Don't Do Nothing

[00:00:00] Brother Michael: One rap is worth 100 lectures. Do me a favor, get it together. Kill your hate and dissipate it. I’m a ’80s baby to Allah. My father was Muslim, and my mom was Christian. One learned man is harder on Satan than 1,000 ignorant worshipers praying all day and every day. Yeah. The Nation really strongly preaches family.

[00:00:21] Brother Michael: Family is super big in the Nation, and we’re being attacked right now in this country, and really throughout the world, with family. A man who does not have a good relationship with his mother- Mm … will not be able to see any female in the proper light. The Nation of Islam really represents in the end goal to heal people and save people throughout the entire planet.

[00:00:42] Brother Michael: When you go out to get knowledge, you know, go out and be a student, and be a humble student to learn, and allow life to teach us. All right, welcome back 

[00:00:51] Brad: to another episode of the Don’t Do Nothing podcast. Today, we have with us Brother Michael. He is an artist, a world traveler, a man of the world. [00:01:00] He’s a cinematographer, uh, does videos for music videos, weddings, a whole bunch of different stuff, biographies, short documentaries, stuff like that.

[00:01:10] Brad: Amazing. He’s a student… Let me see if I get this right. Okay. Student of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam. Yes, sir. Yeah. He’s also a trained auditor, and he is a trained auditor in Scientology. That’s correct. Thanks for being here today, bro. You’re welcome, man. Yeah. Appreciate it.

[00:01:28] Aaron: Brother Michael, I want, I wanna, I wanna open up this audience to something they haven’t experienced. I’ve heard you’re just gonna go straight to the age thing. I’m going… No, no, I’m not. Okay. Okay. I’m not. I’m not. We’ll get there. Here’s, here’s… Bro, I wanna hear a rap, bro. Oh, yes. You do, you do freestyle? Yeah.

[00:01:44] Aaron: All right. I wanna just hear you freestyle, bro, on, on, on… Do something beautiful, something, something that you, that, that, that you think will touch people, ’cause I, I think that’s gonna encapsulate a bit of you. 

[00:01:58] Brother Michael: I got you. Yeah, for sure. [00:02:00] Um, uh, okay, got it. Uh, so… When it comes to the 16, I’m light like the MC. I bowl like a cuppa, yoga chef coffee.

[00:02:09] Brother Michael: Get up in the morning while I’m still yawning. Washing my head, my hands and my feet. That’s a Muslim way to his day in the East. I’m on one meal a day. In the morning, I don’t eat. I’m a G-O-D on the beat. Not a priest. What that mean? Put the knowledge in the rhyme mean I don’t need to preach. Make it plain for the streets so a fool can understand it.

[00:02:27] Brother Michael: I am in an army, we can be commanded. Simultaneous, putting art on the canvas. Mind, body, that’s balance, damn it. Studying the Migos, bettering the ad libs. Don’t listen to the radio, y’all do what all do. Respect, that’s wack. I be in the gym, freestyle, this practice. Working on my lyrical sets till it’s mastered.

[00:02:45] Brother Michael: Slow down the flow or I can move faster. Cleaning up my garments so I can be raptured. Director, behind the camera, a actor. Yes, sir. Go on, give me an A for my effort. Diss me and just might get ether. I rock with Hova, but Nas had it sewed up. The worst yet to [00:03:00] come, but we ain’t finna fold up. Nah. Listen, do me a favor, get it together.

[00:03:03] Brother Michael: Kill your hate and dissipate it. I’m a ’80s baby to Allah, and my mama, I’m forever indebted. Don’t forget it, pay attention, you can get it. Messing with me, come on with it. Stand on business, certified. Book me and I take a pic. I’m better than your camera phone Polaroid. Ever since I got a queen, man. Ever since I got a queen, more like a vegetarian.

[00:03:20] Brother Michael: Not a carnivore, married, but I still do a little lamb. Not a gangster, but two step. I’m not about to do no dance. Life bring a lot. Every now and then I like to laugh. Chris Rock, Bernie Mac, Dave Chappelle in that bag. Offend me, apologize, take it back, ASAP. We- That’s it. Ooh. Ooh. Yeah, son. Dude, that was amazing.

[00:03:40] Brother Michael: Woo. Thanks, I appreciate it. That 

[00:03:41] Brad: was fire. How, how long have you been able to 

[00:03:42] Brother Michael: do that? Um, since I was a teenager. 

[00:03:46] Yeah? 

[00:03:47] Brother Michael: Um, I got inspired when I was, uh, 15, living in Atlanta. Yeah. My father moved to, uh, Atlanta, Georgia, got married. Um, actually, the high school I went to, Ciara and [00:04:00] Rock- Waka Flocka Flame went to the same high school- Really?

