0:00
yo listen let me tell you something talk about a cultural intent pole
0:06
talk about a success story yes talk about a master at his craft as he
0:12
continues to develop this man has transcended errors he be eras with the
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work that he's done it's always been high level high quality grounding at the same time he made us believe we could be
0:25
on the big screen on TV and music videos i just played I ain't mad at you by Tupac Shakur who was a friend of mine
0:33
this man was in that video as well right when I look at his film discoraphy it's
0:38
not enough time to list them all but man Crooklyn Jason's lyric Panther Dead
0:44
Presidents with you Heather B give them your line again get the [ __ ]
0:50
off of Spider there you go don't laugh don't laugh you remember that gridlock
0:55
caught up the big hit almost heroes i mean The Runner Life It's the Rage i
1:01
mean Detonator Ray I mean the look the the list goes on and on and on and he's
1:06
here to talk about the new series Government Cheese but just let's celebrate Yes this man and and and what
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he's given us as a culture as a community he's been standup throughout
1:18
it all he share his personal life um last time he came here we had Seafood
1:23
with us right yep and and he talked about his involvement in martial arts um
1:29
his life philosophies i love this guy i want to welcome him back to the show citizens I'mma open the phone lines for
1:35
you all to talk to him the one and only Boeing Woodbine is back
1:41
[Music] yes man we got Tracy and Mike Muse and
1:49
everybody too as usual peace peace peace man um I I always like talking about I
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played I ain't mad at you cuz you can't talk about it enough but that that that was um a video that you was a part of
2:03
right indeed indeed you know Pac hit me up out of the blue and was like "Yo you know I need you to be in this video with
2:09
me." I was like "Are you kidding?" Yeah just let me know where to be did y'all know each other at that time yeah yeah
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we had known each other cuz we had um we had worked on some stuff before with with Gridlock and everything like that
2:21
and just you know partying and and hanging out and he'd always been like a really positive dude in terms of um
2:29
whenever we would hang out he always had like a jewel to drop on me a gem about the industry and about you know what I
2:36
was getting myself into because I was only probably three or four years in the game at that time can you recall a jewel
2:43
something he said that now when you think back stick with him that made a lot of sense yeah one of one of the powerful ones is
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he said um don't be scared to be by yourself sometimes what cuz that's what
2:55
it takes sometimes and I don't know if that was for me specifically or if he was speaking generally but I felt like
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he was talking to me uhhuh like you know you you young man don't be scared to be
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by yourself sometimes because that's what's going to serve you have you practiced that being by yourself at all
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i'm known for that now yeah yeah like in the 90s you know I was in the mix i was
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definitely getting it in and enjoying being a young man had a little money in his pocket had a little bit of fame and
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just enjoying life and then I think when I got to be my early 30s it was like it
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clicked that that jewel that he had dropped that you know sometimes it's it's better to be alone so you can
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gather your thoughts come up with your strategy plan your attack your approach and um
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I've just been really really uh living by that um for probably the last 20
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years now wow man this guy B King Woodbine when I think of you bro you
3:53
mentioned Gridlock i think of Ghostbusters i think of Fargo i think of Spider-Man wow
4:00
and then I think of Spanish Harlem where you grew up right can can is was that always was
4:08
that could you imagine yourself growing up in Spanish Harlem being in Spiderman
4:14
well you know here's the thing i would spend I would spend a lot of my um uh weekends and and and summers and stuff
4:20
with my grandma Spanish Harlem and and and Jefferson Project shout out to Jeff um and um I I um I grew up primarily in
4:29
Harlem so I mean it was it was it just a a transition it was just walk walk to grandma's walk back home whatever but I
4:37
always had big ambition even when I was a young man it was hard for me to um
4:44
accept my circumstance you know and my mother instilled in me from a very young
4:50
age this notion that you are not necessarily your circumstance your circumstance is your circumstance um but
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you have everything that it takes to rise above that or if you choose to
