Speaker 1: You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand from
Speaker 1: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2: Back in the late nineteen eighties, Michael Harris, known to
Speaker 2: many as Harry O, was arrested not only for drug
Speaker 2: trafficking but for attempted murder, a crime he says he
Speaker 2: did not commit. But that's only part of the story.
Speaker 2: He's also known as co founder and co founder of
Speaker 2: Death Row Records, one of the most prolific music hip
Speaker 2: hop labels in history. That's only part of the story.
Speaker 2: Still later, the victim in harry Oh's case werecanted and
Speaker 2: the attempted murder charges were dropped, but Harris continued to
Speaker 2: spend time behind bars for the drug charge, to the
Speaker 2: tune of thirty three years. It wasn't until twenty twenty one,
Speaker 2: when then President Donald Trump commuted harry O's sentence that
Speaker 2: he again saw freedom that has inspired him to delve
Speaker 2: into politics with even a mission to help voters like
Speaker 2: you and me understand what policies and programs impact people
Speaker 2: the most rite where they are. Harry O joins me,
Speaker 2: now on the show, how are you this evening?
Speaker 3: Thanks for having me on your show. How you doing?
Speaker 4: I'm doing well, I know a little something about you.
Speaker 2: You were an East LA kid, and back then, just
Speaker 2: the neighborhood where your family buys a house can be
Speaker 2: a problem growing up. What do you remember about life
Speaker 2: at forty six in Central and what did it mean
Speaker 2: when you moved like to Avalon.
Speaker 5: Oh, well, you know you said a problem. I mean
Speaker 5: it was we had to navigate it. So, you know,
Speaker 5: growing up, that was just about the time that gangs
Speaker 5: became an issue. And so when we moved from Avalon
Speaker 5: to forty sixth Street, you know, you moved from a
Speaker 5: crypt neighborhood to a blood neighborhood. And me and my brother,
Speaker 5: we just had to navigate it. Brother, And in a way,
Speaker 5: I think it worked out because we came from two
Speaker 5: different neighborhoods, we lived in two different neighborhoods.
Speaker 3: It allowed us not.
Speaker 5: To take sides and become never after actually became gang members,
Speaker 5: because we pretty much had friends over here. We had
Speaker 5: friends over here, and we swore that we would never
Speaker 5: do that, and so we didn't, and so we just
Speaker 5: kind of had our own way of moving through our community.
Speaker 2: I'm quite sure growing up you saw a lot of
Speaker 2: people go to prison and you was never your intention
Speaker 2: to go to prison. But what were you considering growing
Speaker 2: up if it wasn't gangs, What did you want to do?
Speaker 2: What did you aspire to do?
Speaker 5: I mean, you understand, back in those times, our neighborhoods
Speaker 5: were pretty vibrant to me. You know, you had you know,
Speaker 5: black owned businesses, and so you had examples of what
Speaker 5: business looked like and so and we had mentors in
Speaker 5: those communities that ran those businesses, that was always trying
Speaker 5: to share some of that wisdom. So I wanted to
Speaker 5: be a business owner as a young man, just watching
Speaker 5: how different people ran their business and the pride they
Speaker 5: had in doing so.
Speaker 3: So at a young age.
Speaker 5: My mother also had her own business, so I was
Speaker 5: able to watch her conduct her business and how she
Speaker 5: was able to deal with her customers, and how she
Speaker 5: able to take care of business and take care of books.
Speaker 5: And I learned a lot from just watching her do
Speaker 5: what she did.
Speaker 2: None of us can foresee what the future may hold,
Speaker 2: but we all make decisions, and our decisions have either
Speaker 2: consequences or they have results. Some could say, and I
Speaker 2: know from the people that I know who've gone to
Speaker 2: prison right wrong, and different prison changes people. How did
Speaker 2: you manage to retain your humanity despite those thirty three years.
Speaker 5: Well, first of all, you got to have God in
Speaker 5: your life at some point, or are you just you
Speaker 5: will just disintegrate in that type of environment. You have
Speaker 5: to have something that's real. And the only thing I
Speaker 5: found that was real when prison was God. I mean
Speaker 5: that as real as you could be. I think people
Speaker 5: toss that around a lot. But unless you were in
Speaker 5: a pit like that where prison can be considered, you
Speaker 5: don't really know what being connected to God. I mean,
Speaker 5: I wouldn't say you have to go to prison to
Speaker 5: be connect to God. Don't get that confused. What I'm
Speaker 5: saying is that there's nothing between you and God when
Speaker 5: you're in a situation like that, and if you don't
Speaker 5: connect to that. I have seen people destroy themselves in
Speaker 5: those sets, in those settings because they didn't have nothing
Speaker 5: to rely on.
