The following is a presentation of play Fly Sports properties in Michigan State Sports Properties.
Well, hello and good evening. It is Thursday, July twenty twenty
twenty three. We're the only show about Spartan Dogs hosted by Spartan Dogs.
Welcome to this is Sparta MN show. I'm your host, Jason Freehorn.
And you know I played back in the Parlis and saving eras under. You
know, look, I was a center team captain, but I couldn't do
it without my two dogs in the fight right here, oldest the Boss,
Wiley, hard hitting, ball, hawking safety. Both of these guys played
during the John L. Smith and you know D'Antonio era, and then choo
Choo. You know everybody calls him ju choo Choo called Craig the single season
touchdown leader in Michigan State history. And look, guys, and this is
your first time joining the show, we welcome you. If this is not
your first time, we thank you. Don't forget to follow us on all
of our social media platforms. Hit that like and subscribe. We're doing well
today. You know, more likes than we have people in the chat.
But don't forget to go to the chatter because that's where the party's at all,
right, So let's get right into it, guys, look chew today
another golf outing for you. Yeah, man, the sun really took it
out of meant today I was I'm tired balls Todd. You know, I
played at in Brighton at hunt More Golf Club there, you know, played
in a nice little tournament there to benefit um hunt More High School football,
hut More High School football. Um. The old bad thing about them is
you know that they're high school there, that mazing blue color and they have
the helmets with the wings on it there. So I had to go represent
in my state gear and you know, talk my talk a little bit.
You know Whatn't Hardlandn't Hardland Irtland? Yes, that's what I said, right,
No, you said something hunt More Golf Club, Hartland, Yeah,
Hartland. And how did you shoot him? Though? Let's talk about the
score. How's how the foursome go? You know we we we shot at
sixty two. Um, the winning team shot at fifty seven. In the
third place had fifty nine. But that's that's my issue because these people go
to these things and they'll be buying all these schemes for pots and line of
these things out. Let's line up to play donate you and then they excuse
me, Oh it's for a good cause. I'm donating. You can still
donate the money, but the play play man. Look, talk about play
man. We had a couple of players inducted into the Michigan State University Athletics
Hall of Fame, two football players by the way, Al Doro and Javin
Ringer. Doro, man quarterback back in the nineteen forty nine to nineteen fifty
one, led the AFL and the most touchdowns thrown, and also holds a
single season record for sacks in the CFL. I mean this is like the
Red Grange of our era that not a lot of people knew about Spartan history.
Guys. Yeah, and that back in that era was like any means
necessary to get the win. You play every position, you know, Like
I feel like when we were you know, bringing back to the former players
and you meet the older guys, it's like, yeah, I was like
Coach Manner was like office an officivelignement, be like what like what like that's
that size of it? You know, we get bigger every year. But
uh, you know, we talked about this on our production calls like,
listen, if we ever go on to Hall of Fame, I don't think.
I don't know if it's is, it will happened, but you know,
give me, give me the flowers where I'm alive. Right, But
congratulations to out of the world his family, uh, because it's obviously they're
probably like it should have been a long time coming. But congratulations that we
have another spartan, the former football player that's going into the Hall of Fame.
You don't like the postumists, man, you don't want that. You
don't want the flowers when you're dead and gone. No, man, I
like, man, like I want to celebrate, you know, like I
want to be out there like googlely, I like crying, like, man,
it used to be great back here, you know, I want to
be that. I would be like I want to thank God and my family.
I want to be here to say the speaks man. And then it's
great that we got one of our own, like we got our teammate,
like like this is way all along overdue, like let's be real, let's
be keeping a buck. But Jay ring Man Ring was one of the absolutely
best after is I've seen and been, uh, you know, played against
as a teammate, but just seeing him and then obviously even in the running
back room like I wasn't every day, but two had it right in front
play and seeing him develop and also sharing the rock with him. But I
know she's excited, man, because I don't want to steal the stuff to
go ahead. Deal thing man, this is ring ring Baby. Congratulations baby,
yeah, definitely. You know, first of all, you know,
congratulations to al um. That's well. But I'm so when once the news
broke and we could publicly be excited about it. You know, this is
someone you know, otis straight. We all talked about like why is this
man not in you know, years ago, but finally you know, he
has the opportunity to be and then I'm so excited to you know, I'm
gonna be on the sidelines, you know, calling the game when he's going
into the It's it's so cool, so excited. Javan's you know, for
talking about the best athlete that I've seen. It's Javan Ringer. His work,
thick, his person, his you know, I had the opportunity.
You know, we're roommates. What we're on the road home games every time
at the hotel, roommates and Javan is actually the most unselfish football player I've
ever encountered in my life. And so for him getting this honor right now,
it's something that's really really exciting, and it's you know, for me,
I'm really proud to say I shared a backfield with Javon Ratner. Yes,
yes, and these highlights. Man, Like, I mean we were
living it and looking at it. But it's crazy when you watch he be
like this man was a bad man, and it was We talked about Javon
too, like two. You knew like two had a combo where you had
to bring it all the time and like and Javan was like ultimate, yeah,
yeah, ultimate, Like he has everything. He had the power,
he had, the speed, he had the swiftness and we call it the
Jukie Duke like he had that. He had it all the visit. But
I mean this dude was running and putting the team on his back. Had
you know, he's k nine before Kate nine. Let's be honest right here,
Like you know, like he kept he kept us where we weren't the
the I guess the sexiest option for him. And you know, if you
look at his story and he's probably told he's told us that, you know,
Michigan State stuck with him when you know he towards a cl right.
And you know, I remember his official visit. He's on crutches and like
you know, he was down a little bit because he knew, like as
all, if he was healthy, like honestly, Juan probably would have been
a Green and White, you know what I mean, Like he was healthy,
he would went somewhere else in my opinion, but to be in a
Green and White, his family coming in, embracing it. We came in
together as recruiting class. Actually I was roommates with author Lee Jefferson, A.
J. Jefferson. Ross was Ross was supposed to be rooming with Javad
And so when me and Rosscott there was like, we don't know these cats,
man, like so DV to DV, but I want JA to call
these calls. What's just obviously the sweet man. But go ahead, Jacky,
that's thirty nine toss. That's all day. I hated that play.
Javan was so good at it, reading that reading that defensive end and you
talk about that those outside zone plays, you know, as a running back,
you know you read the first read that you get is you know,
where's that defensive end lined up? If he if his you know, if
he's lined up out outside, you know he's gonna come in. And then
you're taught as a as a you know, running back also run two asses.
You know, you read your tackle, read your tight ends, butts.
You know, if the butts turned out, you know you're going in.
If it's turned you know, all these different things. So it's you
know, Javan, like I said, I'm so excited about the opportunity for
this guy to go and well deserved for his family as well. You know,
his family to be there and great great people, his mother, his
father who passed away, Rest in peace to him. But you know,
really really great. And the thing that Javanna doesn't get enough credit for.
You know, you you see all these exciting splash plays and everything. He
also has the power, like ODIs alluded to, he was the guy that
if you had to go in between the town, you had to do a
you know, zebra thirty two something like that, he could go. He
could go, he could he could lower his shoulder as well. Um,
so you know, big shout out to Javan and talk about a guy that
really really loves and embodied and embraced what it meant to be a spartan while
while playing on the field. That was Javon Ranger. And I tell you
this story. I think I've mentioned this story before, and I said,
you know how he's an unselfish player. Um, we're playing Indiana. You
know my senior day. Um it wasn't senior day, but my senior year.
We're playing Indiana. I fumbled the football. Tracy Porter picks it up,
takes it back sixty yards. We get the ball back, drive down.
We're inside the five and we called that play out there H zebra H
thirty nine toss outside zone is Jivin. We knew who was going in just
based off the play call, what we're what our bread and butter were.
And he said that. He's looking at me, He's like you you you.
I was like, no, no, no, it's zebra outside.
Don't outside, don't you? And so he goes down on the ground and
then the trainers have to go out, so he has to come out for
a play. He's running out and I'm running in. You know how you
do that high five thing? On the in between were talking about that.
Yeah, you're you're like, hey, get the bump that he does that,
you know, you give that high five going to me there and then
he looks at me and winks. So I go in, I score a
touchdown, and I came back out and I sitting on the sideline. Now,
I was like, Rings, you faked an injury. He's like,
yeah, man, you know it's a home game night. You fumbled.
I wanted you to you don't feel better about yourself? You talk about this.
I'm a selfish guy right there, and you're you're like a year older
than right Yeah, yeah, you know, and it was his play,
you know, could have definitely scored, you know, and and he did
that so I could feel better, you know, and so another you know,
I could get There's so many stories I could talk about, you know,
with Javon Ringer. But great job. You know, his his numbers,
you know, show for itself. And couldn't be more excited for this
guy. Man, I get thinking about it. Man, I get you
because he would always get straight. And then you you're on the sideline.
I'm sure you heard him talking if the offense wasn't doing what they were supposed
to do, which we know our offense was electric and maybe they had a
little down quarter or whatnot, and they're not moving the ball, like he
would come over and be yelling at like hey, hey, d hey d
offense will get it right. We'll get it right. Man. Y'all,
y'all keep playing, y'all, keep playing, we'll get we'll get it right.
And like he's encouraging us to keep doing what we're doing. And then
he was an all support of like every player, like it wasn't just offense
and some guys are just stayed on the offensive side. Ring was all about
team, team, team, and then you know, like we can already
expect his speech, it's going to be not about him. He's going to
give all the praise to absolutely everybody that got him to where he's at.
But Ring, this is all between man. Soak it all in. Man,
you deserve it. And that's a be selfish because this is you.
Man. You deserve every bit of a Hall of Fame induction here without question.
The only dude too in full pads in the middle of practice after a
big run will come back and do a round. Yeah, just had you
know, get that elevation, athlete, youre athlete. Oh man. Any
times he's just watching dragon ball Z and playing College Football ZA on the PlayStation
like dragon ball Z. Look, I mean, I look, Javin,
what can you say about it? I mean, he leaves the all he's
the all time all purpose leader in Michigan State fifty four hundred and twenty six
yards. Guys, you're right old, as you said me being a sidelined
reporter, I was when I cut my teeth doing that. And I used
to watch him, you know, being away from the game for a few
years and coming back and see seeing the positions. I'm like that he would
be in the pile, underneath that pile and I'm like, there's no way
he's getting enough. He gets up, gets back on the huddle, comes
out and makes them, you know, runs another play for fifteen twenty yards.
