How Freeway Rick Ross Lost a Billion Dollars

I believe that I know problem centers around people trying to make money you grew up in LA you grew up in Crenshaw we always like this or did you work to get to this point my personal opinion is that you have to go out and earn your position in federal prison I don't care what your last name is you just like me I look back in my rearview mirror I saw him at Chico and Curtis out the car you know handcuffed him to black-and-white police cars blocking intersection and I knew it was a setup for me the only song cocaine because I had no other Avenue can you imagine if you have somebody who think that they're dumb stupid they think they're gangbanger but you thought all those things about yourself absolutely there's a direct parallel to not having knowledge in going to prison what do you see being the solution and I ask all the kids in the schools who introduced you to drugs everybody said my brother my father my auntie guess how many said a stranger how many know [Music] so if you've seen the movie American Gangster the story of Frank Lucas one of the biggest african-american drug lords in the East Coast the one on the west coast was a man named freeway Rick Ross in the 80s he sold nearly a billion dollars of crack cocaine net profits 300 million dollars which the equivalent of today would be twenty five billion dollars gross 850 net and he did this at a time where he didn't know how to read and write with that being said today we have Rick Ross really special coming up now glad to be here it's good to have you out here man Wow I mean I'm just blown away man yeah I appreciate you for coming out you know I got a lot of directions I want to go obviously I've seen your documentary and I want to talk about a little bit about your story for some that don't know but there's an also an element of it that I want to talk about that are you familiar with Sammy the bull Gravano understand me so Sammy the bull Gravano and I spent some time together we were having a conversation and one of the things we talked about is that that that moment where a kid is growing up he's innocent she's innocent they don't know what's going on and then all of a sudden they make a decision to they turn in is that DNA is that upbringing is that fatherless environment is that is that culture is that you know experiences in life I kind of wanna hear what you think about definitely definitely culture you know we have to give the environment that we brought up in a lot of credit because in my personal humble opinion is that we are accumulation of everything we saw her and men around we take all that information and we try to come up with who we are and that's what being yourself really is but in actuality you are accumulation of everything that you've come in contact with and how you took that information and deciphered it to be who it he thought it should be so you do think there's some of it that affects you I guess the part I would be curious about is how much of it is your wiring the way you were born how much of it is upbringing and how much of it is experience is and what isn't like you know a a rick ross in a complete different environment what what direction would you go who would be well well we can tell that now because I'm pretty much directing myself in the directions that I want to go in and I'm no longer allowing outside forces to to direct Who I am and where I'm kind of going I'm old enough now and wise enough to make the decisions but you know with us as human beings we're being bombarded with people who are trying to control our minds our bodies to perform the acts that they want us to perform I'm curious to hear about that well marketing you know marketing is a form of convincing people to do whatever the marketer feel like they should be doing so let me ask you before you going into you know the drug route and you being introduced to it if I was in high school with you who was who was Rick Ross I was a kid who thought that I was gonna one day be playing in one more turn of the US Open I had aspirations have been a star tennis player had never drunk a beer and never smoked a cigarette had never had a joint ever not at that time no totally a virgin you know all the way around you know looking for guidance looking for directions you know not knowing what choices I should be making and had some some some miss Cummings as well you know had some defects with what I thought was defects but wasn't necessarily defects was a position where I didn't understand the principles and the rules of the game you know it's like trying to play football and you've been taught basketball rules about life now your mother was in a picture obviously and your father wasn't in the picture at all no father wasn't here there so who played the role of a father in your life Jeff of coaches you have a mentor well I've had many many people come into my life and play rows of mentor or fathers and I've adopted people you know did I pick the right people all the time no now you went to Dorsey high school right yes I used to sell memberships at Bally Total Fitness and I would sell him at Fox Hills Mall which he liked so small you know a lot of my friends went to Dorsey high yeah and we were talking about Dexter sexy Dexter selling memberships he played baseball my memory is not really that that well from the past I'm more of a forward thinking guy like I could meet somebody last week and if I run into them again I probably won't remember who they are you know that's one of the reasons that with me I always try to treat everybody right because if you treat them wrong you know you run into him again and you don't know how you treated them and then they'd be like it's a funny story you know I went out when I when I first got the prison to Lompoc USP Lompoc and I'm walking down the hallway and this guy comes up to me and he's about six-two six-three looked like he lives on the way pal right he's all muscle he looked like that statue ate almost that big - right and and and I'm walking down the hall when he walks right into me he walks right into you intentionally intention and he was like you know who I am no no you are but I hope I didn't do nothin to you and it was just so happy that he was a young kid that when he's about 14 15 years old and I did right by and I was so glad that I had yeah I was glad that I did right by because uh I mean he looked like the statue idea I mean the one thing what she was you didn't create a lot of enemies though people liked you you mean your enemies like I hate it means I don't want any enemies yes I want all friends what would you what was your strategy for doing that is it just you know respect everybody was it a said you gotta respect everybody I mean if you don't respect everybody then you kind of disrespect on yourself because in the big picture we're all kind of joining together you know it's like we're all like sales on this planet that have to function with each other you know nobody lives on this planet without help from somebody else you know and and I learned that at an early age and and that was one of my strong points you know just treating everybody to weight it I want it to be treated now so you're going up you're doing what you're doing with tennis at what point do you say I don't know if I got a career with tennis and you go a completely different direction what happened well it was when when I was in the 12th grade he was getting closer in graduation time and all my friends were filling out their college papers and you know go to college too and this coach is like man oh thank you go making in college you know what I you can't read you can't write you can't read you can't write yeah I couldn't read a couldn't mind at all at all zero zero how did you get to eighth grade or you know high school without being able to read or I just kept passing me through you know I would do just enough to get by you know I would cheat off of somebody's paper for a test a spelling test or something like that and it would always be just enough you know to get by and the teachers liked me just enough you notice they you know what I ain't no holding back and when they didn't go ahead and I think a part of their thinking was that they didn't want to hurt me you know they didn't want me to be 16 years old in the first grade [Laughter] imagine that you 16 years old and you sitting in the first grade and little bitty chairs so so I felt that the teachers had some some sympathy for me you know it was a good thing no no no I mean they could have had sympathy for me and say you know what I'm gonna spend an extra hour with him you know I'm gonna spend the extra 30 minutes with him in and I'm gonna keep him out at the class and you know I'll show him what the principles that he's missing because really you know what with reading and writing and with anything almost it's almost principles you know learning the fundamentals you know I didn't know the fundamentals of reading I didn't know that you had to sign your words out and it was only when I was 28 years old I'm a president and I'm looking at a life sentence that my celly was able to convince me that I could actually read first I didn't believe me at 28 yeah I didn't believe me but did he spend time with you teaching it was it like yeah he did we were sally's so you know I was in you know we're in a maximum-security facility you know where you locked down most of the time so we had a lot of time to spend together and you know he saw in me that I had what it took to learn how to read took about two weeks that's it that's it so if the teachers early on would have put that time into you will learn how to learn in two weeks absolutely how big of a difference would that have made in your life oh my goodness when Wow I fell in love we read when I went out well I'm in prison so you know how much to do you know you can't chase women in prison you can't go shoot basketball whenever you want to a football or tennis so you kind of confined to this area where reading became my favorites worked well were some of the best favorite books you read and I heard you read 300 books which is which is great but what were some of the books my favorite books is richest man in Babylon Wow great book oh my goodness I read over 25 times richest man in Babylon you remember till today oh man come on and they had that in prison I bought it I bought the books so so will you bought the books they send it to you yeah they would send it to me what else the richest man in Babylon is an incredible book what else would you say Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill one of the 40 million copies sold no 100 so many you know sort of 100 million copies 100 million maybe 60 million is underground yeah yeah Oh what else what other books did you read psycho cybernetics I didn't read that okay I was part of that same family yeah yeah as a man think great book by James Allen after I read those students are really gonna need to read anything you know I don't know did you get to read the article they did on me in LA magazine this is not a web you're not talking about webcasters Jesse cat is the guy LA Times hired to go against scary story remember they did a rebuttal to Gary's story I mean I read stories so if this is what I don't remember what I know this is different when this came after I got out of prison okay he didn't I 90 not he wrote my my what he called my obituaries they said he would send it that the world was tired of me dreaming and and they wasn't gonna be here for me no more but in 2013 he had to rewrite the story and inside of that story he was talking about when I was in prison how he thought I'd lost my mind because I'm talking about how a movie getting out and all the things I'm gonna be doing on me be speaking at colleges and this settling this yeah I'm telling me what this is what I'm gonna be doing when I get out how much of it is inspired by the richest man in Babylon I'm thinking college because what I had did those books allowed me to go back over my life and find out how I got in prison so so you know going back to the question I was asking is what can happen to change the direction of a Rick Ross at 10 at 12 and 11 in Babylon would have changed that's what I'm saying so somebody instead of reading that was then this is now or mice of man I didn't care why Jack and Jill was going up to heal you it wasn't going to get no money I didn't want to know about Huntress ward none but once once I started to see that these books made me go back over my life step-by-step that's how I wrote my book that's on my first book because I went back all my life and I started to do step by step what are you doing here how did you get here