[00:04:03] Brother Michael: during the time that I was there. 

[00:04:04] Mm. 

[00:04:05] Brother Michael: And so Atlanta, like, kinda, the city of Atlanta kinda inspired me to go into, um, more creative, uh, music passion. Um, and then at the age of 19, I joined the Nation of Islam. Mm. My brother was working for 92.3, The Beat in Los Angeles, so we were all in, like, the clubs and opening up for major industry artists and whatnot, but then I woke up spiritually, and the moment I woke up, I kinda had a different train of thought on the type of music- Mm

[00:04:34] Brother Michael: that we were making. Mm. Um, from Long Beach, California. Can you expand on that? Uh- What, what do you mean 

[00:04:39] Brad: by a different train of thought on 

[00:04:40] Brother Michael: that? It, like, like, really just the purpose of the, the… Because when you’re in music, you wanna make what, what hit records will get you the, the biggest deals or the biggest traction.

[00:04:54] Brother Michael: Mm-hmm. Yeah. And so you’re just making club music, street music, whatever you see in the [00:05:00] environment. Um, so I’m from LA. So it’s kind of like, it’s kind of like mimicry. Yeah, it’s, it’s mimicry or you, or you just tell what you see. Mm. You know? What, from the community- Observation as well … from the neighborhood.

[00:05:08] Brother Michael: Right. Observation, right? Um, or telling stories. But, um, I kinda had a s- a train of thought to say, um… When I, I read Fall- I read a book called From Niggas to Gods. Mm. Mm. And From Niggas to Gods allowed me to see- that, um, when it said nigga, it w- it ma- mainly the word nigga wasn’t to disrespect Black people on the title.

[00:05:29] Brother Michael: Yeah. It was really saying you’re a savage, you’re not a human being, you’re acting other than yourself. Mm. Yeah. And you need to be on a higher level and train of thought. That was the first book that I read, and I read it in five days straight. Wow. Like, completely. That’s the first book I read all the way through.

[00:05:46] Brother Michael: Yeah. Except for, uh, “The Rose That Grew from Concrete,” which is by Tupac Amaru Shakur. Yeah. That was the book I read in high school. And so ever since then, I was like, “Well, I got a, I, I got to second train of thought on music, and I need to put [00:06:00] better music out.” Mm-hmm. Or I need to take a break and work on myself to be able to- Wow

[00:06:05] Brother Michael: rearrange my thoughts. And one year later, we had a younger brother who got murdered from gang violence in Long Beach, California. Yeah. And so that was, like, the train. That was, like, my transition period- Uh-huh … like, year before that happened. 

[00:06:18] Mm. 

[00:06:18] Brother Michael: Yeah. 

[00:06:19] Brad: Can I ask a question about, about the book that you read all the way through in five days?

[00:06:25] Brad: What about the book made you… ‘Cause you said you’d probably maybe read one book before that. What capt- what grabbed you in that book? Like, why was it so easy? It sounds like it was e- maybe it wasn’t. The, 

[00:06:35] Brother Michael: the, the, the chapter that, um, if the Black woman is a bitch- Yeah … that makes you a son of a bitch. 

[00:06:42] Mm. Oh, wow.

[00:06:43] That was one of the chapters. Yeah? 

[00:06:45] Brother Michael: So, in the chapter it was like, if you’re calling your women out of their name, then you might as well call your mom out of her name. Mm. And- Wait, what does 

[00:06:54] Brad: out of their name mean? Meaning in, in that way. Oh, got it, got it, got it. Like, like 

[00:06:57] Brother Michael: degrading women with language. In a certain way.

[00:06:59] Brother Michael: Bitch, hoes. [00:07:00] Yeah. Stuff like that, right? Yeah, yeah. Stuff that we do in, in h- in hip hop music and in certain genres of music, or just street language, right? Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Um, and it becomes universal. You can get street language, like, any- you don’t have to be in an inner city community to call a woman a B-I-T-C-H, right?

[00:07:15] Brother Michael: Yeah. Um, so, uh, my… That hit me because I didn’t really have a good relationship with my mother, even though she recently passed Monday. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Um, I called her out of her name that same word- Wow … when I was 14 out of anger. Wow. Man. So I had a lot of anger for my mother. Mm-hmm. So when I ca- when that g- that chapter was one of the ones that I read, and it was like, if the Black woman is a B-I-T-C-H- Mm-hmm

[00:07:43] Brother Michael: that makes you the son- Mm-hmm … of a woman who produce you, and she would also be that as well. Yeah. So in other words, if you don’t want me to disrespect your mom- Yeah … you shouldn’t disrespect y- you, women or your mom. Yeah. Mm-hmm. And so being that, um, I really hadn’t at [00:08:00] that time, like with- That’s very 

[00:08:01] Brad: close to the way to happiness.