I mean, an incredible athlete, very tough, and I ask you
guys have all just documented how selfless he was as a player and continues to
be. Man, great young man. You know what I want to like,
You're gonna be on the sideline, you know. I obviously I'm gonna
get all the pictures of him, but we need to get a picture of
YouTube on that field when he has when he's celebrating. I need that.
This thing's going right here. I need one, you know, that's what
I want. Man, That's that's great. You know, congratulations to both
of those young men gentlemen not young men, for making into the Hall of
Fame. And there's others. We're going to cover the Hall of Fame recipients
in another show, but we got to move it along now as we talk
about more inspiring moments. Michigan State athletes student athletes go take part in the
Big Life Series going down to SELMA in Montgomery, Alabama. Yeah, this
was they did this. Um, I want to say this last year and
you know, doctor Baker took the crew down there. But you know,
this is kind of putting the full circle, like you know, yeah,
you know twenty one maybe twenty one, Um, and did y'all see Dylan's
McDonald's uh and our own pictures you saw? Did you see that? Okay,
but now this is an opportunity for you know, diversity, equity,
inclusion, and this is the conference. Why so you send your representatives and
represent your university and uh, it's an opportunity to just take it all in
of like without that, you know, civil rights and March and Selmo like,
um, you know, we wouldn't be here and being able to play,
and so it's just taking in full circle allowing allowing them to go and
experience that is something that this is why you go to college, That's why
you play at the on this level, and this platform is the resources and
the opportunities to take it outside of your campus and experience at all. So
that crew right there is is outstanding representatives each of their sport um and hopefully
we get one of the you know, we already have twenty one on here,
but getting one of our our female student athletes on here to talk about
it. And we also have a video of you know, capturing the experience
from one of our outstanding volleyball players. If you don't know me, my
name is Elia Moore. I am twenty years old and I play volleyball at
Michigan State University. I don't usually do this kind of thing, but after
the experiences that I had, I thought I would come on here and use
my platform to share my experiences. So I had the opportunity to attend the
Big Ten Big Life Series SELMA to Montgomery in Alabama this past weekend. To
say it was impactful is an understatement. I learned more in these past two
days than I have in my fifteen years of school. Let me say that
again. I have learned more about American history, Black history, my history
in the past two days that I was in Alabama and I had my fifteen
years of school. Well, I take full responsibility for not educating myself on
my personal history. I first blame our school systems. We learned a blinded,
whitewashed history that fails to truly capture the hatred and horrors the truth of
our past. To give you some background, as mixed kid, identity was
always a struggle for me. My skin tone didn't fit the black and white
categories I was taught to know. This didn't really hit me until I learned
about slavery in elementary school. I vividly remember trying to understand where I would
fall during that time, and I even remember asking my teacher where would someone
like me be during segregation or slavery. Of course, she didn't explain to
a seven year old that my existence itself indicated a forbidden relationship or sexual assault
during that time. Great video, very impactful word by Eliah Moore. They're
volleyball player in Michigan State. Yeah, you know, looking at these um
you know, listening to that video, looking at the pictures and stuff there,
it's just you know, I see it, and I'm like, damn,
I wish we had those opportunities when we were in school. But I'm
so glad now that these kids, these athletes get to be more than the
athlete and have the opportunity to experience these things in their off season, during
their season all that stuff, experience these great learning you know, situations that's
presented to them, and you know, as Otis would say, kudos,
kudos to the athletes that take advantage of it, because you know, not
that you don't have to do it, but these guys take advantage of it,
and you know they're positioning themselves. Yeah, if you want to hear
the full story, go ahead and follow her on her social as it's on
there. But and this is Spartan will post that on our social just so
you can see it and reference it. But to your point too, like
I do wish we had that opportunity to get outside of East Lansing and see
an experience that you know, I had that opportunity to go to the African
American music him and DC, and I mean I spent the entire day,
Like people say, like you going there and like you can't just do a
half day, like you got to take it all in from start to finish
of history and so um, this is a great opportunity and it's good to
see that our kids are They're not They're they're proactive. They're not just reactive
of these opportunities. They're going out and searching for and getting these opportunities.
So kudos again, I love to see it. TikTok is a for you
so you can see it and go check out that entire video. Definitely something
worthwhile for anybody that wants to check out what Aliyah had to say. Now,
guys, you know one of our one of our guys, Darian Harris
today was just reassigned. Now he is the new MSU assistant a d n
IL special Advisor to the Athletic Director, Darien Harris. Yeah. Look,
man, Darren keeps getting getting, keep promoting and promoting and doing all these
great great things. But you know, I think it's we look across the
country in this position has been popping up and you kind of look at us
like man, like, you know, do we need that or when when
we get that? And finally, you know Allen m and his vision is
like we absolutely need to put him in a position to be you know,
spokesperson but also drive our initiative and our efforts in that space. Because we
talk about this all the time. NIO is the promost number one talk thing
that we talk about UM and it's putting as a priority knowing that we have
to put ourselves in position to attract the best student athletes from a talent standpoint
but also academically and and Darian fits both those modes and so who better else
to be put in that position to help drive and build out a program or
you know, a business plan to start to build out. So our coaches
are recruiting coaches on each staff are able to then tap into what's being built
out. So congratulations Darien. Yeah, absolutely congrats to uh Darien for that.
I think, you know, you know, moving, you know,
putting ourselves as a university in a position for that and to capture that and
and I'll outside of things real quick. I know we got to come to
another topic there, but uh, tony, l Tony, can we put
that picture of Darien back up there. I just I want to look at
that one more time. That that one of him in his uniform. You
like that uniform? I don't know if I do. That's why I want
to look at it to see. I don't think that's one of my is
it isn't Is that one of the combat That not theially it's the other version
of one. Yeah, yeah, I'm not. I'm not sure if I
if I if I like, yeah, that one, I don't really.
I'm not a fan of that one. It's the old marks, right,
it's the old marks that ms. But I mean I like the green you
know, in the silver light lining. But you know you said that ain't
your favorite one. That's not my favorite one. I like the original procombat
one, but that one is not. So I mean, look, we
can't be a good jus. We were just straight green white, right.
We got a tin when they changed the pot, we had bad. We
had the bad green bag of Monday. You know, it got better.
It's been progressively getting better, so that's all good. And we got one
of the you know, our old Spartan dogs from that era with the blocks
coming up in a minute. That's the lokes of pretty low. We're gonna
talk a little bit about, you know, the music industry in football at
Michigan State. After this message from our friends over at Eye have put a
smile on your plate with new pancake tacos because when you fold a pancake and
a half, if you get a taco for in this case three for six
dollars, we'll try all four flavors here for a fun time, not a
long time. Only from Eye, Hoop came back to the State. Freen
and white spots do sweet when it getting it in so chilling number one,
tie so low being ten undefeated truth jan Chitty greeny White since KG did it
five that just then Tonio got to feel it some tapaway that greeny way got
to feel it some tapawa. Then Tonio got to feeling some tapaway. Is
because we number one, you feel some tapaway. Kurtus Dang the third joints
to show for the loc what's going on. Brother man, I bring back
a lot of man man, a lot of memories and um good times man.
That uh that type of way. You know the story has been told.
But I own a recording studio here in Atlanta, and I happened to
see the guards celebrating in the locker room one day. And one morning I
came in and rich Homie was in the studio and I was like, man,
do you know what's going on to your song? He was like nah.
So I went and I had my iPad at the time, I wouldn't
got to be sat in the lambe and I played in the video and he
was tripping off of it. And so the version that you guys just played
that was my younger brother plays one. He remade it and did some lyrics
to it. And then you know, we had the opportunity to facilitate rich
Homie to come to the Rose Bowl and I was in the locker room when
everybody was dancing and party and that that uh, it just makes me smile
to sear. And and the funny thing is about I mean, you know,
just kind of playing the background is that you hear all these different stories.
And even later on, probably it was just about two years ago that
dark Quez realized how that really kind of came kind of came together because he
was he was like, yeah, I was doing this and I was doing
that, but it wouldn't have put rich HOLMEI on it like that. So
it was interesting just to sit back all these years and literally I never really
said anything until somebody wrote something in the paper and I was on Twitter and
I'm tagged a dude, and I said, that's a good story, but
that's not accurate. He actually used to be our beat writer. He actually
hit me up and we told the story and I went on Jack Show and
that's how they out of me. But yeah, that was that was great
just watching it, man, it makes me smile. And I went to
the Rose Bowl and I was telling people, you know, this is the
greatest for us since I've been alive. That was the greatest era of Michigan
State football. And I kept saying, like, we need to go to
these games and support this because we don't know if it's gonna be like this
anymore. So it was dope just saying that. I appreciate y'all pulling that
up. I'm in this picture in the background. I put the hat on
rich on me head. Hey, Freddy, like talk about like coach coach
de probably had no clue who Rich from Carlin was. I mean, he
probably played the music or when the when the players start playing it, and
then you start knowing who he was. But talk about when you finally got
the chance to talk to coach Dean and bring it to fruition because you know,
seeing coach D dance, really that's a rare form, like that's not
possible. So here here's the funny part, is that so because I played
ball with Allen, Allen's our athletic director. So I was trying to work
it out with Alan and we was gonna bring him up here, I think
that season the last home game we played Minnesota, and he was gonna try
to bring him up to the stadium and all this stuff. And Allen,
you know, for all of us that know Alan, Allen is by the
books man, he's a police officer of sergeant. He ain't he ain't crossing
the lines. And so Allan kept kept kept slowing it down. And you
know, actually the person that kind of put it together was you know,
people act like they don't like to hear his name, but actually Curtis Blackwell,
he kind of he put Coach D on the phone with me and so
Allan, kid, I had to Allen was making me wait on everything,
and I had to be what rich homie did the shout out to the locker
room before we went to play Ohio State, and so Alan was dragging his
feet. So I sent it directly to the players and so it can spread
out to the locker room. And then we were having trouble with getting um
because we went to the playoffs. We was trying to bring him to the
playoff game when d'An Tony went on there and spoke, but it couldn't happen.
And then we finally we went to the Rose Bowl and Coach D we
was having difficulties trying to get him a flight. Was it legal? Can
we get him a hotel? We can't pay him, We can't do this,
and Coach d just picked up the phone. Get him there, Curtis,
I don't get him cover what you want to do, Make it happen.
