- 1 year ago
What does Denzel Washington, A$AP Rocky and Spike Lee have in common? Aside from growing up in the big smoke of NYC, the trio star in Spike Lee’s latest film Highest 2 Lowest. Watch as they talk family roots, A$AP’s throwback with Denzel’s family Christmas and Denzel’s competitive riff from He Got Game.----------Director: Jeremy ClowneyDirector of Photography: Brad WickhamEditor: Graham MooneyFeaturing: Spike Lee, Denzel Washington, and A$AP RockyProducer: Camille RamosLine Producer: Jen SantosProduction Manager: James Pipitone; Elizabeth HymesTalent Booker: Lauren MendozaCamera Operator: Carlos Araujo; Lucas YoungGaffer: David DjacoSound Mixer: Sean PaulsenProduction Assistant: Ryan CoppolaPost Production Supervisor: Jess DunnSupervising Editor: Rob LombardiAdditional Editor: Jason MaliziaAssistant Editor: Andy Morell
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00I think Denzel's a beautiful name for a son.
00:04That's what I'm just saying.
00:16I correlate rapping and memorizing rhymes and stuff like that with acting because it's the same thing.
00:24You just got to memorize it.
00:25And even what I would film, I would just take things that sound like it rhymed and treat it like a run-on sentence.
00:32Yeah, you'd slip it.
00:33But then you got to go with the flow, right?
00:36Then you got to let it go.
00:38Stanislavski said, cut 90%.
00:39Do all that homework, do all of that.
00:42Then let it go.
00:43See what happens.
00:44Absolutely.
00:45You didn't know who hit you with that non-stuff, right?
00:47I didn't.
00:47Talk about that.
00:49I'm going to be honest.
00:49Because when we was doing our pre-rehearsals and we would do our readings, when I get to talk to the old G, man, he was just telling me his love, innate love for Memphis rap.
01:00When I tell this story all the time, people think I'm just lying out of my ass.
01:04You know what I'm saying?
01:04This guy really is of the culture in the sense that to keep up with.
01:10The brutalizer, the buddha-sizer, the accelerator.
01:13So when he said that, when it hit you with that, what were you thinking?
01:17When it hit you with that, the camera's rolling.
01:21The camera's rolling.
01:23Yo, he fucked me up with that one, man.
01:25And then you say, what is this, what is this, a rap battle?
01:31You would love J.I.D., man.
01:33It's this kid named J.I.D.
01:36He just actually put out a new album.
01:38He's a son of J.Cole and Dreamville.
01:42Where's he from?
01:43He from Atlanta.
01:44Atlanta?
01:44This kid is nasty.
01:46His flow is unmatched.
01:48I want to hear him and Kendrick on a song together so bad.
01:51I need that before I die.
01:54I need to hear J.I.D. and Kendrick on a song together.
01:57You fuck with K-Dot?
01:59Oh, Lamar.
01:59Yo, yo, my kids.
02:01Man, that's one of my favorite rappers of all time.
02:04He's one of my peers.
02:05You know what I'm saying?
02:06K-Dot.
02:06Another word, Smith.
02:07Ill-ass words, Smith, especially for my generation.
02:10They from the same cloth, him and Kendrick.
02:13And I think you would love J.I.D.
02:15You got to check his shit out.
02:16Check him out.
02:17He's ill.
02:18You know, it's not too much people like fucking with him lyrically.
02:21What if like rapping was low-key like your destiny?
02:26Like you would have been an ill-ass rapper.
02:27Her father loved me, often invited me, still questioned me the story of my life from year
02:31to year, the battle, sieges, fortresses that I have passed.
02:34I ran it through.
02:35Even for my boyish days to the very moment he bad me tell it where and I spake of most
02:39disastrous chances.
02:40That's Othello.
02:41So I'm a wordsmith too.
02:45I don't know how you did Othello.
02:46Look, I watched the film and everything.
