Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Kareem Wells Full Interview

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Kareem Wells Full Interview · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

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Speaker 1: my heart Roshan McDonald's got the thumbs up. You know
1:14
Speaker 1: that thumbs up means I should start talking. It was
1:17
Speaker 1: like a thumbs up that was kind of like had
1:19
Speaker 1: motion attached to it. So that means that get started
1:22
Speaker 1: now with energy, Rashan mcdown Welcome to money Making Conversation.
1:25
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Rashan McDonald my next guest um from
1:28
Speaker 1: the Whendy City of Chicago. I spent five years up
1:32
Speaker 1: there where I created in the executive produced Steve Harvey's
1:35
Speaker 1: talk show Up in Chicago. So I know about Chicago,
1:40
Speaker 1: the cold of Chicago, the food of Chicago, and now
1:44
Speaker 1: we're about to talk about a Bob Mitts for Legend
1:48
Speaker 1: in Chicago. He's a native of Chicago's West Side. He
1:51
Speaker 1: is the founder and CEO of Flow Entertainment and Interactive
1:55
Speaker 1: Entertainment Company. He's also a recording artist with Level Next Music,
2:00
Speaker 1: established songwriter, music producer, and the founder of the k
2:04
Speaker 1: w Oe Hope Foundation. Please welcome to money Making Conversations.
2:08
Speaker 1: Kareem Wales, what's up? What's up, y'all? What's up? My man?
2:13
Speaker 1: You go, you go, you will come up with what's up?
2:15
Speaker 1: What's up? What's up? What's what? Check? Mike, Mike, check, Mike, Mike,
2:17
Speaker 1: check my check. I can't believe you did that. What's up?
2:22
Speaker 1: What's up? What's up? What's line? You sound like a
2:24
Speaker 1: software Airlines commercial. How you doing, my friend? I'm good,
2:30
Speaker 1: I'm good brother. How you doing you? I'm really good?
2:32
Speaker 1: And welcome to Atlanta. You also heard on sirius XM,
2:36
Speaker 1: which is um HBCU campuses in Howard University campus. You
2:40
Speaker 1: also heard on our Heart radio podcast So and also
2:45
Speaker 1: if you have Alexa, just say money making conversation and
2:47
Speaker 1: you pop onto somebody's house right now. That's how we
2:50
Speaker 1: do it, that money making conversation. Sir. Now, we'll tell
2:54
Speaker 1: me what you do in your life right now. You
2:55
Speaker 1: know we're gonna expose you to my brand. My brain
2:58
Speaker 1: is about as a female dominated brand, as a as
3:02
Speaker 1: a brand dad that want about entrepreneurship, and that's what
3:04
Speaker 1: you lead. You're an interesting, uh lane of entrepreneurship and
3:07
Speaker 1: I wanted to bring you on my show just to
3:09
Speaker 1: talk about your personality, talk about your background, talk about
3:13
Speaker 1: the things that inspire you to be great, because after say,
3:16
Speaker 1: you're being great because you're doing you're having success in
3:19
Speaker 1: a very unique field. So talk to us well. UM, actually, UH,
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Speaker 1: as you said before, I am the owner of Entertainment
3:28
Speaker 1: which is an interactive UH entertainment company. We specialize in
3:32
Speaker 1: DJ's dances, MCS, musicians, sound lighting, staging. UM. We mainly
3:40
Speaker 1: do private events, one being bar Missvah's. They called me
3:45
Speaker 1: the Kingdom the Mitzvah's Um. I book out three to
3:49
Speaker 1: four years in advance, UM, and it's it's it's it's
3:54
Speaker 1: an amazing thing just to be able to go out
3:56
Speaker 1: and do something that you love with kids you know
3:59
Speaker 1: in their family, to uh three years in advance. The
4:04
Speaker 1: only thing I know is three years in advance tickets
4:06
Speaker 1: to the Jazz games, to the Package game and the
4:10
Speaker 1: Bears game. They get season Sea season tickets. So how
4:14
Speaker 1: many advents do you do a year? And just to
4:18
Speaker 1: just to bring everything into perspective, well, I have I
4:22
Speaker 1: have a team of a team of uh early six
4:25
Speaker 1: people that can go out and do these parties. So
4:29
