Why Are Katt Williams And Dave Chappelle BOTH Saying They Turned Down $50 Million?

Added: 2026-06-03

[00:00:00]What is up? What is up, YouTube?

[00:00:04]Good morning. It is 6 o'clock in the morning here, man. The Philippines.

[00:00:09][music] And um Oh my gracious. Catwoman. Hey, I finally took time out to watch what's called the Kevin H. The Kevin Hart uh roast. I took time out and um watched the whole thing and [music] I can tell that Cat Williams came there for the money.

[00:00:37]He did his little job. He said his jokes. They wrote wrote out the jokes and everything. And um him and Kevin kissed and made up or whatever, but I never watched it. I was watching all the little clips from um YouTube and everything. And when I looked at it, I was like the whole time I'm thinking he is just there just for a paycheck, man. He said it out his mouth.

[00:01:03]I mean, that's part of the jokes and stuff. Look, wouldn't you think about it? But my question is, I wonder how many millions that Cat [music] Williams made to come up there and I meant to time how long his his segment was.

[00:01:20]Y'all, I I [music] should have timed it to say, damn, you prepared maybe 5 hours of people writing out the stuff.

[00:01:31]You probably spent two hours going over what you going to say cuz now they they're professional, right? They're professionals. They don't have to spend [music] two or three days rehearsing something. Um, and then you'd walk away with like $5 million.

[00:01:50]That's what I'm guessing that I'm guessing that maybe three million to $5 million that he probably got to do that special. This is Kevin Hop, man. This going to bring in some money. I even looked up how much the tickets running.

[00:02:04]If you wanted to, if you really wanted to go, how much the tickets would cost?

[00:02:09]That's the type of stuff I get into. I try to cuz I'm trying to see how much money Netflix [music] making other than them streaming it on their own platform, man. That's where the big money is at.

[00:02:22]They getting more and more people to pay the monthly fee for the um subscription.

[00:02:28]And I I calculate that type of stuff, man.

[00:02:31]Cuz you know, Uncle Mike think he a businessman. He think you're a businessman. That's You should think you're a businessman, too. You make more money. Anyway, um hit that subscribe button. Hit that bell. Uh Cat Williams, [music] y'all is going to talk about um reveal how the industry changed people, man. Changed these little kids. It's hurting these kids. Y'all hit that subscribe button. Give him a thumbs up.

[00:02:55]Give this video a thumbs up, man. Hit that subscribe button. Let's check this bad boy out. Mother a in Hollywood. You never expected they be having these big parties and the mansion party. The whole mansion is a party and then it's a separate party in the little rooms. I ain't been famous that goddamn long. I'm excited in a mother party. You be looking in all the goddamn rooms [music] and you and look in the wrong room and >> all of these uh big dick deviants is all catching hell in 2024. It's up for all of them. It don't matter if you did or whoever you is TG Jake any of them the every all lies will be exposed. That's all. And and anyone who takes that the wrong way know why they take it the wrong way.

[00:03:41]>> Man, come on. Um, I got a TD Jake um video that I got to do also, man. I hadn't heard too much about TD Jake. He done really really stepped down with this little Sugar Bridges stuff.

[00:03:55]Swallow. Swallow. Have you ever been swallowed? Come on, dude. That is some sugar bridges stuff. are against the Illuminati and we are against the Illuminati at our own detriment. [music] >> When people are against the Illuminati, then they get punched in the face all the time. The press hates them [music] and nobody likes them.

[00:04:16]>> You know what gets me every time I think about this? The music industry does not break people loudly. It does not walk up to a young rapper and say, "Hey, we are going to change everything about you."

[00:04:26]It does it so quietly that by the time the artist looks in the mirror, they barely recognize themselves and they have no idea when it started. Cat Williams has been sitting on this knowledge for decades. When he finally let it out on Club Sha Shay with Shannon Sharp back in [music] January 2024, it was not a rant. It was not even really an interview. It was a man who had spent 30ome years watching this industry work its magic on people. finally deciding he had nothing left to lose by telling the truth. So today we are going to dig into something that does not get talked about honestly enough. What actually happens to young rappers when they step inside the machine? [music] What are the conditions that nobody puts in writing?

[00:05:10]Why do so many of them come out the other side looking, sounding, and moving like a completely [music] different person? Cat saw it, lived adjacent to it, and he tried to warn us too. This story starts when [music] I'm with Puff and he's in the exotic bookstores and he's doing shopping, right? He's shopping, getting his stuff and everything like that. So, you know, this the first time I was ever in the exotic bookstore with Puff. So, you know, I'm giving him his space. He's taking things off the shelves and stuff like that cuz they gave him a brown paper bag. When they gave him a brown paper bag, he was just putting stuff in there. So I said, "Damn, you know, he got to go put it on the counter and, you know, show everybody what he getting."

[00:05:58]So as he going, I'm just looking at the places where he's picking stuff from. So this one part he he picked up uh some things from up here on my left side. And then he he picked like a quite a few of them down. I was like, "Okay." He put them in the bag. So when I went by there and I looked up there and it said butt plugs and I was like, "Hey, [laughter] I was I was messing with him cuz people don't understand, you know, we was we we was like friends. He was a part of the same gang. So I'm still going to tease him. I'm still going to mess with him and everything like that. I could do that. It wasn't just no security thing."

[00:06:37]So I said, "Yo, what are you getting this for?" [laughter] And it said butt plugs on. He like, "Yo, yo, can I do my shopping by myself?" I said, "Yeah, you could do it by yourself, brother." And he start walking and everything like [music] that. When he got to I just waited at the counter. When he got to the counter, he didn't even have to show the guy none. He just gave the guy a lot of money. [music] I mean, I mean, like, he gave a the guy stack something like this. And Puff wasn't a dude that carried no 20s and no 50s or nothing like that. And I mean, like, he just said, "Boom."

[00:07:10]>> And we walked out the store.