and when I did that I said well you know what Rick you work your way in prison they just didn't put you in prison you you earned it you only be here like like I tell kids all the time when you go to when I go to the schools and speak I say look you can go to the prison right now go to the gate ring the bell knock on the gate then I'll come out and ask you what you want and you ask them can you go in and they're gonna say no you can't come in here you have to go out and earn your position in federal prison they don't just take anybody you know they like the army where you just go sign up no you got to go out and earn your position so I went out and I earned that life sentence that I got you know and when I figured out that I could earn it then I figured out that I could diss on it that's what I did I started to work just as diligently in getting out of prison as I did to get in and this leads you to start studying law start studying in law politics you know I started studying politic why politics well in in in federal prison if say for instance all the judges wouldn't would have denied all my Appeals then I could have played politics to still get out in my and Mike am I thinking and you know I was thinking crazy to like I was going to become so smart that the jails couldn't hold me that the people from the United States was gonna cry out so loud for my freedom that the jails wasn't gonna be able to hold me whoever the president was Congress thought they all would have been like let him out of there we need him on the streets you know we need more of him and that was my plan the plan was get so smart that they need you on the streets rather than in prison exactly Wow now if we go back but how did you get into the drug world how did that happen well you know I just found out that I wasn't gonna be going to college I didn't have any sponsors for tennis I didn't know what I was gonna do with my life you know I saw this movie one time called super fly where this guy had started selling cocaine and he got rich and he beat the police and everybody and I was like oh and it's kinda just went over my head you know nothing you know I didn't know about the subconscious mind at that time you know I didn't know that you can't be giving scenes to the subconscious mind like that you know because there's inner work and then act on it and then just one day I was just sitting on my porch and I'm contemplating like wow you got a miserable life where you you don't have gas money you have no food if your mom has stopped feeding you you're done and my friend called me and he was like man I got something new and I was like he was like come by and I went by and he put it on the table some white powder and looking stuff and and I was like what's dad he said that's cocaine I said oh yeah what you doing with that he was like I said it music CDs go change yes I got him and I was like wow is it really like that and he was like oh man this is a new thing and that's how I got started how old were you at the time m1919 you know how quickly after that did you start selling well I started that day that day he gave me he gave me $50 worth to go and see what I could do with it and I started going around asking everybody really I didn't know I was marketing you know I'm accident hey you know about cocaine and is this really cocaine and finally uh you know most people didn't know what it was and then finally I found somebody who did Martin that was my first my first getting beat I got beat out of that cocaine and but that was my first sale as well first seller for speeding yeah and so you go back and what happens there at what point you start scaling it well after he used all that cocaine that I had and didn't give me any money but later on that day he came back with somebody else to spend a hundred dollars you know some of my business started it was just kept going after that but at what point where you're like starting to make real money wouldn't you start making real money that's 19 well it took it took about took about seven or eight months you know before I started to do maybe like three or four hundred hours every day you know it didn't it didn't start off like a lot of people like now you know it's a little different now than it was when I first started and even we didn't have cocaine what they call cocaine tracks you know like now they have places that you can go and they already have people who were looking for cocaine at those areas so you could go there and you might make you know like we used to have a spot that would do fifty thousand dollars in one day you know you could go out on the street just stand out on the street and have cocaine and you might make fifty thousand if you can beat everybody out on the block you know it's other people out competing for that same money but if you were good then you could collect all that money or most of it in and that's how I started out you know but I had to build that Street up myself I built a Street up and then other guys came the street that I built up probably Sidhu 100 not as a day just them one okay day yeah one Street now you don't seem threatening you're not a big guy you're a small guy why are people not bullying you out of street though you know why are they letting you do it why aren't people saying hey get out of here you know or beating you up well well you have to it mean you have to have tact you know it's tactful you have to have being tactful you know and what I always do is I share with other people you know I don't take the money myself and just use it for me you know I like to share and once you share with with other people even someone someone was stupid enough though still you know to take a knife and stab the goose to slander golden eggs you know but majority other people to have a tendency at least a lot of goose to live you know oh you just run around and I get a egg every now and then you know and that's pretty much the way that that they allowed me to function and what you're is this you're saying seven months later you're 19 20 years old what you're you're looking at 80 this is 80 80 so scaling to you having hundreds of people working for you how long did it take to get to that point was their new relationship was there somebody that came in well most of my guys started to get involved you know like all my friends it's like when you start to find I mean you know like hitting a lottery you know somebody hit the lottery didn't haul down family members want to be around when I talk to them and it's the same thing in the drug business you know once people see you being successful they they want a part of it some kind of way you know they usually want a handout but someone might actually do a little work to get that then handout how are you recruiting people I was looking for people in the same position that I was in you know people that had all the skills all the talents but didn't know what to do with it and conversation what's it sound like you're talking to me what do you tell I say fence out I could walk in the gym you know going to play basketball and it might be one of the what we call young homies who would be at the gym and I'm gonna use one of the ones who testified against me and he said he was sitting in the gym and when I tell his story it seems almost similar to mine you know when I was sitting on the porch and didn't know what I was gonna do what he was sitting on on the stage at the gym and he didn't know what he was gonna do and I was like man what you doing with yourself you know you didn't make it in baseball and this kid played baseball and I was like so what you're gonna do now he was like no no I want you to go with me you know we don't we do pretty good for ourselves you know we feeding our families we got houses we got cars try this route you know he got off the stage and he went with me how quickly did he start selling oh the same day don't take long did I mean you know selling jokes is easy a nine-year-old kid can really do it you know if they if they could defend themselves from from the bullies like you say it it's it's simple and in some ways I mean it's it's it's it's genius but it's also a simple trade if you know what what you're doing I mean really anything though is once you know this amazing what you're seeing is how subconscious mind you're like I allowed that superfly message to get into my head for me to think about that so but at what what point I guess the part I'm trying to get to is was there a relationship you got where all of a sudden you went from making three five hundred dollars a day to make him three hundred thousand dollars a day well first I was getting you know I was getting my drugs from my friend who went who went to college who introduced me to it and then I started dealing with a teacher mr. Fisher who had a connection that I didn't know about when he turned me on the connection I went from I think we were buying like sevens you know quarter quarter ounces and uh when we started doing it dealing with him and his and his his friends our quality got better and our prices got cheaper so it started to escalate from there to where now we're doing thousand dollars a day you know and it just escalated from there to five thousand dollars a day ten thousand dollars a day and he got to the point to where the first one that we were dealing with he got he got paralyzed his wife shot him in the back he got paralyzed why did his wife shoot him in the back it was just a fight you know she can probably you know okay I never found out the reason but when he got paralyzed his brother-in-law took over his business his brother-in-law wasn't really he never really had an appetite for it you know he wasn't really like a business guy so what he did is he sold me to the connect he sold you to the connect yeah he sold me to connect any so to connect to me how did that kind at a conversation an introduction he came to me one day and he was like he spoke broken English till he was from Nicaragua and he was like man I want out of this business I don't like this business somebody had got busted one of his people had got busted and he was he was scared today my tail so he was like man I don't like this business I want to be out but I want to introduce you to the connection and I was totally for that then you know price came up how much and he wanted 200 grand but I was able to talk him down to 60 grand why I gave him 60 just for the connect just introducing me to the connect so he give me the 60 you get connected then what happens we start booming how quickly well I was already I was already I mean I was already getting rich yeah at that time you know I probably had a few hundred thousand dollars at that time how are you at that time well you knew early 20s 21 22 to 23 maybe okay got it still young but yeah you know up in age you know the day we met men dinero first met I think we did like 50 kilos that day day one yeah day one good we already kind of knew each other you know like it's like you know somebody but you don't you know that man I sure wish I could talk to him you know but we had never out of respect you know you can't jump over you'll you'll connect you know then it has to be done properly so I'd already know who he was so meeting him was just like okay this is what I've been waiting on so he dropped the price a couple of thousand dollars as soon as we met you know a couple thousand per kilo and I mean you talk about a couple without a couple thousand dollars per kilo is a lot you know I'm saying you do 50 keys that's 100 grand extra extra not what you've been making but this is the hundred grand extra so you start making that kind of money every single day every single day and and then you know now some days we're doing 200 kilos you know my day a day yeah each kilo you're making how much profits 2000 2500 yeah I mean it's quite an who comes you know the guys who are buying like 20 20 kilos at a time you probably making like 2,000 off for them 2500 who are your customers but most dealers your customers dealers Redeemers I kind of like created my dealers to you know I would I had come up with a formula where I would go into the community and by me knowing I grew up there so I knew all the people all the players you know I knew him so I knew who would be basically what they call the influencers now you know the guys who was telling people what to do how to do it and they ran their neighborhood shot-callers as we used to call them why why did the shot-callers allow you to keep the influencer Blandon and not go through you to get direct to the connect well they didn't know who he was I wouldn't let him meet planned on so I could buy my own drug so they never had to to to see blando you know when they