Danny Jones Podcast - #3 - Tampa Tony
Aired: 2018-11-04
Duration: 01:23:16


=== From DJing to Life Sentence (13:26) ===

[00:00:00]  We're on the Concrete Podcast, and today's guest is Tampa Tony.
[00:00:04]  Tampa Tony.
[00:00:05]  How's it going, man?
[00:00:06]  Hey, man, it's a beautiful thing, man.
[00:00:08]  Finally free.
[00:00:09]  Finally free.
[00:00:11]  Back on the road.
[00:00:12]  Back on the road.
[00:00:13]  So, for the people out there who may not comprehend, the short summary of what's been going on with you is I think in 2006, you were convicted to life in prison.
[00:00:25]  And two days ago, you were just released and you were pardoned by Obama.
[00:00:29]  Is that right?
[00:00:30]  Yeah.
[00:00:31]  So Shane actually told me about you, and you had a music career.
[00:00:35]  Yeah, yeah.
[00:00:36]  Me and a few buddies, we used to record music at local studios around here in St. Pete and whatnot, and your name was popping back then, it was buzzing.
[00:00:43]  So, Tampa, everybody knew Tampa Tony, and then I heard you went away, and then years and years went by, and I happened to see an article that you got your sentence commuted by Obama, and that you were getting out, so I started looking you up, and you're free.
[00:00:56]  I said, We got to get him on, we got to have the story.
[00:00:59]  Yeah, man, it was beautiful, man.
[00:01:00]  It was beautiful.
[00:01:01]  So, where did it start?
[00:01:03]  Are you born in Florida?
[00:01:04]  Yeah, Florida born.
[00:01:05]  Tampa?
[00:01:06]  Well, I was born in Orlando, raised in Tampa.
[00:01:09]  Okay.
[00:01:09]  All right.
[00:01:09]  And then, so when did music start?
[00:01:11]  Music started really when I really got into it.
[00:01:17]  It really started like maybe I was like 13, 14 when I started DJing.
[00:01:22]  Okay.
[00:01:23]  You know, that was like the beginning of it.
[00:01:24]  And I started DJing.
[00:01:25]  And, you know, I went from DJing and went on one show with my cousin.
[00:01:31]  He had a big record back in the days called It's My Cadillac.
[00:01:34]  His name was Nas D. Went on the road with him and seen the following that he had.
[00:01:42]  And on the way back, I was like, man, I'm for the rap.
[00:01:45]  And he was like, what?
[00:01:46]  I was like, yeah, I'm rapping now, man.
[00:01:48]  I seen you get in the limo.
[00:01:50]  We got in the limo and the big crowds and stuff like that.
[00:01:52]  I was like, yeah, I'm going to rap, man.
[00:01:54]  And did you work with a lot of big artists?
[00:01:56]  I mean, obviously, you got pretty popular back then.
[00:01:58]  So, how did you blow up like that?
[00:02:00]  We had a DJ crew in Tampa called Rock and Rod DJs.
[00:02:04]  And we kind of controlled the market because there wasn't no radio stations in Tampa back then.
[00:02:10]  The only thing that was up was like WTMP 88.5.
[00:02:16]  It wasn't no big stations like 94.1.
[00:02:19]  Yeah.
[00:02:21]  Yeah, so it was before that.
[00:02:22]  So we kind of like broke a lot of records in our area because of the mixtapes.
[00:02:27]  You know what I mean?
[00:02:28]  That slowed down.
[00:02:29]  We were known for the slowed down music.
[00:02:31]  Yeah.
[00:02:32]  And then we seen your song with Trick Daddy.
[00:02:34]  Yeah.
[00:02:34]  I know that was popular.
[00:02:36]  Yeah.
[00:02:36]  I know Trick from way back because.
[00:02:40]  His uncle was managing my cousin at the time.
[00:02:43]  So I met him way back then, but he was like in the streets.
[00:02:46]  You know, he wasn't rapping, man.
[00:02:48]  You know, he was like coming from jail, doing freestyles.
[00:02:50]  Like, he don't take it serious.
[00:02:52]  But once he came out, you know, I already knew him.
[00:02:57]  So I started breaking his music in the Tampa Bay area.
[00:03:00]  You know, I'll play a lot of tricks.
[00:03:02]  And that's how we came together.
[00:03:05]  And then he saw me back in the rap business.
[00:03:07]  And he was like, look, man, everywhere I'm going, I'm hearing your name, man.
[00:03:12]  I mean, you're making some noise.
[00:03:14]  He was like, we got to do a record together.
[00:03:15]  I was like, whenever.
[00:03:16]  No way.
[00:03:17]  Yeah.
[00:03:18]  So he was like, man, I'm going to call you tomorrow.
[00:03:20]  So he got my number.
[00:03:21]  He called me the next day.
[00:03:22]  He's like, man, when can you come down?
[00:03:23]  I was like, man, I'm always free.
[00:03:26]  So that's wild.
[00:03:29]  And this was like before Instagram and.
[00:03:31]  Yeah, this was before Instagram and Twitter and all that.
[00:03:34]  It was none of that.
[00:03:35]  That's wild.
[00:03:36]  Yeah.
[00:03:36]  And what year was that you did the Trick Daddy song?
[00:03:38]  I did a Trick Daddy song in, I want to say 2005.
[00:03:43]  2005?
[00:03:44]  Yeah, 2005.
[00:03:46]  And the year after that is when you got arrested.
[00:03:49]  Yeah, when I got arrested.
[00:03:50]  So, what else were you doing besides music?
[00:03:54]  I invented this thing called a blunt splitter.
[00:03:57]  The splitter.
[00:03:57]  The splitter.
[00:03:58]  I saw that.
[00:03:59]  Yeah.
[00:03:59]  What is that?
[00:04:01]  It's you slide the cigar through and it splits it down the middle.
[00:04:06]  Oh, no way.
[00:04:07]  Okay.
[00:04:07]  So you can pull all the tobacco out.
[00:04:09]  You can pull all the tobacco out.
[00:04:10]  So it's like a clean cut.
[00:04:11]  You don't have to use your nails.
[00:04:12]  I see those in gas stations and stuff now all the time.
[00:04:15]  So it was, I pushed it a lot before I went in.
[00:04:19]  And when I lost trial, they kind of used that in my trial to say that I was using drug proceeds to fund the splitter.
[00:04:28]  So it kind of like, you know, messed everything up with that.
[00:04:31]  But I still had the patent.
[00:04:32]  So once guys seen that, it was so hot because it was in the High Times magazine.
[00:04:38]  I was getting a lot of publicity from it.
[00:04:40]  No way.
[00:04:40]  Yeah.
[00:04:41]  So did you make some good money off that?
[00:04:43]  Yeah, I made some good money.
[00:04:44]  But once they came in, it's like when I got locked up, other companies seen, oh, he locked up.
[00:04:52]  He can't do nothing.
[00:04:53]  He got a life sentence.
[00:04:54]  So ain't nobody else doing nothing.
[00:04:56]  So we come out with our own.
[00:04:58]  They just changed the pattern up just a little bit.
[00:05:01]  And they went to work, man.
[00:05:03]  So you're doing some serious shit.
[00:05:04]  How old were you in that, like in 2005?
[00:05:06]  In 2005, I think I was like 26.
[00:05:11]  And you were getting patents for fucking shit that you created and you were making serious money.
[00:05:16]  So you were like a legit businessman when you were in your 20s.
[00:05:20]  Yeah, yeah.
[00:05:21]  That's wild.
[00:05:21]  And then what was going on?
[00:05:23]  Like, what were you doing illegally?
[00:05:25]  Illegally, I was, it was like the marijuana, the cocaine, you know, it was just like being a part of the streets and funding, really, actually funding everything, you know what I mean?
[00:05:36]  Like for my group, my label.
[00:05:39]  The splitter and like really marketing myself.
[00:05:42]  You know what I mean?
[00:05:42]  I was taking the money, just putting it back into my business.
[00:05:45]  Right.
[00:05:45]  So the goal was to get the money to fund your other business.
[00:05:48]  Yeah, fund my other business and the music at the same time and stay independent.
[00:05:51]  You know, I was thinking about Master P. Right.
[00:05:53]  You know, everybody wanted to be like, man, okay, I want to be independent.
[00:05:57]  Instead of having a labor deal, I can just do everything myself, you know, and brand myself.
[00:06:01]  So that's what I was doing.
[00:06:03]  So without like, you know, obviously saying any names or anything, like how, what, tell me the story of how you got into.
[00:06:12]  The drug business?
[00:06:13]  The drug business was, it's been my background.
[00:06:18]  You know, like a lot of my people have been in the drug business.
[00:06:21]  I've been affiliated with the streets, but, you know, sometimes I leave to try to do the right thing, you know what I mean?
[00:06:30]  And then it kind of slowed down, the money slowed down.
[00:06:33]  So now that I'm trying to do something big and brand myself, now I needed the extra funds to do that.
[00:06:40]  So you had to start.
[00:06:43]  Increasing the scale of the stuff you were hustling.
[00:06:45]  Yeah, so I increased the scale of it.
[00:06:47]  So, like your friends and the people around you, is that how you got into it?
[00:06:52]  Were they selling weed and coke and stuff?
[00:06:54]  And that's how you got into it?
[00:06:55]  A couple of them was, you know, a couple of them was, like we, I started in the streets, you know what I mean?
[00:07:01]  Just like, you know, small things, nickel and diamond, and then I'll leave and go straight to the DJing, and then, you know, money will slow down a little bit, then I go back.
[00:07:11]  So it was like a back and forth thing, you know, it was nothing serious, you know what I mean?
[00:07:16]  I was like, well, if I'm going to do it, I'm going to take it to the next level.
[00:07:20]  You know what I mean?
[00:07:20]  So I just went ahead and took it to the next level.
[00:07:22]  How do you step it up?
[00:07:23]  Like, what's the leap you take?
[00:07:26]  What's the next level?
[00:07:26]  Like, how do you get to the next level?
[00:07:27]  Well, just you kind of like meet different individuals, and it went from there to, okay, well, now you're taking your money and you're buying more.
[00:07:39]  So you're going to buy more, you know, and saving up money, buying more and more.
[00:07:44]  And then all of a sudden, you increase your supply.
[00:07:49]  And now it's like the demand is always gonna be there.
[00:07:53]  Yeah.
[00:07:54]  Do you remember when you bought like your first kilo of weed or kilo of Coke?
[00:07:57]  Like, tell me that.
[00:07:58]  Tell me, like, what was that like?
[00:07:59]  Like, what were you doing?
[00:08:00]  What was going through your head?
[00:08:01]  Like, you know.
[00:08:03]  Or was it a pound?
[00:08:04]  What was it?
[00:08:05]  You know what I mean?
[00:08:05]  Like, when I bought my first pound, it was like, you know, like I graduated from buying little small things to something bigger now.
[00:08:15]  You know, now it's like, okay, save your money and don't spend it and go, you know, keep growing.
[00:08:21]  You know, that's even with the same thing in the music, you know, my mentality has been the same way.
[00:08:26]  It's like, bring yourself and put your money aside and then invest it back into yourself.
[00:08:32]  Right.
[00:08:32]  You know, so that's what I did.
[00:08:33]  Just kept different steps, higher steps.
[00:08:36]  Yeah.
[00:08:37]  So you had to just keep flipping onto bigger things.
[00:08:39]  Yeah, to bigger things.
[00:08:41]  Wow.
[00:08:42]  And then what was the transition like from weed to cocaine, or did you always have both?
[00:08:48]  No, I started out in the coke business as a young kid.
[00:08:53]  You know, I was younger when I started that.
[00:08:56]  But it was just like little small things, little cut rocks.
[00:08:58]  But then when I got back in and graduated to that, it was.
[00:09:04]  Like a major level, it was different.
[00:09:06]  The money is different.
[00:09:07]  What do you mean?
[00:09:08]  The money, the coke money is faster, it's faster, yeah, and it's more.
[00:09:13]  You know, I mean, like what it would take you to make 10 grand in marijuana would only take you know, like one or two keys in coke, you know, I mean, a lot less, you know, I mean, it's much smaller too, yeah.
[00:09:29]  So, I mean, at that point, it's easier to move, even to move, it ain't that bulky, it ain't that smell, you know, the smell.
[00:09:36]  So, did you prefer selling coke versus weed?
[00:09:41]  I didn't.
[00:09:41]  I really didn't want to do neither.
[00:09:43]  Right.
[00:09:44]  Obviously.
[00:09:44]  Obviously not.
[00:09:44]  Right.
[00:09:45]  I didn't want to do neither.
[00:09:46]  Right.
[00:09:46]  But you were trying to keep doing what you had to do.
[00:09:48]  Yeah.
[00:09:48]  I had a dream and I wanted to because I dealt with a lot of individuals that told me they would invest.
[00:09:55]  You know, other individuals that had money that they would invest in my brand.
[00:10:01]  Right.
[00:10:02]  When it got down to it, they never did it because something came up.
[00:10:06]  And they lost some money, so they were never able to do that.
[00:10:09]  So it was like now and never, okay, I'm going to take it in my own hands to do that.
[00:10:14]  You know what I mean?
[00:10:14]  I felt the need for me to do that myself.
[00:10:16]  Yeah.
[00:10:17]  Was there like a stopping point you had in your head, like I'm going to get to this much money and then that's it?
[00:10:23]  I had a point.
[00:10:24]  Yeah, what was your goal?
[00:10:25]  Like what was your monetary goal?
[00:10:27]  My goal was to get to a million dollars.
[00:10:31]  Right.
[00:10:31]  And I was going to be, that was it.
[00:10:33]  Yeah.
[00:10:35]  And at the time when I was getting to that point, I looked at it, it was the splitter.
[00:10:41]  I had the splitter, and I had got that so huge that I was offered like 1.5 for the splitter.
[00:10:48]  No way.
[00:10:48]  So, my mind thinking like this okay, I can get to the million and I can get to 1.5 and leave the walk away with like 1.2 or 1.1 with the lawyer fees and all that.
[00:11:00]  Now, my money's clean because I can show where the million dollars is.
[00:11:04]  Where you made that money from.
[00:11:05]  So, I can keep that in there and just spend the street money to brand everything.
[00:11:10]  You see what I'm saying?
[00:11:11]  So, that was my whole point.
[00:11:12]  That was my whole goal.
[00:11:13]  Like, okay, if I get right like this and I can sell the splitter, I got okay.
[00:11:18]  I know the splitter was like my baby.
[00:11:20]  Yeah.
[00:11:21]  You know, and I was like, okay, well, I can sell it off and then become legit.
[00:11:26]  Yeah.
[00:11:27]  And have enough fun to push myself all the way.
[00:11:30]  Then that was my ultimate goal.
[00:11:33]  So, at that point, the splitter is blowing up.
[00:11:35]  You got to offer.
[00:11:36]  Yeah.
[00:11:37]  Then, so why don't you sell it?
[00:11:38]  Is that when you get jammed up?
[00:11:40]  Yeah.
[00:11:40]  Well, the lawyers that was going, his lawyer and my lawyer was going back and forth.
[00:11:45]  With the paperwork and the contracts and everything.
[00:11:48]  And it was taking, I think it was like, it was maybe in like three weeks into it.
[00:11:54]  And it was going back and forth.
[00:11:57]  He was like, it'll be like two more weeks and it'll be finalized.
[00:12:01]  And y'all can come and sign and it'll be on.
[00:12:04]  So before those two weeks was up, that's when I caught the charge.
[00:12:09]  That's when it happened.
[00:12:10]  Yeah, and when it happened, you know, he went a separate way.
[00:12:14]  He's probably one of the guys that got all the little small splitters out right now, you know?
[00:12:17]  Yeah, right?
[00:12:18]  He probably took it.
[00:12:18]  Yeah.
[00:12:20]  So you get jammed up at that point.
[00:12:23]  Is this like, I mean, you got the splitter deal on the line.
[00:12:26]  So why are you doing this?
[00:12:29]  Why are you still selling the drugs?
[00:12:30]  Why not give it up?
[00:12:31]  Or is this your last one?
[00:12:33]  Is it like I got the splitter?
[00:12:34]  This is my last one?
[00:12:35]  This is my last one because I'm trying to get to that million dollar goal.
[00:12:38]  If I can get to this million dollar goal and I sell the splitter, then I'm good.
[00:12:44]  Even if I don't get it, and once the splitter is sold, I'm done.
[00:12:48]  You know what I mean?
[00:12:49]  But is it that easy to exit the drug business like that?
[00:12:52]  You just tell your people, the guys who are supplying you, just be like, I'm out or whatever, and that's fine?
[00:12:58]  Well, it's not fine because they'll continue.
[00:13:00]  Continue to hassle you, like, man, we need you.
[00:13:03]  I didn't save no money.
[00:13:06]  Man, just give us a little more run or turn me on to the people and this and that.
[00:13:10]  And you look at it like, okay, look, I have to make an exit some type of way.
[00:13:17]  So my thing was, my whole plan was just tell them, like, the dude just stopped.
[00:13:23]  So I'm not in it no more.