[00:07:13]That's crazy.

[00:07:14]>> We had to leave Atlanta and go to uh North Carolina for a show, you understand? And um it was him.

[00:07:23]>> Mhm.

[00:07:24]>> This rapper, Sarah, and this other girl. We all got on a G a G G5 jet, and we flew to uh G4 jet, and we flew to uh uh North Carolina. [music] So, uh, later on that I think that afternoon, same day, >> [music] >> um, this rapper and him, they all in the room together, you know, it's Sarah, the girl, Puff, and this dude, this rapper.

[00:08:00]So, uh, I'm hearing at the door and stuff like that. Like, yeah. So, then next thing you know, somebody rang the doorbell. We had the presidential suite where we was at. So I opened the door and uh the dude said, "Yo, I'm here for my cousin." I said, [music] "Who your cousin?" And he said, "Uh, Ju."

[00:08:22]I [music] said, "Well, he busy right now." He said, "Oh, he busy doing what?"

[00:08:26]I said, "He with Puff. They're in the room. They busy. They don't want to be bothered." [music] He said, "Well, I'm going in there." I said, "Bro, you ain't going in there." cuz he told me they don't want nobody to be bothering them.

[00:08:37]He was like, "Yo, I don't care, man. I'm going in there." That that bull like that. I said, "Yo, bro. Jesus Christ. I have to come down here and take the air out of my body [music] before you get in that room right there. Watch. Watch." He tried to bum rush me. I grabbed his and threw him against the piano. When I threw him into the piano, Puff and Ju runs out the room. Puff got his towel. J grabbing his tower, but they butt the neck. And so then [music] uh J was like, "Yo, what's going on?" Yo, G, that's my cousin. He know me well, you know. Uh and Puff's like, "Yo, Jean, what happened?" I said, "He tried to get in the room. I told him he couldn't get in the room." And he was like, [music] he just looked, Puff looked at J. He said, "Yo." Josh said, "You ain't want to go in that room cuz there's a lot of freaking going on."

[00:09:28]>> All right. So, let us go back to where it all starts because I think this is the part people gloss over and they really should not. Picture a kid who is around the age of 17 or 18. He has been rapping in his bedroom on street corners, at local shows. He has got something real and people in his neighborhood know it. Then one day, somebody with a business card and a nice watch shows up and says the label is interested. That is it. That is all it takes. Because for this kid, this is not just an opportunity. This is the only door out of wherever he is coming from.

[00:09:59]He signs, "I mean, who would not? Nobody is going to sit here and pretend that every record deal is [music] some trap.

[00:10:06]Some people go in, do their thing, and come out fine." What Cat Williams was pointing to when he started talking about industry plants is something a lot more specific. He was describing a system that sometimes finds a young person before they even know who they fully are, builds an entire structure [music] around them, and quietly steers them toward whatever is most useful for the label. By the time that artist lands on your playlist, the shaping has already happened. You are meeting the finished product. The real person they used to be was left somewhere in a conference room. Cat said he turned down $50 million on four separate occasions.

[00:10:42]Stop and sit with that number for a second because the amount being offered tells you everything about the size of the ask on the other side.

[00:10:54]You know, Cat was It's almost like you got to watch what you say when you getting bigger and bigger. And Cat said that he he I wish he never said that. I wish he can take it back. cat said he he reads like 3,000 books a year.

[00:11:18]Who reads them them many books and have time to actually count one, two, up to 3,000?

[00:11:27]If you counting up to 3,000, you don't have time to read the the book. That's what I'm thinking. That don't sit right.

[00:11:34]So, or you can put it in the category and say, well, you know what?

[00:11:39]Maybe he just said, "I read a whole lot of books per year and he just stuck a number on it." That's what I'm thinking.

[00:11:48]That's maybe that's how it's supposed to land. Nobody was going to pick out this 3,000 book thing like Kevin Hart did on his special and everybody else keeps saying that he said that. That's that's kind of interesting to me because now Stars making everything that you say. Look, he turned down $50 million three times.

[00:12:10]Is that what he said? Cuz that's the same number David Chappelle is using.

[00:12:16]They all sharing the same joke or something. I don't I'm trying to figure this thing out, man. On four separate occasions. I thought it was three separate occasions. Watch this, y'all.

[00:12:24]Watch this. For real. For real. Are meeting the finished product. The real person they used to be was left somewhere in a conference room.

[00:12:31]>> [music] >> Cat said he turned down $50 million on four separate occasions.

[00:12:37]>> Isn't that the same amount that David Chappelle say he walked away from? $50 million. There's something about these stories, man. That's kind of like, yeah, everybody like the 50 million. I turned down $50 million four times. I'mma go with what he's saying cuz I thought they said three times. Four times. Y'all think about that. I want y'all to start thinking about some of this stuff that we keep hearing, man.

[00:13:05]I read 3,000 books.

[00:13:09]I don't think that's I don't I got to look that up, man. Speed reading. I guess you can speed read and Oh my god. Here we go. Let's keep going, man. 50 million four times now. Now it's four times. Here we go. Stop and sit with that number for a second because the amount being offered tells you everything about the size of the ask on the other side. Here is something I want you to really think about. What does it cost a young rapper to say no? Not to something small. No to the right person at the right moment in the right room.

[00:13:40]We are not talking about turning down a verse on a song you do not like. We are talking about turning down a situation that someone with enormous power over your career is presenting to you. The label controls your masters. Whether you're single gets pushed or [music] shelved, these are not abstract things like your rent, your family's rent, your [music] future.

[00:14:00]>> And Miami, all that is the same, bro.

[00:14:04]Every Nobody wants to be near him.

[00:14:08]Nobody [music] wants to touch what he touch, be where he at. You understand?

[00:14:15]It [music] It's crazy, bro, how his fall from grace, [music] which was never a from grace.

[00:14:27][music] It's just like the devil just kicked him out of hell.

