Ebony Nostalgia: Life Lessons From the Streets to Prison

Join us for an insightful journey as we explore the powerful themes of resilience, community, and personal growth in our latest episode of Lockdown to Legacy. In this episode, we discuss the impact of growing up in the hood, sharing heartfelt stories and laughter from our childhoods while shedding light on the struggles faced after incarceration. We dive into the language and cultural identities that shape us, highlighting the lessons learned from our shared experiences.

As we navigate through the complexities of life after prison, we emphasize the importance of understanding psychological scars and overcoming societal perceptions. We foster a rich discussion that encourages listeners to reflect on their own experiences and the value they can bring to their lives and communities. By sharing practical insights on boundary-setting and personal growth, our goal is to empower individuals facing challenges to reclaim their identities and succeed.

Don’t miss this thought-provoking conversation that challenges stigma and inspires a hopeful future. We invite you to subscribe, share your thoughts, and connect with us as we continue to build a community rooted in understanding and support.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to Season Two
• 10:51 Meeting Herman Floyd III
• 18:16 Personal Stories and Shared History
• 38:00 Language and Cultural Identity
• 45:45 The Importance of Resilience and Community
• 1:00:20 Reflections on Growing Up in the Hood
• 1:15:15 The Psychological Effects of Incarceration
• 1:28:30 Overcoming Societal Labels and Limitations
• 1:40:00 Closing Thoughts and Lessons Learned

Transcript

Remie Jones: 0:10

Hey everybody, welcome back to season two of Lockdown to Legacy. I'm your host, Remy Jones, and from time to time I will be joined by my co-host, dj, who just so happens to also be my awesome sauce wife. I also have a couple of close friends that are still incarcerated who will be regular contributors, and together we will bring you the real on dealing with the criminal justice system from multiple angles. A lot of what we share will be real experiences from both currently and formerly incarcerated people like myself, along with current events that affect those impacted by the legal system. So thank you for tapping in, thank you for sticking with us from season one. Now let's get to it.

Remie Jones: 1:04

I would like to introduce my brother from another mother, mr Herman Floyd III. I told you applause, I'm going to be here for a little bit, not a long time, thank you. Thank you All right, man. Thanks for agreeing to be on the show. I figured you had a lot to offer, not only because you are an enlightened individual, but because we got history. Oh yeah, you know, for those who don't know, I got in trouble as a juvenile and I ended up bringing some folks along with me, and he was one of them, and you you know we did Dumb shit and got in trouble for it. It was funny in a moment. I ain't even gonna lie. It's still funny to look back at it, even though I'm a changed man. I just don't understand how the hell we got in that situation, man.

Herman Floyd III: 2:03

Well, all I know is I was at home making burritos when you pulled up on me and when it first transpired and I realized that I was the only one of age that was going down. I'm like man, I should have just ate my fucking burritos. But no, I did what any brother would do. You know what I'm saying. You called on me. I thought it was a problem. So, hey, I showed up.

Remie Jones: 2:31

I appreciate it. I appreciate it. Even though it ended how it ended, I'd still appreciate it.

Herman Floyd III: 2:37

Yeah, not to say that what we did was right, but I mean that's what you do for the ones you love. You know what I'm saying. You do for the ones you love. You know what I'm saying. Regardless of what it is or who it is, you're going to defend the people that you love and care about. Facts, Whether right or wrong, you'll get to the right or wrong.

Remie Jones: 2:52

Facts. All right, so you know, before we jump into any deep topics, man, I kind of wanted to have some fun with this whole Black History Month thing, you know, because I don't really know the demographics of my listeners for real, I know we got some in a lot of other countries. I wanted to kind of just give a funny insight into what it was like coming up as a Black kid man, and one of the things I thought about was like we had our own little language, especially me and you like. But the funny part is that language a lot of times was like universal. You go to a whole nother state across the country running to some black folks and say certain stuff and they know exactly what you're talking about. So I just wanted to sit here and just kind of spitball some of our black phrases and terms that we use growing up. That was like universal or or some of the ones, because I know you got a lot of these, some of the ones that was like local akron, uh lingo.

Herman Floyd III: 4:06

Oh man, when it comes, when it comes to local akron lingo, it's a lot. It's a lot. I can go on for days.

Remie Jones: 4:13

I could be like e40 and write a whole book, yeah you know what somebody should because I know urban dictionary be fucking it up, but man dictionary be full of man.

Herman Floyd III: 4:24

I feel like urban dictionary. Urban dictionary is like Wikipedia.

Remie Jones: 4:29

Yeah, you could just go and write anything in there, ain't nobody fact checking, but like some of the terms. Ok, I'm going to spitball a few Some of the terms that I don't know if I don't even know if they outside of black America, but I know in black America I could go anywhere and be like man. Why you come out here looking like who shot John and they're going to know exactly what I meant.

Herman Floyd III: 4:52

Or why you come up, why you come out here looking like who did it and why.

Remie Jones: 4:56

Right, Like you ain't even got to sit there and question like what a person mean, you already know. Like man, go take that off, Try again.

Herman Floyd III: 5:14

Or or go ahead, man, that haircut ain't ain't, you know it ain't cutting it. We say the term bobos. Oh yeah, bobos. Yeah, I don't care those non-name brand shoes non-name brand shoes.

Remie Jones: 5:21

You know, flat tires, beaters, I? I mean, you could have on some J's and they could be some bobo's if they run down enough.

Herman Floyd III: 5:31

Or if they're the Mexican Jordans.

Remie Jones: 5:33

Right, right, right them joints that you can see the glue along the sides. You can't wear them on a hot day.

Herman Floyd III: 5:39

Right or not even that they can still be Jordans, but it's the Jordans that don't nobody buy, not even that they can still be Jordans, but it's the Jordans that don't nobody buy.

Remie Jones: 5:44

Oh yeah, If they ain't number Jordans, you might as well not even put them on.

Herman Floyd III: 5:49

Yeah, those are.

Remie Jones: 5:50

Mexican Jordans, team Jordans. Yeah, we don't do those.

Herman Floyd III: 5:53

Hey, no, no, no, I ain't going home. You know, the first set of team Jordans was fresh.

Remie Jones: 5:57

I had a I ain't even hit.

Herman Floyd III: 6:02

Oh yeah, it was um. First they came out with the um, with the white and black. It was both kind of corny. When they came out with the blue joints though it was fresh, I had to do See.

Remie Jones: 6:11

I ain't even going to lie when I seen I might have seen one or two pair of Team George over the years that I like, but I ain't going to front man, I've been so conditioned that I was like I ain't about to buy them. Man, people are going to be on my ass, man.

