Episode Transcript
[00:00:04] Speaker A: Yo, it's effective immediately. I'm DJ Head.
[00:00:06] Speaker B: What up, Hip Hop Nation? It's your favorite homegirl, ginaviews.
[00:00:09] Speaker A: All right, we got a special guest in the studio with us. Legendary creator, like actor, producer, writer, animator, like voiceover actor, all the things. Carl Jones is here with us. Welcome to the show, brother.
[00:00:23] Speaker C: Thank you. Thank you, man.
[00:00:24] Speaker A: I appreciate you being here.
Big fan of the work, you know what I'm saying?
I think I forgot. One of the homies connected me with you on Instagram, and I wanted to show him love, but I totally forgot, and I don't have time to scroll through to figure out what happened, but.
[00:00:41] Speaker B: Shout out to him. Shout out to the homie.
[00:00:43] Speaker A: Shout out to the homie who connected me with you on Instagram. But obviously, like, you being somebody who played a very pivotal part in culture, especially from our perspective, her favorite cartoon. She's gonna tell you in a second. But for me, personally, I think when I get a chance to talk to people who don't necessarily do music in a traditional sense of traditional senses of entertainment, business, I love those conversations because people never get to talk. We never get to hear from you. We never get to hear your story. We never get to hear your perspective on art, culture, music, you know, topics, stuff like that, and how those things end up in the art that we love. So that's why I'm excited to have this conversation. But I guess where I want to start with you is, you know, your backstory. Have you always wanted to be a creator? Have you always done, you know, have you always wanted to be in the arts as far as film, television?
[00:01:40] Speaker C: I always wanted to be a cartoonist. I really didn't know I was going to be a writer or, like, a producer. I know what a animation producer or director was when I was a kid, but I did know that I could not stop drawing. And I love comedy and I love telling stories, but I just. I don't know. I never thought that all of those talents would come together.
But I will say that, you know, at an early age, I was, you know, like everybody watching a lot of cartoons. I grew up, you know, big bowl of cereal in front of the tv. You know what I'm saying?
[00:02:10] Speaker A: It matters.
[00:02:11] Speaker C: Captain Crunch.
[00:02:12] Speaker A: Which one?
[00:02:12] Speaker C: No, not the Crunch Berries. Oh, you're just the regular, straight up.
[00:02:16] Speaker B: Captain Crunch Berries just came up.
[00:02:19] Speaker A: That's crazy. Who eat the regular cappuccino with no Crunch Berries?
[00:02:22] Speaker C: No. And I like it soggy, which most people don't, but it's kind of defeats the purpose.
[00:02:26] Speaker B: God damn. Damn.
[00:02:28] Speaker C: Can we roll back? Can we go back a little bit?
[00:02:30] Speaker B: Nah, we keeping that.
[00:02:32] Speaker C: So. Did I say soggy? I meant crunchy. I love my cereal crunchy. But. No, but, you know, I grew up watching, like, Hanna Barbera's, you know, watching the Jetsons and the Flintstones. But I did notice, you know, even at an early age, that there were no black people in the Flintstones. There were no black people in the Jetsons. So in my mind, I'm like, damn. They saying niggas ain't in the future or the past. You know what I'm saying?
[00:02:54] Speaker A: I never thought about it like that.
[00:02:57] Speaker B: N ain't in the future is crazy.
[00:03:00] Speaker C: I mean, that's how I was looking at it, right? Cause it was just no real representation. So I did make a mental note of that. So I think that kind of drove me also to want to reflect my own life and my own people and, you know, so I grew up, like, you know, drawing my friends in school or, you know what I mean? Like, just creating my own characters and trying to, like, reflect the world that was around me at the time, you know? And I. I grew up in Fayetteville, North Carolina, also known as Fayetnam for people. I don't know if people familiar with it, but J. Cole's hometown. But at the time when I was coming up, you know, it was, like, at the height of the crack epidemic. So it was. You know, my neighborhood was, like, really crazy. So it was like, this was kind of a dream that I was holding onto, was something that was a big contrast, you know, from what I was seeing going on around me. And so it gave me something to look forward to and to aspire to become. And so I definitely feel like it played a part in, you know, keeping me out of trouble and also giving me something to, you know, to aim for.
[00:03:58] Speaker B: What kind of student were you? Were you the student? Like, I wasn't paying attention and was just drawn on a notebook all day.
[00:04:03] Speaker C: I was a horrible student. I was terrible. I drew on everything. I drew on my desk. I drew on the walls. I used to. I mean, my mom. I used to draw. Cause I had a bunk bed. You know, me and my sister had to share rooms. I had a bunk bed. I was on the bottom bunk. I drew on the entire. All the wood on the. On the. You know what I'm saying? The top of the bunk drew on all of that. All the time. All the time.
[00:04:23] Speaker B: You was, like, coloring on the walls and shit?
[00:04:24] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. Color on the walls, everything.
But. Terrible student. That was yeah, Like, I. I mean, I hated school with a passion. I just didn't really understand the purpose of it all. Like, I couldn't really. I don't know. Like, you know, it. I think. I think because I was. I was having so much fun, like, being a class clown and also, like, you know, art was such a big important thing to me that everything else. I don't know, I just. Like, I couldn't see a future of me going to school after school. Like, I did not want to go to school anymore. So, yeah, so I. You know, I did really bad, you know.
[00:04:57] Speaker A: You know, there's a part in the. In. Well, it's now a cult classic, super bad, right. Where I forgot what the name of the condition was. Where he just kept drawing penises.
[00:05:07] Speaker C: I don't draw penises.
[00:05:08] Speaker A: No, no, no.
[00:05:09] Speaker C: I eat soggy cereal.
[00:05:10] Speaker B: Oh, that. The nigga said he was drawing on the walls and you thought it dicks.
[00:05:13] Speaker C: Yeah. You talking about my soggy cereal. You seeing penises?
[00:05:16] Speaker B: Started thinking of dicks.
[00:05:17] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. I'm just. I. I was drawing. I was drawing pots of flowers and shit like that, and bowls of flowers.
[00:05:22] Speaker B: Think you was drawing dicks?
[00:05:23] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. Where did this come from? Where's this conversation going?
[00:05:26] Speaker A: No, I'm.
[00:05:27] Speaker B: That was your segue.
[00:05:29] Speaker A: No, I was asking, like. Cause I remember.
[00:05:30] Speaker C: Can you draw a dick? Is what I'm trying to ask.
[00:05:33] Speaker B: Nigga land Acclaimed.
[00:05:36] Speaker C: I got some paper in the past.
[00:05:37] Speaker A: I remember. No, I remember there was a condition that he had where he couldn't stop drawing big drawing. No, it wasn't.
[00:05:44] Speaker C: That's. What.
[00:05:45] Speaker A: Choosing to draw.
[00:05:46] Speaker C: I'll tell you what's funny, though.
[00:05:47] Speaker A: There's a condition for that.
[00:05:48] Speaker C: I don't know what the condition is, but every animation studio that I've worked in, in the men's bathroom, there's nothing but penises on the wall. I swear, there's a thing. But I think it is something about animators and drawing dicks.