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accept it you know and find peace in it whatever but for me I was the guy that
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was you know you know pre-programmed in a way i came to this planet I feel like
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now looking back at 52 I came to this planet with the idea of rising rising
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out of my circumstance and and making the most out of my um you know uh
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attributes and uh discipline you say you came to this planet where do you think
5:33
you came from what do you believe yeah I have a I have a I have a lot of ideas about that um
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some of them might seem a little bit way out there so um I'll stick with the ones
5:45
that I think maybe might be a little bit more um easily digestible i think that
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we choose to come here that's my philosophy is that we choose to come here i think we even pick our parents
5:58
and I think that um life is a mission that we decide to undertake now where we
6:03
are before that I'm not sure about yet i think I'm still developing that understanding or philosophy if you will
6:11
but I honestly feel like I chose to be in this body in this time and and this
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on this planet at this time to do what I'm doing right now oh Keem Woodbine do
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you did what you learned in martial arts did that did that help shape and mold uh this idea this concept that you speak of
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now absolutely um for me training with Shifue um is so uh
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uh challenging that when you're done training you wiped out you exhausted and
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in those moments I find clarity um you know I'm a deep thinker i have a
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lot of energy my mind racing constantly or it was up until I started figuring
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out how to kind of exhaust myself so the physical aspect of the training is so
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arduous that when I'm done training I'm just beat i'm spent like you know
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there's no time for me to really have that racing mind or you know um for me
7:15
to have any kind of unsettled energy i'm just tired and in those moments is when
7:22
I start to see things clearly you start seeing them clearly we We just gave each
7:28
other a pound in the other room heather that we both admired and noticed how how you know strong and and and solid our
7:35
physique admired your physique because that's really what I heard yeah yeah well we both I admired it we fit guys so
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we we we figured that part out now what's your training like Sway because we heard Boe the you choose to share
7:49
what's your philosophy bo this is he walked did he not walk us
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into this he said this is your brother's way don't focus on the finger or you will
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miss the heavenly glory that's my man
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that's my philosophy keem know what I'm talking about let me ask you this man because you
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you're somebody who been in the business for decades and we could go over from Jason's lyrics
8:20
to Krooklyn i mean you've done some amazing work i've never seen you in the kind of headlines I've seen a lot of us
8:26
in that right now controversial headlines how how how did do you feel
8:31
like you avoid what what helped you to avoid that it's crazy that you mentioned that i was thinking about that the other
8:38
day um for me I think it's a couple of things honestly i think you know being
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from Harlem I tend to look ahead as opposed to just um going through life
8:52
and being surprised like there's always going to be some surprises but I generally tend to look several blocks
8:59
ahead if you will to see what's coming so I think I develop the ability to uh
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see things before they happen um things that could be potentially detrimental to
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my journey so I'm always looking ahead um the other thing is Shaolin kung fu um
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you know like I say it's so hard i'm a perpetual beginner i'll be a beginner forever there's certain things that I've
9:26
definitely improved a lot at um and then there's certain things that are just still so hard and it's that never ending
9:34
commitment and that never ending journey that has kind of leveled out my um um
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for lack of a better word emotions and sometimes your emotions can cloud your
9:47
