Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Rushion Interviews Denim Richard who stars as Colby in the Paramounts hit series "Yellowstone".

Transcript

Rushion Interviews Denim Richard who stars as Colby in the Paramounts hit series "Yellowstone". · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

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  Speaker 1: My guest is Denim Richards. He stars in one of
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  Speaker 1: my favorite show. He's characters Kobe when the hit TV
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  Speaker 1: series Yellowstone on the Paramount Network. Now, if you don't
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  Speaker 1: know about real Stone, you really, really really just stop.
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  Speaker 1: Don't even look at my show. Don't look at my show.
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  Speaker 1: This is how much I'm so excited about this interview.
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  Speaker 1: Actor Denim Richards has been performing for over two decades,
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  Speaker 1: with twenty plus musical theater productions as well as numerous
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  Speaker 1: TV and film credits under his belt. He's also an
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  Speaker 1: author producer in Philanthropists. He's only sure to talk about
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  Speaker 1: his character of Kobe, which has been the fan reacting,
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  Speaker 1: also the fan reactions to the show Cobe, especially when
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  Speaker 1: he got that love interest and we can expect to
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  Speaker 1: see in this upcoming season. Plus discussed his career overall
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  Speaker 1: acting and what he's doing and moving forward writing, directing,
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  Speaker 1: and his production company Please work with the Money Making
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  Speaker 1: Conversation master Class. Denim Richards, Hello, thank you so much
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  Speaker 1: for having me. I'm super excited to be here and
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  Speaker 1: cover the water with you. Well, first of all, I
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  Speaker 1: thank you for taking the time to come on the show.
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  Speaker 1: Before we get into Yellowstone, just let's a little bit
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  Speaker 1: back about your journey, because it says you've been over
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  Speaker 1: two decades and in this industry. You know, I'll be
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  Speaker 1: honest with you. I'm watching you on a Yellowstone. I
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  Speaker 1: didn't know you'd be involved in the musical. So you're
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  Speaker 1: telling me you can sing? Yes, Yes. I started in
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  Speaker 1: theater first, and then I spent a lot of time
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  Speaker 1: doing that, just learning and cultivating. Um. And then as
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  Speaker 1: I got older and started with plays, and then the
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  Speaker 1: place turned into music thales and I really caught the
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  Speaker 1: kind of the theater bug for a while. And uh,
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  Speaker 1: after that, it was this is just what we did.
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  Speaker 1: And so I just went from one musical together. Um,
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  Speaker 1: I thought that I was just gonna making calear out
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  Speaker 1: of that. But apparently the challenge wasn't enough. To say,
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  Speaker 1: then to get into television film, which was far more challenging,
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  Speaker 1: it took a lot longer to get into it. But nonetheless, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: it was. It was a great experience when I was
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  Speaker 1: doing it. Now, let's talk about where are you from originally,
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  Speaker 1: and then also what did you go to launch your
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  Speaker 1: your career in entertainment. So I grew up in Orange County, California,
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  Speaker 1: which is like forty minutes south of Los Angeles. UM,
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  Speaker 1: and I kind of I started in school, um, and
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  Speaker 1: so it was something that it was, you know, one
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  Speaker 1: of the kind of the arts opportunities that they that
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  Speaker 1: was there. And you know, when I was probably in kindergarten,
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  Speaker 1: you know, they we always do these like small little
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  Speaker 1: like school families uh and um, you know, we would
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  Speaker 1: I think we had like one time where it was
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  Speaker 1: our time to perform and I was told just to
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  Speaker 1: stand there with the sign don't do anything crazy. Uh.
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  Speaker 1: And then when I saw like the k through eight
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  Speaker 1: kids coming in and the teachers and the principles and
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  Speaker 1: the parents, I was like, well, this this looks like
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  Speaker 1: this is my time to shine and um. You know,
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  Speaker 1: so I got up and didn't. I did a little
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  Speaker 1: bit more than uh than just standing there all in
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  Speaker 1: the side and made everyone laugh. My teacher didn't. UM.
