Flip Ya Life with Shabazz the OG

00:00:09
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to this episode. Keep it positive, sweetie. I'm Christophine Hazlet, and today I have it with me someone that you guys are I'm sure really familiar with, but did not know that it is my big brother, Shabbaz the og you did? You know what I'm saying?

00:00:26
Speaker 2: Studying nothing much?

00:00:30
Speaker 1: How you doing to be away from Miami to rainy Atlanta?

00:00:35
Speaker 3: Man, i'ld have came from Greece to get here for you. It don't Miami wasn't about nothing.

00:00:41
Speaker 2: Thank you.

00:00:41
Speaker 3: I'm saying that's practically walking distance for you.

00:00:44
Speaker 2: Oh, thank you. I appreciate it. I'm so happy to have you here.

00:00:47
Speaker 3: I'm glad to be here. Yeah.

00:00:49
Speaker 1: We always start the show with a song or quote, but we actually just said that. One of our favorite sayings is you understand me. And it's all one word.

00:00:58
Speaker 4: All one word, understand me.

00:01:00
Speaker 1: You understand me, You understand me, You understand me, you understand Oh my gosh, I love you man, for real.

00:01:07
Speaker 3: I love you too.

00:01:08
Speaker 4: I'm proud of you.

00:01:09
Speaker 3: I'm like beyond like proud is an understatement, proud is cliche. Like me, and you talk about this all the time, like you said, a lot of people most people unless they're really close and tight with us, don't understand my and your relationship.

00:01:25
Speaker 4: And from two thousand and seven to now, like.

00:01:33
Speaker 3: I'm happy, but I'm not surprised because I always you know this is I'm not one of those people.

00:01:38
Speaker 4: Who say, yes, you always knew she could do it. We really talked about this seventeen years.

00:01:43
Speaker 2: We did.

00:01:44
Speaker 3: We just didn't know which which level you were going to reach, whether it's going to be fashion, whether it was going to be music. But we just knew, yeah that we definitely at that time, Chase was a star.

00:01:58
Speaker 2: I was telling the norr of it.

00:02:00
Speaker 1: My first music name was Chase and you can still call me face.

00:02:03
Speaker 3: I still call it Chase face. Put the face on the back of Chasing, but now it's just face. This is my face, and people be looking at me like when I when I do come around, who's face?

00:02:15
Speaker 4: Right?

00:02:16
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. You have been there from the beginning. In two thousand and seven we met. I was still living in Washington, DC. You were managing Q Parker from one twelve at the time, like doing Romanic Roman traveling with him, and I remember.

00:02:31
Speaker 2: Us just hitting it off.

00:02:32
Speaker 1: You just always had this like super dope spirit about you and just super one hundred like straight shooter, no sugar coating, all funny, like people don't understand you are fun.

00:02:43
Speaker 3: Like told me yesterday, I should stand bru No, I'm serious.

00:02:46
Speaker 2: To some of the stuff that comes out of around.

00:02:48
Speaker 3: I'm like, I just be being myself. I know I probably freeze up in front of an audience trying to crack jokes because it's not like I'm not trying to be fun.

00:02:56
Speaker 4: That's what it is.

00:02:57
Speaker 3: I don't be trying to be funny, just be just come out with funny.

00:03:01
Speaker 1: Sometime but we met and I was in a transitional phase in my life where I was leaving Capitol Hill, trying to decide what I wanted to do.

00:03:09
Speaker 2: And I remember.

00:03:13
Speaker 1: When I decided to move to Atlanta, you all rallied behind me. Was like, Chris, whatever you want to.

00:03:18
Speaker 2: Do, we got you.

00:03:19
Speaker 4: Yeah, for sure.

00:03:20
Speaker 1: I'm talking about when I say that, when I tell you guys about the hard time that I had when I moved to Atlanta. This man was one of the people that had my back when I moved here, of course, and I thank you for that. I remember I was pursuing music and we went down to Tennessee to do something for homecoming, and you all came down. You've been to my hometown to house.

00:03:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, you've been there. They love the family loves you.

00:03:45
Speaker 1: But it's important to remember the people that were there when it was just.

00:03:50
Speaker 2: A dream and just a vision, you know.

00:03:53
Speaker 1: And you were one of those people that was definitely there and have been by my side ever since. Most people know you as Shabbaz the Og.

00:03:58
Speaker 2: You are the author of Flip Your lif Life. You are a speaker.

00:04:02
Speaker 1: You are the money team, motivator and entrepreneur. And you started your career early in the music business as a rapper and radio station intern in high school, and from there you propelled into promotions, artist booking, road management and ultimately product project manager and consultant, which You've been a consultant in my whole life since I've.

00:04:21
Speaker 3: Done I'm everybody consultant. I need a firm.

00:04:24
Speaker 4: At this point, I think I need.

00:04:27
Speaker 3: To start a firm.

00:04:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, put everybody on retainer.

00:04:29
Speaker 3: That's my rule. That is it. The problem is I can't. The retainer part is where it gets tricky because everybody I consult with, I love my family.

00:04:38
Speaker 2: Get that for free, right? Yeah?

00:04:40
Speaker 3: You know you know, but that's that's who I am and that's what I do.

00:04:45
Speaker 1: So I know we met and our our connection came through music initially. What was it in the beginning that brought you to music, because I know you've been in the industry for a minute.

00:04:55
Speaker 3: Like it goes all the way back to that internship you spoke about, because that was eighteen. Wow, you know I wasn't. No. Actually, well, the internship came at seventeen because my mom kicked me out the house at eighteen. I'll get to that, but I'm just trying to you know, how certain things make you remember certain things. So the internship came before I was eighteen, because eighteen is when she said we need you to leave. So seventeen is when the internship started. But in high school, probably fifteen sixteen is when I started rapping, like I was really good at rapping, like I was.

00:05:39
Speaker 4: That's you know, It's funny how life works.

00:05:42
Speaker 3: Because where I am now, I found my purpose. I believe this is exactly you know, what I'm supposed to be doing the things that I'm doing now. But at that time, back then, you know, I really really really aspired.

00:05:55
Speaker 4: To be a rapper. In those days in MC and I was really good.

00:06:02
Speaker 3: And what happened is we had a talent show at my high school, William Penn High. Me my group, my DJ, my man Eric Day, DJ Prep, and my man John Hamilton, John Doe. We had a group called the Devastating Three.

00:06:17
Speaker 4: I was a rapper, and Lady B, who was a.