when Brandon would come I had two money buy all the drugs and then I could take the drugs in southern Italy settlement when they asked him you're like hey you know Rick who's the guy who was the guy nobody was asking literally nobody was asking why weren't they asking they were doing better than they'd ever thought about doing before in their life but greed gets some people to want to go through you and you know get even a bigger contract what I do I mean what wind up happening is is eventually you know when these guys become millionaires and then other dealers come into the city and and that's why the price went down so low you know before I went to prison first kilo I bought I think I paid like 48 thousand for it the first whole kilo vote but now when I was buying ounces I was paying thirty three hundred foot one ounce so you talked about if you do 33 times 36 you're talking about paying something like a hundred and something per kilo and when I first started by my first kilo I paying 48 so the price was substantially sure yeah no way yeah at that time but before I quit the last Kingdom I bought was like 9500 get out of here yeah from a hundred yeah so that shows you how how much the price came down and this is going to the height of the war on drugs so even though the Reagan era yeah the war on drugs was going full steam ahead the price of the cocaine was going down which was making it more accessible to more people how are you staying low-key at this time I just dressed the way I always dress you know I didn't need any jury I came to a point in my life to where I didn't need to show anybody what I was doing you know who I was or how how I wanted to be perceived so you take me the way I am or or leave it did you ever watch them working gangster I did it was so when you watch it what you think about it uh they were pretty close and you know it wasn't bad on mine I enjoy some of the other guys on on there that I watched uh and I learned lessons from them as well I mean I mean you know it's it's like a lesson you know you can you can take lessons from it but on my particular memory matter of fact you know I'm working with Reginald Hudlin right now the guy who did agreement American Gangster series for BT we're working together right now in my movie when you're over yeah so I felt pretty good about the job that he did he was pretty fair you know he didn't he didn't slam me you know the way he could have I guess now you and Frank have done events together yeah we did when he was alive yeah we did how was that when you're suffering like what's the conversations like there was no conversation we had a little conversation man Frankel common different people you know Frank was prettier than I was I think you know he he treated people a little different than and I treat people I didn't really like the way he talked to people is if he put herself on a pedestal and I don't believe that any of us should be on a pedestal I don't care how much money you got I don't care what your last name is you know what movie you played in you just like me you know you got to go to the bathroom and take a piss just like I do how did you stay humble you know that I mean you got 300 million dollars of net profits in the 80s what's the most cash you ever had to yourself okay and like 3.2 million cash counted I still have money on the street that's the most cash I had 3.2 million yeah got it so then you got cash on the street that's doing its work you're making your money you're living large people at that time sometimes are tempted to do crazy things what was your vice I didn't want to go to prison you know and I knew that if I would do something stupid you know like maybe somebody old like cope you owe me like one guy owed me like 360,000 and my guys want to go in drag him out the house and demolish him right and I'm like okay okay let's talk about it first cuz you got a good point now I take your point in consideration which I said we do that and then we killed him in homicide gonna come in and they're gonna be investigating they're gonna try to figure out who did it maybe they won't find out it was us maybe they will maybe they just suspicious that it was us and they coming to arrest us how much is that gonna cost how much bill don't cause Oh party about 50,000 each one of us and then and what Allen Finster going cause to fight the case he popping almost $80,000 I said okay so it's six of us in here that's fifty each you know I'm saying so that's three hundred thousand-plus Allen's 80 just for one and then we got to get everybody else lawyers and we ain't gonna get that money back so were you a math guy we if you were now if you couldn't read or write I know math it's very obvious I mean you're just doing math right in front of me talking to me yeah I love math math I think math and math and science is really all we need you know if you can do math and science what do you say that well you know the art of science is is breaking things down to figure out their their origins or what it's going to do you know in the future you know like when you plant a seed in the ground you you you are looking forward to perform a certain function in the future and that's pretty much what what life is about you know the thing that I think that I do well is I can take what's going on today and see what's going on what's gonna happen tomorrow you can take what's going on today and see what's gonna happen tomorrow yeah how can predict what's gonna happen tomorrow like I can go to a stream and I can look at the street and I can pretty much predict what type of building should be there what neighborhoods is gonna be there you know I don't know where I get it from but I can just do it and I do the same thing with people you know I can look at a person and I can kind of tell like just what you should be doing I'm telling you you might not listen to me but that's that's your call interesting interesting so you're you're vice at the time when you're coming up it's it's what it's purely woman because you're not using drugs yourself no did you ever try crack cocaine any of that or I tried crack a couple times I think I might have used for about a week straight you know when I when I got to an ounce right I've got times I think I'm rich I don't say that time is work about nine thousand broke down you know to the lab to the last term you know you sell every every 20 you make about nine thousand so I when I got my first ounce I was like yeah I'm here I'm there yeah I mean it and I'm thinking I'm rich right and so my cousins who I didn't really understand addiction at that time you didn't understand addiction uh no I didn't they were already using and it was like well man you're older than you yeah we all run the same age maybe you you know wanted to uh someone were younger they convinced me to try it man you've been doing all the sacrificing you got all that you know I got like a little pile blue handful of doors you got all that dope now you know what trying to see what everybody else like cuz it doesn't get curious that brings me to another one of my points I believe that I don't cry on centers around people trying to make money it doesn't center around people trying to be drug addicts most people who use drugs right now don't start off to be drug addicts they start off trying to be hustlers and they fall victim to their own product so when we sit in here they convinced me into trying and I tried it looking for me though I got sick and bumming been a act at the league I was like man you know you wouldn't posed to be doing that and all of the older guys who who I was selling to had already told me if you don't use you gonna get rich so you don't use your go to your engines so when I finished and I come up out of this this this coma that on me in this drug hi coma that I mean I might had $300 you know I was like no Rick this is not what you got into this for you're never using again I told myself that you're never gonna use again and I just never did interesting I started smoking weed though they don't later on yeah how old party six months later six months later permanently regularly yeah every day so we there's a regular thing for you not now no I mean it wasn't in you go now I do edibles now you do a dependence on musiah it's it's what's the biggest difference for you edibles versus smoking it cheaper cheap like you need the edibles you say how I can buy like a bag of edibles a barback edibles like 15 bucks and I last me for a week a bag of edibles yeah like I might take one one they got these little while Chuy's and I'm gonna do my own choice to for vegans they got big and chewy Thursday so I'll give I'll get a bag of those and I'll take one every day or you know if I want to go to some days I don't do it I'll do it at night when I go to go to bed and it just puts me in this space where it allows my mind it kind of like drift down a little bit because one of the things about me is my mind it's constantly going you know it never stops it never it never rest it's just like all the time coming up with this idea that idea this formula you know and and sometimes I like to like shut it down you know like just relax it and try to calm me down interesting and it helps so so you're on fire you're doing great things now are you guys using forcep that time with you guys like into the whole killing thing is that happening or not we must let you work who knows what know for know but now you guys got guns because blendin's oh no no no we got we got artillery but it's self-defense purely self-defense yeah well you figure you know you run around la you're doing you know two months three million out of cocaine deals every day every day I'm doing it so every day we're carrying duffle bags a money you know I'm talking about like those big army bags how is it that your your net profits in the 80s was 300 million but the max you ever had it was 3.2 million 3.2 million is not a lot of money are you spending a lot of I got a lot of people that that that is eaten off the plate too you know it's not just me eating I probably my average profit every day was about 200-300 thousand per day per day so how do you have how do you have only 3.2 million my cars do your property you buy it I got cars - and that car's not not personal cars you know I got card because when you're in the drug business you you want to switch cards I probably at that time I probably have about 25 30 cars but without your name no not in my name and they not fancy cars they just switch cars you know like a car you you you drive because you know anybody know what you drive your old strategy at the time yeah Australia well it wasn't it wasn't a time for play guess who's all work I was building motels you know at a motel and I think I build on motels like 22 years old when I build my first Motel because my mom kicked me out the house she found out I was selling drugs so she kicked me out so now I'm living in motels and I was like wow these motels $45 a night and I can't get a room you know I'm sitting outside the hotel room and they don't have no rooms and you know I got a hundred thousand dollars in my pocket but I can't get Oh tell them and I was like everyone can't be that expensive to bill you know won't you build one and I started I build a motel and before I got arrested I was in the process of building like three more and that's really watch me my money you know buying houses you know I would be driving down the street and I see a house that was abandoned and boarded up and I'll be like oh I'm over I had to fix it up this house should look like this at the max how many properties did you want max max by about thirty thirty properties max yeah if I would have had all my properties right now that I had I probably be worth about 150 200 million dollars this one was a commercial property you're not talking my regular like homes oh no I didn't buy a home for myself okay I didn't want home yet you so you're living out of what you're living out of a part menteur you're living in apartments houses one of my places you know I would have my girlfriends that houses you know about Timoney houses but it wasn't the kind of house dad that I saw myself living in forever you know it was like you know a nice neighborhood you know just a nice house you know I'm saying but they were young - you know 22 years old 21 years old they they got a house and a mom I didn't have a house you know so they felt good about themselves and at this point you're running in 42 cities is that the right number is at about 42 cities not me personally I probably I probably personally did six or seven maybe six or seven yeah how come you don't want to scale did you have any desire of scaling going into a different