02:48Like, I used to have to pause it just to like Google, like, what is this old Latin, you
02:54know.
02:54Talking about Macbeth?
02:55Yeah, it derived these words that derived from the Greek language.
02:59And it's just like, it was so eloquent.
03:01And you killed it to the fact that I didn't realize, you know, like the whole Macbeth thing,
03:06like it was a black man portraying it.
03:10It didn't even matter.
03:11It was just so, it was eloquent.
03:13Your vernacular was crazy.
03:15The acting was insane.
03:16But it just showed that you was a pro because I don't think anybody would be able to, you
03:20would have to be a wordsmith to be able to remember that kind of dialect and stuff like
03:25that.
03:25And I'm assuming it takes a lot of years on, you know, in theater to be able to like recite,
03:34rehearse and remember that, like, you know.
03:36Were you ever intimidated any scene with this master right now?
03:40Hell no.
03:40I was just fanned out, you know, I was just like, man.
03:43Explain what, explain what that means for the audience, fanned out.
03:47My whole life, like, my mother gassed me up and told me I look like this, man.
03:51You get what I'm saying?
03:52So how much, if you had a penny, anytime it said you look like Denzel.
03:58I'd be a trillionaire, man.
04:01Like, for real.
04:02D, it's true.
04:02I'm telling you.
04:03I swear to God, man.
04:04I swear to God.
04:04No bullshit.
04:05So like, just being.
04:06So mom, shouldn't we tell him?
04:07You said that.
04:11Then you did it in the film.
04:12You said, you said, what's the line?
04:15I did it in the movie.
04:16Yeah, you said, you said, you said, you said, you said, well, I don't know.
04:21Because I was like, you know, they say you might be my pops.
04:23You was like, you know.
04:24You remember what you said to that?
04:26What did I say?
04:27I forgot.
04:27You let it go with the flow.
04:28No, you were like, well, you were like this.
04:30What do you mean?
04:31You gave an implication that it might have happened.
04:35That he might have been your son.
04:36Man, some of my earliest memories from you guys.
04:39I mean, together, y'all the dynamic duo.
04:41Y'all know that, right?
04:42But I would say it had to be.
04:44I'm going to have to go ahead and be cliche.
04:46My top two is, obviously, Malcolm X, Mo Better Blues, man.
04:51Mo Better Blues, man.
04:53You was just so fly, man.
04:55He was just fly.
04:56Now, my favorite part is when you emphasize or improvise the rapping part.
05:02And it was a freestyle.
05:03And Mo Better?
05:04Yeah, because you would kind of, like, articulate in how, like, you know, the kids back then,
05:08you turned your hat backwards, you had the sax on you, the sax or the trumpet.
05:12But, you know what I mean?
05:13And it was just fly to just see that.
05:15And that inspired a lot.
05:17How old were you then?
05:18Oh, man.
05:20Ninety-two.
05:23I was about four or five.
05:25See, he didn't see when it came out.
05:27I saw it when it came out.
05:28I was, man, I watched Juice when it came out.
05:30How old were you then?
05:31Like three.
05:33I was, like, three or four when Juice came out.
05:34The underwear I got on are older than you.
05:41I mean, for y'all, what would you say is your favorite, like, you know, piece working with Spike is?
05:48I don't have favorites.
05:49I always tell people, they say, what's your favorite movie?
05:51I say my next one.
05:52I'm not interested in the past.
05:54Actually, I haven't never seen Mo' Better since.
05:57Is it a premiere?
05:58Yeah.
05:59I haven't seen it.
06:00You've done all your films?
06:01I haven't seen any of them from top to bottom.
06:03Malcolm X, Mo' Better.
06:04There's no, the four films we've done together, I haven't seen from top to bottom since.
06:08Is that intentionally?
06:10I'm not interested in the past.
06:11I'm a, I'm a tame professor.
06:14I want you to go out of film school.
06:15So every semester I choose one film with my brother and every time I do, I see something
06:21new that I haven't seen before.
