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Lecrae (2nd Appearance) Full Interview · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

0:00
Speaker 1: Yes, Welcome to Money Making Conversation. I am your host,
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Speaker 1: Rashan McDonald. Each Money Making Conversation is about entrepreneurship and entertainment.
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Speaker 1: I recognize that we all have different definitions of success.
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Speaker 1: For some it's a sizable paychecks. Mine is helping people
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Speaker 1: wake up and inspiring them to accomplish their goals and
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Speaker 1: live their very best life. These are my passions. That's
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Speaker 1: what I'm trying to do for everybody who listening to
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Speaker 1: my show, some people catching on video, majority listening on
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Speaker 1: via podcast. I want you to stop tripping over small
0:27
Speaker 1: challenges and preparator rise above the bigger obstacles that life
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Speaker 1: will present to you. And it's very important to understand
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Speaker 1: it's all about you. Focus on you will yourself to success.
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Speaker 1: That's the story of my next guest, Lacre. He is
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Speaker 1: recognized as the first artist to have an album hit
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Speaker 1: the charts at number one for both Billboard two hundred
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Speaker 1: and the Gospel Charts simultaneously. His ninth album and accompanying
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Speaker 1: documentary that's going to be associated with the album, Restoration,
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Speaker 1: features artists across all genres including my Man John Legend,
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Speaker 1: my Man, Kurt Frank, and y K O. Cirius. His
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Speaker 1: work is fueled by building bridges, changing narratives, empowering their disenfranchised,
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Speaker 1: and restoring the dignity of those on the margins. In
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Speaker 1: this new book, which I read this morning, I am
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Speaker 1: restored how I lost my religion but found my faith.
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Speaker 1: He shares how he found the courage to stop ignoring
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Speaker 1: his trauma and instead to begin working through it step
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Speaker 1: by step. Please work from the money making conversations. My man,
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Speaker 1: look graz about you look great for I brought your
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Speaker 1: online up. Yeah, you know that the beauty of you,
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Speaker 1: like I seld you the first time I got to
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Speaker 1: see you perform was uh in Houston, that was doing
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Speaker 1: the Super Bowl weekend and and even even though I
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Speaker 1: didn't know you, I knew there was a gifted person
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Speaker 1: speaking there singing at that time. But at the time
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Speaker 1: also you're dealing with a lot of trauma in your life,
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Speaker 1: and but you're able to mask that and not allow
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Speaker 1: it to affect your abilities as an author, performing artists.
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Speaker 1: Talk to those different steps. And then we're gonna go
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Speaker 1: through the book that uh wonderful book, wonderfully honest book
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Speaker 1: and I think a necessary read that I'm recommend to
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Speaker 1: all my all, my putting it in my mailing list
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Speaker 1: that goes out to fans on Wednesday, which is tomorrow,
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Speaker 1: ninety thousand people. You know, I got over a million
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Speaker 1: social media follows, so you'll see me posting them there.
2:23
Speaker 1: Because when you when people release information to the general
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Speaker 1: population because you are a celebrity. We talk about it
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Speaker 1: in your book being a celebrity, and sometimes being a
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Speaker 1: celebrity allows you to be a victim of your success
2:35
Speaker 1: because people can to dissect a celebrity or an important
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Speaker 1: person versus an everyday person kind of like skates through.
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Speaker 1: And you know your book tells that story, but talk
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Speaker 1: about your performing even though you're dealing with a lot
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Speaker 1: of emotional drama. Yeah, you know, sometimes I think you
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Speaker 1: you wear that face that you just put on, those
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Speaker 1: lenses that allow you to just keep going and pushing
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Speaker 1: through without dealing with the problems and the trauma. And
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Speaker 1: you allow uh successes to define you instead of um,
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Speaker 1: you know, you being successful out of a healthy and
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Speaker 1: whole version of yourself. You're allowing the successes to convince
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Speaker 1: you that you are healthy and whole. And I think
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Speaker 1: that's that's a very different thing. And so for me,
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Speaker 1: it was. It was a matter of becoming a healthy,
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Speaker 1: whole individual and dealing with some historical traumas and um
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Speaker 1: and recognizing that, uh, you know, I was a slave
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Speaker 1: to uh what other people wanted of me and not
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Speaker 1: being who I was created to be and uh and
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Speaker 1: that that that meant all? Did you say that now?
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Speaker 1: With your book titled you Know I Am Restored, How
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Speaker 1: I lost my religion but found my faith, I gotta
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Speaker 1: ask you what is the difference between religion and faith?
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Speaker 1: That's a great question. Um, you know, I think uh
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Speaker 1: a lot of us are are tied to religion, and
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Speaker 1: religion is essentially performing to be accepted. Religion is performing
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Speaker 1: trying to do all the right things so that God
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Speaker 1: will accept you or maybe that other people will accept you.
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Speaker 1: And and faith or relationship is more about saying, I know,
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Speaker 1: I've been accepted, so let me function out of that acceptance.
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Speaker 1: Let me do the right things because I've been accepted.