=== The Plea Deal Strategy (15:29) ===

[00:13:26]  So I'm just waiting.
[00:13:28]  Just let them play the game.
[00:13:30]  Till they just move on to somebody else.
[00:13:31]  Till they just move to somebody else.
[00:13:32]  You know what I mean?
[00:13:33]  Just keep pushing them off to.
[00:13:34]  Did they move on to somebody else?
[00:13:35]  Yeah.
[00:13:36]  So that was my whole plan.
[00:13:38]  Wow.
[00:13:39]  So then that's around 06, and you get jammed up.
[00:13:42]  Yeah.
[00:13:43]  When you actually got jammed up, what was that day like?
[00:13:47]  What was going on that day?
[00:13:47]  Can you walk me through that day?
[00:13:49]  That day, the individual that was my connect, he was a Mexican.
[00:13:59]  He called and told me he was ready for me.
[00:14:04]  I met him out in.
[00:14:08]  Pasco County.
[00:14:09]  And are you expecting that call?
[00:14:11]  Is that out of the ordinary?
[00:14:12]  Well, no, we had talked that night.
[00:14:14]  So he was like, that morning, I'm going to go into the truck and get everything and then we'll meet.
[00:14:21]  So I was like, okay, cool.
[00:14:23]  So when he came to meet me, it was a strange feeling that I had.
[00:14:31]  But I'm just trying to move fast because I had to be in Miami.
[00:14:35]  So I'm like, why is it a strange feeling?
[00:14:39]  Okay, in your stomach, like you just had like a.
[00:14:41]  Yeah, like it's like.
[00:14:42]  Just have one of those moments.
[00:14:43]  One of those moments, like, you know, you're like, man, this is not, you shouldn't do that.
[00:14:47]  You know what I mean?
[00:14:47]  Yeah.
[00:14:48]  Maybe, no, you don't need to do that right now.
[00:14:50]  You know what I mean?
[00:14:52]  And I was, I didn't listen.
[00:14:54]  Right.
[00:14:55]  I didn't listen.
[00:14:55]  I didn't listen.
[00:14:56]  So I ended up making the deal and.
[00:15:02]  How much was it?
[00:15:03]  It was 21 kilos.
[00:15:05]  And so where is this at?
[00:15:06]  A house or at a.
[00:15:08]  We was at a.
[00:15:09]  We was in a parking lot.
[00:15:11]  Okay.
[00:15:11]  Yeah, we was in a parking lot.
[00:15:13]  Like a gas station parking lot?
[00:15:14]  No, it was Sam's Club parking lot.
[00:15:17]  Okay.
[00:15:18]  Yeah, Sam's Club parking lot.
[00:15:20]  Wow.
[00:15:21]  And how do you do that exchange?
[00:15:22]  Just in two cars in a bag?
[00:15:24]  Normally, we have never done that.
[00:15:27]  And I was just going to meet him up there and then follow him back or he followed me back to a place, my house or something like that.
[00:15:35]  But it's like he just, it happened so fast.
[00:15:40]  He just shows up and he has to go.
[00:15:41]  Yeah, he just showed up and he jumped out and like popped his trunk.
[00:15:44]  And I'm like, yo, man, we.
[00:15:45]  We're here, man.
[00:15:46]  He was like, No, we are, we are right.
[00:15:48]  Know that's the main man, that's the big man right there, and this and that, and Blazi Squazi.
[00:15:51]  And the guy said something like, Uh, they got pretty stamps on them, or some like that.
[00:15:56]  And it kind of like spooked me.
[00:15:58]  That's when I woke up.
[00:15:59]  Then pretty stamps, he's like, Yeah, they got good stamps on them.
[00:16:02]  I was like, Good stamps, what is what are you talking about?
[00:16:05]  Right, what does that mean?
[00:16:06]  Yeah, what does that mean?
[00:16:07]  So I went in the car to get, I had this thing called a spy catcher, and it um detects bugs.
[00:16:14]  Oh, no, yeah.
[00:16:15]  So I went in the car to grab that.
[00:16:16]  It was up under the seat because I went to Sam's Club earlier and I took it off of me.
[00:16:20]  Yeah.
[00:16:21]  Because it'll keep going off with the.
[00:16:23]  With all this stuff in there.
[00:16:24]  With all this stuff in there.
[00:16:25]  So I took it off.
[00:16:26]  So I went to grab it and police came from everywhere.
[00:16:29]  I thought I was grabbing a gun.
[00:16:31]  No fucking way.
[00:16:32]  So he puts the bag in your trunk and you go to get your little detector to check it out.
[00:16:37]  That's not just a bag, buddy.
[00:16:38]  Just.
[00:16:39]  21 keys, you can't fit.
[00:16:40]  Right, so that's like a duffel bag.
[00:16:41]  Did you fit that in a backpack?
[00:16:43]  No, like a suitcase.
[00:16:44]  It was a suitcase.
[00:16:44]  Big suitcase.
[00:16:45]  Yeah.
[00:16:46]  So you put it in the trunk.
[00:16:47]  21 keys of cocaine.
[00:16:48]  Yeah.
[00:16:49]  And then also, what?
[00:16:50]  You hear somebody say freeze.
[00:16:52]  Oh, everywhere.
[00:16:53]  Everywhere.
[00:16:53]  I'm like.
[00:16:54]  Where the fuck y'all come from?
[00:16:55]  You're by yourself?
[00:16:56]  Yeah, I'm by myself.
[00:16:57]  You're by yourself.
[00:16:57]  Yeah, I'm like, man, where the fuck y'all come from?
[00:16:59]  Like, well, y'all don't put them under the car.
[00:17:01]  Right.
[00:17:02]  Yeah.
[00:17:02]  How many of them?
[00:17:04]  Like 20.
[00:17:05]  20.
[00:17:06]  With ARs and all type of shit.
[00:17:07]  And I'm like, man, where the fuck did they come from, man?
[00:17:10]  Yeah, it was crazy, man.
[00:17:12]  That's crazy.
[00:17:14]  So that moment, you know, it's all over.
[00:17:15]  Yeah, and one of the officers told me, he was like, yeah, you'll never rap again.
[00:17:21]  And you know, that's still with me for the whole bid, you know.
[00:17:26]  At that point, do you know you got set up or you just think you'll get busted?
[00:17:30]  I know I got set up because the guy, he even said it.
[00:17:32]  He said it, the guy that set me up.
[00:17:35]  Mexican dude?
[00:17:35]  Yeah, he was like, man, he wasn't supposed to know that I did this.
[00:17:41]  Yeah.
[00:17:41]  And, you know, they were like, fuck you.
[00:17:43]  Right, they don't give a fuck, right?
[00:17:44]  They don't care.
[00:17:44]  Yeah, they don't give a fuck.
[00:17:45]  They were like, yeah, fuck you.
[00:17:47]  Yeah.
[00:17:48]  So, what happened to him?
[00:17:50]  He got off or he did a little light sentence?
[00:17:52]  He came and testified against me.
[00:17:54]  He only got like.
[00:17:56]  I think he only did like three or four years in jail.
[00:17:59]  Yeah.
[00:18:01]  Three or four years in prison, yeah.
[00:18:03]  Aaron told him that in trial, he told him that's all he's going to ever do.
[00:18:07]  That's it.
[00:18:08]  Well, he was like, I'm a drug dealer.
[00:18:10]  Like, that's all I'm going to ever do.
[00:18:12]  Like, he was like, Well, if you get out of this, when you get out of prison, because you're going to prison, what are you going to do?
[00:18:20]  He was like, What I've been doing all my life.
[00:18:24]  He was like, You're going to continue in this?
[00:18:27]  Even if you're coming to testify on this individual for that and you're going to still continue this, you're like, yeah.
[00:18:33]  So that's wild.
[00:18:36]  And the article, I was reading some sort of one article yesterday and they were talking about somebody in Arizona that was involved with it.
[00:18:42]  Is that?
[00:18:43]  Yeah.
[00:18:43]  Who is that?
[00:18:44]  Is that your connector?
[00:18:45]  Yeah, that was the main man.
[00:18:50]  How it all started was the truck driver was leaving Tampa with.
[00:18:54]  Move your mic a little bit.
[00:18:57]  The truck driver was leaving Tampa with like $1.1 million in his truck.
[00:19:02]  And he was going through Texas.
[00:19:04]  The authorities pulled him over in Texas.
[00:19:07]  With the money?
[00:19:08]  With the money.
[00:19:08]  Okay.
[00:19:09]  He immediately went to cooperating with the authorities.
[00:19:15]  They take the money and they let him go.
[00:19:17]  Then he goes and see the big man.
[00:19:18]  And the big man tells him, he tells the big man that the police took my money.
[00:19:23]  So he's like, okay, go back to Tampa and pick up some more money for my son in law.
[00:19:33]  So he goes back and he goes back to pick up more money and he comes back.
[00:19:39]  But the whole time he's wearing the wire.
[00:19:41]  No way.
[00:19:42]  Yeah.
[00:19:43]  So the big guy told him, well, I'm going to go back to Mexico and I'm going to get some more work and I'm going to have you take it back down there.
[00:19:53]  So he was like, okay.
[00:19:56]  And this truck, what happened to this truck driver?
[00:19:58]  The truck driver never seen a day in jail.
[00:20:00]  Really?
[00:20:01]  Yeah, he never seen a day in jail.
[00:20:02]  The guy that got pulled over with the money.
[00:20:03]  Yeah, he never seen a day in jail.
[00:20:05]  So he sets up the next dude.
[00:20:07]  He sets up, he really sets up the father in law and the son in law.
[00:20:15]  He sets them up.
[00:20:16]  And then that trickles down to you.
[00:20:17]  The son in law sets me up.
[00:20:20]  Holy shit.
[00:20:21]  They had a whole fucking deal.
[00:20:23]  Yeah.
[00:20:24]  So, did they offer you a deal to set somebody else up?
[00:20:27]  They came on me with a deal, but my morals of street is like, I'm all the way against that.
[00:20:33]  Right.
[00:20:33]  You know, I was taught, like, hey, man, whatever you do, you did it.
[00:20:37]  You know what I mean?
[00:20:38]  Take your lick and keep taking it.
[00:20:40]  And that's what most, how it goes in the street code.
[00:20:42]  But a lot of people, when it comes to that time, they don't live up to it.
[00:20:46]  It has changed so drastically now.
[00:20:48]  It's like, you know, a lot of people like glorified snitching.
[00:20:52]  I mean, I can't, I'm not against those people.
[00:20:59]  I just don't want nothing to deal with them.
[00:21:01]  I mean, if I have to deal with them, then it's not on nothing that we can get caught up.
[00:21:05]  Hey, man, we could do business, but not that type of business.
[00:21:08]  You know what I mean?
[00:21:09]  Because at the same time, I'm always feel like if you get in a jam, I could be the one that you can, because it could be anything from a conversation.
[00:21:17]  Yeah, it could be anything from a conversation.
[00:21:19]  You can tell me, hey man, I'm finna bring these couple beers over there, man.
[00:21:22]  What you gonna do?
[00:21:23]  Yeah, and because you are informant and I've been to prison for drugs, they can interpret that conversation as, oh, he's talking about bringing drugs, right?
[00:21:34]  And there it is, I'm back in prison again, yeah, off something so simple.
[00:21:39]  All right, so they offer you a deal.
[00:21:41]  So, what do you take it to trial or you plead out?
[00:21:44]  No, I go to trial, you go to trial, and they, I'm sure, they offer you a plea deal, right?
[00:21:48]  No, they never offer me a plea deal, wow, they never offer me a plea deal, they just.
[00:21:53]  So they wanted to take it straight to trial.
[00:21:55]  They felt like they were winning trial.
[00:21:56]  So you go to trial.
[00:21:58]  How long does that go on for?
[00:22:00]  Because I can go on for a year.
[00:22:01]  Three days.
[00:22:02]  Speedy trial.
[00:22:03]  Wow.
[00:22:03]  Speedy trial.
[00:22:05]  Why so fast?
[00:22:05]  You wanted to do it that fast?
[00:22:07]  Well, when we were going to trial, it took, I want to say, like 10 months before the trial started.
[00:22:17]  Yeah.
[00:22:18]  And then when it finally started, it was only like a three day trial.
[00:22:21]  It was an incident in the trial where.
[00:22:24]  One of the jurors brought something in from offline and showed it to the jury.
[00:22:31]  Like some information about you.
[00:22:32]  Yeah, like he was in my favor trying to tell him, so he was like, they dismissed him without us being present.
[00:22:41]  So that was like a real big point that could have got me a new trial, but my lawyer, he didn't do it.
[00:22:49]  He didn't do no great job.
[00:22:51]  So are you paying for a good lawyer at that time?
[00:22:53]  Or you think he's a good lawyer?
[00:22:54]  Yeah, yeah.
[00:22:55]  I mean, he's a good lawyer, but you know.
[00:22:59]  Lawyers are good in certain areas.
[00:23:01]  You know what I mean?
[00:23:02]  Like he's a good plea lawyer.
[00:23:04]  Yeah.
[00:23:04]  And going to trial lawyers.
[00:23:06]  Not a trial lawyer.
[00:23:07]  Right.
[00:23:07]  At least not a drug trial.
[00:23:09]  Right, right.
[00:23:10]  You know what I mean?
[00:23:11]  So his specialty is pleas and sentencing.
[00:23:16]  Getting you a deal.
[00:23:16]  Yeah.
[00:23:18]  All right.
[00:23:18]  So you don't get a plea deal.
[00:23:19]  You go to trial.
[00:23:20]  Do you think you're going to win at trial?
[00:23:22]  Are you in good hopes at that time?
[00:23:23]  Yeah, I'm hoping because I'm trying to beat the conspiracy.
[00:23:27]  Okay.
[00:23:27]  So what are all the charges you're going up for?
[00:23:29]  Uh, uh, Five keys or more of cocaine.
[00:23:40]  What is it?
[00:23:46]  Intent to distribute.
[00:23:49]  And then what they had you on a conspiracy also?
[00:23:51]  All of it was conspiracy.
[00:23:52]  All of it, okay.
[00:23:53]  Yeah, all of it was conspiracy.
[00:23:55]  And what they did also, they gave me another charge.
[00:24:01]  It was 100 kilos of marijuana.
[00:24:05]  Well, he told them we had been dealing marijuana as well.
[00:24:09]  But there was no marijuana, never.
[00:24:10]  That the thing was, is when they got the kilos in Arizona, they swapped them out and put sheetrock.
[00:24:20]  Okay, so this is what we were arguing.
[00:24:23]  I'm like, how are you gonna charge me for not actually buying cocaine?
[00:24:28]  Yeah, no cocaine.
[00:24:29]  So that day when you met that guy, that was actually sheetrock, it was sheetrock.
[00:24:33]  So that's why they get you on a conspiracy charge.
[00:24:35]  That's why they get you, but they can't get you with the actual purchase, they can't get you with the actual purchase, yeah.
[00:24:40]  So it was all sheetrock.
[00:24:41]  So that's why the conspiracy kind of like ties you trying to say that you knew before that or y'all dealt beforehand.
[00:24:47]  Yeah.
[00:24:47]  So that was the whole thing of proving in court.
[00:24:50]  Like y'all dealt beforehand.
[00:24:52]  You know, it could have been a buyer seller relationship, but it couldn't have been anything else besides a conspiracy because the conspiracy is so broad.
[00:24:59]  Right.
[00:24:59]  So broad.
[00:25:00]  And they found a way to pin 10 kilos of marijuana on it.
[00:25:04]  Well, they put 100 kilos of marijuana.
[00:25:06]  100 kilos.
[00:25:07]  100 kilos of marijuana.
[00:25:09]  So, um, I beat that count.
[00:25:12]  That's the only count I beat, but the more severe count I didn't beat.
[00:25:16]  Which is the conspiracy to intend to distribute the cocaine.
[00:25:19]  Yeah, five kilos or more.
[00:25:22]  That's wild.
[00:25:23]  So you're going to trial and you know you're up against life at that point if you lose?
[00:25:30]  Yeah, because the prosecutor was like, it was a female and she was like, if you don't tell, you're going to get life.
[00:25:40]  Yeah.
[00:25:41]  You know what I mean?
[00:25:42]  So I'm like, well, we got to win a trial here.
[00:25:46]  Who does she want you to tell them?
[00:25:48]  I don't know.
[00:25:48]  She just wanted me to pick up somebody.
[00:25:50]  She just wanted you to pick up somebody.
[00:25:51]  Because you got to understand, like, everybody from my side that I was dealing with was never seen, heard of, or nothing.
[00:26:00]  Yeah.
[00:26:01]  So he was telling them all these numbers that we were doing.
[00:26:04]  So they were trying to figure out where all this stuff was going on.
[00:26:06]  There's something going on up there.
[00:26:07]  Yeah.
[00:26:07]  So what was going on?
[00:26:08]  Where all this stuff was going on?
[00:26:09]  And obviously, you know where it's going on.
[00:26:10]  Yeah.
[00:26:10]  So, like, who you were giving it to?
[00:26:12]  Who you were selling it to, and all that?
[00:26:13]  I'm like, man, I don't know what y'all were talking about.
[00:26:16]  You know, I mean, there's a street code, man.
[00:26:18]  You know, a lot of people can't.
[00:26:19]  Yeah.
[00:26:20]  A lot of people call me stupid.
[00:26:21]  Like, you were stupid, man.
[00:26:22]  Why would you do that?
[00:26:23]  Why would you just take life like that?
[00:26:25]  Because it's morals, you know, certain things that you stand on, you know what I mean?
[00:26:30]  So, and that's what I stood on.
[00:26:32]  You got to stand for something.
[00:26:33]  Yeah.
[00:26:35]  You know what I mean?
[00:26:36]  And nowadays, it's like snitching is like a video game.
[00:26:41]  You know what I mean?
[00:26:41]  Nobody does that nowadays.
[00:26:42]  Yeah, everybody playing.
[00:26:44]  You know what I mean?
[00:26:44]  It's like, it's crazy.
[00:26:46]  That's crazy.
[00:26:47]  So, three days, and the judge put the gavel down and said, Life.
[00:26:53]  Life.
[00:26:53]  So, before it's getting read, do you kind of know which way it's going?
[00:26:57]  Yeah, I got a feeling.
[00:26:58]  I'm like, damn, life.
[00:27:00]  It's not looking good.
[00:27:01]  Yeah, so when he sentenced me, what was going through my head, I was like, I got to sentence you to life.
[00:27:09]  So, I tapped the lawyer.
[00:27:10]  I'm like, life is what, like 25 years?
[00:27:13]  Right.
[00:27:14]  You know what I mean?
[00:27:15]  He was like, no, life in the feds.
[00:27:19]  Is until you die.
[00:27:20]  So I'm like, until I die in the feds?
[00:27:23]  He was like, yeah, what you thought, 25 years?
[00:27:25]  He was like, they would have said 25 years.
[00:27:26]  He said, that's state.
[00:27:28]  Yeah.
[00:27:28]  He was like, in the feds, life is life until you die in prison.
[00:27:32]  So I was like, whoa.
[00:27:34]  No shit.
[00:27:35]  Yeah, so he was saying all types of shit.
[00:27:37]  Yeah, now where are you at now?
[00:27:39]  You know what I mean?
[00:27:41]  Man.
[00:27:42]  Goddamn.
[00:27:42]  Yeah, he was like, yeah, where are you at now?
[00:27:45]  Goddamn, man.
[00:27:46]  That's my lawyer.
[00:27:47]  Yeah.
[00:27:48]  That's what he was saying.
[00:27:49]  Yeah, man, where are you at now?
[00:27:51]  Y'all worship this fake God.
[00:27:53]  Where is he now?
[00:27:54]  Yeah.
[00:27:54]  And so you're going to trial.
[00:27:55]  Where is this at?
[00:27:57]  Is this in Tampa?
[00:27:58]  Yeah, in Tampa.
[00:27:58]  Hillsborough County?
[00:27:59]  Yeah, Hillsborough County.
[00:28:00]  And then so it comes back, you're guilty, they sent you your life.
[00:28:03]  Yep.
[00:28:03]  Then where do they take you from there?
[00:28:06]  Straight to the feds?
[00:28:07]  Yep.
[00:28:08]  I go behind the gate, you know, behind the wall, so to say.
[00:28:11]  It's like first time in prison.
[00:28:15]  You know, in the feds, they have certain custody levels.
[00:28:19]  They have the super max, which is like 80x.
[00:28:23]  Yeah.
[00:28:23]  Then you have.
[00:28:24]  It's like the killers, like the murderers and stuff.
[00:28:25]  Is this your first time?
[00:28:26]  This is my first time ever in prison.
[00:28:28]  Ever.
[00:28:28]  Ever.
[00:28:28]  Jail?
[00:28:29]  Jail?
[00:28:30]  Well, I've been to jail for like tickets.
[00:28:31]  Sure.
[00:28:32]  Yeah, yeah.
[00:28:32]  Yeah, but anytime.
[00:28:33]  This is your first time doing something.
[00:28:34]  This is my first time, yeah.
[00:28:35]  So I'm thinking, like, okay, well, man, I'll go to a low.
[00:28:38]  Yeah.
[00:28:38]  And they're like, nah, low, you know, people with life sentences don't go to low.
[00:28:42]  No.
[00:28:42]  It was like the less you can go to as a medium.
[00:28:45]  So I'm like, well, shoot, how'd you be at a medium?
[00:28:47]  He was like, yeah.
[00:28:48]  And you know, one of the guys that was there with me, I knew him from back in the day.
[00:28:52]  He was like, bro, you're going to the penitentiary.

