The Breakfast Club

check out the book Black Inventors of America by McKinley Burt Jr

Look, if you're interested in more, you can check out the book Black Inventors of America by McKinley Burt Jr.

When I Was Your Age, Life Lessons, Funny Stories, and Questionable Parenting Advice from a Professional Clown.

I should've brought the book. I wanted to hear this to have it propped up. I'm slipping, my bad. When I Was Your Age, Life Lessons, Funny Stories, and Questionable Parenting Advice from a Professional Clown.

It's the longest title ever. It is. I just felt there was time, you know. Like a lot of people, I guess, in my position, a lot of my heroes have written books.

And yeah, we put together a pretty good book and from what I'm hearing, the people that have read it seem to enjoy it. You know what I'm saying? It's not like 300 pages or nothing, you know.

So I had to kind of explain what my position is in this world so far in a capturing kind of title and then kind of tell people what the book is. So they want to grab it and read it, you know what I mean?

When I Was Your Age, life lessons, funny stories and questionable parenting advice from a professional clown.

It's not like 300 pages or nothing, you know, which was kind of strange. I'm like, damn, that's my life story. That's it. That's all I got.

So I had to kind of explain what my position is in this world so far in a capturing kind of title and kind of tell people like what the book is.

And yeah, the good word is of like being a professional clown and stuff like that. You know, like I take that really seriously.

It's probably mine, you know, just, you know. Coming from a place where like I don't know everything right away, you know what I'm saying?

living free is like taking the opportunity to do something, even if it scares you.

the biggest thing I ever did for 30 days was go vegan. And it saved my life.

If you think God has given you a sign, then trust the signs.

the difference between a goal and a dream is a goal is something that you create. A dream is deposited inside of you.

Sometimes we got to look at the loss for what it is. Maybe it ain't a loss, you know, but also it opened up doors for me.

I started doing this challenge in 2014. I was really just in search of like getting to know myself better because I still was not free and I would do something new, whether it be with my kids or by myself and just to see how it would open my mind and how it would make me feel.

And so I did that over the years and I would always, you know, learn something new about myself. Like I discovered my love for hiking and I was like, oh, shoot, I never would have thought that I would love hiking. And then now it's something that I have continued to do over the years.

And so I was like, if I do this again, I think I want to write a book. So last year I did it for 30 days and I journaled it and made it into a book.

And my hope was that other people want to, you know, live free and try new things.

Because I'm the one who made the decision to choose myself.

I can't tell you anymore.

It's coming down.

Based off your book, To Be a Man?

No, no, I can't tell you anymore.

And I just got the word, the writer's strike is over.

I can't wait until we get a Ric Flair movie, man.

Based off your book, To Be a Man?

No, no, no. I can't tell you anymore. I just got the word. The writer's strike is over. Wow. We're going to get a Ric Flair. M-A-R-V-E-L.

Disruptive Thinking is the willingness that you need to be able to disrupt the way that you look at life because you understand that mindsets control assets and I'm not when I say assets. I'm not just talking about wealth. I'm talking about relationships. I'm talking about wellness.

Some people are willing to do that and some people are not they just states where it's safe and play in the safety zone other people color outside of the lines and I'm in the book. I talk about what how to handle both groups of people how to Manage people who are disruptors and how to support people that are disruptors.

you can be great or you can be safe, but you can't be both

If you go in the library, there are no books about ordinary. There are only books about innovative creative people who cross lines broke boundaries created things when push it to the limit and there's a price to be paid and I talk about it in the book for Disruptive Thinking, but this is a disruptive time. We're living in and if we were trying to go back to normal and normal isn't there anymore.

Disruptive Thinking is as much a warning as it is a clearing call that the ideas you've had on the back burner that you're waiting on enough money to capitalize take them off the back burner form partnerships build alliances go because if you don't go now, you're not going to get there

Disruptive Thinking is the willingness that you need to be able to disrupt the way that you look at life because you understand that mindsets control assets.

And I know when I say assets, I'm not just talking about wealth. I'm talking about relationships. I'm talking about wellness.

Some people are willing to do that and some people are not. They just stay where it's safe and play in the safety zone. Other people color outside of the lines.

If you go in the library, there are no books about ordinary. There are only books about innovative, creative people who cross lines, broke boundaries, created things, went, pushed it to the limit.

And there's a price to be paid. And I talk about it in the book for Disruptive Thinking.