Speaker 3: That was real.
Speaker 2: Coming to the end of your prison term, you probably
Speaker 2: knew or were in contact with Snoop Dogg, who was
Speaker 2: advocating on your behalf for a pardon or a commutation
Speaker 2: from then President Trump. How aware were you of President
Speaker 2: Trump at that time or politics in general.
Speaker 5: I mean, like I got thirty three years, I got
Speaker 5: a lot of time on my hand, so I read
Speaker 5: a lot, and I used to watch all the news channels,
Speaker 5: and so I was always concerned about why, you know,
Speaker 5: every four years or whatever the cycle is for local
Speaker 5: that we keep having the same issues. And it was
Speaker 5: like when it comes to our communities, not they were
Speaker 5: not growing, Actually they was being depleted. And so you
Speaker 5: can't help to become I won't say in politics, I'm
Speaker 5: just in social awareness. Watching people come in and out
Speaker 5: of prison for the type of crimes they come in
Speaker 5: a state and federal, I was able to really see
Speaker 5: a Michael cosm of society and it's like, what's this
Speaker 5: cycle about, and what is it that we lack some
Speaker 5: of us that allows us to come in and out
Speaker 5: of these situations, and what can we do with those
Speaker 5: who are inside to go back home and become productive citizens. So,
Speaker 5: coming from my background, coming from the mistakes I have made,
Speaker 5: I had a lot to work with. It's one thing
Speaker 5: to know that you did something that you weren't supposed
Speaker 5: to do and then take responsibility for it and then
Speaker 5: try to figure out what you could do on the
Speaker 5: other side of that responsible taking responsibility, And I was
Speaker 5: blessing enough to be able to connect with different organizations
Speaker 5: in San Quentin after doing over tail fifteen almost twenty years,
Speaker 5: and I was able to connect to these organizations and
Speaker 5: dive into them my own personal growth. But then at
Speaker 5: the same time I was able to also flip that
Speaker 5: and help create other programs that was digestible to people
Speaker 5: like myself who needed to see the world different from
Speaker 5: how they had been seeing it.
Speaker 3: And so when it comes.
Speaker 5: To politics, your question, it's like, what can we do
Speaker 5: as a community in terms of bringing real policies to
Speaker 5: the forefront, Because I noticed in the last few months
Speaker 5: there's been a lot of smoking mirrors, have been a
Speaker 5: lot of banter about things that don't really relate to
Speaker 5: peoples who are out here struggling, you know, for jobs,
Speaker 5: for career change, opportunities, for capital to invest, or just
Speaker 5: to maintain. And so I just set down with a
Speaker 5: group and we try to figure out not speak for
Speaker 5: the community, but try to try to sum up some
Speaker 5: of the things that we know that could apply the
Speaker 5: more than less and then just try to put that
Speaker 5: out there, just put that out in the community and say, no, look,
Speaker 5: this is what we really need to be focused on.
Speaker 5: And who is supporting that and that's who we want
Speaker 5: to support.
Speaker 2: That's the voice of Harry O as we talk about
Speaker 2: his time in prison and how it is enlightened him
Speaker 2: to do something different after his commutation of his sentence
Speaker 2: by then President Trump, as we talk about this election cycle.
Speaker 2: It's Later with Mo Kelly. We're live everywhere on the
Speaker 2: iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on demand from
Speaker 1: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2: I'm speaking with Michael Harry O Harris, who was commuted
Speaker 2: by then President Trump back in twenty twenty one after
Speaker 2: serving thirty three years in prison, and he has dedicated
Speaker 2: his life since then to helping people like you and
Speaker 2: me better understand the policies the proposals of political candidates
Speaker 2: and how they really do help or hurt us in
Speaker 2: this world in which we live. And harry Oh, let
Speaker 2: me come back to you. I was compelled by your story.
Speaker 2: It was it was touching me because not only did
Speaker 2: you say that God was realer than anything else while
Speaker 2: you were in prison, it inspired, if I have you correct,
Speaker 2: it inspired you to do something after this commutation to
Speaker 2: make sure that all of us are not only invested
Speaker 2: but involved and understand what's at stake. How do you start,
Speaker 2: How did you start after your sentence was commuted? And
Speaker 2: did you have any conversation with President Trump himself?