00:06:21
Speaker 3: Very big radio personality at Power ninety nine and Philly at the time. She was one of the judges at the at the at the talent show and afterwards, you know, I was just so smitten with her because she was fine. I'm talking about who I'm talking about. She had a Nate Dragon the floor, super slim, pretty she. I mean, she had an obsession perfume. You know, back then, obsession for women was that thing. You know, she had that obsession on listen. I remember, listen, it's nostalgic. I could smell it right now. I remember that day like it was yesterday. You know. Lady B came in there and shut the shut the stage down, and I'll never forget. I ran up to her and afterwards and we had on the airbrush sweatshirts and she signed my she autographed my shirt and I took it right downtown to the gallery to the guy who airbrushed our shirts because I had on an airbrush shirt. I took it right back. His name was Jay. Took it right back to Jay said, y'all, I need you to airbrush this autograph because I don't need this to come off. And I wish I still had that shirt. But that was the beginning of me getting in to the realms of entertainment because she brought me on as our intern at the radio station. So she had a show called street Beat and street Beat air every Sunday from twelve to four. So every day every Sunday, around three fifty five, the last five minutes, she would throw on instrumentals and let her street beat them Seeds rap and I was one of them. Just go see Prince Little e if another guy flash d but a flash was Flasher was in jail at the time, so he wasn't there when I was there.

00:08:04
Speaker 4: But those are the street beat them seeds.

00:08:06
Speaker 3: And I used to wrap on the radio every Sunday towards the end of her show, and that's how I got started.

00:08:13
Speaker 1: Wow, listen, I feel like even for me out of college, I got started as an intern. I feel like that's always like the gateway to doing what you really.

00:08:22
Speaker 3: Want to do, right that practice, Yes, somebody giving you an opportunity to you know, to segue exactly.

00:08:28
Speaker 2: That's so good.

00:08:29
Speaker 1: And then from there, like tell me about all the other people that you worked with.

00:08:33
Speaker 3: Because I know you've so so the whole process was internship with her.

00:08:39
Speaker 4: And this when I started to meet people. I started to meet people.

00:08:43
Speaker 3: And then back then, like I was really meeting this when I started networking. This when I learned how to network. I learned how to network from being around so many celebrities at a young age, like I was really around when LL used to get out the limo with the radio on his show. Yes he would come to the radio station Power ninety nine. LLLL would get out. He would when he was really walking around with his radio because that was his thing, you know, can't live without my radio. Run DMC. I met back then, MC Light. I met back then, like I met a lot of people. Jellale from Houdini was one of the was the first celebrity phone number I ever got, like live for whudd you know what I mean. That was the first celebrity phone number I ever got, Like and they just took a liking to me because the person I am now is the guy that I was back then. So I never you know, was never to wear out my welcome type. It was never too hype like you know, people for my benefit gravitated towards me. So after the internship with D, I did try to pursue a music career.

00:09:48
Speaker 4: You know.

00:09:49
Speaker 3: I did rap for a while with my partner. His name was Pro, and we was working with another fully legend, Schooly D. So we was going we would do shows with Schooly opened up for him at times, but at the same time I was in the street.

00:10:05
Speaker 4: So being in the street kind.

00:10:08
Speaker 3: Of disrupted the path, you know, That's what I'll say. On the surface, ultimately an overall it just wasn't in the cards for me. But if we stay on the surface, the streets kind of disrupted it. Because Pro ended up going to prison and then it just kind of fizzled out for me. But then someone who I met during my internship, because now we're gonna go from seventeen to about twenty two, someone who I met during my tenure as an intern his name is Troy Shelton. Troy took me under his Wing became a mentor and introduced me to radio promotions. So I was, you know, every Tuesday, everybody in the music industry, you know, Tuesdays is radio Day. That's when the radio that's when radio your promoters go to the stations and try to get their records added and played. And the first project I worked was Floyd Tree, Oh Wow, and Ron Osley's Body Kiss album when he first Actually this is around the time when the Johnson sisters Kim and Candy his wife, royan Osley's wife. They had a song out as well at the time called ice Cream. So the Floyd Tree, the Johnson Sisters, and the Isley's is the first projects that I worked, you know, under my mentor, Troy Okay, And from there came radio radio promotions. Then my first party promotions came in two thousand and three out in Milwaukee when we did the the Rock to Mike afterparty. You know, I did it with Freeway Fab the Young Guns, a Milio Spark like that was that was the first.

00:11:56
Speaker 4: Big event that I did.

00:11:58
Speaker 3: You know, I was running around with one of my guys at the time and he had, you know, put me in position to make that happen. And you know that was my first real you know, party promotion extent. And then from there it just you.

00:12:13
Speaker 4: Know, those relationships just built, like that's.

00:12:15
Speaker 3: When I met Fat two thousand and three, that's when I met Bleak, you know. And now these guys fast forward, these are this is family. So a lot of my music relationships started from booking them, Like my relationship with Trey came from booking them first. So then you know, once you start moving around a lot, and again, when you know how to move and you know how to move in and out of rooms and you conduct yourself the right way, you know, people receive you. You know, the more people I met, the bigger the network grew. And we are here, we are you know, with a clean face, clean face and a strong name. That's the that's the key.

00:12:56
Speaker 2: It is the key.

00:12:57
Speaker 3: That's the real key to move through this business with a good name, a clean face. Yeah, you know, everything else can come and go, But once your name is destroyed and your face is dirty, yeah, it's done.

00:13:10
Speaker 2: It's done. That's so good.

00:13:12
Speaker 1: Growing up in Philadelphia, I know, I'm friends with Meek mil and I've heard the stories of this like and I remember you called it Philadelphia.

00:13:21
Speaker 4: Now it's Philadelphia, right, Yeah.

00:13:24
Speaker 1: Growing up you talked about getting into the streets, getting introll of getting kicked out. What was it like during that time growing up and what did you what were some of your challenges as a young black man trying to grow up in that environment.

00:13:38
Speaker 3: So I was born in Cordell, Georgia, about an hour and forty five minutes from here. So my mom went to Philly when I was fourteen months. She went back to Georgia. We went back to Cordella when I was in third grade. Then we went back to Philly when I was in seventh grade. So seventh grade is really where I you know, got implemented in Stampton, Philly. Yeah, And initially it was it was, it was. It was very challenging. You know, I'm country boy, you know, country boy, you know, manners, nice guy, you know, friendly country accent, you know, you know, Southerner. You know, they used to call me Virginia because I think a lot of guys that's the furthest South they knew about, right, So they used to call me Virginia at my middle school till the middle school in Southwest Philly. And it was a little rough.

00:14:33
Speaker 4: In the beginning.

00:14:34
Speaker 3: You know, I've been jumped, I've been teased, I've been I was beat up, you know, because you know, I didn't I wasn't no fighter, like I didn't know, I didn't know nothing about. And it was in Philly was gang infested at that time. And eighty eighty one, like eighty eighty one, right when Ronald Reagan got shot. That's when we moved to Philly either, right, I think a couple of days later he had got shot. So like around the time Reagan got shot, it was a big mob war in Philly, and gangs were really prevalent. So when we got to Philly, like it was, it was rough for me because it was a different type of transition. Unfortunately, those same streets that were mean to me became appealing to me, you know, and it turned me into something that I wasn't but that I had to learn how.

00:15:29
Speaker 4: To be because I was out there.

