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Prison Of The Mind · The Volume Shift

• Deion: Peace and blessings family. Welcome back to the volume shift. Where we on shift the freak day I fuck. Jhalil: He Deion: Yeah, no, it's Jhalil: says shift the freaks. you know what I'm saying? Shoes MME: Yeah. Deion: I'm trying not to read this Joe, but let me s let me go back, my fault. Peace and blessings family, welcome back to the volume shift where we don't raise our voices, we shift the frequency so understanding actually lands. Jhalil: And the day I rap ain't about making excuses and it ain't about pointing fingers. Deion: It's about asking the hard questions. Jhalil: Some people said that modern incarceration has become the new plantation, you know, getting booked. Others disagree with the comparison. Deion: So instead of shouting over each other, we gonna unpack why that idea exists, what history tells us, and what responsibility all of us have moving forward. I'm Buck doctors the doctor without the doctrine. Jhalil: And I'm Jalel, urban activist slash black activist. You know what it is. You got the bros on here today, man. We got Uncle on here, Uncle Ray, you know what I mean? You got my man shoes. Shoes. Money Mayweather, MME shit, you know. Right. Shoes MME: I know too. No. Deion: Introduce yourselves though, like tell us where y'all from, you know what I mean, like something about yourselves or what have you. Shoes MME: My name Shoes, that's my nickname. I mean, J-Will, I represent MME, I'm from Southwest. I'm rap artist from out there. You can check out my content at Shoes.mme. I've been rapping for over 10 years. I mean, I'm just trying to stay focused, you feel me? And running it up. Ray: Okay. Deion: Mm-hmm. Ray: This is Ray from South Philly. About to change my name to Ray Mme. Deion: I think Ray: But I've been home for three years now. I just came home from doing another twelve years. Deion: Log home, you hear me. Jhalil: Right, dog. Great great to have you back, huh? Right, man. Ray: Yeah. I don't know. Deion: actually a good journal right like to talk about right you know where we from like all areas of the city you know I mean and all over the world where where poverty exists right like you know I remember it being a thing of like like almost like a rites of passage to go through the jails you know what I'm saying like and it's so it's so Jhalil: Right. Ray: Yeah. Deion: embedded that you don't think about it in no other way like like this is wrong or you get what I'm saying or you don't need that to become a man or or any of these things like how you feel about that shit you feel like that that is your rights of passage because even in talking about it with guys that's been a a a good amount of time you know they still'll be like you know without having it They I don't know if they would have learnt the stuff that they learned to become the men that they are. You get what I'm saying? Ray: Yeah. Some people 'cause some people go in and still got that mind frame and they come out and still be on some bullshit. Deion: Right. Ray: So I mean, it's up to you whether you wanna grow or not. But like I said, some people don't grow and that's all they know. Deion: In your time, do you think like was it a mindset of like it being a rite of passage for y'all in your era? Ray: To a probably to a certain extent. Like nobody wants to be locked up but it's like you go through but don't nobody when they get out, they always glorify in it. Don't nobody tell you the flip side of it. Deion: Yeah, you would. Yeah. Jhalil: Yeah. Shoes MME: Alright. Jhalil: And we definitely we definitely gonna get into that, dog. But but to answer that question, bro, like on some real shit, dawg like at a certain point in time, like, you know, when you run in the streets, bro, it kinda feels like that. Like not like in the rights of passage, like a bar mitzvah type john or nothing like that, but it's just like damn. Ray: Last. Shoes MME: Hey. Jhalil: If I'm I'm moving around in the streets, I know what come with it. So at some point, you know, you just feel that shit. Like I when I was a young boy, I kinda felt it like and man, I ain't never think I was gonna do a bit or nothing crazy, but I was like, damn, bro, probably will get booked, dog. Cause like everybody around me was getting booked. That was like, you feel me? It was it was normal. So it's like I ain't realize that shit wasn't normal till niggas was grown. You feel me? Like. Ray: Yeah. Right. Right. Shoes MME: And not to interrupt like on some real rap. If you were like full fledged street guy like and your peers are full fledged street guys, they gonna look at it like that's a stripe for you, you feel me? You got a stripe on your jump and I mean, did a little pan on you back out there. Jhalil: Real shit, bro. Ray: Yeah. Deion: Any any stood on two, he ain't tough. Right. They all go together. Right. And and that's what I mean, like, and if you in that mindset, like Shoes MME: I didn't even need to tell, yo man. was banging on his daughter with your own... Deion: How much responsibility like do we take, you feel me? Like like you know, they can set up the plantation or you know what I mean? They can make the cigarettes, they can make all but like we we doing it. You get what I'm saying? So How much responsibility like You feel like we gotta take Y'all hear me? Shoes MME: Yeah, I hear you. I just, I feel like it ain't fully they, everybody fault, like, just taking a full 100 % responsibility, bro, because like, motherfuckers be in certain situations, you feel me, like different type situations, you don't know where the motherfucker in and they might make a wrong decision, you feel me, like. And bam, now you in there, you a statistic now. You might not be like the other niggas, Jhalil: All right. Ray: Shirt! Jhalil: And some people that'd be like that'd be their first real taste of responsibility or finding out what that shit is, you feel me? 'Cause you don't be thinking about that shit when you Shoes MME: Right, Jhalil: You mean like you know in the back of your mind, like, yeah, this could happen or this could happen. But like at that time when you run in the streets, that's that's niggas mindset, that's their responsibility to be in that mix, you feel me? So I don't think a lot of us got a chance to really think about that shit beforehand. You feel me? Shoes MME: You're on the- Ray: Yeah. Right. Jhalil: But after after the fact, it's like, dog, once you you do that time and you come home, it's like damn, that's when you see it different. Like, do I wanna keep doing this shit? Do I wanna get jammed up again? Do I wanna do more time? And some motherfuckers got their back to the wall, they feel like that's all they got. You feel me? So if that's if that's all a nigga ever knew, you feel me, it's like damn. Shoes MME: Yeah. Like damn right, right that now then I'm talking about a person like that. Like I don't know like if I should be like, you know what I'm saying? don't know. Jhalil: I don't see it, but Deion: But everybody Jhalil: That's Ray: Yeah. Jhalil: it, right? Deion: I I get it and I don't come from it, right? I'm just trying to think in a different mindset, right? Cause it's like like Shoes MME: Alright. Deion: When I hear stuff like it, I be like, I feel a type of way, you feel me? 'Cause I've been bamboozled. Like my whole life kind of was set up for me to end up in places where I won't I would I should I wouldn't have picked to go. You get what I'm saying? So it's like, God damn, like Shoes MME: Alright, alright. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Deion: Like you're a it could be a number of times that you I've been in jail. I've been up the F and the H O C and all I've been all them drones up the the road. And like Ray: Yeah. Shoes MME: Yeah. Deion: I talk that good shit like yeah when I I don't wanna ever be there and shit, but it's like Jhalil: Yeah. Deion: You feel me? Like, like it's it's me and it's another system on top of it working together to to put me back. You get what I'm saying? And we think about like our part of it, we don't really look at, because if shit ain't in front of you, you don't really think about it like that. Shoes MME: Right, right. Deion: You know what I'm saying? Like it ain't until you real like you really engage with other people that might, you know, know it ahead of time and to give it to you, like, and you still might not even take it then. You feel me? Like it might take, you know, some more time for it to register and for you to be away from that person too. I found that out. You know what I mean? Like, I'm like. Shoes MME: later. Deion: A lot of things that my dad taught me, like, until we wasn't in the same household, I ain't utilizing. You get what I'm saying? So like that separation also, you get me, with time and everything and maturity, like, but let me get into your story and shit, how you get booked and all of that. Like what it do for you and and like your mindset and all that. Jhalil: Mm-hmm. Shoes MME: Bye. Ray: On the first one or the second one? Jhalil: No, you gotta start from the first one. Start from the first John. Deion: Mm. Shoes MME: You gotta And tell them how like this shit led up to you getting booked like what you was doing, drawing. You feel me? Like, give them your story. Jhalil: Yeah, so niggas can know, man. They cause you know, we all got similar experiences. Shoes MME: Tell them how real it is and you be like, damn, like I just, you know what saying? Ray: Yeah. was out on the block, used to hustle and shit like that. But then I don't know, I stepped it up, doesn't start robbing shit. Got a gun, thought I was invincible. And like that first one, it's like a adrenaline adrenaline rush. And it was like, damn, buffer is just gonna do whatever I say or give me what I want. So I'm like I took off from there. Then I wound up trying to say I got booked for a robbery. The first journal I got booked for was the checks. Cash and checks. I got on probation for that. Then I had a Deion: How was you how old was you at that time? Ray: About twenty two. Jhalil: Okay. Ray: Twenty two, MSE, like twenty