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RAY CUNNINGHAM - Secret Ingredient · Eating While Broke

0:13
Speaker 1: Hey guys, welcome to another episode of Eating While Broke.
0:16
Speaker 1: I'm your host Coy and today we have very special
0:20
Speaker 1: guest reality star mister Rays in the Building.
0:26
Speaker 2: Star og Media Moguls is in the building.
0:30
Speaker 3: Man of many titles and many jobs. Yes.
0:33
Speaker 2: Yes, And that's kind of how the industry is, right.
0:36
Speaker 3: That's how LA is. You can't just be a one
0:38
Speaker 3: trick The rent is always do. You got to be
0:41
Speaker 3: able to make it move when when jobs ain't moving.
0:44
Speaker 1: And if you're a millennial, you've been through so many
0:46
Speaker 1: shockwaves from like you know, COVID, the writers strike. I mean,
0:51
Speaker 1: there's just there's always something. You know, before that there
0:55
Speaker 1: was the Alway crash of real estate. So now you
0:59
Speaker 1: just you know, you have to have multiple jobs.
1:02
Speaker 3: We have to be able to adapt and improvise and overcome.
1:05
Speaker 3: Like when I was doing reality television, then COVID came
1:08
Speaker 3: and nobody was swimming anything. So I went to grad school,
1:11
Speaker 3: got my master's and I wrote a book that ended
1:13
Speaker 3: up being a bestseller on Amazon. Uh. Then when the
1:16
Speaker 3: writer strike happened, there was no more TV happening again.
1:19
Speaker 3: So I went and learned how to be a producer,
1:21
Speaker 3: so cause there were still projects being produced, but there
1:23
Speaker 3: was no actors acting. So I was able to learn
1:26
Speaker 3: how to be a talent producer and learn the you know,
1:28
Speaker 3: the inner workings of how to warn a production thanks
1:31
Speaker 3: to Hellionaire Productions. Shout out to Jamie. And then even
1:35
Speaker 3: when things got back to normal, I decided I wanted
1:38
Speaker 3: to work in the community and do stuff, you know,
1:40
Speaker 3: help give back and help some Los Angeles students go
1:43
Speaker 3: to school so they can have the same kind of
1:45
Speaker 3: HBCU experience that I had. So I've been working with
1:48
Speaker 3: United Negro College Fund and the Black College Expo and
1:51
Speaker 3: just I just God has blessed me to be multi
1:54
Speaker 3: talented and be able to exist in a lot of spaces.
1:57
Speaker 1: Since we talking about a lot of spaces. Yes, don't
2:00
Speaker 1: you tell me what you're gonna feed me. I am starving, guys.
2:02
Speaker 1: It is lunchtime over here, so I will be eating
2:05
Speaker 1: the full dish and the little crumbs.
2:08
Speaker 2: So what are you gonna have me eating today?
2:10
Speaker 3: So we're gonna make mister Ray's tacos. Since we're in
2:13
Speaker 3: LA and everybody eats healthy out here, We're gonna use
2:15
Speaker 3: checking oh excuse, We're gonna use turkey meat. We're trying
2:18
Speaker 3: to eat healthy, eat right for our blood type out here.
2:20
Speaker 3: So we used turkey. I got some secret ingredients. We
2:23
Speaker 3: got our tomatoes, our onions, our cheese, our lettuce, our sauca.
2:28
Speaker 3: This is a special hot sausa. If you have sinuses,
2:34
Speaker 3: this will clear you out. Okay, in both ways, I am.
2:38
Speaker 3: I'm scared that what are your secret ingredients?
2:41
Speaker 2: Come on?
2:42
Speaker 3: So anywhile broke in college, I ate on a budget,
2:45
Speaker 3: but I came from very humble beginnings. But I still
2:49
Speaker 3: ate well. And then of course when you get to college,
2:52
Speaker 3: my dad was like, okay, you on your own. You
2:53
Speaker 3: need to get you a job or you know, work
2:56
Speaker 3: on campus, get some extra money because we're paying for
2:58
Speaker 3: you to be in school. So I wanted to eat
3:01
Speaker 3: how I ate it home, So I had to improvise
3:04
Speaker 3: with a couple of things. So there was a top
3:06
Speaker 3: China carry out right near us. There was the grocery
3:09
Speaker 3: store right near of food. It was called food Line
3:11
Speaker 3: in Virginia shout out to Virginia State University. So I
3:14
Speaker 3: would go get the meat, the tacos. We would watch
3:17
Speaker 3: one O six in park. When I used to come
3:18
Speaker 3: on in six o'clock, we watched one on six in
3:22
Speaker 3: Park and I would make tacos for us to eat
3:24
Speaker 3: and then we would go back to schools. Back then,
3:26
Speaker 3: in college, I was the mascot, so we had band practice,
3:28
Speaker 3: so I had to go learn the dances and stuff
3:30
Speaker 3: like that. So we would eat tacos, watch one O
3:33
Speaker 3: six in park, and then go back to campus. So
3:36
Speaker 3: this was my version of a gourmet taco. Well, go ahead,
3:40
Speaker 3: so I use soy sauce. I know it sounds crazy,
3:44
Speaker 3: but I had so many soy sauce packets from eating
3:48
Speaker 3: Chinese food to go in college. I used to use
3:50
Speaker 3: it as a seasoning because I was like, it's amazing.
3:54
Speaker 3: It's amazing, So my hands are clean.
3:57
Speaker 2: Go for it.
3:57
Speaker 3: Okay, you're not gonna end up touch the meat a
4:00
Speaker 3: lot though, right, No, I'm not touching that I've seen.
4:02
Speaker 1: It's actually put their hands on the meat and then
4:05
Speaker 1: they touch their hair by accident.
4:07
Speaker 3: Those are the same people who probably don't know the
4:09
Speaker 3: difference between a wash face cloth and a body cloth.
4:15
Speaker 3: So you know, chicken cooks, turkey and chicken, all those
4:18
Speaker 3: cook pretty fast.
4:21
Speaker 2: So you don't need the oil, right because it's I
4:23
Speaker 2: guess it has its own fat.
4:25
Speaker 3: I'm gonna use a little bit of oil, not a lot,
4:28
Speaker 3: just a drop, because it's yeah, it's a little bit
4:31
Speaker 3: on that side, that's a lot, right, Well, you gotta
4:35
Speaker 3: get it cooking. Now, we don't see I'm judging.
4:38
Speaker 2: I'm a I'm a I'm a side side host.
4:42
Speaker 3: I want to see when the soy sauce.
4:45
Speaker 2: When when the soy sauce enters the pan? So he
4:47
Speaker 2: got the Okay, I'll narrate. So, Okay, he's he's brown
4:51
Speaker 2: in the meat taco seasoning.
4:54
Speaker 3: See, when you're not using beef and you're using like
4:56
Speaker 3: turkey stuff like that, you really have to season your meat.
5:00
Speaker 2: And we like good meat, right, a whole packet. We
5:03
Speaker 2: learned on one episode that we're not supposed to use
5:05
Speaker 2: the whole packete us.
5:07
Speaker 3: Some chef I'm from I'm from Virginia. We cook, Okay,
5:10
Speaker 3: we seasoned, we cooked, We brown our meat. Make sure
5:14
Speaker 3: it tastes great. It's supposed to be a party in
5:16
Speaker 3: your mouth. Yeah, exactly like that. Good all right.
5:20
Speaker 1: So take me back to what was going on in
5:22
Speaker 1: the tackle making days.
5:24
Speaker 3: So in Virginia State University, I was in school. I
5:28
Speaker 3: was a mass calm major. I'm just using a little
5:30
Speaker 3: bit of a little onion powdered.
5:31
Speaker 1: Little onion powder after he added the entire taco seasoning.
5:35
Speaker 2: Packet Italian power. Are you gonna add garlic powder?
5:40
Speaker 3: No, we ain't doing all that now.
5:42
Speaker 2: Okay, okay, I feel like those two are married for life.
5:44
Speaker 3: But yeah, college was a great time. It was the
5:48
Speaker 3: best four years of my life. Figured out who I was,
5:51
Speaker 3: came and started living in my truth. I think that's
5:54
Speaker 3: where mister Ray was developed. Know. I grew up in
5:57
Speaker 3: a pretty conservative family. You know, I'm the young this
6:00
Speaker 3: boy of the four siblings. My dad and I are
6:03
Speaker 3: best friends. My grandmother and I are best friends. I
6:07
Speaker 3: grew up in Virginia with my father and my mother
6:09
Speaker 3: was actually here in California. So every summer, every summer,
6:13
Speaker 3: fall break, Christmas break, spring break, I was out here.
6:16
Speaker 2: So wait a minute, So your dad raised you by himself.
6:19
Speaker 3: I have a stepmother as well. Yeah, yeah, I have
6:20
Speaker 3: a step mother and a stepfather. So I got an
6:22
Speaker 3: East Coast family and a West Coast friend. So I
6:25
Speaker 3: ain't new to La. I been here. I'm a co native,
6:28
Speaker 3: uh since nineteen You're the youngest, I'm the baby, I'm
6:31
Speaker 3: my mom's only Oh, my dad has other children. I
6:33
Speaker 3: have half.
6:33
Speaker 2: Siblings, but you're the youngest.
6:36
Speaker 3: I'm the baby of all.
6:37
Speaker 2: And then I'm.
6:38
Speaker 3: Guessing they separated.
6:39
Speaker 2: And then they.
6:40
Speaker 3: Separated, and then my father remarried, and my mother moved
6:43
Speaker 3: back here and she remarried. Okay, so I was. I
6:46
Speaker 3: grew up. I was. I was living a good life.
6:48
Speaker 3: I got to, you know, live in Virginia, come to
6:51
Speaker 3: La every break. So like Hollywood, it wasn't new to
6:53
Speaker 3: me when I got into it. I knew where everything
6:56
Speaker 3: was pretty much. And I had friends out here.
