[smooth music]
- Here's to another episode of Uninterrupted "The Shop,"
full of memorable and very unpredictable moments.
Cheers. - Cheers to that.
[music continues]
- I don't know how many in the room
have followed the Brittney Griner situation.
Has everybody followed that?
- No. - So there's a woman named Brittney Griner
who's an amazing basketball player, amazing person.
She was in Russia playing. The war broke out.
On her way back, flying home, they said she had some amount of hash,
which was illegal in Russia, and she is in Russia.
We don't really know where. She's been there--
- Got to be over 110 days. - Over 130 days...
- Yeah, yeah. - Or something like that.
The last text her wife got from her was, "They're taking my phone."
- "This is happening. They're taking my phone." Yeah.
- "They're taking me, and they're now taking my phone."
- Yeah. - She hasn't heard from her since.
It's pretty fucked up what's going on.
- And the WNBA season has started, and she still--
- She still has not come back. - She still hasn't come back.
- And she's a superstar. - A superstar.
- We're talking about, this is the top of the top.
- This is the top. - This is LeBron of the WNBA.
- You, being you, LeBron James... - Yeah.
- Have you thought of, like, what-- like, if it was you?
You travel to Europe. You do these things.
Like, have you put yourself there, in terms of, like,
man, what she must be going through and what that experience must be like?
- I was trying to imagine it, and it's hard for me, too,
to even put myself into what she's going through.
Like, she's such a great human being, a great person.
Obviously, I've been in her presence a few times,
and, you know, you always feel like-- you know, if you from a certain place,
you always feel like they got your back.
And in a sense, like, now, how can she feel like America has her back?
Like, I would be feeling like, "Do I even want to go back to America,
if I've been gone over 130 days, and I felt like it's been zero effort?"
- I'm still shocked that we haven't heard more from the State Department.
- Me too. That's my point.
- And that we're not hearing this more often on the news or Biden.
This is a significant kind of name in American sports.
I know when it first happened, you know, there were some concerns.
Kind of like, "Could this resolve itself?"
Maybe being too vocal will actually cause more of a problem for her,
but I think now we're recognizing that it's important for us
to amplify our voices
to make sure that people know about the situation.
- Literally, as it's gone day by day, it's like I can't not say anything.
And, like, just trying to get more and more people's ears, people's eyes
and, like, as much support as possible.
[Drake's "God's Plan]
- [singing] Yeah, they wishin' and wishin' and wishin' and wishin'
They wishin' on me [razor buzzes]
I don't wanna die for them to miss me
Yes, I see the things that they wishin' on me
Hope I got some brothers that outlive me
They gonna tell the story, [...] was different with me
God's plan
I can't do this on my own, hey, no, hey
I've been me since Scarlett Road, hey
God's plan
[music continues]
- How much do you hate Manchester United?
- Fucking hate them. [laughter]
Fuck them guys, bro. [laughter continues]
Fuck them guys. He's cool, though.
He does cool things for the kids, man. - But how about fuck him, though?
- How long have you hated Manchester United? From--
- You know when it started, yeah? - When did it start?
- I was at school, and I think I must have been seven,
seven or eight, and I had a friend, ex-best friend.
We was rolling. This is why, yeah.
We was rolling, we was Arsenal, yeah. We was Arsenal.
We was rolling, and then the next day he was like, "I support Man United."
I said, "You can't do that."
And then I was just, like, six or seven.
I was like, "I disagree, bro," and like, "I disagree with you,"
like, as a person.
I was like, "It's Man United is the reason,"
so I said, "Fuck Man United," from then.
- From there.
Is there any clubs you hate, like, that you actually don't like?
- Yeah. Liverpool.
- Hey! I knew you was gonna say that. [laughter]
- No. I don't like Liverpool.
City...
Obviously, Liverpool have history,
so it's more--it's a bit more bitter,
but with City, it's like, you don't like 'em,
but you don't really have, like, a massive reason not to like 'em.
You just grow up, and it's just two Manchester sides.
