Melvin Gregg: 7M Vine Followers, Snowfall’s Coldest Villain & Platform Shadow Bans

00:00:00
Speaker 1: Welcome back, all the smoke. This is season five or six? This is new six?

00:00:06
Speaker 2: Hold up, man, we made it to six?

00:00:08
Speaker 1: Is it six and a half? Five and a half.

00:00:11
Speaker 3: Don't do that.

00:00:12
Speaker 1: We look like Ashton doing that ship six an shut you mother. But we're here, man, we're back with a new season. I'm not sure what season it is, but we're here. And man, we got someone that I was.

00:00:25
Speaker 3: I was.

00:00:25
Speaker 1: I was happy to make this this happen. It almost didn't happen because we had some false information, but we made it happen. We're here Jack being a huge fan. We ran into Bro in the gym this morning. Yeah yeah, and now we're working together. But man, welcome to the show. Melvin Greg appreciating new pre chuting. So social media superstar turn actor. You kind of got your start on Vine and Snowfall, American Vandal. You're on your newest roll the paper. I mean, you got a lot of great shit going on. Talking to us about out your journey and what.

00:01:02
Speaker 3: It's been like.

00:01:03
Speaker 1: Start with Vine, I guess yeah, we'll get into all before all that, but Vine kind of put you on the map and your career took off.

00:01:09
Speaker 4: Yeah yeah, yeah for sure. So I moved to later act and it was tough.

00:01:15
Speaker 2: How were you?

00:01:15
Speaker 4: I was twenty two, twenty two, I think probably in twenty eleven and just doing short films, student films, low budgetself whatever I could. And then I saw Vine as an opportunity to build an audience. And I knew if I could build an audience, I'd be of more value to a production, so I get more opportunities and maybe I can get an agency or whatnot. So I saw Vine as a way of doing that.

00:01:39
Speaker 1: So and you blew your vine following up right, you got like seven million people on vine.

00:01:43
Speaker 4: YEA too bad they deleted the app and they all gone. I still run it to over the streets, so it's love. But yeah, so I was like, I got to figure out a way to do this. And the cool thing about vine is when it first started you can only shoot and edit in the app like you could go edit later upload it. You got to shoot a clip, then stop, and then shoot another clip and stop, and then you mess up, you got to start all over again. So I'm like, it's a limited playing field. So that that means people that got resources aren't at an advantage because I have no resources. Is an even playing field. The only difference is creativity and efficiency, which I feel like I got. So I looked at what everybody was doing that was popping up there, and I kind of taught myself comedy from like reverse engineering what worked and what went viral. Okay, this one viral for this reason, this went viral for that reason. Oh it's small formulas. So for me, I just implemented my tape or my taste into it and just approached it from like a marketing standpoint. I was like, I'm a storyboard out like forty ideas, so I'm not going to run out, you know what I mean. If I go viral, I'm high traction and keep moving. And I shot most of them. I was like, before I post the one that I think is great, let me post five or six before so they can get traction. Because I need audience retention. I need to to stay there and building. So just approaching it every step like that, being very intentional, I was able to just build a following that just kind of kept growing, and over the course of doing it, I just fell in love with creating and comedy and shooting and editing and you know, all of that stuff. So it was definitely a blessing.

00:03:16
Speaker 1: What's the balance of people knowing you from social media and TV? Because I remember when me and Jack first got started in this and we went to All Stars Chicago. Yep, it wasn't about nothing we did in our careers. It was about all the smoke, you know what I mean. And I thought that was dope, you know what I mean. So what is kind of the balance of people that recognized you for social media, people that recognize you on TV?

00:03:36
Speaker 4: Now it's even man's And it's interesting because I run into people that ain't seen me since social media, so they'll be like, damn, what you.

00:03:43
Speaker 1: Been doing all just some of the biggest shows on TV?

00:03:47
Speaker 2: But go ahead, like I'd be.

00:03:48
Speaker 4: Acting, oh that's what's up. Well, I ain't you since Vine. Even when this new show the Paper came out, it was going pressed. It just reached a different audience that I probably ain't touched since Vaughn. So it was like, damn, I ain't see him since vin. So it's like, you know, I learned to just not be offended by none of it, like shind you know me from something. I'm happy, I'm glad I'm in a position where you could kind of see me and recognize me, but it's a mix bad.

00:04:11
Speaker 1: Do you feel like the industry has changed compared to how it was when you first came in it now in regards to acting.

00:04:16
Speaker 4: For sure, it changed that The landscape is completely different one because of streaming, so content is consumed differently. So that mean the buyers they approach it differently with what money they put into what and what it takes to get something made, and how much is something they make and as far as and then also to social media play a big part into it because people consume content so different that their attention spans are shortened now, so the way that content is crafted is different. A lot of times, especially on the streamer, they gotta hook you in in the first five or ten minutes because you can easily go back and go watch something else, versus if you go sit in the theater, you stuck in there, so you got time for a slow burn. But with uh, you know, with streaming and just a short attention span, the way content is crafted is different. The way they cast content is different because a lot of times they little for builty in marketing, so they get somebody that a lot of people know so it's more so about the stars and the story. They like to have content that's easily digestible, seeing that you could do a lot of other things and multitask and still receive it because a lot of it is spoon fed versus sitting in the theater. So from top to bottom, I think the industry is completely different. What is ever changing? Is ever changed?

00:05:29
Speaker 1: Your new role on the Paper, which is a spin off of the Office. I remember you telling me about this before it actually check it out? Yeah, Jack's checked it out already. What is that like that? Because that's tapping into you just in your own words, you kind of tap it into a new audience and the newer fan base. What's that experience been like?

00:05:44
Speaker 4: Yeah, And it'll be on NBC in a couple of weeks November eleven, so you know NBC too. But it's definitely a different audience. But I think as a different audience. But you know, you want to reach as many people as possible, so you don't want it kind of limit yourself by I'm gonna just do this because I feel like our perspective and our voice should resonate through all audiences, you know what I mean? We should introduce ourselves to all different type of people, and you might be you might change somebody's perception of a type that they might have seen you as before by giving them another version of thattility. Showing versatility is just introducing perspective and coaching the people that might not have seen it in that way. So I kind of take pride into doing a show like The Office. If you look at the original, it wasn't a lot of it wasn't as diverse as our cast is now, and you might not have seen a character like myself in there. So be able to be able to come in and show, you know, a young black man, be vulnerable, be transparent, be offbeat, be a little awkward, be safe, you know what I mean, And to be honest and authentic. You know, it's something I'm grateful to be able.

