Latest / The Breakfast Club / INTERVIEW: DeMar DeRozan Talks New Memoir 'Above the Noise,' Compton & Toronto, Drake & KDot, Kobe Bryant More

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INTERVIEW: DeMar DeRozan Talks New Memoir 'Above the Noise,' Compton & Toronto, Drake & KDot, Kobe Bryant More · The Breakfast Club

0:00
Speaker 1: Wake that ass up in the morning. The Breakfast Club Morning.
0:05
Speaker 2: Everybody is the j Envy Jesse Hilarious, Charlamagne to God.
0:09
Speaker 2: We are the Breakfast Club. Justice on maternity leave. Laura
0:11
Speaker 2: la Ross is feeling in and we got a special
0:13
Speaker 2: guest in the building. Comptence, finest ladies and gentlemen, Demal
0:16
Speaker 2: de Rose and welcome man.
0:17
Speaker 3: It's honor man, my brother doing good. How you doing?
0:20
Speaker 4: And blessed black and hoghly favored man. You new book
0:23
Speaker 4: out above the Noise, My Story of Chasing Calm.
0:27
Speaker 1: I love that title.
0:28
Speaker 4: When I hear that title, I know a man that's
0:30
Speaker 4: doing the work on himself.
0:31
Speaker 3: Man, trying. Man, it's definitely a challenge, something that's not easy.
0:36
Speaker 3: Take time, it's patience. Gotta give yourself grace. You know,
0:39
Speaker 3: we go through a lot of stuff. You know that
0:41
Speaker 3: we we sweep under the rug, and a lot of
0:44
Speaker 3: times by the time we figured it out, we we
0:46
Speaker 3: deep in. And it takes a lot of work to
0:48
Speaker 3: try to figure that out. So, you know, just trying
0:50
Speaker 3: to expire, get the message out there, and just try
0:52
Speaker 3: to break the stigma. More than more than anything, I.
0:55
Speaker 4: Love what you said in The New York Times about
0:57
Speaker 4: how more athletes need to open up about their mental
0:59
Speaker 4: health and basically you said the need to show their
1:01
Speaker 4: Clark Kent side.
1:02
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, man, everybody look at us like we're just
1:05
Speaker 3: superhero so much.
1:08
Speaker 1: Without doubt, I'll dunk on you.
1:11
Speaker 2: You can't even test the net, can't take you serious.
1:17
Speaker 3: And it's definitely, you know, I think for me, you know,
1:21
Speaker 3: I look at it. We fall in love with a
1:22
Speaker 3: lot of superheroes because who they you know, who they
1:26
Speaker 3: are at night? You know, we we never appreciate the
1:29
Speaker 3: person before they put on the mask, and a lot
1:32
Speaker 3: of times we carry that mask more than anything, you know,
1:35
Speaker 3: even me to this day. That's one thing I'm trying
1:37
Speaker 3: to break. You know. It's tough when you gotta you
1:40
Speaker 3: gotta kind of be two different people, you know, and
1:42
Speaker 3: sometimes you forget the most important person at times and
1:45
Speaker 3: put yourself in it in a deep depression at times,
1:48
Speaker 3: and it's tough to get out of.
1:49
Speaker 2: I want to I want to know your journey when
1:51
Speaker 2: it came to the NBA, right because growing up as
1:54
Speaker 2: a kid, there wasn't as many leagues where it was training.
1:57
Speaker 2: We just kids played in the park and the good
1:59
Speaker 2: kid with the high school played on a high school team,
2:02
Speaker 2: playing in college. But now it seems like everything is
2:04
Speaker 2: foreseen as training, you gotta train, train six days a week,
2:08
Speaker 2: Lamar Olderman. In all those days to play park, they went
2:10
Speaker 2: to rut and play ball and kept the moving. So
2:12
Speaker 2: what was your journey getting too the league? And explain
2:14
Speaker 2: to some of the kids out there who have that
2:16
Speaker 2: dream how difficult it was to get there.
2:18
Speaker 3: First of all, like you said, like growing up, like
2:20
Speaker 3: we didn't know nothing about training. It was all like
2:23
Speaker 3: if I go to the play at the park from
2:25
Speaker 3: sun up to sundown, that's what I'm gonna be able
2:27
Speaker 3: to do. You know, That's what I'm gonna do. It's
2:29
Speaker 3: in the backyard, if it's making a crate playing basketball,
2:32
Speaker 3: Like my aspiration was always trying to escape from my
2:35
Speaker 3: reality with sports, you know what I mean, whether we
2:37
Speaker 3: played football in the streets, whatever, whatever it may be.
2:40
Speaker 3: You know, we use sports as a gateway, you know,
2:45
Speaker 3: for peace. And for a long time, you don't even
2:48
Speaker 3: consider like working out. You just want to hoop, you know.
2:51
Speaker 3: So as you get older, it becomes more difficult when
2:55
Speaker 3: you got to take those necessary steps to you know,
2:58
Speaker 3: evolve into a true basketball So it's definitely a long road,
3:02
Speaker 3: you know, and especially now, I can't even imagine what
3:05
Speaker 3: social media and so much stuff that's in front of
3:08
Speaker 3: these kids. Now you basically famous by the time you know,
3:12
Speaker 3: you in middle school, you know, So it's definitely difficult
3:15
Speaker 3: these days, more more so than ever. When before it
3:19
Speaker 3: just used to be about the game.
3:20
Speaker 2: When did you realize you were you were that good
3:23
Speaker 2: to make it to the league. Because as a kid,
3:24
Speaker 2: everybody thinks they Jordan, everybody thinks they Kobe, everybody thinks
3:27
Speaker 2: they every player that they ever imagined. When did you know, like, oh,
3:29
Speaker 2: I got a shot.
3:31
Speaker 1: When it was a true real life belief.
3:33
Speaker 3: Probably by the time I was probably like in the
3:35
Speaker 3: nineteenth grade, when it was like, all right, if I
3:39
Speaker 3: keep working at this, I maybe I still maybe have
3:42
Speaker 3: a chance. But for me, everything was still felt so
3:46
Speaker 3: far fetched because you know, you didn't know nothing about college.
3:49
Speaker 3: I didn't have nobody in my family go d one,
3:51
Speaker 3: So even just going to college was a big thing, like, man,
3:54
Speaker 3: I gotta at least make it to college, like damn
3:57
Speaker 3: the league. College was more so the the big obstacle
4:01
Speaker 3: for me to make it to there. So by the
4:02
Speaker 3: time my senior year, I know I was going to
4:05
Speaker 3: SC I knew, I know it was a chance for
4:07
Speaker 3: after that for me to go pro for sure.
4:09
Speaker 4: What about your father, because I love seeing black men
4:11
Speaker 4: celebrate their fathers. And you dedicated the book to your father,
4:14
Speaker 4: Frank de Rosen. What was some of the values he contributed,
4:17
Speaker 4: you know.
4:18
Speaker 3: And still to your to your upbringing, not just as
4:21
Speaker 3: a man, more than anything, you know, he taught me
4:23
Speaker 3: the art of hard working, resiliency, being a man more
4:30
Speaker 3: so than anything. And one thing growing up that he always,
4:33
Speaker 3: you know, preached to me that you know, we was
4:34
Speaker 3: growing up in a cruel society. So he prepared me
4:39
Speaker 3: on on how to deal with that more so than anything,
4:42
Speaker 3: how to deal with white folks. Yeah, just period. My
4:44
Speaker 3: dad was from the country. He was from the South
4:46
Speaker 3: so Vdelia. It's a small in Louisiana, a small, small,
4:50
Speaker 3: small town. Remember when I was a kid, he first
4:52
Speaker 3: took me there. He showed me cotton fields and all
4:55
Speaker 3: this stuff. It was it was crazy. They still boiled
4:57
Speaker 3: their water to take baths, you know what I mean.