00:15:32
Speaker 3: You know, to the point where i've you know, I had a friend of mine he's deceased now, back in probably ninety probably ninety probably ninety one, because he got killed in ninety two. He said to my mom like he was from Brooklyn, and he told my mother. He was like, I don't know why he's out here with us, because he's not like us. You know what I'm saying, He's not.

00:15:55
Speaker 4: And I wasn't. Like I was so different, like this is this gun, bud to stay? It's up crazy.

00:16:03
Speaker 3: I was so.

00:16:03
Speaker 4: Different that a lot of guys didn't trust me. You're like, is this name of the police or something? Because I wasn't disloyal, you know what I mean. I wasn't shady.

00:16:15
Speaker 3: I was accommodating. I was honest, like a little too nice. Who if you leave it with me, ain't nothing gonna be missing. All the money, all the work, all the bullets, and everything gonna be the way you left it. That's just what it was, like the word everything. You're not gonna be missing a crumble, you understand me. So that was different, Like people weren't used to that. They they weren't used to that type of loyalty that because you know the rules of the street, don't trust nobody, you can't turn your back. But I wasn't that kind of person by no stretch of the imagination.

00:16:52
Speaker 4: So his name was g G.

00:16:54
Speaker 3: Told my mom, she was like, I.

00:16:55
Speaker 4: Don't know why he out here with us, you know, because he's not he's not like us.

00:16:59
Speaker 3: And I wasn't like this guy he was. He was a different type of individual, you know what I mean. And what I learned later, what I learned in life is people who can't be trusted, can't trust come on now. So it was fine to see somebody like that, you know what I say. What I'm saying, so a lot of guys, you know, they just couldn't understand it. But again, you know, the same streets that would mean to me became a pelling to me, which you know, which led to me. You know, eventually my mother asked me to, you know, leave her house at eighteen because I just got to a point where I just was gonna do what I wanted to do, you know, And and it was it was primarily again when we get older, you look back at life and you realize why you did certain things. My mother's to this day, she still is, She's been a Jehovah's witnesses. I was five years old.

00:18:01
Speaker 4: Wow, So.

00:18:04
Speaker 3: Who I was as an individual?

00:18:07
Speaker 4: Right?

00:18:07
Speaker 3: Because we tend to think or you a child, chance that I was placed, or you're a child, you ain't got no feelings, or you're a child, you ain't got no say soul. But the thing about kids, they're just smaller sizes of adults. They don't have the same experience. But their people. They're people with personalities, They're people with feelings, they're people with ideas, they're people with ambitions. Like these things rest inside of children and who I was that my core didn't correlate. But the Johovah Witness religion, I don't like girls since I was five, you know what say I mean? Like I was attracted to my literally attracted to one of my mother's girlfriends. When I was five six years old, I was attracted to my first grade teacher, Ms. Matt with the blind highlights. You know. You know what I mean?

00:19:00
Speaker 4: You know these are things I remember, you know.

00:19:03
Speaker 3: But in the johoh Witness religion, you can't have boyfriends and girlfriends, you know.

00:19:07
Speaker 2: So how does I know that?

00:19:09
Speaker 4: So, Yeah, they don't do the same thing in Islam, you don't.

00:19:12
Speaker 3: It's either husband and wife.

00:19:13
Speaker 4: Wow, no boyfriends and girlfriends.

00:19:16
Speaker 2: Well I did not know that.

00:19:17
Speaker 4: Yeah, they don't do that.

00:19:18
Speaker 3: So like, so I couldn't uh subvert I want to use, I couldn't fulfill my desires.

00:19:25
Speaker 2: But I wanted to, I couldn't do it. Let me get out of this Jehovah's Yeah.

00:19:29
Speaker 3: So I wanted. I wanted to play sports, like I come from my father's side of the family athletes.

00:19:36
Speaker 4: Either because you know, the.

00:19:38
Speaker 3: You know, probably now the religion is a little bit more lenient, but back then it was like anything that was outside the scope or the congregation or the affiliation of the religion was was was deemed bad association. So anything that wasn't necessary to do, you weren't really allowed to do. I had to go to school, but I didn't I have to be on the basketball team. I had to go to school, but I didn't have to be on the football team.

00:20:05
Speaker 4: You know. So my mother didn't allow me to do those things.

00:20:07
Speaker 3: And my father, you know, he used to be upset because I was a natural athlete.

00:20:13
Speaker 4: My father used to be so angry.

00:20:15
Speaker 3: Because he saw it.

00:20:17
Speaker 4: He was an athlete, My uncle David was an athlete, my.

00:20:19
Speaker 3: Brother Scott athlete. I come from a family of athletes on my father's side, and he saw it and he wanted that for his son so bad. But my mind wasn't having it. So at seventeen, you know, the closer.

00:20:32
Speaker 4: The older I.

00:20:33
Speaker 3: Got, just the more rebellious I came because I could no longer contain who I was as an individual, Like you're you're you're really hindering me. Like I'm a very likable guy. You know, I want to dress nice. These girls, these these these these womans like me, and I like these womans. I like these womens. And you're standing in my way now, And you got a serious roadblocker up here.

00:21:01
Speaker 4: And you know I was.

00:21:04
Speaker 3: I had that internship with Lady B and I used to be at the radio station, you know, with her and events, and you know, I was just enjoying that. And my mom told me, she said, listen, my eighteenth birthday was approaching, and she said, if you come in this house one more time after twelve o'clock at night, you're getting out now, mind you, Joe, Witnesses don't celebrate birthdays, none of that kind of stuff. Well, not only did I come in the house after midnight on my eighteenth birthday, I came in with a birthday cake. I had a birthday cake, sat on the top of the refrigerator, went stairs and went to bed. My mom woke me up. She said, you thought I was playing. Whoever just brought you home? Call him and tell him to come back and get you.

00:22:00
Speaker 1: Wow.

00:22:00
Speaker 3: She put me out.

00:22:01
Speaker 2: M yep, eighteen years old?

00:22:04
Speaker 3: Sir?

00:22:04
Speaker 2: Had you graduated from college? From high school?

00:22:06
Speaker 4: Then I finished?

00:22:08
Speaker 3: That was my eighteenth birthday, April nineteenth, nineteen eighty six. I still had two more months of high school.

00:22:15
Speaker 2: Wow.

00:22:15
Speaker 3: I finished those last two months at the house where I was staying at Wow down North Philly, at my man house with him and his dad and his uncle and his grandmother. Mmmm. Sleeping on the couch. Actually, this is a couch, A love she.

00:22:34
Speaker 4: This is a couch.

00:22:34
Speaker 3: Just wasn't I might have enjoyed this.

00:22:37
Speaker 4: They might not. They might not have been able to get rid of me.

00:22:39
Speaker 3: But you know, sleeping ten months with your knees up like this was uncomfortable.

00:22:44
Speaker 4: See, I was.

