"Jason's Lyric" Movie Review | The Main Ingredient With Chris Ellis Podcast - Ep.7

What if life's greatest challenges could unlock your most profound creative potential? Join us in this riveting conversation with Jonez Cain as she recounts her extraordinary journey from the stage to the screen, driven by deeply personal trials. Her experiences, from surviving her husband's shooting to undergoing brain surgery, have fueled her transition from acting to writing and producing, with powerful projects like "Holy Roller," "Bears on the Ship," and "Catfished." Together, we discuss the vital role of mental health awareness, especially within the Black community, and explore how Jonas channels her personal losses into advocacy and creative expression.

Explore the intricate tapestry of family dynamics, where love, loyalty, and emotional intelligence intertwine. Through characters like Jason and Josh, we examine how unresolved trauma and societal pressures shape behavior and relationships, urging a compassionate lens toward men's often unspoken struggles. Our conversation is rich with personal anecdotes, highlighting the significance of setting boundaries while maintaining steadfast support for loved ones. Through the lens of "Jason's Lyric," we celebrate the transformative power of storytelling, accountability, and redemption, inviting listeners to reflect on their own pivotal life choices.

Experience the profound themes of sacrifice, duty, and the power of choice. As we draw lessons from the gripping narratives within "Jason's Lyric," we emphasize the importance of love and loyalty in the face of adversity. This episode honors the resilience required to navigate life's challenges and the impact of media representation on personal growth and identity. We conclude with an exciting introduction to our upcoming project "17," encouraging you to join the conversation on creativity, resilience, and the decisions that define our journeys. Connect with us on social media for updates, and let's continue exploring the choices that shape our lives.

Chapters

• 0:00 Jason's Lyric
• 10:44 Emotional Journey of Mad Dog
• 24:01 Sibling Loyalty and Emotional Intelligence
• 35:18 Sacrifices for Family Love
• 47:12 Love and Family Loyalty
• 55:53 Navigating Relationships and Persistence
• 1:08:12 Romantic Sunset Bridge Encounter
• 1:21:47 Navigating Criminal Temptations and Romantic Gestures
• 1:27:06 The Evolution of Love and Loyalty
• 1:39:41 Alonzo's Robbery Plans and Consequences
• 1:44:18 Challenges of Family Loyalty and Pain
• 1:56:46 Brotherly Love and Betrayal
• 2:09:13 The Power of Choice and Love
• 2:21:52 Lessons on Love, Loyalty, and Accountability
• 2:28:03 Choosing Redemption and Empowerment Through Service

Transcript

Chris: 0:00

It was like looking at my life. I identify with each and every character. I saw Jason in me. I saw Lyric in me.

Jonez: 0:07

That's what's up? It was weird to me because it's like hold on, but you're the one that got him out here selling dope. You tell him don't trust him. You got him out here drinking, smoking and selling dope Right. But you tell him don't trust the other dude, though, Right.

Chris: 0:25

Because you know what this, what he knew, that one comes with death, that one back. So, like they know what's up, you got to do something to get her to understand that you are different. In that moment, and I can almost guarantee you, if you show up and be the man you're supposed to be, keep her out of survival, allow her to dwell in her femininity and not in her alpha. Okay, you'll have everything you want. You'll have everything you want. You'll have everything you want. She'll actually be your red.

Jonez: 1:09

What's up y'all? My name is Chris Ellis and this is the Main Ingredient. With Chris Ellis, today, we have the incredible, the incredible Jonas Cain, and she's here to help me work out this Jason lyrics. This movie is an incredible movie. It meant a lot to me back in the day. It means a lot to her, but I want you guys to understand where she's coming from. So thank you once again for coming, jonez.

Chris: 1:36

Thank you, Chris, for having me on the Main Ingredient.

Jonez: 1:39

I appreciate it Always, you family, you always welcome. Thank you Now and forever Forever and ever and ever, now and forever. But before we get started, give us a little bit of your resume. I know you're an actress, but what else do you do in the entertainment industry?

Chris: 1:54

You know what my life in the entertainment industry has took a big turn, whereas before I was doing the acting, sometimes casting things like that but during the pandemic there was a major pivot. And then, also during the end of the pandemic, my husband was shot at work as well, as I had brain surgery last year, so I was losing my hearing at the time. And it was just so ironic that again in the middle of that pivot I started writing a book, I mean a script. And after we completely finished the script me and Amber Sandifer then I was woke up in the middle of the night and God told me to turn that script into a book. And I thought that was even crazier because when I had a meeting about the script with this wonderful lady who blessed me, that's so sad that I can't even remember her name at this. Second.

Chris: 2:50

Blame it on the brain surgery, but she literally helped me develop the script and I'll give her credit in everything, even though she doesn't want any of it, Like she's going to get all of that, even though she doesn't know. But it literally turned me into an actual film writer and an actual author. That's what I'm talking about. Crazy and then to pair myself with people who are already super professional at what they do, because I was like God, why are you asking me to do this? But I had to follow the guidance and now I'm an author and a producer. So me and Let my Light Shine. Sarah Anders.

Chris: 3:33

I co-produced with her Holy Roller, which stars Novi Brown from Sisters on BET. I would never forget her name, but I promise you guys, it's little things, that still happens to me with the brain surgery, but starring Novi Brown and Marcus Smith and Derek Hogan there's a lot of cool people in it. But just blessed to do that, literally out of being obedient, just saying yes, you know what I mean. And so I'm still doing the acting. I have two films coming out. One's called Bears on the Ship, which is like a play on snakes on the ship, on the plane Snakes on the plane.

Chris: 4:08

And then I have another one coming out called Catfished Okay, you can only imagine what that's about. And then I'm producing another project which will have some heavy hit names over in Napa coming up soon. So when I tell you it's just like boom, boom, boom. So I've had some of the hardest times of my life, even losing my sister, losing my grandmother last week. Literally she's my strength to be here right now. I've just been through some really hard stuff and I'm just really grateful for the blessing. So not to make the heck along, but it is a lot going on with me right now.

Jonez: 4:44

No, it's all good. Like I said you, fam. So we, you know people need to know what you, what you're going through and what you've been through to get to where you're at now, because it's all strength, it's all, it all builds character and it's what gets us, you know, through life, but you know, staying strong, you know, not just for other people but even for ourselves, to prove that we can get through the storm. That's the case.

Chris: 5:06

And I think that once we do that, then we're divinely connected to purpose. And because I even been doing public speaking, I did the Woman's Expo, turning your Pain Into Purpose, and then I also did something that was with Voyage Media, where it was on Spotify and Apple Music. So it's all about that mental health.

Jonez: 5:28

Yeah, mental health is everything and I'm glad our people, Black people we're finally understanding that and diving deep into making sure our minds are right so we can be good for our families. Yes, that's the main thing Be good for our families so we can take care of them and give them the nourishment that they need mentally to grow, grow into a beautiful family?

Chris: 5:52

Yes, and which is one of the main reasons why, for some reason, jason's lyrics is alive in me right now, like just everything I've been through in my life. Just everything I've been through in my life, so definitely.

Jonez: 6:03

Okay, okay, all right, so let's get into it. Jason's lyric, 1994. It was a good year. I was like 20, 21, 22. It was like a pivotal point in my life because at that age your parents and your elders expect you to have everything together in 21, 22. But you still trying to figure out who the hell you are. So it's like, and now that I have kids that are in their 20s, I kind of understand to take it slow with them. Don't try to force them to be too grown up too fast, because life is different now than it was in 1994. Paying for mortgages and all that stuff, like expecting them to be able to do what we did at that time, it's like it's almost impossible now. It's almost impossible. So, uh, 1994 was a good year for me. But jason's lit, I know you was probably a teenager I was.

Chris: 6:57

I think I was in the ninth grade. Yeah, I was in the ninth grade, yeah, but, but but still.

Jonez: 7:05

ninth grade, still mature enough to understand what you were seeing when you watch the movie.

Chris: 7:09

You know absolutely, it was like looking at my life, because at that point, yeah, we were. We had just moved out of the hood for me, so it was like I had just moved to Oakland and my mom had just bought her first house. So that was like coming out fresh for me and it was like, oh, this is, this is my life, like this is, yeah, I identify with each and every character. I saw Jason in me, I saw Lyric in me, like, yeah, that's what's up, that's what's up. And I saw who I could have been Right and Josh.

Jonez: 7:45

Yeah, so we have Jason's lyric, directed by Doug McHenry, written by Bobby Smith Jr. It was produced by Gramercy Pictures. Starring Alan Payne is Jason Alexander, jada Pinkett as Lyric Bokeem, woodbine is Joshua Alexander, anthony Chris as Alonzo that's Tretch for everybody who doesn't know. Eddie Griffith is Rat Forrest, whitaker is Mad Dog Alexander. Lisa Carson as Marty, Alonzo's girlfriend, and it made $20 million at the box office, which is not bad for a pretty much all-Black movie in the 90s. Facts Facts About the 90s Right Before it was popular for everybody to go see a Black film. It made a profit. So I can see why a lot of these actors and actresses in this movie became even bigger Because they turn in a profit. You turn a profit in Hollywood. They give you more chances, right Facts. They give you more chances, facts. So it's good that everybody there's not one person in this movie that didn't become a mega star, didn't become some type of star Everybody became a star.

Chris: 9:00

Yeah, In most movies you'll see a few people who didn't, but you are absolutely right.

Jonez: 9:04

Every single person that had lines in this movie became somebody. Yes, they did Really big, you know. So we get to the opening scene. Jason is on a bus having memories I would say nightmares about the night where Mad Dog got shot. They kind of hide who shot him Right, but you can tell that it was personal and somebody in that house shot Mad Dog but they really don't tell you. So it's kind of a bad memory and it keeps coming up in the movie and we'll get to that why it keeps coming up. Then it transitions into like Joshua and Jason, his little kids, playing with Mad Dog in like a in a field. Looks like a field, flowers and stuff, and there's an airplane that's sprinkling water on the flowers on the field and stuff like that, and it's a beautiful scene. It's actually a great scene.

Chris: 10:00

It's so beautiful and it's actually kind of dynamic to me Because remember, remember he says that the old man I think his name was old man Johnson who used to let the plane go over and they felt like when the water would drop. It was like rain.

Jonez: 10:16

Yeah, they called him a rainmaker.

Chris: 10:18

Yes, a rainmaker, and then where they are in this field with also beautiful flowers, it's just like their only moment for paradise.

Jonez: 10:26

Yes, Not only it was beautifully shot yes, that whole scene is beautiful but the fact that they showed that they did have good times with Mad Dog he was not always a drunk and you know, he wasn't always all bad and I think we sometimes we have to bring that into reality. With some of the people we see now that might be cracked out or whatever and stuff, they weren't always like that. So we always have to give them a little bit of grace, right, because there's a human in there. Yes, there's a human in there, so we got to always remember that. You know, there's a lot of mad dogs running around in society and they weren't always like that. No, not at all. It only takes like one thing to turn somebody into a mad dog, exactly.

Chris: 11:08

Absolutely, and it's the dynamic of how we didn't deal with mental health back then. So if you couldn't get past it, like if you didn't have that God foundation to take that turn, what do you do? You self-medicate. That's true. There we go. And Josh, although he hated Mad Dog, it seemed like he just went right into it. He went, yeah, but how do you deal with that kind of trauma? I know. Thank God for mental health now. I know.

Jonez: 11:35

Yeah, so Mad Dog shows up at the house to visit the family and Josh doesn't really. He ain't really messing with him. No, jason, but you can tell jason loves his father. Yes, I mean loves his father. But also jason understands why josh is kind of like standoffish right of him too, and it was a scene where, in this particular scene, where josh goes inside and he's behind the screen and it's such an evil, look like he really hates mad dog. Yeah, he's looking like. I'm like I really hate you. Yeah, just like that whoa yeah, it was.

Jonez: 12:12

It was a. I don't know how they made that little kid look so intense, but he did an excellent job because he really looked like there's an issue right there.

Jonez: 12:21

Yeah, yeah, like I know you're my father, but I'm not feeling you at all coming around this house, and a lot of it could have had to do with. He saw his mother go through a lot of trauma so he just like anytime you come around, my mom's is crying after me right and he wasn't old enough to see the good side of him that jason was able to capture a little baby, right when they were in the fields and stuff.

Jonez: 12:43

So she, he might not have remembered all those good times when a mad dog was actually a regular guy during his first visit. Uh, when mad dog shows up, he beats a guy with a cane right in front of him, right, right. If jason wouldn't have told him to stop, he would have just kept beating the dude, right?

Chris: 13:01

right facts. He tripped him and you know I love Forrest Whitaker because of Fruitvale Station.

Jonez: 13:06

I love Forrest Whitaker.

Chris: 13:07

And so it was a blessing to meet him and stuff like that. But when he so he was always one of my favorites I was like Always. This dude is a bomb. He hooked his ankle with the cane. That's thought, that's thought. That's like talent above talent. He hooked that ankle because he was really on that leg Like he, you could tell. He fully embraced that character to the point where even he knew to grab his ankle with that cane and bring him down to hit him with it.

Jonez: 13:35

Now, he, he, yeah, he played that character to the fullest, mad Dog to the fullest. We don't get to some other scenes of Mad Dog, but he played that character to the fullest. And once again, like I said that right after that, that's that's actually seen, where they show Josh looking through the door, which kind of lets you know like Josh might have some a mad dog in him. I mean, that is his father. We didn't find out till later how serious he got with Josh, right, and you, you know what he became as an adult.

Jonez: 14:06

Maybe that's kind of why their mother really wasn't trying to get back with Mad Dog, because she saw that that might have eventually rubbed off on the boys like she, because she might have really loved Mad Dog. Clearly she had two of his kids, yeah, but maybe it was one of those things was like I want to let you back in the house, but you bring so much trauma into the house. Yeah, it might transfer into one of these kids which essentially it kind of did. Yeah, real talk, real talk. Joshua kind of adapted, adopted some of that.

Chris: 14:38

He literally became what he hate, and I think that where we come from it actually happens a lot. So it's like the son is you know, oh, I hate my dad. He wasn't there, he wasn't this, or he treated my mom like this. And literally I watch person after person. It was that nice occasion where I see somebody like I'm not going to be that, but literally they would turn into what they hate and I wonder if that's because of the heavy judgment that is there. It's like you need to know what it feels like to bring you to a place where either some people get destroyed right, we saw that with Josh but then you see some people who actually pivot because of that experience and I'm not going to be like that and they forgive that person and they turn it negative and they forgive that person and they understand where they're coming from and then they work on not ever being like that.

Chris: 15:29

But I think that if you hold that resentment in your heart, no matter what happens, you're going to turn into it that's true, I agree, I agree.

Jonez: 15:38

Um. So we get to another scene where mad dog is sitting in a super filthy motel room, um, and he's talking to himself and he's drinking. He's having a mad dog moment, yes, but what I got out of that moment is he misses his family. It's not really like he just sitting there drunk for no reason. He really misses being around his boys, having his woman and he's being ousted by, you know, his ex-wife, and it hurts, and I've said it on a few podcast episodes prior to.

Jonez: 16:13

This is like when men hurt, it can come out in several different ways come out in anger, resentment, crying, shame, but it's never going to be a simple emotion for men. You never know what you're going to get. When a man gets emotional, you just don't know what you're going to get. So with Mad Dog, he turned to drinking and stuff like that. So in this particular scene and this is a testament to how great of an actor Forrest Whitaker is he's going through all the emotions. I mean he crying is he's going through all the emotions? Yes, I mean he crying. Yes, dancing in the mirror like he is, it just shows just how good he actually is as an actor. I love this scene, as sad as the scene supposed to be. I love the way he just portrays. Yes, a man is just he's losing it.

Chris: 16:59

Yes, he's losing it, oh man, oh man.

Jonez: 17:03

What do you think about that scene?

Chris: 17:05

Oh, I feel like it was real. I felt like it was real. I wish I could read the script because I want to know how much of it was for us and how much of it was actually written. You know what I mean, because you had to see that or experience it. There's no way that you can go through all those levels of emotion, like you said the dancing, the crying, the anger, and that is all of the emotions that a person goes through when they've lost everything, when they have no way to get back control. You do that when the foundation is in God. I feel like, even if your foundation is God, you start there, and then it'd be like wait, wait, wait, hold on. I'm not handling this right. Hold on, let me get in alignment. Let me call my people around me it's something that helps you with that or let me get on the phone with my therapist. But he didn't have that. So we literally watched him go through all the stages, even grief, even grief. You've seen him go through everything stages, even grief.

Jonez: 18:05

You seen him go through everything he went through, like seven or eight stages.

Chris: 18:09

Yes, and it was man, when I tell you it drove me all over the place. I was with him in every part of it. I don't know why, but when I watch film or read scripts or read anything, I don't know why I could just like feel it and see it. No, I feel't know why. I could just like feel it and see it Like, so no I feel the same way.