two. Deion: So that was your first draw. Ray: The adult drunk. I had juveniles stealing cars and shit like that. Deion: yeah. Shoes MME: Yeah, Tom-Tom Hose was your first arrest, Tom. Deion: So like Ray: Yeah, huh. Sério, você não. Deion: But we had like placement and all that. Shoes MME: Let him let you got some bro Ray: No, I ain't never go to placement. No, first one was like thirteen. Like thirteen for yeah, for strong arm robberies. Deion: Yeah. Jhalil: Yeah. Deion: And was it was it like was it from you or like what you saw or was you like talked into it and shit? Ray: No, it was No, it was the New Year's parade. So we used to be fucking the white boys up and shit like that on New Year's. The parade and shit like that come like coming down our way, 'cause we used to get it when we went down their way, they used to fuck us up. So when they come down into the parade down on our side, then we used to, you know, go after them. So then I was like, damn. You know, when we went out looking, I seen somebody fucked him up and took his other jacket. Deion: yeah. Jhalil: your old school shit took the leather off me. Let me get that job. Fuck you talking about. I know it was that good shit too. Shoes MME: Man, what's the level of this bag? Come here. I'm Ray: And then so then I ain't boom, we went back to the neighborhood, but I ain't I went in but I came back out with the jacket on, drawn. Drawn. Shoes MME: Yang, what was it? Jhalil: Mm-hmm. Ray: When I was at the Chinese store they had pulled up on me with the boy in the car and he pointed me out. Deion: Mm-hmm. Ray: But he he he ain't come to court come to find out, he only lived like a block and a half away from me. Deion: Yeah. Jhalil: Damn, well Sweet was from the Sweet from Southwest or something. Ray: Right. Shoes MME: And they lie around and still on their... They Ray: He Shoes MME: angry. Ray: ain't never come to quit or not court or nothing. Then it was it's crazy cause I was like about twenty, twenty one, we had moved to eighteenth street, eighteen Snyder, and we wound up being cool. I'm like and I said Shoes MME: sorry. Deion: Right. Jhalil: That's how I usually be sometimes, bro. Especially like Shoes MME: Hey, we just a young bull, like... Jhalil: And y'all from the same y'all in the same hood, technically. Like, so it's like you still you gonna see this nigga every day. You feel me? Like. Ray: Everything, right? Yeah, 'cause he started s like before he never stood out in in the neighborhood, but then after that shit, then it's like I always was seeing him, seeing him shit. Then I was like, like fifteen to God had like three stolen cards, got booked for Deion: Yeah. Ray: But I ain't know I just always got I got probation. And then the last time I was like seventeen, I quit. Got locked upstairs like a Monday. Didn't turn around and got locked up again like that Wednesday for the same shit. So the judge was like, I'ma leave it up to your P.O., you know, for probation and stuff. But you I'm gonna send you to this intensive probation program every day after school to nine o'clock. And then he was like, if you get booked again, make you like do the charges as an adult, you're gonna go upstate. I'm like, I ain't going the fuck upstate. So I did the program and did everything I was supposed to do. Then when I got off that, then I was like twenty two. I had these blank checks or whatever, some going around forging them, cash in the minute, cash for the minute. Why don't I get them booked for that? And then like Shoes MME: Okay. Ray: Got probation. It was like eleven and a half to s eleven and a half to twenty three on house arrest and three years probation. And I wonder I'm off that well, I ain't walking off. I got off the house arrest you and still saving probation. Shoes MME: You had me shake on that, John. Ray: No, I had me shut to the robberies on I had I think I had Mike Mike the boy Wow. Mike Dathina to join now I other shit. Shoes MME: Ed, I know you so well. Jhalil: Okay. Ray: Then I could have this dumbass join man the pool we getting fucked up. Whatever. So he standing where money's he was like, yo, go pawn this jewelry, it's my girlfriend shit. So I'm like, all right. So he wound up, his girl found out. So this motherfucker, he gonna they gonna call the cops to get me but so I broke in and took the shit. So I'm like, I go to court, I go to trial. She was nutty. So I go to trial for it that he got in trouble, but ain't nothing happened. So while I was waiting for sentence and he told my lawyer to look up like cases and stuff about like the shit that happened. So she came up with the proof or whatever. Shoes MME: Bye. Ray: So he gave me time served 'cause I might have doing like a year and a half in accounting for this shit. Like a year and a half. Jhalil: Hmm. All right, shit. That's crazy, dog. Shoes MME: Yeah. Ray: Yeah. Then I had got out. That's when I caught the first bit. That's why I was only on for like thirty days. That's the joint I caught with Shaein. Like thirty days. But we didn't even do that shit. That's the crazy part. Cause they just grabbed us 'cause we was in the neighborhood. Then we went to the police station. You know how like they had the descriptions and stuff on the paperwork they looking for the people? Shoes MME: Yeah. Alright. Yeah Ray: That ship was blank. So w when we went out to the station, they filled all the paperwork or height, weight, the clothes we had on and stuff like that, and told the boy to say the the same stuff. And then now Shoes MME: you Jhalil: So So like at that time on what you like what you was like like what you was thinking about like was you like in it the just like you know how when you a young boy you just be like fuck it it is what it is you you just was moving free or like was you like on your money shit or you just was like fuck it, I don't care I'm doing what I want. Like what was like what was your mindset at the time? Just to get a you know, just to get a understanding, 'cause like You know, this everyday shit that goes on in like in in hood areas and all that, you feel me? So Ray: Yeah. basically everything you just said, just trying get some money to do shit with and not like thinking about the consequences or nothing. 'Cause you don't never think about it at that time. It's only when you get booked you think about the like, damn, I shouldn't have did this or I should have went that way, shit like that. 'Cause you don't never think about it at the time, damn, I know the cops gonna be on me if I do this and stuff. You don't never think about that. Shoes MME: All right. Jhalil: And another thing I w before you finish too, another thing I wanna put out there too is like all right this this might be for somebody who never been in the streets or never, you know, that never had to go through the shit that we had to go through or witness, you feel me? Like the like the state of Pennsylvania, bro, the minimum wage always been under a livable wage. You feel me? That shit was six dollars, seven dollars some shit. It's it's probably eight dollars now, bro. Ray: Mm-hmm. Jhalil: You feel me? And that's that's crazy. How can you you know, like so a lot of people get jammed up where it's like you got certain obligations, bro. You might have kids, you might got bills, you you might just fuck it, I wanna get fresh. But it's like certain times when you a young boy or when you trying to get your shit together, that don't really work out. And that's why sometimes we make these choices, you feel me? So it's not like Ray: Yeah. Jhalil: People from the hood just wanna do this shit, bro. But it's like at a certain time that struggle really hurt, bro. And everybody wouldn't understand that, bro. Shoes MME: All And you heard what he said, like he was doing shit, but he said what they got brand for, he just said they didn't do that shit, girl. So like, that's how they play too, if like, you running around and they don't like you and they know you and all that, they don't make dirty to get you, like. Jhalil: Mm, very shit. Ray: Yeah, that should happen a lot too growing up, certain cops. Deion: That's the question I was gonna ask too, like off of Josh John. Like, do you feel like because it wasn't on your own cognition that it was like whatever? You feel me? Like, cause like you know, I like once you get out, it's like it's more of a celebration, because first of all, it wasn't you that did it. You feel me? So you're not looking at it like I committed a crime and I went to jail for it. So is that in your mindset and then you continue to do what you did and then now you get further consequences where now is it it is the crime you committed or or what have you. You get what I'm saying? Ray: Yeah, no. Right, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, 'cause it was like that, 'cause I like, damn, first I'm like, damn, I'm in here, I ain't do shit or whatever. But I just rolled with it. But then when I got out, it was like I'm free and like and I'm back at it doing what I wanna do, type shit. Like I ain't really learned too much because it was like I'm I wasn't supposed to be there anyway, so that's how my mindset was, like I'm come out here and I'm gonna do me 'cause I th I wasn't supposed to be there anyway. Deion: Right. And I that's why I wanted to really point that out, cause that be the mindset, you feel me? And we need to like hear that and understand that shit. You get what I'm saying? Cause you know, we we look at it on a simpler level, you feel me? If if if your girl nagging and this ain't the time that that you was doing you, you feel me? But she was wrong as shit. She was wrong as shit. This one. Ray: Yeah. Yeah. Right. Jhalil: Yeah. Deion: You feel me? So you continue or whatever, but so I had to really like cause I remember times of being like like but but then it like the universe made me think about it differently it don't matter about racist stuff and who in control of this regime or nothing like like yeah you could put white faces at the top or whatever that's making the decisions but like the universe got this. You get what I'm saying? Like the universe is really in control. So for me, it was