Herman Floyd III: 6:27

You got to step outside the box. You can't be a trend follower, you got to be a trendsetter.

Remie Jones: 6:31

My brother, I mean, you know I'm cool now, but we talk about like middle school, high school, days where I was like I ain't about to put them on, man, they going to eat my ass a lot. That goes into another one of our little terms, man, a roast session. You know Roast bake slang. I mean really any synonym for cooking. So if you talking about roasting, getting fried, getting baked like that's, it's a joke session and the joke is on you. But I ain't gonna lie, man, I am very much appreciative for the roast sessions that we had in our lives, man, because kids in our days ain't got no thick skin. We had roast sessions at home, over dinner, you know, oh yeah, amongst each other, like grandma being on it. You know, like grandma being on it. You know, oh, man, if you had an old uncle, oh man. Or your dad, anybody older. They gotta be older, though, cause they be having the jokes that be so damn funny.

Herman Floyd III: 7:39

But the lingo is from, you know, the 60s yeah, so it need remix, like a DJ Khaled song.

Remie Jones: 7:51

What you know about. Like your best friend man, you got your best friend. They be like hey, that's my ace, boom coon.

Herman Floyd III: 7:57

Oh yeah, that's fam, that's bro, that's the need.

Remie Jones: 8:00

Yeah, like you tell anybody that's your ace boom coon, they know that they can't mess with that person without you jumping in. It's a wrap, right, right, that's A1 from day one, for real. And I think it's hilarious because I always use that term and then at some point it just died out of my vocabulary. But when I just thought of this like man, what's some terms we used to say coming up man it was like one of the first ones I thought of for real, and right along with it, like you said, when I said Ace Boone, coon, it was like, oh, that's family, like in the Black community growing up we had so much play family, fake family, pseudo family, yeah, listen.

Herman Floyd III: 8:45

But that's when the village mentality it ran. True, because all your mom's friends and all your dad's friends, they kids, was your first play cousins.

Remie Jones: 8:59

Right, right, I mean even like the term cousin or auntie and uncle pretty much, and I just found out that this is not exclusive to black people. This is very much the case in like Indians, like from India and stuff, or Asians, but like pretty much anybody older than you that has any type of relation to your family, whether it be friendship or cousins or whatever, like that's your aunt and uncle, you know. And it made me think about it because I got an uncle. Well, I got a cousin. He's my mom's first cousin, but obviously he's a lot older than us. Right, we went our whole lives calling this man uncle.

Herman Floyd III: 9:43

And right, we went our whole lives calling this man uncle.

Remie Jones: 9:47

Right, but it confused the hell out of us because, I mean, when you actually start getting older and you start understanding like okay, how is his kids related to us, then you know how is this? Like wait a minute, who that's grandma's what? Like you start trying to piece it together and all of a sudden it's like, oh, so he not my uncle. Right, I had an aunt. The same way, bro, that is not my aunt, that's my cousin.

Herman Floyd III: 10:14

Hey, no, hey don't feel bad though, because, like my mom, like okay, so my mom's dad, he got different daughters, not just my mom. He got different daughters, not just my mom. But I've never really seen them around my mom. So when I do see him now I'll be like what's up, cuz, and they'll correct me like I'm your auntie, my bad, my bad, like I didn't really see y'all like that. When I was coming up, y'all gave me cousin vibe, so I always called y'all cuz, like yeah, I mean we.

Remie Jones: 10:46

We grew up and it was just understood, like when I went to the suburbs and I started someone like that's my cousin, and stuff. Like people had questions how that's your cousin, they start wanting to dissect the family tree. I'm like, mother, fuck, it don't matter, that's my, that's my cousin. Then the black community is understood though like oh, that's your cousin, that's your cousin. When you, oh, that's my, that's my cousin.

Remie Jones: 11:06

Then the black community is understood, though, like oh that's your cousin, that's your cousin.

Remie Jones: 11:08

Oh, that's my people too. And we ain't about to say what side of the family who they related to like. Oh, that's my cousin too.

Herman Floyd III: 11:12

Oh, we family too hey, another thing I love about our diaspora, bro, is like we could know somebody, we, we could be on a hunch that we know somebody and I swear it seemed like all you to do is just say their name twice. Are you talking about little John John? Oh man, I don't, I like yeah.

Remie Jones: 11:35

We got a lot of double time talk in our people.

Herman Floyd III: 11:41

Another thing that I just learned. I love learning, okay. So for the longest it used to always baffle me why people in our community would name their kids these outlandish and crazy names. But I got to the root of it. So, back when our ancestors were prisoners of war I do not like using the S word because that's not what it was. It was prisoners of war. It not like using the s word because that's not what it was it was. It was prisoners of wars. It was a takeover, but they used to name their children the most outlandish things. That way, if they ever ran into them again, they would know that that was their child. Yeah right, so it makes sense. It's crazy, man. It's crazy what's embedded in our DNA. We don't even know it for real. We do things without thinking why we do them, because I always wonder, like man.

Remie Jones: 12:35

Why is she why?

Herman Floyd III: 12:37

that little girl named Machine Caché. Can you even spell that? But now it makes sense.

Remie Jones: 12:44

Yeah, that's funny, because I'm always hating those names. I be hating those names, man.

Herman Floyd III: 12:49

Bruh, come on now. Come on now. Come on now. Come on now. My daughter is your niece. My baby got two middle names. You know what I'm saying? Come on now.

Remie Jones: 13:00

Yeah, I mean, I ain't hating on nobody that got the name man, but I, man, I be looking at some names sometimes and I'm like why the fuck they do that to the little girl? And it's always the little girls. The little dudes be having some messed up names too, but for the majority of it it be the little girls.

Herman Floyd III: 13:18

Man, man, listen what kills me is all the dashes and apostrophes and stuff.

Remie Jones: 13:23

You got hyphens, you got colons. No, I ain't going to keep on joking on my people, though, but at least I know why it is now.

Herman Floyd III: 13:38

That's what's up, right right, I'm telling you, bro, like, if I'm not doing schoolwork, I'm reading. If I'm not reading schoolwork, I'm reading. If I'm not reading, I'm doing music. If I'm not doing music, and I'm kicking it with my, kicking it with my kids, but I'm always reading, bro, like. And it's crazy because, coming up through this indoctrinated education system that we have, I couldn't stay in school, especially when I got to like middle school and high school and I realized, like, bro, it's just the same thing over and over, it's just longer, the problems is getting longer, the directions is getting longer, but it's redundant. But now I am a glutton for information. I love learning, love learning things, especially about us.

