Made in Harlem: Growing Up Fast, Surviving Even Faster

All Mumu's People - Mustafa 1983 
 
father, mother, grandmother/son & grandson 

When I sit down with Mumu, I realise Harlem isn’t just where he is from. It is the place that raised him with rules you only learn by living them, from knowing which streets truly count as Harlem to understanding why being outside in the 90s felt like the whole world. We talk block parties, rap battles, water fights, and the way the crack epidemic of the 1980s lingered into childhood memories that still sit close to the surface. He tells a story every New Yorker feels in their bones: getting lost on the bus as a kid, ending up far from home at night, and relying on a stranger to help you find your way back.

From there, our conversation turns inward to family, faith, and the push and pull of identity. Mumu describes a father shaped by Islam and activism, determined to hold a huge blended family together, and a mum who is deeply loved but seriously unwell. He talks about what it feels like to be Black, raised Muslim, and know you are gay from early on while believing you must hide it to stay safe, even from the person you trust most. We explore the real friction between Islam and church, and what happens when religion becomes control rather than comfort.

We move into adulthood through music, work, and survival. Mumu shares the sounds that shaped Harlem culture, his job supervising security in New York City subway stations, and what the trains felt like during COVID when the city went quiet but danger did not. You will also hear the surprising turning point that comes from juggling, plus his plan to save, invest, travel, retire within a decade, and maybe leave New York for land where he can grow his own food. 

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Transcript

Take Two And Defining Harlem

SPEAKER_01 0:08

Today I'm joined by Moo Moo or Moustaffer, yes. Which which do you prefer? Um, you can call me Moo Moo because I like you. I like it. Let me just tell you, this is take two because I did the whole interview and I had a recording malfunction. So we are we are going at this for the second time. Right, right. And I'm hungry. And he's hungry, so he is eating some watermelon with some lemon juice on, which is surprisingly really tasty.

SPEAKER_00 0:36

Try another piece.

SPEAKER_01 0:36

I'll have another piece.

SPEAKER_00 0:37

Why are you taking them then slices? You have to take the chance so you could get the so you could get the burst of water coming through.

SPEAKER_01 0:43

I've now got watermelon in my mouth. Mumu, you uh you've lived and grown up nearly all of your life in Harlem. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 0:50

Where does Harlem start and end? Harlem starts from what I understand, what I was taught, 110th Street to 155th Street, river to river, meaning Hudson River and FDR.

1990s Street Life And The 80s Shadow

SPEAKER_01 1:01

I'm gonna go back into your childhood now and go back into the 1990s. What was it like then? What were you like then?

SPEAKER_00 1:08

For me, I was an innocent kid. I was um, okay, you said the 90s, right? Yeah, 90s, yeah. Okay, so the 90s by then I was I was well um, I was over being like scared in the 80s, deal with the crack epidemic. It was kind of crazy. But the 90s was fun. You had to be outside. Everything was outside. Block parties, rap battles, people dissing each other, fighting, which is not is not cool, but you know, that was one of the activities outside. Water fights. This is outside of any any building. Any neighborhood, yeah. The whole throughout the whole Harlem and every neighborhood, probably doing the same thing. Water fights, basketball, sitting down, snapping on each other, dissing, you know, talking about people's mother, you know, listening to rap music. Some people that just bring their speakers out in the summertime. Yeah, and just let the music play. New York's cold in the winter. Yeah, well, New York time in the winter was just like nothing was outside but drug dealers and kids. We were still, I used to play in the winter. Yeah, in the snow as well. Yeah, my brothers and them used to play football. Our brother and his friends used to play football in the snow. No, it was always outside. But it's just the summertime, it's just everyone's out now. But of course, it's winter, so no, it's like it's not cluttered, it's not crowded. You mentioned the crack epidemic in the 80s. How did that come to an end? It just it kind of slowed down. Yeah, it kind of slowed down. Like my a couple of my uncles were caught up out there. They got their life together. They had like programs, people the people stopped. Because we have this thing, like, it's something wrong if you're still smoking crack, you know, like yeah, so no, it slowed down, but it's they people out there, they really smoking crack still, but it's not it's not a pandemic how it was before. It stick with you as a younger boy.

