J Prince, a Houston-based entrepreneur with a legendary wine collection and ties to Willie D and The Ghetto Boys, formed the group in the late '80s to reflect raw street struggles over East Coast rap trends. His boxing career began after meeting Mike Tyson but pivoted when Floyd Mayweather became his client, orchestrating high-profile fights like Mayweather vs. Diego Corrales. He critiques racist, profit-driven criminal justice tactics—like planted drugs and entrapment—that framed him despite his clean record, comparing it to systemic oppression. His book, The Art and Science of Respect, blends hip-hop’s global impact with lessons on breaking generational cycles, while his son Jazz Prince helped launch Drake’s U.S. rise, symbolizing resilience over legacy. [Automatically generated summary]
He's a good man, and the stuff that he does on the side, you know, outside of boxing, and the stuff that he does with the Innocence Project is really amazing.
I actually had got rid of the other set of ghetto boys because they felt like I was too deep and they couldn't relate to some of the subject matters I wanted them to write to.
We brainstormed together because we wanted to make sure we tapped into, you know, everybody that didn't have a voice.
You know, a lot of the things, such as the Mind Plan Trick song, for example, you know, it was a lot of individuals that was, like, numb to that lifestyle of what would actually take place of inner-city kids.
And I was encouraged to do it because You know, he was a rapper at the time, you know, I was hustling a different way and I didn't want my brother in the streets.
So I'm like, you go in the studio, I'm going to support you in the rap world.
But ultimately, my brother decided not to stay in the rap game and we got him like 23 years.
And one of the things we've done, like, on the East Coast and the West Coast, you know, they had access to a lot of power where the major record labels were concerned.
Down in Houston, in the South period, we had no access to any of that kind of power.
So we was left to, like, figure it out and do it on our own.
So when I laid the foundation in Houston, I basically learned from trial and error.
And I had to figure it out, and I did, and we laid a foundation that's relevant today.
This had to be 99 or 2000. So, you know, I knew a friend that knew Mike, and Mike, you know, accepted the invitation because he was familiar with my movement where Rapalite was concerned.
And I flew out there with my focus on Mike, and man, I walked into him sparring, and I was like...
You know, I was on cloud nine because I had never saw him, you know, in person sparring.
It was always at a fight.
And I walked in and he was throwing leather with another heavyweight and I was like starstruck.
And in the midst of watching this sparring, Floyd Mayweather came in the gym, and Floyd, you know, I didn't know who he was.
He kept coming to me, yo, Jay, yo, Jay, man, I know about your group.
You know, he was calling groups out.
I'm like, oh, okay, thanks, bro.
Thanks, bro.
I'm zeroing back in on mic.
Boom, boom, boom.
Floor come over again.
Yo, Jay, yo, Jay, yo, Jay.
Man, I know about this group here, man.
And Jay, if you want to do something later on, you know, this is my number.
I'll come pick you up.
I'm like, all right, brother.
Okay.
Focus on Mike.
I don't know who Floyd is, right?
So afterwards, you know, me and Mike go to his house to have the meeting that I came to have because my objective was to become his manager, to be on his management team.
And he and I met for an hour.
He got his ex-wife on the phone and, you know, I was pretty much convinced I was on the team after the meeting and everything took place.
You know, hung with him all night.
The next day, I tried to reach Mike, and I couldn't reach Mike.
And I was left with Floyd number, and I asked my friend, I said, who number is this number right here?
He said, oh, that's Floyd Mayweather, the 130-pound champion.
So, bam!
A red light went off in my head because I prayed for a champion.
Long story short, me and Floyd was in business together less than a week.
Yeah, well, I don't know about a break, but I know we eventually had to get a specialist to wrap his hands because, you know, he would hurt them a lot.
You need a passion for the technical aspects of the game.
But you gotta have that ethic.
If you don't have that work ethic, you never keep it going.
You always fall short of your expectations, and without naming any names, we all know those champions that could have been great, but they got fat in between camps, and they just never trained as hard as they should have.
Yeah.
I mean, some of the all-time greats suffered from it, like Roberto Duran after he beat Sugar Ray Leonard.
And Sugar Ray knew it, capitalized on it, and forced a quick rematch when he knew that Duran was fat.
Well, let me tell you the story of how I got in the wine business.
You're not from Texas, but those that are from Texas remember this doctor definitely in Houston by the name of Dr. Red Duke.
He was a surgeon in Houston.
And I heard him speak about the health benefits where wine was concerned one day.
And you know, he was talking about how wine is good for your heart, your blood, antioxidants, you know, all of these things.
And I became, you know, kind of sold where wine was concerned.
And during my winding down time, I started sipping a little bit.
And ultimately, that led me to Napa Valley, where I was able to go to quite a few vineyards.
I was actually negotiating on purchasing a vineyard, so I got an opportunity to view things from the business perspective, and that kind of led me to where I'm at today.
