Banky Pound on Serving 33 Years of 2x Life Sentence, Racist Cellmate, Jail Couples (Full Interview)

foreign here we go today we have Banky pound who got two life sentences at age 19 for murder who's now out after doing 33 years in prison welcome to Vlad TV pleasure to be here man appreciate you having me absolutely man shout out to the Homie Chris Turner Yes Man definitely shout out my brother man that's my brother man I appreciate him uh shout out to tbp man you know that's team banking pan for always holding me down well this is your first time here I want to start in the very beginning okay so you grew up was it DC in in Virginia Newport News these no Newport News is where I live at now DC and Virginia is where I grew up between the both of them okay so what was DC like uh in the 70s and 80s man DC in the 70s and the 80s when I was coming up um especially in the 80s uh it was a murder capital of the world they had the number one murder rate in the world um but you know if you you know growing up there it's like you used to it you know what I'm saying because you you come up seeing all of this stuff so when you write in the middle of it is is not as dangerous as this look from the outside looking in you know so it was normal to me it was normal okay so here you are growing up in DC and in high school you met a guy from New York yeah and the two of you started getting into trouble yeah met this guy from New York named John he had moved down from New York started going to school with me me and him became good friends and whatnot we used to go out you know go to the little Go-Go's and go out to Georgetown on the weekends and um man it was just so Random we was out there one one evening and we ain't had no money to get back so um it was just so casual he was like man we can just rob somebody you know and I was like man you tripping he was like nah man we can rob somebody I said man how are we gonna rob somebody he says easy you ain't gotta do nothing like act like you got a gun and scale you know so I'm like man you tripping and he was like watching me show you so he went and did it we got some money we got back we talking about it we laughing and joking about it like it was crazy dude it was that easy to get some money um little did I know that would you know later on come back to haunt me man because we just started doing it you know every now and then then it got to the point we was doing it every time we had no money and um yeah it just kept going man it became uh it came a problem okay so you're actually doing armed robberies uh with a real gun but I guess it wasn't always you know loaded yeah yeah we we was we was Green Man we was um we was playing a dangerous game and we didn't know because we didn't understand how serious what we was doing was you know and then it was even more dangerous than than you can even imagine man because we are we was looking for the people that had money and up there where we was most people that had money or look like they had money was The Pimps so we was actually robbing The Pimps and um it had came to a point where um they was actually looking for us you know and that was crazy because I was actually working in a clothing store at the time you know as well selling clothes so I can remember one day that the um one of The Pimps came in there he had like three years prostitutes with him and I was a Salesman so I'm selling the clothes and um and I'm the one who giving them the clothes so he's going in there to try on the clothes and he just kept looking at me and looking at me and he was like man where I know you from and I kept saying you don't know me you know and in my mind I knew him and I'm trying to really like act like I gotta go to the bathroom or something so one of the other salesmen can get to him because he just kept trying to figure it out in his mind but I knew exactly what it was when I first seen and walked through the door so that was that was a real dangerous situation kind of like a wake-up call for me too so you know but once the word got out there that it you know they was looking for me and doing it was John it was looking for us man we we stopped going up there period you know okay and I guess around that time you were you're driving I guess with your aunt and you saw a man in the street beating up a woman yeah man I never forget that um he he was just beating the man I mean he was beating the brutally and we was at the stop sign so I jumped out and I was gonna go and try to help him and when I was running up to him and he just pulled a gun out and pointed it at me he was giving me a shooting he was like you need to mind your MF business you know what I'm saying that's what you need to do so my aunt was hot let me get back in get back in here but I stopped in my chest because I really weren't expecting that you know I was just trying to help her you know because the way I you know came up you know you just don't beat women up like that and um that was a valuable lesson for me you know when I got back in the car she was telling me like she said don't you ever in your life run up on nobody like that mind your business you ain't got nothing to do with that then if you go help her which you don't realize that she'll end up being with him tomorrow you know you might end up being dead for putting yourself in somebody else's business so that was that was a valuable lesson for me man because uh he I I believe without a doubt he would have shot me you know well uh at age 16 you end up having your first child yes yes this was uh 1984. so here you are a teenage Dad yeah yeah teenage dad man um playing football you know Sports boxing and everything you know end up you know becoming a dad and uh my mom she killed all that you know when she found out she was like oh yeah you think I don't know because I was I was quiet I was trying to keep it to myself but you know somebody told her and uh I was in there laying there and sleep one day she just kicked the door in and she started screaming told me get up off the bed say you know I know what's going on you think you don't you think I don't know what's going on she said you forget all about that football and all that other stuff you're gonna get your butt out there and get a job you want to act like a grown man just what a grown man will do you got to get you a job but you're gonna take care of that kid cause I'm not so you know yeah that was that was uh 16 years old man yeah you know had to wake up okay then two years later you had a son yes had a son two years later uh uh Trail that's my editor right now for my videos uh on my YouTube man shout out to Trail but uh yeah end up having the sun two years later okay so here you are a teenager with two kids right and did you graduate high school I did okay but you're not really working legitimately and and really making enough money to support these kids right absolutely not you know absolutely not I end up stop working at the um Cavaliers store selling clothes but I did end up getting another job when I moved back down to Virginia I had another job actually it was a good job you know what I'm saying my mama got me a job at a place that she worked at she had been for a long time 30 something years and it was a good job especially for somebody my age but to be honest during that time in my immaturity actually working them hours eight hours a day every day you know on this job to make the money that I was making didn't equate to the money that I was making if I just you know rob somebody you know so that's the way my mind was at that time so doing that was easier and it was more profitable so I actually was um still robbing while I had a good job at the same time okay so in 1987 you're 19 years old and you and another guy decide to do a robbery at the Petersburg Hotel Yes Hotel in Petersburg Virginia okay so tell me what led up to actually doing okay so uh previously been in there and he had seen the dude in there I think he said send the dude and they knew the dude had a lot of money do had jewelry on Rolex watches and all of this stuff so he was like man we're gonna go in here you know what I'm saying we can just you know pull the gun out on them take the money or whatever you know he probably gonna be scared just that in the third so we go in there to do the robbery but the dude you know he bucked he he bucked on it he ran and act like he was going to get a gun so when he did that I leave you know because the gun that I had ain't even had no bullets in it so I left I assumed that if he was bucking it he definitely had a gun that he was going to shoot if he get to it so I left a party there when I'm leaving and I'm running I heard shots and then about maybe two minutes later he come out he running behind me so we ended up leaving we get to the car we leave we don't get caught you know we heard silence and all this and whatever but we get away so like I say a couple of months later it was all in the newspaper then a couple of months later they arrested two other people and charged them with with the robbery and the murder um he for whatever reason you know uh he got scared you know what I'm saying he went and turned himself in he was a proud felon you know I'm saying he was older than me I had I wasn't a felony at all he uh went and turned himself in and told him my name so they came and got me as well they locked me up is where they charged me they charged him the other two dudes ended up getting uh set free um we ended up getting charged with murder and robbery uh he ended up you know taking a plea bargain testifying on me saying that you know I was I was the ringleader you know I was the shooter