SPEAKER_05 0:01

Hey, fortitude audience. Just want to give everyone a heads up that this next episode has a little bit of PG uh language in it. Just a couple different things that we want to give everyone a heads up, just in case. And then also we do discuss the law enforcement and what Manny's experience was like living in the Bronx, and specifically to him when he was there, is what we're referring to when we do speak about the NYPD. It is not a general statement at all because we love our law enforcement and we are so grateful for each and every one of you who serve.

SPEAKER_00 0:37

Here comes the sun do. Here comes the sun that says it's all right.

SPEAKER_05 1:08

Hello. And today we have a young gentleman with us by the name of Manny. Hello, Manny. Oh man. Manny, you are a blast. I love serving in this community with you. It's cool. Just to give a background on who Manny is and why he is here today, uh, he works for a company called Think3D, and I am on the board of bridging the gap.

SPEAKER_04 1:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:36

And our journey started a year ago in September when you and I both spoke on the stage at the convention center for Colchicons.

SPEAKER_01 1:44

Let's go.

SPEAKER_05 1:45

Which is my favorite, absolute favorite uh conference that is held in Sioux Falls. Yeah. Has a lot to do with the energy that's behind it. But I just wanna um I just wanna say that there's so much that comes, goodness that comes out of Think3D.

SPEAKER_02 2:00

And so the fact that you left your full-time gig to join Forces 17 years, and I was like, I'm gone.

SPEAKER_05 2:07

Yeah, I'm out of here. You jumped.

SPEAKER_02 2:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 2:10

The minute that Tami and Bonnie invited you to join their team, it was kind of a no-brainer. And we'll speak to that coming up here because you guys have a long history.

SPEAKER_02 2:20

Yes, and it works just like that. That's how it usually is, anyway. It's like um, even like when we were doing music together, it was they had already established a thing. They were the noblemen first, and then I came in to Sioux Falls, um Thomas rotate, he had left the group, so there was like this this this void. My brother did security for the nobleman. Oh yeah and he kept saying, Yeah, I got my little brother. He he he he raps, he does the thing, he does the thing. So then me and V linked up, and then boom, that's how that happened. So then fast forward all this time through all the years, they said, We're gonna start this thing. I I was there for the meeting. Like they I remember when they were saying we're gonna start meeting every Monday, nine o'clock. We're gonna I was there when they were talking about the book and what they were gonna do. And you know, God was leading them there, and then it was like, we're gonna establish this, and then boom, here I go. Yeah after they get this thing established, and they're like, Bring on, bring on blitz and give me humanity, right? And then and now we're here, and and it's it's it's it was the best move I could have made professionally, honestly. Um, I feel free, unleashed, um and just my spirit, my spirit is is full. I feel good.

SPEAKER_05 3:42

When you're when you are living out your purpose, yes, it is it's it's I the word magical isn't quite right in the world of the supernatural when it comes to Christ, but it really does feel mad. It's like, man, is this right?

SPEAKER_02 3:55

Yeah, no, 100%. Like I was this is my life. Like and me and V, me and V with uh uh and T too, like we'll talk on the phone sometime, and I'm like, this is my life, bro. Yeah, yeah, you get to live this every day. This is my job. Like, like I'm I'm at a podcast.

SPEAKER_05 4:10

Yeah, just hanging out with me and names. It's my job.

SPEAKER_02 4:14

That's what I do. Nobody's tripping at work.

SPEAKER_03 4:16

A and H. A and H also known as A H.

SPEAKER_05 4:18

A and H.

SPEAKER_02 4:19

That's what it is.

SPEAKER_05 4:20

T and V and A H.

SPEAKER_02 4:21

Right. And if you put M in there, it's meh.

SPEAKER_03 4:28

It's much doesn't really describe us very well, does it? Nothing about us is meh.

SPEAKER_01 4:35

Nobody.

SPEAKER_02 4:36

Yeah. I'm glad I got to actually meet you, Emma's, because um, I heard amazing things about you, brother.

SPEAKER_03 4:41

So it was really cool to meet you. I appreciate that. That's a testimony of my wife. Yeah. You know, just to her having a positive positive attitude, because I'm not perfect. I got my things, but all you heard is the good stuff. So testimony is my brain here.

SPEAKER_01 4:55

I heard some tough stuff. Oh, okay, good. So it'd be good though. But I mean, thought.

SPEAKER_02 5:01

So my wife is out here talking. Now it's uh it was cool though. It was it's it's what the spirit, like you, you your wife said you were very good at discernment, right? Um, I feel like I am too. Like I get it. You talked about being, you know, I'm an energy person. I think that was a gift God gave me very, very, very young, um, as a survival mechanism first. And then as you you grow, and you I was in the biggest, you know, biggest projects in the Bronx at the time. I think I got we got overpassed right now, but um, you you have to know your environment, you have to know who's danger, who's safe. And I used to just know, I used to just feel people's spirit, their energy, and it's like let me stay away from that. But and also it helped me uh help people, yeah, yeah, and talk to people and go and I can see through some of the BS.

SPEAKER_03 5:56

That's one of those things you just can't teach. No, you can't teach that. And there's people who would who would give upwards of a lot for that capability. So yeah, it's I think it's a great, it's a great gift.

SPEAKER_02 6:07

It is, it is scary though, sometimes.