Speaker 1: in the in the Jewish community, have you know apartments
4:31
Speaker 1: for which is for a boy and a bott mitzvagh,
4:34
Speaker 1: which is for a girl. And they have to they
4:38
Speaker 1: started an early age to start reading from the tora
4:41
Speaker 1: and learning the tora. Uh. It's a religious thing. So
4:44
Speaker 1: it starts when they're you know, ten years old, nineteen
4:48
Speaker 1: years old, So they get those you know, eight nineteen
4:50
Speaker 1: years old, and they get those dates early. They get
4:53
Speaker 1: them early to do to sell the actual celebration. They
4:55
Speaker 1: have the service during the day usually and then at
4:58
Speaker 1: night at Saturday night, they have a selling oberation. It's
5:00
Speaker 1: a coming of age event. A it's a good deed
5:06
Speaker 1: due to religious duty as a commandment. So they have
5:09
Speaker 1: to do these things and when they do it, they
5:11
Speaker 1: celebrate at night. And and we provide that entertainment. We
5:14
Speaker 1: provide an interactive entertainment. And so in order to get me,
5:18
Speaker 1: in order to get the company, you have to call
5:21
Speaker 1: us early because you know, um, we go all over,
5:24
Speaker 1: not just in Chicago, but you know here in Chicago
5:26
Speaker 1: they get it's it's just a lot of parties. So
5:29
Speaker 1: we do anywhere from you know, a hundred and you
5:32
Speaker 1: know a hundred plus, like you know, hundred thirty hundred
5:35
Speaker 1: forty parties. UM a season and the bar missile season
5:40
Speaker 1: is from uh like the third week of August all
5:43
Speaker 1: the way until June when the kids go away to camp. So, um, yeah,
5:49
Speaker 1: it's been an amazing riding and something that I would
5:52
Speaker 1: have ever thought that I would be doing that, you
5:55
Speaker 1: know that I would have found a niche born and
5:57
Speaker 1: and and to create a special way of doing it.
6:00
Speaker 1: You know, um, what what makes you? What makes your
6:03
Speaker 1: brand so popular and engaging? Because you know, first of all, congratulations,
6:09
Speaker 1: let's get that out there. Thank you. And secondly, you're
6:11
Speaker 1: taking advantage. You're taking your taking advantage of an opportunity.
6:15
Speaker 1: And then like and then it didn't magnified it. But
6:17
Speaker 1: you used to have a staff of thirty six people,
6:19
Speaker 1: so obviously your business is a profitable business. So okay,
6:25
Speaker 1: you did your first one and then all of a sudden,
6:29
Speaker 1: how did the second one come about? And how did
6:31
Speaker 1: you eventually realize I'm on to something? Well, you know, um,
6:37
Speaker 1: the first the first party I ever did, I was
6:40
Speaker 1: tall because the company at the time they were short
6:43
Speaker 1: of dancing and one of my half brothers he called
6:46
Speaker 1: me up and was like, you know, he knew I
6:47
Speaker 1: could dance. He was just like, man, we need somebody
6:49
Speaker 1: you know, right away he knew I was close in
6:51
Speaker 1: the area, so I went over there and got over there,
6:55
Speaker 1: and and I get there and it's inside of this
6:58
Speaker 1: big nightclub they were in. They took over the entire nightclub,
7:02
Speaker 1: right about the entire place. And I get there and
7:05
Speaker 1: I look on stage and I'm just like, what is it,
7:07
Speaker 1: like his fifty and birthday or something like, you know,
7:10
Speaker 1: what is it? He said, no, he pointed to to
7:13
Speaker 1: the to the young man, it was like, it's his party.
7:16
Speaker 1: And I was just blown away, Like I couldn't believe
7:18
Speaker 1: that it was a thirteen year old kids party with
7:21
Speaker 1: you know, all those adults, all those kids singing and dancing,
7:25
Speaker 1: and I just could not believe it. I was. I
7:27
Speaker 1: was blown away. I did that. I didn't really know
7:29
Speaker 1: anything about or anything in the Jewish community, you know,
7:33
Speaker 1: I really didn't, and it just blew my mind. And
7:36
Speaker 1: then I put in put in a little little research
7:38
Speaker 1: to find out what it was really about. And when
7:40
Speaker 1: I learned that it wasn't just about throwing a big party.