It wasn't easy because I came into a situation where his father and his uncle was his manager and I wasn't embraced with love because they kind of felt like I was...
He had a $12 million contract on the table at the time I came in that everybody wanted him to sign.
Floyd called the contract a slave contract before I came, but they blamed me for him calling the contract a slave contract.
And, you know, ultimately I had to go in and do some damage control.
And one of the things that I told him when, you know, when I met him, I said, if I can't make this better, I don't want to eat off of your 12 million that had already been offered to you.
So I had an opportunity to have a meeting with Seth Abraham, you know, at the time was the president of HBO. And I pretty much just asked the guy, you know, how could we get around this 12 million dollar contract?
How can I make this a bigger contract?
At the time he told me about the fighter named Diego Corrales.
He was like, you know, if you all would be willing to fight Diego Corrales, Then this could jump up to 35 million or so if y'all was able to beat Diego Corrales.
You know, that was interesting to me.
You know, I went home and done some due diligence on Diego Corrales at the time.
And at that particular time, Diego had jumped on his ex-wife and kind of beat her up.
He had charges, you know, kind of done her pretty bad, but bad to the extent where he was facing jail time.
And I saw that and I went back to Florida.
I said, Florida, I said, it's a perfect time.
To fight Diego Corrales.
I said, I even have a marketing tool.
We can whip him for every battled woman in the United States of America.
One of the things that's going on right now with Floyd is he's going to fight Logan Paul, who's this YouTube star, which is...
It's so crazy that a dude who is a YouTube star, who's a good athlete, he's had a couple of boxing matches and was a very good wrestler, he's gonna box the greatest boxer ever.
Arguably, of all time.
If you want to look at accomplishments, Floyd Mayweather is in the argument as the greatest of all time.
Boxing is a sport of being hit, or hitting rather, and not being hit.
Floyd is the very best ever at that.
No one's ever stopped him.
No one's ever even come close.
I mean, it's amazing.
What he's done is amazing.
And a lot of people say, oh, he waited until Manny Pacquiao was past his prime before he fought him.
Well, that's a smart thing to do if you want to stay 50-0.
I mean, if you look at his career, he fought all the great fighters, but he did it on his terms when he fought Canelo, made Canelo get down 152, I think it was.
Yeah, I'll tell you what was really strange about that.
So a couple years after that, on the same day, Diego got killed almost around the same time, you know, right on the next street behind my Las Vegas place.
And I was called and, you know, his wife was like, somebody say Diego had a motorcycle accident.
So I rushed on Fort Apache and there Diego was on the same exact day of his biggest victory a couple years later the same day.
I came real close to getting my motorcycle license, but when I was going through the whole thing and going through classes, and three people I know, one person saw someone get hit, and two people I know crashed.
One crashed and really fucked up his shoulder.
Another one got hit by a car.
Some old man ran a light and T-boned him and snapped his leg in half.
The Diego Corrales fight with Floyd was a defining fight.
But one of the things that when people point to Floyd, I say, look at the Maidana fights.
Because Maidana gave him some difficulty in the first fight.
But in the second fight, Floyd boxed his ears off.
Floyd put on a clinic in that second fight, and that shows you a guy who went back, looked at the fight, didn't enjoy his performance, was too close, and decided, I'm going to fuck this dude up in this rematch, and I'm going to do everything right this time.
I love seeing when people achieve a level of proficiency that's so powerful that a world champion is standing in front of them and going, fuck, man, I got a lot to learn.
he's a tiny little dude and the the Japanese people they love freak shows they put on some wild during the mixed martial arts heyday of Japan they put on some wild fights man they had like 300 pound dudes fight 100 pound dudes they didn't give a fuck they're like let's make some crazy shit happen Anything goes.
They really did.
They had this guy, Minotauro Noguera, who was, at the time, the heavyweight champion of Pride.
He was a regular-sized heavyweight, maybe 240 pounds, and he fought Bob Sapp, who was 375 pounds with abs.
Just chock full of Mexican supplements.
Just smashing people.
And they had this crazy freak fight.
And they did a lot of that in Japan.
Japan enjoys watching these people fight that are mismatched size wise.
That's why I was going to get to that, is that fighters seem to have more conflicts.
Like, this shit that happened with Bob Arum and Terrence Crawford, that...
That turned my stomach.
When you got a guy as good as Terrence Crawford, who legitimately could be one of the all-time greats, might be already, one of the rare, like, a switch hitter who's just as good orthodox as he is at Southpaw, figures everybody out, beats everybody, and then he talks crazy shit about losing money promoting his fights, and What the fuck are you talking about?
Maybe you're doing a shitty job promoting him.
You got in your roster one of the greatest of all time.
You know, man, I don't understand what's going on with Deontay.