like, damn, I ain't I'm I'm getting caught for this, but it ain't my fault. But I did a lot of shit that I probably should have got caught for anyway. You get what I'm saying? Like so whether I what you know? That's just me keeping it G with myself. You feel me? Anything else, anything else, I was going insane. Ray: Right. Yeah. Shoes MME: Bye. Ray: Yeah. Like a car type thing. Yeah. Deion: Because I'm blaming everybody else. So I'm not getting better. I'm not changing how I'm thinking about shit, how I'm making decisions. I'm you get what I'm saying? So it's like, I'ma keep repeating. You know what I mean? We know too many people that keep repeating until it be like, you can't repeat no more. That be the scary joint, cause it come with a elbow. Jhalil: Mm-hmm. Shoes MME: Yeah. Jhalil: Shit, bro. And it's like, dog, that shit crazy, cause the universe definitely that's the one who gon' put the belt to you, bro, cause it'd be like even if you not doing shit and you still around that same crowd, you feel me, you get pulled in the shit. But like now, like you see how we all rapping all four of us, bro, niggas is chillin' We don't get in the shit now. You feel me? Like it it don't come is I don't Shoes MME: and it's- Alright. Jhalil: I'm driving in the wheel, I don't be worried about the cops, none of that shit, bro. You feel it's like hey, they don't care about us, bro. You feel me? So it's like Shoes MME: Yo bro, bro, shit. Alright. Yo, sometimes it's like, it better not to fuck me where Bo Meening is. Yeah, I'm a traditional fucker, I'm chillin'. It's a good family. I'm a rapper. Jhalil: Going to grind them up, right? Like yo. World shit, like nigga, you bad Google search or something, nigga. You can just be doing all this shit. Ain't none of it bad, bro. Calm down. Shoes MME: I'm a rapper, I'm a rapper. Deion: And said you should've caught me when you should've caught me. Shoes MME: Ney ma faggy hey, zoom, Jhalil: You done now, bro. It's all over. Real shit, but dog, that the universe definitely the best teacher, bro, because like you know when we running around, bro, I remember though. I used to be cooked up. Most of the time I wasn't even thinking straight anyway, bro. That shit on what I wanna do. You feel me? Shoes MME: zoom. Deion: Really Shoes MME: No. Jhalil: What we doing, what we you mean, real shit? And that shit had me spinning in circles, bro. Now I'm coming close to getting booked. I'm like, you mean, all this dumb shit, getting booked, hearing like knowing shit like, you mean? Shoes MME: Bye. Last episode I thought I got my man Jaws booked like two times just being with me. Just being with me. He fucking locked up. I'm like, it's my fault Jaws. Yeah, come and shit me. Deion: Don't know. Jhalil: Yeah. Deion: Mm-hmm. Jhalil: And that was cra And it's crazy bro because now all all this weed shit legal. Like bro nigga, we used to had to run from the cops. We used to had to do all this shit, bro, just to smoke weed. And we was good kid. Like we was good, bro. We wasn't even drawn. Like that shit was so crazy, bro. But now all this shit just free and dandy. And it's like, man, y'all got the opportunity to, you know, really do something with y'all selves, youngest. Like Shoes MME: I'm of blunt, this bitch. Deion: In the time. Ray: Yeah. Jhalil: I'm tired of looking on social media and they they like, damn, seventeen year old kid sentenced to two hundred and eight years. It's like, bro, that shit not that deep, bro. Real shit is not that deep, cause. Real shit. Ray: Yeah. Deion: But let me ask y'all this, right? Everybody chime in and shit. Like y'all feel like y'all feel crazy that like we the way our lives is and shit, we call things fun and shit like this or our life experience or the way we had to grow up and shit like that, right? But it's all like stuff that's deemed like crimes and law. Right. Like it's almost like it's set up, right? But then it's like they get the they get the hero drawn because they get to come like take us away for doing these things. You get what I'm saying? And and like you yeah, you get what I'm saying? Like motherfuckers get honored for like coming into our neighborhoods and like Shoes MME: B R A Deion: stopping us from doing these things, but we deem as like stuff we need to do to survive and shit like that. You get what I'm saying? Like y'all feel crazy about that shit? Like how y'all feel? Shoes MME: All right. All right. All right. Deion: If y'all understand what I'm saying and shit. Shoes MME: I really understand what you saying. Like a dad who really being a dad, you feel me doing his job, but he might be a trapper that got it popping. Boom, they gone even take him down, it's over. get whatever amount of years, he ain't in the family no more. He cooked, he can't do nothing. I know what you mean. Like that shit is kind of crazy. I don't know. I gotta think about that shit for a second. I just... I know what you mean, I understand the question. Jhalil: Yeah, I I think that shit. I do feel crazy, bro, but it is like It wasn't that like I ain't gonna say it wasn't that many examples, bro. Cause it was it was always a good example out there, like motherfuckers who we could have mimicked and all that, but it's like the majority was doing this. You feel me? Like and motherfuckers just got scooped into it, bro. Like and I I ain't saying it was like the right thing to do or whatever, but a lot of us, bro, we was lacking that guidance. You feel me? Like Deion: But I I I I mean I don't mean to cut you off, but I want you to answer more direct to the question. Maybe I need to be more clear, like. They get looked at as the heroes, the good guys. Like they job being a police officer is like looked at parents as something good. But us growing up in the hood and surviving doing the things that we need to do is looked at as bad. And then they get to come save us kind from our own people. You see what I'm saying? Jhalil: Mm-hmm. The Deion: Motherfuckers put drugs here for you to sell and then once you sell them to your people, they arrest you for doing it. But you in a spot in poverty where you gotta do shit like that. Ray: Right. Jhalil: Bro, shit, bro, cause Shoes MME: I got a dude, yeah. Or they going, what you doing? He could have got a job. The job, fucking $7 an hour. So it's like, what are you gonna do? Even if it's $10, even if it's $12. Jhalil: All right. Rupert, no. Yeah, bro, so that like to answer your question, yeah, that shit do feel crazy, bro. 'Cause it's like, damn, y'all get to be heroes, you feel me? But at the same time, it's like, dog, what black person you know went to the fucking jungle or wherever coca grow and learn how to extract it. What black person you know that got a fucking a metal a metal cutting machine and Shoes MME: I'm good. Jhalil: The draw dimensions to make a gun and all that. All of that shit is like, you mean, somebody had to teach that, bro. And it was like a lot of ways, like even now thinking about it, bro. Like you see how hard shit is to get money, bro. How is young boys getting guns? You feel me? Like, bro, guns cost some paper, bro. Guns is they cost bread. Shoes MME: Right. Crazy guns though. Bro. I'm talking about crazy drones though, bro. Like how are they getting these drones, bro? Ray: Okay. Jhalil: Like military style guns and shit. Like, come on, bro. Like, so you y'all not the good guys, bro. We know how this shit go. Like, at the end of the day, just how like they like to play the hero, bro. A lot of them is the villain, bro. And they play in the streets too, just like, you know, the people in poverty play in the streets, bro. Real shit. So it's like Shoes MME: right, right. We're over. Ray: Okay. Jhalil: Of course we gonna feel crazy, but it was always a they or always somebody else who got the draw of that narrative in the first place. You feel me? If it was even, if it was attainable to just for everybody to just, you know, get a job and be able to pay all their bills, be able to take care of their kids, have fun, go do shit, who the fuck would be worried about trapping? Shoes MME: Yeah Ray: Yeah. Shoes MME: world shit. It'll be a small ass percentage like. Ray: Well Jhalil: Who the fuck would be worried about robbing? That shit gonna be 1%, bro. You feel me? But like where is that now? It's like, man, that shit is it's they make it so hard. And when I say they, I don't mean just like white people or whatever people. I mean whoever controlling the fucking system. Feel me? Like that's that's who they is. So it's like, man, they always had more say than the people who really then built this shit up. Shoes MME: Hey. Bye. Bye. Jhalil: Bro, we done built so much shit throughout time and they don't talk about none of that shit. They don't talk about none of the positive shit, bro. They don't talk about Move, the Black Panthers, Black Wall Street. They don't talk about all our towns and shit that we built up. Like fucking even the Central Park, bro, that shit was a all black town. Like it was I think it was called Seneca Village, if I'm not mistaken. Feel me, it was it was a all black town, bro, and they turned that shit to a park. So many drones down south, bro, they flooded that shit with water. Now they lakes and and shit like that. So it's like all our good shit gets sweeped under the rug, and then they glorify the the little percentage of the shit that's actually going on that's bad and damaging our John, you feel me? So that's what make me feel crazy about it, is like at some point it gotta be some type of combat towards it, bro. Shoes MME: Alright. Jhalil: You know, we we the most no nobody fuck with us as a race. So it's like being in the hood and being around your like your folks and and doing certain shit, bro, is the wrong way, but that's what we build our camaraderie. That's what we build our your man, our shit in. Like Shoes MME: shit. Jhalil: So it's it's crazy, man. It's a deep conversation. I can't even get the words out because this shit is deep and it's something that you have really had to write down and be like, yo, this how I wanna explain this, but y'all niggas feel me. I already know, bruh. Ray: Yeah. Shoes MME: Thank Ray: Right. Deion: you you had something right. Jhalil: With Ray: No, I said no, that's true because even when you look at it the neighborhoods and whatever in our neighborhoods, we got the delis and the bars and shit like that. But the other neighborhoods don't got like they got the clubs and stuff like that. Like they pushing into the neighborhoods to get us messed up. Just like the drugs. Came through our stuff and then it hit them. But then we was dying, people was O D and stuff like that. They ain't put it on the news or talk about it like that, but then Deion: Yeah. Shoes MME: Yeah. Ray: When it happens to them, now they wanna cut this out and stop this and make new rules and new laws and stuff like that. Jhalil: Hey bro, y'all see what happened to the young boy, man. The two twins, like, they they made it seem like that young boy just like just killed the ball and he was on some other shit, but they was withholding all this information, bro. The judge cool with the dad, the dad cool with the DEA. Even the young boy lawyer. Even the young boy lawyer was in on it. Shoes MME: well, you know, they are easy food, too. Jhalil: So it's like, bro, and then they they wanna suppress the videos of other motherfuckers who really had the truth and now all of it coming to light. So it's like, come on, bro, how you gonna be spotlighting and pinpointing everything that somebody else do where y'all hiding all of this shit, bro? So it's like people can't just believe that shit just because you see it on the drone, bro. Like, all that CNN shit and all that, that's bullshit, bro. I'm sorry. Cause if y'all ain't going Ray: Yeah. Shoes MME: Bye! Jhalil: Talk some real shit, bro. We not trying to hear that. We know what's really going on in our communities, bro. And we all know like motherfuckers who was in the streets and whatever. And some of them motherfuckers is the best people you'll meet. They do shit for the community. They make sure everybody good. They feed other families beside their own and all that, bro. But they'll never get glorified for that. You mean? Whereas though these like These so called cops and heroes and all that shit, bro, they they do that shit elsewhere or they don't do it at all. And they still get that, you know what I mean? Shoes MME: Yay. Deion: But you you think like in the vein of being human, right? Cause you know, you got a heart, right? Like you feel that shit. You know what I mean? Like it when you even do wrong, you feel a little guilt. Yes. So y'all think like cops got go through this shit every day and they don't feel nothing? Ray: Right. Yeah. Jhalil: Mm-hmm. I think that should a part of the training. Like just how you know a nigga go to the military, bro, and they they break you all the way down and they they do all this shit to make you a certain way, bro. I I believe that's a part of the process. 'Cause like on some real shit there's no way that you can just like you can just see some weird shit, bro. It be motherfuckers that's deaf, whatever, bro. They'll get stopped by the cops, you deaf. The cop trying to talk to boy talking about I'm Ray: Yeah. Shoes MME: to be a good day. Jhalil: I'm deaf, I can't hear you. This nigga gets pulled out the car, locked up, shot, whatever, and it's like, bro, you don't got no fucking heart, bro. What are you talking? Like, what is that? You feel me? Shoes MME: I feel like they got like, as soon as they get that badge, like they ego trip, like they power trip, like as soon as they get that badge, like most of them. Like, I mean, shit. Yeah, most of them. I ain't see when I see it and they walk. Like, I'm like, you ugly, bro. Like, real rap, like you hype as shit. Like, I don't, come on. Jhalil: All right. Ray: They were getting bullied all their life, so they became Shoes MME: Yeah, you can just see it in most of them like you'd be like you a cornball bro, real shit like corny as shit, bro Deion: But I mean when you get when you get the bag, you don't think you do the same thing? And if that's the case, it huh? Jhalil: Trying to bully and focus. Shoes MME: you mean? What you mean? Deion: Like how you say like when you got the badge, they become like such and such, right? When when I hear that, I hear I see my people do the same thing. Like when they get the bag, they do that. They become him now. You get what I'm saying? So is that a learned behavior from the master or like that's some human shit? Shoes MME: All right. All right. Ray: Cool. Jhalil: Mm-mm. That's a good question. Cause like we we do see we see that shit all the time from certain motherfuckers. Like like even like even with with the big dog with Hov and shit, you feel me? When he first came out, he was, you know, on the street shit, doing this, doing that, whatever. You feel me? But now it's like you billionaire. And we don't expect for everybody to just have access to you. Ray: Yeah. Shoes MME: Bye. Jhalil: But it's like certain things, bro. I feel like you got way more power to, you mean, be a part of and to change. You feel me? So like I can see that in a sense. You feel me? Like, it's not with everybody, but certain motherfuckers do change. Just like a motherfucker with a badge. You get the bag and they be like, Well, you got the bag now, you can't hang with this. You can't do this type of shit no more. You gotta be amongst us. So it kinda is like a learned behavior, bro. Shoes MME: Right. Jhalil: Well shit. Deion: I shouldn't say about it. That power trip can come with any any joint. You feel me? But because of the disgust that we got in view of the police and all of these things, we put more on it than we would do on our own selves. But we doing the same act. Ray: Eagle trip on Shoes MME: Where? Ray: Yeah. Shoes MME: Yeah. Deion: Get what I'm saying? So I'm like, Yeah, I get I that's what I'm saying. When I think about street shit is in collision or parallel with how the police operate. Shoes MME: Yeah. Ray: Some people still be humble when they do have the bag, no matter what. But but like you said, you then you got the ones that's now they flossing and looking down on people, stuff like that. So Deion: Yeah. Right. Shoes MME: Yeah. Deion: And I you know, I don't get in it to be like, you know, going on about like who, what, when and where. I'm just pointing out a thing that's like, okay, we looking at these set of people like this. And that's cool, but we don't get nothing from it. But if we look at ourselves in the same behavior and we change that about ourselves, then we don't look outwards at another person as doing a thing. It it becomes not important no more. And I think that's where we gotta get as a people. Like, you feel me? Like. I get all of the acts that slavery did and white people did and all of these disgusts and and all of that, but we not healing from that. We've been doing that since it happened. It's no results. Like you get what I'm saying? But if we go in and say, Look, these are the things that came with us from slavery, these are the things that we need to work towards getting rid of. And then once we get rid of them, We back at our natural selves. You get what I'm saying? Cause I think about it like this. If we took them out of power right now and we started operating under our own power, how would it be? You still you still gotta deal with niggas that's trying to commit. You still gotta deal with criminal act, you still gotta deal with all of you get what I'm saying? So Jhalil: Well Shoes MME: be KMR. Jhalil: They gonna be they gonna be bored as shit riding through the hood, bro. Bored as shit. Shoes MME: And it's gonna be chaos! Deion: It's like a thing of like be careful what you ask for, you get me? And then the way that we talking is like we talking from a space where we like it's okay to be under they systems. We just wanna change it and fix it so it benefit us. Ray: Yeah. Like a balance. Deion: And I don't think that's what we really want. No, we want separation. Like we want our own, like we were before you came and captured us. Like, you get what I'm saying? Like, that's what we want. You get what I'm saying? So no matter how much we hype up about doing this and looking good, this, all the drug dealers got money. Shoes MME: Thank you. Jhalil: Mm-hmm. Shoes MME: Bye. yeah. Jhalil: Yeah, Deion: To kind shit on everybody else in the hood. Let's keep it G. We're gonna put it to the simplest jump. You getting money, not only just to take care of your family, but to shit on the other motherfuckers too. Niggas got a class issue where you wanna show class. I don't give a fuck what level you on. I and that's why I go to like whether that's some some history shit or like is that some human shit. Ray: Okay. Yeah. Shoes MME: Alright. Ray: Yeah. Deion: You get what I'm saying? Like do we if do we naturally feel like, ew, like, I wanna be better than the next? Or is that the stuff that's been putting us for so long that we like Shoes MME: Yeah. That shit was put, that shit was put in us, That shit was put in us. That shit, even from, think about it from the house sleeve and the field sleeve and all that. They say who better and all that shit where they could go or what they could wear and shit like that. Then I seen this drawing one time, like they, um. It was probably back in the day, it probably was in the 50s, I think, or some shit. But he said they did this shit with black people that had good jobs and shit. They'll trick them and shit, like make them get this shit that white niggas wear, like the suits or the same hairstyles and all that. They'll spend more money just to look like dumb. Like, that shit was embedded, bro. I seen the whole Lord John on there. Like that's from back then, bro. Deion: Word. So it ain't it if we think about it now, it ain't no different. Naturally, naturally how your hair grow without doing nothing. Ray: Yeah. Deion: So why is the women or women trying to have straight down hair? It's the same shit. Like you try and look because they gas you. It's like I say we do the same behaviors, bro. That's why I'm saying this so we could check it in ourselves. Like, don't you know we do the same shit to each other? Like, we be on some shit like I'm a