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Speaker 1: And so I always say it like this. If I
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Speaker 1: come home to my wife and I knock on the
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Speaker 1: door and I handed some flowers, and I say, ago,
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Speaker 1: and I'm supposed to do this, that's religion, and I'm
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Speaker 1: I'm probably gonna speak on the couch that night. Uh
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Speaker 1: but but but but faith or relationship is me coming
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Speaker 1: home and say, man, I've been thinking about you all
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Speaker 1: day and you just you're so wonderful and I appreciate
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Speaker 1: you so much. I just brought you these flowers because
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Speaker 1: you're amazing. And I don't I have faith. You know,
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Speaker 1: I don't know what's gonna happen, but probably something that
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Speaker 1: is gonna happen because of that reality. And that's that's
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Speaker 1: because people, you know, people will question your faith before
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Speaker 1: they question your religion. They were, and you know, it's
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Speaker 1: really interesting that that happens like that. And that's why
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Speaker 1: I asked that question between religion and faith, because people
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Speaker 1: will they will challenge your faith. They will challenge you
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Speaker 1: because your faith can be tied to so many things.
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Speaker 1: You know, where you live, how you walk, how you talk,
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Speaker 1: or how much money you make, how much what your
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Speaker 1: expectations for yourself or for your family. That can be
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Speaker 1: that word faith has such an expansive term to it,
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Speaker 1: but it's also tied to religion, and it allows you
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Speaker 1: to It's over when I'm reading a book, which is,
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Speaker 1: like I said, a thorough read about from your childhood
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Speaker 1: to adulthood. And uh, it really amazed me because if
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Speaker 1: the talk of being a healthy person, which is really
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Speaker 1: key in the diet, and I think that plays in
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Speaker 1: every chapter in the book as you talk about being
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Speaker 1: a man and being a young man and being a
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Speaker 1: young boy, meeting your father and and he picking you
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Speaker 1: up and you're thinking, that's a great moment of life,
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Speaker 1: and then guess what, he basically kicked you to the curb,
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Speaker 1: which was one of those unhealthy moments in your life
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Speaker 1: when you're trying to live a life as a healthy person. Correct. Yeah, absolutely,
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Speaker 1: And I mean that's that's that's a huge part of
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Speaker 1: it is is uh, you know, not having those those models.
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Speaker 1: You know, you can only be what you've seen, you
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Speaker 1: can only become what you've bailed and so not having
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Speaker 1: those models becomes a traumatic thing for for a lot
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Speaker 1: of us. And and uh, and so I'm just that's
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Speaker 1: really interesting. When I talked to you. The first time
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Speaker 1: I talked to you, like I said, it was like
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Speaker 1: I knew you, but we were developing a relationship. Now
6:34
Speaker 1: this second time around, I'm much more comfortable on how
6:37
Speaker 1: hard speak to you. And it's really based on reading
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Speaker 1: this book and because we all have dark sides. You know,
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Speaker 1: when I say dark sides, secrets we don't reveal. We
6:47
Speaker 1: lived through life with it, but we won't tell even
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Speaker 1: our closest loved ones. You know, I have them, and
6:52
Speaker 1: you're sharing a lot of them in this book. And
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Speaker 1: you know, and and I have been fortunate to have
7:00
Speaker 1: been a popular stand up comedian, and you and in
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Speaker 1: your book you're talking about you know, when you're when
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Speaker 1: you're in a church, you knows you kind of know
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Speaker 1: who your audience is. And I remember when I was
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Speaker 1: in the comedy club, I kind of know who my
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Speaker 1: audience is. But when I got booked in a nightclub
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Speaker 1: or booked in a private party, I really didn't know
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Speaker 1: who I was performing too. And it always put additional
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Speaker 1: stress in my mind on how to relate to these
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Speaker 1: people are if they will relate to me? And you know,
7:29
Speaker 1: when you talk about your experience opening up for Kevin
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Speaker 1: Hard at the you know, at these at the Mercedes
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Speaker 1: Being super Dome and you're looking at the audience, who
7:37
Speaker 1: you know, we're here for Kevin Hall, okay, and but
7:41
Speaker 1: you're going out there not knowing How does that? How
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Speaker 1: does that work in your mind when you when you're
7:46
Speaker 1: in that environment. You know, you know they're here for
7:49
Speaker 1: the because he's filled up that he filled up the dome. Okay,
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Speaker 1: you're blessed to be an opening act for him and
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Speaker 1: because it allows you to grow your bread. How does
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Speaker 1: that trigger in your mind? From a performing standpoint, who
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Speaker 1: you are? You trying to relate to everybody, You're trying
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Speaker 1: to just get them understand the Crae experience. Yeah, you
8:09
Speaker 1: know what it is is a lot of it is,
8:12
Speaker 1: like you said, understanding how to read the room is
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Speaker 1: understanding what people are there for and m and and
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Speaker 1: finding some common ground and and being able to connect
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Speaker 1: to people in a real way. And I think authenticity
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Speaker 1: is is where you can always win. You know, people
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Speaker 1: crave and hunger for authenticity. But it's the hard thing
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Speaker 1: for us to do because we're so worried about what
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Speaker 1: everybody thinks. But how how authentic and connecting what it
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Speaker 1: has been for me to just come out and say,
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Speaker 1: I know y'all aint for me. I know you'll want
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Speaker 1: to see Kevin hard. You know that's that's immediately gonna
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Speaker 1: endear people to me, immediately, gonna make them say, okay,
8:50
Speaker 1: keeping it real. And now I hear what this guy
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Speaker 1: has to say, and so I think that's that's that's
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Speaker 1: a big piece of life, you know, because of the
8:58
Speaker 1: fact that you know, eleven years old, you walk on
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Speaker 1: stage and you bust out with a wrap and everybody
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Speaker 1: now now gives you value. And and in my book
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Speaker 1: and your book, you know, and in of your craze.