[00:14:33]>> Because you can't He was never in nothing graceful and did anything graceful. [music] You know what I'm saying? I don't care what you say about, okay, he did the music, he did he had the bad boy bad boy legacy and everything like that, man.

[00:14:46]But, you know, [music] a few albums, a few people, you know, made to be famous, but they not here to tell their story.

[00:15:02]Black Rob, Biggie, Craig, [music] Mack, they not here to tell their story, bro.

[00:15:11][music] And now you got everybody telling his story.

[00:15:16][music] >> Yeah. And I know 50, he did a recent interview with US Weekly saying that the reason why rappers are quiet about, you know, Diddy's situation [music] is because they've been to his courts and they don't know what got caught on tape.

[00:15:27]Bro, >> those people who was caught at [music] Diddy party did not know that he had 250 tape recorders in that house. Now, that's a big house, but he had 250 [music] tape recorders in that house that they took that the feds found.

[00:15:55]So now with them finding all that and you being at a diddy party, you know, you may have done something that [music] was caught on one of those tape, you just better pray to God that they don't recognize you.

[00:16:11]Those people who know that they did something, know they not going to speak out, they not going to say nothing.

[00:16:18][music] What part of the game is that? They are not going to come forward and tell on their self. [music] Nah, not at all.

[00:16:33]Ice Cube, he said it himself, bro.

[00:16:36][music] He said that Diddy's been targeted because of what he said about those folks and those people.

[00:16:49][music] Now, the people [music] who was on those tapes [music] may feel like Diddy might be targeting them cuz if he's asked about who is this, who is that, and he's under oath with the federal government, he got to tell him he not going to plead the fifth.

[00:17:20]Yeah, I know that got to be a terrible feeling, [music] man. You know, you know you did something wrong at Diddy Party and you hoping and praying that it's not caught up. But they don't think they did nothing wrong. That's their lifestyle.

[00:17:32]>> That's their lifestyle, bro.

[00:17:34]>> They don't think they did nothing wrong.

[00:17:35]>> I ask guys all the time, if two men lay down, how many homos get up? What you mean?

[00:17:44]I ain't mean what I mean.

[00:17:47]It's what it is.

[00:17:48]>> When Cat Williams talked about declining Diddy's invitations, >> it's your lifestyle breaking a law.

[00:17:56]First of all, your lifestyle should be understanding law first. What is law?

[00:18:03]And it's easy to start um you do onto others as you would want them to do unto you. That's not good enough no more.

[00:18:11]That's not good enough.

[00:18:13]law is um helping people and not hurting people.

[00:18:19]If if you hurting somebody, that means the person do not want what you're doing to them. Don't nobody want their car stolen. They don't want houses being broken into, cheating on their wife, all this type of stuff. So that's where the law starts coming in place. The law is in place to protect other people. I call you back. I call y'all back. I'm I don't want to preach too much this morning. Not this morning.

[00:18:46]He was not telling some fun Hollywood anecdote. He [music] said it flatly.

[00:18:50]Quote, "Pey be wanting to party. You have got to tell him no. I did." That line hits completely differently. Now we know what those parties meant for the people who kept showing up to them. The ones who said yes, who stayed loyal, who made themselves available, they got taken care of in the short run. What the long run looked like? Well, we are seeing that now. Anything that surprised you when you were watching?

[00:19:12]>> I think it was surprising that that he [music] actually filmed it.

[00:19:16]>> It was very interesting to watch a man who's known for his brand presence, you know, he's he has a really amazing knack for for marketing and all of that and how he was sort of taking that into account and how he was coming off [music] to the public.

[00:19:30]>> The exclusive video also shows Combmes in Harlem greeting fans.

[00:19:36]>> Back away. As long as you wear it, we wouldn't. I'll accept you.

[00:19:42]I need some hand sanitizer. Hold on. I got I got I've been out in the streets [music] amongst the people. Yeah. I got to take a bath.

[00:19:50]Like that's like the amount of people that's that actually I'm coming in contact with. Like that's the [music] that's what I have to do.

[00:19:59]You know what I'm saying?

[00:20:01]>> It's like a It's like 150 hugs.

[00:20:03]>> And you're a public person as well.

[00:20:06]God dang, dog. You done made yourself look terrible.

[00:20:11]Can you imagine Uncle Mike saying, "Oh man, I've been amongst the people. I got to take a bath." Like, who are you? Who are you to think that you so much cleaner than somebody else or these people? What makes you think the people dirty? And it's funny because a lot of people have have said stuff like this.

[00:20:32]come find out they ain't you know I ain't even gonna say it man I'm Can't y'all tell I'm trying to bite my tongue up a little too much can't be myself no more on this here on my channel right oh man here we go back I call y'all back I call you back >> one instance [music] in Harlem and his reaction when those people >> went away >> went away car [clears throat] I feel like I need to wash like I'm dirt that that was this shows you his character [music] Is that the Was that the reason for including it?

[00:21:04]>> Yeah, that I mean it's What's the odds that you [music] would do that? I fell out the camera.

[00:21:09]>> There are some things that should not be recorded.

[00:21:12]You shouldn't if you doing social media and stuff, you shouldn't record everything. If you got dealings with courts and all that type of stuff, keep it to yourself. Don't record it. Yeah.

[00:21:23]Hey, uh, Uncle Mike got to go to court.

[00:21:27]What is it about? Well, something about the house. Something small, something might. Ain't no big deal. Don't even need to tell y'all that. [laughter] Yeah, that's crazy. But no, every time you get a little bit of news, they want to run and jump and put it on social media. You should not be recording yourself talking to your lawyer.

[00:21:49]What dummy does that?

[00:21:53]>> Like there that's that's [music] one of the moments where he forgot he was on tape.

[00:21:56]>> How do you respond to people who say that? It's more about the the disdain that you have for Shawn Combmes than it is for [music] giving the victims a platform.

