker 4: of power and strump for my part, because that forgiveness
• 45:47
  Speaker 4: came with no price tag. That was a strategic forgiveness.
• 45:52
  Speaker 4: And I'm about to be, you know, an elected official.
• 45:55
  Speaker 4: I wasn't close to being the Prime Minister then, but
• 45:59
  Speaker 4: I was going to the House presentatives and my mind was
• 46:02
  Speaker 4: just in a different space and so everything was just,
• 46:05
  Speaker 4: you know, no baggage, nothing that would, you know, keep
• 46:09
  Speaker 4: me from soaring to the heights that I wanted to sew.
• 46:15
  Speaker 4: And I already understood who he was and it was like,
• 46:18
  Speaker 4: you know what, it's just clean with everybody. And even
• 46:22
  Speaker 4: if you saw different interviews that I've done, whether it
• 46:26
  Speaker 4: be Rick Ross or or Fitty, all the people that
• 46:28
  Speaker 4: I've ever attacked, you know, I've expressed contrition for that.
• 46:32
  Speaker 4: I was just in a different space and getting in
• 46:35
  Speaker 4: that space of wanting to help Belize. You know, I
• 46:38
  Speaker 4: don't want to fight with anybody because I'm fighting for Belize.
• 46:42
  Speaker 4: So this is not about me anymore. This is not
• 46:44
  Speaker 4: about any grievances that I have with anyone. It's like,
• 46:47
  Speaker 4: even with your elections, I congratulated President elect Trump and
• 46:51
  Speaker 4: I congratulated Vice President Harris because it's about Belize. I'm
• 46:56
  Speaker 4: not a Republican. I'm not a Democrat, and that's how
• 47:00
  Speaker 4: that forgiveness came about because I knew I would never
• 47:02
  Speaker 4: get anything from him, but it wasn't about getting anything
• 47:05
  Speaker 4: from him. And then when he came and he asked
• 47:08
  Speaker 4: me to perform at the Lifetime Achievement BT Awards, you know,
• 47:14
  Speaker 4: to me, that was a moment of power because now
• 47:17
  Speaker 4: he was begging me to do something because I didn't
• 47:19
  Speaker 4: want to perform. I'm not a rapper, right. I was insulted,
• 47:24
  Speaker 4: to be honest, because I'm an elected official and I'm
• 47:28
  Speaker 4: on my way to try to be the Prime Minister
• 47:30
  Speaker 4: of Belize. And it's confusing to my electorate because you know,
• 47:36
  Speaker 4: they want a serious person that's dealing with serious policies
• 47:40
  Speaker 4: that are going to solve the problems in their lives.
• 47:42
  Speaker 4: They're thinking about, you know, the GDP, they're thinking about,
• 47:45
  Speaker 4: poverty alleviation, housing is a human rights, citizen security, food security,
• 47:50
  Speaker 4: you know, that's what they're thinking about. And they don't
• 47:53
  Speaker 4: want a guy on stage, you know, performing they want
• 47:56
  Speaker 4: a prime minister that's going to come and give them hope.
• 47:59
  Speaker 4: And I was very uneasy about that, but he was like, no,
• 48:02
  Speaker 4: you know, you got to do it for the legacy,
• 48:04
  Speaker 4: and you got to do it for Belize. You know,
• 48:05
  Speaker 4: this is going to be a great opportunity to promote Belieze.
• 48:08
  Speaker 4: And that's when he got me. And I was like,
• 48:09
  Speaker 4: all right, well, you know, the flag got to come
• 48:11
  Speaker 4: down when I'm performing and everything got to be believe
• 48:15
  Speaker 4: And I have no regrets about that because it worked.
• 48:18
  Speaker 4: It's the biggest flag ever on stage, the first time
• 48:21
  Speaker 4: that's ever happened for Belize. And he, you know, he
• 48:24
  Speaker 4: was chatting Belize and I changed up the first verse,
• 48:28
  Speaker 4: you know, just to say Belieze believee. And so that
• 48:31
  Speaker 4: was great for Belize. And I got nothing for that
• 48:34
  Speaker 4: other than promoting Belieze. So that wasn't about him. That
• 48:38
  Speaker 4: was that wasn't even about me. That was about Believes.
• 48:40
  Speaker 4: But if it was about me, it was a moment
• 48:42
  Speaker 4: of power. Was because he needed me.
• 48:44
  Speaker 2: There was a rumor that he paid you to perform
• 48:46
  Speaker 2: that night.
• 48:47
  Speaker 4: Absolutely not not a dollar, nothing, because.
• 48:50
  Speaker 2: I think there was a room that he paid you,
• 48:52
  Speaker 2: and there was a rumor that he paid Mace and
• 48:54
  Speaker 2: Mason shot. But that was the rumor that paid I
• 48:57
  Speaker 2: think a hundred thousand dollars. That that's what and.
• 49:00
  Speaker 4: I could have used that towards my campaign.
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: Have you really moved on from the Diddy situation?
• 49:04
  Speaker 5: Because I saw you saying on Tammer Hall that you
• 49:06
  Speaker 5: know you healed from it, But then you also say
• 49:09
  Speaker 5: he destroyed your life, and it feels like after he
• 49:11
  Speaker 5: went to prison you started kicking his back in.
• 49:15
  Speaker 4: I guess it feels like that.