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Speaker 1: Here this book I am restored, how to how I
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Speaker 1: lost my religion but found my faith. Each chapter is
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Speaker 1: about value and that's the part of healthiness. But in
9:21
Speaker 1: order to achieve value, if I'm reading this wrong, you
9:24
Speaker 1: have to admit and go public with what's bothering you inside,
9:29
Speaker 1: with that draw, that trauma, you know, that chaos as
9:31
Speaker 1: you talk about and when did you really start realizing
9:37
Speaker 1: that because black the Black community is really interesting community.
9:41
Speaker 1: Were we are in denial community, were in denial about
9:46
Speaker 1: COVID and ainteen, when the denial about our eating habits,
9:49
Speaker 1: when denial about gay gay community, we're denying. We're just
9:53
Speaker 1: an in denial community and it holds us back a lot.
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Speaker 1: And so and it also is in the evel when
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Speaker 1: it comes to mental and social stress, you know, not
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Speaker 1: admitting that we we have issues that should be somebody
10:07
Speaker 1: should be talking to us about and that that that
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Speaker 1: false ability to move forward not emitting that we are
10:14
Speaker 1: a flawed community and uh holds us back. And so
10:19
Speaker 1: that in it turn, in turn, we'll did some some
10:23
Speaker 1: setbacks for you because you couldn't figure out what was
10:25
Speaker 1: wrong with you exactly. You're you're you're, you're hitting the
10:31
Speaker 1: hammer on their uh. A big piece of our struggle,
10:36
Speaker 1: um is what what what what someone called post traumatic
10:39
Speaker 1: slave syndrome right and and and post traumatic slave syndrome
10:43
Speaker 1: is we have adopted and adapted these views that were
10:48
Speaker 1: instilled in our ancestors that we are we're almost like
10:52
Speaker 1: um uh cattle and we can just be driven and
10:56
Speaker 1: and pushed and pushed and pushed until no end. And
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Speaker 1: the problem is we're not addressing our traumas, we're not
11:03
Speaker 1: addressing our pains, we're not addressing our fears. We're treating
11:06
Speaker 1: ourselves like animals. You know, I say sometimes you know,
11:12
Speaker 1: you can be a speedboat or you can be a
11:15
Speaker 1: raft or a sailboat, and a speedboat is the things
11:18
Speaker 1: that can plow through, you know, and just I'm just
11:20
Speaker 1: gonna make it all the way, especially going around the
11:22
Speaker 1: gas and then you're gonna be out in the middle
11:24
Speaker 1: of the ocean just floating, and and nobody wants to
11:27
Speaker 1: be a raft where you don't have any sense of direction.
11:30
Speaker 1: And so the reality is we have to become sailboat.
11:33
Speaker 1: And the sailboat takes us acknowledging the way the wind
11:36
Speaker 1: is blowing so you can adjust your sails. It takes
11:38
Speaker 1: a little bit of work, it takes some thought, it
11:40
Speaker 1: takes some time, and not just plowing through stuff. And
11:43
Speaker 1: I think that's a part of our problem. Um. We
11:46
Speaker 1: want to catch up. You know, in society, we've been
11:49
Speaker 1: held back so long and we're trying to catch up
11:51
Speaker 1: it so we won't acknowledge our motions or the problems,
11:55
Speaker 1: and the pain is just too much to acknowledge. So
11:57
Speaker 1: we're living denial instead of becoming healthy and whole um,
12:01
Speaker 1: which is, you know, if you want to be successful
12:03
Speaker 1: in life, it's gonna first start with being healthy and whole.
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Speaker 1: Everything else is in an addition to that if you
12:10
Speaker 1: want to you know, every million dollars you make is
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Speaker 1: has way more value if you're healthy and the whole person.
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Speaker 1: But if you are an emotional and mental and spiritual disaster,
12:19
Speaker 1: that million dollars is not gonna make you any better.
12:22
Speaker 1: I always help people. My my goals in life are
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Speaker 1: tied to my experience because not my my money. Because
12:29
Speaker 1: if I never go in the deal, I'm gonna be
12:30
Speaker 1: honest with the crew. I'm never going to deal trying
12:32
Speaker 1: to figure out how much money I'm gonna make. It's
12:34
Speaker 1: about the relationships. He's about to what do I get
12:37
Speaker 1: out of it for my brand, for my career, because
12:39
Speaker 1: I always know that I'm gonna make money. That's just
12:42
Speaker 1: that's just an idea. My wife would go, I don't
12:44
Speaker 1: know why you ever worry about money, because you're gonna
12:46
Speaker 1: make it. You're gonna figure out how to make it.