00:06:55
Speaker 1: What's your character's name and kind of what your storyline on the show.

00:06:58
Speaker 4: So his name is Detrick, he said off the bat, like Detric. He sells ads for the paper, and as the show starts, a new editor in chief comes in, and you know, new newspapers is like dying out. Don't nobody don't nobody like buy newspapers. So it's a dying thing, and his new editor in chief comes in and he tries to like bring the paper back to life, and they don't have budget for reporters, so it's like, anybody here that want to help, you know, go for it. And it's just like the Bad News Bears of journalism and my character he's in love with this girl that he can't really talk to because she worked in a separate department, so he jumps at the opportunity to work for the paper just so he could talk to her. But he offbeat, He awkward, He kind of like a people pleaser. He's doing too much, you know, like nice guys finished last.

00:07:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, he that.

00:07:51
Speaker 4: So it is definitely different from a few of the other things that I've done. But it's fun, man, It's fun to lead to lean into being awkward and offbeat, because I feel like a lot of times we learn to mask that we're gonna look awkward or corny. We know how a mask even though we might feel it. Yeah, but with that character, I can just be I could be awkward with it. Yeah, no masks, just like I'm sitting weird, I'm standing weird. I don't know what I'm saying, and it's kind of free and in a sense it's one.

00:08:21
Speaker 5: I think it's the one thing with dude. You're trying to stop a dude from get arrested or something.

00:08:25
Speaker 4: Oh when when he's trying to h he's trying to fight.

00:08:29
Speaker 5: Yeah, you do, and you're trying to the whole thing was funny, was trying.

00:08:33
Speaker 4: To Yeah, yeah, no, it's it's it's fun man. The stakes are a lot lower and like a lot of the other shows I did, it's but it's just like workplace comedy, like just a regular day in the life, awkward collection.

00:08:45
Speaker 1: Of people compare and can trast your social media fame to your TV fame.

00:08:49
Speaker 4: It's definitely interesting. It's like social media famous popularity. They feel like they know you because they can see you on their phone, They can see you every day. They laugh at you when they see you on the street, they yo, they you know, they feel like they know you, yeah, versus like TV. Film is more of a reserve that they have where it's like, oh, I don't know if I could kind of go say something to him is more hesitant than me respected space because they don't feel like they know you as much. I like the users as an example, when I said, because I've seen it firsthand, King Batch, one of the he was he had like he had got the Guinness World Record for the most followers on find he had like forty million, like crazy numbers, right, I'd be with Batch. We watched somewhere and the kids went up Yo dasht a picture like they all around him, like they know him, like he's popular in high school. And then I was on the set of Creed Too with Michael B.

00:09:40
Speaker 3: Jordan.

00:09:41
Speaker 4: We went to a Sixers game and when he when he walked through the crowd, I seen the same thing to a complex con. He walked through the crowd, people just stopping whisper like they don't approach him. But it's just like you just see whispers go through Yo's It's like a different respect and sophistication. I saw Ai go up to him, like, Bro, the first time I have cried out of a movie was your movie. And Ai from the same area I'm from. You know how everybody feel about Ai. But he from the cribs got a different type of love and admiration. And I've seen the love he was giving Mike because he sat down in the theater for two hours and watched his story of this character going through something and it made him emotional to the point where he saw him he got emotional again and it's just like.

00:10:30
Speaker 3: He cried every day.

00:10:31
Speaker 4: Well yeah, bro, but yeah, to kind of just see how TV and film resonate with people versus social media. It's just it's different.

00:10:48
Speaker 1: So you're more touchable as a social media stars, more step back. Let's yeah, it makes sense. It makes sense if you were young and popular on social media, would you go for streaming or no, what you mean, if you were to rewind, would you jump into streaming?

00:11:03
Speaker 3: However everything is being streaming?

00:11:06
Speaker 2: Yeah?

00:11:06
Speaker 4: Yeah, nah, nah, I wouldn't it take It takes too much time. You gotta be on And I ain't got that energy like literally like like the loud and gosh and just like I ain't got I ain't got that in me like I got from action to cut, I give you what you need. I need to go chill.

00:11:29
Speaker 3: Yeah, just kind of.

00:11:31
Speaker 4: Yeah, my streams weren't.

00:11:35
Speaker 1: When they say cut up done, Bro.

00:11:37
Speaker 5: You want to get back to the house and do something in the yard around the house and just chill.

00:11:41
Speaker 4: I want to you know, I want to have my own time if I want to go do whatever and not have to be on like they gotta be, that's a different type of muscle. I ain't got all respect to him. I couldn't do it.

00:11:51
Speaker 1: He landscaped his whole crib. I've seen it. I've seen it, followed the journey. So I got a question. We were looking up just finding research about you. Why all Google is say you hooped?

00:12:00
Speaker 4: I don't know, man, nah. But I did a show called American Vandal, right, and uh I played. It was a mockumentary, so it's meant to look real, and a lot of people thought it was real. But I played the number one high school prospect coming out of high school. They might have thought it was real life. And they made like a highlight real for me, like like I was a five start recruit and the highlight real kind of nice, like it's crafted. So I did another movie. It was a ben I Fleck movie and it was based in basketball, and they wanted they wanted the actors to come in to do like part of the audition was to coome hoop. And I was in London at the time. I'm like, I can't hoop, but I got film.

00:12:42
Speaker 1: I could see me star edit.

00:12:45
Speaker 4: I set on my five star edit right, So I booked the wrong I booked the room. So now they got us working with uh, these they like choreographed the plays and stuff. And we played and I had n't played, and I'm like missing late up to I was like, what kind of fucking recruited you? How you get recruited? I'm like, bro, it ain't real. I got a job now, Yeah, I can make I could make it look real, but oh that's dope.

00:13:15
Speaker 2: So we were talking about this earlier.

00:13:17
Speaker 5: Uh, I actually felt like, you know, I could have been man Boy's cousin from Texas.

00:13:23
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying, come up there and whole ship down.

00:13:25
Speaker 1: Whichever it's the same ship. He said to West's day was his day that came. Jack said to say, I like it, say yourself.

00:13:34
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying.