7:43
Speaker 1: It was about a commandment, you know, from God, in
7:45
Speaker 1: a big religious duty that you know, a good being
7:47
Speaker 1: that the kid had to do. This was something that
7:49
Speaker 1: was a part of their religion. And I thought that
7:52
Speaker 1: was beautiful. I thought it was amazing to celebrate a
7:54
Speaker 1: coming of age party that way. You know, I just
7:56
Speaker 1: thought it was amazing. It was it was you know,
7:59
Speaker 1: like like what I like to say to day. It
8:00
Speaker 1: was a party with purpose. It wasn't just like, okay,
8:03
Speaker 1: you know, a sweet sixteen. I get it, you know,
8:05
Speaker 1: super sweet sixteen, but this is something you can only
8:07
Speaker 1: do one time with a kid, you know, um and
8:11
Speaker 1: you know it. Truly, it wasn't always like this for me.
8:14
Speaker 1: It wasn't you know, I didn't. I didn't. It wasn't
8:16
Speaker 1: always called the King of the miss was. I had
8:17
Speaker 1: no idea that I would be doing you know, private
8:20
Speaker 1: events the way that we're doing. Um no, because I
8:24
Speaker 1: can't let you miss steps that. Okay, you came in
8:27
Speaker 1: as a as a dancer. Okay, you're dancing. Now you're not.
8:30
Speaker 1: You're not the king of about miss for yet. You
8:32
Speaker 1: know you you're a last second dancer that Okay, I
8:37
Speaker 1: was last I was. I was like I was. I
8:39
Speaker 1: was an emergency call. Okay, let's let's go back to
8:43
Speaker 1: the second one. Okay, So so now you're you're just
8:46
Speaker 1: start so go to the steps here. So my fan
8:49
Speaker 1: base can understand how you just took a concept, an
8:53
Speaker 1: idea and when I said a blessing, you took a
8:56
Speaker 1: blessing and bi okay. So so the first party I did,
9:01
Speaker 1: the party, people were excited by that. By that Monday,
9:07
Speaker 1: it was a Saturday. By that Monday, I get a
9:09
Speaker 1: call from the owner at the time of that company
9:11
Speaker 1: and he said, you brought something different. And he was like,
9:15
Speaker 1: you brought something you know, you brought something different to
9:17
Speaker 1: the to the table. And he was like, so people
9:19
Speaker 1: request you. The people that were there, we're doing some
9:21
Speaker 1: of their parties and their kids. You just came in
9:25
Speaker 1: as a dancer, dude, Okay, what were you doing? Made
9:28
Speaker 1: the worm on the floor, the snag? What were you doing? Man?
9:34
Speaker 1: You're a party you are a party starter. Like you
9:37
Speaker 1: you're hyping the crowd of like okay, dancing with them.
9:40
Speaker 1: They were doing like follow along stuff that they were
9:43
Speaker 1: doing three steps to the left, three steps to the right.
9:46
Speaker 1: Was that kind of thing but a hype master, Yeah, yeah,
9:52
Speaker 1: we're hyping the crowd up with the m C. The
9:54
Speaker 1: m C. The m C had the mic, the dances
9:57
Speaker 1: were literally dancing with the people like you know, you
9:59
Speaker 1: have a about four to six then and sometimes eight.
10:02
Speaker 1: You go out there and you're just hyping the crowd up,
10:05
Speaker 1: you know, singing with the kids. They get this time,
10:07
Speaker 1: they get a lot of what we call following along dance,
10:10
Speaker 1: and like, you know, it's just movement, energetic movement, you know,
10:14
Speaker 1: interactive energetic movements. What I like to call was friendly
10:19
Speaker 1: and you were very accommodating to the young people, made
10:23
Speaker 1: them feel at home. All this is called customer service, everybody.
10:27
Speaker 1: You know, I didn't break this stuff down. I try
10:32
Speaker 1: to break this stuff to people. And you know, what
10:35
Speaker 1: they really like. What's what's interesting is they really love
10:39
Speaker 1: you know, I wmuch, just call it what it was.
10:40
Speaker 1: They loved my swack. Like I came baseball cap on.
10:44
Speaker 1: You know, I was dressed still nice, you know, and
10:45
Speaker 1: all black and you gotta dress you know, we're all black.