12:47
Speaker 1: And That's just been a skill set I've had since
12:49
Speaker 1: I was seventeen eighteen years old, and I've carried it
12:52
Speaker 1: through because I'm just a guy who sits around just
12:54
Speaker 1: thinking about how to make money, and and and and
12:59
Speaker 1: when when I look at your your brand, you know
13:01
Speaker 1: you know your entrepreneur, you're an activist, you know you.
13:04
Speaker 1: Of course we know your talent from you working on
13:07
Speaker 1: this documentary with your new your ninth album. All these
13:10
Speaker 1: different layers started where though, you know, because like you said,
13:15
Speaker 1: you know, you know, you all you know because your
13:17
Speaker 1: father was in your life, your your mom or you
13:20
Speaker 1: put you in a situation with what what with a
13:22
Speaker 1: man who who physically abused you from a standpoint, struck
13:26
Speaker 1: you and whichhich intimidated you, and then put that with
13:29
Speaker 1: that decision make you know whether he can come back
13:31
Speaker 1: into the house on you okay? And what was you
13:34
Speaker 1: supposed to say? No? You know? And so so where
13:38
Speaker 1: where where along the way did you start shaping the
13:42
Speaker 1: desire to be this be la craze m You know
13:50
Speaker 1: what I think, um the journey of all that pain
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Speaker 1: and trauma, Um that that the place where I found
14:01
Speaker 1: the most health was being was expressing myself, you know,
14:03
Speaker 1: expressed myself through initially poetry and then it turned into
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Speaker 1: music and and that that's a even if you go
14:10
Speaker 1: to therapy now they'll tell you that's one of the
14:12
Speaker 1: biggest things you need to do. You need to start
14:13
Speaker 1: writing things down because something happens with your mind, if
14:16
Speaker 1: your brain chemistry. Once you start writing out the things
14:19
Speaker 1: that that that your experience and it's journal and or
14:22
Speaker 1: a diary, it is very helpful for you. And so
14:25
Speaker 1: that that's where I learned the healthy technique. The problem
14:28
Speaker 1: for me was some of the darkest corners of my world.
14:33
Speaker 1: You know, I was not ready to deal with. I
14:35
Speaker 1: was not ready to to wrestle with in the process,
14:38
Speaker 1: and so it took a mental collapse for me. It
14:42
Speaker 1: took me, took my mind and my body having to
14:45
Speaker 1: shut down. You know they some people call it Ceo syndrome,
14:48
Speaker 1: where the stresses of life just overwhelm you all at
14:52
Speaker 1: one one time, and the body keeps the score. So
14:54
Speaker 1: your mind may say, well, what happened to me attend
14:57
Speaker 1: was was you know, a million years ago, but your
14:59
Speaker 1: body is and it might as well have been yesterday.
15:01
Speaker 1: So you're just piling up stuff, all the trauma from
15:04
Speaker 1: your childhood, and now you're in your adulthood and maybe
15:06
Speaker 1: you have kids, and that's adding more stuff. And now
15:09
Speaker 1: you're working on deals and you're working on career. All
15:12
Speaker 1: this stuff is piling piling up, and if you're not
15:14
Speaker 1: addressing it, eventually it's gonna catch up to you. And
15:17
Speaker 1: so you have to be able to decompress and address uh,
15:20
Speaker 1: those those particular issues in order to find you important
15:23
Speaker 1: that people understand that you have to find yourself. And
15:27
Speaker 1: despite all my success, la Craze. I didn't really find
15:30
Speaker 1: myself till I was in my forties. You know, people
15:33
Speaker 1: would tell me, you're showing you successful. But I was
15:37
Speaker 1: successful because I accomplished things. Here mean when I say
15:40
Speaker 1: that I was successful because I accomplished things, that doesn't
15:43
Speaker 1: necessarily meant that I was accomplishing things that made me happy.
15:47
Speaker 1: And that's why I I always speak to people, is
15:50
Speaker 1: that you know a lot of people there, they're stopped
15:53
Speaker 1: there in their career because guess what, they're not happy
15:56
Speaker 1: making money that way, and so guess what, it eventually
16:00
Speaker 1: catch up with you. That's why companies file bankruptcy. That's
16:02
Speaker 1: why companies closed because the vision or the vision there
16:07
Speaker 1: a person, visionary, person who's tied to it, just stopped
16:10
Speaker 1: thinking because that didn't make them happy. And so this book,
16:14
Speaker 1: when I talk, when I listened to you, it is
16:16
Speaker 1: a journey in finding your happiness, because if you don't
16:20
Speaker 1: find that happiness, there's not a fifty year old Lakrez
16:25
Speaker 1: sixty year old Lakrez that we have today. Am I
16:28
Speaker 1: correct when I say that? Absolutely? Absolutely? Yeah? You won't.
16:33
Speaker 1: You I won't. It's not gonna, it's not gonna. You're
16:35
Speaker 1: never gonna ride there and and and that's you know case.