Make it happen and get them there. And so I'm from La.
So I'm at the Rose Bowl and I'm gonna walked all the way around that
bowl and I'm about to go in the state and then Alan calls me,
and Alan just is clean. Alan don't want to have nothing to do with
it. Call me was like, Kurt, can you come get rich homie
and walk them in and I'm like, man, and give him the I
don't really want to kind of walk around the stadium go get him walking into
a seat. And then Alan was like, after the game, I got
these badges. I'm gonna let you guys come onto the field. And so
Man and Alan Man, Alan made us wait. They said, you want
to feel to two minutes. Were like, Man, the game over,
let us down. Man. He wait until the clock hit the thing and
then he pulls out about thirty badges. I said, Man, you know
I was sideline, So look at the big down. So then look we
go on the field right and I'm about to walk on the stage where the
trophy is. I feel all didn't go up there. Man, that's what
the players. So I said, okay. So then we go to the
locker room and and Alan like, Man, you can't come in. I
saw. I said, Man, come on at Man, were in LA.
We just won the game. I brought the dude down here. What
you mean? He's like, Man, it's only players. So then I'm
standing out there Fellino. He passed by. Hes like, man, what's
going on? Come on in? So I'll go in and uh this is
though. So we go through it right. So Alan was like he looking
at me like he kind of mad that I'm in the locker room, and
I'm like, Coach Fealino said it was cool, and I'm like, man,
ain't nobody tripping it in He's like, you're not gonna leave rich homie
in here, are you? And I hope Alan don't watch this. Oh
yeah, you've been here, like he's some type of thug. And so
I'm sitting there, I'm like, all the president and the kids and the
coaches is having a ball with them. So I literally had to stay while
they did the dance and everything because Alan didn't want to leave them in there.
And you know, but the videos show it was. It was just
magical with all the players around. They did the dancing, the president was
dancing one of them, stuff like that. But Al, we ain't never
going on probation with Alan is our athletic just I said, come on,
al Man, come on man. He was, he was, he was,
he was tripping. But yeah, Coach D. Coach D is the
one that made that happen because we tried to get him near for the last
game in Minnesota. It didn't happen. We tried to get him there for
the Big Ten Championship. But Rich Homie had a concert that day, and
then we made it, We forced it and made it happen to get to
LA Then Rich Homie play a concert at the Auditorium on campus afterwards afterwards,
prior to us playing this song in the locker room, he had never been
booked for a show in Michigan. So after all of that stuff is you
know, when I was talking to his dad and everything, it was helping
his career, it was getting him notoriety, breaking him into Midwestern and after
all that became the theme song. People booked him and he went and did
a show at Michigan State and Coach D came out on the stage with him.
Yeah, it was cool because it was cool because some people in that
position a kind of make a person feel like you just using them, but
they kind of had really struck up a genuine relationship and Coach D well rich
home, he started supporting us. It was cool for Coach D to come
out and support him, and even you know, when I think they had
got shot at something, he called to check in on him. Same thing
with two Dub and then with you know Coach D Man, I that was
my first time I ever hearing him cry, you know, when I talked
to him about two Dub stuff, and he supported sending money to two Dub's
wife, and you know, he just he just wanted to stay plugged in
in that whole situation. But um, he's he is, as people know,
he's he's a great man, you know what I mean absolutely, you
know, you just to tell the listeners, people who are you know watching
to the rob Sharell's former teammate, Yeah, tragically passed away. What was
that two years ago? Yeah? Just yep, yep, yep, coming
up for two years. Yeah, so coach d helped him out. I
didn't, We didn't. I didn't know that. I don't. Yeah,
yeah, we so all the players, um, you know, I went
down there and just told his wife, don't worry about it. We're gonna
take care of it. And so we as former players, we came up
with like twenty thousand dollars within two days. So we took care of the
funeral, We took care of the programs, we took care of the post
dinner you know afterwards, and left a little bit of money for the family
and coach Coach D Rochet, you know, coach, Coach Rump, and
Rochet Um, they all stood up. I mean him and him and him
and TOODB were really close, and you know, he was just like,
man, you know the last time I saw him, you know, I
asked him how he was doing, and he was like, man, I
was I was struggling. I've been through some stuff. And Coach D was
kind of like, I wish I would have dug into it anymore, but
he was like, but I made it past that point, and um,
I forgot what game he is. So he might have saw him at the
Miami game or something, but he saw him and they had a gentlemane love
for each other and they were very close. And Coach D Steel the text
from time to time. I sent him a program and um and he calls
and talks to and wrote his wife a real nice letter and stuff like that.
So they've been very supportive. So, so, Kurt about your career.
Let's go back, you know to Michigan State. You know what actually
California so you're coming from was a Carson California from yeah, yeah, and
then you know, so how did that process go, Like the recruiting process
and you know from Carson to East Lands. Well, my high school was
like a we were before everybody started paying everybody and it was just regular school.
It's my high school in the school two miles from me. We were
like number one and number two in the nation, and so every year we
would send fifteen people, d one, nine people, twelve all that stuff.
So we had a powerhouse. I mean, Jamal Holloway went went to
my high school. So we had all of the colleges coming out there,
Switzer flying in on helicopters and stuff. So anyway, we had a way
back then in nineteen ninety or eighty five to ninety, we had a recruiting
coordinator at my school. We used to take all the vhs and newspaper clips
and send them out to all these universities so all the schools would come there
when they came to California. And turns out he was from I think he
went to Eastern Michigan. And you know, my dream at the time was
to go to Oregon. And even though it wasn't popular back then, I
had always liked their logo and the uniform and we had another dB from my
high school. They played at Oregon, and so my mentality was Man,
I don't care if Jesus Christ and the Seven Disciples recruited me. I'm going
to Oregon and that was my dream school. And when I went on my
trip, that was my best trip. When I came to Michigan State,
we were on quarters and since we were playing at a championship, we didn't
come into December. Man, it was so cold and it was frozen,
and there was no students on campus. And when I went in there to
meet GPGP didn't even know my name. Man, I think that as a
young eighteen year old, they paid their recruiting coordinator and he delivered me to
Michigan State. And all just being honest. Now that I know it,
I'm like, man, And that's why my nephew or people that have kids
that are going through the process, you know, I don't know how it
was for you guys. But when we were going, we flew on those
trips by ourselves. Our parents didn't come on a recruiting trip. Man,
we flew all. I went to Michigan State, I went to Illinois.
I was supposed to go to Syracuse. I went to Oregon. But we
went on all them trips by ourselves. Man, our parents weren't plugged then
they were too busy working. They weren't there to do like we're doing now,
run us around and AAU and get us trainers and all that stuff.
So we went on those trips, and as an eighteen year old coming from
a different time zone, they flew me into Detroit, were driving through that
snow and all this stuff. You get there and they talking about academics.
Your eyes are crossing, you know what I mean. Lyron Bell took me.
He wasn't my host, but that's who took me. And me and
Draft came in at the same time, and so these people just talking to
you, and man, I kind of got you know, I think,
I mean, I know now that I kind of got pushed everything that I
did. He would present Michigan play Keys or Big Teen. I didn't even
know anything about the Big ten where Michigan was. And I damn sure,
excuse me, I didn't know we had I didn't I didn't know we had
to go to school when the snow because in high school, I never we
never practiced in the rain or played in the rain. We never did that.
And so when the first day of snow that Michigan State I stayed up
all night and I and then I looked out and I said, there's people
still riding bikes, and they riding schoolers, and they driving cars without chains
on it. And I thought we wasn't gonna have to go to school.
So look, I get dressed. My roommate mil combing. I stayed with
Meal for four years, as I thought I had the biggest coat on campus.
I had this triple fat goose with fur on the neck. And then
I bought these long jobs I put on. The Meal would be like,
boy, when you get the class, you're gonna be sweating. I say,
it's cold outside. I'm putting everything off google gloves. I walked across
the tundram I got to my natural science class, and your boy was all
sweating, you know. And then when I didn't get a car to my
fourth year, I had the bright idea. Because the doors was locked,
I was like, that's stupid. I'm not about to scrape it off.
I'm just gonna throw some hot water on my lock. Yeah. I was
not leave man. I threw that water arm. It was like, you
dummy, breeze and you know what I mean. So I was naive man
in California, all you really thought about is what neighborhood you was gonna be
on. When you moved to Michigan, you got to worry about the weather.
So I used to be on the sideline with the They used to be
mad at me because I wasn't playing, but I would be on the coat
and I would be sitting on the heater and the starters we want to sit
down, And man, I didn't hear out there. Man, I've never
seen anything like that. Man. I was a life alternate experience. Man.
And then you know, and then I never knew I was like.
Man, I used to be like, so when y'all get y'all toys for
Christmas, y'all don't ride y'all bike till February. Like, what do you
y'all put y'all? Man? The other thing that I learned the nerdiest looking
dude everybody in the Midwest can play who Because in California, we was like
the one of the only schools that had an indoor building. But in elementary
and junior high or elementary, we don't have gyms, you know, no
gymnasiums. But here in Michigan, y'all be locked up the whole or the
Midwest for the winner, and everybody didn't play who and so it just was
it was just man. I tried to transfer Man and you know, and
GP called my mom. You know, the people at Oregon had to tell
them that I contacted them and they called my mom. And I was miserable
because when we started, we were on quarters and we would play three games
before the students came on campus. And Purlis was like, you're not gonna
like it. All you're doing is practicing every day. All you see is
these guys, and he could be a deal where he was like, I'll
tell you what less wait to see when the students get on campus, and
if you don't like it after the first quarter, I'll grant you your transfer.
And when them girls from Flint and Detroit came to the State universally,
I was cool, say, I ain't gonna lie the girls game on campus.
Man, I was like, good that made you stay. Yeah,
yeah, I mean nothing wrong with that. They listen, look, did
you did you play? You know there's stories out there about you playing her
Nord to get a scholarship. So yeah, so my my and my my
um twelfth grade going to my twelfth grade year, I ignored my coach and
when played summer summer league basketball, and I tour the ligaments in my knee,
and I knew that my parents weren't gonna pay for me to go to
school. So I played the whole football season with the with the torn acl
and I didn't I didn't miss any practices or anything. But when I started
taking my trips, one of the recruiters from cal was like, hey,
we noticed that you were limping when you come up here. Do you mind
if I take a look at your knee? And then that's what my recruiting
coordinator was like, these guys all talking together, and if they find something
from with your need, you're gonna lose your scholarship. You need to go
ahead and commit. So I canceled my last two trips admitted the Michigan State.