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: But we just went through prison. But yet, no, we just.
• 49:19
  Speaker 4: Went through a chronology of all the things that I'm
• 49:24
  Speaker 4: saying now been saying. Number one, number two, you can't
• 49:28
  Speaker 4: delete the Little Rod lawsuit and those accusations of him
• 49:35
  Speaker 4: bragging about shooting up the club and making me go
• 49:39
  Speaker 4: to jail.
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: So after you perform with him, once you hear those rumors.
• 49:43
  Speaker 4: Of course it.
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: Okay, okay, you gotta do the chronology.
• 49:48
  Speaker 4: It's not happening in the orbit of chaos, right, you
• 49:52
  Speaker 4: got to do that. That's legit that he made those accusations.
• 49:56
  Speaker 4: Then the guy gets caught with a fanny pack at
• 49:59
  Speaker 4: Tita or wherever they were, and so that makes you say, okay, well,
• 50:03
  Speaker 4: what else is Little Rod, who produced the love album?
• 50:07
  Speaker 4: What else is he telling the truth about? So that
• 50:09
  Speaker 4: makes you look at him crazy. Then the video comes
• 50:13
  Speaker 4: out with Cassie, so then another lies is exposed and.
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: Only a few people who know the truth about that night.
• 50:20
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 50:21
  Speaker 5: Right, So if you know the truth and then you
• 50:22
  Speaker 5: hear Rod say something like that, you're like, oh, word, exactly,
• 50:26
  Speaker 5: you're out here bragging about it exactly.
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: Okay, exactly exactly.
• 50:29
  Speaker 4: But even even still, I say here what I've said
• 50:34
  Speaker 4: in all my interviews, but that doesn't make the headlines
• 50:37
  Speaker 4: when they asked, how do you feel? I would not
• 50:39
  Speaker 4: wish incarceration on my worst enemy. I take no joy
• 50:44
  Speaker 4: and no satisfaction in what is happening to Ditty, And
• 50:48
  Speaker 4: I pray for the victims, especially Cassie, that they get
• 50:52
  Speaker 4: closure and they heal. And I pray for Ditty that
• 50:55
  Speaker 4: he's able to figure out why he is where he is,
• 51:00
  Speaker 4: because sometimes the same way the hand of God slapped
• 51:02
  Speaker 4: me a few times, the hand of God comes down
• 51:05
  Speaker 4: on you, and I reformed, I rehabilitated. So I'm not
• 51:09
  Speaker 4: going to condemn Ditty in perpetuity. It's time for him
• 51:12
  Speaker 4: to find his rehabilitation and his reformation and learned the
• 51:16
  Speaker 4: lesson that he needs to learn. And I pray for
• 51:18
  Speaker 4: him and wish him well. So nothing that I'm saying.
• 51:22
  Speaker 4: I'm saying from a place of hurt and hate. I'm
• 51:25
  Speaker 4: saying from a place of love and healing and moving on.
• 51:29
  Speaker 4: But the truth is the truth. You know, when your
• 51:31
  Speaker 4: brother does something wrong, you gotta tell him, well, you're
• 51:33
  Speaker 4: not a good brother. No.
• 51:36
  Speaker 5: He never so he never apologized. He never said, yo, man,
• 51:42
  Speaker 5: thank you, here's a bag something.
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: He never did.
• 51:45
  Speaker 4: You know that in Paris, In Paris, you know, in
• 51:50
  Speaker 4: Paris he did say. We were at the La Maurice.
• 51:53
  Speaker 4: He was like, oh, you know it was the lawyers.
• 51:56
  Speaker 4: You know, you know I shouldn't have listened to the lawyers.
• 51:58
  Speaker 4: Lawyers a term me against you, you know, my bad.
• 52:01
  Speaker 4: But the bag never came. You know, the fifty I
• 52:04
  Speaker 4: wanted to give the fifty back. You know, I was insulted.
• 52:07
  Speaker 4: You know, I just seen you spend a half a
• 52:08
  Speaker 4: million or Cassie in the day.
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: It's like, man, you know I did ten years.
• 52:13
  Speaker 4: A ticket A ticket would have been you know, yeah,
• 52:16
  Speaker 4: you know that would have been the starting point because.
• 52:18
  Speaker 5: They offered you a deal, right, they offered you a deal.
• 52:20
  Speaker 5: If you stitched on Diddy.
• 52:21
  Speaker 4: Absolutely walk I would have walked.
• 52:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I want to know and in ninety nine,
• 52:26
  Speaker 2: of course with everything going on with Diddy, now people
• 52:29
  Speaker 2: would say you were with him for that whole year?
• 52:31
  Speaker 3: Tight, right, Yeah? Was there anything that you've seen that
• 52:35
  Speaker 3: looked a little.
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: It wasn't called freaking Did you see the baby oil?
• 52:40
  Speaker 4: No? Absolutely not, absolutely not strictly focused on making music
• 52:46
  Speaker 4: and yeah, no, I didn't see any.
• 52:48
  Speaker 2: Of that and none of the violence that people are
• 52:49
  Speaker 2: saying that that are coming up in all these things.
• 52:51
  Speaker 4: No, I didn't see anything.
• 52:52
  Speaker 2: I wanted to ask also when Usher came out with Confessions, Yeah,
• 52:56
  Speaker 2: and you did the remix.
• 52:59
  Speaker 3: Break that down?