06:23For sure.
06:23Wait, I fucked up.
06:24I messed up.
06:25It's actually, he got gang.
06:28Yeah, oh, he got gang?
06:29That's, that's top two.
06:30Like, come on.
06:30He got gang?
06:31He got gang.
06:32Jesus Shelsberg?
06:33Yo, this is my problem with, like, I ain't gonna lie.
06:37D-Dub got a competitive problem, right?
06:40So he gets on the court with Ray Allen and he trying to spank a professional basketball
06:44player.
06:45He get me in the studio.
06:46This motherfucker want to battle rap me.
06:47Wrote his own shit.
06:49But let me tell you.
06:49Wrote his own shit.
06:50Oh, I got a funny story.
06:52So this is Ray's first film.
06:55So I had to get him a, uh.
06:56I started whipping his behind.
06:58That's what you get ready to tell him about.
06:59In the script.
07:02G's supposed to win 11-0.
07:04But Denzel was like, fuck that.
07:06And so, and so Denzel's on throwing some lucky shots going in and Ray says, time out,
07:12time out.
07:13It's like, it's a game.
07:15Not good.
07:16Time out, time out, time out.
07:18He says, Spike, I'm supposed to win 11-0.
07:21I think it was better for the film.
07:23Yeah, exactly.
07:24Y'all was close.
07:24That's what I'm saying.
07:25Right.
07:26Denzel knew it was better for the film if he had some baskets, you know?
07:34So the scene, you know, when I'm on the-
07:38Double Dolly shot.
07:39The Dolly, man.
07:40Your classic shot.
07:42Your classic shot.
07:43Keep talking.
07:44Keep talking.
07:45Yo, I'm getting robbed by Denzel right now.
07:48Hey, you know, that watch is gone.
07:49You know that.
07:49You can take him out of New York.
07:51You can't take the New York out of him, you know?
07:52You dig?
07:53It looked better on you anyway, OG.
07:55I hope it doesn't fit.
07:56I hope it doesn't fit.
07:59So, basically on the Dolly shot, right?
08:02Right.
08:02It was basically supposed to be a facade in my head.
08:06Me imagining-
08:06Inside your head, man.
08:07Because the way the film is, he's going to be a salvation.
08:11Yeah.
08:12And so this is in your imagination of what?
08:14How the music video would do when you were him.
08:17I think the illest part about that was trying to recreate the Sam Cooke moment.
08:23It's been a long time coming.
08:25Double Dolly shot.
08:26The Malcolm X.
08:27Seeing Denzel on the Dolly.
08:28You know, that's my favorite.
08:30I've done this several times.
08:31It's almost become a signature shot.
08:33But that's the best use of that.
08:35We have-
08:35Many people told me that Malcolm knew he was on his way to assassination or to my ballroom.
08:42And I said, how can I convey this?
08:44Because he's not going to say it.
08:45That's a double Dolly shot.
08:47And then you got Sam Cooke.
08:50Seeing him change going to come.
08:52He really robbed me for my motherfucking watch.
08:55Nah, I didn't, man.
08:56You gave it to me.
08:57We got witnesses.
08:58This is all on film.
08:59You gave me this.
09:01I'll rob you later.
09:02Hey, the minute he took it off your wrist, you should have known, man.
09:06Come on.
09:06Where you from?
09:07That's all you owe.
09:08Where you from, man?
09:08I can't afford it.
09:10You look better when you-
09:10It's darn ace.
09:12You see how you feel this day.
09:13There you go.
09:14Look, he's going to owe me later.
09:15Hold on to that, OG guy.
09:17Nah, I think if we being honest about your greatest Dolly shots, for me, it's the Crooklyn
09:26one besides the Denzel one.
09:28What's the one in Crooklyn?
09:29When he had the little girl, Troy, she was on the double dolly, but then somehow, I don't
09:34know how the fuck you did this.
09:36You had her levitate all up in the air.