motherfucking create a way to like. Shoes MME: Bye. Bye. Deion: separate myself from from being looked at as the same as you. You get what I'm saying? So if if I'm com if we come into school like and we say Jordans is it, anybody without Jordans, you are like you outside of that. You get what I'm saying? Like if you don't got this type of Brazilian hair, or you don't got these type of shoes, or you ain't pulling these type of guys. Ray: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, consider like an outsider, outcast. Deion: And then it's all crazy because it boil down to this. All of that. And then we doing it. We we controlling the operations, right? And then they could come swoop in and then put you in jail. Shoes MME: Crazy. Deion: Like reset you like reset your button ain't time like Shoes MME: A-time, bro. Deion: Whatever you feel like it's all time, like Jhalil: That's a crazy. Ray: Yeah. Jhalil: Yeah, I ain't gonna lie, you cook with that John, bro. Like that was a that was a great breakdown of how this shit is cause like a lot of people won't even look at it like that, bro. Like and it was recently that I started thinking about shit like that. Like, damn, we do the same shit sometimes, bro. Like Although it might not be us personally, dog, we all seen the shit like firsthand from somebody that we know or somebody that's around us or whatever, like and that shit crazy, bro. The only real way to change that shit is to really go inside and change shit for yourself, bro. And then that change everything. You know what I mean? Shoes MME: Yeah Deion: Right. Jhalil: Right, dog. But yo, I wanna I wanna get I want Uncle to get back into it though, man. Finish telling us, bro. Cause I I wanna hear about that shit in in Miami down there, Florida, whatever, dog when you book down there, man. How was that shit, dog? Like, what led to that? Ray: Yeah. Mm. Deion: Finish the first stunt though. What you do for the first stunt? Shoes MME: and tell them how much time you got and all that for the first drone when they grabbed them. Deion: Yeah. Ray: the first the first time I I got eight and a half to sixteen. Deion: And this was you. Ray: No, d this was the one in buzzing me. Yeah, d that that first bed. The second time that's when I got a wall when I had booked a star. Deion: sure. well how you like you guys say how you feel about that. Ray: I didn't remember because I was like, damn, because that's when they wrote down the paperwork and said it was us, like, you know, the weight, the clothes, and all that shit like that. And and we found it. Shoes MME: Did it? Did it feel like your fucking world was crushed though at the time though? Like, like, like, yo, what the fuck? Like, you see what saying? Like... Ray: Yeah, 'cause I was only home for thirty days and that shit happened. I'm like, I just got back out. I'm trying to tell, you know that's and I'm like, damn, we can't look for some bullshit. Shoes MME: Maybe. and this shit ain't like this fucking couple months or a year. Ray: Right. I wind up I got a five to ten but with my the back judges that time so turned into like eight and a half to sixteen. Did no mind up the eight of Jhalil: boy. Ray: that. Shoes MME: They made you do it and they made you do eight of that shit. Ray: then I Jhalil: Damn, so Was it different down there, like than like being up here? Ray: Or down there? I was up here. This was the first one, yeah. Jhalil: this is the free okay, okay. Ray: Remember the first time I came home, that's when I met all y'all. I was like sixteen, fifteen. Jhalil: yep, yep, Deion: When you Jhalil: yep, yeah, real shit. Deion: Will you do your Ada? Ray: Hunted, S C R Hundred In. Deion: good. Yeah. Ray: I got p Mono getting paroled or whatever. Was home for like two, two and a half years. And I went down Florida. Mano getting caught up with this other dumbass robbery shit. Well, my he lived o over top of me in an apartment complex and he told Shoes MME: Right on. Right on, smooth. Ray: Yeah, it's crazy stuff. It's everything. Yeah, it's not true. Jhalil: That's crazy. See Deion: a house Jhalil: young Deion: I Jhalil: boys, young boys I hope y'all taking heed to this shit, bro, cause like niggas be doing like real life shit together, bro. And and like at the time of the crime, you know, everybody we we locked in, bro, we gonna get this shit done and then it be somebody, yo, no, it was it was really him and I ain't had nothing to do with it and like bro. Shoes MME: Really? I need to do that. Deion: But was he was he a informant or was he just Ray: No, he just he got booked. Like he took 'cause we was on we was on 'cause we was on the news and shit down there and he started panicking. kept trying to chill, chill, chill, but his big mom, she made him turn herself in. So but I ain't know all this at first. I just know I was getting booked when I got b when the fucking what you call him the US Marshals came to the crib and grabbed me out. Deion: No. Jhalil: Hey. Ray: They take me out to the detectives or whatever. The whole time they got the pictures or whatever, but I'm like, I don't know nothing. Like, I'm keeping it shit, I know nothing. But I didn't even know the whole time before that, he already had told everything when I got my my discovery. And when they was taking pictures of me and stuff, I'm like, damn, why the fuck they taking pictures of me? The whole time they send the pictures downtown to him. Shoes MME: Yeah. Ray: He like, Yeah, that's him. That's the one that had the gun. That's the one that did this, that's the one that did that. Shoes MME: Noddy. Jhalil: That's crazy. That nigga probably still got booked too, dawg. Ray: So Shoes MME: Thomas. Ray: He came to the county but he he never went upstate done probably getting him probation or something, but I know he didn't go upstate. England prisoner. Jhalil: Dang, that's crazy, dog. Ray: So then I'm down there, but then in Florida they Deion: Now you you you went you relocated to change or to Ray: Like to chill for a minute, then it was gonna come back. Deion: But it's it ended up Ray: 'Cause yeah, went crazy. And then down there you get a convicted felon with a gun, like any type of crime, is punishable by life. So Shoes MME: It's a shit crazy Jhalil: Hey bro. Ray: So when I came back from the my hearing I had the joins on the top PBL. So I'm the fuck what that mean? I ain't know what it meant. So my my my cell was like, yo, this shit punishable by life. So I'm like, what? I ain't kill nobody. What they trying to give me life for? I'm like, damn. So I lost like thirty pounds in the in the county at first. 'Cause I'm stressing. I'm like, I can't do that shit. So then they kept coming to me with deals Shoes MME: Right. Ray: fifteen to third fifteen years, twelve years on paper, twelve years, ten years on paper, shit like that. So then I was just looking at like, all right, I got parole back home and by the time I'm done with this, I'm really be an old man. I ain't might not get out. So I'm like I'm going to trial for all this. Fuck it. Like, I don't even care no more. So then the quarter pointed she came and see me one day. So I was like, Damn, I'ma try something. I'm like, yo Give me I'll take ten years right now and I'll sign off whatever you wanna sign. So she was like, For real, so I'm like, Yeah, you can sign the papers for me. So she wound up talking to the DA or whatever, so I had to cop out ten years and I took four arm robberies. Jhalil: Yeah. Ray: So I wound up doing nine down there and then when I was done down there and they pulled me back, I had to do three years worth of hits up here. Jhalil: Yeah. Shoes MME: At that point, because it's like they're gonna try fucking fry you, they're gonna try cook you. Ray: Yeah, especially 'cause I'm like, damn, I can't see myself doing license or down here, period. Like the rest. I'm like, I ain't trying to be stuck down here. Jhalil: Real shit, bro. I feel like the only time a motherfucker can really like and I ain't even gonna say accept it, but like a motherfucker can understand if it's like all right, if you if you down there catching hats, you feel me? If you down there on some shit, kidnapping, doing all this other shit, it's like all right, that's the shit that come with it, but just being caught with a gun as a felon, bro, punishment boot life, bro. Shoes MME: and Ray: Right. Shoes MME: They in the right for a robbery. Ray: Yeah. Jhalil: Young boys better stop fucking playing, bro. Like real shit. And fuckers who ain't never jump off the porch, bro. This not the time. Stay your ass on the fucking porch, bro. Do something else, bro, real red, because that shit Shoes MME: B R O Ray: Right. Shoes MME: Nobody come to save you. can like world rap. gotta sit and fight that shit out with a lawyer if you can afford one or they're gonna give you one. That's not that good. Jhalil: And bro, not to mention too, like you in a whole nother like a whole nother state bottom of the map shit, bro. So I know that shit was races and shit. It's all different type of cars. Everything is different than like Ray: Yeah. Shoes MME: That's all I'm saying, yeah. Jhalil: Like that shit crazy, bro. I know you seen some crazy shit in that, John Dog. Like that's what I'm like, damn, I'm booked in Florida, bro. How the fuck? We just was with him. Like, we was just with him, bro. I'm like, damn, like that shit. Ray: 'Cause then ain't no parole in there. People got twenty years life sentences, they don't give a fuck. Shoes MME: 20 flat. Ray: Yeah, twenty fi 'cause it's a flat sentence down there. So they Shoes MME: Right. Roll for roll. Three dubs. Ray: Dub or life and I'm like, damn these people got life. But then I had to realize I'm like damn, they ain't in here for no killings, they just in here for like shit like me, like, you convicted film shit. I'm that shit. Smokers against that. I just I seen a lot of shit. Inmates killing inmates, COs killing inmates, all types of shit. Jhalil: Dang, dog, I know that shit, man. Like, dog, it it don't matter how tough niggas is, it don't matter how tough you think you is on the streets, bro. That shit going you gonna be in there, John of Lord shook. Like, you