• 52:59
  Speaker 2: Had that call came and how y'all did that? Because
• 53:02
  Speaker 2: that was something that we haven't seen or heard before
• 53:04
  Speaker 2: back then.
• 53:05
  Speaker 4: Yeah, so it was it was so divine how that happened,
• 53:13
  Speaker 4: you know. And if you listen to the raps, I say,
• 53:16
  Speaker 4: excuse me, I say, you know, sitting in my cell
• 53:19
  Speaker 4: head about the bursts would be alive if I didn't
• 53:21
  Speaker 4: shoot first, and I was literally you know, incarceration. All
• 53:27
  Speaker 4: you have is your music, your music and your TV
• 53:31
  Speaker 4: that's life, right, and your books. Obviously you know you
• 53:35
  Speaker 4: train your mind. So I had my yamaha. You use
• 53:38
  Speaker 4: your yamaha. Piano as your speaker set so and then
• 53:43
  Speaker 4: you plug in your walkman and and then you start
• 53:46
  Speaker 4: to boom out. And so when all the new music
• 53:50
  Speaker 4: would come out, you know, I'd get the tapes. And
• 53:52
  Speaker 4: so when Confessions came out, you know, I got that,
• 53:56
  Speaker 4: and the Confession song was my favorite song. I remember
• 53:59
  Speaker 4: playing that song, you know, over and over and over
• 54:02
  Speaker 4: and over and over again. And I actually even came
• 54:06
  Speaker 4: up with the lyrics to it without anybody reaching out
• 54:11
  Speaker 4: to me. Then Mark Pits and Jermaine Duprix reached out
• 54:15
  Speaker 4: to me because I still had my phone, still had
• 54:18
  Speaker 4: my same number, and I used to check my own
• 54:20
  Speaker 4: messages when I would go to the yard, and I
• 54:23
  Speaker 4: checked my message and I got a message from Jermaine Duprix,
• 54:27
  Speaker 4: and I got a message from Mark Pitts that you know,
• 54:30
  Speaker 4: I should want you to get on this record. And
• 54:33
  Speaker 4: I already knew the record, so it was easy work
• 54:35
  Speaker 4: for me, and I already had started formulating lyrics, and
• 54:38
  Speaker 4: I literally was in my cell and I came up,
• 54:41
  Speaker 4: you know, with those bars, and then I recorded it
• 54:45
  Speaker 4: in the yard, literally in the yard, and so you know,
• 54:48
  Speaker 4: in the yard, you know, I got my guys and
• 54:53
  Speaker 4: so I always have people, you know, watching whatever I'm doing,
• 54:56
  Speaker 4: because you know, any day could be your last day arcerated.
• 55:01
  Speaker 4: And so yeah, I remember being on the phone, you know, rapping,
• 55:05
  Speaker 4: rapping that song. Yeah, so that was first Grammy.
• 55:10
  Speaker 3: Maybe we got a Grammy for that.
• 55:12
  Speaker 5: I hated the music industry around that time. And the
• 55:14
  Speaker 5: reason I hated the music industry around that time because
• 55:16
  Speaker 5: I felt like they were rewarding the worst shit in
• 55:19
  Speaker 5: our culture. Because fifty had just sold a bunch of
• 55:22
  Speaker 5: records and you know, he got shot nine times. And
• 55:25
  Speaker 5: then I felt like def Jam was just giving you
• 55:27
  Speaker 5: the deal because they were really looking for authentic.
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: That's how I felt like.
• 55:32
  Speaker 5: They were looking for authentic street dudes who had liked
• 55:35
  Speaker 5: real street stories, and they were just rewarding people for that.
• 55:38
  Speaker 4: You know, I disagree for the most part. Maybe there
• 55:42
  Speaker 4: are some record companies that you know, were just in it, uh,
• 55:47
  Speaker 4: you know, for the sensationalism. But I go back to
• 55:51
  Speaker 4: what I said, Uh, you know, when I was out
• 55:55
  Speaker 4: on trial and the media kept asking me about you know,
• 55:59
  Speaker 4: my album, my lyrics, I said, you know, hip hop
• 56:05
  Speaker 4: is not responsible for violence in America. America is responsible
• 56:10
  Speaker 4: for violence in America. So you can't blame fifty. You
• 56:14
  Speaker 4: can't blame Tupac, You can't blame Shine for living the
• 56:19
  Speaker 4: life that we live. You have to blame a system. No,
• 56:26
  Speaker 4: But what I'm saying so the system creates the art
• 56:31
  Speaker 4: that we project. And so you know, in a creative space,
• 56:36
  Speaker 4: you have the right to express your art. And so
• 56:40
  Speaker 4: I don't think it would be fair, you know, for
• 56:43
  Speaker 4: the music industry to suppress anybody's art. There's a debate
• 56:47
  Speaker 4: as to, you know, censorship and how far do you go,
• 56:51
  Speaker 4: what's responsible, what's irresponsible? But fifty stories, fifty story. I
• 56:56
  Speaker 4: knew him before he got shot nine times, and he
• 56:59
  Speaker 4: was always an artist. He was in Daddy's house, writing
• 57:02
  Speaker 4: for Diddy, writing for other people. But you know, he
• 57:06
  Speaker 4: told his story. He wasn't lying, And so so should
• 57:09
  Speaker 4: Sony say, oh, no, you know, we're not going to
• 57:12
  Speaker 4: sign or no he moved the aftermath. But should Jimmy
• 57:15
  Speaker 4: I Van should have said no, we're not going to
• 57:17
  Speaker 4: sign him, said Jimmy Ivan say no, we're not going
• 57:19
  Speaker 4: to pick up death Row when time wanna drop death Row.