=== First Time in Prison (14:49) ===

[00:28:56]  So I'm like, the penitentiary?
[00:28:58]  He's like, listen, man, you, when you hit the compound, you need to get you a knife.
[00:29:06]  So I'm like, a knife?
[00:29:07]  I'm like, for what?
[00:29:08]  What do I need a knife for?
[00:29:09]  He said, listen, bro, you're going to the penitentiary and it's a lot of violence.
[00:29:14]  Everything is kind of like categorized in like gangs.
[00:29:21]  You know, if you're not in the gang, you're in a car.
[00:29:24]  So you got the Florida car, you got the Georgia car, you got the Mississippi car, and then you got all these gangs, different gangs.
[00:29:32]  So, what is that?
[00:29:32]  That's like little cliques?
[00:29:34]  They call them cars?
[00:29:34]  Yeah, instead of calling it a gang, they call it a car.
[00:29:38]  Okay.
[00:29:38]  In the feds, they call it a car.
[00:29:40]  So, you're like, oh, you with the Florida car.
[00:29:42]  So, they're not in necessarily like a big gang, but that's the Florida people.
[00:29:46]  It's the Florida people.
[00:29:47]  Okay.
[00:29:47]  You know what I mean?
[00:29:48]  So, But the gangs, they got all the gangs.
[00:29:50]  You know, you got the GDs, the BDs, you got the Vice Lords, you got all the Mexican gangs, you got the ABs, you got the Dirty White Boys.
[00:30:00]  There's so many gangs in prison.
[00:30:02]  It's ridiculous.
[00:30:03]  So it's like everybody is in the that's how they section off.
[00:30:09]  So at any given point, if you with me and you get into something and some guys jump you, I have to get in.
[00:30:19]  If I don't get in it, then They're gonna come and beat me up and stab me.
[00:30:24]  Oh shit.
[00:30:25]  The guys that you were with.
[00:30:26]  The guys from Florida.
[00:30:27]  Because you ain't help them.
[00:30:27]  Because I ain't help them.
[00:30:28]  So if they're part of your career, you gotta jump in the fight and get out of it.
[00:30:31]  No matter what it is.
[00:30:32]  It could be something simple like he owed money.
[00:30:34]  Right.
[00:30:34]  So I have to.
[00:30:36]  It's like I gotta die for a person that I don't even know.
[00:30:38]  Yeah.
[00:30:39]  You know what I'm saying?
[00:30:39]  So what this guy tells you, you gotta click up with the Florida people?
[00:30:42]  He told me that.
[00:30:43]  So I'm like, man, I ain't worried about that.
[00:30:46]  I'm not.
[00:30:46]  He's like, bro, listen, you're gonna.
[00:30:48]  So when I get there, just like he said, a guy comes to me and says, yo, you need your paperwork.
[00:30:56]  I'm like, paperwork?
[00:30:57]  What kind of paperwork?
[00:30:59]  He's like, we want to make sure you ain't no snitch.
[00:31:03]  And one of the other guys came up that's over the Florida car.
[00:31:06]  He's the shot caller for the Florida car.
[00:31:08]  He was like, he's good.
[00:31:09]  That's Tampa Tony.
[00:31:10]  He was like, he went to trial.
[00:31:12]  He got a life sentence.
[00:31:13]  So they already know who you are and everything?
[00:31:15]  Yeah, he already knew who I was.
[00:31:16]  As soon as you get there, they know who you are, what you did, everything.
[00:31:18]  Never seen this dude a day in my life.
[00:31:20]  They know everything about you.
[00:31:21]  Yeah, he knows everything.
[00:31:22]  He was like, yeah, he's good.
[00:31:24]  He was like, make sure you go to the store and get such and such and such.
[00:31:28]  So I'm like, for what?
[00:31:30]  He was like, Somebody's gonna come see you, and they're gonna bring you like two knives.
[00:31:33]  Gonna bring you one to float around with that you can walk around with that they can't tell in the meta detector, and they're gonna give you another one for the unit.
[00:31:42]  I'm like, What?
[00:31:45]  I'm like, Man, what I need a knife for?
[00:31:46]  He said, Bro, they're not fighting.
[00:31:49]  He said, We get into anything with they're not fighting.
[00:31:53]  Nobody fights, nobody fights.
[00:31:54]  Everybody stabs.
[00:31:55]  Everybody stabs.
[00:31:56]  What kind of knife?
[00:31:58]  Was it made out of metal?
[00:31:59]  No.
[00:31:59]  Well, the one that I kept in the unit was made out of a long screw, so it was like an ice pick.
[00:32:06]  Okay.
[00:32:07]  It got like cloth wrapped around the end of it and a handle on it.
[00:32:12]  They done.
[00:32:14]  They got it all ready to go.
[00:32:15]  Got it all ready to go.
[00:32:16]  The other one's like a thick piece of plexiglass.
[00:32:20]  That's what you carry with you.
[00:32:21]  That's one you carry with you.
[00:32:22]  So he showed me where to put it at in front of your khaki pants.
[00:32:26]  He cut the hole in the khaki pants and showed me how to.
[00:32:30]  I was like, man, this is another different world.
[00:32:32]  So I was like.
[00:32:32]  That's your first day in?
[00:32:33]  My first day in.
[00:32:34]  Right.
[00:32:35]  So I'm like, man, this is crazy, man.
[00:32:37]  Holy shit, man.
[00:32:39]  So I'm like, man.
[00:32:39]  So I'm like, now I'm looking like.
[00:32:41]  Okay, well, what's gonna happen?
[00:32:43]  I'm trying to see what's going on.
[00:32:45]  So, like, my second day, I seen it look like they was jumping on a Mexican guy, like, four other Mexican guys were jumping on a Mexican guy.
[00:32:55]  But they're hitting them like this, so I'm thinking they're playing.
[00:32:59]  Yeah.
[00:33:01]  So, when I seen him, I'm like, hey, what are they over there playing with, dude?
[00:33:05]  So, they was like, he turned around, he said, hey, man, y'all scrap up, man.
[00:33:09]  So, I'm like, scrap up, what's going on?
[00:33:11]  He's like, No, they stabbing dude.
[00:33:14]  It was like five dudes, but they hitting him like this.
[00:33:17]  Like overhand.
[00:33:18]  Yeah, overhand.
[00:33:19]  But the whole time they got the knife in the hand, so that's what they stabbed.
[00:33:21]  So he's just getting stabbed up.
[00:33:23]  Yeah, he's just getting stabbed up.
[00:33:24]  So I'm like, what the fuck?
[00:33:25]  And this is day two.
[00:33:26]  Day two.
[00:33:28]  Did he die?
[00:33:29]  No, he didn't die.
[00:33:30]  And he came across the field.
[00:33:31]  So when he came across the field, I'm looking at him and he's like stumbling.
[00:33:37]  And he got his hand like this when he's coming across.
[00:33:41]  Stabbed at the neck?
[00:33:42]  Yeah, so he does this.
[00:33:45]  And look at his hand and the blood just screwed out his neck.
[00:33:49]  So I'm like, what the fuck?
[00:33:51]  And he walking this, he walking towards us.
[00:33:54]  So I'm like, man, what's what?
[00:33:56]  They're like, just chill.
[00:33:56]  He's gonna fall out before he get here.
[00:33:59]  So I'm like, what?
[00:34:00]  And everyone around you, that's like no big deal.
[00:34:02]  Like it's no big deal.
[00:34:03]  Yeah, he's gonna fall out before he get here.
[00:34:04]  Just chill, man.
[00:34:05]  They ain't got nothing to do with us.
[00:34:07]  And you just sit there and watch.
[00:34:08]  Just sit there and watch, and he just fall out.
[00:34:10]  So when he falls, I jump up like, he's like, no, you can't do nothing.
[00:34:15]  You gotta let him sit right there.
[00:34:16]  So I was like, man, you're gonna let him in.
[00:34:18]  He's like, If you go and touch him, they're gonna do the same thing to you.
[00:34:22]  Yeah.
[00:34:23]  He's like, we're gonna have to go against them.
[00:34:25]  Yeah, he's like, yeah, now we're gonna have to go against them.
[00:34:29]  So I was like, what?
[00:34:30]  So I gotta sit there and just let this man.
[00:34:31]  So they call it the deuces when the alarms go off.
[00:34:34]  So the police ran out there, they grabbed him, fixed him up, and now we're coming out for the yard.
[00:34:40]  They wanna check everybody's body search.
[00:34:43]  You gotta take your shirt off.
[00:34:45]  They wanna check for knives and all that.
[00:34:47]  So I'm like, yo, man, I got this.
[00:34:49]  They was like, give me here.
[00:34:51]  So they put it up under the table, like in the dirt, up under the table.
[00:34:55]  And we went through the checkpoint.
[00:34:57]  And it was like, from then on, I was like, man, what the fuck am I at?
[00:35:02]  Right.
[00:35:03]  And that's day two.
[00:35:04]  So you know, you got a long time to go.
[00:35:06]  I got a long time to go.
[00:35:07]  So this is going to be the regular shit every day.
[00:35:09]  This is going to be the regular shit every day.
[00:35:10]  Holy shit, man.
[00:35:11]  It's going to be the regular shit every day.
[00:35:13]  So then I start seeing it.
[00:35:14]  This is, what pen is this?
[00:35:16]  This is McQuarrie.
[00:35:18]  It's in Kentucky.
[00:35:19]  In Kentucky.
[00:35:20]  Okay.
[00:35:21]  Why up there?
[00:35:22]  Or is it just, how do they pick where you go to?
[00:35:25]  That's what they were saying.
[00:35:26]  It was like, they were wondering why they didn't send you straight to Coleman?
[00:35:30]  Where's Coleman?
[00:35:31]  Coleman is right here in O'Kellar.
[00:35:33]  Okay.
[00:35:33]  Yeah, because I thought there was fed pins in Florida.
[00:35:37]  Yeah, so they was like, why didn't they?
[00:35:39]  Because Coleman has two pins.
[00:35:41]  They got two pins, a medium, a low, and a girls' camp.
[00:35:44]  So he was like, why didn't they send you to Coleman?
[00:35:46]  I was like, I don't know why they sent me way up here.
[00:35:49]  Like, man, this shit here is crazy.
[00:35:51]  So I've been there a couple days and kind of like adjust to it.
[00:35:56]  Start seeing multiple stabbings, like different little things, dudes getting hit with locks and.
[00:36:04]  It was just a whole nother world.
[00:36:06]  A whole nother world.
[00:36:07]  Are you in a cell by yourself or you got a cellmate?
[00:36:11]  You have a cellmate.
[00:36:12]  Are you in like a whole pod full of cells?
[00:36:14]  Yeah, you're in a big, like a small Walmart.
[00:36:20]  Okay.
[00:36:21]  And it got cells at the top and the bottom, around the whole top tier and then at the bottom tier.
[00:36:27]  And the officer station is like to the right right here.
[00:36:29]  They got one officer.
[00:36:32]  And they had to come in with the key and pop the door.
[00:36:35]  So, like at five o'clock in the morning, you have to be up.
[00:36:37]  It's like a mandatory rule.
[00:36:41]  Wow, that's crazy.
[00:36:42]  So, you're all the way up in Kentucky.
[00:36:44]  All the way in Kentucky.
[00:36:44]  Luckily, there's some Florida people there.
[00:36:46]  Yeah.
[00:36:46]  I mean, we was only like, I think we only had like 25 guys from Florida.
[00:36:52]  So, we was like the smallest car there.
[00:36:54]  Yeah.
[00:36:54]  Okay.
[00:36:54]  So, it was like, look, man, we get into something everybody got to go because everybody outnumbers us.
[00:37:01]  So, you got to stick together and ride with them.
[00:37:03]  Stick together.
[00:37:04]  So, Kentucky then.
[00:37:06]  How long are you there for?
[00:37:07]  Are you there your whole time?
[00:37:11]  I was there for three years.
[00:37:13]  Three years.
[00:37:13]  So I'm asking the counselor, hey, can I get back close to Florida now?
[00:37:17]  You know what I mean?
[00:37:18]  I've been here so long.
[00:37:20]  I've programmed.
[00:37:21]  I went and got my GED.
[00:37:23]  I did everything proper.
[00:37:24]  I took some classes and all that.
[00:37:27]  And it was like, you have to be behind the wall.
[00:37:29]  You got a life sentence.
[00:37:30]  You have to be behind the wall.
[00:37:31]  We don't do pen to pen transfers.
[00:37:34]  Yeah.
[00:37:35]  So in order for you to go to the meeting, you got to do 10 years.
[00:37:38]  So I'm like, man, is this serious?
[00:37:40]  So you can't leave before 10 years?
[00:37:42]  Yeah.
[00:37:42]  So I'm there.
[00:37:45]  And all of a sudden, we get into it in my unit.
[00:37:49]  We get into it with D.C.
[00:37:52]  So it was like Florida car against the D.C. car.
[00:37:55]  What is the D.C.?
[00:37:56]  D.C. Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C.
[00:37:58]  Okay.
[00:37:59]  So we get into it with them.
[00:38:00]  It's like a big riot.
[00:38:03]  We get into real big, real big brawls, stabbings, and all type of stuff.
[00:38:08]  They shipped me to Coleman.
[00:38:10]  So back to Florida?
[00:38:12]  Yeah, finally get to Florida.
[00:38:13]  So I was like, man, if I'd have known this, I would have been.
[00:38:15]  Bro, you would have been getting transferred out a long time ago.
[00:38:18]  Yeah, I could have been getting transferred, but I was going to do that.
[00:38:20]  So I ended up getting to Florida, got to Coleman.
[00:38:23]  It was a whole lot better because Coleman, like, it's like five or 600 guys from Florida.
[00:38:28]  Yeah.
[00:38:28]  Oh, cool.
[00:38:29]  You know what I'm saying?
[00:38:29]  So I got some guys that's from Tampa that I know.
[00:38:31]  So you probably know a couple people.
[00:38:33]  Yeah, so it was a lot better.
[00:38:35]  Before you get to Tampa, are you like, while you're locked up, are you still, Trying to pursue music, are you trying to pursue the splitter business or do anything?
[00:38:43]  Well, when I got locked up, I kind of like, especially up there, I kind of like went straight to um working on my case, so I was in a fighting.
[00:38:53]  Um, so you were trying to figure out how to get something reduced or something, yeah.
[00:38:57]  So I mandatory went in at the law library every day.
[00:39:00]  So you're going in there by yourself, reading, trying to figure it out, yeah, trying to figure it out, getting help from maybe other inmates, other inmates, and then um, one guy came from Tampa and an inmate, or he helped me do uh.
[00:39:13]  He helped me get in and fight some stuff, understand it better, and all that.
[00:39:17]  So, that's in Kentucky still, yeah.
[00:39:18]  In Kentucky, okay, yeah.
[00:39:20]  It's in Kentucky.
[00:39:21]  So, mentally, like, I don't think it doesn't sound like you ever really gave up.
[00:39:26]  It sounds like you kind of thought to yourself you were gonna find a way out or die trying, yeah.
[00:39:32]  I was going to die trying.
[00:39:33]  I wasn't going to die in prison.
[00:39:35]  So, you thought there was some way you could get them reduced or beat something?
[00:39:38]  Yeah.
[00:39:39]  And my mentality kind of traced, you know, I've been fighting all my life on the street.
[00:39:46]  So, fighting, and now I got to fight with a knife, so it's no different.
[00:39:51]  So, I'm like, I'm not going to let nobody kill me in here.
[00:39:55]  Yeah.
[00:39:55]  You know what I mean?
[00:39:56]  If I have to, I would rather hurt them before they hurt me.
[00:39:59]  You know what I mean?
[00:40:00]  So, that's my mentality.
[00:40:01]  Because I'm going to keep fighting.
[00:40:03]  To fight this sentence off, you know what I mean?
[00:40:05]  So I never gave up.
[00:40:07]  Are you working with a lawyer at that time too, or just by yourself?
[00:40:10]  No lawyer.
[00:40:11]  No.
[00:40:11]  No lawyer.
[00:40:12]  He immediately got off my case right after the sentencing.
[00:40:16]  Right, and he's gone.
[00:40:16]  He was due, yeah.
[00:40:17]  You never talked to him again?
[00:40:18]  Never talked to him again.
[00:40:21]  Were you communicating with anybody outside?
[00:40:24]  Yeah, headbuster.
[00:40:24]  Headbuster.
[00:40:25]  Oh, yeah?
[00:40:26]  Yeah, headbuster.
[00:40:27]  This is headbuster?
[00:40:27]  Yeah, this is headbuster.
[00:40:28]  So who's he?
[00:40:29]  Who's he?
[00:40:30]  He's just like my bro, man.
[00:40:31]  Just like my other brother, man.
[00:40:33]  Okay.
[00:40:33]  Yeah.
[00:40:34]  He was doing music with you before, or yeah, we was like he was the DJ, so we kind of connected when everything was popping, so we kind of like built a real strong bond, yeah, yeah, awesome.
[00:40:44]  That's what's up, man.
[00:40:45]  Yeah, what about like did you what about like your parents or brothers and sisters that you had when you were younger?
[00:40:51]  My brother, he was there too, he was there as well.
[00:40:53]  Um, okay, my mom, she came fatefully to see me, um, all the way in Kentucky.
[00:41:00]  Well, no, she didn't come to Kentucky, she came to when I came to Coleman, so it was like three years before I seen her again, you know what I mean?
[00:41:05]  So, three years you don't see nobody probably.
[00:41:07]  I don't see nobody but my kids.
[00:41:10]  Your kids?
[00:41:10]  Yeah.
[00:41:10]  They come to visit you?
[00:41:11]  Yeah, my home.
[00:41:12]  How old are they at the time?
[00:41:13]  When you get arrested?
[00:41:14]  When I get arrested.
[00:41:15]  When you get arrested.
[00:41:16]  They were two and three years old.
[00:41:18]  Okay.
[00:41:18]  Wow.
[00:41:20]  Yeah.
[00:41:20]  So that's got to be another tough element to deal with.
[00:41:22]  They're two and three and you're going in for life.
[00:41:24]  Yeah.
[00:41:25]  It was crazy.
[00:41:26]  But you're determined you're going to fight it and get out somehow.
[00:41:29]  Yeah.
[00:41:29]  Very determined.
[00:41:31]  Very determined.
[00:41:33]  That's interesting.
[00:41:33]  I saw this interesting video on YouTube too of Tom G with DJ Smalls.
[00:41:40]  And he did.
[00:41:41]  It was like, I think 2014 or 15.
[00:41:43]  I looked on there and he was talking about you briefly.
[00:41:46]  And he was like, Yeah, Tampa.
[00:41:47]  He was, said, Tampa Tony, he's a smart dude.
[00:41:50]  I think he's going to get out of this somehow.
[00:41:52]  And, did you see that?
[00:41:54]  Yeah, somebody sent it to you.
[00:41:55]  Yeah, he was like, You just briefly mentioned, but he said, He's a smart dude.
[00:41:59]  I think somehow he'll make his way up out of it.
[00:42:01]  Yeah.
[00:42:01]  And then.
[00:42:02]  And that was before anyone actually ever before.
[00:42:05]  I think that was before your pardon.
[00:42:06]  Yeah, that was what?
[00:42:07]  That was like.
[00:42:07]  That was a couple years before.
[00:42:08]  A couple years before I even got the pardon.
[00:42:10]  So that was very interesting.
[00:42:11]  But I don't want to jump too far ahead.
[00:42:13]  Yeah.
[00:42:14]  But, um, So, what you get transferred to Coleman and you're back in touch with a lot of people, a lot of Florida people.
[00:42:20]  How many years you do it there?
[00:42:22]  I leave Coleman in 2016.
[00:42:26]  You leave there in 2016?
[00:42:27]  Yeah.
[00:42:28]  Okay.
[00:42:28]  So, that was how many years?
[00:42:29]  So, you did like 10 years there.
[00:42:32]  Yeah.
[00:42:33]  Wow.
[00:42:34]  Well, no, no, no, no, not 10.
[00:42:35]  I did like I did three in Kentucky and I did end up doing like seven.
[00:42:41]  Okay.
[00:42:41]  Seven in Coleman.
[00:42:43]  Seven in Coleman.
[00:42:44]  All right.
[00:42:44]  So, you're like 10 years in at that point?
[00:42:47]  Yeah.
[00:42:48]  How are you staying up to date with stuff going on in the outside world, like with technology or music?
[00:42:52]  Music and technology, headbuster.
[00:42:55]  I'm asking him all kinds of questions.
[00:42:56]  Every time I call him, I'm like, man, who was hot, man?
[00:42:59]  What's up with Tom G, man?
[00:43:00]  Yeah.
[00:43:01]  What's up with Lucky, man?
[00:43:02]  What the guys got going on?
[00:43:03]  He's like, yo, man, he's telling me everything, lacing me up with the streets and how everything's going on with the music game and the new technology.
[00:43:10]  I'm like, what are they doing now?
[00:43:11]  You know what I mean?
[00:43:13]  Can you listen to music or watch videos?
[00:43:16]  You can listen to music.
[00:43:17]  You have to buy the music off an MP3 player.
[00:43:21]  And they sell you music to load on the MP3.
[00:43:25]  But a lot of the songs might be like six or seven months old by the time we get them.
[00:43:31]  And what were you listening to?
[00:43:32]  Were you listening to a lot of music?
[00:43:33]  Or if so, what were you listening to?
[00:43:35]  I listened to a lot of old music, old classics.
[00:43:40]  I listened to some Drake, J. Cole.
[00:43:44]  I listened to a lot of that.