00:13:35
Speaker 5: But I really could have been you know, yeah, your brother. I could have pulled up and had your back. You know what I'm saying. Shut it down, you know what I'm saying. But you know, if you ever, I'm pretty sure you got a roll like that coming again in their picture if you need Yeah, I'm trying to get in, you know, what I'm saying. So, and I'm you know, I think I can really kill one of them rolls. I think, no gas they laughing.

00:13:55
Speaker 2: I'm serious.

00:13:56
Speaker 1: I think you could too, give him a little taste what of your acting skills?

00:14:02
Speaker 2: Let see what I mean. But I got put on the spot last time and I killed it. So I just need to what you want to do the same with the same scene.

00:14:08
Speaker 5: Okay, you think I'm about to mess up all I built just because you don't like to wear a nigga.

00:14:19
Speaker 4: Talk drive motherfucker.

00:14:29
Speaker 5: Yes, sir, one of the dopest rolls on Snowfall, man Boy. You just said, tell us how you found out about how you how you got the roller, man Boy, and what you was doing when you found out you got the role.

00:14:46
Speaker 4: I got the audition and it was like come in for Snowfall. And I got there and it was a room of people sitting around like this everybody, and I'm kind of shizing up the room, these actors. And not to say that in a bad way, but it's like I'm really from that so not in LA but from my side. So I'm like, they not gonna understand the nuances that is, And this is me being I got a delusional sense of confidence right when it comes to some things. So I'm all right cool. I go into the room and it's like it's pat Usually it's just like one cast director associate with the camera is the casting director is the It's like two of them. It's the director, producers John Singleton, all in the rooms lined up right in front of me. Well, this is it. Usually you get a couple of rounds and they tell you they like they get They tell you what they like, and they give your notes and then you finally see the director producer. It was all in one one scene. So I'm like, all right, cool, and I did my version of man Boy, and my version of man Boar is much like you see on the screen because I'm looking at it. I'm like a lot of times when it comes to like these characters, they want you to look dangerous, I can't look dangerous. If I go for that, I'm gonna lose off the bat.

00:16:06
Speaker 5: Like you know what I mean.

00:16:07
Speaker 4: I can't come in growling because but I'm also from I'm from that in a sense. Why I know, it don't matter what you look like like if you're trying to scare somebody, you really don't want to do what you say you're gonna do. You warning them versus if you want to do it, you inviting them in. So it's just a different energy. So I went in with that and they were like, uh yeah, let's just uh let's let's let's try it again. And this time the stakes are high, like these guys could kill you and you need to scare them off, all right, So I do a version of that.

00:16:42
Speaker 3: Whatever.

00:16:42
Speaker 4: I didn't give them vose versions. John Singingson had a little back and forth band with me, asking me where I was from, and it seemed like he was he was he was rocking with me, so I was like cool. I felt good about it because I was able to do my version of it, and then I gave him their version, and damn, when I left, I got a call that they had me on hole, which means they like you, but they still trying to make a decision. I remember where I was at when I heard I was on hole. I was like, I don't know, getting some food or something, and then I don't even remember why I was that when I heard I got a call, But I just got to excite it because I knew I knew I had it in my bag. I was like, this is gonna be easy for me, but I also know what it could do for my perception because coming from Vine, people saw him as like the silly dude, the goofy dude, or safe and a lot of times people don't go from you know, it's hard to change your perception. So I got to go so far right that they were like, Okay, even if they meet me somewhere in the middle, they still gonna take me serious. And the great thing about this show is I got a few episodes to sell them because my first episode they weren't working with me still. They was calling me Braxton from from the Jamie Fox bro They was like, oh, they killed the show. They got this goofy nigga from Vine. This ain't gonna work. But by like it was. It was bad and Braxton did a movie where he played a gangster one time too, and it was me, I'm like, man, but three episodes in, I was able to sell most of the show.

00:18:08
Speaker 1: But you was a fan of the show before it even happened though, right, Yeah, yeah.

00:18:11
Speaker 3: I was.

00:18:12
Speaker 4: I was definitely a fan for the show. Funny enough, I auditioned for it out the gate, but I'm a't ready for it. I was my audition. I was nervous, like it won't Like the second time I auditioned, I was auditioning for Like Franklin, and the cast director was like, hold on to them sides, as if she was gonna call me back. I ain't never heard back from you. Think I know. I see it on TV, but I started watching it. I was like, yo, it's hard, like it's it's hard. And the lead actor. I love actors. I love watching actors. I saw damn it. I'm like, oh, this Sniak raw like he hard and I had like I had posted. I was watching the show and I was like, bro killing it and I added him and he hit me back. I was like, oh, I appreciate it.

00:18:51
Speaker 1: Man.

00:18:51
Speaker 4: I used to watch it, but I'm like, I appreciate it, bro and uh. I happened to run into him in London. I was in London around the same time I lied about that audition the basketball foot it, and I ran to him at a random party. I was like, yoh, that's crazy. It's it's like kind of synchronicity, you know what I mean. So when I got the audition, I felt like I was prepared for it. I knew the show, I knew the world, I knew what I wanted to do in it. So when I got a call, it was just like, all right, there's go time.

00:19:21
Speaker 5: Two questions, what does it take to get into the character man boy? And did you have any input on the way you dressed?

00:19:27
Speaker 3: Yeah?

00:19:28
Speaker 4: So appreciate it?

00:19:30
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, dope boy fresh.