5:00
Speaker 3: So that was real humbling for me at a young age,
5:02
Speaker 3: especially being from Compton, going to go see the you know,
5:05
Speaker 3: the countryside of my dad, but he showed me just
5:07
Speaker 3: the importance of hard work, sticking to your word, and
5:11
Speaker 3: you know, everything that he went through, he never complained.
5:13
Speaker 1: Is your dad one of the old g's that brought
5:15
Speaker 1: them horses to Compton? That's the good No, he didn't.
5:23
Speaker 5: What was the Compton like that you grew up in.
5:26
Speaker 3: I mean in the time, I thought it was a norm,
5:30
Speaker 3: you know, of being around you know, such an aggressive
5:32
Speaker 3: nature of you know, gangs and everything because it was
5:35
Speaker 3: so it was so family oriented. You know, I grew
5:39
Speaker 3: up during the time, like you know, it still was
5:40
Speaker 3: those kind of old school rules where you know, the
5:43
Speaker 3: guys in the neighborhood are gonna protect you to stay
5:46
Speaker 3: away from all the you know, the bullshit that was
5:48
Speaker 3: going on. And that was one thing that definitely helped me.
5:52
Speaker 3: You know, even though it was aggressive, you had to
5:54
Speaker 3: deal with a lot of obstacles, but you know, it
5:57
Speaker 3: was a lot of people that looked out for me
5:58
Speaker 3: more so than anything, to keep keep you on the
6:00
Speaker 3: right track.
6:01
Speaker 5: Coming from Compton. I know.
6:03
Speaker 6: In twenty eighteen is when you sent out the tweet,
6:05
Speaker 6: the depression get the Best of Me tweet that kind
6:07
Speaker 6: of sparked all of the conversation and.
6:10
Speaker 5: I know you were back in LA at the time.
6:11
Speaker 6: Do you think or did you feel like was it
6:13
Speaker 6: like survivors remorse because you're so connected to home and family.
6:17
Speaker 5: Now you're back and you're at the height of your career, Like.
6:19
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think for me, that's when everything hit the
6:21
Speaker 3: wall for me because my career was, you know, taking
6:24
Speaker 3: off at a at a peak that I never would imagine.
6:27
Speaker 3: You know, I'm coming back home to LA being a
6:29
Speaker 3: starter for the All Star team, and you know, all
6:32
Speaker 3: I cared about in that moment was get home and
6:34
Speaker 3: see my kids, when to see my daughters. I didn't
6:36
Speaker 3: care about nothing else. But it's like as soon as
6:38
Speaker 3: I got to LA, it's everybody asked for something, needing something,
6:41
Speaker 3: wanting tickets, wanted to do this. Everybody had this pre
6:44
Speaker 3: notion of like I felt like I was getting plotted
6:47
Speaker 3: on in a sense, you know what I mean, when
6:49
Speaker 3: at the end of the day, I just want to
6:50
Speaker 3: go hug my kids. I want to do what my
6:52
Speaker 3: kids want to do. But it's like the overwhelming feeling
6:56
Speaker 3: of I see myself in all these hotel downtown LA.
7:01
Speaker 3: It was just a lot and it kind of put
7:03
Speaker 3: a lot of stuff in perspective for me, and I
7:05
Speaker 3: kind of just you know, I hit a wall at
7:06
Speaker 3: that point.
7:07
Speaker 2: Was Toronto a better place for you because you're away
7:09
Speaker 2: from everybody that you grew up with? And was that
7:11
Speaker 2: a mistake? Leaving Toronto?
7:13
Speaker 3: Toronto was the best thing that happened for me, because
7:15
Speaker 3: at that time, even when I was at s C, like,
7:18
Speaker 3: if I had a good day or a bad day,
7:19
Speaker 3: I was still going to Compton, like still going to
7:22
Speaker 3: stay at my mama house in Compton. I'm still around
7:24
Speaker 3: the same type of environment. So I really wasn't, you know,
7:29
Speaker 3: evolving in a way I needed to, you know, I
7:32
Speaker 3: still ran back to what I was comfortable with. So
7:35
Speaker 3: when I left s SE got drafted, you know, I
7:38
Speaker 3: go to a whole nother country, Toronto.
7:40
Speaker 1: Like hell, A lot of beautiful women in Toronto. It's
7:43
Speaker 1: a beautiful place. Love like love it a lot of
7:45
Speaker 1: beautiful women.
7:46
Speaker 5: He heard.
7:52
Speaker 3: It definitely is, like it's it's so wild because I
7:57
Speaker 3: didn't realize how much I needed to be away from home,
8:00
Speaker 3: like and it was to the point to where like
8:02
Speaker 3: nobody in my family had a passport. One of my
8:05
Speaker 3: cousins would go no like, so I was there by myself.
8:07
Speaker 3: So it forced me to kind of grow up in
8:10
Speaker 3: a way to help me mature in a in a
8:13
Speaker 3: very professional way where I paid attention to nothing but
8:17
Speaker 3: working on my craft, how to be the best player,
8:19
Speaker 3: best individual, listening to all the ogs. Like, I didn't
8:22
Speaker 3: have no outside distraction because I can't have the homies
8:26
Speaker 3: come up. I can't have had a fam come up.
8:28
Speaker 3: Nobody got no damn passport, like, and it wasn't easy
8:32
Speaker 3: getting a passport. So it was something that that definitely
8:35
Speaker 3: was a necessity in my career at that point, and
8:38
Speaker 3: a lot of a lot of things that I learned
8:40
Speaker 3: from my time being away from home. Then I still
8:43
Speaker 3: carry to this day just understanding solitude and being able
8:46
Speaker 3: to being myself.
8:47
Speaker 1: But that's the first time you felt the come yeah.
8:51
Speaker 3: Yeah, unknowingly too, you know what I mean, Because it
8:53
Speaker 3: wasn't no distraction. I had no choice but to be
8:56
Speaker 3: to myself. And with that, you know, shitting now you
8:58
Speaker 3: got to figure out, you know, how to how to
9:00
Speaker 3: do laundry, how to how to what to eat, like
9:03
Speaker 3: so much stuff when before you know, I'm gonna just
9:06
Speaker 3: go to moms, man'na have moms make me something to
9:08
Speaker 3: eat this this So it definitely was a calm. Like
9:11
Speaker 3: I said, even to this point, that make it easier
9:13
Speaker 3: for me when I need those moments to be alone,
9:16
Speaker 3: Like it's easy to do.
9:17
Speaker 2: The decision to leave Toronto, why was that?
9:21
Speaker 3: That was tough? That was tough because at that point,
9:24
Speaker 3: you know, I was nine years in. It was the
9:25
Speaker 3: only place I ever knew, the only place I you know,
9:28
Speaker 3: wanted to stay invested so much there. You know, I
9:33
Speaker 3: grew there. I was nineteen when I got drafted. You know,
9:36
Speaker 3: I had two kids up to that point, so I
9:40
Speaker 3: became a father. Like just was a lot going on.