I don't know why.
You know, I wanted to use.
I mean, I tried. That's why I use the ladies rooms most of the time. Because, you know, you can do that. No, no, no. You can do that. If there's penises on the wall of the men's bathroom, it's not a pause to go use the wall.
[00:06:19] Speaker A: Well, no, no, no. What I'm just saying is these days.
[00:06:22] Speaker B: These days, nobody going to be like, what you doing over here?
[00:06:24] Speaker A: Because they don't know.
[00:06:25] Speaker C: They don't know what's going on. They don't know.
[00:06:26] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:06:26] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah.
[00:06:28] Speaker A: You know what's funny?
[00:06:29] Speaker C: Well, I don't know if I should tell that story.
[00:06:32] Speaker B: Tell that story.
[00:06:33] Speaker C: No, we had. We had it.
We had an editor on the Boondocks. And, you know, he started out as, you know, he's a man. And then he. You know, he went through his transition. Yeah. And so when he came back, I was. I went to the bathroom. I was. We were working on something, and I remember I went to the bathroom and I came out the bathroom, and I guess, you know, because I was using the ladies room. Right. He was like, you are not supposed to be in there.
[00:07:00] Speaker B: He got his nerves.
[00:07:03] Speaker C: Okay. So I didn't have to say it. I didn't have to say it.
[00:07:05] Speaker A: What'd you say?
[00:07:06] Speaker C: Yo, I said, n. You shouldn't be in there anyways, nigga. You shouldn't be in there.
[00:07:14] Speaker B: It's crazy.
[00:07:17] Speaker C: But no, he was a really good editor. She was good.
[00:07:21] Speaker B: How. How supportive was your family of your career goals?
[00:07:25] Speaker A: Well, other than you getting your ass for drawing over the house.
[00:07:29] Speaker C: Yeah. Well, I think my mom was support supportive once she realized it was a job. You know, before that, it was like, if you put that kind of time and energy into your schoolwork, you might be somebody. That was the conversation, I think. You know, it wasn't. I mean, that's like saying you want to be a unicorn or something. Like, what does that mean, if you want to be an animator or. I don't. I didn't know anybody that worked in tv. My family didn't know anybody that worked in the business. So it wasn't like a real thing, I think. So no one was gonna support a. It's like a fantasy.
[00:07:58] Speaker A: And you come from a relatively small market where I'm sure there's limited resources in that way, too.
[00:08:04] Speaker C: Oh, yeah, absolutely. But, I mean, I think they were just like, you know, they would support me regardless, just because it's anything I want to do. But it wasn't like, yes, he's gonna be a artist. Like, I don't think anybody saw that in my future.
[00:08:16] Speaker A: When did you get your. Sorry. When did you get your. Like, when did you finally, like, all right, this is what I'm doing. My mind's made up, and I'm gonna make this a career. Like, what was that moment where you were able to pivot and from being a hobby?
[00:08:27] Speaker C: And I think when I got. I got my first job working at Rockefeller Films, they hired me. Cause Beanie Siegel had just signed with. He just. He just got his deal with state property. Right. And so Siegel, he had this cartoon idea called the Playpen. And so it was basically the Rockefeller. What was the state property. Rappers as babies in a daycare center that was like a correctional facility. So, you know, instead of, like nap time, they had lights out and this kind of thing. So I finally, like, got my first opportunity to work on an animated project, and Beanie Siegel got arrested for attempted murder. So that killed the cartoon.
[00:09:04] Speaker A: All.
[00:09:04] Speaker C: All puns intended. And from there, I got the bug. And I was like, you know what? I'm just gonna pack up everything, move out to LA and take my chances.
[00:09:14] Speaker A: That's crazy. I respect people who do that.
[00:09:17] Speaker B: Cause I can't do it.
[00:09:18] Speaker A: No.
[00:09:19] Speaker B: How old are you at this point? When you got your first job?
[00:09:22] Speaker C: How old was I? That's a good question. That was like, maybe 2003. 2002. I don't know how old I was, but it was that long ago.
[00:09:32] Speaker B: But is it, like, fresh out of high school?
[00:09:34] Speaker C: Oh, no, no, no. I was. No, no. I. I had already. Life was life. And at that time, I had a. I had a. You know, I had kids. I had a wife. You know what I'm saying? Ex wife now. But, you know. Yeah, no, I was already thinking, like, I tell you this, I was. I still thought I was going to get my foot in the door. I just didn't know how it was going to happen, because I even told my ex wife. I said. I was like, look, I. I can't tell you why I'm spending all this time drawing and coming up with these ideas, and I'm storing them away in this big box, right, that nobody's gonna see. But I did tell her this. I remember we were in the kitchen. I said, I promise you I'm gonna work on a hit animated black show. And I don't know what it's gonna be. I don't know how it's gonna happen. I don't know when it's gonna happen, but I can see it. I just saw it.
[00:10:18] Speaker B: That's such an amazing testimony, because not to say that the kids in school who are, like, bullshitting or anything, that they should follow your same path because everybody has different paths. However, you kind of like in school, when you're the kid who's, like, not paying attention, not doing the classwork, and there's focus on other things, the teachers or, like, just the adults in general, don't pour into that child who's only. Who's making beats on the table and stuff like that. That can be your next DJ Mustard. You Know what I'm saying? It's like there's opportunities for these children who are not into necessarily the academics of the school and things like that, but someday you can be a pretty big time animator because you're the student that's drawing in, you know, in the classrooms and things like that. I think that's like a.
That's just so inspiring. That's like very, very inspiring. What were you doing between Roc A Fella and graduation?
[00:11:08] Speaker C: That's a good question. So.
So I was selling bootleg movies and mixtapes and I was kind of like.
[00:11:17] Speaker B: I mean, this nigga was a bootlegger?
[00:11:20] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:11:22] Speaker C: I was a CD man. I was a c. I was a movie man. And. And I was selling a lot of movies.
[00:11:28] Speaker A: Like D Ray Davis in Barbershop.
[00:11:29] Speaker C: Yeah, CDs, DVDs, all of that mixtape, you know what I'm saying? I was. I mean, I was hustling, man, hustling really hard. And the funny thing is I was getting so many new movies in at the time that I never had time to watch them all. Cause I was selling them as soon as I got them.
[00:11:44] Speaker A: You bootlegger. What you mean getting them in? Like the studio was selling to me.
[00:11:48] Speaker C: No, no, no, no, no. So you want me giving away my plug? He said I was on cd.
[00:11:53] Speaker A: You wasn't getting. Nobody was sending you shit.
[00:11:54] Speaker C: No, no, no. So I was in North Carolina, right? So I was. I was getting the movies from New York. So I was literally driving to New York. Nine hour drive there, nine hours back every week, getting boxes and boxes of movies, hitting the turnpike. Harlem.
[00:12:09] Speaker B: He trying to get you to the crimin.
[00:12:11] Speaker C: You giving away my plug?
[00:12:12] Speaker A: Like, oh, no, I'm saying, were you?
[00:12:14] Speaker C: Okay, so you 1 16th in Lennox. It's a nigga named Diallo.