[00:08:02] Brad: Yeah. Like the principle of, uh- Yeah, the princ- yeah … like honor, honor other people. Honor and help your parents. Like, help 

[00:08:06] Aaron: your parents kind of thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or do unto 

[00:08:07] Brother Michael: others as you would want others to do unto you. That’s 

[00:08:09] Aaron: right. W- w- who’s the author of this book? 

[00:08:11] Brother Michael: Uh, Akil. Okay. Akil. Yeah. A- A-K-I-L.

[00:08:15] Brother Michael: Um, and he has two gang members on the top- Mm … of the, uh, their puppet strings, and they have two gang members on the top- Yeah … on the front cover. Yeah. And they’re pointing guns at e- at each other. Wow. One is dressed in blue for a Crip- Mm-hmm … and the other one is dressed in red for Blood. Yeah. Um, and so, uh, but my mom, I, I h- I still had anger for my mom.

[00:08:35] Brother Michael: I didn’t have the best relationship at 19. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. 

[00:08:37] Yeah. 

[00:08:38] Brother Michael: And fast-forward to now, she passed away, I was… The last three years, I was there with my mom every day, her caretaker. Mm-hmm. So I was closing the door on the anger- Mm-hmm … of course, with auditing and spiritual therapy over the years, but, um, I was able to confront her condition, um, confront her whole, uh, well-being, [00:09:00] and really just take responsibility and say, “Mom, come live with me and my wife.

[00:09:04] Brother Michael: We’re gonna help you heal your condition.” Mm. “We’re gonna help you change your diet. We’re gonna help you.” So looking back now that you asked me the question, my mom, um, I was able to demonstrate the, the love for my mom and kinda, like, repair- Mm-hmm … uh, or, or really, uh, work off, as you would say, the debt- Mm-hmm

[00:09:24] Brother Michael: for the disrespect that I have for my mom coming up. 

[00:09:27] Brad: Yeah. 

[00:09:27] Aaron: It’s beautiful. That is beautiful. 

[00:09:29] Brother Michael: Yeah. Yeah, for sure. 

[00:09:30] Aaron: Now, can, could you, um, talk a little bit about kinda before you got into the Nation? At 14, you kind of already were in a, in a bad relationship with your mother. 

[00:09:44] Mm-hmm. 

[00:09:45] Aaron: Do you know what got you on this path downward before you ever got into the Nation?

[00:09:52] Brother Michael: Mm. Yeah. Um, so my father was Muslim [00:10:00] and my mom was Christian. Mm-hmm. Uh, I know they argued over religion. They went back and forth. Mm. Um, but I experienced some things in my mother’s home that were not, uh, that, that were not good. And so from there, that was around the age of 12. From there, it kind of, uh, kinda…

[00:10:25] Brother Michael: It keyed in the engrams- 

[00:10:26] Aaron: Mm … 

[00:10:27] Brother Michael: around that time. Yeah. 

[00:10:28] Aaron: It reactivated, turned them on. It got- Turned them 

[00:10:30] Brother Michael: on, yeah. It got it. Mm-hmm. It got them on. Um, and, um, I remember reading, um, “On the Mind” that we can receive painful emotional experiences- Mm-hmm … when we’re in the wombs of our mothers. Mm-hmm. Pre- these prenatal experiences.

[00:10:48] Brother Michael: Mm-hmm. But the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, years later, um, I, I, I, I watched a lecture as I got older, um, “How to Give Birth to a God.” Mm. And in the [00:11:00] lecture, he talks about his mother, the minister’s mother wanting to get rid of him. Mm-hmm. His, his mother uh, tried to abort him. Mm-hmm. Wow. This is the Minister Farrakhan.

[00:11:10] Brother Michael: Oh, wow. His mother was, uh, from Saint Kitts and Nevis. His father was a high yellow Jamaican man, as he put it. His mother and father were married, but the father left her. Mm-hmm. She got with the minister’s older brother’s father and had the minister’s brother. The father- his father came back into his mother’s life and got his mother pregnant.

[00:11:33] Brother Michael: Mm-hmm. And she was so afraid that the man she was with would discover- Wow … that another man got her pregnant, because it was a possibility. Sure. The father is real light, from Jamaica. Mm. Mm-hmm. So the child may not come out dark. 

[00:11:47] Mm-hmm. 

[00:11:48] Brother Michael: And so she, because of that, got afraid and tried to get the minister out with a hanger in the bathtub.

[00:11:53] Brother Michael: Mm-hmm. Wow. 