Chris: 18:29

And then I thought about my dad wasn't in the war or anything Cause that part kind of touched me too, like this man went out and put his life on the line for his country and there was nobody to reach back and help him. So I do like what I see as far as them helping the veterans a little bit more, but that was kind of cold to me. But I also saw my biological father in that character because I literally had those same instances, like Josh and Jason did when they were younger, where I had to step in and defend my mom and help my mom against my dad. And yeah, it's just traumatizing, it's super hurtful. Fortunately for me, of course, I didn't have to bring too much harm to him, but I did reach over and do what I need to do. Go, mom.

Jonez: 19:17

I did what I need to do, did what you had to do, yeah.

Chris: 19:19

And even watching my dad. He had so much pain Before he passed away fortunately again, the grace of God, I learned about generational curses and being able to sit down and talk to him about the things that he experienced and he went through to understand why he was in that mad dog place where he just could not rise from it and then in the process of that he lost me and my mom. That kept him in that same mad dog place. He stopped drinking as much and things like that. He was a super calm spirit and it seems like my younger brother had a little bit of that blessing, but I never, ever, got the chance to see my dad be that king that he was before.

Chris: 20:04

You know, they brought crack into our community and he was set up, you know, like good man working for the city, had all his stuff, I mean booming like he big white house on the you know white house on the hill with the white fence, thunderbirds, cars. He had his own business. So not only did he work for the city too, he also had his own escorting service for funerals and stuff. He was the man. So when they came in and brought our communities down like that broke them.

Jonez: 20:32

Which was part of their plan.

Chris: 20:33

Yes, he could never be that man who he used to be, I think. Just he was in that dark, mad dog place, that still a great person, loving guy. He loved me but never even wanted to be a part of my life for fear that he was going to ruin it. He was going to mess it up.

Chris: 20:55

Yeah, because he felt like he ruined my older brother and sister. It gets deep because he even had a contact with my who people would say is my stepdad. But he loved me, raised me like my dad, so he even had a conversation with my dad, like hey.

Chris: 21:10

I need you to take care of my daughter, because I'm not going to be able to do it, and I think that what even gave them that beauty was their families actually grew up together, even though my dad was way older than him. My dad was way older than him. My dad and so my bio dad and my dad's dad were friends, and my aunties were best friends.

Jonez: 21:30

So weird.

Chris: 21:31

But back to not being able to get past stuff, not having the ability or the access to mental health.

Jonez: 21:40

I'm glad now you know people have that access and have those programs that can, that can kind of help you through tough times. We all go through stuff and it's hard processing. It's hard if you're by yourself, you don't have anybody in your corner.

Chris: 21:53

It's hard, yeah, we cannot underestimate, because I think that sometimes even some of us look at people and, instead of helping them, we're gossiping.

Jonez: 22:01

Yeah, instead of helping, we're talking about them like helping them we're gossiping Instead of helping, we're talking about them and we see the train wreck coming and we'll watch it wreck instead of helping them. Exactly that's a hard thing.

Chris: 22:18

Yeah, I know what it's like to watch people go through stuff like that. It's always touched me real close, so I always want to be a part of the solution, like helping other people. Always be a part of the solution, even the book is all about mental health, healing, how you can get hit and not to the ground. And with the right alignment, the right people around you, you can still ascend.

Jonez: 22:35

That's what's up.

Chris: 22:36

That's what's up.

Jonez: 22:36

Yeah. So he's in a motel drinking and going through the emotions we've been talking about. He shows up at the house and basically kicks in the door. Um, he's cursing, he's making a lot of noise, he's and it. It feels like this is maybe a normal mad dog type of night like this is not the first time he's done something like this, like yeah he does this on the regular and I want to say jason says something in the narration, like you know, mad dog came through.

Jonez: 23:05

Dog came through this night, but he said it so calmly, like this is something Mad Dog just does every once in a while, maybe when he gets drunk, but he starts beating Gloria, their mom, and that's never a good thing, even if you don't have any kids, but especially in front of kids, couples should never physically be fighting each other. So a gun goes off and then you see, and then, and then Jason wakes up from the dream, but they still never tell you who shot the gun, which is great writing and is great direction to never, to never, play your hand too early in the movie you still don't know who shot Mad Dog. That was great. I'm glad they wrote it that way.

Jonez: 23:48

Yes, because it would have been a different movie if you'd have seen from the very beginning who actually did it.

Chris: 23:52

You know what I'm saying, totally so it's just great writing, great secrecy, to hidden things going on.

Jonez: 24:01

So Jason wakes up the next morning he's going to prison to go pick up his brother, uh Josh. And Josh, we are to assume, has uh not led a legal life. I mean, I want to judge your brother, but we can tell he's been through some stuff right, and this was not probably his first matter of fact. It wasn't because when jason picks him up he said I drove here four times right you know four different times yeah, is it gonna be different this time?

Chris: 24:33

yes, it's gonna be different.

Jonez: 24:35

So he's been in and out of prison, uh, for whatever. So but but jason? But what I love about this movie is they always show the love that jason has for josh. No matter how, no matter how much trouble you get into, I got you, I'm never going, I'm never going to give up on you, and that's. That's really a love. Only, you only see out of parents to children and siblings. You don't see too many outside of siblings and parents who will love you, no matter how bad.

Jonez: 25:04

Right Right, siblings and parents who will love you, no matter how bad it gets. Right right, you got to think about it because mothers in general will never give up on their kids.

Chris: 25:11

So the world knows that.

Jonez: 25:12

Mothers and fathers in general pretty much will never give up on their kids, but usually you see that in siblings too.

Chris: 25:18

Yeah.

Jonez: 25:18

You know what I'm saying. You normally see that in siblings, where either the little brother or the big brother will always protect each other, no matter what no matter what no matter what, no matter what you know. So it was it's good that they showed that jason had his back and and jason didn't really, even though he tried to school him like you should be doing this, he never judged him. He always just met him where he was at exactly.

Chris: 25:43

He never judged I go through a dynamic, similarly not that bad, but with one of my sisters. Okay, and then we're going to get to that, but I have a brother. That's exactly like how Tretch was.

Jonez: 25:57

Oh, wow.

Chris: 25:58

Yeah, like he even do me like how he do lyric. No, I'm going to tell you because'd be like, yeah, hollywood, I'd be like if you don't stop like. But my sister, like man, I swear I was always running down the street to go whoop somebody because I'm thinking people bothering her. Because she lighter than me, she had like real finer hair, longer hair, and so I was always like protecting her until one day because she's in the, you know she's made her choices and but no matter what, like you said, I've got her back.

Chris: 26:35

So, you going to run up on her, you're going to have to see me. But I also had to get, like Jason, where it was like oh, wait, a minute, you started this. Wait, you got me running down here running up on these girls and you started it.

Chris: 26:48

Okay, hold up. I got to make some changes, but I still had a lot of the hood in me for a long time and I feel like it's still beautiful parts of it in me, like my loyalty, my character, certain things that we get from the hood that you can't really get from nowhere.

Chris: 27:06

You know, what I mean. And yeah, you right about that. I had that dynamic. But I'm my sister's keeper and even though just like that, I'm telling her you got to stop this. But at the end of the day she knows she could call me for anything. Her kids can depend on me. I might not run out in the street with you to save you, no more, because I can't, because if I do, then what happened, honestly, was that I was blessed with a really good Fortune 500 job early. So at the age of 17, I was working for I don't know if I could say that on here, but I was working for Siemens. And then, after I, they taught me all the foundation of engineering, like testing line stuff. So that's how I got into AT&T. Well, back then it was PacVille SBC AT&T. So I started there when I was 18 doing like almost like an entry-level engineer job, and I had something to lose after a while. You get what I'm saying Like I was making a lot of money for my age coming from where I was coming from.

Chris: 28:06

That was blessed by God. Come on and yeah, and even at the job I almost got in trouble because it was a girl who was taunting me and I was like hold on because I know how to go there if I need to, and this lady, ms Berta.

Chris: 28:23

To this day we are still friends, but to this day she was an older woman working in a job, and again, I'm an 18-year-old. I ain't even really supposed to be there. I'm working with all these adults with degrees and stuff, and so she pulled me to the side. She said I don't never want to see you acting like that again. Them people would be so happy to get you up out of here. She said you don't never let nobody do that to you.

Chris: 28:47

You hold your composure. You got something to lose, and I'll tell you she was so strict on me and it was a part of me that wanted to rebel against it, but I knew she was doing it out of love, and that was the day I knew I couldn't chase after family members and be that even for my sister and for her. I think a part of her felt like I was not there for her, if that makes sense. I'm like I'm there for you for everything else you need, though, but I'm not going to run in the streets behind you and be fighting people and getting myself in trouble. I'll lose everything for the type of companies that I was working with so that I didn't have god in my life like that yet. But that was what made me be like. No, no, you know, but I'm proud to die.

Jonez: 29:36

I'm the same way with, like the n-word. You know, when you hear another race, uh, in anger, call you as a black person, n-word, I don't let it emotionally affect me, no more. You're not going to affect my emotions right now. That don't mean you ain't gonna be. No, get back right. But I'm not gonna let you be the person that puts me in jail because you call me something that ain't gonna happen, because I got a wife and kids to feed and grandkids that's why my that's so.

Chris: 30:04

When that guy shot my husband, he was at work. My husband was at work and that happened to him and he was calling my husband the n-word and all of that, but with my husband, because it's all on camera. So my husband was thinking in the back of my mind, in the back of his mind was I got to feed my family and I need to protect so he. He was like I'm not finna be moved over the chessboard like this.

Jonez: 30:29

Nah, nah, because you know, people know that's a triggering, triggering word for black people, yes, and they know just by saying it they're going to catch a beat down, but you're going to be the one going to jail and it ends everything, especially if you're the breadwinner of your family. You cannot let somebody swing your emotions with the word. I'm not saying it happens a lot, but the last time it happened I actually laughed in the person's face and it confused them. I just started laughing hilariously because I'm like you don't know what I could do to you, but I'm not going to let you bring me down to that level.

Chris: 31:05

I just laughed at him and he didn't say nothing else.

Jonez: 31:09

He was confused.

Chris: 31:10

And he was mad. I know he was mad. You mean to tell me I didn't get the reaction I wanted, he wanted a reaction.

Jonez: 31:17

He did not get it because I got a family to feed. Speaking of emotional intelligence see, I told you I forgot something.

Chris: 31:23

So I also work with an amazing company, iycu Independently you, collectively Us where we literally teach emotional intelligence to the youth. The program is structured towards children of color, mainly African-American children, but we do transformative, social, emotional intelligence, where we're teaching them exactly how to deal with all that. Right, because sometimes, even when we got it good, it's usually those type of things that make us descend instead of ascend and it makes us lose opportunities, everything. And so, yeah, we're in the schools. So we're in the schools, making changes, doing some beautiful things. And they loved us so much Thank you, iycu, for bringing me on board. They loved us so much that even now, we have two hours in the schools and they have added us into one of the school districts midday as a part of regular curriculum because they like the effects that the program has held.

Chris: 32:24

Yes, created by men of color, anthony Jackson and Eric Bryant, who are also you know them actually. So they said, oh, you know, you know, chris. And then it was so crazy because I'm like, wait a minute, like anyway, we all connect, we all family.

Chris: 32:41

I'm like, wait, yeah, like you know him. Like I'm like, oh man, that's so crazy. So, yeah, that's a beautiful thing that I've been blessed to be a part of and I'm really excited because some of our kids also get spiritually murdered in school, especially when they are in schools that where there's not a lot of minorities Maybe it's predominantly white or whatever it may be and they're not being understood and then a lot of them are shutting down. Either they turn aggressive or they're shutting down, but they're shutting down because they're not being treated with certain respect. The teachers there are not understanding their culture, so they also don't know how to speak to them. You know what I mean. Like it's really deep, because I'll give a prime example One of my coworkers over I won't say the school just for protection of that but one of my coworkers who I work with hand in hand she really helped me understand some of the kids who were being classified as trouble, but they're super smart.

Chris: 33:43

The test scores aren't matching what's being said and it was so funny. I come right in two weeks because of her prepping me. I come in two weeks make a breakthrough with kids who won't even talk to other staff, and they've been there for years, you know what I mean, and so it's just genuine, authentic, the love to help the community. So not to go too deep off into emotional intelligence, but that is another thing that I'm doing, um to, to be a part of helping my community.

Jonez: 34:12

That's great to hear jones, that's great to hear. So we we get to a point in the movie now where jason picked up joshua. They met with some friends. Apparently jason must have had to go to work. Joshua's went hanging out with his friends, which is eddie griffith who plays the character of rat and I forgot the other guy, but it's two guys he's been hanging with. Yeah, yeah, uh, and they bring him home late. Yes, the problem with that is his mother had a surprise party and he's drunk and he's pissy drunk, super drunk, yeah, super, to where he's just totally embarrassing his mother Like she damn right want to break down in tears because of how embarrassed she is at her son First day home. Comes in the house, everybody ready to give him love and support, encouragement, and he's pissy drunk. He puts his hand in the cake, almost knocks the cake out of her hand, and them same friends who brought him over said well, sorry, ms Alexander.

Chris: 35:11

Yeah.

Jonez: 35:11

Y'all brought him here like this what do you mean?

Chris: 35:15

Now, you know what. You brought him here drunk A long time ago. I used to watch that like what See, that's what friends do for you, but you know what I peep. What See, that's what friends do for you, but you know what I peed? What Is that? Nobody else was drunk but him. Nobody, not one of them. You see it.

Jonez: 35:30

See, see.

Chris: 35:31

So my opinion on that changed because I'm like, okay, your boys take you out. I would have blamed them if they were drunk too, but Jason wasn't drunk. Jason was not drunk. Jason wasn't drunk. None of them were drunk, he was the only one. And I'm almost positive because you see other scenes that they were like man, don't get drunk.

Jonez: 35:52

I'm sure they were probably telling them, but he wanted to do what he wanted to do, so you think that was a Josh decision to get drunk all day and come home like that. Not necessarily they made him get drunk.

Chris: 36:05

It was a.

Jonez: 36:06

Josh decision Okay.

Chris: 36:07

But I feel like this when you're a real friend and you know what your friend is struggling with, you don't bring them into the environment to where they could possibly get there right. So if I know my girl is trying to quit drinking, I'm not finna, take you to the bar.

Jonez: 36:23

No, not at all.

Chris: 36:24

I'm not finna say girl, come over here, and I'm gonna say girl, come over. I made some mocktails for us. We gonna pretend like we drinking it might even taste like drinking, but we gonna have some natural. You know what I mean. So that's that part. But I could have gathered that they didn't even know how to be that.

Jonez: 36:38

Yeah they didn't good friends to him?

Chris: 36:44

No, because they remember as soon as he come out, eddie Griffith's character is the one who put him back on with running him some product. Yeah, it's like they weren't good friends at all.

Jonez: 36:54

They were not good friends, which is weird to me because it seemed like Jason would have checked him Right. Like every time he around, y'all two fools, he go back to jail. Don't let me catch him out here doing what y'all doing right, it's gonna be me and y'all exactly, and jason never really checked them about putting josh in in harm's way, like exactly, exactly, and that was me I was doing that like a different dude to me, trying to talk to my.

Chris: 37:19

Look, don't my sister's younger than me? She's six years younger than me. You're the same age as me. You don't have no business talking to her. She's six years younger than me. You're the same age as me. You don't have no business talking to her you gonna see me.

Chris: 37:28

So I was running people off. I remember times where I would be my parents be on vacation. I come down the street with the bat in case anybody say something to me, come home. And then I dare y'all to say something. It's time for her to come home and that was you know yeah, like because you, because you, you know you love your.

Chris: 37:45

Like you said, a parent or a sibling is the only one that's going to go that far for you. But once you realize that you can't keep going and it's going to actually make you crash, then you have to back up, but still you still love you, still don't talk mess, you still. You know, when I talk to my sister, she's like one of the smartest, one of the smartest people I know, genius level, and that could be why that's happening. Because, like, she was the type who was at high school and middle school, mm, hmm, ok smart. So it's like, whenever she make the decision to whatever it is that she's fearless. She's also hella fearless, which could be why. So it's like, if it's a little misdirected.

Jonez: 38:27

Yeah, yeah. And at this party when Josh comes home like that, jason doesn't panic, he puts him in bed, you know, takes care of him like a parent would Yep. And when he comes back out he can tell his mother is distraught and it really hurt his mother's feelings and he does something that's great. He said dance with your son. That was a beautiful scene Because he could have just left his mom like that and dealt with Joshua. He's like no, I'm going to put him to because he already knocked out he drank. He said no, I'm going to make sure my mother have a good time. So he told everybody come on, y'all, it's a party. We still going to party.

Chris: 39:02

No matter what's going on.

Jonez: 39:04

And he danced with her and you saw this big old smile on her face. She still remembered she had Jason.

Chris: 39:09

Yes, I still got you son I still got you.

Jonez: 39:12

I still got my bright light right here to always shine positivity on me and I'm glad they always showed that part in the movie is like, even though Joshua's putting her through hell like literally through through hell, she never took that out on jason. She always understood that jason ain't joshua oh, I love that.

Chris: 39:29

Yeah, she never held that against jason and and quiet is kept.

