Da'Vinchi on Overcoming Poverty, Prioritizing Peace, Purpose & Mental Health | The Blackprint

God don't give you years to waste otherwise you wouldn't have them so this idea is yolow you only live once and like yeah keep doing that and when you're 50 and Social Security is ran out and all that stuff it's like you're going to start looking back and like damn I wish someone told me so don't waste your younger years my name is davio Samuels and welcome to the black Print where I sit with the innovators disruptors and change makers my guests open up about every step of their journey and share Lessons Learned along the way to provide creators entrepreneurs and Executives with a tangible blueprint for navigating to the top of their industry this is the black [Music] Print welcome to the black Print here we talk to The steiling Breakers the innovators the disruptors those who have overcome life challenges and obstacles to make it to the top as I say in every episode everybody sees you on the mountain top nobody sees you on the climb this is the show where we talk to people about the climb today I'm so happy to have my brother King D venci good to see you man I appreciate you for having me man appreciate that glad to have you man look we start off every episode not with my voice but your voice usually when you come on to a show the host will introduce you but at Revolt we believe that we should control our own narratives and so for me I would like to start by you introducing yourself to the audience who is Da Vinci from his own words through his own perspective through his own lens um I think Da Vinci is The Offspring of millions and millions of human beings that had unique experiences that brought him here today and he's just experiencing life based off of a few men's ideology and I'm just learning how to play this game based off of that that's it I love it I love it the reason we do it this way is because I didn't want to come out and say you're a musician you're an actor I wanted your truth so thank you for starting us with your truth um let's go all the way back to the beginning tell me a little bit about um life for you as a kid where were you born raised tell me a little bit about your upbringing so I was uh I was born in Brooklyn New York um and uh my parents divorced I was the baby in the family and my father started a second family and he had more kids then I wasn't the baby but on my mom's side I'm the baby and um I just I grew up in in poverty the a very normal situation that most of us grow up in but of course while you're in it you don't really know it because everyone else is like that around it until you switch environments and then you start realizing the depths of the lack that you were in and yeah that was that that was the beginning I'm first generation Haitian American my grandmother did most of the raising and upbringing and she didn't speak English at all so while my mother was busy at work she would raise us so it was very easy for us to outsmart her in a land that we know more than she does so but that doesn't take away from her wisdom that she learned from Haiti CU she definitely had some innate knowledge that you know we had no clue about but we definitely ran circles around her and were able to do whatever we wanted for the most part so you talk a little bit about growing up in New York and being raised in poverty and unfortunately to your point that is a story that so many of us do know but first I want to kind of jump in and help people dimensionalize when you say you grew up in poverty can you kind of describe like double click into that for me and describe a little bit more what your environment was like and then I want to talk about the impact of that environment on you so so the poverty that I faced was you know you don't have all the meals throughout the day uh we heavily relied on school lunch um and my mother she was you know making ends meet with a salary that was in the 30,000 a year um so so with that you just you don't have access to a lot of stuff when I wanted to play football um the camp the summer camp thing was like $25 I couldn't for that like they were like no you you don't my mother would always say I don't have I don't have and what she would have money for would probably just be like the bills and certain things that is a necessity but any any extracurricular things that we needed we didn't get uh they just made sure that they met the very basic needs of survival of the child which is very dangerous because that type of poverty is like your emotional needs as a child is not being met so it starts to create a monster within but you know so you gravitated towards streets everything that I had from a certain age up you know it was definitely ill gotten gains from myself and my brothers and and whatever but you know we had we was in public school that's a place to where you know you it's kids raising other kids so when you're getting picked on and that's a real problem because what you got on because of your haircut or whatever it's like yo like I need to do something about this because we would fight a lot and then just be like yo we just got to fit in so we need the money M don't want to give it to us so we're going to figure this out in the beginning you kind said um in one sense that this is that it was normalized because the people around you all kind of came from lack right but in this other sense it kind of sounds like it weighed on you right you said it created a monster within yeah can you kind of think about or kind of help me understand your mentality as a Young Man growing up and what were your dreams like what were your dreams in Middle School what were your dreams in high school was it about making it out or you dreaming of other things my my dreams in middle school high school um in high school I don't I think it probably was like in Middle School no that's what I was like I was bad as hell I was up North so it wasn't a dream it was a nightmare um I probably just wanted I don't know be like great at selling drugs you know what I'm saying because that's what you was seeing you know around you or whatever but uh in high school I think my dreams would probably been like cuz that's when I moved to Florida so I was getting in trouble a lot and then so my father took me and my other brother we were the two youngest we started living there and so when I I got in trouble I was like a juvenile detention center thing for dealing and stolen property and whole bunch of BS but when I moved to Florida I was able to see like a real side to life that I never and not not that is a real side to life a different side yeah absolutely and that's what started making me realize like oh my God we didn't have nothing like I remember going to like this is true story one time I was at my friend's house and he was like he was like bro can you grab these chips from the pantry I was like the pantry and me and my brother looked at each other he was like what is it I mean we also speak a different language English is not our first language so but we we never use that word in our language either so but we was like what is like and then we open it we was like oh [ __ ] got a whole snack cabinet was just snacks and all full of snacks we were like bro and it was just so many little things that was like yo we didn't even know like this is a possibility and as you start to look at that and then you kind of