SPEAKER_05 6:10

Yeah, we talked we talked in great detail about that when we had uh brunch the other day. Yeah about how it's a gift that you can run from or you can embrace it and use it for good. Because when you see things you don't want to see, when with good and evil and all the things, yeah. It's well, and let's just go there because Manny, you you doubt I mean you you were in it. You were in the middle of evil and gang and sh blood and shooting and so you grew up without a dad and in the Bronx.

SPEAKER_01 6:42

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 6:43

Oh my, that's a double, it's a little bit of a double whammy there, Manny. So let's just go there.

SPEAKER_02 6:48

Yeah, so I it's my dad was in prison when I was born. So um little little history, just long line of of just crime, I guess. You know what I mean? He he was but he's a street dude, he's a street guy. Um really good guy, charismatic, fun loving. Like I got a lot of his characteristics, and I realized that as I got older as an adult, and we we rekindled our relationship, and we had a really good relationship before he passed. Um, but growing up, I didn't know any of that stuff. So it's me, my mom, my brother, my sister in the projects. Um, and that's just home. Yeah, it's just home, right? But you getting raised in the 80s, um and in the 80s, we called it the crack invasion. So it was like crack was huge in the projects, like crack vials everywhere, um, and then and the crack vials had specific tops, and on those tops would tell you where it came from. So, like if it was a red top, we knew that came from this guy. If it was an orange top, we knew that came from this guy. Um, if it's like a purple top, you're like, that's not from around here. That must be from such and such. So that that you so you start seeing that as a kid, you pick this silly stuff up.

SPEAKER_04 8:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:14

Um, but we were never, it was a way of life, and I think we talked about that too, Evans. That I wasn't afraid of any of those guys. Like, I wasn't afraid of the drug dealers. Like those guys were superheroes, man. Like they were out here giving kids money, paying for basketball tournaments. Um, but if you were caught up in that game of the life, they scary. Right. But if you're not, I mean, this was a time where there was some kind of rules. Right now it's a little rogue, but there were some rules of the game in there. And so being in the middle of that, uh, actually the biggest gang to us was NYPD. Like that was the biggest gang. They were scary. They were super scary because they were brutal. You know, it wasn't just, hey, what's going on, guys? You know, it was it was brutal. It was hands against the wall, hitting you in the head, you know, knocking you down. Just this horrible things that you know you get taught in school, find a police officer if you are law. Story is now cool. I'm straight. I'd rather I'd rather go out at Curly or the boys or Guito or one of them dudes. I I'd rather talk to them and say, I need to I need help.

SPEAKER_03 9:42

So you had the law who was supposed to uphold and protect, server protect, right? Right. And and they may have been doing that through their eyes, right? Something like that. Something like that. There was sounds like I hear racism, and then I know that was rampant back days, and you know, I'm I mean, up and now.

SPEAKER_02 9:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:00

And um yet the people committing the crimes weren't doing that to you.

SPEAKER_02 10:06

No, not at all. And that that was that was the biggest thing. It was like um, fun fact, I the only the only way I've envisioned white people. Like when I came to South Dakota, it was super culture shock. Super culture shock, right? From the Bronx to Mitchell. Yeah, so yeah, all right, here we go. But um, the only time I've ever I ever saw white people, we had two white people in my whole projects. Whoa. It was uh Sweetie and Billy, and Billy was special, yeah, special needs. Okay, but nobody messed with Billy, don't mess with Billy, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 10:42

He was protected, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:43

He was very protective.

SPEAKER_04 10:44

Right.

SPEAKER_02 10:45

Billy would walk around, he had headphones, he would sing uh uh Bruce Springsteen at the top of his lungs, walking through the projects with his little walkman, or if he got new shoes, he wanted to show you the let me show you the pumonth. I won't see my new pumont, man. And they'd be like, oh, Billy got the new Pumas, right? And then every once in a while, somebody'll bully Billy and they go, they're gonna pay for that. Leave Billy alone. And then Sweetie, sweetie was this beautiful dark-haired woman. Uh, she lived in the building next to us. Um, and she had a son named Lil Little Tony, and we all kicked it. Um, but that was the that was it. Oh, and her mom, uh sis. And sis ain't take no no junk. She was a tough little white lady. Yeah. But at that point, you don't even look at them that way. You it's just sweetie, sis, and Billy. That was it. Okay. It's not even white people were the cops. White people were Wall Street people. So not very friendly. Not, you know, they had money, or you were the cops.

SPEAKER_05 11:51

Not out for our best interest.

SPEAKER_03 11:52

Did the did the police leave your neighborhood when they went off shift and then come back into your neighborhood on shift? Or were they could you see them off? Never see a cop off duty.

SPEAKER_02 12:02

Oh. Ever. Okay. Fun fact, the cat the police station, we had with precincts, right? We had precinct. So it was the 47th precinct. Three minutes from my from my apartment, or across the street from the project. So there's my my project was north and the south side. So when crimes are happening, right? It's it's big, so it's north and south side. And you picture, I don't know, from just picture East 10th. Right? Just go from Cleveland to Sycamore.

unknown 12:39

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 12:40

And for those who don't live here, that's gonna be a little tough.

SPEAKER_02 12:43

Yeah, so let's say let's say a three-mile radius. Okay, right? Three mile.

SPEAKER_03 12:47

Oh, you're talking Sioux False. Yeah, I was in the Bronx.

SPEAKER_02 12:51

Yeah, so let's but yeah, so then load, load like 30 buildings in that. In that three-mile radius, right? I mean they're taller. Yeah, tall, 14 stories, and then they got the little buildings, three stories.

SPEAKER_03 13:04

And it's compact, so it's high density.