09:39Oh, she's on a crane.
09:41And she was running from you and the guy with the one arm.
09:44Yeah.
09:44And her dream.
09:46How did you get that shot done?
09:48It was a crane shot, and we just, she was in the door of the crane, the seat of the crane,
09:54and we just moved down the block and moved it up.
09:58That was, man, that was an ill-ass shot right there, man.
10:00And when she cracked you in the head with the stick with the Dolly shot?
10:04Yeah, Crooklyn was my shit, man.
10:06Do you have any, uh, Dolly shots of this guy that you admired?
10:11I don't watch movies, man.
10:13I really don't.
10:15I'm just gonna be honest with you.
10:17I don't watch movies, man.
10:18I don't go to the movies.
10:20I don't watch movies.
10:22Is it because you make them?
10:23Probably.
10:24You know, I'm tired of movies, man.
10:25Yeah.
10:26Yeah.
10:26How many films have you made?
10:28Too many.
10:28We gotta go to IMDb?
10:30I think 50.
10:3150?
10:32When's your album coming out?
10:33Why you doing that, though, Spike?
10:35The world wants to know.
10:37I'm tired of answering for you.
10:39Yo, I just wanna just drop it.
10:40I'm tired of answering.
10:41You know why I ain't my album ain't out yet?
10:43Why?
10:44I'm doing movies with Spike Lee and Dixie.
10:45Aw, don't put it on me.
10:47I gotta be here in New York at, like, 9 in the morning.
10:50You know what I'm saying?
10:51The first thing you say is you're expecting.
10:53Oh, that's, that's, that go without saying.
10:55Nah, nah, nah, nah.
10:56Everybody don't know that.
10:57That's, that's, that's with everything, right?
10:58Nah, they know that, man.
10:59That go without saying.
11:00I'm just bullshitting.
11:01So, when's, all right, when's the album coming out?
11:04The world wants to know.
11:05I'ma just drop it.
11:06How about that?
11:06I'ma just drop it.
11:07I don't wanna say another date.
11:09Disappoint people.
11:10Things happen.
11:10Things pop up.
11:11I just wanna make the perfect album.
11:13Just drop it.
11:13I got a lot to say now.
11:14But is it, is it done?
11:15It's done.
11:16It's been done.
11:17I just wanna drop it.
11:18So, it's a nuclear bomb?
11:20Man, I don't know.
11:21I think it's just, it's my best work this yet.
11:24You know, this far.
11:25You know, I worked really hard on it.
11:27Oh, we know you work hard.
11:27You put the work in.
11:28You know, I think, I think you'll love it, OG.
11:31I saw you steal that again, too.
11:32Let me ask you a question.
11:33I didn't steal it, man.
11:34You gave it to me.
11:35Let me ask you a question.
11:37There were many times where rappers have been in films.
11:41People stopped me on the street.
11:43They say, can you act?
11:44I said, are you crazy?
11:45Rappers specifically in movies and films,
11:47I think sometimes, like, a lot of directors are, you know,
11:52easily impressed by, like, a celebrity of a certain person
11:55or its different stature.
11:57And that's sometimes how they get their roles.
11:59With me, you know, it's just always, like,
12:01I get it from the bottom.
12:03I really, like, go through the, you know what I mean?
12:05You're an actor.
12:06Yeah, I don't want anything handed to me.
12:08I want to earn everything,
12:09and I just want to do it all up pure talent and ambition.
12:12I don't mind seeing rappers on the silver screen.
12:14I love Mos Def as an actor.
12:17He's a phenomenal.
12:18I love what you guys did with Bamboozoop.
12:20That was a-
12:20Let me ask a question.
12:22When the first time you met D,
12:23we went through to talk about that.
12:26It was ill, man.
12:28I mean, I'm a fan of it.
12:28Did you sleep, did you have trouble sleeping?
12:31It was difficult not to call my mom on the spot,
12:34you know what I mean?