Jonez: 39:33

She really wanted to show love and positivity to to josh, but he just kept doing all this negative stuff yes, she even got him a job.

Chris: 39:42

Got him a job, got him a job she tried to help him. And always believed in him, every time, because she had to believe in him to bring her to her job.

Jonez: 39:50

Every single time. She believed in her son, but he just kept letting her down Every time and I do know a lot of friends I grew up with that they did that to their parents. I saw them do that to their parents Me too Time after time, just letting them down. He did that to their parents. I saw them do that to their parents me too time after time, just letting them down, stealing their cars. Yeah, he's stealing cars, his credit card and the parents are just like.

Jonez: 40:09

I don't know why he's acting like they had no idea that their child, why their child was acting like this right and gloria in this movie you can tell like she's her mind is is mixed up like how do I end up with j and Joshua's so different? Why are y'all like night and day? She even says in the movie you two are like night and day.

Chris: 40:31

Yeah, and I know what the night and day is. And you know, yeah, the night and day is. He chose to cope with alcohol and drugs and took his anger in the street. And the other one decided I'm going to take my mind off it, I'm going to build airplanes, I'm going to go out to that field clear my mind. I'm going to listen to my mama's prayers. I'm going to try to make her like he. Just he made different choices. He clearly somehow was able to have a different set of tools.

Jonez: 40:59

Yeah, yeah. Jason goes to work and his manager says that he has a assistant manager's job available for him in Dallas. Jason initially wanted the job because he mentioned it a couple of times that it was a possibility, but when Josh came home, it was more or less like you know, my family needs me, right. So his manager kind of got on him like every time your brother come home, you start effing up every single time, right. So the manager has seen jason do this time and time again, which is, uh, not go for his dreams, to chase after his brother in the streets and doing all this damage. And once again, I've seen so many of my friends with siblings do this. Yes, they won't move to another city to go get a better. They won't do none of this stuff because they're afraid that their sibling will kill somebody or end up getting killed.

Chris: 42:00

And it's like the protection of mom too.

Jonez: 42:03

And the protection of my, he did say. He said my mama need me. Yeah, like it's like the protection of mom too and the protection of my.

Chris: 42:06

He did say.

Jonez: 42:06

He said my mama need me yeah, like it's serious, but what he really meant was my mama need me to help her with josh right, that's what he really meant yeah, yeah, because he's like josh gonna end up killing my mama, you know.

Jonez: 42:16

Thank you yeah josh is a mini version of mad dog. I can't leave him around my mother because we know what would have happened, yes, if we would have not been there to help my mother with Mad Dog. So Jason comes home and his mother is sitting on the porch and she's not crying, but you can tell she's sad and she says that seven years of being a cashier her teals never came up short. And I guess they found out that Josh had stole ten10 out to Teal and you can say it's only $10, but it's the principal, right.

Chris: 42:50

You took her whole career for $10. Yeah.

Jonez: 42:54

Because I remember when this first came out, a lot of people was making jokes like man, it's only $10. But they wasn't understanding the principal behind it You're my son. Yeah, you don't have to do this. Right, you got a brother with a job. I got a job. We can give you ten dollars right like you literally went to work and stole money from me. Yeah, so it was just it affected her. It affected her a lot. She was just sitting there like I don't know what and she's nothing else I could do yeah, she was.

Jonez: 43:22

If it wasn't for you, he wouldn't be here. Like you're the only reason why he's still allowed to come in his house Once again showing how much Jason meant to Josh. Yeah, To where the mother only gave Josh that much grace because of Jason.

Chris: 43:38

Wow.

Jonez: 43:40

Because I can imagine Jason having conversations with his mother saying you can't put my brother on the street, mom.

Chris: 43:47

I'm pretty sure she wanted to. He was probably scared he was going to die. I know what that is.

Jonez: 43:52

I'm pretty sure they had conversations where she said I'm getting ready to put your brother on the street and he was like mom, you can't do that, it ain't his fault, mad dog, this mad dog that Even though we never saw that scene, I kind of feel like that's a conversation that really could have been had by Jason and his mom, to where Jason probably had to break down to her like Josh ain't the way, he is, for nothing. No, mad Dog got a lot to do with why Josh is the way he is, so we got to give him some love. We got to keep loving him. Josh is the way he is, so we got to give him some love. We got to keep loving him. Keep our arms around him.

Chris: 44:28

That's what I do with my older brother and my older sister, because I feel like they come from, they have the different mom and I feel like-.

Jonez: 44:37

It's not their fault, it's not. It's not.

Chris: 44:40

It's really not, and I do get that. You're an adult, now you got to make the choices, because that's what I did, like I'm going to make, try to make different choices. I'm on pack all this stuff I'm. You know, it's hard work, though People underestimate the hard work that it is, and just for them, it's just that I always had continuous grace so I could get that. Yeah, I could totally get that.

Jonez: 45:01

Yeah, you got, and you got to have that. Jason once again. Jason, trying to find Josh, finds him in a bar getting drunk. He runs up, he goes in a bar. Teddy, that's the other guy's name, teddy.

Chris: 45:13

Teddy, okay, teddy is playing pool.

Jonez: 45:16

Sorry, Teddy yeah.

Chris: 45:17

Sorry, Teddy, Sorry sorry.

Jonez: 45:19

Teddy's playing pool and he said said teddy where's? And he just points normal routine, normal routine. He at the table, drinking, looking in the mirror, doing whatever he's doing, and uh, jason grabs josh, pulls him outside, uh, starts yelling at him giving that big brother toughness. Like dude, you can't be out here doing this. Blah, blah, blah, breaks bottle, takes his bottle and breaks it. Josh says I'm gonna go back and get another one. He's like no, you ain't. So they have a real situation to where Jason has to physically sit him down. You messing up, you did this to mama, we not having this, this, no more. You need to get your life together. Blah, blah, blah. And josh is feeling like jason is trying to be his dad. So he said something to the fact of you ain't my daddy. Oh yeah, I ain't got a daddy, no more.

Chris: 46:17

That was cold that was so cold that was cold, that was cold.

Jonez: 46:23

j Josh did that to him, though, man because he had.

Chris: 46:26

See, I think that people didn't. I mean, of course they realize it, but Jason had PTSD too. Oh yeah, he's waking up with the nightmares. I had to go through that with my husband after he was shot. You know, waking up with the nightmares he had all the same things, he just made different choices.

Jonez: 46:41

Jason had the same emotion. Yeah things, he just made different choices. Jason had the same emotion. That was cruel, that was very cruel. That was cruel. He said I don't even have a daddy, no more. It's like that was wrong for him to say that. That was wrong for him to say that and he. You want to think it was the alcohol. But like they say, drunks, tell the truth.

Chris: 46:59

What is a drunk and a kid Talks from a sober mind, or something like that? Yeah, they say drunks and kids.

Jonez: 47:08

tell the honest truth.

Jonez: 47:08

The honest truth, boy You're going to get everything out of both of those. So that's why, always when somebody's saying something how they feel about me when they're intoxicated I listen. Yeah, because this is how you really feel about me, absolutely. When you're sober, you're holding back how you really feel when you're drunk, it's no filter. The filter gets released, right. So I pay close attention. I pay close attention and I'm also mindful that when I'm drinking and I get angry over something, somebody pissed me off, maybe I'm at a club or whatever and stuff, and it might be somebody I know, maybe a friend, maybe somebody from a family. One thing I can't get myself credit for I'm mindful of what I say to them because I know they're listening too. Yeah, you know what I'm saying, so I don't say something I can't take back, right.

Chris: 47:55

And that's what my brother does all the time, oh.

Jonez: 47:59

She said all the time. I'm very mindful that words hurt, they do.

Chris: 48:05

They do, and it don't even matter when it is. I remember after I had brain surgery he called me. I'm in the hospital, he just-.

Jonez: 48:13

He let you have it.

Chris: 48:14

No, it wasn't. He just means sometimes, like I said, he's like yeah Lyric, you know, yeah See, if she wear them pants so tight. If she let the little cootie cat breathe Like my brother is just like Alonzo, so with him I'm hearing yeah, miss Hollywood, yeah, that kind of stuff, and it's just like mm.

Jonez: 48:38

I just Kind of bothers you a little bit, yeah, but.

Chris: 48:42

I'm just like Jason in the sense of where I'm just like. This is how he is. I get it Sometimes I have to. You know how Jason had to school him sometimes. So sometimes I give him a righteous read. That's what I'll call him. I'll give him a righteous reed every now and then, but for the most part it's just grace, because he never had the tools to come out of it. He didn't have the mom I had. My dad was gone.

Chris: 49:08

Who was there to look after him, to push him in the right direction he raised himself and the streets raised him on top of that too. So that's why I just try to have grace. I talked to him the other day about my grandma's funeral, because it's not his grandma, but my grandma was so loving, she took care of everybody, so everybody has a connection to her. But it was just like hey, you know, you're all right, like that's kind of yeah, man, but I know my job is to just still love him, and so sometimes it's from a distance, but it's always gonna be like that, okay, okay.

Jonez: 49:48

So, jason, and maybe and this is this is my bad I jumped ahead on the boss yelling at him, so we get to the point to where, uh, the boss is actually. Yeah, this is the scene where the boss actually yelling at jason because he told him that he's probably not going to take the dallas job because he, his mom, my mama need my help.

Jonez: 50:04

Yeah, my mama need me, my mama need me and and the manager already knows what this is it's josh. It ain't got nothing to do with your mama. Your mama's a stand stand up, solid woman. Right, you scared about about what Josh might do to your mom. Right, he's made himself over the years the buffer in between the two, when if Josh would just be a stand up dude, he wouldn't have to do that. You know what I'm saying, so. But what's weird is that it takes you to where you really understand 1994, the prices, because he said the job in dallas paid 22 000 a year I swear every time.

Chris: 50:44

I think it was 22, I think you added two, I think you added two.

Jonez: 50:49

I was like oh, he said move to another city, right 20 grand yeah, no, I said that in 1994. For real, yeah, for real. Like what he said a job paying this much is paying $20,000 a year.

Chris: 51:05

Yeah, he said it like. He said $300,000 a year. Oh, that was funny. The times have changed.

Jonez: 51:11

I said 1994, boy, Boy, boy, oh boy. But still him. Not being married, not having any kids, that still might have been a good move for Jason in 1994 where he could have became the manager. Eventually, maybe own a store.

Chris: 51:27

It was an assistant manager position.

Jonez: 51:29

It was an assistant manager, yeah, so I think what his manager was trying to tell him was like there's growth, yes, you could become the $100,000 a year person if you just go and give yourself a chance. But he was in that mode. I got it. I got to be here for my mama, got to be here to protect Josh from from himself, really, because ain't nobody messing with Josh? Josh is hurting himself.

Chris: 51:52

I had to be a major part of keeping him grounded. Stay in school. He was an amazing athlete. Go to college I mean, he always wanted to do that because he wanted to go to the NFL, but just meaning being a part of that main ingredient that was pushing him in that direction. No, you're not selling no drugs. That's not what we're doing. So me pulling him from people who's literally leading him in that direction and it's like no.

Jonez: 52:23

That's tough when you see people pulling them in the wrong direction. They don't have no remorse. They pull them right into hell with them, right on in the hell with them, right on.

Chris: 52:33

But I fought for that. I fought for that, we broke up for that. No, no, like no.

Jonez: 52:40

It ain't happening.

Chris: 52:41

It ain't happening. Well, you got to think of where I come from. Come from the hood.

Jonez: 52:45

And my family was.

Chris: 52:46

I don't know if you heard about it, but it was all over the news. When they had that big crackdown with all the people in San Francisco had all them faces of that big federal.

Chris: 53:24

Yeah, my uncles was, oh yeah, yeah, I love you, and if we going to be together, it ain't going to be that. So he even tried doing things behind my back. I catch one of it. Nope, it's over. It is over because I loved him that much, like I love you that much, to shut it down to save your life loved him that much, like I love you that much to shut it down to save your life.

Jonez: 53:42

Yeah, yeah, actual, you got to do that. Sometimes, after jason's boss yells at him, lyric walks in. So this is the first introduction of jada pinkett's character, lyric. She walks in to get a tv. She's in her brother alonzo's truck and she's really just coming in and handling her business and leave. Right, right, jason is seeing the finest woman he's ever seen in his life.

Jonez: 54:04

He don't even really know how to act. When he sees her walking in his door, he's just like oh, his mouth is wide open. He's what they say love at first sight. He basically becomes love at first sight. I want to say it wasn't reciprocated. I don comes love at first sight. I want to say it wasn't reciprocated. I don't think she felt that way when she first saw him. I don't, I didn't see it you think so.

Chris: 54:23

I thought she. I thought she thought he was cute. Okay, I thought that because he didn't see her yet. I think that the moment that he took the time to explain to the little boy when he got down on, his knees. So not only did you talk to him, you came down to his size. Yeah, you showed like he. Just it was something different. So that's why she stood there behind him and then every time he was talking to her if you look, she had this little grin.

Jonez: 54:46

She did have you right, so she was feeling it, but coming where we coming from.

Chris: 54:50

It's like I don't know who you are exactly yet, like you cute and everything. Yeah, you nice talking to the kid, but I don't know you like that. You cute, but I don't have too many, you know what, never mind. Why am I? That's how I felt. You know, why am I even thinking this?

Jonez: 55:07

Right, right, right, you know what? And it's a shame because because of so many bad relationships and men doing women wrong, that they get in defensive mode first and women wrong that they get in defensive mode first. Even if they run into a good guy, they can't really let him in because there's been so many bad guys that's damaged her defenses. So that's part of the reason why now it's more or less like they said now we have the most men that are not in relationships now. And when they ask a lot of men, they say because women are too mean now they're just a lot meaner. No, I don't want your number. No, I don't want it.

Jonez: 55:45

And then women don't even have boyfriends. They just don't want to deal with nobody Facts, facts. They just don't want to deal with anybody. And over time it makes young men feel like it's not even worth trying. And that's where we're at right now, where I talk to a lot of young men now and a lot of them I talk to they don't have girlfriends and the first thing they say is they ain't got the time for me.

Chris: 56:09

You know what this is what I say to that right, because, listen, we just tired of people going to jail and burying you. I get it. That's a big part of it, you know what I'm saying? And then also our lives being jeopardy. So I'm married, thank God, but I had to pull mine out of that. So when I think of the other women, it's not that.

Chris: 56:31

Listen, listen, fellas, if you really want that girl who is saying no, I don't want you, she's coming off, mean she has had to live in survival, she has had to be an alpha, okay. So if you want that alpha to drop, first of all, you're going to have to be persistent. You're going to have to probably get at her a few more times, and if it's somebody who you think you only going to see that one time, you better pull out every ounce of chivalry you got. You got to do something to get her to understand that you are different in that moment. And I can almost guarantee you, if you show up and be the man you supposed to be, keep her out of survival, allow her to dwell in her femininity and not in her alpha, okay, you'll have everything you want.

Chris: 57:17

You'll have everything you want She'll be. You'll have everything you want. You'll have everything you want She'll be. She'll actually be your red what's that baby boy? Like she'll actually be, you know when he said I'm my red? Like she'll actually be there for you. She'll really be your helper, mate. But again, you cannot. She will be submissive.

Jonez: 57:34

I am submissive.

Chris: 57:35

I am very submissive.

Chris: 57:36

Most people don't think that, like when I told you I make my husband lunch for work, I iron his clothes for work, I give him facials and then when he speaks I'm quiet, not in the sense of where I don't have my voice, but I'm okay with being led.

Chris: 57:55

If you could show me that you could be a leader and I can trust you, I don't need to talk over you, I don't need to disrespect you. I don't need to do any of that if you are being who you need to be. So that's why I say you be who you need to be once you get her. But as far as how to get her, you be persistent. If you're going to see her all the time, you show her that you care. If you see her walking with a specific Starbucks every day at lunchtime, you'd be the one who go get it for her before her lunch. You have to be able to show women, and if you're not willing to just put forth some extra effort to court a woman, then you're not of her caliber anyway is how I see that that's what happened to me and my husband.

Chris: 58:37

So we did go to elementary together. We did not go to high school together but for some reason divine intervention we kept running into each other at a bus stop, at a football game, at a dance. But he decided he was going to be persistent in his pursuance of me, even though our families knew each other and we didn't even know that. So my uncle and his father was best friends but we never met through that. My mother and his mother and his auntie were friends growing up. We didn't know that. We never met through that. So he actually just stayed persistent. And even when I told him no that day to getting my number because again, I don't want to be going through this with people, I'd rather just focus on my purpose get through school. Because I had plans, I'm going to college.

Chris: 59:24

I'm not going to live this life.

Jonez: 59:25

You had a purpose.

Chris: 59:27

I had plans. So here you come, trying to interrupt my plans is how it looks, right. But he was super persistent. He did not give up. Even that night he did not give up. He stood around me, he danced with me. He brought chivalry to the equation. He brought me flowers all the time. He would come watch my performances at cheerleading. We started at 15. Very young, so even back then I was 15. I'm like no, no, no, no. So we imagine if she's been saying no since she was 15. You got to really break through them walls.