One wears light blue. One wears red.
But the rivalry with Liverpool is just--
- It's deep. - Yeah.
- Right. It's deep. - It feels much...
- Marcus, you been playing at the club since how old?
You've been at the academies--what year?
- Yeah. Six. - Since six years old...
- Yeah. - You played for Manchester United?
- Wow. - Yeah.
- And since you were six, you knew you wanted to play
on the senior team for Man United, right?
- Yeah. Like, I was a United fan before...
I started playing for United,
so I remember when I was about seven or eight,
they started taking us to every home game.
So you can imagine, from that age till 18,
till I made my debut, like, I was at every single home game.
- It's one thing to grow up seeing a club like Manchester United from the outside.
How has your perspective, if at all, changed, like, playing?
Is it everything you expected playing for the club?
- Yeah, it's obviously a great feeling,
but, like, Man United, back in the days,
they'd been successful for many years before,
so success was like when you get it once you get a taste for it,
and you learn how to make it,
like, more of a sure thing...
whereas now, like, since I've come into the team,
it's been a transition period for the club.
So, like, finding stability's been difficult.
That's why we have so many ups and downs,
but at the same time, it's a club that is rich in history.
So you're just, like, steadily trying to get that feeling back.
But it's not gonna happen overnight.
- What do you think the stability part changes?
You think it's 'cause, like, a lot of players
go to different clubs and things of that nature?
Or is it, like, you know, people from upstairs?
Why has the stability changed?
- I think it's a bit of everything, to be honest, you know.
- Most people say once Sir Alex left... - Yeah, a lot changed.
- So they had a coach. He was there 25 or 30 years.
- Right. - Yeah.
- Once he left, United's been-- - Oh, yeah. That's the stability, yeah.
- Yes. It changed, but the morals of--
like, they've worked hard to keep the morals the same,
and I don't think they'll ever go because of what he done for the club.
- So what is that about?
Is that a culture issue? - Absolutely.
- So does culture so significantly impact
how a team comes to success?
- Definitely culture first,
and then if you can blend that with the talent and the right pieces,
it literally is the--it's the gateway
to being successful for a long period of time.
I can go back to when I was drafted at 18
and made my debut with Cleveland.
You know, there wasn't any culture.
You know, and that's no knock on anybody that was there
or whatever the case may be, but there was no culture.
And I felt like it was my job as an 18-year-old
to try to build the culture,
which is kind of unfair, but it is what it is.
You know, to try to build the culture, to make it seem like
or make it feel like it could be something special.
But, yeah, like, you just said it. Like, the culture is the number-one thing.
- Fair or not fair, do you love that pressure,
at this point in your career of, like, win or bust?
I don't care about scoring title.
I don't care about anything. It's win or bust.
Do you like that pressure? - Yeah.
I'm obsessed with it, with win or bust.
And what makes me have sleepless nights
is when you don't have everyone that feels the same way on your club.
- That's the culture you were talking about.
- Like, it's times where I wish I was, like, a tennis player
or a golfer, where it was literally like,
"Look in the mirror, motherfucker. It's you verse you."
- Have you seen players, like, transition, in terms of, like, not have that mindset
and then actually, halfway through the season or halfway through the time
that you've been there grow that mindset of, like, win or bust?
Like, you can, like, you judge someone too early essentially or something?
- Well, you can have guys that come from different clubs and different teams,
and they've played losing basketball for years.
Like, literally, I don't give a fuck who's on that club.
You can have Jordan.
You can have Shaq, Allen Iverson,
and Jesus Christ could be the coach. [laughter]
They're gonna lose. They're gonna lose. It's, like, literally the culture.
But you can get a player from a losing culture,
and you can see literally in the first couple weeks,
if they really, like, want it
or they don't.
You can sense it.
- That's, like, also a great question for you,
because, like, I read something
where you've said you've read a script that wasn't great,
but, like, "Fuck it. I'ma do it anyway."
- Yeah, 'cause I know--
A lot of times I'm looking at, does the director know what it is?