16:39
Speaker 1: And point is that I think a lot of times
16:42
Speaker 1: you don't even know the things that will ultimately bring
16:47
Speaker 1: you happiness or bring you joy because you haven't done
16:50
Speaker 1: enough work to know who you are. And so you're
16:52
Speaker 1: looking at what everyone else has, thinking that, well, I
16:55
Speaker 1: get what they get, then I'll be happy, then I'll
16:58
Speaker 1: be healthy, instead of understanding who you are, and you're
17:01
Speaker 1: wiring and and and realizing, no, this is what's gonna
17:04
Speaker 1: bring you that. And I had to go through that
17:06
Speaker 1: exact same process in me, thinking that if I could
17:09
Speaker 1: just be as famous as this person or as renowned
17:13
Speaker 1: as this person, And truthfully, that's not the way that
17:16
Speaker 1: God created me. You know, I'm I'm an entrepreneur by nature.
17:20
Speaker 1: You know, I like performing and I like art. But
17:24
Speaker 1: end of the day, I'm I found a lot more
17:27
Speaker 1: purpose when I'm building things and I'm architecting things, and
17:30
Speaker 1: I'm giving other people opportunities. And so when I'm using
17:33
Speaker 1: all my energy on creating opportunities for myself, I'm not
17:37
Speaker 1: as I'm not as happy. But when I'm creating opportunities
17:40
Speaker 1: for other people, you know, then I find more. I
17:43
Speaker 1: find it more fulfilling. I want to do good in society,
17:46
Speaker 1: but I also want to do well financially, so you
17:48
Speaker 1: can do you know, I do it well. You can't
17:51
Speaker 1: do good, but you have to be happy doing it
17:54
Speaker 1: though for long term. And that's what I'm talking about
17:58
Speaker 1: in this interview. I don't want everybody to hear this
18:00
Speaker 1: is that you know, you go out there and make
18:02
Speaker 1: a lot of money. I would tell people life should
18:04
Speaker 1: not be tied to the lottery effect. You know, just
18:06
Speaker 1: wait doing that money, waiting that moment. You build a
18:09
Speaker 1: career in your and you and you put people around
18:11
Speaker 1: you that can support you. I know I've survived this
18:15
Speaker 1: career because I've had a couple of key people in
18:17
Speaker 1: my life that whenever I doubted myself La Craze, they
18:20
Speaker 1: told me be Rashawn, Be Rashawn. They should be You.
18:25
Speaker 1: Don't care what they're saying. Do be you now? Be
18:29
Speaker 1: you has helped out a lot of people. Here be
18:32
Speaker 1: you trust you And because because success man and in
18:37
Speaker 1: reading this book and reading about the chaos, reading about
18:40
Speaker 1: the trauma, we talk about the molestation, the we can
18:44
Speaker 1: talk about the physical abuse. Let's talk about the life abusive.
18:48
Speaker 1: As a successful people can go through if you don't
18:52
Speaker 1: have the right people around you and you don't admit
18:54
Speaker 1: that you need help, right as my goodness. You know
19:02
Speaker 1: what's funny if if you the problem for a lot
19:07
Speaker 1: of us is that there is freedom in confession, but
19:11
Speaker 1: there's always gonna be suffering and suppression and and and
19:16
Speaker 1: denial will always lead to death. If you're talking about
19:22
Speaker 1: a life threatening disease, right you, you cannot deny that
19:28
Speaker 1: you have it. It's gonna be detrimental for you, you know,
19:32
Speaker 1: And acknowledging is always painful, but denial is always deadly.
19:37
Speaker 1: And that's what I want people to understand. Acknowledging is
19:39
Speaker 1: gonna be painful, but denial is deadly. When you can
19:41
Speaker 1: acknowledge that you have these issues in your life, then
19:46
Speaker 1: it is hurtful. It is painful, It is hard to
19:49
Speaker 1: to plow through, but to deny it is deadly for you.
19:53
Speaker 1: And so you'll never be who you were created to be.
19:56
Speaker 1: You'll never walk in the fullness that you were created
19:59
Speaker 1: to walk in if you keep denying you know the
20:03
Speaker 1: issues that are going on in your world. And I
20:05
Speaker 1: think a lot of us just don't realize that. Um,
20:08
Speaker 1: you know my story is is. Like you said, there's
20:12
Speaker 1: there's all the major trauma that you can experience. You know,
20:15
Speaker 1: I've gone through them, and so you know, I don't
20:18
Speaker 1: care what you've experienced in life. I don't care if
20:20
Speaker 1: it's death, division, uh, discrimination, divorce, debt um. All those
20:26
Speaker 1: things can be restored if you can acknowledge the pain
20:30
Speaker 1: that they have brought you and then move forward. You know,
20:33
Speaker 1: when reading your book UH interviewing, look Craze just in
20:37
Speaker 1: case people may have just tuned in, you know, his
20:39
Speaker 1: book I'm with discussing I am restored, how I lost
20:43
Speaker 1: my religion but found my faith. A couple of courses
20:46
Speaker 1: I want to bring back up now the book, the album.