I didn't tell him anything because I wanted them to pay for it.
True, So I came to campus. I practiced about four days. I
told him my need was hurting. They looked at it. They was like,
oh my god, you don't have any cartilage, your bone on bone
and so back then, but they did to me is they drilled three holes
in that bone, which they now call that microfracture surgery. And so while
other people got scoped and we're out like three weeks or a month, I
missed my whole freshman season, so I red shirted. Felino wouldn't let me
stay around the scout team people, so they forced me to travel, which
I didn't want to do because everybody was partying while we was on the road
and back I knew I wasn't playing, and he was like, I don't
want you to pick up any bad habits. So even at practice, I
couldn't practice on the scout team. I used to be the fourth and I
would get to come in for one or two plays and all this stuff.
And then so my first year I ran shirt. I couldn't get on the
field. The second year I wasn't good enough to play, and then my
third year I was running twos and I had a spinal injury. I was
having problems with my shoulder and my back, and when I went home,
they made me do an mr UCLA and they saw something, but they thought
I moved, so they maybe do another one. I came back practice a
little bit more, put on different helmets, and then one day, they
came over to the dorm and picked me up, took me to a specialist
and it was like, man, yeah, you know you you you can't
play, he said, He said, he your career, you can't play.
I'll recommend that you don't play anymore. And then he says, as
a matter of fact, your career is over. You won't hit away from
being paralyzed on your left side, So your career at Michigan State is over.
And so I broke down crying, and because I came out there to
play ball, and my injury kind of sucked because I didn't look hurt,
like you know, when you have a knee injury or you break something you
got to cash you can see it. But it was the same thing that
Michael Irban had. He got hit on the top of his head. It
pushed down between help I mean C three and C four and it pinched that
nerve mouse Jahnson, same injury. So that's what happened to me. And
then afterwards, you know, if you hear me, I always say I'm
grateful that I went to Michigan State because if I would have went to Oregon,
I probably would have played earlier and I'll probably be paralyzed and so and
then at Michigan State and not getting on the field and stuff like that.
And actually, I'm gonna sayst is this. I got funny stories. So
they made me travel so back then, and it's the same way. When
you go on the road, they may only take about eighty people. When
you play at home, they dressed out a hundred people, right, So
they made me travel. So when we go to Ohio State, Myron Bill
from Ohio, they hyper. So when you when you're traveling, you ain't
playing. You the crash stuff, dummy doing warm ups, doing of the
dbs. You gotta run down there and let them hit you. And man,
Myron hit me so hard and I came back and I told him I
was hurt, and Coach Winn was like, you got hurt the warm ups,
you ain't playing, and you know they man, they went off,
man, and so you know I did. Y'all don't understand. It was
a lot of parties going on when we went on to town. We used
to fight a lot, so they used to try to pull the parties when
we had It's a different they used to try to couple the parties when our
games was away because they didn't want us to come to the parties because we
would tear them up. And so whenever I was the only one that was
forced to travel, and when I would come back, everybody would talk about
the party and Milnim scared me. They told me Northwestern was like a high
school stadium and it was like, man, the wind be coming off and
the hawk. So I called myself, I'm gonna play hurt, so I
ain't got to go to Northwestern and stay home for this party, right.
But what I don't know is when you when you so for me. Remember
I wasn't on scout team. I was underneath for about two hours and I
barely was doing anything. But when you hurt, jeff Nil, make you
ride that bike and run all practice. Yeah I was hurt for one week,
but I didn't want to run at practice no more. So I tried
to tell him I was well, and they was like, no, actually,
we think we saw something and that's kind of how it happened. But
yeah, I gotta hurt. Myron blew me up and I was running down
a little thing hurt. And then I didn't know how to go back to
tell the coaches that I got hurt in the warm ups. But that's what
happened, man, So Boot is the one who caused the injury. Blew
me up. Man, I'm just I'm like, man, because when when
you like I said, at home, I never got hit. You know,
we would hit the walk on. But when you go on the road
and you ain't playing, you the crash that's coming, and he playing hyper
because we're playing in the Horseshoe that's his hometown. I'm just willy gagging that
fire. Yeah man, sorry, So so like the stories, you know.
So then when that happened, you know, they came to me and
it was like, hey, you know, I know you're from California.
You don't have any family and nothing out here, and this is your family.
We want to keep you around the program. Would you like to be
like a ga. That's what danover man. So he was like, you
can help out watch film and so then I said, oh, I said,
well if I don't do that, do I still get my tickets to
the game. And it was like, yeah, he still get your tickets
to the game. I can still get to come to train and take well,
yeah he still get trained. I said, Man, I ain't doing
that, man, I don't want to do that, and so I told
him I didn't want to do it. And what that did is it allowed
me to start. The first thing I did was signed up for this Black
English history class because we used to have to be done with our classes by
like two o'clock, and there were certain classes that I wanted to take that
weren't available, and so it freed me up to start taking classes that I
want and then start meeting regular students, you know what I mean, because
at the time all was around was football players. So my last three years
there, you know, I was kind of like a regular student, but
but I was going to school for free. And then I got a job
at DPS, and you know, I didn't write no Black people tickets.
I was, yeah, man, I was doing all that stuff. And
then the other funny story is, you know I was done. Me and
Neil came in together. He did his work and I did my work.
Neil graduated after four years, and so they granted him a fifth year and
they paid for it. And when I went in there to get my scholarships
on for the fifth year, GP cussed me out and kicked me out the
building. He told me man, don't you get enough, you blood sucker.
You're using this and you know I can't cuss, but he cussed me
out. He kicked me out the building. So I went over to Clarence
Underwood and I was like, I don't know who he think he's talking to.
And y'all gonna punish me because I got injured, you know what I
mean? Me and him came in together, we did the work, so
y'all gonna punish me. So what I ended up doing my fifth year is
I dropped this class that I needed to graduate. And then my counselor's called
me. I was like, what are you doing? You dropped this class.
You're not gonna graduate. I told him I don't want to graduate.
So because I dropped that class, it forced them to pay for my fifth
year. My fifth year, I took two nine hundred level grad courses and
GP I was banned from the building. He don't like me, man,
like I aw from California. I used to wear the ear rings, you
know what I mean? Hey, you're gonna wear a skirt next, You're
gonna have upple outside him? And I tell Baggot because I talked to Baggot
all the time. And I remember one year I was going home for the
summer and him and coach Williams came up to me and they was like,
hey, man, are you on drugs or something? I said, what
you're talking about? Man? He said, Man, you know you act
like you don't care about nothing. We yell at you and cuss you out
and you don't really react. And I said, what you want me to
do? Man? I do all the tests that you want. I make
all the runs and everything. And it was like, we want you to
go to California. When you come back, you come back without that California
attitude. And my mentality was, man, I'm gonna do what I'm supposed
to do, and you know, if if they want me to play,
I'm gonna play. But I wasn't one of them people. I probably talked
about nine to ten people on our team from Quittin because we had some people
that when they did that and didn't let them play, they wanted to give
away their scholarship. And I would be like, man, you ain't throwing
away that scholarship. Man, you better get your butt out here. It's
thirty forty thousand dollars worth of stuff and just do the work, man,
and don't trip on them, you know what I mean? Right, So
you've always you're like but sure beyond your years type of guy, like you
know, you talk about this, you know, and it's transcended into what
you've done business wise as an adult. Where did you get that instinct to
be able to think deeper? Because, like, you know, from you
know, you're you're talking about the pressure that coaches put on you if you're
hurt, even if you're not you know, like hurt, like to the
point of losing your career, they want you to get on that field.
And that's that's what it is. And being able to stand up to that
and to still push on the persever and get your degree and become who you
have become. You know, where did that come from? I mean,
my parents still married, man, They've been married for fifty four years.
Man. And it's kind of like you know, when you when you when
you're comfortable with who you are and you're confident in knowing what you know,
and like always tell people, when you look at something and you see it,
you should believe what you see. And you know, I'm irritant enough
or not irrogant enough but I was naive enough to be like I knew what
certain things look like like. I wasn't the person that they couldn't come in.
And I never called another man dad or mom because out of respect for
my mom. I call meals, parents, moms, and pops because they
basically adopted me. But out of respect for my parents, I don't do
that. So I never was that kid that you can come in and be
like. My father figure already had my dad and my mom. We lived
in Carson, the you know we are my mom My house is probably worth
about eight hundred sixty thousand dollars right now. So it's just like you.
I was comfortable with who I was and and and those things that you talk
about were decisions, and so I was making a grown man decision to skip
that surgery, you know too, so I can do something better with my
life. And then I made another grown man decision when I wanted to just
you know, I mean, nowadays how much them coaches getting paid sometimes I
think about it, but I didn't. I didn't like, I didn't love
football that much. Man, I was. I was playing football to go
to school, you know what I mean, That's why I played football I
wanted to go to school, and I was playing football to get girls,
and so you know it was like, man, that was my motivation.
I used to be in there talking about when you go to sleep the night,
imagine yourself scoring this touchdown. I used to be like one of these
girls when we win this game. That's what that's That was my motivation.
Man. Even like I tell people when you drink, I don't drink by
myself. I would drink if I was gonna be around some women or something.
So you know, that was my motivation. I wanted to go to
school. I wanted to graduate, and I had to do this to do
that. But it wasn't fun when we got to school, all that stuff
that they was doing. Man, it wasn't fun to me running around there
doing that. So even now, my daughter's really good, she's ten,
and I tell my wife all the time, I feel like I'll have failed
her if she has to go to school on an athletic scholarship, because I
don't want her to have to get up at seven o'clock in the morning,
run around all day, have people yelling at her. I want her to
get an academic scholarship. And then if she wants to play sports. She
can do it, but I don't want her to be in the predicament that
I was in. I was in a predicament where I had to I had
to go. I had to play her to go to school, otherwise I
wouldn't win. So that that that decision making is what's going on now,
and all tell people it's important to be able to think. You know,
I think people can make a decision for what's right there in front of them.
That's easy. You don't even have to mentally think about that. But
to be able to think about it. If I do this, then it's
gonna happen. It's gonna happen. It's gonna happen. And so that's what
I've been blessed with. Always think that that's where people kind of fall down.