SPEAKER_02 13:06

Yes, yes, yes, yes. So though, so now, and then put the police station um I don't know, half a mile away. Okay, and then the response time of three hours.

SPEAKER_05 13:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:21

Geez, Louise. Explain that. Yeah, explain that one.

SPEAKER_05 13:23

Yeah. And it probably was just, it was so continuous, just always, always needing.

SPEAKER_02 13:30

So, so the the option of calling the police. Yeah. I mean, it was it was like, okay, well, we could. Or we could take somebody to the hospital that needs to go to the hospital, or we could call who we needed to call in the street to be like, yo, this happened. Blah blah blah blah blah. And then there we are.

SPEAKER_05 13:50

And my guess is that the police entered into the situation always with the the force. Here we go again. Here we go again. Never believing the best, no, never seeing anybody but just with the heavy hammer.

SPEAKER_02 14:04

Absolutely, absolutely. And so um in the projects, there's one way in, right? We called it the drive. So the drive um is a one-way street that curves all the way through. Um, so I lived on the south side of the projects, and then there was a north side. So both of them had just kind of one way in. And it was a one-way, so you couldn't go the other way. So it's one way in, one way out. And so that'll kind of it's a testament to you know, the congestion, right? It's just it's all there, right? Um, there's an elementary school there, PS 112, and then there's uh junior high school, which is on the north side of the projects, and that's uh John Phillips Sousa. And then there's a high school there that nobody went to, really. Nobody went to, and it was across the street from the projects, and and it's called uh Cardinal Spellman, Catholic school. So a lot of white people there never interacted with them, no. Okay, right? So nobody from the projects went to Cardinal Spellman, like nobody. If you did, it was like, I don't know, I never met him. So um, but anyhow, you growing up in this environment in the 80s, and I remember um I remember it vividly. Um, my mom was doing well, we were doing, you know, she was working, and then when drugs hit home, yeah, is when things kind of changed. Like, um, you know, mom was getting heavy into drugs herself. She had a boyfriend that turned into a stepdad, and then they would get into arguments and stuff like that. But I remember like my mom, um, and it wasn't a weird thing. It wasn't like uh, oh my god, my mom is the only one on drugs. Like everybody's parent in this time period was usually high or getting, you know, get that got caught up in this this, and like I said, we call it an invasion because it was like a tidal wave. It was like one day they talked about this new drug, and the next day, boom, there's the the flooded, right? And it's in apartment complexes, and and they make movies about stuff like this, and people go, it's not real. No, it's very real um when you got a specific drug dealer that has a complex.

SPEAKER_03 16:28

And what were people like when they were high? Erratic. Scary.

SPEAKER_02 16:33

So it's it's it's erratic, right? Like um looking back, I can say it's scary. As a kid, we made fun of it.

SPEAKER_04 16:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:44

Right? You call them crackheads. Oh, you a crackhead. Yeah, your mama's a crackhead. You know, one of those things. Um, but they would do just erratic things, crazy things, taking their clothes off, running around, or doing whatever, selling broken things or stolen things. And um, and so you you could go around and get a crackhead price, you know what I mean? I remember my first Nintendo came from a crackhead. Like my mom bought a whole Nintendo with 13 games, and it was like $60. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:15

That's a good deal.

SPEAKER_02 17:16

That's a huge deal back then, right? Because I think Nintendo was $100 and something dollars back then. That was a lot of money.

SPEAKER_03 17:21

So were they dangerous?

SPEAKER_02 17:22

Or they were just erratic? They were dangerous as well. There was some, I mean, you know, violent um rape, stuff like that. Like that there was a there was a point in time where that was like a fear for kids of kids getting raped. Like they was it was weird. Um, because they take you in a building. Um, we have these tall buildings, man.

SPEAKER_05 17:42

There's there's a lot of they can hide, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:45

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:46

So for a parent living there, it's just constant fears.

SPEAKER_05 17:50

But if the parent is high, right, there's really, I mean, he's just saying it kind of went ran rap rapid across.

SPEAKER_02 17:56

So when you look at like my mom, my mom introduced us to God. Let me let me make that clear. My mom is my hero, she's my rock, right? So she introduced us to God. Um, but it was very confusing. Okay, we were a very spiritual family, but it was very confusing. So being able, like one week we had a Pentecostal church, another week we had a Catholic Spanish church where everything looks terrifying and Jesus is bleeding, and he's you know, it's these stained windows and this, oh like that music is like, what is happening? Yeah, and then the next week we had a church and people are passing out, and the Lord said, and ha, and everything. And it's like, oh my god. Like it's at this point, I don't God is kind of crazy, right? And my mom was very uh iron fist, she ruled with an iron fist. Um, so everything was she was very overprotective, but also brutal in certain ways. With her mouth, sometimes physically, it was just it was just a lot, right? And so we were always held on a short lease, but also we were put in just messed up situations now that I think about it. Like before a while, my house was the party house. I remember how we graduated, like it would be mom would have a bunch of people over, be mom and banjo, which was her boyfriend, uh stepdad, right? And they would party and it'd be cool, and it went from that to now things started changing. Like I can't come out my room now. Or like now you have to, you know, make sure nobody's knows that these people are here, and then now it's people I've never seen before coming here, and and then you start to realize looking back now, it's like, oh, our apartment was a holding spot.

SPEAKER_05 19:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:48

What's that mean?

SPEAKER_05 19:48

A packet. You talked about the package that showed up at your doorstep.