[00:22:04]>> What they consider a pre-existing beef, right, for 20 years, right, is me being uncomfortable with him [music] suggesting that he takes me shopping or I looked at it like he was like it was like a tester, [music] like maybe you'll come play with me type of thing, right? And it's not personal.

[00:22:24]I think it's important to [music] also let people know that this the show is not completely the perspectives of people that did not like Shawn. [music] We weren't trying to just get the highlights, the salacious details, you know, that the real goal was to storytell and if [music] you not everyone needed to have an allegation to be a part of this project. [music] The four-part series also features two jurors from Combmes trial who are speaking for the first time about how they reached [music] their mixed verdict, finding Combmes guilty of two prostitution offenses, but clear of racketeering and trafficking charges.

[00:23:01]Both sharing their thoughts on the relationship between Combmes and singer Cassie. Juror 75 describing them as two people in love and juror 160 saying in part domestic violence wasn't one of the charges.

[00:23:15]>> Cassie is she a victim in all this?

[00:23:16]>> I believe Cassie's a victim in all this because she came in as such she's like 18 like 19 [music] years old in the very beginning. After a while the over time you conditioned for it. The goal of what the film is [music] trying to do is to let the audience kind of come in to to to ask [music] questions like were their decisions colored by certain things and who got the benefit of the doubt. You know, in that courtroom, >> man, at 18, like 50 just said, at 18 and 19, Cassie was focused on one thing, getting her music done, being entertainment artist. She was focused on that. And then every now and then you do a couple of little drugs. Everybody party and they drink and you get tired of drinking, throw up. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:24:08]Earl. [cough] So you you need something that to get you there faster without all the throwing up and the nasty lick. Liquor is alcohol is nasty. Period. You just develop a stand in the taste of it. But anyway, then all of a sudden you you hooked on these drugs. I'mma fast forward a whole lot. You hooked on the drugs. You depend on the drugs. You need these drugs in your life. And that's when all that other stupid freaky sticky stuff. Ask Dave as um uh what's the boy name that's helped Diddy start um Bad Boy Records? I keep forgetting these people name. Ask him. He the one taught Diddy. Here we go. Let's go. You think that hip-hop culture was on trial as much as Shawn Combmes was?

[00:24:57]>> No. No. Well, look, if I didn't say anything, you would have you would interpret it as the hip hop is fine with his behaviors.

[00:25:07]>> There's no one else being vocal. So, you would look at it and just say cuz that that mind your business or let me not say nothing about nothing or those things. it it it would allow the entire culture to register as if they're for that behavior >> if um Sean [music] Combmes watches this.

[00:25:27]What do you think he's going to feel?

[00:25:28]>> Like, wow, this is amazing. I think he's going to say, "This is the best documentary I've seen in a long time cuz you'll see people saying that. He may feel a different way [music] about pieces and bits of it, but he knows the truth." For a young rapper who is barely 20 years old, maybe fresh out of a tough situation, that [music] social pressure in a room full of powerful people is almost impossible to describe from the outside. It is not always explicit.

[00:25:52]Sometimes it is just the way everyone else is behaving. The unspoken message that hesitation makes you difficult.

[00:25:59]Saying no makes you ungrateful that the game works a certain way. And if you want to keep playing, you already know what that means. Let's dive deep into various stories. Orlando Brown, the kid [music] from that So Raven, has been very public about his experiences growing up in the entertainment world. I know his story is complicated and some of what he says is hard to verify, but strip away the noise and [music] there is something real in the middle of it.

[00:26:25]He is someone who entered the spotlight as a child before he had any idea who he was or what he was getting into. And what came out the other side was a person who clearly did not have the tools to process what that environment did to him.

[00:26:40]>> Yeah, but you're being very disrespectful when it comes down to my friend. [laughter] >> Okay.

[00:26:45]>> So, back up off Let's back up off Puff.

[00:26:48]>> So, Dark Cloud is a bad is a is a wrong thing to say. Dark Cloud.

[00:26:51]>> Let's just back up off Puff.

[00:26:53]>> All right. So, let's get off of him.

[00:26:55]Let's go with all the other industry producers and head honchos. May I please have something to drink? Because you've said his name over three times and I have nothing now to drink.

[00:27:05]>> Oh, over Oh, damn near.

[00:27:07]>> Yeah, somebody has to do something.

[00:27:09]You're being very disrespectful >> when it comes down to bad boy revolt the entire empire.

[00:27:21]>> No, I don't want a water mace might disagree with you. [snorts] >> Mace might disagree with you.

[00:27:31]You might say, "Hey, >> when you say names like puck, >> don't get mad at me." That mace. [music] >> That mace.

[00:27:38]>> Yeah. Thank you. I'd rather do a Sprite.

[00:27:41]>> Thank you.

[00:27:43]>> Take care.

[00:27:49]>> Go.

[00:27:52]>> Why would you even ask me that?

[00:27:54]>> Because we have to.

[00:27:56]>> Thank you.

[00:27:57]>> They would like to know. They as in they they would like to know like as a child star those people that are like Puffy or like Weinstein like >> Jeff Epstein Diddy Combmes.

[00:28:20]>> That's his name.

[00:28:22]>> Yes.

[00:28:22]>> Yes. [music] >> His name is Sean Diddy Combmes.

[00:28:27]>> What? Yeah, you kind of hang on combs for a little bit, right? Right.

[00:28:31]>> That's his name. That's my friend's name [music] for everybody that's kind of scared to >> Yeah.

[00:28:36]>> Yeah. No one's uh taken up for him anymore because the charges are so bad. What charges are we talking about? Well, he has a new 120 charges of 60 women and 60 male um charges brought against him. Uh even a 9year-old uh boy said that Sean did he >> Oh, we're we're doing 9year-olds now.

[00:29:06]>> I mean, that's that's >> we believe that.