Getting Lost Uptown Then Found

SPEAKER_01 2:49

So tell me a little bit about growing up.

SPEAKER_00 2:51

So I was going to school in El Badio. Like I started the third grade over there, just going to school by myself. Um my father, he taught me how to get there from the one-on-one bus. He taught me three times and said, do not get lost. And I did. So I went from like 125th Street all the way to El Badio, Spanish Harlem, 103rd. Went to my elementary school there. I got lost one time and ended up in Washington Heights. It was it was nighttime because this was like in the fall, and then the time went back. And man, I was actually crying. Yes, I was. It was this tall police officer. Like, it was like an angel, you know, just standing right there by the store. And I went to him and he coddled me. Yeah, he cut definitely coddled me. And he took me into the store first, made his phone calls or whatever, the radio. And next thing you know, the police car pulls up, they take me to the precinct. The police are talking to me and they look at like, how do you get lost? And why are you on the bus by yourself? And I'm like, oh, I'll go to school, but I could have had an ACS case. At the time, it was called BCW, Bureau of Child Welfare. Yes. But but the offices were cool. I guess, you know, they talked to me. I was in the precinct, they offered me things, no thank you. So they took me home. And I knew that I was far off because I came over a bridge, which happened to be the George Washington

Dad, Islam, And A Huge Family

SPEAKER_00 4:05

Bridge. Tell me a little bit about your dad. My father came from Michigan to East New York. That's where he learned about Islam from my great uncle Luckman. He he watched him pray, and then he's, you know, my father said like he found peace, you know, like it was peaceful. So that's my father got involved in Islam. Growing up in a Black Panther, and also he was MIB, Muslim Islamic Brotherhood. He used to actually, when the crack pandemic came, you know, people were selling kids like for crack. And, you know, my father, he got a couple of them back. One, because I was being nosy. I wasn't being nosy, it was just I I was just here I just was hearing things, yeah, you know, and at home. And long story short, is my father comes home and he's like, Mashida, the baby's home with their with their mother. Everything is okay now. And my mother is just like in relief and thank God. But at my grandmother's house, I'm hearing he went out and found yeah, him and his brothers went out to go get the girl, but the little child back. Yeah. And I think at the time the little girl was going through foster care at the time. You know, because it was, yeah, it was a lot of that. Where did the girl go back to then? To a to a yeah, or whatever, or maybe foster care. Yeah. Yeah, but just not from them drug dealers who had it. How did he meet your mom? He was a friend of my Uncle James, and he hung out with my Uncle Wooly's brother-in-law from Brooklyn. And that's my uncle, Uncle Wooly, he met his wife through David. So David is my Uncle Willie's brother-in-law. David and my father, they lived in the same building. They all grew up together, and David was the one who told my father, like, don't be a punk. You know, coming from Michigan, living in East New York. Yeah, it was kind of like it was different from my father. So that's where my father had to be tough. So my father used to come by over to my grandmother's house. But he was over he was eight years older than my mom. And my mom, you know, she's home, and she said, Well, my father was at my grandmother's house, the way he dealt with the kids and handled them and taught them how to eat properly and everything. My mother said she fell in love with them. She knew that's the one that she wanted to have the kids by. Was your mom his first? No, second wife. My father already had kids by then. So your father went on to marry a few more times. Yes, yes, yes.

SPEAKER_01 6:12

How big did your family already know?

SPEAKER_00 6:13

It was 13 of us. Now it was 12. My brother passed away. Same father, different wives. My mother was a second wife, and it was three kids from our father.

SPEAKER_01 6:21

So did you see your other brothers and sisters as other brothers and sisters?

SPEAKER_00 6:24

Yeah, we grew up with we grew up together. Yeah, my father kept us together. That was hard, but we did it. Okay, and your mom? Tell me a bit about your mom.

Mum’s Illness, Love, And Grief

SPEAKER_00 6:32

She was just sweet, man. Everybody, she was cool. Everybody loved her. But she was just always sick, you know.

SPEAKER_01 6:38

But she's always sick from a child.