[00:11:54] The minister 

[00:11:55] Brother Michael: shares this. Yeah. And he says that, um, she said, “I’ll… After the [00:12:00] third time, if I try this third time, if it doesn’t work, God want- must want me to have this child.” And after that time, it didn’t work. She prayed really strongly to, uh, to God that his life be dedicated to him. But in the lecture, it connected to me- Mm-hmm

[00:12:17] Brother Michael: because my mother told us that she wanted to get rid of me and my brother. Mm-hmm. Wow. She didn’t want us. She was like, “I was gonna get rid of you, Mikey.” Mm-hmm. Like, she called me Mikey. Mm-hmm. “Was gonna get rid of you.” And, uh, I was sitting on the couch with a check written out to the abortion clinic. Now, I don’t know how long she was thinking of getting rid of me.

[00:12:36] Brother Michael: How, how old, 

[00:12:36] Brad: how old were you when she was telling you this? 

[00:12:38] Brother Michael: We were teenagers. Oh, wow. She would tell us this not out of spite. Yeah. She would tell us this to say, “You all are blessed.” Mm. Oh, wow. ‘Cause we were like, we were, like, in, in the hood, in the ghetto, and we… You know, it’s all this stuff. So my mom always- You’re, you’re, you 

[00:12:50] Aaron: get lucky to have life.

[00:12:51] Brother Michael: Right. She would always tell- Don’t take it for granted, right? I mean- Right. Yeah. That’s the message. But she didn’t know that the mind can interpret things [00:13:00] in the present- Mm-hmm … and get re-stimulated from things that have happened in the womb. Mm-hmm. Absolutely. So I learned from the minister’s lecture, ’cause he said that, “I came…

[00:13:08] Brother Michael: I felt that my mother loved my brother more than she loved me.” Mm-hmm. So he was saying that the mother’s thoughts when she finds out that she’s pregnant, if sh- her thought alone is, “I don’t want the baby. I’m not ready to have children.” Mm-hmm. Doesn’t have to be her fault, could be circumstances, right?

[00:13:26] Brother Michael: Those thoughts can impress on the baby- Mm-hmm … and we can feel in the womb, right? So when I read about the mind and, you know, from, from Aaron, when I read that book, it was like, whoa, this is like a connection to this lecture. This must be the root of why I’m so angry for my mother. Mm-hmm. Wow. Has to be connected in this prenatal area.

[00:13:49] Brother Michael: Yes. Yeah. And now it’s like I gotta start working on how do I repair that, ’cause I’ve had this anger and this disrespect for my mom since I was a teenager. 

[00:13:58] Aaron: Wow. Wow. [00:14:00] And, uh, by the way, guys, the, the book you’re talking about is Dianetics: Modern Science and Mental Health. Dia- right. Right? We have it here Yep.

[00:14:05] Aaron: Boom. And actually, he does talk about in the book, uh- Prenatal implants … quite extensively, yeah. Yeah. Attempted abortions, right? Right. Yep. Called AA. Yep. Uh, and in fact, actually talks about the hanger. Right. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Actually, in this book. Yes. In this, 

[00:14:17] Brother Michael: uh- So when I read that book, um, I was blo- I was in the Nation at the time, and that was a, um, that was like a whole…

[00:14:30] Brother Michael: That was the connective piece- Yeah … to what the minister was saying. Mm-hmm. And even though he was giving us a way to study self- Mm-hmm … in many different ways, this was an extra way- Mm-hmm … that I can kinda like zero in and say, “I know for sure, based off what the minister taught me, based off what L. Ron Hubbard is teaching, this issue that I have with my mom is connected in the womb.”

[00:14:54] Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. It’s connected 

[00:14:55] Brother Michael: in that area. Yep. Yep. So from that day on, I had… Knowledge [00:15:00] is therapy in itself, ’cause not knowing- 100%, that’s right. Yes. That’s right … not knowing produces confusion, produces other things. Yeah. So when the more that I knew that this is something that I can fix and handle spiritually and now mentally, once I had more knowledge- Yeah

[00:15:17] Brother Michael: then I had hope. Mm-hmm. ‘Cause a lot of us in the community, especially young men, we lose hope, and we, we, we, we crash out, you know? There’s a lot of people now that are crashing out, you know? They lose a girlfriend or a wife, or s- their mom passes or somebody, you know? Yeah. And people are just, like, crashing out, meaning that’s a, a slang term for, like, just, just committing suicide.

[00:15:41] Brother Michael: Mm. It doesn’t have to be a physical suicide. Yeah. It can be like, “I’m gonna go rob a-” Self-destruction. Self-destruction. “I’m gonna go rob a bank.” Yeah. Yep. “I’m gonna go put a hit on somebody,” and- Mm-hmm … it’s like, why would you do that when you have all of this over here? Well, I, I lost somebody, or I lost a job, or, you know, my business crashed, or whatever it is, but the, the knowledge, the [00:16:00] more we get knowledge, it clears up the misunderstanding, the confusion.