SPEAKER_02 19:52

Well, we had one guy in particular uh from the Dominican Republic. He would come through, have a meeting, they package stuff up. So my house is a holding spot for dope, right? And so, of course, that's a good deal for my mom, right?

SPEAKER_05 20:12

Because then she's not she's not distributing, holding means she probably is getting paid just to have us to hold it too.

SPEAKER_02 20:20

Yeah, and I don't even know if she's getting paid. Or to be honest, maybe she's getting a free, you know, free lick. So um, so you know, you you're dealing with that. Meanwhile, my brother's in the streets, she he's you know, dealing with that kind of stuff. Uh, my brother went from being uh a mama's boy, kind of, he's my big brother, and then the streets, you can you can't be solved, right? And he's a big guy, so he hit this growth spurt, and I just remember when he just decided this no more, I'm not gonna get picked on no more. And then he just became this fighter and hot-tempered. And so then he's in the streets, and then um he starts selling drugs and doing things like that. But um, I I remember when I decided I wasn't, I know I'm everywhere here, but I remember I realized I didn't want to sell drugs ever when I had to go pick up a package from Poppy. Poppy owned this grocery store, and and I go to get this package from Poppy. Poppy says, Bring this to your mama. I go bring it to my mama, and I realize what it is when I give it to her. And then that settled it for me. Like I don't want to sell drugs, because then I gotta give this to my mom. And then I had to act like in that moment, my mom was like, I want to yell, so you gotta go upstairs, and then they act like you're in trouble because she's paranoid, right? She's thinking everybody's watching, so I gotta fake like I'm in trouble and go upstairs, like I wasn't supposed to do something. And of course I did it. I was a kid, you know. Um, but then I remember my mom just getting off of drugs, cold turkey. I'll I'll never forget the night. I was crying. I remember I was. Wanted to sleep in her in with her in her room that night. I'm probably seven or eight. I don't know about that. I'm knocking on her door. She used to lock her door all the time. So I'm knocking on her. Ma, please don't want to go inside. Ma, I'm tired. Ma can't lay with you. Ma, can I see what you wanted? And um, she's talking to a dude in there, and I know they're getting high or whatever, but he's mute. Which is that was like one of the oddest things. I've never I've never seen that. That's a scary dude, anyway. Big dude, can't talk, can't hear, just makes weird noises. So that's scary.

SPEAKER_04 22:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:35

You know what I mean? But um, I finally get my way. She opens the door, she tells me, lay in the bed, put the blankets over my head. And I know that they're getting high because I can hear it. Um, and she's talking to this mute dude.

SPEAKER_05 22:50

Who can't hear her? I can't hear her.

SPEAKER_02 22:52

You know what I mean? But she's saying, I gotta stop doing this. Like, this is I can't keep doing this. I got kids, I gotta raise my kids. I can't, this is this is this is too much. This is the last time, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. And I'm listening to this, I'm listening, I'm like, please, I hope this is the thing, right? Because we were going through it. And um the next day, I fell asleep, I wake up the next day. She tells me, go to the store. I need you to buy uh Italian bread, just like a hoagie, right? Big, but a big Italian bread, hoagie, right? And butter and bananas. And this time she was super skinny, she lost so much weight from drugs, like so much weight. And that was like the typical sign when, oh, crackhead. When you start losing all your weight, and you know, you start to look bad. My mom is a beautiful woman. Um, and and and not just because that's my mom, but everybody would say so. Right. Her name's Gypsy. Uh, that's her street name or nickname. Gypsy. Gypsy's so beautiful, right? But anyway, um, that was the day after that. She ate bread and butter with banana. She had banana sandwiches with butter and gained all her weight back. And then she never went back to drugs. She just stopped. Wow. Um, and she got her life together. She went to college, she did the whole thing, like this huge turnaround with no help, with no, I mean, God was, she did a lot of praying. I remember that. And she wakes us up on Sundays and she has incense burning and she's playing Spanish uh uh uh spiritual music, and you're like, all right, well, it's time to clean, I guess. That's what we're doing right now. But that was the thing. Um, and then fast forward, things are going well. Um, she divorces my stepdad. Um, he had gone to jail, then he came out, and it just he was still in the life. And my mom was like, I'm done, so you're done. So then it's just us again. My sister's pregnant. Um, well, her first child. My brothers, both of them dropped out of high school. Um, my brother's in the streets doing his thing. Um, and she meets this person, and mom, for me, I I look back, I said, mom needed a needed a break. Because my mom was single mom, 24-7, 365. There was no break. There was no go to the you know to your dad's for the weekends, there was no go to grandma's for the weekend, there was not, it was every day. So we went through every single moment, every up, every down, every bit of violence, everything that we've seen, domestic violence, all of it, it was we were there. Yeah, there was no break. And I think this was my mom's breaking point. So at 12, my mom moved to Brooklyn. She asked me if I wanted to go. Of course I don't want to go to Brooklyn. I don't know nobody in Brooklyn, right? And uh so my sister, she left in charge.

SPEAKER_03 26:05

So you say you did not want to go to Brooklyn?

SPEAKER_02 26:07

Absolutely not.

SPEAKER_03 26:07

You wanted to stay.

SPEAKER_02 26:08

I'm in the Bronx, I'm from the Bronx. That's all you know. That's all I know. So all my friends are here, and I you know. So from 12 to 15, my mom's in Brooklyn. And she'll stop by every once in a while, drop off some money, and my sister was in charge. So my sister having to be in charge, so now she's working two jobs. So she's working two jobs as a as a dispatcher.