Speaker 5: Of course I had a conversation with him, mainly about
Speaker 5: the fact that he gave me a commutation.
Speaker 3: I wanted to thank him for it.
Speaker 5: And it was strange that when we had our conversation,
Speaker 5: one of the things he said to me is, you
Speaker 5: don't owe me nothing. You know, I'm just like you.
Speaker 5: I appreciate that, but anyway I could help me, he says, Look,
Speaker 5: you don't owe me nothing. Now what you owe me
Speaker 5: as long as you become a productive citizen out here.
Speaker 5: I did the right thing, and that was that was
Speaker 5: essentially our conversation when I was able to meet him
Speaker 5: after I got out, and then what I needed to
Speaker 5: do was get my life together, which I what I
Speaker 5: did and started to move around in different communities and
Speaker 5: just start saying a continuation of the same thing that
Speaker 5: our community was was bleeding out, and so I just
Speaker 5: wanted to put together an organization. It's like three years later,
Speaker 5: you know, three and a half years later, I want
Speaker 5: to put together an organization that could emplify the issues
Speaker 5: and put both candidates on front street and if you,
Speaker 5: if you will, in terms of a challenge, what is
Speaker 5: it that we're trying to get done in our community
Speaker 5: that either one of.
Speaker 3: You guys can support.
Speaker 5: And frankly, the only person has responded is President Trump
Speaker 5: on a tweet and said that he liked what I
Speaker 5: was doing and that you know, if he get back
Speaker 5: in the White House, you know he wants to continue
Speaker 5: what he started in terms of some of the things
Speaker 5: that he had done before he left to help support
Speaker 5: community first. So I think that's a blessing. Like I said,
Speaker 5: I put it out to both candidates. This is not
Speaker 5: the first time I've been in this kind of situation
Speaker 5: where you know, you put out something that means something
Speaker 5: to the community and then you hit crickets. But the
Speaker 5: respond it is a bright moment for me. You know
Speaker 5: that if somebody's taking what I'm saying sill.
Speaker 2: You can't control how a candidate or candidates will respond,
Speaker 2: how they'll respond, if they'll respond, But if they don't respond,
Speaker 2: how do you proceed?
Speaker 4: How?
Speaker 2: In other words, what what do you take from that?
Speaker 2: What do you say to other people who may be
Speaker 2: listening to you?
Speaker 3: And me?
Speaker 4: In this conversation right now.
Speaker 2: And I mean that means you didn't hear from the
Speaker 2: Harris campaign the Trump campaign at least acknowledge you.
Speaker 4: But what would then be the next step.
Speaker 3: That's the bottom line.
Speaker 5: It's not about me, it's not about you, but your
Speaker 5: platform is powerful. It's about the community saying, first of all,
Speaker 5: not just for the presidency, but up and down the ballot,
Speaker 5: here's some policies that we need, here's some policies that
Speaker 5: we need to enact. And if you're going to keep
Speaker 5: running for these offices, we need you to hear us.
Speaker 5: And so rather it be the president of the United
Speaker 5: States and more sin sikri, governors, local officials that can
Speaker 5: help start the ball or rolling that helps in our
Speaker 5: decision making. If we can't get any not just me,
Speaker 5: but all of us, if we can't get any feedback
Speaker 5: or support for the things that matter, then why should
Speaker 5: we keep voting you into office? And people need to
Speaker 5: understand the power of their vote in that sense that
Speaker 5: if you continue to keep voting people in with no
Speaker 5: benefit to you or your community, that's just pure sanity.
Speaker 5: They need you to become who they become in terms
Speaker 5: of those seats that they want the city in but
Speaker 5: you don't ask for nothing in return. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 5: and I know I'm not the only one that feel
Speaker 5: like this. I would like to hear what you got
Speaker 5: to say about it. But I've been out there and
Speaker 5: I've been talking to different people that I've been doing
Speaker 5: these concert series in different cities just to start the conversation.
Speaker 5: You know, in terms, every time I pull up into
Speaker 5: a city with a concert, a lot of people get
Speaker 5: the benefit from it. So I'm just trying to show
Speaker 5: how when we come together we can move economics. We
Speaker 5: can do it before any election, we can do it
Speaker 5: on our own, but I like to use those times
Speaker 5: though that says what are we doing and how we
Speaker 5: going to do it? Where we don't allow the same
Speaker 5: thing to keep being on reality.
Speaker 2: How do you go about changing that reality which means
Speaker 2: like we're not going to vote in the same people.
Speaker 2: That could mean the same party or the same person.