If the director feels confident about what it is,
then I'm like, "All right, cool, then I can run it."
I don't understand what's happening-- - You can run it, like I can do it.
- I can do it, 'cause I feel confident...
- I can work with the director. - That they know.
And they want to grow it,
because it's not gonna be perfect when you see it.
- Yeah. - Do you understand?
It's like, rarely you get a perfect script.
The only time I've ever seen something
that, "Okay, that's perfect," was "Get Out."
- Yeah. - I'm like, "That's kind of perfect."
But people didn't understand what that was when you read it,
'cause it was like the guy from "Key & Peele,"
and it was Blumhouse.
It wasn't what it would be now.
I think it's more important knowing what you like.
- Having your own taste. Exactly.
- If I know what I like and I like it, I can always stand by it.
- Got it. - So if it doesn't work--
It's kind of like the football and team analogies.
Like, if you got a bad editor, you're fucked.
- Yeah. - You know what I'm saying?
Like, so it's that thing where, like, all you can do is go like,
"That's got the best chance to go to a certain place."
I'ma go there, and, like, oh, this director
chooses this cast and this kind of people.
All right, cool, they've got good taste, and they're going there.
Then you just hope for the best, essentially.
- Honestly, as an artist, I think that's really all you have--
is your taste and your sense of what's right and wrong, you know?
And you have to just lean into it,
and, you know, in the end, you're on an island.
And you have to say, "This makes sense for me,
and I believe in it."
And when you don't believe in it...
honestly, it becomes really obvious almost to everybody.
And I think there's lots of actors that we look to
and we say, "Oh, yeah, they're good at this thing,"
and then there's Daniel Day-Lewis.
- Yeah, yeah. - Right? Like, who we say, "Okay."
- Obviously, he knows when he's done, the movie's wrapped.
He knows when he's done, he's won a championship hopefully.
He knows when he's done, he's won a-- How do you know when you're done?
- It's really a great question. Honestly, not until they come pick it up.
- Does work ever leave the studio
that you wish you had five more minutes with or another day?
- Not necessarily that quickly,
but I may look at something that you have or that LeBron has,
and, say, five years later, I think to myself, "Huh."
- Rashid, you better not touch shit you come to my house--
[laughter] - You be going, "Hey, hey."
- I come out of the bathroom. He's up--
"'Shid, what the fuck you doing to my painting?"
[laughter]
- I mean, I'm happy with everything.
I've never let anything out of the studio
that I didn't feel incredibly confident about when it left.
- So there is a point with the brush or with the paint where you go, "It's done"?
- There's a point when I'm finished.
- You know it's done. - Where I'm comfortable with it leaving.
You know, the thing is--
And I love sports. I'm a big sports guy.
I always have been, and I love how defined it is.
- There's a finality. - Because you win or you lo--it's a wrap.
- Yeah. - One or the other.
With art, oftentimes, I'm open
to any number of ways of interpreting it.
- Yeah. - There are things you might hate about it
that I'm happy to hear that you don't like about it,
because I don't like something about how you see the world.
So I'm glad that you dislike this aspect of how I see the world.
And so there's this kind of push and pull
of, like, what's good, what's bad, and how all of that functions.
- So let me ask you another thing.
Lots of white people globally are collecting Black art.
Do they actually need to understand Blackness?
Have you had to explain that ever to collectors or people buying--
Like, they see the shea butter...
- Yeah. I think, in all honesty, it's not the responsibility
of Black folks to use their work as a teaching tool.
You know, it's that sense of didactic
or using or employing your kind of cultural production
as a way to engage, you know,
a white audience is not particularly effective,
because at that point, what you're doing is you're centralizing whiteness, right?
Like, that everything kind of lives outside of this kind of center subject,
where we just keep throwing things into the white ether and saying,
"Do you see us? Do you see us?" Right?
And I don't think that that is essentially what artists should be doing.
I think that we should be making work
as if we are in the center of our own conversations, right?
We should be-- - Put ourself at the center.
