00:00I've been a fan of yours for quite some time but of course you know now that I'm sitting here
00:06interviewing you I had to like really read up and catch up and you have like 900 million jobs
00:12I do certain labels and you're an entrepreneur for everything from tech to fashion right producer
00:18television everything how do you keep it all together how do you stay organized to me it's
00:24all one gig you know it's all waking up each day to be creative so I see there's all one thing and
00:35then you know surrounding yourself with a good team those people that you know you can trust and you
00:42know how to delegate mm-hmm no definitely and you started off as an actor I did well actually you
00:48know what I would say I started off more as a stand-up comedian that's okay open the doors
00:52for me at a very young age I mean I was probably the youngest stand-up on the circuit you know in
00:58the mid 90s and you know from that process from you know comedy stores and improvs at like 15 16 years
01:06old the people at Nickelodeon saw me and you know I actually started off doing like the audience warm
01:14up for all of their shows like I was still in high school and then from there I would see the performers
01:21and actors working on set and I was like I think I could do that stuff but instead of trying to be
01:25in front of the camera I would write for him and I became the youngest staff writer in television history
01:30at 17 years old no pressure no pressure so when you started in this industry did you know that you
01:35wanted to branch out and do so many different things like did you say yeah I'm being fulfilled
01:39doing acts but I've always wanted to try why I always had that uh that energy or that curiosity of how
01:47things worked you know within the industry so everything from the corporate side always intrigued
01:55me and then obviously even how behind the scenes and production and all that stuff work there's
02:00interesting because I actually started uh in the world of television because my father had a public
02:06access ministry so I was doing stuff like running the mixing board and running cameras and editing his
02:14show it so I always had uh an innate sensibility to to figure out how production worked so kind of
02:22putting all that together and being a ham and always wanting attention you a ham a little bit who'd have
02:27thought uh and that's that that's kind of like my entire makeup right there you know I love business I
02:34love uh creating and producing but I also love the art of it all and you also love children's books yes
02:41I do and that's what we are talking about today neon aliens ate my homework how did you come up with
02:46this one it is a true story no obviously the title there's so many other poems in there as well but
02:53you know I was inspired by you know great authors and poets like Shel Silverstein who has uh you know
02:59classic books like that's one of the first books I memorized by the way yeah yeah I mean he's he's
03:04amazing when it comes to you know a light in the attic or the sidewalk ends the giving tree the giving
03:10tree yeah yeah and um you know I was like man if I could do what he did you know and but at the same
03:18time bring my hip-hop sensibilities to it because the same time I was introduced to Shell I was also
03:23introduced to the hip-hop culture and feel like you know being an 80s baby and someone who sees the world
03:29through hip-hop lenses I could put my spin on you know a poetry book and you know hopefully people
03:34will receive it so this is a collection of poetry and short stories or mainly poetry I mean but they're
03:40all short stories in a sense to where they're all fun you know what I mean and I kind of deal with a lot
03:44of complex ideas uh in a very simplistic way I mean that everybody can embrace them so even though it
03:52is for you know a younger demographic I think there's things in here there's gems that everybody can
03:57appreciate but then there's also just the silliness because you know everybody knows I'm silly and
04:01you just a little bit and speaking of silly that's like a perfect segue like you set that up perfectly
04:06for me laid it up I would really really enjoy it if you can I don't know perhaps read a little
04:11bump bump bump you some music I want a little vibe going on I got your back I got your back
04:16Lorenz Tate and Love Jones you gonna be my knee along I'm in there
04:20there we go all right we gonna get here we go
04:22boogers
04:24boogers
04:25oh
04:26sticky crunchy grimy runny hiding slimy gotta dig deep to find that prize
04:37eureka go look at the size
04:42I'm so angry
04:44boogers
04:45dropping gems there it is I'm saying that boy good that boy good that boy good that boy good and
04:52also too word on the street is you did some of the illustrations I did I did I did I did a few of
04:58these I mean okay I actually I you know what it is I got a bunch of really really really talented
05:02street artists from all over you know what I mean because one of the four elements of hip-hop is
05:06graffiti and I wanted to have that uh as a part of the book but I jumped in there and did a few
05:13myself just because I consider myself an artist and it's all about expression so
05:17you know I I've always dabbled in sketching and putting things together so
05:21you know the poems that meant a lot to me like the one about Shel Silverstein or the one about my
05:26great-grandfather I had the opportunity to illustrate so
05:29yeah yeah you know I'm getting it in
05:31thank you so much so and where can we find the book
05:34everywhere books are sold
05:35what
05:36you know how we do
05:37all right
05:38absolutely next time I want you to get in here and and uh read one as well
05:42I want that I want you to get your your inner poet on
05:46maybe you know what maybe I'll record that and um and what had happened was
05:50boogers part two the sequel there it is
05:53you
