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(suspenseful music) (static cracks, siren wailing)
(helicopter chuffing) (man on radio mumbles)
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(car horn blares)
- [Lieutenant] I am Lieutenant (indistinct),
a member of the Milwaukee Police Department.
I hereby declare this assembly to be unlawful
and hereby order you to disperse.
(crowd chanting) (siren wailing)
- [Muhibb] They can tell us.
They can tell us
that we 27% more likely
to die in Milwaukee in Brooklyn, New York,
I'm never leaving.
- [Lieutenant] If you do not disperse immediately,
you will be arrested.
(siren wailing)
- [Muhibb] They can tell us,
that we got the highest incarceration rate in America.
I believe in you.
(audience chanting)
They can tell us that we all gonna be locked up,
we all gonna be in jail.
I still believe in you.
They can tell me that black boys who look just like me,
only 32% of us graduate from high school.
I still believe in you
and still believe that they will not break us.
- [Man] Say it again.
(audience clapping)
Say it again.
(man on radio mumbles)
- [Muhibb] Let me talk to you for a minute.
They will not break us.
(audience clapping)
- [Man] Say it again Muhibb.
- [Muhibb] They cannot break us.
- [Man] Say it.
- They will not break us.
- [Man] They will not break us.
- [Muhibb] They cannot break us.
- [Man] They cannot break us.
- [Muhibb] There are no trials, no tribulation
- [Both] No pressure, no pain, no hurricane,
strong enough to stop my people.
We always find our way back to God.
- [Muhibb] Behind every statistic,
there's a story
and quite frankly the media frustrates me.
The news frustrates me.
On a nine o'clock nightly news,
we hear the story of black boys
who grow up on streets like Burleigh, Garfield,
Galena, Vine, Center, Holton and Buffum
and they're depicted as savages.
(suspenseful music) (crowd chanting)
They're depicted as animals dying in the streets.
Pretty much throw away children.
(fire cracking)
What the media doesn't show you or tell you
is what I see in a classroom.
(suspenseful music)
What I see in a classroom are little black children
who raised their hand and say,
"Oh, I want to be a business man, a business woman.
"I wanna own the Fortune 500 company.
"I wanna rule the world."
(dramatic music)
It's more convenient to deal with this statistic
and take the humanity out of it.
It's more convenient to deal with the statistic
and not tell the real story that these are
children who have hopes and dreams and aspirations,
just like anybody else.
- [Kwabena] Everybody ain't gonna get this message today.
Everybody ain't ready for it today.
You only get out what you put in.
This is like we on the block.
I'ma offer you.
I'ma use this language.
I'm offering you a pack today.
I'm offering you something today, so you can get some bread.
But the difference from school to the block,
in school they make you stay,
on the block you gotta option.
This is the option today.
- [Daryl] In the education system, we can activate
the voice of students by giving them
avenues to speak to people who are somewhat like them.
Come from where they come from.
Who look like them.
Who can kinda understand where they're coming from.
Many times our students look at the population
that teaches them and say that they don't truly
understand where I'm coming from.
You're not from my block.
You haven't been on my block.
You haven't walked in my shoes
and so you'll never understand my story.
- [Kwabena] 'Cause if you stay with doing
what some of you may or may not be doing
this is all you'll get.
This is all you'll get.
It has some pictures in it.
It talk about your life a little bit
and the only people who will know you is your brother.
But my young brothers, young kings,
if you do something different with your life
you get the right show on a narrative.
You'll be able to give this to a little boy.
See I believe this, helped me write this.
So when I gave y'all that,
I'm hoping that you're gonna take it
and you gonna go in your neighborhood.
When I was a boy, wilding out in high school,
I'm so glad I got some of y'all attention,
I could see it in your eyes,
acting a fool on the West side,
mad 'cause my father got killed when I was a boy.
- [David] So the amount of violence
that a young person is exposed to absolutely
has been shown to affect brain development.
You know when you look at the cortisol levels
that are associated with stress,
particularly what's called toxic stress in a community,
that is something that when people live with that
for a long time it makes an impact
on their whole life trajectory.
- Raise your hand If you ever lost a friend
or a family member to violence.
Hands down.
Raise your hand,
if you grew up in a house without your father.
Okay and I want you to be honest (mumbles)
Look I'm raising my hand too.
What you say in here stay in here.
I hate to ask the question
but raise your hand if you don't know your father.
Never seen him?
Know anything about him?
Is he dead? - No.
- [Kwabena] He just left. - No, he in jail.
- [Kwabena] He in jail?
Do you talk to him at all?
Okay.
I'm gonna have you write something for me.
On the top of your paper write the phrase, "The truth is."
Now, when you write "The truth is",
treat it like this.
Do I want you to write some sad?
Nope, but I want you to tell the truth.
Answer from your heart and not your head.
If you stop, you stop.
If you get stuck, keep writing "truth is".
- [Daryl] I think the truth of a student is their truth
and it's kind of hard to explain that or to define that.
It's more of a definitive truth.
It would be ignorant of me to think
that every student that I look at
who comes from an inner city,
a neighborhood or a low income neighborhood,
is the same as the other student next to him.
So sometimes you have to get them in a circle
and just find out what their truth actually is.
- [Kwabena] By show of hands,
who could have kept on writing?
I'm glad you shed a tear
because trust me when I write it I shedded a tear.
Everybody take a look at your paper for me.
I want you to read it.
I just want you to look at it.
So first off let me tell you why you looking at it.
I know you some of you emotional.
I can look at your face.
I'm gonna let you share it if you want to
but here's where I want you to think of
when I'm talking to you.
Do you not ever let anybody,
tell you what you can and can't do.
Life is either gonna break you or make you.
If it break you, you gonna go back
and be like everybody on your block.
You gonna be like everybody you know.
If it make you, you gonna be like,
"I came from that but look at me now."
Only thing that gets in this game is death,
prison, wheelchairs and regret.
Anybody wanna read what they wrote?
Let's see what you got my man.
What's your name?
- [Marquell] Marquell.
- [Kwabena] Marquell, when did it get bad?
What happened?
- [Marquell] Me and my mom went into it one day
and things just like started jumping off
of me when I got to deal my mom
and then,
when she started whooping me more and stuff like that
and then things just started jumping off when I was at 14.
My mom started beating me with a stitching cord.
I had bruises on my back and everything.
Called my mom a bitch.
Told her I don't love her no more
and I just started trying to keep my distance away from her.
- [David] When we talk about violence,
oftentimes we focus so heavily on gun violence
that we neglect the fact that sometimes
the first exposure, in fact oftentimes,
the first exposure to violence
is interpersonal domestic violence,
intimate partner violence, violence in the home.
As that being the first exposure
it can really make an impact on a young person's
learning their physical development and their whole,
their life course.
So it absolutely makes an impact.
- [Kwabena] You feel like your mom love you?
- I don't feel like she don't love me no more.
- [Kwabena] Did she ever?
- [Marquell] At first she did.
- [Mary] In terms of how youth will respond
to trauma in the household varies so much
on how often the trauma's occurring,
how violent the situation is,
how they respond to that violence
and so when that happens to us,
some people respond by pulling in
and some people become very external.
So it's very dependent on that child
and that child's reaction
whether they're going to try to fight
or whether they're gonna try to get away
from the experience.
- [Kwabena] Let's see what you got man, be loud.
Y'all give a brother a hand.
(crowd clapping)
Be loud as you can.
- [Marquell] "The truth is
"that I wish I knew my dad like everybody else.
"The truth is, I wish I wasn't alive.
"The truth is, I wanna change.
"The truth is, life isn't what you make it.
"The truth is that I wanna be the best person ever.
"The truth is, I wish things was the same.
"The truth is, why do I struggle so much?
"The truth is, why we fighting
"(stutters) kill each other every day?
"The truth is, why is my mom pushing me away?
"The truth is, sometimes that I feel alone.
"The truth is, that I try to be happy but never can.
(paper rustles)
"The truth is that I feel like I don't need to be here."
- [Kwabena] Give him a hand.
(crowd clapping)
- [Daryl] And so we definitely have a piece in which
we bring in professionals
who come in and who work with the students.
But sometimes it's best
to bring in some people from the neighborhood
who can definitely,
what we say is, "get on their level" sometimes
and let them understand because sometimes they hear you
but they don't hear you
and sometimes the people from the neighborhood,
those are the people who they can look in their eyes
and say, "I seen you from the neighborhood.
"You look like me.
"You act like me.
"You've been in this place
"and so now I can receive from you a little bit better
"than I can receive from the system."
(Kwabena mumbles)
- "He throwing hand signs in the air.
"Mom is calling, he ain't listening.
"Mom is calling, he aint listening.
"Blocks call, he's standing at attention.
"Three.
"Two.
"One."
- [Muhibb] There's a old,
Billy Holiday song that says,
"God bless the child that has his own."
And I'm reminded of how important and significant
it is for black children.
Especially growing up in Milwaukee to have their own.
To have their own talent, to have their own dreams.
When you have your own,
you possess the power to close your eyes at night
and dream of something bigger and something greater.
You dream of being on the stage.
Wherever your dreams can take you,
wherever your talent can take you,
it indeed is a blessing,
just to be able to close your eyes
and close your ears
and not being able to hear the sound of the gunshot.
God bless the child that's got his own.
- [Fidel] Welcome to True Skool.
- [Tiana] Thank you.
- [Fidel] What's your name?
- [Tiana] Tiana.
- [Fidel] Tiana.
My name is Fidel.
- [Tiana] Nice to meet you.
- So, have you ever been here before?
- No sir.
- So, I'ma start out and give you the whole tour
and tell you a little bit about the organization.
- Okay. - All right?
So this is an after-school organization
for high school students
and we do homework help
and then they also have creative media classes.
So let me show you the music space.
We all collaborate and work together
and make original artwork and music
and it's really about creating a safe environment
where young people can express themselves
and explore different mediums of art and also design
and then we help them
to develop their professional portfolio
so they can get paid off of those mediums.
That's what we really all about.
(Tiana exclaims)
So what's your skill level?
What do you do?
- [Tiana] I write music, I sing and I rap.
- [Fidel] So the first thing you say is most important,
you write music.
The students are not all writers.
Some of them like to freestyle and things like that.
So (stutters) we develop writers.
(upbeat music)
So what do you think so far?
- [Tiana] I like it.
I like what y'all are doing.
It's positive.
It's something for young people to do
'cause I truly feel like
it don't be enough stuff to do
or a lot of teenagers don't know about it
and that's why everybody out here doing crazy stuff
and fighting and not doing positive stuff so.
- So what brings you here
is you interested in participating in the showcase?
- [Tiana] Yes.
- [Fidel] So are you ready to give me a sample?
- [Tiana] Yeah.
- Of your skills, your voice, your performance?
Are you comfortable?
- [Tiana] Yeah. - Okay.
- [Tiana] Def- - Okay
and it will, after we just kind of
get a taste of it here,
we'll go into the studio
and then we'll record something
and get the real feel of the vibe.
- [Tiana] Okay.
♪ Sincerely ♪
♪ Lord can you hear my cry ♪
♪ Lord please forgive me ♪
♪ I sin but just know that I try ♪
♪ I try to do better for you ♪
♪ These demons they leaching they cruel ♪
♪ I think I did all I can do ♪
♪ I finally put trust in you ♪
♪ My blood racing my eyes (mumbles) ♪
♪ I'm doing wrong and I know it ♪
♪ 2020 I'm focused ♪
♪ I'm focused, yeah ♪
- [Fidel] That's amazing
(upbeat music) (Tiana laughs)
- [Tiana] So what should I say?
- [Fidel] At the beginning of that song.
See if you can (mumbles) on over here.
(upbeat music continues)
- [Tiana] Oh while the beat going?
- [Fidel] Yeah.
(Fidel chuckles)
(Tiana mumbles)
I seen you do the rap part.
Or do a different rap.