SPEAKER_00 6:40

No, no. After actually after she had knees, like she didn't do no prenatal care with me. She had kidney failure. So it was something like my grandmother's telling me she was mad at my father. He was trying to give her this natural remedy. You know, like, you know, you watch Instagram now and they tell you how to like get rid of parasites and everything, which is somewhat true. No, no. It's somewhat true. Just know what you're doing. Go to a professional. Yeah, go to a professional person. Like, yeah. That knows how to do natural uphaling through medicine. That naturally. Don't go on YouTube and social media, right? Yeah, and just start taking borax with honey and like with squeeze with lemon juice. Stop that. Don't do that. But other than that, so he I think that's what he was trying to do with my mother. And it didn't work. She got sick, kidney failure. So how old you and she died? I was, oh, 22, 21, 22 years old. Yeah, but she was always cool. Everyone would call her. The phone was her best friend because she was bad running. Yeah. She tried to teach me not to be no damn punk. I was able to tell her everything, except for me being gay. And that that's that's what hurt me when she passed away. That I I wasn't honest with her. Because me and mother, we had a tight, close relationship. Yeah, and everybody knew it. How old were you when you knew you were gay?

Knowing You’re Gay Then Hiding

SPEAKER_00 7:54

Man, I was a baby. Like I I was, you know, I didn't want to kiss little girls. I wanted to kiss little boys. Like, I'm not on damn I sound crazy. As a young boy, growing at Head Start, pre-K kindergarten, I wanted to kiss boys. Yeah. So it I guess it was then. And me asking my mother while she's giving me a bath, can men, can boys go with boys? No. Can girls go with girls? No. And I'm like, why? But someone did know that you were gay. Yes, my grandmother knew. When I came out to her, she's like, I knew that baby. And she said, That John used to call you and say, Hello, is Mustafa there? And it's like, Grandma, stop it. Don't, don't, don't do that. You know, she was mimicking his voice. That shit was hilarious. But she was cool with John. She didn't, she didn't mind. She was cool with John. She was cool with Patrick. Because Patrick used to call too for me. And um, he was in my life too when I was in college. Patrick, my friend, Irish man. He was an older guy. Yeah, I was into older guys at that time. Now I'm not.

SPEAKER_01 8:57

When your mom passed away, did your grandma step in then or was she still very much part of my life?

SPEAKER_00 9:02

Just always, yeah, always a part of my life. But yeah, when my mother passed, she definitely stepped up. She even came to the foot of my bed. I was staying with my grandmother. Matter of fact, I got the news and I went to my grandmother and told her she was a pissed, uh uh, she was upset with my father because he called, it was like two, three in the morning, and my grandmother called me, she said, baby, the phone. And when I got up out that bed, I already knew what it was, you know. And my grandmother, she said, now Lord, why the hell he didn't just tell me? And I was just on the phone with him. I was like, Graham, I'm sorry, I don't know. And that from then on, me and my grandmother was tight, tighter. Like, yeah, she just she just protected me more. I mean, I didn't go downhill right away. Like I went downhill later on a little bit. But that's what that's what they thought was gonna happen, because that's you know, my mother was all I had. You know, like even though I have a big family, my grandmother's there, you know, but it's just like my mom, it was just me and her. Because she was sick, so I was always up under her, always trying to take care of her, go to the store for her, whatever she needs, you know. Even even like bringing like, because again, Beverett, and just washing her feet because they like white, they chat, you know, black people get ashy, it's crazy. So, and that's how my mom's was. It probably was the menacing too, dry her feet up, like kind of like gator skin. So I used to just like I used to wash her feet and put some like thick shea butter on it. She used to just be happy, emptying her throw up, you know, things like that. Me and my mother was tight. We shared the same interest too, like olives, pickles, the same shows. Yeah. It was like whatever she liked, I like.

SPEAKER_01 10:42

So we watched tiny river.

SPEAKER_00 10:44

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:44

And what sort of shows did you watch?

SPEAKER_00 10:45

Oh, one of the shows, one of the shows we watched was Def Comedy Jam. And that used to come on uh Fridays, if I'm not mistaken, at midnight. The host was this guy called Martin Lawrence. So that was famous. And we used to watch that together, Martin Lawrence show, Def Comedy Jam. And and we were young watching this because like we were so young that my sister was like, What's an orgasm? And my mother said, BB, ask your father when he came home. As soon as my father put the key in the door. I Salama Lake on my boo, what's an orgasm? My father's like, Sheeta, I didn't I tell you to stop having my kids watch this shit. Yeah, so Dev Comedy Jam was definitely one of the shows. And we had to wait every weekend to watch. So it's like every week, and I'm waiting to watch the show with my mom. You know, all of us. The weekend came, my father and mother, they let us basically do whatever. But our ass is better be in bed on Sunday and on time and going to school on Monday. Like you have fun this weekend, now have fun during the weekend and go get in school. So it was like that. So it's like you play with school, then you're not playing in this house. Right.