stage going to Nevada going away Mexico Arizona it's hard to do it you know by yourself you know it's crazy and you know I don't don't really want to you know be be dumping on my friends but I was almost like I was doing everything myself you know when when when I was sitting in prison and I was like you know your guys ain't send you no money your guys ain't looking out for you and I was a little mad at him you know like I come in here you know didn't say nothing about nobody kept my mouth shut nobody got arrested but uh nobody really like looked out for me you know the only person really came to see me was my mom my girlfriends came and you know the first couple months you know but they were out fast so then now you find yourself you in prison by yourself you know nobody and you start to like analyze your company you know the people that you you kept the company lit and you like why aren't they doing more for me you know why aren't they trying to help me accomplish my missions you know and as I analyze them I started to seeing defaults you know things that they didn't have and it was almost like I was kind of like propping them up you know matter of fact I had a speech with him a couple of weeks ago in and I was telling them it's like that sometimes I feel like I'm working with the Bad News Bears you know the guys who can't came they came back they came around it's like wow man when you do is gonna pick your axe up and uh it's hard to find good people I mean you know I didn't who's friends with you till today other guys all my friends all my other guys you ran with all of them how can call anyone I'm right now if I need whatever they do whatever for so the same guys didn't show up are still friends till today with you yeah and and and when I say they didn't show up it's not it's not necessarily a bad thing that they didn't show up they just didn't know they just didn't know that they should be showing up they didn't know like the other day I was talking to him to it to my friends and my families and I was telling them like I work right now so that my friends need my help I want to be in a position to where I can help them they would help me if they could but they can't because they're not putting themselves in a position to be able to if they're making these sentences so you don't put any of it on them you're not even putting in any of it on them you don't have any you have zero expectations of human beings in the world it's not a first statement yeah pretty pretty fascinating and because of then you relax you're free you're happy nobody can disappoint you no they can't no one can disappoint you know well you always liked this or did you work to get to this point I don't know I don't know if those books kind of you know we know those books kind of like put me in a space that uh you know we supposed to pursue knowledge as human beings and in those books allow me to to really like break down everything you know it's almost like this book right here you know this book right here this this this this book is it's gonna be amazing this book is about my first six months out of prison and the guy who wrote it with me Koli he he started writing me when I was in prison when I was here in Texarkana prison and he was like man I want to put you on a cover of my magazine I said okay I like that idea so I got out he flew me to New York we did the interview so he was like man I want to be around you more I also told him about those three books I was like man how you entrepreneurial you ain't where at these three books you ain't no real entrepreneur you fake in the game so he read the books so when he came out to to hang out with me cuz I really had no friends I mean my old friends was there but you know they're homeless and how old you got the start I got out when I was 49 49 yeah just a September 29th yep so so we riding around and and I look at him he keeps shorting down in this it's notebook and I was like man what are you doing every time we come out of me and you always try now that in the book he's like oh I was just documenting the meeting and I was like Koli you've been documenting every single day everything that I've been doing he's like yeah man I like the way you work those principles I said coldly that's a book I said everybody gonna want to know how I was using these principles in how I took the stuff that I got out of richest man in Babylon and thinking Grow Rich and as a man think along with my past experiences and Kemah with another strategy for myself I said man that's a book and that's how this book came about you're safe riding with Rick Kemetic he documented it for six months so did you ever have a moment where you kind of sitting out there saying man I don't know how much good we're doing I may be making my friends money there's a partner in documentary where one of your friends talks about when the baby was born and a doctor asks the jury use crack cocaine he says no then he asked the wife you know and he says I'm holding my baby and she's got a scar every time I see this car to remind her of me says that's the day when I decided to stop doing any selling anything right did you ever have an experience like that cuz he tells a story about a ten-year-old comes to his door because he wants some some crack cocaine and he was sold to drugs by 13 year old than a 16 year old did you ever have a guy like you that's very calculating your thinker your you don't like to use violence because of your mom killing your uncle George when you were you right in front of what a gun because you have seen hit her one time with a stick over and she lost the right now you got so what are you in this point at every sin they're saying dude I may be making a lot of money but I'm hurting a lot of people did you ever go out it took a while before because in the beginning it was all about everybody making money and there were no crackheads if you can just vision can you vision everybody that smoking crack got enough money to pay for it at first one of the worst things about it is that you can't get enough you're not gonna OD but you're not gonna get enough I mean if you sit here and you got 4,000 you're not gonna be enough for you you're gonna keep going keep going into the hole 4,000 it's gone it's it's just it's like that mentality of people who use crack they want to burn up all their money when I first started it was really crazy you know you would hear people saying yeah I blew a boom 500 last night and I blew $500 so the main thing was in the beginning was they weren't sleeping on the street they were prostituting when did that happen though I mean I took a couple of years it did a couple years later though like did you have I guess what I'm trying to find out from you is from from that perspective is are you purely a logical guy where you know you your coal to the point where I don't see any of this stuff so no no I'm sure that's not you I saw I started to meet your kids I started to see it but it took a while to see it you know you just know what is the first time what was the first time we're like oh we're actually hurting people well the first time that I really let me say let me say this here I started to feel like a hypocrite it's when I noticed that I started to change my mindset because at first I used to give it to my girlfriend used to give it to my brothers to get high you know I did nothing yeah get out you can't smoke all the cocaine I got so here go go go get high but it came to a point to where I no longer would give them cocaine and then I didn't want them getting high anymore so at that point that I knew it was addictive once I knew that I didn't want my family getting high then I started to understand what I was doing to other people's families you know I didn't want my girl my brothers my sisters my mom but my auntie's getting high and I didn't feel that it was right for me to be selling cocaine to other people's family members did you stop at that time was it kind of like not too much later you know you don't you know just kick the habit you don't go cold turkey most people don't I'm not able to go cold turkey just immediately how much of it to get away from and you think it's knowing that you can outsmart anybody is it kind of like to the point where I think I'm invincible I think I got smart anybody I think I'm strategically better smarter than these guys was it yeah I felt like that too you know I didn't feel that the police could catch me I thought that I could stay ahead of the police I could stay ahead of the streets you know the guys who do the robbing and yeah you felt like that you know but I quit I could about a year before I went to prison you know this is when he went to Ohio so yep Cincinnati but after after I came back from why cuz I started back Sunday I started back selling when I was in Ohio because we back you try to try no you were trying to buy the motels and I think he was trying to do some of the Real Estate's yeah I was already doing that though when I was selling the drugs the drugs financed the real estate but when I went to Cincinnati I wanted to just chill out and then I started back selling drugs so that was part of me trying to pull away you know how you you're trying to pull away with you you just don't do it it took Cincinnati getting in trouble in Cincinnati one of my guys got caught at the bus station you know I did everything I could for him and he still got 20 years so that was when I was like you know what this is the time today the ones that rat you out for his rat address were Cincinnati or no like how do they find out about who's behind this entire he didn't rat me out him the one who got caught and got the 20 he didn't but the guy who was on the stage that I was telling you about earlier he did when I quit Cincinnati and went back what they did is they went and started working all on my connections you know I had houses down here I had cars cuz when I left I just left my houses and cars and everything I didn't take no furniture out you know I just just left the place and what they did is they went back and they started using all of my all my resources and all my connections and everything so one of them started messing with a DEA agent that eventually busted him no connection to Blandon no no so this time you're blending are still good your business regularly yeah he is financing what he's doing for the freedom fighters the whole CIA conspiracy yeah you know wouldn't it kind of go he's doing what he's doing he's being allowed to do what he's doing what what happens for you to get caught and go to prison first time they told him they got busted down in Cincinnati you know when they got busted they threw me in in an operation I mean it was pretty easy you know I mean it's pretty easy for what how to Fayed's work you know the feds can work off of almost what they call circumstantial evidence the way they do it is they draw they draw a picture and they will explain to the jury that this picture is not going to be totally complete you know wasn't captured on film it was just a picture that was drawn and in this picture there's gonna be elements it's not gonna be totally complete but it's gonna be enough of a picture to where you can emphasize and as a jury member you allowed to emphasize so what they did is they came up with evidence first they prove that that I was in Cincinnati you know they had like some rental agreements my fingerprints on it also had a fake ID from Cincinnati they had that then all the guys that had got arrested stayed in my general area you know showing that we were friends that we were connected then they would show the jury that and you can believe that this guy really knows where and if you believe what he's gonna say about Rick it's true then you can convict wick of what he said Rick did and they were talking about oh I was with Rick one Danny so Tinky's and he sold it to this guy Ronnie being he sold five to this guy Jerry and you know and so forth for so long and he went to New York one time I went with him and we picked up we stayed at this hotel or one night and we did this deal and and that's how they build a case so how much times you do do it the first time I did it uh five years in like four months five or four months yeah when you get out do you have any cash still left no I really got out I was broke I think law I think I had a couple pieces of property there if I still had that theater did I was trying to be ill what else and I thought it was that in which the Los Angeles watch part in Crenshaw or right on for crunch oh yeah by the mole no not by the Crenshaw it was right down the street from the question okay got it crunch Sean Adams Adams going on the other side not by the mall no right by