♪ Hey yo ♪
♪ Don't need a crown need pen ♪
♪ It's been a minute been spinning ♪
♪ What time we been ♪
♪ I know they listen just hoping they comprehend ♪
♪ After this song that day you make a dis song again ♪
♪ Forgot your feelings ♪
♪ That's the most they'll put you in ♪
♪ They can't stop me ♪
♪ They hardly can even sit in the spot with me ♪
♪ Keep it one hundred ♪
♪ I'm the reason these bitches don't stand a chance ♪
♪ But don't be mad at me ♪
♪ I ain't tell your ass pick up the pen ♪
♪ Blaze blah two nine the block ♪
♪ Yummy world you ridin' or not ♪
♪ Push the pedal, the gas go levels ♪
♪ I gave my whole life to this world ♪
♪ Now I keep seeing the devil ♪
♪ Killed or be killed ♪
♪ It's a jungle lions, tigers and bears ♪
♪ If it's survival for the fittest ♪
♪ Bitch I'm facing my fears ♪
♪ Killing my rivals ♪
♪ Anything for me to remain the title ♪
♪ I'm not the idol, I'm your idol ♪
♪ Niggas worship my body ♪
♪ Not suicidal ♪
♪ But I hung the old me with a wire ♪
♪ There's no one like me ♪
♪ Is a (mumbles) that the demon inside me ♪
♪ So do not try me ♪
♪ You're gon' see your soul outside of your body ♪
♪ I'm hot like fire ♪
♪ But when I spit is from the cold heart inside me ♪
♪ My nigga ♪
♪ I'm still flexing on 'em ♪
- [Fidel] Okay, okay, okay, okay.
Don't hurt 'em, goddamn.
(all laughing)
(Fidel exclaims)
Jeez louis.
- [Sharlen] So we huge disparities
that are going on in the city.
High unemployment, high poverty,
we're one of the most segregated cities in the country
and it's important that young people understand
that they have a drive
and they have (stutters) they're talented
and they're creative
and they can use all of those elements
in order to change the conditions
that are currently existing in Milwaukee.
- [Fidel] So, we will communicate with you
about the details for the showcase.
- Yeah and I wanna talk to whoever get this beat
'cause I want that beat.
- Absolutely.
Well thank you for coming.
- Thank you.
- [Fidel] Thank you for stepping up
and not being shy.
- [Muhibb] I was born on 12th and Burleigh.
In the zip code of 53206.
The most incarcerated zip code
in the United States of America.
The jail suit talks to us every day
and the jail suit says to us,
"Little black boy wear my suit."
(Muhibb chuckles)
And we say, "No.
"'Cause my momma said,
"if I go to school and I get a good education,
"I could beat you."
And the jail suit says, "You can't beat me.
"You gonna be just like your no good daddy.
"You gonna be like everybody who looks like you,
"who walks like you, who talks like you,
"who grew up in the same neighborhood as you.
"This is where you belong.
"What you wanna be a doctor?
"No that's for the smart people of the world
"and everybody knows
"that little black children ain't smart."
So we put that jail suit on
and we say, "I'll wear your suit.
"'Cause after all, what else do I have to live for?"
But we still have dreams.
We still want more
(door knocks)
but it sure is hard to outrun that jail suit.
- [Sean] Hello.
- [Johnnie] How you doing? - I'm fine.
- Sean Wilson.
- Okay, Johnnie Henderson.
Program director here at Next Chapter Living Center
and one of the co-owners.
- Okay.
- [Johnnie] The boys they're already expecting you today.
- [Sean] Okay.
- [Johnnie] So they're just playing a video game right now
and we'll have you go down into our conference room
and then once you get set up and everything
we'll have the boys come down
for you to talk to them. - [Sean] Okay let's do it.
- [Johnnie] Okay.
All right, good morning you guys.
As I told you guys a little bit earlier today
that we did have a guest speaker that would be here.
His name is Mr. Sean Wilson
and I'm gonna turn over the floor to him.
- Thank you Johnnie.
How you guys doing?
- [All] Good.
- [Sean] When I look at y'all,
I see a reflection of myself.
When I look at y'all (stutters)
I'm speaking to a 16, 17 year-old Sean.
I grew up on 13th and Burleigh.
I started to contribute to the violence in my community,
to the drug, drug selling in my community.
I started to steal,
I started to take and as a result,
I found myself in prison at the age of 17.
- [John] You know prosecutors deal with people,
whether they're victims or people
that have been accused of crimes.
Usually at one of the lowest times in their life.
In Milwaukee, like many, many other cities
around the country,
our young people come to us
from situations often of extreme poverty.
They have oftentimes been exposed
to really traumatic conditions.
- Let's rewind.
At the age of 13, I went to DT.
Fortunately, I only did a month in DT.
After that, that should have been the wake up call.
I bumped my head.
Ouch!
It hurt.
I should've woke up from there but I didn't.
I went right back to the same community,
hung out with the same guys,
who weren't writing me,
who weren't sending me no canteen money,
when I was in DT.
- Once that child gets into the age of 14, 15, 16,
the system changes a little bit
and now we call it the delinquency system
and oftentimes what we're doing there
is now we're starting to change more towards prosecution
and balancing public safety with the needs of the child
and then once they become 17, guess what?
They're treated as adults
and the system takes a totally different approach
towards people committing the offense.
- Three years later,
here I am in DT once again.
Facing a lot of time.
Facing time that can possibly send me away
for the rest of my life
and I ultimately received 17 years in prison.
- [John] There's like a 10 year period
where that brain is developing.
(John stutters) The person is changing
and so if you see a dangerous circumstance
that a young person is committing,
the ordinary person would say,
"Well you've gotta punish that kid.
"You gotta remove 'em from the community."
And we have to then balance that.
We have to say,
"Yeah but this is gonna be a different person
"two years from now.
"It's gonna be a different person 10 years from now."
And trying to incorporate that kind of thinking
takes us in a different direction.
It doesn't become about punishment,
it becomes about how do we fix this problem
for the longterm.
- It took me 17 years
to come to the realization that
this life, this so-called street life,
this hood life, being a street nigga, being a hood nigga,
it took me 17 years to realize
that there's no future in that.
At all.
I've been home almost two years now
and I'm the statewide organizer
for criminal justice reform for the ACLU.
My job title was to cut the prison population
here in Wisconsin by 50%.
Wisconsin locks up more black males
than any other state in this country.
- [David] Milwaukee sends about 6,000,
you know, people, black men,
to the Prison Industrial Complex of the state of Wisconsin.
You got somewhere between 20 and 25,000
people locked up in the state.
The overwhelming majority are black.
Overwhelming majority come from Milwaukee.
- [Sean] That's good information to have
because it lets you know that you are a target
but it also lets you know
that I need to do everything in my power
to put myself in the position where I'm not a statistic
and not only am I not a statistic
but I'm helping other brothers not become a statistic.
- [David] In terms of young people committing crimes
and I really get away from the language of crime.
Criminality is about policing people
as well as their relationship to resources.
All crime is really unmet human need at some level
because the people are immoral.
It's not because of a value judgment,
it is not because of any biological difference
in people of color, particularly black people
that we can't thrive
but it is those structural factors
that deny people access to quality housing,
education that will lift us into the 21st century
and when there's concentrated disadvantage,
people respond in survival mode.
- [Sean] What's your story man?
Tell me a little bit about yourself man.
- [Brandon] My momma, she started doing drugs
and all that 'cause she lost her house.
I forgot what for or whatever.
I guess she didn't have enough money,
that's nothing to do with the cases.
So she started doing drugs and all that.
You know, she had to find a way for us to live
and you know, eat and all the other stuff.
So we would have to walk to the store
like two miles down just to go to the store and steal
and one day she got caught
and (stutters) they took me away from her
and I ended up in foster care.
So I had to wait on my sister
and my sister took about like two or three months
to come get me over, from here in Milwaukee.
She came all the way down in Dallas to come get me
and she adopted me and I was staying with her
but ended up to a point where it just wasn't working out.
Like, I started being a little bit disobedient
'cause I feel like I was getting older
and like it was certain stuff that I wanted to do
that she told me I couldn't do.
I was like hanging around,
you know like people who was doing the wrong things.
I ended up starting smoking at the age of 12.
Stealing cars and stuff like that.
- [David] Violence as it manifests in the community again
is a result of an unmet human need.
So density rates or where the shootings take place,
if you look at the maps,
they're immediately over the same type of areas
where there's housing instability,
where there's low educational attainment,
where there's high infant mortality,
all of it's concentrated in most of the same neighborhoods.
- Okay.
- [Brandon] Like, how I got in here, me and my friend,
we robbed a, we tried to rob Washington High School
and that's what ended up, we ended up doing.
- [Sean] Yeah.
- [Brandon] And so that's the day
we ended up robbing somebody else in the midst of it
and we got caught and boom we got hit with two cases
and now I'm (stutters) in here and trynna get myself out of.
- [David] If we don't address the structural factors
of employment, of education, of remedial education,
of health, of basic infrastructure for Milwaukee's poor
and for Milwaukee's marginalized residents,
if we don't do that, then violence is gonna continue
to be the social response to the injustice in the society.
- [Sean] That's what's up man.
I'm glad that you, you know, took this time to talk to me,
to tell me a little bit about your story.
You a very intelligent young man.
Your future is definitely very bright
and you just gotta stay focused man.
You have any more questions?
You have any questions for me?
- [Brandon] Should I call you on putting me
on the basketball team?
Can you do that?
- [Sean] Shit, we definitely can figure it out.
I know a few coaches who got some basketball teams.
- 'Cause I was playing at ALU and I'm trynna start-
- [Sean] Definitely, definitely give me a call
and I'll definitely put you in contact
with a couple of coaches.
Anything else?
- [Brandon] No, that's it.
- Okay. (Sean chuckles)
Love you man.
- [Brandon] I love you too.
- [Muhibb] So I looked the chief
devil dead in the eyes (mumbles)
- [Man] What you say to him.
- [Muhibb] Bring all your plans.
- Say it.
- Fill 'em with dope.
- [Man] What else?
- Drop crack bombs on us.
Make the whole hood look like a third world country
evict us. (man mumbles)
Turn our lights off.
Turn our gas off.
Break our windows, our refrigerators, our TVs, our stoves.
Even break our minds.
But guess what?
You will never get to my soul.
You will not break us. - They will not break us.
- You can not break us. - They can not break us.
- You will not break us. - You will not break us.
- You can not break us. - You can not break us.
- There are no trials.
- [Both] No tribulation, no pressure, no pain,
no hurricane strong enough to stop my people.
We will always find our way back to God.
- [Man] What else?
- So the Milwaukee community is a beautiful place.
Full of beautiful people doing a lot of beautiful things.
There are so many folks who are committed,
be servants and make the best contribution
that they can to the lives of these children.
These are the people who are not highlighted
on a regular basis.
If we are going to tell the story
of what's going on in the Milwaukee community,
we can't necessarily keep telling half the truth.
We also have to highlight all the beautiful things
that are going on every day.
(upbeat music)
- On Facebook, Instagram, on the news,
as you know in the conversations we had,
at the end of the night they show
black boy, brown boy shot and killed.
Possibly by another black or brown boy.
Possibly these days by police officers.
You know we have real talk conversations.
Ignorance is loud.
They wait till you die and they put a shrine up
and people on there saying how good you are,
et cetera, et cetera.
We brought you here to celebrate you
while you are in your now not while you in your later.
Today is a great day for you.
I told you, it's not punishment,
it's a process of preparation.
I wanna bring these two young men to the stage.
Come on show some love man, give it up for 'em.
(crowd cheering)
These your peers you should be more louder than that man.
(crowd cheering)
- [Margaret] One thing I always encourage
young people to do, young black people to do,
is to get engaged and involved
in whatever's happening in their community.
There's an old saying "the squeaky wheel gets the grease."
And in the black community,
we need to become the squeaky wheel
and make sure that we get the things that we deserve.
- We did some very, very personal statements,
the young men wrote.
So one of the main things they said is,
"Adults are talking to us and not with us."
So with that being said,
I wanted to give two of them an opportunity
to share what they got in the class.
Y'all show them some love please.
(crowd clapping)
- [Marquell] The truth is,
I never really met my dad until the age of 10.
The truth is, I never really wanted it to be alive.
The truth is, I go through so much, (stutters)
I think that I'm the only one that's going through so much.
The truth is that I don't know where to start
but I don't know how to start.
Truth is, I wish I will never die young.
The truth is, I'm not gonna die young.
- There you go.
- The truth is, I am not going to die young.
(all applauding)
- [Mary] Milwaukee is gonna have a tough time
and continue to have a tough time
until we're really willing to look at the realities
of what's going on in our city.
We know there are pockets in our city where
gun violence is so real that kids get used to it.
That's not okay.
(crowd clapping)
(all chanting)
- [Kwabena] I am great. - [All] I am great.
- [Kwabena] I am mighty. - [All] I am mighty.
- [Kwabena] I am-
- [David] You have a lot of community healers.
I mean some of the best examples we see on ninth and ring.
With the, "We got this garden."
You see this with the, "I will not die young" campaign.
You see it with spoken word.
Nobody told someone,
"Hey, you know that's a good form of trauma therapy."
It was the innate knowledge
that if I don't get this out somehow
in a pro-social way, in a positive way,
it's gonna come out in a negative way.
So I would rather take my frustrations out
on the pad with a pen, than explode.