=== Music and Moonshine Inside (05:35) ===

[00:43:45]  Okay.
[00:43:46]  Trying to stay up on the current rap and see where it's at.
[00:43:49]  The whole time, are you still working on music?
[00:43:51]  Yeah, I mean, I'm writing.
[00:43:52]  I've been writing these years.
[00:43:53]  Yeah, I'm writing, but the stuff I was writing, it was like, that was my way of channeling all the hate and the frustration and all that.
[00:44:04]  So it was like, You know, somebody asked me that the other day.
[00:44:06]  Was like, Did you do any writing while you was there?
[00:44:08]  I was like, I did a lot of writing, but I don't want to bring those songs out.
[00:44:12]  You know what I mean?
[00:44:12]  Because I'm at a happy time in my life.
[00:44:14]  So I don't want to.
[00:44:15]  Right.
[00:44:15]  And those songs are from not a happy time.
[00:44:17]  Not a happy time.
[00:44:18]  You know what I mean?
[00:44:19]  Not a happy time.
[00:44:21]  No.
[00:44:21]  And it's a different mentality.
[00:44:23]  You know, in that mentality in the penitentiary, it's like, They don't like snitches.
[00:44:31]  Yeah.
[00:44:32]  You know what I mean?
[00:44:33]  Like, if you're a snitch, they want to kill you.
[00:44:36]  Yeah.
[00:44:36]  You know what I mean?
[00:44:37]  If.
[00:44:38]  Especially the child molesters, they call them chomos.
[00:44:43]  If you're a chomo, they want to kill you.
[00:44:45]  You know what I mean?
[00:44:45]  So it's like your mentality has changed, and everything is like ran off respect.
[00:44:50]  If I can't cut in front of you, if you're talking and I walk up and start talking, that could end up getting you in the knife fight.
[00:45:01]  Right.
[00:45:02]  The simplest thing is putting my chair in front of the TV in a small square spot, and you come and move it and turn it slightly.
[00:45:10]  That can start.
[00:45:11]  That's it.
[00:45:12]  You can start just off that.
[00:45:14]  Wow.
[00:45:15]  Just something so simple.
[00:45:17]  And the currency is stamps.
[00:45:19]  Yeah.
[00:45:20]  Like the stamps that go in envelopes.
[00:45:22]  That's the currency in the prison system.
[00:45:25]  So that's how you buy things in there?
[00:45:26]  That's how you buy things in the prison system.
[00:45:28]  And it's in the same way.
[00:45:29]  It's anything you want, the same way out here, they're doing the same thing in there.
[00:45:34]  Right.
[00:45:34]  Drugs are getting sold in there.
[00:45:35]  Everything.
[00:45:36]  Everything.
[00:45:37]  Really?
[00:45:37]  Yeah.
[00:45:39]  So it's like another world.
[00:45:41]  What was like the most fucked up thing you saw?
[00:45:44]  I mean, obviously, a guy getting stabbed in the neck and blood squirting out is pretty crazy.
[00:45:49]  But what's one of the most shocking things that you remember that is seared in your mind?
[00:45:52]  One of the things that was very shocking to me was, like I still remember, it was a guy.
[00:45:59]  He was a white guy.
[00:46:00]  He was from Tampa.
[00:46:03]  And I knew him.
[00:46:04]  He had, like, I want to say, like a month.
[00:46:09]  He had, like, a month left.
[00:46:11]  And they drink, they make shine, moonshine.
[00:46:15]  Moonshine.
[00:46:17]  So they was drinking shine, and him and his partner got so drunk.
[00:46:22]  And I don't know what transpired, and they got into this brawl.
[00:46:27]  Yeah.
[00:46:28]  So he ended up taking the knife out.
[00:46:31]  He knocked his partner down.
[00:46:33]  There's a guy from Tampa, and he's stabbing him.
[00:46:38]  And he's like, he done snap.
[00:46:39]  A guy he was just drinking with.
[00:46:41]  A guy he drank with all the time.
[00:46:44]  And I'm like, So I'm calling him, like, yo, Cody, Cody.
[00:46:48]  You can see him.
[00:46:49]  I'm right here from him.
[00:46:50]  So I'm calling him because we hang out together.
[00:46:52]  You know what I mean?
[00:46:53]  So I'm like, hey, Cody, Cody.
[00:46:55]  And he snapped, like, I'm talking about to the point where every time he came down with the knife, he had a, uh, uh, uh, what, uh, the poker, like a long poker, like a, um, like a chisel, like, yeah, like an ice pick.
[00:47:12]  Like, yeah.
[00:47:13]  So every time he came down, you can hear it hitting the concrete, like, ting, oh.
[00:47:19]  Going through him.
[00:47:20]  Going through him, and the blood just jumping.
[00:47:21]  It's all over me.
[00:47:22]  He won't stop.
[00:47:23]  He just clicked.
[00:47:26]  And the guys like grabbed me, like, bro, don't do that.
[00:47:28]  That you can't do nothing, so I'm like, somebody's grabbing you from trying to stop, yeah, because they see me calling them and I'm inching forward and forward, and they're telling me, No, don't do it, you can't do it, you can't do that, you can't do that.
[00:47:41]  And I'm like, Yo, man, yo, and I'm instead of yelling, so they grabbed me and they take me in the room, yeah, that's wild.
[00:47:49]  Does that guy survive?
[00:47:51]  Yeah, the dude, the dude lived though, he did live, he did live, but he was, it was like, What about the other guy that stabbed him?
[00:47:58]  You ever see him again?
[00:48:00]  Never seen him again, but I think they say he ended up getting like an extra 10 years.
[00:48:03]  He only had two months to go, bro.
[00:48:05]  Two months to go, and he does that.
[00:48:06]  Two months to go.
[00:48:08]  And that was like one thing.
[00:48:10]  How long was he in for?
[00:48:11]  I think he had been down like 15.
[00:48:14]  He had been down like 15 years.
[00:48:15]  Cody had been down like 15 years.
[00:48:17]  What do you think would make somebody want to do that?
[00:48:18]  You don't think he wants to get out, maybe?
[00:48:20]  Yeah, he wants to get out.
[00:48:21]  You know, because some people get accustomed maybe in there and afraid of getting out.
[00:48:24]  Like Shawshank Redemption?
[00:48:25]  You know?
[00:48:27]  It wasn't that.
[00:48:28]  He just snapped.
[00:48:28]  He just snapped.
[00:48:30]  You know, it's a lot of things going on in the outside.
[00:48:32]  World, and then you got a lot of built up anger that you're trying to control.
[00:48:36]  And it was just that day for him, and it's just the alcohol like that lightning, that moonshine that's what they call it lightning.
[00:48:42]  Lightning, that moonshine, they get crazy off that shit, man.
[00:48:48]  And I mean, he would not stop, bro.
[00:48:51]  Damn, yeah.
[00:48:53]  What happens to the guy that got stabbed?
[00:48:56]  He survived, you said, yeah, he survived, he survived, but he was in intensive care for like months.
[00:49:02]  God damn, yeah, he was up, he was still up when he came out.
[00:49:05]  I think he had a bag and everything.
[00:49:08]  Yeah, he was fucked up bad.
[00:49:10]  At what point did you start seeing the light at the end of the tunnel?
[00:49:13]  Like, how did that happen?
[00:49:15]  Like, did you hear something?
[00:49:16]  Because the short story, Obama, pardon you, but how did that really happen?

=== Fighting for Clemency (07:10) ===

[00:49:21]  Like, what did you start?
[00:49:22]  Are you working towards that?
[00:49:23]  Yeah, well, the guy that came about when I was in Kentucky, he was working on a prior.
[00:49:30]  I had like two priors that they used, two small, like, personal amounts of marijuana priors.
[00:49:36]  Yeah.
[00:49:37]  But in Florida, they're felonies.
[00:49:39]  So.
[00:49:41]  He was opening one of those cases up.
[00:49:44]  He got one of the cases open up.
[00:49:46]  And this is like at the beginning of the bid, you know what I mean?
[00:49:51]  Like 07, we started.
[00:49:53]  They didn't answer me and give me no play until like 2015.
[00:49:59]  And so, what are you trying to do?
[00:50:00]  I'm trying to get this prior off.
[00:50:02]  So, if they take the prior off, my enhancement takes me from life to 20.
[00:50:08]  Okay.
[00:50:08]  Like your points go down or what?
[00:50:10]  No, it takes a prior off.
[00:50:12]  So the prior is what they use to enhance you, to give you more time, right?
[00:50:15]  So if I get rid of this one prior, I only have one drop down to 20 years.
[00:50:19]  I could drop down from life to 20.
[00:50:20]  That's huge, yeah.
[00:50:21]  So I'm, I'm all for it, so I'm working on that and they finally grant that in 2016, and that goes from 2007 to 2007 to 2016.
[00:50:33]  I've been fighting this and they finally grant it and they take the prior off, they vacate it.
[00:50:39]  So it take me from.
[00:50:40]  I put the motion in and it take me from With no lawyer.
[00:50:45]  And you do all this yourself?
[00:50:46]  I do all this myself.
[00:50:49]  And I go from life to 20 in 2016.
[00:50:54]  And then that's when I put the clemency in as well, because they give me a clemency lawyer, a clemency attorney.
[00:51:04]  So, what is that for people who don't know what clemency is?
[00:51:07]  Clemency is when they come in and commute your sentence.
[00:51:09]  Like, they take you at whatever sentence you're at.
[00:51:15]  And they take the time from you.
[00:51:17]  So it's like they take you from the beginning.
[00:51:20]  It's like wherever you at right then on that sentence.
[00:51:22]  So you're 10 years in.
[00:51:24]  So I'm 10 years in.
[00:51:24]  On life.
[00:51:25]  Yeah, on life.
[00:51:26]  So, they'll take you to where you can get right out.
[00:51:29]  So, it'll take you from 10 years in from life, and they'll put you at 12 years.
[00:51:34]  So, I only have a couple years to do.
[00:51:37]  So, that's what they did to me.
[00:51:39]  So, they give you a clemency lawyer?
[00:51:41]  Yeah, they grant me a clemency lawyer.
[00:51:43]  Okay.
[00:51:44]  So, you have to file for that?
[00:51:45]  Yeah, you have to file for it.
[00:51:46]  And they grant you one.
[00:51:47]  They grant me one.
[00:51:48]  And she was like, You got good grounds.
[00:51:51]  I think you'll qualify for it.
[00:51:53]  Yeah.
[00:51:53]  Yeah, so we put it in.
[00:51:56]  And then I leave, my stuff comes in, and I get the 20, I go down from life to 20.
[00:52:02]  And once I go down from life to 20, they transfer me from the penitentiary to the low.
[00:52:10]  I bypass the medium.
[00:52:11]  Yeah.
[00:52:12]  So when I go to the low, it's no stabbing, it's no fighting.
[00:52:15]  Right.
[00:52:15]  How different is that?
[00:52:16]  It's totally different.
[00:52:17]  That shit is like night and day.
[00:52:19]  Like summer camp compared to the beginning.
[00:52:21]  Yeah, it's like summer camp.
[00:52:22]  So I'm still like, sheriff.
[00:52:26]  You're still in that zone.
[00:52:27]  Yeah, I'm still in that zone.
[00:52:29]  Paranoid.
[00:52:29]  Yeah, paranoid.
[00:52:29]  Looking around.
[00:52:30]  Yeah.
[00:52:31]  But nothing's going on there.
[00:52:32]  So, over there, you're in the cube with like three people.
[00:52:35]  Okay.
[00:52:36]  And it's an open bay versus being in a cell with two people.
[00:52:41]  It's just you and another guy.
[00:52:42]  Yeah.
[00:52:43]  So, it was like different because I'm seeing people walking around and I'm like, why are you walking around?
[00:52:48]  Yeah.
[00:52:48]  You know what I mean?
[00:52:48]  They're like, I can walk around.
[00:52:50]  I'm using the restroom.
[00:52:51]  I'm going to the restroom.
[00:52:53]  Right.
[00:52:54]  Before, you couldn't go to the restroom when you want to?
[00:52:56]  Yeah, you can go to, but it's in the cell.
[00:52:57]  Right, right.
[00:52:58]  Oh, so you're right there in your cell.
[00:53:01]  You don't go out to the restroom.
[00:53:02]  Right.
[00:53:03]  So, now it's like they, They walk into the restroom and they're walking around, and I'm like, What the fuck is going on?
[00:53:08]  Yeah, that shit was like crazy.
[00:53:10]  So, you got guys over here snoring, guys over here snoring, this guy here farting, and this shit crazy, man.
[00:53:16]  So, you hear all that.
[00:53:16]  So, I'm like, Man, I got to do something to get to sleep, man.
[00:53:19]  I can't sleep.
[00:53:20]  Yeah.
[00:53:21]  So, do they, when do they transfer you there?
[00:53:23]  After your clemency?
[00:53:24]  No, no, they transferred me there before.
[00:53:26]  Before.
[00:53:27]  Once I go down to 20 years.
[00:53:28]  Right.
[00:53:28]  Okay.
[00:53:28]  I go from life to 20.
[00:53:29]  Right.
[00:53:30]  So, once you get that first early charge gone, when I get an early charge gone, then you're down to low security.
[00:53:34]  Yeah, so I'm down to low security.
[00:53:36]  And now you're fighting for the clemency.
[00:53:37]  Now I'm fighting for the clemency.
[00:53:39]  Clemency.
[00:53:40]  And I stayed at the low for maybe like three or four months and they transferred me to a camp.
[00:53:44]  You know what I mean?
[00:53:45]  So they sent me to a camp.
[00:53:46]  I go to Talladega in Alabama.
[00:53:49]  Okay.
[00:53:49]  And I'm in Talladega.
[00:53:50]  And the first week that I get there, they give me the clemency.
[00:53:55]  So I'm looking at like 2025 date before the clemency.
[00:54:01]  And then now they're saying like 2018.
[00:54:05]  So I'm like.
[00:54:05]  So at first they tell you 2025, you're looking to get out.
[00:54:08]  Yeah.
[00:54:09]  And then one day they just come and say, it's 2018.
[00:54:12]  It's 2018.
[00:54:14]  Why do you think that?
[00:54:14]  Why does that happen?
[00:54:16]  Because of the clemency.
[00:54:17]  Yeah.
[00:54:18]  So when I get the clemency, I'm like, whoa.
[00:54:21]  So they're like, your lawyer wants to talk to you.
[00:54:23]  So I go in and talk to her.
[00:54:24]  She was like, I got some good news.
[00:54:25]  So I'm like, what's up?
[00:54:28]  She was like, you got granted the clemency.
[00:54:31]  I was like, what?
[00:54:32]  She was like, yeah.
[00:54:34]  She was like, yeah, you can go back to rapping now.
[00:54:37]  Oh, yeah.
[00:54:39]  Did she say it?
[00:54:39]  Now, why did you get granted the clemency?
[00:54:42]  We did the paperwork.
[00:54:43]  She was like, Your case was like unique.
[00:54:48]  They felt like you shouldn't have been in prison for life, your first time ever in prison.
[00:54:52]  Right.
[00:54:52]  You know what I mean?
[00:54:54]  Your childhood.
[00:54:55]  You don't have no violence on your record.
[00:54:57]  No priors and stuff.
[00:54:58]  That's crazy.
[00:54:58]  So it was like, Yeah, you got it.
[00:55:02]  What did Obama specifically have to do with it?
[00:55:04]  He, the one who signed off on it.
[00:55:07]  Okay, he signed off.
[00:55:07]  Because wasn't it you and also a bunch of other people?
[00:55:10]  Yeah, it's a bunch of other people that he.
[00:55:12]  It was like 70 people I read or something.
[00:55:15]  But I mean, in the prison system, that's probably not a lot of people.
[00:55:17]  That's not a lot of people.
[00:55:18]  So your chances are probably a slow percentage, low percentage.
[00:55:21]  Wow.
[00:55:22]  I left a lot of guys in the penitentiary, like 40 years, three life sentences, two life sentences.
[00:55:29]  They'll never get out.
[00:55:31]  And our people in there, they're doing the same thing you're doing too.
[00:55:34]  They're filing all that.
[00:55:35]  They're trying to get that too.
[00:55:36]  They're filing everything.
[00:55:37]  They're trying to do everything.
[00:55:38]  And it's like they know that it's over.
[00:55:40]  Like this is where they'll die unless something amazingly happened.
[00:55:47]  Which happened to you.
[00:55:48]  Which happened to me.
[00:55:48]  Right.
[00:55:49]  Yeah.
[00:55:49]  So how do you feel when she tells you they grant the clemency?
[00:55:52]  I'm like, oh man, it can happen again.
[00:55:57]  Like, I can go back to the music, you know what I mean?
[00:55:59]  You know, so now it's like, okay, now I just need to, I gotta get, I really gotta study now.
[00:56:03]  Yeah.
[00:56:04]  So I called Headbus.
[00:56:05]  I'm like, bro, listen, I'm coming home way earlier than I thought, bro.
[00:56:11]  Yeah.
[00:56:11]  Yeah.
[00:56:11]  He's like, yeah, I said, yeah, man, I got to study.
[00:56:13]  Who, what's going on, man?
[00:56:15]  Tell me about this.
[00:56:15]  So I asked him, I'm like, what's up with Plize?
[00:56:18]  Like, yeah.
[00:56:19]  What is he doing?
[00:56:20]  You know Plize?
[00:56:21]  Yeah.
[00:56:21]  Okay.
[00:56:22]  Before you go in?
[00:56:23]  Yeah, before I go in.
[00:56:23]  I knew Plize before he even got the deal.
[00:56:25]  Oh, really?
[00:56:26]  Yeah.
[00:56:27]  So I'm like, yo, man, what is going on, man?
[00:56:30]  What is what Ply is doing?