6:59
Speaker 2: Oh he's at in the soil, a little bit of
7:00
Speaker 2: so and soft.
7:01
Speaker 3: Now, this is the college hookup we had used to
7:03
Speaker 3: I used to use packets of this. I'm telling you,
7:06
Speaker 3: you're it's gonna be so good. I am definitely curious, cause,
7:10
Speaker 3: you know, a black colleges, we have to make do
7:12
Speaker 3: with what we have. A lot of soy sauce. It's
7:15
Speaker 3: gonna cook down. You're not gonna taste it.
7:16
Speaker 2: They gonna see this.
7:17
Speaker 3: Man. I hope it's delicious. It's amazing. It is amazing.
7:23
Speaker 2: That much.
7:24
Speaker 3: No, it's not. I hate dry meat.
7:25
Speaker 2: I yeah, yeah, I.
7:29
Speaker 3: I just caught that. But No, in college, we were
7:31
Speaker 3: just cooking on the budget. We were trying to make
7:33
Speaker 3: things taste good with what we have. We used condiments everything. So,
7:38
Speaker 3: you know, I just I came to California in the
7:40
Speaker 3: summers and I would watch my grandmother and my mother cook.
7:43
Speaker 3: And because my grandmother retired from Compton High School, she
7:46
Speaker 3: had a lot of Hispanic homegirls had a lot of
7:49
Speaker 3: friends out here. My grandmother got the hookup everywhere she went,
7:53
Speaker 3: still does, and they made the best tacos. And I
7:56
Speaker 3: would sit and watch those women make tacos, and then
7:58
Speaker 3: I would go back to Virginia. You know, we eating
8:01
Speaker 3: pig feet, port neck, all kinds of stuff, and they're
8:04
Speaker 3: not gonna taco but like Chipotle was the boom of
8:08
Speaker 3: Mexican food in Virginia, I promise you. Yeah.
8:11
Speaker 1: So you said that in college you discover your true self.
8:15
Speaker 2: What does that mean?
8:16
Speaker 3: Well, you know, I grew up in the era of
8:18
Speaker 3: being very conservative, don't ask, and you don't tell your
8:21
Speaker 3: business to nobody. So when I was casting for college
8:24
Speaker 3: here on my first show that I did, we trited
8:26
Speaker 3: filming in the fall of my senior year and it
8:28
Speaker 3: aired that spring. I admitted what I admitted, my sensuality
8:34
Speaker 3: on national television. At the time, I thought the world
8:37
Speaker 3: was over. I was trying my best. I was blowing
8:39
Speaker 3: on beans, like you cannot air that my I have
8:41
Speaker 3: not said. I have not told my parents. I have
8:44
Speaker 3: not told my family. Like saying you're gay and being
8:47
Speaker 3: gay are two different conversations, And at that time, I
8:50
Speaker 3: just actually knowing it. Knowing your gay is okay, you
8:54
Speaker 3: know you're gay, you know what you like. But saying
8:57
Speaker 3: it verbally to someone else other than yourself in the mirror,
9:00
Speaker 3: it's a crazy experience, okay. And I wasn't really ready
9:03
Speaker 3: for it, and it made me the first black gay
9:08
Speaker 3: reality personality ever on BET. So. I know I made history,
9:12
Speaker 3: but I thought I was about to be history because
9:14
Speaker 3: I didn't know how my dad was gonna react. But
9:17
Speaker 3: it actually allowed us to get so much closer and
9:19
Speaker 3: talk with each other and to share everything. There's nothing
9:21
Speaker 3: you can tell my dad right now today that he
9:24
Speaker 3: doesn't already know about good, bad, embarrassing, whatever. We talk
9:27
Speaker 3: like that. That's that situation taught us. But I know
9:30
Speaker 3: that's not like that for everybody. I did have some relatives.
9:33
Speaker 3: It was a little feisty about it, and I'm like,
9:35
Speaker 3: what do you matter. What do you care? This is
9:37
Speaker 3: my body, this is my life.
9:38
Speaker 2: Were they mad because you said it on national television?
9:41
Speaker 3: Yeah, because they had to deal with You know again,
9:44
Speaker 3: I came from I was from Virginia, so everybody knew everybody.
9:47
Speaker 3: Everybody knew everybody's family, everybody worked together, went the church together,
9:51
Speaker 3: was at the grocery store together. Like everybody knew everybody.
9:54
Speaker 3: So it was It's not that it was a secret either,
9:57
Speaker 3: Like if you knew me, you knew you. I'm saying Dad,
10:00
Speaker 3: was he shocked or was he like, boy, it wasn't
10:02
Speaker 3: shocked at all. I don't ever, You're not gonna make
10:04
Speaker 3: me believe that my dad was shocked. I think he
10:06
Speaker 3: was just more so disappointed that I did not have
10:09
Speaker 3: that conversation with him first, because he thought that we
10:12
Speaker 3: were closer than that. We're close, But how do you
10:14
Speaker 3: tell your black dad hed dad as the only as
10:18
Speaker 3: the youngest boy, I like men, how many other boys
10:21
Speaker 3: does he have? Oh I have a step brother, Oh
10:23
Speaker 3: step I'm the namesake. I'm the third. There's two other
10:27
Speaker 3: rays in front of me, him and my grandfather. And
10:30
Speaker 3: it's just, you know, I just think it was that
10:31
Speaker 3: you have a step brother.
10:32
Speaker 1: So you're technically the youngest boy, the youngest boy of
10:36
Speaker 1: his Yes, yes, okay.
10:38
Speaker 3: My brother was having kids when I came to live
10:41
Speaker 3: with my dad and my stepmother, and then my oldest
10:44
Speaker 3: sister was having kids when I came. So I grew
10:46
Speaker 3: up with four of my nieces like we were brothers
10:48
Speaker 3: and sister. Yeah, so they're like, they're like, they're like
10:51
Speaker 3: between the ages of twenty eight and thirty five. Three
10:54
Speaker 3: of my nieces actually have sons. So I'm great uncle Ray.
10:57
Speaker 3: We aren't gonna say great uncle Ray, but I'm a
10:59
Speaker 3: great on go to three boys, uncle to five girls,
11:02
Speaker 3: and I have one nephew through my sister. Wow, I
11:05
Speaker 3: know it's a lot. Okay, So I don't need kids.
11:09
Speaker 2: Oh you don't want kids.
11:10
Speaker 3: Don't I'm forty. I don't want kids. I don't want
11:14
Speaker 3: to look like I don't gole pick it up my child.
11:17
Speaker 3: I'm forty.
11:17
Speaker 2: I have a three year old.
11:19
Speaker 3: So see you already have one at forty though, yeah, thirty,
11:22
Speaker 3: it started late. I started thirty seven. Well, see, this
11:24
Speaker 3: is my traveling era. This is my hilarious random.
11:28
Speaker 2: Era, forty years of Okay, I'm not gonna say.
11:31
Speaker 3: My nieces and nephews are my kids. Yeah, I'll trust me.
11:34
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna sell you on that responsibility. So what
11:38
Speaker 2: are we gonna do next?
11:38
Speaker 3: Are we? So we're gonna get a taco?
11:41
Speaker 2: Yes, I gonna I'm gonna get two.
11:44
Speaker 3: We'll get yeah, I am too. Yeah, come on, let's
11:47
Speaker 3: let's not act like I was trying to be classy
11:50
Speaker 3: while we while we do our you don't have to
11:52
Speaker 3: be classy. So you gotta let me know if you taste,
12:00
Speaker 3: I'm gonna fall it. Go for it. Okay. Ooh, you
12:06
Speaker 3: can't get.
12:06
Speaker 2: To it's not at all.
12:09
Speaker 3: I told you it's good right, It's the meat. It
12:13
Speaker 3: is what makes the taco my goodness.
12:16
Speaker 2: Okay, may hook me up a little more.
12:18
Speaker 3: You want some more? Okay? And we also have cheese
12:20
Speaker 3: and onion. I told you were gonna like this. Which
12:24
Speaker 3: one you wanted? There? There you go? Thanks, put some
12:28
Speaker 3: more of your.
12:29
Speaker 2: Other one, thank you? Okay, So we just freak stout
12:34
Speaker 2: lettuce and tomato.
12:34
Speaker 3: So yeah, you put lettuce tomato right with the cheese.
12:38
Speaker 3: Let it melk. Let me taste the meat.
12:40
Speaker 2: Meat girl, boy, listen, listen, let me tell you something.
12:46
Speaker 2: That meat, that meat I don't know. I don't know
12:48
Speaker 2: if I want to give you that credit or that
12:49
Speaker 2: seasoning credits.
12:51
Speaker 3: No, that was the that was my secret ingredient. But
12:53
Speaker 3: I think it's the soy sauce cause it wasn't even
12:55
Speaker 3: boom it's And that's the thing when you even though
12:57
Speaker 3: you wanna eat healthy, you still want to have some season,
13:00
Speaker 3: get some you know, some juiciness.
13:02
Speaker 2: Let me just tell you something, guys, the soy sauce
13:04
Speaker 2: in the taco meat probably made like a world of
13:07
Speaker 2: a difference. And I promise you I will never make
13:11
Speaker 2: tacos without it.
13:12
Speaker 3: I told you the.
13:13
Speaker 2: Secret ingredient isn't a secret ingredient anymore.
13:16
Speaker 3: Right, the world now knows that mister Ray's the hot.
13:19
Speaker 2: Sauce with me taco the soy sauce.
13:22
Speaker 3: I say, a hot sauce. Oh no, we haven't got
13:24
Speaker 3: to the hot sauce yet. Hot sauce is amazing. Oop.
13:31
Speaker 2: Sorry, we're getting excited.
13:33
Speaker 3: I know.
13:34
Speaker 2: Do you feel like, yeah, someone's house right now.