What's going on?
[00:12:27] Speaker A: No, I'm just saying. I was just saying because you say.
[00:12:29] Speaker C: First 48 or something, you sound like it's an interrogation.
[00:12:32] Speaker A: Like Paramount Pictures. Yeah, we got three movies in today. Like he was burning them. Shit.
[00:12:38] Speaker C: It was a business, you know what I'm saying?
[00:12:39] Speaker A: Right, right, right. No, I get it.
[00:12:40] Speaker B: I think we might look at it different now because now the. Or probably like the prior years. Cause now everything's on streaming, but you have to like go to like Limewire to download music and things like that. But she was actually going to get.
[00:12:53] Speaker C: The actual product I was going to get because they were. They were VHS tapes at the time, right? So. And because I couldn't watch them all, I had to look at the COVID and basically come up with a story before I was pitching it out in the street trying to sell them. So I became really good at pitching movies that I hadn't even seen based off the COVID That's all I had, the COVID Or sometimes they have some stuff in the back, you know what I'm saying? But I'd see the person the next week, like, man, none of that shit you said was in the movie.
[00:13:21] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, he was out here selling Blow Up.
[00:13:25] Speaker B: That was selling his mixtape.
[00:13:27] Speaker C: But what happened was I actually almost got shot over a flubber movie and I stopped.
[00:13:33] Speaker A: The Robin Williams movie?
[00:13:34] Speaker C: Yes, the flubber movie. The old flubber movie.
[00:13:36] Speaker A: It's crazy.
[00:13:37] Speaker C: No, the story's crazy.
[00:13:38] Speaker B: Flubber ain't even that type of movie.
[00:13:39] Speaker C: The stories are crazy. The story's crazier. So we used to set up, like, right behind the projects, right? It was a convenience store called John's Curb market, right? So 2:00 in the morning on a Saturday, the club would let out, everybody would come through, and we used to make a lot of money. So I had a van set up and I had a little table, had a tv. Sometimes I had TV so they could see the movies. Anyways, a guy bought a movie for me, and he comes up to me, he's like, look, I was watching this movie with my daughter, man, and like, a nigga got up and started walking across the screen, you know what I'm saying? And I want my money back.
And I was like, well. I said, well, when you go to a real movie theater and a n gets up and walks in front of it and walks in front of the screen, you can't get your money back.
I thought it was clever, but he didn't really.
[00:14:29] Speaker A: That was fire. He didn't really spun that.
[00:14:31] Speaker B: That was an amazing clap.
[00:14:33] Speaker C: He didn't like that too much. So maybe 20, 30 minutes later, I'm standing in front of my van with my boy Hood, and I see this car pulling up. There's a bunch of niggas in the car. And the dude that had the flubber movie, he's in the passenger seat with this arm on the window and this arm down, so it just looked suspect. So as soon as they got close, I just grabbed a man hood. I was like, yo, get down. As soon as I get down, he pulled out the gun and just started shooting. He shot the glass in my van. Yeah. And then he peeled off down the street. And my boy Hood was like, yo, let's go get them niggas. I was like, you can go get them niggas. I'm going home.
[00:15:05] Speaker A: I'm moving to la.
[00:15:06] Speaker C: I'm going home.
[00:15:07] Speaker B: I'm going to home. I'm going to watch Flipper.
[00:15:09] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:15:09] Speaker A: Did you. Okay, so let me ask you this now. Just when you pitched the Flutter movie, did you. Did you. Had you watched it already? Did you know what the movie was?
[00:15:20] Speaker C: I don't know if I. I might have saw that one. Yeah.
[00:15:23] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:15:23] Speaker B: But you didn't know that people was walking across the screen?
[00:15:25] Speaker A: Well, it's bootlegs.
[00:15:26] Speaker C: I mean, that's what you. I mean, you know, you get what you pay for.
[00:15:29] Speaker A: It's like, how much was the floral? How much did you talk?
[00:15:31] Speaker C: $10. $10?
[00:15:32] Speaker A: This was in early 2000s.
[00:15:34] Speaker C: This. Yeah.
[00:15:35] Speaker A: So it was about 20.
[00:15:37] Speaker C: This was about a dud. Yeah, about early. Early to late 90s. Early 2000s. Yeah, something like that.
[00:15:43] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:15:44] Speaker B: Wow. Well, let's get into Boondocks. That is my favorite cartoon.
[00:15:47] Speaker C: Oh, man.
[00:15:48] Speaker B: And even hearing that you had like a funny. That's a funny story. Even though a serious situation came out of it, but that almost sounds like something that would happen on Boondocks. On Boondocks. Even more ironic that that we even talking to you right now. Because this year has been the year that I feel like Boondocks has been such in high demand on social media. Cause we done had so many crazy moments in black entertainment where niggas is like, it would be so cool to see this on Boondocks.
[00:16:14] Speaker C: I know.
[00:16:15] Speaker B: So how did Boondocks even start? How did you become a part of it?
[00:16:19] Speaker C: So that's a crazy story too. So after Beanie Siegel got arrested for attempted murder and I packed up, moved, I moved to la. So look, right? Yeah, it is.
[00:16:31] Speaker A: You know what I'm saying? Shout out on Monday, secret rest on Tuesday.
[00:16:35] Speaker C: Right? Exactly. So I'd never been to la. My first day in la, me and my ex wife, we driving around and I saw Melrose, right? And I, I, you know, I only knew Melrose from the TV show Melrose Place. I was like, let's go down Melrose. So we go down Melrose and I see this little black guy that's walking down the street and he's got his shirt with. With Hughie on it, right? It's a red shirt with Huey on it. So I was like, yo, that's. That's Aaron Magruder, right? Who created the comic strip before. This is before the show. This is a comic strip. And so I hopped out the car and I basically just harassed him like I was like, yo, I just started working. I was doing this shit with Rockefeller. Beatty shot somebody. Listen, I draw, you know, right? I'm trying to get my foot in the door. Da, da, da, da. And he, and we exchanged information and then we had lunch. We kicked it for like a good two, three hours. And we just like really hit it off. And he was like, yo, I need some help on the comic strip. So I'm like, I mean, I'm here like now. I'll start today, you know. So I started working on the comic strip. I had a, I just got a job at like, Fry's Electronics that he didn't know about it. Cause I didn't want him. I wanted him think I was a professional, you know what I'm saying? So I was literally in the break room drawing the comic strip. Wow. You know what I'm saying? And so I was doing this for a while. And then at one time, he couldn't get me when he needed to. When he needed. Cause he had an idea for a strip or something. He couldn't get to me. He's like, dude, what are you. He's like, what are you doing? I'm like, man, I'm working at fr, you know. And so he was like, all right. He's like, well, he said, I want to bring you on full time. And then he started telling me, you know, we're trying to get this TV show picked up. Yada, yada, yada. Long story short, the show gets picked up by Adult Swim. And I, I, I really just, you know, made the transition from. Well, actually, we were still doing the comic strip as the show got picked up. But I, you know, I became like his right hand man. And then we started working together, trying to, you know, basically bring the DNA from the strip into the, into the show, but at a more adult level, you know what I'm saying?