Jonez: 1:00:04

And that's it.

Chris: 1:00:05

That's all I got to say you can do it and we are ready for it, but you got to show up, thank you for clarifying that Because, like I said, this Lyric's character, you can tell that she has a definite defense wall.

Jonez: 1:00:19

Yes, something has happened to her to where she just like, like you said, she might see him as cute, but it ends right there.

Jonez: 1:00:25

Yes, it stops there, boo, she don't want to have nothing else to do with them. So jason loads up tv in her truck and he basically hollers at her and she's, you know. She says, do you need anything else? Because I gotta get my brother back his truck, like she's really letting him know, like I gotta go. Yeah, she's not, she ain't really. You know, you can call it attitude, you can call it sassiness, but basically, like you said, you know, being through so much as a woman, you just, you just put up that thing. I don't want to deal with all this drama I'll call it tough girl, flirt girl, yeah, there you go, there, you go but right, she had it in this movie.

Chris: 1:01:00

Yes, girl flirt, there's like lord. Yeah, it's like like you said, but no, but dang though, you know, get to get that little grand every now and then, but I know better, we ain't going there she had it in this movie and I remember when I first saw it.

Jonez: 1:01:16

I'm 21, 22. I felt a certain type of way about Lyric. I'm just like why is she being so hard on her bro? He's a good dude. That was me. I felt a certain type of way about her character because I'm like he reminds me of me. We just try to get through life the right way and we getting all this extra negativity on that side when I'm just trying to get to you.

Chris: 1:01:37

Yes, this extra negativity on that side, when I'm just trying to get to you, yes, and we trying to break you free from that life, because we see, like, first of all, when those when us, these girls, when we actually like, look at you and if we like date you a little bit, it's because we saw such a potential in you. We see a character, we see a different integrity that's in you.

Jonez: 1:02:00

That's not in the other ones.

Chris: 1:02:00

So that's in you, that's not in the other one. So that's why we be trying initially.

Jonez: 1:02:02

Okay, like you got, like I said, you show something so now we get to the point where josh is hanging out with rat and teddy um and they're talking to. I forgot his name, lorenz tate, little brother yes, what is his name?

Chris: 1:02:17

is he on?

Jonez: 1:02:18

the. Uh sorry, lorenz tate, we forgot your brother's name so sorry, mr tate, the other mr tate, the other mr tate, because I watch all the shows here, I know. So his character, I guess, was in prison with josh and they were cellmates or whatever. So he was trying to put him on onto another gig, stealing cars yeah, whatnot, that's right.

Jonez: 1:02:39

He saw Josh out there just like selling dope. That ain't really a gig. I'm going to put you on a real gig. But the way he approached Josh with it it was kind of a slap in the face. So Josh didn't take it serious. He's like I already got a gig. You see, I'm out here doing my thing with my boys. He's like this ain't dope, you ain't doing nothing out here with these dudes. So yeah, we get. We get to a point to where joshua is hanging with teddy and rat lorenz tates. I want to say that's his younger brother. Yeah, yeah, that's a younger brother because it's three of them. That's, it's three. It's three of them. But those two kind of look alike. The other one doesn't look like, doesn't look, doesn't look like either the other two.

Chris: 1:03:18

I like Bro, but I just want to work with Lorenz Tate so bad. I have wanted to work with him since I watched the Inkwell. Inkwell is a great movie, because for me it was like that dynamic to the Inkwell I was like, oh my God, he's a genius, I need to work with him, I need to know him. Yeah, that's huge. Oh my God, he's a genius I need to work with him.

Jonez: 1:03:37

I need to know him. Yeah, that's huge. So he gets an offer. He gets an offer from the guy who's playing his friend out of prison and he wants to put him on to stealing cars chop shop. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And Josh is not taking it serious. He's like I already got a gig. I'm out here grinding with teddy and and rat, um and, and I'm good because really josh only wants to just make enough to drink a beer. Right, he don't have a lot of high goals in his life at this point. He's as long as he makes enough money to drink a beer and do whatever he needs to do. Uh, I know at one point in time they were like in the club the girls was dancing or maybe go to a street club or something.

Jonez: 1:04:20

He just needs simple stuff at this point Right right, but his buddy from prison is trying to put him on like on, you know, get some real money, you know, some chop shop money. So at this point in time, jason walks up and the buddy from prison walks off and Rat, which is Eddie Griffith, says I don't trust that dude, you know, he just has a look about him, he don't trust him. And it was weird to me because it's like hold on, but you're the one that got him out here selling dope. You tell him don't trust him. You got him out here drinking, smoking and selling dope, right, but you telling him don't trust the other dude though, right.

Chris: 1:05:03

Because you know what? This is what he knew that one comes with death Facts, though they know what's up.

Jonez: 1:05:10

They know what's up, sure. So when Jason pulls up a rat, eddie Griffith's character says man, let's go get something to eat, I'm starving, like an Ethiopian, or something like that. So they jump in his truck and they go to the soul food spot. Yeah, and this is what I want to ask you how, in such a it seemed like they went in a very small town how he's? How hasn't Jason ever ran into Lyric? He's, how hasn't Jason ever ran into Lyric? I'm confused on that part, because the way that Rat said let's go get some soul food, the way they pulled up, like it was a normal spot, right, right, you never seen Lyric in that spot factual.

Chris: 1:05:50

That was kind of that's always had me feeling a certain type of way like I took it like this because, if you think about it, josh didn't know her brother either, true? So I'm thinking different circles, maybe different turfs in that small town Could be different because you know how the turfs be. They'll stand in one little bubble, and the only reason why. So think about this. I lived in West Point and you had Big Block, right. Do you know how close that is? I know how close, it is.

Chris: 1:06:20

It is very close. But they know each other though, right? Not everybody. So say, for instance, me my husband and me. We was right here. We bumped into each other in elementary, but that wasn't even by here. That was like all the way over somewhere else where we went to elementary together and all those years we played at the same park sometimes and didn't even run into each other.

Chris: 1:06:46

I think I may have seen him once and I was like he looked familiar, I think I know him from elementary school we had that one little interaction but never seen him again until we were 15 years old, bumping into each other at a bus stop, a high school and a dance. So all those years we never even seen each other and my uncle and his dad was best friends.

Jonez: 1:07:10

That's crazy.

Chris: 1:07:11

See, so it can happen. I mean, I guess it could I guess it could happen, but this is what I want to.

Jonez: 1:07:16

I'm glad you brought up your sibling, your brother, who you said is like Alonzo yeah, because I, even now, as a 50 plus year old man, why did it seem like Alonzo wanted his sister to be a hoe? Basically Like you're. You're chastising your sister for not giving up any sex.

Chris: 1:07:38

His character. He would have chastised her, no matter what? Okay, okay so either I'm gonna chastise you because you out here running around, or I'm gonna chastise you because you think you're too high and mighty. You know, it's one or the other, you're gonna get it, no matter what.

Jonez: 1:07:53

Okay, because I'm just like something is he does. He want his sister be in the streets. He wanted to be for the streets, he want her to be for the streets, she trying to kind of keep to herself. That's not good enough for Alonzo, no.

Chris: 1:08:04

Because he needs somebody to talk to.

Jonez: 1:08:07

And I'm going to address the elephant in the room when it comes to Alonzo. I like Tretch as an actor. He does not have a southern accent. I wasn't falling for the southern accent, tretch, I was not going for that you know what.

Chris: 1:08:23

I didn't even think about it.

Jonez: 1:08:24

If you, watch it again. Just listen to the dialogue and how he speaks. Did he try? He didn't even try okay, that's why. That's why I was like I understand, in movies sometimes you try to put somebody, that's that because at the time naughty byy, by Nature, was on fire, so I get why they put Tretch in there. You know OPP and all them songs are huge hits back then, so I get it. But it seemed like they would have had a dialect coach, like they would have nowadays.

Chris: 1:08:49

But even now I see sometimes in my, my scripts or the casting breakdowns, a lot of times it'd be like, if your accent isn't super solid, like meaning if you didn't grow up there, just use a regular, your regular voice. Really, I think because they get so tired of the pick apart on the dialects that they like if you can't get it, just don't even try.

Chris: 1:09:14

People could just figure you came from somewhere else, because I just figured Trutch wasn't from louisiana I figure he probably was selling drugs, being in the east coast, probably heading down to atlanta, going up to new york to get what he needed to get and then bringing it back like I don't know. When I saw tretch, I seen him having different type of.

Jonez: 1:09:33

That's really the only nitpick I have about this movie is like I wish they would have just worked, because he was a good, he acted well. Yeah, it's just the, the diet, the dialect, the way he said things. It was nothing southern about nothing, nothing. He just talked normal. Yeah, now, now jada pinkett was in the pocket. Oh, she was in the super southern bell. Yeah, that, I was like super southern bell. She never got out of pocket, but when it came to trench it would just kind of irritate me, like or what about when jason.

Chris: 1:10:03

Sorry, alan, because I want to work with you with tyler, but when he say I never really watched the sunset before I love you alan I don't know if nobody in the South even talking like that. That was a good one, and I used to repeat it over and over and over.

Jonez: 1:10:22

You used to repeat it, I did I did Because, see now, alan Jonez got me on you now. Okay, there's a scene at the end. Well, we're going to get to that part. Okay, we're going to get out, but it has something to do with dialogue. At the end we bet and he did not sound like he was from the South.

Chris: 1:10:41

He did that a couple times, but everything else he just was. So Southern personality, his personality was there, he got it. Yeah, he had Everything about Tretch's character was East Coast man.

Jonez: 1:10:54

It didn't feel like he was from the South. Yes, he didn't have Southern charm. It was a lot that was missing in his character. Yeah, which I don't know?

Chris: 1:11:05

see, I've never read the script. A little bit more jack on high.

Jonez: 1:11:08

Yeah, you know, I would love to read the script and see there's any side notes to where they might have wanted tresh to do this or try this, or try that. You know, you never know, but I just felt like it just looked like Tretch to me you know what?

Chris: 1:11:22

that's what they need to start doing releasing the actual movie script so we can read them too. It did, but it was like the rawness that that character needed, because he really had to be bad he had to be bad stomachs open like he had to.

Jonez: 1:11:37

Be bad yeah and you could tell he was a menace to the community because the people, everybody was scared of. Yeah, even the two dudes that was making a joke to lyric was scared of him. He was like y'all to shut up, get up out, to get up out of here. Them two grown men got up and left out of the restaurant. They didn't want no problems with Alonzo, no problems, they want no problems with Alonzo. So Lyric is getting off work. Marty, her coworker, which is Tretch's girlfriend, says she'll cover for her because Lyric says she's on her period. Yes, so, as Lyric is leaving, lyric and Jason lock eyes and that's when I seen like, oh, she might kind of be feeling him. Yeah, because it was that up and down, look yeah, wasn't a regular, look yeah, it was one of those. I was like, yeah, yeah, I was like, oh, she feeling him, she just she's just playing hard to get. Yeah, that look is. You can't mistake that look.

Chris: 1:12:37

Nah, you can't mistake that look. But see, I seen it in the first little girl.

Jonez: 1:12:40

Oh, you seen it.

Chris: 1:12:41

Yeah, because that's how I am. She's bending down playing with the kid. I'm like already, oh, he might be different from the rest he might be different. That's the first thing that's going in your head.

Jonez: 1:13:02

Oh, it might be different. You don't know her. So she, she gives him a look, she continues to walk out. Uh, he goes outside after he offers her a ride. Of course she said, no, you know, I'm waiting for the bus. Um, the bus comes, he, I guess, follows the bus, follows her home. Now, this is what I would say in 1994, you could do that. If you do that now, that's stalking. So, young men, do not do that to women now.

Chris: 1:13:26

That ain't what I meant by go get her. I didn't mean that.

Jonez: 1:13:30

That's not what she meant. If you like a girl and you see her at the mall, do not follow her home in your car, don't do that. That does not work in these days and times. You get in a lot of trouble for that.

Chris: 1:13:45

And if you show up at her job with something you think she likes, wants and it's not receptive, don't do that again either. But if she look at you like Lyric looked at Jason that's a different look.

Jonez: 1:13:58

Yeah, you know you might get to go again.

Chris: 1:13:59

Look at you like Lyric. Looked at Jason. That's a different look. Yeah, you know you might get to go again.

Jonez: 1:14:02

Yeah, you got to know the look, you got to know the look. Read the room, read the room. Read the room, read the room. So this one thing he did do right, when he followed her home, he had flowers. Yes, he did it right, chivalry, I'm telling you. So he gave her the bouquet of roses. She picked one rose, and that means something that she picked one rose and she smiled at him. So that was the green light.

Chris: 1:14:25

Yeah.

Jonez: 1:14:26

Okay, okay, I like that story. I might give you a chance. Yeah, I might, and I think that's the first time Jason actually was like oh, I think I got a shot.

Chris: 1:14:35

Right, he was like'm gonna pull out all the stops for this.

Jonez: 1:14:42

So I'm glad they wrote it that way, to where she at least kind of at least in that scene you can tell he kind of broke through the defense. Yes, right, he broke down that wall just a little bit with the rose, with the roses, and he just peeled off. He didn't bother, he just gave it a rose, let her go in the house and left her alone. Like sometimes it's all you gotta do, that's all.

Jonez: 1:15:04

That's all you gotta do because, men, sometimes we can talk ourselves out of a good one, oh very fast, oh very fast, too much like, oh.

Chris: 1:15:14

You said exactly what I need to know.

Jonez: 1:15:15

You have a wonderful day let the woman lead, don't talk too much, and let the man choose you. So during that exchange of the flower she says she wants to meet with him.

Chris: 1:15:31

I forgot the term she used when the sun next leaves footprints across the sky.

Jonez: 1:15:37

Which meant sunset on a bridge. Yes, that's literally that's all that meant. Jason didn't understand it. She eventually told him and he kind of got what she where she was trying to get to. So he met with her the next day and they sat on. They sat on the bridge. Uh, at first he didn't want to climb up because it was very high. We can't do that down here yeah she was like I thought she wanted to see me right. What she said, you said anywhere you said anywhere, you said anywhere he said.

Jonez: 1:16:11

He said he anywhere, so he climbs up, they sit up there. Once again. He almost said too much because it was kind of turning it off. He was like you know, this is boring. Whatever he was saying, she looked at him like hmm, and that bus passed by Right.

Chris: 1:16:29

Do you ever wonder?

Jonez: 1:16:30

what a bus is all the?

Chris: 1:16:32

bus yeah.

Jonez: 1:16:33

Now I don't know. Yeah, he just he wasn't interested, he just killed the whole moment, he killed the vibe and he almost ruined his relationship yeah never mind, you gotta meet her where she's at and kind of build on that.

Jonez: 1:16:51

But when you downplay where she's at you're gonna lose the woman. And he was kind of downplaying. You can tell she's an imaginative woman and she dreams Visionary. Yeah, so you can't knock her for that or you're definitely going to lose her Facts. Because for her to be the type of person that would sit there just to watch the buses and dream about where they're going, that means she definitely doesn't want to be in that town for too much longer. Right means, um, she definitely doesn't want to be in that town for too much longer. Right, like that town is definitely too small for her imagination, right, way too small. And I think over time jason kind of understood who she was and how she thought about things. Right, you know I'm saying because it didn't seem so weird and odd between them later on in the movie he kind of understood like she just one of those girls that big imagination, big dreams and this and this city's pretty much not going to hold her.

Chris: 1:17:43

And I felt like, too, he enjoyed the peace she brought. He realized that her imagination and her creativity actually brought peace and calmness to the trauma he's actually had to go through. He was going through a lot. Yeah, and I felt like it was like he knew that when he was with her, that was his moment of peace and just happiness, and everything else was just still around him.

Jonez: 1:18:05

Yeah, for sure For sure. So they leave from there and then he goes home. Josh cooks dinner and, unfortunately, josh sells drugs, drugs. So his mother was like I'm not eating this, that's right. That's right. I know where you got the money from to pay for it. I'm not eating it, but it wasn't that she wasn't. She just didn't want to eat it.

Chris: 1:18:29

She was throwing it away yeah, facts, that's just like that and I swear I think I got it from that movie. I swear, I swear, I swear it that boy said, I spent 20 on that roast right.

Jonez: 1:18:43

Things got kind of heated and he put it, he balled up his fist and he was getting ready to punch his mother in the face. Yeah, he felt rejected. He felt rejected and mad dogs start coming out of, because if jason wouldn't have, jason caught his arm in mid swing to hit his mother in the face.

Chris: 1:19:03

Didn't he say something like I can see how a man can hit you. I remember that, and she slapped him, yep.

Jonez: 1:19:10

And that's when the fist came back and. Jason came into play and pretty much saved his mother from getting beat. But just the fact that he was getting ready to beat his mother down.

Chris: 1:19:19

The same thing he absolutely despised and hated his father for.