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  Speaker 1: But then after that they there was a big performance
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  Speaker 1: I was gonna be coming up and it was like
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  Speaker 1: maybe like three or six hundred people. I can't really
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  Speaker 1: remember now, but they had asked my parents, you know,
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  Speaker 1: do you think that Den would want to sing um?
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  Speaker 1: You know in this uh, in this arboretum type of situation,
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  Speaker 1: and there I was like, yeah, and I loved it
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  Speaker 1: because I can get out of class um. And so
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  Speaker 1: I did that. And then that's kind of just the
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  Speaker 1: way that it started. And you know, I slowly was
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  Speaker 1: pursuing it um. And then you know, towards my teenage years,
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  Speaker 1: I was like, oh, I just want to you know,
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  Speaker 1: play basketball, play football, you know, hang out with my friends.
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  Speaker 1: But I was never able to truly get away from
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  Speaker 1: from the arts. Uh. And then I finally I think
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  Speaker 1: I just like gave myself over to it when I
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  Speaker 1: was about sixteen. Well, you know, it's interesting because you know,
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  Speaker 1: when you are trying to find your place in life,
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  Speaker 1: you know, you change around with your friends, and then
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  Speaker 1: when your friends don't do what you do and can
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  Speaker 1: kind of make you feel uncomfortable. And so that's an
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  Speaker 1: uncomfortable especially in the arts, because people don't really see
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  Speaker 1: that as something physical, is something that they can participate in.
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  Speaker 1: And also they can also say, oh, man, you never
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  Speaker 1: be this, You'll never be that person, So how did
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  Speaker 1: you at that young age? So you know, some I
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  Speaker 1: believe I can't be that person and ignore their thoughts
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  Speaker 1: even though they were just your friends, they were your friends. Right. No,
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  Speaker 1: that's a it's a great, great question. I think it's
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  Speaker 1: important for everyone. We talked about this, so I talked
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  Speaker 1: about this all the time. Um. You know, a lot
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  Speaker 1: of us become very defined by our circumstances, and we
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  Speaker 1: allow ourselves to be defined by the people that are
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  Speaker 1: around us, and so that can be really hard because
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  Speaker 1: sometimes the friends or even family members can kind of
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  Speaker 1: be your like the trap to your downfall. And so
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  Speaker 1: it was something for me that I just I knew
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  Speaker 1: that I was born and created for a specific purpose.
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  Speaker 1: I always felt the desire for the arts. UM. I
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  Speaker 1: always knew that there was something special. UM that wasn't
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  Speaker 1: you know. When I was younger, I wasn't quite certain
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  Speaker 1: about what that was. UM. But as I've gotten older
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  Speaker 1: and have cultivated a little bit more, UM, I just
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  Speaker 1: realized that it was just a lot of self belief.
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  Speaker 1: You know, when you're younger, you don't know any better,
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  Speaker 1: so you don't know that you can fail. Um, So
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  Speaker 1: you just kind of go into it. And then of
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  Speaker 1: course when you start to become of age and it's
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  Speaker 1: like your money on the line and you know, rent
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  Speaker 1: has to be paid and all these other things, then
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  Speaker 1: you do sing around and go like, man, maybe everybody
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  Speaker 1: was right, maybe I should maybe I shouldn't be doing that.
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  Speaker 1: But you kind of get to a point where you
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  Speaker 1: just say, what would happen if I just went all in?
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  Speaker 1: And I think for many of us, we have these
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  Speaker 1: dreams or these desires, bulls, dreams and aspirations, and we
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  Speaker 1: kind of like tiptoe our way into it, and then
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  Speaker 1: we wonder why we're never getting fully submerged in the opportunity.
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  Speaker 1: It's like, well, because you're just trying to dip one
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  Speaker 1: till at a time. There's got to be a certain
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  Speaker 1: point where you just say, screw it, let's just dive
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  Speaker 1: in and see what happened. We'll be right back with
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  Speaker 1: more Money Making Conversations Masterclass with Rushan McDonald. Now, let's
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: return to Money Making Conversations Masterclass with Rushan McDonald. When
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  Speaker 1: when when you say boring in Orange County, which is
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  Speaker 1: for the means outside the l A, which is entertainment
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  Speaker 1: capital Worlydia's Hollywood. But do you also say that we're
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  Speaker 1: musical now? You don't think musical in Hollywood, the musical
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  Speaker 1: on West Coast? How did we get to musicals? Now?