look back you was like yo we didn't have anything and then from there you know it's like you realize there was a monster being built inside of you and it's and it's that critical moment right there that you either Rectify that and start fixing that because the reason why we were so bad and I mean Benjamin Franklin said it best he said poverty is the mother of all crime so it's not that we were doing it to be cool we just didn't know anything we didn't know any better you know so but being in that better environment going to predominantly white high school it it changed it changed everything and it made me realize where I come from and it made me be like you know what I'm going to take the proverbial route I'm going to go to school I'm gonna do this I'm G do that and then I end up not doing it okay I end up going I did go to school though I got a degree in criminal justice but I was like no I'm not going to do this so uh one of my favorite quotes is um exposure to the next level breeds an intolerance for your current situation right that's what I hear when I hear you talking about when I came from a system of lack in New York and got exposed to new things now all of a sudden I'm intolerant to living a life of lack right my upbringing is relatively similar right so grew up single parent home mother uh probably like again same middle school like I'm stealing I'm doing all of those things right stealing fighting Etc and then I get moved to the suburbs and all of a sudden my my my neighbors are lawyers and doctors and businessmen now all of a sudden I'm not having to worry about watching my back when I walk to school right and so you get all of this capacity back right y so you have new capacity you have new dreams um as you start to switch from what you're saying was the monster that was being built from inside into whatever this new version of you how are you feeding that new version of you how are you inspiring that new version of you how are you figuring out what the new you wants to be if it's not what you were leaving back behind in New York so I started that that's a great question that's a really good question um so I wasn't at first I wasn't trying to figure out the new me I was just trying I was like okay I got to fit into my environment new envir Napoleon Hill one of my favorite authors he beautifully stated he said nature forces upon the minds of men the influences of their environment so my environment started influencing me heavily so I was like yo you know what I need to start speaking English differently I remember one time I was in school I was talking to it was like few black people in the school so I was talking to one of the only other only black people in the school and we were talking about like lifting weights or whatever we playing football and I was like man shut up [ __ ] you weak as hell and she was like you weak it's your why are you apostrophy re and I was just like [ __ ] I was just like what the [ __ ] that's how colloquialism from alac you like this [ __ ] cuz you listen to our music all the time you and your mom I'm sure right but it was this white girl BL ha bluee that just speak so proper right but then she was coming for me and I was mad as hell cuz like everyone in the class was like kiking and [ __ ] and I was like all it wasn't even that funny one and two I'm just like okay bet so I was like noted so they judged my intelligence based off of how I speak I was like okay so I got to start changing it up and I was like I can speak like y if I want to I speak multiple languages y'all don't yall limited to one language that has been deemphasized and it's just like you don't even speak a good language like it's like your language is lame as hell I love it right so I took it personal right and I went home I told my dad my dad is like yeah whatever it just don't pay attention to whatever but I remember like that moment and obviously when you get embarrassed as a kid you're just like damn it stick with you and then I just started changing from there then I started reading more because I never picked up a book ever in my life so like read for what like it's just not fun and all the books that they make you read in school it's not books that is very like encouraging to a child so I started actually reading self-help books like my senior year and I started going through those things and I was like and through Reading that I remember I read something I was like they said if you want to hide something from a black man put it in a book put it in a book absolutely so I just kept reading kept reading and as I was reading I was just like whoo like all these things is making me a better man a better person so that's what started changing my trajectory I wanted to be a better human being and thank God shout out and the girl name was Megan I ain't gonna say her last name because I like she she's still around I don't know her anymore but um she she sparked that in me and I started reading I started educating myself and then you know and I'm studying the Warren buffets the guys that drop out of school and things like that not saying that there's anything wrong with school I think school is a great place I went to college I did all that stuff but Warren Buffett he said formal education will make you a living but self-education will make you a fortune and I was like okay let me listen to this white man so boom taking notes reading more books reading more books reading more books and in doing that I was just like a light bulb went off and I was like okay I understand and I had a different access to life I probably would have never been in entertainment but because of the Cs that I was dealt so Sports I play sports very athletic here and there but I never stuck with sports long enough to be want to be good and honestly no disrespect people to play sports I just don't care about it like I don't care like I'm good at sports I can shoot I can dunk a ball I can run really fast I jump over things but to me it's like it's it's like a like for what like I'm just I'm just not going to do that and then I'm going to try to encourage every other kid to do what less than 0% of the population could ever attain you know what I'm saying I'm not doing that and and I couldn't at that point I was like you know what I'm 17 now in college I'm like I could get on and play division one do D2 but it's like to make it in NBA I'm like nah but then I was like okay so what else do I have so I'm looking at my hand I'm like I'm great at music and I'm good at acting I I always knew the Arts I started off in life violin was my first instrument I played the trumpet played the drums I played the piano like I'm I'm currently how did you learn how to do all of that in school so in elementary school really so Elementary School when I was up north it's like they was like hey you got to pick something or whatever and I was just like I just do the violin it's like you kind of had to but which was great because like in learning that learning how to read music all that stuff it's very helpful for the mind so it was good and then of course I stopped doing that when I went through puberty it was like yo Sports is it right but [Music] um no I got you but I'm I'm ask you a couple questions on that cuz you said a few things um right I was going to yeah know but I love it I love it and my apologies for interrupting your flow uh a couple of things that you have in