9:44
Speaker 3: You never thought in your mind that you were leaving
9:47
Speaker 3: a place that you know, you had so much success in.
9:50
Speaker 3: So when that happened, you know, it took a hit.
9:52
Speaker 3: But you know, looking back on it, I'm glad you
9:55
Speaker 3: know it happened because that's another point in my life
9:57
Speaker 3: that that was needed for me to bro much more
10:01
Speaker 3: than I ever could imagine.
10:03
Speaker 4: And you left Toronto and you went to Chicago. I
10:05
Speaker 4: went to San Antonio, San Antonio and then Chicago. Cago
10:10
Speaker 4: was there was the rumors of you going to l
10:12
Speaker 4: a ever real.
10:13
Speaker 3: Yeah, that was one one with Lebron.
10:17
Speaker 1: Yeah, how close did it get?
10:18
Speaker 3: It was like it was it was basically like a
10:23
Speaker 3: done deal at one point. And I remember waking up
10:27
Speaker 3: and I remember leaving LA because I just knew, like man,
10:32
Speaker 3: free agency starting, I'm about to sign with the Lakers
10:34
Speaker 3: is about to be a fucking ship show, like you
10:36
Speaker 3: know what I mean. So I took a vacation, got
10:38
Speaker 3: away with the I think I went to Cabo or something,
10:41
Speaker 3: and you know, I look on Twitter. They with a
10:44
Speaker 3: different route. I was like, I thought I thought it
10:47
Speaker 3: was a done deal.
10:47
Speaker 5: You found out from Twitter.
10:48
Speaker 3: Yeah, the Lakers changed that, you know, changed their mind.
10:53
Speaker 5: Is that normally how that works?
10:54
Speaker 3: Like youtimes? You know you can't you know, thank so.
10:57
Speaker 5: You and Cabo and like, so what happens? How do
10:59
Speaker 5: you feel?
10:59
Speaker 4: What?
11:00
Speaker 5: Who do you call? Like what?
11:01
Speaker 3: What's crazy? You don't call nobody. You just basically, like,
11:06
Speaker 3: you know, figure out your next move, you know, because
11:09
Speaker 3: just because some probably could be a thought or word
11:12
Speaker 3: agreement don't necessarily mean you know, it's it's setting stone,
11:16
Speaker 3: you know. So they chose to go a different direction,
11:18
Speaker 3: and that's that's when I went to Chicago. So, but
11:21
Speaker 3: before Chicago, it was a good chance I was gonna
11:23
Speaker 3: be a leged.
11:24
Speaker 4: I always wonder how did that make players feel when
11:27
Speaker 4: they look on Twitter and see that they've just been
11:29
Speaker 4: shipped somewhere, because it's almost like you're not even humans, Yeah,
11:32
Speaker 4: just a sproduct.
11:33
Speaker 3: And that's another thing I talked to a lot of
11:35
Speaker 3: guys about that. It's a lot of players in our
11:37
Speaker 3: league that that that kills they confidence, They don't understand it,
11:42
Speaker 3: and it puts them in aspiring like downhill like emotion
11:47
Speaker 3: that they can't get out of. And a lot of
11:48
Speaker 3: times you will see a lot of these guys that
11:51
Speaker 3: you know, they they they good players, and that one
11:54
Speaker 3: our school hit, they never the same because a lot
11:57
Speaker 3: of a lot of guys can't bounce back from it
11:59
Speaker 3: from a mental aspect, expectations set on them. They feel
12:02
Speaker 3: like they didn't reach it. Now they feel less than
12:04
Speaker 3: they they they It's a lot that goes into it
12:07
Speaker 3: that gets overlooked. You know, I understand that it's a business,
12:10
Speaker 3: but a lot of times guys feel a certain type
12:13
Speaker 3: of way when that do happen, and a lot of
12:15
Speaker 3: times it's hard to bounce back from it.
12:16
Speaker 2: That's why I never get mad at players when they
12:18
Speaker 2: make their own decisions exactly, and people are always mad
12:20
Speaker 2: at them. And you know, you see people giving Lebron
12:22
Speaker 2: flack all the time for doing what he does. But
12:24
Speaker 2: how could you be mad at him when on the
12:26
Speaker 2: other side, I want to do the same thing.
12:28
Speaker 3: Yeah, do the same thing. That's the tough part where,
12:30
Speaker 3: you know, I always tell guys my whole career, I
12:33
Speaker 3: always tell guys, man, you make the best decision for you,
12:36
Speaker 3: you know what I mean. It's been times I play
12:37
Speaker 3: with guys like, I know, if you come back like
12:39
Speaker 3: we could be we could, we could even be better
12:42
Speaker 3: next year. But you got to make the best decision
12:44
Speaker 3: for you. I always tell guys do that.
12:46
Speaker 1: So what made you choose to play for the Kings?
12:50
Speaker 3: Be honest. The opportunity to compete the win was there.
12:54
Speaker 3: On the other side of it, obviously, the financial part
12:57
Speaker 3: to be still be able to, you know, feel like
13:00
Speaker 3: you want to still receive what you work, you know
13:02
Speaker 3: what I mean.
13:03
Speaker 1: Like, let me look that contract up.
13:05
Speaker 2: He's like a bird over there, a bird pull it overt.
13:10
Speaker 1: Let me see, I know he got this is sixteen
13:13
Speaker 1: year in the.
13:13
Speaker 3: League too, sixteen Yeah, what's the contract?
13:16
Speaker 2: Shall I mean?
13:17
Speaker 1: Hold on three year deal?
13:20
Speaker 4: Work up to seventy six point seven million, including three
13:23
Speaker 4: million and unlikely bonuses.
13:25
Speaker 1: Congratulations appreciates you affreciate it.
13:28
Speaker 5: You see yourself going like twenty.
13:31
Speaker 1: Mentally or physically both both.
13:34
Speaker 5: I would answer physically first.
13:35
Speaker 3: And then do it physically for sure, you know, I
13:38
Speaker 3: definitely could do it. I take care of myself. I
13:40
Speaker 3: don't do nothing. I don't go out, don't drink. I
13:43
Speaker 3: just either be my kids. I'll be chilling like I
13:45
Speaker 3: don't do nothing. So physically for sure, Mentally that's the
13:48
Speaker 3: tough part because you know, kids getting older, you know,
13:53
Speaker 3: missing so much stuff from the kids that that becomes
13:55
Speaker 3: more of a priority, more so than anything, like you know,
13:58
Speaker 3: I hate you know, my daughter asked me if I'm
14:02
Speaker 3: gonna be at a dance they having them, I'm on
14:04
Speaker 3: the road. I can't make it, you know what I mean.
14:06
Speaker 3: That'd be the tough part. So, you know, seeing them
14:08
Speaker 3: get older and missing a lot of stuff, that makes
14:10
Speaker 3: it harder on me to, you know, say, let me
14:13
Speaker 3: go for twenty.
14:14
Speaker 4: Why did you you know, leave the spurs? Because you know,
14:17
Speaker 4: Greg Papa vis he writes the Ford in your book,
14:18
Speaker 4: I saw you. I forgot what I saw you telling
14:21
Speaker 4: the story about how I think it was after your
14:23
Speaker 4: father passed, he came to see me with y'all just
14:26
Speaker 4: kicked it for.
14:27
Speaker 3: Like some hours.
14:28
Speaker 4: Yeah, and like like why I leave that type of environment?