Remie Jones: 14:24

That's what's up. So now that you got them kids, man, I'm sure you always be telling them like man, cover up the hawk out.

Herman Floyd III: 14:34

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, oh yeah. That hawk is definitely oh, yeah, yeah, because my man especially Dash, like he always trying to slide outside with just a windbreaker on. Boy, you know, all right, it's another one, the boonier in the ass.

Remie Jones: 14:52

So the Hulk is the wind, the cold, you know. For those who don't know, you go anywhere, I don't care. Like I said, man, these things, these terms, you can go out to California, you can go down to Louisiana, Texas. Come back up here to Ohio and tell somebody to hawk out and they go like, oh shit, man, Let me go home and grab some. Grab a jacket or something. They know what you mean. It's colder than a devil's titty out there or a witch's titty, oh man.

Herman Floyd III: 15:25

Or it's hotter than a hooker in church.

Remie Jones: 15:27

I don't know. I be wondering, like, how did these things get so ingrained? Like one person had to originate this right, one person had to originate this term. Everybody else looked at them like they was crazy, but somehow it spread like the COVID. It spread like the current covid, like the black plague. It got all the way around. I don't know how. And now I'll be seeing even people over in other countries that be. You know, they like to get on our swag, our slang and stuff like that. So I'll be hearing in other countries. I'm like dang, like, where's the origin of this stuff?

Herman Floyd III: 16:06

It'd be crazy how that works, because, like for us to be so frowned upon and looked down on, like we really set the status quo of what's popping with everybody. We decide on what's cool, what's not. We decide on everything, cool, what's not. We decide on everything, and everybody follow our lead. It's like everybody want to be melanated until it's time to be melanated. The reason why I say melanated is because I do not like using misnomer. It's like black is a misnomer, it cannot be a color. And for all my quote unquote African-Americans, african Americans, all the African Americans, that's tuned in. Please stop, stop going by that, because when you call yourself or address or Adhere to that name, african American, indian, black you are basically I'm not even going to say basically you are letting it be known that you are property of the US government, you are shadow property. And then the term black the term black means civility or more truth, which means dead in the eyes of the law. Yeah, that's why I don't call myself.

Remie Jones: 17:23

That's why I don't go by black Boy you dropping jewels. I ain't call myself. That's why I don't go by black boy you dropping jewels, I ain't even. It's hard to follow right now. I'm trying to take notes, but you know what I appreciate the jewels man. You got any more little black phrases you want to put on here before we slide to the next segment? All right, Especially some acro ones, especially some acro ones. Oh yeah, flam, flam, oh you talking about like being?

Herman Floyd III: 17:58

fly.

Remie Jones: 17:58

Huh, you talking about like being fly.

Herman Floyd III: 18:02

Yeah Flam, okay Flammy like being fly. Yeah Okay, flaring me like. Or O4 mad 30 day tags.

Remie Jones: 18:13

Bro, I ain't even hinted at what's that.

Herman Floyd III: 18:17

It, it means to be a homosexual, oh oh, oh, oh.

Remie Jones: 18:24

Now I get the the connect and the dots.

Herman Floyd III: 18:27

Okay, yeah, all right, man, hold on. What's some more? Everybody used to say tight. I still say tight to this day.

Remie Jones: 18:38

You still say tight that's, a universal, that's a universal. But I know like when I was like a teenager smoking weed, we used to call weed fruit Fruits or kill. Oh man, like bro. I got a sack of fruit Like let's go, let's match.

Herman Floyd III: 18:59

That ain't no fruit. That ain't no fruit. Is it some kill or is it some kill?

Remie Jones: 19:05

Oh, some. Oh, what do you call it? There's so many terms for weed. I don't even know which one of them is just coming out of Akron or which one of them is coming from where, but like if you had some bam.

Herman Floyd III: 19:17

Oh yeah, bammer.

Remie Jones: 19:18

Like, bro, weed not Like. Put that back in your pocket, bro.

Herman Floyd III: 19:22

Yeah, you need to say that back. Yeah, you need to put that side. Oh, you're right there. That was back in the 90s, some Bamber 90s.

Remie Jones: 19:34

Oh man, what else I mean? You got the classics. You know, you got some fire Right. Everybody wanted to call weed drill, no matter what kind of weed it was at one time.

Herman Floyd III: 19:50

Right, that's because back then nobody really knew what they were. Smoking man. But you only had so many categories. You had three main categories you had dro, you had G13. And you just had some regular fire. Nope, four Bam.

Remie Jones: 20:05

Definitely had some regular fire. Nope Four Bammer Definitely had some bam.

Herman Floyd III: 20:08

Man, I remember getting them compressed in that motherfucking ounces. Ha ha, man For a party, Like not as hard as that motherfucking state.

Remie Jones: 20:17

So that's dude, that's a reference right there we're going to have to touch on. But if you got some bam, you know you got some bam. Ain't no like let me smell it, let me like. When you get it and it look like like fiber cardboard, like compressed board and you gotta break it apart, it'd be sticky and stuff. It got sticks and seeds and all that in it, like yeah, that's some bam. Bro, go on here, put that away, we not?

Herman Floyd III: 20:46

your blunt. You can let the wrong person wrote a blunt. Now all you hearing is popping because they didn't roll seeds in. That.

Remie Jones: 20:51

Motherfucker went around everybody head hurt they got a stick sticking out the side. You got to try to hold your finger over the hole now you playing, now you playing the flute with your blunt.

Herman Floyd III: 21:03

Oh man, those days, though, because, like I don't know, when the whole, like cigarillo craze took over, it had, it was a rock I can remember when it, when it, when it really started like being cemented, that was like early 2000, like 99, going into like 2000, because I remember, like you can get two for 10, three for 15. And we was smoking the fat, the fat blunts, fat Phillies, fat Swishers, the Optimos White Owls.

Remie Jones: 21:32

Everybody wanted to have a Philly, everybody wanted to have a Dutch. I mean, that stuff is pretty much geographical, like it's certain states and being out of Akron, like we always wanted to, you know, either be with the Detroit cats or the or the Cali cats, and then you had you had the groups. Later on you had the groups coming up out of New York and if you was running with them, dudes like Cam Cam used to come down here.

Herman Floyd III: 21:57

One of the rappers, that's why he got that song. I used to get it in Ohio and at the end of down and out he shot at the city. Y'all like he free buck.

Remie Jones: 22:08

He used to run with buck heavy. Yeah, it's a lot of like for real. If you local or native to Akron, it's a lot of history in there for real, a lot of history.