=== Studying the New Wave (02:45) ===

[00:56:31]  He was like, yo, bro, go because at the camp, you're not allowed to have cell phones, but it's so sweet and it's relaxing.
[00:56:39]  Yeah, so you buy the cell phone for like $100.
[00:56:43]  Yeah.
[00:56:44]  So now I'm trying to learn.
[00:56:45]  So I did get a little early head start on cell phones.
[00:56:48]  Yeah, right.
[00:56:48]  So you're in prison for, or pen, federal pen, for 10 years.
[00:56:52]  Technology moves fast in 10 years, especially the 10 you were in.
[00:56:56]  Yeah.
[00:56:57]  Like the world's a lot different, right?
[00:56:58]  A whole lot different.
[00:56:59]  When you go in, it's probably like, And there's no iPhones back then, or no, no, flip phones and stuff, probably right?
[00:57:06]  It was like sidekicks, Blackberry, yeah, the next tail chirp.
[00:57:15]  So, you get a head start on the technology.
[00:57:17]  How crazy different is that for you?
[00:57:18]  Oh man, it's crazy because I'm asking him, like, yo, man, I need to get my MySpace.
[00:57:23]  He was like, MySpace, he was like, bro, they don't do MySpace no more, man.
[00:57:27]  Right, man, it's Facebook, yeah, it's like Facebook and IG and Snapchat.
[00:57:31]  I'm like, what the hell is that?
[00:57:32]  Right, you never heard enough.
[00:57:33]  He's like, man, just go on, man.
[00:57:35]  Look, I'm going to set you a page up, man.
[00:57:36]  I'm going to give you the password so you can go in.
[00:57:39]  So he set it up, and I go in, and I look up Plys and see, and I'm like, so the guy's looking at me like, man, what are you doing?
[00:57:47]  You ain't on the phone talking about it?
[00:57:49]  I'm like, no, I need to learn this shit, man.
[00:57:51]  Trying to figure out what's going on.
[00:57:52]  Yeah, I need to learn.
[00:57:53]  I'm trying to figure out how Plys is not dropping music, but he's still vibing at the Ritz Carlton.
[00:57:59]  Right.
[00:57:59]  Like, he's real fire hot.
[00:58:01]  Right, because social media is completely different.
[00:58:03]  It's totally different.
[00:58:04]  It's everything now.
[00:58:04]  But back then, it was.
[00:58:05]  MySpace was.
[00:58:06]  I mean, MySpace was just it.
[00:58:08]  That was different.
[00:58:08]  Yeah.
[00:58:09]  Now it's everything.
[00:58:10]  It's everything.
[00:58:11]  So that's what I learned from you.
[00:58:12]  Yeah.
[00:58:13]  YouTube, Instagram.
[00:58:14]  So that's where I learned that I sat there and like studied that shit over and over and over again.
[00:58:18]  Yeah.
[00:58:19]  Watching his videos, looking at numbers.
[00:58:21]  So I'm asking questions like, hey, hey, Buzz, what's all these numbers?
[00:58:24]  Like, it say like 300,000.
[00:58:26]  He was like, yo, those are all the views they got.
[00:58:28]  I'm like, 300,000.
[00:58:29]  He's like, yeah, click to the top and you'll see how many followers he got.
[00:58:32]  I'm like, he got 4 million followers.
[00:58:35]  Yeah.
[00:58:36]  I'm like, you got, you mean 4 million people like following him?
[00:58:38]  Like, what?
[00:58:39]  He was like, yeah, bro.
[00:58:40]  So I'm like, Looking at all the videos, 300,000, 300,000 million.
[00:58:44]  So I'm like, whoa.
[00:58:46]  I'm like, yo, man, this shit is the new technology.
[00:58:49]  This shit is the new wave, man.
[00:58:51]  Yeah.
[00:58:51]  That's it.
[00:58:52]  For sure.
[00:58:52]  It's everything nowadays.
[00:58:53]  That's wild.
[00:58:54]  And was it like, is it like they say, like when you first got out or you really didn't get out because, or am I skipping over too much stuff?
[00:59:03]  Because when you went to the halfway house, you were in Alabama, right?
[00:59:07]  First.
[00:59:08]  Yeah.
[00:59:08]  And then when did you go to the halfway house?
[00:59:10]  Well, I went from Alabama.
[00:59:12]  How long are you at Alabama?
[00:59:13]  I was at Alabama for maybe like three months.

=== Halfway House Rules (10:43) ===

[00:59:16]  And that's a camp?
[00:59:18]  It's a prison camp.
[00:59:18]  It's a prison camp.
[00:59:19]  Prison camp, okay.
[00:59:20]  Where you go to work or what?
[00:59:21]  Yeah, well, they make you go work there.
[00:59:23]  You know what I mean?
[00:59:24]  So it's real, it's super laid back.
[00:59:27]  Ain't nothing going on there.
[00:59:29]  It's not even an argument going on there.
[00:59:31]  Yeah.
[00:59:32]  So I go from there, and one of the officers kind of like messing with me because of the clemency.
[00:59:43]  Like he doesn't like it?
[00:59:44]  Yeah, like he doesn't like it.
[00:59:46]  You know what I mean?
[00:59:46]  So instead of like bothering with me, bother with me, so he's going through my cell and all that.
[00:59:52]  So I'm like, yo, bro, what are you doing?
[00:59:53]  Like, Oh, you think you came from the pen and this and that, and like you tough and all this.
[00:59:59]  I'm like, yo, I'm not on nothing, man.
[01:00:01]  I'm laid back, man.
[01:00:02]  I'm at the camp.
[01:00:03]  This is the boys' club, man.
[01:00:05]  Right.
[01:00:06]  You came a long way.
[01:00:07]  Yeah, I came a long way, bro.
[01:00:09]  I ain't on nothing.
[01:00:10]  Yeah, yeah, I'm going to get you sent away from here.
[01:00:13]  And that's what he did.
[01:00:15]  He got you sent from there?
[01:00:16]  He got me sent from there.
[01:00:17]  Is that good or bad?
[01:00:19]  No, that ain't good.
[01:00:20]  Right.
[01:00:20]  So, how does he get you sent away?
[01:00:22]  He tells him that I stayed.
[01:00:26]  Threatened him, you know what I mean?
[01:00:28]  Like, I was being aggressive with him and all that.
[01:00:30]  So I was like, Yo, man, why you lie?
[01:00:32]  He was like, Just because he didn't like you.
[01:00:35]  Just because he didn't like me for no reason.
[01:00:37]  No apparent reason.
[01:00:39]  Right, right.
[01:00:39]  I threw that door to the right.
[01:00:40]  Yeah, for no apparent reason.
[01:00:41]  Yeah.
[01:00:42]  So he got me sent away from there.
[01:00:44]  I leave there and go to Yazoo, Mississippi.
[01:00:47]  Mississippi.
[01:00:48]  So, where?
[01:00:48]  That's another camp?
[01:00:49]  No, that's a low.
[01:00:50]  That's a low.
[01:00:51]  Okay.
[01:00:51]  A low pen.
[01:00:52]  Yeah, that's a low.
[01:00:53]  So I end up going to Yazoo, Mississippi.
[01:00:55]  I'm in Yazoo for like a year.
[01:00:57]  And they got, like, when I get there, they got, like, They got more phones than the people out here on the outside, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[01:01:04]  So it was different there compared to Florida, yeah, it was way different.
[01:01:07]  They were ahead, they were ahead.
[01:01:09]  So I got a chance to, you know, talk to a couple guys, and they really like get caught up on technology, yeah.
[01:01:15]  They showed me everything about a lot of young guys was there.
[01:01:18]  So they was like, Yo, man, you got to be IG, you got to go on IG, yeah, yeah.
[01:01:22]  So I'm asking, Like, yo, what's what's the like, can I wear my visos and red monkeys?
[01:01:27]  It was like, No, nobody heard of them there, like, man, bro, the hell is that.
[01:01:31]  They're like, bro, you better not never say Red Monkey or Ibizu again.
[01:01:35]  You can't go out there with that shit.
[01:01:37]  So I was like, what about LRG?
[01:01:38]  I'm like, bro.
[01:01:41]  He was like, no.
[01:01:42]  He's like, it's true religion, man.
[01:01:44]  Yeah.
[01:01:44]  Robin Jean.
[01:01:45]  Yeah.
[01:01:46]  You know what I mean?
[01:01:46]  I'm like, man, what the hell?
[01:01:48]  Right.
[01:01:48]  You never even heard of those, probably, right?
[01:01:50]  Yeah, bro.
[01:01:50]  I never heard of none of that, man.
[01:01:51]  Yeah.
[01:01:52]  So yeah, they were keeping me up on the fashion and telling me all that.
[01:01:55]  So I was like, okay.
[01:01:57]  Yeah, it was crazy.
[01:01:58]  Wow.
[01:02:00]  And then how did you get from there back to Florida?
[01:02:02]  Um, once I left there, I uh, it was my time for my halfway house date.
[01:02:07]  How long were you there for?
[01:02:08]  I was there for about almost a year in Mississippi.
[01:02:11]  In Mississippi, so then you're creeping up on 2018, right?
[01:02:15]  Yeah, so it's time for me to go to the Tampa halfway house.
[01:02:19]  And so, how long you have to be there for a certain amount of time?
[01:02:21]  Yeah, I had like six months to do that.
[01:02:23]  You have to be there for six months, and where that's Tampa?
[01:02:25]  Yeah, it's right, it's in Tampa off, uh, it's a goodwill.
[01:02:28]  Okay, Tampa.
[01:02:29]  So, I end up there, yeah.
[01:02:30]  And you live there, yeah, I was living there, but I'm going away from there.
[01:02:34]  That was Tuesday was my last day.
[01:02:36]  Tuesday was your last day.
[01:02:37]  Wow.
[01:02:38]  Two days ago.
[01:02:39]  Literally two days ago.
[01:02:40]  Literally two days ago.
[01:02:41]  How does that feel?
[01:02:42]  Oh, man.
[01:02:43]  It was a blessing.
[01:02:44]  I was loving that.
[01:02:45]  I was so happy to get away from that shit.
[01:02:48]  It was crazy.
[01:02:50]  At the halfway house?
[01:02:52]  Yeah.
[01:02:52]  So, real quick, what's that like a little bit?
[01:02:54]  Yeah.
[01:02:54]  I didn't even know what a halfway house really is.
[01:02:56]  So, they put you there to kind of get a job right and get accustomed back into the world.
[01:02:59]  They're trying to get you to transition back into the world, but it's like, it's no help.
[01:03:05]  They just tell you to go get a job.
[01:03:06]  They just tell you to go get a job.
[01:03:07]  They just tell you, go ahead and get a job.
[01:03:08]  And you got to be home by a certain time.
[01:03:09]  Yeah.
[01:03:10]  You got to be back.
[01:03:10]  Here by a certain time.
[01:03:12]  Oh, okay, look, we're gonna let you go and open a bank account.
[01:03:15]  You know, a lot of guys was drug dealers, so they ain't never know how to open a bank account, right?
[01:03:19]  Nah, so they like, man, what you mean?
[01:03:21]  A bank account.
[01:03:22]  Right.
[01:03:22]  You know, this guy's been there like 20, been down 20 years, 22 years.
[01:03:26]  Never had a bank account.
[01:03:28]  Never had a bank account.
[01:03:29]  Right.
[01:03:29]  When they went in, the beepers was like scarce.