[00:16:04] Brother Michael: Yeah. And I can have hope that my anger for my mother that trickled into my relationships- Mm-hmm. Ooh … because the minister taught us that a, a, a man who does not have a good relationship with his mother- Mm … will not be able to see any female in the proper light. 

[00:16:23] Yeah. 

[00:16:23] Brother Michael: If I don’t have a good relationship with my mom.

[00:16:26] Brother Michael: So if I’m tr- if I’m married, or I wanna get married, or I’m in a relationship, and every relationship is crashing, crashing, crashing, crashing. And you know us, we like to say, “Man, what happened to your marriage?” “Oh, man, that woman just wasn’t the right woman for me.” Yeah. Mm. You know? “Oh, man. What happened?” What- It’s, it’s her 

[00:16:41] fault.

[00:16:41] Brother Michael: Yeah, yeah. It was- Yeah … it was her fault. She d- she was a bad mother, man, you know? She, she didn’t really understand me. But see- Mm … the minister and L. Ron Hubbard, um, these are men that get the human being to look at the self. Yes, sir. See? No, the relationship failed. [00:17:00] First person I gotta look at is me. I gotta look at me.

[00:17:03] Brother Michael: That’s right. What was my relationship with my mom? What was my childhood like? Did I solve issues before I got into the relationship? Mm. So that’s what I was doing when I read that. I said, “Now I have the hope to say if I can just get into the womb, if I can just get more engrams ran, if I can just get more therapy, more mental therapy- Mm-hmm.

[00:17:21] Brother Michael: Mm-hmm … then one day I can close the door on this relationship with my mom.” In the last five years, I really started to do it heavy. The last three, I took care of her every day. And the l- That’s beautiful … the last day that she was alive, she’s in the hospital kissing my mom, hugging my mom, praying for, for her in her ear, telling her that she’s gonna live beyond the grave as she’s taking her last 20 minutes of life.

[00:17:48] Aaron: Yeah. Wow. 

[00:17:49] Brother Michael: Wow. I’m sure she was very happy with you. Oh, man. And the change you had. Yeah. Man, it’s, it’s a lot. There definitely was a lot of struggle take, to take care of her. 

[00:17:58] Brad: What, what was, what was her [00:18:00] reaction when you, when you came around and, and you were, you were like, “Hey, Ma,” you know, whatever, whatever the interaction was.

[00:18:06] Brad: But it, it all of a sudden, I’m sure it must have been… Like, was she surprised when you were like, all of a sudden you’re like, “Hey, I wanna actually have a great relationship with you and I wanna take care of you”? I didn’t, I didn’t see… 

[00:18:16] Brother Michael: My, my father’s from Trinidad and Tobago. Yeah. So that side of my family, they’re very hard and tough.

[00:18:22] Brother Michael: Mm. And they don’t express emotion or love in the way that my mom expresses it. Mm. To this day, I don’t call my dad Dad. I call him Vincent. Mm. And that’s just not it. That’s not… He changed his last name, but we still call him by his old last name. I call my mom Mom. Yeah. So with my dad’s side of the family, I’m kinda like along that lines to where I’m not easily…

[00:18:46] Brother Michael: It’s not easy for me to say I love you. Mm-hmm. 

[00:18:49] Mm-hmm. 

[00:18:50] Brother Michael: Right? Th- that’s not easy. Um, I told my mom I loved her every day a lot more since she suffered a seizure in Florida. Mm-hmm. [00:19:00] And she was hospitalized, and I saw her condition, and I said, “This is, this is where I gotta go all the way,” right? Mm-hmm. I gotta go all the way.

[00:19:08] Brother Michael: But before that, um, my love for my mom, my, me saying, “I love you, Mom,” is fixing you a banana, organic banana smoothie and asking you, “Mom, how the smoothie taste?” Yeah. “It tastes excellent.” Right? Yeah. Me saying I love you- Yeah, yeah … is changing your, changing your clothes. Yeah. Helping you to put your clothes on.

[00:19:27] Brother Michael: That’s right. Yeah. It’s a do- Me s- It’s a doingness. You’re- Me saying I love you is, “Mom, you wanna go to Florida?” “Yeah, I wanna go.” “You sure you, you don’t want to drop… Do you want us to drop you off then?” “No.” “You wanna g-“”Yeah, I wanna go.” “You wanna use your flight benefit, Mom?” She worked for Delta. Yeah. “You wanna use your flight ben-“”Yeah, yeah, yeah, I wanna use it.”