Pulled Between Islam And Church

SPEAKER_01 11:52

Coming back to you for a moment, having Islam on one side, Christianity on the other side, right? That cause you any conflicts?

SPEAKER_00 12:00

Well, Islam was strict because my father used to, you know, beat me, you know, and just like a tyrant, and just like Is that just out of habit or uh out of frustration. Probably, you know, my mother said like out of frustration. And I was like, why the fuck? You know, I was like, what? Frustrated. Go punch a wall. Right. Yeah. Yeah, go, yeah. Yeah. Go punch something that's gonna punch you back if you frustrated, right? And your frustration will be over quick, right? Yeah, yeah. Definitely. But it wasn't that. Yeah, it was like my father didn't want us going to church. No, not at all. It's like, um, I remember we got I got snatched out of church one time by me. Came, snatched us out, me and my brother and sister, and saying we're Muslims, we don't do this, we're not like them. You know, this is the division, divided and conquered. But not knowing that I was safe in the church, I was with my family, we were gonna eat nice food, you know, it's just shit. I just thought that was crazy. And then I caught a blow to my to my gut, like, oh, right, and I'm the youngest one. It's like my older brother here, my sister's here, but I get the gut, I get the gut punch. Right. Yeah, it was like that.

SPEAKER_01 13:07

I'm looking at three identities here, black, Muslim, guy. How was that for you as a teenager?

SPEAKER_00 13:14

I mean, well, I broke my virginity when I was what, 15, 16 with a woman. And I wasn't, you know, like when you first want to have sex, and now you're you're sexually active, now you're looking at women, now you're looking at boobs. Now that didn't happen to me until I was like 20 something. Because you know, HIV and everything was up, and it was always associated with being a homosexual. So I wasn't so my mom wasn't so like, oh, I want to like humble boy, or like it was just it was just in my environment at the time. I was with my friends, they were having sex, they were gangbanging, they would call it gangbanging. I only did that a couple times. That wasn't me. But yeah, just I was having sex with them. Like after 15, 16. So I knew I was gay though, because I didn't enjoy it. I just I was doing it because, you know. But you didn't get any any hassle because of it, because of the decade you were in at the time.

SPEAKER_01 14:10

What do you mean, like while while hiding? Did you have to hide it from friends or yeah, I hid it from everyone.

SPEAKER_00 14:16

Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

unknown 14:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:17

And like one of my friends used to say, like, I'll kill him if I find out he's gay. So it was kind of like, yeah, I used to disappear, like go to Long Island, sneak off with a with a oh how John, how old was John was? John was a probably about more than 15 years older than me. Italian guy, Long Island, Westbury. He was nice, he was sweet, but I wouldn't, I wouldn't do that with a kid. Yeah. I'm not judging him. No, I I wouldn't do that with a young, with someone my age. Me being his age, I wouldn't deal with it, yes. I couldn't see myself doing that. But I wanted that. That's what I wanted. That's crazy, right? The heart ones what they wanted. Yeah, and then it was just like stability. Like he had, you know, he had a house and I I could get away and I can't get caught. And and he was what I liked at the time. Yeah. Just mature. It was always mature for me.

The Sounds That Raised Harlem

SPEAKER_00 15:09

Let's talk music for a second then.

SPEAKER_01 15:11

Let's just talk about music.

SPEAKER_00 15:12

Um like my right, so my older brother, Soli, when he came to live with us, you know, my father's first wife, my oldest brother, uh, Soli, I was influenced by his music, like Slick Rick, Big Daddy Kane, LL Koo J. You know, even like a super cat, Jamaican, you know, the Jamaican dancehole. You know, my brother, he always embraced reggae music. Chaboranks, uh, tenga lang a lang, squeeze belly ring. Yeah. And you don't know, you don't know the words he's saying. But it's that. Yeah, it was that it was that groove in the 90s. You know, it was a lot of ladies taking their waist, you know, whining their waist, taking their waist. Yeah, I watched my brother have fun. Yeah, yeah. I watched him pass notes down to the neighbor through an extension cord. And he had and he was playing the records, yeah, actually, yeah.