Jonez: 1:19:23

Correct the same thing. He was getting ready to do the same exact thing and, mind you, he wasn't drunk, nope, he knew exactly what he was getting ready to do putting his hands on his mama. He could not blame it on alcohol. Alcohol had nothing to do with that. He was just rejected. He was just rejected. He was hurt. He was trying to do something nice for his mom, which ain't nothing wrong with that, right, but you got to understand the type of mom. You got Facts she not going for that, nah, she ain't going for that. She knows you sell dope and you bought this food with dope money. Facts, facts. So you have to respect the fact that she's like I'm not going to eat it.

Chris: 1:20:01

Yeah, my husband would come bring me when we were dating young. Come bring me a gift. Wait, what this is like, dkny, did he get the hat, the shirt? My question is thank you, but how'd you get this? How'd you get it? Because, however, because, however, you got it. If it ain't the way, I don't want it, I don't care what it is, I don't even want it. You could take me to the park, we, we can lay out that blanket and you could put an effort into helping make a lunch that mean more to me than those items that you bought from somebody else's family who is non-existent or tore apart. Right, because, cause I told you what happened to my dad, so I had like multiple dynamics going on with me of not wanting that for myself.

Jonez: 1:20:45

Did you hurt his feelings whenever you told?

Chris: 1:20:47

him stuff like that.

Jonez: 1:20:48

Like it deeply kind of hurt, yeah, but.

Chris: 1:20:49

I also would explain.

Jonez: 1:20:51

Okay, got you, that's important.

Chris: 1:20:53

Yeah, I would never just smash it, but initially I did because I didn't realize that it would hurt that they are out there trying to get it the best way. They know how to provide for you or to make you feel special, risking their lives for it Exactly, and so that's when I knew to just be just a little bit more loving with it. That's not how I want things from you.

Chris: 1:21:17

I love you. It can't be about the things. So you got a million other ways that you could show me that you love me than spending a whole bunch of money that you got to go out and get a certain way.

Jonez: 1:21:29

Yeah, yeah.

Chris: 1:21:31

I understand, but you have to reject it, otherwise they're going to keep-.

Jonez: 1:21:35

Oh yeah, yeah, they keep buying you stuff with drug money or whatever and stuff which makes you pretty much complicit. You're accepting it, yeah, I mean. Hey, we got to keep it real.

Chris: 1:21:47

I feel like this as women, we have to constantly stay on when we come from those elements, meaning some people get into it with, not from elements, but when you're in in those elements. As a woman, I think that we have a responsibility to not get comfortable with the fact that certain bills are being paid or, you know, we don't have no more worries and I get the car I want, like, like. Ultimately, your kids are not going to have a father. You got to stand on business because either they're going to end up dead or in jail. That's the only outcomes.

Jonez: 1:22:21

It's very rare that people make it Right.

Chris: 1:22:23

So if you really want what's best for your kids like we got to stand on business with that, like no, keep saying no, don't get complacent, and then start accepting a few gifts, start accepting a few things, no, you go out there and dig in the mud and go get it and let them see you out there digging in the mud for it and he going to be like you know what, let me go get it out the mud. I ain't got to go get it that way. Like, let's put something together so we can see how we can do this the right way. Can you help me do it the right way? Y'all got to be able to ask for that, because a lot of us we're smart, we can do the resumes, the cover letters, show you how to get out there, put you in that nice big company where you making over a hundred thousand a year even if you don't have an education. If you got a good woman, let her help you.

Jonez: 1:23:06

You're right, you're right. So Josh, I guess, eventually listens to his prison buddy. He steals a car, takes it to the chop shop and his prison buddy hooks him up with like 200 bucks and tells him that he's gonna plug him with alonzo for a bigger job. So josh, being as giddy as he was and money hungry, he like, all right, cool, two hundred dollars, just matter of fact. He said I could steal 10 of these a day. Right, he can make it two quick, two g's a day. But uh, his buddy's like, no, we, we could do something even bigger than that.

Jonez: 1:23:43

And we found out later his bank, bank, heist, right, um, so he, you can tell that josh really doesn't want to go past chop shop stuff. He really was cool with that. But his buddy kept pushing the line no, we could do this, we could do this. And so I I don't know whether this is josh being comfortable with whatever money he was making or did josh know the inherent danger of going past just chop shop stuff? You know what I'm saying? Because he really didn't want to do it, right, right, he really didn't. Because, remember, in the beginning, when his buddy was first talking to him, he didn't want to do the stealing cars, stuff, right.

Chris: 1:24:27

I remember that he was just like I'm good, right here, I got a gig, I'm good.

Jonez: 1:24:31

But his buddy kept pushing the line. Yes, topshop, pushing the line. I got a bigger gig for you, so it makes me feel like maybe you're trying to set him up for failure, because you know, josh ain't nothing but a drunk.

Chris: 1:24:46

Yeah Like why would you bring him in on something Right? Why would you? Why would you? You know he's going to mess it up, I know he's going to mess it up.

Jonez: 1:24:56

So are you setting him up to get chopped up by Alonzo, like slit in the stomach by? I mean, that was kind of weird. I'm just like you know.

Chris: 1:25:01

He's not dependable, right, that's like some of my little relatives who want to get in the business. I'm like I would never do that to you because I know you and it falls back on your reputation yeah, like I, and if, thank God, I can say, end up like Cassie now, not thank God, for Cassie's sake, I don't mean it like that, forgive me.

Chris: 1:25:24

But just meaning that, her being brave enough to expose that story, I can then tell them why I won't help you, because I see what you're into, I see the choices you're making. There's no way I can bring you in knowing that that's your future because of the choices you're making. Correct, I can't do it. I got to sleep at night, sorry.

Jonez: 1:25:43

I feel you. We get to the point to where Jason rents a bus, which is very clever, very romantic. Jason rents out a bus and picks up Lyric I love it Surprises her Even. She kept saying Jason, is it okay for us to be on this bus? Are we going to get in trouble? It's just us on the bus. It was so cute. So he takes her out for dinner. They have a nice dinner. She's very impressed because she probably didn't think he had it in him to even think that way. But he got into his bag and pulled out something nice for her. He did that, he did that, he did that. And you can tell, while they're sitting there having dinner, she's falling in love with him. You can see it at that point Like this might be the one type of look yeah, it wasn't the up and down like I want him type of look.

Jonez: 1:26:32

It was the this could be my husband. Yes, type of love look type of thing. And they have a beautiful time. Yes, they have a nice time, Quiet, quaint time, and it was a nice moment. It was a very nice moment. It was very nice. Not a lot of dialogue, but you can tell that there was a lot of love being present.

Chris: 1:26:56

It was souls connecting. Yeah, it was like looking those eyes and it's just oh yeah it was a different.

Jonez: 1:27:00

It was a nice vibe that they was having. It transitions to them taking a small boat across the river. Um, lyric is making up a story about being in paris oh, yeah, the paris story. Yes, and she wanted him to join in the story. Yes, that's when he I think that's when he figured out like, oh, I gotta be a part of her life like this.

Jonez: 1:27:25

Yes, like I can't just listen to her tell stories she want me to be in the story yes, she told one half and he had to tell the other half of the pair story.

Chris: 1:27:35

Yes, I was like that's kind of that was hella funny yeah I used to do stuff. That's why I said I'm so weird, even the girl at the uh marty when she how she reads poems and stuff that was me like I would read poems and so were you more like marty or like lyric?

Chris: 1:27:50

so I had a marty body, okay, but I had a lyric spirit got you, if that makes sense. So I had guys probably approaching me like how marty was going through but I was acting like lyric, which made it even harder right on the brothers, because they like well, wait a minute. You look a certain way. Yeah, but I have five uncles.

Chris: 1:28:14

Oh okay, so it wasn't no disrespect going on at all, and it was you, a lady, and then my mom was pursuing higher education, so a lot of times I grew up with my grandma and my youngest uncle was 14 years older than me, so I'm watching them date, date and watching them grow up, so they would have me on the phone, have me listening to them telling girls that they love them, and then they click over tell the other girl the same thing.

Chris: 1:28:42

Don't you ever be that stupid, you know. So I was being gamed up from the beginning.

Jonez: 1:28:48

So they have a beautiful day, they end up making love in the flower bed. In the flower bed. I think that was the artistic part of the director, just the way it was laid out. Yes, you know what I'm saying, because they they could have went to a motel. It's a lot of ways they could have had sex, but for them to have it right there, I feel like it was more artsy it was very artsy, very artsy, but it was dope though it was dope the way it was.

Jonez: 1:29:17

but when I first watched it, I and I knew eventually you know they're in love, they're young, it's going to be a sex scene, but I did not expect it to be in a bunch of flowers.

Chris: 1:29:28

Right With wood sticks going up Wood sticks. I'm about to ask Jada about that. Jada girl, I just want to know about that. I did not expect that love scene. Did anything go in the crack? That's me and my daughter was talking about that earlier. We were wondering, bucket naked and they was getting it, so they was getting it in.

Jonez: 1:29:47

Yeah, so I don't. I guess 94, that was something that you can probably get actors to do. I feel like you couldn't get actors to do that anymore. Am I tripping? Could you ask a young man?

Chris: 1:30:01

and young woman to do that. It has to be done in that setting, though. It has to make sense. It has to make sense A lot of times when they're asking us to do certain sex scenes, especially in a lot of the indies. It just don't make sense.

Jonez: 1:30:15

So it's more of a perv type of thing, or it's just exploitation.

Chris: 1:30:19

So like, say, for instance, the movie I did with you that like literally, I only did two other ones besides that, because I just turned those down. That was good for me, okay, meaning that it was done a certain way. It made sense to the story. These are two people falling in love. That made sense. The way Jason's lyric did it. It made sense to the story. These are two people falling in love. That made sense. The way Jason's lyric did it. It made sense, even though they were absolutely naked and that was over my head, but some reason, even though I was like, oh my God, jada, because I was young, right, so I'm having that moment but it just wasn't derogatory, it wasn't trashy, it wasn't, it made sense it actually was like they was making love.

Jonez: 1:31:02

Yeah, it was real.

Chris: 1:31:04

We got to see the evolution of them falling in love. We got to see it. It wasn't just a quick montage, it was an evolution of them falling in love, them dating, you, getting to see the effort he was putting into her. The sex made sense, it made sense, the love making made sense because, by the way, he see how that wasn't even boring, but he may love. I'm just saying yeah, I'm just saying it ain't gotta be boring a bed of flowers, hey.

Jonez: 1:31:38

So lyric goes to work and tells marty how much fun she had. And marty being a poetic woman, she is marty's trying to tell her girl you got the one girl like he, he, he washed your feet girl, I would love for a nigga to wash these feet she shows it. That's the line of the century right there.

Chris: 1:32:01

Yes, I would love for a nigga to wash these feet.

Jonez: 1:32:06

Yes, so Marty actually tells her, marty makes her aware that this is your first time making love. Yeah, you don't even realize that you made love.

Chris: 1:32:18

Your first time, yes and Ly.

Jonez: 1:32:20

Lyric didn't know that. No, she was like she knew it was special but marty's like no, no, you made love like for the first time, yes, and that's when it kind of snapped in the lyric like damn maybe I did like, maybe, maybe I did Like, maybe. Damn, I guess he is the one you know.

Chris: 1:32:38

Yeah, come with me, my love.

Jonez: 1:32:41

Yeah, so at a Juneteenth celebration, alonzo and his boys are kicking it. Josh walks up with Rat and Teddy because the prison homeboy wants to introduce him. Alonzo's kind of being lightweight, disrespectful, saying you know, y'all, whatever that little stuff, my buddy told me about it. I'm just doing this for a favor for him. That's exactly what he said. I don't need you, dude, right, I'm doing it as a favor for him, right? So Josh, being a hard dude, he like what? So it's two bulls bumping heads at that point. Right, so it's two bulls bumping heads, right, right and um, basically, it is what alonzo's saying get the hell out of my face, right, I'm trying to enjoy. The holy ghost broke, right?

Chris: 1:33:28

broke ass. Ninja broke ass, yeah I'm trying to catch the holy ghost right that that was dynamic, though gangsters receiving the word right there. So I'm trying to catch a Holy.

Jonez: 1:33:39

Ghost. No, I've been changed. And if you pay attention to the whole scene because they showed them singing and everything, alonzo and them was quiet. Yes, they were enjoying the Holy Ghost. Yes, they were. Yes, they were. They were actually enjoying the ceremony. Yes, they were Josh, and them was the one that was coming here, drunk, right, holding bottles in their hand, and all that. Alonzo was chilling. He was actually chilling For the first time, for the first time, and you had to come, mess it up. And you messed it up, pissed him off. He was probably in a good mood until you came here. Yeah, man, and not, you know he. What pissed Alonzo off was like he was like I'm trying to put you on as a favor, right, and you don't. You act like you don't care. Yeah, like you not respecting the fact that I don't need you, right, I don't need you. You are you acting like you making more money than I'm out here making? So I know and I know you not making what I'm making, right.

Jonez: 1:34:43

That not making what I make, right? That's how Alonzo was looking at it, like that's why he called him broke nigga, right? I know you broke. I'm trying to help you get somebody I'm doing. If you don't get get out my face, just get out. Let me enjoy the holy ghost yes, exactly that was.

Chris: 1:34:49

That was a dope did you keep the song that was, that was. What song was it was? I know I've been changed. Oh, wow, right, that's what I was like. How okay, yeah yeah, so I.

Jonez: 1:35:04

I guess alonzo had a change of heart, because the next scene alonzo and the fellas are in front of the house, at alonzo's house, yeah, on the porch planning out the bank robbery.

Chris: 1:35:13

He's telling what they're gonna do what him and Lyric get into it at the fairground. Before that, right Before the yeah, remember they're at the fairground and they get on that one that spin them around and Josh does something and they kind of get into it and she's telling them you ain't got to be like that with your brother, it is doing that same setting.

Jonez: 1:35:34

You're right, it is doing that same setting. Lyric and Jason are having a good time. Yes, and josh is drunk as he always is.

Jonez: 1:35:45

He sees them on a uh getting on some type of ride. That jumps on the ride. Right bum rushes on the ride. That's the first time a lyric meets him, exactly. Yes, I mean jason is introducing him like this is my brother. He all up on her, like, yeah, she only about 100 pounds. He's squeezing her all in whatever. She's not enjoying that at all. No, she's not enjoying that at all. And and at one point time he's trying to touch her knee.

Chris: 1:36:14

Or something like that she's like stop, like.

Jonez: 1:36:17

And jason is telling like dude, stop, so the ride stops, she gets off. Uh, she's pissed. Yeah, she's done for the night with both of them right, like you, let your brother violate me like this. You ain't whooped on him, it's over. But jason does check him though, and then she get mad at him. And then she is mad yeah, jason punches him, knocks him to the ground, is getting ready to hit him again. And then she's telling Jason stop, that's enough, you know you're hurting him or whatever, and stuff.

Chris: 1:36:49

And, like you said, it confused me too, like because you know why, see, see, I needed to get into that. See, I needed to get into that because, as women, right, you know what's in yours. Yes, so you got to be careful about putting batteries in the back, meaning or being upset about certain things when they are in the presence. Prime example, speaking of Miss Jada with the situation at the Oscars now Battery in the back.

Chris: 1:37:20

I got my thought about that and it is not against her because I'm the opposite of what everybody else will be talking about, but we do have to be careful of that. And so she wasn't expecting him to do it the way he did it. She wanted him to handle it the way she would have handled it, so she wasn't expecting him to get so upset, put his hands on him all in a public setting. But we got to be careful of when we tell our men that something ain't right or something we don't like. We got to add it to whatever. We got to keep in mind how they respond as individuals, as men.

Jonez: 1:37:52

that's why, going back to what I said in the very beginning, our emotions sometimes shows up in violence. It ain't always heartfelt emotion. Well, we understand where y'all coming from. Oh, he touched your butt over there at the grocery store. I'm going to go kill him. It sometimes shows up very violent. So, going back to what you're saying, be very careful about the battery you put in his back.

Chris: 1:38:16

Yes, because it might not turn out the way you thought, Right, and I feel like I mean Jada probably know Will outside of that, but I'm sure she wasn't thinking that at the Oscars he was going to get up there and actually slap him. No, of course not.

Jonez: 1:38:28

Nobody thought that I don't think she thought that Clean cut Will Smith Clean cut. No, he would never do that.

Chris: 1:38:40

When you, when you put that battery back there, it changes things.

Jonez: 1:38:41

Yeah, but will smith, I still love you. I still support everything you do sir, for sure everything you do because you're human.

Chris: 1:38:45

Up until that slap, he had done everything right in his life, I'm not about to, and that was the second offense because do you remember the oscars last the year before that, when chris was saying, um, those people who started the oscar, so white thing, he was attacking the mess and that there was no talent there. How dare they not show up when there's no talent? So he had already started a year prior to that.

Jonez: 1:39:08

So it was a buildup.

Chris: 1:39:09

It was a buildup and it was a lot of disrespect. It was a lot of disrespect and I get that we're supposed to handle it differently, but let's just say I'm not going to knock that brother for how he chose to handle it. Of course we would have wanted to do it differently, Of course, but I'm not going to make you a villain. No, no, no.