[00:29:15]>> [clears throat] >> Even in Louisiana, we believe that >> Texas.

[00:29:22]>> Oh, we believe No, I'm saying we believe that in Louisiana. Nine little nine little little nine little little year old babies and that's what we doing.

[00:29:33]That what we that what you believe we doing?

[00:29:36][music] >> We don't believe nothing until it's something. I'm saying like 9-year-old kids is what we [music] doing. No, >> I don't believe it.

[00:29:44]>> Out of the blue.

[00:29:45]>> Out of the blue. I don't believe it. But what makes a 9-year-old come forward and say, "Hey, when I was nine, >> but bro, but bro, bro."

[00:29:52]>> Now, take that same dynamic and apply it to young rappers. These are artists who come in with a very specific identity, a specific way of talking, a moving, or making music.

[00:30:02]>> Wait a minute, y'all. I can't let that slide. Yeah, the 9year-old that got the soda that opened up the soda or something. That whole story, a nine year old kid, man.

[00:30:16]That's hard to swallow right there. And it's hard to swallow on a lot of situations, man. What about the parents of this nine-year-old kid? What about the the parents before they let this story out? The parents had to talk to this nine-year-old kid and be like, "Are you sure this will happen? Do we really want to let this out in public?

[00:30:42]Oh my god, man. Or do we just take action? I wish my nine-year-old kid would tell me something like that. So, I'm Man, I I'm sorry, man. I'm Uncle Mike is built a little different. And then the second or third project drops and something is just off. The music sounds like it was made for someone else. The image has shifted in a direction that feels studied rather than natural. The interviews are more careful. The lyrics are safer or weirder or both. Cat Williams has talked about how the industry replaces [music] people over time. Not physically obviously, but the version of you that gets promoted, managed, and packaged [music] starts to look less and less like the person who walked in. That is not an accident. That is the machine doing exactly what it was built to do. I want to be careful with this one because it is a conversation that deserves some real honesty rather than just heat. There has always been a low-level discussion running through hip-hop circles about what the industry sometimes asks of male artists in exchange for access and advancement. I'm not talking about conspiracy theories here. I am talking about something that people who have been in those rooms or close to those rooms have been saying for years. Cat Williams said it. Orlando Brown has said it. Others have alluded to it in ways that are hard to ignore once you start paying attention.

[00:32:00]>> Uh, did he gave you squashwash? Man, he he it was it it was it was a [music] night of of of great slip and slidedom.

[00:32:13]We It was a night of great slip and slided them.

[00:32:17]>> Okay. He >> lot of baby oil.

[00:32:19]>> No, no, no. A lot of spit. [laughter] >> A lot of spit, bro. I come from Okay. A lot of spit teach you [ __ ] some long time ago.

[00:32:34]Okay. Yeah, it was lot. He was slipping on my tongue like [music] this. Slipping and sliding.

[00:32:41]>> Did he ever reach out to you about that?

[00:32:44]>> After that went viral.

[00:32:45]>> Nah, he be he be laughing about a lot of you know what I'm saying? Like the the thing about the thing about it is is like, you know, like it's not um it's not it's not funny to anybody but us. Everybody is like they're laughing, but it's nobody it's not really it's really like it's funny [music] to us though. Like it's that's cute. Was a problem. I got dealt with just like everybody else. [laughter] I got dealt with it was a big problem.

[00:33:16]But it's funny though, you know, cuz how else am I supposed to how how else am I supposed to [music] express somebody in their downtime being beautiful and I and I have a I have a eye like I asked you like I told you I asked God for sight. You know what I'm saying? So, if I know that uh let's say let's say if I know that Beyonce or or no, let's say I know let's say let's say Janet Jackson is Diddy.

[00:33:52]Let's just say Janet Jackson is the real [music] Diddy, right? Which she is. And so the things that Janet has on people because of herity and I'm able to identify her and her downtime as Janet Jackson, but I also know that she's Diddy.

[00:34:10][music] That's kind of it's kind of crazy for people to not understand that themselves. You think at that level she has one level of life.

[00:34:19]You're naive.

[00:34:21]You're very naive. And you don't understand how much we've evolved as a people.

[00:34:27]When you go look for somebody to marry, you don't find them by looking for what they have. Seek ye first the heart of the person and everything else shall follow. Seek ye first the heart of the person and everything else shall follow.

[00:34:46]They looking for money. They looking for that sex. They looking for that that that million dollar jet and million dollar cars and [ __ ] They're not looking for no Janet Jackson, brother. If they was looking for Janet Jackson, she would be happy. She wouldn't have the whole world on her head right now, which is why she's in trouble. Trying to kill Orlando.

[00:35:10]>> Why? Why'd you say Jana Jackson's the real Diddy? [music] >> Because that's what I said and I meant it and it's the truth. You're not Diddy.

[00:35:19][laughter] [music] You just kill me. That's it. You know what I mean? Like you like uh uh you was like um um you [music] was like we the party people night and day living crazy.

[00:35:38]That's the only way out tonight. I see you down and just enjoy yourself.

[00:35:52]That's you.

[00:35:56]It's not so bad at all.

[00:36:04]>> That's me.

[00:36:06]>> Living [music] off the wall.

[00:36:06]>> Yeah, [ __ ] [laughter] >> The core question is not really about who somebody is or who they love.