00:22:45
Speaker 3: I was out the house for ten months before my mom let me come back.

00:22:48
Speaker 2: So at what point you were raised, Dahova? Were you raised?

00:22:50
Speaker 1: Dahovah's witness Ti, I was seventeen, okay, And then when did you convert to Muslim?

00:22:54
Speaker 3: I became. I took my shahada when I was twenty two, twenty two, twenty.

00:23:00
Speaker 1: I know Philadelphia is a big Muslim king.

00:23:02
Speaker 4: Yes, extremely big a Muslim community.

00:23:05
Speaker 1: Okay, wow, So what made you, I mean, was that the reason why you were.

00:23:10
Speaker 2: Interested in Conson?

00:23:12
Speaker 3: Not even I had a girlfriend at the time, and I was getting money with her brothers, and I was getting money with her cousins and they were Muslim. So they introduced me to Islam. They introduced me to Islam, and just over the course of time, the more mature I got, the more I resonated with islamb my life. It was just granted, Islam is a very disciplined religion, just like being a Jehovah's witness. However, I believe Islam just came into my life at the right time because the things that you shouldn't do as a Jehovah's witness, you shouldn't do as a Muslim either, you understand me.

00:23:53
Speaker 4: But I think.

00:23:56
Speaker 3: And me and my mother had these conversations you know later in life that you know she wished she would have did a few things differently. But I told her, Look, you don't owe no explanations, no excuses, no apologies, because you gave us the best that you had in what you knew how to do. With what you had. But that being said, I think it's important even when you're teaching your children religion and have them in religion, I think it's still important to still identify with your child as an individual and don't make it so much about the religion and religion and religion.

00:24:30
Speaker 4: You can't do this.

00:24:31
Speaker 3: You can't because what will happen is that's where the rebellion comes in. Because again, in terms of religion and practices and conduct and codes of behavior, Jovah's Witnesses, Jovah Witnesses and Muslims are similar. Like Jovah Witnesses don't celebrate any holidays, Muslims don't celebrate any holidays. Johoah's Witnesses don't believe in smoking, Muslims don't. Joah Witnesses believe in drinking and little alcohol though Muslims Muslims don't.

00:25:00
Speaker 4: You know so.

00:25:00
Speaker 3: But in terms of just resonating, it'slime started to resonate. I started to resonate with this slam. It's I started to its lime is what gave me a conscious wow.

00:25:12
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, because yeah, I can see that that's what happened.

00:25:15
Speaker 3: To sum it all up, Islime is what gave me a conscious islime established my conscious awareness of how you treat people, what you should do, what you shouldn't do.

00:25:28
Speaker 4: Although you're not perfect, strive for perfection.

00:25:32
Speaker 3: You know, be accountable for your actions, you know, know wing you've done right, knowing you've done wrong, and always carry pure intentions even though that's why you know profess to be as an individual. Islam amplified that for me.

00:25:44
Speaker 2: Okay, that's what's up.

00:25:47
Speaker 1: At what point in this journey in the streets and doing what you're doing, did you end up getting locked up to another one point?

00:25:53
Speaker 2: You got jammed up a bit.

00:25:56
Speaker 3: Quite a few bits, not a bit, few bits that started at twelve what my mother told me, and we'll get to that in that book when I was seven. Yeah, that you're gonna learn everything the hard way because you don't listen. So I was hard headed growing up. And I was twelve on my way from the dentist, and my mother used to always tell me about throwing rocks and playing with fire. So those I don't know what my infatuation with rocks and fire was, but I was coming from the dentist when then I was just I was by myself walking down on woodland, avenue, and I was throwing the rock in the air, walked throwing up, catching it. Innocent, so I thought. But the higher I threw it and caught it, the higher I threw it again. You know, you tested myself. Well.

00:26:50
Speaker 4: One time the rock got away from me, came down.

00:26:52
Speaker 3: Here the windshield of a moving car and it was an off duty cop. White dude. He jumped out, pissed, gave me the business, threw me against the gate, called the paddy wagon and they locked me up.

00:27:04
Speaker 2: So, yes, okay, because that's what.

00:27:09
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, yeah, So the paddy wagon for those that don't know, whe's the van.

00:27:18
Speaker 4: Yeah, the paddy wagon. The patty wagon is the police the actual van that they put you in the back of. So we called that the paddy wagon.

00:27:28
Speaker 3: And so they put me in the patty wagon and uh and took me to the precinct. And I never forget. My mother was getting ready to go to one of her meetings. You know, yes, you get when they called her between the meetings. Now you know you listen, she didn't come. There is no coming in between of the meetings. She told him, she told him I have something to do, I'll be there. Afterwards, she left me there.

00:27:55
Speaker 4: Until she went to the kingdom.

00:27:58
Speaker 3: Yeah, she left me.

00:27:58
Speaker 4: There until after her.

00:28:00
Speaker 3: And when they and when she came, she didn't let him open the door. She didn't let him open the gate. I was in the cell. She did not let him open the cell. Immediately she stood on the other side of the cell, and she said, what I tell you about throwing rocks.

00:28:14
Speaker 1: You got to say that, because what I tell you?

00:28:16
Speaker 4: What I tell you about throwing rocks? Like, she didn't care that I was locked up.

00:28:21
Speaker 2: She didn't like my mother came.

00:28:23
Speaker 4: And that's why I'm the way I am to this day. People don't People don't.

00:28:27
Speaker 3: Really understand the meaning of standing on business, Like that's just a cool new word for a lot of people. I stand on the business that I stand on because that's how my mother was. If my mother said, don't leave his house and you go outside and get hit by a car and get your leg broke by a drunk driver, she's gonna be mad at the drunk driver later. Don't even worry about him. What did he get from being drunk? Oh?

00:28:49
Speaker 4: Okay, well, y'all handle that.

00:28:50
Speaker 3: You What did I tell you before I left this house?

00:28:56
Speaker 4: If you didn't go outside your leg wouldn't be broken.

00:29:00
Speaker 3: I don't care about that man being drunk.

00:29:02
Speaker 4: I care about you not doing what I told you to do.

00:29:06
Speaker 3: Every action has a reaction when you don't listen. And I learned that the hard way, And that was the beginning of me going to prison because I had so I switched infatuations. I went from rocks and fired the guns, and I just I had a thing for gun. Well, I take that back, because before rocks and fire, guns was my first love. But at five, when my mother became a Johova's witness, I used to have this gun set. I had the pants, the chaps that go over your pants, have some green ones.

00:29:47
Speaker 4: I had a vests, a hat.

00:29:49
Speaker 3: And two six shooters. That was my everyday outfit after I came home from kindergarten.

00:29:55
Speaker 4: So I come home one day ready to suit up my materials. There's nowhere to be found.

00:30:06
Speaker 2: Five years old?

00:30:06
Speaker 3: Where is Yeah?

00:30:08
Speaker 4: I'm maybe it's.