10:47
Speaker 1: We came, we were you know. I had that type
10:50
Speaker 1: of attitude of I'm just gonna have fun. I was
10:53
Speaker 1: excited too, and that's in that probably show two because
10:55
Speaker 1: I've never seen anything like that. And we're dancing to
10:57
Speaker 1: the hottest music. They will listening to everything that the
11:00
Speaker 1: kids in the hood would be listening to it wasn't like,
11:02
Speaker 1: oh we purvous kids, and we listened to it, not
11:04
Speaker 1: eventening to the same music, and they turned it all
11:06
Speaker 1: the way up to it. So I was just excited
11:09
Speaker 1: and engaged. And when I did that, and you know,
11:12
Speaker 1: I had a different style, like you know, with my
11:14
Speaker 1: hat on and just you know, I got I had,
11:16
Speaker 1: I had my black you know, I had some um
11:18
Speaker 1: at the time, I own some George's I remember, had
11:20
Speaker 1: Jordans on my feet, and I was just I had
11:23
Speaker 1: a different swag about doing it, like you know, like
11:25
Speaker 1: when I would when I would watch it, like when
11:27
Speaker 1: I look back, I would I would be watching how
11:29
Speaker 1: it was done, and I was like, man, we gotta
11:32
Speaker 1: make this cooler. This this could be hip for and cooler.
11:34
Speaker 1: That's what I was thinking to myself, like, you know,
11:36
Speaker 1: it's tradition, but the way that they're doing these dances,
11:39
Speaker 1: I think we could do it and make it look
11:40
Speaker 1: a little you know, a lot more, a lot more
11:42
Speaker 1: hip and a lot more cool, you know, put a
11:44
Speaker 1: little bit more swag on it. And and that's what
11:46
Speaker 1: my attitude always was. And people they noticed it, you know,
11:49
Speaker 1: the Jewish community noticed it. You gotta remember they they
11:52
Speaker 1: Jewish community and the small community. People think it's a
11:54
Speaker 1: big huge, it's a small everybody knows everybody. And the
11:58
Speaker 1: word of mouth got out. It was this new cat,
12:00
Speaker 1: that's what. That's what found out. They were like, it's
12:03
Speaker 1: this new guy. You gotta have him on your party.
12:06
Speaker 1: Got and I started getting requested. So on that Monday
12:08
Speaker 1: from that party I got requested was like three different
12:10
Speaker 1: families every and the guy he said to me, Hey,
12:13
Speaker 1: I'm gonna pay you this much. He said, how would
12:15
Speaker 1: you like to do? I was like, well, it's not
12:16
Speaker 1: gonna interfield my music, right, It's not gonna sfere with
12:18
Speaker 1: anything I'm doing through the weeks like no, So I
12:21
Speaker 1: was like cool. So I started getting requested and and
12:24
Speaker 1: and next thing, you know, but I mean being a rapper,
12:26
Speaker 1: you know, I was like I knew how to grab
12:27
Speaker 1: the mic. And I was watching that guy at the
12:29
Speaker 1: time and watching other people and how I was done.
12:31
Speaker 1: I was studying them. You know that guy when he
12:33
Speaker 1: was really good. I give him respect, you know, he
12:36
Speaker 1: was he was really good. Uh his white guy, he know,
12:39
Speaker 1: he was good at what he did. But I was like,
12:41
Speaker 1: I gotta do it my way. Like he said. One
12:43
Speaker 1: day he asked me to them. See. He was like,
12:45
Speaker 1: how would you like the m c you know, cold
12:47
Speaker 1: and see with me and my party. I was like cool,
12:49
Speaker 1: So he gave he went on the mic and then
12:52
Speaker 1: he gave me the mike, and I gave it a
12:54
Speaker 1: different approach, you I mean, like a way different approach
12:57
Speaker 1: where it was truly about giving something like like you
13:02
Speaker 1: know when you get it's it's a difference when you
13:03
Speaker 1: get on the mic and you get on that mic
13:04
Speaker 1: and you just start, you know, making it all about
13:07
Speaker 1: you trying to be a start doing it. I wasn't
13:08
Speaker 1: on that. I was really highlighting the family and really
13:11
Speaker 1: highlighting your friends, and like I took approach, let me
13:15
Speaker 1: be self less, you know what I'm saying. Like I
13:17
Speaker 1: was really in that mindset like this it's a little kid,
13:19
Speaker 1: you know. I wanted to be about them because when
13:21
Speaker 1: you're thirteen, you don't know if you're tall enough, if
13:24
Speaker 1: you're strong enough, you're pretty you know, you have all
13:26
Speaker 1: these different thoughts in amount at thirteen. So I was like,
13:28
Speaker 1: let me highlight them like they just start on the
13:31
Speaker 1: phone with the King about Mrs Chicago Kareem Whales fascinating
13:36
Speaker 1: story fascinating story about how you've given an opportunity, you
13:40
Speaker 1: educate yourself on the opportunity, you turn into a brand,
13:43
Speaker 1: and you turn into a thriving business of thirty six employees.