right behind freeway why by the team you know the first speech I ever get was at the Sizzlers by Crenshaw mall I don't know if you remember his sister's my crush them all right by the theater because there's the theater then magic if you the theater right on first message I gave yes 21 years old God I got out of military it was a Sizzlers I was nervous as hell I got up and spoke and you guys me to give a message oh you know what Susan you should be on over heal visually I can tell you exactly where it's at and where I parked the car yeah I'm trying to pitch a little bit so be she eclipses I'm trying to think of where sinners it had to be behind them all right right it was behind them all like it wasn't at all by it was completely behind them all I know you talked this was a 99 no we're talking about 20 years ago I just went to present 99 oh no 99 no no I mean I know you do five years a few months you get out when you get out now what happens this is when I'm gonna live a clean life I'm not gonna do nothing and ain't you back yeah I already came up with a few strategies of what I could do my plan wasn't going to music business I still had that theater I felt that this theater would be like the Apollo because you know when I when I started to analyze my life I looked at it I could have been a king of hip-hop you king of hip-hop you know I could have been including me brother well I had I had the opportunities to to do deals with some of the biggest people ever in here bout 80s and 80s you kind of like what sugar did yeah but before shield okay so like maybe even bigger than [ __ ] this is before yeah yeah I have money before Russell had money you know I remember when Russell was running around La with with LL Cool J and Run DMC and he had no money and he was looking for money you know and I could have went to him and gave him money which one which one of the hip-hop guys in LA knew you know I know Warren G was you know maybe well I knew right I knew him before before one G this is a before one this is like DJ Pooh dr. Dre when when they were barely barely be known at that time the hot the hot rappers was like King tea-masters payee time yes we talked about you know $300 in to $900 yeah yeah so so I was right there when those guys were first learning how to work the drum machines and and then I also had the other hand where I knew the guys were distributing music you know I knew oldest me if I knew dick Griffey I met Barry Gordy one time so it would have been very easy for me once you do it once you get into it well I did you know I gave over to Smith a 600,000 to do Anita Baker's first album but I still had my foot inside the dope game and I wasn't really like putting my energy into the music I didn't really understand that where music was going at that time you know I couldn't see that that that hip-hop was going to blow up and and I'm also listening to - Otis and dick and these guys who were telling me that hip-hop was a fad that it wasn't or a bug was a fad they told me hip-hop was a fan literally literally yeah that's it they are the reason that I'm not the king of hip-hop unbelievable that I've listened an EM because they have platinum and go albums you know I think Otis had found Rick James and Bobby Womack and Johnny Taylor and dick Griffey you know he found babyface and midnight star midnight star midnight through me like Reggie Calloway yeah yeah Jay King some of these names yeah Jay King Club Nouveau no Jay I got Genoa in my phone I saw Jay an insurance policy 15 years ago is there j1j what that says to me he says hey as a Jay what do you want to do he says you want to sell some policies as I do he took me Jay took me to well if he's listening to this he's gonna crack up we went to Beverly Hills Hilton Hotel we sat down LL Cool J cane sugar was there I said Jay I can't sell a policy to Suge Knight no one's gonna social matter Bob when he first got started how was he was he a tough guy was a rugged or no was he I believe he took a lot of hereos traits and a lot of hereos ideas of how to to really do the business me an area was Sally's when we were in prison and I was there when he told David Kenner it was me him and David Kenner sit in an attorney room and he was like I'm gonna teach you how to make more money than you ever would have made doing law and I was sitting right there with him interesting so so so now you're out okay five years few months you're out you're getting back into it pretty quickly or are you kind of taking a break from it from what the drug business the drug this not doing no job at all you know and then how does blending come in how does that well he started calling me the same day I got home I guess you know da party told him okay we let him out today get started so when I'm doing now I'm running around and my goal now is cuz I've saw death row I saw a Harry Uhl and should be a death row so I'm working on the music industry I'm gonna do the same thing while you're creating your youth center because I know you will create rice I was doing a new center and that was a whole new strategy to that then I put together the youth center was going to be it could be a youth center / concert hall where all the rappers might the ADA would've held like 4,000 people 4,000 people yeah it had a stage big enough to put like four cars on it four thousand people's forty thousand square foot building that's a good size yeah I paid a million when I paper that million - with what money though you said you came out you don't have money no I bought it before I went to prison ha got it got it so that's wonderful and the property's just - laughs yeah I still have and I paid I've been paying for that six thousand dollars a month while I was in prison - keep it because I put I put nine hundred thousand down on it and I sold 300,000 and the way that the thing I rolled up because my girl finished the deal I didn't finish the deal I I started buying it and I got arrested and in between me buying and in him and finishing the deal so she allowed them to write the paperwork up for six thousand dollars a month which was too much I should've been paying anyway so the whole time I was in prison I was paying $6,000 a month on Epona building so when I got out my intention was to create like a West Coast Apollo for rappers and it was on Crenshaw and Adams so what I saw is this grand place where every rapper in the country would be saying man I want to go to Rick's place well your is this now 94 94 yeah so did you have any run-ins with Tupac I never met pop-pop III didn't meet Park because I was messing with right neon Joe Cooney I knew I knew and Joe Cooney and when I got out Park and Cooley Park and Joe had just had words and so before I met pot Joe was telling me that that their hands just dissed him or something you know Park this thing that won the show so I didn't have no no no intentions I'm going to meet pop you know it was like have we meet we meet but I'm not pursuing a meeting with Paco he knows he knows of you at the time obviously I'm pretty sure he did I'm pretty sure he did so you're trying to do this part lemon calls you he keeps following up with you then what happens well he's trying to get me to do a drug deal George Chico well this was before before Chico came into picture Chico came into picture later he had been trying to get me before Chico even came into picture Chico came into picture because one of my old friends Chris who had had been one of my main guys when I sold cocaine had came by and he was like yeah man uh my young boy he's like my young boy Rick you probably remember him he was young when you left the streets you know he's doing good now he got studio equipment and blah blah blah Chris had just got out of jail to from Texas he was I don't bail and he was saying you need to hook up with him cuz he's doing the music thing to he got all the equipment and blah blah blah blah and I was like okay cool hook us up so he hooked us up and matter of fact the day that bland on the chico met bland on we were coming from dick griffeys office doing a record deal when you met with blend all right so what we did we was coming from dick griffeys office but I don't call me I thought oh man let's just go by and get a coke burrito so in his restaurant you know you know we ain't gotta buy no food today you know so we really stopped by to do that and then he started talking about cocaine and uh Chico was like man let me know what let me know what you know how much after that did he do it I know it's a three hundred thousand dollar deal or three fifty someone know we supposed to be a million dollar deal I suppose been a main the 300,000 was listed down payment on a million dollar deal 10,000 per yeah 100 kilos million dollar deal 10,000 per so so is it that day is that the day when the deal was made and everybody showed up or no no no no it took a couple weeks after that you know he kept probably about 2 or 3 months and we'll you paranoid or why's this guy keep following up or no I didn't really you you know what what what I credit myself it's almost like a drug addict who's trying to kick the habit and you know you keep dangling come on man just try one time and I look at it that that's what eventually happened to me because my whole intention was to never sell drugs again to never be involved with a drug deal again those promise your kid you said I'm not going to touch it I promised my kids and I promised myself to you know just like I did when I said I was never going to use again but what I notice now is that I had never totally ruled out never selling drugs you know like I still had I still had some things you know like oh my kid get hit by a car and they need a surgery for 50000 I'm gonna get that 50,000 I don't care how I got to get it you know I almost looked at the theater as if it was almost that important to me it's like one of those kids that was kind of like my last stronghold that I had from the game you know that I felt would have given me a boost in life that that I wanted walk me through the day the event the day where the FBI and everybody comes like what was they like but they like well it started off with us getting on the 405 freeway going to San Diego and danilo didn't want to do the deal in LA I would have beat this case if I would have stayed in LA my lawyer told me that if I were to stay in LA then here to one in this case for me I would got kinda gotta quit if you were wise that why Nellie well I would have had some black jurors got it he said that blacks would have never convicted me on this crime that they did they at me they had they had me they had tape recordings where he's dangling the price Oh a 17,000 a kilo oh it's 14,000 a kilo oh it's 12,000 a kilo oh it's 11,000 a kilo so those are all inducements to induce you into which is illegal they're not supposed to the law is supposed to be to catch criminals it's not for to entrap a law-abiding citizen but the people who wrote the laws were smart enough to know that innocent people can be duped and to doing a crime you nected right save benson' if you know somebody's been walking for two or three days and they walk down the street in this guy's like a man has some keys in that car and you never even thought about the car but now he just put that on your mind that's inducement that's induced yeah and it's entrapment so 17 14 12 11 10 yep and uh at 10 I broke you know what would each I made on that deal and a million dollars there hundred kilos how much would you have made I think they were gonna give me 50,000 I mean 150,000 H for setting your deal up for hooking them up well they were gonna pay you I got it so you're not part of it kind of like you paid the other guys 60 K yeah there were the page 150 kg or correct I got it so cheek was gonna do the deal he's doing a movie not here you're not involved well technically I wasn't but I mean going by federal law was I ate in a bed it with aiding and abetting if if I know you're doing a dope deal and I hand you the keys to my car then you go to do that dope deal then technically I just ate in a beta too got it got it so now what happens blending comes well we get to San Diego does he seem nervous as he hmm I couldn't tell you no because I hadn't done a dope deal I've been out of the game for seven years now you know I haven't done a dope deal in seven years so I'm totally out of my element and it's crazy you know people might not understand what that means but it's like when you haven't done something for a while you are not practicing the way that you always practice I mean your timing is off you know it's just not it's not you you're not the same person you used to be so we get there it was nighttime we was found doing the deal as soon as we