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  Speaker 1: Then talk about that, Well, I would have loved to
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  Speaker 1: have started on Broadway, but no, Um, I was at
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  Speaker 1: a performing arts kind of school. In the regard of
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  Speaker 1: they had a lot of different performers that would come
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  Speaker 1: to the school and they did this kind of these
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  Speaker 1: two performances that were these massive global performances called The
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  Speaker 1: Glory of Christmas and the Glory of Easter. And I
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  Speaker 1: was able to be a part of these shows at
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  Speaker 1: a very early age. And so because of this, they
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  Speaker 1: had these global artists that were always coming in for
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  Speaker 1: people that were doing opera UM from gospel to you know,
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  Speaker 1: you name it, that we're part of this in ballet
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  Speaker 1: and New York Ballet whatever. And so some of them
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  Speaker 1: took me under their wing and said, you know, UM,
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  Speaker 1: we're kind of in and around Los Angeles and if
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  Speaker 1: you ever want to train, you know further, there's a
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  Speaker 1: lot of different areas to do out of musical theater
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  Speaker 1: and training in this uh this down the third UM.
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  Speaker 1: So I did a lot of my training in like
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  Speaker 1: the Redondo Beach area, which is maybe fifteen minutes from
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  Speaker 1: Los Angeles. UM and UH, I got a lot of
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  Speaker 1: my training there where I just I joined the conservatory
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  Speaker 1: when I was sixteen and I was with this conservatory
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  Speaker 1: from about sixteen to maybe twenty and um, I got
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  Speaker 1: a lot of musical theater training. Um. There we did
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  Speaker 1: a lot of different performances, a lot of private performances.
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  Speaker 1: You know. They were the reason why I got paid
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  Speaker 1: first to sing at you know, some events, and so
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  Speaker 1: I really got a lot of training there, which was
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  Speaker 1: just that was absolutely amazing for me because the high
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  Speaker 1: school that I was going to at the time didn't
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  Speaker 1: allow for that. So that's how I got my start. Now,
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  Speaker 1: Kobe apologize Now then I'm Kobe, the character Kobe yes
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  Speaker 1: on the show. Now we talked about, well you came
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  Speaker 1: from you didn't come from Montanny. You know. I was
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  Speaker 1: born to raised in Texas. So if you if I
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  Speaker 1: got an active role on a you know, in a western,
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  Speaker 1: because it is this is a rest and I would
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  Speaker 1: get anybody says Yellowstone is a Western him by the
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  Speaker 1: brilliant Kevin Costa. I'll tell some about me and Kevin Costa.
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  Speaker 1: Don't know the young man. But every time Open Range
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  Speaker 1: comes on, I stopped and watching. I will watch that
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  Speaker 1: movie as one of the all time favorite Kevin Costa movies.
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  Speaker 1: How did that opportunity come to you because I see
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  Speaker 1: two decades of musical I don't see I was, I
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  Speaker 1: was on, I was riding hardshes, I was trading. How
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  Speaker 1: does that come to you? Mr? Black Man. So I
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  Speaker 1: was doing a movie called Mom for Chickasaw Rancher which
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  Speaker 1: is out on Netflix now UM at the time, and
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  Speaker 1: it was a period piece UM from the eighteen sixties. Uh.
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  Speaker 1: And I was playing a real life character U called
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  Speaker 1: Jack Brown who became open for share Propper And that
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  Speaker 1: was that was my first UM co starring feature film
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  Speaker 1: that I was a part of. UM. So I was
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  Speaker 1: super excited. And one of the actors that I had
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  Speaker 1: UM probably my most intense scene with his name is
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  Speaker 1: Tommy Flanagan and he was on Sons of Anarchy with
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  Speaker 1: with Taylor Sheridan and John Linson was also one of
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  Speaker 1: the creators and executive producers of Sons of Anarchy. And
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  Speaker 1: so after we had finished like our scene and we're
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  Speaker 1: kind of getting into more of our lighter work UM,
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  Speaker 1: I was sitting in the van UM with Tommy and
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  Speaker 1: he was like, man, you know you got a lot
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  Speaker 1: of talent. Uh. You know, my best friend is actually
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  Speaker 1: getting ready to produce this new show called Yellowstone. It's
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  Speaker 1: a Western. Kevin Costner's executive producing it, and you just
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  Speaker 1: got to you gotta get a part of it. And
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  Speaker 1: I was like, Okay, great, just sounds like an opportunity. UM.