- Absolutely, and it's not about saying, "Oh, you know, our hair is different.
"Come look at how it's different than your hair.
You're in the center. Come look."
It's like, "No. This is my hair."
- Fuck you. It is what it is. - Fuck it.
It's like we're in the center. - You either see it or not, yeah.
- We're in the center of this conversation, right?
And so, for me, as an artist, my whole production has been
about kind of putting my narrative and my version of Blackness,
whatever that is, because Blackness is not monolithic, right?
- No, of course. Look at this room. - This brother's from England.
This brother's from Eng-- I mean, like, you guys are from Ohio.
I'm from Chicago.
Like, it's more complicated than some folks try to make it seem.
And we need the coalition built.
We need to be together on a lot of things so that we can make positive change.
But there's also--
there's a beauty in the fact that our experiences aren't exactly the same.
- I think, as a product of the Internet,
we've got to redefine what Blackness means to all of us.
Do you know what I'm saying? And understand it's a new thing--
Not a new thing, it's like get away from the, like,
kind of white-centric definition of it, do you know what I'm saying?
Which is like, "You're this. You're that. You're this. You're that."
- Right, right. - And it's like a new thing.
At the end of the day, if you're Black and not born in Africa,
you're a new thing. - Yeah.
- Do you know what I'm saying? Like, it's just a new race of people.
- We're making this up as we go. - Yeah. We're all making--
We're all not born in Africa making it up. - Absolutely.
- Do you know what I'm saying? Like, it's like, we are different, like--
And it's like, if we realize that we have that in common
and we all have that in common
because whoever it was, whether it's Belgium,
whether it's English, whether, it's, like, whatever--
went to Africa, did some fuckery, do you know what I'm saying?
- Took it. - So we kind of have it in that thing.
We actually have a common throughline
between all of us, do you know what I'm saying?
And understanding that that is what joins us together
and then redefining it for us.
- How does that factor in at all into, like, your work?
Is the priority about Blackness? Is it playing a different role?
Your dialect? Just--
- Yeah. My thing is-- - I'm always intrigued by that.
- I mean, I always want to, like--
I care a lot about us being seen in a certain light.
For me, if something comes my way, I'm always thinking about--
I'll pull up to wherever that person's from
and get to know them so I can feel the stakes.
So then when I was doing "Judas," I went to Chicago.
I just pulled up, and I was there, like--I was, like, there.
I was where Chairman Fred used to speak.
I'd just be there meeting people that are there, talking to them,
and I understand what he means to them, the people that are from there.
Went to Maywood, went to the area where the people are from there, and I go,
"Okay, I'm doing it for them."
You just think of them, go, "No, that's the film for them."
- How many takes for the speech? - For the "I am a revolutionary" speech?
- Yeah. - How many takes?
Shit. I did that all day.
- Really? - We did that all day.
- Wow. You did it all day? - I did, like--Yeah, I did. No rest.
It was mad. It was mad. It was nuts, but it was just like--
That was a special day, man. That was a different--
- Yeah, I mean, that shit came off so fucking powerful.
- What it is, you get to a point when you're tired and that.
It was quite--It was Cleveland.
I was tired and that, and then they were lifting me up,
'cause basically it was like a scene partner.
Like, the crowd was a scene partner.
So then I was like, "All right, cool. We're in dialogue."
So then I have to get you in a certain place,
so then I can hit it in a certain way, and then you feel it in a certain way.
So it was all--it was like, I would keep going, "I am a revolutionary."
I would just keep going until they felt-- - Till they felt it, yeah, yeah.
- And then, like, cool, and start the speech.
Do you know what I'm saying?
- That's how a preacher preaches, to feel that...
- Yeah. Can I get some help up here? - Take you on that rollercoaster.
Take you up and down and get the crowd-- - Yeah, but then his son was on set.
His son was on set, so that was another thing that was quite--
And he never met his dad, 'cause obviously he got assassinated.
- Did you feel that responsibility? - Crazy responsibility.