20:47
Speaker 1: Want to flip to the album right quick, because you're
20:49
Speaker 1: doing a documentary tied to the album. Okay, is that
20:55
Speaker 1: is that? Is that going to be a documentary. We'll
20:57
Speaker 1: see you on like a Netflix or an Amazon. It's
20:59
Speaker 1: just something that's available that you're putting out that so
21:02
Speaker 1: we can go to your your website, you know, I
21:04
Speaker 1: mean your YouTube challenge to see Yeah, so you can
21:09
Speaker 1: check this out. It's the video series is UH is
21:13
Speaker 1: on YouTube now and and there'll be a longer form
21:16
Speaker 1: documentary that will come out down the line. But but
21:20
Speaker 1: this this web series, you can see me addressing the
21:23
Speaker 1: chaos in my world. You know, I meet my father
21:26
Speaker 1: for the very first time on this on this video series,
21:29
Speaker 1: and so people are able to see you know that
21:32
Speaker 1: you're trying to run a successful business, you're trying to
21:35
Speaker 1: raise a family, you're trying to be a leader, and
21:38
Speaker 1: you have to deal with meeting your father for the
21:40
Speaker 1: first time. And many people would run from that reality
21:43
Speaker 1: and say I got way too much of my plate
21:45
Speaker 1: to be dealing with that. But I knew that there
21:47
Speaker 1: was a piece of me that would not be whole
21:49
Speaker 1: until I had that meeting. I didn't have any expectations.
21:52
Speaker 1: I wasn't saying, now me and him are gonna be
21:54
Speaker 1: best of friends and we're gonna make up for lost time.
21:57
Speaker 1: But I knew that I had questions that I wanted
21:59
Speaker 1: to add ask and maybe I wouldn't get the answers
22:01
Speaker 1: I wanted, But I knew I didn't want to go
22:03
Speaker 1: to my grave without asking some of those some of
22:06
Speaker 1: those questions, and that's what I thought, Uh, hey man,
22:09
Speaker 1: you know I'm Roushan McDonald. I've done a lot of
22:13
Speaker 1: great things in my life. But if you put together
22:16
Speaker 1: a documentary, let's talk if you if you don't have
22:18
Speaker 1: anybody else talking to you, because because I enjoy talking
22:23
Speaker 1: to you, and you have a voice that um that
22:26
Speaker 1: shapes this world, not just the community, this world. And uh,
22:31
Speaker 1: you articulate, you're smart and look good and plus more
22:35
Speaker 1: important that you have a story to tell that is
22:37
Speaker 1: tied to trauma. It's tied to honesty, and it's tied
22:41
Speaker 1: to faith. Okay, let's be real okay, and uh and
22:45
Speaker 1: and and it's important that you know I've learned when
22:48
Speaker 1: I when I talk to people that have a unique
22:50
Speaker 1: point of points of views, that I have to let
22:52
Speaker 1: them know what I think. And it's something that you know.
22:56
Speaker 1: Your YouTube challenge is great. In fact, I'm I'm I'm
22:58
Speaker 1: gonna look at the in you that you have when
23:00
Speaker 1: you first met your day and they probably put in
23:02
Speaker 1: our newsletter to let people see another side of your
23:05
Speaker 1: honest side of you. Because in Hollywood, it's really interesting
23:09
Speaker 1: that you know, we're we're put under and that's just
23:11
Speaker 1: the celebrities or athletes were put on the microscope based
23:14
Speaker 1: on what you know, but not the life that we live.
23:18
Speaker 1: When I say that is that, you know, it's we
23:21
Speaker 1: have makeup on. When we hit camera, we we we
23:24
Speaker 1: speak a certain way. A lot of times we hit
23:26
Speaker 1: the camera, we perform a certain way. When we walk
23:28
Speaker 1: off that stage and get out of that arena, then
23:31
Speaker 1: that's a different life. And sometimes were held accountable to
23:34
Speaker 1: what they saw on TV or what they saw in
23:36
Speaker 1: the movie or what they saw in the performance. How
23:38
Speaker 1: do you deal with that? La Craze mm hmm. Man,
23:44
Speaker 1: you know, honestly, you've got to uh, A lot of
23:47
Speaker 1: it is discernment. A lot of it is is recognizing
23:50
Speaker 1: and realizing that some relationships you walk into, uh, you know,
23:59
Speaker 1: relationally and some people walk into transactionally, you know, and
24:03
Speaker 1: you've got to be able to decide which is which
24:05
Speaker 1: because a lot of the relationships in the entertainment space
24:07
Speaker 1: are transactional that they may seem like they're relational, and
24:11
Speaker 1: people may come at you and say, hey, let's let's
24:13
Speaker 1: hang out, let's be friends. But it's gonna take some
24:15
Speaker 1: time for you to understand who your real friends are.
24:18
Speaker 1: And not to not to allow people who say, you know,
24:23
Speaker 1: this is what they think about you, and and not
24:25
Speaker 1: to a lot of those voices to dictate who you
24:27
Speaker 1: really are. So al looks like being a professional athlete
24:29
Speaker 1: because everyone's gonna say something from the sideline. But you
24:32
Speaker 1: got to realize who your teammates are and who are
24:35
Speaker 1: the people who want the best for you. Those are
24:37
Speaker 1: the voices that you that you have to listen to.