That you can go back and look at critical decisions that came up and
people that make, you know, bad decisions. You know, things,
things don't go the way that they want to. So that that came from
my parents and just and my friends and just same thing. When we started
the business Man, it was we just was naive. It was three people
from Carson. Bob wanted to play football. He went to the league.
Ras wanted to rap. He got a deal, and I wanted to do
some business. And when we did the business, and so we just we
just was doing it and we was paying attention. That's the critical thing that
you push here and you pay attention to what it does, and then you
adjust and you move. And so that that stuff came from there. From
school, I mean, we did get good lessons. Work hard, keep
your mouth shut, and good things that happen you learn. You know,
even now, like if I'm hiring somebody, I'm I'm leaning towards somebody who's
in college that don't live in Atlanta, that left home, because that says
something about that person. When you get people that leave home when they're eighteen
and they get away from their parents and they stick through it, that's that
person got a certain type of characteristic and thought process to be able to work
through problems. Man. I didn't know anybody in mission. I didn't have
role, I couldn't identify with the teams. I didn't play against nobody in
the All Star Games or anything. Man, And and I wanted to leave,
like you know, and that's why I laugh at what's going on now,
because you know stand Bill's character, like you you're gonna be in the
world where you're gonna be in where you're gonna be in a predicament where you're
gonna be forced to do some things that make you uncomfortable. But if you
can work past that point, that's where the greatness is. But so many
people fold up, pack up ten and give up. And I don't respect
that, you know what I mean. I'll be sitting here thinking like some
of these people. I mean, y'all give it to them, y'all be
like once a spartan dog. Or I'll be like, man, they laugh,
I'm like, man, you laugh. Man. I mean I joked
with Jason, right, Jason's kid going around, Oh, Jason gonna carry
a helmet for certain schools. But I really wasn't gonna put no, no,
he wasn't gonna get in that picture for that that school because you can,
like you know what I mean, it like, it just don't work
like that, man, I mean, I get the same again. I'll
be thinking that there's that we used to be a criteria, like you know,
you can't just come in and just leave. It's kind of like,
you know, there's a criteria for you to get your letterman, Jackie,
you gotta play so much time, or you gotta be a senior or whatever
you gotta do. But it's hard when you be like, man, it
got hard on this dude and he left. You think about how many hard
times y'all went through or we all went through up there and we stuck it
out. So I mean, I get it, but you know when you
leave and go somewhere else. Man claim that man about about what's his name?
Colman? Man, I I'm I'm from La right, so I'm a
Laker fan. If if if Shaq ain't on our team, I don't like
him no more. I didn't like Lebron and I don't think he wanted whatever,
but he played for the Lakers or whatever. But if anybody is on
the Laker team, we're gonna support him as soon as he leaves. Soon
as he leave, pat Row, I don't care if you want us five
championships. We've done with you. So when they sending me stuff and ask
me about Kian, I'll be like Kian who man? Right, Hey man,
it's hard to blame me because we talked about we had b J.
Cunningham on the show a couple of days ago, and he talked about it.
You know, you got to have one or the other, you know,
transfer portal, you know, or nil. But and you think of
the transfer portal as like, oh, it's forcing kids to do this.
It's not true, like you still have a choice at the end of the
day, you know, even if you know, you can make that grown
man decision. And some guys are being pushed out into your this is what
you're You're what happened in your career. They're being pushed out. But if
you don't take the day, if you want to just get your degree,
they have to pay for it. I talked. I called a dude hearing
they got run out of Colorado and his dad as a doctor and his mom's
an attorney. Then his son is on the dean's list, and I said,
y'all need to I said, they tricked, y'all. They they presented
it like, hey, you ain't gonna I don't see you playing here,
and I think you we don't see you on your future. And then they
let you say Okay, well I'm gonna leave. I said, man,
your son don't gonna leave. But imagine if you you you've been married for
fourteen years. You're a doctor, your wife's a lawyer. He's on the
Dean List. And if you're talking to the av of Colorado, that's the
type of kid that you want in your program. And I said, and
I read up on the rule. I said, you know, you don't
have to leave if he if he ain't good enough to play there, and
then he probably ain't gonna go pro. But if he likes to school,
he should just stay there and make for them, make them pay to go
to school. And he was like, well, I don't. I don't
want to jump out there and ruin his chances of going somewhere. I don't
want to be that parent. But somebody gonna say something. He was like,
I've never even talked to DN. None of the parents can talk to
him, and whatever. He was telling me all this stuff, and I
but nobody wants to be the one to jump out there and say anything because
they scared they're gonna do something to their kids. But if it was me,
I would have been like, hey, coach, just like I did
before, where I ain't playing no more, You ain't running me up out
of here. Y'all gonna pay for me to go to school, and I
ain't come into practice, and y'all not using me to watch no film and
stay up here at the building and do that. And now we're not doing
none of that stuff. But but but again, in my opinion, Jason,
I told you that I think it's a blessing that you out there with
your kid because these parents are forty five fifty years old, and you're dealing
with a kid with an eighteen to twenty two year old mindset that hadn't been
through anything. And you can manipulate that person. You can present something in
a certain way without saying something, so you can come back. J Dion
can get on there and say I ain't never tell nobody they had to leave.
But if you say, hey man, we don't see a future for
you here, We're gonna bring in some other players. If I was you,
I'll go somewhere else. Yeah, you're right. You didn't technically say
I'm running you out of here. You gotta get out of here. But
even you know, GP Maham, you stick got mad at the punter one
year and they took this red jersey. And anytime we had a running play
he was a running back, we had to play he was a pastor.
He did it two days. That dude quit and they took this scholarship back.
They ran him My body there and what I'll say, one of the
things that I learned is when you're a kid that don't have anybody on the
sideline standing up for you. I'm the one that got the bad job.
In the summer. They put me in the job from the man. They
had me a job man and dudes having jobs at them or Meal, and
the I wanted to work with Meal them work. They had me working with
some man. It was some prisoners man. We was doing fourteen hour shifts
and were building a big old giant harbecue rills and I would get to these
still splinters and I was talking to the dudes. They was on work release
and they was getting paid penny on the dollars. So I went there one
day dog and I quit. I had to walk home. The Meal came
to pick me up. I was walking up and so I quit the job.
And the next day I went out there got my check, and then
I flew to California because I was like, well, we got eighty people
from Michigan and all these starters are getting to the job. If I go
home, I can get a better job. And then they hooked me up
with an alumni there and they started me in the hotel. I was the
only dude speaking Spanish. I wasn't speaking English. I was in there all
the clothes and the sheets and put them in the air take the trash out
vacuum. So I complained about that job. Then they put me in the
bank and then the alumni was out of town and the people. Then I
thought I was gonna be a teller or something. Man. They had me
in the safe for nine hours a day. Man, I was in the
safe dog all day. Wells Farm. Oh my god. I called back
to Michigan State complaining. And then they hooked me up with mister Bobbin and
he put me in the job at a publishing company. He was gone,
and so the lady didn't want to hire me. There was a British lady,
so she wouldn't let me come in the building. Man. She had
me outside painting the walls, cutting the grass. I said, Man,
I'm a college student. I want to work in the air condition. So
that's where I ended up working for the next four years. But you know,
I had to leave to do that, man, they wouldn't they.
That's the stuff that you have to deal with. Now. I've seen other
people that I knew I was better then and their parents would literally walk from
the sideline go to GP's office and then the next day that kid would be
on a special team. Somehow he got on the field. But when you
all away from California and you don't have no uncle or no dad or no
parents on the sideline pressing the coaches out, man, when it when it
comes time to make a decision, you kind of get left out there on
your own. You don't have nobody to fight for you. And so that's
why I'd be seeing it's important for these parents that when you send these kids
off to have somebody there locally that can look out for them. Because we
as adults, with our different experiences, you see things different than these kids.
Do these kids be getting manipulated? Man? I mean yeah, courage,
I mean, you know, changing little little you know a page.
You know, from an entrepreneur standpoint, you you've been given back to Michigan
State and helping ours and our students understand like there's more to football, and
everyone in there in there they have some type of outs or I guess you
know, small portion of an entrepreneur mindset, right, and so you did
that. Coming back to to Michigan State, can I talk about that and
how you helped launch what we have today like on campus, well on there.
So my my, my, my, My oath or promise to Mail
is that you know, Mobin always say that you know you guys's responsibility is
to build us a national championship caliber program on the field. My responsibility is
to help build one off the field. So if there's every you know,
I was working with our entrepreneur program in Michigan State as a mentor where we
would come home once a week and we've listened to pitches from different different students
about what they was doing. And I thought in our program ended up winning
an award like a top fifteen program in the nation. And so I picked
up the phone and told Mill, I said, man, this is what
we need to be doing, you know, And so we got Darien plugged.
Then Darien was kind of messing around and then you know, every once
in a while, I have to call Meal Mill out of fire. Mil
don't got no patience. You know, he'd be ready if you put the
pressure on there, and then it's gonna you know, if I pick up
and sometimes I'll try to work with the guys, but if they be bs
and I'll just call mal the mil be Like I thought, we was doing
this, this needs to be a priority to them. And then next thing
you know, we heat it's a video of him over there, daring over
there, and we're doing the program. So that particular program, I had
told the people in the program because I did my one year and I wanted
to stay involved with it, and I thought it was dope. So I
hooked them up where they went and did a program and it still should be
ongoing. And then I was messing around and I found another program that we
was doing on branding and marketing and starting a business, and I told them
about that, and so I just looked ways. Like I tell people,
sometimes we may not be able to outtradition people because they've been here longer,
but we can outcool people, and we can do certain things and you know,
like you know, last year, I helped Mayo do the playlist on
Spotify. When we had the playlist that Mayo got a playlist, we created
some content and stuff like that. So it's just like I said, it's
a lot of young people that are athletes that want to do music or entertainment,
and there's a lot of people in entertainment that think they're athletes. So
there's a cross section there, and we happen to sit right in the middle
of it because these people are our clients. And so anytime that you know,
I got a Michigan State flag up in my office, I'm always wearing
Michigan State stuff. So anytime there's a conversation, like, one of our
best players this year should be Malik Spencer and his dad is his name is
Block, and he used to run Bad Boys South and you know, he'd
helped discover Geez, used to discover Rick Ross, Sierra was in the hood
and all that stuff, and young Jock and he used to talk so bad
about Michian State. He used to call us do He used to tell me
his son ain't never going there, And behold, Malik went up there and
fell in love with it. And Malik would have played a lot last year,
but he separated his shoulder, and I got all the confidence in the
world that our secondary about. Yeah, Malik is a dog, Yeah,
always out there. So it's just like any time. You know, I'm
just so associated with the program that anytime something happened, people come to me
and talk to me about it. And then you know, with Mayle coaching
here and Georgia, you know, man, I've seen things like you know.