It was like, yeah, man, heavy,
very, very, very, very heavy, but it sharpens you up.
I've never felt like that ever in my career.
I knew that day I did something there.
- Wow. - But I knew I did something there,
'cause something happened.
He was in the room. It was like some other shit.
I was like, "Something's happening here."
When I watch the film, I don't remember the takes.
- Wow. - I went into a place.
It was just an out-of-body experience. - It's a great feeling.
- Yeah. - You get that in sports?
- I was about to say we call that "being in the zone."
- Yeah. Exactly, yeah.
- You wish you can tap into that shit more often.
When it happens, you have no idea what the fuck is going on.
- And you find new stuff, and you start doing new shit.
- Yeah, you just trying shit that you never even tried before.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Like silly shit.
That game I had in Boston, game six, down 3-2...
it got to a point where I was just out there trying shit.
One leg, off the wrong foot,
bump fades off my right shoulder. [laughter]
I'm not even a right-shoulder bump-fade guy.
- When do you know you're in the zone while you're in it, like, at what point?
- I mean, I started a game, like, eight for eight.
- You don't know. I don't think you do. That's his point, right?
- And every time I was shooting, it just felt so perfect,
and it was barely touching the net--
like, going straight through,
like a bird just goes straight through the water--phew!
- Can you see the other team start to get defeated?
Like, "Damn. There's nothing we can do with these guys today"?
- Yeah, because I feel like when someone's watching you
and they know when you're-- we call it lost in the game.
Like, when my brother's watching me play, he knows when I'm lost in it,
'cause he's watched me play all the time growing up.
So, like, I used to get lost in the game when I was a kid,
but before I even knew what that saying was,
I was doing it.
Like, it's a different kind of focus,
and when you're doing it, you can't put a finger on it.
But if I'm watching it, I can.
- It's like one study that hasn't been tapped into.
How can we tap into the zone? - I don't know if you can.
- It's the one thing that's never-- You can't. You can't.
- Yeah. I had one coach, and he used to say,
"Put yourself in situations where you're not comfortable."
- Oh, yeah, that's my favorite saying. - Play outside of your comfort zone.
- That's my favorite saying. - How do you do that?
- I just learned to play in different positions.
Like, I started playing in central midfield
and just positions of the pitch that I didn't even necessarily like,
or, like, when you're in places
where it's not your specialty,
you get locked--it's a different kind of focus,
'cause you know that you have to be locked in.
- And when you're in that moment, can you see the defenders
of the other team like, "Fuck, we can't fuck with this guy"?
- It's like an atmosphere. Like, it's just in the stadium.
- Once you have that, like, are you constantly chasing it?
Is it something that you're striving for? - Oh, it's a drug.
It's definitely a drug. You wish the night never ends.
When the game ends, I'm literally, like, sad.
Like, I want to go-- I could literally go again.
I could play a whole game right after the game end.
- Them kind of moments change you,
like, with the zone or being lost in the game.
It's like that moment.
It's like one of the big reasons why I'm so picky,
'cause I'll have an amazing moment.
No, it has to be that.
I have to touch that, like, and then I'll look at scripts and like,
"No. I won't get there. I won't get there."
Oh, shit. I can't do those little jobs anymore.
I can't do those itty-bitty jobs, because...
- Yeah. Yeah. - It's stacked now.
But for me, it goes--
The reasons I'm doing it.
If I'm doing something for money, I'm never gonna get there.
If it's just money, never.
- Never. - Ever touch it. Ever touch it.
- I love that. - But then if it's like...
I do it 'cause it sort of means something to me
or I can grow or it makes me uncomfortable or I'm scared--
you see, more times I'm shook, do you know what I'm saying?--
then you're more likely to get into that zone.
- Do you look for roles that you're scared?
Like, "Fuck, I don't know if I can--" - Always. That's part of it.
- Yeah. What's your favorite place to play?
Do you like playing at Old Trafford the best or on the road the best?
And then on the road, which place do you hate going the most?
- [exhales deeply] Like, I love playing at Old Trafford 'cause it's Old Trafford.