14:31
Speaker 3: You know, it's crazy, Like Pop's such a real dude,
14:34
Speaker 3: because even in that point, like he just wanted me
14:37
Speaker 3: to be able to go somewhere to win and kind
14:39
Speaker 3: of you know, because the team was going a different route.
14:42
Speaker 3: It was kind of going younger. And you know, he
14:45
Speaker 3: just told me my last year in San Antonio, wherever
14:48
Speaker 3: you choose to go, I'm gonna make sure it happens,
14:51
Speaker 3: you know. And like that's why I speak so highly
14:54
Speaker 3: at Papa, even like you know, Pop text me last night,
14:56
Speaker 3: like just randomly, like you know, like the most Pop
15:00
Speaker 3: of this message you could always get. You know, I
15:02
Speaker 3: love him, Pop text me, But Pop, you know, he
15:04
Speaker 3: was the one that come to me saying, like, you know,
15:07
Speaker 3: go somewhere where you could go be happy and be
15:09
Speaker 3: yourself because we going a different route here with the team.
15:12
Speaker 3: You know, so Papa will.
15:14
Speaker 1: Do for that will makes them such a special coach.
15:17
Speaker 3: It's not about basketball, you know, It's been I always
15:20
Speaker 3: tell a lot of guys around the League, like you
15:23
Speaker 3: think it's basketball, but it's been so many days when Pop,
15:26
Speaker 3: we will come in, we think we're about to watch
15:27
Speaker 3: film on the game previously or something, and he'll sit
15:30
Speaker 3: us down and we'll watch a whole show about penguins, right,
15:36
Speaker 3: and you will be lost in a moment, but you
15:38
Speaker 3: also will watching and realize why he have us watching it,
15:41
Speaker 3: because how penguins come together and sacrifice during certain seasons,
15:47
Speaker 3: of how the males come together take care of the
15:50
Speaker 3: eggs while the female go out and hunt for six months.
15:54
Speaker 3: It's like a deeper meaning that he puts you in
15:56
Speaker 3: front of to show you, like humidity from a a
16:00
Speaker 3: different level, you know what I mean. And maybe times
16:03
Speaker 3: where you lose two games in a row, everybody mad
16:06
Speaker 3: complaining and he'll come in and show clips from a
16:09
Speaker 3: third world country of kids training at fourteen years old
16:13
Speaker 3: playing to be in an army, and you know he
16:16
Speaker 3: actually he'll tell you act yourself, like what is it
16:18
Speaker 3: really to complain about? You get paid millions, like you
16:21
Speaker 3: get to do what you want to do. It's people
16:23
Speaker 3: out there suffering from real things, you know. So he
16:26
Speaker 3: put a lot of stuff in perspective, and he know
16:28
Speaker 3: how to get the most out of his players more
16:30
Speaker 3: than anything.
16:31
Speaker 4: When you all watch the Penguin Doctor, it's so that
16:33
Speaker 4: they have same sex behavior because a lot of times
16:35
Speaker 4: they say same sex behavior in penguins has been deserved
16:37
Speaker 4: in zews.
16:38
Speaker 1: But it's not clear if it's common in the wild.
16:40
Speaker 3: Nah. No, I ain't get that. I ain't get that.
16:44
Speaker 2: So let me ask you about that.
16:45
Speaker 4: That's true, But that's true, they'll look it up.
16:49
Speaker 2: Lem Okay, Now let me ask you about your pops.
16:51
Speaker 2: You said you said, I knew my dad loved me,
16:54
Speaker 2: and he was larger than life to me. But he
16:56
Speaker 2: was the only person that you were scared of. Oh
16:58
Speaker 2: my god, And I know for my fact, and that's
17:00
Speaker 2: say for me growing up. I'm sure I said I
17:03
Speaker 2: was scared of my dad growing up to I'm sure
17:06
Speaker 2: you give me too, Like my dad used to say
17:09
Speaker 2: that word too in the nineties. But how would you
17:14
Speaker 2: as as a parent. Are you the same way with
17:16
Speaker 2: your kids?
17:17
Speaker 3: Uh? No, because the fear he put in me. I
17:22
Speaker 3: always tell myself, I didn't want to be like that
17:25
Speaker 3: to my kids.
17:26
Speaker 2: But it kept you straight, but it kept me straight.
17:28
Speaker 3: But I also grew up in the streets. My kids don't.
17:31
Speaker 3: That's true, know nothing about the streets. So I approached
17:35
Speaker 3: them more so with love and patience and more of
17:39
Speaker 3: an understanding when before, like you know, my my parents
17:44
Speaker 3: parent me in a sense of survival. It was always
17:47
Speaker 3: it was always a thing my mom always usually told me,
17:49
Speaker 3: when you walk out that door, make sure I don't
17:51
Speaker 3: care what you do, you walk back in this house,
17:54
Speaker 3: but every time you come back in. So with that,
17:57
Speaker 3: it gave me a survival instinct. I understand, like, no
18:00
Speaker 3: matter what I gotta, I gotta make sure I make
18:02
Speaker 3: it back to the house. You know what I mean.
18:03
Speaker 3: Because it was tough.
18:05
Speaker 2: So you know, my kids, but did you realize that
18:08
Speaker 2: because you know, as a kid, you think your dad's
18:10
Speaker 2: is being hard on you, and you like, I hate him.
18:12
Speaker 2: But then when you started getting a little older, you
18:13
Speaker 2: start having kids, you understand.
18:14
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, you understand so much. Even to this day,
18:17
Speaker 3: to this to this moment, I still have moments where
18:19
Speaker 3: I fully understand. While my parents did a lot of
18:23
Speaker 3: stuff that they did, you know, And but you know,
18:26
Speaker 3: when it comes to like that tough love, I don't
18:29
Speaker 3: think it's necessarily necessary, like it's like it was with
18:34
Speaker 3: my dad For me, especially growing up and confident.
18:36
Speaker 1: You know what it's dressing.
18:36
Speaker 4: I saw you say in the book that you were
18:38
Speaker 4: afraid to have a son of your own because you
18:40
Speaker 4: didn't feel that you could deliver the same brand of
18:41
Speaker 4: tough love that he did.
18:42
Speaker 1: And two things that I learned in therapy.
18:45
Speaker 4: Number one, I felt like my dad used to discipline
18:49
Speaker 4: me for things he never taught me. But also my
18:51
Speaker 4: dad was raising me out of fear and not love exactly.
18:55
Speaker 4: And I think what we call tough love is actually
18:58
Speaker 4: fear because he was afraid because you was in the streets,
19:00
Speaker 4: Like when I was in the street.
19:01
Speaker 1: My dad didn' not want me to make the same
19:02
Speaker 1: mistakes that he made exactly.
19:04
Speaker 3: Yeah, even now, even me now having a son like
19:08
Speaker 3: my son is like, you know, I got four girls
19:10
Speaker 3: and one son, and you know, having my son like
19:14
Speaker 3: he having that, you know, especially with my son, I
19:18
Speaker 3: think about my father more so than anything. But like
19:21
Speaker 3: with him he brings like I give him the joy
19:25
Speaker 3: and the love that he deserved like I do my daughters.