got there oh no I can't get to the to the warehouse right now we got to do it first thing in the morning so we wind up having to get a house I'm gonna get an apartment and it's been a night there I was still on parole too wasn't posted being in San Diego that was a violation for me to even be in San Diego so we woke up the next morning when we met with him at a Denny's he asked for the money I told him we want to see the drugs he had this white guy with him who's who's a DEA agent posing you know as another one that connects Chico handle the money they told us what a car was didn't it Oh hand me the keys to the car I threw the keys - Mike Mike jumped in the car I opened up the back of the car and looked at the boxes where the kilos were supposed to be I saw some packages that look like kilos they were wrapped in tape and everything like normal you know I told Chico okay everything good I jumped back in my car you know I commenced to taking off when I pulled out this car tried to cut me off and I swerved and went around it not really paying any attention but then when I got up a little ways further to black and white police cars blocked the intersection so I had to swerve turn for missing him and I knew it was a setup from Nia I look back in my rearview mirror I saw him Hachiko and uh and Curtis out the car spread it out you know handcuffing them you know I saw him have Mike and then I saw Danilo standing on the side with the DEA you know laughing and you know like a job well done what are you thinking at the time were you driving unbelievable you know I'm looking at a life sentence without the possibility of parole you know I knew the law because I'd saw other guys get the same thing at that time I had a conviction from Cincinnati and Texas so it looked like in my mind I was a tree striker I thought I was a tree striker so that was gonna be my last day on the street probably more than likely and and and then two Sims I'm still young in my mind you know I don't really you know I don't really understand about a lot of stuff you know I was smarter than I was when I went to prison but I was nowhere near at the level that that I was gonna be home so then you go in you get out you get life you start reading studying law and this is when you realize the whole three-strike and your negotiate and you did you represent yourself to get out of it or did you have somebody else I hadn't I don't know you get a little annoyed what point did you know he says I think I can get out of this uh it was probably at about three years so being in and we were getting ready to to get sentenced and I told my lawyer I was like look man you know well I felt first we felt that that we were going to get the hope we should have got my location have been reversed because you know Danilo Brando had an illegal green court that the jury never knew about I felt that had the jury known that his green card was bogus that one of the agents forged his green card could have made a big difference in front of the jury but you know an appeals court and everybody said it wouldn't a difference you know but technically he should have never been allowed to testify he should never been allowed to testify no no because he should have been allowed to do the setup in all states that if youõre a lien that's convicted of a drug crime you must be deported not that you can be deported you must be deported can the government to immunity give them the freedom to say it's okay we're not going to they can they can the Attorney General or the President of the United States goes to only once interesting happens all the time though with these immunity deals very interesting deals they break the laws their own laws right but the only person that can allow him legally are those two people who not a i ns agent not the chief of iron ass I was the president late nineties Bill Clinton was he didn't do it Genet Attorney General did it she didn't do it either then who did a DEA agent i NS agent forged his green card how do you know that well we got a tip my lawyer was in his hotel room so an irony agent calls him and says uh mr. Fenster I got some information for you I don't like what they did to Rick I think what they did to him was wrong and I got some information for you so my lawyer said what you got he said well I don't really know what they did to get this green card but it was illegal he said it's almost impossible to get a green card for a convicted felon especially somebody who was sold as many drugs as he is so I think he'd think they convicted him for over 10,000 kilos of cocaine so when my lawyer you get this call the next day we go to the court we're going to trial this is doing trial and we're is this ninety six now we should have had this information in Brady versus Merlin Brady versus Merlin is saying that the government's supposed to turn over any information is favorable to my defense you know if it makes a cop look bad make the informant look bad they supposed to turn it over to us but they haven't turned anything over to us they hadn't told us how he got his green car so we go to court so my lawyer we sitting in court and my lawyers telling me about him and I get this strange call last night from this kind weird call you know my lawyer he's you know he's straight by-the-book on those Booker's and he was like this guy tells me that uh Danilo shouldn't have a green card I said yeah she said yeah he said you want me to question him about it I said yeah Aksum about it let's see what happened I said you know I'm looking for anything I'm drafting four straws I'm in the middle of the ocean boat went down so he starts to question uh Chuck Jones the DEA agent about it how did this guy get a green card oh I don't know how he got his green card but I know it was done right but never committing oh I didn't do it a I&S agent tell us handled all of the green card stuff and and my lawyer he blew it because he lured in he should have put telling us on the witness stand how do you put tell us on the witness stand tell us what a lie tell us what it got on the witness stand and told him and told the people that uh oh yeah I did the green court right everything was done to the letter of the law and then what did he do it why didn't put him under with my stand I don't know he thought that uh he thought that the jury saw the conflict and the the non direct answers by the DEA agent and that that would be enough for them to to have some doubt but after we know because we got a hearing about the whole thing we came back and the chief of ANS came in and tell us his supervisor came in oh no Telus told me that the guy's going to tell us never told me that the guy had a conviction because they said his his supervisor signed off so had the supervisor did his job and went through all the paperwork he would have known that the guy was a convicted felon he never did get me a green card but by him knowing tell us that been an agent for all these years he said that he knew that tell us knew that a convicted felon couldn't get a green card got it but now it's his word against Ellis's were so then you get you know you end up getting how much to have for that you get 20 you get life on your knife and then you somehow someway you get yourself out of it the three strikes I'll beat that to me strike law you beat the three strikes law you're out how much time did you end up doing on the second time around 14 years in like seven months 18 months 8 months something like that 14 years seven eight months yeah now at this point of your life how certain are you the CIA was involved in the whole thing in the eighties well I mean when the first one you know when the story first came out I didn't really I didn't really get Gary story much credibility you know I was like ah it was only after I started to dig and do the research and Danilo screen card and just you know all the stuff surrounding it you know like how did this guy get caught with ten thousand keys and do 28 months in prison you know and they got guys that got caught with to two ounces that's doing life without responsibility parole how did this all work you know and I guess the really convincing point for me was when the CIA did there they report and they said that you know we knew these guys were selling drugs you know we filed a report action attorney general that we not have to report them to law enforcement that I knew that Gary was onto something didn't director of CIA show up to Crenshaw or LA or something like that he came Chico Calder well he called he came to lock high school yeah at a town hall meeting what he he said that he was going to be getting to the bottom of it and that the people believed him no well you know that's when Chico confronted him you know Chico told him something like well you saying that you guys don't know if he was involved but you sent a letter to our judge telling our judge that you knew absolutely that he wasn't involved we're gonna be getting sentenced Monday on the premises that he wasn't involved in now you telling people that you don't know if he was involved or not which was it you know it was like a double standard no Chico he said I'm facing seven and a half and you're facing life right yeah I was I was just impressed that he showed up I just don't know if the people trusted him if your signature name is then entrust you to trust him now yeah I think that was I mean they gave it to him that hey I bet then I'd never do that again yeah so so when you got the news with Gary well how did you react when the whole suicide oh he shot himself in the head twice you know I've never heard of anybody shooting themselves in the head twice what did you say and well you know I was doing a documentary with with Kevin Boothe I don't know if you ever heard he carries from Texas to matter of fact Kevin is the guy that introduced me the Alex Jones Kevin was doing a documentary called the great white hope and he wanted me to be in a documentary so we have been talking for a while about a month on that documentary and in jail you know you only get 15 minutes on the phone so my 15 minutes was up that hour and so I was waiting on the next 15 minutes comin when that 15 minutes came I called Kevin so we could resume our conversation and that's when he told me that uh what happened to Gary I was totally blown away couldn't believe it it was just like strange for me like you know how could somebody who such a champion for justice you know how could he be gone like that you know and he was in the middle of his lifework I guess what I would call him did anybody investigate it or no did anybody pursuit to see you know who it was anything like that or not really I don't I don't really know I think people were fast to to have it done with you know to be over it and to be gone to to the next to the next thing and I know the government was definitely glad that uh the Gary wasn't around I mean Gary Gary was he I mean not just what he did with that case I mean Gary did so many great articles and and things for personal he did but even Michael Levine told them he says listen I don't think it's a good idea when they went on Montel Williams and the whole thing took place oh yeah Libyan told him says I don't think you're doing the right thing right now because it's too much exposure yeah and eventually you know guy ends up shooting himself twice you know at this point the one question I do want to ask you is the following and this be the last topic I want to kind of talk before we get into your book and some of the projects you're doing so I grew up in Iran okay I lived there ten years you know when I talk to other people in Iran who experience war being bombed on the fears the anxiety that always stays the whistling sound when you watch the movies you have flashbacks because I come from that world two years I live in Germany at a refugee camp my parents split up my parents get a divorce I don't see my dad for a year and a half then I come to Glendale California and I see my dad once every other week for one day so I saw him two days two days a month for six years then I joined the Army and it seemed for you two and a half years and then I saw my friends going back and forth and a lot of times people ask me to so that I can meet him become a drug dealer drug addict all that all this other stuff my year one of my best friends became the biggest drug the bringest seller of a path in Glendale I go to the army I'd come back this guy's like we get in a car one day literally we're in the car one is black Mustang we're driving the car me and him in a fan of ours Devine if he's watching us he would remember this this Z for BMW shows up right next to us red light okay we're on Los Feliz and the guy goes like this