feel me? That don't mean you gotta be in there bitching, but you're gonna be shook, bro. Like, so like man, take take uncle advice for it, bro. Like that shit not the way, bro. Ray: Is Jhalil: You mean it's like you don't see him come out here popping it, talking about, well, yeah, I didn't know here and yeah, y'all niggas ain't no bro, cause that shit not cool, bro. And I'm happy my man got out of that drone with some life left to live. You feel me? Real shit, dawg. Shoes MME: Yeah, man. Ray: It's like the doors used to roll like four thirty, five thirty in the morning, stay open at like ten at night. But like you you gonna be already strapped up and ready just in case you never know what the fuck's gonna do and Paul. I used to sleep with my clothes on just in case I like overslept. Shoes MME: Alright. Jhalil: And they did they had like a Philly car route there, John? Like Ray: They hate they hated us. Shoes MME: They hate it fully. Ray: A Philly, New York, everybody from up here, up north. Jhalil: And so y'all probably Shoes MME: and Jhalil: was rocking together down there then. Ray: So it wasn't nobody fulfilled on air. Shoes MME: Uh, was, you know what I'm saying, was, was like the other people like fucking with you like from New York or anybody from the North. Ray: Yeah, a few people from the but they was like doing their own shit. And then and then but then I run into people that like they used to call me Philly. So then I'll come to a pal and they'd be like, but you ain't feeling like yeah. They be so hair name Philly too, they from Philly. So then I go up like they from Philly. They'd be like, No, I don't say nothing. I'm from like when the mouth Yeah, Brett and then shit like I'm from Chester or I'm from Red. Shoes MME: I'm Yo. Jhalil: I'm from Scranton. I'm from Jenkentale. Like real shit. Shoes MME: Yeah, so, Nusha from Radnor. Mm-hmm. Ray: I Jhalil: Dog, that's crazy, yeah. And it is like that when you go other places, bro. Like they just like if you Pennsylvania, you Philly. You feel me? Real shit, like, that's crazy, dog. Ray: Yeah. Okay. Then I used to then like even see us, they used to be so on me tomorrow, Damn where you from? I'm like Orlando. They'd be like, No you not. You from up you from you a Yankee. You a Yankee, you from up north. Shoes MME: They call me a Yankee. They are foggy. Jhalil: Dog, I know that shit guy. Ruthless that dog bro, real shit. Ray: Okay. 'Cause and then they was with the you know the racist shit. COs and sergeants and them walking around with them the lightning bolts on them and calling you niggers every day, all types of shit. He was that shit. Yeah. Then there was one CO, he had to draw a tree tattered on him with a black guy hanging from the tree. Yeah, that shit went all to man. Shoes MME: Meh. Jhalil: Hey, that's a Deion: I know Jhalil: crazy, bro. Deion: that shit was I know that shit was real as shit. But like now in that hindsight, like you feel like it was a like a nightmare, a dream, or like you can't believe you was ever there. Like how you feel now and shit. Ray: Yeah. It's like it just made me learn, like and now like I understand and like damn like we s complain about our system up here, like, you know, the prisons or whatever. But to me, not to glorify it, but it's sweet. Down there, this is I'm cool. I'll never move the fuck back to jail. Jhalil: I learned my lesson, bro. Real shit. And I think that's that's the that's really the that's the key right there. Like you see how like when niggas they be doing they thing, you feel me go in and out and all that, but it be that that one time, bro, when you hit that breaking point and you be like, no, bro, I I just can't I can't do this shit no more, bro. Fuck that shit like. Ray: yeah. Yeah. Shoes MME: Anyway, I'm gonna do a sick tape. Ray: Uh-huh. Deion: No, but you know like you like you at work, right? And you about to get off, but it's like three or four hours and shit. And and you like you in the job, but it feels like you never gonna get out. Like you never gonna go home. You like god damn, what the time? And then you finally get off, right? Like four or five, six, seven, eight o'clock. You don't even think about you was in Shoes MME: Mmmmm Ray: Yeah. Shoes MME: B R R R R R R Deion: at the job and you was in that mindset. So I'm trying to understand like you being down there for ten years and now you home. Is it that type of joint or you remember every little joint of that? Like you remember Shoes MME: Bye. Jhalil: Yeah. Ray: I remember all this Deion: Yeah. Shoes MME: Mm. Jhalil: Okay. Ray: I remember that shit and I just know like about me when I say I ain't going back, I ain't going back 'cause I think about all the stuff that I seen or done through, stuff like that. Like that that's a crazy experience. 'Cause it ain't like apparently you get bought you around p you you in your state, so you gonna know people somewhere traveling or whatever down there. I'm in old like I don't know nobody. I'm so little dope on that drawing. Deion: Yeah. Yeah, Shoes MME: Man, you miss a lot of time with your folks, man. Deion: So ten years you have repeated by years total. Ray: Yeah, then the way she doesn't get no visits or shit like that 'cause I'm way down there. I just keep thinking about that. I'm like, damn, I can't even get no fucking visit like that. 'Cause it's like, you know, like a thousand miles away. Jhalil: Sure. Shit, niggas got a hob on the plane. And then like and then them John's like shit like shit so sporadic that anything can happen. Like your peoples can be on their way down there, John. Jail fight break out now. Nobody getting visits for two months. You feel me? Nobody getting calls, nobody getting nothing. And then it's like, damn, bro. So that shit, man, that should put you in a bad space, bro. Right, dog. Ray: Please. Shoes MME: you Yeah, well panel bye, yo Ray: Yeah, 'Cause it like two one like two times I was supposed to get a visit. I'll wind up once in fucking hole like the day before, shit like that. And we traveled all the way down there for nothing. Deion: Yeah. Jhalil: And Yeah. Deion: Yeah, that's a crazy job. Jhalil: Right. Monk said, fuck that. I'm done. It's alright, bro. I I learned. Y'all, y'all got that down there. Real shit, man. Shoes MME: And then I'll die when I was smooth. Ray: I don't small I'd rather be broke, fucked up and and trying to look for a job than pick up a muffin and gun and just try to get something for that time being. Shoes MME: No, ain't worth it. Ray: We're Deion: But do you still feel even trying to seek a job and all that, right? Because a lot of your Jones wasn't you wasn't court for your your your actions. Like you was court, you kinda got like karma type shit or like racist type shit. Ray: Yeah. Shoes MME: But I have, but a first, you Deion: It seemed like all of was systematic, like they ain't never catch you red handed type shit. Ray: Right. Jhalil: bro. Out of all them Johns you explain, bro, it don't really seem like they caught you red handed, bro. That's crazy. Like Ray: Yeah. That's why I was like the karma the karma in the universe. Shoes MME: Bye. Right, but I say you're definitely right. Deion: No, I was asking a question or shit. Ray: Yeah, like the clerk. Shoes MME: What do you think of his karma? Deion: No, like I mean, do you think about it in that way and Ray: Yeah, that's what my the comedy like it comes back to you stuff didn't get caught for or certain stuff. So it's like damn I'm well got caught for this or I'm sitting down for this. I just took it. I c I don't know. Deion: Yeah. Ray: It's crazy 'cause it yeah, that's how I feel. Just certain shit didn't get caught for the house supposed to or whatever. Or it just that's how the universe was. It just line that way. It was already written. Deion: And that's why I'm saying moving forward, right? Try and get a job. Is it like a trauma there of like like you get what I'm saying? Because you like even when you was doing the acts, you didn't get caught for the acts. So it kind of removed a lot like you're saying. Now you transition to like the job and being a citizen, do you still have a worry? Ray: Yeah. Right. Yeah, 'cause they you know, w was doing the the job applications, they took the the like if you if you've been convicted like in the last seven years type thing, they took that off but they put well we still check your background at you know, at the end or whatever. So it was like it's still like still set against, you know, to convict the felons or whatever. Deion: Right. Ray: So was like, then you don't even got a chance, you don't even have a chance to explain the situation to the people. They just go on the paperwork. Just what they say. When I first came home the first time, it was like, if I hire you, what makes you like something about like trying to say like I if he hired me, I might try to rob his joint too, type joint. Shoes MME: We're done. Deion: Yeah, right. Horrible for it. Ray: So I'm like, well I just add up in love. Deion: Yeah, yeah. Right. Ray: Alright, that's how you look at it? Jhalil: Yeah. So that shit probably definitely left some type of trauma, bro. And like I ain't gonna lie, dog, like I ain't like I ain't even do a lot of shit, you feel me? But once I got caught up for what I got caught up, I did my little months or whatever, bro. Ray: Yeah. Jhalil: After that, dog, it was like when I say that shit was so hard to get a fucking job, dawg. Like when I say that shit was super duper hard, it was one year, dawg. I filled out like 70 applications, bro. I ain't get no job. And I said, damn, bro, like if I keep doing this, like I'ma either like I'ma be fucking homeless. Or like I'ma had to go to the like I'ma had to go back to doing some other shit or whatever. It had me at a standpoint like to where it's like, damn, it feels like I can't do nothing else. And that's like the system do a great nut ass job of doing that shit, bro. You feel me? 'Cause it's like, damn, a great nut ass job. You feel me? 