Jonez: 1:39:26

You've done too much and showed me too much. People make mistakes. You know we got to. We got to be able to forgive and forget. So when Alonzo going back to Alonzo and him planning a robbery, alonzo has everything mapped out. Josh is like what if I want to go shopping in the bank? This fool said what if I want to go shopping, meaning, what if I want to hit up the customers and take some watches and some purses and stuff? This fool, alonzo blew up on him, put the gun to his head. Right, how about you shop for this gun on your head?

Chris: 1:40:01

Why can't you focus? That was hella funny. You worried about a cheap-ass watch when we trying to get some real money.

Jonez: 1:40:07

We trying to get real money and we trying to do it in like 90 seconds. Right, you want to walk around and rob the customers in a bank?

Chris: 1:40:14

Just stop adding the stupid people to it, okay, Right?

Jonez: 1:40:17

right, jesus in a bank. Just stop adding the stupid people to it, okay, right, right. Even his homeboy out of prison was like hard-headed, just dumb. Even his partner had enough of it.

Chris: 1:40:25

Like you, just hard-headed you don't want to listen, joaquin, he's just such an amazing actor.

Jonez: 1:40:33

I know he is, he is, but Lyric overhears the plan. And that's crucial, yes, very crucial, because she tells Jason which she was not supposed to do. Right, because Jason is protective of his brother. Right, like straight up, dry snitching. Yeah, so he, literally, when she tells him she, she tells him don't do nothing about it. But, once again, you can't control a man's emotions, you cannot women, you cannot do that. She should have known what he was gonna do. Yep, because he did exactly that. Yep, he ran up on josh as he was lifting weights. Yep, and got on his head about it. Matter of fact, push the waist down on him. Yeah, I know you ain't stupid enough to rob a bank. Josh lies, lies right there in his face. You think I'm that stupid? Yeah, I really do think you that stupid. Which?

Jonez: 1:41:34

he was jason was correct you are that stupid. I just wish he wouldn't have showed up. Instead of showing up late Like bro, you could have just stayed at home. It already passed. But the way I saw it was he showed up late because it wasn't even because of Jason stopping him, because Jason didn't really stop him. That conversation was only like half a minute.

Chris: 1:41:57

He had to tug of war for two seconds because he already didn't even want to deal with Alonzo from the beginning. I got to get.

Jonez: 1:42:03

But what he did? In my opinion, what he did was he went and got drunk.

Chris: 1:42:07

Yeah, because he was mad with Jason.

Jonez: 1:42:09

Because he was mad with Jason. So he shows up late and drunk and drunk. So and it played out in the bank when he was like he punched a dude in the face and took his watch and doing all this stuff to look the dudes you came here for and with they already in the car, right, you're still in the damn bank. They had to come get him out of the right like like fool. What did you do? It need him in the threw him in the car pretty much like a hostage. You would have swear he was one of the people in the bank. That's the only way you can save those kind of people.

Jonez: 1:42:45

Kneed him in the stomach and threw him in the car Fool. We trying to get up out of here. What did you do it? It was crazy, crazy. So, alonzo, they string up Josh. He cuts him on the stomach. Josh says something to the fact of. It was your bitch ass sister, yes, who told my brother and he held me up, which was a lie. Jason was not the reason why you was late. Right Bang bro.

Chris: 1:43:13

You was late because you want to go get some drink. Right, you were not drunk when you was hitting the weights. That is clear, don't?

Jonez: 1:43:18

blame it on your brother. You was, you was, you was drunk and belligerent and you was late on your own. That's why trench said give me that damn watch high late, nigga gonna tell time right that was another bar right there.

Chris: 1:43:33

That was a great line, a great bar so he sliced him in the stomach of.

Jonez: 1:43:41

He sliced him in the stomach and surprisingly and even uh, josh's prison homeboy was like you just gonna let him go. Let him go, yeah, which is weird, because in the hood, in reality, we know that don't happen, they're gonna find you in a river somewhere right, right.

Chris: 1:43:58

I mean just for the fact of retaliation, just retaliation alone. They don't even want that yeah.

Jonez: 1:44:03

And Josh is a live wire, so you know there's going to be some retaliation.

Chris: 1:44:07

You gotta know that. But see, alonzo thought he was big stuff. That's the thing too.

Jonez: 1:44:12

His ego was like ain't nobody gonna mess with me, can't nobody touch me in this little city or whatever and stuff, so he lets him go. Josh goes home covered in blood, falls all over the house, you know, scares the hell out of his mom. She just like going through it. What?

Chris: 1:44:27

His two partners, though, like how he could tell them to get up, sit down, shut the F up, you know, yeah, yeah, they his lapdogs. Maybe he was hoping he could do that with josh I think I think he did.

Jonez: 1:44:38

I think he did, but I think josh is such so much like his he's a lot will be so much like his dad. You can't control a mad dog, hence the name mad dog. Yeah, so him having just a little bit of mad dog in him, he's never under control, right. Hence his friends, his two best friends. They could not control him. Yeah, got drunk. Yeah, even at the fair he pulls out a gun on the dude that's selling bunnies and stuff. Right, he's out of control, yeah, out of control.

Jonez: 1:45:10

And lonzo? I feel like sooner or later him and lonzo would have bumped heads oh, I knew that and somebody would end up dying. Yeah, like that. Just that's what would have happened in that, in that scenario between those two inevitable um. Jason is so hurt seeing his, seeing what lonzo did to to his brother. Now he getting ready to crash out right once again.

Chris: 1:45:32

Men and their emotions yes you have no idea how many times I had to hold my husband back from going to like something to a family member Getting ready to go crash out.

Jonez: 1:45:42

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no Like ugh, yeah, and I know how difficult it must be on women to get ready to see one of your loved ones, especially your husband, getting ready to definitely crash out, and you have to be the one to physically hold them back from doing that, because you know what the final result is going to be he going to jail, he going to die.

Jonez: 1:46:04

It's the only two things coming out of that one of the other but but as a man, I'm telling you right now, we, we just see red, yeah I know it we don't even see a end result, we just see the ultimate goal is get back in revenge.

Jonez: 1:46:18

So we see, unfortunately we just one track mind when it comes to that anger, when we get to that point and I know me myself, I'm a very calm dude, but when I get to that point you not stop me, because for you to take me from where I am right now chilling to that point yeah, facts, you've done more than just disrespect me to get me there and probably more than once Thank you yeah, yep, yep. So at this point probably nobody's going to be able to stop me.

Chris: 1:46:48

So my new one is for me. I'd be like I'm going to flee the scene before I do it. So yeah, I got that from Joseph in the Bible. Let me just hurry up and run out of here before I go back. When Potiphar's wife was trying to get on him and she snatched a piece of the plate, he was like I'm getting up out of here, so that's me. But before I blow it up, I got to go.

Jonez: 1:47:12

So Lyric has her suitcase packed because, remember, they had planned on leaving After that whole Paris romance day where they made love, they had planned on leaving. They planned a trip and get out of town and just live their lives. And Jason shows up looking like a sad puppy with blood on him, and he had to tell her I can't go. But before he told her, she saw it in his face. Yes, she's like you didn't, did you? You didn't do it. She knew it as soon as she saw the way he looked, because he was not happy. He looked like a child who had did something very wrong. She said you didn't do it, did you? He did it.

Chris: 1:47:55

You can't save a brother who ain't trying to be saved. She schooled him a little bit, she, he did it. You can't save a brother who ain't trying to be saved, jason.

Jonez: 1:47:59

She schooled him a little bit, she gave him a bar a little bit and kind of let him know like you just can't do it, you can't, you can't keep chasing after this dude. Like you can't, you will ruin your entire life doing that. Yes, facts, and she definitely wasn't going to do that for Alonzo Heck no.

Jonez: 1:48:23

Alonzo. She's like Alonzo gonna be Alonzo, alonzo, alonzo. And she says which I'm pretty sure a lot of women say in the hood she says she tired of this ghetto shit. She said, just like this, tired of this ghetto shit For real. And she just said it, just like that. And that's the first time where you felt her side of the pain, like I'm just tired of this. I'm trying to do the right thing with me and you. And here we go, this ghetto. Here we go, I swear, and my brother's already in the ghetto stuff.

Chris: 1:48:50

So it's like come on, man like don't you see this beautiful life you could create? You have a great life. You have a great life and you're going to throw it away Like that is so frustrating it's frustrating and you can see the frustrating and the pain in her face.

Jonez: 1:49:06

She did such an incredible job, especially at the end of the movie, during that particular scene, with the crying and just the emotion of I'm trying to. She said I'm trying to love you. I'm trying to love you. Yeah, but I'm trying to, she said. She said I'm trying to love you. She said I'm trying to love you.

Chris: 1:49:19

Yeah, but you making it hard, you making it hard.

Jonez: 1:49:22

That's a tough thing for a woman to have to say Like I'm trying to love you, dude, I'm trying to give you everything.

Chris: 1:49:28

I am yeah, and you making it just way too hard.

Jonez: 1:49:30

You making it too hard Every time I look up you making a wrong choice time after time, but what it brought me back to was like that's probably how Gloria fell with Mad Dog Exactly. I'm trying to love you. I gave you two boys. I'm trying to build with you. You just coming here, just acting wild, right Drunk, and beating on me. You beat me in front of our son. You ain't even taking me into the room and doing it quietly. You're doing it right in front of the boys, right in front of them, which will inherently get into a lot of times. It gets into their dna and they grow up hitting women because they saw their fathers do it or saving yeah, right, because yeah, you're right about that.

Chris: 1:50:14

Them saving ones, I'd be like boy, why don't you go get you a nice girl? Why are you trying to save every? You know? But he see a dynamic and he want to save it because he couldn't save his mom. Yeah, so then he's going to save all these women, I know. So we gotta get mental health help guys, because we even our purpose has been wrong, just misconnected in the wrong places.

Jonez: 1:50:39

We do um, so jason finally tells her the story, and now we wrap up how mad dog was killed. He tells her what happened that night. Um, he didn't mean to kill him, no, he just turned and fired.

Chris: 1:50:53

He was scared, he was a kid, he was scared.

Jonez: 1:50:56

You know, in hindsight it's kind of good he did kill him, because we don't know what he he would have done to his mom, remember he was beating on his mama yeah, maybe he could have kept beating her and killed her right. It was like it's a catch-22 right. He didn't do it.

Chris: 1:51:10

What happened would have mad dog done that night right in totality because it was out of control, because he was out of control that night that night he was on some other stuff.

Jonez: 1:51:17

Yeah, it was. Yeah, it was all. It wasn't normal mad dog. You could tell by everything that was going on that night like he kicked in the door right it was a different type of it, was a different thing it was a different thing that night.

Jonez: 1:51:30

He mad dog was gonna have what he wanted, whether she wanted to give it to him or not. So it was gonna get ugly. So maybe that had to happen and he had to kind of get rid of mad dog, to kind of, uh, bring it to a close. But anyway, he tells her and then they have a tender moment where she finally understands why he's having the nightmares and why he is the way he is about josh, you know it all comes together in the end, um, and and Jason and his mom is looking at old pictures of Mad Dog and they're going over the old pictures. When he came back from the war and she was like he used to be a nice guy, he used to be a good dude. As bad as it ended, he was a normal dude. But like you said in the beginning, he came home and it wasn't no celebration.

Jonez: 1:52:17

No celebration no help, no healing nothing.

Chris: 1:52:21

Just oh you gave your life and now you ain't got no leg and forget you nothing.

Jonez: 1:52:26

Just, oh, you gave your life and now you ain't got no leg and forget you. Yeah, it was. It was nothing there for him, which is uh, uh, demoralizing it. Just, it just hurts you to know what you gave your life for that, for that, um, jason, jason, really, it's a lot of emotion going on in that scene. Jason, he misses his father. He's crying as he's watching these pictures. He knows that dude, the nice version, he knows the good guy, and he's crying because he he only wanted that guy in his life to come back yeah like he just wanted his daddy

Jonez: 1:52:57

back. That's it. That's all he wanted. I totally get it. Yeah, he just wanted his dad back and fortunately that you know that that was never going to happen.

Jonez: 1:53:05

Even if he didn't kill him, mad Dog might have been done. He just ruined himself at some point in time. Mad Dog just gave up on life in general. He just gave up. Josh is now sitting in a bar playing with a gun.

Jonez: 1:53:20

We don't know what's going on in Josh's mind. We don't know at all what's going on in josh's mind. We find out later that basically he was going over a plan in his head on the revenge and get back, uh, for alonzo and also jason. He had found out he heard jason telling his mom that, uh, him and lyric was going to leave, so he overheard that. So in his mind he's like I gotta eliminate everybody, I gotta get rid of everybody, right, right.

Jonez: 1:53:50

So I'm assuming that night he was, he was getting really drunk to get enough courage, yes, to do what he needed to do, because this wasn't just a beat down. Yeah, he came in blazing, he was killing some people, like he was gonna end it all, yeah, that night. So he was in there getting super drunk to kind of get and you see a lot of dudes do that in real life. They're not really hard like that, but they gotta get drunk right to get them to that exactly, yeah put on that music, yeah, that that you know, that wild music, maybe some tupac, you know who knows.

Jonez: 1:54:22

And they go there. But once again rat and Teddy is right there just letting him go through all these emotions. They ain't trying to talk him down.

Chris: 1:54:32

But you do know why? Okay, they just letting him go through all this After we talked about that a little bit after I thought about it I'm like. But they also know they can't stop Josh. They can't stop the moment you say something. Y'all finna be arguing and fighting because I have and he might pull a gun out on you, like that yeah, it was like okay, I just gotta let you live, because if I say anything, it's finna be world war ii between us.

Jonez: 1:54:54

Yes, and I think they knew that and they and I probably was looking at like long he's in a corner not bothering nobody exactly we good, yeah, he hatching up a whole plan right in his mind in a booth by himself he hatching up a whole plan and um his plan was total destruction yeah, everybody got to go.

Chris: 1:55:12

The dark rider was on force everybody got to go.

Jonez: 1:55:16

uh, so they so. So alonzo and his girlfriend is having a moment having a moment that we just girlfriend is having a moment Having a moment. We just call it having a moment Relations. They're having relations in an alley or something.

Chris: 1:55:32

In an alley sis On some garbage cans, on the garbage, that that I said. Why couldn't it be in the alley without the garbage? I said they were very intentional. They were very intentional about everything that they did in that movie. One couple have love in the flowers. In the flowers in the most beautifulest place. So basically, were they trying to indicate to us that if you're moving like that, that's trash?

Jonez: 1:55:58

That's trash. I think that's what exactly you hit it on the head right there.

Chris: 1:56:02

I'm a filmmaker and a producer. We are very intentional about everything.

Jonez: 1:56:08

But even before we get to that, back at work, there was an instance where Marty told Marty told Lyric that what she has is a quiet man in a thunderstorm. She found a quiet place in a thunderstorm and that that was a hell of a thing to tell somebody. My dad would tell me that my husband that is a diamond in the rough?

Jonez: 1:56:38

yeah, it's like she, she gave her, she gave her some game. Like sis, don't, don't mess this up, don't mess it up. This dude is quiet, he's respectful. There's not a lot of dudes out there like he got a job. Yes, he respects his mother. Come on now, jesus. He's checking the boxes. Do not throw it away, because he has love for his brother, because really his only fault was he just kind of overloved his brother too much, a little bit too much, too much just a little bit too much, because he felt like he had to be responsible.

Chris: 1:57:14

He just he's the older brother.

Jonez: 1:57:16

You know it's a lot of pressure on and you see a lot of people go through that. The older siblings, yes, have to take care of the younger siblings. You just talk about, about yourself, so you grow up with that. You always feel that responsibility. Even when y'all become adults, you feel like you still have to take care of them and my older brother and sister from my bio dad.

Chris: 1:57:34

they call me they big little sister.

Jonez: 1:57:36

Wow, see, see, that's a good, that's a good point. So Josh goes to Alonzo's house and we, getting back to Alonzo, left with his girlfriend to have to have sex, to have relations. So now is it's Alonzo's homeboys in front, and Lyric is upstairs. She's on the balcony.

Chris: 1:57:58

Right, but I do want to say how, when he didn't have protection, she was like are you going to butter them up? He didn't have protection. She was like are you gonna butter them up, the biscuits, when they come out the oven? She was like no protection no glove, no love.

Jonez: 1:58:12

Okay, she was on top of that, yeah, yeah, no glove, no love, no love. She was smart for that, ladies, and she loved alonzo.

Chris: 1:58:17

Yeah, but as you know, she was out there, she didn't have, no, no kids at all at all at all you hear that, ladies, she was she, but she was in love with Alonzo.

Jonez: 1:58:26

She was Matter of fact, at some point in time in the movie she said he might not be much, but he all I got. And I don't know if I feel sorry for it, because I'm like, damn, that's all you got. Yeah, this is the best you can do.

Chris: 1:58:39

I didn't know how to feel. I was like do I feel like whoa or do I feel like sad? I feel sad for her.