Speaker 2: Like for example, just because you change foods, it doesn't
Speaker 2: mean that your diet improves. You could be trading a
Speaker 2: hamburger for a piece of pizza that doesn't help cholesterol
Speaker 2: or blood pressure. I know that's a clunky analogy, but
Speaker 2: you understand what I mean. So how is it we
Speaker 2: can hold these politicians accountable.
Speaker 3: Well, the same way you can vote them in, you
Speaker 3: can vote them out. Is what I'm saying.
Speaker 5: Is when you tell, when you show that you, when
Speaker 5: you show people that you have a problem with them
Speaker 5: not representing your issues and your policies, it affects them.
Speaker 5: It affects them in terms of them being able to
Speaker 5: get into office. And so I don't know if what
Speaker 5: we're trying to do now is going to have a
Speaker 5: major imprint on the election, but it's a start. My
Speaker 5: thing is what do we do do we just sit
Speaker 5: here and just not do anything when our voice and
Speaker 5: our vote will make the difference who becomes the next
Speaker 5: president of the United States. So it's important for them
Speaker 5: to tell us exactly what they're going to do for us.
Speaker 2: My guess right now is Michael Harry oh Harris as
Speaker 2: we talk about the election and also his life since
Speaker 2: being commuted by then President Trump, and how he's using
Speaker 2: this time and his talents to make sure that we
Speaker 2: are fully invested and involved in this upcoming presidential election
Speaker 2: and also down ballot races. It's later with mo Kelly Harry.
Speaker 2: Can I get you to hang around for one more segment.
Speaker 2: I would love to hear more about what you're doing
Speaker 2: and who you're reaching.
Speaker 1: Yes, sir, you're listening to Later with Moe Kelly on
Speaker 1: demand from KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2: And I've been speaking with Michael harry O Harris. I've
Speaker 2: long known of Harry Oh because he is an original
Speaker 2: co founder and co founder of Death Row Records, one
Speaker 2: of the most prolific hip hop music labels in history.
Speaker 2: I know him from his time in music and that's
Speaker 2: not done. But more importantly and more presently, he was
Speaker 2: commuted by then President Trump after serving thirty three years
Speaker 2: in prison for Tipton murder that he says he did
Speaker 2: not commit. But he's dedicated his life and his talents
Speaker 2: since that time in twenty twenty one to make sure
Speaker 2: communities are more involved and more informed about these politicians
Speaker 2: and issues. And HARRYO, let me come back to you.
Speaker 2: You're talking to me. I'm a little bit older than
Speaker 2: other folks who maybe need to hear this message. I
Speaker 2: know that a lot of folks in their twenties and
Speaker 2: thirties who desperately need to hear your message. How successful
Speaker 2: have you been with connecting with the younger generation.
Speaker 5: Well, I mean it's going to come out in a watch,
Speaker 5: but you know, just the fact that I've been having
Speaker 5: these meetings with these young people at these different events
Speaker 5: and hearing them talk back about what they what they like.
Speaker 5: The movement is what it is, that's what they say.
Speaker 5: They said, we feel we hear you, and we feel
Speaker 5: like we want to be a part of what you're doing.
Speaker 5: And they want to know more. They want to know
Speaker 5: how is it going to make a difference. And so
Speaker 5: it's not just for me, it's for other people who
Speaker 5: feel like I do, to come together and help inform
Speaker 5: them in these ways because they are open to it,
Speaker 5: because a lot of them haven't never been, never approached politics,
Speaker 5: because they just feels like it doesn't mean whoever's there
Speaker 5: is not going to change their life. But that's not
Speaker 5: true if we don't push whoever that is. It's not
Speaker 5: about individual it's about the policies that those individuals will
Speaker 5: fight for. And it's one thing for somebody who says, well,
Speaker 5: if I'm in office, I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna
Speaker 5: do this, but do they have the ability to get
Speaker 5: it done? Because you know, this got to go through Congress.
Speaker 5: It's got to go through a lot of steps, you know.
Speaker 5: That's why I say it's not about one individual. It's
Speaker 5: about a group of individuals who collectively believe in these
Speaker 5: policies and help push them through. I can tell you
Speaker 5: all day. I like that, I'm gonna do that. But
Speaker 5: what's the incentive. What's the incentive? The incentive is if
Speaker 5: your party does not get behind these policies, your party
Speaker 5: will be affected up and down the ballot.
Speaker 4: I completely agree with that.