00:19:32
Speaker 4: So whenever it comes to wardrobe, I'm a stickler for wardrobe. Like I never go back and forth with anybody. I always get people their creative liberty to you know, to put their thoughts into stuff, and I kind of go for it. But when it comes to wardrobe, especially something that I feel like I'm familiar with, and even if I'm not, I'm gonna do the research. I'm gonna I'm gonna put my my I'm gonna be vocal about it because I think wardrobe is important because you seen me before, you hear me, and if I'm supposed to be and I look like a lame, you ain't gonna believe nothing I sael. So it's like if you believe if what somebody says just it's just said a lot about them, you know what? I mean, you sell a story before before you even tell it about what you're wearing. So I was big on the wardrobe, So yeah, I had and put on that. And as far as getting into the character, it's just it was a shift for perspective and stakes for me. So every role I do is gonna be a version of me at some point in my life with different circumstances, you know what I mean. So, man, boy was it was kind of like a like that fairy tale if any kid that grew up in the hood because of what's around you, you kind of got some type of ambitions to be like I could be that, especially the movies I watch growing up. It's only watched gangster movies. Like my favorite movie was Juice. I'm watching that when I'm like eight or not, you know what I mean, And I'm looking up to Bishop so Is and then just being you said, what what you say? You didn get the juice to you kill man see, and I ain't look at righty man. It's like I want to be here. I'm like, no, I want to be But I wouldn't have missed when I'm chasing que through the through the park. This nigga su I was terrible, but yeah, and then just kind of being being around there growing up, I was very observant. I'm like, these niggas moving like this, they should move like that. If I was to do this, I wouldn't get caught. And it's like a delusional confidence. But at the same time, I knew, like they still here. This ain't this is a dead end, Like I ain't about to do that. Like and the last thing I ever wanted to be paranoid, So I never chose that life in a way, but in my mind, I'm like I could do it, and I would really be like him, Like that's just my mindset, so be able to do snowfall. I'm like, this is my opportunity to really do that and to move how I feel like I would move, and yeah, just to change the ship for perspective, it becomes fun at that point. Yeah, Like dirt on little Dirty Corny.

00:22:00
Speaker 2: Knew you that.

00:22:01
Speaker 4: So it's just like his perspected like, come on, man, I really know who you are, you a little bit, what we're doing, how we're moving.

00:22:09
Speaker 2: So h yeah, your girls crack head talking to everybody off like.

00:22:16
Speaker 4: So the only thing you got to do at that point is just figure out the dialect and it's just living that space and the mannerhisms because l a different and fels.

00:22:27
Speaker 2: Uh.

00:22:28
Speaker 4: I think it got I think the dialect got better throughout and the mannerisms came kind of easy because I didn't watch enough movies. I didn't watch minutes. And it's it's such a it's a it's a period piece, so it's eighties, so it's it's obvious, it's how you standard, it's how you walk. It's kind of common crue in a sense. But period that from Grand like the Grand Theft final characters, and I play that game forever, so a lot of it's still kind of you know ingrained, but I definitely modeled a lot of my dialect off of what Franklin was doing. Yeah, and then also I'm from the South, and a lot of people in LA in the eighties they families migrated up from the South. So it still got that twin to it. If you listen to Snoop, he got a lot of that twin.

00:23:18
Speaker 1: Yep, Older's Snoop's birthday, by the way, Happy birthday.

00:23:20
Speaker 4: Oh Ship, happy birthday. He came. He came to set a couple of times, did he Yeah.

00:23:25
Speaker 5: Yeah, so just say outside and hanging out with the crew outside being on camera, do Man Boy come out?

00:23:31
Speaker 4: I mean, it's it's a part of me. But at the same time, state saint is high. I ain't in the ain't in the drug game where somebody trying to kill me over the back. And also I'm a lot older than what Man Boy is too, So I definitely had dumb moments when I was a kid. When I was younger, you know what I mean, thinking you bulletproof, but you know at my age, no.

00:23:50
Speaker 5: Only like the character you came around the homers of y'all joking, do you ever going to Man Boy character?

00:23:54
Speaker 2: Just bullshit with the homies?

00:23:56
Speaker 4: What like the dialect is nah own I touch it.

00:24:01
Speaker 3: I was about saying, because.

00:24:07
Speaker 4: Yeah, niggas are probably climbing this nigga here. Who do you think you will? Nigga really thinks you the characters like, yeah, I ain't gonna get that. Ain't even get niggas ammunition.

00:24:20
Speaker 2: Out of here.

00:24:20
Speaker 1: Was like working with DeAndre Bods the West Coast Legends.

00:24:25
Speaker 4: Yeah, nah, man Deandres Bro. He's such a a genuine guy and such a nice dude man like he gives nothing but love you know what I mean, from top to bottom. He's just like just a humble, grounded and for you know, for DeAndre Bonds Stacey to be like, come on, y'all really killing it, man, y'all really doing it? Like I love is she what y'all doing? And he really West Coast. So it's just like he was right there. Yeah, like that his bag he stayed. He stay in it like it's him. It's a part of who he is. And even before he got the roll, I remember John Singles j John Singleton telling me he was like, he was like, man, I got these I got this idea for these couple of episodes coming up. Y'all gonna be in the jungles, and I want DeAndre Bonds to be. He gonna be the guy that you're gonna be going head to head with. Man, I know he was like, right now people know him as Stacy, but when when it's over with, they gonna know him at Scully. I was all right, and yeah, that that was That was it.

00:25:27
Speaker 1: You spoke to the greatness of John Singleton, talk to us just about what that was like, what you soaked up, what you saw? How cool was he was? He tough on people. What was his aura and his energy about because he's such a such a leg obviously rested things, but what was he like working with?

00:25:43
Speaker 3: Yeah?

00:25:43
Speaker 4: John was John was cool man. He was chill, was laid back. He made you feel comfortable. You ain't feel like intimidated to be around him because he just felt like your uncle. And I always say, I think he played the biggest part of not the part of me getting the role because no offense to nobody, but everybody outside of John was white, right, and a lot of times white people defict depiction of a of a of a gangster look a certain way, and I don't look that way. So had John not been in the room and saw what I was doing and being able to understand what I'm doing and speaking the language that I'm speaking, as far as just like everything about what I wanted to do with a character, I don't think I would have booked it because as I'm reading the room, they like they rocking with a little bit. But to know that guy from somebody was like, you have to be intimidating, you have to you know that was from somebody outside of John. I'm like, man, I can't do it like that. Wouldn't make I wouldn't be that. If I was that, so then it's gonna be it's not believable, like you trying. And that's the thing to a lot of people when you playing a gangst the character or whatever it is, or you're trying to be intimidating, you don't have to try to be intimidating. Like if people know what you bought, you ain't gotta do much. You ain't going through time, like at least from my experiences, So John wouldn't been in the room, I wouldn't have got cash. I know it for a fact. And how he took me up under his wing when I even on the show my first day, he'd be like, hey, look this is how I see it going where you're going, like just kind of giving me pointers and how he see the show, and even past that, just telling me he really believed in me. He was like, man, this is going to change a lot of stuff for you. He was like, I want to make sure you with the right people. Introduce me to its publicist. He was like, man, I got this movie I'm working on. I think you'll be great. He just really took me up on his wing and gave me the confidence to feel like I'm where I was supposed to be. Is not by mistake, because this guy who's broken so many stars and you know, introduced so many legends into, you know, to the world with this track record that he has, says he sees something in me. So I have to lean into it and really be confident in this space because I mean, he just gave me the you know, he gave me the green like he validated.