From what I'm hearing, they may be trying to stop the Fury and Joshua fight from taking place.
My thing is, if he's not going to fight, get out of the way.
Let the movement continue.
Like, I tell you what, I think he missed the opportunity.
He should have fought Fury in December because I think he may have, would have had an edge conditioning-wise because Fury, you know, wasn't in that gym properly.
And then it was the gloves aren't on properly so that, you know, the knuckles were at the bottom part of the glove and the top part was just flopping around.
It's just sad when a great champion like Deontay Wilder, who literally knocked out every single opponent other than Tyson Fury and Stavern in the first fight.
I mean, he had an incredible record.
When you look at the guy's record, he has one single decision.
But sometimes, and I'm sure you see this as a manager, Sometimes when a person has extraordinary gifts, like the extraordinary gift of power, they don't develop the technical aspects of boxing the way a person who maybe has soft hands does.
Well, I think it was that, but I really think a big factor was the beating John Ruiz at heavyweight and then draining his body down to 175 to go back and fight Tarver again.
You know, now that's a whole nother story because I had a meeting with Roy Jones and Mike Tyson at my ranch for them to fight one another before that fight.
And, you know, Roy decided, I think, what's his name, Tarver was talking so much shit, man, until Roy was like, let me go take care of him one more time.
And I was like, Roy, man, let's get that bird, you know, in the hand versus that one in the bush.
Yeah, he went to take care of Tarver, man.
That's the only reason that fight didn't come to fruition.
Now as a person that is, you're so much, you're so invested in discipline and respect and honor, like, it's kind of a perfect sport for you to be involved in, in a lot of ways.
Because it represents so many of those different aspects of human character.
I got interested in boxing when I was a little kid.
My parents were hippies.
Like, they weren't into boxing.
But when Muhammad Ali had a rematch with Leon Spinks, after Muhammad Ali lost his title to Leon Spinks and then had a rematch, my parents made us all watch it.
Because Muhammad Ali represented way more than boxing to the culture, just to human beings at the time.
He represented this guy who stood up against the Vietnam War, who stood up for people in a way that he risked his career.
He got shut down for three years in his prime after arguably one of his most devastating performances.
He fought Cleveland Big Cat Williams, lights him up like a Christmas tree, and then they make him take three years off.
Just because he wouldn't fight in the Vietnam War.
I guess hearing about that was one thing, but to actually be sitting there and witnessing all these different people from around the world, what he meant to them, I was like, wow, he was a special guy.
And his need for money, that he had not prepared properly and invested properly and just lived a little too loose and wild, and then had to take those fights, like with Trevor Burbick.
And I think there was probably a bridge he had across to consider himself the real champion.
I think it ruined his career because I think Larry Holmes never really got the respect that he deserved because of that because people resented him for doing that and then also just living in the shadow of Ali.
Well, that was one of the things that I talked to Roy about.
That made Roy really second-guess and think about his career because when Gerald McClellan was coming up, he was thought to be the big rival for Roy Jones Jr. Everybody thought that's going to be the big fight.
When those two guys get together, that is going to be...
Our version in that weight class, at that time, of what we want to see with Terrence Crawford and Earl Spence.
Olympic gold medalist, world champion boxer, tremendous hand speed, technical boxing skills off the charts.
Then she goes and trains with Jon Jones.
Jon Jones, who's the greatest of all time.
So she's training with the greatest of all time, and she's learning the wrestling, the takedown defense, and she's going to have such an advantage with her hands.
And every fight starts standing up.
She's going to learn.
And she's doing the right moves, in my opinion.
She signed with the PFL, which is a smaller organization, and she'll rack up some wins over there, hopefully, and then make her way eventually to the UFC. And I think that'd be very interesting.
Yeah, I spoke with her and she, you know, was voicing to me her frustration when boxing was concerned and that she was really thinking about going over there.
Yeah, I talked to her a few years ago on Instagram and I said, are you interested in, are you going to fight MMA? Because I know you're interested in this because I know she did some sparring with Cyborg.
She said she's thinking about it.
And we had talked about doing a podcast before I left L.A. But I'm a big fan of hers.
But I don't think there's any competition for her in boxing.
Look at that.
Look at all those belts.
When it comes to boxing, who is she going to fight?
There's only been a few standout women boxers.
And the big problem has always been competition.
Like Ann Wolfe, for example.
Ann Wolfe to this day was like, in my opinion, the greatest one-punch knockout in the history of women's boxing.
When she was training James Kirkland and she was having him do all kinds of crazy shit, she cracked that whip and James Kirkland was at his best when he was under the tutelage of Ann Wolfe.
When you wrote this book, Was this a book not just to sort of relay the lessons that you've learned in your life, but to lay them out for young people and for people that need this information?
I guess it came from an energy and a situation of me, first of all, what happened where I was concerned.