[00:18:28] Speaker A: Did you, did you know, did you know what it was gonna be like initially when you, like when you sitting in, when you sit, like when you talk about that transition going from Fry's Electronics to being full time creator, did you know what, what it was gonna be?
[00:18:42] Speaker C: I had no. Well, I didn't know what it was gonna be. But keep in mind I studied this craft for a long time. Like, I was, I was literally going to the library when I was younger. I would go to the library and print out like storyboards from like all my favorite Cartoon Network shows. Cause Cartoon Network used to have a, they used to have a website called the Department of Cartoons. So they had Storyboards for, like, Kim Possible. I mean, not Kim Possible, that was Disney, but I used to get those too. But it'd be like Dexter's Laboratory and Johnny Bravo and cow and chicken, all this stuff. So I would download these storyboards. I would even get the scripts, and I would. I would board my own version of the story. You know, I would do my own character designs. So I was practicing and training because I. I knew I had to teach myself because I didn't go to school, so I need to teach myself how to do this. And so I put in a lot of work and a lot of studying, a lot of reading to understand exactly what I was doing. And it's. But even that still didn't prepare me. Like, when I first started, like, it was still. You know, it was still all new to me, but I went along with it and learned as much as I could. Even though, you know, it's like you fake it till you make it, right? So Sony's like. I'm like, to Sony, I know all of this shit. You know what I'm saying? Even though I didn't have much experience, but most of the people in the show didn't have a lot, like Aaron Magruder didn't have any TV experience, a lot of the writers that we had on the show didn't have a ton of experience, which is why I think the show was what it was, because we were. We were bringing just our own. Our own experiences and point of view and taste and things to the table. And we didn't know what we were supposed to be doing, so we also didn't know what we couldn't do, you know, so we took chances. I think maybe a show that had a lot of veterans on it and seasoned writers may not have taken.
[00:20:19] Speaker A: You know, I saw this thing recently where it was saying that Regina King right now is one of Hollywood's highest paid actresses. And we all know Regina King was the voice of, you know, the Huey and Riley. Huey and Riley, both on the Boondocks.
[00:20:38] Speaker C: She's amazing.
[00:20:39] Speaker B: Was that intentional?
[00:20:41] Speaker C: So, you know what happened, actually, I.
[00:20:44] Speaker A: Wanna know how she ended up.
[00:20:45] Speaker C: So she auditioned for Riley and she killed it, Right. And I don't remember. I can't remember the whole. How it actually all unfolded, but basically Alicia Keys was almost about to get the role for Hughie. Really? Yeah. But Regina was like, I wanna do both of them. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. No, no, she didn't. She didn't even. I don't even think she. No, I don't even think she knew about us, considering Alicia Keys. She just was like, I want to. I can do both of them, right? And so I remember she studied a lot of Peanuts, you know, like old Peanuts cartoons. Well, because. Because they use real kids, and kids breathe different. The reason why it sounds authentic because kids breathe different. They have. Their lungs are smaller. So there's a. She studied certain nuances about child, you know, with child actors, and she brought that to the table. So when she did Hughie and Riley, and she was in yo, when I say me, because they still sound like brothers, like, you can hear little similarities, but they're completely different, you know, whole different personalities. And at one time, we were recording her where she would do all Hughie first, and then she'd go back and do all Riley. Then she got to the point where she just would bounce back and forth on the page, like doing Riley talking to Hugh. I'm just like, yo, she's incredible.
[00:21:56] Speaker A: Crazy incredible.
[00:21:58] Speaker B: Have you guys gotten any awards for Boondocks?
[00:22:00] Speaker C: Yeah, Peabody Award, NAACP Image Award. Nominated in the NAACP Image Awards.
[00:22:06] Speaker B: So let me just, like, just ask the. The. The elephant on the interview, because everybody watching right now want to know, where the hell is Boondocks at?
What happened?
[00:22:18] Speaker C: What happened?
[00:22:19] Speaker B: Is it coming back?
[00:22:21] Speaker C: Let me see how I can answer.
So my last season was the third season, right? And part of the reason was because I started developing. This is two things that contributed to this. I'll tell you the first one. So I started developing Black Dynamite at the time, right? And, you know, Aaron wasn't too happy about it, because I think he was trying to, you know, keep me under his wing, you know, for as long as he could. But I was at the point where I was starting to grow and expand and want to do some of my own things. So I didn't mean I was walking away from the Boondocks, of course. Like, that was. You know, that's the. That's the jewel in the crown. Like, that's the. That's our thing. You know what I'm saying? But I was also developing other things, which is the natural progression of most producers and writers in this business. But I think, you know, it. It. That really, like, rubbed him the wrong way. So we kind of had a big fallout over it. The other thing, Vlad, believe it or not, Vlad was kind of in the middle of this, too, because Vlad was in the show, right? And, you know, we. If you're in the show, and as soon as we get a cut, like, I might share with you if you're in the show, and we cool. So Vlad, he starts blogging about it or he's talked about it or something, I think. I think he might have. I don't know if he shared an image of his. Of his design or something like that. And so, you know, Aaron just, like, flipped out, and he was, like, really mad at me. But I think what was really behind it, he was really mad because I was starting to branch out and do other things. But I think Vlad became the reason why. You know, he used Vlad as the reason why. That sparked the initial, I think, beef between me and Aaron. So then it just kind of unraveled from there, man. Eventually I was just like, well, I'm not coming back for the fourth season. And I don't think he wanted me back anyway, to be honest. And then from there, I mean, as you see, it took a while for that fourth season to come out. And then when it did come out, I don't know, it didn't really.
[00:24:12] Speaker A: It didn't hit.
[00:24:13] Speaker C: It really hit more. And I'm not saying that's just solely because of me. I think we had a nice. We had. You know how, like, I don't know, like, In Living Color had like a. Had they all the stars aligned for that show. Like, they had just all the right ingredients to make it something really special and unique. I think everybody that we had on the team was just like. They were just dope in their own right. You know what I'm saying? From Rodney Barnes to Yamara Taylor to even the actors like Cedric Yarborough and Gary Anthony Williams that played Uncle Ruckus, like, people don't know. A lot of that writing happened in the booth. Like, they don't get enough credit because, I mean, they had scripts, but improv. Yeah. Don't trust them new niggas over there. That song that Gary did, he wrote that on his way into the booth in his head.
[00:24:54] Speaker A: For real?
[00:24:55] Speaker C: Yeah. That wasn't in the script. I mean, the song we had, it was in the script that said, there's a song, don't trust them New N. But he made up the song, you know, So I just say that to say, like, John Witherspoon and Regina, everyone brought some really, really special qualities to the show. And I think that fourth season, things started. You know, it wasn't the same ingredients there. You know what I'm saying? Things started to kind of. There was. It wasn't just me. There was other ingredients that weren't there anymore. And people, you know, and so, you know, and Then why isn't it coming? How come it's not coming back now? I think there was an attempt to do a fifth season, which I wasn't involved in, you know, with HBO Max. But I heard that they had some issues on the production, and I think there was. I think it was some.