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  Speaker 1: So I called my team, my team, I told him.
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  Speaker 1: I was like, Hey, there's this apparently this amazing opportunity
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  Speaker 1: Kevin Costner to share it in. Um it's a Western, Like,
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  Speaker 1: what can we do? It's a TV series. So they
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  Speaker 1: looked around. They said, we well, we can't really find anything.
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  Speaker 1: I was like, well, it has to be there. So
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  Speaker 1: they got maybe two three weeks later they found out
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  Speaker 1: like John Paps and Darius is a casting director here
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  Speaker 1: in Los Angeles. Um got I got an audition. Twenty
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  Speaker 1: four hours later, I was in a producer session with
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  Speaker 1: John Lynson, John Paxson, Derrison, Taylor Sheridan on on Skype
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  Speaker 1: who has everybody knows Taylor Sheridan's the showrunner, UM and writer,
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  Speaker 1: director and kind of discreative don't get actor uh yeah
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  Speaker 1: and also actor as Travis that's on the show. Um
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  Speaker 1: and so yeah, and then you know he just conn
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  Speaker 1: was breaking down what the show was going to be
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: talking about, you know how excited we were to have
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  Speaker 1: Kevin uh doing this television series. And I didn't know
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  Speaker 1: that Kevin was going to be an acting on the show.
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  Speaker 1: I thought he was just executive producing it. So I
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  Speaker 1: already really wanted to be a part of the show.
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: But then when I found out that he was gonna
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  Speaker 1: be on and I was like, I don't know what
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  Speaker 1: we have to do, but I gotta get on this show. Uh.
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  Speaker 1: And so it took about six weeks uh me being
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: on pins and needles and rejecting every phone call that
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: I got from my revs until they gave me the
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  Speaker 1: good news to be a part of the show. So
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  Speaker 1: where were you steps on that? Because of course, you know,
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: let's be honest in life, you know, necessarily there's no
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  Speaker 1: need to cast an African American character on a western
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  Speaker 1: or setting and where it said at you know what
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  Speaker 1: I'm saying. But what did you do are that made
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  Speaker 1: them feel that, hey, this character feels comfortable if the
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  Speaker 1: character will work? And also I love the fact that
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  Speaker 1: you know, somebody told you you were talented and you
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  Speaker 1: should be a part of that. And I know that's
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  Speaker 1: very important in this business because there are more down
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  Speaker 1: moments and sometimes when you're down, you need somebody to
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  Speaker 1: remind you that you have that special gift. Let's talk
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  Speaker 1: about that inspirational moment that I cannot ignore that was
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  Speaker 1: given to you and then you were inspired to pursue
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  Speaker 1: this knowing typically a person that looks like you wouldn't
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  Speaker 1: get cast in it. You know, it's a it's a
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  Speaker 1: great point, you know, and you you raise a lot
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  Speaker 1: of UM, really true and deep kind of topics of conversation.
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  Speaker 1: I think one of the biggest things that you have
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  Speaker 1: to be able to do UM in this industry and
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  Speaker 1: just life in general. Right, UM, as a man of color,
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  Speaker 1: you have kind of two ways that you can approach everything.
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  Speaker 1: You can approach everything with this awareness of the what
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  Speaker 1: you look like, and you can spend all of your
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  Speaker 1: time in every room that you're going that you go
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  Speaker 1: into UM identifying how everybody is receiving you. And we
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  Speaker 1: we do that every time that we walk out. We
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  Speaker 1: were kind of started at a very young age where
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: every time we walk into a space, we immediately identify
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  Speaker 1: how many people are there that look like us and
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  Speaker 1: how many people are not. And if we stick kind
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  Speaker 1: of get wrapped up in that the whole time. I
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  Speaker 1: think we sometimes will miss out on certain opportunities because
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  Speaker 1: not everybody all the time is also thinking about that.