00:30:13
Speaker 3: So. My mother say, so, I inquired, you know about my items? She told me it's in the trash.

00:30:21
Speaker 2: What you mean in the trash?

00:30:22
Speaker 3: Ma, right? What do you mean in the trash? Why? She says, Jehovah don't like guns. First of all, who is Jehovah? That's the first thing. Second thing, what does he have against my guns and my outfit?

00:30:39
Speaker 4: What do you mean?

00:30:40
Speaker 3: It's in the trash, and so I go and get it out the trash. She puts it back in the trash. And this is my introduction. That's probably why I didn't like being a j Ohld witness because it didn't start right. We got off to a bad start, took my guns. I'm talking about the whole nne, with the whole situation in the trash because she done went off and started studying the Bible, which I never forget Sister Jordan, as y'all can say, I got a very good memory about my paston Mister Jordan then wrote my mom into this new belief and it's affecting me tremendously.

00:31:16
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't like it.

00:31:18
Speaker 4: Wasn't feeling it.

00:31:19
Speaker 3: Yeah, So you know that's wet to a bad start. Yeah. And so fast forward. You know, I when I was probably this is probably ninety one ninety one is when I when I could reconvened with the guns. But day was real ones this time, Yeah, and I was getting caught and it was the craziest thing. Because I was unlucky with him, you know, But I just kept carrying them. So I got locked up with a gun going to court. While I'm out on Bell going to court for that gun, I get locked up with another one. So I'm going to court for two guns. Then I get locked up with a third one, and I'm going to court for three guns at one time, three open gun cases. I had a really good lawyer, though, Jeryl Stein, gerl Stein and Fred Perry, they you know, was able to get the gun charges all consolidated the one charge and I got probation. Cool got probation.

00:32:14
Speaker 4: That was in ninety one.

00:32:17
Speaker 3: Two. Right fast forward to ninety six. I get locked up again with another gun, but this time I'm in Jersey. Now I'd done the Philly probation and all of that, but I got locked up in Jersey in Camden, and when they saw my jacket from Pennsylvania, they ain't play with me. They gave me three years off the rip. It was like, you not even ready come over Philadelphia, gave you probation and you had three guns that now we're not even really start playing with it. Yeah, so they gave me Jersey gave me three years and I went to prison.

00:32:54
Speaker 2: Wow, what was that like?

00:32:56
Speaker 4: Awful?

00:32:57
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, because we see on TV, but we don't know what it's like to really be in there.

00:33:02
Speaker 4: Na, it's you know what it is.

00:33:04
Speaker 3: And what I learned. I learned quickly that it's not necessarily the amount of time that you do, it's the conditions that you have to succumb to and be faced with and deal with. So, you know, they gave me three years, but I did fourteen months in sixteen months on intense super supervised parole and.

00:33:26
Speaker 4: You know, finished it all.

00:33:28
Speaker 3: But the conditions like being in fourteen months, being in six different facilities, wow, you know, just you know, from this place to that place, and then falling under a federal investigation. Then being you can't be in I was in a minimum security camp. You can't be in the communitis. You can't be in a minimum security facility if you have an open investigation. So they have to take you out of there and take me to the to the to the main prison. The main prison, which was East Jersey State Prison System at Railway, was the like the control center for all the smaller camps and other jails in the surrounding area. But because I wasn't sentenced to that jail, they didn't have no way to house me, so they had to put me in the hole what I mean, the whole for two months, Oh, I mean the whole for two months while they while the FEDS do this investigation, you know.

00:34:25
Speaker 4: So it's like.

00:34:27
Speaker 3: It's just the conditions that, you know, what I had to endure in those fourteen months was enough.

00:34:34
Speaker 4: It was enough to make me know, like just just saying it not for me, you know.

00:34:40
Speaker 3: And again, you know, it's hard to break old habits. So when I did come home from prison eventually at some point in time, you know, jump back outside again.

00:34:54
Speaker 4: Right after.

00:34:55
Speaker 3: But right when you met me is really when I came off the tail end, because it just you may mean seven So January six, January sixth, I got locked up. I got locked up. I got caught in the middle of a h it was under surveillance, didn't know it, got caught in the middle of her you know, transaction. And what wound up happening is the cops never came to court. They took money from it. They took money, but they stole some. They didn't put all the money on the property receipt so the money that they stole, they didn't record it on the on the property, and then they never came to court. So I ended up beating that case. And that was two thousand and six. That was my last time in handcuffs. No no, no, no no, because that I would have really been disappointed in myself had I went to prison for that, because I would they did a significant amount of time.

00:36:02
Speaker 4: One two would have been like damn, Like, you know you.

00:36:06
Speaker 2: Don't like jail, right, why do you keep doing this?

00:36:08
Speaker 1: Right?

00:36:08
Speaker 3: You know you don't like this. Yeah, you know you don't like jail, So like why is you playing? Yeah? So you know, I just I just decided that I was just going, you know, do what it took, but do other things that it took. Like I just wasn't gonna keep playing with these people, man, because they will give you a thousand years. Yeah, no, with no blinking Yeah they will. I was talking a Whilow the other day. Man Whilow was talking and you know, he was talking about the younger and it's like like I told Low, like we got to remind them that Wallow didn't do the last twenty years. They still got another twenty tough the way, if you need twenty, they got twenty for you.

00:36:48
Speaker 4: He didn't do Wallow didn't do the last twenty.

00:36:50
Speaker 3: Years in prison system. They got twenty for you. They got twenty for you. You need twenty, they got twenty for you. They got some twenties to go, you know what I mean. And they don't mind giving them to you with a ribbon.

00:37:03
Speaker 4: On it, right.

00:37:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, being as you've been incarstrated, do you do anything with people that like youth that are locked up or yeah?

00:37:12
Speaker 3: The most recent was was it August my last my last prison? No? Actually no, my most recent was in Quincy, Florida, right outside of Tallahasseee. I went to the UH to the to the county jail there where there were a lot of guys. Some guys are doing county time, but a lot of guys have violent crimes and they were waiting to be sentenced to Center Stick. And that was an extremely, extremely good visit in the sense of I was able to resonate with the guys, you know, despite their circumstances, and the administration really liked the visit because I just have a way with interaction, and I have a way with words, and I have a way with communicating with people to make everybody feel like they matter despite the circumstances. And one of the women who were there, and when she spoke to me afterwards, she said, you know, a lot of people have come through these doors, but I've never seen anybody hold their attention like that, you know. And I was told that back in twenty seventeen when I went to a view facility in Saint Louis.

00:38:25
Speaker 4: It was like, Yo, you really are good at this, Like you really.

00:38:28
Speaker 3: Know how to keep their attention and talk because it and it's because I'm not stuffy, I'm not preachy. You know. I might go in there a dress just like this, shoes untied, you know, because I just want to be relatable but effective. And I'm talking too and not act. So when I go to these like even when I was in Quincy, they had me do a community event after I left the prison. And you know, one of the most illest things that ever happened since I've been speaking is a nine year old girl came up to me after we was finished, and she cried in my aunt nine and said, everything you said to me, everything you said today, changed my whole life. I'm like nine. You don't even have a whole life.