00:27:51
Speaker 1: That's one of the greatest yup. So we lost him. Where was your mind that What was the state of the show after that? And how did you guys find the courage and the strength to move on?

00:27:59
Speaker 4: Man? It was I remember it was at the table when we heard what happened, and he was you know, he was still he hadn't pulled through yet, but he was still. He was still with us, and the energy was just it was low, and the show runner was like, we just got it. We got to go through this and do it for John, so you know, we do what we need to do. And uh, I wasn't working when I when I heard he died, So I don't know how the energy was on the set because the way my role was I popping once or once every other week or something like. I wasn't there every day. So when he died, I wasn't. I wasn't on set to see that energy. But it definitely shifted. It shifted through all because he won't there, like you know, our big brother won't there with us to walk us through it all. He had put together a core of people that we could still count on and lean on in regards to a lot of stuff. You know, Dug she was there, he was consult producer, his cousin Smokey. John put his cousin on the show Smoky Smoky Hat there like twenty thirty years or something, so he knew the he knew the culture or what John wanted to do. So we still had them there. But it was definitely a whole and and the whole thing man. And I feel like the story kind of shifted to after he died. Yeah, it wasn't his grounded and authenticity. It was still great, but it's things that like if you know the code, you know the streets, you like, this wouldn't be happening like what you know. It kind of it kind of drifted more to into just being entertaining rather than being a story of this.

00:29:35
Speaker 2: Area neighborhood to make it the Africa.

00:29:38
Speaker 4: Yeahn Macully, No, he's not in Africa. He yeah, your music yeah yeah, but uh yeah, Scully ain't gonna be fighting for Leon after he killed.

00:29:51
Speaker 3: His daughter all that.

00:29:52
Speaker 4: Yeah, but you know, uh, it's TV man, and a lot of times you you could, you could start, you could try to stay true to what it is and the people do know it. But when it comes to money and broad appeal and commercializing the show, sometimes you got to You got to court another audience and keep it, keep it exciting.

00:30:15
Speaker 1: Working with how you say his first name, Dasmind one of the biggest young actors today, and it blew me away when I found out that he was British.

00:30:25
Speaker 3: And then you start finding.

00:30:26
Speaker 1: Out all these other actors that are British and and and the way they'll be able to switch that accent. Did you take anything from that as trying to add it to you? Obviously your style in Man Boy and being able to accent and the manners we spoke on a little bit before.

00:30:40
Speaker 4: I mean, I based a lot of Man Boy's dialect on Franklin, but also my my little twist on it as well, but when it comes to him being British, I think it affected his perspective and how he approached the character in a way, but that's not in my version. I think that's where man Boy differs from him. But I think it was brilliant what he did. If you look at Franklin, Franklin not to typical la game banger, la drug dealer. He don't feel like that. He more calculated, more observed. He more suave, like you know, he just working khakis with the belt. He ain't flash, he got his watch on airplanes. He ain't loud, He's like. It was Damnson's interpretation of a gangster, and it might be based off of his interpretation because he's had a broader scope than somebody from the neighborhood in regards to film and craft in the character. But I think it's brilliant because you can put Franklin Saint in pretty much any movie and he don't feel out of place. You can't take old Doll for minutes and put him in any movie. He's too specific. So brilliant, brilliant choices made by Damnson. It would have been a completely different showing character had anyone else done it. So yeah, I guess from that, I'm very meticulous with my characters and why do the things I do and how it can play into the things I want to do past that.

00:32:07
Speaker 5: Show reinventing yourself, you know, from vying to acting. Yeah, and now you know having a big role, like a role a man boy and doing what you're doing.

00:32:15
Speaker 2: Now, what does it take to reinvent yourself?

00:32:17
Speaker 4: I don't really look at it as reinventing. I look like I feel like I'm on a different side of myself growth, growth, and yeah, like we all got different versions of ourselves. Who you are with your granny versus the woman you love versus the one you might just be kicking it with versus your homies. Like, it's different versions of yourself. It's different chapters of your life. And I like to try to pour from these chapters and versions to figure out who the character is. So it's very introducing reintroducing myself to people based on where I'm at now. If it's for a character, is whatever the character is. But for me as a person, it's mainly growth. Like Matt said, like I'm married and I got kids, so my focus and perspective is completely different than what it was five ten years ago. So what I want to promote and what I want to sell is completely different than what I would have been selling ten years ago in my twenties. I want to sell that I'm that guy, I'm him. I can get what I want, but you know, it's just different versus now. I want to sell an idea what life can look like if you do things. I don't want to say the right way, Yeah, like this is a path you could go and it could be happy, you know what I mean? And not to shade anything else, But I grew up looking I never thought i'd be married because the people I grew up around, and my daddy got like three families. It's like the man that got every woman that he wont and got all the money. That's that's what I looked at as like success. I should be like, I don't want to big backyard and the picket fins. I want a black card and the passport full of stamps. But you know, through growth and just assessing life and seeing examples, I'm like that that's probably not the path for me. That ain't where I'm gonna find my happiness. At priority change its life experiences man like, you know, doing it then waking up being like, bro, this ain't it like what I heard?

00:34:06
Speaker 1: It was.

00:34:08
Speaker 4: Behind all of it, the ego is like, it's really making me happy. So finding something that truly made me happy, I don't mind promoting that because I feel like it's it'll equate the happiness for most people if you do it for the right reason.

00:34:22
Speaker 2: Right at this moment. What are you most proud of in your career or just period?

00:34:26
Speaker 3: Period?

00:34:26
Speaker 4: Is my family?

00:34:28
Speaker 2: No question?

00:34:28
Speaker 4: Yeah, no question at all. That's proority over business. Business is what I do, Like a falling a husband is who I am. I would much rather have a strong relationship with my wife and my kids than I have a strong career. I didn't.

00:34:45
Speaker 3: I don't read.