19:28
Speaker 3: You know what I mean, because when I was a kid,
19:29
Speaker 3: I always wanted that for my dad. I always wanted
19:31
Speaker 3: to approval for my dad. I always wanted to make
19:33
Speaker 3: sure I made him happy. But that was a tough
19:38
Speaker 3: love he was giving me. That made me question at
19:39
Speaker 3: that time. So, you know, with my son, like, I
19:42
Speaker 3: definitely didn't want to come off that way, you know
19:45
Speaker 3: what I mean, I didn't want to give him that
19:46
Speaker 3: tough love. It may be times where it's needed, but
19:49
Speaker 3: for the most part, you know, my son is my dog.
19:51
Speaker 3: A loans with my daughters. But you know, having a
19:53
Speaker 3: son now it makes me think about my dad more
19:55
Speaker 3: than anything.
19:56
Speaker 2: Now, is it true that you said Jordan on the
19:59
Speaker 2: win it is your favorite, Michael Jordan, but.
20:03
Speaker 3: You don't do drugs more more so, you gotta explain
20:06
Speaker 3: that way, more so from the standpoint of like how
20:09
Speaker 3: simple he made the game as such a it was
20:14
Speaker 3: thirty eight, thirty nine, forty.
20:16
Speaker 2: Still, but that was your favorite, Jordan.
20:18
Speaker 3: It was my favorite, but it was more so the
20:21
Speaker 3: one that I could I remember watching the most, you
20:24
Speaker 3: know what I mean. I'm thirty five when you know
20:27
Speaker 3: I was what twelve thirteen when when when Mike was
20:30
Speaker 3: with the Wizards, So it was more me understanding and
20:33
Speaker 3: like watching.
20:34
Speaker 2: And you fell in love with that, Jordan.
20:35
Speaker 3: No, I love Jordan, but I'm more so fell in
20:38
Speaker 3: love with that Jordan with the style of playoff hot playing.
20:41
Speaker 3: Now you know what I mean.
20:42
Speaker 5: Obviously you don't agree, huh No, I.
20:44
Speaker 2: Mean, I mean I get what he's saying, but that
20:46
Speaker 2: twenty three.
20:47
Speaker 3: On the Bulls three, it's definitely something that what's your
20:51
Speaker 3: favorite Bron? My favorite Bron? That's a good question. I
20:57
Speaker 3: mean second Cleveland Stint Lebron probably my my favorite Bron
21:02
Speaker 3: because that's Lebron. We couldn't get passed when we was
21:05
Speaker 3: in the playoffs. He was he was. He was unstoppable, unstoppable.
21:11
Speaker 3: And you had a relationship with Kobe too, Yeah, Kobe was.
21:14
Speaker 3: I had a relationship with cob ever since I was
21:17
Speaker 3: probably fifteen fifteen, sixteen years old.
21:20
Speaker 1: Just growing up in Compton, Like.
21:21
Speaker 3: Yeah, growing up in Compton, and I always used to
21:23
Speaker 3: go to his camps. Then obviously when I was in
21:26
Speaker 3: high school, being a ty reigned ranking high school player,
21:30
Speaker 3: he used to have these late night runs where we
21:33
Speaker 3: would go up there and play, and you know, he
21:35
Speaker 3: used to hand pick who, you know, who he fell
21:37
Speaker 3: in love with as players, and I was one of
21:41
Speaker 3: one of one of those ones. And by the time
21:43
Speaker 3: I was a senior in high school, you know, he
21:45
Speaker 3: would give me his shoes. I wore shoes his Kobe's all,
21:49
Speaker 3: I think my senior year in high school a lot
21:51
Speaker 3: of times. And when I went to college, he used
21:53
Speaker 3: to give me a lot of his shoes. So we
21:55
Speaker 3: always had a relationship ever since I was young.
21:57
Speaker 1: For sure, where do you rank them?
21:58
Speaker 3: Like?
21:58
Speaker 1: Where do you have?
21:59
Speaker 3: We just finished on my goat. I'm beyondest I tell
22:02
Speaker 3: you about. Cobe is my goat for many a reasons.
22:05
Speaker 3: You know, that was the first person like I watched,
22:07
Speaker 3: like grown up in LA. That's the only NBA game
22:11
Speaker 3: I used to watch Lakers, So I watched every single
22:14
Speaker 3: game of his ship. I cried when he shot the
22:17
Speaker 3: air balls versus Utah in the playoffs as a kid,
22:20
Speaker 3: So I always had an emotional attachment to him growing
22:24
Speaker 3: up watching him play and obviously him being my mentor
22:28
Speaker 3: by the time you know, I got in high school
22:29
Speaker 3: and throughout throughout my time in the league.
22:31
Speaker 4: Did the NBA provide proper grief counseling after Kobe passed
22:37
Speaker 4: being even if you didn't have a personal relationship with Kobe,
22:40
Speaker 4: he influenced so many people and inspired so many people.
22:43
Speaker 1: Did they did they handle that correctly? Because I was
22:45
Speaker 1: in the bubble too around that time.
22:46
Speaker 3: Right, what is that the bubble? Yeah? That was that
22:50
Speaker 3: same year, right, yeah, because that happened, yeah that yeah,
22:54
Speaker 3: just that happened that year. Then the league stopped in
22:57
Speaker 3: that summer, we went to the bubble. Yeah. No, you
23:01
Speaker 3: know what Scrater, I think during that time as players,
23:05
Speaker 3: we we kind of embraced each other deeper than than anything,
23:09
Speaker 3: because you start to look at the person next to you, like, man,
23:12
Speaker 3: damn if this could happen a cold, this could happen
23:15
Speaker 3: to anybody, and it kind of hit us all hard,
23:18
Speaker 3: man like, like I remember the night, I mean the
23:22
Speaker 3: day it happened. I remember we had a game and
23:26
Speaker 3: a lot of people across the league started, you know,
23:28
Speaker 3: basically text and talk before the game is like should
23:31
Speaker 3: we even play? A lot of people is contemplating on
23:33
Speaker 3: not even playing because just out of respect for Cob
23:36
Speaker 3: and everything. But we end up, you know, everybody ended
23:39
Speaker 3: up holding the ball. I think we held the ball
23:42
Speaker 3: for twenty four second shot clock. You know, just try
23:45
Speaker 3: to you know, pay pay respect to him. But you know,
23:48
Speaker 3: we all bridge together as players more more so than anything.
23:51
Speaker 2: I was playing against him because that was your idol.
23:53
Speaker 2: That was your goal. Y'all played with ten games in
23:55
Speaker 2: the league against each other total.
23:58
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, more than that, because probably more than that.
24:03
Speaker 3: I think for me it was it was cool because
24:06
Speaker 3: you know, I was even able to be a part
24:09
Speaker 3: of his last All Star game in Toronto, you know,
24:14
Speaker 3: to honor him even that season. I think we honor
24:18
Speaker 3: him when he came to Toronto. I gave him some
24:19
Speaker 3: special shoes, special made Kobe shoes. It was. It was
24:24
Speaker 3: amazing being able to play against your idol, somebody you
24:27
Speaker 3: looked up to, and knowing how crazy he was on
24:30
Speaker 3: the court, you know, and and the order that he
24:34
Speaker 3: carried it is almost similar to the stories I heard
24:38
Speaker 3: about Mike, you know. And to see that in cold
24:41
Speaker 3: whenever he stepped out there on the court and the
24:45
Speaker 3: things he was able to do was it was beyond incredible.
24:47
Speaker 2: And now you also played on Master P's AAU here.
24:50
Speaker 2: How I was playing for P.