• 57:24
  Speaker 4: I don't know, you know, it's it's a it's a
• 57:27
  Speaker 4: conundrum because our art is a result of the society
• 57:32
  Speaker 4: that has been created by the powers that be, and
• 57:35
  Speaker 4: our art has also been a blessing from God for
• 57:37
  Speaker 4: us to escape those harsh realities and do better. So
• 57:42
  Speaker 4: if it's one thing I can say though for you
• 57:44
  Speaker 4: know people coming up now, is hopefully they learn from
• 57:48
  Speaker 4: the mistakes that I've made and they try to make
• 57:50
  Speaker 4: that transition and turn that corner before it gets too late.
• 57:54
  Speaker 4: You know, he saw a young thug, you know, just
• 57:57
  Speaker 4: get off, you know, thank God, you know he got
• 57:59
  Speaker 4: his free them. You see little dirt, you know, facing
• 58:03
  Speaker 4: life for that abatement to murder. You know, my prayer
• 58:06
  Speaker 4: and my hope is for this new generation to learn
• 58:09
  Speaker 4: from what I've been through and not have to face
• 58:12
  Speaker 4: that ten years of that life sentence and to turn
• 58:14
  Speaker 4: the corner. But I'm very careful even today, you know,
• 58:18
  Speaker 4: I still finance musicians and believes always try to help
• 58:21
  Speaker 4: them out and that's their art. I can't you know,
• 58:25
  Speaker 4: I can't tell a young musician in Belize who is
• 58:28
  Speaker 4: selling drugs or you know, who's a part of a gang,
• 58:30
  Speaker 4: or you know, who resources the violence as a means
• 58:33
  Speaker 4: of survival. I can't tell him what to sing about. Right,
• 58:36
  Speaker 4: Who am I like he's singing about his life.
• 58:39
  Speaker 5: Well, I agree with that, and I feel like fifty
• 58:40
  Speaker 5: did have great music.
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: I guess for you, it was like, I'm like, why
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: I definitly am' giving him three million.
• 58:44
  Speaker 4: Dos because I had great music too. The Sean album
• 58:46
  Speaker 4: was a classic. That was a great album. But you
• 58:49
  Speaker 4: had been in jail for a minute. No, I was
• 58:52
  Speaker 4: in jail two thousand and one, two thousand and four.
• 58:54
  Speaker 4: But here's why Deaf Jam gave me the deal for
• 58:57
  Speaker 4: the same reason Doctor Dre was on the phone wanting
• 59:00
  Speaker 4: to sign me. Why jay Z came to Rykers Allen
• 59:05
  Speaker 4: in the mayback, why Murder Inc. Like, this is what
• 59:07
  Speaker 4: I'm saying. There has to be something about Shine that
• 59:12
  Speaker 4: no matter what I go through, people keep wanting to
• 59:15
  Speaker 4: sign me. There has to be some extraordinary talent there.
• 59:18
  Speaker 4: Because Murder Inc. Nas irv Gotti, Jaru, Shanti, I was
• 59:26
  Speaker 4: in the box on Rykers Allen. Literally all came up
• 59:29
  Speaker 4: there to sign me. Shook Knight wanted to come and
• 59:32
  Speaker 4: see me. Everybody wanted to sign me. Dan Wy shout
• 59:35
  Speaker 4: out the Rough Riders. Everybody wanted to sign Shine when
• 59:38
  Speaker 4: I was behind the wall. So it wasn't a matter.
• 59:40
  Speaker 4: Oh he's locked up. Anybody could get locked up. It's
• 59:43
  Speaker 4: a matter. He's nice. He put out he put out
• 59:48
  Speaker 4: a great album because there were questions about Shine until
• 59:53
  Speaker 4: that Bad Boy A song dropped. And when that Bad
• 59:57
  Speaker 4: Boy song dropped, the music industry shook. Everybody was like, Okay,
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 4: all right, yeah, this is serious. Then Bonnie and Shine,
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 4: and then That's Gangster, and then the entire album. You know,
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 4: the Neptune song with Pharrell. You know, people gonna die,
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 4: like there's some serious records of Commission. That's Fat Joe's
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 4: favorite song. I met Fat Joe at All Star Weekend
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 4: and Pistol Pete and his whole crew, and they're like, yo, Commission,
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 4: that's my song. Like, people grew to love Shine, and
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 4: the body of work spoke for itself. So whatever speculations,
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 4: whatever misconceptions were had, when people listened to the work
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 4: of art and they saw the life and they saw
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 4: the real situations that I was going through, you know,
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 4: all it did was give credibility to what I was saying.
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 4: But if what I was saying was trash, if it
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 4: wasn't great, then it doesn't matter how tough you are.
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 2: When did you decide to give up rap, because I'm
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 2: sure when you came home or even recently, I'm sure
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 2: people are taped to you to say, hey, I want
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 2: you to get on my record. I want to hear
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 2: your voice on my record. How many artists have reached
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 2: out to you in the last couple of years and
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 2: how many times have you said no?