[01:03:32]  It was like they was just coming, you know, people was just getting popular.
[01:03:35]  Right.
[01:03:36]  So it's like you bringing them their smartphone.
[01:03:38]  They don't even know how to cut the smartphone on.
[01:03:40]  Yeah.
[01:03:42]  You know, the certain ring when somebody trying to call you or video you from Messenger.
[01:03:47]  FaceTime, yeah.
[01:03:48]  Yeah, FaceTime.
[01:03:50]  Phone, they put in the phone, like, yo, man, what is that, man?
[01:03:52]  What do I keep doing over here?
[01:03:54]  Yeah, they were like, man, somebody trying to video you, man.
[01:03:58]  He was like, man, I don't want to see nobody, man.
[01:04:00]  What are you doing?
[01:04:01]  I just want to talk to him.
[01:04:02]  Yeah, right.
[01:04:02]  FaceTime isn't even around back then.
[01:04:04]  No, that's like everybody, there was barely cameras on your phones back then.
[01:04:08]  Yeah, so it's so that's crazy different.
[01:04:10]  And they don't teach you none of that.
[01:04:12]  They don't, like, okay, look, we're gonna have a class for smartphones.
[01:04:15]  No, we can like walk you through it so you'll learn something about the smartphone.
[01:04:19]  They don't do none of that.
[01:04:20]  So you got to live there for six months and just find a job.
[01:04:24]  And you got to be there for six months and without what?
[01:04:26]  Getting in trouble, obviously.
[01:04:28]  Without getting in trouble, you got to pay them like 25% of your gross.
[01:04:33]  They want it before you know the taxes come out.
[01:04:35]  Yeah.
[01:04:36]  That's fine.
[01:04:36]  Yeah.
[01:04:36]  They want it before the taxes come out.
[01:04:38]  That's crazy, right?
[01:04:38]  They're going to get their money somehow.
[01:04:39]  Yeah.
[01:04:40]  Always.
[01:04:41]  Always.
[01:04:42]  And the halfway house, is it anything like a jail or is it like a house with a bed in it?
[01:04:46]  What's it like?
[01:04:47]  It's like a building and it got rooms.
[01:04:50]  It had rooms with like.
[01:04:52]  Like apartments?
[01:04:53]  Yeah, well, it's just rooms, like little small little rooms.
[01:04:57]  Okay.
[01:04:58]  And it had like the single beds.
[01:05:01]  It got like four, eight single beds in there.
[01:05:03]  Okay.
[01:05:03]  Just sleep eight people, got lockers in there.
[01:05:06]  More like a little, I don't know, like a college one, huh?
[01:05:10]  Yeah.
[01:05:11]  Yeah, like little small little things.
[01:05:13]  Okay.
[01:05:13]  It's like a little compound.
[01:05:15]  Yeah.
[01:05:15]  Yeah.
[01:05:15]  I mean, but they let you go get a job.
[01:05:18]  You got to go out and work.
[01:05:19]  You got to go out and work.
[01:05:20]  You got to be back by a certain time.
[01:05:22]  You eat there, right?
[01:05:22]  Yeah, you eat there and all that.
[01:05:24]  Yeah.
[01:05:25]  And how many people were there with you?
[01:05:26]  I think it was like 65.
[01:05:28]  65 people.
[01:05:30]  65 people.
[01:05:30]  It had girls there too, as well.
[01:05:32]  Yeah.
[01:05:32]  Females there too.
[01:05:33]  So it was like a co ed halfway house.
[01:05:37]  But it was like crazy.
[01:05:37]  Like they were treating like they were officers.
[01:05:41]  Yeah.
[01:05:41]  They think they're.
[01:05:42]  Well, the terminology changed.
[01:05:43]  You know, once you leave prison, when you go to the halfway house, you're not an inmate no more.
[01:05:47]  You're a resident.
[01:05:48]  Right.
[01:05:49]  And the staff is not COs.
[01:05:53]  They're just staff.
[01:05:54]  You know what I mean?
[01:05:55]  So.
[01:05:56]  But they want to treat you like you're in prison.
[01:05:58]  They're trying to treat you like you're in prison.
[01:05:59]  Yeah.
[01:06:00]  You know what I mean?
[01:06:00]  So I'm like, man, come on, man.
[01:06:01]  They got no idea what you just been through.
[01:06:03]  Yeah.
[01:06:03]  I'm like, damn, no idea.
[01:06:04]  They just work at the Salvation Army.
[01:06:06]  You just work at it.
[01:06:06]  You're an employee for the Salvation Army.
[01:06:08]  You don't work for the federal government at all.
[01:06:11]  Right.
[01:06:11]  You can be replaced in any time.
[01:06:13]  Yeah.
[01:06:13]  You know what I mean?
[01:06:14]  Like, you can make one mistake and you replace.
[01:06:17]  So are they looking to write you up on something to send you back?
[01:06:22]  Yeah.
[01:06:22]  They sent me back.
[01:06:23]  They sent you back.
[01:06:24]  So you're there for how long?
[01:06:26]  So they didn't send me back to the prison.
[01:06:28]  They sent me back.
[01:06:29]  To the county, they sent me to the county jail.
[01:06:30]  So they send you to the county jail?
[01:06:31]  Yeah, and I went to Pinellas for like.
[01:06:33]  On 49th Street?
[01:06:34]  Yeah.
[01:06:34]  Yeah.
[01:06:35]  I was at Pinellas.
[01:06:35]  I don't know if you know about Pinellas, huh?
[01:06:37]  Yeah.
[01:06:37]  This cat's been there.
[01:06:38]  I've been there.
[01:06:39]  Yeah.
[01:06:40]  I was there for like, I wonder what, like six weeks?
[01:06:44]  How long have you been to the halfway house?
[01:06:46]  I was at the halfway house for six months.
[01:06:48]  Six months, and then they send you back to 49th Street at the very end?
[01:06:52]  No, at the beginning.
[01:06:53]  Oh, at the beginning.
[01:06:54]  Okay.
[01:06:54]  I think I had my job for like a week.
[01:06:57]  Yeah.
[01:06:57]  And they were saying I was moving around.
[01:06:59]  On 420.
[01:06:59]  Yeah.
[01:07:00]  On 420.
[01:07:01]  Okay.
[01:07:02]  They sent me to prison, I mean, to the county jail on 420, and we dropped the No Feelings record on 420.
[01:07:08]  Okay.
[01:07:08]  Oh, shit.
[01:07:09]  So while you're in the halfway house, that's going on.
[01:07:12]  Yeah.
[01:07:12]  So we got the date set up.
[01:07:13]  Hey, man, 420.
[01:07:15]  We're going to drop the No Feelings.
[01:07:16]  And all of a sudden, at 420, I get locked up.
[01:07:19]  And they just send you back.
[01:07:20]  You don't know you're going back?
[01:07:21]  No, I don't know I'm going back.
[01:07:22]  They just tell you you're going back.
[01:07:23]  They just say, no, they don't tell me nothing.
[01:07:24]  The marshals just come and got you.
[01:07:27]  Yeah, just, hey, come on.
[01:07:28]  Where?
[01:07:29]  At that place?
[01:07:29]  Yeah, at the halfway house.
[01:07:30]  Yeah.
[01:07:31]  Wow, man.
[01:07:32]  Yeah, so I sit in the county for like six weeks.
[01:07:35]  Supposed to have been there like three weeks, but they came to pick up some other people and intentionally left my paperwork.
[01:07:41]  Yeah.
[01:07:42]  So they was like, oh, we'll come back.
[01:07:44]  Right, because you're a big case, honestly.
[01:07:46]  Yeah.
[01:07:46]  You're a big case when it comes to.
[01:07:48]  Especially when it comes to little Pinellas County and stuff.
[01:07:51]  They get up on a high horse and they don't wanna help you do you no favors for sure.
[01:07:56]  And the halfway house was the same way.
[01:08:01]  They know who I was, so they was like, you're not getting no special treatment.
[01:08:05]  And I'm like, I'm not trying to do nothing but music.
[01:08:08]  I don't wanna do nothing but music.
[01:08:10]  I'm not going back into the streets.
[01:08:13]  But they really like on me, like, hey, you gotta get a job, you gotta do this, you gotta do that.
[01:08:20]  You can't be on IG, you can't be on this.
[01:08:23]  So I'm like, man, it ain't no rules on that.
[01:08:25]  You need to have that in the rule book.
[01:08:26]  Yeah.
[01:08:27]  Right.
[01:08:28]  Oh, you do it and you're going back to the county.
[01:08:29]  So it's like, okay, do I abide by the rules, which is not a rule?
[01:08:35]  You just making it up because you got to have it in writing?
[01:08:38]  Or I just say, fuck it.
[01:08:40]  So I said, fuck it.
[01:08:43]  I went to IG crazy.
[01:08:45]  And then they sent you back to county?
[01:08:47]  No, that was when I got out.
[01:08:48]  Oh, that was after.
[01:08:48]  Yeah, that was after I got out.
[01:08:49]  So what, you went to, they sent you back to county for a couple of six weeks, you say?
[01:08:52]  Yeah.
[01:08:53]  And then, what, they put you in a different halfway house?
[01:08:55]  No, no, they put me back in the same one.
[01:08:57]  Put me back in the same one.
[01:08:57]  With the same people.
[01:08:58]  With the same people.
[01:08:59]  So they, like, yeah, you see, you went to jail.
[01:09:01]  I was like, so?
[01:09:02]  Yeah.
[01:09:03]  I was like, I'm still going to get out September 25th.
[01:09:07]  It's no different if I do it here.
[01:09:08]  You know what I mean?
[01:09:11]  What'd you do the day?
[01:09:11]  What'd you do on Tuesday?
[01:09:13]  Tuesday was we had an interview at WOW.
[01:09:16]  At WOW 94.
[01:09:17]  So that was the day.
[01:09:17]  Yeah, we saw that interview.
[01:09:19]  You got released.
[01:09:19]  You're free on Tuesday.
[01:09:21]  And you already had a schedule full of interviews and stuff.
[01:09:23]  So you're free at.
[01:09:24]  12 o'clock a.m.
[01:09:26]  No.
[01:09:26]  That day?
[01:09:27]  No, at 6 o'clock that morning.
[01:09:29]  6 in the morning.
[01:09:29]  6 a.m.
[01:09:30]  They let me, they released me.
[01:09:31]  From the halfway house?
[01:09:32]  From the halfway house.
[01:09:33]  And what?
[01:09:33]  They just opened the door and said, You're free or what?
[01:09:35]  They signed a little paperwork and they were like, You're free.
[01:09:37]  That's it.
[01:09:38]  Yeah.
[01:09:39]  And then what?
[01:09:39]  So you got your people to come pick you up?
[01:09:41]  Yeah, yeah, Buster, my brother, and Buster picked them up.
[01:09:44]  Yeah.
[01:09:44]  Okay.
[01:09:44]  And we head over to the radio station.
[01:09:45]  And you head straight to the radio station.
[01:09:47]  Yeah.
[01:09:47]  We're going to get breakfast.
[01:09:48]  Yeah.
[01:09:49]  Where'd you go?
[01:09:49]  Where'd you go for breakfast?
[01:09:51]  Where we went to?
[01:09:52]  Denny.
[01:09:53]  Denny's all right.
[01:09:54]  Oh, fuck.
[01:09:54]  I would have hit Waffle House.
[01:09:55]  But Denny's is good too.
[01:09:57]  That's why I ain't been here.
[01:09:58]  I haven't been there.
[01:09:58]  That's why I need to go to Waffle House.