[00:19:42] Brother Michael: “All right, come on, let’s go.” Yeah. Instead of dropping her off. Me saying I love you, Mom, is, “Mom, you gonna… Do you… Mom, um, your, your, one of your family members is planning on putting you in a nursing home. Mom, you gotta get outta here. You gotta get outta this house.” Mm-hmm. “And, you know, we gotta take you up with us.”

[00:19:57] Brother Michael: “Well, when do I gotta leave?” Mom, we gotta pack up your stuff [00:20:00] tonight first thing and we gotta be gone by the night, first thing in the morning Yeah So when she comes to live with me, that’s me saying, “I love you”- Of course … instead of me putting you in a nursing home. The 

[00:20:09] Aaron: actions, the actions- Yeah … 

[00:20:10] Brother Michael: speak way louder than words.

[00:20:11] Brother Michael: So it, it was for me, I didn’t say it like that, but, um, her reaction was she would often tell me, you know, “I, I thank God for y- for, for my son.” 

[00:20:24] Mm. Mm-hmm. 

[00:20:25] Brother Michael: You know, I, the man, you know, I’m, I’m… I say, “Mom, you know, I’m, I’m not in jail, Mom. I’m not in prison. I’m not dead. I’m here taking care of you.” Yeah. And she be like, “Man.”

[00:20:34] Brother Michael: She be looking like, “Oh, yeah.” So that was- Yeah, that’s good … that was her reaction. That’s amazing. But I didn’t- It makes sense … I didn’t really, you know, say certain things to her until later on. Yeah Only because my, the, the wire. Mm-hmm. Mm. The wiring of me from- Folks … a side of my family. Absolutely Even though it’s not r- that’s, that’s not right to just be so stiff like that, we should be a little bit more softer, but the benefit to it is I’d rather show you [00:21:00] I love you- That’s right.

[00:21:00] Brother Michael: Yeah … than fake it and tell you and not really mean it. 

[00:21:03] Brad: Absolutely. 

[00:21:03] Aaron: Absolutely. 

[00:21:04] Brother Michael: The, uh, 

[00:21:05] Brad: one, one thing that you should know is that Aaron has a great… He loves his mom a lot. He loves his mom so much that his business is named after his mom. Zulai Kitchens, Zulai is his mom’s name. Wow. That’s true. That’s deep.

[00:21:16] Brad: Yeah. That’s true. That’s powerful. 

[00:21:18] Aaron: Thank you, Brad. Okay. Let’s back up, let’s back up a bit. I, I wanna back up a bit because I, I wanna know, um, how did you get into the Nation? How did you get exposed to it? Did you approach someone, someone approach you? Like, h- how did that path end up? 

[00:21:37] Brother Michael: Yeah, so my father was, um, in the Nation since we were in the, uh, in the nine- since the ’90s in, living in Los Angeles.

[00:21:47] Brother Michael: Mm. So, um, Nipsey Hussle, uh, the late great, great, uh, rapper from the s- Rollin’ 60s in LA, um, the, uh, the founder of the Marathon Clothing [00:22:00] store, he, uh, I, I, I saw him on a interview and, uh, some- somebody was… It was either him or somebody talking about him, but I remember the story going like, uh, his father, he had, uh, like two other brothers.

[00:22:15] Brother Michael: His father would take him and his brothers in a car in LA and drive to a corner and park in like a parking lot. And his father was like, “I’ma show you all what discipline looks like.” And he would pull up on the corner and look at the Fruit of Islam brothers on the corner with a Final Call newspaper- Mm-hmm

[00:22:34] Brother Michael: in the street, and show his sons that’s what discipline looks like. Mm. Mm. But while he, while he was doing that probably in the ’90s, my father would take us, me and my two brothers in the, in a car, and go to a s- a corner, and we would be in the car watching him do the same thing that Nipsey’s father was showing them that these brothers were doing.

[00:22:56] Brother Michael: Oh, 

[00:22:57] wow 

[00:22:57] Brother Michael: So he was on the opposite end of me, and I, I [00:23:00] thought that was strange. So my father was always in it. We would go over his house, he would take us to the mosque, um, he would try to share us some things, we would pray with him. So I always had, like, a picture of it. Mm-hmm. But my mother didn’t agree with Islam.

[00:23:14] Brother Michael: Mm-hmm. She was Christian. So my mother is like, “I don’t want you teaching my sons that, that, that Islam stuff,” right? Mm-hmm. And they would argue. Um, so I always had a picture of it, but how I really… And I didn’t, I didn’t, I didn’t really like listening to the, the messages because of my mom. Mm-hmm. Like, I wouldn’t have– I would be turned off by it.

[00:23:33] Brother Michael: Like, I’d be like, “I don’t, I’m not trying to hear that,” right? Um, but one day when I- And did 

[00:23:37] Aaron: you, did you, did you embrace Christianity at all? 