You know, I think they were just having trouble getting it done.
[00:25:42] Speaker A: I got a. I got a few, like, Boondocks questions. Like, rapid fire. Like rapid fire. Okay. Like, how long does it take to make one episode?
[00:25:53] Speaker C: So it's kind of a process. Well, I just put it to you this way because all. You have multiple episodes being worked on simultaneously, right? So for us to do 15 episodes of the Boondocks, it took about two years.
[00:26:05] Speaker A: Are you fucking serious?
[00:26:06] Speaker C: Yeah. So that's why people. When the show would come out, people would be like, yo, did they take y'all off the air? I'm like, no, we just making this shit. It just takes a long time.
[00:26:14] Speaker A: So the reason why I asked that is because stuff that was happening would be in the show, and it's like, how the fuck are y'all turning around this shit that fast? You know what I mean? Like, not, like.
[00:26:24] Speaker C: For instance.
[00:26:24] Speaker A: I'll give you an example. Like, Gina brought up in the beginning. Like, this year has been crazy.
[00:26:28] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:26:29] Speaker A: And let's say Boondocks came back, top of June, the Cat Williams shit would have been in the episode, and that was from February.
[00:26:38] Speaker C: Well, I don't know. We tried to keep it not be, like, super, super topical, like south park, but it'd be Evergreen. Yeah. Or like, if we kind of saw the direction things are going in. Like the Obama episode.
[00:26:52] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:26:53] Speaker C: You know, we kind of saw where it was going, but, you know, we. But this definitely takes way longer to do it. So we still, like, a year out, a year and a half. You know what I'm saying? Damn.
[00:27:02] Speaker A: I don't take that long to make an episode.
[00:27:04] Speaker C: But what we will do sometimes in post, we'll have the flexibility to make some changes before we deliver it. Like, if something happens. And we. You know, we did that on Black Dynamite a lot, too. You know, Like, I had a joke, like, cause Bill Cosby. Because I actually wrote a Bill Cosby episode before all of that stuff came out. And then I was like, damn, right. Before we deliver this, I got a joke I want to put in there. So I was able to put something in there, and people were like, how did. How did he do it? Yeah. You know, but. Yeah.
[00:27:30] Speaker A: Now the question is. Sorry, sorry. The other question is, Whose idea was it to do like the samurai type shit, like to have it give it that kind of that feel like where I would not samurai. But you know what I mean, as.
[00:27:41] Speaker C: Far as like the fighting and stuff?
Well, we, I mean, we, we, you know, I mean, Aaron is obviously like a big fan of anime. I'm a big fan of anime. All of us even like the, the board artists and directors and the producers. Sung Kim is one of the, one of our, the lead creative producers on the show. Like, he is a. I mean, he's like probably one of the best anime artists I've ever seen in my life. So we, we brought some really. And mind you, the show was also being animated in, in sometimes in Korea and we had even some Japanese studios that we were working with. So we were, we were trying to tap into that authentic anime, you know, type of, you know, animation, you know what I'm saying? Because we were just fans of it. So we were looking at like Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo and you know, FLCL and you know, bunch of stuff that we were inspired by.
[00:28:31] Speaker B: Outside of, obviously the R. Kelly episode, were there any other real life scenarios that was like just happening for you guys in real life that you were putting into the episodes?
[00:28:42] Speaker C: Oh, oh, yeah, there's a lot, a lot of them. I mean, most. You know what's funny? Like a lot of these stories in the boondocks came. They were inspired by something real either. Cause at the same, at the time, like World Star Hip Hop started popping, Vlad TV started popping. So we were pulling a lot of things from that. But one episode in particular, the Usher episode, right, that was actually based on something that happened to me in real life, right? So this is a crazy story too. It's not really crazy, but it's funny. So we were celebrating the pickleball season two. So we went out to Mr. Child's, right? And it was me, my ex wife, Aaron and his fiance and Aaron's assistant and his girlfriend. And we're out, we're eating, right? And for some reason the R. Kelly episode, it came up and my ex wife, she hated that episode. She always felt like, that's not funny. It's not funny. He's peeing on a girl, you know, it's just not funny. It is funny.
It is hilarious. I know what you mean, but it is hilarious.
So I know what you mean. So she's like. So she got like really, really mad. It was kind of like protesting at the table. She wasn't gonna eat anything. And I Was like, this is really uncomfortable because we're trying to celebrate, right? And then Usher walks in.
[00:29:51] Speaker A: Oh, shit.
[00:29:52] Speaker C: And her whole. Everything just changed. Her whole attitude changed. And so he sits, like, a little ways behind this. And so for most of the remainder of the dinner, like, she's turned around at Usher making Google eyes and stuff and trying to get his attention. He's waving, licking lips and stuff. So I'm looking crazy at the table because everyone sees it. And then. So then it's time for us to leave, right? So we get up and we get to the front of the restaurant, and I look back and she's at the niggas table. She shows up right there at the table table, and. But she's going, come back, come back. So we all, like, walk back over there, like, oh, what is this? And then she's like. She starts introducing everybody. She's like, so, Usher, this is. This is Aaron. This is his fiance. This is my Carl.
[00:30:38] Speaker B: This is Carl.
[00:30:40] Speaker C: I'm Carl now. Okay. That's why. So in the episode. So. So it was. It was a. It was a long ride home. It was a long ride home.
[00:30:47] Speaker A: You went home.
[00:30:48] Speaker C: It was a she. What you mean?
I know, I know.
[00:30:53] Speaker B: Is that why I got divorced?
[00:30:54] Speaker C: But listen, so it's funny. So I. I come in the office the next day and it was like, nigga, you know, that's going in this show.
[00:31:02] Speaker A: We gotta work on the tv, huh?
[00:31:03] Speaker C: We gotta figure it out. You know what I'm saying? But, yeah, this stuff, you know, Lateria, Milton.
[00:31:07] Speaker A: You.
[00:31:08] Speaker C: You know, the Milton Tayshawn or whatever. Like, that was based on the kid that really stole his grandmother's car and was.
[00:31:12] Speaker B: Okay, I remember that.
[00:31:14] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah.
[00:31:14] Speaker A: Oh, sorry, Go ahead.
[00:31:16] Speaker C: Oh, oh. And I was the. Wait. I actually played the waiter in the Usher episode where when Tom was sitting there looking at the plate of melted ice cream and the waiter comes over and he's like, sorry, man. And he goes, wouldn't let that shit happen to me, though. That was me who played the waiter. Wow. And it did happen to me.
[00:31:36] Speaker A: Yo, I got some really specific. For the Boondocks fans, some really specific questions, because this.
[00:31:41] Speaker C: What you got?
[00:31:43] Speaker A: Who wrote the line, booty is more important than water?
[00:31:48] Speaker C: Felice Johnson wrote it. Felice Johnson.
[00:31:51] Speaker A: Booty is more important than water.
[00:31:53] Speaker C: Booty is more important than food. Okay, so who.
Go ahead.
[00:31:59] Speaker A: Who wrote that?