=== Freedom at Six AM (05:06) ===

[01:10:00]  Oh man, bro.
[01:10:00]  Waffle House is on the come up.
[01:10:03]  Yeah, Waffle House.
[01:10:04]  I like Waffle House.
[01:10:05]  That was my jam back in the days, man.
[01:10:07]  Waffle House.
[01:10:08]  I fuck with Waffle House heavy.
[01:10:10]  Yeah.
[01:10:10]  A lot of people, it seems like, I mean, at least in the recent past, like in the recent history, what I've noticed is like when Gucci got released from prison, he was super weird.
[01:10:21]  You could tell something was off with him.
[01:10:23]  Everyone started calling him a clone.
[01:10:25]  He was acting different.
[01:10:26]  His wife would always be videoing him on Instagram Live, posting videos.
[01:10:29]  Of him everywhere, and you could tell the dude was just out of it, like he didn't really, he wasn't himself, he didn't seem confident.
[01:10:37]  And could you relate to any of that?
[01:10:40]  Like, I don't know if you were able to see that, yeah.
[01:10:44]  I seen it, yeah.
[01:10:44]  It's gonna be a quick transition, but but I think, I think with Gucci Man, what it was, it was when everybody seen him before, he was high, yeah, he was high all the time, he was high all the time, like he was like high out of his mind, so everything was the substance that was like making him act out and be, you know.
[01:11:03]  So after a while, being high so much every day, every day, all day, to going cold turkey and not doing anything.
[01:11:10]  So you're like.
[01:11:10]  You're a different person.
[01:11:11]  You're a different person.
[01:11:12]  Right, sure.
[01:11:12]  And even physically, he was a different person, too.
[01:11:14]  You're a different person.
[01:11:15]  That's different for people.
[01:11:17]  Yeah, so that's why I look like he just.
[01:11:19]  That's why he seemed so much different because he was always high.
[01:11:22]  He was always high.
[01:11:23]  Wow.
[01:11:23]  Real quick, to go back, are you dabbling in doing any drugs back then when you're selling?
[01:11:28]  Are you, you know what I mean?
[01:11:29]  Are you getting high?
[01:11:30]  Smoking weed?
[01:11:31]  Yeah.
[01:11:32]  Cocaine and stuff?
[01:11:33]  No.
[01:11:34]  So that wasn't you.
[01:11:34]  Just smoke a little weed, but everything else was for sale.
[01:11:37]  Don't get high on your own supply.
[01:11:38]  Yeah, just weed.
[01:11:40]  Because a lot of them people, they're selling drugs, but they're getting high and all that stuff.
[01:11:44]  Yeah, yeah.
[01:11:45]  I knew a lot of them that was like that.
[01:11:47]  This dude had a patent on some shit, man.
[01:11:49]  He was doing a blunt splitter.
[01:11:50]  Yeah, you were on it for sure.
[01:11:51]  The blunt splitter.
[01:11:52]  That was my thing, the weed, man.
[01:11:53]  It was the splitter.
[01:11:55]  That's how the splitter came apart, man.
[01:11:56]  Yeah.
[01:11:57]  Wow.
[01:11:57]  Yeah.
[01:11:59]  So, do you got any inventions coming up?
[01:12:01]  Well, I'm going to bring the splitter back.
[01:12:03]  You bringing it back?
[01:12:03]  Yeah, I'm going to bring it back.
[01:12:04]  Are you really?
[01:12:05]  The Cigarellos, yeah.
[01:12:06]  Yeah.
[01:12:06]  Yeah, I'm going to bring it back with the Cigarellos.
[01:12:09]  You still got the patent for it?
[01:12:11]  Yeah, I still got a patent for it.
[01:12:13]  Okay.
[01:12:13]  Just really back into the music, man.
[01:12:16]  What do you like listening to right now?
[01:12:20]  Right now.
[01:12:21]  I haven't really been listening to music because I really don't want to be influenced by a lot of the stuff that's out right now.
[01:12:31]  You know what I mean?
[01:12:32]  So it's just certain things that really grab my attention that I listen to, but outside of that, I won't.
[01:12:37]  Just really with the radio playing, certain things like that.
[01:12:40]  You're focused more on the output.
[01:12:42]  Yeah, I'm focused more on the output.
[01:12:44]  How about your music, too?
[01:12:46]  It's pretty different from the music back before you went in.
[01:12:50]  Music back then was on a whole different trend that it was kind of like a bounce, trick, daddy style.
[01:12:55]  You know, now the music's a little different.
[01:12:57]  How do you adapt to that?
[01:12:59]  Well, it's like do it and put my own twist to it.
[01:13:03]  Yeah.
[01:13:04]  You know, it's like with the No Feelings record, everybody was expecting me to come out with a juke record.
[01:13:10]  Right.
[01:13:10]  Like, man, I know you're coming out with a juke record.
[01:13:12]  What's your first one?
[01:13:13]  Right, that's probably what everybody's expecting.
[01:13:14]  Yeah, so I'm like, no.
[01:13:15]  And this is different than that style.
[01:13:17]  Yeah, so it's kind of like on the style that's being played now, but it's like with my flavor to it, you know what I mean?
[01:13:23]  Yeah, I feel like it's very up to date.
[01:13:25]  You know, the juke style, that stuff was.
[01:13:27]  That was back then.
[01:13:28]  Yeah.
[01:13:28]  And obviously, that was the hot shit back then.
[01:13:30]  But it's definitely a big transition now.
[01:13:32]  I feel like you're completely caught up already with the No Feeling song.
[01:13:36]  Yeah, that's what I wanted to do.
[01:13:39]  When I heard the track, I was like, yeah, this is where we need to go.
[01:13:43]  Like, you know, everybody, like, man, you got to come back with a joke record, a club, bang them up.
[01:13:46]  Yeah.
[01:13:47]  Because that was the songs back then.
[01:13:48]  Yeah, but I'm like, no, I don't want to do that.
[01:13:52]  Like, I can give you that, but I'm not going to give you that right now.
[01:13:56]  I'm going to get on what's going on right now so it can fit in.
[01:13:58]  Right.
[01:13:59]  You know what I mean?
[01:14:00]  Right.
[01:14:01]  Yeah.
[01:14:02]  So right now you're just going super hard in the studio.
[01:14:04]  Super hard.
[01:14:05]  We already just came straight from the studio, right?
[01:14:07]  Straight from the studio.
[01:14:08]  Yeah.
[01:14:08]  Damn.
[01:14:09]  And then you got an EP coming out?
[01:14:12]  EP coming out next Friday, October the 5th.
[01:14:16]  I even got a party at Green Gators October the 5th.
[01:14:18]  In Tampa?
[01:14:19]  Okay.
[01:14:19]  Yeah, in Tampa.
[01:14:20]  Find a free party.
[01:14:21]  Are we invited?
[01:14:22]  Yeah, man.
[01:14:23]  Come on.
[01:14:24]  We'll be there.
[01:14:24]  We got to be there, man.
[01:14:25]  We need the press.
[01:14:25]  We'll come out?
[01:14:26]  Yeah, man.
[01:14:27]  All right.
[01:14:27]  You don't forget, we toasting every hour, man.
[01:14:30]  Hell yeah.
[01:14:31]  I'll be there.
[01:14:33]  My jacuzzi.
[01:14:34]  Yeah, we're toasting every hour, man.
[01:14:36]  So, yeah, man, it's going to be beautiful, man.
[01:14:39]  The EP is amazing.
[01:14:41]  Yeah.
[01:14:43]  It's amazing, man.
[01:14:45]  You know, everybody's going to think it's going to be juke music.
[01:14:47]  It's going to be straight.
[01:14:48]  Nah.
[01:14:48]  So, even in the No Feelings song, you're kind of like singing a little bit almost, you know, with the harmony.
[01:14:54]  And the hook, that's you, right?
[01:14:55]  No, that's Jay Von.
[01:14:57]  Okay, that's somebody else.
[01:14:58]  I was going to say the hook and the vocalist.
[01:14:59]  I thought maybe that was you for a second.
[01:15:01]  Yeah, nah, nah, that's Jay Von.
[01:15:02]  Jay Von, he produced the record.
[01:15:04]  So, you're just wrapping the verses?
[01:15:05]  I'm just wrapping the verses, yeah.