SPEAKER_03 26:32

And how old's your sister?

SPEAKER_02 26:33

Uh so Peachy's eight years older than me. So she's 20. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 26:40

She's an adult.

SPEAKER_02 26:41

Yeah, she's an adult. And then my brother, he's 18. So he's he's trying to sell drugs or whatever. Make his little money, do what he gotta do. Um, so then that leaves, if you can imagine that, I got a lot of self-time, a lot of alone time. And then um I start hanging out. I'm in middle school. I'm thinking I'm I'm cool because I I learned how to box, so now I can fight, and I'm fighting people, and I'm doing the thing, and then I decide I have this great idea. I said, you know what, man? I got a few of my friends together. We're gonna start this game, man. We're gonna start this game. We're gonna start. It was called Bodigwas Don't Play, which is so stupid, right? BDP is what we called it, right? BDP. BDP, and then we had we had beads, we had the whole thing, right? But we was gonna we gonna do the thing. We gonna run this the streets. I'm 12, by the way. I was 165 pounds, though. So I had a a man body with this little baby face. Yeah, right? But I could, I, and I and I could fight, I could box. So I was in shape that way. Um and I remember the last time I decided this this was a bad idea, right? God had a way of showing me, Manny, you're you're not cut out for this. Like I wasn't cut out to sell drugs, he showed me that right away. Right? He said, You want to do you want to sell to your mother? Absolutely not, right? Do you want to see your life like this? Absolutely not. So now I'm starting this gang. Uh, I had a friend, Shamika, that was like my sister, and she's like, hey, this dude did something to her. I don't even remember what he did, but I had to go check him now. So now I'm going, I can tell the boys I got my bees, I rough this dude up, it's a Jamaican cat. I'm like, yo, don't mess with my sister, whatever it is. After school, I get out after school, doing what I do, just hang out, being loud, boisterous, and kicking it. And I see these guys from Satan Avenue, which is the rival neighborhood. And there's like 30 dudes, and they're waiting outside. I'm like, hmm. And then they tell me, oh, dude, you jacked up. It's from Satan Avenue. Great. All right, so now this is going down. So what's that mean? Which part? Which part?

SPEAKER_03 29:15

You said you walked out and there was a rival gang outside.

SPEAKER_02 29:18

And they said something they said So they so one of the people told me that the guy that I roughed up for my friend, my sister, is from this other gang.

SPEAKER_03 29:28

Oh, and they got word that you were gonna do your do this thing.

SPEAKER_02 29:31

Yes, and so now they're waiting for me after school. Yeah, mind you, this is a middle school. Gotcha. Right? This is a middle school, and these grown men are waiting for a middle schooler.

SPEAKER_03 29:44

And do they talk to you like a grown man or are they talk talk down to you?

SPEAKER_02 29:48

No, they talk to you, well, they talk to you like a rival.

SPEAKER_03 29:50

Okay, like an adult.

SPEAKER_02 29:52

Yeah, it's not like, hey, little dude, get your life together. Nah, it's none of that. We're gonna beat you. You know what I mean? And so that happens. So we in the middle, and I got my boy Justo, who got word, the word travels in the projects very fast. And so he comes down. So me and my boy is back to back because we just gonna fight. Like there's no running at this point.

SPEAKER_03 30:15

Against the 30.

SPEAKER_02 30:16

What you gonna do? Where you gonna run? You got 30, okay? You run, one of them are fascinating. Just one of them, right? It's just so ain't no running. It's like, okay. And I'm on the north side of the projects, right? We're in the middle school that's on the north side of the project. But you're from the south, yeah. I'm from the south side. So there's a little sibling rivalry between north and south side. But if we are outside of the boundaries, we're together. So you can be a north sider, I could be a south sider. If we on Fordham Road, we're together. If we're in the projects, I don't really like it.

SPEAKER_03 30:49

So you're outside the boundaries then? So I'm on the north side. Oh.

SPEAKER_02 30:52

I'm on the north side in school. So when I leave, they get there, and yep, we get surrounded, I'm ready to scrap, and north against the 30. I mean, it's gonna happen. Well, no. I was terrified, right? But then what's the other option? Excuse me, if if you if you run, one, I'm running in the north side.

SPEAKER_05 31:19

Yeah, someone's gonna get you.

SPEAKER_02 31:21

Right. And two, that's not a good look if I won't be in the game.

SPEAKER_00 31:25

Right?

SPEAKER_02 31:27

I ran, right? So there's nothing like that. So I'm I'm committed, and then again, God, nothing happens there because north siders come down because they hear some Seton Avenue guys are in the north side. So a bunch of guys from the north side come down and they break all that up. The Seton Avenue guys are scurrying off. So in that moment, it's like, yes, thank you, that I didn't have to do that. So any normal kid is like, I dodge that, go home. Yeah. Not me. Right? I'm out here. I'm like, yeah, E-Man is out here. He's like, yo, you saw them dudes run? So now we're actually hanging out with North Side guys. Yeah, and we're on the corner. Now I told you there's a drive-in. There's one way in, one way out. So we on the corner, they gambling, some guys are drinking, some popular neighborhood thugs. I'm leaving names out, um, right? And and they out here, we we and they they they're uh uh basking in the victory, right? We chase them seat and whole dudes out at Seton Avenue. And then I'm I'm standing in the in the vision of the drive on the north side, and I see this car pulling up. And now that I'm thinking about it, it's a it's a brown, like like uh caprice. Chevy Caprice. And I see it pulling up slow. That's always bad news. Slow car, you don't recognize, pulling up, and I see a guy, he has long hair, long hair, um, native-looking dude. He comes out and he pulls out a shotgun. He jumps out. And I'm like, oh, shoot. So he runs towards me, like five guys come out of the other side, and he just the shotgun, and he's shooting at me. And I take off, and I'm please God, get me out of this one. Yeah, I don't lie, I don't know. I'm zigzagging, I'm doing all this thing.