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 4: I've said no several times, you know. Respect to my
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 4: my god bust rhymes. Uh, you know, he's he was
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 4: one of the difficult nos because when I came out,
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 4: he was in Belize. He brought a he brought an
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 4: ap for me, like is a welcome home gift?
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: Uh?
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 4: You know, he's a real stand up, solid god. And
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 4: then he wanted me to do a record with him
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 4: and nas and I was like, ah, you know right now.
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 4: Then he wanted me to do a song a couple
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 4: of years later with a Belize and artist by the
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 4: name of Prayer. You know, respect to him.
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 2: He's signed Prayer, right, yeah, he's in Prayer.
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 4: And I was like, you know, that's when I was
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 4: in that I was already elected official. I was like,
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 4: I can't do it. So yeah, there have been many
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 4: people that have asked.
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 3: You still perform.
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 2: No, no, no, like not even at all, not even
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 2: charity events, nothing at all.
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 4: Well, I did the charity event in the UK with
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 4: Diddy and Gigs, and I did the Lifetime Achievement award.
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 4: You know, those were those were legacy moments. So like, sure,
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 4: if the Grammys, you know, says, you know, they want
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 4: to give me a you know, an award or they
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 4: want me to be you know, things like that, that's legacy.
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 4: That's you know, that's those are things that you know,
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 4: once in a lifetime. So I do it for that.
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 4: For the documentary, I was thinking about putting out an
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 4: album similar to American Gangster, where it would be an
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 4: album for the documentary, but it's so difficult being an
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 4: elected official who's not just an elected official but the
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 4: leader of a mass party government and waiting that, you know,
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 4: I just can't find a space to do that because again,
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 4: you don't want to put out a body of work
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 4: that's subpar, that's below the standards that people I want.
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 2: Did this team reached out to you since doing all
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 2: these interviews just you know, because I mean I'm sure.
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: No, no, I think the team put out a statement though.
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 3: Yeah, a statement.
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: I didn't see it, but.
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 4: There were we had a phone call when the when
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 4: I because there's a there's a journalist uh in Belieze
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 4: that you know, is obsessed with linking me the ditty.
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 4: So that's why initially some of the sound bites that
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 4: you heard on Shade Room, it wasn't me, uh, you know,
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 4: throwing anybody under the bus. It's just that I'm not
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 4: going to take the fall again because you know, this
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 4: particular journalist in Belieze was trying to say, you know,
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 4: oh diddy's your guy, you know, or that's your friend,
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 4: and how do you think it's going to affect your
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 4: political career? And I'm like, hold on, that's your path
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 4: though exactly No, I'm just I'm telling you it's crazy.
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 4: So then that's where I'm like, behold on, why are
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 4: you trying to pretend as if I wasn't incarcerated for
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 4: ten years in the port for teen years? And you know,
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 4: we went through all these different phases like why are
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 4: you trying to link me with him? Yes, he agreed
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 4: to give a donation and Howard scholarship for Believing Youth.
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 4: Why would I not want to take that? But don't
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 4: try to, uh, you know, distort the reality. Don't try to,
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 4: you know, recreate and rewrite history. This is someone who
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 4: destroyed my life. And that's when you hear that SoundBite.
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 4: It's not me wanting to talk about that. These are
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 4: the first interviews that I'm doing since his tragedy befell him.
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 4: And I could show you every media house reaching out
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 4: to me over the last couple of months, but I
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 4: refuse to do it. But now I have the documentary
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 4: coming out, so I have to engage with the free.
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 1: Press, he says.
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 5: Mister Colembs categorically denies mister Barrell's allegations, including any suggestion
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 5: that what you're reaching for men, including any suggestion that
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 5: he orchestrated mister Barrow to take the fall and sacrifice
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 5: him by directing witnesses to testify against him. These claims
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 5: are unequivocally false. He was acquitted of all charges in
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 5: ninety nine, and he appreciates the path that you're on
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 5: and which is you continued success. And it's unfortunate that
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 5: you've chosen to revisit these allegations. Mister Kom's trust that
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 5: responsible journalism will we're both to establish legal outcomes, and
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 5: mister Come's positive long thing and.
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: Support for those he has worked with.
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 4: Listen, I don't have to tell you what is obvious.
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 4: Everybody and beloved mothers knows what happened. That was just
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 4: a fact, you know. Now, it's not going to rhyme
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 4: about it just to lie with him. And nowas became
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 4: cool after the fact, But there were so many people
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 4: that were hurt in hip hop that felt that he
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 4: did me dirty. And it's just a matter of fact
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 4: that I've been saying it and I'll continue to say it.
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 4: Even if what happened to Diddy didn't happen, that would
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 4: have to be in a documentary and it would have been,
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 4: you know, a bit more. He did it. You know,
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 4: he blamed it on the lawyers. We forgave him move on.
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 4: But then when the little rod thing comes out and
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 4: he's bragging about shooting up the club and having me
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 4: take the fall. I don't know who this guy is anymore.
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 4: And then all these other accusations come out there. He's like, no,
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 4: it's not true. Then we see the video. Listen, I
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 4: don't know who this guy is and I'm not taking
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 4: the fall again, So don't put me, you know, next
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 4: to him in that regard. This is the fact we're
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 4: not going to rewrite history and we're just telling the facts.
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: I got a couple more questions.