13:47
Speaker 1: We'll be back with more money making conversation in Kareem
13:49
Speaker 1: Whales straight out of Chicago West Side, make conversation. HI,
13:55
Speaker 1: This for Sean McDonald. You're listening to money making conversations
13:59
Speaker 1: on the phone. Is a native of Chicago's West Side.
14:01
Speaker 1: He's the founder and CEO of Flow Entertainment and Interactive
14:05
Speaker 1: Entertainment Company. He's also a recording artist with a Level
14:08
Speaker 1: with Level Next Music and established songwriter, music producer, and
14:12
Speaker 1: the founder of the k w Oe Hope Foundation. The
14:15
Speaker 1: reason I have on the phone, besides all those tremendous
14:18
Speaker 1: accolades that I gave you, was that he is known
14:20
Speaker 1: as the king of all missus in the city of Chicago,
14:24
Speaker 1: and um, I'm familiar with the city of Chicago. He's
14:27
Speaker 1: African American and he's uh already one of them. That
14:30
Speaker 1: he's handsome. He's told you know, people just be giving
14:33
Speaker 1: you extra Kareem extra handsthing tall. I said, I gotta
14:37
Speaker 1: say all that to say he's talented, but you know,
14:39
Speaker 1: she said he's handsome and tall. But the more importantly,
14:42
Speaker 1: this is what I love about your story, and I'm
14:44
Speaker 1: so happy you're on my show, money making conversations about
14:47
Speaker 1: letting people see other slices of life to be successful
14:51
Speaker 1: because of what I've always trying to do with individuals
14:53
Speaker 1: is that you know, there's so many lanes that you
14:55
Speaker 1: can be successful. Says, you can have a career, that
14:58
Speaker 1: you can gain financial support for your lifestyle. But keep
15:01
Speaker 1: on an open mind, keep an open mind, and that's
15:05
Speaker 1: what happened to my career. A lot of people says
15:08
Speaker 1: always tell me, Rashan, you know how to reinvent yourself.
15:11
Speaker 1: It is because I see opportunities, because I also see
15:14
Speaker 1: the work that's tied to that opportunity, and I'm committed
15:18
Speaker 1: to being successful because I'm willing to do the work.
15:20
Speaker 1: When I hear your story, Mr called at the last minute, Mr,
15:25
Speaker 1: just come on in and do your thing. You saw
15:28
Speaker 1: an opportunity, whether it was natural or it was calculated,
15:32
Speaker 1: to become engaged, and by becoming engaged, you established a business.
15:38
Speaker 1: A business right now is very successful that you established
15:41
Speaker 1: in yourself or your bookings are three years in advance.
15:44
Speaker 1: My friend, that's a great thing. And I have to
15:47
Speaker 1: just say congratulations on that before we start talking about
15:50
Speaker 1: anything else that has to be applauded. As a young entrepreneur,
15:54
Speaker 1: you and that what they call that, that that age
15:56
Speaker 1: group of being a millennial and you're and you're making
15:59
Speaker 1: it happen. Thank you so much. I really appreciate that.
16:03
Speaker 1: You know. Um, one of the things you said, by
16:05
Speaker 1: putting in the work, like that's something that a lot
16:08
Speaker 1: of people miss. And the truth is, you know, I
16:10
Speaker 1: put in the work when everybody else see I'm a
16:12
Speaker 1: night out, But when everybody else is sleeping, I'm up
16:14
Speaker 1: and I'm thinking about what I need to do. How
16:16
Speaker 1: can I be better? How can I make things better?