light to light we race he meets him the guy shows a badge my buddy gets pissed he says pull over the car the cop realizes who he is he runs off he chases him down pulls him over in the middle 5 freeway you know 5 free where bye bye the rabbi the Dodger Stadium if you know the whole Griffith yeah right there pulls him over right there gets attitude I said what are you doing I'm on vacation from Army I'm on leave he goes and spits on the guy's face is like I'll turn your kids into drug addicts if you ever do that to me ever again the cop takes us to 7-eleven bison every since what can I get you gives them a car whatever you need I'll take care of you I mean I immediately remember this right and I go back and I said what the hell happened last nine months and someone to the army what happened to you you were 3.5 GPA kid and I go back to see what made him turn right man so for you my communities middle eastern I grew up with Latinos African Americans I joined the Army in the Army I got along with African Americans and Latinos because I kind of feel like we're minorities right right and they're now men insurance so Caucasian so it's kind of conflicting but I asked you you seen a lot you grew up in LA you grew up in Crenshaw Steve it's the pinnacle right what what do you see being a solution for helping a lot of this crime gangs drugs what what do you see being a way to find a way to minimize it economics tell me what you mean by that well when when you have people who who can't can't sustain obey fit basic living rent food shelter clothes maybe a car when you don't have those elements to be possible then you allow the mind to wonder and try to figure out ways to accomplish those goals I don't think drug dealers or bad people at all and I know a lot of people I said that one time and somebody one went crazy home I don't I don't think anybody all right I don't think I see them as you know you have an operation on the preneur just trying to make money yeah they saw an opportunity I want to see the seat because for me trying to process an issue you know this is the drug dealing was a final product right you know that's the results of so I want to know this seed I want to know the seed what happened here this is what I want to know and you're in that world so well he wants to be he wants to be a member of society he wants to be somebody of means somebody that gets respect you know just like everybody else I mean everybody we all literally almost think the same things in life some of us take different avenues to get there and and sometimes that those avenues become circumstances that happen in your life you know like with you I mean when it'll shoot insurance what the first person made a girl named Jean Pierre we're at Venice Beach her and I started dating she picked me picked me up in a different car all the time I was trying to be a bodybuilder I just got on the army it was broke I was making for 75 an hour 525 an hour and you know I said what do you do she's I work in Morgan Stanley Dean Witter I said I want to be able to work there you do to the Greek and so then eventually I got a job at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter six months later day before 9/11 and that's how I got it - I got my series 766 3126 life at home in a life went that direction in that same way with me that's the way I started Simon cocaine it's the way I started selling weed when we when I got off parole you know I was getting eviction notices at my house because I wasn't selling enough books and t-shirts to sustain you know that I've started out that I was living and one of my friends came over and he was like man they having this big convention at San Bernadino Fairgrounds and it's a wee convention you ought to come and you all parole now loosen up man and and what would I notice at that time is that I hadn't even saw the weed industry I never calculated on myself being in the weed industry when I was in prison it was the furthest thing from my mind do you think you're going backwards if you go back go back into cannabis today you don't think you're going back to the same thing no I don't think so I look at cannabis as cannabis is a benefit for us it has medical benefits it puts people in a space of a piece you know I mean if you ever get a chance you got to go to one of those one of those kind of events and I mean everybody there is just so peaceful and happy you know and and and loving I'm not questioning cannabis I'm not I had a marijuana debate a month ago I brought the commander of US Navy intelligence and I brought the developmental director from normal as that is normal and I had them debate right here it was an hour and half debate intense debate back and forth so you understand man 1 I understand marijuana but I'm not talking about marijuana I'm talking about you and marijuana and I'm no different than nobody else no but I'm talking about you you know the next level and how much more the profits can be don't you think for you it's more playing with fire than the average guy oh no you don't think so mm-hmm I would never go back to selling cocaine no matter what happened what do you say that because the only song cocaine because I had no other Avenue of making money of making money I was stuck don't you think you could have been a sales manager and put a team together and go out selling like I didn't know that at the time can you can you can you imagine if you have somebody who who think that they're dumb stupid they think they're gangbanger you think they're thief do you thought that what you thought all those things about yourself absolutely but you're in credit yeah but I didn't understand that I didn't understand that you could be incredible in math and I didn't know I was incredible with people that I I mean I had at that time I probably had about 15 20 guys then followed me everywhere I went if I said to do something they would go and do it you say it's what if you grew up in Beverly Hills 90210 15 miles away from Crenshaw okay 18 miles away whatever the number is 18 miles away I'm three different family I would have been a different person you would have been a different absolutely so then when you going back to economics so going back to some of these communities that Crenshaw you pick Southside Chicago pick some parts in New York pick some parts of Miami pick some parts of even Dallas here you know there's some bad areas advisor as well I'll come here and speak to I spoke in Dallas there's there's a brilliant guys in Dallas Oh cliff yeah Oh cliff that that's right so what what can what can the community and the government do to inject hope in those areas anything well we we gotta we gotta offer opportunities you know people people when they don't have opportunities they get hopeless and you know a hopeless person they don't care if they live or die you know when you got somebody who who don't know if they're gonna have a place to sleep they don't know if they're gonna have food you know they don't have a girlfriend they don't have family members that care about them then they get hopeless you know and I think so much centers around I mean just look at like the guy who just did to shoot another day he just lost his job they don't think that that had any effect on him committing the crime that he committed absolutely because when you when you feel hopeless then you don't care about yourself so you can't care about anybody else and and I think that that's the same thing that our kids are going through right now in in these areas and that's why I do my job right now let me ask you this take take the bottom 20 worst communities in us okay okay take bottom 20 I want to hear what you're gonna say about this bottom 20 it's a required reading to read those three books before fifth grade absolutely let's just say we do that and let's do the math for those kids bottom it's a hundred thousand kids let's just say it's a small 100,000 kids if they were required to read richest man in Babylon thinking Grow Rich as a man think it right right before sixth grade if they were required to read that you think how big of a difference you think it would have made percentage-wise tremendous to men what is tremendous at a hundred thousand percentage-wise probably ninety percent you think that big of a number I think so that's a big number you're talking about so so me and Scott come our politicians aren't recommending kids to read books welcome how come we're not recommending some of these books for us to read well I don't really know the community they never go in the community we have people making decisions for us that has never been in a community like we have people who make laws that have never been to a jail like how can you tell how much time a person should spend in prison when you never been to the prison you don't know what it's like to go to prison they never come to our communities they never get out to to to to need to go to jail to be able to know how to influence I mean it's kind of like saying I'm a gynecologist but I'm a man I've never had a kid the reason why I don't want to use that is because they'll use that as an excuse what I'm saying is why aren't they creating opportunity myself okay I'm a math kid at a 1.8 GPA in high school okay if I was a new community I'm probably running with you grind but I might save you what's army because the guy named haste was gear on came and told me says you were headed towards bad side pride part of any sign me up for the army I went to the army life changed right I was working at Burger King I'm like a regular guy doing nothing right but the reason why I asked that is I'm trying to see one I rarely ever hear any campaign any politician talk about let's have our kids read the right books they don't they don't I totally agree I mean even even my book I've had teachers read my book and they asked me why am I so blunt in my book and I said because our kids are tired of BS we've been BS in the mall in life don't do this you can't do that this is good for you that's bad for and then when they come up like I told you before most people who start to use drugs I did a survey I was in I just left Kansas City last week and I spoke at a couple schools the turn of schools and I asked all the kids in the schools who introduced you to drugs the first time guess how many said a stranger how many none come on not one everybody said oh my brother my father my auntie my sister my cousin now one person said that some strange guy came up and introduced me to the drugs it's not going to happen it's usually somebody who love somebody you trust what's your point do the point is is that our influences is the reason that we do most of the things that we do so do we go to the influencers to help them or do we go to the kids well we go to both weird we attack both how do you help the influencers how do you help the kids well most of the influencers got involved with drugs because they wanted to what get some money yeah they wanted to make some money sure they got hooked on the drugs because they experimenting with it so if we can help them become financially stable where they now feel good about themselves where they feel that their life matters because most of them don't feel like they life matters nobody cares about my life my life is worthless then they can start to also influence the people that they normally introduce the drugs but what are your thoughts about the fatherless kids I mean you know the stats you hear about from the Census Bureau definitely have an effect I was a fatherless kid in prison 65 percent of guys don't have fathers in prison in prison 65 percent and it's about the same number for the ones who can't read so there's a dire direct parallel to not having knowledge in going to prison I did a radio show I was in st. Louis about about four or five years ago and I was on a radio show and the guy that was doing the show with me he did a survey on the people who got killed in st. Louis you know st. Louis at that time was I think leading the country in murder rates and and he wanted to know why so he did a survey he said all the guys that got all the people that had got killed that year not had a high school diploma so what that told me was not being smart was a direct connection to you being killed so you having a father figure growing up with you you would have been you would have possibly been a whole different human being oh absolutely absolutely anybody I mean because my whole my whole thing is that I was looking for I was looking for knowledge I wouldn't took cocaine if I wasn't looking you know I would have missed it but I was looking for an opportunity to to build myself on yeah you know i Don Lemon once said from CNN more than 72 percent