judgment and so if you can see things coming and you have kind of a uh clear
9:54
uh uh understanding that is not necessarily um affected by emotion you can deal with
10:02
situations very well most of the time and um you know the one of the other
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things is like um I'm so focused on on getting somewhere in my chosen
10:14
profession that I don't really have time for the nonsense so I think it's those three things those
10:20
three things b Keem is here man it seems like it's so funny you mentioned emotion because it seems like your discipline
10:26
and training helps control emotions we're big sports people here we were talking about the game last night and how Tyrese Hallebertton's dad ended up
10:33
on court um confronting Giannis after the win and we were talking about how he basically let his emotions get the best
10:40
of him and that then the result of that but with that being said do you still get excited though because of Sway
10:47
mentioned your career Apple TV new SE in the '90s none of us was thinking about television and this platform right so do
10:55
you still get excited or you don't allow when you get these new roles or you don't allow yourself to sit in it that
11:00
long that's a very good question i think for me I get very very hyped up right um
11:07
instantly you know once I hear the good news that like you know this job I wanted or something happened I get so
11:13
hyped up you you wouldn't even recognize me i'm like a like a child literally like like like like a little kid like
11:19
jumping up and down running around like like silly i hope nobody ever sees me like that my family sees me like that
11:26
you know what I'm saying but generally speaking um you know nobody ever sees me like that i get I get super exuberant
11:32
and then almost almost instantly after that initial just joy it's like okay I
11:38
gotta I gotta knock this out the park and then I go into I go I go into my zone i go into like you know what are
11:45
the parameters you know what are my tools you know who are my allies you
11:50
know what I'm saying what's the terrain what's the landscape and I start formulating this this strategy how I'm
11:57
approach the role so it's it's it's incredible exuberance and joy and
12:03
excitement which by the way I think is an important emotion I think that um speak on that yeah I think that joy is
12:10
an important emotion and um oftent times in the westester Western world as men
12:15
we're kind of taught to um uh uh uh squash our joy a little bit because it's
12:22
corny it's it's not um necessarily reflective of of masculinity and this
12:29
kind of thing i believe these teachings are nonsense i believe that joy is power
12:35
and that joy is something that can lift you to the Corinthian heights and can
12:40
take you from A to Z joy is is is is significant as an emotion um so I just
12:48
wanted to say that yeah amen it's amazing well King Woodbine we gonna get to New York in a second but when I look
12:54
at you and I'm naming all of these movies you know we we got something and um
13:00
and and when we were coming up right um the whole the whole notion of somebody
13:05
becoming more successful and and and versus somebody selling out right right
13:11
and I know in hip-hop you know when you start making back in the day you start making those crossover records people
13:17
would say you sold out um I remember when I went to MTV people was like "Oh man he left us." Right you start in a
13:24
lot of um early on black films and it's easy to stay in that lane perhaps maybe
13:30
I don't know i won't say easy that's a bad word but it's might be hard to get out of that lane to be quite honest with
13:36
you m um you started doing X Files you did you know you did the Rock and you
13:41
started really expanding your brand you became mainstream in a sense do actors
13:47
get the same kind of backlash though when you become mainstream wow that's interesting uh I think it depends on the
13:54
actor and um I think that people will
14:00
generally celebrate you uh becoming mainstream as long as you reach back and
14:06
as long as you reference your community and as long as they feel that you are
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still connected in your heart to the community uh my circumstance was a
14:18
little bit different i didn't really um leave
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uh the community i never the community I am the community so you can't talk that
14:29
[ __ ] man i mean I know it's I don't mean to sound sound arrogant i'm not trying
14:35
to sound arrogant when I say that but you know I am the community the community is me mhm um but as far as
14:41
black film is concerned I was kind of like politely asked to leave in a way in
14:49
the sense like once 2000 came around I was I was uh you know you know persona
14:55
nongrada like uh you know it was too easy for folks to hire a rapper and get
15:01
the soundtrack tie in for a lot of roles or you know hire these pretty mother you
15:06
know you know what I'm saying hire somebody with a different aesthetic and I was pretty much kind of like you know
15:13
like okay that was cool but all right see you bye-bye now um you got dismissed
15:18
a little i got I got kind of dismissed i like by whom the power I think that it has to do with there was a new crop of