I don't know when the series is gonna end, but endings are very important because I think a lot of times in this art, we talk about the problems, but we never talk about the solutions and there never seems to be a happy ending, whether it's Men In Society, Boys In The Hood, whatever it was, Juice, there's really no happy ending.

I'm not waiting on Hollywood. Okay, if I was waiting on Hollywood, the book would have never been written.

I mean, there's a lot of things that they take. I think one of the main themes for me is the idea of unity.

And the other thing I really want the young reader to take away is all the answers are already inside of you.

Nubia of the reckoning so basically Nubia of the Nubia series is about um you know it's a dystopian um futuristic sci-fi that follows these three teenagers these three Nubian teenagers in what's a new New York is 100 years from now and basically their powers start to sprout and it's connected to their heritage but they don't know that because they weren't told by their parents so they you know adolescence is awkward it was awkward age for all of us you're trying to figure stuff out and then you you throw that on their table and um and in the reckoning they realize what their abilities are and then it's a discussion of what are they going to do with them you know are they going to use them for good or bad

in the reckoning they realize what their abilities are and then it's a discussion of what are they going to do with them you know are they going to use them for good or bad

the Nubians are displaced people their island nation was destroyed or so they think stay tuned um and so they're in a new what i'm calling a new new york and they are sort of the have-nots and so the people who were here and the color has nothing to do with it they're just sort of native new yorkers i guess you know they they feel a way about well who are these new people and then as the power start to sprout they're like who are these new kids and why do they have a seat at our table you know just yeah how society seems to be which is it's always been perplexing to me because i look at life like this if a rock big enough hits this planet it ain't gonna matter if you got a million dollars or a dollar everybody gonna be in the same boat

the idea of being prideful about who i am and what i come from meant something to me at a really young age and that's why throughout hopefully not just my life but in my career being in a career field that deals with fame and people see you i was very acutely aware of how the images that i portray on screen can be ingested

the answers are already inside right they already are permeating through you physiologically and spiritually part of the conundrum of life is to then you sort of unlearn what is innately in you product of environment schooling all of these things and then you spend your latter life unlearning that right to get back to the source

I got into this guy, Dr. Joe Dispenza. He wrote a book called Becoming Supernatural.

I started reading some books and I got into this guy, Dr. Joe Dispenza. He wrote a book called Becoming Supernatural.

If Tupac doesn't pass away, Machiavelli would be considered what Dogfather is.

But imagine if Machiavelli follows All Eyes on Me and Tupac is Alive and it doesn't have How Do You Want It?

It doesn't have the Johnny J production because him and Pac had fell out at that point.

It doesn't have Dr. Dre because now Dr. Dre is gone and you dissing him.

When somebody passes away, we take their music differently. We start to accept certain things.

All Eyes on Me is one of my favorite all time albums.

I did a book. My first book was called Relationship Goals.

Tell her to go back and watch Relationship Goals by Mike Todd.

And matter of fact, the book came out during the pandemic.

The book came out and went number one New York Times bestseller for 13 weeks.

Thank you for saying that. Like we got to talk about it. So me and Natalie, since 2000 and probably 21, have been doing five day intensive counseling in Colorado.

In this book, Relationship Goals. Um, there's a chapter called, Does it need to end?

It's called Legitimate Kid. It's a memoir, you know?

It is a memoir, man. You know Ida, she's a comedian, she's a director. Like Ida does it all. So her book is really good.

books are the new diss record. Yeah, they are. And it is, so I'm dissing my mama and daddy in this.

I'm holding them accountable, but I never diss my mama as my queen.

The chapter is about me getting sexually abused. So it's not. I hope y'all feel stupid now.

I'm dissing my mama and daddy in this one.

Because kids in the hood are evil.

It was hard as hell.

It took me two and a half years, but I've been working on that book for seven years.

I didn't want to do trauma porn.

It is, yeah.

It's now a toddler I guess, so a year ago the hardcover of my memoir, Uphill, came out, and now the paperback.

The response was generally good. It was mostly positive.

There was somebody in my family who took issue with it. That created some tension, and that tension is still there unfortunately. You know I'm still processing that part.

My baby has grown up a little bit.

And the paperback is out right now.

Yeah, my baby has grown up a little bit. It's now a toddler, I guess. So a year ago, the hardcover of my memoir, Uphill, came out and now the paperback.

The response was generally good. It was mostly positive.

And they took it to Facebook as opposed to taking it to me.

No rewrites for the paperback.