You know, my wins, my losses, everything happened in between and I think it just like covered ground and areas that I I wasn't really thinking it would cover, but just being real.
It's something about being real.
I figured that out where my kids were concerned.
When I would speak with them and not try to sugarcoat different things, just the butt-naked, authentic truth.
I noticed they embraced the truth just a little better than trying to sugarcoat things.
So in my book, I just raw and uncut, you know, this is how it was.
Well, one of the things that's so valuable about a book like this is for young people, they get to read all the things you went through, and it gives them a structure.
It gives them an idea of what's possible for themselves.
When they see someone they admire, someone that's become extremely successful, and they read how it all went down, and then they apply that in their own life, they think about their own life, it's very valuable.
A book like this can be fuel to a young person that's thinking about, how do I become successful?
How do I become someone like the people that I admire?
Well, you read a book by the people that you admire, and you try to figure out what they did.
And you read what they were thinking, what it was like for them, and you absorb that and take it in yourself.
And that's why, you know, on my journey now, you know, I really try to express and explain to them that readers are leaders.
You know, if you want to become a leader, it's important to read because it was reading that Really caused my career to go to a whole nother level when I started reading, you know, because I was kind of, where I come from, reading wasn't popular.
It was like a boring thing to do, but it's a lot of power in reading.
And, you know, I wanted to be an example to people like myself, you know, that Didn't believe in reading or just if you're interested in how to turn nothing into something.
If you're interested in the structure and the different rules of how to do things, then pick up a book.
And what it done for me, that particular book, I had a lot of gifts and a lot of powers that I was unaware of.
And I also wasn't aware of the importance of structure, organizing and goals, writing the goals down and different things like that.
So when I read that book, it I tell everybody it was like a lot of biblical readers are familiar with Moses when he went up to get the Ten Commandments and he came back with his eyes on fire and like, you know what I mean, he had saw something special.
When I read that book, That's what happened to me.
A lot of my brain cells that was closed was open because I understood that I didn't really necessarily need a degree.
I was in bondage for a long time thinking because I didn't have a degree, I couldn't accomplish and become certain things.
That left immediately.
You know what I mean?
And that's the importance of people being able to identify with people that You know, came from a place that they came from.
You know what I mean?
I didn't have that, but I figured out how to do it.
So you could figure out how to do it the same way, you know, I did without, you know, of course, we definitely push people toward, you know, education because, you know, I understand real clearly a lack of education and bad habits is what, you know, can cause you to stay in bondage.
You know, that particular book, every night, you know, in my life since I've been like nine years old, you know, I've been a praying man.
I always pray for wisdom, knowledge, and education.
And when that book, you know, came in my hand, I felt like it was answered prayer.
You know what I mean?
So when I started reading the book, I couldn't put it down.
You know what I mean?
And it caused me...
I think I stayed in my room for like two days and when I came out, I reconstructed my whole company at Rapalot.
I went and ended up buying out my partner.
I had a meeting with him and I told him, I said, I want to run my company now.
You know what I mean?
Because I had been using him for years as the guy up front.
He had the degree and I felt like You know, he was more qualified to do these things than I was.
So I stayed in the background, worked in the studio with the artists, and just made sure product was, you know, being done.
But after reading that and educating myself that you are fully qualified, more than qualified, to do this, I had a meeting with him and tried to Convince him to take a back seat and let me run the situation, which led to me having to buy him out because he didn't feel I was qualified.
So, against all odds, I bought him out.
And the banker, the distributor, everybody was trying to discourage me, and everybody was saying, I'm going to be out of business in six months if I do that.
So I wasn't trying to hear any of that.
You know what I mean?
I fired like 25 people and kept like three.
And within them six months, I had set up a record in Rap-A-Lot that had never been said before financially.
That's another one that really taught me about the universal laws of life.
You know what I mean?
It was important for me to learn about the universal laws because there was a time in my life I was working against the universal laws.
And to understand how the universal laws operate, you know, has caused me to be able to live a much smoother, fruitful life, you know, without going against them.
Okay, other words, like if you have an understanding, let's just say on the law of gravity, If you really understand the law of gravity and you understand that if I get on top of this building and jump down and I'm not gonna float, then, you know, you don't have to float, right?
And if you understand the law of attraction, You understand the power of your mind that you can dream of these things and execute a work ethic and different things behind the law of attraction and you focus on that, then you can bring that to fruition.
So, you know, those are powerful laws that meant a difference to me.
But I mean, for people listening to this conversation right now that want to be as successful as you, there's probably like a lot of people like, come on, Jay.
You know, I'm a guy that made a transition from the streets to corporate America in my early 20s.
And I really believe that they saw greatness taking place with me.
And I say that because, you know, as I started making my transition and start prospering, I started driving nicer cars.
You know what I mean?
I started like empowering ex-convicts in different things.