00:34:45
Speaker 4: I don't read tales about you know, people to make it to the top and then you know die from sceptionans of abuse or you know, they going through it like mentally nobody there nobody there for them. And it's like all them people that showed up at the box office don't care. They're just wondering when your next when your next film is proper, and then you know, the snap of a finger, it could be all over now. They on somebody else. So it's just like I don't put my attention and focus solely into my career. I'm never gonna compromise my family for my career. So that's that's probably.

00:35:18
Speaker 5: What's your advice to a young content creator that's trying to come up in these social media streets.

00:35:22
Speaker 4: Be intentional, use the leverage you got while you got it, uh, but also be yourself because if you chase, if you chase trends, you're gonna be chasing fether and you're gonna really be a slave towards popping and how you how you won't follow us and you following what's happening? You know what I mean? You gotta you gotta lead and do something your own way because if you copy in somebody else, you always gonna come second to them or third or fourth depending on when you see it when versus doing your own things. So just be authentic. You got to be consistent, and I just say, leverage your position while you got it, because it's a it's a long sprint. It ain't like you get viral one time and you go on forever. You gotta go viral out, the viral after viral after viral for years. Like if you look at drew Sky, drew Ski the guy he number one, but think about how many viral clips drew Sky didn ad. You gotta keep going because that one is gonna be old in a week, and they gonna want another one, and they gonna want another one, and they gonna want another one. So if you could keep up with that pace, great, If you're don't plan to keep up for forever, leverage the position that you're in while you win it. Be smart about what you're doing, if that's putting money up for the days that you don't want to do it no more, or leveraging your position to segue into something else. I just say, keep keep the future in sight. Don't just get caught up in it's here now, because it might leave and then you might be out of love.

00:36:50
Speaker 5: So you got a nine to five in your contract, curator, how do you get what's the moment where you get to the point where you go full time and contact?

00:36:57
Speaker 2: Great?

00:36:57
Speaker 4: When you're making enough money to.

00:36:59
Speaker 2: Quit, simple, yeah.

00:37:01
Speaker 4: Don't just quit and be broke. You can't focus on content, Yeah yeah, you can't focus on content when you're hungry and you ain't got no place to stay in. You know what I mean. Now you're in the middle of the day trying to shoot videos, your girl mad at you because you know, the car broke down and trying to shoot. Now, you gotta be in a place where you comfortable and content. So make sure you got some type of financial security or you got incomes, some incomes coming in. But I will say, you're gonna have to quit that job sooner or later because you ain't gonna be able to compete with people.

00:37:31
Speaker 3: That day full time.

00:37:34
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's how That's how I look at social media. When I quit social media, social media was my nine to five, and well it was my nine to nine because it don't stop. But I was like, if I want to stop this and go into traditional space, I got to make sure I'm in a financial space where I can do that, because acting you don't, it'd be a wild before you make money if you ever do. I was getting like, man, I was probably getting like five five episode for Snowfall, and it's a great show, but five thousand ain't none in La and.

00:38:06
Speaker 5: The people that is best, So reaching I know that five thousand worth five thousand.

00:38:12
Speaker 4: Your ages get ten, your managers get ten, your lawyers get fired, so that's twenty five percent. Government get another thirty. So that's that's what fifty.

00:38:21
Speaker 3: Five percent was working for free.

00:38:23
Speaker 4: I'm working for free. So now I'm working with like my mind might be all with twenty two hundred episode that ain't you know? That ain't great money, you know what I mean? So make sure you're in a financial position where you can make the right creative choices, because if I were, say some money, and I wasn't in a good creative if I wasn't in a good financial place, I wouldn't have been able to do no fall because you lose money.

00:38:44
Speaker 2: Okay, so you didn't renegotiate that role as you got.

00:38:48
Speaker 4: I mean, you got two seasons and it's pretty much taken to leave it like I was a guest star. Ain't got no leverage to come in and you because they're just right somebody else, you know what I mean. So it's like, this is what we got for you could take it to leave it. But my mental, yeah, my mentality is I got a chance to showcase what I could do to the world in this place. So rather than look at it as they give me twenty two hundred episode. How much money are they putting into marketing the show? How much money they put into making this show, because that's how much money they put into presenting me to the world on a high quality program. So perspective based on creative choices and not really financial ones, because the financial was taken care of before I hopped in that arena.

00:39:27
Speaker 5: You don't have to say the number, but what was the first project you had where the person when you look there like, okay, this makes sense, this makes sense.

00:39:38
Speaker 1: Was it an acting or more on volume?

00:39:40
Speaker 4: Now? VIN was different because you do a cut, you got a lot of streams when you post on every platform. I remember when VIN first started, and I get back to the next question, when VIN first started and money started coming with an app called by Do it was like a dating app, and draft Kings was new too, and I remember I was like, man, I wish I would in ll shated some equity with draft draft Kings early on, but they gave you like four five hundred dollars for a video, and in my mind, like I'm from the hood, four five hundred for a seven second run. I'm telling niggas from the critic like nigga, that's a what so I'm doing that and then just kind of being in a community with other creators. I remember Homi day Storm. He been in social media, like he was one of the biggest dudes on YouTube in like two thousand and six. So when I met him, he had million dollar homes and like he had he had been eating and they Storm was like you can pay what He was like, man, you're doing videos for a pair of a pair of vans and a haircut, like, oh, five hundred. He was like, now, shyn they hit you, send him this and he sent me a drafted up a little email and it's pretty much like I understand we had a working relationship, but my rate based on my new audience in my reach, it's twenty five thousand. But considering we already have working relationship, I do the next video for you for twenty but then after that the rate, I'll go back to my initial rate and from there it's gonna grow with my audience. I'm like, bro, this nigga got to make me miss out on money. Ain't no way. And they came back and it was like it was like, nah, we can't do it. I'm like fuck. He was like, nah, just hold tight there, it's a bluff. They hit me back a week later. I was like, all right, we could do it. And at that point in my perspective, it was like the world opened up for me, Like, Yo, I'm getting paid this much money to make videos.

00:41:26
Speaker 1: So you went for five enough to cut you off five hundred to twenty thousand.