[00:36:14][music] The question is about choice versus arrangement. There's a massive difference between someone arriving at a certain identity on their own terms versus someone being nudged or pressured [music] or strategically incentivized into a particular image or lifestyle as part of a larger deal. What makes this especially [music] heavy when we talk about young rappers is the age factor. A lot of these artists are teenagers [music] when their first real industry relationships form. Their sense of self is still being built. They are impressionable in ways that have nothing to do with weakness and everything to do with being human and young. The people around them know that and he industry has historically not been above using that. The whispering about this has been going on for a long time. Cat Williams just chose to stop whispering. Let me ask you something and I want you to think about it honestly. How many rappers can you name? genuinely gifted ones who you watch grind for years and then just fade. Then on the other side of that, how many artists can you think of who seemed to come from nowhere [music] with the perfect roll out, the perfect features, the perfect placement, and just exploded overnight coming to the party? [music] He cuz he asked me, "Did I see them?" I said, "Yeah, they came up in a limousine. They said they wasn't coming to the party." You know what I'm saying? He said he said I said, "But him and 50 was meanongering each other." He was like, "Yeah." He started laughing. Chad start laughing. I said, "Yeah." He said, "Uh, so what happened?"

[00:37:38]I said, "Nothing. 50 was all right." He said, "What do you mean 50 all?" I said, "Uh, he had one of my girlfriends with him." And Chad said, "He had what?" He [laughter] said, "Go get that from him."

[00:37:48]I said, "Man, >> yo, he good, man. He be all right. He all right." He said, "Man, boy." So, that was it. So, me and 50, we we just became cool. We just used to talk and then um [music] after the big fight that he had with Ja Rou in Atlanta, Ja Ru and they people like that Atlanta, they set up a meeting at Blackhands. Okay. So they set the meeting up at Blackhands, you know, for them to talk. But prior to that, they had caught 50 at the I don't know if it was the hit [music] factory or the sound the hit factory or or or the sound studio, some one of them studios down on 40th Street like that or 50 something street and they stabbed him up. Now they stabbed 50 up. So now Chaz had worked a deal out. Nobody knows this, bro. [music] Chaz had worked a deal out for Irv Gotti them to give 50 $250,000.

[00:38:59][music] He had worked a deal for them to give $250,000.

[00:39:06]So now [music] don't nobody supposed to know this but 50 and Chaz and Gotti them team.

[00:39:18]So now whatever the situation is, Chaz [music] told 50 when they was in Atlanta, he said, "Go talk to John, man.

[00:39:25]Y'all talk to But he never asked 50 how 50 ft about." This is the conversation that me and [music] 50 is having cuz we had this conversation in Dr. Dre studio when I was bodyguarding Scotts.

[00:39:42]You understand? So now when 50 went over to J, he just snuffed them. Cracked cuz J had a baseball, a little baseball bat in his hand, hitting it like this, you know. So So when 50 got close enough, 50 snuffed them. So they all tried to jump.

[00:40:00]Chaz jumped in there, grabbed 50, [music] but they wasn't going to try to hit 50.

[00:40:06]>> I think Chaz grabbed him. They wasn't going to try to hit 50. [music] and and and and if they' hit Chaz, they knew all hell would have been broken out. All hell would have been loose in Queens.

[00:40:17]>> That gap is what Cat Williams was talking about when he brought up the idea of the industry plant. And his point was never really about any one artist specifically. It was about the structure that makes that kind of overnight arrival possible because that stuff does not happen by itself. the right playlist placements, the right collaborations dropping at exactly the right time, the right press narrative built before the album is even out. That is infrastructure. And infrastructure costs money and requires relationships.

[00:40:45]The artists who get that treatment are often not the most talented ones in the room. They are the most convenient ones, the most agreeable, the ones whose image fits what the label needs right now and who are flexible enough to become whatever version of themselves the marketing team has designed. That is a brutal thing to say out loud, but Cat Williams has never been afraid of brutal. His whole argument about Kevin Hart, whatever you think of it, was really just a version of this same point. Success in this industry is not purely earned. It is often constructed.

[00:41:17]And the construction [music] starts with an agreement that the public never gets to see.

[00:41:21]>> Oh, >> must have missed it, man. I think I caught most of them.

[00:41:24]>> I think he almost fell in the tub with one of the girls. Uh, did he have some girls in the uh >> in the tub? [music] A tub of baby oil or something like that.

[00:41:34]>> Kevin Hart >> and he almost fell in the tub.

[00:41:39]It was crazy.

[00:41:41]You know, he would be one of the celebrities that I definitely wouldn't [music] think would be involved in anything illegal.

[00:41:49]>> Me too. [music] For sure.

[00:41:51]>> But you got to realize this, man. People who get caught up in certain those things like that, those parties and things like that, is that they don't go there looking for that stuff. Mhm. You got to understand they get caught up in the moment [music] with the alcohol or drugs and then certain uh bottles that are laced with certain things.

[00:42:15]>> Yeah. [music] And >> they take you away from your normal self >> and you trying to live that celebrity life >> probably doing something that you probably never do again in your life.

[00:42:28]You'll never get caught up in those things.

[00:42:31]ever before.

[00:42:32]>> Yep. Getting caught up living the celebrity life. Ah, shoot. I'm rich. I'm free. I could do this. I'm good. And I'm out of my mind. And I don't know I'm being recorded. So, I'm just going to do it this one time. And then you wake up and say, "Did it unrecorded everything?

[00:42:52]And I don't want my wife and kids to know this." Ah, but you got to give me money to keep this quiet.

[00:43:01]There are a lot of celebrities that go to these parties like this [snorts] and they didn't they not only digging parties.

[00:43:12]I went to a party before and um you can't handle the truth [music] and King Kong ain't got nothing on me was at one of those parties.

[00:43:28]I was bodyguarding one of the girls.

[00:43:30]>> Mhm. So, what I'm saying is is that it's rampant and this was years ago. This was over 20 years ago.

[00:43:40][music] It's rampant in the music industry. It's rampant in Hollywood, film, pictures, or anything. Some people figured it out before it was too late.

[00:43:49]Or maybe they just hit a wall that they could not get past without losing themselves completely. Either way, they left. And those are the people worth paying attention to. Dave Chappelle walking away from $50 million at the height of Chappelle's show is one of those moments in entertainment history that people [music] still talk about and still do not fully understand. He has spoken about a specific moment on set where something just clicked wrong for him where he felt like the power in the room had shifted and the joke was not on the character anymore. It was on him and he got on a plane to South Africa just like that. Because the first um I think it's the first season of Making a Band, it came out and the Dave Chappelle show came out. Like I was just I like comedy me, you dig? I can I can [music] lay back and watch comedy all day and night.