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 5: You got a whole documentary out of the yea, all
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 5: this stuff, But how can you be comfortable with people
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 5: who you know assisted in your career but they were
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 5: still friends with Puff and they maintained a relationship with him,
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 5: knowing what happened that night, and while you were incarcerated
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 5: fighting for your life.
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 4: It was difficult. It was extremely difficult. But as I said,
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 4: I got to a space where, you know, the currency,
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 4: the capital that I was looking at is how relationships
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 4: could benefit Belieze. So it was having to develop that
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 4: emotional intelligence to think about the bigger picture and to
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 4: understand that, you know, in an entertainment business, who's really
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 4: friends who really loves you? They don't even love Puff,
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 4: They're really not even his friend. I don't know, so
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 4: you know. And then I moved on, Like I said.
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 1: I'm not the one. I'm not little Rod.
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 4: He's the one that put the suit out there, you know,
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 4: Cassie's the one that put thish. I'm not the one
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 4: that brought these things back to life.
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 1: You wanted to though, absolutely not. I thought you said
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 1: you wanted through puff.
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 4: No, no, no, I'm saying when all these lawsuits came out,
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 4: I thought about, well, listen, you know, if they if
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 4: he owes them thirty mil, then I should get a
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 4: hundred mil out of that billion dollars. But what I'm
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 4: saying is I was content with the way it was
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 4: living my life and Belieze accomplishing the great things that
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 4: I'm accomplishing, and just moving forward with trying to become
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 4: the next Prime Minister of Belieze, and using all my
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 4: relationships in the entertainment business to promote and market Belieze.
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 4: And so that's what it was about. It wasn't about,
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 4: oh yo, you were friends with Diddy while I was
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 4: locked up. You know, I can't be your friend. Listen,
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 4: we're not here for that. You got love for me,
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 4: Come visit Belize, buy a condo, you know, build a
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 4: beachfront resort, you know, come do a show there, Come
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 4: talk to the kids, you know, give some laptops. That's
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 4: how I treated those relationships.
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 2: Now, in twenty twenty, during COVID, Belieze Press released I
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 2: guess an incident or article that you got into an
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 2: argument with your wife that was later, I guess dropped
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 2: what happened with that withdrawn? It was withdrawn? Yeah, what
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 2: happened with that incident? And why was it so big?
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 2: And I want to know what's worse, politics or the
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 2: rap game, because they seem like they both in your
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 2: life like crazy.
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 4: And I think both. I'd say politics for me, because
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 4: I'm doing politics to help people and helping people that
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 4: come from where you come from, there's nothing like it.
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 4: I was making music for the world as young musician,
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 4: but to be in my country, you know, the the
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 4: gains from politics to me are greater than the games
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 4: from music. But you could argue, if you make music
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 4: and you're touching people's lives and you know you're inspiring people,
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 4: there's a game there too. But I guess I live
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 4: where I'm at and where I'm at right now, I
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 4: wouldn't trade where I'm at in politics for anything as
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 4: nasty and as dirty as it is. And that's all
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 4: that was. You know, we had an argument, and so
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 4: you know, there was an exaggeration of the events, and
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 4: that's what she said. She said that, you know, she exaggerated, exaggerated,
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 4: you know, whatever she told and withdrew it and we
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 4: moved on.
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 5: Do you remember your attorney Matt Middleton attempting to sit
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 5: down between you and little Sean in order to tell
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 5: you how to deal with puff?
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 4: No, okay, I don't remember that.
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 1: Okay, I want to.
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 3: You got another one because I I want to. I
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 3: want to.
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 2: I want to ask about Belize. Right, That's That's one
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 2: thing we didn't discuss that much in here. Explain to
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 2: the people what Believes it's like to you, right, especially
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 2: for myself who's never been to Belize.
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 3: And why should people go to Belize? What's beautiful about Believes?
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 3: Where should they eat? Tell us about the country that
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 3: you smile about all the time?
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 4: Yeah, Believes is paradise. You know, Belize is heaven for me.
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 4: You know, the most beautiful beaches in the world. Uh,
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 4: you know, White Sands. If you love diving, we got
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 4: the greatest diving, uh, in all of the free world.
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 4: In the Blue Hole, we got the best food. We
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 4: got the most beautiful, humble, warm and welcoming people. You know,
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 4: my two favorite I got a few favorite resorts. If
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 4: you're going to stay in San Pedro, which is like
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 4: the Miami of uh, you know, Belize, I'd stay at
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 4: the a Liar. That's that's my place of choice of
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 4: Beech Trump Villa at the Liar. And then I go
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 4: south sometimes because south you can drive. When you go
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 4: to San Page, you gotta take the boat, or you
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 4: gotta fly because it's like an island, it's a key.
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 4: But then for mainland, when I still want to be
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 4: on the beach, I go to Placentia at the it'sana
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 4: ah Bee Trump Villa, or in Hopkins, which is you know,
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 4: one of the greatest places. I'm going there on Sunday
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 4: because that's where the Garyfuna community is. Garyfuna. They're very
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 4: big and in New York and throughout. My My grandmother
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 4: is from Honduras, where a lot of Garifuna are from,
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 4: so they have a very culture rich cultural experience there.
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 4: But yeah, so and then something what I got into
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 4: in my older age is the rural area, you know,
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 4: starting to love the river and and that jungle vibe.