Subway Security And A Tougher Skin

SPEAKER_00 16:06

You live now pretty close to where you used to live, isn't it? Yes, only on the other side of the development, yes. It's the project, but they we can't, they don't want to, they don't call it that anymore. Yeah. They call it public housing, a development. Everything sounds crazy. A development. Like a project. So what do you do for a living now? Um, I do security. I'm station supervisor. I'm in position and change a career to be uh an inspector. So I'm gonna work for the client when I get back. Yeah, I'm on a contract. So probably you guys know if you've been to New York City, that New York City has security in the train stations. So basically I supervise them, go from station to station, and just uh answer complaints, do reports, take your vesting and metro card if you're not doing what you're supposed to do down there. Yeah, it's crazy down there, man. No, it's a it's a it's it's an amazing system, I think.

SPEAKER_01 17:05

Um, amazing in what way? Well, what's better about New York is that it seems to be go, it's easy to go up and down, not so much side to side. Right, because Manhattan is up and down. Right, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:16

So that's easy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:19

So uh I'm just comparing it with London, which is vast. Yeah, so now I work, I'm gonna work with the client and I'm gonna work back with the public. I have to thicken my skin because my skin was like it was a little loose. Now it's gonna go back to thick because I'm gonna get cursed out and threatened. Because I'm gonna be issuing tickets for people who jumped on a bus without paying. Okay. Hunting them down. Making sure like that. I'm not hunting anyone. The police with the gun is gonna do the hunting. I'm just gonna do the issuing. Issuing the tickets. Yes. And I'm not gonna say anything to these people, but massy ID people. Oh, can I see that you pay, please? Yeah, yeah. No, F you! I'm not doing that. Can I just see if you pay, please? No, it it'll just be this quick.

SPEAKER_01 18:07

What was New York like uh during COVID?

COVID Underground And Losing A Brother

SPEAKER_00 18:11

It was desolate, airy, it was a lot of homeless. Listen, because I work in a subway system and that no one knows this, the news doesn't know it. Social media, yes, but it didn't go viral. A lot of people, homeless people, were getting killed on a train. So it was kind of like some little serial killer. Really? Yeah. It's a video with a guy, he was just laying sleeping on a train, he got stabbed up. All right, so the train, it was it was shut down. Yes, yeah. So I I worked, I was an essential worker, the trains were shut down 12 midnight, no more trains until 5 in the morning. And after that, that's when MCA started this the thing that I do with the security because of it. And um, yeah, people were, man, they was throwing crack parties down there and like fits and all, and you know, it was bad. And um, and yeah, and again, people were dying.

SPEAKER_01 19:00

Right at the beginning, New York was in the news before dying of COVID. It was quite hard, wasn't it? Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_00 19:05

Yeah, it was hit it was Italy and New York. I remember being on. Yeah, New York definitely. Yeah, my brother, he passed away during COVID. Of COVID or COVID. Well, we don't know because we didn't want to, my father, we didn't want to do no all time. I'm sorry to hear that. Thank you. His first five. How old was he? 39. Oh wow. He was 39. Yeah, so when I turned 39, I was scared. And that's what really made me stop drinking. Age does that to you? Yeah, it does. It's like I'm s I'm not young anymore. Yeah. Well, how old are you?

SPEAKER_01 19:38

42? Yes. I'll be 43 next month. You've been doing a bit of traveling

Travel, Madrid, And London Dreams

SPEAKER_01 19:42

recently? Yes. Yeah, so uh how do cities like Madrid uh compare to something something like New York or Well, I don't I don't compare it.

SPEAKER_00 19:51

I just New York is New York, Madrid is Madrid. And they're both great. Yeah. Like one is not better than the other. For me, it's not. If I had to pick and choose, I'm I'm gonna pick New York City. If I had a second option, I'm gonna pick um between Barcelona and Madrid. Madrid was just different. Yeah. I love Barcelona. But then I haven't been to Madrid, so I need to go there. Yeah, Madrid is is totally different. I mean, for me, my lifestyle, what I like to do, like it's it's Madrid. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:22

I think you'd like London. You need to go to London sometime. Sometime.