Herman Floyd III: 22:21

It's a lot of legends that came up out of here too, like I'm not mad that people tie lebron to the city. You know that's what the city known for, but we was known for a lot more before brown even picked up a basketball yeah, well, man dude that made the song was actually my cousin.

Remie Jones: 22:39

I can't remember his name, but that song, uh, in ohio, ohio, we get um, um, um that.

Herman Floyd III: 22:48

I know what you're talking about, that you know that oh, oh, a h I o. What the fuck was that?

Remie Jones: 22:56

I can't remember. He was one of my older cousins, man man it's a hard girl.

Herman Floyd III: 23:00

Shout out to the hard girls it's on the tip of my mouth's. We're gonna get into a whole another conversation and it's gonna hit me all right let's go ahead and spin the bin, which is another akron saying and it's a rapper too from here yeah, shout out to spin and the whole Circle crew.

Remie Jones: 23:26

If y'all too young for that, then you know, just keep on going.

Herman Floyd III: 23:34

ETA free ghetto to plug. Shout out to my former group, the Kennel.

Remie Jones: 23:41

The Kennel, a bunch of cats I grew up under man. I shout out. Second, shout out to the Kenno man, particularly Skills Mage. You know them, my brothers. Yeah, I was your main event. I even know I did.

Herman Floyd III: 24:00

I did wear a lot of hats. I wore a lot of hats in the Kenno rap produced, engineered, mixed. Did some of the artwork at times. Book his shows.

Remie Jones: 24:12

Local history, right there, that's what I was talking about. All right, All right. So we're going to, like I said, for a second, we're going to spin the band man. We're going to get into the topic of the episode, right? So I actually wanted to to uh, discuss some of the scars that some of the, some of the little things remnants is left behind from growing up in a hood for real or from going to prison. So scars is more on the prison side. Remnants is from remnants from growing up in the hood.

Remie Jones: 24:50

When it comes to them remnants, I can trace them back to a time where they were really important. And now that I've made it to another station in life and I got kids and whatever I find my I'm sorry if anybody listening that know me and know my kids and everything, no offense but I find myself getting annoyed with my kids sometimes because they don't know or they don't have that experience and have respect for the experiences that I went through because they don't know. Like when my kids come in they be like man, I'm hungry, Ain't nothing to eat in the house. I be like we got cupboards and refrigerator full of food. We got everything you want, but you don't want to take the time to cook something or prepare something, or you ain't got that one thing you want. So you be like I ain't got nothing.

Remie Jones: 25:43

And I recall times where it was like we got four bags of you know heel bread, heels on the counter. Some of them might be moldy, but we're going to go ahead, we're going to toast all of them, we're going to scrape the mold off. So we're going to scrape the peanut butter jar until it's crystal clear man, listen, and we're going to put them together. Or another example is like my kids being a house, the, let's say the Internet go out. It ain't nothing to do. Oh man, they, they wallowing around like ding, like they really dying because the wi-fi been out for 30 minutes hey, no, like, I'll be turning corners sometimes, man, and I'll be seeing kids outside playing.

Herman Floyd III: 26:35

You just don't know how happy that makes me inside, like I love seeing children outside playing, like because you rarely see kids outside playing. Now, man, you couldn't pay me to stay in the house when I was a kid, right?

Remie Jones: 26:51

Like we had. The curfew was when the streetlights came on, and really it was. You know, my mom worked two jobs, so it was like all right, I'll be back y'all, because I'm going to go inside, my mom going to go to sleep, because I'm going to go inside, my mom is going to go to sleep and I'm going to come back outside. Sorry, mom.

Herman Floyd III: 27:11

Oh man, I love man, I love saying rest in peace to my pops Like I used to, especially my dad, like I would love telling stories about like yeah, you remember when such and such happened. Yeah, that was me, you can't do shit about it now, girl, but I still hit my mom with that sometimes.

Remie Jones: 27:31

It's cool seeing that stuff come out the light. Or like my mom was talking about something my nephew was doing. She was like man, I'm so glad you was a good kid. I was looking like who? Oh, you still think my bad? Because you know, from my mom's kids I'm the youngest and I'm the only boy, so I used to play on that so heavy. I made my sisters look like demons. I'm sorry, but you know I'll be trying to tell my mom all the same stories like all right, this is me, or we did this, and she'd be like, oh, uh-huh, I remember somebody told me and I defended you. Yeah, I'm sorry not knowing.

Herman Floyd III: 28:14

You was like junior from um what was that movie? Problem child the whole time the ringleader.

Remie Jones: 28:22

But I be having them same moments. Man, like I go up to Akron and just roll down, like sometimes I just roll down random streets. I used to be on when I was a kid and I see some kids Like one time I seen some kids playing curveball. I stop the car Like let me in.

Herman Floyd III: 28:40

Hey, I literally did that before too. I was supposed to be going to the grocery store. I pulled over. I'm like all right. So look, how's y'all scoring this? All right, the devil strip, that's a point. The sidewalk is two points. The yard, that's five. Over the car again. Over the car again.

Remie Jones: 28:56

I'm like, yeah, I don't know what y'all doing, Y'all don't know over the car, like you can hit. You can hit both sides twice, man, you can get it going and you better not.

Herman Floyd III: 29:07

Don't touch my ball.

Remie Jones: 29:08

If it's still going, don't touch it yeah, so I I'm not sure, man, but I believe that curveball is like the equivalent of stickball up in New York yeah see, I ain't never.

Herman Floyd III: 29:23

I ain't never seen nobody play stickball. I ain't never seen nobody play stickball. I ain't never seen nobody play handball until I was a freshman. But yeah, curveball, it gotta be the equivalent of that yeah, that's a classic man.

Remie Jones: 29:34

That is a classic nostalgic thing just to be thinking about playing curveball man, I have a whole curveball tournament right now.

Herman Floyd III: 29:43

The one dollar everything championship we used to terrorize people.

Remie Jones: 29:45

That was like I have a whole curveball tournament, right now the $1,000 air game Championship. We used to terrorize people that was new to the community or guests in the community. I remember having some cousins. They was real into playing basketball. This was before, actually. I was big into playing basketball so I had a basketball. That baby had all types of knots and titties on it from playing curveball Right. But they came over with a brand new indoor basketball. I was like that and the first time they see me throw that thing across the street, hit the curve. They about lost it, man.

Herman Floyd III: 30:29

Right street, hit the curb and they about lost it.