13:36
Speaker 3: I feel like we're sitting like you comfortable here. I'm
13:39
Speaker 3: very comfortable to add sour cream to this. You know what,
13:43
Speaker 3: As I've turned forty, uh, dairy products sometimes are not
13:47
Speaker 3: my friend in the middle of the day, so I
13:50
Speaker 3: pick and choose my sour cream battles.
13:53
Speaker 1: Now you don't consider sauce so like instead of hot sauce, like, baby,
13:56
Speaker 1: we just salsa it.
13:59
Speaker 3: I don't mind salt so like. I do have friends
14:00
Speaker 3: that prefer saucer. And then I prefer the green.
14:04
Speaker 2: I know he wants me to try this green.
14:07
Speaker 3: It comes it's so hot tall so oh my god.
14:10
Speaker 3: You put a lot in Chicago and this place called
14:12
Speaker 3: Burrito Beach and they had it and it was so good.
14:15
Speaker 3: And then, oh my god, it's amazing. Dad. It don't
14:18
Speaker 3: put too much. Friend, it's coming out so slow.
14:28
Speaker 2: That's so Jesus.
14:30
Speaker 3: All right, here we go.
14:32
Speaker 2: Okay, I'm hungry, guys. I know you want to hear.
14:34
Speaker 3: The story, but hung I want to see how you
14:36
Speaker 3: like to taco.
14:37
Speaker 2: I know I'm gonna like it. I'm gonna I'm enjoy
14:39
Speaker 2: my first couple of bites before I get to hell.
14:43
Speaker 3: M mm hmmm the meat alone, me have the golk cup.
14:56
Speaker 3: It's the green. Oh no, it wasn't the green like
14:58
Speaker 3: the show. Oh hmm.
15:01
Speaker 2: Let me tell you something. You killed it on the meat.
15:05
Speaker 3: Okay, that the best taco meat I've ever had. Oh
15:10
Speaker 3: my goodness, thank you. See I'm in my cooking era.
15:15
Speaker 3: I'm in my traveling era. I'm trying to get engaged. Era.
15:18
Speaker 3: Got the best way of somebody's harder to this stomach.
15:23
Speaker 3: Chased the green. It's a kick to it.
15:29
Speaker 2: Who you know what? I like it.
15:34
Speaker 3: That's flavor. It's hot, but it has a flavor to it.
15:37
Speaker 3: But just put a little dabs on it.
15:40
Speaker 2: We're gonna take a quick pause because I'm really right.
15:43
Speaker 3: We don't want any Ecco cameratersbody to eat.
15:46
Speaker 2: We're gonna eat for a second, and I'm gonna get
15:47
Speaker 2: into the shopping.
15:51
Speaker 3: But this is why everybody came over to my apartment.
15:54
Speaker 3: I made these tacos, and I used to tell all
15:56
Speaker 3: my friends save your save your soy sauce packets. That
16:01
Speaker 3: was so cord. We're gonna come back. We throw the commercials. Okay, ol,
16:09
Speaker 3: guys were back.
16:11
Speaker 2: All right, guys were back. Sorry. The food was so
16:13
Speaker 2: good that I had to call time out.
16:17
Speaker 3: Guy.
16:17
Speaker 2: We was really hungry, and I ate.
16:22
Speaker 1: I do want to do a special shout out to
16:24
Speaker 1: the soy sauce. I will say I've never thought to
16:28
Speaker 1: put soy sauce in taco meat. But if you've cooked
16:32
Speaker 1: with ground turkey, you know that it's typically dry. And
16:36
Speaker 1: I was clowning mister Ray because he was putting so much.
16:39
Speaker 3: I was scared.
16:40
Speaker 1: But it actually makes it a lot more softer and
16:43
Speaker 1: me that or you didn't overcook it. I don't know,
16:45
Speaker 1: but the meat came out really good. The flavoring was
16:47
Speaker 1: really good. So if you're at home, try the soy sauce,
16:51
Speaker 1: add the onion powder. As far as the hot sauce,
16:55
Speaker 1: I did try it. I got a little bit excited
16:57
Speaker 1: at the end. I thought I could handle it. My
17:00
Speaker 1: mouth is on absolute fire.
17:02
Speaker 3: Your notes will be so clear. If not afternoon delicious tacos.
17:14
Speaker 1: So now that we have the tacos out the way,
17:16
Speaker 1: you can come closer. Try not to eat into everyone's ears.
17:21
Speaker 2: Sorry guys.
17:21
Speaker 1: All right, so you do your first reality show, BT
17:27
Speaker 1: comes out. Begged all these guys not to air it.
17:31
Speaker 1: They're like, you signed these releases, golm down.
17:34
Speaker 3: Yeah, They're like, we have the footage. It's airing next week.
17:38
Speaker 3: Like it's not changing.
17:40
Speaker 2: What was the check looking.
17:41
Speaker 3: Like back then? Because we were the first black reality
17:45
Speaker 3: TV series, we are the the beginning the beginning of
17:49
Speaker 3: all reality TV in terms of black reality television. I
17:53
Speaker 3: think I don't remember the exact amount, but b ET
17:56
Speaker 3: paid us a weekly. We got paid weekly. They're gonna
18:01
Speaker 3: laugh at this because again we were the first black
18:03
Speaker 3: reality show and we were in college. We got paid
18:05
Speaker 3: one hundred dollars a week in cash. I remember that,
18:09
Speaker 3: and I believe when we signed on we got paid.
18:13
Speaker 3: I don't remember exactly how much, but I know while
18:16
Speaker 3: we were in production and while we traveled to promote
18:19
Speaker 3: the show, like when we were in New York from
18:20
Speaker 3: montal Suston Park, Miami for Spring Bring New York for
18:25
Speaker 3: the Runway in LA for the awards, we got a
18:27
Speaker 3: per diem while we were there. So it wasn't like
18:30
Speaker 3: they just had us out there too, and we were
18:31
Speaker 3: feeding for ourselves. So way different from they didn't get paid.
18:34
Speaker 2: Now, they didn't have you starve.
18:36
Speaker 3: Well, no, no, no, no, no, we didn't have any
18:39
Speaker 3: of that. I will say that we came up at
18:42
Speaker 3: the very humble beginnings when BT first went over to Viacom,
18:45
Speaker 3: so we got a lot of exposure. We got to
18:48
Speaker 3: go to so many things, but because our cast, we
18:51
Speaker 3: were so hungry to be out there and wanted to
18:53
Speaker 3: just see the world and everybody to see us and
18:55
Speaker 3: represent Virginia State. We did a lot on our own.
18:58
Speaker 3: We would go to the local radio stations and ask
19:01
Speaker 3: for donations and fundraise so we can get to certain
19:03
Speaker 3: places because B and T will be like, well, if
19:05
Speaker 3: y'all get here, we'll take care of you. Oh that's it.
19:08
Speaker 3: And we would just do whatever we needed to do
19:10
Speaker 3: to get there.
19:11
Speaker 1: And then when they say it will take care of you,
19:13
Speaker 1: they'll put you up a hotel.
19:14
Speaker 3: The hotel, car transportation will take care of everything. The
19:17
Speaker 3: issue was just sometimes it was traveling. Like I know,
19:19
Speaker 3: we had to make our own way to Miami for
19:22
Speaker 3: spring Bling, but we got to spring Bling. I got
19:24
Speaker 3: to We stayed at the best hotel right on the
19:27
Speaker 3: beach in Fort Lauderdale, and we met like Ello Cool
19:30
Speaker 3: J and Keisha Cole when she first started like we
19:32
Speaker 3: were the college kids backstage, like you know, we were
19:35
Speaker 3: still in class. Yeah, so that was awesome.
19:38
Speaker 2: And during all of this going on.
19:41
Speaker 3: I should listened to my dad. He was like that
19:44
Speaker 3: TV stuff gonna still be there, but your classes, you
19:47
Speaker 3: got to graduate. You gotta come up out of there. Uh.
19:49
Speaker 3: I did over indulge. I had a great time. We
19:53
Speaker 3: were always on the road because the show aired in
19:55
Speaker 3: the spring, and I graduated because I ended up feeling
19:59
Speaker 3: in class and had to graduate in the fall, so
20:03
Speaker 3: I finished the class. I took a three week summer
20:05
Speaker 3: school class. I got an a in that I'm not
20:07
Speaker 3: gonna say that teacher's name, but but you still you
20:10
Speaker 3: still graduated. Yeah, it's still coming out in May. But
20:14
Speaker 3: the shady part of it was they didn't let me
20:17
Speaker 3: know till like the day before graduation that I wasn't
20:20
Speaker 3: clear to graduate. So my family had played this huge
20:23
Speaker 3: cookout and everything, so we still had to cookout. We
20:26
Speaker 3: still ate and had a good time. But I had
20:29
Speaker 3: moved out here to La started working at BT. I
20:31
Speaker 3: had to fly back in December to walk across the
20:33
Speaker 3: stage and at first I wasn't going to it. I
20:35
Speaker 3: was like, they tried it, But then I was like,
20:37
Speaker 3: you know what rules are the rules? I needed to
20:40
Speaker 3: be responsible, learn how to manage my time. So that
20:43
Speaker 3: was a lesson learned for sure.
20:45
Speaker 2: But yeah, so after that whole experience, what was your
20:47
Speaker 2: next big play?
20:49
Speaker 3: I went to work at Beet in the corporate communications department.
20:52
Speaker 3: I was there as an intern and then I ain't
20:54
Speaker 3: up staying for about two three years and then.
20:57
Speaker 2: From b as a paid internship.
21:01
Speaker 3: I was fresh out of college and I was on
21:03
Speaker 3: b ET and working at b ET, so there was
21:06
Speaker 3: money involved. Back then, I was getting paid as talent
21:09
Speaker 3: after work, getting paid as an employee during the day.
21:14
Speaker 3: Then who I've done so many things from b ET.