16:18
Speaker 1: And to be able to do that, UM, hiring people,
16:22
Speaker 1: don't you know? You know Chicago, so you know what
16:23
Speaker 1: eagle Wood is like. You know that originally from the
16:26
Speaker 1: West Side, you know, from the projects. You know, UM,
16:29
Speaker 1: I hired people from those areas. You know what I'm
16:31
Speaker 1: trying to get in my opportunity the same way I
16:33
Speaker 1: was giving an opportunity to see things differently than just
16:36
Speaker 1: you know, a four to eight block radius. You know,
16:38
Speaker 1: you know being in the streets like I was, I
16:40
Speaker 1: was able to, you know, look, you know, reflect back
16:43
Speaker 1: and say, hey man, I gotta I gotta pull people
16:45
Speaker 1: up and get them out. Because before I was doing
16:47
Speaker 1: you know, the whole party, miss the thing. Before I
16:49
Speaker 1: got called from that party, I was pursuing music. But
16:52
Speaker 1: I also was a bus boy, you know. I was
16:54
Speaker 1: a bus boy at the East Peak Club, at a
16:56
Speaker 1: at a Ritchie little club over here. So I I
16:59
Speaker 1: had coportunity to get out of the neighborhood, you know,
17:02
Speaker 1: I had an opportunity to get out of you know,
17:04
Speaker 1: to see something difference, to open my mind up to hey,
17:07
Speaker 1: I could do this, I could really do something other
17:09
Speaker 1: than you know what I was doing, you know. So
17:12
Speaker 1: I I got there stop busting tables, and when the
17:16
Speaker 1: music canvy, I I just never gave up, you know.
17:19
Speaker 1: And what I hear is that you humble, you know.
17:22
Speaker 1: And I find that the lanes of success because of
17:26
Speaker 1: the fact that I've done a lot of significant things
17:28
Speaker 1: in my life from a from an entertainment standpoint. And
17:31
Speaker 1: I I always remember this story people always tell when
17:34
Speaker 1: I was managed in Steve Harvey very early on, when
17:37
Speaker 1: I was still doing stand up and people always say, man,
17:39
Speaker 1: you're as funny as Steve Harvey, Why why would you
17:42
Speaker 1: manage him? Why would you why would you not build
17:45
Speaker 1: your career out Because guess what, that wasn't part of
17:47
Speaker 1: my plan. I understood, yeah, and then and so so
17:52
Speaker 1: that's why here coming out of you is understanding your
17:55
Speaker 1: lane and a lot of people need to understand that
17:57
Speaker 1: that when you're trying to build a plan for success,
17:59
Speaker 1: and that's with you. That's what you're doing on this
18:01
Speaker 1: car right now. This is part of your brand build
18:03
Speaker 1: to be on money making conversations because when you book
18:06
Speaker 1: three years in advance, you pretty much don't need a
18:09
Speaker 1: salesman at this point. But you would like the people
18:12
Speaker 1: to understand your story. And let's go back a little
18:15
Speaker 1: bit on your story. You know, grew up in a rough, rough,
18:17
Speaker 1: rough neighborhood in Chicago, started selling drugs when you were fourteen,
18:21
Speaker 1: and you dropped out of high school two years later.
18:24
Speaker 1: Talk about that journey and and what made you what
18:29
Speaker 1: made drugs an option? Well, when when you know, when
18:32
Speaker 1: you're growing up in a single parent household, you know,
18:34
Speaker 1: like many many others that I know, my father was
18:36
Speaker 1: never in my life. You know, so we didn't, you know,
18:39
Speaker 1: I had I had anger about that we didn't have
18:42
Speaker 1: you know, I didn't have the latest clothes and the
18:43
Speaker 1: latest sneakers and um, you know, we didn't have you know,
18:47
Speaker 1: a lot of food. It was it was things that
18:49
Speaker 1: you know that could for for a teenager, you know,
18:52
Speaker 1: like with with you know, with low self estee because
18:54
Speaker 1: most of us have when your father. You don't have
18:56
Speaker 1: that positive black male role model in your life. A
18:59
Speaker 1: lot of times yourself the steemmate really in order, you're
19:01
Speaker 1: not really sure about things. You're not like you said,
19:03
Speaker 1: you know, I should be tall enough, if you're cool enough,
19:05
Speaker 1: be strong enough. He's just not. And I was presented
19:08
Speaker 1: with an opportunity from a guy that I just loved
19:10
Speaker 1: to this day. He's no longer here. He got murdered.