there that I just think are phenomenal that I want to pull out for the audience so one this interaction with Megan I think a lot of us have a lot of times we can run into a Megan and when we leave that situation we end up feeling like we are less what I love that it sounds like you did was you ran into that moment and you didn't allow it to invalidate who you were in fact it just made you stronger your your response was no no no no I can speak your language and three four five other languages right as opposed to making allowing her to make you feel like you were lessed than only because you were speaking in a dialect that was not um perfect English yeah exact exactly to them right the other thing that I love that you keep saying is um to you I believe at some point in time you have to take ownership for your own education I talk about this notion that you have to school yourself so even while you're in school you begin to school yourself right finding books um I love that you brought up this notion that they say that the best way to keep things from a black man is a h put it in a book if you would have recommend one to three books that you think everybody should read that kind of helped you on your path what books would those be um I just recently read a book called entering her Vortex by Jamal he has an interesting name but if you type it entering your vort her Vortex you're going to find I wish that was the first book I read but that was like I just read that book probably like two months ago um tell me about it yeah so it's it's a book that just talks about uh the Divine femininity and the Divine masculinity and the roles of men and wom and there there is a beautiful dance between the two and a balance that's there I would say it just talks about masculinity and femininity and not in the way that Society is is making a lot of people see it there is a beauty there to where I think there's not one over the other they're both together there's really strong but now with what's being pushed it is kind of chaos and Trauma and dysfunction and it's due to them wanting the family nucleus to not be a thing but that is arguably one of the most important things in life and our sole purpose and everything stable most likely comes from that I'm a needle in a haste stack in my family I'm the one that made it out but it's only because I saw great representations of families who adopted me so I was like adopted not legally but basically from two different families one was a white family and she's like my white mother Dean and her husband John shout out to them I love them they showed me a different side of life and then my grandpa and grandma who weren't biological they took me in but they had this Union and through them through seeing structure is part of what saved my life so I think that that book is very powerful because the way it talks about the two roles it talks about it with a a beautiful Dynamic that it should be and not what's being portrayed by a lot of the media Outlets yeah no look I'm a big believer in both masculine and feminine energy I'm a big believer that you need both in a unit right um and that there is that like you said there's Beauty and there's a beautiful dance as those two things try to figure each other out I'm with you on all of that okay any other books that you think people should pick up The Alchemist The Alchemist is like that's like one of my favorite go you got a favorite quote from The Alchemist uh when something is really for you then Ty Universe conspires my book Jensen s you're a badass how to stop down your greatness I think that was a perfect book to um to just understanding life or very in layman's terms and probably the science of Getting richened By Wallace D Waddles that was a really good book yeah all right so let's go back into your story so you're in this place where you are um looking at the hand the hand that you've been dealt you are reading pouring knowledge into yourself and it sounds like you start to say all right there's something with music and something with acting yeah right so I believe music is the first thing that you kind of jump into okay so tell me a bit about that yeah yeah so I was just like all right so I so I started having big plans and ideas when I was sted reading all these books and I was like oh my God like light bulb went off I was like y I think I want to do this I want to do this I want to do that and actually took acting as an elective in college cuz you had to take a speech class and I was just like okay sure I'm going do acting and I remember an exam day it was a scene was supposed to be me and this girl and the girl she didn't come that day so I had to perform the entire scene by myself as a teacher r on the stage and like the teacher was over there and I'm like performing in front of everyone had the audience dying in tears and my teacher was like kid I don't know what you want to do I don't know if you want to stick to basketball or whatever but I would pursue acting because you're very natural I was like thank you Mr O'Brien but never going to do this like come on I'm in the middle of nowhere in Florida right now but um but as I started thinking thinking thinking my brain started going to work I was just like okay so in order for me to do what I really want to do I need a lot of money I don't have any money don't know no one with money so I'm just like all right I was like so I got to hit the Arts I was just like so I know I know how to play music I know how to act I come from a lot of experiences that that I know how to get to certain real places and emotional places that I don't got to Fain affection I don't got to fake things I don't got to be cynical or nothing but I come from like the University of life like that taught me everything where I come from it's like I know how to do so much it is actually scary like I cut my own hair even on sets they be like you're not going to let it I'm like no I'm cutting my own hair BR and they're just like what and I'm like yes and then I've been doing this since I was like 11 but it's it's so many things I know how to do so I was like okay bet I'm going to do this and I move mov back up north I stopped doing school and um my my aunt SL godmother she was like Hey I know Jay-Z's mother she has this place shout out to Gloria Carter she has this place in North called Diamonds in the Rough every Thursday a lot of artists come and perform and there be different managers there a whole bunch of people coming whatever whatever you could you know do something you never know and I was like really what let me go outside wrote a song went there and I was writing poetry and different things at the time I performed it and I performed it again another week and again another week and then they was like oh like you like get really talented D whatever whatever I got discovered from there and then when you say you wrote a song what type of song you singing You rapping rap song and the other one was it was poetry like I just did spoken words and the spoken words like got everyone everyone oh my God like wow this kid and then from there I got a manager and then everything just slowly started connecting but it was rough it didn't happen smooth that part was rough like I was there was a lot of moments where I was just like I'm in over my head I this is not going to work and I was just like I'm bugging but I was so deep into it that I