- Look at this. (Marquell mumbles)
This is your (stutters)
How many pages?
- I don't know yet 'cause I, you know,
I just been writing around, writing and stuff.
Yeah.
- What's behind this?
What kicked this off?
You got quite a bit.
- I mean because like, how you's created your story
and telling them about how you grew up and stuff.
I mean like, like you said,
"If you never tell your story
"there ain't nobody gonna never know
"what good that you did in the community
"or what you did in the community and stuff like that."
So, I mean I got a chance to tell my story
so I wanna tell it now.
- You glowing.
Like I remember you got a,
when I came in you got this feel to you
like you moving in the direction you wanna go
as a flow.
Right?
You gon' have some of these.
Aight?
You heard some of the men today.
You gon' have some of these
but those some of these gonna help you.
You know what I mean?
So don't worry about it.
It's fine to focus.
I think you got a gift.
What is it gon' look like five years from now?
- Five years from now, for me it looking like
that I'm an author, you know, publishing my own books
and probably might be on my second one already.
- [Kwabena] Everybody you see who made it
all of us had to make a keen decision in life.
We can either go that way or that way.
You gotta make a decision
and you made a decision to be here.
- What I would say to young black people,
especially young black males,
is they need to follow the model
of those who came before them.
The key thing is to get an education.
Once you get an education,
nobody can ever take that away from you
and it's not so much that you learn one plus one is two
but you learn how to function in the world
when you have a good education
and how to, you know build layers of success.
You also get to meet people
who can become lifelong friends or supporters of yours.
- [Johnnie] Hey Brandon,
can you come upstairs for a moment with me?
Okay, so I just wanted to talk to you a little bit
about your progress for this past week
and your progress since you've been here
at Next Chapter Living Center.
So, you've been here,
you know you've been here a little over a month.
Started out, you know, a little rocky, you know
and over the past few weeks you've actually
been making some pretty good choices, you know.
We talked about a little bit on yesterday.
We've been taking you out,
showing you a few community resources
like what to do once you finally get on your own
and how to maneuver through that process.
Still I wanna show you places like,
different maybe shelters, resource centers,
continue to allow you to go like
to New Hope Youth and Family Services
to find out the services they can offer you,
going to places like Zero to 100,
meeting different mentors
and people in the community as well.
(all chattering)
- [Kweku] There's an old saying that said
that, "A woman can't raise a man"
but I always say this, "A man can't raise a man."
It takes multiple men to raise a man.
- Chin down, eyes up, okay?
Keep your eyes out.
You can see me?
Okay.
Life is your own journey.
Everybody has their own journey in life, right?
But depending on who you hang around with
and what you're doing in life,
depends on how you perform in life, right?
So if you have bad training partners,
you gon' have a bad fight, you be a bad fighter.
All right?
So make sure in life that you have
really good training partners.
People you hang out with, people you talk to,
make sure they're really good people,
people that you wanna be around
because that's gonna make,
that's gonna control who you are
when you wanna get ready to be able to perform, all right?
- [Kweku] Because my dad as great as he was,
he had many flaws.
So if he was the only person to teach me,
I would also have his good ways
but also his flaws.
But now that I have multiple men in my life,
I can pull the good from all of them
and even the negative that I can see,
I can say, "Hey, this is what I don't wanna do."
(upbeat music)
- [David] Oftentimes when people talk about
the strengths of a community,
they talk about people's ability to withstand oppression.
Having someone's boot on the neck
and how you can endure despite that.
We need to move from resilience to thriving communities.
We need to move from the ability to survive in spite of
to the ability to advocate for the community
that you live in and that we've come
to be a part of generationally.
- Everybody say kumbaya.
- [All] Kumbaya.
- [Woman] Kumbaya.
- [All] Kumbaya.
- [Man] Thank you everybody for coming out
to Heal The Hood this year.
Give yourself a round of applause for being here.
(all applauding)
- [Marquell] So,
tell me about this.
Like, what's this all about man?
- Man this is our seventh year
Heal The Hood block party and resource fair
and it's amazing to see how far it's come.
You know, in seven years.
Like the first one we did, we might have had,
you know, three, four vendors.
Now we got you know, close to 30, 40,
you know what I'm saying?
So it's all about progression
and it's all about serving the people man.
- Yeah I see everybody getting together, you know
and no beefing going on. - None of that.
- We all playing basketball,
eating and stuff. - [Ajamou] Yep.
- [Marquell] And them just all getting along
and I like that though because well you know,
most people die, left and right and stuff.
You never know when it's the last person breath or whatever
or when it's just their last day or whatever.
- That's the truth.
That's the truth.
- [Derek] People in 53206 are not weak
and they're not helpless.
They can do things.
They want to do things.
They're trying to do things
and I think we can build that confidence back
in that community.
If we encourage people to come together
and formulate strategies and to say to them,
"There's nothing wrong with the people in 53206."
- [Ajamou] That's the truth
and that's what we try to represent
at Heal The Hood,
because like you said, somebody asked the other day,
"Why do we do it to this capacity?"
How we do it
and "Why not just have something nice and small and quiet?"
I'm like, "A gunshot is loud."
You know what saying?
Violence is loud.
So we come to the hood to be even louder.
Positivity gotta be even louder
than the nonsense out here man.
So I choose to serve my people the best way I know how.
I know that I can't change the world
but I will change the world around me
and so we just do what we do man.
I love it.
- [Marquell] I like that. (Ajamou mumbles)
I like that, you know. - [Ajamou] Yes sir.
- [Ajamou] And we all got a story man.
I used to rip around these streets like (mumbles)
you know what I'm saying?
Like
and some days I still be wanting to-
you know what I'm saying?
Get out here.
'Cause it's so easy to get into trouble.
It's so easy to do what we've always done.
- It's the same thinking at the system level
that it is at the block level.
Yes, it would be easier to pay my bills
if I just went and got a job
but the money is faster right here on the block
and so yes, things will ultimately (stutters)
be better if we invested in communities
and invested in peoples
but the payout is so much quicker
by locking folks up and sending them away.
(upbeat music)
- [Ajamou] But it kind of hustling
versus working a righteous endeavor,
working Heal The Hood, working my job, working my movement.
It's easy to get back into the streets.
Make a couple of phone calls
and get back out here with the baggies and scales
but I told myself, what has that given my son?
What has that given my people?
It's a million young brothers out here
talking about how they got the two for the 15.
I don't have time for that.
I can't be one of them.
You understanding what I'm saying?
So as much as I would love that quick money
and all of this and the other that comes with it,
I understand there's a whole world out here
and I can't see the world,
if I'm on the corner talking about I got the two for the 15.
That ain't gon' cut it man.
So I salute you brother,
keep doing what you're doing family.
- [Marquell] All right.
- Keep doing what you doing little brother.
However we can support man,
we're here for you. - All right, period.
- Period, period.
- Good talking to you bro.
- Love my brother, growing up Milwaukee.
- [David] One thing that can be said about Milwaukee
is that the people here are strong, resilient
and able to push back but also able to turn inward
and find healing amongst ourselves
and then give a solution that would help
all of the residents.
- [Fidel] When she calls-
- [Sheldon] Oh we finna do a FaceTime or something?
- [Fidel] We gonna do a FaceTime when she calls.
We'll just have her spit some bars.
- To the beat? - You gotta hear her.
- To the beat?
She's doing to the beat? - I'ma do a-
I'ma have her do acapella. - Oh okay.
She got-
She can do acapella
and you would definitely get the, get that smoke.
She's good.
Let me call her and I can get her on the line.
Hey Tiana.
- [Tiana] Hey.
- [Fidel] So,
it's unfortunate that you couldn't be here today
but we still have our sound engineer, Sheldon, here.
So what we want to do
is sort of introduce you to what I heard
the last time you came to the studio.
You might've planned to be here for the whole week
and now we got people here and everything like that
but we still want to make great use of the time
and I still want you to know
that a lot of people showed up here on your behalf.
Like for you, specifically
and you were supposed to be the first one here.
At like three o'clock.
Am I on mute?
Hello?
Is anybody there?
Hello?
- Yeah. (Tiana laughs)
My bad.
- [Fidel] It's okay.
It's okay to say "My bad".
It's okay to say "I apologize".
It's okay.
You know what I mean?
Things happen.
We just have to communicate.
- [Tiana] Got you.
- All right, great.
So now listen, I want Sheldon to be able to hear
everything that I heard.
Whenever you're ready, go ahead and start.
I'ma bring the phone over here by Sheldon
so we can, so he can hear you as well.
Get in your zone.
(Tiana laughs)
(Tiana mumbles)
She going somewhere private and quiet
where she can really...
Oh outside.
This is great.
You could be in that car,
you could have drove the True Skool, damn it.
- We ready?
- [Fidel] We ready.
You ready?
- Yeah.
- Okay, great.
- [Tiana] Okay.
♪ Heavenly father I'm stuck in my ways ♪
♪ Yes I feel guilty for choices I made ♪
♪ I'm only human- ♪
Move away from my car.
Why'd you bang my car?
Like.
(Tiana exclaims)
Okay.
♪ Heavenly father I'm stuck in my ways ♪
♪ Yes I feel guilty for choices I made ♪
♪ I'm only human so needless to say ♪
♪ I make mistakes almost every day, day to day ♪
♪ Why you had to give me the parents that you gave me ♪
♪ That's all on my momma but the thing she do is shady ♪
♪ Why I got molested by the people who had raised me ♪
♪ Why my daddy never there to save me ♪
♪ Why I had cold nights sleeping in the park I was the baby ♪
♪ My sister fucked a nigga that I fucked was (mumbles) ♪
♪ Every night I get up on my knees and pray ♪
♪ And I'm back in church on Sunday ♪
♪ And I'm still the same ♪
♪ Sincerely ♪
♪ Lord can you hear my cry ♪
- You hear where it's going right?
♪ Lord please forgive me ♪
♪ I'm focused, yeah ♪
- [Tiana] Yeah, he just threw me off so.
- No, it was good.
That's good stuff.
- That was good.
- [Fidel] That was good stuff.
So now-
- [Tiana] No.
- Where is you parked at?
- [Tiana] Like- (Tiana giggles)
(man mumbles)
Boy you-
(man mumbles)
Get away from my window.
I don't know, I don't know who that is.
I don't know nothing about that.
Get away from my window.
- [Man] Only thing I need is bars and wires.
- Bars and wires?
Let me, let me talk to him.
Let me talk to him.
Put me on the phone with him.
She gon' snap.
You going back in the house?
Just go back in the house.
Yo, it's okay.
- [Tiana] Let me call y'all back.
- Don't, go back in the house.
Don't get nobody beat up.
Uh-oh.
That wasn't it.
I wanted to like at least walk her back in the house.
She like, "I'm getting his ass beat right now."
(table thuds)
(phone rings)
- [Woman] All right, it's her.
- [Fidel] Tiana.
We good?
We back?
- [Tiana] Yeah.
- Everything okay? - [Tiana] Yes.
- She's smiling.
That's great.
All right.
All right, you safe.
(Tiana laughs)
So we will communicate with you
probably next week to try to set up something
to get the ball rolling
and get you recording something,
in order to get ready to perform it.
Did you alleviate that problem?
- [Tiana] Yeah.
- All right.
- [Tiana] People crazy.
- Absolutely, people crazy.
(Tiana laughs) The world is crazy.
- So family, even if you buried a whole hood alive.
- [Man] Come on, I ain't hear you.
- You see you could bury the whole hood alive.
- [Man] Under what?
- Bury our spirits. - [Man] Come on, (mumbles)
- Under (mumbles) dreams under platinum chains,
under cars, under clothes.
Bury our spirits under foolish music,
under blood money, under tennis shoes.
Turn my woman against me and me against her.
Make her every word, her every thought,
her every action, her every poem
be about my ugliness.
- What happens?
- About our nothingness. - What happens?
- And even still,
I will always find my way back to her
and she will always find a way back to me.
There is nothing they can do.
They tried to bury us
but they didn't know we were seeds
'cause we grew anyway.
That is what's going on in the city of Milwaukee.
We have families going through trials and tribulation.
We have children going through trials and tribulations
but I have a firm belief
that regardless of what we go through in life,
ultimately, there is hope.
Ultimately, they tried to bury us
but we grew anyway.
- So my name is Connie.
- [Tiana] Hi my name's Tiana.
- Tiana. - [Tiana] Yes.
- Okay.
Tell me, so you were in foster care
or you were in a group home?
- I was in a group home.
- So how did you end up in the group home?
How did that happen?
- [Tiana] Well when I was 13,
I was like running away from home and stuff like that
and I got pregnant with my son at the time
and me and my mom was like, you know,
like getting into it a lot
and I ain't feel like she was like doing
what a parent should do.