21:19
Speaker 3: I went and actually worked with my father. My father
21:21
Speaker 3: retired from Amtrak in DC. A lot of people don't
21:24
Speaker 3: know this, and I was living in DC. Nobody knew
21:26
Speaker 3: what I was doing because you know, I had, you know,
21:28
Speaker 3: working on the train and working at Amtrak. You can't
21:31
Speaker 3: It's in our union guideline that you can't post yourself
21:34
Speaker 3: and post you know, train business. Yes, so I mean
21:37
Speaker 3: some people who occasional would post themselves in a uniform.
21:40
Speaker 3: I personally was not trying to post myself in a uniform.
21:43
Speaker 3: I didn't want to draw a lot of attention that
21:44
Speaker 3: I was, you know, in DC and working. But people
21:48
Speaker 3: knew that I had a government related job. So I
21:51
Speaker 3: did that. And while I did that, I worked out
21:53
Speaker 3: of New York at WeTV as well, So I was
21:55
Speaker 3: just digital hosts and correspondence so the Braxton Family Values,
21:59
Speaker 3: swv LA Hair, all those shows. I was like the
22:02
Speaker 3: wee TV Andy Coo when I interviewed everybody. I did
22:05
Speaker 3: the digital reunions, I hosted the award shows. I was
22:09
Speaker 3: execut produce all of those things. I edited most of
22:12
Speaker 3: those things. We TV paid very well because did you
22:15
Speaker 3: have to pitch yourself for that or did they just
22:17
Speaker 3: reach out to me. I was in a bar and
22:19
Speaker 3: I met this lady that she was over listening. She
22:22
Speaker 3: was listening to my conversation. I was talking about the
22:24
Speaker 3: Braxton Show, the Braxton Family Values, and she kept laughing
22:28
Speaker 3: and like button in my conversation. She was like, you
22:30
Speaker 3: are so funny. Here's my car. Can you call me
22:32
Speaker 3: on Monday? So I looked at the car and I
22:35
Speaker 3: said we TV. I was just like we TV. So
22:38
Speaker 3: I called my sister. She was like call them people,
22:40
Speaker 3: see what they talking about. And it was like she's like,
22:43
Speaker 3: I'm the head of original programming and in digital marketing,
22:47
Speaker 3: and she said, and I would love to have you
22:50
Speaker 3: like commentate. All of our shows will pay you, you know,
22:53
Speaker 3: per episode, will bring you up to New York. I said,
22:55
Speaker 3: I'm work the trade for free girl. So I was hustling.
22:59
Speaker 3: I was working. When I was free, I was doing
23:01
Speaker 3: we TV and it was great money. It was a
23:04
Speaker 3: good time. I got to meet some of everybody, and
23:07
Speaker 3: that's how befriended my gird girlfriend, Tracy Braxon, who unfortunate
23:10
Speaker 3: is no longer here with us. But I got to
23:12
Speaker 3: work with my childhood icons s WV. They had a show,
23:17
Speaker 3: so it was just it was a good time. So
23:18
Speaker 3: I was being professional, had a corporate nine to five
23:22
Speaker 3: with benefits, and then I was still pursuing my passion,
23:25
Speaker 3: and that's all my dad wanted me to do. Pursue
23:27
Speaker 3: my passion. But make sure you got some savings, make
23:30
Speaker 3: sure you got benefits, because you know, as we get older,
23:32
Speaker 3: we get sick. You know, I never would have thought
23:34
Speaker 3: COVID would have happened back then, but like, I'm glad
23:36
Speaker 3: I have health insurance. At what point did you quit Amtrak?
23:40
Speaker 3: When I got the call to come and do love
23:42
Speaker 3: and hip hop Hollywood, so I was already I came
23:46
Speaker 3: out here to visit my mother. My mother was having
23:48
Speaker 3: some personal things going on, and I wanted to be
23:50
Speaker 3: out here just to be of support for her, and
23:54
Speaker 3: she was having she had something was going wrong with
23:57
Speaker 3: her heart and she had to have a surgery, and
23:58
Speaker 3: I wanted to come out here just be near her.
24:03
Speaker 3: And I started thinking about it. I was like, you know,
24:05
Speaker 3: I've been doing this sweet TV stuff. It's going really well.
24:08
Speaker 3: I make just as much money there as I do
24:10
Speaker 3: it Amtrak. Maybe it's time for me to yeah, oh
24:16
Speaker 3: shoot it. I love that you kept a hustle.
24:19
Speaker 1: Yeah going, So then you.
24:23
Speaker 2: You entertained quitting, right, So walk me through that.
24:28
Speaker 3: My boss found out that I was in l A,
24:31
Speaker 3: not that I was found out. I took a leave
24:33
Speaker 3: of absence. My boss called me and said, you need
24:37
Speaker 3: to report to work tomorrow morning. At eleven am. I
24:41
Speaker 3: was sitting in Studio City at Cafe Rue smoking a hookah.
24:44
Speaker 3: It was like six o'clock. I will never forget this day.
24:47
Speaker 3: I said, I'm in Los Angeles. I would have to
24:50
Speaker 3: fly back, get a flight, fly back to where I lived,
24:53
Speaker 3: and then get to DC. They said, if you can't
24:55
Speaker 3: be here, we're riding you up. And you were on
24:59
Speaker 3: a leaf I was leaving. I was, I was. I
25:02
Speaker 3: took like a thirty day leave absence to be here
25:04
Speaker 3: with my mother. This was like the twenty ninth day,
25:08
Speaker 3: Like thirtieth. Going into the thirtieth, I said, you know what,
25:14
Speaker 3: it was like, I will ever forget y'all. It was
25:16
Speaker 3: like Halloween. I was like day before Halloween. I was like,
25:20
Speaker 3: fuck this job. I called my UNI rap I said,
25:24
Speaker 3: I quit. I ain't coming. I quit.
25:28
Speaker 2: Now. Did you think you were reacting on emotion or
25:31
Speaker 2: you were just I.
25:32
Speaker 3: Was already fed up with that situation working at Amtrak.
25:35
Speaker 3: I think Amtrak is an awesome company. Unfortunately, the people
25:38
Speaker 3: that they had in management I thought were idiots. They
25:42
Speaker 3: were there was a that's nice, they don't watch this interview. Okay,
25:47
Speaker 3: most of them fired for their idiotisms. You said they
25:51
Speaker 3: have been fired. Yes, you keeping up with the current events. Yeah,
25:56
Speaker 3: I still because I still friends with the people that
25:58
Speaker 3: I came in with and I worked the railroad. I
26:02
Speaker 3: just was at a point in my life where I
26:04
Speaker 3: was like fuck that, Like, no, you're not gonna talk
26:07
Speaker 3: to me like that, and then you're not FNNA. It
26:10
Speaker 3: was just a hostile work environment across the board for
26:12
Speaker 3: everybody from upper management to us, and I was just like,
26:16
Speaker 3: you know what, fuck this. I'm about to be on
26:18
Speaker 3: love and hip hop yeah and the table. Yes, I
26:22
Speaker 3: was like I was already thinking about because I was
26:24
Speaker 3: trying to transfer to LA and they were making it
26:27
Speaker 3: difficult for me to transfer. I was trying to keep
26:28
Speaker 3: my job and come to LA and do the same thing,
26:31
Speaker 3: because what I do outside of work shouldn't it doesn't
26:33
Speaker 3: affect No.
26:34
Speaker 1: But I am definitely curious. What were you doing for Amtrak?
26:37
Speaker 3: I was in customer service, so I was basically like
26:39
Speaker 3: the one board customer service manager. You would say, so no, no, no,
26:44
Speaker 3: So I would actually be on the trains. I was
26:45
Speaker 3: in charge of the dining car cruise.
26:47
Speaker 2: Okay, yes, ride Amtrak. I don't know if I had.
26:50
Speaker 3: I worked at the long distance Trains. My regular train
26:52
Speaker 3: went from DC to Chicago. So I would leave on
26:55
Speaker 3: a Friday, be there Saturday morning, leave Chicago that after noon,
27:00
Speaker 3: be back to DC Saturday Sunday morning. So yeah, n trains,
27:04
Speaker 3: so you wouldn't even know I was gone. I would
27:06
Speaker 3: leave Friday and be back Sunday for brunch like nothing happened,
27:09
Speaker 3: you know. So that's my friends. I always joking me,
27:11
Speaker 3: like you don't want to have a job, like you're
27:13
Speaker 3: always at an event still, And I was like, because
27:15
Speaker 3: the way I work, Wow, we work three on three
27:18
Speaker 3: days on you still track?
27:21
Speaker 2: No, I want to try am track.
27:24
Speaker 3: I think after that last phone call I had with
27:26
Speaker 3: them over the track, they don't want to hear from
27:28
Speaker 3: Meuse that.
27:28
Speaker 1: The last time you were was that the last time
27:30
Speaker 1: you were actually on the Amtrak train?
27:32
Speaker 3: Oh No, I got back on the train road the
27:34
Speaker 3: train plenty of times after. What they gonna do to me?
27:37
Speaker 2: How much is an Amtrak ticket?
27:38
Speaker 3: It depends where you're going. So like if you take
27:40
Speaker 3: the exceler that's more of the high speed and that's
27:43
Speaker 3: the more expensive ticket, so you can get from DC
27:44
Speaker 3: to New York in like three hours. But if you
27:46
Speaker 3: take a regional train that's like more of the old
27:48
Speaker 3: school cars that you see in movies and stuff, that
27:51
Speaker 3: could be like a five six hour train.
27:53
Speaker 2: Which one is the nice one? Don't they have like rooms?
27:55
Speaker 3: Excel? Oh that's the sleeper cars. The sleeper see the
27:58
Speaker 3: sleeper cars and they have deluxe rooms. Get me saying
28:01
Speaker 3: this stuff like I.
28:03
Speaker 2: Okay, okay, so yeah, google your Amtrak.