was like I can't go back there's no way I can go back so I was just like I just have to keep going like I burned all the ships burned the bridges there just no way I can go back and I I put myself in a position to where it's just like I'm either going to reach it or I'm going to die and I would rather die than live the life that I was living love that man um yeah love all of that um so you push through because you said you you gonna burn all the ships you either going to make it or you going to die yeah what's the first big thing that happens next that makes you feel like all right we got real momentum this thing is cooking um I met my first legitimate manager um cuz so I knew little mama shout out to little mama that's my sister I love her uh lip gloss is popular lip gloss School of course of course yeah um she was the one that was like hey come to La you should be my manager like you're really talented D whatever whatever and I was like man I never been to La before like what like what did you talk about she was like just come and I came and the manager was like she was like hey you got any head shot I was like nope like you got any this nope any credit nope I was like nothing and she was like wait so what do you I was like music I was like you know and she was like okay can you do I was like and right spoken words and whatever like so I did something she was like wow it's really good and she was just like oh my God and then she was like wait let's set you up with some head shot and let's do this and that and she was like you know you have a you have a good buil and Si like we could we could do something here and she signed me and she was like we're gonna have to find an agency but she was like um I've been in this for a long time and tell you because you don't have any nothing on your resume or nothing like this so it's probably G to be hard but just just work with me I'll be able to get you auditions and D whatever whatever got a meeting with the agency um cesd was my first agency and that they signed me like that and she was actually shocked and then two weeks later I booked my first job and I remember coming I was in the Bronx and I'm coming back from the gym and like I was just staying one of my boys and I was helping him out one of his businesses just hustling and I get a call from the manager and she's like yo um you booked the job I was like what she was like you booked the job I was like what do you mean I booked the job like I it was it took me a while to actually process that I was going to be filming something oh this is on the acting side yeah and I was like whoa like what this is actually like crazy and then my first day the star of the show Christian Ritter she gave me some great words of encouragement and she was like I I there's something that I think you're going to be in this for a long time okay and then I'm gonna pull back a little bit and then we're gonna jump into that so one for the people listening you made a distinction you said I got a real manager for those people who are out there trying to find their way and their path what are ways that you can kind of identify or know whether you have a real manager or whatever you had before which sounds like something less than I'm not saying you got talk about your old man how do people know how do people know the difference how do that that is a great question a really great question you're really good at what you did like no you're really good at making sure the people understand no we need that man we need appreciate it and the difference is one manager he was figuring the [ __ ] out at the same time I was figuring it out you know what I'm saying but acting like he knew way more than me and I'm just like hold on like what's going on here you know and there's a lot of characters in this business there's a lot of people that go against protocol there's a lot of people that don't follow the rules and to where if your gut is telling you something is wrong it's probably wrong but at the same time it's it's you know what I should have never said a real manager versus a I guess the opposing would be a fake manager because both were managers is just one was so unorthodox and so not professional that if anyone is like if I'm explaining exping this story to anyone in the business they would be like yo kid you were getting tricked and manipulated but at the same time I saw God's hand in that and what was meant for evil God made it good so to me it's like they both served a great purpose but he was just managing me and letting me know like the [ __ ] in the business not realizing that that was his purpose in my life and then the lady she was just like it was straight work okay we're going to get you J like she actually had all the connections and stuff but the other one was just someone that was just really just talking out his ass yeah and you know I was like okay something's off here so yeah there's a couple of things in there you talk about this notion of one trusting your gut trusting your intuition right if it smells off like it could be off you got to learn we got to learn to trust our gut and Trust our intuition you also have this notion of like um for me it's like this notion of hiring experts right like you're not an agent that's not what you do you want to hire someone who's already an expert and knows how to do it so you're like one difference was one I went in they got head shot they knew all the next steps they already had the they were already an expert in what they were doing right the other person was maybe trying to figure it out along the way with you so trusting our intuition um finding and hiring experts who can legitimately day one prove to us that they know the next steps for us to be taken and and and and as crazy as this might sound anyone who's watching this I would definitely say make sure whoever you're working with there's some type of collateral cuz there's some characters that don't have a car don't have a home don't have anything and they're just selling you a story and if you don't see behind that you could you could be in some [ __ ] like there's a lot of people that I know and his business because there's levels to it right just like there's levels in sports you could play Ju j D3 D2 D1 and then you go to the G League that's not the NBA either you go overseas that's not the NBA I look like the NBA players both just as tall and black but it's just like no the NBA is one thing and all this other thing yeah they could be big tall and DEP but that's not and it's very hard to spot that out it's very hard to spot out cuz they all look alike so yeah I love that okay so the other thing you're talking about is um you've now already booked your first acting gig so my question is what happened to the music along the way right so I heard Jay-Z Gloria Carter right that's starting like what happens to music before we get into the acting thing I I love music music is my first love that is my passion but but the industry made me hate music because it's not what you want to do it's what sells and I was just like I can't go to sleep at night knowing that I'm portraying a lifestyle that I know that this is not what got me here and I grew up in this lifestyle and this lifestyle have destroyed my brothers destroyed my cousins and literally I've seen a lot of people die because of this lifestyle that they want me to perpetuate and I was just like no