00:41:29
Speaker 4: Yeah, And then for me at that point, I said, well you're twenty and enough. Next time, like I need forty. It's like we can't. We could if you could do thirty, I need and it's like I'm running it up like it was an interview with Tabitha Brown. She had a manager who was a good fandomize and she was just kind of getting into the reins of like money coming in. He was like, I don't know what to charge. I said, bro, say something ridiculous. They gonna come back and give you something. And I think she had got like a I'm only saying because she said it. She end up getting like a hundred for something. It's like, oh, shoot for the moon. All they can say is no. But then they got to meet you somewhere and you value on yourself and you come out the back and be like, give me six hundred. They'm like, cool, we can do five fifty, all right, you know, I mean it's just a negotiation. So social media was it was different. It was different type of money that was coming at the time. But I didn't spend anything so going into traditional aim make money for like two years. So I'm just running through everything else I've made. But I still haven't got paid for a film where it feels like it's worth it. I'm still I still got to earn my strikes. Want you to lead. You can kind of make demands once you got a big audience, but when you supporting the lead, they could easily say somebody else, So you just don't have leverage to be like I want this. So in the film, I still I still I'm still not in that place. But as TV shows, I've done enough TV shows whereas like each time the rate kind of go up a little bit more. But you still just got to look at what can I get out of this and can I live off of this? So I'm definitely in a position then where I can make a living, but it still ain't in the spot where you know I'm getting I'm getting new contract work. It's gonna be yeah, yeah, it's you know, it's it's a matter of it's a matter of time. I never really get discouraged, and I try not to make a decision. Earlier on was making social media because my stuff used to be over the top like Rashet or Ranchet like, and I was losing brand news. I was losing opportunities to make money because my brand wasn't safe. But I asked myself, I'm like, do I want to make money now or do things that resonate with people that I relate to and the comedians I look up to. It was never safe comedy. I'm not watching Bill Cosby, So it's like, do I want to make the money? I was just about to say, I don't know who. I don't even know what it was on stage. Yeah, different conversations, but yeah, I was like, I got to make creative choices in our financial choices. So I kind of just carry that with me through through my career.

00:43:57
Speaker 5: Do you trust the platforms that pay you straight through the platform like YouTube and.

00:44:00
Speaker 4: All those trust them in what sense as far as.

00:44:02
Speaker 2: The way they pay directly? Pay you directly?

00:44:04
Speaker 4: You ain't got no leverage? Yeah, you ain't. You ain't got no choice that's.

00:44:08
Speaker 2: Get the money that way, don't get nothing.

00:44:10
Speaker 4: I get it or I don't. So yeah, And that's that's the thing with these platforms, man, they really they own the audience and on everything I didn't see where like Vin before Vine shut down, I didn't. I didn't quick Vine when it got shut down, I quick Way before it got shut down. My other thing is hop off the ship when it's a float on way to a sinking.

00:44:27
Speaker 2: Yea.

00:44:28
Speaker 4: So I jumped from Vine and went to Instagram early because Instagram had more my audience people I wanted to make content for versus Vine, but also Vin. They started favoring a specific type of content because they wanted to rebrand the app. And it was things like if you got black in your comment, in your in your caption, they're gonna they're gonna put you onto like nobody gonna see it. It's a lot of keywords that if you got it in your caption to kind of filter through stuff they don't want to promote to promote. And then they started promoting like acoustic guitar covers and stuff, and it's like, well, I'm doing his work and y'all not even let me hear the explore pages, y'all not because y'all own the audience. Same thing with Facebook. I ran up like five million followers on Facebook and in like six seven months doing crazy numbers. At one point before I quit, I was on one hundred million views a week for like two months straight on original content. Then I started posting like a month later. I try to post something, I got like two comments in two weeks with five million followers because they own the audience. Same thing with Instagram. Instagram limited they reach. They said it was an algorithm, but what it is is if a brand of a Nike, let's just say, you got a big audience, right you, Instagram? You influencer. Nike comes to the influencer like, yo, I got thirty grand for you post. I'm gonna hit your audience. You Nike, you like you, not Nike. You Instagram. You're like, I own some of that money. I own him. I'm gonna shut him down. Nike comes straight to me, I can put you anywhere. Sponsor posts put you anywhere. So then they start capping you know what I mean, capping your reach, and they just call it a new algorithm or whatever it is. So it's like they own the audience. The platforms own everything. But that's just you know, that's just the game.

00:46:07
Speaker 3: Take it to leave it else take leave it.

00:46:09
Speaker 4: And if you want to reach you got to do everything on our platform. You gotta do live streams, you gotta you gotta do pictures, you gotta stories, you post, you gotta carousels, you gotta hit everything. If you want us to put you out there, they really playing, big boy. You want to plan a game, that's what you need.

00:46:25
Speaker 1: I've been stuck on five million followers for five years. It's almost going into six years. I've been stuck on that and Shadow Band like a motherfucker boy.

00:46:32
Speaker 4: I'm telling you ain't gonna hit that explore page Instagram. Yeah yeah, ain't nobody getting that big I'm.

00:46:39
Speaker 1: A million for since before the pandemic and I haven't. You're trying to tell me I haven't even I'm not at one point one yet.

00:46:49
Speaker 4: I can't live it.

00:46:49
Speaker 2: That's we've been saying. We've seen this a lot.

00:46:53
Speaker 1: Is I love this stuffcuse I used to do this ship too.

00:46:55
Speaker 5: Is it something that you love doing around your house, like guarding in the landscaping, or just something that you had to do as the man of the house.

00:47:01
Speaker 4: Nah, I grew a love for it. So the house I live in is a first house I've ever lived in. I've never lived in a house I grew up in. I grew up in you know, brick project buildings or apartment buildings, and even when I moved to LA, I stayed in apartments you know, LA ex spensive. So this is the first house I've lived in. So I've never been able to do like yard work and all of that stuff. I just cut grass as a teenager, but not to the extent of the things I do now. But it started. It started. I had a production studio I bought in twenty sixteen, when I still do on content. I was like, I'm gonna get this warehouse. I ain't about to pay nobody, Like, I'm not buying a production building, So I gotta build all. I gotta build offices and sets myself. And if I learned, I'm not limited by anything. So my sound got James Hatchett. He knew how to build, so he taught me. You know, he taught me to road to building. So we built out the offices, built out the sets and everything I needed. We just kind of built it. We need a jail sales scene. Cool, how do I build something that looked like jail bars? So figuring it like figuring it out there with creating content. And then when I got the house Pandemic hit. I bought the house in February Pandemic hiting like March mar And at this point it's like there's a lot of stuff I wanted to do around the house, but can't nobody come in? And am I just gonna.