19:13
Speaker 1: Um his name is Marshall Hill Jr. We called him
19:16
Speaker 1: Chief and he was somebody that took me in. He
19:18
Speaker 1: showed me how to you know, make money. You know,
19:21
Speaker 1: I was presented with the opportunity and at that age,
19:24
Speaker 1: you know, you're fearless. You really don't think about what
19:26
Speaker 1: you're doing wrong, what you're doing right. Just go you
19:28
Speaker 1: just go what the times is and you know what
19:30
Speaker 1: it is, and that's what I did. I followed this
19:32
Speaker 1: guy and I listened to him, and he, you know,
19:35
Speaker 1: I know most people, you know, when you think of,
19:36
Speaker 1: you know, a drug dealt, you think, oh, there's an
19:38
Speaker 1: evil person. You think you know, this person is no good.
19:41
Speaker 1: They they ate the community. This is this. It wasn't
19:43
Speaker 1: really like that. It was more so to survive. You know,
19:45
Speaker 1: you're thinking, you know, I'm doing this to survive. This
19:47
Speaker 1: person showed me how to survive in the streets. He
19:50
Speaker 1: showed me how to do you know, how to sales drugs,
19:51
Speaker 1: how to how to do it. But in the same breath,
19:54
Speaker 1: as I got older and he saw I had a talent,
19:56
Speaker 1: he said, he always something He thought I had something
19:58
Speaker 1: special because I was always walking around wrap and then
20:00
Speaker 1: you know, singing melodies and throwing stuff like that, and
20:02
Speaker 1: he was like, you know, you can't do this no more.
20:05
Speaker 1: So he pulled me out to him and a bunch
20:07
Speaker 1: of other guys from the neighborhood that I respect, al
20:10
Speaker 1: vest and Judie George, just a lot of people that
20:13
Speaker 1: I respect even to this disrespect him as individuals. And
20:17
Speaker 1: they're no longer in it either, you know what I mean.
20:19
Speaker 1: But this particular person just believed in me. You know,
20:22
Speaker 1: to have a black man, and I know it's important.
20:25
Speaker 1: A lot of people may not understand this, but they
20:27
Speaker 1: really should. Um, when you have a black male that
20:32
Speaker 1: you could look up to, a positive male role model
20:35
Speaker 1: that you can look up to, and that loves you,
20:37
Speaker 1: would care about you enough to say, hey, yeah you did.
20:42
Speaker 1: I did this for you so you could make money
20:43
Speaker 1: and so you could do something for your mama. Right.
20:45
Speaker 1: But then as he saw something in me that I
20:48
Speaker 1: didn't even see in me, you know the way he
20:50
Speaker 1: saw it, he said, you could no longer do this.
20:52
Speaker 1: And he let everybody know from the community, abody in
20:55
Speaker 1: the hood, everybody, and he moved me to a whole
20:57
Speaker 1: another neighborhood that I wasn't even from. You know what
20:59
Speaker 1: I'm saying, I'm from the same neighborhood as a deal
21:02
Speaker 1: gives the comedian like like I who I called him
21:05
Speaker 1: my big sister, Like it was like that, you know
21:07
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. So, you had a lot of people
21:09
Speaker 1: looking out for me, and I believed in me. And
21:12
Speaker 1: and when he did that, he can Yeah, he said,
21:16
Speaker 1: get a job, go back to school, or um he
21:20
Speaker 1: said he did go back to school, get a job,
21:23
Speaker 1: he said, or go back to school. He go back
21:26
Speaker 1: to school, he was. He was telling me, I got
21:28
Speaker 1: I got some things to do, three things that I
21:30
Speaker 1: needed to do, and I did those three. I did
21:34
Speaker 1: two of the three. I got a job, and I
21:37
Speaker 1: pursued my music. That was the third thing he said,
21:39
Speaker 1: to pursue pursue your music. I chose to get a job,
21:42
Speaker 1: to pursue my music because at the time, I now,
21:45
Speaker 1: I got a baby, you know, popping up. You know,
21:48
Speaker 1: things are changing, you know, like you know, I got
21:50
Speaker 1: a baby, and and just like you know, you're having
21:52
Speaker 1: a baby, it's six seen years old. That's like that's
21:54
Speaker 1: a no no, you know, like like but it happened,
21:57
Speaker 1: and I did those suits things. And in that same instance,
22:03
Speaker 1: I got hooked up in the bartmental world along the lines,
22:05
Speaker 1: you know what. I'm as long as as the time
22:07
Speaker 1: went by. But he got gets murdered, and I had
22:10
Speaker 1: to make a conscious decision. Am I gonna go and
22:12
Speaker 1: try to revenge and find out who did it and
22:14
Speaker 1: really go crazy because I was hurt, you know what
22:16
Speaker 1: I mean? That was somebody I really loved, like that
22:18
Speaker 1: I knew loved me. You know what I'm saying. No
22:20
Speaker 1: matter what nobody said. You know, he made some bad
22:22
Speaker 1: decisions in his life. It was your father, Yeah, he
22:27
Speaker 1: was like my father said, he's my big brother, like
22:29
Speaker 1: for real all day. And I I had to make
22:32
Speaker 1: a decision and I made it, and I pursued my
22:34
Speaker 1: music and I got a job, and I got up
22:36
Speaker 1: my first commercial, you know, doing like a little voice
22:38
Speaker 1: over on a commercial. Interesting, thinking about what your story career.