So we basically we took my wife work to the Braids. So we
set up a MSU day at Truest Park with the Braids play. We got
a suite. We probably had about ninety Michian State alumni come to the game.
Mayle and sayed, and coach Baggett came out there before the game.
You know, we celebrated saying to fight the fight song. Male spoke.
We went up to the suits and then I'm like, man, if Kirby
Smart was here, they would put this face up on the screen. So
I called my wife. We make arrangements, were putting mail on the screen.
Michigan State head football coach were sitting there, Mail pull up his phone.
He said, damn, is this what you wanted. One of the
recruits was like, I'm at the game and I just seen you on screen.
What we want? You know, we want to create moments, we
want to create content, We want to take advantage of the fact that mail
is cool and that a little bit of swag, and so any opportunity that
you know that I see out there, you know, I'm a I'm I'm
gonna call him and tell him about it. And then of course when we
played the bowl game here, man, I was right up my alley.
You know, we threw you know, four parties. Man, y'all,
y'all wore me out, but we do and it was fun time. Man.
So so my thing is, like, you know, just for what
we built, our company is great. We want of the best that we'll
we do. We've been around twenty eight years. Our very first client as
outcasts, we jeez, he's in there today. We just did a little
baby, the little Low song that Duval did, Squeeze, we did the
Smile Be, We done, did so many records and so you know,
I'm trying to operate at a standard, and I don't if I know what
the standard should be or what it is. Then that's my expectation of what
our program should operate with. And I think that we as former players have
a responsibility to elevate our program. Like it's like we all got to chip
in. We can't we can't leave it on y'all to put stuff up like
y'all do y'all part. But it's all responsibility to like it, to promote
it, to share, to make it bigger. And so we all got
to be working moving in the right direction. And I'm trying to make the
program better, you know what I mean. And we got to support Mail
and the coaching staff and everybody that's out there. Yeah, you know,
I know we're running out of time. By Freddie, I got it.
Uh say, you you do a lot of stuff, you know, behind
the scenes, you know that people don't know. And one thing that you
do is this, uh this, you know, the Spartan dog dinner and
uh you know that is something that you know, I'm gonna, you know,
put it out here right you know me. Um, it's something that
I think the former players need that more than you know. I think we
all realize, you know, the opportunity to come back together with your old
dogs and you know, you can bring your family there and you you know,
have a nice meal. You know, the music, the DJ,
the bar and everything like that come together, and that's something that that cannot
go away. You know, that's something that's needed. We have to have
that every single year that you look at it. I thought you was talking
about the ones we did in the past. You you apply pressure on here,
just like oh here, well, you know my thing is so like
when I look at that, if we were good enough to stay in that
hotel and eat in that hotel, then we're good enough to stay in there
and eat in there. Now when I come up there, and I'll be
like, Okay, well, the MSU Black alumni is having the event,
but it's at the Causeway Bay Hotel. It ain't even on campus. Man,
I'm not as a former football player that done sacrifice and got injured playing
up there and put blood, sweat and tear, I still feel like we're
good enough to eat in that hotel. And so for years I was coming
up there and it would be like, man, you really coming up there
to see your brothers, and so you want to have conversations and talk and
meet the family and meet the wads and all this stuff. But when we
would go to the game, we might be in different sections. You may
be working. We don't get to see you. We only get to see
you on the sideline when the game ends. Some people running back home,
some people eating over here, some people eating over here, And so I
wanted to make it a point where when the game is over, just walk
back to the hotel. The dinner start an hour after the game, hen
and bring everybody, bring your wife, bring your kids, bring your friends.
If they're a friend of you, they're a friend of us. And
so I've never been of one of them people to try to make something super
exclusive, because the smaller it is, the whacker it is to me.
And so you know, I want people to come in, and so it's
weird. You know, we didn't did it for twelve years, and it's
some people that they first time even hearing about her to come into it was
last year. And when they come, they come up to me and think,
well, you get that interview, y'all be thinking me, And I'd
be like, it's y'all that make this event what it is. And so
when you know, we we've really just been trying to connect it because we
were there from the nineties to the ninety fives and I can touch them people,
and then you know, we're trying to get the people from them Rose
Bowl teams and you guys heres to kind of come together. But it's a
challenge, you know what I mean, And so we just keep plugging away
at it. And they on me because I said I probably wasn't gonna do
the dinner this year, you know what I mean. And I'm still still
thinking about it or whatever, and it means something to me. And you
know, they've been on my neck and saying that you know, it's not
about it. We gotta do to make it happen. Yeah, what you
mean for support, because we gotta. I think it's the fun every people.
And Freddy had this, he made this kind of like listen, everything
ain't free. Like people show up and they don't want to give financially right,
but how can dogs give? Take some whoa pressure away from that?
That ain't real? Really right. It's like for me, like I tell
people, I kind of you either doing something to get paid or you're doing
it and you want to feel appreciated and you want to feel the gratitude,
and the moment that you don't start feeling gratitude, you're being near, start
feeling like people taking you for granted, and you know, and it's almost
like something you be here taking for granted and then are they using you?
So me my style is It's like, you know, if you want to
know if your business matters, you have to ask people or ask what will
happen if you went away with people miss you. So for me, I
ain't gonna sit around and complain. I'll just disappear and if they don't say
anything, then that means they didn't miss me and it didn't matter, you
know. Some of the things. It's just like like I'll be telling people,
you know, when we start at the dinner. I mean, there
are certain expenses. The dinner at the hotel costs a certain amount of money,
and then they're gonna charge your gratuity and charge you taxes and service fees.
For the first five years, people was complaining that it was fifty five
dollars or something. So I would just make them pay the fifty five dollars
and then I would pay the taxes and the tip. My thing is like
I don't even be tripping on that. But what takes the energy away is
when I hear somebody man the food in there and even good, while we
gotta keep going back there, can we go somewhere else? And I just
be like, it's an energy zapper. So it would really be about do
like, if I do this, am I gonna feel like people appreciated it?
And if I get the feeling that they don't appreciate it, then I
kind of like to cancel something before it burns itself out. I read it.
I'm like Belichick, I'd rather cut you a year earlier. So it's
kind of like, if I'm feeling like that, then if I feel like
that, then di vibe of how I feel it's gonna come off in this
event and y'all gonna be there. That's gonna feel kind of funny because I'm
gonna be irritated and be like, I knew I didn't really want to do
this. You know, you might be like you have an old girl and
you went back one last time, you'd be like, you know what I
mean, I'm sorry, I get your point. I mean, yeah,
yeah, so we we talked, but me and Jason talked and stuff like
that. And but but but I already know Jason appreciates it. I know
Jay who appreciate it, and Holdis appreciates it. It's some other people that
I ain't heard from, and I ain't sure if they appreciate it. Right.
Look, Look, I think I think this I think that, Look,
you're gonna go when when things things get tough, and you know that.
I mean you've you've definitely done with that in your life, with injuries
and trying to be trying to get your degree, being outside in the in
the hot sun when you had a college degree. You when you's in college,
you don't you deserve ac when you in college, you know what I
mean. Look, but you were able to overcome that, right, and
sometimes when things are tough, that worth it. That's all I can tell
you, Like, like you look, I know, I know. I
mean there's a lot of external things and in terms of we can't talk about,
but when it's tough, it's worth it. You It's ain't time to
give up. Man, that's not agree And that's why I said that.
As of now, I don't but I didn't say I'm not doing it.
And I'm like, I'm optimistic that you brought it up. That's all.
I wrote it up because I love it. I wrote it up because I
love it. I think it's a great thing and I think there's a lot
of people out there that that need that. You know, I think I
do think it's important to do it because when you don't do it, you
lose all that momentum. And it's like we've been doing it for twelve years
and it's only the last year. They charged me extra money because we had
so many people and so many people had such a good experience that I reserved
a bigger boom for this year. So we'll see how it goes if we
three and oh I might do it. Here we go all the people.
So you're in the music industry, Um does that? You know? You're
in the day and the day with different artists and everything. You said,
you know, one of my one of my favorite group when I came from
Africa. Um, the first ever cassette that I ever got was Outcasts.
You know I got that for Christmas and what's that seven playalistic music that you
know? Outcast was. You know, it's my favorite group, you know
Outcast and there you know, Um, do you have you know, like
I said, you work with a buck. You're in the day to day.
Do you ever take a step back and be like, man, I
really like this, you know, like do you have like a top five
you know artists and everything like that or well, well, you know,
for me, there's it's it's like a bunch of different things. So because
you know, because outcast gave us our credibility. So always I don't say
them because they just voted the greatest group, but they literally gave us our
credibility because when people saw our name on their CD and they sold three to
four million copies, they like, where did they do this in? We
want this type of sound, So they gave us our credibility, right,
And then you know, being from California, we had doctor dre intown for
seven straight days and I remember Brian, y'all don't know these people name,
but he called me. He was like, Kurt Dray want to come to
Atlanta for a week, and we ain't going nowhere but to you guys.
And they arrived on a Sunday, and back then you couldn't buy liquor on
Sunday. And doctor Drake wanted three fifths or tangaray and called my homeboy,
who was a marriage at Justine's, which was Puppy's restaurant, and I went
through there and got three three fifths of tangaray, so we can make that
happen. So doctor dre was cool. Um, you know, personally for
me, there are certain things that I kind of didn't believe and I wanted
to see, Like so like when I hear a twister or E forty rap,
I didn't believe that they was doing that. So I'm like, I'm
gonna gonna sit in here and I and I want to see twister rap like
that, like heat doing some type of trick or whatever. And then they
go in there and they spit it or you here, Like I tell people,
Scarface is a jokester. He'd be bagging on you. He funny.
But then when he going in the mic, he talked continue in this one
voice, and when he going there and start rapping, it's Scarface, so
it's it's weird. And then we had Farrakhan out there four weeks, so
I didn't I didn't work. I just sat next to him for twelve hours
a day, three hours a day. And then I'll tell you the time.