and um I ended up you know getting convicted man they gave me uh I think 97 years uh they gave me whatever amount of time you get for the gun but they gave me 97 years for the murder they gave me uh whatever time you get for possession number five on the use of a firearm in the commission of a felony so um that was my first conviction so I'm convicted now and I'm looking at you know like a hundred and something years so I'm just sitting there I'm minding you know because one day you're free one day you're doing this you think it ain't no consequences you think it is all you know it's innocent ain't nobody getting hurt boom somebody get hurt it's not it's major consequences it ain't no fun and games no more okay so you weren't the actual shooter the other guy was the shooter and by the way after he ran out did he have any of the jewelry or anything that you guys were trying to get he didn't have anything he didn't have anything nothing he didn't get it you know [Music] um okay so you guys go and you're involved in this murder which you got no money for right you know from the robbery you got your the other guy turns himself in he snitches on you and you don't actually go to trial they gave you a plea deal right no I actually went to trial for the murder uh okay in in 87 I went to the trial for the murder I got found guilty he testified against me he took the stand I got found guilty and during that time dude they took the robbery that was committed with that crime they charged us with every other robbery in that area that fit that same you know mo so I had more robberies to go to like three or four but at the time in 1987 they was coming up with this new law called the three strike law so the three strike long meaning that if you get convicted three times of the same type of offense you know robbery or whatever it may be then you fall under the no parole law where they wasn't you wasn't even eligible for parole so whatever time you had you actually had to do 85 percent of that time so you talking about me right now already sitting on over 100 years so I still have robbery charge to go to so my lawyer tells me if I get convicted of just one of these charges which I got three or four more to go to then I fall under the no parole system so that would be a hundred and some years I would never see the streets again so he told me that my best solution was to plead guilty to these robberies and take a plea bargain which was two life sentences he said that would Encompass the whole murder and everything and I fall under the umbrella of the two life sentences which in Virginia anything over 48 years you go up for parole after 12 years so this is what was being told to me somebody new to the system somebody who don't understand the law I'm I'm being told that this is your best solution to even possibly see the streets again so it's like my back is against the wall I have no other choice so I take the plea bargain I ended up all together I had like two like since 115 years going into prison for the first time Okay so I mean this is 35 years later right the other robbery charges that they convicted you of outside of the actual murder charge right did you actually do any of those or was that someone else two of them two of them okay out of the way out of the three that they convicted it might have been four I think it was like four but it's two of them we was actually involved in other two I knew nothing about okay and the guy who actually did the shooting and testified against you how many years did he get I think he ended up with something like 60 60 some years I think he took a plea bargain for 60 some years which is crazy because he actually I did 33 years he actually did something like 26. you know so he did like 26 years so so all that testifying ultimately didn't get him anything it ain't doing nothing but ruined his name and his you know his own principles whatever it is that's something he got to live with Island you know I didn't came the grips with it it is what it is you know did you ever run into him after that fact I did man I did when I was um when I first got locked up man I went to receiving after receiving I went to um the wall which at the time was the most notorious prison in Virginia and um they plot me straight up in there you know off the rip so um I can remember I was in there for a while and uh I was out there one night using the phone and I could have swore I just heard his voice because I know his voice you know and I could have swore I heard his voice and I turned around and I'm just scanning the whole area and I actually seen them and um I was on the phone with my mother and um I had got quiet and she was asking me what was wrong and I told her I think I see you know what I'm saying the dude right and she was like who and I was like yeah him and I was I was I I was in the fit of rage to be honest with you and then by just getting into prison and seeing how prison was and knowing in my mental how far I had to go and didn't know if I would ever see the end my focus was I was gonna hurt them you know and she was telling me don't don't do nothing to him don't say nothing to him just leave it alone it's over but it was just so much rage in me at the time to just see him you know what I'm saying because knowing what you did and knowing that it was untrue it was just something that I almost couldn't control but I listened to it I listened to I got off the phone I actually approached them you know and his eyes got all big and then he's he just went in to explain it to me that um you know they was they was threatening him you know he was uh felon before they was telling me he was gonna get the electric chair and all this type of stuff and he said he he say he cracked under the pressure he volunteered to write me a statement on saying that he lied that he was under pressure and he eventually did that but it was you know too late you know what I'm saying it won't nothing could be done it's one of the hardest things in the world to do I found out now after doing all that time you know I've learned a lot during that time but that's one of the hardest things to do man is to uh to overturn a conviction man or or to to give back time that's that's one of the hardest things to do once you've been convicted wait so even though you're co-defendant wrote an official statement saying that he was the shooter himself and you were not the shooter now granted it's not like you're innocent you're right where someone dies so technically you're tied into a murder regardless right you are not the actual shooter they still are not going to do anything about it they ain't gonna do nothing about that man they gonna feel more so like that either he was coerced or he like he ran into me and I scared him into doing it they're gonna the funny thing about the law is you know that I've learned now is you've been going to court and testifying on somebody and um you could be a convicted felon or whatever but if the person that you're testifying on your your testimony would be golden it would be like Ace great grade eight but if you go in there and you try to testify for yourself and you saying that you didn't do something then your word is mud because you're a convicted felon so it goes it's a double-edged sword if you're testifying to convince somebody you could be a convicted felon and your word is good but if you speak enough for yourself they say you're a liar you're a known liar you're convicted so that's that that's just how I go it is what it is so he wrote that I gave it to my lawyer and everything it just fell on deaf ears okay so by the time the trial was completed how old are you at that point uh 20 20. yeah so how does a 20 year old deal with two life sentences in their head man that's that's that's the excellent question because one of the first things came to my mind is I I don't even know how to begin it let alone how will it end you know how do you begin doing life sentence let alone two life sentence you ain't got but one life so I didn't even understand it the verbiage of the sentence itself but you know when you're being told things because you don't know things you've been told well you're gonna go out for parole my lawyer's telling me uh you're going up for parole in 12 years you know just go in and um mind your business you know stay out of trouble and you know you're a first-time felon man you probably gonna make first parole so you thinking in your mind 12 years but you also got to think 20 years old 12 years that's a lifetime it's you know that's a long time but when you actually get into prison you realize how long 12 years is and you realize how hard it's going to be to even get to 12 years when you see what's going on in prison and you see the Dynamics of prison so that changes your whole mindset from what you're going when I'm going in from the jail my mindset is 12 years 12 years 12 years but when you get in there man um 12 years seem like like forever you know well you get into prison and I guess a week later you actually see someone get stabbed to death yeah when I went to not when I first got into prison when I first went into prison I went to receiving after leaving receiving that's when you get processed and you get you know scheduled to whatever prison you're gonna go you go through all your orientation and whatnot when I went to the place where I saw him at in the wall which is uh was 500 Spring Street in Virginia which is now tore down um got documentaries on this prison you know it was a vicious prison real this is prison so when I got there probably within the first week week and a half uh I was on the phone and um