SPEAKER_00 20:25

Yeah, we're trying to go to London tomorrow. We're trying to see. Yeah, he um show he has to figure out about that Esther. I think he got ripped off.

SPEAKER_01 20:36

It's a trouble now, and now we're out of Europe.

SPEAKER_00 20:38

It's sort of um Yeah, out of the EU, right? After the EU, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:41

So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:42

But that was how was that, five years ago? Five plus? Oh, right. It was sent right, that's how long ago it was.

SPEAKER_01 20:48

It's more difficult to travel around.

SPEAKER_00 20:50

Yeah. I definitely would like to go to London. No, you I definitely would like to. I probably would love London. Yeah. Like is an understatement. I mean, because you know I see it on TV. Well, that's what I felt when I went to New York.

SPEAKER_01 21:02

It's like going to a film center. I guess you would not feel the same. Is there anything we haven't spoken about that you want to that you want to touch on?

Juggling Finds Purpose After School

SPEAKER_00 21:09

Juggling. Yes, let's let's talk about juggling. Well, juggling, I was cutting school. I was yes, I I never really liked school. I was taking a bus because the bus runs from it runs from Washington Heights all the way uptown, and then it runs all the way downtown Manhattan to like, you know, the village. Can't remember if it's the East Village or West Village. And it's like I would stay on the bus, ride up and down. I get tired, I'll go to Century Park, play. So something just told me to go to school. And I went to school and the Big Apple Circus was there. They were just giving, like, they were doing this talent show to raise money for the school or whatever. And I just, I've just seen kids juggling, and I'm just like, oh wow, like that's nice. Like I can do that and I want to. And uh my juggling teacher, Russell Davis, they stuck with me. I was like his protege. And um after the show that we performed for the after the show, we sold tickets. You know, my family came, and that was the first time I felt good. Like everybody's like, woo, yeah, yeah. And I was like, yo, this is where I want to be. And I started going back to the after-school program. And Russell, he just seen how invested I was and eager. And he just stuck with me. Yeah. And yeah, he taught me how to juggle. And I can't forget about Skye. Russell taught me how to juggle, you know, like formal, but Sky taught me how to put the rhythm and the flavor into it, you know, to where it's like, don't just stand there and just doing this. You gotta put the shoulders and the hips and you there. Like, and I was like, okay, okay. I didn't video you juggling, it's very, very impressive.

SPEAKER_01 22:46

Thank you. Thank you. You definitely got the rhythm in it.

SPEAKER_00 22:48

Yeah, you see the rhythm?

SPEAKER_01 22:50

He definitely would have. Uh that's for good stuff. Okay, so your your father's still alive?

Making Peace With Dad

SPEAKER_01 22:55

Yes. Yeah. So how's your relationship with him now?

SPEAKER_00 22:58

It's great. He's still trying to convert me back to Islam. He's still sending me uh literature, and I'm just like, okay. Last thing, the last thing that he sent me was from YouTube. I can't remember, but it was about option, it was about choice. But the the conclusion that I came up with is like, if you never told me about hell, then I'd be okay. It never took me, you know. Shit. So it's like you have a choice, you have a decision, and it's like I don't think so. Has he still got family around him? My father? Yeah. Yes, his wife and um what is it, Guyana or Ghana? Yeah, she's younger than me. Yeah, my father's crazy. He's like, he sees her once a year. Well, he's trying to get her over, he's trying to get her over here into the States, but he's again, he sees her once a year. Yeah. She was actually pregnant and she lost a baby. Yeah, my father was gonna be like Robert De Niro. He had his baby at the age of 70, 80 years old. It's crazy. But you know what? Because I kind of to ask my father, I said, I want a sibling, you know, so I can look after, spend money on, you know. Yeah, I told my father that about five years ago. Yeah, definitely. My father, like, I'm trying Mustafa. Yeah, that's that's how that's how we talk. But he must be an uncle to lots of other children. Oh, yes, definitely. I'm one, I'm one of the best uncles. Hey, Uncle Moo. Uncle Moo. And then my little niece the other day, and she's like, Can you tell my mother to give me some money? And I'm like, no, like, I I I'm on you. I'm on you. So I give my niece money. If she's outside, I don't don't, you're not gonna be in nobody's face. And not gonna be in no none of these little nappy head boys' face. Yeah, like that. Make sure I give her money. And then I'm like, Do you smoke weed? You know, she's a teenager, and like, please don't lie to me. And she's like, no, and then I see you smoking weed, and then I see you smoking weed in a staircase. And I'm like, this is why I asked you. Because why are you smoking weed in a staircase and why you, you know, and tell me the truth. So now I can tell you what to do so you won't get laced, so nobody won't hurt you. You know what I mean? So, but these kids, yeah, these kids don't get it. Like, I'm not your I'm not your father. I'm not the cool uncle either. I'm at the same time, I'm gonna tell you, like, don't smoke that shit. But I'm I can't stop you. But this is how you should don't don't do nothing stupid. Guiding them. Yeah. And then try not to smoke that shit.