So I was leaving
and she really couldn't gain no control on me so.
- So you, how many group homes where you're in total?
- Like four.
- And if you liked the first one, what happened?
Why did you have to leave?
- Well like, you know like,
I don't get along with a lot of girls.
- Okay.
- For reasons I never know.
Like, cause I don't really do nothing
but make jokes and be cool.
So, you know but everybody got their reasons
and you know, like into (mumbles)
I fight a lot.
So, you know, cause I don't take no mess from nobody.
- You don't take no mess?
- No.
- So you got into it with a couple of girls
and the situation happened, you had to leave?
- Yeah.
- Okay.
When you aged out what happened?
- I moved into my first apartment.
- Oh, so you had your own apartment?
- Yeah.
- So you, are you still there?
- No.
- So what is your situation like now?
- You know I just go to work,
saving up so I can move back out
to my own place and just doing my music.
- What kind of music do you like?
- I really like real life, all kind of music.
Like, I'm diverse when it comes to music.
- [Fidel] Glad you made it.
- [Tiana] Thank you. - [Fidel] Finally.
- [Tiana] Glad to be- - We've been waiting for you.
(Tiana exclaims)
- [Tiana] When you're an artist you gotta kinda
accept everything 'cause you never know
who you got to work with,
you never know who you gotta come in contact with.
So I think it's good to like you know all the genres.
♪ I got big dreams ♪
♪ Ain't never giving up ♪
♪ Love or hate me ♪
♪ I never give up ♪
♪ I stay humble ♪
♪ 'Cause I got it out the mud ♪
♪ Moral of the stories is ♪
♪ My son is enough ♪
♪ I got big dreams ♪
♪ I ain't never giving up ♪
♪ Love or hate me ♪
♪ I never give a fuck ♪
♪ I stay humble ♪
- [Connie] So tell me a little bit
about your little man.
How old is he?
- Oh, he four.
- He's four? - Yeah.
- And where is he at?
- He staying with, I call 'em like his godparents.
- Okay.
So are they foster parents?
- Yeah.
- [Connie] Where's his biological dad?
- [Tiana] In prison.
- [Connie] Now why is he in jail?
- For a couple different things.
- Like...
- You know, street, you know, street dude.
- Oh that's what he is?
- [Tiana] Yeah.
- So when you had him, where were you at?
The group home?
- Mm-hmm.
- Okay.
So when he was born, what happened?
He was with me.
- He was with you at the group home?
- Yeah.
- 'Cause it was a group home that had moms with babies?
- Yeah.
- And then how did he get taken from you?
- [Tiana] 'Cause they came and arrested me.
- [Connie] So you had him for a whole year
and then after, when he got ready to turn almost two,
- [Tiana] Yeah.
- [Connie] that's when he got moved to a foster home.
- [Tiana] Yeah.
♪ Hoping that the Lord forgive me ♪
♪ Some things I don't mean ♪
♪ Don't speak about the seen and unseen ♪
♪ I hate the police ♪
♪ But shit while I'm on that topic ♪
♪ Fuck the police ♪
♪ You bitches gotta pay for my respect ♪
♪ I need a whole g's ♪
♪ Been fighting with the world ♪
♪ Till I finally had it in me ♪
♪ If you wanna know if I'm about it ♪
♪ Then try me and see ♪
♪ We cut from two different cloth ♪
♪ Nigga I'm going through the shit 15 years ♪
♪ Thank the Lord ♪
♪ Then give it to me ♪
♪ I thank the Lord ♪
♪ Then give it to me ♪
- [Connie] So you got arrested at what age?
- [Tiana] 15.
- What'd you do?
- [Tiana] Strong armed robbery.
- Tiana.
Okay, so you have a felony?
- Yeah.
- Is that the only felony?
- [Tiana] Yeah.
I just fight a lot, it wasn't like as bad as it sounds.
I just beat up a girl, buried her in the snow
and stuff like that and just took her money
but that's because you know
her and her little family tried to jump me
and she thought she was gonna get away with it.
So you know, I had to retaliate but...
- You beat her pretty bad?
- [Tiana] Yeah.
- So, (stutters) can, I mean,
does she have scars, they're permanent scar?
- Yeah she was at the hospital.
- Oh so beat it that bad.
Okay and you didn't serve any time?
- [Tiana] Well, I was in there for like 10 days.
They was trynna give me 15 years
but I just had my baby so,
he was like, "This your first case.
"You kinda gon' get you a slap on the hand"
They put me on probation for a year
and just told me I like had to pay her the money back
and stuff like that, you know what I'm saying?
- Are you still paying restitution?
- [Tiana] No, I ain't given her nothing.
No.
- But you're gonna pay her back?
- No, never in my life.
- [Fidel] Do the song that you did
when you first walked up here the first day.
You was talking about the foster home.
When you sang it, it was like
that was real different level stuff.
This is good.
I'm just saying,
I want Sheldon to hear the other one on this one.
♪ Hey yo ♪
♪ Don't need a crown, need a pen ♪
♪ It's been a minute been spinning ♪
- [Connie] So how far, did you graduate from high school?
- [Tiana] No.
- [Connie] You didn't, okay no.
What's your goal for that?
- [Tiana] I don't really wanna go back.
- [Connie] You do wanna go back?
- [Tiana] No I don't.
- But you gonna go back and get your GED.
- Yeah.
- Okay.
'Cause you wanna do that
'cause you know the longer you wait sometime
you don't do it. - [Tiana] You throw it off.
Yeah. - You do.
And to be able to get out of the factory
and do something like you wanna do,
with getting jobs, they always ask you,
do you have a high school diploma or a GED?
And considering it's gonna take some time
for the music industry
and get moving with that
'cause that's what you sound like you wanna do.
- Yeah.
- So and then sometimes it's good to journal.
Have you ever journaled?
- Well I write a lot like songs and stuff like that so.
I guess that's my- (Connie stutters)
- So your songs talk about your life?
- Yeah.
- Okay.
Then that's good.
- [Tiana] Yeah.
- [Connie] But it's good, 'cause writing period,
is good because it helps you,
sounds like it helps you to deal with things.
- [Fidel] All right if you having fun, make some noise.
(crowd cheering)
If you're enjoying yourself,
we appreciate everybody who came out.
That's what it's all about Milwaukee.
Once again, big shout out to all of our partners
and our whole team of interns
and our staff that helped us put this together.
Make sure you holler at the True Skool table.
We'll see if this wild card happen.
How y'all doing Milwaukee?
(crowd exclaims)
Y'all good?
All right.
Now this next performer I'm bringing up to the stage.
She goes by the name of Tiana Gee
and she's a special guest here today
and this is part of a very special project.
I need y'all to give her a warm round of applause.
Go Milwaukee.
(crowd cheering)
Yeah.
Bring up Tiana Gee.
♪ My sister fuck a nigga that I fucked (mumbles) ♪
♪ Every night I get up on my knees and pray ♪
♪ And I'm back in church on Sunday ♪
♪ And I'm still the same ♪
♪ Sincerely ♪
♪ Lord can you hear my cry ♪
♪ Lord please forgive me ♪
- [Connie] Do you have relationships
with your mom and your sisters or your mom and dad?
- No.
Well I have a relationship,
I have a really good relationship with my dad now.
We see each other mostly every day.
Talk to each other mostly every day.
We've been doing a lot of stuff as family together.
So.
- Okay.
- Yeah, he really stepped up a lot lately.
♪ I try to do better for you ♪
♪ These demons, they leaching, they cruel ♪
♪ I think I did all I can do ♪
♪ I finally put trust in you ♪
♪ My blood's racing my eyes (mumbles) ♪
♪ I'm doing wrong and I know it ♪
♪ 2020 I'm focused ♪
♪ I'm focused, yeah ♪
(lighthearted music)
- [Fidel] Y'all give it up.
Give it up for Tiana Gee.
- [Sharlen] One thing that I remember about Tiana
is just her drive
and who she was as a young person.
Just very driven, very determined despite her circumstances
and I think, when we look at a lot of the issues
that are going on in this city,
Tiana is one of many young people
that are impacted by a lot of,
I would say probably trauma,
a lot of situations that happen to communities in Milwaukee
and (stutters) and that impact families
and so Tiana kind of was just a by-product of that
but that didn't stop her.
- Hey it was funny 'cause you was like,
I was like, "You the first act?
"No."
then the next minute, "Hurry up I'm finna go on."
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
'Cause see, 'cause at first he kept saying like,
"Hold on I'm trynna see where I can squeeze you in there."
So we like, "Okay"
and then a girl was up there, so I'm like,
that's when you said, is "I'm the first act"
but the girl was already up there.
So I'm like, "no" cause I ain't.
'Cause the girl was up there.
- Oh okay.
- So he kept saying he was trynna figure it out.
10 minutes later he was, "Oh well,
"like get ready it's time."
(Tiana's dad mumbles)
- It's good I told him to get out
but at least I got it on film, right?
- Right.
- [Sharlen] One of the things that young people need
is that support and I remember
being able to provide that sort of just support
for Tiana because so many of our young people
just need that sort of hand holding.
They need somebody that they know that care and love them.
- [Fidel] You cussed enough for everybody for the record.
Thank you for adding a couple of extra motherfuckers.
(Tiana laughs)
'Cause we got a couple of ignorant people in the crowd
and that's the only thing that gon' hear anyway
and that's aight.
Couple other people that's all they wanna hear,
that's aight.
But you did a great job. - Thank you.
- How you feel up there?
- It felt good. - It felt good?
- Yeah.
- And you killed it and you left.
- [Both] Yeah.
- You killed and you left.
- I know, you know, like really
there was the closing speech?
- [Fidel] Yeah.
- So I was just like, you know-
- Next time, you know, introduce yourself, one last time.
You should be like you know, "Check for me in the future."
(Fidel exclaims)
But you did awesome though.
- Thank you.
- I Appreciate it. - Thank you.
- And I'm glad you got a chance to do some of you like
most important to you. - Thanks for the opportunity.
- That material right there is the one.
That's the one.
- Yeah, that is my song. - Not the other one.
That one.
That's the one.
(lock buzzes)
(door squeaks)
- [Johnnie] All right.
Here you go.
I think you need these for this.
How you doing with 10 and two?
Are your hands in the right place?
- [Brandon] No.
- [Johnnie] I'ma say 40.
- [Brandon] (mumbles) 25.
That's my momma.
(car honks) (Johnnie stutters)
- What was that? - My momma.
- Your mother? - Mm-hmm.
All right, well, we had time you could have went in.
Did a U-turn and said hi.
(man mumbles faintly)
(door squeaks)
- [Ron] Hey how's it going?
- [Johnnie] All right, pretty good.
- [Ron] What's up?
What's your name man?
- [Brandon] Brandon.
- I'm Ron, right. (Brandon mumbles)
Nice to meet you brother.
(Johnnie mumbles)
- Okay.
- So he's the owner of Sphinx
and I've known Ron probably for the 20 years
me and his brother went to high school together.
We were good friends.
- Yeah, I was cutting him in the house.
- He says you been cutting all the basketball players bald.
- Oh yeah, humble man. - Not bald.
(all laughing)
I said back in the day.
- Early in the 90's.
I was probably your age cutting hair.
- Oh really?
- Real life.
I been cutting hair for (stutters) 25 years.
- 25 years?
- 25 years.
- Okay, well I want 25 years experience into this tapered
and this line.
- You go me on IG, you got an Instagram page, right?
- Yeah.
- Yeah, lemme get your Instagram page real quick.
- Okay.
(machine buzzing)
- [Johnnie] Oh, so Brandon,
did I ever tell you
that I stopped living with my mom when I was 15 years old?
Stopped living with my mom, wasn't there.
She got evicted and she ended up moving inside a shelter.
So I ended up staying with my uncle.
Back when I was in high school there was times where Ron,
his mom would, you know, pick me up for school,
give me a ride to school sometimes,
give me a ride home.
And Brandon, so that was your mom
we saw on 35th and Center you said?
Does she have a cell phone?
- Yes.
- Do you think you wanna call
and see where she was on her way to?
'Cause I wonder if she really recognized
that that was you or not.
Blowing at her.
(machine buzzing)
(phone beeps)
- [Lydia] Hello.
- Ma, this is Brandon. - [Lydia] Hello.
That was you driving right?
- Yeah.
- [Lydia] Hey, how you doing?
- I'm good.
- [Lydia] Did you see?
Do you like me hair and stuff?
(Brandon mumbles)
- Where you at?
- [Lydia] On the bus.
- On the bus, where you going?
- [Lydia] To Dollar General on the East side.
- I say what you doing there besides going there?