and then when you don't die you're so traumatized and then you start self-medicating so you start destroying your brain and you become a fiend and your brain's capacity is by like 1% you can't do nothing your cognitive skills is gone everything is just gone then you develop paranoia you end up so you develop some type of psychosis and then also prison prison is if you don't die you could most likely go into prison right that's how fate so I was just like there's no way I'm going to perpetuate that like it's just like I just can't how big of a decision was that for you I think you know there's so many young black kids that grew up wanting to be hip-hop artists rappers um there's definitely you know all of Hip Hop isn't gangster and terrible um but to your point the industry might be pushing people in that way and I think there's a lot of people who would have taken that that Journey with them right the the fame the desire to be like how hard was it to you to make a decision that sounds like it was rooted in purpose rooted in your values rooted in your beliefs how hard was it to walk away from something that looked like it might be a potential win for you um and instead kind of like stand 10 toes down on your values that specifically wasn't hard because of how annoying it was to go to the studio and deal with these people God made it easy for me God made that very easy for me um you know sometime I think about dang what it would have been like if I would have continued doing it but honestly the way musicians make most of their money is on the road I like stability I like consistency so if I have to go on tour and do this and that it it just affects you where human beings we're creatures of habits we need some type of steady system to be healthy you know what I'm saying like if you want to work out and have the best body in the the world like you got to have a certain sleep schedule you got to eat at a certain time you got to do this at a certain time but like when you're changing your altitudes and your the weathers and this and that you're eating all type of foods you're on the go and then everyone's in the studio all the time drinking it's just like this is not good for you so to me I was just like you know what God I'm fine I would rather do a project I'm filming for six months filming for five months I'm in one location when I have a wife and kids we all could be in that location whatever you so it was just it was more stable anyway so I was just like uh you know and the music environment been in studios man I've been in shootouts I've been in this and it's just like it's not I just don't think it's conducive to a healthy lifestyle no shade to none of my peers that's in it it's just kudos to Y but they're in war that's why majority of them are under the influences but I all the time and I fight my Wars sober so when I'm going through something I'm sober and it's just like I can't deal with that like it's like kudos to all the musicians in the world and out there because it's sad it's very sad not even going to lie to anyone out here it's tough so um not hard for you to stand 10 toes down and you book your first gig what show was the first gig Marvel Jessica Jones okay and what was that like being on set like real set for the first time yeah it was it was crazy I was like yo there's a lot of cameras in my face right now and how many times are we going to do this damn scene like I was like yo this is crazy you got to do this angle same thing this angle same thing this angle same thing coverage cover I was like yo this is a lot and I was like all right like this is what I asked for and I was like okay but I didn't really get a feel for it then I got a feel for it when I was filming gronish my second project and I was like yo like okay like this is you know whoa this is different you know and yeah when you book gronest do you feel like you've made it like are you like I'm here I've arrived nah did but I I think I think it's when gronish came out when I was like I remember the first week like my character was trending worldwide on Twitter what was that like and that was crazy I was just like whoa like what like I'm like trending and I and then it was crazy cuz I was like whoa the this is how the world receiv me like I've never been seen on a platform so large before and so to me I was like okay maybe I got this like maybe I can do this and then next project hit and then every project I was doing like I was like yo I feel like a artist that is like featuring on records getting hits and hits and hits and then you know and now BMF come along and I feel like that's the album because that's the project that I'm like stuck in not stuck but like that's my project rooted in and I'm like okay first album with Platinum second one's Platinum third one's platinum and now we're filming the fourth one so it's just like I'm like so now now I kind of feel like okay I think I'm in the business now like I'm like six seven years later now now I could really say when someone ask me what do I can probably say that I still won't because I don't like that question um but now I finally feel like okay like I'm I'm in the game now I don't feel I'm a rookie still but I feel like I'm a rookie that's kind of doing it um I want to ask a question that has to so you're the one that made it I think you said you were the one out of your family out of the the all of the kids and all the siblings that that made it what is the interaction with home like you know a lot of times we we make it to a certain level and then we still have our family this family come with us do we go back with like what does that kind of look like in your world uh how do to say this everything was better when it was a figment of my imagination um it has it has caused a lot of disruption um and I I I keep a healthy distance from home and the people that I grew up with you know and um often times when you beat the odds and make it in a situation that no one else is programmed to understand it you look crazy or it look like you're doing something illegal or it looks like it's just it's it's hard to grasp when somebody had almost the same exact experience as you and they make it out and and cuz sometimes you're a reflection for everybody's insecurities so they can't help to have a disdain for you at moments and sometimes it comes out um and it's just a matter of when it comes out so yeah that's what I would say in that situation I think then what really matters is the circle that you then build around you so maybe tell me a little bit about who's who's in your circle today like who keeps your mind right you know they say Eagles off soar right who are the Eagles that you're soaring with um you by yourself you stick to yourself okay I I have I would be missed if I said I didn't have a good Circle I have a good Circle but the things that is the closest to me in my life I value it so much that I would rather not say who they are yeah yeah yeah yeah no that's fair that's fair um so I have a good group of people and the people that I work with my team from my manager uh agents um stylist videographer security like we all we all genuinely care for each other to where it's just like it's deeper than the work and I think in that you know um there's a level of peace that comes from that and you know and I have people in my personal life that have nothing to do with the business side of Da Vinci and