Latest / DA CREW Podcast / **BONUS SHOW**| DA CREW PODCAST SEASON 1| HOST LATONYA MICHELLE LITTLEJOHN

Transcript

**BONUS SHOW**| DA CREW PODCAST SEASON 1| HOST LATONYA MICHELLE LITTLEJOHN · DA CREW Podcast

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Episode thirteen. My guest is Maurice Little John. If you're there, I'm
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not sure. Okay, here we go. All right, How are you
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good? How are you doing tonight? I am great. I'm glad to
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have you here tonight. All right, looks like I had to be a
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little fast relate the host had that had let me in. So but I'm
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here so good. Well, if you don't mind, Maurice, do me
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a favorite and introduce yourself. Okay, yeah, So I am Maurice Little
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John. I'm the third brother of the Little John Brothers. Yeah, Rico,
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my brother, doctor Carlos Little John was here on the show last month,
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so I'm rounding out the crew a little Little John Brothers and married with
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two kids, MJ and Kendall. So that's me. Okay, well,
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Maurice. So when I had carlottles on, I talked about a little bit
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about like y'all growing up and whatnot, what shaped it and molded you into
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the man that you are today, I would say, really just watching my
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mother how she she raised us, you know, of course with the help
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of our father and and you know, really a community. Just seeing how
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she had to raise us, you know, help us to be men,
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and watching me and my brothers how we banded together and always there for each
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other. And of course with school and just doing well in school, and
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seeing that there was something more outside of what I saw outside in the in
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the in the streets and things like that. So I think that's what helped
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mold mold me to what I am right now. So Okay, I asked
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Carlos what school was like for him, So I want to ask you the
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same thing. What was coming from little Africa to the spartan Burg like for
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you? As far as the school change, it was a big change.
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I think just walking into mccracking duringior high school. Uh, my eighth grade
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year might have been the first second day of school where I was I was
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late to class because mccracker was a lot bigger than Chesney and I was running
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through the hall and I and I knocked down Miss Hilton. But that was
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like my favorite teacher. I thought I was getting like so much trouble because
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I was running the hall and I knocked down Miss Hilton. But she became
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my favorite teacher. You know, I would always go talk to her.
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But it was it was a big change. But you know, after you
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know, a few weeks, you know, it was like riding the bike.
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So but mccracking, uh did make me mature and grew up a little
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bit more than it didn't in Chesney. So it was good, good overall
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experience. Then from there going on the smart of Er High School and on
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the Clempson University. So when you got the Clemson what did you initially want
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to do? Are you doing what you set out to do? So when
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I first went to Clempson, I started out as every other engineering student.
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It's being a general engineering student. It's pretty much they put you in a
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pool of every incoming freshman who wanted to be an engineer. So you have
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to take chemistry, calculus, physics, everything all in one semester, and
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it's pretty much what it does is wead you out to see do you really
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want to be an engineered And for the first semester, first two semester,
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Climpson, yes, I really did want to be engineered, so, you
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know, so I stuck it out. But I think that the sex semester,
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my freshmyear is probably my worst worst college semester of my college career because
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I think my grades were A B, A F and a W, which
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is very uncategoristic for me. So at that point in time, my mother,
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Lenna little John, I said, boy, get a degree in something.
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It's all like okay, I let me reverse courts the graphic communications and
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I stayed in there for like a semester, but I was I was in
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there with some packaging packaging science students, and I always know I still want
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to do engineering. So I was like, well, you know, packaging
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science is just like engineering. It's just you're not you're not building roads or
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bridges or you know, working with electronics or being a compute engineer or mechanical
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engineer, so you should check it out. So I switched. So I
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think I took some classes and packaging science the next semester and I did pretty
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good, and so I was like, you know what, I'm switched to
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packaging science. And from there I went on their internships in Chicago with Craft
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Foods and and I pretty much liked it. So here I am today.