28:06
Speaker 3: I am a railroad baby, though I'm a proud third
28:08
Speaker 3: generation railroad baby. My grandfather worked on the railroad. My
28:12
Speaker 3: father was a conductor on the railway. He was there
28:14
Speaker 3: forty two years, like conductor as he drove it. Well,
28:16
Speaker 3: no conductor, he was in charge of the train. So
28:18
Speaker 3: the engineer drives the trade. But my dad he also
28:21
Speaker 3: started the human rights and diversity department for Amtrak, and
28:24
Speaker 3: I think that and that was after I came out
28:27
Speaker 3: on television, So I think by our situation helped him
28:31
Speaker 3: see things differently and able to share with other employees
28:35
Speaker 3: across the country how you can deal with diversity in
28:38
Speaker 3: the workplace because he was dealing with it in his home.
28:40
Speaker 2: Nice.
28:41
Speaker 3: Okay, so you get the love and hip hop offer.
28:43
Speaker 1: Yeah, we ain't trying to promote amtrack just so you
28:46
Speaker 1: guys knows the show. But anyway, so you get the
28:51
Speaker 1: love and hip hop offer, You're like, f the day job.
28:53
Speaker 2: Peace.
28:55
Speaker 3: You tell your dad right away. Oh, I was excited
28:57
Speaker 3: to call me. I was. He already knew I was.
29:00
Speaker 3: My dad knows me, and I'm gonna tell you where
29:02
Speaker 3: to go and how you can get there. When I
29:03
Speaker 3: get to that point and I was like, Daddy, i
29:05
Speaker 3: quit amstrak And I was like, damn, damn them, I'm
29:08
Speaker 3: done with it. I'm about to be on this show
29:10
Speaker 3: and whatever I need to do to do to make
29:12
Speaker 3: it work. I'm gonna make it work.
29:13
Speaker 2: And what did he say?
29:14
Speaker 3: He was like, you grown, okay, cool, He wasn't mad.
29:17
Speaker 3: He already saw things that I was experiencing because I
29:23
Speaker 3: wasn't rare. We call them railroad babies. They felt I
29:25
Speaker 3: was getting special treatment, I implied for those jobs I
29:28
Speaker 3: interviewed for those jobs. I was qualified for those jobs.
29:31
Speaker 3: And because my father was such a big name at
29:34
Speaker 3: the company, I often got heat for that or they
29:37
Speaker 3: felt I wasn't deserving of it, but they would still
29:39
Speaker 3: want me to train the people there was less qualified
29:42
Speaker 3: to do the job. Okay, So what did your mom
29:45
Speaker 3: think about you staying? She was happy? I don't think
29:50
Speaker 3: she was happy. What I think my mother was more so,
29:55
Speaker 3: Oh you're doing TV again? Like this again? Like you know,
30:00
Speaker 3: my mom is a is a very studious person, so
30:04
Speaker 3: she want to you know, she's in the medical field.
30:06
Speaker 3: So TV and people being in your business and being
30:09
Speaker 3: out and around a bunch of people, that's not my mother.
30:11
Speaker 3: She's a total opposite. My dad is me. We're socialites,
30:14
Speaker 3: like to be everywhere, busybodies. That is not my mother.
30:17
Speaker 3: So she was like, none of that sounds interesting to me.
30:19
Speaker 3: But if you want to do it. Okay, Love and
30:22
Speaker 3: Hip Hop wasn't my best chapter, but it definitely reintroduced
30:26
Speaker 3: me to people ten years later.
30:28
Speaker 2: Well, I gotta ask, is Love and Hip Hop scripted?
30:32
Speaker 3: I think certain cities and I think certain scenes are
30:38
Speaker 3: I think. Let me not say, I think. I can
30:40
Speaker 3: only say I think about other franchises. I can only
30:43
Speaker 3: speak for Hollywood, and I feel like with Hollywood and
30:46
Speaker 3: now I feel like I know with Hollywood there was
30:49
Speaker 3: truth in every scene, but everything was exaggerated. Yeah, a
30:54
Speaker 3: lot of surprises though, but stuff you would expect, you know.
30:58
Speaker 1: So okay, so what's the day in the life when
31:01
Speaker 1: you're shooting like a Love and Hip Hop?
31:02
Speaker 3: So the best part for me because I was only
31:05
Speaker 3: get guy on the cast. Well, no, it was others,
31:06
Speaker 3: but I was the one that got glambed. So they
31:08
Speaker 3: would come to the house, they would do your makeup,
31:10
Speaker 3: cut your hair.
31:12
Speaker 1: Only, Oh, you're the only guy that got glam Yeah,
31:16
Speaker 1: I don't think.
31:16
Speaker 3: I don't think the other gentleman got glam like that,
31:19
Speaker 3: not that I know of the haircut, get your face
31:23
Speaker 3: done up because I'm like, want be on TV TV.
31:25
Speaker 3: Then they pick you up an SUV take you to
31:28
Speaker 3: the scene. I this is in a contrary to what
31:32
Speaker 3: people say, Oh they get you drunk, they don't get
31:35
Speaker 3: you drunk. I asked for drinks, like if I got
31:38
Speaker 3: to be in here with these people talking about I
31:39
Speaker 3: don't know what we've about to talk about. I don't
31:41
Speaker 3: know who about to pop up. I don't know what's
31:43
Speaker 3: about to pop off. Let me at least be relaxed.
31:45
Speaker 3: Let me let me hit my little pan right quick.
31:48
Speaker 3: Let me get it. Let me get like folk shots
31:49
Speaker 3: and Hennessy so I can be relaxed. You know, they
31:52
Speaker 3: never bent your arm to make you do so when
31:54
Speaker 3: people say they make you drink, they give you the
31:57
Speaker 3: option enjoy it. Yeah, we enjoy it. Yeah, you got
32:01
Speaker 3: a light liquor option at the dark liquor option, whichever won,
32:04
Speaker 3: because at end of the day, were all over twenty
32:05
Speaker 3: one where adults were grown. If you don't want to drink,
32:08
Speaker 3: you don't drink.
32:09
Speaker 2: Now do you ever put parameters on like who you
32:11
Speaker 2: will and won't pay.
32:12
Speaker 3: With once you get to be in the senior position
32:16
Speaker 3: on the show? So I did it for three seasons.
32:18
Speaker 3: So by the time my third season rolled around, I
32:21
Speaker 3: could say that I'm gonna feel comfortable with X, Y
32:24
Speaker 3: and Z and then they'll try to rework it and
32:27
Speaker 3: rearrange it. But honestly, but don't they love those scenes
32:30
Speaker 3: the most. They love them. But I can tell you
32:32
Speaker 3: that it was difficult for Love and hip Hop because
32:37
Speaker 3: my first two seasons we were produced by one production company.
32:41
Speaker 3: My third season, which was the last season of Loving
32:43
Speaker 3: hip Hop, we had a whole brand new production company.
32:45
Speaker 3: We shot for ten months. So these are brand new
32:47
Speaker 3: people who don't know us, They don't know who got
32:50
Speaker 3: beef for who, they don't know anybody's backstory, who they
32:52
Speaker 3: might have been beefing with last year, but they're cool
32:54
Speaker 3: with this year, or they were cool last year, they
32:57
Speaker 3: not cool this year.
32:58
Speaker 2: A long time.
32:59
Speaker 3: It was because it was a brand new cat. It
33:01
Speaker 3: was a brand new production company. Oh my god. They
33:05
Speaker 3: were trying to figure out different ways to shoot because
33:08
Speaker 3: even the style and which way the way that we
33:10
Speaker 3: shot was different. Like we went through three different green
33:12
Speaker 3: screen looks that season. The lighting was off so we
33:15
Speaker 3: had to redo it again, or this had they were
33:18
Speaker 3: adding cast members in and things were just coming up
33:21
Speaker 3: on the blogs and we had to like go back
33:22
Speaker 3: and redo things. And when I said redo things like
33:26
Speaker 3: we back then would shoot a scene and something would
33:29
Speaker 3: go down, and we would go online texting and tweeting them,
33:32
Speaker 3: Oh my god, this just happened. They tried it, and
33:34
Speaker 3: blah blah blah, blah blah blah, and that was that night.
33:37
Speaker 3: Would go on and on back and forth online and
33:40
Speaker 3: then they'll be like, hey, we need to capture that.
33:41
Speaker 3: We need to do another scene, and you recap what
33:44
Speaker 3: happened that night after you finished it filming, talk to
33:47
Speaker 3: them about what happened and what y'all were talking about.
33:49
Speaker 3: So you gotta go back in that moment again. I
33:53
Speaker 3: don't miss it.
33:54
Speaker 2: You don't know.
33:55
Speaker 3: That wasn't the best chapter of my life. I didn't
33:57
Speaker 3: like necessarily my edit, and it's nothing that I can
34:02
Speaker 3: say that I did wrong, And they didn't make me
34:06
Speaker 3: look a certain way. I just didn't like the lack
34:08
Speaker 3: of what they showed. They only showed me. They wanted
34:11
Speaker 3: to make me the confrontational gay character that argue with
34:14
Speaker 3: all the other gay characters and only got in women's business. Well,
34:17
Speaker 3: our show is eighty percent women. I'm the gay guy.
34:20
Speaker 3: I'm friends with the women. So if they're talking to
34:22
Speaker 3: me about it on an off camera. I'm gonna talk
34:24
Speaker 3: about it. It just was. It was stressful. I got anxiety.
34:31
Speaker 3: I have alopecia. My hair fell out while we were filming,
34:33
Speaker 3: so one part of the season I looked like mister Egghead.
34:35
Speaker 3: I had no eyebrows, no bear, no hair. I'm like,
34:38
Speaker 3: of all the shows, I'm on, Lord, why would my
34:40
Speaker 3: hair fall out while were filming this? And you know
34:44
Speaker 3: a lot of people don't love to hip hop have
34:46
Speaker 3: different demons within them. And dealing with people's energies and
34:53
Speaker 3: their demons, and dealing with your own demons, it gets
34:55
Speaker 3: to be a lot because you know, we can't at
34:57
Speaker 3: the time, we can't say what's real, what's not. It's exaggerated,
35:01
Speaker 3: what we talked about, what we really don't care about.