and um it's great yeah no one's blood no one's what no one's blood yeah yeah and for me the names are less important for me it's more important uh to me for the audience to understand the importance of your circle and the people you keep around you and how you have chosen who you have allowed to be around you do you think you were intentional and deliberate around building this circle that you had yeah I was I was for sure intentional and deliberate and but sometimes my emotions got the best of me with building my circle because I really wanted it some people from my upbringing to be there and not everyone is built for that you know uh a lot of people are rigid in their thinking and I've never understood the saying more than ever now um you could lead a horse of water but you can't make him train and it's just like there are some human beings that they are so rigid in their thinking that you can know what's better for them and if they don't want that for themselves so if they don't know there is nothing you can do for them and I think it's one of the saddest things about being in this position in life and Harriet tman uh some believe that she said that I freed a th slaves but I could have freed a th more only if they knew they were slaves and where I come from is like a lot of people don't want to admit certain things they're in denial they just don't want to become better and they're not solution oriented mentally because they've been crippled by their environment so let's get into that exactly so you are at the top BMF is crushing right you guys just got some big victory right did you just get a big tell me what the big win was recently U we're we're we're the highest rated show on the network uh I the power uh yeah didn't beat this this season for sure y'all got the title congratulations for sure for like all of the shows um and again all of the shows power uh but and in season 4 Just we're starting to film season 4 we got picked up yeah congratulations one one of the things that you're doing with this platform that you have is um making making uh space in the mental health uh Arena tell me a little bit about what you're doing in the mental health space and how you kind of got on to that path so um I always I had always there was always a prayer that I would tell myself that um if I ever make it out of God like it's it's going to be worth it you're going to be like you know what I'm glad I gave this kid a shot because I'm not going to let him down so I feel obliged to extend the ladder and help the community that I came from and who arguably suffers the most in the world um and and so I feel like the success that I been able to acquire in a few years I can't go to sleep at night peacefully knowing that a lot of people don't have the access to what I had and what I was doing my life so I started you know being a strong advocate mental health because I was like I don't want these people to think I made it here by just luck or he was just snaap from whatever or he knew someone and that's what happened it's like no I I've spent hours and years over a decade now working on myself at 17 from 17 to 27 every day or probably 95% of all those days within that 10 years I would wake up listen to something positive I would meditate I would read my affirmations read my mantras go to sleep same thing and I'm reading a new book and I'm learning I stopped listening to rap music at one point because I was just like I I was I was trying to guard my mind because I understood when I started Understanding Psychology because I studied criminal justice in College due to the fact that I was like yeah the black people we get affected by the system the most so let me understand what's going on in the system so in doing that you got to understand behavioral psychology and because you're dealing with criminals you got to study behavior but as I was studying and stuff I later further took the studies in on my own and I realized it's like whatever you're doing at any given moment you're physically modifying yourself to become better at it so what that means is if you don't delete social media and not have like I didn't have social media for a minute I created social media when gronish came out so I like I didn't have it and I'm in this generation like in the heart of it in the core of it but I didn't have it because I realized that what I said about physically modifying your brain to become better at something if you're watching videos and looking at images that has nothing to do with the next thing so one could be an elephant one could be two girls fighting one could be oh TMZ uh this person did D one could be a gospel lyric one could be this shoes and whatever whatever you're training your brain to have ADHD your brain there's a comedian there that's like all right he doesn't want to pay attention for anything longer than x amount of seconds so guys let's be great at that so your brain is literally giving you what you want and this is why you have a generation to everybody with short attention and I realized in order to do anything in life in order to really plan methodically take calculated risk and do anything it's like you need to have a longevity in your thinking nothing just happens in a day two days not even a year two years three years and that's and when something happened in 10 15 years that's overnight success exactly exactly you know what I'm saying so it was just like so I realized certain things like that and I was just like okay what I'm feeding my mind it's like I can't constantly keep hearing somebody talking to me saying you they got more money than me they going to take my [ __ ] and if I look at them wrong their security is going to kill me I'm like damn this is kind of crazy and we're paying good money to go to these concerts saying that you gonna take the girl that I'm with like what the [ __ ] and like she's looking at you and I'm like damn babe are you really looking at this [ __ ] right now like yeah I got changed too you know but it's crazy so I was like yo I can't listen to that no more so I literally put myself in my own rehab not for drugs but because of the other influences in my environment and that made me a better man and in doing that you know I my vision was clear I think it's very foggy outside right now there's a lot of distractions and in order for you to see clearly you need to start cutting those distractions off and um so because of what I did I feel obliged to pass that forward you know I know there's a lot of people in my shoes and in worse conditions and better conditions or whatever but even the ones even the ones that that comes from better Financial homes than me but they're still they they're still in that distract pit you know the Tik toks and the Instagrams and all that stuff so my job is I'm not trying to sit here and change the world I ain't going to do that I ain't big enough to do that but I'm just trying to spark someone and help people I remember my English teacher in high school he said he told us a story about this boy and a starfish I don't know if you guys you ever heard the story it sounds familiar but tell it again just in case so basically it was like one day a whole bunch of starfish washed the shore and it was like thousand thousands thousand on the beach and then this little boy was like picking the starfish up he was throwing it back in the water he picking it up throwing it back in