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I'm a packaging engineer and I've been doing packaging engineering for about I don't know
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to see sixteen seventeen years now, so that's what I'm still engineered, just
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not a traditional engineer. But I am an engineer packaging engineer, so nonetheless
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you are still an engineer. Yes I am. I'm an engineer, so
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I know my stuff. Well, I want to ask you, being married,
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being a father, and then with the job that you have that sometimes
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takes you out of the state and out of the country, how do you
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manage to keep everything in line? Uh, it's really communication. Me and
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my wife unique she uh, she keeps, she keeps thinking in order when
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I'm out of town or out of the country trying to work. And then
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of course I got my my guy MJ. You know my name's sake.
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You know, he's like he's got to be the man of the house when
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daddy's out of town. And you know, then I got the boss,
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little boss, Lady Kendall. Let everything else is straight. So but it's
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fun. I mean, they don't like it when I have to go out
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of town sometime, but you know, as long as it's in the States,
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they're good. But when I have to go and I've been to France
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or Germany for work, it did get a look. It is a look
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difficult because you got the time zone, you know, time difference and things
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like that. But we make it work. And but it's uh, it's
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like I said, it's all about communication. Just communicating the whole time.
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Make sure everybody on the same page and the same schedule. So we're good.
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So I want to ask you, from a black father's standpoint, what
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are you doing with your kids that you feel like you missed that on growing
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up? While I would say, first of all, with MJ, he's
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heavily involved with you know, with basketball, he's uh with travel basketball,
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au basketball, uh, rooting stuff, recruited as going to colleges, camps
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and things like that. So that's something that I didn't do growing up because
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it really wasn't it wasn't as readily available, you know, when I was
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coming up. So that's something that you know, we've always said that if
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you whatever dream that you have, whatever you want to do, we'll foster
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it and we'll make it happen for you, because you know, we always
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tell them that what we we just give you the foundation, what we had,
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right, this is the foundation you got to you gotta build up from
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here. And the same thing with Kendall, she's gotten with basketball and things
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to that nature. So even gymnastics early on, so We've always tried to
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foster their dreams and you know, and help them reach their goals. So
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that's something that opportunities weren't there growing up for me. So we just want
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to always help them reach their goals. In the same way that I shouted
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out college, I have to shout you out in the that you've played in
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my kids' life, like you've been there for Deante as well as Deja in
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ways that it's just like so humbling for me because you know, with Deonte,
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I'm not good at math, and I know that you are like the
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mathematical genius of the family. So I would always send him to come to
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you. And he has an admiration for you and Carlos that is beyond compare.
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And I thank you for never, you know, treating him like he
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was just a step nephew or what have you. And the same thing with
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Deja. You know, you both have been a major role, almost like
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a second and third father for her, and I thank you for that too,
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because you know, a lot of girls, you know, are put
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out here and they don't have the father influence that they actually need. Not
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saying that, Rico, it hasn't been an excellent father, but it it's
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that extra push to give them what they need to get to where they're going.
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So I thank you and I tilt my hat to you for always being
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on standby for them. We watch you with Kindle and MJ and the same
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way with Carlos with two. Y'all are fabulous fathers. Thank you. Your
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children are beautiful, very respectful, and we couldn't ask for better nieces and
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nephews. So you know, I have to tilt my hat to you with
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with all of that, you know, with being a great uncle as well
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as a great father to your two. Yeah, I mean like with Deonte,
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I mean he's always been you know, he's always inquisitive, you know,
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he he's never shot away from coming to me, asked me questions about
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things. And I've never been I never sugarcoat anything for me to always tell
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him real advice and whatever he needs to to know or here, I'll tell
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him. So I never ever looked at him. It's just you know,
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I'll throw in right, he's he's family, you know, he's my nephew,
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so you know that's why you know, that's my guy. You know,
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whenever you know, I talked to him every now and then, you
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know, just to make sure he's good. So with him and k you
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know, make sure everything's good. So saying with Djan, I'm probably the
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stern uncle I would say right, because I don't, like I said,
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I don't sugarcoat. If you don't on my opinion, don't ask me right
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because I'm pretty blunt. So but I think they appreciate it whether or not.