00:39:19
Speaker 2: Yet, right, you got a nine year old life. Imagine what she's been through.

00:39:23
Speaker 4: That's what.

00:39:24
Speaker 3: But that's what.

00:39:25
Speaker 4: That's what, that's what.

00:39:26
Speaker 3: That's what resonated with me so much. Imagine what this girl has gone through to be nine years old and cry and tell me that what I said changed her life.

00:39:38
Speaker 4: So those are the things that's important to me.

00:39:40
Speaker 3: So yes, I do go to these facilities, from youth to adults, from elementary school to universities. I was spoken at to second graders and I was spoken at Kennesaw State more House twice. You know I you know that's my range.

00:40:00
Speaker 2: Amazing. I love that.

00:40:02
Speaker 1: So the world knows you as Shabaz the O g Right, you have taken your social media platform to spread positivity. You talk about current events and give your opinion on them.

00:40:12
Speaker 2: What brought that about?

00:40:14
Speaker 1: At what moment did you realize, Hey, I've got a following, I have a voice as well.

00:40:18
Speaker 3: Oh back to y'all. Good friend Meek mel.

00:40:22
Speaker 4: Robert you know what I'm.

00:40:23
Speaker 3: Saying, mister Williams. Yeah, Meek was the first person to repost one of my videos. Wow, me is Meek is my first repost. He it was May, I never forget was May twenty sixteen, and the video was about male groupies. And you know when we started to witness this new phenomenon of the guys wanted to be in.

00:40:52
Speaker 4: The pictures in the VIP section more than.

00:40:55
Speaker 2: The girls pushing them off the casts.

00:40:57
Speaker 4: That's what the but that's what the video was.

00:41:00
Speaker 3: Video was about y'all are coming in the v I P section, pushing the girls out the way so y'all can sneak selfies and stand next to rappers and ball player and and and and I said, I remember it was like the ch child.

00:41:13
Speaker 4: We need y'all to woo to the left, slide to the right. Let these girls get in here in this vt P section. Man get out the way.

00:41:23
Speaker 3: So at that time, what I was doing, in the way I was doing it was different and refreshing because it was like it was coming from a street dude, and it.

00:41:32
Speaker 4: Was being delivered exactly the way it was happening. So Meek was the.

00:41:38
Speaker 3: First person to repost, and he reposted a few more times, and then my man Mike Gardner, I think he reached out the baller alert shout out to my homie Robin and he had I think he reached out the ball alert for them to repost something that he resonated with and it just kept catching.

00:42:02
Speaker 4: It just kept catching.

00:42:04
Speaker 3: But what happened is in terms of the place of responsibility and progressiveness, I started to realize that it was a place of advice and to be responsible. In the beginning, it was like I was standing on the corner of fifty second in park Side. That's how my mouth was. But then I started getting women in my DM asking advice men about their relationships.

00:42:35
Speaker 4: And I remember a seventeen year old kid.

00:42:36
Speaker 3: From Illinois reached out to me and my DM and said that he didn't have a big brother, he didn't have a dad, but he watches my Instagram every day and all the advice that he can get, he gets it from me. And that's when it started to change. And then one day I called Q. I called Q and I was like, Yo, I think I found my purpose. He said, what you mean, I said, dog, this Instagram thing? I said this. I said, it's feeling different. I said, too many people reaching out to me telling me what I'm doing mean something to them. I said, I said, this ain't no getting I'm on in something and he was like, bads, he said.

00:43:26
Speaker 4: Do you understand how powerful what you just said is.

00:43:32
Speaker 3: I don't know if I were that. I'm just telling you what I'm noticing.

00:43:35
Speaker 4: And he said, A bad people.

00:43:37
Speaker 3: Go their whole life and don't discover their purpose and why they're here.

00:43:41
Speaker 4: Like a lot of people don't know what they're here for. And I'm like, okay.

00:43:48
Speaker 3: It didn't sink in then, But as time went on, and the more people who reached out, the more people who ask for advice, the more people people who saw me in the streets, saw me in the airport, can I take I'm like, wait a minute, what's going on around with this Instagram?

00:44:10
Speaker 4: This is I'm getting treated like a rapper outside.

00:44:13
Speaker 3: You know. But but it just goes to show the power of technology because it's people as far as Nigeria, England. There's people everywhere that follow my page and they DM me. And see the thing about it is I DM everybody back, everybody, everybody like they know I respond to everything like that's my job.

00:44:40
Speaker 4: I'm a M Yeah, that's what did you do for? I respond to d M? You know, I respond to DM.

00:44:47
Speaker 3: And so it just it continued and The more it went that way, the more I realized I could still be be I could still be raw, I could still be uncut. But I don't have to be abrasive. I don't have to be vulgar. I don't have to use, you know, profanity in the sense of, you know, just vulgar and vile words.

00:45:09
Speaker 4: You know.

00:45:09
Speaker 3: I had to learn that part, but I'm glad I learned it myself.

00:45:12
Speaker 4: No one ever had to say to me, Hey.

00:45:15
Speaker 3: You know you don't but once you turn it down a little. I discovered that on my own. I trained myself to say, like, nah, you know, stop using that words so much. Definitely kind of abandoned the B word, like that's really not that's really not a good one, you know. So you know, yeah to the right, you know what I mean? And so and then Instagram Live. I went live every single thing at eight o'clock for about three years. Every night.

00:45:51
Speaker 4: It was like a TV show. Yeah, it was, you know what I mean.

00:45:54
Speaker 3: So you know, these are the things that, you know that brought us to where we are now. I mean, now I'm shadow band because I talked to real Oh now he's you know, he's leading to people a little too much now he's a little too influential, you know, and unfortunately that's where we are now. Like the more positive you are, the kind of less you're being seen depending on you know, you know what your algorithm is looking like. It's the rhythm they're giving you. No rhythm.

00:46:28
Speaker 4: I didn't want you to have no rhythm now, you know.

00:46:30
Speaker 3: But I'm past, I'm beyond how many followers I'm beyond, you know, a blue check because it's too late. The people know now, the people know. You know, I'm outside, you know, I'm on platforms, I'm on couches, I'm being guessed, you know, making guest appearances, and so the word is out.

00:46:52
Speaker 4: You know, they're daylight in the dollars short.

00:46:55
Speaker 3: You know, I've been at two hundred and eight thousand followers for eight months.

00:46:59
Speaker 2: Oh wow, you are lying.

00:47:01
Speaker 4: That's serious, that the algorithm I've been at.

00:47:04
Speaker 3: No, I've been at two hundred and eight thousand followers since August.

00:47:08
Speaker 4: So what's August?

00:47:08
Speaker 3: From August to now? I haven't many months.