Like, it's got a special feeling,
and not many stadiums can re-create that.
But at the same time, the fans-- our away fans are, like, sick.
It's a special connection between, like, away traveling fans.
Like, if someone's taken that amount of time out of the day
or out of, you know, two days to travel
and wherever you go around the world
to watch you play a game of 90 minutes, football, it means a huge amount.
So Liverpool it's, like, both.
- You love it and hate it. - Yeah, like--
- It's rough. - Yeah, 'cause--
- Scousers are rough.
- The fans can take the game away from you.
Like, if you let 'em, they can take it away from you, like...
My first game at Anfield, I almost got sent off straightaway.
- Really? - Yeah, and I'm not even like--
- What happened?
- Just a bad tackle, like, but I'm not a malicious--
Like, I'd never try and hurt someone on purpose,
but, like, when you...
I don't know. Like, the warmup and the buildup--
- He getting excited thinking about it. You can see it right now.
- Right on, because it's just like-- it's that--like what you're saying.
Like, you chase them types of... - Yeah.
- Them feelings and them fears, and they just build you up.
Like, that's the feeling.
- In basketball, are there fans that you can play away
that they can literally take the game from you?
You can feel like, "Damn, the fans is not gonna let us win this one tonight"?
- Yes. I mean-- - What places?
- I mean, Boston. - Boston, yeah.
- Why do you hate Boston? - 'Cause they racist as fuck.
That's why. They will say anyth--and it's fine.
I mean, fuck, it's my life.
It's shit I've been dealing with my whole life.
I don't mind it. Like, I hear it.
Like, if I hear somebody, like, close by, I'll check 'em real quick.
I move on to the game. Whatever the fuck.
They gonna say whatever the fuck they want to say.
They might throw something on you.
I mean I got a beer thrown on me leaving the game. You know, like--
- Boston is-- - Yeah. It's Boston.
- It's the only place in the NBA in America, you go,
and they have, like, shirts that say like, "Fuck LeBron."
- Yeah. It was like a-- - Whole section.
- There's a "Fuck LBJ" T-shirt.
I believe they probably sold it at the fucking team shop.
- No. They sold it outside the arena. - No. They sold it at the team shop.
Them Celtics had something to do with that shit.
- So I used to, like, read, like, football autobiographies
for fun, like, so I read Zlatan Ibrahimović.
- Right. - He's at a team.
One of the older guys come to him and goes--
He said something like, "Are you good?" He said, "I don't know."
He said, "When you play away, do the fans boo you?"
He's like, "Yeah."
"It means you're good." [laughter]
And that helps me when I get hate. - Yeah, yeah, for sure.
- It means you're getting hate,
'cause, really and truly, if you ain't good, they ain't caring about you.
- They don't give a fuck. - They don't care, like...
- As a young player, has it been a while adjusting to that a bit?
- Not really, because like I said, I was so close to it.
Like, I could see it happening, to, like, the first-team players
when I was watching 'em.
So you set an expectation from yourself.
Like, one day you're gonna be in a situation where your fans love you,
but other people's fans don't like you.
And if you're not in that situation,
then you're probably not doing something that you should be doing.
- That's a beautiful thing.
- After the Euro, did that get overwhelming, though?
Because that was a bit different, right? - Yeah, it's a different--
- Explain it. - They played in the final in the Euro...
- Yeah, that was wild. - Against Italy, tough game.
It ended--was it nil-nil or one--
- 1-1. - 1-1.
- Yeah. - And then overtime, overtime,
and then it went to PKs, and unfortunate for England,
the last three guys were Black. They missed, and...
- Oh, yeah. Okay, I got it.
- They got, like, death threats, and it got out of hand.
- It got out of hand. It got real out of hand.
- Like, there's certain elements of sport, like, you can speak about all day,
and you'll never come to, like, a bottom line,
like, "That's what should have happened,"
because it's a sport based on opinion.
So, like, I've had hate for scoring before.
Like, it might sound mad, but I have.