I built Rapalot.
We became the number one independent label for years, you know, with ex-convicts.
You know, and it's something I put together, you know, and it was a, I used a formula.
You know, I told these guys, okay, you got to get that world up.
And I wanted completely giving up if you're coming over here to deal with me because I understood that if you give up 99% and hold on to warning, they'll take that one and destroy the 99%.
So with that understanding, we was able to build a number one record label for years, but it caused problems because they felt like I was money laundering.
It felt like a lot of things was taking place where my success was concerned, and a lot of animosity built up, which ultimately led to DEA coming involved in We can talk about that part, but you asked me about the Suge and Irv Gotti situation.
What we had done is had a meeting in LA, and we were considering starting a Black-owned distribution because we felt like it was a need for artists to come after us and we was trying to make a better way and a smoother way for them because even back then I saw Where change was trying to take place in the industry and they wasn't going to allow...
I call it a conspiracy.
I saw the conspiracy taking place where they wasn't going to allow any more masterpiece, cash money, Irv Gotti's...
So, you know, this was a real life situation that people may hear and think, you know, this is not true.
But here's confirmation of how true it was.
In 1999, you know, I reported this with the help of Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Janet Reno, because they intervened on my behalf because they saw what was happening.
And, of course, they had a, what you call it, a Congressional hearing on me.
All of this is public information.
A congressional hearing where the DEA and, you know, it reminded me of the time when Clarence Thomas was being, a hearing was taking place over his harassment or something.
And all of those people Democrat and Republicans was around, you know what I mean?
Had him in a circle.
So this is the conversation they was having concerning me, James Prince.
And I'm watching this, you know, on...
On video, I'm not invited, but I'm watching them have this conversation about me, about the Congressional hearing, and I'm just like, wow, you know, these people want me pretty bad.
But long story short, you know, they were able to speak up on my behalf, and, you know, which ultimately, oh, there's so many connections to this, because even Al Gore, you know, came in a portrait where they tried to set me up at my church.
Al Gore came to visit my church, you know, which when you're running for president, you visit a lot of black churches and stuff like that.
And my pastor wanted me to meet Al Gore that day.
So when I pull up, you know, I was married at the time, you know, I told my wife, I say, all these people ain't here with the president because I was watching body language.
You know, I saw black glasses kind of look in my direction.
And she said, oh, come on, boy, you being leery, you know, them people not thinking about you or whatever.
So I went and heard the sermon.
And before the sermon was over, I say let's go.
Normally I hang around and socialize and of course pastor wanted me to meet Al Gore.
I decided to leave and shortly after the Dallas newspaper came out with a story and all of this you can confirm and look it up.
James Prince donated a quarter million dollars to Al Gore at the church To stop an investigation on him.
Because this guy, one night I left my office and a DPS officer Stopped me.
He got behind me on the streets when I left out of the office, but he stopped me on the freeway.
And it was the first time I was stopped one time to be told to go and stop again.
So he stopped me on the freeway and told me to go and pull in the McDonald's parking lot.
So I said, oh, okay.
So as I exit the freeway and looked over in the McDonald's parking lot, it was dark.
And I saw a Cherokee Jeep, green, and a Cutlass.
And it was dark.
So I'm like, nah, I'm not pulling in that dark.
So I kind of told him I'm going to pull in the Shell station where the lights were.
And I could hear him in the back, pull fucking over.
On this thing, make a right.
I'm like, nah, I'm gonna go over here.
So, I went over there in the light.
I had some guys behind me follow me because They had been sending me threats, so I'm not stupid, so I understood that, you know, I need to cover myself until I make it home.
And when I pulled over, you know, the officer got out, and he said, why you didn't pull over like I told you?
I said, sir, I didn't want you to think I was trying to hurt you in that dark, and I didn't want to think you was trying to hurt me.
What's the problem?
Well, you were swerving.
I said, no.
I said, you got the wrong man.
I don't drink.
I don't smoke.
Wasn't no swerving going on with me.
Well, where are your guns?
Right?
How do he even know I have guns?
I gave him my gun license.
I said, well, you know, I have guns.
I haven't even given you my license.
I gave him my license.
I said, my hands on the steering wheel.
My guns are under my seat.
Well, get out the car.
I said, okay, I don't have a problem with that.
How much money do you have?
I say, you want to borrow some money or something?
Why you ask me about my money?
So he told me to go in the back of the car.
So I went back there, and he went searching my car.
You know, he in there.
I see him moving around with things, but he went on the passenger side.
So I walk around.
I say, man, why are you violating my right searching my car?
And he jumped.
Get back.
I'm looking for the gun.
I said, I told you where the guns are.
Clearly you can pass them up.
You got my clips out.
So anyway, he came back and I could see him making eye contact with the people across the street.
And eventually one of them drove over.
And this was an officer by the name of Chad Scott.