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  Speaker 1: And so one of the things that I really wanted
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  Speaker 1: to do towards the course of my career, and especially
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: once I walked in to the to the Yellowstone World,
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  Speaker 1: I was blessed because I was just doing a show
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  Speaker 1: where I was playing uh an African America, a can
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  Speaker 1: cowboy who really lived and breathed um and existed, and
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  Speaker 1: I got to meet his great great grandchildren, and it
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  Speaker 1: really put a seat in me so that by the
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  Speaker 1: time it came for this opportunity, and I was one
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  Speaker 1: of the only African Americans that were they're auditioning for it.
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  Speaker 1: In general, I didn't want to enter into it thinking
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  Speaker 1: that I wanted to enter into it thinking my ancestors
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  Speaker 1: came before me, and they laid this groundwork, and now
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  Speaker 1: this is the time for me to kind of be
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  Speaker 1: able to honor them. And if I can just show
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  Speaker 1: the real truth of that, um, I think that I
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  Speaker 1: have a really good shot. So for me, it was
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: really just trying to do away with me. I'm not
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  Speaker 1: gonna get this because I'm the only black person in
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  Speaker 1: this audition room. I'm not gonna have a chance because
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: you know, it's a Western and they're not gonna be that.
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  Speaker 1: And then the reality of it is, you know, half
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: the time, they just want to know if you can
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: do the job. Um, and so if you can come
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  Speaker 1: in and be honest about what it is that you're
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  Speaker 1: doing and your performance is proper and you're dedicated to
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  Speaker 1: what you're doing, I think you're gonna like your your chances. Well, well, congratulations,
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  Speaker 1: I love your chances. I love your personality. I'm talking
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: to Dnim Richards. He's one of the starts on the
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: hit TV series A Yellowstone. He plays the character Kobe. Um.
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  Speaker 1: We've seen a lot of the backlash when characters have
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: been cast what they assumed they should be white and
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: they were black on House of Dragons and you know,
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: uh the HBCU, HBCU, HBO or Max series, uh Lord
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: of the Rings, how they tremendous blacklash. And so I
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: say that because when the love interests was pitched to you, uh,
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: by the way, I loved that Kobe. I I I
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: loved it, man. I couldn't get enough for that relationship.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, I wanted to I want to see more
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: of that relationship. But when it was pitched to you,
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: you know, again, you're the only black character on this show.
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: Now they don't make it. They don't. The one thing
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  Speaker 1: I love about The yellow Stone is that they don't
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: make that an issue. You one of the couples, You
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  Speaker 1: just one of the one of the guys work that.
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  Speaker 1: That's why I think it works for me specially, you know.
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  Speaker 1: But then they bring his love interest on it, and
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  Speaker 1: she's an annoying character, and you playoff that it was
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: somebody you would never have any interests in. Talk about
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: how you know Taylor came to you with this idea,
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: because that's what they do with the show. They tell
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: you so you can be don't be surprised about it.
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: And then how did the public react to? Great question?
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: So we were finishing season two and I think Taylor,
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: we were doing something. Taylor's like, hey, I gotta show
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: you something and started laughing, and he pulls up this
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: video of Jen Landon, who plays Teeter, and he's like,
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: you don't love this, You're gonna love this. So he's
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: playing me her audition tape and he starts and I'm
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: just I'm looking at the tape or looking at his
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: phone and looking at him and he's just cracking up.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: And then at the end he's like, man, isn't that crazy?
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: And I was like, uh So, Taylor was like, this
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  Speaker 1: is really good, but aren't you supposed to be able
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: to understand what she said? So you started dying. He's
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: that's the whole point. You're just not supposed to be
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: able to understand anything. And she said, so she's gonna
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: come on, She's gonna screw with you. She's gonna be great.