- Do you think it ever got you close
to where you felt like breaking, like, "Fuck, this is too much"?
- No, because, like, as a forward, you take risks all the time, man.
- Yeah, that's your job.
- Yeah, if you're not taking risks, you're doing something wrong.
- Do you think the hate would have been as insane,
if it was three white young kids that missed?
- Honestly, no. Like, that's just the way I feel.
I don't think it would have been the same,
but at the same time, I don't think people would have, like, noticed, like...
I feel like they just reacted to how they felt, like...
And whether it's because it was three Black guys or three white guys,
that's how they felt.
I remember when, like, Beckham was getting death threats and getting hate.
- The heat was on him, yeah. - So it's like...
It happens, but they just wanted you to win, like...
Do you know what I'm saying? It's-- - Bro, it's toxic, my guy.
- Yeah. It is toxic. - No. That's like--
I hear you, but I feel for you, man. Like, it's like--
- I felt for you, too. - 'Cause just sitting there,
you're like--and that's why you get conflicted with supporting England.
It just reminds you of being a kid in England.
It reminds you all them times when you're out, everyone,
and then someone says something, so you're--
or someone's parents said something.
Like, usually what fucks you up is adults say something to you,
as a four-year-old, as a five-year-old. - Mm-hmm.
- You know what I'm saying? And then it reminds you of that.
When you're trying to get closer to the identity
of being English and that, and then that happens.
Like, "Oh, yeah." There's this gap, do you know what I'm saying?"
And like you said, it's feelings.
Like, people are pissed off and this, that, and the other,
but you instantly go there.
So why'd you go there? That means it's just there waiting.
It was just that kind of--it just-- it was a jolt of a reminder.
Like, "Oh, yeah, oh, yeah, this country."
It's why we're never comfortable in the pub like that.
- Yeah. Of course. - You know what I mean?
As a kid or when I'm young, it's like... - We have the same thing, too.
- Why I can't go certain--
Like, it was that-- what happened with you lot.
That's what it was.
- Do you still feel that way?
After even winning an Oscar, you don't feel that's put you in rare air?
A different space?
- Well, I'm Black, bro. - You still have that same--
- No, bro. Like, if I believe in that, that's when I'm in trouble, I feel,
'cause it's like, then you think that it's disappeared.
You believe what--this is gonna--
Like, it's nothing to do with what we've achieved.
- Right. Right, right, right. - Like, it's nothing to do with that.
- Absolutely. - The reason why they doing it
is nothing to do-- 'cause we've underachieved.
It's like the reason why--'cause they've got something wrong with them.
The police stop me. They don't know I've got an Oscar,
unless I'm carrying it out the window, do you know what I'm saying, like...?
And then roll it like this and smile.
Like, so it's something wrong here.
I mean, so you know that saying
"you got to be twice as good to get half as much or whatever"?
And I always didn't like that saying,
'cause I was just like-- It's that thing that you said.
It puts the white point of view in the center of your lifestyle,
so I said I just want to be twice as good, 'cause I want to be twice as good.
That's what I want. I like that.
Do you know what I'm saying? And I like excellence. I aspire for it.
Like, going for it. It's not something that you're gifted.
It's something that you have to work for, I feel,
and so then I know that this Oscar, it's made people feel a way,
coming from where I'm coming from.
Rash, you know, like-- - Yeah.
- Do you know what I'm saying?
So it's like I don't put my identity in any of these physical, material things.
Like, do you know what I'm saying? I'm still, like--
- Present.
- [singing] I don't wanna die for them to miss me
Pat Riley's whole thing-- everywhere he's went...
- They won. - They won--
either when he was playing for New York as a Knick.
And we all know Knicks fans have been dying again for a championship here.
- Let's go. - You know?
That's too much. That's too much.
That's too much. [laughter]
- [singing] I feel good, sometimes I don't, hey, don't
I finessed down Weston Road, hey, 'nessed
Might go down a G-O-D, yeah, wait
I make sure that North Side eat
[music continues]
And still