12:34Because I just really wanted to, like,
12:36Ma, I'm here, I want to do that.
12:37But I'm like, nah, I ain't doing none of that.
12:39I'm going to be professional.
12:41I'm not going to fan out.
12:42I ain't going to make this man feel weird around me.
12:44But I'm probably one of your biggest fans, man.
12:46You probably hear that all the time, but it's true.
12:48You know what I'm saying?
12:49I'm baby you now.
12:50I'm the new D, Zapp.
12:52No, you're not.
12:53You know what I'm saying?
12:54I'm telling you.
12:54You're the full-grown you.
12:55When people see this film, they're going to go berserk.
12:59Listen.
13:00And not just resemblance.
13:02I'm a black, dark-skinned man
13:04that transcends beyond just the hood and stuff like that.
13:08You did that.
13:09You, Sidney Poitier, and I tell you that.
13:11Listen, I'm glad to, you know,
13:13carry the torch if you would kindly pass it to me.
13:15I'm the baby of yourself.
13:16Yeah, the torch, the baton, all that, man.
13:20Like, I'm baby, I'm baby.
13:21When you pray for rain, you got to deal with the mud too now.
13:23That's all right.
13:24I come from the mud.
13:24I'm not a'ight with that.
13:26I'm not a'ight with that.
13:26I come from the mud.
13:27You know what I'm saying?
13:28That's a'ight with me.
13:30Did you sleep at night?
13:31What were you thinking about?
13:32All this stuff.
13:33It just was a dream come true, man.
13:35I can't even lie to you.
13:37You know, you helped my dream come true.
13:38You know, to be with both of you guys in the film,
13:41it really humbled me, you know,
13:43in the sense of me being, like, I'm a fan.
13:45I think Denzel's a beautiful name for a son.
13:49That's what I'm just saying.
13:50I think Denzel...
13:51Oh!
13:51I hope we happen to her.
13:52You got to!
13:53All right.
13:55If you...
13:56If you're blessed...
13:58With the sword.
14:00Uh-huh.
14:01Just what he just said.
14:02So we're gonna name the...
14:03We're gonna name the son Denzel...
14:05What?
14:06What's the middle name?
14:07What we doing?
14:08Denzel what?
14:09John David...
14:10No.
14:12What's your middle name?
14:14Man, my middle name is...
14:15It's crazy.
14:16Oh, let's hear it.
14:17Let the world don't know about it.
14:19Let's hear it first.
14:19I never got asked my middle name on camera.
14:21This is bugged out.
14:22My middle name is Athelstan.
14:24A what?
14:24A who?
14:25A who or what?
14:27Say what?
14:28A who or what?
14:29Let me take this off.
14:30You had to cry.
14:32You had to cry on me.
14:34Athelstan.
14:36Othello.
14:36How do you spell it?
14:37It sounds like Othello.
14:38It's a West Indian name.
14:40With a O?
14:41No.
14:42What A?
14:42No.
14:42A-T-H-E-L-S-T-O-N.
14:44Athelstan.
14:45I'm Bajan.
14:46I'm people from Barbados.
14:48So from Harlem and Barbados.
14:50Yeah, man.
14:51My pops came in when he was 19.
14:54First woman he saw was my mom's because my grandmother and my mother lived the floor from each other.
14:59And we all became close.
15:01Everybody just.
15:02And that was like what?
15:0386 or something like that.
15:05Yeah.
15:06I never had.
15:07Me and both my grandmothers were gone before I was born.
15:09Never had a grandmother.
15:11Or a real grandfather.
15:12My grandfathers were gone.
15:14So you never saw your grandparents?
15:16My grandfather died when I was maybe four.
15:18But no, no grandmothers.
15:20When I hear about grandmothers, I always wonder.
15:23Grandmothers is dope.
15:24That's like a second.
15:24You met my grandmother.
15:26Yeah.
15:26She lived to be 100.
15:28She lived to be 100?
15:29Yeah.