SPEAKER_01 25:19

So if you could talk to your grandma now,

Gigi Memories And TV That Motivates

SPEAKER_01 25:21

what would you say to her? My grandmother? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:27

If she's sitting there now, what would you say? Hey, what up, Gigi? Just you know, how you doing? Give her a hug and a kiss. How you feel, what's going on? That's it. Yeah, just basic stuff. We'll we'll and from there she'll talk. She'll pick it up. She used to has you, how's your friend? Where'd you come from? I'll probably have something in my hand to give her. So yeah. She sounds a remarkable woman. Oh, she is. I'll definitely probably have something in my hand to give her. Like if I'm coming, like coming over, like stopping. Yeah, I used to always I used to always bring stuff home to her that she liked. So you were gonna talk to me about the Crosby Show? Yeah, the Cosby show. And um, and and uh a different world. Different world, yes. Yeah, that was like the go-to for everyone. That was like the term for like, you know, our people growing up, like not being on TV and having roles as being educated or having parents that that are educated or or or are educated, you know. Like Bill Cosby was a doctor, and then Cliff, his wife, was a lawyer. His kids were getting accepted into these prestigious colleges. And then he had a spin-off show called The Different World, to where we see, like, you know, I'm looking at myself on the screen in college. So that's why, like, again, when I what made me go to school after dropping out of ninth grade, when I came um out of you know the county jail in Maryland, seeing my cousins in the neighborhood. So I'm like, oh, this is the wave. So like that was already embedded in my mind. So yeah, that was just it was just easy for me to just like, oh, this is the trend. Everybody's going to school. So you meant you county jail then? What was that? Like in Maryland, like the county. Maryland is crazy. Like they you're going to jail. Like, yeah, just period. Just walk a street line. That's it. What's what's the future hold?

Investing, Land, And Leaving New York

SPEAKER_00 27:10

The future hold for me is like, uh, right now I want to I want to save and invest. I want to keep traveling. Like, I want to retire within 10 years. And it's like some things that I have to figure out to where, like, how can I make my own money? I want to buy land. I want to grow my own fruit. Yeah. I want to grow my own veggies. Was it to that mean moving out of New York? Yeah, sure, of course. Where would you go? Um I could we could go upstate. We could go down south. We could go anywhere. The land is mine. Yeah. Yeah, right. Um, yeah, we could do that.

SPEAKER_01 27:41

Could do that, definitely that. Well, thank you very much for your time. No problem. It's been a uh a pleasure talking to you. Yeah, thank you. You're welcome. I'm gonna have some more of that melon now. I'm definitely gonna have some juicy one. I've got to take a juicy one. I'll take a big chunk one there. That's the one I'm gonna take. That's cool.

SPEAKER_00 27:57

Can I leave

One Last Word On Unity

SPEAKER_00 27:58

this for the people? Yeah, come on. Listen, if we get together as one, we will be alright as a people. And there's people in power that's keeping us down, it's nothing they can do about it. And we will all be alright. And it's not about it's not about one step, one group of people having more than the other, vice versa. It's not it's not about that. It's about we all have the same fucking thing. And we can have it because it's for everybody.

SPEAKER_01 28:28

Yep, that's it. Thank you.