15:25
filmmakers okay who came in with an agenda and you know they finally getting a chance you know to make their film and
15:32
get their script produced and you know I'm proud of all of them and everything like that but um I just to give you an
15:38
example from like 2000 to 2017 you know my agent submitted me for just
15:44
about every black film that was ever made from 2000 to 2017 and I couldn't even get an audition
15:52
so it was just kind of like wow yeah i mean it is what it is but luckily when you get to like 2017 some new black
16:00
filmmakers started getting opportunities like uh you know Molina Matsucas or
16:05
Anthony Hemingway shout out to my big brother the Rizza okay you know what I'm saying um cats like that Paul Hunter
16:12
Aisha Carr Elegance Bratton there was like a new crop of black filmmakers some
16:18
of them aren't necessarily new but I started working with them i could say and uh I started having opportunity to
16:24
work on films that reference the community again um but before that you
16:29
know nobody was really you know interested in in working with brother Bo like that so it is what it is i'm
16:36
looking at 2017 that's the year Spider-Man Homecoming came out right right so come back with Spider-Man y'all
16:43
don't want to [ __ ] with me come back with Spider-Man period new t-shirt alert but how does an
16:48
artist though and I know everybody's road is different okay I don't want to make a general statement but if you can
16:54
speak to the artist and the actors that's listening now that's a 17-year gap how do you sustain how do you take
17:01
care of your family um do you go get a quote unquote regular job whatever that means for people now like does it mess
17:08
with your confidence a little bit mess with your skill set how do you provide for yourself and your family for me I
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was lucky because even though black filmmakers weren't really interested in hiring boke other filmmakers were so I I
17:22
got lucky in that in that respect um there was there was work for me still still available for me to do um and
17:31
during those times that's what sustained me um for other people who weren't as
17:37
lucky weren't as fortunate um you do see people uh end up you know teaching
17:44
acting or or taking the kind of jobs that aren't necessarily creative and um
17:50
but flexible in case they have auditions flexible in case they get an audition kind of thing like that i was I was able
17:57
to to to sidestep that because there were a lot of um independent filmmakers
18:02
who weren't necessarily from the community but had admired the stuff that I had done prior to 2000 and said "Look
18:09
you know if if they not rocking with you right now come on over here cuz you know we got these indie projects we like what
18:17
you're doing." And and that's what you know that's that's what kept me going boeing Woodbine is here we're talking
18:23
about Government Cheese a series on Apple um TV Plus yep um this is a really
18:30
great series it's a a one episode weekly every Wednesday through May 28th on
18:35
Apple TV Plus um I'm going to let Mike Muse and and and Tracy G jump in if you
18:41
will we could talk more about this series tracy G go for it bo I could hear you speak for days even you have like a
18:49
shaman energy bro i feel like three hours of listening to you and I'm going start to levitate you're very very
18:55
welcome when you had mentioned um embracing solitude it made me think about the wide body of work you've done
19:03
and how the characters oftent times can say more than a paragraph's worth with
19:09
just a stare or a smile and I'm wondering if you can speak about your
19:15
approach to silence in a scene with the same intentionality that you approach
19:20
dialogue wow thank you for even noticing that um I appreciate that observation um for me
19:30
I'm going to be straight up with you that's a technique I picked up from Michael Kaine and his book that he wrote
19:37
acting in film but you got to say it like that because Michael Kane talks like that no I'm playing no but uh his
19:44
book acting in film um he talks about silence and the power of silence and pauses um so you just you just kind of
19:52
outed me and made me reveal one of my techniques right there but um I I picked
19:58
that one up from Michael Kaine very nice my man Mike Muse not Michael Kane but
20:03
Mike Muse mike Muse yeah what's up Boba um one man thank you for the
20:09
vulnerability in this conversation and particularly around black Hollywood i'm just curious you know how is your
20:15
relationship now with black Hollywood right i can only imagine possibly the pain that it felt being rejected for all
20:21
those years and how was your relationship and and how did you decide to enter um back into black Hollywood
20:29
i don't feel no pain brother what you talking about man no that's joy that's joy i'm teasing no no no uh um look you
20:39
know uh you can't make people like you uh and you got to get in where you fit in and bills got to get paid so I'm
20:46
going to do what I got to do um and I would say uh it feels amazing such a
20:54
wonderful surprise like um uh I think Anthony Hemingway when I worked with him
21:00