15:29My grandmother was a teacher, art teacher.
15:33And she taught in Georgia.
15:36In Georgia.
15:37In her 50 years, she never had a white student because of Jim Crow law.
15:41And in her 50 years, she saved the social security checks for a grandchildren education.
15:45And my grandma put me through, over 50 years, social security checks, she put me through Morehouse.
15:51Put you through Morehouse?
15:52Yeah.
15:52My mother and grandmother went to Spelman.
15:54My father and grandpa went to Morehouse.
15:56My mother, I was on Oprah Winfrey.
15:58And Oprah asked my mother something.
16:02She talked about her mother praying every night.
16:05She said her mother would pray for her children and her children's children.
16:10I guess Oprah had asked her, did you ever think this was going to happen?
16:13You talk about me.
16:14And she was saying that her mother prayed every night for her children and her children's children.
16:19So I've added that now.
16:21I don't have no children's children yet.
16:23But who's going to be first?
16:24Who's going to be first?
16:25Me?
16:26With the grandbaby?
16:27With the grandbaby?
16:28Why?
16:28Why?
16:29I'm just asking.
16:29You know, you know, the way he said that too, boy.
16:32But yeah, I ain't going to be like, boy, watch yourself now.
16:35Watch your mouth.
16:37Where'd you live?
16:38Where'd you grow up?
16:39I grew up on, well, I was born on 116th and Morningside.
16:42That's in Harlem.
16:44I really grew up on 140th and Lennox Avenue.
16:47Lennox.
16:48Between that and 128th Street.
16:51And I lived in the Bronx a lot of my life all the time.
16:53Boogie Down?
16:54Yeah, Boogie Down, Bronx, BX.
16:56I'm a real Harlem BX cat.
16:57So we got like 3rd Avenue, Bathgate, Ave.
17:01You don't remember the 3rd Avenue L, though?
17:02You're too young.
17:03I ain't know the L train with the 3rd and the X?
17:07The 3rd Avenue L.
17:09That's crazy.
17:09Ask the old Jack.
17:10When they stopped doing that?
17:12Too young.
17:13I don't know anybody in there too young.
17:14I don't know.
17:15They tore it down.
17:16They did.
17:17Can I tell the room a crazy-ass fun fact?
17:21This is, this is, this is, all jokes aside, this is crazy, right?
17:26Due to the fact that you put me in that Monster movie, which your wife put me in that movie,
17:30you know?
17:30Whoa, whoa.
17:31All right, let me reiterate this.
17:33Tonya produced something.
17:34Don't.
17:35You better get it right.
17:36I'm going to get hurt.
17:37I'm going to get a frying pan upside the head.
17:39Did you read this in, uh, damn, he probably didn't publish.
17:42It was, it's a junior high school book that they make everybody read or high school.
17:46It's called Monster.
17:47It's by this, uh, Walter Dean Myers, this author.
17:50He, he, he's-
17:51And it's called Monster?
17:52It's called Monster.
17:53It's about this kid in Harlem who, he was a good kid and he had to face adversity and-
17:58Is it called Monster Cody?
18:00Nah, it's just, it's called Monster.
18:02The book, the title's Monster.
18:03The title of the book was Monster.
18:05Basically, I, I got casted to do that.
18:07Tonya Lee was, was producing it.
18:10We shot it in Harlem in my old neighborhood.
18:12So, you know what that mean?
18:13Everybody, all the cousins, all the friends and everything.
18:16So, I got-
18:17What about the night you had to-
18:18I'm about to tell it.
18:21I'm about to tell it.
18:22I'm about to shut up.
18:23I'm about to tell a story.
18:24I'm shut up.
18:25So, basically my, my friends ended up getting locked up and stuff like that on the set or
18:31the shoot and whatnot.
18:33Cause they was just being dumb and reckless and you know what I mean?
18:35This is before we was legalizing the city and stuff and they was smoking weed and police
18:39felt that paraphernalia amongst other things that we don't care to talk about.