SPEAKER_03 33:45

How far away? What's the distance between you and him?

SPEAKER_02 33:49

Too far.

SPEAKER_03 33:50

I think it's the football fields, it has to be a little bit more than a little bit. No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_02 33:53

So I would say 40 yards, okay, roughly, right? Yeah. So he's letting off shots. You know, those don't go very far. They spray. But they spray. So, but once I see him pull up, I'm not waiting for him to shoot. Right. Once I see him cock, I start bolting. I hear right. So that's going on. And then I hear the the other guys from north side. Now they got their stuff. So now it's happening. It's it's a shootout. I'm just trying to get home. Right? So I'm running, I'm hauling to the south side, right? I get to south side, I'm cool. So I get across the street. Once I cross the street from north side to south side, I'm cool. I run to the what we call the big park, which is the only park we have in the whole project. So it has a three-foot pool, by the way. It's a three-foot pool that's probably, I don't know, 15 feet long for all the kids in the projects, both sides.

SPEAKER_04 34:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:55

Imagine how much swimming is being done there. Yeah. Um, no, but anyway, so that was the day. And I remember not going, I didn't go to school for two weeks. I was like, I'm done. I don't want to like called up to guys that were in my gang, man. We should probably not wear the beads.

SPEAKER_04 35:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:12

Right? Because that's that's a clear sign. And we should probably chill and lay low. And so um, rumor has it, uh, a lot of those guys didn't make it. Oh, man. Um, but uh when I finally went back to school, it was it was like, yeah, I'm done with that life. I don't I don't want nothing to do with being in a gang, a part of a gang. And then you start to realize, like, I start learning like what it is to be around wolves for real.

unknown 35:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:44

Like you see a real killer versus just a guy who talks.

SPEAKER_03 35:48

Why was that guy shooting at you? Because you were running your mouth?

SPEAKER_02 35:52

Because you were talking that was part of that group that was waiting outside for me.

SPEAKER_03 35:56

And it was so they were they were targeting you. Yeah, they were targeting a 12-year-old.

SPEAKER_02 36:01

They don't see a 12-year-old.

SPEAKER_05 36:02

They don't see an age, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:03

They don't see a 12-year-old. They see a dude that beat up one of their dudes. So they don't, they're not looking at him like, oh, it's just a little kid. It's so and Seton Avenue had this uh Napoleon complex because they were a small little neighborhood. So they always had to do extra because Edenwall was the projects.

SPEAKER_05 36:28

I could sit and listen to your stories for for a really long time. We're already running out of time, which is crazy. But I really want to touch on a couple more things because uh thank you for sharing that, and I'm so glad that that those bullets missed you.

SPEAKER_01 36:42

Yes, me too.

SPEAKER_05 36:43

You are I'm guessing you're fast, hence the football scholarship and how you ended up here and all the things. And so um when we were when we were talking, you said you I mean, you're a public figure. You have been on a lot of stages, you've performed. Um you went, so it's like I see this little like take this story, and if you see the Manny that I'm looking at right now, it's like this beautiful Puerto Rican man who is buff as all get out, who like the box, you know, boxing and all the things. And it's like you just and you have a spirit about you, like you were just full of the Holy Spirit. The way that God's got a hold of you is really beautiful. And so here that's why I just love to just let you go with that story because the outcome and who you are today.

SPEAKER_02 37:32

Right, it's like that checkmate, that checkmate, right? So through this time, I stopped boxing, I fall in love with football. And I go to Truman High School, and then I do pretty well, and then I meet Marvin Glaubak, who changed, who saved my life. That was my coach. Saved my life. He doesn't, he didn't know that, and I I finally got to talk to him two years ago to tell him that.

SPEAKER_04 37:53

Oh, good.

SPEAKER_02 37:54

Um, because he didn't know what that meant. Like, he worked with me individually. I coach because of him. I get emotional.

SPEAKER_05 38:05

I know I love that.

SPEAKER_02 38:06

I love it. Um, he could have told me to run through a wall. I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna question. I'm running. Because I could do it. Because he told me I could do it, right? And so um he ends up retiring my senior year, and I did not know how to deal with that.

unknown 38:24

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 38:25

Right, so father figure type dude, right? And he believed in me. Like, you're hearing something positive from somebody who's not a dope dealer, who's not, right? This is a guy who's big Jewish dude, big buff Jewish dude, hairiest forearms I've ever seen in my life, right? And he stood, when he stood, he stood perfectly parallel, like his feet were always perfectly parallel, like it was crazy. But anyway, um, we get a new coach, and I made that coach's life live in hell. And I and I know I did. Um, he wasn't a very good coach, um, but I wasn't a very good team player at that point. I was just the captain. Anyway, I uh I had went from having a lot of scholarships, offers, and a lot of uh schools looking at me as a junior to like they were disappearing and I didn't hear anything, and it was really quiet my senior year. And then um sign in day comes and goes, and I'm not going anywhere. And I'm like, what is this? So we have my last meeting with with Coach Russo, um, and Coach Russo's like, uh, I was like, where's the binder with the colleges Coach Globach had? I don't know what you're talking about. I I never wanted to punch a man in his face so bad at that point. But um I remember thinking after going through that old deal and him not knowing what I'm talking about, saying you should pick up a trade, do a trade school or something like that. I'm like, are you kidding me?