24:40
Speaker 1: And so that's that's one of the biggest things that
24:42
Speaker 1: I had to learn early on, is that you know,
24:44
Speaker 1: all those voices are not voices that I need to
24:47
Speaker 1: listen and read the book look great, um, when you
24:51
Speaker 1: brought up Calvinism, Okay, now you know, uh, a very
24:56
Speaker 1: few people know Calvinism. You know, I early in my
25:00
Speaker 1: college career, I took a European history and I learned
25:05
Speaker 1: about the Roman Catholicism and how and how Calvinism was
25:09
Speaker 1: born out. They were just tired. It was tired, and
25:13
Speaker 1: so so I just smiled when I got to that
25:15
Speaker 1: part of your book, I go, wow, I've read a
25:18
Speaker 1: lot of books in my life. This is probably the
25:20
Speaker 1: first book I read since college that articulated Calvinism. And
25:26
Speaker 1: it was important in your development. And so tell everybody
25:30
Speaker 1: about that, because that's why I said, Man, you know,
25:33
Speaker 1: when I read that, I said, I gotta have a
25:35
Speaker 1: bigger part. Well, you're not gonna. I'm based in Atlanta.
25:37
Speaker 1: I just bought it. I just bought it for my
25:40
Speaker 1: office in Atlanta. I'm headquartered here and uh, four quarters
25:44
Speaker 1: gonna be amazing. And it was just so many things
25:47
Speaker 1: in that book that needs to be you need to
25:50
Speaker 1: be talking to other people with it based on it.
25:53
Speaker 1: You understand that I'm saying this is a this is
25:56
Speaker 1: a series to me, and that you should be interesting,
26:00
Speaker 1: that you should be translating that's that's black, that's white,
26:05
Speaker 1: that's that's feel with different different layers as minority community,
26:09
Speaker 1: because like you, like you, I had success as a
26:13
Speaker 1: stand up comedian in the white community before death Comedy
26:15
Speaker 1: Jam came out there. And then when I proceeded to
26:17
Speaker 1: become a go over to death comming and looked at
26:20
Speaker 1: me like I didn't blow Hey, uh, you can't make
26:23
Speaker 1: black people Okay, don't do that. And I had to
26:26
Speaker 1: prove myself. And the same thing with my business world.
26:29
Speaker 1: I graduated with a math degree and I worked in
26:32
Speaker 1: and went to work for ib AM. I to achieved
26:34
Speaker 1: for one with deemed the ultimate passage into the white
26:37
Speaker 1: corporate world. I was working for big blue. You know,
26:40
Speaker 1: that's all you want, you know, So that wasn't enough
26:42
Speaker 1: for me. I said, I wanted to be an entertainer.
26:44
Speaker 1: I want to be a stand up comedian. And so
26:46
Speaker 1: there's so many layers that that talking to you and
26:49
Speaker 1: reading this book allows me to understand that you have
26:52
Speaker 1: a unique point of view. That's really this book is cool.
26:56
Speaker 1: But man, it's some other stories we gotta tell. Brother,
26:59
Speaker 1: you and I gotta tell together. I like that. I
27:03
Speaker 1: like that you you you use somebody what we say
27:07
Speaker 1: has range, you know what I mean? A lot of
27:09
Speaker 1: a lot of folks. You know, they can walk in
27:12
Speaker 1: a lot of different worlds. That that shows that they
27:13
Speaker 1: have some range. They've been exposed to a lot of
27:15
Speaker 1: different places. So I finally that interesting that that that
27:18
Speaker 1: that you even know some of those those things. It
27:21
Speaker 1: just shows your range. So I love it. I might
27:23
Speaker 1: have to just just try pull up on your build
27:25
Speaker 1: if I was just you know, man, you know the
27:29
Speaker 1: fact that you wrote a fantastic book. But but I
27:31
Speaker 1: don't want to remiss tell everybody about Calvinism before we
27:34
Speaker 1: leave this show, because I tell you something I tell
27:36
Speaker 1: that changed my life man in college. But I mean
27:39
Speaker 1: about that, man, Lutheranism and Calvinism and gld over to England.
27:43
Speaker 1: Oh brother, come on that. Yeah. So so a lot
27:49
Speaker 1: of times, you know, essentially you you look at the
27:54
Speaker 1: Roman Catholic Church and and you saw, like, uh, there
27:57
Speaker 1: was a lot of rules that were at it to Bible,
28:02
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, A lot of a lot
28:04
Speaker 1: of a lot of amendments were made and it became
28:07
Speaker 1: seen as gospel truth. And all of this stuff has
28:09
Speaker 1: happening in Europe. Meanwhile, the Bible is an Eastern you
28:13
Speaker 1: know faith. You know, there was Christianity was in Africa
28:17
Speaker 1: long before whatever in Europe. But but but then you
28:21
Speaker 1: get you know, John Calvin and Martin Luther and these
28:25
Speaker 1: individuals who you know are railing against the Catholic Church
28:29
Speaker 1: and uh and and they kind of create what we
28:32
Speaker 1: call Protestantism uh today, which is taken root in America,
28:36
Speaker 1: which is you know, pretty much what American Christianity is.
28:41
Speaker 1: A lot of it is built off of of that perspective,
28:45
Speaker 1: which is very European in nature. And so it though,
28:49
Speaker 1: and I say this about everything, you know, there's always
28:52
Speaker 1: some truth mixed in with the lies. And that's how
28:55
Speaker 1: people get fooled, is because there's always some truth mixed
28:57
Speaker 1: them with the lives, and so there's lots of great
29:00
Speaker 1: uh points and things that I think people can appreciate.