24:52
Speaker 3: P was P was like man, that's like that's family
24:55
Speaker 3: man like like P like beyond family man. P took
24:59
Speaker 3: me in like like a son, honest, be honest with you,
25:03
Speaker 3: like Monday through Friday, I'll be in I'll be in
25:07
Speaker 3: Compton Friday night to Sunday, I'm at Pea House with Romeo,
25:11
Speaker 3: you know room. You know, even the other day my
25:13
Speaker 3: book signed in La room came through and you know,
25:16
Speaker 3: show respect, you know, that's that's one of my close
25:19
Speaker 3: friends since since it was fourteen fifteen years old. But
25:22
Speaker 3: you know, he took me in. You know, I was
25:24
Speaker 3: like I was like a son to him early on
25:25
Speaker 3: for sure. So it was dope to be around that.
25:28
Speaker 2: Whole Or how good was little Romeo playing ball? How
25:31
Speaker 2: good was people? Because I'm sure y'all played.
25:32
Speaker 3: Yeah, we played a lot. He was good. But he
25:35
Speaker 3: was even better at talking smack like he used to
25:37
Speaker 3: talking the whole game talking. Yeah, he used to talk
25:40
Speaker 3: trash all day long.
25:42
Speaker 2: He gives me the old man, back you down, like.
25:44
Speaker 3: Yeah, hit you with the elbow, like that's that's Pete, Pete,
25:47
Speaker 3: like old school dirty. But he going if he hit
25:51
Speaker 3: two shots in row, you ain't gonna hear the last
25:53
Speaker 3: off it. And rome was nice, you know obviously you
25:58
Speaker 3: don't looking back at it. And we even had this
26:01
Speaker 3: conversation him being the child star he was, it was
26:06
Speaker 3: hard for him to focus on, you know, just one thing,
26:09
Speaker 3: but for him to even make it you know, the
26:11
Speaker 3: college says a lot with the amount of stuff that
26:15
Speaker 3: he was dealing with going through being a star, doing
26:17
Speaker 3: TV shows, doing music and everything, so it was just
26:20
Speaker 3: difficult for him to focus on one thing, but he
26:22
Speaker 3: had it.
26:23
Speaker 4: I think for the wall, I love the title of
26:25
Speaker 4: your book. Right now we're talking to the margor rolls
26:26
Speaker 4: and above the noise my story and chasing calm. I
26:29
Speaker 4: think we all know what noise sounds like, right, What
26:32
Speaker 4: does calm sound like?
26:33
Speaker 1: Because one thing.
26:34
Speaker 4: You said earlier that that that hit me because I
26:37
Speaker 4: understand that feeling is when you feel peace, and you're
26:40
Speaker 4: a person that's used to dealing with anxiety about the depression.
26:43
Speaker 1: It scared you a little bit.
26:44
Speaker 3: Man. I think I said this the other day. It's
26:47
Speaker 3: kind of like, you know, that eery feeling you get
26:49
Speaker 3: when you're in the middle of somewhere and it's just
26:51
Speaker 3: too quiet, like you ain't for something go wrong, like
26:55
Speaker 3: you just waiting, Like it makes your nerves kind of
26:57
Speaker 3: even worse in that moment because you you you kind
27:00
Speaker 3: of on ten from there. So that was even a
27:03
Speaker 3: challenge for me, Like, and I used to try to
27:06
Speaker 3: figure out ways on really how to like accept it
27:09
Speaker 3: and indulge in it, so I start, you know, it
27:12
Speaker 3: got to a point to where I started going to
27:14
Speaker 3: like Montana, Wyoming, going to these random places where it's
27:19
Speaker 3: just completely natural sound and just like getting lost in
27:24
Speaker 3: it and understanding it's okay to be within peace, it's
27:27
Speaker 3: okay to kind of decompress away from everything else that's
27:31
Speaker 3: going on, because it's the true way to find the
27:34
Speaker 3: center yourself and kind of really think clearly for a
27:36
Speaker 3: second and not question it, medita or I mean, I'm big,
27:41
Speaker 3: Like I remember I went to Montana. I got on
27:44
Speaker 3: the river. I wouldn't loan the river for about seven
27:48
Speaker 3: eight hours, no phone, no nothing, and just you know,
27:51
Speaker 3: looked at the mountains and just wouldn't loan the river,
27:54
Speaker 3: and you you know, it kind of put your thoughts
27:57
Speaker 3: in perspective with everything I've been. Yeah, no, nothing.
28:01
Speaker 1: But that's the thing that's amazing.
28:03
Speaker 3: But that's the thing. We get so caught up in
28:05
Speaker 3: our phone. Like i'ma be honest too, Sometimes I get
28:08
Speaker 3: lost in my phone and I get mad through my phone,
28:10
Speaker 3: like damn, I don't need this, you know what I mean.
28:13
Speaker 3: Let me kind of like like decompress from all this
28:17
Speaker 3: and kind of just find myself because it's so easy
28:19
Speaker 3: to get lost in everything else.
28:21
Speaker 6: So now you have like resources though where you can
28:23
Speaker 6: get up and go to like Montana and all that stuff.
28:25
Speaker 6: When you talk to younger players about finding peace, just
28:28
Speaker 6: because they might not have the same environments, how do
28:31
Speaker 6: you explain to them how they can find little pieces
28:34
Speaker 6: of piece Like you said you had your grandmother who
28:36
Speaker 6: was peace to you, Like, how do you talk to
28:37
Speaker 6: them or talk them through that.
28:39
Speaker 3: I think you really got to find what you what
28:42
Speaker 3: you love, and sometimes you can't be scared to try
28:45
Speaker 3: something new either, you know, whatever that may be, because
28:47
Speaker 3: it's different for everybody. And one thing I always try
28:52
Speaker 3: to tell people be open minded to things you may
28:55
Speaker 3: be comfortable uncomfortable with, because that could be the thing
28:57
Speaker 3: that changes. Because it's a lot of stuff. I never
29:00
Speaker 3: in my life thought i'd do it. I never thought
29:02
Speaker 3: I'd be somebody from Comptant be in the middle of
29:04
Speaker 3: Montana like. I never thought that. But I was open
29:08
Speaker 3: to the idea of doing it and trying it, and
29:10
Speaker 3: it was one of the most amazing things I did.
29:12
Speaker 3: And even in that moment when I did it, I
29:14
Speaker 3: remember I took like six seven of my cousins from
29:17
Speaker 3: from Compton. I took him there. I remember they was
29:19
Speaker 3: mad as shit at me because you know, I didn't
29:21
Speaker 3: tell them what he was going.
29:23
Speaker 2: They thought was going somewhere.
29:28
Speaker 3: They thinking like we about to go turn up, we
29:30
Speaker 3: going like and we get off the plane and we're
29:32
Speaker 3: in the middle of Montana and they was mad. But
29:36
Speaker 3: by the end of the Triller, it was like, Yo,
29:38
Speaker 3: this is one of the greatest experience I ever had.
29:41
Speaker 3: I never thought I'd be in Montanna scaling trees or
29:45
Speaker 3: on the lake, or or fly fishing or doing all
29:48
Speaker 3: these like I never would imagine. But it changed their perspective,
29:51
Speaker 3: you know what I mean, in touch with nature too. Yeah,
29:54
Speaker 3: it give them a whole different outlook on just life
29:56
Speaker 3: and thinking it's just being around like you know tox
30:00
Speaker 3: type of you know energy. Sometimes it's cool, it's you know,
30:03
Speaker 3: everything in moderation. But sometimes you really just got to
30:05
Speaker 3: ground yourself and figure out that that come.