=== A Whole New Sound (08:09) ===

[01:15:06]  Okay.
[01:15:08]  Where are you going to release it?
[01:15:09]  Are you going to release it on all the platforms?
[01:15:11]  Yeah, I'm going to release it on all the platforms.
[01:15:13]  Okay.
[01:15:13]  Yeah, I'm releasing on all the platforms.
[01:15:15]  It's amazing, man.
[01:15:17]  It's different now, right?
[01:15:18]  Yeah.
[01:15:18]  Back then, you were probably selling CDs.
[01:15:21]  Yeah, back then, it was CDs.
[01:15:22]  So now it's like with all the platforms, the Spotify, the SoundCloud, it's like, it's totally, I'm excited.
[01:15:29]  Right, yeah.
[01:15:30]  Right, it's all new to you.
[01:15:31]  Yeah, because it's like, okay, I don't have to get a bunch of flyers.
[01:15:34]  I don't have to print up 1,000 or 2,000 CDs.
[01:15:37]  Right.
[01:15:38]  How different is that?
[01:15:39]  That's probably crazy.
[01:15:39]  You just, you could pretty much upload it from your phone.
[01:15:42]  Just straight from the phone, man.
[01:15:43]  It's like, man, this is, I love it.
[01:15:46]  Yeah.
[01:15:46]  I love it.
[01:15:47]  That's dope.
[01:15:48]  Yeah.
[01:15:48]  It's a whole new world.
[01:15:49]  A whole new world, man.
[01:15:51]  How was the response and everything so far?
[01:15:53]  The response is great.
[01:15:54]  You've only been out two days, but.
[01:15:56]  The response is crazy.
[01:15:57]  Especially after, like, a lot of people didn't know I was out.
[01:16:01]  You know, they heard things, you know.
[01:16:02]  So they was like, so by me going on wild in the morning show and the way social media is set up to see the visual, they was like, he is out.
[01:16:15]  Yeah.
[01:16:15]  Because I couldn't figure it out.
[01:16:16]  For a while, either to be honest, too.
[01:16:18]  I was following you on live because I heard you got the part in, but you're working.
[01:16:21]  But I'm reading online, you're still in, so you're I find out you're in the halfway house and stuff.
[01:16:25]  Yeah, so people couldn't believe it.
[01:16:27]  Like, you know, when I'm working, uh, I'm out certain stores or something like that, somebody seems like what were you doing for a job?
[01:16:36]  Uh, construction, okay, yeah.
[01:16:38]  I work, I work probably like a month, yeah, and that was it.
[01:16:44]  Yeah, I had enough of it.
[01:16:46]  I work construction, honestly, it sucks.
[01:16:48]  Man, listen, I'm talking about it.
[01:16:50]  It's too hot here in Florida.
[01:16:52]  And it's my partner.
[01:16:53]  He's a real good dude, man.
[01:16:54]  His name is Willie Kirkland.
[01:16:56]  Yeah.
[01:16:56]  We call him Gator.
[01:16:59]  I worked for like a month, and like the last week, it was like the hardest.
[01:17:04]  It's hot, man.
[01:17:05]  And I told him, I was like, bro, listen, I can't do this shit, man.
[01:17:08]  I'm not built for this.
[01:17:09]  I'm going back.
[01:17:11]  I got to do my music, man.
[01:17:12]  I can't do this shit.
[01:17:13]  So he was like, bro, you know, man, do your thing, man.
[01:17:16]  You know what I mean?
[01:17:17]  So I was like, okay.
[01:17:18]  I said, I got to, bro, because I said, I can't.
[01:17:20]  I can't stand it in this fucking sun, man.
[01:17:22]  So hard.
[01:17:22]  What were you doing?
[01:17:23]  You're doing concrete?
[01:17:25]  I thought I saw one episode.
[01:17:26]  I was watching live one time.
[01:17:27]  You said something about it.
[01:17:28]  Because I work concrete.
[01:17:29]  Okay, yeah.
[01:17:29]  We were doing concrete.
[01:17:30]  The footers.
[01:17:32]  We dug the footers.
[01:17:32]  Yeah.
[01:17:33]  They're building like a recreation center over in Robus Park.
[01:17:37]  Okay.
[01:17:38]  So we were, oh, man.
[01:17:39]  It's from start to finish.
[01:17:40]  Yeah, yeah.
[01:17:41]  We demolished it, towed it down, cleaned it all up, and then we built it all the way back up.
[01:17:47]  So I'm like, man, this sucks, right?
[01:17:49]  It's too hot out here in Florida, man.
[01:17:51]  I know.
[01:17:51]  One thing that you got to.
[01:17:54]  It's the rods.
[01:17:56]  Rebar?
[01:17:56]  For concrete.
[01:17:57]  Rebar.
[01:17:58]  Yeah.
[01:17:58]  Okay, yeah, we do all the rebar too.
[01:17:59]  Listen, when you got a time for the walls to tie the rebar, it sucks, right?
[01:18:04]  And the rebar's hot.
[01:18:06]  Hot as hell in this Florida heat.
[01:18:07]  Oh, man.
[01:18:08]  Yeah, man, listen.
[01:18:10]  Burn your hands.
[01:18:11]  What?
[01:18:11]  I was like, man, you can have this shit, man.
[01:18:13]  Sucks, right?
[01:18:13]  Yeah.
[01:18:14]  I was like, bro, I'm leaving, man.
[01:18:16]  He was like, man, you better quit.
[01:18:18]  I said, listen, I have to, bro.
[01:18:21]  I was like, I can't do it, man.
[01:18:22]  It's good work, but in this Florida heat, it's so tough.
[01:18:25]  Man, it's tough, man.
[01:18:26]  It's too hot down here.
[01:18:27]  It's too hot.
[01:18:28]  You know, it's the sand and then the heat from the ground and then the fire.
[01:18:31]  Oh, yeah, you're soaked in 15 seconds down here in this humidity.
[01:18:35]  Yeah.
[01:18:36]  So I'm like, fuck no, man.
[01:18:37]  Yeah, it's for the birds.
[01:18:39]  So back to the.
[01:18:40]  Then it's definitely.
[01:18:41]  I got to push the music because I definitely don't want to pour no concrete.
[01:18:44]  I don't want to do no concrete.
[01:18:45]  I don't want to do no concrete.
[01:18:47]  Hell no.
[01:18:48]  That's dope, man.
[01:18:49]  So the EP's coming out and what else you're working on now?
[01:18:54]  We're also doing like a comedy.
[01:19:00]  A comedy sitcom.
[01:19:02]  Okay.
[01:19:03]  Me and Chris Dow.
[01:19:06]  It's going to be real dope.
[01:19:07]  It's real funny.
[01:19:09]  Like, supposed to be like a reality TV, like a reality show, but it's really not a reality show, right?
[01:19:13]  Right, it's fake, sure, right?
[01:19:16]  But it's real cool, man.
[01:19:17]  It's gonna be real hilarious.
[01:19:18]  So, I'm really like becoming the Instagram influencer, yeah, that's what I want, yeah, man.
[01:19:25]  That's what I want, yeah, that's what I want to do, man.
[01:19:27]  So, it's like pushing the numbers, you know what I mean?
[01:19:31]  Trying to get my numbers up.
[01:19:32]  I go on live, we talk about a lot of different things and stuff like that.
[01:19:35]  I got a lot of ladies that follow me, so I know.
[01:19:37]  I see, I got, I follow your live, I watch your live every time I watch your live, I see it's nothing but ladies on there talking.
[01:19:43]  About hey Tamba Tony, hey Tony, you know, they're always a ton of women, they're always reposting the video, dancing to it, and yeah, so yeah, I'm really like, uh, we we talk about everything, so I kind of do like themes on each day, yeah, so they they like they loving it, you know what I mean, they loving it.
[01:20:02]  It's like I ask, I say stuff or come over things like don't nobody talk about, you know what I mean, even from like grooming, you know, telling the women you have to shave, yeah.
[01:20:14]  You can't have a man go down on you and you don't have it shaved, you know what I mean?
[01:20:19]  Like the guys, guys, we got to shave, hey man.
[01:20:22]  Women don't want to do that, and you ain't shaved, man.
[01:20:24]  Come on, man.
[01:20:25]  Yeah, so it's just certain things like that, you know what I mean?
[01:20:28]  So we talk about everything.
[01:20:29]  Yeah, it's like a little sitcom, yeah.
[01:20:31]  It's like a little, it's gonna be on YouTube or what, yeah.
[01:20:33]  We're gonna do it on YouTube, yeah.
[01:20:34]  I'll do it on YouTube.
[01:20:35]  So, do you have your own YouTube channel?
[01:20:37]  This stuff is gonna go on, yeah.
[01:20:38]  We got um, we can all that set up now, all that set up now.
[01:20:41]  So, it's gonna be it's gonna be amazing, man.
[01:20:44]  It's just going to be amazing.
[01:20:46]  It's a real funny sitcom.
[01:20:49]  Have you guys filmed any of it yet?
[01:20:51]  No, because I couldn't because I was in it.
[01:20:53]  It's been two days.
[01:20:55]  I keep forgetting this.
[01:20:56]  Yeah, me too.
[01:20:57]  It's been like two days.
[01:20:58]  So now we're getting everybody together and we're trying to put it all together.
[01:21:01]  So it's going to be amazing, man.
[01:21:03]  It's going to be amazing.
[01:21:04]  That sounds really cool.
[01:21:05]  That's what's up, man.
[01:21:06]  So y'all got to bring me back.
[01:21:07]  I can bring the cast over, man.
[01:21:08]  Yeah, man.
[01:21:09]  Bring them over.
[01:21:09]  Our podcast is actually pretty new, too.
[01:21:11]  This is like our sixth, seventh episode that we've done.
[01:21:14]  I mean, we do a lot of other stuff online, but podcast is new for us.
[01:21:18]  Yeah, man.
[01:21:19]  Brand new.
[01:21:19]  But we've seen Tampa Tony.
[01:21:20]  I said we had to get him on.
[01:21:21]  Being local and stuff, too, you know, it's just perfect.
[01:21:23]  We'd like to interact with the local community.
[01:21:25]  Yeah, man.
[01:21:26]  Because, you know, like, my whole thing is the area we need to win.
[01:21:32]  So it's like, I really want to become an influencer to get the numbers up from all over.
[01:21:38]  So, like, even with y'all's show, you know what I mean?
[01:21:41]  I can plug y'all.
[01:21:42]  You know, it's like we piggyback one another.
[01:21:45]  You got a big show coming up, or you want to get an interview with certain people, call me.
[01:21:50]  I know this.
[01:21:51]  Or you've seen me with them.
[01:21:52]  I can get them, hey man, I need you to come and do this radio show.
[01:21:55]  It's a concrete radio show.
[01:21:56]  It's like.
[01:21:56]  Yeah, it's a win win for everyone.
[01:21:57]  It's a win win for everybody.
[01:21:58]  You know what I mean?
[01:21:59]  So that's what I want here in Tampa.
[01:22:01]  So that's what I'm demonstrating.
[01:22:03]  You know what I mean?
[01:22:04]  That's what I'm big on.
[01:22:05]  I'm big on that, like, togetherness to build up this area.
[01:22:08]  Because there's a lot of people coming in this area and.
[01:22:11]  And Florida's on the rise right now.
[01:22:13]  Yeah, yeah.
[01:22:13]  Especially in the rap world.
[01:22:15]  Florida's on right now.
[01:22:16]  Yeah, we own it.
[01:22:17]  And we work with a lot of other rappers and stuff and do some music videos and stuff.
[01:22:21]  And Florida's hot now.
[01:22:23]  We're very hot, man.
[01:22:24]  Yeah.
[01:22:24]  I'm talking about, I think it's a perfect time for you to come home, man.
[01:22:27]  It's the new Atlanta.
[01:22:28]  Yeah.
[01:22:28]  I think 2019 is going to be one of the, it's like the intro biggest year for us, man.
[01:22:33]  Yeah.
[01:22:33]  I think so too.
[01:22:33]  It's going to be very, very huge, man.
[01:22:36]  It really is.
[01:22:37]  We're excited.
[01:22:37]  A lot of young guys coming up.
[01:22:38]  Yeah.
[01:22:39]  What's the EP call?
[01:22:41]  The EP call is finally free.
[01:22:42]  Finally free.
[01:22:43]  Finally free.
[01:22:44]  What's the date you're dropping at?
[01:22:46]  Next week, Friday.
[01:22:47]  The 5th.
[01:22:48]  October the 5th.
[01:22:49]  The 5th.
[01:22:49]  Same day of my party.
[01:22:50]  Same of the party.
[01:22:50]  Green Gators.
[01:22:51]  Yep.
[01:22:51]  Yeah, we'll be there.
[01:22:52]  Yeah, y'all got to be there, man.
[01:22:53]  We'll be there, bro.
[01:22:54]  We got to come through.
[01:22:55]  Yeah.
[01:22:55]  We gotta be live.
[01:22:58]  Listen, I tell everybody don't come to the party if you don't have IG.
[01:23:01]  Okay.
[01:23:02]  Oh, yeah.
[01:23:02]  Do not come to the party.
[01:23:04]  I'm on your IG.
[01:23:05]  I'm on everybody's IG that's in the club.
[01:23:06]  Yeah.
[01:23:07]  That's what's up.
[01:23:07]  Yeah, definitely.
[01:23:09]  Well, nice meeting you, bro.
[01:23:10]  Hey, same.
[01:23:11]  Thanks for coming, man.
[01:23:12]  Thank you.
[01:23:13]  It was a pleasure coming.
[01:23:14]  We'll get you back on here.
[01:23:15]  Yes, sir.