Remie Jones: 30:31

Man right, probably ain't had no understanding what you was doing. Like I'm talking about brand new leather indoor basketball and I'm just trying to hit the curb, make it bounce back and forth. It's all types of misshapen. By the time they leave, I'm like, all right, come back and spend the night again, all right. So all right, we got them things that we grew up on, the remnants from growing up in the hood. Man, a lot of those are valuable and they were given to us to be valuable. I know that we used to. We were always told if the police come to the door, don't answer the door.

Herman Floyd III: 31:10

Hell, no Shit. If your parents ain't home, don't answer that door for nobody that ain't family.

Remie Jones: 31:14

I mean sometimes not for people, that is family. Exactly, exactly.

Herman Floyd III: 31:21

We was last key kids.

Remie Jones: 31:22

We was last key kids and I learned growing up that that's not a normal thing, at least in other people's lives. But where I'm from that was normal, like if you wasn't a last key kid. That was abnormal.

Herman Floyd III: 31:39

Right, but that was synonymous with us 80s babies. Man Like we are, we come from one of the last real generations. We was one of the last generations of kids to still play outside. We got all the new technology first. We grew up with the technology, yeah.

Remie Jones: 31:58

I mean, I don't think it's anybody any other generation that can say like when it comes to technology they experience as much as us. Because growing up, you know, we was exposed to our older, like our parents, our aunts and uncles and stuff. So I grew up with exposure to 8-tracks, to, you know, tape players, to record players, to CDs. You know computer-wise. We told them all the little green screen on the computer playing Frogger.

Herman Floyd III: 32:28

The ones that used to be in the classroom. Turn it on.

Remie Jones: 32:32

The bubble. Apple TVs, floppy disks, zip disks. The CD-ROM used to come in the cereal.

Herman Floyd III: 32:45

Oh man them.

Remie Jones: 32:46

America Online CDs clutch when people start having computers at home Dollar you know, picking up the phone and hearing that scrambly sound man, listen you know, and that's just like being a last-key kid man and having all that. It was never nothing to do, like for real. Like to go home and get on the internet for real was like the last thing we wanted to do. We had it. Yeah, we wanted to be outside. We would go like we used to live down near a ravine. I was in that ravine hours out of every day. If I couldn't be found, they'd just go to the edge of the ravine and yell my name, have a whole adventure in your neighborhood.

Remie Jones: 33:32

My mom would tell you that people you know she worked at the hospital and people would come tell her oh, I just seen your son in Cuyahoga Falls. We don't live in Cuyahoga Falls, you ain't seen my son. Yeah, he was on the bike with some little boy on the pegs, and then by the time she get home I'll be at home chilling, making a burrito. You know, grew up off them little frozen burritos and Hot Pockets and stuff. Man Like, oh, I've been here all day, man, and it's hard to think I'm lying for real, because we talking about a single speed bicycle, a BMX bike, 30 miles away, 20 miles away.

Herman Floyd III: 34:17

It's kind of cringy when you think back on it because the way we used to travel and be so far away from home with no real kid, like we didn't have cell phones or none back then you was lucky if you had a pager, lucky if you had a pager, but still, even then, right you, you 15, 20, 20 miles away from the crib if anything happened it's ov, because I'm not. I know I done been in some situations as a kid to where I think back like man, he wasn't supposed to make it out of that.

Remie Jones: 34:53

Yeah I, I have been man. I have been out of town on my BMX bicycle so many times and I remember getting a flat on my bike and stealing one of them little Razor scooters, and trying to put my bike on the handlebars to get home. Like man, we was wild man.

Herman Floyd III: 35:21

This is about to sound pretty messed up, but like where I grew up up. But like when I grew up at. Like I grew up on Beachwood, like Beachwood, like first we stayed on Madison, then we moved to Beach. No, first it was Homer, then it was Madison, then it was Beachwood, then it was by Street, just like Early to mid 90s. So it'd be a clique of us, it'd be like seven or eight of us. Somebody ain't got no bike man. We, going right to Forest Lodge, right by St Sebastian, catch one of them little skims, one of them people that ain't our skim folk laughing bop, bop bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop.

Remie Jones: 36:07

You know this is so messed up, but like the place I used to always go to give my little cousin a bike, because I'm like man I ain't putting you on the pegs today, I ain't putting you on the handlebars today, like we would go up to the Walgreens on Portage Path Because it's right there at the edge of the hood, where you know where the suburbs, kind of in the hood, meet. So like all the well-off kids I call them that all the well-off kids would come up there and they just drop their bikes right in front of the door and go in Walgreens get some candy, get some juice, whatever.

Herman Floyd III: 36:43

And I'd be like bro get that 18 speed.

Remie Jones: 36:50

Get that 24 speed.

Herman Floyd III: 36:53

We used to go after the dinos.

Remie Jones: 36:57

Man, I remember seeing one of them, bikes, with the springs on it for the first time. Oh yeah, you got the gyroscope. But okay, regroup again. We're going to talk about these scars now, because we talked about these remnants, man, but a lot of these remnants was valuable.

Remie Jones: 37:17

You ain't talked to the police, you didn't answer the door for the police. We, you know, we had a lot of this sense of of family. Everybody was your cousin, you know. You looked out for your cousin. Your cousin got a fight. Why you here, why you ain't out there with him? You know right, and it taught me a lot of lessons in life that stuck with me even to this day, now that I'm damn near 40, um, but so then I went to prison.

Remie Jones: 37:43

Man, I went to prison and them same ideals that we had in the street kind of don't apply in prison. I mean you can, like it's certain people, if you know them, you stick together and stuff like that. But for the most part when you get to prison you really got to choose your lot. For real, it's like a fresh slate, like hitting the reset button on the video game. Don't come in with that. Who you running with in here? You know right, and I mean, I ain't gonna lie, man, a lot of dudes would have to just take a look at the politics and see who had the dominant position before they chose up, because if you just run around with the dudes from your neighborhood you might get yourself in some shit, mm-hmm, like, notably, you know, I grew up in Akron. I also grew up out of town in Virginia. So when I got to prison in Ohio, they like where you from? If the first thing out of my mouth was Akron, I'm instantly in some beef, because it's a beef between Akron and Cleveland, you know, right. So you, I'm from Virginia, and that put me by myself, which is also a dangerous spot to be, but at least it put me in control over how I get to move, cause man.