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But you know, but it's, uh, that's just something I think
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that you know, with them being young and growing up that you know,
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you rather hear from family than to hear it outside of family. So right,
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always be one to you know, to tell him the truth. I
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always say that you and Carlos are the uncles that helped mold Deante into the
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man that he is today. As you know that when he was younger,
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he wanted to play basketball and it just wasn't meant to be, you know,
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for him. And I thank you guys for showing him that you know,
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you don't have to play basketball to make it, You don't have to
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play football to make it in this world. You can use your brain for
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something else and and make it. And he's doing well for himself, like
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he has an opportunity to have his own Verizon store right now. So you
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know, I thank you guys for loving him in that way and getting him
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to a place that I, as his mom, a female, couldn't do.
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So yeah, I mean, what d I mean, he's the kid
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is good. I mean, I know he's not the kid, you know,
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but but he's good. I mean it's just like rather basketball worked out
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for him or not, I knew d was going going places. I mean,
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you got to be a student before your athlete, because no matter what
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sports you play, the ball's gonna stop dribbling the balls. You know,
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football is not got better run it as hard or you know, so you
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know, you gotta have a second, you know, second option. And
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like him, he took advantage of education. So that's the thing we're still
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with our kids. You know. It's you know, it's great to be
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good in sports, but you're a student first, and so we push we
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push a's around here. B is okay, you try. We want we
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want the a's, you know, because you know, like I said,
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they play sports and they're good at it. I give it to they're really
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good at it and they're going places with that. But we want you know,
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we want to have the icing on the cake is the sports the icing
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on the cake. Academics come first. So we have our first question.
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Your brother wants to know how tall MJ is now, MJ right now he
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is between six four and six five right now, he's fifteen, So mix
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absolutely no sense how tall he is. Yeah, to be that, you
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know, but I mean, granted, none of the uncles or you are
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short, So I mean that height just blue. You get it from somewhere.
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You know, he's you know, he's not that uh, he's not
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the little I guess, a little chubby baby. He wasn't his baby,
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you know, I thought he was gonna be short chubby, but some kind
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of way, he grew a little bit. He growing, he's still growing.
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You gotta a bit. So he's a. He's a. He's a
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he's a basketball player. So so look out for him. You heard it
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here first, so look like, keep looking out for him. Absolutely.
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What are you doing as a father to mold and shape their dreams for their
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futures? Really the biggest things. Just keep talking, keep pouring in to
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them, talking to them, you know, let them know that the only
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limit is you. You limit yourself you just gotta keep pushing through whatever brick
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wall that may be in front of you. Just keep pushing, because on
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a person can stop you as you So that's the biggest thing that I keep
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pouring to him, because I look at the fact how we grew up,
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not with a silver spoon in the mouth, more so wooden spoon. So
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we had to you know, we had to work hard for everything we had,
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you know, despite you know sometimes like, man, is it worth
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it? But you know it's worth it. I look at what we are
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now, what we had to persevere through, and it's worth it. So
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I tell the kids that you know, we we sacrifice me, me and
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your mother. We sacrifice for y'all to have which I have. So take
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advantage of it and keep moving forward. What shaped you with your childhood that
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kept you from going left? I mean it would have been real easy to
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take those losses and continue to lose. I guess would be you know,
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what motivated you to stay straight and move forward in the opposite way? All
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The biggest thing for me is I'm not built for jail. I'm not built
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for the streets, and I did not want to face letting a little John.
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So she always let us know that, Hey, if you get in
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trouble, don't call me. So that was enough for me to not go
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left. I mean, just keep keep going straight. I'm a straight and
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narrow and I said, it's it's plenty of it's plenty of examples out here
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of what not to do. There's not a lot of examples of what the
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right thing to do. So right, it's always knew that I wanted to
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do the right thing, and I wanted to be more than what I saw
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outside my window or outside the street. So, I mean, spark Murghy
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is a great place, you know, to grow up in the upstate of
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South Carolina, but I knew I wanted to make a bigger impact somewhere else
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with my life and you know, have a platform for my kids to follow.