[00:23:41] Brother Michael: Uh, I… Coming up, I mean, you all… You know, a lot of people are taken to church. Mm-hmm. Um, so a lot of people, no matter where we go in life, we have, like, that… ‘Cause this is America, right?

[00:23:51] Brother Michael: Mm-hmm. Yeah. So you have the Christian background. Um, I really didn’t… Once I started to rebel at, like, 14 and get angry, I was just like, “I don’t believe in [00:24:00] anything.” Mm. You know, so I started- Mm … really not really believing in… ‘Cause, you know, the, the, the difference between the Nation and just, an, the Nation and just period, you know, or the Scientology and, and, and diff- It’s more science-based.

[00:24:15] Brother Michael: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And s- certain religions are more, like, emotional, faith, and belief-based. Which is nothing wrong with it. Mm-hmm. Yeah. But the science part of it is, like, that’s the reality part, right? Mm-hmm. 

[00:24:26] Yeah. 

[00:24:27] Brother Michael: So, um, I really, as a young man and a male, it’s just like I need more reality. Yeah. Mm-hmm. I need something more tangible to believe.

[00:24:35] Brother Michael: Yeah. And it wasn’t there for me in my mom’s household. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So I was just like, “Look, I’m good on that.” And then we go outside and we gotta fight. 

[00:24:42] Mm. 

[00:24:43] Brother Michael: We go out, we go to the school, and we get, you know, s- people are, if somebody picks on you, you gotta, you gotta, you gotta put your fists up. Yeah. So it’s like you’re telling me about belief and having faith, but then I walk outside, and faith is just like, “That’s cool, but, you know, you gotta, you, you gotta fight.”

[00:24:59] Brother Michael: Mm-hmm. [00:25:00] Yeah. You know what I’m saying? So it was kinda like that. When I read “From Niggas to Gods,” that woke me up. 

[00:25:06] Aaron: Mm. And that was, is that what age? 

[00:25:09] Brother Michael: 19. 

[00:25:10] Aaron: Okay. 

[00:25:11] Brother Michael: So when I read that, smoking weed and, you know, doing a bunch of things, that woke me up. Um, but then- You’re saying… Wait, 

[00:25:18] Aaron: wait, wait, wait. So you were smoking weed, then you read the book?

[00:25:20] Brother Michael: Yeah. Yeah, I was smoking weed, carrying a gun, doing different things, like, in the street. Um, just living a, a normal teen- teenage life. Um, I was in the city. We, we– My mom moved to Cincinnati, so we were in, living in that city. And I believe my brother had got robbed and pistol-whipped for one of his shoes or Timberlands.

[00:25:38] Brother Michael: Oh, wow. And I started carrying a fully loaded, uh, a loaded gun on me just to make sure, you know, nobody rob me. Um, I, e- one time I did almost get got, you know, almost got got- But I saw him coming, so I kinda like evaded the situation. Um, but you- when you’re in that life and you’re just roaming and, you know, you know, chasing after women, smoking weed, anything [00:26:00] can happen.

[00:26:00] Brother Michael: Mm-hmm. And when, when we were in LA, LA is gang culture, so you can walk past a liquor store and Mexicans will be over there. You know, Latino brothers. You know, those are our brothers and sisters, but we may not see one another as that. Yeah. And they may be gang affiliated in their gang. So they may look at you and think that you may be gang affiliated, so they’ll test you.

[00:26:22] Brother Michael: Yeah. You know what I’m saying? And so when you’re walking in that environment, anything can happen. So when I read that book, that book was like, yo, you gotta rearrange your thought pattern- Mm-hmm … because all of the stuff that you’re looking at that we experience, this is nothing but savagery. Mm-hmm. This is like besti- bestiality type of stuff, right?

[00:26:41] Brother Michael: Yeah. Niggas, right? Mm-hmm. That’s what that is, and we’re supposed to be elevating on a higher level of thought pattern. So, but the way the book put it was not in a science type of way. Mm-hmm. It was like in a simple terminology type of way. Yep. Yeah. If, if, if y- the Black woman is a B-I-T-C-H, then y- you [00:27:00] the son of one.

[00:27:00] Brother Michael: Yep. Yeah. Like, so when you- Simple. It’s so simple. Anyone can, anyone can understand that. Right, right, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So in that sense it was like, whoa, this is deep. So it caused me to start thinking. And then from there, that was the first time I had… ‘Cause his teachings were based off of the wisdom of the Nation.

[00:27:16] Brother Michael: Mm. That’s what he put at the end of the book. The author of that book? Oh, he put the- I didn’t know that. Oh, dang. Really? I didn’t know that, yeah. But at the end of the book, he credits the Nation for the teachings. Mm. But I didn’t know that, so he, ’cause he doesn’t open up, you know- Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah … like, “This is where I got it from.”