[00:32:00] Speaker C: So Fleece Johnson. Yeah. That's a real guy. Right, Right. He's out, by the way.
[00:32:04] Speaker A: Right. But who, like, put that in the show?
[00:32:07] Speaker C: Okay, so here's What? So from what I remember, I was going around the office, and I remember. So actually, you know what's funny? So my wife, Love. She actually had sent me at this time, we were just friends, but she sent me the clip of the Booty Warrior in. It was. What was it called? What was the name of the show? It was Locked, Locked, Locked up. If some of his MSNBC or some. It was some kind of jail show. So I'm looking at it, and then we started, like, passing around the office, and I just started walking around, like, doing the voice.
I liked you, and I want you. We could do this the easy way or the hard way. The choice is yours.
So I just remember, like, we just would laugh and, you know, talk about it. And then somehow it came up, this idea, like, what if Riley and Huey were in a Scared Straight program, You know what I'm saying? And we had already set up that Tom was afraid of going to jail and being anally raped, which is why, you know what I'm saying, Like, he. So we had already set that up. So we had, like, the pieces in place, and then we just started like, oh, what if he's chaperoning the kids? And then, like. And then what if the Booty Warriors. You know what I'm saying? And you know what's funny is so in the beginning of that episode, the Booty Warriors, Chris Hansen. I don't know if you remember, so. And the funniest shit in the world was the actual legal notes that we got from that and the Standards and Practices notes, because they were like. Because we had to literally, like, bargain with what we could do and what we can't do. So they didn't want the scene at all. So I'm like, okay, but how about he still him, but we just don't shake the table. And they like, well, you can. Yeah, don't shake the table. You can't shake the table. I'm like, can I shake the camera? They're like, can he shake the camera?
[00:33:45] Speaker A: Y'all negotiating scene.
[00:33:46] Speaker C: We're going back, yo. We negotiate the scene. So. Because at one time, it was the camera shaking, the table was shaking, and you could hear Chris Hansen yelling. And they were like, you can't have all three, you know? So we had to start, like, you gotta give up a few niggas for Ash. You know, it's crazy.
[00:34:05] Speaker A: Okay, then the other one was Colonel Stink Meaner. Holla at your boy. I get your money.
Is that based on a real character?
[00:34:13] Speaker C: So I don't. Man, that's A good question. How did that come up?
[00:34:18] Speaker A: I'm like, a fan, bro. So I got real specific.
[00:34:20] Speaker C: Well, I'll tell you this. The voice of Stink Mina, which is Cedric Yarbrough, who plays Stink Mina. You know when I say this, it's gonna fuck your head up. So the actual voice that he was doing, you remember? So you ever remember. You remember the thing called Schoolhouse Rock?
[00:34:33] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:34:33] Speaker C: So you remember Conjunction? Conjunction moving off.
That's the voice that he was actually doing when he was doing Stickmina.
[00:34:42] Speaker A: Get the fuck out of here.
[00:34:43] Speaker C: Yeah. So, like, if you go back and watch Schoolhouse Rock, you'll hear Stick Meter.
[00:34:48] Speaker A: Oh, my God. That just blew my mind. Because thinking he was like, yeah, ass.
Yeah, that's my. I with Colonel Stink Meter was Gangstalicious.
[00:35:00] Speaker B: Or which rapper is Gangstalicious Based on Nobody.
[00:35:04] Speaker C: And I got asked that question a few times. We. We. Nobody. It was made up.
Did you. I don't have anyone that's counting.
Yeah. I don't even want to say. Yeah, no, no, no. It's not.
[00:35:16] Speaker A: You know, right?
[00:35:18] Speaker C: I just say. I say this, the wife knows. No, no, no, it's not. It wasn't a specific rapper, but it was just a lot of, like, 85.
[00:35:27] Speaker A: Rappers who was basically.
[00:35:28] Speaker C: I'm not doing this. Are you crazy?
[00:35:29] Speaker B: Tell us where the belly ring.
What nigga had they belly button pierced?
[00:35:34] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Did you see some shit at a concert? It was like, oh, that's going in the episode. Okay. Thugnificent.
[00:35:42] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:35:43] Speaker A: You were the voice. Mm.
Yeah.
So much to unpack. There.
[00:35:53] Speaker C: You got some words of welcome for all this thugnificence. Breathe it in, nigga. Bask in it.
[00:35:58] Speaker A: Bask in it.
Did you. Who'd you write that for? Did you write that or somebody else wrote that for you?
[00:36:06] Speaker C: So no. So actually, it was supposed to be Ludacris.
[00:36:10] Speaker A: You know who wrote some? You wrote it for Ludacris.
[00:36:13] Speaker C: So here's how it happened. It's actually. It's funny because he had a hair. So I remember I pitched to Aaron. I was like, yo, it'd be funny if a rapper moved next door to the Freemans. You know what I'm saying? He'd just be like, a crazy trap dude or whatever. And he was like, oh, yeah, yeah, that could be something, right? And I remember, like, a couple months later, he was at dinner with DJ Pooh, and he called me. He's like, yo, Pooh had this hilarious idea. What if. What if, like, a rapper moved?
I'm like, they got. I pissed. You that. So. So we saw. We started. We started trying to, you know, think of, like, well, who is this guy? Who should it be? And. And we landed on Ludacris for some reason, right? And so we had this deal with Luda. This is kind of interesting story. So Luda. Luda basically said, I'll do the role if you guys do my album cover. And I can't remember which album it was, but I was supposed to draw it, right? And so I'm trying to get in touch with Luda so I can figure out what I need to be drawing. And he's not answering the phone. So I blocked my number one time, and I called him, and he answered the phone, and I'm like, hey, what's up? It's Carl. I'm trying to see what you want on your album cover. And he was like, well, you know, normally I don't answer the call from unknown numbers. And I'm like, but you did.
So now that I got you, what am I drawing? He's like, man, I got time right now. I gotta go. So needless to say, I never got a chance to draw the COVID So when it's time for him to come in and record. So. By the way, so what we do in anime. Cause a lot of times, you know, it's hard to get these guys in the booth, right? Cause if they. You know, they're really. If they're famous actors or rappers, their schedules are busy. So a lot of times we have to tempt the voices. So I tempt all the thugnificent voices. But I was doing Ludacris.
[00:37:50] Speaker A: We don't do animation. What the fuck is t. Oh.
[00:37:52] Speaker C: Oh. I was. I was doing, like, a. I was doing, like, a. Like a temporary record until we get Luda.
[00:37:57] Speaker B: Like a reference track.
[00:37:58] Speaker C: Like a. Yeah, like a reference. Like a reference track. That's why, like, the characters are like, rap beef. You got some words? You know, I'm doing, like, you know, Luna, you know, so.
So. Because we started animating it like that when Luda. So, long story short, Luda decided he didn't want to do it. He's like, y'all didn't do my album cover? And I'm like, what you call it? Trying to. I know. So anyways, he didn't. He decided not to do it. And so they were like, everybody. Sony, Aaron. Everybody was like, I mean, you should just do it. Because, like, we got so used to hearing your voice and, you know. But I'm like, I'm doing Luda, you know, What I'm saying. But that's how I ended up, like, really doing the role.