on a show called uh Unsolved um you know that's a brother and I was
21:06
it just encouraged me i was on set working on Unsolved i was like "Okay I'm working with the brothers again." Okay
21:12
it it started getting good to me you know and then um and then uh about a year or so after that Molina Matsukas is
21:19
a sister who uh directed Queen and Slim and I was like "Okay well I don't want to get too excited." And during that
21:25
time of course my big brother the Rizzo was holding me down with episodes on um Wu Tang American Saga that's right so
21:31
towards the end of um you know like around 2017 18 1920 I I started feeling
21:37
really really kind of upbeat and I started wondering to myself am I um am I going to start to get an opportunity to
21:43
work with black folks again and and and and tell our stories and and it just
21:50
really inspired me but I didn't want to get too happy about it and then Elegance
21:55
Bratton came along and um offered me a role in his debut film um uh The
22:01
Inspection which if y'all haven't checked it out you should check it out it's really great gabrielle Union does a
22:06
fantastic job and it just just massive performance as well as our lead actor
22:11
Jeremy Pope but it's another black thing if you will and so I was like "Okay wow
22:17
i might be back in the mix again." And then uh here I am on Government Cheese
22:22
where Paul Hunter Aisha Carr and David Oello said "You know brother would you like to come on in and and get down with
22:29
us on on on this project?" And uh um so I'm kind of on a roll right now you know
22:36
it it it feels it feels wonderful i I I'm not even waiting for the other shoe to drop i'm just I'm just enjoying it
22:42
that's beautiful did Did you um I read if I'm not mistaken that initially you you didn't feel like you had enough time
22:48
to prepare for this role yeah i ducked the role initially how I'mma tell you
22:54
why bro i'mma tell you why that's David O yellow yes you know what I'm saying
22:59
and um so I I'll tell you how how how it uh came about i was um just you know at
23:05
the crib and uh I got a call from my agent um Paul Hunter Aisha Carr Apple TV
23:12
David O Yellow Wo they're interested in you potentially for a role um u playing
23:18
opposite um David y'all will be like best friends since childhood and I was like oh my god it's like a dream come
23:24
true because I'm a huge admire of the brother talented he's he's no joke i said "This is great." And it was a
23:30
Thursday and I said "Okay cool so when do we uh when do you know when do we do the thing?" And he was like "Um uh
23:37
Monday you have to be on set." I was like "Monday today is Thursday?" He was like "Yes and Monday you have to be on
23:44
set you know." And I'm like "Pass?" He said "Really?" I said "Yeah man four
23:51
days isn't enough to prepare to get on screen with that cat."
23:56
You know what I'm saying you want me to lace up to go hoop with Jordan like come on now come on now i
24:05
mean come on s sight unseen without even reading the script i was like pass not
24:10
happening and you know so then I was coming to New York to finish this documentary we're doing on Shifue me and
24:16
RZ are doing the documentary on Shu not doing a dock on Shiffu yeah quiet as well it's not quiet as anymore anymore
24:21
right yo Bo can I be in it and then we'll get back to your story yes okay that's a yes on that so Heather that's a
24:28
yes for you too if you want to she's like "Okay." So um anyway long story short um I'm
24:35
headed to New York to work on the documentary and then um uh I started reading the script i said "Let me just
24:41
leaf through this even though I'm going to pass let me just leave through it." And I fell in love with the character Bootsie wow so when I landed I called my
24:48
agent i was like "You know what this is a drag because I love this character but it's just not enough time and he said
24:55
"Well I've been on the phone with them." So while I was flying through the sky he was on the phone with them and they
25:02
acquiesced to my request and said "You know what we'll give the brother some more time." Beautiful wow and then I
25:08
found out later David was like "Give that brother some time man." No he he didn't say it like that he didn't say it
25:14
like that with a Nigerian accent wow but uh yeah they gave me the time that I
25:20
needed to prepare to give me that confidence to be on screen with him and so I did my due diligence and then uh
25:27
boom I went and I did the gig and you're you're killing it man uh he plays Booty
25:32
in this and um David's character name is Hampton right hampton yeah and the synopsis is the synopsis is this hampton
25:40
Chambers is a reformed man after doing a stint in prison for check forgery who
25:48
has found a connection with God and has decided that when he gets out he's going
25:54
to take his family to uh the Corinthian heights as it were utilizing a skill he
26:02
developed while he was in prison uh as a machinist uh he has designed this
26:09
selfsharpening drill with a drill bit that will never go dull because it's
26:15
selfsharpening and so uh he decides to come out and approach the business world
26:21
as an inventor and hilarity ensues yes man i got a chance to watch it it's
26:28
incredible boeing Woodbine is here um I'll be remissed if I didn't ask you about your relationship with Rizza when