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 4: And so there's a place called Kaana, you know, that's
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 4: in Cayo, that's like on the border of Guatemala. So yeah,
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 4: those are my those are my favorite places that I
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 4: would recommend people to go if you're going to the city.
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 4: The Fort George Hotel is great. Uh, you know, that's
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 4: like five star luxury. And you know, I encourage people
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 4: to eat at There's a place called D n D's.
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 4: It's a place that I've been eating so on Saint Thomas.
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 4: The best food that you never taste if you're in
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 4: Believe City. J.
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 1: Prens got an out out there, right.
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 4: Yeah, he's actually having I think a big party tomorrow
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 4: and belieze. But I'm here. Everybody's flying out there. So
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 4: he got a few islands out there. He's been out
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 4: there for a while. He owns an island, a few islands.
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 1: He always said that come to believe.
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 4: Believe believes it is paradise. You know, it's great to invest.
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 4: We have a strong democracy, strong transition to power. So
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 4: even though I'm not in government right now, still invite
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 4: people to come down there, because when governments do change,
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 4: you know, there's no victimization, so your investment will be stable.
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 4: You know, our violence is limited. You know, obviously have
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 4: the impoverished communities and so most of the violence is
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 4: restricted to those communities. So we don't have a problem
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 4: with tourists. We don't have a problem with investors coming
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 4: down there. So I definitely invite everyone to come down
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 4: there and enjoy paradise.
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 5: My last question, way does God fit in your decision
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 5: to forgive somebody that the world can now see could
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 5: have been guilty of all that you accused them of
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 5: back then?
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 4: Divine intervention got me to where I'm at today, and
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 4: I couldn't be where I'm at today without forgiveness. Doesn't
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 4: mean that I'm going to come here and refuse to
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 4: answer questions, doesn't mean that I'm gonna sanitize history or
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 4: rewrite it to protect anyone or to preserve anyone's feelings.
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 4: But forgiveness is extremely important. So that's one thing for
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 4: people to take away from the documentary is that you
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 4: do forgive. It doesn't mean you forget, it doesn't mean
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 4: you rewrite history. But you have to let go. You
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 4: have to let go because holding on to anger, holding
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 4: on to hatred, holding on to you know, those deep
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 4: rooted trauma can become a cancer for you, and it
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 4: can block your blessing, it can block your pathway. So,
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 4: like I said, the greatest thing I did was not
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 4: expect anything from anyone, and that was hard because, like man,
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 4: you're a billionaire at least let me get you know,
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 4: percent of that and percent of that. But when you
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 4: change that mindset, which is, you know what, I don't
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 4: want anything from anyone, get everything from God. I'll just
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 4: work hard and I'll just keep going forward, and no
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 4: one owes me anything, you have a much healthier life.
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 4: And that comes from a lot of prayer. That's why
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 4: I spent, you know, all that time in Jerusalem. You know,
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 4: I don't regret that that was one of the greatest
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 4: experiences of my life. But I learned from that experience
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 4: that it's not about being religious. It's about being a
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 4: good person. It's about humanity. And humanity has to be
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 4: about forgiveness, has to be about tolerance, has to be
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 4: about compassion, has to be about empathy. And those are
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 4: action words. So religion is an action sport. You can't,
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 4: you know, be on a pulpit or you can't you know,
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 4: wax religion, but not live spiritual, not live a clean life,
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 4: not live a healthy life. So you know, I've been
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 4: praying for for thirty years, every single day. You know,
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 4: there was a time when I was in costrat fast
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 4: for six months sun up to sundown. So the type
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 4: of rigorous spiritual training that I've gone through has prepared
• 1:16:04
  Speaker 4: me for exactly where I am today and being a
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 4: political leader. We always hear about corruption. So many people
• 1:16:13
  Speaker 4: get to the office that I hold, in the office
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 4: that I want to hold as the next Prime Minister
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 4: of Belieze, and they betray the people. They betray the
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 4: values that they've promoted all along to manifest those the policies.
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 4: They totally forget that. And so everything that I've been
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 4: through prepares me because if I didn't betray Diddy, if
• 1:16:34
  Speaker 4: I'm still not, he might, you know, be offended, he
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 4: might be hurt because I'm telling the truth. But I'm
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 4: still not up here saying, oh, did he shot them?
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 4: Did he had the gun? He gave me the gun.
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 4: You know he told me this about Tupac. I'm still
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 4: not up here saying those things. I'm still loyal to integrity,
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 4: not to him. I'm loyal to character. That's why it's
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 4: called the honorable. My title in the House of Representatives
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 4: is honorable. That's what they call all members of the
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 4: House of Representatives. But I was honorable when I decided
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 4: to risk twenty five years instead of getting my friend
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 4: and my brother in trouble, even though he was getting
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 4: me in trouble, right, So God, that relationship with God,
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 4: and I'm not talking about that superficial that you know fronting.
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 4: I'm talking about when I was in the tombs, got
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 4: you know, down and prayed with tears coming down my eyes,
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 4: and I said to God, you know, I'm not going
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 4: to ask you why. I'm not going to ask you
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 4: how because I was just driving a Bentley last week.