the water and then this old grumpy man was like kid what the hell are you doing he's like I'm putting the starfish back in the water so they could swim and have a good time cuz some of them look like they're stuck and then the old man is like yo you're what are you doing like you're never going to be able to do all this your little arms is going to get tired you're going to get weak you're going to give in you're probably going to die before you do it you're never going to make a difference and he picked one up looked at the old man threw it in the water and said I just made a difference in that one's life so so I I look at that and I'm like you know what this is why I got to do that cuz I was one of those star that I read a book that some man who had way more success than I could ever even fathom was like I know someone's going to read that and that changed my life I didn't have physical access to anyone that was doing well in life but I was able to have YouTube I was able to read books I was able to listen to a whole bunch of podcasts and different things of people doing that so it helped and it worked for me and now my parents are retired congratulations you know so to me I'm just like thank you so much so I'm like yo it works so I could affect someone else and help them so that's why I take it very serious every year when I finish filming I hit about 10 15 cities probably going to do more because mental health has become a matter of National Security as a national crisis and the Surgeon General Dr fake mury he reached out to me to hit the Hampton University with him and I did that to talk about the crisis that's going on and how to alleviate some of that suffering that's going on and and one of the biggest problems is that in this generation we're exposed to too much of basically the the the side effects of this modern world right all this social media and all this entertainment and all this confusion our brains is biologically wired to be more like a caveman than it is to deal with this so when you're putting all these things in the person's brain that you can't we have not evolved at the rate that technology had evolved at so that's what's making us depressed that's what's making us have a lot of anxiety so I'm trying to tell a lot of people just step back less is more simplicity is key so that's really where I I attack the entire thing from yeah I want to talk about some more of the things you're doing to optimize but I totally relate with this me and my one of my boys we we always have this conversation that's like the human brain wasn't designed to go from as you're scrolling happiness to rage to frustration to like all in 10 seconds right the human brain doesn't made for any of that right but we all do it for hours and hours every single day right so one of the things that you've done is you you you you youve put a good um handle on your social media consumption what are some of the other things that you do to optimize yourself I wake up every day doing the same thing I'm just trying to figure out the machine God gave me and how do I make it perform at its best so what are some of the other things that you do in order to optimize the machine that you have um I'm very cautious with the entertainment that I taken so like I'm the type of person to where if me and my boys were all in the car we're all chilling and they're like yo bro I just seen some wow [ __ ] keep it to yourself hey bro let me show you keep it to yourself oh you need to know what's going on in the world no I don't like I know there's a lot of terrible [ __ ] that's going on right now and I limit that you know at this certain movie like for yo this is a really good movie really what is it about no I'm cool I don't want to watch it like like why like it's only gonna it's only going to make me wake up that monster that I work so hard to you know keep ti so so that um I meditate brilliant a lot meditation is key when you medit you you improve the the cortex the the Neo cortex the new brain as you call it and you kind of quiet down the amydala that lyic system that little animal brain the lizard exactly and you shrink that and you enlarge the other one and it just gives you better focus it gives you peace it allows you to finally just breathe and try not to think about anything um I read a lot I read I'm always I'm always finding a new book to get my hands on uh or if I can't read it right now because I'm so busy going to S doing whatever the audio book um and I I limit the the type of music that I'm exposed to um it has a lot to do auto suggestion and repetition is a real thing the more you listen to something is the more you become um in the beginning was the word uh life and death lies on a tongue I think a lot of people are not aware of how powerful their tongue is absolutely and because they're so desentized and distracted they say a lot of [ __ ] with their mouth to where they don't realize it's like Yo dude you're speaking it into existence yeah exactly that is just so real um I I I I'm cautious on what I eat I'm cautious on who I spend quality time with I I take those things very very very serious you only have one life um and if there's somebody causing you stress and you don't want to be around them um you should get rid of them and or just keep a safe distance from them and I prioritize my peace over everything over a job over whatever because I've seen I've been fortunate enough to see a lot of people that I grew up watching that has hundreds of millions of dollars unhappy go to their party go to their event and I'm just like whoa this person is like so Under the Influence right now and I'm like damn I'm like Dam I can't even get a picture because I don't want to ask them why they're in the state but I'm like damn so to me I'd rather make a $200,000 a year at pece than $200 billion a year and just Mision r as hell so I prioritize my peace yeah I love that same um two two Tactical questions what do you do for sleep what's your sleep routine look like I sleep well I don't have a problem sleep thank God like sleep is my drug as when I don't have sleep I'm grumpy as hell like today if I have sleep I'm not coming not coming here like at all like but when I have sleep I'm good so I usually I take naps during the day for sure like you know after 18 years old them naps came in you know uh the 20 minute 25 minute nap and that's a real nap by the way some people be taking two hours you went to sleep that's not a nap like a nap is actually like 20 25 minutes cap and it really rejuvenates me but I have a good sleep schedule sleep routine when I'm doing night shoots is is affected sure I'm disturbed by it but my body can adjust yeah last one is like neut Tropics or supplements you do anything to for your brain to help with memory to help with which what was it food food what's your diet like eat the right food I think I think eat more greens um greens are like the best thing you can eat period water water your your body is made up of like 2/3 water so if you drink a lot of water you get a lot of oxygen outside you hang around good people you try to sleep if you can't sleep then maybe take a supplement to help you sleep eat greens or get your Greens in IV if you could afford it um but yeah I that's that's what it is but I don't really I kind of I'm afraid of supplements unless like you actually need it because I don't want my body to become dependent on