- [Lydia] Gon' go home.
Clean my room up.
Oh yeah, I forgot I gotta go
to Social Security building
and see if I can do, get my own check
because (mumbles) took herself off of my payee
thank God.
I'm sick of her.
Yeah, so what was you doing?
That was a driving school?
- No, I'm with Mr.Johnnie.
- [Lydia] Oh, he was letting you drive?
- Yeah.
- [Lydia] Oh, that's nice.
Brandon, the police is calling me about Mariah.
I'll call you back okay?
- All right.
- [Lydia] All right.
- [Rick Sr.] So, what I want you to do,
I'ma ask you the question today
and I want a show of hands.
Do you have expectations of yourself?
- [Derek] It's real important
that teachers have the highest expectation for students
but once we set a higher expectation for our students
in terms of their performance,
then it's important that we provide support.
- [Rick Sr.] I'ma go back to when I used to,
when I started my group in my phrase was always
"rise and grind"
and I'm trying to teach all of us
when you rise, you grind
because unfortunately there's a lot of people
that came rise anymore.
I don't want you to just stop and stand still.
I want you to go reach your expectations
but y'all this is serious.
We at the finish line.
We have one and a half weeks before our finals are coming.
Some of us behind the eight ball
but still wanna play games
and it's nobody else's fault right now.
It ain't momma's fault, it ain't daddy's fault,
it ain't your life-
It's right now to pick up that baton and finish.
- [Derek] If you set a high goal or a high target
for students to obtain
but you don't provide the support,
emotional support, the skills, without that support
then the kids tend to feel alienated.
They say, "Well you're expecting this out of me
"but where do I get the resources?
"Where do I get the support,
"so that I can be successful?"
- [Rick Sr.] In this week and a half
you gon' go to your teachers.
You gon' find out what you need to do to finish.
- [Marquell] Hi Ms. Jacobs.
I'm coming to you to see like
how can I bring my grade up
from a D to either a C or a B.
- Okay.
It's not looking like you're gonna pass this semester
(Ms. Jacobs inhales deeply)
and it's because since February,
you haven't done a thing
and you have not been here in class.
Starting in the semester,
in the beginning of the semester,
you have every single thing turned in.
I'm talking about every single assignment.
Drops off February 20th.
Faces the earth.
No Marquell.
You're not in class.
When you do come to class,
you leave to go to either group
or to be an ambassador or late
or your behavior sometimes gets you put out
and this is the result.
So it's looking like a little bit
of a downward spiral for you
and I don't really want that for you.
Last semester, did you pass?
No.
Why is that?
- [Marquell] Well to be honest really,
just my fault basically
'cause I wasn't really focusing.
I was goofing off, playing around
and trynna be a class clown and stuff like that
and really knowing that,
that weeks has gone by fast as ever
just docking down by day by day.
- And what's really getting on my nerves right now
is the fact that you're coming in two weeks,
a week and a half before exams
and is just now asking, what can you do?
This work has been on Google Classrooms since August.
- Thank you Ms. Jacobs. - No problem.
- And I'm finna get to class.
- [Rick Sr.] We gonna take this as motivation
because I know a lot of us are sitting there
are seeing who don't wanna come up here
and tell their story
is going through the same type of things,
the same similar situations.
So use this as motivation.
When I said set your expectations high,
set 'em high, go for 'em.
It always goes through this.
Okay, so here we go.
- [Woman] Freshman year, it was fun, like,
that was the best freshman year ever like.
(woman laughs)
Then, something happened to me over the summer.
I was raped or whatever
and, then school year started
and I was just out of it like,
I was here but I wasn't here.
It was just a struggle.
All the way up to now it still is a struggle.
You know, I get into it with my daddy all the time.
My daddy think I'm a hoe.
Still not caring about school, trying to commit suicide.
You know.
All that stuff, going to the hospital.
OD'd and all that stuff.
- I was in the foster care for like,
I don't know how long (stutters) just,
probably like a month, maybe three months,
maybe three months or two, I don't know
but, like me and my mom was never on good terms.
It was always arguing.
(Marquell sighs)
Momma used to sell drugs.
My dad was never in my life.
Then helping my little brothers and sisters
with their homework and stuff.
Taking them like baths and stuff
because my mom was never here.
She was always at a (mumbles) and me,
going out where friends and everything.
I got into an argument with her yesterday.
She said she was gonna put me out.
So I told her, "Okay,
"I'ma just call the social worker tomorrow
"and make your dream come true."
So-
- [Marco] You know, it's always been that
the black male has been absent of the household
then now what do we do
when there's no black mother in the household
and kids are truly fending for themselves?
And I think that we're seeing a lot more of that these days,
unfortunately.
- [Woman] My daddy left here,
this last year in November.
I was in the house by myself.
I basically had my own house.
I was paying bills, working a job,
not being at school.
At work from seven o'clock in the morning
to one o'clock in the morning.
I used to be out here in the streets
with my friends and didn't care.
Hey, I don't got nothing to live for
with my momma gone.
Until this one time, I was in the hospital
for two weeks, I almost killed myself.
- [Rick Sr.] And so I guess what I'm finna ask
everybody in here,
start being there for somebody.
When y'all hear these stories,
hey a kind word goes a long way.
Everybody understand?
- [All] Yes.
- Good, better, best.
- [All] Good, better, best.
- I shall not rest.
- [All] I shall not rest.
- [Rick Sr.] Till my good is better.
- [All] Till my good is better.
- [Rick Sr.] And my better is best.
- [All] And my better is best.
- [Rick Sr.] Everybody be great today
and we must finish.
- [Muhibb] They can't hurt us.
They can't hold us down. - [Man] Come on.
You gotta go there.
- They can't stop water from seeking it's level.
It's this water, it's is in us.
They will never be able to stop us from seeking the truth.
It is impossible.
We are not afraid of your might.
- [Man] What we do?
- We're not afraid of your intelligence.
We've read the story of Pharaoh.
We know it's prophesied that, they fall, not us.
What they gon' do when we don't wanna be
a part of their world no more?
(audience applauding)
- Come on, give it up, give it up.
- What they gonna do
when we don't wanna get high no more?
Don't wanna get drunk no more.
Not hypnotized by music no more.
What they gon' do
when we don't wanna be criminals no more?
We'll be burning their dough.
Burn their money.
Burn their guns as a offering
to the most high God to regain his respect,
what they to do?
I wish all the children on Burleigh,
all the children on the North side of Milwaukee
knew that there will come a time
where them struggling with obituaries
or hearing gunshots at night
or seeing the yellow tape
and bodies of their friends, won't last forever.
It will eventually be replaced with a new spirit.
A new spirit of them striving to go to school
and become educated and be different people.
Walking across the stage, graduating
and not us lining up for funeral processions.
If I had a dream,
I wish every black child would know that.
(controller rattles)
(mouth clicks)
- What the fuck?
Here's Johnny.
(door clicks)
Oh hey mum.
- [Lydia] Hey darling.
Hi.
- [Brandon] Come on. - How you been?
- [Brandon] I'm all right, come on.
(Lydia mumbles) What you say?
- [Lydia] You sleep up here?
- [Brandon] No I sleep downstairs.
You know what I wanna do?
- [Lydia] What?
- [Brandon] Leave here.
- [Lydia] You wanna leave here?
You mean, you mean this place or leave the state?
- [Brandon] This place.
- I know.
- We gotta go.
- Yeah.
Where do you think that you might wanna move?
To, just have to just (stutters)
like go on vacation sometimes
and just explore a couple of places?
Anywhere but here. - Anywhere but here.
I like Texas.
I really do but it's hot.
- I like Vegas.
- You like Vegas.
How do you know?
Yeah, that's definitely an option.
I don't wanna stay here.
No.
I mean we've been through some,
a lot of trials and tribulations in Milwaukee
and you know it's getting bad.
- Everybody's moving anyway.
- Yeah.
It's getting bad but there's still hope,
you know, it's all about what you do
but I'm just, I've had it, I need a geographical change.
- [Brandon] I don't think there's no hope.
If you're living here there's no hope.
- You don't think there's any hope living here?
- [Brandon] No.
- [Marco] The issues that young black men are facing
or a few issues that young black men are facing
growing up in Milwaukee,
I would say is a sense of hopelessness.
A lot of our young men, young people of color
don't come from a good foundation of stability
nor have the resources and the individuals around them
to help guide them through those trials and tribulations
that I guess you could say
that they'll face as they are growing up
throw their adolescents and their teens.
(Lydia sighs)
- It kinda depends on-
- [Brandon] People leave here,
make their money and then come back.
- [Lydia] Yeah, I know.
Oh, you mean hope as far as the career and the jobs,
economical wise - Yeah.
Because we're a low income city.
- [Lydia] Yeah we are
but you know that's what school is all about.
You know what I'm saying?
- [Marco] With that also mentions stability.
You know, I think that one of the key factors
for a young person's success
is for them to be able to come from an environment
or have a environment that is conducive
to growing up, you know
and then also an environment that accounts
for the challenges that they'll face as young of color.
- [Dia] So how are you doing here?
- [Brandon] I'm good.
- [Dia] Staying out the way?
- [Brandon] Yeah.
Trying to.
- You trying to.
- What you mean by trying?
- [Brandon] They be testing me here.
- They be testing you.
Who's they?
- [Brandon] The kids.
- Oh yeah (mumbles)
- That's what y'all all do.
(Dia laughs)
- [Brandon] No like, they be testing me like,
there's this (stutters) the boy downstairs,
he'd be stealing my studs.
- [Dia] But besides that you cool?
- [Brandon] Yeah.
- [Dia] That (mumbles)
(car engine revs)
- And then it's like this ain't my first, second, third time
putting my parents in the song.
So it's like, you trynna be,
be telling for what?
(car engine revs)
- [Kierra] The whole song wasn't about him though.
You just, you put little parts of the situation in a song.
- [Tiana] I mean if I'ma make this song,
I'ma make it real.
I'ma be a hundred percent honest.
You know what I'm saying?
I'ma only state facts and it is what it is.
And then I feel like,
well since music is my passion anyway
you, I are got to express that.
That hurt like, they really hurting me.
So I feel like I make the song personal
and you know, most of my personal songs
it always do be about like my mom or dad.
So I'm like...
- [Kierra] Yeah.
♪ Music speak for me ♪
♪ So people they can't ignore me ♪
♪ Been tolerating bullshit ♪
♪ From people who don't care for me ♪
♪ But fuck it I had enough of 'em ♪
♪ Cut 'em which means I'm done with them ♪
♪ Love 'em, but do not fuck with 'em ♪
♪ Love 'em, but cannot trust 'em none ♪
♪ Fuck it if I got the good heart ♪
♪ That don't mean use me ♪
♪ There's only one in me ♪
♪ You gotta respect my honesty ♪
♪ Need no apology ♪
♪ When I die please don't cry over me ♪
♪ Just look over me ♪
♪ Remember you chose them over me ♪
♪ Tiana focus on your dreams ♪
♪ And where you headed to ♪
♪ I'm trying but right now I'm done ♪
♪ Nobody there there but you ♪
♪ I'm all you need ♪
♪ Say fuck it and let them leave ♪
♪ Yeah I agree but that time was taken from me ♪
♪ And now we see how she playing like the victim ♪
♪ And she know what's up ♪
♪ I don't wish you luck ♪
♪ I wish you hell and hope your karma come ♪
♪ Blood is what we were ♪
♪ So bloody how I left you suck it up ♪
♪ If we ain't had enough, just let me know ♪
♪ So we could catch these words ♪
(both exclaiming)
- Say yeah.
(both laughing)
- [Kierra] What made you want to start singing
and rapping and stuff like what?
- [Tiana] Well honestly, when I make songs,
I can help somebody get out of a situation.
If it's a situation you in
and you feel like don't nobody understand, you know,
really where you're coming from.
I wanna be like that voice and reasoning
like, that type of thing so I be like, yeah.
If I could just make music all day, every day,
make money off of it and it can inspire people
and help people and you know,
people can relate to it like, you know.
I feel like music is like, it's therapeutic.
I know for myself like when you can relate
to what somebody's saying
or when somebody can make a song
and you just feel it in your soul that's, it's deep like,
so I be like, yeah, if I could make people feel
like all the time with my music, I love it like, so.
Feel the breeze?
(Tiana exhales sharply)
He like, "I'm just chilling."
- [Kierra] Yeah.
Say, "We felt that one.
"We liked it that one."
- [Sean] Brandon, what's up man?
- What's up?
- How you doing?
- I'm all right, yourself?
- Good to see you man.
Introduce you to the AAU coach.
He coach a lot of young guys in the city of Milwaukee.