[00:38:33] Speaker B: What about the teacher? This is my favorite episode. How is a nigga going to borrow Fry?
[00:38:38] Speaker A: Oh, man, I just posted that, like, two days ago.
[00:38:41] Speaker C: N is you going to give it back?
[00:38:43] Speaker A: The white dude. The white dude. Who y'all based that off of?
Okay. I guess to piggyback off of what she said. When you see viral shit, it's like, that needs to go in the episode. Or, like, what's that? Like, you see it in the group chat.
[00:38:57] Speaker C: Like, hey, no, it happens like that. Like. Cause the room is. The writers room is basically, like, you know, for us, most of the show for season two and season three, we were operating out of a house in the Valley with a Jacuzzi and a stripper pole just to give you. Just to set up the. So you get an idea of, like, what the environment was. But the reason why was because we didn't want to feel like we was at work, you know what I'm saying? So, like, you know, so we convinced Sony to get us a house. And so I say that because a lot of the stuff that we was coming up with was friends hanging out, you know what I'm saying? It wasn't like it didn't feel like work because we would just, you know, we were coming up with funny shit that make each other laugh, you know? You know what I'm saying? Like, it was really just. We were like a family. You know what I mean? So a lot of this stuff, like, we'll see some stuff on Worldstar or Vlad, and we'll share it and put it on the table and start playing around with the ideas, like, well, what if. You know, I think it was. You know, that one actually started because there was a black kid who was called. He was called the N word in school, you know. Did you see the news article?
[00:40:01] Speaker A: I just watched the clip, like, three days ago.
[00:40:03] Speaker C: Yeah. So we were like, yo, it'd be funny. Cause Riley says nigga all the time. Like, what if he. Him and granddad got together, try to get some money off this and some. And some clout. And basically, you know what I'm saying?
[00:40:15] Speaker B: And he called me a nigga.
[00:40:18] Speaker A: Yeah, nigga this, nigga that.
[00:40:22] Speaker C: Nigga, check that hoe. Yeah, nigga, you bullshitting.
[00:40:26] Speaker A: And it's like, how was a nigga supposed to buy a borrowed French fry? Nigga, nigga.
[00:40:33] Speaker C: And I remember that was Fred, his last name.
[00:40:38] Speaker A: Bro, that is hella funny.
[00:40:40] Speaker C: He passed, too. Fred. What's his Last name? Huh?
It's close. But. But he. But I remember because I. I was feeding him the line so he can get the. The cadence and the nuances just right. That's why I said, nigga, if you gonna give it back. Like, he, He. He said it like how we were said, you know what I'm saying?
[00:40:58] Speaker B: I think that was the most funniest thing, is that it was a white man, Fred Willard. But he said it the way that we would say it. That was the funniest thing. It's like this white man and then it's a cartoon saying, nigga, like. And then there's a white cartoon.
[00:41:12] Speaker C: I know we had no business doing that for the stuff we was doing.
[00:41:15] Speaker A: Bro, I don't wanna keep you. But Black Dynamite, to me, that's another huge staple as far as culturally being culturally relevant and stuff like that. You were working on that while you were still working on Boondocks, and I remember seeing something. I mean, have you people ever accused you of using the Boondocks to like.
Like using the Boondocks to bleed into your own shit with Black Dynamite? Have you ever gotten that?
[00:41:43] Speaker C: No, not. Not really. I mean, I. I mean, I. I.
[00:41:46] Speaker A: Think subject matter wise or content wise.
[00:41:49] Speaker C: Nah, I mean, to me, I always felt like Black Dynamite was like a. Was like a. Like a. Like a very different show than the Boondocks. I think the world itself was crazier, weirder. Like, we went places that we would never go on the Boondocks. You know, I'm saying, like, we have. Michael Jackson was an alien and was, you know, trying to impregnate cream corn with alien babies. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, we just went into, like, some crazy places.
So I think, I think. I think, yeah, obviously there's going to be some similar tone or, you know, I mean, the voice or the point of view might be, you know, you might see some. Some of that, but it's. But I mean, it's in my DNA. I can't like, you know what I'm saying? Like, it's a part of that was where I cut my teeth, and that's where I. Not. Not only I learned how to write and produce, but it was also what I was contributing to that I also brought to Black Dynamite, you know, so I'm sure you're gonna see here some of it, but I also tried to give it a different look as well, but it just wasn't that much black anime out. There's none. So anything that's anime and it's black. You go, oh, that's. People gonna say it's boondock, you know?
[00:42:50] Speaker A: Did you bring any? Were you able to use any? I mean, bring anybody from that house and with the stripper pole.
[00:42:57] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I work a few of the same writers, some of the same artists. Yeah, we bought some.
[00:43:06] Speaker A: The reason I asked is. Cause we always. We had this thing in hip hop where people want you to write your own raps, right? But every other way, every thing else in art is collaborative. A band, production on a TV show, even R&B. Like, it'd be 17 writers on a Beyonce record, but the rappers can't have a rapper help them write their shit, right? So from a production standpoint, it's always a collab. Is there egos involved when it comes to writing? Sometimes, like, I'm gonna just do. I'm gonna write this TV show by myself, and the TV show don't be good, like season four or.
Not like that.
[00:43:41] Speaker C: No, no, I know what you mean. I mean, I think there are egos, but I think.
Well, for the Boondocks, I felt like the writers rooms are pretty sacred, you know what I'm saying? Meaning, like, you only have people in there that you really trust and that you really, really fuck with, you know, and so the egos are kind of left at the door because you're trying to make the best product and you trust everyone. Everyone's kind of working together like it's one body. So, you know, there's not even, like, a such thing as a bad pitch. I mean, there's bad pitches, but no one looks at it like that. And no one's really trying to, I think, thinking too much about, like, who's coming up with what. We're just trying to make the best possible. But, you know, there are times where, like, you know, you get into, like, credits and stuff like that. And. Yeah, sometimes, you know, sometimes that becomes a conversation. You know what I'm saying? Who. Who deserves what and who needs to be credited for what? And. But I don't. You know, I don't. Honestly, the credits aren't as important to me as making a good show. So I don't. I try not to. Like, for my. When I'm running the show, like, everybody in the writers room is on the same level. Like, whether you a PA or writer's assistant or executive producer, all that title shit don't mean nothing. We trying to make a good show. So if you. If you're a writer's assistant, I always tell them, like, if you if you hear some shit that sounds bad, like, tell us like, or if you got a joke or an idea, like, please. You know what I'm saying? And then you never know, like that writer's assistant. The next year might actually come on as a full time writer, you know, but they need an opportunity. Cause a lot of rooms, if you don't have a certain title, you can't even speak in the room. But I don't believe in that.
[00:45:17] Speaker A: Is there such thing as ghost writing where people don't get credit and you just get bought out?
[00:45:20] Speaker C: Oh yeah, there's a lot of that.
[00:45:21] Speaker A: So have you ghostwritten, like television or.
[00:45:25] Speaker C: I'm trying. I don't wanna get into, I don't wanna get into that.