SPEAKER_05 40:04

Like it's a total contrast from what you had had because you had this coach who just spoke life into you. You looked up to as like a hero and a dad figure, and all this.

SPEAKER_02 40:14

And then Russo is this guy who and and to his defense, I was an a-hole. Yeah, yeah, because you I didn't know how to deal emotionally with not having glow back. Yeah. Um, so anyway, I remember we were playing basketball that next morning or something like that. It was a Friday, so it was Saturday, and I'm sitting on the floor in between games, and I'm going, I'm gonna die here. This is it. This is this is my life. I'm gonna die in the Bronx. I'm gonna die here in the projects. This is what it is, this is my life, right? May comes right before graduation. I get a letter from Dakota West End University offering me a football scholarship to go play football in Mitchell, South Dakota. And I'm like, what? What is this? Where is South Dakota? Where is this, right? Give me a map, man. Um, and at this point, my mom is back. So, you know, I graduated at 17. I was a 17-year-old freshman in college. Um, and so you didn't have to convince me, hell yeah, I'm going.

SPEAKER_04 41:20

Yeah. Yeah. You know?

SPEAKER_02 41:22

Um, and so I I remember right before I left, uh, I was jogging training because I'm ready to go to college now. And one of the biggest baddest thugs, dudes in the project stops me. And he was not a guy that you wanted to talk to. If you saw him, you didn't really want no problems with this in particular person. And he says, yo, come here, Shorty. So now I'm like, all right, well, I guess I'm gonna have to scrap at some point. And um, he's like, hey man, I heard you you going to college. I said, Yeah. He said, Don't ever come back.

SPEAKER_05 42:00

No.

SPEAKER_02 42:01

He said, There's nothing here for you, but don't ever forget us. And so that's hence why I have E-Man tattooed on my arm. Because every time I got in a three-point stance, I looked at my hand. It's a reminder of Eze Eden Wall ain't got nothing for you no more. That's cool. Don't come back.

unknown 42:19

And I was like, wow. Wow.

SPEAKER_03 42:21

In my head, I heard him say, take a coat because it's cold.

SPEAKER_02 42:24

Yeah, right, right. No, most people didn't even know what South Dakota is. Like, I told people I'm going to South Dakota. Oh, you going down south? That's good, man. That's real good. I'm like, yeah, nah, that's not exactly, but all right. But I realized again where I thought it was over.

SPEAKER_04 42:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 42:43

And I said, I'm ready. This is it. I've accepted my fate. I'm gonna die in these projects. God goes, nope, check me. And not only, right? So we go, we go from Glorback, who who fed me life, who saved my life, to Russo, who's just complete opposite, and I'm not helping my situation. Um to me making the mistake of being completely an a-hole as a kid, to God using that mistake and saying, Nope. Check me. Um, if I could turn back, because I know this is a very important part of truth coming from the mouths of babes. When I was six years old, I remember watching the news and they were telling me how horrible the new invasion, right? Most violent place, the Bronx was crazy. And then they said, Here are the top ten most peaceful places in the country. And Iowa was the first one. They were number one. So I remember as a six year old laying in bed, I knew football sports and stuff. I said, Oh, I'm going to play uh college football in Iowa. That's what I said, right? Because it's the safest place I told my mom I said, Mom, I'm gonna play college football in Iowa. This is the safest place. At six years old. At six. And my mom's like, yep, baby, you are. Right? And so I go to bed, and I remember mapping out my whole life, like literally, my whole life, counting how many years it would take to graduate, how old I was going to be, when I would go to college, when I was going to meet my wife, because at the time, um, you gotta know that you know, the girl gotta be with you before you get the money. Because I'm going to the pros, that's gonna happen, right? But you gotta junior year, probably, right? Then you're gonna do that thing. This is six years old. Fast forward when I got to Mitchell, South Dakota was the number one most peaceful place in the country.

SPEAKER_03 44:44

And only three hours from Iowa, right?

SPEAKER_02 44:46

Only three hours from Iowa, right? So there we are. I'm like, okay, this is when you look back, it came full circle. And I met my my first wife as a junior.

SPEAKER_04 44:58

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:58

Which is crazy, right? And we had our first child, and it was so all of it in place, right? And and and he took the same situation where I had a good coach. He retires as a junior, as my junior year in college. We get a new coach my senior.

SPEAKER_05 45:18

I learned not to repeat the cycle.

SPEAKER_02 45:22

I'm gonna be a little more uh uh uh open to this new guy. Um we didn't win the game my senior year, right? Tough, tough, but uh, and I got injured. Um so I knew football was closing, that door was closing, it was closing fast, but again, born into this new life of being a father, and I knew I was not going back to the Bronx, and I'm not gonna raise my children in the Bronx. So I landed here and I raised my kids here. I've been here ever since. Um and I love it. And I've I've done ministry here. I I was saved again when I was 25. I got baptized, reintroduced to Christ as um as a man, as a father, and it's different, it's just different, right? Um, when I first heard of a loving father, well, how do you do that? You first image of God as your father. But if my father wasn't dead, then I had to relate that to my mother. And my mother ruled with an iron fist, so God was very angry. God was always gonna punish somebody, right? So then being a father, then you go, mmm, this is what this is what it's about. Just different.

unknown 46:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 46:36

Right? I heard a comedian say, when I held my son, I knew in the moment I died for him when he was born. I don't even know the guy. Right? He could be a complete a-hole. Right? But I would die for this kid, right? And then he said, I and then when I grabbed my daughter, I knew I'd kill for her. So both my kids made me suicidal and homicidal at the base.