18:43A little, a little, a little something, a little, a little something, a little something.
18:46Yeah, a little something.
18:47So, with that being said, I thought, oh snap, you know, I'm done in this industry.
18:52I'm done.
18:53You know, this is what you define as unprofessionalism right here.
18:57This is what that is, right?
18:58This is the epitome of it.
19:00And Spike was like, more than never, he was just understandable.
19:04And I think like, you know, the director, Anthony Mandler was just stoked.
19:09Like, man, this is so horrible, man.
19:10I'm loving this.
19:11Like, you know what I'm like, I'm like, yo, my friend is incarcerated now.
19:14Like, you know what the fuck?
19:15You know, he obviously called me back to do the thing with you, but what ended up happening
19:20was I made really good friends with your son, John David, really good friends.
19:24And he's a really good brother, you know, and that was one of-
19:27So you and John David are tight?
19:29He doesn't see films.
19:32Yo, so me and your son is in that film.
19:34I know, I know that.
19:35But I didn't know y'all were tight, tight.
19:38Yeah.
19:39So my dad died on Christmas Eve, right?
19:42And so every Christmas I get, usually tend to, you know, get depressed and stay by myself.
19:47And I get like a hermit crab and I just want to be left alone and blah, blah, blah, all this bullshit.
19:51And, you know, my friends was trying to cheer me up.
19:54And at the time I was, you know, I had my little, my little lady friend at the time.
19:58And it was Christmas Eve and I was just sipping lean the whole night and smoking marijuana.
20:04And, um-
20:04Don't you call it?
20:05Yeah, marijuana.
20:07You know, the J ain't silent where I come from.
20:09So, you know, we smoking a little bit of marijuana, right?
20:13And the shorty I was with was like, you know, just like bored out her mind because I was just depressed, right?
20:20And my brother Frank, he was just like, bro, get the fuck out the house, man.
20:25Frank Ocean.
20:26He's like, bro, you got to get out the house.
20:27I can't see you like this, man.
20:29You know what I'm saying?
20:29Like, he's like, bro, I'm going to come through with y'all.
20:33And he came through and I got a call.
20:36Like, John David and Frank was supposed to meet and all of that stuff.
20:40John David was like, yo, yo, it's Christmas, yo.
20:43Like, y'all come to the crib.
20:45I'm like, what?
20:48Oh, you were in L.A.?
20:48Yeah, when I came to your house.
20:50Okay.
20:50Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
20:52Okay, okay, okay.
20:53Keep going.
20:54This nigga done cooked for everybody.
20:55I like, this is the only-
20:56No, no, wait, back up.
20:57Wait, you didn't say I cooked?
20:58Not you, but your wife and Samuel got to cook that night.
21:02Yeah, your wife, Samuel, everybody, the friends and family, everybody was cooking.
21:07He had an apron on.
21:09And, you know, the OG had came.
21:11So we get there, right?
21:12Beautiful.
21:13You know what I mean?
21:13I ain't going to get too much details.
21:14I'm calling it to lay it out.
21:15I ain't going to get too much details of the decor and how it's laid out because we know
21:19it's a lot of robbers out there.
21:20We ain't got time for that.
21:21A lot of pistol suits.
21:23Where you going?
21:23That's correct.
21:24Don't get it twisted.
21:25Don't get it fucked up.
21:26Yeah, I'll blow your phone.
21:27Don't get it twisted.
21:28Well, look, the decor crazy and everything, right?
21:30So I go in and it's just a family vibe, man.
21:33It's just like, of course, it's JD.
21:35It's John David.
21:36It's going to be a family vibe.
21:37Everything about him is honorable and positive, as you know.
21:40And I'm not just saying that because his father here is because we on cameras.
21:43He's a really good dude, you know, on and off screen.
21:46So long story short, we in there, we chilling.
21:50I got to see his wife.
21:51I got to see all the family.