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: And I was like, okay, like I've never it was
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: the first time I've ever been a part of a
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: show or heard of a show where you just don't
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: understand the other artists. Uh So she came on when
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: I when I first got introduced to Jen Landon, uh
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: you know, we got to sit and talk and just
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: kind of you know, catch her up with, you know,
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: just the old Stone world because it's such a different
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: world and she's done so many different uh television shows
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: and movies. So she's a phenomenal, phenomenal talent, and she
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: just came in and she fully embraced Teeter. So whenever
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: we get to play together, it is so fun because,
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: as you were saying, Colby's character is a little bit
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: more buttoned up, a little bit more square, if you will.
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: So now having somebody like Jen's character or Teeter come
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: into the play who is a little bit unraveled, I
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: think it plays very well. But the audience, you know,
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: they really received it because again Taylor doesn't play type
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: UM as much. He plays the world. He plays the universe.
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: And you know, if you happen to be black um,
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: you know, doing that, then that's just what it is.
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: And I think that the audience overall um has really
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: embraced it. And I don't think, to my knowledge, it's
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: ever been something that they're like, well, that doesn't really
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: make sense for us, And that doesn't I think, because
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: we're both living the truth of it, we're not leaving
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: the room for that. We'll be right back with more
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: Money Making Conversations Masterclass with Rushan McDonald. Now, let's return
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: to Money Making Conversations Masterclass with Rushan McDonald. Well, you know,
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: I love the way there was the relationship was introduced
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: to their romance. You know, that violent attack that happened,
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: and I love the Lane said when she got kicked
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: in the hay and she was about did you have
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: to admit that you like me after I looked like this.
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: It was such a great line we say we say
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: all the time when everybody asked us, like how do
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: we feel about our love, and it said we trauma
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: bond it right, like necessarily the healthiest relationship. However, it's
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: a relationship, I guess. Nonetheless, Well, you do a great
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: job on the show, but the yellow Stones only part
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: of your life. We talked about the past. We talked
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: about this very successful series it's premiering this amounth on
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: Paramount Network. But also I'm going through your bio and
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: it's something they called my eye this uh. This just
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: a short film that you're directed and co wrote called
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: the Zoo, which is uh. And I was like, wow,
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: this is you know, tell us about it so I
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: don't want to mess it up. But I thought it
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: was really really cool said to World War two about
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: a black German uh and and how they caught up
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: in that whole Holocaust experience from a black experience talk
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: to us. Yes, um, it was something again I think
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: when we were talking earlier, I was speaking to you
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: about how I didn't know exactly what my full potential
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: or my gifts would be. When I was younger, I
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: just knew that at a certain point, uh, there's gonna
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: be other things that would reveal itself. And as I've
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: gotten older, I've realized that, you know the most, I
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: has given me a very unique opportunity, and I wanted
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: to make sure that I used my platform to tell
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: our stories, uh in a full range of ways. And
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: one of the great things about our history is we're
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: been a part of every single significant period of time,
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: and a lot of us don't understand that because we're
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: not really taught that in school. We don't, you know,
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: as you would know. You know, a lot of our
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: education kind of comes from you know, we got off
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: the slave ships in sixteen nineteen, and then we were slaves,
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: and then then we were shot, and then now you're
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: entertaining us and you play sports, and that's kind of
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: like that's it, right, Like that's kind of the you're
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: reading my mind. I'll say that all the time they
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: brought us over, they freed us, and then they jumped
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: to ninety four bro versus board education civil rights leader
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: Martin Luther King, he gets shot and all of a
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: sudden we entertained. Even so, you know, so it was
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: one of those things where I said, you know what,
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: why don't we start to really educate. And I'm a
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: really big historian, so I'm very big on our our,
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: our African history. Um I spent a lot of a
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: lot of time there. I lived there actually, and um
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: so a couple of years ago. Actually it was a
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: decade ago. I was watching a movie and I was
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: just talking about history, and I was wondering. I was like,
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: what was going on in Africa, um in this time
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: of you know, World War two? And uh So I
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: started getting into a lot of really really deep research,
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: which again, uh if you were an African American or
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: anywhere in the diaspora, you're not really taught anything about
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: Africa in the history of Africa. Uh So, I think
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: that's something that I wanted to tap into it. I
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: think spiritually it was just the right time to get
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: those seeds planted in me a long time ago. And
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: so one of the things that I realized was that
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: in you know, during this time there was in Congo
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: was the Belgian cong at the time where King Leopold
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: wrote these letters to the missionaries and he was talking
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: about how they were going to bring um the gospel
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: of certain things to the country in order to help
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: kind of enslave and take over the rubber and that
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: was ultimately was going to be building the country of
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: Belgium and was helping with the wars because it was
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: it was rubber. So that's used for literally everything at
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: the time, from electricity, cables, two tires to you name it.