He had like black paint under his eyes and an army fatigue type of uniform.
And him and the officer, you know, translated some words.
And he came back to me and said, okay, you're free to go and gave me a warning ticket.
It's so bizarre that they would take bullets, too, because without the rifling from your particular gun, like all it's establishing is the same round you use.
What they were doing, and it's an investigative report, people that worked for me, you know, I had a street team that would promote my records in different clubs at night.
What they had done Was jumped on a couple guys.
They pulled them over.
They took them down to the station, stripped them naked, you know, jumped on them, took their jewelry, you know, all kinds of stuff, and sent messages.
Let him know, you know, we're going to do this.
We're going to do this.
Which eventually, when I made my report, They end up finding the jewelry and different things that I reported that, you know, I told them, these guys, you got rogue cops.
I said, y'all put a hitman on me.
You got two rogue cops that's doing this and doing that, and I'm in fear of my life.
You know, I just want it to be known because if a situation take place and I come out on top, then I don't want nobody to be mad at me, right?
So the DEA was trying to pin a case on you about, they figured there must be some money laundering going on because you're from the hood, because you're incredibly successful.
Rapalot Records is killing it.
Like, there's got to be something else going on.
They probably can't help themselves.
They didn't think that you had the kind of discipline that you had.
And they probably felt you kept one foot in the streets.
You kept one foot in either the drug game or some kind of crime they can catch you on.
And, you know, of course, you know, I had ex-convicts and different things working for me.
So what they actually done was they got a female that was spending money with one of my groups, no, with two or three of my groups, bringing them to New Orleans and different things to do different concerts.
And this particular female ended up dating one of my guys that was working for me.
And she was trying to work out an awful situation.
So she's spending money with him.
She's giving sex to him.
And which ultimately led to her setting up a situation where she told him, oh, I have these two college guys that's coming in town and they have a hundred and some thousand dollars.
Now, all you have to do, I'm going to take them to Papa's.
And all you have to do is get the key off of the tire of my vehicle and go to the room and get the bag and go free.
It's a hundred and some thousand dollars in it.
So my guy that worked for me bid on that.
But he bid on it in a manner where he sent someone else because he wasn't really hip to conspiracy, right?
So he sent somebody else, a guy that's like a nobody.
You know, he sent him to go get it.
But in the process of him sending, he was with me.
This was a guy that was with me.
It's almost like an angel sent me to pick him up and take him to a restaurant.
And, you know, when I read the transcripts, they had a conversation and he couldn't talk to her because he was around me.
And he told her that, you know, I'm around her.
I'm around the homie.
You know, I can't talk right now.
Well, why are you with him?
This is what she's saying.
You know we're supposed to be handling this business.
So that conversation is one of the reasons why they couldn't get me.
He couldn't even have a conversation around me.
Other than that, they would have made it appear like I was involved.
You know, but they was able to penetrate The system by getting him and another guy because they bit on that situation and when they got that bag, it was drugs in that bag.
They put kilos in that bag, even though she told them it was going to be money.
The feds have a way of doing what they want to do, and it was able to stick.
So they basically take kilos from when they bust someone for drugs, they take that shit, and then they use it as evidence, and then they use it to set somebody up.
That participated in that, Chad Scott, if you look up what happened to him a year or two ago, he got arrested for doing these very same things, you know, a year or two ago.
You know, think about the people that is doing years, you know, almost life sentences because Well, it's the darkest part of our criminal justice system.
This long history of putting people in jail for non-violent drug offenses and these people are still in jail.
There's people in Colorado right now that are in jail for marijuana possession and they can look out their prison window and see legal marijuana grow operations While they're in jail for marijuana possession and marijuana sales.
It's like there's no concern whatsoever for where these people came from, the situations that they faced, the obstacles that they overcame, and then the fact that they get set up.
And it exacerbates and encourages this feeling of helplessness that doesn't give you an option to get out.
And even if it's not the grand plan, I'd like to look at conspiracy theories or any conspiracy on a step-by-step basis, and I think a lot of it is just the system itself, the way it's set up.
I don't think these cops are involved in this grand conspiracy, but in a way they are, because what they're doing, whether they know it or not, is encouraging this feeling of helplessness, because they know that these cops aren't looking out for everybody.
They're not looking out for you.
They want to arrest you.
All their job is to get as many people arrested as possible.
When you see the Floyd Mayweather, excuse me, George Floyd death, when that cop is leaning on his neck and the other cops are just standing around, that's the code of silence.
They're allowing it to happen.
They know that dude's been on that guy's neck for eight fucking minutes and they're just standing there.
They know.
But that is, they're all in it together.
And a lot of times they feel like they have to stand together because the department doesn't defend them.
Internal Affairs is always looking to bring them down too.
And their job is to go out and get people.