35:03
Speaker 3: You know, we have to stay in character and promote
35:05
Speaker 3: the show cause we need the ratings so we can
35:07
Speaker 3: get paid, so we can come back and do another season.
35:09
Speaker 3: And you just get in that cycle of just being
35:11
Speaker 3: in character, and it bleeds over to your real life.
35:14
Speaker 3: I've lost relationships, I've lost some friends. I got into
35:18
Speaker 3: it with some relatives over things, just from the frustration
35:21
Speaker 3: anxiety of coming from out of that space ten months
35:25
Speaker 3: is a long time.
35:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, now that was ten months for one s one
35:29
Speaker 2: particular sea.
35:29
Speaker 3: That was one particular season. But most of the time
35:31
Speaker 3: we filmed six to seven months.
35:33
Speaker 2: Geez. And then we're during when you're off season, what
35:35
Speaker 2: are you doing?
35:36
Speaker 3: You really only off from Thanksgiving to the top of
35:38
Speaker 3: the year because at that point you're waiting for your
35:41
Speaker 3: renewal notice. So you wrapped, You've done the reunion, all
35:43
Speaker 3: that's airing. It's like when we wrap, we're st we
35:46
Speaker 3: pretty much when the show premieres, we're still filming, and
35:49
Speaker 3: then the reunion raps about. It was always in the fall,
35:53
Speaker 3: so from Thanksgiving, I remember always going home to Virginia
35:56
Speaker 3: f cause I needed to just air my spirit out.
36:00
Speaker 3: I will be home from Thanksgiving to Christmas or maybe
36:02
Speaker 3: New Year's. Around Christmas time, they'll start calling you like, hey,
36:05
Speaker 3: what's going on? Who are you talking to? Have you
36:07
Speaker 3: seen this online? January we would get our pick up notices.
36:13
Speaker 3: That's when you gotta go through your contract and negotiate
36:14
Speaker 3: your pay and we be filming by March, so you
36:17
Speaker 3: were it was a quick turnaround.
36:26
Speaker 1: Now are they paying enough to like where you don't
36:28
Speaker 1: need any other side hustles or anything.
36:30
Speaker 3: Everybody's salary varies on Love and Hip Hop. Some people
36:34
Speaker 3: come in and making bare minimum. Some people come in
36:36
Speaker 3: making because of who they are and their name, They're
36:38
Speaker 3: making super high. Someone like a Ray J and a
36:41
Speaker 3: Kay Michelle, They're doing great. I was a new cast member.
36:44
Speaker 3: I came on with Keisha Cole and Brooke Valentine. I
36:47
Speaker 3: always say season four was the best season outside of
36:50
Speaker 3: the first season. But I came on I was already
36:53
Speaker 3: doing WE TV, and I already had a name, and
36:54
Speaker 3: I was already had a following from Love and Hip Hop.
36:57
Speaker 3: So Rape, my episodic Rape, was way different from what
37:01
Speaker 3: I heard some other people who came on with me,
37:03
Speaker 3: they were new as well, And then it depends on
37:06
Speaker 3: who your lawyer is. You got to negotiate.
37:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know so, but you didn't have any of
37:10
Speaker 1: the side gigs outside of.
37:11
Speaker 3: Love and Hip Hop. I overlapped. I did WE TV
37:14
Speaker 3: for the first two seasons as well with Love and
37:17
Speaker 3: Hip Hops. It benefited them, and it benefited the shows
37:20
Speaker 3: getting I mean, who else was getting promoted on two
37:22
Speaker 3: networks like that.
37:24
Speaker 2: And it's a smart move for week Yeah, it was great.
37:27
Speaker 3: It was awesome. My last season, I just did strictly
37:31
Speaker 3: Love and Hip Hop because I mean it was very
37:33
Speaker 3: time consumer.
37:34
Speaker 1: Because you are between two different cities right for WEE TV,
37:37
Speaker 1: and I was.
37:38
Speaker 3: Still doing my stuff out of New York and then
37:40
Speaker 3: filming out here, and then I actually did a digital
37:42
Speaker 3: talk show for we TV while we were filming Love
37:45
Speaker 3: and Hip Hop. So I was filming in Santa Monica
37:48
Speaker 3: then going wherever they had us filming for the show.
37:51
Speaker 3: It was a lot. And then COVID came and I
37:53
Speaker 3: finally got to sit my ass down.
37:55
Speaker 2: And that's when you started writing.
37:56
Speaker 3: Right started writing, I had, I think it was doing
37:59
Speaker 3: the show and dealing with the different adversities that I
38:02
Speaker 3: had to deal with on the show. Because as you
38:03
Speaker 3: can see, I'm a very friendly person. I'm my energy
38:06
Speaker 3: is amazing, but on the show, I had to be
38:08
Speaker 3: confrontational to secure my spot. I had to speak on
38:12
Speaker 3: things that I really didn't care about. I had to,
38:14
Speaker 3: you know, be in competition with people that I normally
38:17
Speaker 3: would never even deal with or be around. You know.
38:20
Speaker 3: So once I only got to sit down and just
38:23
Speaker 3: relax and just get my life together and figure out
38:26
Speaker 3: what I was gonna do next. COVID was in full swing.
38:28
Speaker 3: So I was like, I'm gonna get my master's. I
38:31
Speaker 3: have one, always wanted to go back get. I'm the
38:34
Speaker 3: minimum degree in my family right now. Most people in
38:36
Speaker 3: my family have two or three degrees. I was sitting
38:38
Speaker 3: on that one and I was like, Okay, I can
38:41
Speaker 3: go to school. Let me. It's all remote. Everything's remote
38:44
Speaker 3: during COVID. I'm gonna get my master's in media management.
38:46
Speaker 3: That's what I have been doing. And then I wrote
38:49
Speaker 3: a book about my life. I mean, just me being
38:51
Speaker 3: from Virginia moving to Hollywood, being the first black gay
38:55
Speaker 3: reality start on beet for the first ever black reality series,
38:59
Speaker 3: like that will always be my calling card. I love it.
39:02
Speaker 3: I'm proud of it. Now I understand it. Just back then,
39:05
Speaker 3: I did not understand what it meant to be a
39:07
Speaker 3: voice for a community that I didn't identify with yet.
39:10
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I was that was gonna be my next question.
39:12
Speaker 1: So back when it first happened, how did it hit?
39:16
Speaker 1: It was so fast, Like did you go through any
39:19
Speaker 1: type of depression or.
39:22
Speaker 3: No? Back then we had MySpace and black players, So
39:27
Speaker 3: my inbox was full because back then it was just
39:29
Speaker 3: Corambo and I were the first two. It was just
39:32
Speaker 3: us he was on MTV. I was on BET. We
39:36
Speaker 3: was having fun. I had fun. So I lived. That's
39:42
Speaker 3: another book, but no, I've lived and I had a
39:45
Speaker 3: great time. I went to all the Black Prides. I
39:48
Speaker 3: was able to go to high schools. I did the
39:49
Speaker 3: BT wrap It Up campaign, from all the HIV STD awareness.
39:54
Speaker 3: I got to meet so many people at such a
39:56
Speaker 3: young age. I did so many different things, from on camera,
40:00
Speaker 3: behind the camera, working at BT, working with e TV,
40:03
Speaker 3: like I've mastered my meeting.
40:05
Speaker 1: And then, what was your original major? I'm sorry, so
40:09
Speaker 1: your original major was public relations? No matter what you
40:11
Speaker 1: were going to end up in entertainment.
40:13
Speaker 3: I felt it because I was on the radio when
40:15
Speaker 3: I was in my senior year of college. I was
40:17
Speaker 3: on Power ninety two. It was the afternoon drive co host. Okay,
40:20
Speaker 3: so I felt it. I always knew something was gonna happen.
40:22
Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure everyone in your family also didn't weren't
40:25
Speaker 2: surprised at all.
40:26
Speaker 3: I don't think they were, some of them, LA, I know,
40:29
Speaker 3: how did you not know? I mean, come on, I
40:31
Speaker 3: could look at all pictures of me with my hand
40:34
Speaker 3: on my hip, like, come.
40:35
Speaker 2: On, no, I'm talking about you being in entertainment though.
40:38
Speaker 3: I was a character. My family would definitely tell you
40:40
Speaker 3: I was a colorful character, always did my own thing
40:45
Speaker 3: and was always getting into something. You know, I've definitely
40:48
Speaker 3: matured since then, but Little Ray was something okay, okay.
40:54
Speaker 2: And so now after the pandemic, you you write the book,
40:58
Speaker 2: You write the book during the pandemic. How hard was
40:59
Speaker 2: it to put it out? What was those steps? Looking?
41:01
Speaker 3: Like? I did it through Amazon. I had a publisher
41:04
Speaker 3: help me, but we did it through Amazon, and it
41:06
Speaker 3: ended up being number one for six consecutive weeks on
41:10
Speaker 3: four different like Amazon book charts, E book and physical
41:13
Speaker 3: book Like I had a number one best seller out
41:15
Speaker 3: the gate and mind you, this is no love and
41:18
Speaker 3: hip hop. We're in COVID. Nothing's going on. My book
41:21
Speaker 3: stayed on the Amazon bestseller list for almost a year
41:25
Speaker 3: and a half.
41:26
Speaker 1: And then what was the ch Like, how did you
41:28
Speaker 1: I wanted monthly? Yeah, you get paid monthly, but I
41:30
Speaker 1: want to know the whole experience of like you put
41:33
Speaker 1: you take a chance on yourself, you get this book.