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 4: I was just in my Ferrari last week. You know,
• 1:17:46
  Speaker 4: one of the biggest stars in America. And that's from
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 4: growing up in Belize where we didn't even have a
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 4: toilet in my house, to a single pair of home
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 4: in Brooklyn. I didn't ask you why and how then,
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 4: So I'm not going to ask you why. Mean now,
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 4: all I'm going to ask you is give me the
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 4: ability to endure what I'm going through. That's all because
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 4: I know the same way I got through. The most
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 4: difficult thing I ever did was to become successful as
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 4: a musician. To go from being poor and you know,
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 4: making millions of dollars as an African Caribbean American. It's
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 4: no easy feat. Definitely not back then. That was the
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 4: most difficult thing I did in my life. So being incarcerated,
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 4: I knew I could manage that, but only by the
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 4: grace of God. And so yeah, God has played a
• 1:18:37
  Speaker 4: serious role in my life. You don't always listen because
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 4: I sat up for ten years praying, and when I
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 4: got out, you know, I made stupid mistakes. But you
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 4: keep praying, and that's what the documentary is about. You
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 4: keep praying, keep working, you fall, you get up, and
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 4: it's all about analysis, self reflection, constant assessment. You're constantly evolving,
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 4: and you know you gotta have the target. The target
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 4: is to be a good person. The target is to
• 1:19:04
  Speaker 4: be the best person, best father to your children. You know,
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 4: God bless my daughter Naomi. You know, the best brother,
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 4: the best you know, friend, the best everything. And that's
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 4: a constant that's every day. You gotta fight for your
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 4: soul and and and for me. You can't come without
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 4: divine intervention.
• 1:19:23
  Speaker 5: You made me understand some things today. You made me
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 5: overstand something because you said something. Just now, you said,
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 5: you said, I know what he told me about Tupac,
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 5: so you know he can You know, he had to
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 5: have the tendency to do that, so that he probably
• 1:19:37
  Speaker 5: did say those things the little rod I get.
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 1: I understand that.
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 4: Maybe in the memoir I'll speak some more about it, But.
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 1: I love your story. Man.
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 5: I think that you are, you know, just to watch
• 1:19:49
  Speaker 5: you evolve over the years, you are a reason why
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 5: you gotta let things just play out. And you really
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 5: shouldn't judge people when they're young, because you just never
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 5: know the journey justice.
• 1:19:58
  Speaker 4: Criminal justice reform, that's one thing that I don't think
• 1:20:01
  Speaker 4: I've been verbalizing enough. I am the poster child criminal
• 1:20:04
  Speaker 4: justice reform. I'm the reason that we shouldn't be engaging
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 4: in mass warehousing. I'm the reason why young people, you know,
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 4: when they become involved in the criminal justice system, should
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 4: be given every opportunity to reform and to rehabilitate, because
• 1:20:18
  Speaker 4: this is what happens. You got a bunch of young
• 1:20:20
  Speaker 4: people that could become politicians, could become just law abiding
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 4: contributors of society. You don't want to destroy people's lives.
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 4: And I think for too long, incarceration, you know, hasn't
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 4: worked the way that it should work, and there's been
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 4: this rush to incarcerate rather than to rehabilitate. So definitely,
• 1:20:39
  Speaker 4: I hope that the people that are fighting I got
• 1:20:41
  Speaker 4: to acknowledge. My friend Bazz Drve Singer, she's a professor
• 1:20:44
  Speaker 4: at John Jay and she does wonders with her movement
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 4: of you know, like going to bringing school university to prisons.
• 1:20:54
  Speaker 4: You know, been doing a program prison to university pipeline
• 1:20:58
  Speaker 4: where you know, guys going there their masters, their doctorates.
• 1:21:02
  Speaker 4: Is actually a guy that's a professor at John Jay
• 1:21:05
  Speaker 4: that started in her program, So he went from being
• 1:21:09
  Speaker 4: incarcerated getting his degrees to being a professor at John
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 4: Jay University. So definitely, you know, I hope and I
• 1:21:18
  Speaker 4: pray that the documentary can inspire people as they're dealing
• 1:21:23
  Speaker 4: with the criminal justice system from the side of being
• 1:21:26
  Speaker 4: an offender, knowing that there's hope for them in changing
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 4: their lives and in becoming you know, the best version
• 1:21:33
  Speaker 4: of themselves, and that that is not the end of them.
• 1:21:35
  Speaker 4: And for the people, the legislators, for the advocates to
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 4: keep you know, advocating for a system that is truly just,
• 1:21:43
  Speaker 4: because justice is not condemning someone for the rest of
• 1:21:46
  Speaker 4: their lives. Justice is the victims the justice, you know,
• 1:21:50
  Speaker 4: but perpetrators need the opportunity to be contrite and the
• 1:21:54
  Speaker 4: opportunity to reform. For the betterment of society.
• 1:21:58
  Speaker 2: Well, we appreciate you joining us. The Honor Bot Shine.
• 1:22:00
  Speaker 2: The documentary is streaming now on Hulu and Seane, we appreciate.
• 1:22:04
  Speaker 3: You for joining us.
• 1:22:04
  Speaker 4: Make sure you come down to believe.
• 1:22:06
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna make out there, go out there, you know
• 1:22:08
  Speaker 2: absolutely years ago I would love to absolutely.
• 1:22:11
  Speaker 3: Ladies, gentlemen, it's Sean. It's the Breakfast Club. Good morning.
• 1:22:14
  Speaker 1: Wake that ass up in the morning. The Breakfast Club