30:08
Speaker 1: What is it that makes Compton so special?
30:11
Speaker 3: Man?
30:11
Speaker 4: Like, just think about all of the great iconic culture
30:15
Speaker 4: shifting people who have come out of comp.
30:18
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's it's it's wild because I've had moments where,
30:22
Speaker 3: you know, when I go back home and I'm leaving
30:24
Speaker 3: out this like city and you really just sit and realize, like, man,
30:28
Speaker 3: this this small city the births some of the greatest
30:32
Speaker 3: individuals that ever touched the world, you know what I mean.
30:36
Speaker 3: And it gives me the chills a lot of times
30:39
Speaker 3: when I think about it, because you know, it makes
30:41
Speaker 3: me even feel even more proud of even being from there,
30:43
Speaker 3: because it don't happen by accident the same, you know
30:47
Speaker 3: what I mean. It's something about this place, that that shape,
30:52
Speaker 3: that have so much to offer, that that you that
30:56
Speaker 3: you see, you know what I mean, And it's it's
30:58
Speaker 3: it's I'm just honored to be a part of it.
31:01
Speaker 3: Be honest with you. It's hard to pinpoint what what is?
31:05
Speaker 3: What is it? But it's it's something amazing because we
31:08
Speaker 3: got some grapes to come out of there.
31:09
Speaker 2: Now, you played in Toronto for years, but then Kendricks
31:13
Speaker 2: from Compton, Drake is from Toronto. That's your guy. How
31:16
Speaker 2: do you how do you choose what you're gonna get
31:18
Speaker 2: into and what you're not gonna get into at that point.
31:19
Speaker 3: You know, it's crazy. It's like love them both family,
31:26
Speaker 3: you know, it's but at the end of the day,
31:27
Speaker 3: it's like I'm from Compton, like my city, where I'm from,
31:32
Speaker 3: where I'm born, like when my family still live. It's
31:36
Speaker 3: like that comes first before anything, you know. And I
31:39
Speaker 3: feel like any real person will understand that, you know,
31:43
Speaker 3: And that's just what it is like. And it's so
31:45
Speaker 3: crazy because my second home became Toronto that that has
31:51
Speaker 3: the one of the greatest of all time being from
31:54
Speaker 3: there too.
31:54
Speaker 2: So watch your mouth, watch your mouth.
31:57
Speaker 5: But you're not mad about watch.
31:59
Speaker 1: Your mouth got the super Bowl?
32:00
Speaker 3: No, I'm not mad. I'm not mad. I understand it. Like, yeah,
32:03
Speaker 3: we for sure love to see Wayne up there. And
32:06
Speaker 3: my thing too is like everybody was in such an upworld.
32:09
Speaker 3: We don't know Wayne was still gonna do it, you
32:12
Speaker 3: know what I mean, Like we don't know. We didn't
32:14
Speaker 3: know fifty was doing l A but we it was
32:17
Speaker 3: such an honor and surprise to see him still do it.
32:20
Speaker 4: He can't do that though, Kendrick, I mean, I mean
32:26
Speaker 4: that part of it, I would be crazy, you think so, Yes,
32:32
Speaker 4: super Bowl, Kendrick put your name in the song. I'm
32:34
Speaker 4: glad the Rose came home. Y'all didn't deserve it, neither
32:36
Speaker 4: you being in the video. They were acting like you man,
32:40
Speaker 4: crossing me lines and something, even though that's your guy.
32:42
Speaker 1: So imagine Wayne's showing up on stage with me. What
32:46
Speaker 1: you want to say? I see dead people too, and
32:47
Speaker 1: then walk off. That wouldn't have worked.
32:51
Speaker 3: I mean, it's that's why I'm glad I'm not in
32:54
Speaker 3: an entertainment because your job is definitely difficult.
32:59
Speaker 2: Have you spoke of Drake?
33:00
Speaker 3: No, I haven't talked to him. I haven't talked to him.
33:02
Speaker 1: Ain't sent them a text to be like, you're good, blocked, nothing.
33:06
Speaker 3: Good. It's just super Bowl.
33:15
Speaker 5: First it was the Penguins. Nowadays the thing is true. Okay,
33:18
Speaker 5: go ahead ahead, you see watching.
33:22
Speaker 1: You can see the penguin thing. Is that's a thing
33:24
Speaker 1: like people?
33:26
Speaker 3: Right? I think listen, it's dope regardless of how everybody
33:31
Speaker 3: look at it. I think it's dope. Go back to
33:34
Speaker 3: the content thing to see somebody from Comptant headline the.
33:36
Speaker 1: Super Bowl, like again, I just had one two years ago.
33:39
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's la in two years from now too, so
33:44
Speaker 3: but yeah, I don't know. I just appreciate the moment.
33:46
Speaker 3: I would love to see Wayne, you know, I love
33:50
Speaker 3: to see you know, cash money out there. I love
33:52
Speaker 3: to see no limit out there, you know, So I
33:55
Speaker 3: don't think too much into it when it happens, because
33:58
Speaker 3: I'm pretty sure it's more of a surprise that probably
34:01
Speaker 3: do come with it. And that's just me guessing. I don't.
34:03
Speaker 3: I don't have no insight on anything. That's just me guessing.
34:06
Speaker 4: And I like it, man, because you know, to the
34:08
Speaker 4: victor goes the spoils right like it was. It was
34:11
Speaker 4: the greatest rap feud of all time, greatest rap beef
34:14
Speaker 4: of all time, Kendrick One. I feel like if Drake
34:17
Speaker 4: would have got the better of that situation, it's no
34:19
Speaker 4: doubt in my mind.
34:20
Speaker 1: We don't. We're getting Drake and Wayne at the super
34:21
Speaker 1: Bowl this February, so absolutely so. You know, that's that's
34:26
Speaker 1: like Kendrick's ring.
34:28
Speaker 4: It's not like you know sports, right, like you can
34:30
Speaker 4: you play to a certain point and you play for
34:32
Speaker 4: a championship and you win a ring. These guys just
34:34
Speaker 4: sell records, sell our shoulder. What's like that that crowning moment.
34:38
Speaker 4: This is like his crowning moment to me.
34:40
Speaker 3: I mean yeah, I mean it's and I look at
34:42
Speaker 3: it from a fan perspective, from from the whole thing,
34:45
Speaker 3: like it was just exciting year from the standpoint of
34:49
Speaker 3: being able to see two of the biggest rappers off
34:51
Speaker 3: time that duke it out, you know what I mean,
34:55
Speaker 3: and to see where is it at now? Like I'm
34:58
Speaker 3: a fan of it, you know what I mean, Like
35:00
Speaker 3: because I look at it like that in sports, you
35:02
Speaker 3: want to see the best of the best at it,
35:04
Speaker 3: you know what I mean. When lose a draw, somebody
35:06
Speaker 3: got somebody gotta lose. That's all right, but it's it's
35:09
Speaker 3: it's sports. It's part of the sports competition. Get location,
35:13
Speaker 3: who's better? For Get location, forget where you're from. It's
35:17
Speaker 3: just pure listening. Who's a better rapper? Kendrick, Lamar Drake,
35:20
Speaker 3: you not bother put me in this. I'm going with
35:22
Speaker 3: both both. Both of them is my favorite. That's what
35:24
Speaker 3: I'm I'm I'm leaving that.