Remie Jones: 39:08

But I know some of the scars that I was wanting to talk about with prison man was, um, you know, like, like it's guys that come out with PTSD and that's such a random not random, but it's such an overused term, you know, ptsd, that people just kind of dismiss it like, yeah, whatever, he messed up and they just let it go. Most notably, it's associated with people that go to war. But one of the things I often say is that when a judge and a prosecutor send you to prison, they don't think about where they're sending you to and they don't think about who you are. They really don't. They don't think about who you are, they really don't. They don't think about like if you're a shy, timid person that just had happened to get into a bad situation. All they do is look at your crime, like, oh, you got a fist fight with somebody, they fell and hit their head on the curb. Oh well, that's murder.

Remie Jones: 40:00

Let's go ahead and send you over to mansfield, let's send you to Belmont, you know, and these, like those two prisons I just named, we like to call them gladiator camps. Old Mansfield, oh yeah, especially Belmont. Old Mansfield, for those who don't know, is where they shot the movie Shawshank Redemption. So if you need a visual, please go watch that movie and then you'll understand. But yeah, belmont, man, like if you went down to Belmont and you weren't accustomed to fighting and defending yourself. You better learn quick, because the moment you let something happen to you, somebody steals something from you, somebody you know punk you or whatever it's how they say it in prison and you don't address it, everybody putting a target on you. You better not have anything worth having because somebody coming to get it, because they know you're not going to fight back.

Herman Floyd III: 40:54

Oh yeah, box constantly getting kicked.

Remie Jones: 40:56

Yeah, like they don't care about if you put a lock on your locker box. They don't care if you lock your door, like it's a way we getting that don't go to child, don't, don't go on a visit, you don't come back. Everything going there, strip your sheets if they cleaner than theirs, like. So, um, when I talk about ptsd and having to go through these experiences, like a lot of times you had to become something worse to make it back to home, to be in a better place, and a lot of people can't compartmentalize that and come back unscathed. You know, right, I mean, I got a couple dudes for real who came home and just really couldn't handle it. Everybody moving around them felt like everybody was looking at them. They felt like everybody knew they was a felon and was judging them. Um, you know and that's one of the things I wanted to say is like there's a psychological and emotional scar that comes out of doing especially a lengthy prison sentence, because you start thinking if you deserve to go home, you start thinking if you are worthy to be successful, regardless of your work ethic, regardless of your ambition, you start. What do they call that? There's a thing like when you just doubt your imposter syndrome. That's what it is imposter syndrome where you just don't believe you're worthy of the position that you got or the position you want. You know, and I always wondered like if being a felon impact how some of these formerly incarcerated people are willing to aim high because the system conditions us. After becoming a felon, they tell you relentlessly oh man, you're going to have to check the box and beg for a job, you're going to have to apply for housing, you're going to have to disclose you're a felon and they might not accept you. But these are also the things that you can go back to prison for not having housing and employment Right, sort of things that you could go back to prison for not having housing and job employment right.

Remie Jones: 43:09

Um, so then once you get told no, once or twice, you know a lot of people stop. They like, man, I'm gonna go get a girlfriend who got a place or I'm gonna go. You know I'm gonna go back to hustling, and that's because in the streets it's one thing to be told no in the streets I can be told a million times no in the streets and I'm going to keep on getting it. You know, but when you're trying to change your life. You're trying to live a way that nobody you know has lived before, on the straight and narrow, you know, and you get your first or second no, you start thinking like people looking down on you. Your whole life is less than you know. You don't deserve to have a spot at this place or that place and so you stop trying.

Remie Jones: 44:00

That is a prison scar and I've realized that in my specific life man trying to help people, I realized that it's not about opportunities and it's not about skills or work ethic or anything like that. It's about vision. I can give you opportunities, I can give you skills. What I cannot give you is vision. If you can't see yourself succeeding, if you can't see yourself succeeding, if you can't see yourself having that, you're not going to Exactly and that's because we was conditioned that way.

Herman Floyd III: 44:42

Yeah, but you being one of them, you didn't fall victim to that, me myself included. I don't feel like I fit into that either, because, yeah, I got an F on my record but that still hasn't stopped me from doing what I want to do move how I want to move. My resume is impressive as hell. I've never let me go into prison Stop me from getting, if I wanted a job, ain't nobody, ain't nobody sell me better than myself. There has not been a job that I've went out for. And they're like oh yeah, you got that felony Duh, duh, duh, duh, duh. Like, oh, like, cause I? Because I already go in.

Herman Floyd III: 45:25

First of all, I believe in manifest and I already go in Like I got it. I got it already. But I can't speak for everybody else, but I know with me personally, I've never let my felonies become a crutch, because those bumps in my road from back then they don't define me, they don't define who I am. Everybody make mistakes. Some people got caught, some people didn't, but ain't nobody perfect. But I'm not about to let. I'm not about to let a negative remark on this invisible piece of paper of my life delegate how I move out here.

Remie Jones: 46:03

Yeah, and you know, just to just to tie this around, bring it full circle, you know we talked about some of them remnants from growing up. We talked about roast sessions, stuff like that. That's how we were prepared for the world inside the house, we roasted each other. You had to have thick skin. You couldn't go out to the world soft and he said this about me, you know. So it gave you confidence, it gave you the tools to not just fold and, you know, shrink back when stuff happened to you Right. And when it came to being older, you in the streets, like somebody, say, no, you're like man, forget you, like I don't get it. So you went and got it.

Remie Jones: 46:51

Well, now I think there's a problem where when you think, okay, I got to change my life, you think it has to be a very distinct disconnect where your life is now separate from everything else, like this new life can't have nothing to do with everything from the past. And I'll be like man, bullshit. I call bullshit on that because I tell people all the time, man, a lot of the opportunities I got, I use skills that I learned in the street or, you know, in the hood to get them Right. Like same thing. The first part of being a gangster, the first part of being a gangster, the first part of being in the streets, is like you gotta have a fucking mentality. I'm sure my listeners heard me say that before. You gotta have a fucking mentality. So if so-and-so ain't give you no job, you gonna get it by any means. If it ain't no food in the house, you ain't gonna sit there and be like it ain't no food and wait for somebody to come save you and cook you a meal. You don't go get it. You got to fucking tell them.

Remie Jones: 47:52

So now that you legit don't be thinking oh man, I'm going to apply at this one place and I'm going to go in there groveling and begging, please give me a job, please. Oh no, please don't. I hope they don't ask about my felony. And then, when they ask about it, you shrink down and deflate like no. First thing, I would tell people when I walked in like y'all got felonies. If we can't get past that, I don't want to waste your time. Man, I'm gonna get up out of here, right? The confidence of saying that they, like they, ain't got nothing to hang over my head. No more, right, you know like what can they?

Herman Floyd III: 48:27

that lightweight goes back into what I was saying prior, when I was like, hey, nobody sell me better than me, right?