00:47:10
Speaker 2: It's crazy.

00:47:11
Speaker 3: Yeah, my followers have not moved. Oh yeah, you know, but he again, I'm hearing that. Hey, what's this right? You know what I mean we'll get We'll get a few off with this.

00:47:24
Speaker 1: Sure, yes you will, because my people they definitely support some want to talk about something a little personal.

00:47:32
Speaker 2: How we have you helped me through my journey?

00:47:35
Speaker 4: Because please get to the real thing now speed dow.

00:47:41
Speaker 2: Listen.

00:47:43
Speaker 1: You say so many people d m you for advice and relationship advice. Yes, since I have known you and we've grown close, you are the one that I call to this day about anything, and you always he anything anything.

00:48:02
Speaker 3: There's two people, you and Lannie. Yeah, yes, you and Lannie. They I have to remind y'all. I am me, I'm a I'm brother. I don't want to know everything. Stop talking to me like one of the girls, like goodness, gracious, spare me something. I get it all, Like yeah, carry on, carry.

00:48:26
Speaker 2: On, okay.

00:48:27
Speaker 1: So there has been times where I have been like angry and I can call you and you'll either talk me off for ledge or be like what I need to do?

00:48:37
Speaker 3: Like, yeah, you're likely to two solutions and that's what do I need to do?

00:48:43
Speaker 4: Or how can I reroute your emotions exactly?

00:48:47
Speaker 2: And I love you for that.

00:48:48
Speaker 1: So I said, I want to talk about your book Flip Your Life.

00:48:51
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm so had to do that. To do that, the book and flip.

00:48:57
Speaker 1: Had to do the book and the flip, and they did the book.

00:49:00
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, Yeah.

00:49:02
Speaker 4: If I didn't flip the book, couldn't the cane.

00:49:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly what problem did you say? Hey, I need to write a.

00:49:07
Speaker 3: Book, Believe it or not. The book idea started when I was locked up. So the book I did started in nineteen ninety eight. Wow, in jail board prison, actually in prison, bored.

00:49:23
Speaker 4: I took the yellow notepad, started writing.

00:49:27
Speaker 3: That got old quick, Yeah, didn't complete it, moved on to something else. Fast forward to twenty seventeen eighteen. The idea revisited me because I felt like, now it's toime. I got a lot under my belt. Now I've done a lot, seen a lot, been through a lot, and now now now there's a story to tell.

00:49:57
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:49:58
Speaker 4: If I would have did it in ninety it would have been.

00:50:00
Speaker 3: A bunch of glorified street shit. And I didn't want that, which is what I did not do. So what I did the foundation of the book is based on what my mother said about being hard headed. You're gonna learned everything the hard way because you don't listen. So the book is compiled of situations and the outcomes of me not listening from her to me not listening to my friends that told me stop carrying those guns.

00:50:34
Speaker 4: The book.

00:50:35
Speaker 3: The book came at a time where I felt like I had enough experience and the social media was really bubbling and starting to really bubble. But I realized that a lot of people didn't know where I came from. They were like, who is this guy? He just fell out the sky with all this game? He talking right? And why do I all these celebrities knowing he's not a rapper, he's not a singer. We don't know him, but we don't know him.

00:51:08
Speaker 4: But it seemed like everybody else knowing what are we missing? So what I did with the book.

00:51:14
Speaker 3: The book again, there is a compilation of my experiences from not listening to some of the things that I talk about on social media, how to interact with the police, the importance of duality with co parenting and being respectful even when the relationship is over, and accepting that your child's father or your child's mother has someone new in their life that's going to be around your child, and how you should conduct yourself like all of that's in the book, so it gave people a bird's eye view of Okay, this is who he is, this is where he comes from, and this is why what he says resonates so much because it's really authentic. He didn't google this stuff.

00:51:57
Speaker 4: He'd be telling me he really lived this that. I love it.

00:52:01
Speaker 2: Make sure you guys get the book. Please, please get the book, please.

00:52:04
Speaker 3: Because you'll know. I'll go back in the streets.

00:52:07
Speaker 4: No I won't.

00:52:07
Speaker 3: We don't. No, I won't, but I do want you all to get that book.

00:52:12
Speaker 4: Yes, play these bills.

00:52:14
Speaker 2: I know that's right. Brother. I appreciate you for sure.

00:52:18
Speaker 3: I mean, this is, this is, this is, this is I'm happy about this me too, just not just me being here. I'm just happy about this. Thank you.

00:52:27
Speaker 4: This this is so cool, man.

00:52:30
Speaker 2: I appreciate it.

00:52:31
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's super cool.

00:52:32
Speaker 2: Thank you.

00:52:37
Speaker 1: Right now, we're gonna do my favorite part of the show. It's called Positive Outcomes, where the listeners write in and we give them advice. So I'm gonna read a letter from one of our listeners and I'm gonna.

00:52:46
Speaker 2: Lets you give advice.

00:52:47
Speaker 3: Oh wow, I like that.

00:52:49
Speaker 2: It says high Crystal.

00:52:51
Speaker 1: I wasn't raising the church the same way I hear others speak about their experiences. Even still, I always knew God, and most of my life I've only had God to depend In my younger years, God was all I needed. But as I grow older, I feel like my faith is decreasing in ways that I have never struggled before.

00:53:08
Speaker 2: I'm twenty five.

00:53:09
Speaker 1: Years old and I've been on my own since the age of seventeen. God continues to sustain me and provide for me, but I'm lacking some key pieces loving parents, a community, a college education, financial literacy, etc. Last year, I was blessed with most of my prayers being answered, while losing everything I already had. Starting over was a very humbling experience. I expected twenty five to be a great year, if not my best year, and I often wonder if it was something I.

00:53:37
Speaker 2: Did that caused this on me.

00:53:39
Speaker 1: I love God with all my heart and it breaks my heart that I feel this way. However, I know God has me because only He can sustain a person that lacks all these things, and considering my upbringing, I'm doing well for myself. How do you find the hustle within your pain? What does the balance between knowing your blessed but also suffering. Look like, I look at you and I'm fire because I know it's not easy. I need to get back on my feet, and I truly believe that I need to work harder and release myself from the victim mindset. But I just don't know how or where to start. Please help, Okay, let's see.

00:54:17
Speaker 3: You know what I noticed when a lot of people ask for advice, and this young lady included a lot of people don't realize they answer their own question.

00:54:28
Speaker 2: That's crazy.

00:54:29
Speaker 1: Tyler said the same thing when he was like, read it bag, and he was like, she answered her own question and the question.

00:54:34
Speaker 3: Oh wow, TP. So what that means is, you know, man, you need to get together, have an executive sit down, because that means we think alike, which means I should be on that type of paper wave that you want my money, my money running low, So we'll talk soon, p G.

00:54:52
Speaker 4: But no, she answered her own question because she has the faith.

00:54:57
Speaker 3: She has the faith, she understands who in control, She understands, she has that understanding.