And they get together, and they tell themselves, the only people you can trust are other cops, and we've got to stick together, and these are the rules.
And you're a young cop.
If you get involved in that, you realize early on, like, your ideas of, like, law enforcement being this beautiful thing that's out there to protect communities, and like, no, no, no, it's a game.
It's a game.
The game is, you've got to arrest people.
You've got to lie about how fast people are going.
Well, for example, like this DEA, ex-DEA agent Schumacher, you know, eight people that has been killed by his hands.
You know, when we interviewed his lieutenant who had retired, He said he always questioned all of those murders that this guy had done because he would lie.
His story would change.
You know, I had an investigator that actually interviewed this guy.
So I brought to the table concrete evidence such as that, you know.
When I was there talking to the head guys who wanted to know why I was accusing the DEA agent as being a hitman, I'm like, well, give me a better name for him.
Because it was totally unnatural for any officer to use his gun that many times.
Well, eventually what happened was, after I came back from Washington, D.C., somebody was wise enough to, well, what they done was they went and searched his desk in his locker, him and Chad Scott, and they found evidence.
That I had told them about, such as a wrap-a-lot piece, the jury, and different things like that.
But his other guy, his other sidekick is on his way to prison.
He was found guilty of doing the same stuff.
He never stopped.
He was a younger guy.
So he just, they moved him to Louisiana and he just picked up the ball and started doing everything he was doing in Houston and in Texas in Louisiana and they caught up with him.
You know, it definitely was a situation that I feel scarred me to a certain extent.
You know, there's no doubt about it.
I'm in a peaceful, more peaceful spot today, but in the midst of that journey and that war, you know, it's like every day you feel like in your mind you're legal and you're doing what's right, you're a law-abiding citizen.
But the reality was, you damn if you do, if you do it this way, you damn if you...
You know what I mean?
I couldn't, like, figure it out, but I still chose to stay on the side of right.
You know what I mean?
I refused to allow them to set me up or get me in darkness.
And I understood that darkness...
If I campaign in darkness, I'm going to get elected in darkness.
What's very admirable, it really is, because when you have this system, they're unsupportive of people escaping the life.
They want to keep you connected in some way, shape, or form to crime.
They never want to think, well, here's this inspirational person that not only has escaped, but maybe will offer a beacon of light to other young dudes who are in that life who want to escape.
I got respect from a whole different generation of police officers.
Now, the younger police officers today, Like, now, I would ride through the hood and I would get stopped and get a razz.
Now they'll stop me and want an autograph.
Because, you know, you asked me how this shift took place, I could only, I would only say, I guess I survived the storm.
You know what I mean?
And they're able to see that I was able to, like, inspire generations to come.
I really feel...
That high powers recognize thinkers, people that know how to think, you know, like those that came before me, you know, Martin Luther King, all the people they destroyed because they saw a movement taking place that they didn't like.
I know I had a movement taking place, and it's evidence that I had that movement taking place today, you know, because the South are who they are because of the foundation I laid.
And, you know, I had artists, I mean, CEOs like Cash Money, like Master P, Tony Draper, you know, Swisher House, Jay-Z, all of them watching my movement at Ground Zero, which inspired them.
To, you know, to come to fruition with their movements.
So I think these guys saw that being bred in them.
They know when they pop.
The people in power know when they see the truth at work.
And a lot of times they assign people to destroy that before it come to fruition.
And I think that was their assignment where I was concerned.
It is interesting, though, that over the test of time, your true character has emerged and that people understand who you actually are and that the young cops, they actually like you now.
I was used to being racially profiled all the time because I ride clean.
I like nice cars.
You know, and to be stopped like all the time without doing anything was...
I had to get used to that.
You know what I mean?
I had to like, okay, this is like going to be a lifestyle.
Like I brush my teeth every day.
You know what I mean?
This is just going to happen.
Even though, you know, I took a stand and I always voiced it.
On the hip-hop records.
That was one of my relief podiums where, you know, during the Ghetto Boys, I would get on the intros and put the spotlight on all the things they was doing to us because I knew it was happening all around the world and ghettos all around the world.
And the people loved me for, you know, expressing the pain that we all was feeling and what they were doing to all of us where the laws were being broken.
I think your message of discipline and of character and of how you've succeeded and how you've succeeded by following those principles is so important for people.
And I think it's one of the most important things for someone who's stuck In poverty, wanting to figure out a way to be a person like you, to see that you've laid out these ground rules that you follow, to see that you've laid out these steps that you've taken, and to see that you've done it all in a book.
And encourage people to not just read this book, but read the books that inspired you to get to the position that you're at.
It's so valuable.
It's the best way to give back.
I mean, you can give back in a lot of ways, and they're all great.
But one of the best ways to give back is with honesty.
You've learned some things, and people can learn those things through you.
I know when I'm, you know, when I cross over in heaven, you know, this book will still be here.