21:52Got to meet everybody.
21:54And OG just come through, right?
21:57And when he come through, it's like a movie.
21:59I damn near might have saw a light behind him.
22:03He came through.
22:04He had a towel over his head.
22:10He was going like this.
22:11My man took the towel.
22:13I thought he was half Dominican.
22:14He had mad curls.
22:16I'm like, yo.
22:17Wait, how many years?
22:18When was this?
22:18How long ago?
22:20It's like 2016.
22:23Okay.
22:23Yeah, it's like 2016.
22:24You say it was like last week.
22:26That was 10 years ago, man.
22:27Yeah, it was 10 years ago.
22:29You know what I'm saying?
22:29So he curly all that.
22:31And so we chilling.
22:32And you gave me some of the illest advice.
22:34You was like, this your girlfriend?
22:36I was like, nah, this my friend.
22:37He was like, all right, cool.
22:39He was like, family, man.
22:40You know?
22:40He was like, in a few years, you know you got to get it together.
22:43It's about the family.
22:44It's about this.
22:45You know?
22:45And I'll never forget that.
22:47My pops made it to where I met this man, you know,
22:51and got to be with JD and everybody on Christmas.
22:54I feel like that was divine.
22:55And I feel like that was more than just pure coincidence.
22:58Is that like a turning point, you think?
22:59Absolutely.
23:00Just due to the simple fact that, you know, it was just like,
23:03I got to meet my idol.
23:05One of my idols of all time.
23:06Like, this guy right here, no bullshit, man.
23:08You know what I'm saying?
23:09Like, word.
23:11Word.
23:11I think JD wanted to make sure I wasn't like his, you know,
23:15illegitimate biological brother or some shit like that.
23:20They might be brothers.
23:21Say, yo, nigga, come over here, man.
23:24I need you to swipe.
23:25Look, take this swab real quick and let me get that back.
23:28We got to check out, you know what I mean?
23:31If you had a dollar.
23:33I'll be a trillion then.
23:34I'll be a trillion then, man.
23:36I'm telling you.
23:37Yeah, wait till the movie comes up.
23:38I needed that.
23:41I got out the house, you know, and it was a crazy experience.
23:45And usually I'm with my family in New York, but I was in L.A. alone.
23:50And, man, I got to be with a real family and I got to be with family.
23:54That meant a lot to you, right?
23:55That meant a lot to me, man.
23:57And thank you.
23:58Thank my wife.
23:59When I saw her family, that's how I felt.
24:03Because I'm from a broken home.
24:04So I'm like, man, these people be crying and stuff together and, you know, I knew I wanted to be a part of that.
24:12I just didn't know I wasn't a part of that.
24:16So I wanted to, I wanted that.
24:17It was a part of me and I wanted to be a part of it because it wasn't, you know, like I said, no grandmothers, no broken home, all that kind of stuff.
24:25I can't believe you grew up without grandparents.
24:27Yeah, no.
24:28You don't rub me as the type.
24:29Like, you kind of come across.
24:31Long gone, hardworking, died young, I guess.
24:33And most of your family is from New York City?
24:37My mother's from Georgia.
24:38Okay.
24:39She's from Camilla, Georgia.
24:40Okay.
24:42My, it's a long story.
24:44You know, it's a long story.
24:46Long story.
24:47My mother was raised in Harlem, though.
24:49Your mom's from Harlem?
24:50Yeah, my mother was born and raised.
24:51I mean, she was born in Camilla, Georgia.
24:53Then they came up to Baltimore, I think she was two.
24:57And then they got up here, I don't know, I think she was three or four years old and they got up to Harlem.
25:01And she was raised, I remember we used to ride around and say, Ma, where'd you live?
25:05She said, we ain't got that much time.
25:07Because they moved when the rent was due.
25:09Wow.
25:10She said, we lived there, we lived there.
25:11They went to Kelly Temple.
25:12They were raised in Kelly Temple, Church of God in Christ.
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