35:27
Speaker 1: Drick was him.
35:28
Speaker 3: That's what coach said.
35:29
Speaker 1: I remember something like that.
35:30
Speaker 3: Yeah, he did. He did say that. It's it's such
35:33
Speaker 3: a It's tough because even when it comes to Kendrick,
35:39
Speaker 3: for me being from content, it resonates so in debt
35:43
Speaker 3: because every album, every verse like a pinpoint that emotion
35:48
Speaker 3: and feeling the bar for bar like it's certain things
35:52
Speaker 3: he say with certain streets and lingo where I know
35:56
Speaker 3: exactly what that feeling feels like or what that meaning
35:59
Speaker 3: means to me is if you put me in that
36:02
Speaker 3: situation is Kendrick. But it's like also like I remember
36:08
Speaker 3: when Drake was making views, I was in Toronto and
36:11
Speaker 3: I remember hearing it and knowing exactly the vibe and
36:16
Speaker 3: the feeling he was going for it that was going
36:17
Speaker 3: on in the city. So that's what makes it so
36:20
Speaker 3: tough for me. That puts me in such a like
36:22
Speaker 3: tricky like like you know what I mean, because I
36:25
Speaker 3: was there like for both times, Like I've been there
36:28
Speaker 3: for so many albums of Drake and really understand where
36:32
Speaker 3: it comes from and everything. You know what I mean.
36:34
Speaker 2: So for me to be throwing in it, I want
36:37
Speaker 2: you to break down the concert, right, the concert you
36:38
Speaker 2: did in June team in La Right. Of course we
36:41
Speaker 2: see it from the outside. We've seen the music side,
36:43
Speaker 2: but everybody was talking about what he did for street
36:46
Speaker 2: and local. So break that down for people that don't
36:48
Speaker 2: understand that.
36:50
Speaker 1: Part of it.
36:51
Speaker 3: People got to understand, Like I know, it could seem
36:54
Speaker 3: like people celebrating whatever it come to the disc or whatever,
36:57
Speaker 3: but for us, the weeks leading up to it, the
37:01
Speaker 3: conversations that has had about certain people being in the
37:04
Speaker 3: same buildings that haven't been around each other, the same
37:08
Speaker 3: people that's been having issues, internal issues, hoods, individual problems
37:14
Speaker 3: with a lot of a lot of people. For everybody
37:18
Speaker 3: to know that they're going to be under one building
37:21
Speaker 3: and act accordingly, no problems, no issues. I remember when
37:25
Speaker 3: I first got there. I remember walking in the back
37:28
Speaker 3: and I see the line of every single entourage, every hood,
37:33
Speaker 3: every hood. I'm talking about blue, red, blue, red, blue, red, blue,
37:36
Speaker 3: like you see it, and it was no issues, no problems,
37:40
Speaker 3: everybody talking. In that moment, thear symbolized what really was
37:45
Speaker 3: going on that was bigger than just with the outside
37:48
Speaker 3: people may be looking at like, oh to beef, they
37:51
Speaker 3: don't know, like some of these dudes haven't even been
37:53
Speaker 3: in the same building in years, and some of these
37:56
Speaker 3: dudes hoods then had serious issues with this other hood.
37:59
Speaker 3: So it's like we all in here?
38:01
Speaker 6: Was it?
38:01
Speaker 3: Not? One problem was in one argument going or leaving?
38:05
Speaker 3: And that was the most incredible thing for me to witness.
38:08
Speaker 4: How did you avoid I guess joining a gang Growing
38:11
Speaker 4: up in Compton, I always wondering about.
38:13
Speaker 1: That because you would be like the good kid in
38:14
Speaker 1: the Magic Yeah exactly.
38:17
Speaker 3: And I think for me, like my majority of my
38:20
Speaker 3: family GAG members in a gang, associated with a gang,
38:27
Speaker 3: and growing up in Compton, you was affiliated with a game,
38:30
Speaker 3: whether you want to be not. And for me, I
38:33
Speaker 3: had so many older people in my life that understood
38:38
Speaker 3: and had the respect to where when they see me,
38:41
Speaker 3: make sure I don't get in this situation or you know,
38:44
Speaker 3: it's been times where a situation about to happen and
38:47
Speaker 3: be like, all right, d out here, d somebody get
38:49
Speaker 3: d out there taking take them on. Then we meet
38:51
Speaker 3: back and you know, I hear that night a situation happened,
38:55
Speaker 3: but they made sure I was. I was far gone
38:58
Speaker 3: before anything happened. So I had a lot of that.
39:01
Speaker 3: I was lucky enough to have a lot of that
39:03
Speaker 3: from both sides, even with bloods and crypts, to be
39:06
Speaker 3: able to have that type of respect and that that
39:08
Speaker 3: that that loved to keep me away from a lot
39:12
Speaker 3: of situations, even even my games in Compton, Like like
39:15
Speaker 3: I remember so many games where I look in the crowd,
39:18
Speaker 3: it'd be this hood that don't get along with this hood,
39:21
Speaker 3: but they here to watch me play with no problems,
39:23
Speaker 3: you know, And that used to mean so much to
39:25
Speaker 3: me that that no issues happened.
39:29
Speaker 2: Nobody ever found you, and nobody ever found you hard
39:32
Speaker 2: ever ever.
39:33
Speaker 3: Even still, I remember we used to have when we
39:36
Speaker 3: had road games. My high school coach used to get
39:39
Speaker 3: an extra two buses so we could take people to
39:42
Speaker 3: our away games, and he used to make sure all
39:45
Speaker 3: the game members took the bus so we wouldn't have
39:47
Speaker 3: problems somewhere else. But that was always just a respect
39:50
Speaker 3: I had growing up.
39:52
Speaker 4: When you look back at your journey from Compton to
39:55
Speaker 4: the NBA, what's the most valuable lesson you think you learned?
40:00
Speaker 3: Most valuable lesson? That's a good question, man, that's a
40:07
Speaker 3: hell of a question. I should have been ready for
40:09
Speaker 3: that because I know, like you, I think for me
40:15
Speaker 3: patience because growing up I always used to want everything
40:18
Speaker 3: so fast, like I didn't I never consider nothing else.
40:24
Speaker 3: And sometimes patience is what have you ready for when
40:28
Speaker 3: it whatever you want to come? And that's one thing
40:31
Speaker 3: I kind of I kind of learned because my patience,
40:34
Speaker 3: when things came my way, I was ready for it.
40:37
Speaker 3: I accepted I made the most out of it instead
40:39
Speaker 3: of rushing through it.
40:40
Speaker 2: Ladies and gentlemen, Demal de Roz in this book is
40:42
Speaker 2: out right now above the noise, my story of chasing calm,
40:46
Speaker 2: and we appreciate you for joining us.
40:49
Speaker 3: For sure.
40:49
Speaker 2: Man, my Nick's beating up on y'all. You come on,
40:52
Speaker 2: you come in, what's up?
40:54
Speaker 1: I wish you much success to season. I don't have
40:56
Speaker 1: an NBA team. I like you know what I'm saying,
40:58
Speaker 1: So you know I wish y'all much success in the Sacramento.
41:01
Speaker 3: Thank you, brother, appreciate it absolutely.
41:02
Speaker 2: It's the Breakfast Club. It's the Mar de Rosa, wake
41:05
Speaker 2: that ass up in the morning. The Breakfast Club.