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How did your brothers impact your life? Being that they're both are older
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than you, for me personally, so as you know with me, with
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me and Rico, you know, he's the older brother, and Rico is
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a man a few words, as you know, but what Rico is a
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person that he leads by example and you kind of sort of just you have
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to kind of so just watch his movements. You have to watch what he
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does and how he does things. And you know that's the thing I picked
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up for him, just watching how how he conducted itself. I mean he
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early on with you know, him being the father with Daja. You know,
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I was still in I was a freshman in college. Actually the summer
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fomeing to college is when Daja was born. So him bringing Daja to Climpson
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University to see me when she was like a little baby, you know,
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just seeing how you interacted with her. You know that they gave me the
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first glimpse of what you know, being a young father was and how you
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know how to move with your child. And then with Carlos, him being
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that went through university, me going up to went through university, and and
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seeing him when I was in high school and you know how the academic side
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of being you know, being on a college campus, how it worked.
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And you know, I would say men and Carlos like our academically and some
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professionally, like our lives have mirrored each other. So even though he's he's
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an education I'm and I'm an engineer, we still have certain similarities. Path
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is that we've taken a life. Okay, Oh well, I have enjoyed
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being a member of this family for twenty one years. Legally, we I
18:15
like to say that we grew up together because your mom took care of my
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grandma and so I got to meet you guys as children, and you again
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when you came from cracking Ye. So you know, I feel like we
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all grew up together. And it's been, you know, one wild ride
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right after another, and like everything that you guys have accomplished, we've been
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so proud of you, Like you know, when you went off to Clemson
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and we would come down, Me and Rico would come to get you before
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you got your first car and stuff like that. And I remember one time
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in particular, we came down there and we had Dante to knock on the
19:06
door, and we moved away from the door to see, you know,
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how you would react. But you wasn't the one that came to the door.
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Your roommate was, and he was like, who is this little boy
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standing here at this door. But it's always fun when we all get together
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and come together. You know, I'm adopted, and I've oftentimes felt out
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of place and felt like I didn't belong, but I've never had to question
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my position in this family, and so you know, I look at you
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and Carlos like brothers, like y'all are my brothers as well, So you
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know y'all mean the world to me. And the nieces and nephews there,
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they're like the icing on the cake. Yeah. So I'm not gonna hold
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you. I just wanted to bring you on and and basically shower you with
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your flowers while you can smell them, and and just let you do you
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for a moment, and brag them the babies in and the musics for a
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while. But what would you tell someone heading off to college and not knowing
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exactly what it is that they want to do? What? What would you
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what advice would you offer up to someone that's just confused as to what they're
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supposed to be doing. I mean I would tell them that, you know,
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go to college with your eyes wide open, look around, you know,
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feel the vibrations of the campus and the people around. Don't be I
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don't be afraid to explore, you know, anything your first year positive experiences.
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You're gonna have some negative mounds too, but that shapes and mold who
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you are. So find something that you you know, find a major that
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you're gonna enjoy doing where work doesn't feel like work every day. You know,
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when you get a job that you're having fun, you know, So
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find something that you feel like when you get up every morning, that this
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is something I want to do. Don't just go find a major because of
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the prestige of it, because of you know, a doctor or a lawyer,
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or you know a dentist or something. Those those are very prestigious careers,
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but it also takes a lot of work. Just be sure that whatever
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you do in life, you enjoy doing it, because unless you hit the
21:37
lottery or of God bless you in the mighty way, you're doing that for
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the next twenty five thirty years of your life. So make sure you like
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it. And I would I would tell any any young person that just go
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go and just be a blank a blank pallette. You know, let cops
21:55
be a blank pallet a palette for you and just paint your own picture of
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what you want your life to be like and and and everything will work out
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for you if you just follow follow that that path of success. You know,
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ask questions, use everybody's a resource. I mean, don't be don't
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be afraid to you know, to do that because you are your own business.
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So you gotta advertise yourself because you want to make sure that whatever job
22:26
you get, it's it's the right job, the right people that you get
22:30
you're around, so start telling that. Just have fun too along the way
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half fun. You're gonna be there in four or five years of life.