- How you doing?
How you doing?
- What's up man.
This is Brandon.
It's who I was telling you about.
- As you see our program is T.S.A.
Which it stands for Talented Student Athletes.
We were formerly known as The Magic.
I mean, 'cause we were doing things
that people thought that couldn't happen
with some inner city kids, that nobody wanted.
So we were with the name Magic first.
Then we became, all my younger boys became older
to where we found out about the politics of the game
to where it's all about education,
getting them grades up first
'cause I don't care how talented you are,
if you can't get those books in order
you can't play the game.
I'm the same neighborhood kid of 15th and Burleigh
that ran the streets.
Did Lord knows what and he can contest to this
there's nothing that you wanna do
that I haven't done already.
I still got the big old car, big rims, big trucks.
I still got that.
Now I got it the legal way.
I do things by using what I do
in a positive way to get what I want
rather than I did out there in the streets
and that's why it's best for kids to find their passion.
(all chattering) (ball dribbling)
Get to here.
(Coach Rose mumbles)
Now (mumbles)
Yeah, yeah.
Now do your thing.
Yeah.
It's a simple cross.
Come on, last one.
Here.
Yeah.
(dribbling continues)
That's how you get to the bucket.
You good man.
Whenever you wanna come back in the gym, just let me know.
Sean hook us up
and you're able to come in anytime man.
All right.
They call me (mumbles)
I have somebody there with you to work with you, all right?
(Brandon mumbles)
All the time man.
All right Sean man.
Get out of here.
I appreciate everybody man.
(athletes chattering) (shoes squeaking)
- [Sean] And it's like I told you, you know,
it's so many people man, that care man,
that care about, you know, the next generation.
So there is people who care man, you know.
Like I told you the first time
during the first meeting man, we love you.
You know, we want you to excel.
We want you to be your best.
We want you to follow your dreams, your passion
and we want you to steer away from anything
that's preventing you from doing that.
So, I know you said that you didn't like school
because of the drama surrounding the school
but keep in mind that the only reason you there
is to get your education.
- Right. - You know.
When you wake up in the morning,
you get yourself ready.
When you in the classroom, it's your grades.
When you do the work, it's you doing the work,
nobody else.
So your focus is on doing the work
doing what you need to do
to pass to the next grade and ultimately graduate
and go to college
but I appreciate you.
- [Kweku] So when we start talking about
how do we infuse sports, athletic activities,
things of that nature to help people feel better,
it's what builds up your self confidence.
It teaches you how to deal with losses.
It teaches you all of those things that we had to deal
with in life at an early age
and once that's infused in you,
great things can happen.
There's no secret
that you always see a higher graduation rate
with those who are involved in extracurricular activities.
It's no secret
that you start to see less behavioral problems
with those involved in extracurricular activities.
Why is that?
Because you're so busy.
It takes away the time for you to do other things
that's not productive.
- [Coach Shane] Notice that y'all know right now
like normally I'd be all cool and collective
but I'm on fire right now.
- [Team] Be ready!
- [Man] What?
- [Team] Be ready!
- [Man] What?
Let's go.
- [Team] Be ready!
(team chanting)
- [Coach Shane] Probably y'all know man,
when y'all come out here dawg,
y'all come and play hard.
Y'all play to the whistle and y'all get in 'em.
Okay?
- [All] Yes coach.
- [Coach Shane] Make sure that they remember who you is
because they already nitpicking.
They already nitpicking.
I hate people that nitpick at stuff for no reason.
So as you come out here
and you make sure you know who you are.
Do you understand that?
- [All] Yes coach.
- Make sure you come out here with a lot of passion,
enthusiasm and make sure we get this damn W.
Do you understand that?
- [All] Yes coach.
- [Coach Shane] I hope y'all already to play a ball game.
Let's get their ass out the way.
(all applauding)
(applauding intensifies)
(crowd chattering)
- [Muhibb] what they gon' do?
They gon' put us in jail?
Too late we was already born in it.
What they gon' do?
They gon' kill us?
That'll only give our children a reason
to put our pictures underneath their pillows at night.
Praying hard that the fairy godmother of justice,
instead of giving them money for a tooth,
give 'em the same courage,
same (mumbles) (man mumbles)
same determination to be soldiers,
just like their mommas and their daddies
when they grow up.
There is nothing you can do, we laughing at you.
- [Man] All over.
- Underneath all our pain. - [Man] Come on, give it up.
Give it up. - We're laughing at you.
- [Man] Come on, come on.
Give it up.
- Underneath all these tears, - [Man] Come on.
- we're laughing at you.
On Burleigh laughing at you. - [Man] Where else?
Garfield, Galena, Vine we laughing at you.
(mumbles) we laughing at you. - [Man] Take it home.
All poor people, all oppressed people,
all freedom loving people, all righteous people
are laughing at you.
Family, they will not break us.
They can not break us.
Black children have to begin to connect
with the idea that regardless of what we go through
it's an unbreakable spirit.
That's a part of their DNA.
It's an breakable part of who they are
and then when they begin to connect with that,
then they'll begin to understand
they have a duty and responsibility
not to just stop because
they're enduring struggles in their neighborhood.
Not to just stop because
they're enduring struggles in their family.
We have always made a way out of no way
and they have to continue on that tradition for us.
- [News anchor] 6:39 this morning and (mumbles)
Police investigating a double death investigation
on the cities of (mumbles)
(mumbles) with the update.
- [News anchor] Hey and good morning I have
the medical examiner telling us the victims,
two adult autopsies are scheduled for later today.
Police called here through reports of a shooting
just set for two o'clock
that was in an alley about a half a city block
between 10th and 11th and between Capital and Haven
and while we were here,
we saw detectives checking out
this van behind this (mumbles)
Police have cleared the alley scene where
the two victims were recovered.
Police responded to a shooting (mumbles)
(bus squeaks)
(somber music)
(engine revs)
(bell rings) (students chattering)
- I'm tired bro.
Honestly I am tired don't even need to lie to you.
(chattering continues) What's up boy?
- [Man] This is can happen to any man.
(mumbles)
You got the second lined up over number two.
Apex in the tackle
and the second while receiving.
Watch the hole right here.
- [Rick Sr.] How you doing man.
How's your day going?
- [Marquell] Good.
- [Rick Sr.] You good?
- [Marquell] Just wanna come to talk to you
about a little stuff, you know.
- [Rick Sr.] Oh, what's up, what's going on?
- [Marquell] We never got a little chance to talk and stuff.
- How's your school year going
since the new school year?
- I was, it's going good.
I had a 3.0, then it went to a 2.8
and then it went to a 2.4.
- Aint that reversed?
That's the wrong way, you know.
How was your summer?
- [Marquell] It was-
- [Rick Sr.] (mumbles) moms, I guess is what I should ask.
- [Marquell] I was just- (blows raspberry)
It was just, everywhere.
- You got to (mumbles)
- [Marquell] Everywhere it was just
me arguing with her,
her arguing with me.
We getting into with her, putting me out.
Me trynna go stay with my dad.
Me staying with my sister and stuff like that.
If I wanted my relationship
with my mom (stutters) peaches and cream,
it'd be like her understanding where
a teenager coming from her understanding
that my dad wouldn't like,
wasn't real there - Not really there.
- And wasn't like really trynna be there
in my life right now.
Like I'm older now and I know who my real daddy.
She don't understand that I was like,
usually I used to cry about the situation
and stuff like that
but like me crying about it
it ain't gonna help at all.
- Okay look.
Put yourself in her shoes.
She leaves four days, your her first son right?
- Mm-hmm.
How would you feel?
You wouldn't be mad?
Everyday with peaches and cream?
Everything would be joyful, happy,
you in heaven right?
You wouldn't be mad? - I mean I'd kinda be mad.
- You, kinda?
Boy, if that was my son I would have beaten his-
he gone for four days,
and you don't know where he is.
He not texting me, he not calling me
you not know nothing.
People get mad and they say stupid stuff.
She probably don't mean it.
Right?
Ask her, talk to her.
She probably, she really don't mean it, most likely.
If she didn't love you,
she would've kicked you out already.
- [Kweku] See words is just the beginning
of our apology, actions now are the secondary part
and the one that really moves the needle.
So if somebody wants to reestablish a relationship
they have to understand,
you have to start back at ground zero
and you have to move very slowly
and as you start to gain their trust a little bit
it becomes a snowball in a positive effect
but it's gotta take time.
You can't expect them
to move at a pace quicker than what they want.
You have to understand the hesitancy that they have
and be compassionate towards that.
- [Brillyon] Try to build a relationship.
Not one person could just do it by yourself.
(Marquell mumbles)
She acts like she can. - [Brillyon] It's 50-50.
No, it's a 50-50.
(Brillyon mumbles)
You was gone for four days
how was that trynna fix her?
- [Marquell] Me leaving would be
a better decision for me and stuff
there's a group home somewhere.
(Brillyon mumbles)
'Cause when you old, when you grown
they're gon' kick you out.
(child screaming in distant)
- [Man] Don't worry about it (mumbles)
- Okay I just had my head (mumbles)
- [Brillyon] No.
I'ma need you to stop acting like that towards your mother.
- [Rick Sr.] Let me ask you,
what's the real reason your arguing all the time?
Why y'all bumping heads?
- Mainly- - In your opinion.
- In my opinion. - Yeah.
- The main reason is that she be always like,
she have some type of aggressive towards me
when she asks me to do something or whatever
and I'm like, "All right, I'm finna do it."
And then she be like, "No, do it now, do it now."
I'm like, "Okay I'm finna do it right now.
"Like, why are you just getting all aggressive?"
- Okay, so why you just get aggressive back with her?
'Cause that's how you do?
Instead of arguing with moms
'cause you know how y'all relationship could be.
Right?
It could be good, it could be great one day
and then one moment the button push.
So you just do your part.
You only control who?
- On myself.
- So that's what you gotta do.
You already know how the situation already is, right?
- Mm-hmm.
So, always have control Marquell.
So that's what you gotta work on with mom for real.
It's control.
So when she knows that you're controlling,
you're doing what you're supposed to do,
she's gonna let up.
I know you don't see it
'cause you're always arguing back with her.
So one day you just go in and just say,
"Hey, okay, I'ma do it."
If she say, "Do it now."
You don't have to respond.
Just do it.
- Now that you think about it,
what you, how do you feel
that now that you think about it, that what you did?
You don't feel any guilt? - I kinda feel ashamed.
- You don't feel ashamed?
- I kinda feel ashamed, kinda
because I didn't let her know where I was going.
That's about it.
(Brandon mumbles) - Okay
but you could've text her saying,
"I'm okay you don't have to worry about me."
Right?
(Marquell chuckles)
No 'cause you was acting like a jackass towards her.
- Not really. - Yes really.
You quite an attitude with her about her
when she checked up on you man.
- Well, I guess I'ma just and work things out
and I guess I'ma talk to her.
- What do you mean I guess?
- I'm not finna just jump right into it.
"Oh yes, I'm gonna help." - [Brillyon] I mean
but you should though. - Yes I'm gonna do everything.
- You should though.
If you wanna fix this relationship, you should bro.
- [Rick Sr.] Who's in Marquell's way?
- [Marquell] I don't know. - [Rick Sr.] Marquell.
Well we started with ma',
you go back and forth with ma'.
You said on the football field,
you can't control... - My anger.
- [Rick Sr.] So it comes back to who?
- My anger and myself.
- [Rick Sr.] And once you, I told you,
once you put your mind to it, Marquell,
the world is yours.
You're a great kid.
I tell you that all the time
and I know that's the thing that you really want.
Just that relationship with your mom.
That's what we gon' build on.
Ain't nothing wrong with shedding tears.
Let it go.
Don't hold it in just let it out.
- I still gon' have the same things.
Still gon' have the same way.
Still gon' have the same grudge against me.
Still no point of me trying?
- [Rick Sr.] Well let me tell you this,
as long as you on grudge against yourself,
like I said,
you can't control what other people's thoughts are
only what Marquell's is.
You see that pain, that pain for mom
but you gotta work on that.
(Marquell sniffs)
(Rick Sr. mumbles)
Come on.
Stay strong.
- How you been man?
- I've been aight.
You've been all right?
- Yeah.
- What's been going on lately?
- I moved out of the group home to like,
another group home and stuff.
- [Woman] So that's everything
from the front desk binder
and the van binder.
All of his information right there.
- Okay.
So he was discharged on December the 6th.
He was doing you know really good
since he came in June.
He had made a lot of good strides
and he had met some of his goals while he was here
but I know it seems like during
the month of November he started
to just have a lot of incident reports
for just pretty much what, being defiant with staff.
- [Woman] Yes.