talking to my mother and I'm on the phone and uh I always had my back to the population because these dudes is moving around and I had my back to the wall and I look at them at the population and um I seen this dude walking back and forth he's just pacing big old dude he had long dress he had no shirt on just had on jeans and he's just pacing back and forth back and forth and he's passing other people because other people is walking up and down the tear as well and um I noticed him because he was so big and pasted he was walking there and when he was he had went up and he was coming back down on this time this trip that he was coming back down man he just reached in his jeans and pulled out the joint and just started stabbing this dude then the dude that he started stabbing was trying to fight back but man he was just hitting him so hard and just so viciously if you are looking at it from where I was looking at it you would be surprising when you see only when he pulled back he was like it would look like he's just hitting him but when he pulled back and you see this big knife in his hand he was like oh man he's stabbing the dude and then you start seeing blood and you like boom this is like something you never seen before except on TV I had I hadn't seen anything like that before besides on TV so it was shocking to me and it was uh it was crazy man because I'm looking at it I'm like man and I'm on the phone again with my mom and I'm like man she like what's going on what's going on I won't talking because I'm looking and people are still moving around people are moving around him like getting out of his way but people is still like it's like it's normal so when I'm seeing this dude he just chopped them all the way down to the ground man and he stab them and do you can see the light going out of him because he went from fighting to just getting limp and he just was getting hit and I'm like I'm really like shocked man you know it's it's freaking me out and then I eventually told I said man I think this dude just got killed man he stabbed this dude she was like go to your cell Cody said I'm like I ain't moving you know what I'm saying because I didn't want to be moving so I just stayed there and I listened and telephone even hung up and I'm just watching man and he just calmly put it in his Zone it just started pacing up and down the tear dude lay down there in the middle of the floor man and just like a pool of blood just starts getting bigger and bigger around them and people is just walking around like it ain't nothing happened no police came in there to save him no police came in there to say stop no alarm went off no nothing so I'm making a mental note of all of this in my head man like this is you know I'm in the jungle you know this is crazy in here and um he walked up and down the tear man until they was ready to lock up when they went to lock up everybody got locked up that dude was still laying down there in the pool of blood in the floor man so it was it it was a wake-up call for me man it let me know where I was to let me know the value of my life in here to let me know what can happen it was just crazy and I wasn't even in the penitentially for a good two weeks you know so uh yeah that was shocking well I guess after that that's when you actually went and purchased a knife yourself immediately immediately my first thing was I got I got to give me a knife I have to you know what I'm saying because I see and that was the weapon in there it ain't no guns in prison it ain't no none of that you're gonna have to have your knife you know and if you get caught with a knife you you know you won't get penalized for that you're gonna get punished for that but it's a saying in prison did you know it's best to get caught with it than without it you know so um yeah I went on a mission to get a knife I started talking to a couple of dudes in there it's an old time and that had been locked up already 30 some years he was kind of like the dude red on um Shawshank Redemption anything you need you can you can go to him and get it and I heard it and I had already spoke to him a couple of times so I wouldn't hollered at him and asked him you know where can I get one from he told me that I needed some money he said you can get some money some cash money you I got you I made it happen I got the money I took it to him gave me a knife it was in the bag man you know in the wall it's like Shawshank the Redemption actually this sales was set up just like that the prison that I was in so I'm talking to him I give him the money he tell me put my arms in the bar like I'm talking to him and he slide it up my sleeve and it's in a Brown Bag Man and I go to my cell so when I get to myself I close my door and uh put the little cut up we covered the door up with a little sheet or something and I pull it out man and when I looked at it man I was like oh man it was a real knife man a real knife like Rambo we had a compass on the back Jagged Edge is a real knife with a rubber grip so I'm excited and I'm like okay yeah I you know I'm ready for whatever you know you got to get past this to get to me and man within that same thought man I started thinking to myself I just got in here man if I could buy this what what's out there you know so I went from being excited to being terrified because I'm like I wouldn't even want to get hit with this I can imagine what else is out there so it's just like it's a mad trick on you the whole time you in there because you realize man you're in a place that you can literally die at any given day you know and for the simplest thing from bumping into somebody you you can lose your life you know people may have uh something against you for some you know nothing about it could be a lie it could be whatever but every time you walk out of that cell man you you know you in danger and I and I had to realize that I had to acknowledge that so in a lot of ways going to the wall first no matter how dangerous it's no matter how dangerous it was it was it was a learning process for what was to come you know so it played a role in um how I ended up doing my time you know and had I went somewhere else it probably would have been different well during the course of your 33 years did you ever actually have to stab somebody yeah I did I actually did a couple of times and um it was something did but all right let me put it like this to the point it was it was pouring sometimes when I first started doing my bit man dude I was uh you know when you see all the things that's going on around you and you see you know the life that you got to live the type of life that you got to live it is depressing you know what I'm saying and then to think about the longevity how long you got to do it this is what I got to wake up to every day so it was a point that I was actually suicidal you know because I ain't I ain't want to do it you know what I'm saying I didn't know if I could do you know but then that that point came to the point that you know I went from being suicidal to I guess you would say I became homicide you know because I was like well you know I'd rather kill than be killed you know so I took on that frame of mind that you know I know I could be killed in here I'm not I'm not investable I definitely know I could be killed but if I was going to be killed I was gonna be getting killed trying to kill whoever was trying to kill me so once I took on that philosophy man that's just the way that I felt like I was gonna live and I never was to the point where as I initiated anything because one thing about prison trouble gonna find you you ain't even gotta look for it you just got to be able to handle it when it comes to you because last [ __ ] come at you I don't care if you're the meekest person in there the strongest person in there the biggest losing it is gonna come at you it's just going you're gonna have to deal with it emphatically when it comes so the first time that I got in a situation where I actually uh had to stab somebody was um I've told this story on my YouTube channel but it was a dude named big Raymond and he was one of the biggest dudes on the institution he didn't like me um because at the time that I had been locked up for a minute and I had took on the philosophy of prison trying to you know you know hustle make money you know due to his scam and I was into a bunch of foolishness and I was running what we call a store boxing there where you you know you loan out food or Cosmetics or whatever it is but you loan it out at you know a loan shock race 100 interest you know you get one you pay two back you get two you pay four so I ended up having a big store box at the time and um from time to time he had to borrow from me and um I guess that kind of made him feel a certain type of way because of his size and his status that he he didn't like it so he just took a dislike to me and um and also at the time he was dealing with this this little white guy that was kind of like smart he was a real shop dude so he was more or less his protector but dudes was extorting white guys in prison you know what I'm saying they loaned him stuff and then Pam they just tax him and tax him and um this particular white dude owed me stuff and I'm taxing him so I guess he said something to him which made him come say something to me and when he came to say something me he was telling me lead the dude alone he don't owe you nothing don't ask him for this dog no more whatever whatever now I was ready to the rumble with him which wouldn't have been my first choice because he was so big but I definitely would have stabbed him but I was just at the moment we face to