41:36
Speaker 3: I didn't think anybody was gonna read it because I'm like,
41:38
Speaker 3: I'm not one of those overly large reality stars like
41:40
Speaker 3: I don't even consider myself a reality star. I was
41:43
Speaker 3: on two very popular reality shows, one in which I
41:47
Speaker 3: was a main character and the other I was a
41:48
Speaker 3: co character. But I was a part of two different
41:51
Speaker 3: eras of two different types of shows that were monumental.
41:55
Speaker 3: And I always say, if I go back on television,
41:57
Speaker 3: it has to be bigger than what the last thing
41:58
Speaker 3: I did was. And I was like, you know, I'm
42:01
Speaker 3: not out here wild on the blogs doing all that craziness.
42:04
Speaker 3: They're not gonna want to read my story. And they did.
42:08
Speaker 3: They read my story. I talked about everything. I talked
42:10
Speaker 3: about my party boy days. I talked about the days
42:13
Speaker 3: where you are in LA and you don't know what
42:16
Speaker 3: the next gig is and you don't know how your
42:18
Speaker 3: rent's going to get paid until you get something stable,
42:21
Speaker 3: and then you know. You see your friends around you.
42:23
Speaker 3: Some of them are elevating and some of them are declining.
42:25
Speaker 2: That's that's I think one of the trickiest.
42:29
Speaker 3: Waters to battle.
42:30
Speaker 1: I think it's seeming like some people go and maybe
42:32
Speaker 1: they're not even friends, because I think friends are more
42:34
Speaker 1: happy for Yeah, when you see someone and you don't
42:37
Speaker 1: really know their story or the intricacies of it, and
42:39
Speaker 1: you're like, Wow, this person's past me and I'm still
42:42
Speaker 1: trucking along. What like they just woke up, you know.
42:46
Speaker 1: And I think that's a hard battle, especially if you've
42:48
Speaker 1: been it for a long time.
42:49
Speaker 3: Yeah, and my family is really a huge part of
42:52
Speaker 3: my life. You follow me on any of my socials,
42:54
Speaker 3: I'm always talking about my family, Dad, my mother, nieces, nephew, sisters, cousins, grandparents.
43:00
Speaker 3: And I never allowed myself to wild out to get popular.
43:05
Speaker 3: I never wanted to do anything where my family would
43:08
Speaker 3: be embarrassed. I never did anything where I would hate
43:10
Speaker 3: for my nieces or nephews a google on their path
43:12
Speaker 3: and be like, oh, this is my uncle looking at
43:15
Speaker 3: you know. I'm always self conscious of the projects I
43:17
Speaker 3: do and the things I participate with because I know
43:19
Speaker 3: I got other people looking at me. That's important to me.
43:22
Speaker 3: I don't worry about what the stranger says. My family
43:25
Speaker 3: is watching me. I want them to be able to
43:26
Speaker 3: promote me and them to be proud of me, you know.
43:30
Speaker 3: So that I feel like that kept me from doing
43:33
Speaker 3: a lot of things a lot of other people were
43:34
Speaker 3: doing to go viral and be popular and be out there.
43:37
Speaker 3: But I don't see them now.
43:42
Speaker 2: So it's going back to the book.
43:44
Speaker 3: You produce the book.
43:46
Speaker 2: Look at us, we're trying to pick at it.
43:49
Speaker 3: Where's the tackle shells? Keep the back.
43:52
Speaker 1: So you produce the book, it becomes a bestseller. Are
43:57
Speaker 1: you shocked at like how much money you're making taking
43:59
Speaker 1: a chance on yourself.
44:01
Speaker 3: That book really surprised me. No, it was just crazy
44:10
Speaker 3: because the hot sauce too. But the most amazing thing
44:15
Speaker 3: was that I was I learned a lesson. I was
44:19
Speaker 3: always I was doubting myself at that time. I'm not
44:21
Speaker 3: doing the same things these other people are doing to
44:23
Speaker 3: be out there. Though I'm on that platform, I'm on
44:26
Speaker 3: these platforms, I'm verified on everything, but you know, I'm
44:31
Speaker 3: still at this. I felt like a stagnant level. And
44:35
Speaker 3: my Instagram had gotten hacked, so I had no Instagram.
44:38
Speaker 3: Uh there was. I was at zero. I had to
44:40
Speaker 3: start all over while the book, the book had just
44:41
Speaker 3: came out, the book still so I got made a
44:45
Speaker 3: new page, built it back up to what it is now.
44:47
Speaker 3: That book sold, People supported it, They bought it, took
44:50
Speaker 3: pictures of it, sent it to me. People will call
44:53
Speaker 3: me and not minister to me, but talk to me
44:55
Speaker 3: about things that they were going through, they related to
44:57
Speaker 3: my book and like I said, for it to be
45:00
Speaker 3: for me to be who I am. And there were
45:01
Speaker 3: some other reality stars, but books out way bigger shows,
45:05
Speaker 3: way bigger names than me. Mine outlive them all and
45:08
Speaker 3: outsold them as well. And that just goes to show
45:11
Speaker 3: the type of people that follow me and support me
45:13
Speaker 3: and who I am and where I stand in this business.
45:17
Speaker 1: And then now receiving the checks, let's talk the money part.
45:21
Speaker 3: Now. Books are interesting because when you do a book
45:22
Speaker 3: through a publishing company, you got to give them their
45:25
Speaker 3: money back that they put into marketing as well.
45:28
Speaker 1: Oh okay, so they marketed a book, so you you
45:32
Speaker 1: you got to.
45:32
Speaker 3: Pay them their back, their part back, and then after
45:34
Speaker 3: you once you give them, once they get their cut back,
45:36
Speaker 3: everything else is yours.
45:37
Speaker 2: Okay.
45:38
Speaker 3: Now, do you ever go back and thinks in your.
45:41
Speaker 2: Head like, damn, I wish I would have just done
45:44
Speaker 2: it self published or do you feel.
45:46
Speaker 3: Like, I mean, you really could do self published book
45:48
Speaker 3: on Amazon? But you really can. I see so many
45:52
Speaker 3: and they do well. But it was just it was
45:54
Speaker 3: a learned it was something. It was my therapy. I
45:57
Speaker 3: needed it.
45:57
Speaker 1: No, I get that, and I'm not trying to hold
46:00
Speaker 1: them under the bus. But I am genuinely curious, like,
46:05
Speaker 1: do you think that having it published for them made
46:08
Speaker 1: a difference?
46:10
Speaker 3: You know, because I did all the promotions.
46:12
Speaker 2: That's why I want to know.
46:14
Speaker 3: So looking back at it, I could have done it myself.
46:16
Speaker 3: But I will say, even though the Amazon website takes
46:20
Speaker 3: you through it, how to upload it, how you can
46:22
Speaker 3: change your titles, I mean your cover title, how you
46:25
Speaker 3: can go in and edit, you know, do the edits.
46:28
Speaker 3: It's still a learning process. I say. If you are
46:29
Speaker 3: going to do a self edit, take time to learn
46:32
Speaker 3: that site about self publishing, so you know how to
46:35
Speaker 3: get the barcode correct, how you know how you because
46:38
Speaker 3: you can really set your book up from your iPhone
46:40
Speaker 3: if you wanted to just upload the manuscript. That's the
46:42
Speaker 3: main thing, is the manuscript. Make sure a spell right.
46:44
Speaker 3: But they have a proof checker who go through it
46:47
Speaker 3: and you, yeah, just pay for the service.
46:50
Speaker 1: You heard it here first, guys, there's award winning publisher
46:55
Speaker 1: top number one.
46:56
Speaker 2: You said six.
46:57
Speaker 3: It was a best seller for six weeks on four
46:59
Speaker 3: different in charge. It was for college or university student life,
47:03
Speaker 3: a l LGBTQ and for black biographies. Like I could
47:07
Speaker 3: not believe it.
47:08
Speaker 2: That's amazing.
47:09
Speaker 3: But we were in COVID. We were all at home,
47:10
Speaker 3: like we had nothing to dow anyway. Well it's still
47:13
Speaker 3: it's still a huge fee. It's yeah, those good money.
47:15
Speaker 1: And trust me, during COVID, people everyone made their own decisions.
47:19
Speaker 2: I always go like, damn, did I make the right
47:20
Speaker 2: decisions during COVID. We did produce eating while broke during COVID.
47:24
Speaker 3: I was in Atlanta during COVID. We was outside. You know,
47:26
Speaker 3: Atlanta did our clothes, they just put them all they
47:28
Speaker 3: told us they put the thermometer to your head and
47:30
Speaker 3: just made sure you wasn't hot. And that was it.
47:32
Speaker 2: Eighty five South we did. We taped down there LA
47:35
Speaker 2: five South Lake, Chico and DC and all those guys
47:38
Speaker 2: down there were like we were on break for about
47:39
Speaker 2: a week.
47:40
Speaker 3: Right.
47:41
Speaker 2: LA was shut down for two years.
47:43
Speaker 3: Man. I came back to LA and Hollywood looked like downtown. Yeah.
47:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, LA was shut down for so long that I
47:49
Speaker 2: got married and had a baby.
47:52
Speaker 3: Oh I didn't think.
47:53
Speaker 2: I didn't think, you know, I knew we were gonna
47:55
Speaker 2: eventually go outside, but it started to become a real norm.
47:58
Speaker 2: But to hear Atlanta had a whole differ experience.
48:00
Speaker 3: We were outside, we would get you could get drinks
48:02
Speaker 3: to go from the restaurants. We was at. Shout out
48:04
Speaker 3: to sea. What was I don't think they're opening to
48:06
Speaker 3: Atlanta anymore. We were at sea. What's smoking? Hookah? Dad
48:09
Speaker 3: said the clubs was open.
48:11
Speaker 2: LA was none of that.
48:12
Speaker 3: We were open. So when I flew back here, you
48:15
Speaker 3: back here, I was like, oh, hell no, I got
48:17
Speaker 3: to go back to Atlanta.