Challenging the staff. - Challenging the staff.
Oh and I did share with him
that if he wanted to reach out to us
or especially even me that he could
you know call me at any time.
Yeah and I know he was very kind of remorseful
and that last night before he had to go
it seems like he just didn't believe
that we were really going to go through with our removal.
He thought he was going to get,
you know, more and more chances.
- [Sean] Okay, why you move out the last one?
- The one they got me going to now
it's more towards like an independent living,
- Okay.
- group home versus the other one.
It was just for like, all boys sort of.
- Yeah.
- Well yeah.
- How you liking this one?
- [Brandon] It's all right.
- [Sean] It's okay? (Brandon mumbles)
- I can manage and deal with it,
you know what I'm saying?
- [Sean] How you manage it?
- [Brandon] You know,
just trynna keep in touch with people
like my momma,
- [Sean] Okay.
- [Brandon] and like my other family members,
you know, when I got (mumbles) reasons,
- [Sean] Yeah. - [Brandon] I call up on them.
- [Sean] What school you going to now?
- I'm at Lad Lake Synergy it's an alternative School.
- [Sean] That's the one you was at last time we met?
- [Brandon] No, I was at Bradley Tech.
- [Sean] What happened,
why you don't go to Bradley no more?
- [Brandon] I got kicked out.
- [Sean] What?
- [Brandon] Yeah.
- [Sean] For what man?
- [Brandon] I ripped this girl's eyebrows off her face.
- [Sean] What?
(both laughing)
- [Brandon] With a lighter?
That's why (mumbles)
- [Sean] You did what?
- I took a lighter,
- [Sean] Yeah.
- and a blow torch and I was trynna you know,
create a flame out of it.
- Yeah.
- But she was standing next to me
and you know I wasn't aware of that,
you know, I was just in the spirit of moment type stuff
and I did this
but it was like big enough to catch flame like,
like the size of this.
- So it wasn't intentional?
- No, it was on accident.
- [Lydia] They were actually a little,
I guess a little empathetic to the situation
because he could have been expelled from MPS period.
- Yeah.
- But instead he got, I guess, expelled into a,
what do you call it? - Alternative school.
- Alternative school that's still a part of MPS.
- I'm glad that you know,
us communicating with each other, you know,
it's having an impact on you.
You allowing my story and what I went through
have an impact on you.
Oh I want you, as you find yourself in this new school
and as you continue to transition
through this new group home,
I want you to have these checkpoints along the way.
I want you to question every decision that you make.
I want you to ask yourself,
how is this going to affect me first and foremost?
Is it gonna be beneficial to me?
- [Muhibb] So even if you dried the whole hood up.
- [Man] Say it again.
- Or if you dried all the center up
make it look like a desert.
Leave us with no money, no opportunity,
no home, no chances, no mothers,
no fathers, make dope dealing
the only way of life.
Have us robbin' each other over your scraps.
- [Man] What else?
- Killing each other over your crumbs.
- [Man] Come on, go down.
- Make 18 a good age to die.
Put our faces on t-shirts memorialized.
Gives us the worst everything.
- What?
- Worst education, worst food,
worst clothing, worst jobs and after all of that,
we will still look you dead in your eye
and ask you,
- [Both] Is that all you got?
(audience cheering)
- [Muhibb] I used to get the worst of everything.
We'll be in classroom and they talk about the pain,
the pain of not having a father in their life,
the pain of not having their mother in their life
or their mother being on drugs.
The pain of witnessing homicides,
their best friends getting killed,
walking around with rest in peace t-shirts
and many times that pain might be self-inflicted
and it might be inflicted upon them by their family.
Maybe the solutions to their pain
is not really coming to pass because
it's a whole lot of us that make money
off of our children being the way that they are.
(woman humming melodically)
- Hey. - [Tiana] Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you. - [Tiana] My name is Tiana.
- [Man] How you doing?
So we gon' get on today?
(humming continues)
- [Tiana] I wanna record this song.
It's called "Pain".
♪ Pain ♪
♪ Tired of going through all this pain ♪
♪ What'd you know about pain ♪
♪ Tired of going through all this pain ♪
♪ Look lately I've been at my lowest ♪
♪ I've been losing focus ♪
♪ It's fuck everybody ♪
♪ 'Cause everybody don't do me bogus ♪
♪ Can't trust nobody ♪
♪ These demons covered in sheep clothing ♪
♪ And lord please don't have mercy on them ♪
♪ When Karma's approaching ♪
- [Rick Sr. Jr.] To let go.
To truly let go and go through the process
instead of trying to jump around it.
'Cause the more you go around it
the more it's gon' plague your life
and then the deeper roots is gonna grow.
'Cause it's basically like a seed
and if that seed continues to keep growing roots
it's gonna continue to keep coming out
at every stage of your life.
♪ Karma's approaching ♪
♪ My thoughts keep me woken ♪
♪ My music, my freedom ♪
♪ I'm mentally broken ♪
♪ My soul is the reason ♪
- I feel like, I'm a disappointment
to people or like my family.
I feel like I'm a disappointment to my mom.
On what the things I do.
I try to express my feelings to people.
I only talk to one person about my feelings
and it hurts sometimes.
I try to not be hurt but I don't know.
- [Rick Sr. Jr.] I've had the same feeling.
Regardless of what someone,
whether they're expressing that
that you're a disappointment
or whether you feel that you're a disappointment,
I think the healing is going to come in realizing
all the things that you are and not
looking at all the things that you feel you're not.
♪ I don't love that much to let nobody had they way with me ♪
♪ I'm (mumbles) ♪
♪ Aint gon' trust fucked up nigga ♪
♪ If they not changing me ♪
- I Just been on my own for so long
I just don't see the need in gettin' happy
'cause I'd rather just stay like I am like,
any piece of happiness that I have I lose.
That's why I don't allow myself to get happy.
I think I just run to the wrong people for love.
I give all the toxic people everything I have
and I like-
- [Rick Sr. Jr.] What if I told you that
the placement and being put back together,
you have to be broken.
- Why me?
- Why any of us?
We all feel broken in some area
in some way, shape or form in our lives
but we get to make those choices
to put it, like put it back together.
♪ They not changing me ♪
♪ I damn cried so much ♪
♪ Where I don't felt I couldn't cry no more ♪
♪ Lost my baby brother ♪
♪ Made me really rethink life some more ♪
♪ Like if he stayed on life support ♪
♪ Like did he have the right support ♪
♪ Like is the people in my corner ♪
♪ Really gon' be the right support ♪
- [Boy] Shots rang out.
I got pulled it to the house.
I looked through the window
and I just see a body on the ground
and the dude was standing over him.
You could hear him say like, "I love you."
Dude, he didn't care about that,
he said, "I don't give a fuck."
Shot him three more times in the head.
- [Rick Sr. Jr.] It's not your fault
and I know that you probably heard that from someone else
but there are certain things in this life
that we can not control.
♪ Give me sometime ♪
♪ They sometime they want to be you ♪
♪ I had to separate myself ♪
♪ Our mottoes wasn't equal ♪
♪ And I still pray for them ♪
♪ 'Cause they need it more than I need it ♪
♪ And I'm for certain I'ma make it before the next season ♪
♪ And you can doubt me now next year you gon be ♪
- My dad shot himself in the head.
He just decided to give up, you know, just leave us
and this is a husband, this is a father.
You know what I'm saying,
this ain't just anybody like, we depended on him.
- [Rick Sr. Jr.] You can forgive each and every day
and until you truly deep down believe it,
then you'll let it go
and that comes in forgiving yourself
too for feeling the way that you feel.
You need to forgive him and forgive yourself.
♪ Tried of going through all this pain ♪
- Last summer, that was back when I was doing dumb stuff
(mumbles) selling weed, selling literally,
I ain't even lying, selling crack cocaine, all that.
I found that I was having a baby
then it really got real.
Then,
it's like, bro,
I wanted to run away from everything.
Every single thing bro.
Like I just wanted to run away.
I was separating myself from my family,
snapping on my momma.
(man sobs)
I was snapping on my momma bro.
(sobbing continues)
♪ And I'ma make it before the next season ♪
♪ And you can doubt me now ♪
♪ Next year you gon' be a believer ♪
♪ And lord forgive me for my sins ♪
♪ And crucify my demons ♪
♪ Trynna fight back tears ♪
♪ But this pain and I ain't ♪
- The biggest strengths are found in our weaknesses.
Plain and simple.
So in that moment or in these moments
or where you think you feel weak,
you are actually the strongest person.
(woman humming)
- [Rick Sr.] Y'all give me strength.
Y'all give me strength.
Rick I ain't going nowhere.
You ain't pushing me far enough.
I ain't drowned, I ain't going.
I'm letting you know that now I ain't going.
Y'all know I'm here, I'm gonna be here
but see my strength, I'm so blessed.
That's my strength.
I couldn't go through what he go through.
That's my dude.
♪ Tried of going through all this pain ♪
(woman humming)
- [Rick Jr.] Let it all out.
Just let it out.
♪ Till I heal from this pain ♪
♪ When I'm constantly hurt ♪
♪ That's why I hope for the best ♪
♪ But I prepare for the worst ♪
♪ Seem like my whole life in hell ♪
♪ I tend to go through the most ♪
♪ I've been trapped up in the dark ♪
♪ And I don't know where to go ♪
♪ What'd you know about pain ♪
- Y'all got people here for y'all just let us in.
- I wish I had this.
I wish I was able to release these things
when I was your age.
I'm just now learning this.
That's why I wanna give it back
because I want everybody to feel how I feel
even when I'm going through something myself.
'Cause we always gon' go,
we either in something, we go into something
or we coming out of something always.
That's life's cycle
but it's how you respond to that.
♪ I've been trapped up in the dark ♪
♪ And don't know where to go ♪
♪ What'd you know about pain ♪
♪ Tired of going through all this pain ♪
♪ What'd you know about pain ♪
♪ Tired of going through all this pain ♪
- [Marco] I think that the best way
that we build confidence is to provide them
with the sense of value.
You know, young, black men, more specifically,
don't have a high sense of value.
- If you wanna just give us a little bit
or give me a little bit of something
who do you think who is Brandon?
Just tell me a just a little bit about you.
- Brandon is just, you know,
transitioning into every day manhood,
you know what I'm saying?
Being that I'm 16 and only have two years left
to be you know, legally grown.
Figuring out a lot of things
and you know, just kinda catching on to the world
and what I wanna do.
I don't know.
It's just like I got options, a lot of options
and I gotta try to balance them all out at one time.
So it'd be, you know, kind of stressing me out.
- [Mr. Ward] Sometimes you wanna do things Brandon's way
and the purpose of me being an instructor
being your teacher is to give you guidance
and you have to take structure.
If you don't take structure
and listen and get the wisdom and knowledge
from somebody that is able to give it to you,
it's going to hurt you in your future
but I believe in you and that's why
I wanna give you this personal assignment of growth
and this is something next time
I want you to look back on
and say this is where I was at then
and this is where I'm at now.
- [Marco] To instilled into them that they are worthy.
You know, that, you know, despite their circumstances
that, you know, there's value that
A, we see in them as people, you know, successful,
you know, people of color
but then also we have to get them to a point
where they see the value in themselves
and part of that is just deconstructing the myths
that they've embraced and inherited, you know
throughout most of their lives
and so I think that once we do that
and we can really be intentional about doing that,
I think that young people will start
to see that value that we see in them as well.
- [Mr. Wards] Are you willing to do the assignment
and do it to your fullest and the best of your ability?
I need to know this.
- [Brandon] Yeah I'm willing.
I will try.
- [Mr. Wards] I need commitment
'cause commitment is you have to do it you know,
even going to school, it's a daily routine,
a daily chore to get up
but that's how you are gonna be prosperous
if you stay committed
'cause if you do it half way
that's what you're gonna get a halfway result
and I see, I've been working with a lot of students
for a long time, they want the big goal right away
and then they get frustrated.
So that's why I wanna give you small measurable steps
to complete that goal.
(people chattering)
- [Chad] You're gonna have a good time.
We have some amazing things this year.
It's different from last year and the years prior.
I want y'all to make sure
you take advantage of everything that's going on.
All the opportunities here.
The goal that Rico say every year is, "Not to come to us
"but to network with yourself",
because your partner in production
or your partner in crime in the music industry
might be sitting right next to you
or right across from me.
Give yourselves a round of applause.
We gonna get started in a second.
(audience applauding)
- [Rico] What's up everybody?
(audience exclaims)
How y'all doing?
(audience mumbles)
Welcome to the "We Love Music" conference.
This is our fourth year.
I wanna stress to you all
the importance of this conference.