[00:44:38]Cory Mahokum and all them people. I can watch them all night. Um I seen the Dave Chappelle show come out [music] and when we came back for season two, uh I was just telling them like y'all got to watch this Dave Chappelle and everybody looked at me [music] weird. But the publicist who was actually Keith Mari uh either baby mama or or wife or something, she was actually our publicist and she was like, "He is funny, isn't it?" I was like, "Yeah, [music] you should get you should try to contact him." And next thing you know, she contacted him and came to the house and that's how we [music] ended up doing the Dave Chappelle skit. Thanks, Chop Mother.

[00:45:18]>> So that's what [music] it was, man.

[00:45:19]That's the reason why Dline wasn't showing up to the meetings, you know. M >> yes. Yes. That's that's exactly why Dalon ain't show up because he felt like he can do better by himself. He already had the fame and the popularity. [music] So why not? You dig? And and to me honestly, I would have I should have done the same. My young dumb duck. I guess that's why when they say 18 and over, you should probably be 18 and over cuz my young dumb ass ain't know no better. I was grew getting all this money and not even knowing the money that I'm thinking I'm getting is pennies on a dollar.

[00:45:52]Yeah. See, learn young people. I'm trying to tell you, learn. When you 18, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, you think you know it all. You swear to God, you know it all. Well, I know it all.

[00:46:08]Everybody says that. Well, I know it all. I remember being that age saying, "Shoot, I ain't dumb like them other people. I know what I'm doing." You don't know nothing. You still wet behind the ear. When I say wet behind the ears, that's I'm talking soaking wet. And he realizing that now. And everybody goes through this. Everybody goes through.

[00:46:30]Damn. I Now I realize it. That wasn't nothing. I thought I was doing better. I was groupies getting all this money and not even knowing the money that I'm thinking I'm getting is pennies on a dollar. Ain't [music] that a I love life. cuz you couldn't tell.

[00:46:50]That's why the industry love signing young dumb. You heard me? Cuz you can get them pennies of the dollars and make $30 million off of them. [music] >> Mhm.

[00:46:58]>> You ever notice the industry don't sign 25, 26 year old, you know, they don't cuz if you know better, you going to be hard to deal with. [music] That's why they sign the youngsters. You dig? That's why, you know, to all you artists out here, you heard me.

[00:47:12]>> Come in with your own motion, your own bag, little daddy towards you. Come in this. Nobody tell you. That's why I roll the way I roll right now. Can't nobody tell me nothing. You heard me? I move how I want to move. You understand me?

[00:47:24]Cuz I'm in my own bag. You heard me?

[00:47:26]Come into a situation with [music] your own money. Don't come into this for help. You dig? Cuz they going they going to help you. They going to help you. All right. You said facts. Yeah. They going to help you. All right. And spit your right back out like you was nobody.

[00:47:43]Yeah. [music] That's why >> that was the reason. Got to ask you cuz I never asked you about it. How [music] you feel about the situation between Shan and Puffy?

[00:47:54]>> I think that Diddy did him real foul. I think that um I don't think I don't think Sean shot I don't think Sean shot that lady.

[00:48:02]>> That later.

[00:48:03]>> I don't I don't think Sean shot that lady. I think did it use the police the same police he said he was going to use against me.

[00:48:11]>> Yeah.

[00:48:12]>> On Shine.

[00:48:13]>> Yeah. like Dave's gonna get me prosecuted because that's exactly [music] what he did to Shine. He paid people off to to aim for Shawn and Shawn took the rap for [music] something I don't feel like he done >> his life, but Sean didn't >> he didn't um >> he trusted >> he didn't he he he he trauma as triumph [music] >> and um >> he trusted Diddy, man.

[00:48:37]>> He made he made a rose blossom out of the concrete and um Sean didn't even have a lawyer. That was Diddy's lawyers.

[00:48:46]Yeah. Sean didn't even have his own lawyers, man. That's messed up.

[00:48:49]>> He's the minister, I think, now [music] in Bise. And um from what he come from and what he's has done, you know, that is that is an accomplishment. And that's what I think. [music] I think did it over every last one of his artists. I don't know not one of us that has succeeded with him. Most of [music] us has learned how to thrive without him.

[00:49:15]which means that it kind of feel like we [music] shouldn't have never dealt with the devil in the first place.

[00:49:20]>> Lauren Hill is another >> Think about it, man. You go down bad boys roster, you be like, who who is this person? Who's I forgot they was signed to Bad Boy? What happened to him?

[00:49:35]And research all these people and see what type of life they living now.

[00:49:40]That's crazy, man. Oh, yeah. I got some researching to do. All right, here we go. At the absolute peak of her career, uh, Lauren Hill >> without him, which means that it kind of feel like we [music] shouldn't have never dealt with the devil in the first place.

[00:49:56]>> Lauren Hill is another one. At the absolute peak of her career with the miseducation having just changed music permanently, she stepped back and when she eventually came back to talk about it, what she described about the music industry, the control, the compromise, [music] the slow erosion of creative ownership, it was the same language Cat Williams would use years later. What both of these departures have in common is that they were not failures. They were refusals. These were people who could see clearly enough to know what was being asked and decide it was not worth it.