29:03
Speaker 1: But you also have to remember that there's a lot
29:04
Speaker 1: of cultural nuances that really don't fit who we are
29:09
Speaker 1: and are not really applicable to the Bible. And so
29:13
Speaker 1: I think people that have to realize that when they
29:16
Speaker 1: when they approach it and just realized how much the
29:18
Speaker 1: European culture um has been transposed over to us more
29:25
Speaker 1: so than actually you guys words transposed. When I read that,
29:29
Speaker 1: that opened my eyes. Man, That's why college changed my life.
29:33
Speaker 1: I always tell people go to college, college, because high
29:36
Speaker 1: school they deny you so many You see what Donald
29:38
Speaker 1: Trump trying to do right now. You know, don't live,
29:41
Speaker 1: don't want to, don't the truth to be read because
29:45
Speaker 1: it acknowledges that when you're trying to take down these
29:48
Speaker 1: Confederate statutes, there's a reason not to glorify when you
29:51
Speaker 1: realize the folks were attempted and so we call black
29:54
Speaker 1: lives matters thugs. You know that that you gain knowledge, information,
30:00
Speaker 1: information by being allowed to openly learned. That's what college
30:04
Speaker 1: did for me. And when I took that course, man,
30:06
Speaker 1: It's like wow, really, and and I want to close
30:10
Speaker 1: with this interesting story that you had when you was
30:12
Speaker 1: in Egypt and the god was meaning from a religious perspective,
30:17
Speaker 1: was from a historical perspective, and she was talking about
30:21
Speaker 1: the worst Pharaoh and then you and then you went
30:24
Speaker 1: from a religious perspective. She go what you're talking about?
30:26
Speaker 1: And so she likes what're talking about because of the
30:34
Speaker 1: fact that we are so guided by religion that we
30:39
Speaker 1: can allow facts to be misinterpreted. And that I'm chancing
30:45
Speaker 1: You have a great book, man, you have a great bye.
30:48
Speaker 1: I think you just just dude, read my book. Have
30:55
Speaker 1: to be respectful and understanding that you didn't. You know,
30:59
Speaker 1: you did this for a reason, and your career has
31:01
Speaker 1: allowed me to believe that you're trying to change lives.
31:04
Speaker 1: And really, in reading this book allowed me to see
31:08
Speaker 1: a personal side of you, and then a side of
31:11
Speaker 1: you that says, Okay, I gotta do better, I gotta
31:14
Speaker 1: do better. I wake up with that whole attitude I
31:17
Speaker 1: gotta do better, and I gotta do better, not for
31:19
Speaker 1: myself because I feel that I do this podcast because
31:23
Speaker 1: I'm trying to make other people do better or hear
31:25
Speaker 1: better or learn better or get some facts about it.
31:28
Speaker 1: This interview I'm doing with you is an open interview
31:30
Speaker 1: about people hearing about somebody who's telling them. Go by
31:34
Speaker 1: this book because it enabled Rashan McDonald's see some things
31:37
Speaker 1: about La Cree that enables me to understand that I
31:40
Speaker 1: can do better. I can be honest about myself. If
31:42
Speaker 1: I feel there's a dark side of me, tell somebody
31:45
Speaker 1: it's all right, it's all good. That's your book, man,
31:49
Speaker 1: that I appreciate you, Lacreze, I really do, man. And
31:52
Speaker 1: like I said, this is my second time interview, and
31:54
Speaker 1: you and I the first time. It's a good interview,
31:56
Speaker 1: But this is an interview from from a sole perspective
31:59
Speaker 1: that uh our journeys are definitely gonna be uh even
32:04
Speaker 1: bigger in the future, man, because you're special, Lucreze. And
32:07
Speaker 1: I think you at the ninth album dropping, you know,
32:11
Speaker 1: dropped in August. You got October thirte The book comes
32:14
Speaker 1: out um on YouTube right now as a series. But
32:18
Speaker 1: you and I, You and I got to my backyard.
32:21
Speaker 1: I got a little lake. Man, We're gonna go fishing.
32:23
Speaker 1: That's where I go. That's where I go to La craze.
32:25
Speaker 1: Life is bad for me. I have to go down
32:28
Speaker 1: there and wash that water. That water at water at
32:31
Speaker 1: water calms me, man, because and and and and and
32:34
Speaker 1: my property. It drops down just enough. Well, I can't
32:38
Speaker 1: see any cars. No, I can't see anything. And it
32:41
Speaker 1: just allowed me to look at that water, man, and uh,
32:43
Speaker 1: catch your fish and throw it right back and give
32:45
Speaker 1: it back to God. Man. That's what I do. Brother, Man,
32:51
Speaker 1: I love your brother. Thank you for taking the time. Man.
32:53
Speaker 1: I hope this was a nice journey talking about the
32:56
Speaker 1: part of your life that was very personal but more
32:58
Speaker 1: important to book. I am restored how I lost my
33:01
Speaker 1: religion but found my faith on sale October. Thank you, brother.
33:05
Speaker 1: If we have no Money Making Conversation interviews, please go
33:08
Speaker 1: to money Making Conversation dot com. I wish Sean McDonald
33:10
Speaker 1: I'm your host.