Jonez: 1:58:45

I really feel sad for her because I'm like you're a beautiful young woman with a job. I'm pretty sure she probably had her own spot, had her life together and Alonzo was the best you could do. Good God, Leave the town please. If that's the best you could do, leave, Just leave, Just leave. But I get it. You know women and emotions. She might have really loved.

Chris: 1:59:06

Alonzo yeah, I was in love with Alonzo. I think she was. Yeah, she was in love with him, because you can even see how close she was with Lyric. I feel like that was a testament. And Lyric liked her because she's on the one and she knows that this is probably the only good thing. Good that my brother got going.

Jonez: 1:59:30

He, good thing, good that my brother got going. He ain't gonna get nothing better than this. And they were like this and they were marty. So you're right. You're right, her and marty were close. So josh shows up at the house and and lyric sees him on from the from the window, from the window, and she's looking at him and they're looking at each other. But then he raised the guns up. She's like oh, it's time to go right. She runs immediately. This is what I want to say. Lyric was kind of foul for this, though she didn't warn the dudes at the bottom right. This dude was running up on her with a gun, lyric said every man for himself right, she saw.

Chris: 2:00:00

She saw, um, um, what's her brother name? Again, lonzo, lonzo. She saw, lonzo was gone.

Jonez: 2:00:06

My brother ain't down there, I'm, she was gone she didn't scream nothing, she didn't say hey, his friend's at the bottom, this dude is about to kill y'all. Yeah, she cut, she cut. So essentially, they got blindsided. They never saw it coming. He just walked up and started shooting them and the cold part about it he killed his own friend. The dude in prison yeah, that's your partner.

Chris: 2:00:29

Yeah, that is your friend. Yeah, you're the one who brought me here. You the reason, you, the reason you the reason, so you got to go tell.

Jonez: 2:00:38

You the reason, and that little dude was trying to make it up them steps. He's like come on, come on, legs, work, get up them steps. He's like come on, come on, legs, work for me legs.

Chris: 2:00:48

I mean that's not funny. And it was like, oh man, damn. And now, and tretch and marty's still in the alley, they still in the alley matter of fact, they kept showing them in the alley.

Jonez: 2:00:54

They're cutting in between murder and sex right murder, murder and sex it was. It was like I said it was very artsy the way they did this movie. You could tell that it, like you said, it was intentional. I said it was very artsy the way they did this movie. You could tell that it, like you said it was intentional.

Chris: 2:01:07

I was a lot of stuff was intentional. It was intentional, I feel like they were very intentional, because they gave us the gritty that we needed, but it was so many lessons attached it was a lot of every single thing, like there was so many jewels and I could tell they didn't want to just give us a hood story, they wanted to give us consequences and also they wanted to give us a real young love story, which we didn't have a lot of back then.

Jonez: 2:01:32

for our generation in the early nineties, we didn't have love stories. No, it was the bomb. Yeah, we didn't have any love story. I mean, even in, even in. What was that?

Chris: 2:01:42

boys in the hood there was really no love story, that was more gangster yeah.

Jonez: 2:01:48

So that's kind of all we had at that point in time for that generation. We didn't really have a movie to show. We didn't have a Romeo and Juliet movie for our generation in the 90s. Eventually we started having Inkwell and stuff like that. Those movies came Best man stuff like that.

Chris: 2:02:05

Holy Justice yeah.

Jonez: 2:02:07

But initially it wasn't really a lot of good stuff out there to show two young Black people in love and what it actually looks like in reality.

Chris: 2:02:18

And fighting the world, the adversity, trying to hold that together.

Jonez: 2:02:21

Yeah, so I'm glad they kind of got artsy with it and made it feel special, beautiful.

Chris: 2:02:27

Yeah, it was beautiful it was. It was actually a very well shot movie I would like to work with the writer of that film. Yeah, it was great. I'm gonna go look it up.

Jonez: 2:02:35

So when alonzo shoots his, shoots the two guys at the bottom. I mean not alonzo. But when josh shoots alonzo's friends, uh, he goes to find Lyric. She's hiding in the closet. He's looking under the bed. He raises up the covers. I'm like she's not under the covers, dude. Clearly she's not laying in bed under the cover. He just gone at this point, but you know me, I would have put pillows in there.

Chris: 2:02:58

I would have been great, I'll call them distractions to get out that house. She creeps the door, she gonna creep out the door why he's right there. My daughter just said that I was like I don't know why she did that.

Jonez: 2:03:12

It doesn't make any sense. He didn't even have to run to catch her, he just said come here.

Chris: 2:03:16

You're right where you going come here, why they do that like that, why he couldn't like walk all the way out the room and she tried to sneak out. I was just like they made it a little bit. That was the only part.

Jonez: 2:03:27

Yeah, everything else they made a little bit too easy how he caught her at the end so at the same time, jason is understanding what's going on. So him, rat and teddy are driving to get to alonzo's house. A train stops him. Jason jumps out the car, goes past the train tracks and runs. He on feet all the way there. He gets there, he. He didn't bring a gun. I think he took one of the other guys guns when he gets there. So now there's a standoff where Josh has the gun to his girlfriend and he's telling him don't make me do this again don't forget the again.

Jonez: 2:04:04

Make me do this again. And Make me do this again. Don't forget the again. Make me do this again. And this is the part that I was trying to get to with his, his dialect. He went straight New York dude. At that point in time he had no country accent at all. He was like I'm tired of your shit, josh. It was no country accent to that at all. He just started talking normal, in a normal angry voice, telling Josh he's tired of running after him, covering up for him, cleaning up his mess. He pretty much let it all out that. Look, I'm tired of this, I'm tired of you, I'm tired of this, and put the gun down. Let her go. Basically, let her go.

Chris: 2:04:44

Matter of fact, he did say let her go.

Jonez: 2:04:47

I'm tired her go taking stuff from me. Yeah, let her go.

Chris: 2:04:48

This ain't got nothing to do with her. Let her go. Then he tried to play to his mental health by saying it's just gonna be me and you yeah it just so.

Jonez: 2:04:55

He even tried to play, which was smart. It didn't work, but he didn't hold it long enough.

Chris: 2:05:00

Yeah, he didn't. That's how I felt like, bro, you were supposed to hold that a little longer you could have got through.

Jonez: 2:05:05

But I hope, because it was he started, he was starting to listen.

Chris: 2:05:09

He was, I feel like he didn't hold it long enough. He definitely did not hold it long enough. He didn't. He could have. He could have did that.

Jonez: 2:05:15

I actually do think he accidentally shot Lear. I don't think he meant to shoot him.

Chris: 2:05:20

I think he accidentally just popped in because his reaction was like, oh, I did not mean to do that it was so character though, like oh, I didn't, but oh well, that's kind of like how I felt.

Jonez: 2:05:34

After the fact he was like, oh well, but initially it was like oh, it was like a kid who dropped.

Chris: 2:05:41

Yeah, a juice or something.

Jonez: 2:05:42

A juice or something. Yeah, it was like oh, oh I didn't mean to do that.

Jonez: 2:05:49

he was desensitized, yeah, but pdisto, I've had conversations with friends saying that what really happened in that last scenario was that josh might have killed jason and lyric and himself, and they just wrote it as the way it is because and this is why I'm gonna say this and it sounds and himself, and they just wrote it the way it is because and this is why I'm going to say this it sounds crazy. When they came out of the house, nobody paid attention to him carrying a shot. Woman out of the house.

Chris: 2:06:16

They did not. They didn't even look at them. So you felt the same thing. I felt, I was like where's the reaction?

Jonez: 2:06:24

That's the conversation me and my friends had about it. That's how deep we same thing I felt, which means they could have been experienced. Yeah, that's where that's. That's the conversation me and my friends had about. That's how deep we get with jay's lyrics. We was like maybe they got killed in the house and that's why nobody paid attention to him, because he walked past the ambulance and the police and nobody said you need help.

Jonez: 2:06:40

Yeah, like she, she shot nobody ran, no everybody was just like even alonzo pulled up yeah, go to his sister. He went to his homeboys, right, like he did not see jason walking with his sister I never took it to the next level, but I thought if the response was weird? But I did not think about.

Chris: 2:06:58

Think about that and then they actually got to have the life that they wanted because they got on that bus, oh see, so see we there.

Jonez: 2:07:07

So what we saw was them essentially in heaven going on the bus to where they were supposed to go to, because there's no way nobody outside paid attention to him walking with this right I tripped off of that.

Chris: 2:07:22

think about that. I think if I would have watched it right now again, it probably would have hit me, but just a long time ago I wasn't there to even think that deep.

Jonez: 2:07:35

They did not see him walking with her. They did not. They paid attention to everything else except that. And when Alonzo pulled it. This is what made me come to the final decision. Alonzo pulled up and went to his homeboys Jason's still walking with his sister. He never even looked at them. He went straight to his homeboys and started crying about them.

Chris: 2:07:53

I gotta watch that again. They probably rewrote that.

Jonez: 2:07:57

They probably rewrote it, I think, josh in the original script or it was their intention. I think the original intent of the ending was everybody dies. I think Josh killed himself, his brother and her, and I think they probably did a screening test and the crowd was like uh-uh, that's too sad, that's too much, we ain't doing all that, no. And they said rewrite, they get away. Josh kills himself and the crowd was like okay, that's more like it. Yes, that's more like it.

Chris: 2:08:26

Yeah.

Jonez: 2:08:27

Because I think, from the way it looked, they were ghosts.

Chris: 2:08:32

They were ghosts, dang. You just hit me, yeah, because I tripped off a ain't. Nobody gonna run to get her out his arm, to get her in the ambulance, like I had that moment, damn there's.

Jonez: 2:08:40

Damn those people standing right there consoling Teddy and Rat. They didn't even say nothing to the girl that got shot, wow. And then, in the very next scene, they were on the bus. Yes, so it's like they went into heaven.

Chris: 2:08:51

They got to where they got to. I'm about to go back and watch that ending Because I did trip off of it, like I said, but I didn't put. That's just my take y'all Today I would have done.

Jonez: 2:09:04

I could be wrong. That's just my take. I'm just saying.

Chris: 2:09:06

You know what I don't think he wronged, because I literally will watch that scene. You guys like ain't nobody Like y'all got a hip lyric. Why he walking so slow? That was my biggest thing, you know, she shot.

Jonez: 2:09:30

She shot near her. Slow you walking hecka slow. Aren't you trying to save her life? Why aren't you guys running up to her.

Chris: 2:09:33

Where's the ambulance? So I had those thoughts, that intensity with it, but at that time I wasn't where I am now. He should have been trying to save her life, but he wasn't, and why?

Jonez: 2:09:37

Because they were spirits. They were spirits which would have been in a novel, in a book. That's how you ended in a book, but in a movie people don't really want to see that. That's a horrible tragedy. Ending to a movie, yeah, a whole life tragedy, yeah, and I know the people in the audience are like boo, we want hope, we need a little hope. Yeah, we just saw these two people in love making love in the flower field. Now you want to kill them.

Jonez: 2:10:05

Right, and they went back, did the screen test. It was like no, we got to write it in where they just got away.

Chris: 2:10:09

Yeah, I really got to thank them, thank all those filmmakers for making those movies back in the day, because people like me who come from those places and worse, we need, we need to be able to see those stories of making the different choices to have different outcomes. I think that you know, people feel like they got to be the stripper because that's what they see, you know. But if somebody like me who say I grew up in the hood and I went and got it out the mud, I didn't get up on the pole, none of that, not to knock the people who felt that that was their way, it just wasn't mine and I was sure of it. No, that's doesn't mean that my walk wasn't painful.

Jonez: 2:10:53

It was complicated. We needed those movies for that time, yeah, and even now. Those movies mean more to me now than ever, because you get to see. You get to see a lot of stuff play out now. And now dealing with mental health. See a lot of that stuff play out now and now dealing with mental health.

Jonez: 2:11:07

We've been talking about mental health the whole time and what we saw in Mad Dog. You still seeing a lot of people right now. You see Mad Dogs right now and they all need help right now. All the homelessness going around, those people need help. They need help right now. So we see a lot of that going on. So now we're at the end Scale, from one to 10, with seven being good, eight being great, nine being excellent and 10 being perfect. No flaws, what would you give it?

Chris: 2:11:43

I would give it a nine. Okay, just because I can't, I feel like we can't, I feel like I can't give anybody anything perfect because, well, I guess I can't say that because the ending, maybe the ending is whatever the person needed it to be.

Jonez: 2:11:59

Yeah.

Chris: 2:12:01

The viewer right, our own perception versus their intent. Yeah, yeah, I can almost give it a 10 for me because, like I said, it was so influential. I saw myself in Jason in Lyric, and not the mom per se, but kind of the mom when I'm rejecting gifts from family members or a spouse. That's getting it the wrong way. So I don't know Either you could look at it, watch that movie and be like I'm going to take everything good out of it, because I recognize these dynamics in my life. I know I don't want to be like Mad Dog. How do I not end up like Mad Dog and Josh? How I go get help? Do I want to be like the mom? Do I not want Each character?

Chris: 2:12:47

I feel like if you saw yourself in it or had a close family member or friend, I feel like it did something to you. That movie hits you different and you knew that everything is a choice. That's what that movie did for me. It taught me that everything is a choice. You got your dynamics, you got your adversity, but you got a choice right Because, think about it Josh and Jason had the same exact situation. Jason's was actually worse because he's the one who killed his father, yet he's not making the choices that Josh made Choice. We don't get to say how things affect us, but we do get to say how we deal with it.

Jonez: 2:13:26

That's a fact, that's a fact. Nine, yeah, I would say me personally, I would say eight and a half and the half. The reason why I can't go all the way nine is Tretch's character not being Southern. That bothers me, me and even alan payne having certain parts where he's not saying it correctly yeah yeah, so that's it. That's the only thing that stopped me from being a nod, other than that it's a great movie.

Jonez: 2:13:53

I will always love and and cherish. This movie is one of the movies when I was moving and grooving and stuff, so it meant a lot to me at the time. Still means a lot to me now. Um, unfortunately it came from a real place with the director doug mchenry's daughter's name is lyric, so that's where the name came from okay but she was tragically killed in an accident while pregnant.

Jonez: 2:14:18

So it came. It came with some real-life tragedy, you know, um, but the name Lyric was actually his daughter's name, wow, so that's where it came. That's where they came from. So, jonez, name of the show was Main Ingredient. So I need you to tell me what is your one main ingredient in Jason's Lyric that made you love it and give it a nine Choice.

Chris: 2:14:43

Choice made me love it, because everybody had choices. But I think that the ultimate choice was Lyric, demanding that he didn't take that path or live that life or try to save somebody. Yeah, choice, everybody had a choice. Lyric had a choice on what kind of man she chose to date. Unfortunately, he was connected to his brother, but the brother had choices. Then we get to see Jason and Josh. They had the same experiences. Jason's was worse, but Jason made different choices. Ultimately, it gave him a better life. So I just feel like everybody had this moment where they had choices and it was like you either got to see victory or consequences.

Jonez: 2:15:33

Right. What about the mom, Gloria? Do you think she had a choice?

Chris: 2:15:36

I do think she had a choice, but not so much just because there wasn't a lot of talk around mental health back then. So I feel like a lot of our people got caught up in that dynamic. But I felt like if she did have that, she still had one though, right, Just because Explain. Well, I feel like you could see the anger in Josh from when he's young. You could see that anger?

Jonez: 2:16:06

Yes, we talked about that.

Chris: 2:16:07

Yeah, you can see that. You could see the choices he's making all along the way. I think that while he was younger, she could have did something, put her arms around him.

Jonez: 2:16:17

She could have hugged him more.

Chris: 2:16:19

She could have just loved on him more, because the only thing that could break that type of anger and hatred is love, is love, yeah, that's the only thing. So she could have definitely loved on him more when he acted out, not met him with that same type of animosity and aggression. Right, because even as an adult, every time he messed up, she always met it with disappointment, anger, you're this, you're that with disappointment, anger, you're this, you're that. She spoke death and not life, even though don't get me wrong, she was doing the best she could, right. But again, those tools, she could have been saying I know you're better than that, I know who I raised. She could have been getting them into Positive reinforcement, positive reinforcement, speaking life. That's so important Because a lot of times, right, our kid do something is like oh, you're just disrespectful, that's not who I raised.

Chris: 2:17:11

I know who you are, I know who. I've been watching that whole time and that's not the kind of decisions you make. You don't respond like that, you don't act like that. I know who you are. I want to see something different because I know that you can. I want to see something different because I know that you can. So it's a choice to speak life.

Chris: 2:17:26

But again, if you don't have the tools, you don't know, but I'm sure she was going to church. I saw that heavily in there. So somewhere along the line, instead of choosing right, because the word says, be a doer right, a lot of us are reading, we're watching, but we're not actually doers. We're lukewarm, we're not on fire. So if the character was actually reading it she would have knew that every time her son disappointed her of. I know therapy wasn't big back then, but I'm sure she heard of it and seeing the anger that was in him, that would have terrified me as a mother. I would have been afraid that the kid was going to do something to me in my sleep, anything because it was a lot of anger.