00:55:04
Speaker 4: What she has to do is stay acclimated to.

00:55:08
Speaker 3: The patience and the belief, the belief of what she knows to be true, right, meaning she believes in God. She knows that God is in control, so she has to be patient. But what I like to tell people, be patient, but be patient in motion. Don't be patient and stagnant. Don't be patient and still be patient, but still have movement. Because what she's going through is, in my opinion, she's not looking inside herself and being.

00:55:47
Speaker 4: Okay with what her success may be.

00:55:52
Speaker 3: I tell people, don't reject your reality chasing what may.

00:55:59
Speaker 4: Be be someone else's fantasy.

00:56:04
Speaker 3: A lot of people look at other people's lives and they minimize their own. She said.

00:56:09
Speaker 4: She named a couple of different spots in there where she's blessed.

00:56:16
Speaker 3: So sometimes, and this is very important for people to understand, face.

00:56:22
Speaker 4: Sometimes our success.

00:56:26
Speaker 3: Is we are able to pay the bills. We did wake up today. We're not running from bill collectors. We are in good health. Our family structure is okay. Now I understand there were spots where she had a better relationship, you know, loving parent in a community, but she has to understand those are people. Parents are people, and sometimes you know, blood makes you related, lawyer makes you family. And unfortunately sometimes people have these issues you know, with their parents, with their siblings. And I will never tell anybody to several tides with kith and kin. However, I will say that when people, whether you are family members or not, when they make your life difficult, you have a right.

00:57:24
Speaker 4: To not intertwine yourself in negativity.

00:57:28
Speaker 3: So whatever you have to do to preserve yourself, especially when it comes to parents, respectfully, you still have a duty to be respectful. Even if you had the worse parents in the world, and you have to and if you have to respect them by staying away from them, do that. But what I believe this young lady should do is identify all her pluses. Let's put our minuses to the side. Look at all your pluses, compare them to your minuses. I guarantee you the the minuses will be something that somebody else has that she thinks she should have. Always, nine times out of ten, the minuses I don't have this over there, and I think I should. Meanwhile, I could find a multitude of people. You can take her life exactly as it is right now, and they'll think they live in like the persons of whales.

00:58:25
Speaker 2: No, it's so crazy, because a lot like you can.

00:58:30
Speaker 1: My mom used to always tell me it's somebody out there that is doing much. You think you're having a bad day, Honey, somebody wishes.

00:58:38
Speaker 3: Let me say this, and I'm gonna sit up a little bit because this is very important. It's like what you just said, did somebody else that's going through much more. But here's what a lot of people will do face your bad That's easy for you. You live in Miami in the penthouse and you drive this and you Crystal. That's easy for you to say you did this and you got that, and you on TV. This is what people forget. They forget what they don't know. They don't know Shabad has lived in a crack house for ten months. They don't know shr Bads lived in another crackhouse after that and used to wake up smacking roaches off his face. They don't know what you went through for order for this to become your blessing. You understand me. When so people will think it's easy for us to be encouraging, and it's easy for us to say we got faith. No, we are encouraging and we have faith because our lives are testaments of what being faithful brings. Because I know mine is. That's why I stick with what I do. This is why I stick to speaking and gave us. This is why I stick to motivation, because that's my job.

00:59:57
Speaker 4: I don't know where the money.

00:59:58
Speaker 3: Coming from sometime, y'all. I don't have a salary. You understand me. You know I don't have a salary. I don't know, you know if I'm gonna make a hundred thousand this year or I'm gonna make fifty. But what I do know is as long or what I believe. What I do believe is that as long as I do what I'm doing, I'll continue to receive what I've been receiving.

01:00:21
Speaker 4: So I stayed.

01:00:22
Speaker 3: Of course, this young lady, she has to figure out a game going back to purpose. Are you operating within your purpose? So take your pluses, sweetheart, and put your pluses on the table. Set your minuses aside, because if you concentrate on what you're good at and what you're blessed at, that'll get too much, that'll get so much attention that what you don't have won't even matter because.

01:00:48
Speaker 4: You'll be fulfilled over here.

01:00:51
Speaker 2: That's real.

01:00:52
Speaker 3: She's looking for fulfillment. But she should concentrate on what's going right, because the things that's going wrong are maybe not necessarily wrong. It may not be meant.

01:01:03
Speaker 2: That was the word.

01:01:04
Speaker 3: I like that. It might not be meant.

01:01:06
Speaker 2: That's good, Thank you good. I don't have nothing to ask to that. That was good past. All right, We're gonna do what I'm going through and what I'm growing through.

01:01:23
Speaker 1: Okay, And right now in life, I am there's so much going on. I have a lot on my plate right now, so juggling things, managing my anxiety. I was talking to the Nord today about being in She's in the season of surrender, and I need to surrender some things myself and completely let it go and pray on some things. But right now I am trying to manage everything and manage this anxiety because it wasn't untilast year I realized I.

01:01:53
Speaker 2: Even had anxiety.

01:01:54
Speaker 1: But just keeping that under control and understanding that I have everything I need, I like nothing, and just just letting God take it because a lot of times you put more on ourselves than we have to, and I'm very guilty of that.

01:02:08
Speaker 3: Yes, what about you, Shockingly the same thing. I just never had an attack, but I worry. Yeah, I'll be anxious because sometimes you just don't know you're unsure, all.

01:02:32
Speaker 1: Right, Lastly, we're gonna do keep it blank, sweetie, And for this episode, I'm going to say, keep it.

01:02:41
Speaker 2: A hunted, sweetie, keep it one hunted.

01:02:45
Speaker 3: Keep it accountable, sweetie. Come on now, yeah, keep it accountable.

01:02:48
Speaker 1: I love it, everybody, my big brother Shabaz, thank you so much.

01:02:53
Speaker 3: Thanks for having me. This was this was a jewel and a gem in a box of jewelry.

01:02:59
Speaker 2: I love, I love this, Thanks for having me absolutely.

01:03:02
Speaker 1: Thank you and thank you guys for tuning in. If you want to write into our Positive Outcome listener letter, write into keep It Positive Sweete at gmail dot com and at sweetye with an Ie. You can follow me on all platforms at love Chrystal Reina and that's l U V Chrystal Rena. Should tell the people where they can find you.

01:03:20
Speaker 4: Wooh, I almost said so. I ain't got no business saying.

01:03:25
Speaker 3: You can find me at Shabatz the O G s H A b A z z t h E O G on Instagram.

01:03:31
Speaker 4: I'm not reading a lot of other social platforms.

01:03:34
Speaker 3: However, I do have a podcast named after the book Flip Your Life, and you can subscribe to that at T m T Digitalnetwork dot com.

01:03:43
Speaker 2: I love it all right.

01:03:44
Speaker 1: Make sure you guys tap in with him in the meantime in between time you know what to do. Keep it positive, Sweetie, love y'all, KA,