'Cause they'll be like, all right, well yeah, you did your crime, you did your time. Ray: Yeah, definitely do. Yeah. Shoes MME: Or. Ray: Yeah. Jhalil: But now I gotta wait twenty fucking years to get a job that paid ten dollars. I'm like, come on, bro, get the fuck out of here with that. So that was the point where I was like, man, I ain't filling out no more applications, bro. It's time to make my own business, dog. And once I did that, that's when shit took off in the right way, bro. That's when I started like really taking off and and being successful and shit, bro. I couldn't rely on that no more. And I only say that to say that to like, The people who are discouraged and and motherfuckers who have a criminal history, they say they don't care about that shit, bro. Most of the time they do, dog. So it's like you you gotta have your mind on street. Don't let that shit like Ray: Yeah. Jhalil: Don't let don't be embarrassed about that shit. Nothing, bro. You gotta take that shit in stride and and be able to build upon that. Like even if it's coming into the interview, listen, before y'all even run my back my background, this is what I did. Cause I felt as though I had to do this because I was trying to do this. But now I'm in a stage where I'm trying to be here. I know I can fit in this position because I'm good at this, this, this. I will be a benefit here because blah, blah. Like you gotta Shoes MME: Amen. Yeah. yeah. Jhalil: Use your Ray: Yeah. Jhalil: past as your your stepping stone now, bro. Like Shoes MME: Yup, I learned from that, but I'm away from it. I'm not on that time no more. I'm really grew from that. Jhalil: Don't even let them just run your shit and then two months later you you get the job, then two months later they fire you. Cause that shit happened to me a couple times, bro. They like, yeah, we gonna run your background. I I tell them I ain't never even get booked. Like they was saying no so much. I start saying no, I never got booked. I worked for two months. Then they called me in the office. They say, Yeah, Mr. Mr. Adams, we we gotta let you go. Ray: Yeah yeah. Shoes MME: Bye. Ray: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Jhalil: Bro, right, I had a good ass job, dog. Like, a good ass job working at performance food group, dog. I'm making a little paper back then. This was back too. I was making like 15, 16 an hour. I was proud. Called me to the office. I'm like, damn, bro, you feel me? After that, that was my last job, bro. I'm like, no, I'ma build my own shit, bro. So now, even though like my shit been past 10 years and all that. Ray: Yeah. Shoes MME: Bye. and Bye. Jhalil: Like sometimes I think about getting a job 'cause some jobs they they really own some shit. They paying seventy dollars an hour. All of this shit. Like it means that union shit be cool. But it's like I still got that little stink too. Like when y'all shitting on me. You feel me? So it's like I ready to build my own shit at this point. Like Shoes MME: it. Ray: Yeah. Jhalil: That shit definitely built some trauma with me, dog. I ain't even gonna lie, like I'm like Ray: Especially when you got the qualifications and stuff like that, but then they looking on paper about that. It's like Jhalil: Nigga, I couldn't even get a McDonald's job. Everybody I knew worked at McDonald's. Remember the twins was at McDonald's and all that? Everybody try I couldn't even get a McDonald's job. I'm like, damn, I ain't good enough for none of this shit. Cause I got caught up with that. Like, come on, bro. Like, so that shit, man. That shit is definitely a traumatic experience, bro. Real shit. And what I'ma say on is keep pushing, bro. Ray: Yeah. Yeah. Shoes MME: Yeah. Jhalil: Cause you on the right week, bro. Niggas marry, niggas ain't, you mean niggas chillin' out the way and it's cool, bro. Y'all got it. Ray: Yeah. Yeah, I'd be in f before it get dark or I I don't wanna go to stores like that. I'll be chilling. I don't want no problem with no smoke. I ain't trying to get caught up, wrong person, wrong place, none of that stuff. Jhalil: Rap, I'll wait till the green light decross. What they talk about? Ray: Right. Shoes MME: out. Ray: I'll be a square the squares is the ones that's out here. Shoes MME: Alright. Jhalil: You couldn't get no money being the square. That shit wasn't cool now. That's the coolest thing ever. Safe restrictions. Ray: Yeah. Shoes MME: We gon' be on the road soon, yeah, man? Ray: Yeah. I already know. Jhalil: Ready? No. Deion: Yeah. For sure. I just say though, don't like nothing in life that we go through should be used as a deterrent from c like stopping you from continuing to live, right? Like, you know, we go through all of these things in our life and like it it start dictating like how we go forward. You feel me? Like Ray: Well Shoes MME: Yeah. Deion: So if if if you got in a rumble when you was a young boy, right, like you gonna be a nut or you gonna be a chip, like you feel me? Like Ray: Yeah, you can't let that one thing like set this this the set the paper up. Deion: You know what I mean? And some of it is is good good for your roadmap. You know what I mean? Like and when I learned right basic stuff would be like to understand like your hair ain't just your hair, right? Like that nervous feeling you get, your body and your hair is working in unisus to let you know that it's a danger there. Ray: Yeah, true. Shoes MME: Bye. Bye. Bye. Jhalil: Yeah. That's Deion: You get what I'm saying? Jhalil: our antennas, bro. Real shit. That's your antennas, dog. Deion: So so when you when you encounter like a cheating situation, that's the hair. Coming up telling you it's a danger there. You know what I'm saying? But look, we'll continue to try to hold on to it. No, like I put time in this is what I need. No. But if the universe telling you, bro, you don't need to have this, you don't need to fucking have it. Stop trying to hold on to it. You're gonna you're gonna get more damage holding on to it than you is letting it go. But you in your head so much you think that it ain't going. Shoes MME: All right. Jhalil: Sure. Deion: But we don't know no better. We don't know the next thing that's gonna happen, so you can't live in. You get what I'm saying? It's the story of like having a the the guy had a diamond form that he bought. He was told it was diamonds there, he dug up the whole goddamn jungle and find no diamond. Jhalil: Mm-hmm. Shoes MME: Yeah. Deion: Just upon he sell it, John. Next owner do the same thing. The third owner, you know what I'm saying? Get it, and then he he he figure a better strategy. He hires some people, he get them to do it 247. He'll never give up though. But the point of the joint is like just when you think like you you like it ain't there for you. Shoes MME: Hey. Ray: Right. Deion: And you like you ready, let it go. Like you get what I'm saying? You ready? And I know I know you I know y'all know what I'm talking about, cause you feel that in the everyday jump. I be telling motherfuckers like, bro, we live so many times per day. Shoes MME: soon. Ray: Yeah. Shoes MME: Hell yeah. Jhalil: Mm. Where is it? Ray: Yeah. Deion: Yeah I mean like to be worried about dying is like it's like we so protected. You get me? Like you walk down the street and you get a phone call or something, something get your attention that stop you from stepping out and getting hit by the car. You get what I'm saying? Like you about to pound on Shorty. You about to pound on Shorty. You been wanting to hit her for a minute. You think it's drawn because you got this call where you can't do it no more. Ray: Yeah. Deion: But that should save you. You get what I'm saying? Like that should save you. You could have had a baby. It could have been 18 years drunk. Like you feel me? Jhalil: All right. Ray: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Jhalil: Right. House of Virginia, any fucking thing, you mean, you be salty, cooked up, you mean, but that's just how that shit plays, bro. So shit through people y'all. Deion: But you you look upon it, right? You look upon it, like, damn, you can look at all this stuff as whatever, whatever, right? But whatever you look at it as, don't let it be like a deterrent and make it feel like, regret. It's like, no, like shit be showing our journeys is our journeys, like, and it's and it's individually. Ray: Right. Shoes MME: Well... Deion: You get what I'm saying? Like, yeah, I remember we used to be like, damn, why we learning this man from school, we never gonna use it. But 20 years later, I ain't know I was gonna use this fucking, but I'm glad I d like you feel me. Like, I'm glad we learned that shit. And that's what life taught me. It's like, bro, you don't know that you gonna use this shit? I'm sex I'm in control of this drone. I gave you this for this reason. Ray: Yeah. Deion: Like I would have never been speaking on panels, going in the jail, speaking to to the to the guys in there about fatherhood and I I w I ain't know I ain't playing that shit. Like that was but that was the best parts of my life. All the shit that I ever had wasn't in my plan. All my shit was distorted and fucked. So I got the worst of it. Like, you feel me? Like, you know what I'm saying? Like. I got caught up in like being being being highly obsessed with like having shit, wanting shit. You feel me? Like to think like to think that you can't sit in your crib because you need money. That shit just put you in a spiral that like had you. That should have had you. That should have been in control of you, bro. You jumping up. You about to run out and go do all kinds of shit. Ray: What? Yeah. Shoes MME: Yeah Ray: Yeah. But now I was like like I went through d that storm and I know what's on the other side of that storm. So before I met that I was like, I'm cool, I'ma wait this out to the storm goes over. Jhalil: And bro. Deion: Yeah. Shoes MME: Hello? Jhalil: Rap and like on some shit like that whole time right that you did right like that that last jump or whatever, right? Like you see how we was every day with it, bro. So once you had to go and you had to be the tough one to do the whole time, bro. So just imagine that shit kept shoes out of trouble. That shit kept Lor Ray out of trouble, that shit kept me out of trouble, that shit kept you feel me, cause we seen the examples. Ray: Yeah. Shoes MME: Alright. I don't know, baby. Ray: Yeah. Shoes MME: World's biggest, yep. Jhalil: You mean so it's like, damn, bro, like yeah, you had to do that shit, but bro, that shit like that shit really helped us to stay the fuck out of it 'cause we seen the the the shit that that shit can get us into. You mean? So like real. Ray: Yeah. Jhalil: who knows bro if you would have never got caught up bro we probably you man who knows bro like real shit dog so like that should definitely just be a part of the plan bro like real shit dog Shoes MME: or I'll share some only. Ray: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Jhalil: Cause niggas, man, I ain't gonna lie, bro, niggas was a little wild. I ain't saying like niggas was on some gangster shit and all that, but bro, like we wasn't like motherfuckers that was scary to go do shit and you know me, to get it how we live it out this drawing, what I mean? But that shit definitely opened my fucking eyes. I said, damn, I'm in Florida doing that, like, that's fucking crazy, you feel me? And then you know shoes, we was. Ray: What Shoes MME: Yay. Jhalil: They they used to just the cops undercovers, all right, they used to just run up on us every day for no fucking reason, bro. All we did was hoop and smoke weed. You feel me? But they ran up on us every day like we was like Shoes MME: World, China, and the world. almost every fucking day bro. Jhalil: So we was getting jammed up for a little stupid shit, you feel me? So once that shit happened I'm like, no, bro, like they ain't playing off this drum, bro. Real shit. Yeah man, like sometimes bro, that should be unfortunate, but it's like that shit was the example for all of us, bro. Like, nigga, it's other weeds, bro. Focus on them other weeds, like real shit, bro. Ray: Yeah. Exactly. Shoes MME: and Deion: Why you fill it up? Ray: Like I no, just thinking about what Josh just said made me feel good. Yeah. Deion: Yeah Jhalil: the huggers that's real shit bro. You know you was our like not you was our you are old here. You mean real shit though. We learned a lot of shit from you just in that little bit of time. You feel me? So like seeing that shit bro that shit mean us button up too. Like real right bro. Shoes MME: Thank Jhalil: Shit, dog. Deion: Yeah. But before we roll out, like you wanted to say something specific? You wanted to jump on, you feel me? Ray: To say it might seem hard, but you ain't see hard unless you go fucking there. You're away from your family, kids, to society, period. It's like and then you always gotta look at it too. Like you ain't the only person suffering or going through that bed. You got the loved ones going through the through it too. So they locked up at the same time. And so before you pick up a gun or Jhalil: All right, man. Ray: thinking about robbing this or robbing that. It ain't worth it. Definitely not worth it. 'Cause you wanna spend more time and more money in there than you are out here and whatever you stole. That shit ain't it's don't compare to that shit. Shoes MME: Tyler, they gonna try to do it way more time than you would expect. Ray: Yeah, that shit like a couple of days, months, that shit's years. I still don't believe that shit when I begin. I'm like, damn, I'll just be looking around, I'm like, damn, I miss so much. Or how everybody grew up looking different and stuff like that. And then I think about damn stuff I missed out on. Like I can't never get that back. Deion: Yeah, no. Jhalil: But yo, I'm happy you beat that life, bro. So it's still time though. Cause like now it's like you know, it's it's always effects too after doing a bit. Like even when you do come home. Like we don't even gotta get all deep in it. But you know, like say for instance, if somebody got a daughter and they do ten, fifteen years and they daughter grow up and all that shit, like it's different than having a son. Ray: Yeah, me too. Jhalil: You feel me? Like a son, you could be like, yo, shit got real good. But the daughters sometimes they might be like, yo, dad, you wasn't here for my prime. You wasn't here for like so is it's so much family shit that you gotta deal with. It's so much like like bro, it's so much like what's the word that I'm looking for? Ray: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Shoes MME: Yeah Jhalil: Like reconnection that you gotta do as far as like getting yourself together, getting your mentor together, all of that. So it's not just like, yeah, you you do the time, you come home, it's time to party. you come home, it's time to catch up and you gotta get back on your shit and learn, relearn everything. Real shit, bro. Cause I don't I think I probably bro, when I got booked, niggas still had androids and shit. You feel me? Like Ray: Yeah, but Right. No. Jhalil: Niggas wasn't even really on the eye. We was getting on ringtones and shit off woodland and and unwood and shit, you mean? Shoes MME: And... Ray: Okay. Shoes MME: Yeah. Yeah. Ray: That's why when I came on this time, I'm like, damn, what happened to remember the sim cars used to be in the iPhones and all that shit back then? Like you know, all that shit changed. Everything's changed. Shoes MME: Yeah, yup. Deion: Yeah. Jhalil: See, that shit, yeah, bro. That shit real man. Like, that's why playing around, man, that shit, that shit ain't no good, man. And I keep saying to my youngins, bro, cause like I know y'all got that testosterone pumping right now, bro. That Superman shit, the good shit, like, but that shit, man, they'll take that shit real quick, bro. Real right. And it's hard to get it back, man. So. Shoes MME: Eww. Yeah. Jhalil: Just be wise out here, man. Like make the right decision, bro. Just ask yourself, is that shit worth it? Is your anger worth throwing everything away for, bro? Is this person that you you wanna, you know man, you wanna smoke, is they worth like you losing yourself in that? Like, come on, bro. It don't even really be that worth it, dog. Ray: Okay. Standing up four times a day for count. That shit's wrong. Morning, afternoon, mid afternoon, nighttime. Shoes MME: Bye! They telling you what to do like they your parents and shit. Ray: Yeah, when to take a shower, when to take a haircut, when to eat, all types of shit. That shit ain't worth it. Cool. Sometimes I go to the refrigerator and just look in it. Don't even take nothing, just look in it. Jhalil: Hey bro. Shoes MME: Bye. Jhalil: Check the comedy box, bro. You said, damn, who we got in this? Man, like Ray: Yes. Shoes MME: Listen, I remember like, left when I was a little kid, bro. Came back like I was like a young teen. Left when I was a teen, you feel me? Like, like when I was young man, you feel me? Some shit like that. Then came back when I was a grown ass man. You see what I'm saying? So, it was like, that shit was crazy, though. Jhalil: Reverse. that's a that's super crazy, man. That's what I'm like, man. I I'm so happy that we get to have this rap, bro, cause like, you know, we all know what it is on this drum, but sometimes bro, people don't they don't really look in this this deep. They don't look into the internal. They just look at like what everybody else see and what everybody else like glorifying this shit bro but that shit it come with real life consequences bro and real life shit that you gotta go through to even make it cause like just cause they give you 10 years nigga that don't mean you gonna live for 10 years in that job bro yo daw my wife cousin bro this nigga got booked he wasn't even supposed to be booked bro my man got like he got killed in a fight bro he got stabbed seals let him die in that job Ray: Well. Shoes MME: Get home. Ray: Yeah, no Shoes MME: Mmm. Jhalil: Feel me, wasn't even supposed to be in that junk, cuz. So it's like, that shit is real, nigga. Like this shit not no joke, bro. Like that shit not no game, bro. And that was my man. You feel me? I'm like, damn, one of the funniest niggas ever. Feel me? And it's like, damn, he lost his life on some shit. He wasn't even supposed to be in that jump. So it's like, bro, this stop playing with y'all lives like that, man. Like, we understand shit get real. We understand that, you know. Ray: Yeah. Shoes MME: that. Jhalil: It's certain shit that's around us that make it seem cool to have these stripes and and be him and all that shit. But no, bro, being him is really holding your shit down. Like being solidified out here for the right shit and making it happen, doing the right shit, bro. You mean? Ray: Right. Yeah. Deion: Yeah. Jhalil: Yeah, Deion: They don't wanna say something anymore. Ray: Uh-huh. Deion: I said, y'all wanna say something to end it off? Shoes MME: off. Ray: Just stay out of the way, stay out of trouble. Get a job. Shit ain't worth it. Shoes MME: the Deion: Yeah. Shoes MME: and get a job. Jhalil: Right. Get a job, build a job, do a job, look at a job, nigga. Real something. You feel me? Just just stay out of there. Ray: Yeah, so right. Enjoy your family. Be home for your family and enjoy it on. Shoes MME: Yup. Everything ain't bad as it seems. You think you're in a bad spot, bad position. It's always somebody in a worse spot, man. So try, I mean, think before you act. Jhalil: All right. Deion: Before we get out, man, is a real change. It doesn't happen for one conversation. Jhalil: Man, I fucked that all up. Ray: Yeah. Shoes MME: Yeah Jhalil: Yeah. Deion: But yeah, real change don't happen with just one conversation. He's a Shoes MME: It's now or never. Jhalil: My should just shut down everything. I was like, head the dudes, my shit shut down. But that's how you know, bro, getting in the mix of this real like real life conversation, bro. It's like man. Shoes MME: Yeah. Deion: It's like Ray: Yeah. Jhalil: But yeah, man, real change don't happen from one conversation. It happens when the conversations become action. Deion: That's what the volume shift is about. Jhalil: Not just talking about problems. Deion: But exploring solutions together. Jhalil: So we're gonna catch y'all in the next episode. Stay informed, stay engaged, and stay out of jail. This is the volume shift. Ray: Okay. Deion: Well Ray: For me Shoes MME: Hey. Ray: They