26:34
when did y'all first meet what was said uh in 94 wow coming out in LA right here
26:40
in Los Angeles he was coming out of a club i was going in the club he was coming out of the club and this is the I
26:47
call it the gold fang era you know when a lot of them Woo Cats had the gold fangs you know what I mean so uh he was
26:55
talking to me and I I I dapped him up immediately i'm a I'm a huge Woo fan even before I met the Rizza I'm just I'm
27:01
a woo guy so I was like "Peace." You know woopy woopy woop but back in them
27:06
days he talked so fast he did talk fast i couldn't understand what he was saying
27:12
right he was like and I was just nodding my head pretending cuz it's the I don't want him
27:18
to catch me not understanding him so I'm just nodding my head like "Yeah." Uhhuh
27:24
yeah but he he caught me and he said "Okay my bad guy sometimes I talk a
27:29
little fast." And he slowed it down for me he slowed it down for me and I he
27:35
bang banged you yeah i felt I felt privileged i was like "Oh wow you're going to slow down the vernacular for
27:40
me?" Wow oh my god right and so he slowed it down and so initially whenever
27:47
we would hang out he I would see him make the the effort to to speak a little slower but then my ear started speeding
27:53
up so he didn't even have to do that i could understand what he was saying and uh we've been tight ever since and we
27:58
didn't even know that Shiffue was a connection uh between the two of us as well so you already knew Shiffu no he
28:06
already knew Shifu yes he already knew Shiffu i met Shiffu and didn't know that
28:12
Rizen knew Shiffue okay so I met Ryzen 94 i met Shifue in 98 it wasn't until
28:18
probably 99 that I realized that Rizz knew Shiffu and Shifu do Rizz that's
28:24
that's when my head just exploded i was like "This is crazy." Yeah meant to be right you know what I mean and for those who don't know Shiffue is Shiffue is a
28:33
uh 34th generation Shaolin Temple warrior monk who has come to the United
28:38
States uh over 30 years ago he's been here since 94 to teach Westerners and
28:44
people throughout the world the beauty and discipline of Shaolin kung fu and Chan Buddhism to anybody who's open to
28:51
it my man Boeing Woodbine man give this guy a round of applause so much to talk
28:56
to you about but we only have so little time brother but I appreciate you getting up and coming in to see us today
29:02
hey you you about the only y'all two about the only people I get up this early thank you man and no we'll get up
29:09
this early for you too brother cuz we already you know
29:14
let me know when you need me for the uh the dock yeah I got y'all hell yeah i'm dead serious too man risom you know
29:21
that's my brother too oh that's our brother you know King King Tech did um he was the music supervisor for the
29:26
Wuang Clan the the saga so beautiful yeah so we're all fan rid that's what's
29:33
special about that dude bro he brings everybody together right it It's bizarre
29:39
like how he's the nexus to to people that you wouldn't even think like you
29:44
could talk to a chess master yeah oh Rizza that's my guy i got him on speed dial right here you know it could be
29:50
somebody in technology mhm it could this cat knows everybody you know everybody
29:56
that's a quality person and that's what he does he brings people together there it is okay man bo Ke will buy you a big
30:02
round of applause government cheese that's right every Wednesday through May 28th on Apple TV Plus um we want to
30:09
thank you for coming by you guys want to hit Boeing social you can yeah yeah yeah um so I don't really do a whole lot of
30:17
social media but recently I got a um Instagram page mhm and it's the real
30:25
Boe uh The Real Boeing on Insta it's got the blue check mark and everything and
30:30
um also if it's okay with you brother I just want to plug my upcoming album what
30:36
okay what yeah yeah i just want to plug my upcoming album you know what I'm saying single out now what what's the
30:42
single yeah yeah you can get it on um yeah the single it's a single is a collection of two songs and it's called
30:48
Star Seeds Sling Jing Jams can you dig it and it's just two songs that's out
30:53
right now but the full length album that's Apple iTunes um you know that kind of thing dick that
31:00
up to dig that up what's it called don is working on it now star Seas Sling
31:05
Jing Jams but the full length album will be out early May and it's going to be
31:10
it's by my band 13 Purple Dragons and um the full length album is called Trials
31:17
and Victories of the Rock and Roll Kung Fu Spaceman and he leans back
31:28
silence silence i actually saw footage of you performing
31:34
you okay [ __ ] incredible bro thanks man thanks for letting me plug it you know
31:39
who you are on stage ain't who you are on screen bong bong wow
31:46
i've seen this i've seen it on I've seen you i was like who is this thank you bro it was like I got to meet another person
31:52
inside of this person can we end with We got something torch or John
31:59
yeah I've got it here it looks like it's about eight minutes long that's all right we'll It's two songs you can just play part of the first one if you want
32:04
yeah yeah we going to end the show with that