Jonez: 2:18:18

It was a lot of anger.

Chris: 2:18:19

You know he was like this it was a lot, it was there, yeah, it was a lot, it was there, yeah, it was a lot. And so she could have gotten him some help, she could have loved on him more, she could have spoke life over him much more when he was younger. But I could only imagine that the dynamic of being a single mom, not knowing much about mental health, struggling having this kid that got this dynamic that also reminds her of a man, the man who put his hands on her. But it was probably hard. And most of the time when she looked at Josh, I'm almost certain that she saw him as a. You saw it, yeah, yeah. So it kind of probably put up a barrier in between the more that she could have done in the midst of disappointment.

Jonez: 2:18:58

And you know a lot of times and we saw it in this movie she never had another man. So a lot of times that stops women from moving on because of all that trauma. Even after Mad Dog got killed and the boys grew up, she still was never in another relationship. And you see that in real life a lot, a lot of women never get back in another relationship.

Chris: 2:19:20

Because they know one more of that will break me.

Jonez: 2:19:23

I can't.

Chris: 2:19:23

I got to be solid for these kids. Correct See, fellas. That's why she mean Is it connected? So you got to show her, you something different.

Jonez: 2:19:31

It's kind of connected, because I think that was intentional too in the movie that they never put another man in her life. I love that, though, to just show like her kids was everything, and now she's dealing with a good kid and a bad kid and nightmares and all this other drama and stuff, and she might have been in mentality like I'm not gonna bring another person into this this is bad.

Chris: 2:19:52

They all, they all got ptsd yeah.

Jonez: 2:19:55

So it's like her mentality could have been like I wouldn't. I wouldn't feel right bringing another man into this who's who whose life might be okay. Now he got to come in here and deal with my son, who's mentally dealing with some stuff, and even my good son still got some PTSD, so it's like a new man got to deal with all that stuff. It's a lot of baggage. It's a lot of baggage and I feel like she might have been the type of more responsible woman to say I'm not going to bring nobody in on this Facts.

Chris: 2:20:27

Like I'm not going to Facts. That's why I said don't think for two seconds. I got something bad to say about Gloria. It's just not having the tools, you can't do what you don't know.

Jonez: 2:20:35

Yeah. And then they didn't give her no homegirls, no aunties, no mamas, so essentially she was doing this by herself, yeah, which I think another thing that was intentional they didn't put any female support, any woman support around her to say girl, you need to do this. Girl, come over to my house until he get his stuff together.

Jonez: 2:20:56

She had none of that, none of it Two boys, a job and mad dog. That was literally her whole life. Yeah, you know what I'm saying. So which that makes sense, like choices, and even gloria, they all had choices. They all had choices and I'm I'm definitely big on choices. Like me, growing up in the town, like I, I had a lot of partners that went to jail, got shot and killed. So dope, all types and all this stuff started like when I turned like 12, a lot of my friends started doing whatever they started doing. I had choices. At that point, thank the Lord for John Ellis he was not going for it.

Chris: 2:21:31

My pops was like, oh no, I was like yo, you can tell, and I don't know, your pops was just always dope, but I just I'm like man. Look how supportive he is of his grown son too. I can only imagine how it was when you were little, oh really. But it was just like the love, the dynamic he just impressed me.

Jonez: 2:21:52

I was like Solid dude, solid dude, and I always give my dad props because I know how hard it was for men in the 70s and 80s to raise a young son and even dealing with being in a marriage. Marriages go through the ups and downs too, for him to stay and raise his son is. I can't thank him no more than that. I knew a lot of dudes whose fathers were like I'm out, me and your mom ain't working out and I ain't even going to deal with you, no more.

Chris: 2:22:25

They left and he stayed he gave me the best hot link I ever ate in my whole life. I swear he did not a yeah, no, you know it. I talked about that hot link for so long. Like his barbecue was legendary, like no, I always give him a lot of.

Jonez: 2:22:46

I always give him a lot of props. I always give him a lot of props for staying, because I know even now, as a grown man in second marriage I'm on my second marriage I know how tough marriages can be when you're in the wrong one, and whether you're in the wrong one or the right one, you're going to have ups and downs and a lot of people leave doing the ups and downs.

Chris: 2:23:04

They don't try to work it out. They don't try to go to therapy Nothing.

Jonez: 2:23:08

And the fact that him and my mother did have ups and downs like every couple. He stayed. Yes, it was never a I'm going to leave.

Chris: 2:23:15

I'm sorry that is huge in character and integrity for me, because it's so easy to walk away when it's tough.

Jonez: 2:23:22

It's extremely easy.

Chris: 2:23:24

For my husband getting shot, me having brain surgery. That's two things that we both like. Of course we had our whole life.

Jonez: 2:23:31

That could have ended marriages. Yes, those two things could end it all.

Chris: 2:23:34

Yes, because you think about it two people going through stuff in their health. Where's all the money?

Jonez: 2:23:39

coming from? Where's the money?

Chris: 2:23:40

coming from. So then you add a new dynamic of where it's like you know you're running through savings and things like that, but also him having PTSD, me going through what I'm going through, not even knowing what's wrong with me, yet losing my hearing. Like, yeah, you go through those ups and downs and there's these moments, but ultimately you know you figure out a way to stick together whether you go get help, you go to the counseling, you listen to your wise elders.

Chris: 2:24:10

It was a lot of that wise counsel. It was a lot of wise counsel.

Jonez: 2:24:14

And ultimately you got to stand on love. Like I love this person, I'm not going to leave them when they are hurting the most. Exactly, what does that say about your character?

Chris: 2:24:24

I went to join group therapy, oh wow, so that I can know how to support somebody who has PTSD.

Jonez: 2:24:30

That's dope, that's dope.

Chris: 2:24:32

But that was from the, the instruction and advice of my mom Okay, go go to a group therapy to know how to support him. Yeah, and I was like, so what you trying to say I don't know how to support. But then again it always go back to what is that? What do you call that Commandment? Honor thy mother and father. What does honor mean? Some people just give it all the time. But when she says it, even though God, okay, but I'll go take it and I'll say okay, what is the truth in this? What can I do? But yeah, I went to group therapy to support and help him, took him to every because he got shot in his chest, so it went in and out, so he lost a piece of his spleen. They went into areas to do it.

Jonez: 2:25:26

Can we talk about? Can we? Is it okay to talk about how it all ended, with the guy who did it?

Chris: 2:25:34

So he in March 15th he got sentenced. So he did. It was all on tape. His wife had a written statement to the police. There was witnesses, the camera was, so it's the same. I don't know if I'm supposed to say that.

Jonez: 2:25:49

I don't want to get you in trouble or anything.

Chris: 2:25:52

Because there is other things that we're dealing with beyond that.

Jonez: 2:25:57

My main thing is did the guy get sentenced? Yes, he did.

Chris: 2:26:00

He's sentenced and he is under the jail.

Jonez: 2:26:03

That is great.

Chris: 2:26:04

At the age he did it, so he was 65 when he got sentenced, oh good lord Racist drunk, entitled 65? 65, you ruined your whole life.

Jonez: 2:26:15

Who crashes out at 65?

Chris: 2:26:17

Ruined his whole life Ruined his whole life. I felt bad for his wife. His son was like a pastor too, but the saddest part is, as you read all these character witnesses, we going through trial and he could have been like this. If this is what you guys are able to say after he almost murdered somebody, that just shows that the entitlement came from you guys just allowing him to do whatever he wanted to do.

Chris: 2:26:42

You're enabling him. You're not saying anything. You're allowing him to. You're a to do. You're enabling him. You're not saying anything. You're allowing him to. You're a pastor. I'm afraid for you to even be a pastor if you're able to write what you just wrote. I don't care if that's your father. You could have wrote it in a way that just made sense. You wrote it like he was this angel. He just almost murdered somebody. He almost destroyed my life, ruined my daughter's education, halted my career, and you're writing about him like he's an angel. No accountability, nothing for what he actually did, for no reason. You weren't. You know how some people like poke you or do something for it to come their way. You did this for nothing, bro, because you were mad that you had to pay for your parking.

Jonez: 2:27:29

When you first told me, I said I know she got to be joking when she said this was about that.

Chris: 2:27:35

He was entitled. I'm like there's no way I am a VIP, I vote this way and you're probably here because of me. If you just knew the stuff this man was saying all on camera poor piss, poor spirit, character, everything, um, and he's yeah 65.

Jonez: 2:27:55

He probably been moving his whole life that way. Yeah, he didn't just start being that way. That's what I meant by reading these character letters in that way y'all wasn even like.

Chris: 2:28:03

if y'all know he almost killed somebody, you could have at least even acknowledged that he almost killed someone. They act like he did nothing wrong, that he was just this angel, and it's like are you watching?

Chris: 2:28:17

This is the son and the mother, Son, wife, friends pastor, all these people, and it's like you do know what he did. Did you see the tape? Like you know what he did and you don't even bring accountability to what he did. One person that wrote him a character letter, who was like a distant friend, at least acknowledge what happened to my family. It's like do you realize that they're reading this in front of us?

Jonez: 2:28:42

They're reading this out loud in front of us Very disrespectful, so us Very disrespectful, so disrespectful, very disrespectful. Like he didn't do nothing.

Chris: 2:28:50

That's why I told my husband I just respect you, I love you so much. You did the right thing when you needed to do it. You had to bite down on your ego and your pride as well, and then you had to go through something like that and still be able to heal yourself with me. You'll always have my respect. That's major. Like you have overcome so many obstacles, you could have been anything in them streets. You could have easily been Josh Easily Almost was a few times. You are a dynamic man. You are a king.

Jonez: 2:29:31

It's Choices Going back to choices.

Chris: 2:29:34

The main ingredient yeah.

Jonez: 2:29:35

Choices. Choices is big and, like I said, I have a lot of friends and family who made a lot of wrong choices and it's it's sad to see how they play out in the end, but you almost knew where it was going to end off the choice that they made you. Almost 99% of the time, you already know where it's going to end If they keep going that route. It's hard to convince them where it's going to end, but you know it.

Chris: 2:30:03

I know it, I just see it. I know it, I just know it, you see it, you know it. Do you know, my husband only got one friend.

Jonez: 2:30:08

That's it.

Chris: 2:30:08

Just one friend that's still alive from when he was younger. There is two of them in jail, okay, but everybody else is dead. His one friend who moved to Texas because he went to his mom, moved to Texas and he went to Atlanta, to Clark Atlanta, then he moved to Texas. But he has a beautiful family, beautiful wife, children, beautiful home, businesses and it's like all of you guys. All of you guys can have that. You can have it. It's in you, it's literally in your DNA. Stop letting them tell you the opposite. It's in your DNA what you got access to. But you got to make the choice. You got to believe, you got to hold on to God, hold on to somebody who believe in you. But you can be Jason if he actually lived and it wasn't the ending that we thought be Jason and Larrick.

Chris: 2:31:05

You do not have to be Josh, you do not have to be any of those other people. You can have that beautiful life white picket, fence, beautiful house, beautiful wife, money, businesses, everything. Because if you got it to get it in the street, I promise you you way smarter than people that's running businesses. You just don't know it yet, that's a fact, that's a fact.

Jonez: 2:31:20

Facts. So, like Jonea said, choices, I want everybody to think about choices. Facts. So, like jonea said, choices, I want everybody to think about choices. Um, my main ingredient would be the screenplay. I really love how it's written. Yes, I really love that. Um, they, they, they didn't. It wasn't filtered. It was like everything that needed to be said was said, all the words on the page needed to be said to play the story out the way it played out, and I just really liked the screenplay. I'm really a big fan of the screenplay. It was really written really well, definitely directed well. But I would say my main ingredient is the screenplay and I'm sad to hear that you know what happened to Doug McHenry's daughter, lyric, the real Lyric, lyric McHenry.

Jonez: 2:32:08

But you know, tragedy happens in real life and it's the way we get through it that makes us stronger and makes us better people. So you know, rest in peace to Lyric McHenry and much love and respect to the McHenry family. But that movie, jason's Lyric, is always going to be a special movie. It's always going to be a special movie. I got about 10 movies that will always mean a lot to me because of the age I was when I saw them it's like an imprint in my head.

Chris: 2:32:38

I swear I want to come back and do Poetic Justice.

Jonez: 2:32:41

That's one of them. This one is another right here. It's going to leave an imprint in my head. I can be 100 years old. It's going to mean something to me more than anything else.

Chris: 2:32:51

I call it seed planting. Seed planting Right, because, yeah, it show up all throughout your life, yeah all throughout your life.

Jonez: 2:32:57

So, yeah, I agree.

Chris: 2:32:59

So, jonez, mrs Kane, yes, Mrs Lewis, mrs Kane, yes, mrs.

Jonez: 2:33:04

Lewis. Mrs Lewis, I'm sorry.

Chris: 2:33:05

Lewis, because I used my maiden name for a long time. Yeah, mrs Lewis.

Jonez: 2:33:13

It's like it's time to switch it over. Jonez Lewis, y'all. Jonez Lewis, the married. Jonez Lewis, 20 years on, mine.

Chris: 2:33:24

So won't you go ahead and tell the people where they can find you? Well, you could definitely find me on Facebook, instagram. My name on those are Jonas Cain, the actress. On Twitter and TikTok. I'm just Jonas Cain. Thank God for a unique name and make sure you guys keep your eyes open for 17. That's going to be coming out soon. Me and my husband dynamically did that together and I co-wrote it with Amber Sandifer because she's married now. So, mrs Sandifer and yeah, like 17 is just like Chris said is real. I call it gritty gospel. That's what me and Al Amber.

Chris: 2:34:07

I call her Al. That's what we coined it. We was like what can we coin this? Because it's so real, it's so authentic, it's so just like these films that we talking about. It's truth, it's truth, it's truth, but it's gritty gospel because, even though we're not serving or force feeding you, god, throughout the whole movie, you understand that, like the mental health aspect of it, the alignment, part of it, just even the faith and speaking over yourself, what alignment looks like on a daily basis is like giving in the end, but still not in a cheesy way. It's like given in the end, but still not in a cheesy way. It's so authentic, it's like us, like how we real, we love God. We don't force feed it, but it's such a part of us is in there, so that's why it had to have been in there. Amber's a PK. Okay, you know PK. Shout out to the PK. Yeah, she a PK, but we experience real life.

Jonez: 2:35:07

Yeah.

Chris: 2:35:07

We experience real life, so we not trying to do that. What do they call it? Like cheesy, like cheesy type of stuff, corny, yeah, or just not real, like the characters in our book are going through real dynamics in the entertainment industry. So, basically, I wrote this before Cassie came out with her story, by the way. Let's put that out there.

Chris: 2:35:36

It just made it so much more valid what I was writing. So I took a lot of experiences from women who I knew, who I dealt with, including my own experiences, and incorporated into that story. So, yeah, that's the best way I could tell you, like if if they kind of like sum that up Cassie story like you see one of the main characters having those same exact experience, and there's trafficking, there's essay, there's all of it. Like I said, I wrote it before they started telling the truth. So I think that people will really enjoy it Cause, like I said, it's real gritty but there's consequences, there's ascension, there's elevation and there's victory.

Jonez: 2:36:22

Okay, Much love, power and respect to you and the family, your husband. Give him my best I will. I'm always in y'all corner. Thank you, we appreciate you. I'm always in y'all corner. I want to see y'all win and I'm glad you're doing such positive work in helping your community, because that's what it's really all about us everybody helping everybody.

Chris: 2:36:42

That's all it is for me. That's what it is. I promise you, Chris, when my motive changed, it was my motive. I just have a motive of service, a motive to help my community grow. That's all I do. That's all I dabble in now.

Jonez: 2:36:56

And doors open up when you get in that mode. I've noticed it myself.

Chris: 2:37:01

Once you get in that mode, everything opens up and you can't explain why it's opening up or how it's and I can't even catch half of it, like I'm literally producing five projects right now and got like movies coming out and I just got offered a lead. I can't I don't know if I could talk about it yet, but I just got offered a lead role, um on, on a new series. That's dope. Okay, I get to be somebody's wife, I guess.

Jonez: 2:37:28

We shall see. We shall see. Well, it was great to have you here, Mrs Lewis, Mrs Jonez. Lewis, you're welcome anytime. Thank you, we get another movie. We're going to chop it up about another movie. Okay, you know, and you're welcome back anytime and, like I said, give your family my love.

Chris: 2:37:50

Okay, well, if nobody picks Pretty Women, poetic Justice, I'll take those. I got a list. I do Because I love movies.

Jonez: 2:37:55

Thank you for coming.

Chris: 2:37:56

Thank you, chris. Thank you for having me. It's all good, it's all love, it's all family, but I always appreciate you. Thank you for being who you are. Thank you for being super solid. Thank you for a great introduction. Guys, there's not many solid people in this business, but Mr Ellis, mr Chris Ellis, is definitely one of those people. The main ingredient on this one is official, is authentic, is right.

Jonez: 2:38:23

Thank you very much and to y'all once again, I'm your host, Chris Ellis, and this is the Main Ingredient. With Chris Ellis, We'll see you next time. Peace.