face so I'm I'm staying in my ground or whatever but it just was established that we didn't like each other but we had a mutual friend it was my homeboy who was cool with him was super cool me and he was trying to squash the beef but um he just never liked me man he always looked at me funny he always made faces at me he always just gritted at me looked at me crazy so one day man we went on lockdown and we was coming off the lock and um usually when you come off lockdown everybody's you know bucking to get in the shower to use the phone lying see the lines there so while we waiting in line man my homeboy we used to box together oh his name is Boo and he's from DC as well so he's down there we was body punching each other I mean like really hard both of us used to box we hitting each other really hard because that's how we that's how we do now man you he cool with boo he not cool with me this dude actually walked right in between us while we swinging at each other man ass too if I don't stop I would have hit him and he actually told boo man y'all need to move this somewhere else man I'm working out man he's man to take this punk you know which so I was like what'd you say so he turned around and we square off and Boo get in between cement go ahead go ahead Mason man I told you may leave bank alone man he said man F back I don't like him anyway he said probably gonna end up killing him up here so when he said that I was like all right man you got it don't even worry about it man he said yeah you hear what I said you run his mouth boo keep talking to him I leave but when I left I had already made up my mind um I gotta get him you know he was locked up for murder I feel like if you kill somebody you you you definitely have the capacity to do it he big he had already seen him display violence in there so I felt like I had to get him and he said it in front of the whole block so everybody looking at me so I felt under pressure I definitely felt threatened and I felt like he was going to do something to me eventually so uh I went and got the joint and uh I came back out there man and I just I went straight to him he had his back turned up I hit him you know and in my mind young not knowing then I'm thinking the knife was so big that I had read somewhere or either heard somewhere on TV if you hit somebody and something pierces their heart then they would just collapse you know so this is what I'm thinking he's so big I don't want to give him a chance to grab me put his hands on me so I hit him is like right behind his heart and I thought he was just collapsing my plan was to he collapsed I just cuffed the knife walk away act like I don't know what happened like everybody else man I hit him and he just screamed and pulled away and like turned around on me and was like Hey Hey so my whole game plan changed now I don't know what to do so I'm like boom so I charge him and try to hit him again because I ain't know if he was going to try to get at me but when I tried to hit him I was swinging for his face and he put his arm up and it went through his arm and it was literally stuck in his arm so I jerk it back and he back up and then he went from being aggressive to being homo he was like oh hey you got it man you got it go ahead man you got it so I got him trapped in the corner for real I could have advanced and attacked him or whatever my adrenaline flowing I'm nervous on you know this first time I'm making a play like this if it goes sour you can die he can take it from me he can kill me so um the same dude my homeboy boo he's just hollering and screaming my name and he was like Bang Bang everybody looking at you man it's over leave him alone leave him alone so I look and everybody's just in the park like so I started walking away and man I was so paranoid man I was so his selling was actually a homeboy Mass too I was going up the stairs and not seeing him at the door and he was looking out and I was gonna attack him because that's the way it goes in prison you know that's his selling he might try to get me later so my mind was everywhere so I looked at him I'm like what's up you with him he was like no no and he was trying to get his door closed and I went up there real fast and the door closing and I'm talking to him through the door I said don't come out here like you trying to and he was like man I ain't got nothing to do with it bank I ain't got nothing to do with it because my mind was everywhere you know and uh dude actually was telling me I went down by myself you know I went in and said Put The Knife back up I came I was leaning over top of the rail somebody called the people to get medical for him and I was leaning over top of the real dude I actually came to me and said uh man give me the knife let me get rid of the knife man they they gonna come man you gotta get ready tonight I was so paranoid man I said man I ain't giving me tonight he might come back hey like man the man ain't coming back man the man might that man going to the hospital man you better give me the knife I was like nah I was scared to get rid of it you know because I ain't know what was coming at me and um it didn't take me 20 minutes man they came in there and got me and uh somebody told on me off the rip see that's another thing about prison as well too a lot of people want to see violence but they don't want to be involved in violence so if they know you will produce violence they don't want you around them neither because they scared one day that confrontation be can be between you and them so they started shooting out snitch notes as soon as it happened you know Banky Diddy the dude up there and such and such so the people came straight to me man and um they had I ain't I can't even like they had me so shook up you know uh they locked me up put me in segregation they kept on saying why you do that man why you do that we gotta take him out here on the helicopter he getting ready to die man you in trouble you you in big trouble man you better you better tell us where the knife and I'm like man I ain't do nothing I ain't this you did it we know you did it and then I'm in my cell then they said when they put me and say and later on that night about three in the morning they bust my door open man they come in there with the warns and the major and all of them and you know normally for the over your doing sick they cuff you up and all this they just bust my door open and came in there where the knife at we need a knife you know what uh you you get ready to get charged with murder the best way you can help yourself is just give us the knife give up I'm like man I don't man I I said man I need to call home man cause I don't know what y'all talking about man y'all Amy and they just kept on threatening me man I was so paranoid in there man I might not slept for a couple of days I'm scared I'm saying if he died man these people don't give me the electric chair there's just so many things going through my head till one day an officer was coming by he was like he was cool with me and I asked him about dude because some officers were saying the dude died so I asked the officer it was cool and he said nah he ain't dead man he said he in bad shape but he's not dead that gave me a little bit of relief but they they was pressuring me man telling me that uh I was gonna get the electric chair the dude and died they was just basically trying to get me to tell him where the knife was but that was the first incident that I actually had where I had to you know stab somebody but and and in my defense I just felt like I had to you know what I'm saying because I had seen too much already and I know what could happen and I'm a small dude I ain't wanted to happen to me so that's what I felt like I had to do yeah I mean I just interviewed uh Michael Thompson he was one of the leaders of the Aryan Brotherhood right and he was talking about the various knife fights that he would get into uh over the years and he would talk about this one situation where the Aryan Brotherhood got into a war with the black gorilla family and he ended up stabbing I think like a dozen people and the craziest part of the story is he had like a buck knife like a foldable buck knife yeah and he said that after stabbing all the guys he used all the blood to re-keyster his weapon which which means that he took he shoved the knife in his ass right to hide the knife right right so the incident of the 16 people being stabbed on the yard was it was uh Wendell Norris and myself we each had a buck knife and it was a um about a four on one situation there was maybe not that great figure between 30 and 40 of them and uh maybe at best eight to ten of us um but only two of us had knives so Wendell and I stood back to back and they rushed us and in the course of rushiness um 16 of them were pretty well bloodied matter of fact it was a bloodbath and Wendell and I both used the blood from them on our knives to re-keyster the weapons and it's just like when you just think about how insane this whole world is of you got to stab a bunch of people then you gotta shove a knife up your ass using blood someone else's blood God knows what diseases are being passed around in the process it's just it's Insanity it's it's insanity but to you but but you but you've seen this type of thing before almost every day right right and and I tell people that now out here right when you when you're in the middle of something like you don't even understand that you in the middle of it because you have adapted that lifestyle and now that I'm out here only two years like two years eight months removed I look back on these things especially when I tell