Speaker 2: What do you think from where you set are some
Speaker 2: of the most important issues that need to be addressed
Speaker 2: by a future President Trump or a future President Harris?
Speaker 3: For instance?
Speaker 5: Like I said, I travel around the country a lot,
Speaker 5: and I see a lot of communities that just seems
Speaker 5: like deserts. I've been studying a lot about opportunity zones,
Speaker 5: for example, and a lot of people say, well, that's
Speaker 5: just for the rich, and so I dibbed into that, Well,
Speaker 5: it gives a rich an advantage in terms of taxation,
Speaker 5: but it takes rich people to participate in opportunity zones,
Speaker 5: but they have to be in put in overlook communities.
Speaker 5: So it's just connecting the dots between a system that's
Speaker 5: in place to build up a community and make sure
Speaker 5: that the community benefits from these opportunity zones. So we
Speaker 5: need to be educated on how these different policies around
Speaker 5: opportunity zones can enrich our community. People gonna get they
Speaker 5: tax break, they're gonna do what they're gonna do. But
Speaker 5: can we benefit by building companies and and uh and
Speaker 5: and and and property and rebuilding our properties in our
Speaker 5: community in conjunction with that. So that's one thing you
Speaker 5: want to see happen. And then you want you want
Speaker 5: to make sure our schools are top nuts. I mean,
Speaker 5: other countries are just running over us when it comes
Speaker 5: to education, and especially in our communities.
Speaker 3: And so school choice.
Speaker 5: I think things like, even in our community having the
Speaker 5: best schools, we cannot just send our kids to schools
Speaker 5: and not make sure that they're getting the best opportunity
Speaker 5: to be able to compete in this technological world that
Speaker 5: we live in now and so and even some people
Speaker 5: who don't want to go to college, there's programs pell
Speaker 5: grants that could be utilized to help trades where people
Speaker 5: can learn technical skills and have meaningful employment.
Speaker 3: So these are the kind of things.
Speaker 5: That you know and bringing capital, having access to capital
Speaker 5: in these communities to be able to build on these
Speaker 5: different projects that we have. We have so many different opportunities,
Speaker 5: but no access to capital. So these are the kind
Speaker 5: of things that I think that are important for the
Speaker 5: outside community and for the inside community.
Speaker 3: I'm really really.
Speaker 5: Connected to what needs to happen when you have a
Speaker 5: captive audience, if you will, while you in prison. So
Speaker 5: that's the second part of an agenda where you want
Speaker 5: to give the reform reform agenda you want you want
Speaker 5: to make sure that while people are incarcerated, that they're
Speaker 5: learning and have access as skills while they're there, training
Speaker 5: skills so that when they come home, the Second Chance
Speaker 5: Act should be also available to them. People should be
Speaker 5: open to giving these people a new opportunity to change
Speaker 5: their life, especially if they done did the work while
Speaker 5: they're behind the walls, to come out and be able
Speaker 5: to take care of their family and being meaningful.
Speaker 3: And functional in the visuals and society. I don't seen
Speaker 3: it happen. I've seen people.
Speaker 5: Go through these different programs, get skills and come home
Speaker 5: and do miraculous things.
Speaker 2: Michael Harri Harris, I could speak to you all night,
Speaker 2: but I don't have that luxury, but I know someone
Speaker 2: was informed and influenced by this conversation and wants to
Speaker 2: know more about what you do and how they may
Speaker 2: connect with you.
Speaker 4: How can people go about doing that?
Speaker 5: Well, Two, we can go to at Community First Action
Speaker 5: or also Community First Action dot org and read up
Speaker 5: on some of the stuff that we're doing and also
Speaker 5: tie into us and see how we could work together
Speaker 5: to make these agendas and policies real.
Speaker 2: Michael Harrio Harris, I've known of you, as I said before,
Speaker 2: for many many years from a music industry standpoint, but
Speaker 2: I'm pleased to see what you're doing in and outside
Speaker 2: the community, which is trying to make this place a
Speaker 2: little bit better than how we all found it. So
Speaker 2: I salute you, and I thank you sir, and one.
Speaker 3: Thank you too.
Speaker 5: Your platform is powerful, is respected, and we need more
Speaker 5: people like you that open your doors so we.
Speaker 3: Can have these kinds of conversations. So I thank you,
Speaker 3: my brother.
Speaker 2: Thank you as well. It's Later with mo Kelly ca
Speaker 2: if I AM six forty. We are live everywhere in
Speaker 2: the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Later with mo Kelly on demand from
Speaker 1: KFI AM six forty