48:19
Speaker 1: When New York had all the horror stores, people in
48:23
Speaker 1: New York was it was scared straight.
48:25
Speaker 2: You couldn't get them to open the door for nothing. Man, listen,
48:29
Speaker 2: step back from the bag, drop it off, step back.
48:31
Speaker 3: When I went home to visit my parents in Virginia
48:34
Speaker 3: for KRIB we drove up from Atlanta to go because
48:35
Speaker 3: we were to go spend New Year's in DC. My
48:38
Speaker 3: dad and my stepmom had masks. When they was like,
48:40
Speaker 3: can't come in the house, but we when to come outside.
48:43
Speaker 3: I talked to you the driveway, y'all stay in the
48:45
Speaker 3: car like we really had Christmas through the window. Like
48:47
Speaker 3: then they put their gins in the trunk and I
48:49
Speaker 3: gave them theirs. COVID was a crazy time.
48:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, I remember getting a Thanksgiving we was in Detroit.
48:54
Speaker 1: We got Thanksgiving dinners and the cars. We ate it
48:57
Speaker 1: for ourselves and where we were staying and thank you.
49:02
Speaker 3: COVID looked like a different world being in Atlanta because
49:06
Speaker 3: I was also that was also the election with Trump
49:08
Speaker 3: and Biden and Kamala, so I was outside helping promote
49:11
Speaker 3: Kamala and Biden. Back then we were trying to it
49:14
Speaker 3: was black Lives Matter. It was so many things going
49:19
Speaker 3: on during COVID and being in Atlanta and it being
49:22
Speaker 3: open and everyone outside that way, but looking at the
49:25
Speaker 3: news and seeing how LA was shut down and boarded
49:28
Speaker 3: up up north everyone had like fifty masks on and
49:31
Speaker 3: not outside and the people that were actually passing away
49:34
Speaker 3: from COVID, and then the whole uproar of the vaccine
49:38
Speaker 3: and then the election results and then the insurrection on
49:41
Speaker 3: the It was so COVID was so dramatic. It was
49:44
Speaker 3: it was that's a book right there.
49:45
Speaker 2: That's a book right there.
49:47
Speaker 1: And so now after COVID, you have this successful book,
49:50
Speaker 1: what's your next play?
49:52
Speaker 3: So after COVID, and.
49:54
Speaker 1: I'm doing your audio audio biography, realizing this is this.
49:58
Speaker 3: Is picking u where the book left off so I
50:01
Speaker 3: got into TV film production. I worked with Heillionaire Productions
50:06
Speaker 3: and we did a movie called Mama's Boy, which starred
50:08
Speaker 3: Lawrence Robinson. He's everybody's favorite IG crush person. He was
50:13
Speaker 3: in it with the young lady name right now and
50:15
Speaker 3: that's coming out later this year. And then we also
50:17
Speaker 3: did a film called The Influencer, which aired on All
50:21
Speaker 3: Black earlier this year, and that was my first film
50:24
Speaker 3: I did. When I met her the day of came
50:25
Speaker 3: right on set. I was an extra. She and I
50:27
Speaker 3: hit it off. She went to family, I went to
50:29
Speaker 3: Virginia State where both D nine and we just started
50:32
Speaker 3: working together. And then I went to Houston with her
50:35
Speaker 3: and filmed the Christmas movie that I actually ended up
50:37
Speaker 3: having a roll in with the Braxton sisters. So that
50:40
Speaker 3: was like a whole little three sixty moment and it's
50:42
Speaker 3: called Christmas Cover Up and that will be out later
50:45
Speaker 3: this year at Christmas.
50:46
Speaker 1: So, wow, you been busy, busy, I don't see you.
50:50
Speaker 1: You're not going back to reality TV.
50:52
Speaker 3: You know what I have. There's been a couple of
50:55
Speaker 3: things that I have been approached about through my management.
51:00
Speaker 3: One of them was actually I was really considering it.
51:03
Speaker 3: It would have been the third season of that show. Unfortunately,
51:06
Speaker 3: that show got put on pause and it ain't been
51:08
Speaker 3: play ain't been pressed yet, so I'm assuming it's canceled.
51:12
Speaker 3: And then a show that I actually helped create had
51:17
Speaker 3: went through the whole pitch process and unfortunately, when the
51:22
Speaker 3: strike happened, all the network shut down and that project
51:25
Speaker 3: pretty much got shelved. But it was about to be greenld.
51:28
Speaker 3: I was super excited, Well it might come back. I
51:31
Speaker 3: don't know the timing for me now it fits for me,
51:34
Speaker 3: but I would love to work with those gentlemen again
51:36
Speaker 3: and put some money else in my spot because there
51:38
Speaker 3: was definitely something there. It was gonna be amazing. And
51:42
Speaker 3: as of recent something has come up that I'm interested in,
51:46
Speaker 3: but my focus is in TV right now. I have
51:49
Speaker 3: the name, they know who I am. I really am
51:52
Speaker 3: just advocating for HBCUs, especially now with this current administration
51:57
Speaker 3: and all these DEI things. They're wiping you away and
52:00
Speaker 3: trying to do away with I say, black education. It's
52:04
Speaker 3: very important for me to share my platform and inform
52:06
Speaker 3: people of types of financial aid so the children can
52:09
Speaker 3: go to HBC's Because hbcs were creative, creative for a
52:12
Speaker 3: specific reason things that are going on now is why
52:15
Speaker 3: we have HBCUs and they are important, they are relevant.
52:18
Speaker 3: I had the best transformative four years of my life
52:21
Speaker 3: in Virginia State, and I would love for kids, especially
52:23
Speaker 3: from southern California, to get to go down south and
52:26
Speaker 3: find out other things. You can put us out of taco.
52:28
Speaker 2: You know, exactly, exactly exactly, Okay, all right, so right now,
52:33
Speaker 2: your passions is definitely community service.
52:36
Speaker 3: Being a brother of Alpha Phi Alpha for.
52:37
Speaker 1: T and that's how that's how I ended up meeting
52:40
Speaker 1: you at the Do you remember we met Christmas Prey
52:45
Speaker 1: prey but it was a park.
52:46
Speaker 3: It was a bunch of us. It was Ray J
52:49
Speaker 3: torriy Omar Gooding.
52:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, Omar was on the show did Man.
52:55
Speaker 3: When I first met Omar, I was like, that's the
52:56
Speaker 3: guy from Baby Boy. It's so cool with meeting people
53:01
Speaker 3: in person that you grew up watching and now we're
53:04
Speaker 3: in the same business, same industry, got the same management,
53:06
Speaker 3: and it's like, oh, what's up. You were trying my
53:10
Speaker 3: soy sauce tacos.
53:12
Speaker 1: Them things are slamming. So no, it's nice to hear
53:14
Speaker 1: that you are in your community service era. And that's
53:16
Speaker 1: actually where I met you.
53:18
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was doing you were doing community.
53:20
Speaker 3: I love it. It's fulfilling. I've had an awesome forty years.
53:24
Speaker 3: I've twenty eighteen specifically working in entertainment, and I just
53:28
Speaker 3: feel like part of my legacy and what I want
53:30
Speaker 3: to start building is that, you know, I met these people,
53:32
Speaker 3: I've had these opportunities, but somebody gave it to me.
53:35
Speaker 3: So if I can be a blessing to someone else,
53:37
Speaker 3: I know I'll get something later in life.
53:39
Speaker 2: Yeah.
53:39
Speaker 3: So that's where I am with that.
53:41
Speaker 1: I like that you heard it here first everybody, And
53:44
Speaker 1: please don't judge us for our taco eating break because.
53:46
Speaker 3: We fin go get some more them. Tacos was delicious.
53:50
Speaker 2: Okay, I'm gonna be eating tacos for dinner tonight.
53:53
Speaker 1: Okay, don't forget when you make your tacos at home
53:55
Speaker 1: to add soy sauce to it.
53:57
Speaker 2: I definitely think it does make the difference.
53:59
Speaker 3: Shout outs to.
54:00
Speaker 2: Miss the Red for the secret ingredient and not being
54:02
Speaker 2: stingy and sharing.
54:03
Speaker 3: It with us. Right, Guccie, I gave her some good
54:05
Speaker 3: tea good tie.
54:06
Speaker 1: And where can everybody keep up with you besides on
54:08
Speaker 1: the mainstream Because you have a lot of stuff coming out.
54:11
Speaker 3: Yeah, so Instagram is the best place to catch me.
54:14
Speaker 3: It's m I S S T E r r A
54:17
Speaker 3: Y eight oh four. I'm forever eight oh four boy,
54:20
Speaker 3: but I'm a Dina boy at HART. I definitely want
54:22
Speaker 3: to give a special shout out to everybody in Altadena
54:24
Speaker 3: Pasadena and everyone who has contributed to their relief efforts
54:27
Speaker 3: out there. Our community is still building day by day.
54:31
Speaker 3: Some people are just coming home seeing their place for
54:33
Speaker 3: the first time and just trying to figure out how
54:35
Speaker 3: to get it together. As it rains.
54:37
Speaker 1: Now, as it rains, I know, finally, yeah, exactly. All right, Well,
54:43
Speaker 1: thank you so much for taking time out of your day.
54:46
Speaker 2: To feed me.
54:47
Speaker 3: Right, Okay, that was good.
54:48
Speaker 1: You know you're more than welcome to feed me anytime.
54:50
Speaker 1: And then if I have a holiday, you're more than
54:52
Speaker 1: welcome because she.
54:53
Speaker 3: Do crab legs for her holidays, you know, black folks
54:55
Speaker 3: from the DMV, we love a crab leg.
54:57
Speaker 2: You know, I gotta do it that way, all right,
54:59
Speaker 2: Peace out, y'all. For more eating while broke from iHeartRadio
55:06
Speaker 2: and The Black Effect, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
55:10
Speaker 2: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,