these stories on my YouTube I look back and I'd be like man I was really living a crazy life because it's insanity and it's it's literally crazy in there because of the way that we live and the things that we have to do and the things that we end up turning normal when you on the outside and you look and I got dudes that call me now I take five six seven calls a week from prison you know and um when they be saying these things that I was just a part of that I was just involved with it sounds crazy to me I'm like what you know but that's what's going on in prisons man a lot of people don't know that and they get these this false representation when they look at movies or they watch these little uh TV series they had something to do with jail or prison man that thing is so far away from the truth it's unbelievable you know in there every day man it's life or death you know and I tell people all the time in 33 years man over 12 345 plus days straight I never had a good day in prison not one I might have had days it wasn't as bad as other us but never can say I had a good day you know because you don't know what's going to happen and you don't know when it's gonna happen and you living every day like when I come out here am I gonna have to kill somebody or somebody gonna try to kill me am I gonna get to fighting over the microwave am I gonna get to fighting over the shower the phone you know it am I gonna have to deal with the police you know I didn't I didn't went through all of that man I'd have been shocked with electric seals the dog that been sick on me I had to fight 12 police with Ninja Turtle suits on I had to fight two and three dudes and you know so it I'm lucky and blessed man to even be here I I I do not uh under you know take that uh uh for granted I know I'm lucky to be here you know well in prison you have a bunch of men and after a certain amount of time you have no access to women and sometimes these men start to form relationships with each other and you actually talked about this uh on your YouTube channel about a couple named BooBoo and Charles yes most definitely BooBoo and Charles gay they got a lot of views on my channel man because people was interested in that and um they they was like one of the first real couples that I met you know what I'm saying they was like locked in with each other you know they was together you know through thick and thin but man they was they was just like what I said on my channel man it was a gangster couple because when it came time to time the war man they they gonna do whatever it takes they gonna use that knife which I call in there to Bethlehem they gonna pick it up they gonna use it they're not gonna be playing they're gonna fight um Charles was considered the man in the relationship but in actuality Booboo called all the shots Charles was a big dude man he's probably like six four like 240 solid you know played basketball worked out all the time but he was humble you know he talked humble he talks so if he talked me because he won't looking for no trouble but the reason he wasn't looking for no trouble because he wasn't looking to get separated from Boo-boo you see what I'm saying so but at the same time boo boo would on command tell him to do something he turned straight from being humbled to straight gangster he ain't even gonna hesitate he's not if he say punch him in his face he gonna punch in your face and then they Rumble it and then they might pull the knife out and come start stabbing you while you fighting Charles and Charles could be winning you know so it was crazy man and I seen him in so many different situations and um they used to fight each other all the time I mean you they go on the cell they Rumble they fighting you can hurt you know doing lockdowns screaming and hollering and bumping all up against the walls and he might come out there with scratches and all this all over his face and you know and they right back in the cell together and and if you say something one of them then they're going to war with you so it was crazy the situations I seen man I seen boo-boo stab a dude through the face with a pencil straight through his cheekbone cause Charles was fighting the dude Charles was actually fighting two or three dudes and Booboo ran in there to help him hit one dude in the head with a radio we had the big boom boxes back then hit one dude in the head with the radio broke the radio up grabbed the pencil stabbed another dude in the face and the crazy part about it is they would put these two back together every time they go to second case when they came out of segregation either one got off first or they got out the same time they would eventually put them right back in the same cell together man and all of this stuff would start all over again within months or or you know sometime longer than other but man they used to get it in man and I I mean it was just a wild situation with but it was like the first couple that I saw they was just like yeah you yeah you you mess with one of them you you won't have some problems right and Boo-Boo was feminine and had breasts and breasts head breast was light-skinned dude had breasts had green eyes and um dudes used to be trying to get at them man you they try to get at them but Charles was he on God and uh he he was uh he was really in love he won't yeah he loved him and he would have did anything for him he'd have died for him without a question in my mind without a question in my mind to die for well I mean I have friends that have been in prison and they talked about how if you have a transgender they really kind of try to separate them out of General pop because the other dudes will start to lose their mind because right they've never seen anything close to a woman here's something at least closer to a woman right but you're saying that the boo-boo is just a general population yeah it ain't general population because they don't consider them transgender you know that what I'm talking about this is in the 80s and in the early 90s they don't still don't consider them transgender in the system unless they actually had the operation you got some of them that they can put um you know the bbls and their breasts and put stuff in their cheeks and all that but they they still got man pots so they not considered in in prison you know transgender I would assume if they had the operation they would put them somewhere else but you had plenty of them over the years I've seen in um 33 years they had the bbls before I even knew what a BBL was you know I knew they had something and they had the breasts and you know the cheek things it was a couple of them and it'd be the same thing though dudes be going at them they'd be going to war of them they they fight over them they knife fight and everything which is crazy because it's the no avail because when they get into that type of conversation anyway both of them go into segregation and both of them getting shipped to other institutions so it's to no avail but it happens all the time all the time and I think in their mind they'd be like well if they ever get shipped to the institution then I'm on they already know that you know they belong to me because I didn't already laid the law down but yeah it's Insanity man pure insanity well at one point you had a cellmate that was a I guess an 85 year old white man yeah man yeah I had a uh 85 year old white man racist and uh I don't like to say uh child molester because I know that who he was charged with but I know a lot of people that was charged with something on paper this men may or may not be true but that's what he was charged with he was charged with child molesting his own grandchild and um he was racist emphatically I can say that but he was also he worked for the administration so he had favor with the administration and um when I I was coming out of segregation for fighting and they put me in the cell with him but so many people knew me by then they was telling me before I went in the cell with him like bang man you don't go in the sale man old man racist man he uh he um he running everybody out to sell he gonna put the people on you you know he gonna tell us and tell her I'm like man but you know you coming out to say if this is sale you supposed to go in and you trying you bucking on going in you going back sick I won't going back sick I had already been back there for a couple of months I wasn't trying to go to say so I'm like man I'm going up in the cell who can't be that bad man I get up and sell with this dude man I swear he stopped barking orders I mean off the gate and he talked like he'd just be shaking he was old he was like oh well where you come from and uh um well I need to tell you this is my hanger up here this is my stuff and don't put your stuff right here and you sleep on it he just start telling me all this stuff like I just got locked up and I'm just looking at him like look man I I know how to do time and it well don't have no company when I go to work I don't have people in my cell and all of this crazy stuff you barking at me I'm just looking at them because I know he old and I'm like okay yeah all right okay pops no don't call me pops don't call me Daddy I'm just telling you this is how I run myself and I'm like all right okay you know we go to work or whatever he come back man he he uh he back at it again he just started talking more crazy more crazy and then I just I know I mean you know people may take this as wrong but I'm saying we in prison man and you know like say that's the thing about prison there ain't no mercy I'm a merciful dude but at the same time you're not gonna press me so when he started