[00:45:27] Speaker B: He a ghostwriter nigga.
[00:45:29] Speaker C: But no, no, I'm just saying, like, well, not in shit.
[00:45:31] Speaker A: You don't say what you wrote. But I'm saying that's a thing in music too.
[00:45:34] Speaker C: Well, I just say like, not like, I don't think intentionally it was done like that. Like, like I want you to go. You know what I'm saying? But I think, you know, you know, have I written stuff that I didn't get credit for? Of course. You know, I think every writer has, you know, in this business, you know, especially when you, when you're coming up and you're getting your foot in the door, you know, it just, just happens. But I try to get too much into that because then I guess that's a, that's a, you know, I know.
[00:46:01] Speaker B: You worked with Meg thee stallion recently. What other projects are you working on.
[00:46:06] Speaker C: With her or just outside of her in general?
[00:46:08] Speaker B: What are you doing these days?
[00:46:10] Speaker C: We do have something cooking with Meg. I can't, I just can't speak on yet. But pretty soon we will.
And I'm trying to think of what I can talk about. We. So because we launched this company, Martian Blueberry, which is a creative agency slash animation house. Right. So we're creating original content, we're partnering with other people to produce, you know, films and also video games and animated series. So we do have some, some things in the, in the gaming, on the gaming side in the works, and we have some things on the film side in the works and we have some things on the TV side in the works and books. You know, like, we've, we're, you know, we got to focus on, on comics and, and children's books. Because what we're trying to do is instead of coming up with an idea and going straight to Hollywood and selling our souls, you Know, we're trying to create an IP first, publish it, you know, so that is. Is a pre existing IP before going to Hollywood and having to, you know, you know, have a situation that's not equitable. You know what I mean?
Exactly. You know, so once it's a pre existing ip, especially in the publishing world, like, once it's an actual written piece of intellectual property, then, you know, you can maintain the ownership. And the negotiations are very different, you know, versus they put up all the money for your idea and they own it outright and everything ancillary, you know.
[00:47:30] Speaker B: Well, let me know when y'all accepting pitches, man.
[00:47:33] Speaker C: We. I mean. I mean, we. Well, not at this moment we aren't, but, you know, next year we definitely will be.
[00:47:40] Speaker A: Yeah, I've been. How does one. This is a personal question. How do one get into voiceover? I've been trying to do that for like the last three years. And I talked to DJ Pooh on the phone one time about doing some stuff with him.
[00:47:49] Speaker C: That's my dude.
[00:47:50] Speaker A: But like, how does one. This is for me. But also people who are listening to the show, like, how does one go about getting into the business, a voiceover or anything like that?
[00:48:00] Speaker C: It's tough, man. It's a very closed industry. Right. Like, a lot of the people that are in it, they've been in it for a long time. And so there's a lot of go to people in the voiceover world that. You know what I mean? I don't know how deep you are into it, but like Kevin Michael Richardson, which is like, he's like one of the most phenomenal voiceover black men in the voiceover business, that is, he's. I mean, he's on everything. I mean, from every network. He's probably. I think some days he's probably juggling like three or four shows at a time. You know what I'm saying? So. So I say that to say we. I think we need more of us in the space because there's only like a handful. It's like, you know, Phil Lamar is another guy that gets a lot of work, but it's just really hard to get your foot in the door if you don't know any directors, because they're the ones that's making those calls usually like the voiceover director. So what I would recommend is really, really utilizing the Internet, hitting up, like, doing the research, finding out who the voiceover directors are for these shows and these films and reaching out to them and. But being prepared, like, have a reel and, you know, so when I say have a reel, you don't. Most times people think voiceover. Like, I gotta have a bunch of different voices. Right. Like, you know, you don't necessarily have to have. You want to show range. But what's more important to me anyway, when I listen to reels, I'm looking for people to actually capture the character, not so much as the voice, you know, because there's some like, Cree. I mean, Cree is an amazing voiceover talent. Right. But she has a very specific thing that she does. Right. But she's so good at acting and she's so good at really becoming the characters that she plays, that even if her voice has a similar sound to another one that she did, she's still going to get the job because she's a great performer. So I would say focus less on having these different voices and more on how do I capture. How do I capture that character, how to become that character. You know, that's what's going to really resonate, I think, with most, most directors.
[00:49:53] Speaker A: Yeah, I was looking at that because I was looking at like, I've been doing radio like 10 years. 10 almost. Yeah, about 15 years now. And I was like, damn, radio. People should be doing that more because we only have our voice now. There's cameras and shit in the studio. But when you on the radio, all you have is voice, inflection, enunciation, like emotion through words. And so like voiceover obviously is like, it's obvious to me.
[00:50:17] Speaker C: But it's interesting you say that because a lot of live action actors that we have doing voiceover on the shows and stuff, they're so used to relying on their physicality and when they don't have that, you know, sometimes it throws them off a little. And so, you know, so you're right. Like, that skill set definitely comes in handy. And you, you should, yeah, put a, put a reel together, you know, send it to me. And you know, I mean, I know, I know some, some voiceover directors as well. And then even for our own projects, yeah, like, you know, anybody. And that's for anybody listening. Like if you, if. Listen, somebody gave me an opportunity off the street, you know what I'm saying? So I feel like we're only. We're obligated to do the same for, especially for our people. It's hard. It's hard to get our foot in the door, man. You know, it's still not a. You know what I'm saying? Like, you know, we go through phases. Like during COVID when the George Floyd situation happened Then all of a sudden, the floodgates opened. Everybody wanted to make black TV shows and cartoons and stuff like that. But then that started to slowly die down, and now it's back to where it was before that. So it's like. So I just say that to say we gotta help each other get in the space because no one else is gonna do it.
[00:51:19] Speaker B: So facts don't play with us, though. We'll be at your office on Monday.
[00:51:23] Speaker A: In real life.
Yeah. For real, you just this different over here. But no, I appreciate you, man. Like, sharing your insight and your contributions culturally is significant, but also just, I think more people need to hear from people like yourself, because you got your story, you got your testimony, but everybody don't want to be in front of the camera.
[00:51:45] Speaker C: True.
[00:51:46] Speaker A: And there's a lot of people who work behind the scenes here who want to do things that you may have done, or people listen to our radio show that want to get in the field. So you inspiring people.
[00:51:56] Speaker C: Oh, thank you, man. I hope so.
[00:51:58] Speaker A: Me too. But, yeah, now, do you want to. Do you want to put yours, your website or anything out there, like, for people to go check out or, you know.
[00:52:07] Speaker C: Yeah, you can go to MartianBlueberry.com and then you can check us out on Instagram at. We are Martian B. We are Martian B, for sure.
[00:52:18] Speaker A: Make sure you follow that, then go tap in.
[00:52:20] Speaker C: Oh, and me at. I am Carl Jones.
[00:52:22] Speaker A: There you go. You matter.
[00:52:24] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:52:24] Speaker A: Black lives matter. Yeah. Carl Jones is here. We appreciate you, man. Thank you for coming in. It's effective immediately on SiriusXM Hip Hop Nation.