Remie Jones: 48:33

Like all the times in the hood when we had to have them roast sessions. You know you, you battle, rapping, whatever. You basically selling yourself, trying to put yourself to appear better than everybody else, which is the same thing you do in a job interview. To appear better than everybody else, which is the same thing you do in a job interview, right, when you trying to holler at girls at the mall or the playground, you know you selling yourself, trying to set yourself ahead of other people. You know, when you beating on the table, rapping in, in, in, uh in the lunchroom, whatever it is. When you dress into impress in school, you got your new kicks, you ironed up your clothes like. You know you flam, you're selling yourself. So don't sell yourself short.

Remie Jones: 49:17

Now that you've said you was going to change your life and do right. The thing is now you've learned that there's different avenues in which you should apply that. You know there's more opportunities. It's not just low stakes. Now you have to sell yourself on a higher level, which is the case, but don't go in there thinking that because you have to be on a higher level, you have to go in there begging a higher level, you have to go in there begging or, like you said earlier, that now that you're trying to get to this new station in life, everything that was you is no longer a part of you.

Herman Floyd III: 50:00

Like you said, you call bullshit on that.

Remie Jones: 50:02

Yeah, I remember. So I remember when I went back to the first truck and company I was at and I became a manager and the first time somebody called in yelling and irate and this and that, and I just totally shut them down Like hey, man, first you're going to change your tone, I didn't yell nothing, like first, you're going to change your tone. And I just looked to the side and everybody in the room was like fuck, he just say, and dude, like I don't think he caught it, and he just went to go back into his tirade and I was like no, you're gonna change your tone when you talking to me, bro. And next thing, you know, he came like man, my, am I bad? I was just saying like yeah, okay, yeah, what you were saying, right, like that's a skill that I developed in the streets, that's a skill I developed in prison.

Remie Jones: 50:59

So to take it into a corporate setting and be like hey, no, that's not going to fly. So you just got to be able to be like yo, these are valuable skills that I have throughout life. They may have got you in a bad situation because you aimed them at the wrong stuff, but they're valuable skills that some people on the other side of the tracks don't have A lot of people on the other side of the tracks don't have Right right, for the most part I'm able to say that a lot of the stuff that I've been through helps me do life, you know right, I feel the same way and I gotta say like, like, sometimes you gotta go through shit to grow through shit, and I don't look at things that I've been through in a negative light.

Herman Floyd III: 51:48

They might have been negative in that moment, but again, they help mold me into the person that I am today, because I look at everything as a learning experience or a life lesson. Just like everybody that I encounter, I look at people like this. Everybody that I meet while I'm here in this room, I'm meeting for a reason. It's not up to chance or circumstance. Everybody that I encounter is either a blessing, a lesson, or both, and it's up to me to use my discernment to see what I'm going to take from it.

Remie Jones: 52:24

That's one of the best qualities you can develop in life is to be able to learn from every situation. You can learn from everybody. I don't care if they're a drunk hobo in the street. I done got some real gems. Some real gems from dudes that literally would drink and pass out on the sidewalk.

Herman Floyd III: 52:47

And sometimes those be some of the most wisest people. But I look at it like this the reason I don't look at their station in life. I look at how did you acquire this knowledge? What have you seen? What have you been through? Not just to get you to this point, to where you like, hey, fuck it, it is what it is, but still have that strong sense of that mental, that mentality, that wisdom to be able to drop gems on everybody. You know what I call that, bro.

Remie Jones: 53:20

What's that?

Herman Floyd III: 53:21

When I encounter people like that, hold on, let me backtrack a little bit. One thing that I've learned to do is, even if it's something that I've learned to do is, even if it's something that I don't agree with or it might go against something that I believe, or I even think is right, instead of discrediting somebody, why did they come to that conclusion? Why did they come to that? I call it broken clocks Because no matter how many times a day that clock displays the wrong time, it's always right twice a day. So that's how I approach every situation. That's how I approach it, even if I don't agree with it, because it's all, even with a lie, there's always some truth in a lie. So when I encounter people now I'll be like man, fuck this motherfucker talking about, because somebody could be dropping the dopest of gems and a shallow person, a meager-minded person, it'll go right over their head Because they're looking at that person's exterior, or what they don't have versus what they have in that moment.

Remie Jones: 54:37

But it's always something you can learn from somebody, man, because they got a whole life of experiences and I'm living proof of what you can do, what you can be. I tell stories from my own life and it sounds like I'm living proof of what you can do, what you can be. I tell stories from my own life and it sounds like I'm telling somebody else's stories, like if I was on the street they'd be like bro, you cappin'. And it's the same way on the other side, like I can meet anybody and they could have been anywhere before they was here. They could have been doing anything before they was here doing this. They got a whole treasure trove of lessons and they ain't always got to be something deep and profound for real, like I don't know who it was that taught me the lesson. One of my biggest lessons that I teach other people, man, is make them respect your no and teach people how to deal with you. I don't know who taught me that.

Herman Floyd III: 55:33

I don't know who taught me that I need you to rewind that. Say that again.

Remie Jones: 55:38

Make people respect your no and teach them how to deal with you. So the idea behind that is people love you. Yes, hey, man, can you do this for me? Can I have this? Can you take me there? So the idea behind that is people love you, yes, you know. Hey, man, can you do this for me? Can I have this? Can you take me there? Can you help me? Can you help me? And you're like, yeah, yeah, I got you. Yeah, I got you.

Remie Jones: 55:58

But the first time you say no, they're like damn, bro, for real, you acting stink, you acting funny, like that man, like you know, I got you. If it was me, like no, we ain't going to do none of that. And I don't, I don't explain myself. I don't be like no, cause I got to do this, no, cause I got this thing going. Like ain't no, justifying it, like no, I can't even, I can't even help you this time, bro, and that's where it's going to stay and they're going to respect it. And then you're going to teach people how to deal with you. I know that I learned that lesson going to prison because we just talked about it.

Remie Jones: 56:35

When you come into prison, it's easy to let people in your circle and once you attach yourself to certain circles or certain people, their stained reputation becomes your stained reputation, right? So always tell people right off the bat make people respect you. I mean, teach people how to deal with you and I ain't talking about like if you a complicated person or nothing like that, but if you're always the person that's going to show up, you know you always going to show up. Bail somebody out of something. You always gonna loan some money. You always gonna be the person that cleans up after everybody make a mess. They gonna keep making a mess because they know you gonna clean it up. They gonna keep coming to you like yo hey, man, I got this. I got myself in this fucked up situation, bro, can you bail me out? Like, yeah, I got you, bro, you gonna. I got myself in this fucked up situation, bro, can you bail me out? Like, yeah, I got you. Bro. You're going to be that person, you know.