pressing me then I started talking stuff to him and that just infuriated man he had like a hundred pills up on the desk man take about a hundred pills and and he started talking about all this crazy stuff how he went to college with f Lee Bailey F Lee Bailey is a personal friend of his and he can call him at any time so I'm saying to myself if you can call him why you still in here you know you say you're not guilty way and then you got F Lee Bailey with us don't even want to talk about that so he started telling me I'm getting out to say I tell him I ain't getting out to say I eventually told him if uh if you keep on messing with me man what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna take these pills and I'm gonna pull them down to talk right and uh I said from the looks of how many you take I know you ain't gonna live through the night so you want me to pull these pills in the toilet and man he just snap he just jumped up and said you better not touch my stuff I'm you touch and he said he told me he was a black belt in karate and he said he would use it if he have to so I looking at him right and it ain't nothing physically possible in the world he can do to me so I said man if you was a black belt it's been so long it's probably great now man it ain't nothing you can do to me man and you just sit down and he just charged me and I literally just put my hand out like this on his chest and he couldn't even move my hand he's trying to move my handy you black son of a b you ain't call me the n-word and all this and I'm like man you better sit down somewhere he's like you're kidding your black asses out of here I promise you you get it I'm like man I'm gonna pour these pills and act like I'm giving great appeals he grabbing me all them I'm holding him off man he just was insane and um he just sat down on the bed man when he seen it he couldn't stop me from doing nothing I was doing he said on the bed and just was shaking and just looking at me and he said just kept saying the same thing over and over you kidding you're a black ass out here you're getting out of myself so the people come in doing the count as soon as they came in during the counties just popped up like a Jack In The Box he said get his black he trying to kill me in here and he just went crazy man and they looking at me like what's wrong what's going on I don't know what are you talking about no you the you know he just snapped all out man but he was a straight racist man he was calling me the n-word he was calling me telling me I'm keep getting my black ass out of here and the only thing I just kept on telling him I'm gonna pour these pills down the toilet if you keep on messing with me I'm telling you I know you can't survive without these pills and uh that that was my only threat to a man but I ended up getting moved out the sale with him and um I did kind of like you know torture him when I seen him in the park cause I walk up to him when I see him standing in front of sale and I said what's up Pops go to shake his hand or something he just despised me he was like f you you black n-word and you know he he he won't scared to say what he said but I couldn't do nothing to him he was too old but I just feel like I just told him verbally you know so he tried to you know talk to me verbally so I just talked to him verbally but uh I've had some crazy uh unique sellers over the years man but he was definitely one of them okay and then in 2005 at age 37 you went up for parole for the first time yeah yeah false false advertisement they was telling me I was gonna go up in 12. I I didn't end up going up I think like an 18 and uh I could just remember man being so excited man thinking that you know in your crazy mind you be really thinking you got a shot you know what I'm saying you really do think I post one up in 12 18. oh yeah they're gonna give it to me first time man not only did they not give it to me they had came up with this new system where they say uh you know they could give you a three-year deferral like when you go up for parole in Virginia you go up every year every 12 and you go up and um now that came up with new system where they can give you a three-year deferral meaning you won't go up for three more years they meet they they don't think he was you know doing enough that you could go up baby yeah you go up every three years or six or nine you know they had it all the way up where they can give you up to a nine-year deferral I go up the first time all excited and thinking I might make it or whatnot man they gave me a three-year hit off the first rip so I'm like man these people ain't gonna give me parole you know what I'm saying so it just took all the life out of me man you know from anticipating so you know over the years I got so many turnouts man um over the years I I you know I I reconciled with it before I got to the end before I actually made it I was like um you know I just adapted the philosophy in my head because you got to trick your brain man in order to even you know maintain in there so I used to tell myself you know if I make it you know my life change if I don't it's just back to the daily routine so nothing changes if you don't make it but people just get so upset because they have the the you know the anticipation and of making it so they get so upset and then a lot of people when they don't make parole man they go back and they just so irritated and aggravated man at least little things set them all a lot of people don't you know get turned down they end up in a situation within a couple of days or even a week you know to get them even further in trouble and then they're going to use that for the next time you go up well we might have gave it to you this time but you just did that you know so it's a double-edged sword but I just told my mind that um if I make it my life change if I don't it's the same daily routine well you finally made it 15 years later in 2020. right right and um a day that I never uh knew would come always wanted to come never really knew it would man but um after all the things I had seen in prison man and been through in prison and um Virginia had the lowest parole rate in the country man it was like two percent for like 30 some years and um you just rarely see people making parole especially people with life sentences or a lot of time so right about that time man about 2018 2019 they had um had this Governor come in man Governor McCullough man you know man he changed the whole uh system man he was like he acknowledged that the low percentage of uh people making parole so he was more or less like uh he want to you know appoint a new parole board with agenda that the dudes was doing what they supposed to been doing and they've been locked up over 20 something years or better and they deserved the shot they was going to take a better and closer look and give him a shot at making parole and he put a new um he put a new Parole in with that agenda man and um they started giving dudes parole and I started seeing dudes go home man that I thought would never go home just from me knowing how they have done their time and uh once I started seeing that man it changed my whole mindset because first you heard from another institution uh this person made parole six people made it on this institution seven people made it on this institution when in previous years you heard two people made it throughout the whole system this year so you could see the change and um I'm still sitting here so I was like man I gotta get proactive man I got it I gotta try to get up out here I ain't gonna be left and I didn't feel like that window would stay open long you know because it's Virginia I felt it was going to close back up so I felt like I had a window to try to get out and I just got proactive man I I changed my whole system man I used to uh man I used to gamble every day man I used to you know run the store box or all the things that trouble come with you know I could be in trouble at any given day let alone the way prison is just these other things that I'm involved with bring trouble to you know but I was inviting the trouble because of the hustle so I dropped all of that man I stopped running the store box I stopped gambling I started going to the library I just started studying I I had seen do uh think his way out of prison man literally seeing the dude think his way out of prison he created a program that was so good that the minutes registration wanted to use the program and um they started using it without his authority and he had already had a copyright and everything so put a lawsuit against him and then they negotiated with him and they let him out so I was like I'm create me a program you know I can try anything else let me try this so I went and I studied I researched I came up with my own program man I thought it was pretty good you know especially something that I never did before and um it was called Rehab man it was acronym it stood for reevaluating habits and behavior and what it was about was more or less a mentorship where dudes is first coming into prison and dudes like me who had already been in for decades man we would Mentor these younger dudes and tell them how to do time man tell them you know to use it wisely don't get caught up in these games don't get caught up in the gambling the homosexuality the foolishness try to use this time wisely man because you know this is the most valuable commodity you have your time and you're giving this up man so you need to use it why is it don't get caught up in you know foolishness gonna come at you but you don't have to navigate that man and try to that's what the program