The blueprint, you know, the blueprint of, you know, my business life and my personal life on how I was able to, you know, conquer, you know, the odds and different things that were set up against me.
So with me having to make them believers and change that situation, I'm a little more passionate about the journey than most.
Because I understood how we got booed when we went to New York.
They felt like we was too country.
They wouldn't play our records.
I'd go to them and You know, plead with them, you know, do this, do that.
And it came to a situation where I stopped asking.
You know what I mean?
I stopped asking and I had to figure out a way to run them out of my city.
Just point blank, you know.
Yeah.
And that's what brought about change in Houston is, you know, because my thing was, give us a chance.
If the people don't like us, then...
That's acceptable.
But not giving us a chance and, you know, playing New York music and acting as if we not in part, you know, our people not special, you know, we can't have that.
You know, one of my favorite quotes a lot of times is, You kind of get under the skin of my East Coast and West Coast homies, but I tell them the East Coast is a piece of bread, the West Coast is a piece of bread, and down South we the meat.
I mean, it did a little bit with sports in some teams, but the big thing with rap music was always East Coast versus West Coast until you guys came around.
And after Tupac was murdered, one of the things I'd done was...
I heard Puffy and Biggie was in LA shooting a video.
So I was on my tour bus and I turned it all the way around.
I think I was close to Phoenix.
And I turned it around just to go and have a conversation with Biggie and Puffy to alert them that they were in a place that I didn't feel that they should have been in.
And you know, I went there and had a conversation with both of them just to kind of put them on notice that, you know, this ain't the place to be right now.
You know, sometimes, and I know Puffy meant well, and I know Biggie meant well, sometimes a lot of individuals are what I call surface deep, where the streets are concerned, which simply means you understand them to a certain depth.
You know what I mean?
But I understood that that wasn't definitely L.A. That wasn't a good place to be because my ears was to the street.
And, you know, I just wanted to echo it.
It was on my spirit to let them know.
And I did.
And unfortunately, you know, it didn't save him.
But everybody can learn from those mistakes moving forward.
The world gets less weird when someone like you has made through all the hoops and ladders and gotten to a point where you can kind of let people know what you've been through.
Yeah, and what's even worse is locking a man up so long where you don't give him an opportunity to change because it's a lot of brothers That evolve behind walls.
You know what I mean?
And it's way less years than they have to serve.
They actually get it and snap into, okay, I got it now.
I got the message.
I got the lesson.
And, you know, the way the system is built is really unforgiving, you know.
And, you know, like the brother...
You know, our brother Larry Hoover right now, for example, you know, he's a brother that I know has changed inside, but whether they want to give him the opportunity to, you know, be free and execute, you know, the wisdom and the change that has taken place in him and a lot of other political prisoners, you know, I think the system is just, it's crazy that it's so unforgiving.
The amount of people that get actually rehabilitated in prison is minuscule, and it's usually through self-determination.
They decide that they're going to rehabilitate themselves.
The comprehensive program of changing a person Right.
they can benefit society if they can get through this.
And how they can teach other people that have also fallen in the same pitfalls.
Hey, you can get through this too.
Like, you don't have to be who you are right now.
Who you are right now is who you are because of circumstance and because of life and Bad luck and bad decisions, but that doesn't mean that's who you are forever.
And there's no rehabilitation.
The real effort to rehabilitate people is non-existent.
There's some people that get rehabilitated through prison, whether it's through the negative reinforcement of they never want to be locked up in a cage again, or through other people that they meet inside the jail, or through books they read inside the jail.
But there's no...
Real comprehensive effort to change people and help people and educate people.
The thought of being lost and hopeless.
The idea that a person can't change.
That's the most non-human idea ever.
Because the best people all change.
When you're young, hopefully, the foolish shit that you do when you're 10, you're not going to do when you're 20. The dumb shit you do when you're 20, you're not going to do when you're 30. You're going to learn from every step of the way.
To me, that's the mechanism of the system right now.
You know, the inmates, a lot of them, are concerned.
Of course, you know, there are some that, you know, may deserve different things, but this thing where drugs is concerned, this whole nonviolet situation that they got going on is as racist as it gets.
And it's crazy that a guy like you who gets through, but it's beautiful that now you're celebrated.
But it makes sense.
In their little game of trying to arrest people, this dude's still going to the hood, even though now he's wealthy and successful.
Why is he still doing that?
He's setting up these community centers and boxing gyms.
Get the fuck out of here.
He's trying to make some money.
He's doing something.
He's laundering money.
And they have this cynical perspective.
Instead of having that perspective like, that guy, we should have him talk to other kids.
We should let everybody know, like, this is possible.
Everybody who is down on their luck, who's not doing well, who's in a bad situation, you can look to the people that escaped and then profited and then thrived and then became incredibly successful.