Remie Jones: 57:38

And if you don't teach them how to deal with you up front, when you change later, it's going to be a problem. Like man, you act a brand new one. Like man, bro, like what you want. Now it's a problem. Now they want to beef with you because you never said no before you never, you know why. Well, you ain't gonna clean this up like, oh, you ain't gonna take care. No, now you moving new.

Remie Jones: 57:59

Now, now, everybody that you met got a problem with you. You will fall out with your mama over something like that. Man, listen, but if you that person that's like up front, like bro, I got this, but you're going to have to get it next time. Or I got this, but this ain't going to be no regular thing, like they know, like all right, cool. So when you come, when they come back next time, you be like bro, like you did that shit. Again, I ain't got you this time, man, you got to figure it out. Ain't going to be no argument, ain't going to be no nothing. All right, bro, thanks, they're going to go and figure it out, because what would they do if you wasn't there? Exactly, exactly, you know, and I've actually coached people a lot on those two things right there and if you can get those two things down, man, your life would be so much better if you, if you ain't got it already. It sounds like some big, profound thing that I came up with, but really it's not right because everybody got it in them.

Herman Floyd III: 59:02

It's just a lot of people don't. A lot of people don't display it or bring it out or stare to. They don't have that courage within themselves.

Remie Jones: 59:10

I've seen with my own eyes. People agree to shit that they don't want to do, right, they got it written all over them. They don't want to do it but they don't want to say no. They don't want to go help that person out of the same shit. They done been in five times but they don't do it because they don't want to say no, right.

Remie Jones: 59:32

That's that loyalty to a fault. Now I will say this Make them respect your no and teach them how to deal with you. It's something that you must do ASAP when you come home from prison. If you're trying to change your life. Mm-hmm, asap, that got to be the first thing you do when people reach out to you, because that's always what they love to do. They don't want to reach out to you while you're blocked up. Ain't nobody going to write. Ain't nobody going to put money on your account. So you can call. It'll be very few people, but when you touch down, they're going to show up at your mama's house. Hey, boy, I heard you was out. That's your moment, right there, to teach them how we about to go on forward Like I had homies bro, hey, let's go over here and kick it.

Remie Jones: 1:00:20

Cool, I'm going to drive my car. Oh, hop in Hell. No, I know what you got in the car. I don't know for sure, but I know what you got in the car. I don't know for sure, but I know something. I'm cool. Why just hop in your car? Hell, nah, cause I know what you got in your pockets. And when you set that boundary, man, ain't nobody gonna think you acting funny? No more. When you, when you hop in the car, though, and you go along with it, and then shit go bad, and then you wanna be like man, then you want to be like man. You know that shores why you don't take out for it. Uh, I don't know, we ain't. Anybody gets that point Right, and you're going to lose people behind that. I promise you, you're going to lose people, especially if you uh, setting that you know. Setting that you know, setting that boundary from people that you've had in your life already.

Herman Floyd III: 1:01:09

You're going to lose people but I feel like anybody that's on anybody, that's anybody that you lose. They wasn't there for the long run anyways.

Remie Jones: 1:01:18

No no, they wasn't. And you're going to gain so much more in life than you lose from them. People leaving, you know. And then I you're going to gain so much more in life than you lose from them. People leaving, you know. And then I got one more lesson, one more jewel I'm going to drop right here, and that is everybody is supposed to be used. So when I hear people talking like oh, they just want to use me. No, dummy, you're supposed to be used. You're not supposed to be misused. So make sure you make them respect you. No, make sure you make them respect your boundaries. Teach them how to deal with you, because if I can't use you, I don't want you in my life. Flat out, I use motherfuckers left and right. I ain't even go front and I'm there to be used in return.

Herman Floyd III: 1:02:12

But when you're saying that, though, that might go over some people's head because they're probably looking at it in a negative aspect, but that's not even what it is.

Remie Jones: 1:02:19

That's not the case at all. See. So when I say use people right, I'm not saying like a person always calling and asking you for money, oh, they just using you. No, I'm not saying that. But I'm saying if I got a friend, I don't even care if we talk to each other every three months. If I know I can call you when I got some deep emotional shit that's weighing on me and you're going to be a good ear to listen and you're going to give me some sound advice, then that's what I use you for. That's important. That is a very important thing that you supply in my life. Now I better be supplying something in return. You got to be able to use me too, or you know it's a useless situation. But everybody and I know some people that be like man you act different with them than you act with me.

Herman Floyd III: 1:03:11

Yeah, it's supposed to be that way right, because everybody's relationship ain't the same with everybody yeah.

Remie Jones: 1:03:16

So when I keep my conversation in a jokey, jovial manner with you, that's because that's what you supply in my life. That's what we do. We kick it and bullshit. When I go to somebody else, when I ask them for financial advice, don't be like but why you ain't ask me, I got you. No, that's not the role you play in my life, bro. When I call somebody and I'm like, hey man, I need to borrow some money, I know it's because I respect that person enough and I got a good enough name in they book that they gonna be like yeah, I got you, and I bet you I pay that shit back. Ain't no question. You know like you gotta have certain people for certain tasks be used, be useful. Only keep people in your life that you can use in return, because if every time somebody call you you ain't even got to answer the phone to know it's some bullshit, damn this motherfucker calling me again, bro, why you keep letting that motherfucker call you.

Herman Floyd III: 1:04:19

Right, why you keep answering, why you keep surrounding yourself around that motherfucker.

Remie Jones: 1:04:23

Bro, like if you ain't even got to answer the phone to know it's some bullshit. Stop letting that person call on you. If you learn that's three jewels right there. If you learn them three lessons, I don't care if you've been to the joint, I don't care if you haven't, I don't care what your station in life is. If you learn them three lessons, your life's going to improve. Straight like that. I'm going to close the book with that one man.

Remie Jones: 1:04:50

that's the end of the episode the lockdown to legacy podcast is proud to be a part of the Buzzsprout Podcast Community Network. Audio engineering is done by our very own Remy Jones. You can reach out to us with any feedback, questions, comments or share the love by emailing stories at lockdown2legacycom. Stories at lockdown2legacycom. You can reach out there, too, for a free sticker. You can reach out there, too, for a free sticker, and you can find us on Instagram and Twitter with the handle at Lockdown to Legacy and on Facebook at the Lockdown to Legacy podcast.