22:42
Speaker 1: And I always tell people this, and I tell him,
22:45
Speaker 1: is that there's a farking roll on every decision we're
22:47
Speaker 1: making out. That's why people in jail, that's why people
22:50
Speaker 1: are not and I and I can tell you this.
22:52
Speaker 1: I've done some silly things in my life where I
22:55
Speaker 1: could have been arrested for doing silly stuff. You know
22:57
Speaker 1: what I did when I look back on it, special
22:59
Speaker 1: stuff I did when I was pledging my fraternity because
23:02
Speaker 1: they made you do stuff, you know, and uh, but
23:05
Speaker 1: they didn't. The negative thing didn't happen to me. And
23:08
Speaker 1: also in the situation of violence, you know, the walkaway
23:11
Speaker 1: or the hanging there or the man whoo, all those things.
23:15
Speaker 1: But my man, I know that I respect your life,
23:18
Speaker 1: I respect your effort I'm proud of the fact that
23:21
Speaker 1: you have a title like the King of Ava's in Chicago.
23:25
Speaker 1: But before we wrap up, I want to I'll be
23:27
Speaker 1: remiss if I don't talk about the k w O. E.
23:30
Speaker 1: Hope Foundation, and the short synopsis tell us exactly what
23:32
Speaker 1: that is, Kareem, so we can know how we can
23:35
Speaker 1: make donations if possible. It's a five and one see three. Uh,
23:39
Speaker 1: it's the co Foundation. And I'm just really usual using
23:45
Speaker 1: myself in my life experiences to influence young young kids
23:49
Speaker 1: and just into influence adults that they can. There's always
23:54
Speaker 1: room for change, and my story is to help really
24:00
Speaker 1: um remove people from the communities that they're in, remove
24:04
Speaker 1: people from the communities that they're in, remove them from
24:07
Speaker 1: the mind state that they're in. More so, remove them
24:11
Speaker 1: from the mind state that they're in. Because I was
24:13
Speaker 1: in that same mind state, I thought it was just
24:15
Speaker 1: about a certain thing. So my my goal is to
24:18
Speaker 1: continue to go out speak because I do speak, in
24:20
Speaker 1: engage with where I go, and then just inspire the
24:22
Speaker 1: kids with my life story. You know, I went back
24:24
Speaker 1: and got much day two years ago. I went back,
24:27
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. I tell them my entire story.
24:29
Speaker 1: So it's to really help change the trajectory of our
24:34
Speaker 1: young youth and to so that they can make better choices.
24:39
Speaker 1: My job is to inspire them, to encourage them to
24:42
Speaker 1: do better and to be better. That is my job
24:44
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna always do that As a black man,
24:46
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be that black man that can inspire people.
24:49
Speaker 1: They can inspire the kids. And I want to show
24:51
Speaker 1: the different white people. I want to show the other
24:53
Speaker 1: communities that look, no, not all bad things come from
24:56
Speaker 1: these places. Bad things come from everywhere in the world.
24:59
Speaker 1: Like I want to oh you that look you got
25:01
Speaker 1: this young black high school dropout that's drug dealer who
25:05
Speaker 1: is now called the Kingdom of miss And I'm running
25:08
Speaker 1: some of the top the top party in the country.
25:11
Speaker 1: Like I gotta wrapper up of my friend, but you know,
25:16
Speaker 1: I want them to give you my cell number so
25:18
Speaker 1: we stay in touch when I come to Chicago and
25:19
Speaker 1: go to Battles and Berries and wrap a little bit,
25:22
Speaker 1: my friend. I appreciate you coming on money making conversation
25:25
Speaker 1: and anytime you need Roshan McDonald, I'll be there for you.
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