was about that ain't what they told me when I came in when I came in they was like man yeah get in the way shall just stab them just you know you gotta you got all this time you got to do this you gotta you know you gotta let them know you ain't to be messed with yeah all that got me in prison for 30 something years so I didn't want to pass that information misinformation down on to these younger kids coming in so that was what the program was about the major like the program the warden liked the program and they was trying to implement my program and the one actually got on my side man he actually um went into the parole hearing for me man and vouched for me and he had been in the system for 30 something years and he said he never did that before and I was actually in my parole here man and he knocked on the door in their hearing and came in there and vouched for me and said man if I'm going to vouch for anybody I'ma balance for him man he said I think he'll get out there he'll do good and he said uh you can let the board know that I put my name on that and um I believe that played a major part in me making parole with my family support from the outside everything just lined up man and um he called me over there himself man and told me that I made parole man and it was your counselor used to call you when you get an answer and he called me over there and it was so crazy because I had almost got in a fight like two days before and I'm thinking in my mind somebody that told him that I know oh here fighting and he advocating for me now he getting ready to call me over there and shoot me out and um he called me over there man and he asked me uh he said you heard anything about your parole yet and I have been waiting for months I said nah and he said well I'm sorry to tell you you ain't making right and I was like what he was like yeah you ain't making so I went ahead and set on down and you know the life sucked out of me and in two seconds he just looked at me and he he literally cussed he said no I'm just effing with you man you made it and I was like what in this the ward man I'm looking at it I'm like man don't play with me like that man you serious yeah you made it man and it was like it was surreal man I couldn't even believe it because you don't heard no so many times so many times he was like yeah you made it man and he showed it to me on the computer he said they ain't seen you the paperwork yet but you know somebody let me knows because you know I've been advocating for you so you should get your paperwork in a couple of days and he said go head on back to the building man it's lock up time man call your mama going back to the building man that's the best walk I ever had in prison man walking from that office back to my cell man it was like it was like I was dreaming I couldn't even believe it I didn't even know how to process you know so uh it was it was something that I remember forever but he played a major part in that but I got proactive man and that's basically what the program was about television you got to be proactive man you can't keep wishing yourself out of prison you can't keep hoping you get out of prison and you can't just accept your sentence because people who sent it she was human too they can make mistakes they can make virus so you just can't accept it and just lay down and then adapt the prison lifestyle and live to survive in prison and then you may not never get out of prison man I know dudes came in there with five years man and they and got killed I knew dudes that came in there with four five six life sentences they walking on the street now so it's no promise when you go into prison man there's nothing guaranteed you know nothing at all man people dying there every day well you get out in 2020 age 52. so from age 20 to age 52 you're away from the world when you go in Michael Jackson's Bad is the biggest album in the world uh no one really has a cell phone at this time maybe someone got a brick phone if they're really boss yeah the big the big jump yeah the big joint here you are in 2020 Michael Jackson's dead uh everyone's got an iPhone the internet wasn't around before no uh how hard was it to adjust into this new planet that you're suddenly walking into well ironically enough the phone I had a phone I was in there got me in trouble too um yeah it got me in trouble I had one for five years I didn't know how to use it when I first got it I got it and I really thought I had been played I paid for it I paid an officer to bring it to me when I got it I took it to myself I tried to cut it on it had to um the adapter cord to it so I had been going so long I'm thinking you know this is the cord to the phone it got to be you know plugged in to use it so I'm fumbling with it I'm plugged I got it plugged in I couldn't cut it on man it took me about an hour man I I couldn't cut it on I thought they had beat me so I'm getting in my mouth yeah they're gonna get my money back I wrap it up I go down to sell somebody uh that I knew down there and I told him man I got the phone man but they beat me with the phone and he was like you got the phone now I was like yeah showed it to me hit the button on top it came on and it was low and I'm looking at it he's like it worked it's on man I'm like the phone work he's like yes hold on call somebody I knew he said yeah say something to paint so I grabbed a little John I'm like hello and I heard that voice I was saying oh I'm like man why you don't got to use the cord he was like nah so it that's that was shocking to me because I had never seen a cell phone so I knew something about phones but not enough but when I got out here man it was just so many things it was just different man like it's just like the grocery stores and the the checkout lines I mean small things they just throw you off the toilets that flush themselves um all of these things was new to me man the computer is still new to me man all the stuff that you can do on the computer because we were we didn't have access to computers in there you took certain classes I took graphic design class I knew a little bit but not enough because they didn't let you have access to but certain programs that they put on the computer and they would teach you how to use that program but just using the worldwide net I had no idea how to do none of that man you know the phone out here is even different in there because you only have limited time to use the phone in there you got to have to use it you got to hide it all the time so you really can't explore the phone like you can out here so when you get out here and you see everybody moving with a phone up to their ear or something in their ear or you see people walking around in prison when you see dudes walking around talking you know you think they're crazy because it's a lot of crazy ones in there but out here people got the earbuds in so I see people walking and they just talking I'm like who are you talking to and I ain't you know know about the earpods you know what I'm saying so little things like that man but the one thing about prison is you have to learn how to adapt cope and adjust and by being in there for 30 something years and going to 13 14 different prisons in my time did I learn how to do that so when I got out here it wasn't as difficult for me and I always had supported my family it wasn't as difficult for me as I had known it to be for a lot of other people because there's a lot of dudes that came out when I came out as well around the time I did and they couldn't adapt they couldn't cope you know what I'm saying did about the same amount of time I did they either back in or in trouble because it's just too fast for them but I just paced myself I listened um I didn't try to go too fast and um I ain't really had no real big setbacks you know what I'm saying like I said I had dreams about prison a lot when I first got out you know working waking up in a real bed and looking around you normally I wake up I see bars and doors and check my surroundings and you wake up and you're in a real bed in a real room first thing like where I'm at you know you get a little Panic at first but then it started to settle in but other than that nothing like major major you know that threw me off well being in prison if you step on someone's shoe you you're rude to somebody that could be the last thing you ever do absolutely but in the real world someone will bump into you and keep walking like nothing happened someone will be rude to you in a store and think nothing of it that's how do you adjust so so how did you adjust from this this place of respect or else to a place where you might get respect depending on what day it is that's that now good thing you board that up that's excellent question because that is probably yeah that would be the hardest thing that I had to deal with I there that is and I dealt with that off the top um I'll go in the store when I first got out with my my sister my cousin in my heart all females right they take them in there they buy me stuff phone uh charger all of this stuff and um they was getting in line it was a couple of them so some of them got in line with the stuff they got and then other ones had to go get some so they go get some and then they come back but the line has gotten long so I'm just waiting over by the side so it's dude he's in line he get mad because they come back and get in line thinking that they're cutting the line but they was they together so he's like uh oh yeah just go ahead cut the line cut the line so they was like um nah I'm with them he said no but you see all these people wait my first instinct was to just Crush you