00:48:18
Speaker 3: Sit here doing myself?

00:48:19
Speaker 4: And then doing myself? But also Instagram had an incentive at this time, whereas like if you do an Instagram series, they'll give you like a hundred racks to do, like twenty episodes on Instagram. IGTV was what they was promoting. I said, I need some of that pandemic hit. So my mindset was like if I put the money in my house, I could write all the money office production value, so I ain't gotta pay no taxes on it. So I said, oh, yeah, that's the plan. So from there I was just like, what's the project I could do around the house because I need another episode? What's the project I could do around the house. So it was the financial financial strategy in the sense to start doing home rental because I could write it all off his production value and put and put value into my house. So I just go to YouTube like how they do this. I watched like three or four videos in my cool. I think I got a good idea how to do it. Just go for it, and then over time it became very meditative.

00:49:12
Speaker 2: Therapeutic.

00:49:13
Speaker 4: Yeah, therapeutic. That's what I was looking for. Is therapeutic. You ain't got your phone because your phone probably recording, and you just working one step at a time, break by brick and at the end you build something, you know what I mean. You go to strong foundation. It's gonna last, you know what I mean. So, yeah, I really enjoyed quick hitters.

00:49:33
Speaker 1: First thing to come to mind. Let us know one album on repeat.

00:49:37
Speaker 4: That's what I can think of is gn X GNX listening only listening to a lot of music. Man, I ride in silence. You see me in the gym with headphones on.

00:49:50
Speaker 1: Listening to I always wanted to ask you that's when you said that.

00:49:52
Speaker 4: Yeah. So I'm working on the series and I'm training dialects. So right now I'm listening to Bob Marley on RepA throughout just the way, not the music interviews. Yeah, and for a while a couple of months, I was listening to just Malcolm ic speeches, probably like.

00:50:09
Speaker 1: He always has the head phones on in the in the in the in the in the gym. The music is basically music or whatever that's crazy.

00:50:17
Speaker 4: And if you you will see me too. I be thinking people might think I'm crazy, but being an actor, they might just not think much of it. But if you see me, I'm talking. Yeah, I'm saying what I'm hearing'na.

00:50:29
Speaker 1: Starting with you now, I will start fucking. But it's actually before we forget what are you working on? Moving forward? Because we're kind of at the quick hitter, but I want to give you a chance to what do you work right now?

00:50:40
Speaker 4: I forgot that won't quick at all, so we go back and do season two of The Paper and January. For the last six years I've been writing, I've been writing scripts, writing series and I got you, bro, catching what you're throwing.

00:51:01
Speaker 6: So he said, I'm catching what you uh yeah, yeah, yeah, you know it's funny.

00:51:12
Speaker 4: John Singleton had met Laurence Fishburn on the set of him doing some cowboys show. It's like Curtis the Cowboy and Pee Wee Herman. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and John Singleton was young and he was like, I'm writing, I'm writing something. I got you, I got you, and that was that's that's gonna be.

00:51:27
Speaker 2: Yeah, missed every shot take.

00:51:31
Speaker 5: Yeah yeah, yeah.

00:51:37
Speaker 4: I've been writing. So just continue to write and building out these worlds and characters. But also I'm doing a short series right now. I don't want to speak too much on it because they don't come out to what that's the luxury doing your own thing and don't come out tout one two. It ain't gonna come out, so I want people be like, what happened to that? But I'm confident and I'm really excited about it, and once it's done, I'm gonna be, you.

00:51:57
Speaker 3: Know, come back and talk about yeah yeah.

00:51:59
Speaker 4: Yeah, but working in the traditional space industry, Hollywood stuff, but it also at the same time trying to build up my own stuff, you know what I mean? Ownership every King?

00:52:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, Okay, what's one movie that everyone should.

00:52:11
Speaker 4: Watch one battle after another. It's a revolutionary type movie. A lot of people ain't gonna see it for whatever reason, but I think for the time that we're in right now, Yeah, it's important, but it's entertaining. It's still a fun movie. It's a great film, and I've seen a lot of bad movies this year, and that that made me think, like, Okay, cinema ain't really still there. Yeah, it's still there.

00:52:32
Speaker 3: Dream director to work with Ryan.

00:52:34
Speaker 1: Cooler, that's the homie cool Yeah.

00:52:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's who was your childhood crush.

00:52:40
Speaker 4: First one coin of mind was the Yellow Power Ranger, but it was two Dior for yellow ones. Her name was it was the black Girl. It wasn't the Asian one, no shade, but it was it was what was younger, that's my You see how young I was. It was a yellow one. It was the black girl. I don't even remember now. I still remember what she looked like though. When they show a little morphine head, Yeah I used to Yeah, yeah, I was gonna say something like that.

00:53:12
Speaker 5: Yeah, if you can see somebody on our show, who would it be? But you have to help us get your answer on the show.

00:53:18
Speaker 4: This brother that I'm naming it is brilliant. One of the most brilliant minds I've ever met. And I don't think people know it. If they know him, they do. But Malcolm, as he played in Snowfall as Kevin.

00:53:35
Speaker 3: Yes, and then he played and.

00:53:37
Speaker 4: Then he played in uh and.

00:53:41
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah yeah Bro.

00:53:42
Speaker 4: He from here from uh Lou, he from the Jungle, so l a throughout. His uncle was like Tookie Williams like, but his his story and his light skinned dude.

00:53:57
Speaker 2: Yeah he played. He plays fifty brother. Bro.

00:54:02
Speaker 4: His mind is like it's kind of like rain Man. He knows so much about everything. And the way he can articulate himself. You know when you think you can't really find a way, bro, the way he can articulate.

00:54:15
Speaker 1: His thoughts put the words together.

00:54:17
Speaker 4: I feel like he sell himself short about being an actor. I'm like, I feel like he he should be one of the leaders that we need as a community. Like his drainage is crazy, but yeah, I think it'll be an interesting conversation.

00:54:32
Speaker 3: Well, thank you for your time.

00:54:33
Speaker 1: One more time ten where they can find the paper at on Peacock, Yes, sir, and coming.

00:54:36
Speaker 4: To NBC on NBC November eleven.

00:54:39
Speaker 1: Melvi Man, we appreciate you, bro CO two, he smiles. Us all the Spoke production G two but the DraftKings Network.

00:54:47
Speaker 2: We'll see y'all next week.