If your hunger is to be great,
if your hunger is to perfect your gift and your ability
then this is where you come for that.
If you wanna be around people
who believe what you believe
who want the same thing as you
then you're in the right place.
You sitting next to somebody
who can absolutely relate to you.
- So talk to me about what you're trynna do with music.
- My goal in music is to be a star.
- A star.
- I sing and I rap.
So I do both.
- I heard some of your stuff and I was impressed.
I just wanna know what do you think a star is to you?
- Somebody who make music
and it touch a lot of people around the world.
- [Chad] Got you.
One thing I always tell people is never settle,
never compromise who you are
because at the end of the day
you can't go backwards.
- [Tiana] Right. - You can always move forward.
You can always miss opportunities
but opportunities are gonna continue to come
but you can't go backwards
because you settled for an opportunity.
You understand what I'm saying?
Your best ability as an artist or a creator
is your availability.
As long as you're available
opportunities present itself.
If an opportunity presents itself in L.A., you in Milwaukee
it does you no good.
- [Tiana] Right.
- So it's basically being in the right place
at the right time with the right preparation
'cause you gotta be prepared for
the opportunity when it presents itself.
- As in or it is,
how do you get into the industry?
- [Chad] Well the goal is basically
you start with building a fan base.
Obviously you have good music.
So it's the goal is just the base,
build a fan base around the music
that you already have
and get it fan by fan, follower by follower,
it's a grind, it's a marathon.
Like Nipsey said, "A marathon continues",
it's a marathon, it's not a sprint.
So what you do is you go city to city,
fan by fan, little hole in the wall places
to theaters, which you're moving now to stadiums.
- So I write my own content
but how can I start writing for other artists?
- [Chad] Well the key is to make sure
that you demo everything out to the fullest.
Demo as if it's your record
and then start submitting to other artists
and as you perform around the country,
you bump into artists and as you bump it to artist
say, "I might have a record for you?"
Or "Maybe we should get in and do some work."
You wanna tap in with the artist
or the artist team directly
as opposed to tapping in with an ANR.
It was a pleasure meeting you.
Good talking to you darling. (Tiana mumbles)
Good luck with everything.
- [Tiana] Thank you. - Yeah.
- [Marco] Hey how's it going?
- [Brandon] Good. - [Marco] Marco Morrison.
- [Brandon] Brandon Haney.
- [Marco] All right, good to meet.
- [Brandon] Nice to meet you.
- [Marco] Have a seat.
Thank you for, you know,
obviously taking out the time to come in and meet me.
You know, obviously I've heard some things about you
and you know, upon hearing about,
you know, you and your story,
I was definitely interested in you know, in meeting you
and my understanding is you had an assignment
that you were challenged with doing
by one of your teachers
and so if you can just share with me
some results of that assignment that you're working on.
- [Brandon] Yeah.
My past has been like really tough
but I didn't let that like break me, you know.
Experiences made me who I am as a person.
It made me smarter.
It made me think more.
It made me watch who I hang around.
- You know, you get it, you know
and a lot of times, especially for men of color,
our growth is usually predicated
on having to go through hardships.
I've gone through a lot of, you know,
hardships as a kid, you know.
Not having food, living in a house
without lights, you know.
I was a kid that most people
and even people in my family thought wouldn't make it.
Is there anybody that you place blame
for when it comes to those things?
- God.
That's the only person that I blame.
'Cause without him there would be no life.
No pain, no struggle.
So I wouldn't blame it on anybody particularly
here in this world but him.
I just feel like I could be better than who I am now.
I feel like I can grow and develop my skill set,
you know enough to be successful in life.
- And so what separates you from everybody else
is what you invest in to you, you know?
And so, making sure that you go on to school,
making sure that you're getting the grades, you know,
if you got a job, making sure that when you go to work
you're the best employee that they have.
- Right.
- Coming from my circumstances
I always thought about, you know,
what would it have been like
if I had somebody that was in my corner.
With that being said,
I'm gonna give you a job.
- Really?
- [Marco] Yeah. - Oh.
- I'll give you a job, I'll give you a job.
I see that we need each other.
- Yeah.
- That's what I see.
I think that as much as you might need me
I think that I need you all the same
because we have too much in common
and the fact that, you know,
I am evolving continuously into the man that I am,
my goal is for you to be better than me.
Hey brother, I'ma say thank you for your time.
I appreciate it.
- I appreciate it.
- All right. - Yeah.
- Guys listen to me.
There are no whips.
- [Man] What.
- No chains. - [Man] Come on.
- No water hose. - [Man] Come on.
- No jail time. - [Man] Come on, give it up.
- No death. - [Man] Come on.
- No depression. - What.
- No problems. - [Man] Yes.
- No nothing, no trials, no tribulation,
no pressure, no pain, no hurricane,
strong enough to stop my people?
How do we change the narrative?
First and foremost, we have to be more diligent
about telling black children the truth
and the truth is there are more black males
that are in college.
I think the statistic was 1.3 million in college
and 840,000 that's locked up in prison.
If we gonna give the statistics
we have to give all the statistics
and not just some of them.
Second thing we have to do,
is we have to look them dead in the eye
and we have to tell them that,
"little black child you are the author of your own story.
"You hold the pen, the pages are blank
"and whatever you write shall be.
"So what will you write about?"
- Burns.
- [Daryl] Marquell, what it do?
Got the nice little jacket on.
Looking good.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- How was the game?
- The game was pretty impressive.
Pretty impressive, pretty good.
- I know the game was good.
What position they got you at right now?
- Raw receiver, (mumbles) got, finally got me on defense.
- [Daryl] I see you. - Now I'm middle linebacker.
- I see you play a little bit of defense.
- Yeah, also I was-
- Thought you a little soft for defense.
Defense's for people that's pretty hard.
- I'm really hard, I'm really hard.
I like it. - All right, cool.
How was a weekend?
- Weekend was pretty a little bit of rough
but you know, I tried to keep my,
I was keeping my head high
and you know, praying for better days and stuff like that.
- [Daryl] Okay, okay.
So you saying it was rough.
What does rough mean like, issues in the neighborhood?
Something with the family?
What makes it rough?
- Issues with the family
and like me personally, myself,
you know, working on myself,
getting myself better first
because I can't help nobody else
and I can't do, you know,
help the community, help everybody else
if I can't help myself first.
- Right.
You ever heard about what they says
like, "putting your own oxygen mask on first"?
You know what that means?
- Putting yours first on then helping somebody else's?
- Yeah like how could you help somebody else
if you can't help yourself first?
And it's not selfish
because I know in the hood we always talk about,
you know, like you gotta do this
and you gotta do that or whatever
you gotta help your brother help your family or whatever
but how can you help your family
if you don't got a job,
if you don't got an education yourself, you know?
How can you tell you a little brother how to grow up?
So that's where that term come from,
"putting your own oxygen mask on first",
giving yourself your own life blood
so that you can help other people, so.
All right man, well it's good to see you bro.
(Marquell mumbles)
Have a good day. (Marquell mumbles)
All right, all right.
Good, I'm proud of you.
- All right.
- [Daryl] That look good.
(Marquell laughs)
Real good.
- Hello guys.
My name is Marquell Jenkins.
So yeah man, it's my senior year now
and I don't even know what to do now.
Like, I don't even know what's next for Marquell.
I just wanna, you know, what's next for me?
Well, a little bit what's next for me is,
you know, writing my own book.
Like I've been, you know, I've been,
I took a very long, you know, break of it
because of the family issues that I was going through
but the journey has just only began.
So I'ma, you know, get those to a part and you know,
get that family bond going again and you know,
trynna have the best connection with my mom
as possible and you know, interact with my brothers
and sisters more often
but I got, you know, self love and work on myself
first before I can help anybody else.
Even though I'm this outstanding man that I am
and you know, this young talent,
intelligent young man, I am,
I gotta help myself first.
So yeah man, this is the end of this vlog today
but I'ma keep you guys updated and posted
but you know, just pray for me, wish to have better days.
Love, peace and hair grease.
- [Muhibb] We hope and we pray that you write a story
that says all 196,940,400 square miles of this earth
belongs to you and you are not relegated
to dying on the block that's 1/8th mile long
in an alley of insignificance.
We hope you write a story that suggests
that you could go wherever you want.
You can do whatever you wanna do.
The sky's the limit, truly for you.
- So what's next for me in my journey is,
I'll be moving to Phoenix, Arizona for a couple months
just to really figure out, you know,
what I'm doing and just to be in a new environment
and to really better myself
'cause Milwaukee is like a huge destruction for me.
I like having fun and kicking it with all my friends
and then I transition to Chicago
where I will stay probably for you know,
a longer period of time and just work on my music
and branding myself and you know,
just figuring out my life from there.
What I have learned this far in my journey is,
you know, number one to be myself.
Number two, to never give up and you know,
just do the best that you can
and you know, to reset myself
'cause people just give me a lot of BS
but yeah, 2020 I feel shall be a great year for me.
I feel like a lot of good things are gonna happen.
So, that's really all.
- [Muhibb] We can't continue
to accept the role that this society gives to us,
saying that, "We can only be the thugs,
"We can only be the hustlers,
"We can only be the criminals."
No.
The time is now for us to play a new role.
A role of being a father, a role of being a mother,
a role of being a doctor or a lawyer,
or a president or anything that we aspire to be.
- So what's next for Brandon?
To be honest, I really don't know
but I feel like it's a lot of things
that I got to work on.
Especially being with my character.
I feel like I gotta work on my personality.
I feel like I gotta work on my traits.
I just feel like I got to do better
and strive more as a person, you know,
so I can get to where I wanna be in life
because where I'm at now,
it's not looking too hot,
you know, my situation
but I feel like better days are coming.
I'm not like a (stutters) a hundred percent sure of that
but people, you know, always say, "keep your head up
"and keep going and don't let things bring you down."
So, you know, I hold people to those standards
and them words hoping that things will change.
Yeah.
So as for what's next, I guess we will have to see.
- [Muhibb] The way we change the narrative
is by writing our own stories
and part of writing our own stories
is writing our way out of the mess
that we currently find ourselves in.
(upbeat music)
We will always, listen to me.
- [Man] Get at their heart.
- We will always, listen to me.
- [Man] Get at it.
- We will always, find our way back to truth.
- [Man] What else?
- Find our way back to love.
- [Man] What else?
- Find our way back to freedom.
The people will always
find our way back to God.
(audience applauding)
♪ Well this is motivation music all in your ear to ♪
♪ Rise ♪
♪ Milwaukee home ♪
♪ We 'bout to rise ♪
♪ Shake dust off dust off your feet ♪
♪ Milwaukee get ready to eat ♪
♪ We 'bout eat ♪
♪ They think we can't do this right here ♪
♪ Well this is motivation music all in your ear to ♪
♪ Rise ♪
♪ Milwaukee home ♪
♪ We 'bout to rise ♪
♪ Shake dust off your feet ♪
♪ Milwaukee get ready to eat ♪
♪ We 'bout to eat ♪
♪ They think we can't do this right here ♪
♪ Well this motivation music all in your ear to ♪
♪ Put in that work ♪
♪ Get off your butt and go put in work ♪
♪ Rise from the dirt, you can do it ♪
♪ Through pain and hurt ♪
♪ I know you scared ♪
♪ Go and take courage ♪
♪ Don't look for no handouts ♪
♪ Go and you earn it ♪
♪ We got something beautiful ♪
♪ But on the inside you gotta believe it ♪
♪ Even though we look like dirt in the field ♪
♪ Gotta have visionary eyes and go see it ♪
♪ You see this, I see that ♪
♪ You see red, I see black ♪
♪ Green, white, blue, yellow ♪
♪ It's your choice you don't even gotta settle ♪
♪ We weak and despised ♪
♪ All in they eyes ♪
♪ Well that's the perfect situation from God ♪
♪ Get up and build your muscle ♪
♪ Have faith and hustle ♪
♪ He uses the foolish things ♪
♪ Foolish things to confound the wise ♪
♪ May live in the ghetto ♪
♪ But you aint gotta settle ♪
♪ To the lifestyle and believe it's lies ♪
♪ Shake dust off your feet ♪
♪ Sister get ready to eat ♪
♪ Oh you think you can't do this right here ♪
♪ Well this motivation music all in your ear ♪
♪ Shake dust off your feet ♪
♪ Brother get ready to eat ♪
♪ Why you think you can't do this right here ♪
♪ Well this motivation music all in your ear to ♪
♪ Rise ♪
♪ Milwaukee home ♪
♪ We 'bout to rise ♪
♪ Shake dust off your feet ♪
♪ Milwaukee get ready to eat ♪
♪ We 'bout to eat ♪
♪ They think we can't do this ♪