SPEAKER_04 47:04

Oh my kids will do that to you.

SPEAKER_01 47:06

Oh, yeah, do it to you.

SPEAKER_02 47:07

They'll do it to you. But no, but that that's again, when I look back at where I came from and where I'm at now, you couldn't have told me when I was 14 that I'd be in South Dakota, I'd be doing podcasts, I'd be doing hip-hop in South Dakota. Not only that, but Christian hip-hop. Christian hip-hop at that. Yeah. You couldn't have told me I was gonna own two houses, uh, have cars that I've bought and lost, and you no, I wouldn't have believed you. I wouldn't have believed you, right? And all the things. So now fast forward again, and because of what God did and took me to this place that I was terrified, I didn't know anything about South Dakota. I was 17 on my own. And I think about the prayer of Jabez, expand my territory. So I come all the way out of South Dakota and we establish things here. Now my mom is here, my brother's here, I got two brothers here, my nephews are here, my nieces are here. Only one I didn't cover is my sister. She lives in North Carolina. But again, God, right? So it goes from I'm gonna take you out of your rut, and I'm gonna place you in a place that you is foreign, and you're around people that you're not comfortable with. I've never been around white people that I was comfortable with, and then it wasn't until I met Jeremy Pishke here, um my teammate in college, and we had a real conversation. Young man, he's 18, I'm 17. We had a real conversation. He said, Look, I just wanted to take you out to eat because I wanted, we gotta play together, and I've never played with anybody of color. Ooh. And I said, Good, because I ain't never played with white people, so let's let's do this thing. That's and so we had a real good, and that's my brother to this day. Haven't spoken to him in years, but if I saw him today, that's my brother. Yeah, that's my brother, Jeremy Priske. Love that dude. And um, that helped me acclimate and adjust. You know, and and now again, I'm here and and I made my home here. My kids are from here. I love it. I love that none of my kids got a thug bone in their body. Right? They they and I'm proud of them, and and and I'm glad they don't have to live anything. And my brother, um, after a couple prison stints, he's here and he's thriving, he's doing amazing. I'm so proud of him. Um yeah, it's it's just been so crazy. Again, checkmate.

SPEAKER_05 49:40

Yeah, checkmate. That'll be the title. Manny, I can I could think I can attest to a lot of people who will be hopefully forwarding this to other kids, kids that are possibly living in living still in the bronze. I mean, living in really tough situations where their parents are doing drugs, dealing drugs, and these kids are like, Man, this isn't for me. Right. Same situation you were in, and what I'm hearing you say over and over is you never gave up. You never ever associated, you you tried that life, yeah, but it didn't, it wasn't for you. No, you believed in Manny. Yeah, you told yourself, I'm gonna live. It's like having that mindset of this is not my home.

SPEAKER_02 50:20

Right.

SPEAKER_05 50:20

Heaven is our home.

unknown 50:22

Right.

SPEAKER_05 50:23

But I need to get somewhere else to make a good life for myself. And you're such a great example of that. You're a great example of now living your life for Christ and just being like, all right, let's go. Let's go. Like you've been there and barbarian.

SPEAKER_02 50:37

I always say I'm a barbarian Christian, right? Like there's the peacekeepers and there's peacemakers, right? And I'm gonna keep the peace.

SPEAKER_04 50:44

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 50:45

The peacemakers, they'll they'll talk diplomatically, but you know, in the Bible, there's plenty warriors out there. Yeah. Jeremiah 46, 3. Get your shields, get your get your get your spears, make your enemies flee. That I I it resonates with me. When I ask God to tell me who he saw, that's the scripture he gave me. So at that point I knew I'm a warrior spirit, and and what happens with warrior spirits is um you deal with battle.

SPEAKER_04 51:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 51:20

That's what makes you that. Like you can't. So, but nobody appreciates peace like a warrior.

unknown 51:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 51:30

Yeah. So it's like, let me appreciate it. But I'm not afraid to go to war. Yeah. Well, you proved that when you were 12. Yeah, right. Yes, we're gonna scrap. Yeah, that's not a good idea. I don't recommend that to anybody listening. Don't fight them with people. That's dumb.

SPEAKER_03 51:49

You're not Jack Reacher.

SPEAKER_05 51:50

Right, that is not a good idea. Yeah. Oh, Manny, you are such a hoot for anyone who wants to follow Manny. You're still, I mean, you're doing so many incredible things, and you're speaking into the lives of, especially th through Think3D and just what what y'all are doing is changing lives each and every day through so many different avenues and platforms of things that that you got going on. And so I will link a lot of that in there for those who want to reach out to you to ask you questions or anything like that. Um, but thank you for sharing your story. It's it's never easy to, but you have you're you're a warrior for sure. It's it's great.

SPEAKER_03 52:27

Yeah, it's an honor. I want you on my side.

SPEAKER_02 52:29

Yeah, I'm on your side, bro. We want to say, T. We are tea.

SPEAKER_03 52:33

Nice to meet you.

SPEAKER_02 52:34

Nice to meet you as well. Thank you for having me. Yeah, thanks, Fanny.