know what I'm saying I I was getting ready to crush him I'm looking at him I'm getting furious and I'm like and I'm walking up on him and then my my sister was like don't don't say nothing to him and I just was stirring him down and he looking at me and I'm saying just say anything say something to me you know so I had to I had to get control of that because that was really that was really a big obstacle in the same thing as you say people just they just bump you and and to this day that annoys me I don't like being in crowded places when I first went in Walmart I'm like man this this is this is insane you know it's too many people moving around at the same time they moving at fast Paces another thing is when somebody run like these kids they'll run behind you or they and they're in the stores and they running when you heard fast steps like that in prison you got to turn around real fast because like you say if you turn around too late you you might be too late so that type of thing it still bothers me but I think that will eventually leave you know as time go on but right now it's still a factor because like I say when you live you can't live a certain way for twelve thousand three hundred and some days and then only be out here for two years and then you that's just out of you you know you know I don't like to be scared I don't want nobody try to pop only try to scare me because it ain't no telling what I might do you know and then when you around family you know they might play them type of jokes but I don't don't pop up and try to scare me because I I'm gonna swing you know because like I say you have to react you can't be thinking when you're in prison because if you take time to think in prison then you too late and I just tell them the opposite I'll hear when I tell them my YouTube I tell a young cats I say don't do what you think think about what you do but in prison it's the opposite you you know you can't think about what you're doing you got to do what you think if you think the move you got to move you know because if you move too late that's it and you ain't got for one life you can't get that back you know well and then you actually ended up starting your own YouTube channel I did man thank you Pond and you have around 66 000 subscribers now yeah and some of these uh videos have actually gotten quite a number of views yeah I got uh I got 10 million views on my page so far man I'm I'm super proud of that and um when I came home I had no idea what YouTube was man I say this over and people giggle but it's just true I actually thought YouTube was was spelled like the letter U and two because that's all I just heard YouTube YouTube I thought that's what it was I didn't even know it was the whole word y o u two so I that's how much I knew about YouTube but when I got out um um my ex-wife who's one of my best friends to this day also a part of my management team [ __ ] seeing this show called after prison show and on the show she was telling me to ask me I'd ever seen it I was like nah and she was like uh they got a dude on there that was locked up in the Virginia prison for 31 years and he telling his story on this dude show so I said Virginia she said yes I know I got to know him if he was locked up that long if he anybody if you locked up that long in Virginia and I don't know you you just was really hiding up under the bed so I was like boom I gotta know him I go look at it I know I know him well you know so I was like oh that was interesting hearing him tell the story and the things he was talking about I knew about I was either around or knew about the situation so I told her that I seen it and she was like well I told a dude um I called him I looked him up and said you know for him to interview you he might want to interview you I was like nah I ain't I ain't trying to do that she was like oh I already called him I was like what you do that for she was like it might be good for you to go on I'm like I ain't trying to do it well he eventually got in touch with me dude name is Joe Guerrero man and um he got the after prison social shout out to him he got he had one of the hugest YouTubes in the prison genre you know out there at one point in time I think he was number one he got right now like 1.4 million subscribers and um he said he wanted to interview me talk to me about things they knew a lot of dudes that brought my name up or whatnot and um I was still wasn't that interested but then you know I'm coming out of prison I've been out about three months um I worked in there cutting hair for 30 years for 45 cents an hour he said he would pay me a hundred dollars an hour to talk to me so that was a Godfather deal right there for me so I said okay we did the interview um I think the first interview ended up getting like 800 some thousand we did another one it got over half a million he asked me what else I used to do in there I told him I used to box you know and uh you know I cook my own food because I ain't trust nobody to cook my food so I became a good cook so I used to cook a lot cook all my own meals and stuff and we did a cooking show it got over a million views so um he just kept bringing me back and bringing me back man and then my son was telling me you know you should start your own YouTube you know and I said well I don't know how you know he said well you got the story you got the content I'll just help you with all the technical stuff and we set it up we started it man and um it just took off man people resonate with what I'm talking about you know I've been fortunate man um did you know they've been supporting me man the whole you know call them tbp team banking pound Nation man they support me with whatever I do I've been lucky enough man speaking at HBCU I spoke at colleges high schools I'm scheduled to go back into prisons that I was in and speak later on this week for the first time myself to the prisoners um I met you know tons of people man NFL players or people or in the music business man people just just from my story you know so it's been amazing man it you know because like I say for 33 years man ain't nobody care what I had to say So for anybody to you know take the time to listen to me man I I just always look at it as a blessing you know what I'm saying and now it's been amazing amazing well Becky pound I appreciate you coming in and sharing your story and I think the the one thing that really got me when you said that in 33 years I never had a good day never I had certain days that weren't as bad as others but I never actually had a good day in prison years yeah which is more than half your life at this point yeah I think that really drives the message home to everyone who thinks prison is no big deal uh I'm gonna go and [ __ ] around and if I get a few years who cares uh it really is the worst place you could be I remember I interviewed Papoose and he said something interesting he said when he was in Rikers he said he he realized at that point the only thing lower than where he was is death which made him rethink everything and kind of change his whole life around and this is why I have people like yourself come in and share these stories because this is not a place you want to go to and and in today's society it gets glamorized music raps about it people brag about it hip-hop has glamorized prison and makes it look like it's almost like a rite of passage when it shouldn't be right and see they need to know that see this is what it is everybody know you know that you could be in trouble they just ain't telling them the truth about the consequences man there is absolutely positively no guarantee when you go in prison that you coming out so all these dudes that come out here and they tell you how I want nothing in this that in the third and and I won't knock them they can say what they want to say I'm saying I know for a fact if you go to prison brother then is no guarantee you coming out so and your experience is is going to be nothing but hell because you're going to eat the lowest grade of food you're gonna be in the lower state that you will ever be in above ground you're gonna sit back and watch the world like you're watching TV the world is moving around you and you sitting in this state with everything you love everything you care about everything that you like you are removed away from that so what part of that is worth risking out here I know people right now Vlad who I will kill and are dying to get out here so why are people out here killing and dying to go in it don't make sense I don't know one person in prison who don't want to get out not one who don't want to get out but these cats out here they being led by a false sense of reality thinking that oh man I could go in or I could take this chance or it ain't gonna be that bad well I'm here to tell you you're wrong you're wrong you go in you might not come out and it's gonna be better than anybody ever told you that it was gonna be well there you have it Banky pound uh I appreciate you coming in make sure everyone checks out your your YouTube channel which is very dope it goes into a lot more details than some of the stories we went into man and congratulations on really turning your life around and really having the the focus to say I'm never going back in there and I'm going to actually monetize my experience in a positive way right positivity always win man no matter what they tell you you know can't lose with it that's what it is Banky pound man appreciate you black peace peace

Channel: djvlad

Views: 374,204

Keywords:

Id: XgUJHmFzm20

Length: 74min 51sec (4491 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 27 2022