Like I met Jay Z sou jeezus at the studio and so he brings
he was, Kurt, come back here, I want you to meet Jay.
So I go back there and he's like Jay with something that Kirt Kurt.
So I shake his hand like I'm Kurt. So when he's shaking my
hand. What do you think? He says to me, Give all y'all
a guess. What what do you think? Jay Z? How does he
introduce itself? Sean first, go to this first? How does he Oh,
I'm about to say he said go green, but now, but he
was saying Sean Carter, Uh no, Jason, what he says? Hold,
that's what that said. It like, man, he was liked Jean
or Jay or Jigger. He was like, oh, so that was cool.
And then you know we have Ryan in there, and I didn't go
meet her because and I didn't go meet Alicia or Beyonce. And it's weird
because it's kind of like I'll be telling people, it's like if you the
chef or at the restaurant, some people want you to come out and greet
them at the table, and some people be offended if you don't come out.
But as the owner of the studio, sometimes if I come out,
they'll stop calling the managers when they want something. So everything that they want
since they met me, they're gonna call me now, and it's gonna make
me work more. So like when we did we did my rider right and
everybody was worried everybody was worried. We had her and we had a rid,
a two hundred thousand dollar piano. We got it. She had a
rider with all this candy roses, mint throat coat, wine, water cool.
So I'm at home and they're like, we can't find the wine.
So I'm like, well, I gotta total wine over here. I run
over here and get it. Man, ain't no big deal, and I'll
get reimbursed. Man, I went over to buy wine. That wine was
like twenty one hundred dollars, so little people. We go to the studio
and it's like all the people from the labels and came in. They came
in early. They all worried. I got like a two page rider and
we get all the stuff. So then the next day they liked, Curtis,
we want to talk to you. So I come in the office.
I'm like, how did everything go? It was like, man, we
needed some long stin flute glasses and you guys didn't have it. I said,
well, was it on the list? He was like no, he
said, I said, well it they give him? He said yeah,
they got him. I said, okay, cool, I said anything else?
He was like, man, the Vendom machine and give me no chance,
said, get the fuck everything on the list. You are here talking
about the Vendom machine to y'all, said, man, come on, And
I was proud of ourselves. We delivered. Maria put every room because she
didn't want anybody else in the building. And they told the engineer to get
out of the room. If we need you will intercommune. So she had
the rooms from twelve until PM until the engineers and everybody would get there,
Jimmy jam and Terry Lewis, all these different producers. Maria would show up
at eleven forty five at night, man, when she put her kid to
bed, and she would work all the way to the next day, you
know. And then when we had to you know, when Bobby and Whitney,
when Whitney was alive, she was up there and she still could sing
and stuff like that. Her voice was still cool. Just a lot of
different stories, man, And it's it's a it's a blessing. So it's
cool to kind of you have some artists that you get closer to, you
know, over over time, you know what I mean. And and some
of them who are you the closest with, Well, I ain't gonna stay
closest with, but I might talk to I'll talk to them. Two three,
Well, I talked to David Banner. Um, I talked to if
I there's people that I'm comfortable where I don't. I don't like owing people
favors. So I have some people. If it's Jacobin, if it's Jay
Tobyn, if it's Drummer Boy, if it's David Banner, if it's Bone
Pressure, if it's the young Bloods, if it's Ludacris. Um, it's
just different people that I feel comfortable with because we started together. So a
lot of these people, you know, they you guys didn't know who they
were. Nobody knew who Ludacris was when we was doing this first album.
Uh, Jay who you didn't know who t I was when we was doing
that first album. Damn sure. I didn't know who Sierra was. I
didn't know who Jeezy was. You didn't know who Little John was. You
didn't know who the young Blood were. All these different people, and nobody
knew who ACoM were. So we just in there working on these projects and
you build these build this relationship where you do a good job and like I
tell people, you know, these artists blew up and if we didn't grow
with them, they would have left us. But because we grew and we
ended up building a world class facility, they still can come back in there.
Like we just we did something that was dope for ludicrous. If you
guys ever see that Jiffy commercial with him wrapping or whatever, you should look
it up. That's in our studio, you know. And he did the
Monday night football thing with the country girl. We did that at the studio.
If you come to Atlanta and you going through the airport and you hear
our mayor saying welcome to Atlanta. This is Mayor such and such. We've
been recording most for the last five or six mayors. Bottom Yeah, yeah,
we do, Yeah, we do those recordings. A lot of the
Democrats, the political campaigns, they come and we do their voiceovers at the
studio. A lot of the reality shows we do them at the studio.
We shot the Chipmunks at the studio. This is crazy. This is so
yeah. So we just we just be working and so I will say this
when we you know, the first year we did the Spartan Dog Con,
I was one of the speakers and we had been working on our documentary and
the twenty four year documentary, and we had cut like a six minute sizzle
reel, and all the time working on it, I've been looking at it
on my phone and on my computer, but I never just really sat there
and listened to it. And so when we went in that meeting room and
they got them big old TVs with them subble for us, that was the
first time I sat in the audience and watched that. And when it went
off, I almost didn't get up until they stopped clapping, because after I
watched it, I literally said to myself, then we actually did something.
It looks like we did something. Because when you're in the midst of all
of that stuff that you do, it's so much work. We typically start
working by nine thirty in the morning and our last session usually ends by five
or six in the morning. Seven days a week, so we may go
an eleven thirteen different sessions every single day and were working. And so when
you work in you know, we never it's like we in college and we
balling out and we're going to the Rose Bowl every year, but we never
graduate. You don't really ever celebrate that Rose Bowl until it's five, six,
seven, eight, nine, ten years down the line. So we
literally in the midst of this stuff. We didn't just we don't have time
to tell you that. We did Outcast, second, third, fourth,
and fifth album. We did Jeezy's first, second, third, fourth album.
We done all these albums because we're literally doing this stuff, so we
do. We try, right, So I always be like I'm competitive,
and I'd be like, when all that Versus was going on, I was
like, maybe we're gonna battle another studio with Versus. But then when I
started thinking about it, I was like, I I can't pick twenty five
songs because we were doing these whole albums, and I'm gonna offend somebody.
So if I don't pick Monica, and I don't pick Goodie, and I
don't pick this and this and this, and we've done so many records,
we didn't we pick the cubic stuff. But we was doing That's just my
Baby Daddy that we did that record, We did My Bouley when y'all was
doing a my Boot Challenge. We did records and so it's like it's it's
like you end up I'm careful to kind of say all the not to say
all the stuff that we did I'd rather have other people say it because it
sounds like you. It don't sound believable, you know, so like when
you literally go out of town. I remember it was in Jamaica. It
was in the club and it was playing records, and out of ten records,
we worked on six of them. And that was the moment that I
was like, man, this stuff is literally going around the world, and
so it's cool. And so my expectation is that my football program is going
to operate on that level off the field, and I'm not about to sit
around here and complain about it. If I know some things that to help
us move along, then I'm I'm gonna try to help as best as I
can. And I'm definitely gonna talk to these kids and encourage them that when
they Atlanta to come by and and you know, and even when they graduate.
I still talk to trade um um trade person. I talked to him
the other day. I still talked to was number twenty four from Flint or
running back that we all love Gerald he hold on Freddy, Well, we
gotta we gotta catch that ludicris right quick. Let's just see that so everybody
can see what a little bit jeffic commercial. Oh they got the audio audio
it was good. I really Freddy like the Lucris paid on Simmerson and that's
that's he usually he used to but now he he used to have razord on
and stuff. He's one of the people. What I tell people about Chris
is you can't make any money off of him because he gets to the studio
twenty minutes early and sits in his car. He rides round, come in
all time, and he gets the hell up out of there. Now.
The other they're gonna go up there as a smoke, some weed drink being
laid and run the clock on you. But ludicrous, man, I gotta
I tell him all the time and his managers like, we can't make no
money off of him. Man, he that's awesome. What was the best
like session? Because like when you're talking about somebody going in the booth and
like just fully going at it like that, you've experienced of her like in
your studio, Like what would be the best best session? We we they're
memorable things. Um Like I remember when we was working on that that Goodie
Mob album, the first one, and they came up with that that Black
Ice, and they came up with the same Dirty Dirty South, and they
was just Gip was running around the studs Dirty South. And I used to
be like, man, what are you doing. Um, if if there
are a couple of sessions, I think that people think all legendary that we've
done. Like I was telling them earlier, we did ether Nas did ether
there. He came in there and he actually left his rhyme book and I
asked and I actually looked through it and I kept it in my office and
I was gonna keep it forever in my partner doing stuff away and he got
rid of it. Man, I was so And then um, you know,
PIMC did his verse with Big Pimping, which was it's like a dope
story. He didn't want to do the record and he came in there and
he did that. He did that verse a Big Pimping at the studio and
um, and then I remember when we went doing Jez's listening party. Um,
you know, I'll just be telling people, perspective is one thing.
And we had a listening party. We probably had about three hundred four hundred
people in there. We was we was deep with all that BMF stuff.
So we just it was deep up in there. And I remember the first
time that people heard that Soul Survivor with him and acoun it was unexpected,
and I remember when it went off, the room was quiet and all you
heard was somebody who was like, play that shit again, and they ran
and then and then it was it was when we was working on that project.
He had so much street buzz from them trapp of digs and the mixtapes,
and I remember that they needed one more record, and I remember when
Manny Fresh came in there and they did that and then boom and then they
put that record album. Man, you just watched that album take fire.
So it just be It's kind of like like I told wa Waka called me
um for something. He was trying to do some accounting on his books and
he called me, and I had seen him on a couple of things,
but I don't always see these people until when he called me. I took
the moment and it's like, man, I'm proud of you, man,
Like it's good to see you grow up. And and you see these people
when they're so young and they ran bunctions and they're smoking and drinking and fighting
and getting in trouble. And the sad part is when their life get cut
off. They never had the opportunity to become who they become. So I
always like when I like when I see Gucci now all like the other day,
Jeez walked in the studio. This was on Tuesday day before yesterday,
and I was just like, Man, I'm proud of you. Man.