something because then if it runs out and I don't have it then I'm like bro I can't do this interview execute you know so yeah all good all right I'm going to get us out of here and I'm going to before I close out I'm just going to ask you do you have any final words you dropped so many gems um I let me just say that I'm grateful for your voice I'm grateful for your words for your your mind and your Genius and for the for the words of wisdom that you shared today any like closing words anything that you want to get off your chest any look man we didn't get to this or I'm sitting on this this this this this this wisdom that has helped me kind of get to where I am any last words that you want to have for the audence I would I would say um by the time a human is like 15 years old that's not a kid you are smarter than what you actually think you are in this country you guys baby the [ __ ] out of grown men and women which is insanity like my parents in from country but like 8 years old they can do a lot like their maturity is and a lot of people overseas Europeans is the same way it is this concept in America that it's like you guys are telling people that oh he's in his 20s he's a kid it's like no you're not like don't you're giving a person an excuse so I just want to say when you're in your teenage years take that serious because everything you do in life and everything you get is a sum total of all your thoughts and your actions and don't think 30 and 40 is that far away and 50 like it's like one of the biggest things that I see and I think it's one of the biggest problems in this world is that a lot of us think oh we're so young we can just do whatever like people think their 20s is to waste and I played my cards right in my 20 and I'm still in my 20s and now my parents are retired see what I'm saying so I'm just like I wouldn't take like God don't give you years to waste otherwise you wouldn't have them so this idea is yolow you only live once and like yeah keep doing that and when you're 50 and Social Security is ran out and all that stuff it's like you're going to start looking back you like damn I wish someone told me so I definitely want to tell people who's watching like don't waste your younger years stop the the notion of I'm so young and I have so much time you don't you don't know what can happen to you tomorrow and just take your life serious because you have Generations that's depending on it so that's all I'll say look there's no greater mic drop than God don't waste time give you years just was all right so uh man like I said I am uh just grateful for this conversation I'm grateful for the opportunity to build with you I want to celebrate you and the amazing work that you've been doing congratulations on the top show on the network that's a massive massive massive accomplishment especially when you get to understand where you came from and all that you've done to overcome and create the man that I get to see standing in front of me right now so King I appreciate you thank you for coming to the black Print yes sir thanks for having you yes [Music] sir man that conversation with da Vinci was incredible you talk about a a brother who is focused um is deliberate is purposeful in all of his work and what he's doing it's just beautiful to see um what was striking to me and I said it during our conversation but this notion of how you know one of the biggest things is he takes this pivotal moment of his high school experience the interaction with the young lady where she belittles him for the way that he talks and I love how he took that negative moment and turned it into a positive moment um he talks about how he realizes that it's actually her that's limited and not him she speaks one language and he speaks five he immediately sees that he has the ability to go between worlds okay if that's what it takes to win in this world to speak eloquently then I can do that and get ahead as well and then last but not least he says okay if the path to Winning is elegance and then talking in this way then I need to start reading and preparing my mind um so that I can have the conversations that I need to have the second thing that I love about Da Vinci is um how he's curating the world that he lives in you know I think about it when I was younger before social media and all of these things happened your world was confined to the ZIP code that you lived in right the neighborhood that you lived in that's the only noise essentially that you had to deal with today because of social media and the internet we're constantly being thrown into different worlds um different worlds that can can shift your frequency and what D Vinci has been really good at doing is making sure that he is curating the world that he wants for himself he's not listening to music that's going to send his Spirit into the different direction he's not going to put food in his body that's going to act counter to who he wants to be the man talks about moving he's sober he's reading he's intentional he's focused he's meditating he's doing all of the things to protect and curate the world that he wants for himself the DCI also um hits on something that's always going to be important especially in our community when so few of us make it to the quote unquote mountain tops but he talks about the importance of giving back he now um exists as a mental health Advocate doing what he can to create awareness around mental health issues doing what he can to make sure that we're having the conversations young black men and young black women are having a conversations that they need to have around protecting their mental health and the things that they need to do um to protect their mental health and make sure that they're healthy and happy you know I talked in the beginning about how I love how intentional and deliberate he was um the last thing that I love is just like this is clearly a man that is moving with purpose he had lots of different opportunities coming up he talked about he could have been an athlete that wasn't in his purpose or in his DNA he was good at it but he didn't love it like that he talked about how he could have been a rapper he was good at it people liked him but it didn't speak to his spirit in terms of the type of music that they wanted him to make and so this is a man that has been very clear about understanding what puzzle is his to solve and then once he found it in acting leaned all the way in and so love seeing a brother who is operating with values operating with purpose regardless of the cost of walking away from things that could have set him up for success but if it wasn't on purpose he wasn't willing to take that step back just love how intentional and deliberate he is as a man [Music] [Music] hey be work no no that's the name [Music] ladies and gentlemen [Music] [Music] hey one no no that's the name [Music] ladies and gentlemen

Channel: REVOLT

Views: 221,399

Keywords: Da'Vinchi, Detavio Samuels, The Blackprint, overcoming poverty, success in acting, personal development, mental health advocacy, purpose, living intentionally, overcoming adversity, achieving dreams, growing up in poverty, transforming negative experiences, staying true to values, rising star, actor's journey, intentional living, curating a positive world, inspiring story

Id: isIpEM0oIQY

Length: 58min 31sec (3511 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 22 2024