of african-american birds are out of wedlock was what he said Wow 72 percents a big number right there how much you think values and principles plays a role Oh Toto man values and principles or the keys you know if you got values and principles then you can do anything but without those values and principles then you'll do anything the other way you know Chris Rock is it Chris Chris Rock the comedian one time he's telling this joke he says you know the one thing about men and women you know the media is trying to make women say you don't need man you can be independent all this other stuff he says go try raising a kid and you go tell your boys what to do then let the father say something joke about it yeah well you know women are little cuz I got two babies now then I'm raising in a women or lighter on their kids than men on you know a man is more firmer more stiffer and and you know he's probably gonna be the breadwinner you know usually the male is the breadwinner so when you don't have that person to teach you how to bring in the bread and then you become lost and not knowing how to bring in the bread and we you went into the male figure the other thing too you know like when you're growing up in the ghetto the first the first entrepreneur that the most black kids the Spanish kids are gonna meet in the ghetto entrepreneur is the drug dealer you know and then the next one might be a robber car thief a pimp you know these are the role models when I was sitting in prison one day and I was just playing with my mind and I was saying what if they would have had a IQ tests on criminality you know how well would I have scored because all the crimes that I hadn't committed I knew how to commit them because guys in the neighborhood had told me how to do it so when you look at the career choices that that our people are having you know a lot of times they feel like kids BS and then you top that it's a good point it's not like you're not willing to learn it's just what's being fed to you to process in your mind exactly and then we're letting Street dudes outwork the people that supposed to be teaching you know most teachers don't want to be there you know they want to be somewhere else you know I really want III spoke at a school in LA and and I did a survey I spoke to all teachers it was all teachers conference I said I said I spoke to the kids and then I told I told the principal say man I want to talk to your teachers too because your teachers have to have that concern for the kids that our artists has for his art and a lot of times these teachers don't have it and when I did the survey with the teachers I was accident I was like what was your first choice of a career did you did you did you want to be a teacher and most of them didn't want to be teachers they're just doing teacher teaching until they get to the point to where they can go to the next field and if you have these type of people to people if you got somebody that want to be a rapper or singer and they teaching your kids or your kids getting that undivided it's like when I go teach I teach tennis in two three yeah right now today I talk tennis this summer to kids for free just because I love it you know you're glowing right now just talking about it my partner who was on my tennis team with me is his camp but he said that he saw the kids give me something that they don't give him and he recognized it was behind my passion and I put in it you know like I put my tennis shoes on I go out and hit balls with him yeah he do a little bit but not not to the point like when I hit balls with him I'm hustling like they should be hustling and people have a tendency they recognize that our kids recognize that like I really care about you you know I really love you and and if they don't feel the same way you know they go to class and they go home and they tell I don't like my teacher don't like me you know once they say that Dan that teacher you know it's crazy you're saying this let me tell you I got three kids okay my oldest since the day he was born he was serious he's three months old this is his pictures what is wrong with your kid he'd look at everybody I let you say he just met you this is what he would do to you he just looked at you I think that's not appropriate you can't look at people like that so he's getting older nothing's changed till today serious so he goes to kindergarten to this teacher yes I'm not gonna say the name but so every day the teacher says your son is not this your son is not good at this your son is not good at this Suns not gonna diss all this stuff by the end of the year she recommends out of the 8 kids for 7 to be held back one year your son is now ready to go to first grade and I said I'm sorry yeah your son's not ready to go to first grade so when they I sit down with her let me ask you a question you have eight students seven of them you're allowing to stay back one of them you're advancing is your grandkid right because you know I'm talking he says yes I do I said do you know how to lead creative kids or do you just know how to lead people who follow your orders is this private school that were paying three four five thousand dollars a month able to lead private creative kids right she didn't have an answer so I go to the principal I tell the principal I said that's the worst teacher I have ever seen in my life a teacher like this can hurt a kid because a kid camping has problems one day my son comes here right here I have the picture we should put this picture up by the way he comes right here my wife says he's got to see you so I don't know what's going on with that he thinks he has problems because the teacher teacher told him you're different so he comes to me sits here it says daddy everybody tells me I'm different everybody tells me I'm different I said of course you're different your daddy's different buddy we're different we're the same but you don't want to be like everybody no that's what we're special he cries and my wife is sitting there crying emotions she took a picture and she got it and we're both crying together in that moment then next year my son we keep him gonna clip into school makes he has this other teacher during that year for that teachers class one of the classmate girls gets cancer dies at six years old kid dies at six years old the other kid gets cancer she goes on chemo for 3-4 months this teacher gets Teacher of the Year award she changed my kid's life she understood how to deal with a create a kid one teacher almost screwed his thinking at that age ten Kenny has problems the other kid says no you got gifts the other teacher I think one had hated teaching right the other one loved teaching goes back to what you're talking with tennis absolutely so you know it's interesting you're saying what the points are making with the challenge being teachers you know to wrap it up you no I don't know if you remember Calvin Oh buts Calvin Otis Oh bots remember Reverend Calvin tobots together came out and said we're not against rap we're not against rappers but we are against those thugs do you remember that whole handling them and then you know bone thugs-n-harmony put it in the sound it's the thuggish ruggish bone at the beginning so that was the beginning of the pastor so based on what you're saying my biggest thing is prior to somebody becoming a thug manure egular kid that have the ability to do so much big and based on some of the ideas you got I can only imagine what things would happen if people applied some of these ideas last thing to do with you speed round I'm gonna give you a name you tell me the first thing that comes from I'm not guy I tell your name you tell me the first thing that comes to your mind okay Arthur Ashe great officer robert wadis corrupt 2pi the genius ronald reagan thug Gary Webb a manatorian humanitarian yes Bill Clinton I don't know jury's out on deal a patriot rapper Rick Ross fried Obama politician 25 year old Rick Ross lost Danilo Blandon lost Pablo Escobar Pablo Escobar rich powerful rich rich and powerful rich and powerful Maxine Waters courageous courageous Daniel Ortega mmm and you want a girl I guess he was a patriot who's a patriot Manuel Ortega and it's interesting to say talking to you because you know you have experiences that people don't have and you can give perspective from a standpoint where everybody can get smarter to know how we can make a difference on a lot of kids lives so they can take a complete different direction in their life so I appreciate you opening up your book window put links below to your book okay as well as you got some real cool shirts you sell out I love what Rogan did man a lot of respect for Japan shout out to Joe Rogan selling the shirts he wears it you know the real Rick Ross is not a rap or do you still sell that shirt or no steal it's the other day yeah classic let's put a picture up you know the real Rick Ross doesn't so you know they counterfeit that shirt who did people on internet relevant confident yes we're gonna some likes I'm like Nike yes a compliment you know I put yours below for people to be able to buy you counterfeit it you know you can so freeway Rick Ross appreciate you flying out you thank you willing to open up and be a guest somebody Taemin thank you for allowing me this opportunity and speaking to you was from a totally different perspective you know so often people you come in and you talk to people and they just go over the same things over know you so drugs and it's like this thing is more complicated than that you know a lot of people they want to blame me for the drug problem but then I say well maybe you might have to blame Mike the guy that put it on the table for me the first time and then you could even go even deeper than that and say well maybe we're gonna blame the guys that made Superfly because that's what seed at first it's a whole different conversation man because movies has such a big impact on I rap rap rap so much to be talked about about that you know where our kids are getting their influences from and then you know it's so funny I know we get ready to wrap up but you know I go to school sometime and I want to speak to our kids and they won't allow me they don't want our kids to get that experience you know what it was like and how you got started and who's gonna introduce you to drugs because now your kid is running around saving your kids running around and he thinking oh it's gonna be some strange monster that's gonna come up and introduce me to drugs but Dennis's uncle or his brother Wow oh is this cousin you know somebody that he genuinely cares about or his best friend at school you know somebody that's the Macho Man you know whoever whoever it is but it's not the way that they're being taught so they're not prepared for that conversation that's gonna come you know you're not prepared for when your uncle offers you drugs you know you're prepared for when this monster comes up this guy in the park when you never saw before and he got a hood over here he comes the end he's a little boy I got something for you he's probably gonna run because that's how we teach our kids don't talk to strangers but now when Johnny his best friend at school he walks to school with every day who's uncle just turned him on he didn't know no better no Johnny who don't see the effects yet cuz it takes a while for the effects to come he automatically he turns your son on and that's what's happening to our kids well I'm hoping the right people watch this man I'm hoping the right people because all basic thing about the right books can change people's lives it did it you did it to me man oh absolutely I read fifteen sixteen hundred books completely changed my life time you see the bookshelf over there I'm about I don't have a four-year degree I don't have a two-year degree somebody simply my sister recommended me how to win friends and influence people write that one - Robbie Saldana recommended me how to master the art of selling my Tom Hopkins and for me I've got a dick that's I cannot believe this informations and books and the rest is history that's what I say it - when I started we brother again thanks for coming at me truly really enjoyed it all mine all mine is it was wonderful likewise tank

Channel: Valuetainment

Views: 806,808

Rating: 4.8046298 out of 5

Keywords: Entrepreneur, Entrepreneurs, Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneur Motivation, Entrepreneur Advice, Startup Entrepreneurs, valuetainment, patrick bet david, rick ross, rick ross interview, freeway rick ross, rick ross cocaine, real rick ross, freeway netflix, onus news service

Id: FArRNshBhxQ

Length: 110min 10sec (6610 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 13 2019