You don't grow up like you know, and it's man, I'd be like,
dude, when you used to walk in here. Man, we used
to have a hundred people, you know what I mean they had when we
when we was doing the BMF stuff. Man, they used to bring me
so much cash, right, and they used to be mad. He would
blue blue ordered bags of money. So they would literally call somebody and they
would bring these bags of money and I would literally be counting out fifteen thousand
dollars and they would be good because I was counting. And that's when I
realized that money do stink. So you know what we did. He bought
me a money machine. So I still got this when the BMFI was coming
out, we made a video about it. But he bought me a money
machine, because man, they would bring so much money in there. You'd
have to put them twenties in there. Look That's what I'm saying. So
when when you're dealing with somebody who twenty twenty two and they're coming in with
all them homeboards and all them guns and all this stuff, and then now
twenty years later, Jezzi pull up in his Bentley truck in the back.
He'd get out by himself, and he walked in the studio by himself.
Man, that's such a you just you're rooting for these people, and you
when you see them get in trouble. So like when all these people was
talking about that Gucci and Jez's versus and how worried they were and how tense
it was. I'm like, man, we was in the studio with one
in one room in the other room. How y'all think we feel y'all?
Twenty years later and they ain't really tripping. We was in the mud with
these people. And so when you see that stuff, you just haineful that
these people live long enough to turn into them best selves. And so those
are some of the things I just like to see people, you know,
like all that problems Tip was getting in and stuff. He'd just be like,
man, come on, man, chill out. Man, That's what
you root for. These people. So you know, me and Otis watched
the National Championship game college football with Tip right next to ye. Yeah,
he good people, man, and he's doing a lot. You know.
It's just like I said, sometimes people lives get cut short before they turned
in who they really were going to be. And Waka just grew up.
Man. He'll tell you you don't like to spend his money he invests,
he'd be like I messed up with my wife, you know what I mean.
But he's growing up, man, and he he ain't involved all that
bus anymore. I mean, this is crazy. I mean, we can
talk to you, man, I think. Yeah, Claire broke on the
record the time. We gotta do all we gotta do. Next, we
gotta do a live in Atlanta, in Atlanta, in Atlanta, we gotta
no no no in Michigan State for you know, the smart Dog dinner.
That's what we got that too, that too. Yeah, And I do
want to say, like, I mean, it was living there, you
know, that was it was. It was a it was a blessing of
them. You know, I say tell people all the time, I think
maybe my first year I didn't enjoy it because I was constantly comparing everything to
what I would be doing in California. I would be like, man,
this a little Radley Burger. I would be in and out, man I
would be doing or whatever. And then it wasn't until and I was like,
man, they well I got there. There was like we don't we
can't dance off of rapping music and it was playing all that loop music and
we didn't play that. I didn't know nothing about it. And it wasn't
until I let go of home and stop comparing everything to home that I enjoyed
Michigan for what it was. And that's what made my transition better when I
came to Atlanta, because I didn't bring that attitude, you know, And
I always try to tell people when they go to college or they go somewhere,
stop coming. It doesn't matter where you're from. Like if you ask
me where I'm from, you know, I don't really say. I don't
think of it as La or California. That's just home. It doesn't matter
where you go in this world. Nothing is going to compare to your home.
And if you always comparing stuff to what you would have been doing when
you was at home and you never let it go, you're not going to
enjoy the things that the place you in has the offer. So my last
you know, three four years in Michigan, man, I start appreciating the
you know, the seasons, when the when the leagues would change. You
know, I didn't know why people wore glasses in Michigan in the winter.
I used to be like, but then when you step outside and it's all
white, y'all, y'all be y'all be having stuff that y'all just assumed everybody
know. And I was like, why would you wear glasses in the winter?
Man? Outside everything is white? I said, man, I need
some glasses. So you know, those are life lessons that I picked up
at school. And I think Michigan, the Midwest in general, is very
special when it comes to music because you guys listen to everything, and y'all
not biased, you know what I mean. Y'all listen to West Coast,
y'all listen to Midwestern y'all listen to the East Coast down south. And I
think that that's why people like Jeez and Snoop them they number one fan base
is in Detroit or in Michigan, like y'all, like the real judges of
this music thing. Y'all support anybody that's dope. As long as they dope,
y'all like them. And you guys are very important to our music industry
out there in the Midwest wherein God's Daughter or not, a lot of people
are supported because y'all gonna go out and support these people. But LA be
biased. New York definitely be biased and down South people, they love their
people. But the people in the Midwest, you know, y'all from great
people. Man, y'all do a week week. I know y'all people,
y'all heart working people, your family people, y'all honest people, and y'all
good people. And I'm a better person for spending those doing my five year
prison did in East Lansing. Stop. Yeah, I better get I better
get the invite when ed Sharon's recording in there. We did one day we
did um. I didn't know when I came to work and it was a
tour bus in the front and it was about twelve little white girls lined up
out there. We was doing somebody called One Direction. Yeah, yeah,
yeah, I think Justin Timberlake was there. I didn't know. There's a
picture of him. And then I didn't even know who the dude was,
but it was the Jonas brother. Dude was sitting there for for for a
while. And um, we've had shared at the studio. We've done sting.
Um you know we did I don't know if you so you like the
country stuff, but we we did Blanco Brown's the trailer trap stuff or whatever.
So we get to do a few things every once in a while.
Man, But they they caught a Pigeonhold you as an urban rap studio,
and some stuff don't come through there all the time. But usually if somebody's
touring and they playing in Atlanta and they need to work, then that they
will call us. So that's how we get some of that other stuff.
But if he comes, what you're saying that money don't e scrim We just
we just did um what is it due? They used to Mark Anthony and
the engineer he told me, he was like, man, this is the
first time that we've ever done a Mark Anthony song outside of Miami. He's
like, you guys wanna get a Grammy for this one. And it was
like if it happened because this producer moved to Atlanta and and he needed a
studio and he looked us up so they chose us, so hopefully that will
turn into something in the future. But they loved the room. Then we
delivered and did a good job. There was one question I know before because
we legit we've broken the record. But it's been great, man, Like,
it's like we're back, We're back to this in person talking and rafter.
But somebody said, like, what, what's an upcoming artist that we
may not know of that has been putting up some good stuff. But I
don't know if you got an NBA or another, but you can't. I'm
gonna look it's a dude right now. I'm looking on my Homeboys page because
I think this is the it's a new artist. I think his name is.
We just did this record. We did it about a week ago,
and I see they put it out two days ago. The artist's name is
Little Dan and um it's called Family Freestyle featuring Wham so it got a little
baby on it. So the artist is Little Dan L I L D A
N N. And that record just came out two days ago. And then
there's another artist called I think his name is BB really Bad BB Trigger bb
A Trigger, Yeah, BBA Trigger. So his instagram is BBA trigger ninety
three and those are two people that we've kind of been working on. It
kind of got next and then, like I told you for I think Little
Duvall did his due ball day, so we did his record Squeeze and it's
jumping out. Now there's a project that we're working on now that I had
a friend of mine. He had went to jail for ten years, man
no lie. He was an artist signed in Too Short. He was he'd
been out for about ten years, but he from Detroit and I brought him
into here and it made him cry. I brought another dude in there and
it gave him chills. And when we brought the artists in there the day
before yesterday, the hair on his arm stood up. I can't say what
it is, but it's gonna be something that you ain't never heard before,
and it's gonna blow you away. And I'm hoping I'm hoping you know that,
well, we'll be he'll be able to share with the world for the
fourth quarter and it'd be a Christmas project. But it's something that anybody that
I let here it has blown away. And he kind of wasn't really getting
it at first. And we did thirteen records and we brought him in and
played them for him the day before yesterday, and now he plugged in and
so it's it's about to be um tho time. I think it's gonna be.
I feel like we're gonna win some awards for this particular project. It's
something that that's gonna be special. M Wow, I got mad question.
I'm gonna call you have to Yeah, we got about that, but about
about that. But look, I got we gotta put some concerts together on
campus. Man, I feel like you you plug to get me. We
so that that you know, all that stuff is, we have the relationship
and so we we one person away from whoever, you know, like we
we hood somebody up with Ludacris before and it was gonna do the breast and
way back in the day. And then they paid them to deposit. They
didn't sell the ticket, so they kind of canceled. They kept the money.
But you know, we have access. So if there is anything that
you guys want to do, you know, I'll connect you with the right
person and then you guys can comment take him from there. I'll be trying
not to get it. I'll be trying not to get it. I'll try
not to ask them for anything because my favorites cost me so much. Like
if they do trying to do stuff and then let me get a week of
studio, let me get three you know what I mean. So I'll just
be like I try to keep it and not ask them for anything. Because
and we did a workshop with this one producer and I'm gonna say his man,
Bangladesh, Sean Dre that did a million, and he did a workshop
for us. Man, and then he came in there and worked for a
week and didn't think he needed to bamily. You know, son, Man,
we appreciate, We appreciate it because I know, straight straight out gotta
get his son. Until you talk about parenting, Yeah, I gotta go
to practice and you know YEA know about that. Yeah, we talked about
practice, man, We talk about at a game. It's not okay,
it's practice. But look hour and forty two minutes, man, Look we
can go another hour and forty two as far as if this is good,
good stuff. Man, appreciate you coming and sharing your story with us,
and you know we you know, we just scratched the surface, man.
Man. Yeah, don't go far away, man, because you know forget,
don't forget spart dog dinner and then you know, come back on the
show for your guests. All good, We're gonna see how I do a
man appreciate it man, y'all doing a good job man, and uh Jason
be getting my feedback on the back end. So keep going. What y'all
doing a live appreciate man. Curtis Daniel the third, pretty low man.
They listen, guys, that was a great show. Look we went,
we broke a record. How about that that that tells you something about who
the guest was. Man name dropped and like you'd be like, bro crazy
crazy access, but just the amount of professionalism. I know you gotta go.
But this is a great one. I enjoyed it, just talking about
old stories, og, triplego free love, getting right and supporting us at
all as always. So love it, love it chew No, I'm love
it. I love it, guys. Look look for oldest wilet ju culfric.
I'm Jason Straighthorn. This is Sparta MSU. Have a good night,
God bless you go greet. This is part of my MSU as a combined
presentation of playby Sports Properties and Michigan State Sports properties. The show was produced
by Tony La Barbara, Tony Gastella and Process Driven Consulting. Additional supports provided
by Brendan Duravage on location. Technical support provided by Good Fruit Video. Be
sure to follow our host Jason Strayhorn, Ju Culprit and Otis Wiley on social
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