[00:50:30]>> Brave [music] statement. A lot of people blame me for what has become of Lauren Lauren Hill. Uh and the fact that she's not out and about in music industry. If you've read this far, you have to understand she and I had a very complicated relationship and [music] I take my blame or take my I'll take my blame for my side of the pain and confusion. No doubt my marriage hurt her. But the fact that she more or less left music [music] behind can't be explained that simply. Why did you put that in there? Well, it's important because once again, I'm [music] not putting anything in there that you didn't speculate or that you didn't talk about or like you didn't know. Like, you know, it's like [music] you had you have Marvin Gay, Tammy Terrell, you have Prince, you have this is not, you know, it was important because, [music] right, when you in a group and you inside of a a 24/7, you're in the studio and you're doing music, you know what I'm [music] saying? and you're like 1920 and you catching a vibe and every day I mean I don't know if you seen Lauren [music] but this was a hot chick you feel me and I'm a hot dude so we vibing you know what I'm saying so you vibing automatically right it there's always going to be some form of passion which happens [music] now now with this romance you never know how far it's going to go because you you you know I say like you know you young and dumb at the time and want to I don't [music] want to say the other word but it's sort of like >> it was important to put that in there because somebody was reading said, "Oh, okay. Actually, there was a relationship." [music] But the thing is past the relationship.

[00:52:00]I I can't be blamed [music] for the future of an of of an individual because at the end of the day, if she picks up the phone right now and say, "Yo, I need your help with something." [music] I will jump in two seconds to do it. If prize needs something, I'm going to do it because at the end of the day, this is the original form of From where the music came from.

[00:52:19]>> Okay. One [music] more thing about this subject. We all loved that album Mised Education of Lauren Hill, but it was largely [music] about you, right? So, while we all loved it, how did you feel about it?

[00:52:29]>> Um, [music] you know, this this this way that I can answer this question cuz I'm a big fan of Bill Clinton, you know, and um >> that got to do with >> when they asked Bill Clinton the weed question, what did he say? He did [music] >> it didn't inhale.

[00:52:46]>> Yeah. Yeah. I mean that that's my answer for the this this I mean [laughter] I I didn't in hell you know like I don't know what you talking about man I you know that that is an answer >> most young rappers inside these deals cannot just get on a plane and disappear the contracts do not allow it the finances do not allow it so they stay but staying over enough time changes you whether you wanted to or not I think there is a version of Cat Williams that a lot of people got from that club Shay Shay interview the comedian who finally went off, the guy with the receipts, the person who spent 3 hours on a podcast essentially daring people to sue him.

[00:53:25]There is another version of that conversation that I keep coming back to.

[00:53:29]The one where you listen past the drama and realize this is a man who has spent his entire career refusing to play along and carrying the weight of everything he has seen and finally deciding to put some of it down in public where people can actually do something with it. When Cad said he has information he should [music] not have, that was not showboating. That was him explaining why he has made the choices he has made.

[00:53:50]Every time he turned down a major deal or a major relationship, [music] it cost him. Opportunities disappeared. Doors that should have opened stayed shut. He built his career on his own terms. And it worked. But it worked differently than it would have if he had just [music] said yes when he was supposed to.

[00:54:08]When I wrote it out, I wrote it out to kill the careers of the people I was talking about, right? But it was so vicious that I erased all of the [music] knockout blows and just left the jabs so that the comic I'm talking about knows that I know your real story. Mother, tell this, >> but you know what else I know. [music] So uh uh yeah, I was >> Do you want to tell any of those stories now?

[00:54:42]>> Over 80 million people watched that Club Shay Shay interview. I genuinely believe most of them were not just there for the gossip. They were there because somewhere underneath all of it, they could feel that someone was finally telling the truth about something that had been kept quiet for too long. Cat Williams spent 30 years watching young people walk into that industry. He finally decided to describe what he saw, waiting for them on the other side. So I kept saying be before Cat Williams talked about Steve Harvey's hair and that's a hairpiece. I kept how in the world this dude hair is so perfect.

[00:55:18]It's too much hair is too thick. It's too Everything was too perfect on Steve hair. I said rich folks got some solid hair.

[00:55:30]Well the ladies do it also.

[00:55:32]So why not the fellas doing it? They can change the color of their beard. I used to do that. I did that before. People would laugh. But I just thought that I did I did on the outside looking in. You don't know how ugly or how whack that looks until I start seeing somebody else's look like straight up paint all the way around this. All up here, right?

[00:55:55]All over here. All this is straight paint.

[00:55:59]Dupont.

[00:56:02]Crazy man. So, here is where I land on all of this. The music industry is not evil in some cartoonish way. It is a business. And like most businesses built around enormous amounts of money and influence, it attracts people who are very good at using both to get what they want. [music] The problem is that the people on the receiving end of all that leverage are very often young. Cat Williams is not a saint. He will tell you that himself. But what he did in that interview and in the conversations that have followed was give people a language for something that a lot of artists have felt but struggled to articulate that this business changes you not all at once but gradually consistently in ways that are by design.

[00:56:43]The artists who came through it and held on to themselves are the ones worth studying because they are proof it is possible but they are also the exception not the rule. So honestly I want to leave you with this thought. If you are someone who consumes this music, who streams these artists, who makes these people famous, what responsibility do we carry for the [music] system that our attention keeps running? Let us know what you think in the comments below. If you like this video, hit that subscribe button so that you never miss out on any new videos. And until then, fam, keep it real. Keep it real.

[00:57:20]That's crazy, man. Hey, y'all let me know what y'all think. Shout out to my enders, man. Everybody that's ending these videos, y'all are supporting the channel. So, shout out to my enders. Let me know. Say, "I'mma ender in the comment section, man. Uncle Mike is back in the comment section. I'm checking out the comment section. Um, we got to push the channel a little harder, man. We got bills to pay, bro. Um, be looking out.

[00:57:44]We going to start doing some um new stuff on the stream channel. So, y'all check out um the music recording network stream. Uncle Mike Gray. jump out there and do I got to make some changes, man.

[00:57:56]I got to make a lot of changes. So, um, y'all pray for me. Uncle Mike going through some stuff after this trip right here. Y'all take it light, take it slow.

[00:58:05]Tell them Uncle Mike told you so. Peace out.

[00:58:08][music]