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Make sure you have fun those four or five years life. Don't just go
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and be a bookworm. And and don't you know, don't enjoy the ride
22:45
because you got and these real in the real world. These bills are real.
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You know, life is real, Yes, sir, you wish you
22:53
could write a paper or steady for a test when you get you know,
22:57
don't have to pay some bills sometime. So but it's but it's fun.
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So uh you know, like I said, just just enjoy it and see
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what life takes you. I'll also have one last question, being that mental
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health is a stigma for the black man. What are you you doing to
23:22
keep your mental health intact and the mental of MJ. How are you guys
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being able to stay in your right state of mind with everything that's going on
23:36
around you in this world? You know, I say, that's my guy,
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that's my namesake. So we're gonna we talk. We talk all the
23:42
time, and I'm I'm his daddy, I'm his father, you know,
23:47
but I'm also you know, we sometimes we are like we boys or friends.
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But you know, so it's just like we keep those lines of communications
23:55
open whatever he's going through. You know, he knows he can always come
23:59
talk to me about anything. You know, we don't. You know,
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there there's no conversation that we can't have or haven't had that he has to
24:10
ever feel uncomfortable come to me about. So, you know, and I
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always let him know that, you know, watch your surroundings, watch who
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you're around. But always carry yourself a dignity because you know that's your integrity
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is something that you can you can lose it real fast. I mean if
24:30
you don't present yourself in a way to the public. And I always stays
24:36
true to yourself and convince others because people are gonna say good things and bad
24:41
things about you, but you gotta under you. But you just gotta stay
24:45
stay solid where you are. And especially with him, with him playing basketball
24:51
and the notoriety that comes from that, you know, you're gonna have your
24:55
fans, You're gonna have your nay says when you do good or bad.
24:57
But you you just gotta understand to stay ground it and focus on the goal
25:02
of hand. Don't don't get caught up whatever thing you hear. So that's
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how we found advice, great sound advice. Thank you. I want to
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thank you for taking time out of your day to come chat with me for
25:21
a moment. I really truly appreciate you being here with me tonight. No
25:26
problem at all. It's it's always good to chop it up with family,
25:30
you know, rather being on the camera or not on the camera. If
25:33
it's on the phone, it's it's good too. You know, we'll be
25:34
down that Monday, so we're gonna chop it up. We're gonna do what
25:40
we do when the brothers get together. You know. Up absolutely I won't
25:45
be reported, so don't don't worry about it. We televised, so it's
25:52
all in good fun with what we do a little bit. So yeah,
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it's always good. You know. I would like to give you your hours
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of congratulating you, you know, and everything you're doing from being an author,
26:06
you know, think podcasts. I don't know what else is attached to
26:10
the name, but I'm pretty sure it's some more stuff coming. So,
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you know, congratulation you because in spite of everything that you went through,
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you know, personally and you know growing up, you didn't let us stop
26:22
you. So keep pushing, keep moving, keep being a beacon of light
26:29
and hope for people who are going through circumstances, you know, letting them
26:32
know that they can speak out and you know, not be afraid to walk
26:37
that line. So conte you to do what you do and don't let anybody
26:42
tell you different, because the hater's gonna be there. Just just shake them
26:48
off. Keep moving. You're gonna be good. You're good, you're doing
26:49
You're doing big things, doing positive things. To just keep the moving.
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Thank you, you're welcome. I appreciate that so much. You're about to
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make me crime already sweet doing that. Try to get your grandoves armed.
27:04
We got doing that tonight again. I thank you for being here with me
27:12
tonight. This has been delayed, but not denied. I chose that name
27:18
as a title because oftentimes in life we are delayed in things, things that
27:23
we want to do, things that we think we need to be doing.
27:27
But one thing I know for certain is that God will never deny what's meant
27:34
for you. So even in being delayed, you'll never be denied from what
27:40
God has for you. And so with that being said, everybody, good
27:45
night, thanks for watching, all right, good night at Forefront