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: And so there was a massive concentration camp in massive
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: killing of like I think it was fifteen to twenty
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: five million Congolese men, women and children that were murdered
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: that the world still does not consider a genocide for
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: a myriad of reasons, which I think is just completely unacceptable. However,
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: at that time, what I wanted to do was say,
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: let's let's write a story about this called the Zoo.
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: And so The Zoo is about the Germans coming into
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: Africa and in their attempt to try to colonize Africa,
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: they couldn't figure out why they were not able to
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: to stand up to the heat. Um there's different conditions,
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: just weather conditions that they were just always getting sick from.
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: And so one of the things that they would do
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: is that they would capture us and they would do
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: all these experiments on us, promoting our skin, injecting us
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: with different things, because they were trying to figure out
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: how they could connect, uh, crack this genetic code that
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: we have in our melanin to figure out how it
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: is that we're able to survive under these types of
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: conditions that are so greatly different than it is in
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: north in the North, right in Germany. Uh. And so
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: that was something that was really really passionate for me,
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: and I I brought some people that were really close
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: to me together and we talked about the idea. They
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: were like, yeah, we've never seen this before, let's do it.
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: We found a couple of books that we did, we
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: got the rights to to be able to start telling
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: this story. And then oddly enough, two years ago Germany
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: came out with to the Namibian government and Namibia, for
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: those that just might not know, is in Substaran Africa.
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: It's like the northeast or northwest from South Africa. Uh.
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: And they have a content or an island right off
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: of it called Shark Island. And Germany now is having
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: to pay like ten billion dollars to the Maybia for
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: the genocide that they caused in the country between the
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: maybe and Blatanta and so that was something that was
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: really important for me in a story that I think
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: our people needed to hear. I'll tell you some Uh.
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: First of all, thank you for coming on my show.
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: I want to bring you back. You know. I know
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: you're busy because I've read the book Mastering Your Mind
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: and the proceeds that go to UH eradicating Human Trafficking,
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: and that's that's a separate interview, and I want to
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: be respectful over your time because I want to let
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: you know that I read it and I want to
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: just do an interview about that and also other things
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: you do in your career, because I know that the
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: zoo can that's a show in yourself, that conversation because
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: then the fact that you hit right the same timeline
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: how they treat black people's history. We are we are brothers, okay,
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: because I tell it, I tell the same story man,
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: and when you when you when you talk about and
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: I want to tell people, I really happy because white
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: kids don't White people don't want their white kids to
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: feel uncomfortable. Well, we feel uncomfortable every time we're walking
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: a room. But that's not what this interview is about.
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: The interview is about the talented young man that it's
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: starting on a very very successful show. I don't see color.
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: I just see a great act or a great talent,
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: and I want to wish you good luck and thank
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: you for coming on my show, Denim Richards. I really
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: appreciate that, and uh, I would love to come back
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: and you know, discuss the water fright. I think the
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: great thing about what you know, what I'm able to
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: do is, you know, I really want to be able
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: to use the platform to talk about, you know, things
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: that are important to us as well. So you know,
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: any time that you want to do that, I'm more
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: than happy to make it well. You will be hearing
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: from it, because, like I said, you're a special guy man,
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: and I just just just a just in general. But
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: I just see a good human being, and I think
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: that's important as we as we as I as I
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: bring people on this show, that you can still be
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: a good human and be successful too. Yes, you sure
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: can't thank you so much for having we talked to
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: I appreciate you, sir.