[00:27:31] Brother Michael: So by, by the end of the book you’re like, you’re like, like, “This is deep. I wanna learn more.” Yeah. You know, “This is powerful.” Like I wanna… Where, where can I study more? And my stepmother was the one who gave me the book in LA. Wow. I was, uh, working. Uh, my dad was trying to get me to go to the mosque, and I was like, “Nah, I’m good on that,” you know.

[00:27:50] Brother Michael: I’m good. You know, we doing music. I’m– My brother’s on the radio station. We in the studio. We, I’m going back and forth from LA to Long Beach. You know, I’m smoking weed, and I’m like, “Nah, I’m, I’m good [00:28:00] on that.” Mm-hmm. And so I was working a job at a parking lot, and I was a valet parking attendant. I mean, um, that’s where I got my first ride in Bentley, Ferrari.

[00:28:10] Brother Michael: I mean, I would take… I, you would drop your car off- Yeah, for sure … and I’d take it for a joyride. Yeah. Um, and it was dope. So, um, th- they never knew that. They never knew that. Yeah, no, of course. We got that. We got it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But they, you know, they let me take it for a ride ’cause it’s just like, “Yeah, man, here’s the keys.

[00:28:24] Brother Michael: I gotta go handle some business, so I’ll take your Bentley for a joyride real quick-” Yeah … “before I park it.” Yeah. And so, um, I drove a bunch of different cars, so I liked that job, man. It was cool. And, uh, ’cause I, I can drive a stick. My, my dad taught me how to drive a stick since I was like 15 years old.

[00:28:38] Brother Michael: Mm-hmm. So, um, they, the, the boss was like, “Hey, um, you’re gonna be working on the seventh floor. You’re gonna replace-” uh, a brother from South America, and he was going on vacation for a week, so I need you to, like, work down there, but you gonna be sitting, and you just gonna replace him.” So I said, “Okay.” But I asked my stepmom, I’m not a book reader, I’m like, [00:29:00] um, Miss Sh- I called her Miss Shanti, “Miss Shanti, um, I, I gotta, I gotta go do this different thing at the job.

[00:29:05] Brother Michael: Do you got any, anything I could read? Like, anything, ’cause I’ma be sitting down.” So 

[00:29:09] Aaron: you asked her. I asked her, yeah. Mm. 

[00:29:12] Brother Michael: I asked her, and uh, she was the one. My dad couldn’t get to me. She was the one. I don’t know what she was thinking. Wow. Yeah. She didn’t give me any of the nation’s, like, deep literature.

[00:29:23] Brother Michael: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. ‘Cause they had all of it. 

[00:29:25] Mm-hmm. 

[00:29:25] Brother Michael: And the morning that I’m rushing out, “Miss Shanti,” Mom, knocking on the door, “I gotta go. I gotta go catch this bus.” This is Adams and Crenshaw in LA. And, uh, she was like, “Okay, yeah, give me a sec.” And she comes out, and she hands me the book, boom, just like that.

[00:29:41] Brother Michael: And I look at it, and I say, “Hmm.” And it kinda made me do like, like, dang, that’s a deep- Oh. Mm. Yeah … that’s a deep title. Yeah. Like, like this is strange, right? ‘Cause I’m thinking she’s getting ready to give me some Islam s- something, right? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. That I, that I never read before, and I- Yeah … didn’t wanna read.

[00:29:56] Brother Michael: Yeah, yeah. So I’m looking at it like, “Hmm.” So I threw it in my book, my book bag, [00:30:00] and I, uh, and I took off. 

[00:30:01] Yeah. 

[00:30:02] Brother Michael: And when I took off, I, uh, got on the bus, and I literally never… I listened to music on the bus. Mm-hmm. I never read it on the bus. Yeah. I only read it for what I needed it for. Yeah. Like, if it really, if it was, like, a book on the sky is blue-

[00:30:16] Brother Michael: I would’ve just read it at, what I needed it for. Like, I would’ve sat down. I need it ’cause I was sitting down. Yeah. Yeah. When my, my other position, I’m parking cars, like, I’m moving. You’re running. Yeah. This one is just boring. 

[00:30:27] Mm-hmm. 

[00:30:27] Brother Michael: So I sat down, and I read the book, and I read it every day for five days, sitting down during a eight-hour shift.

[00:30:35] Brother Michael: And by, on that fifth day, the fifth day, I was woke up. Wow. Like, my w- woken up like I had a- And on the fifth- … awakening … day he 

[00:30:42] Brad: awoke. Yeah, so 

[00:30:43] Brother Michael: on the fifth day, I was, like, in really deep thought. Yeah. Like, really, really deep thought. And I came home, and I told my stepmom, ’cause it’s the weekend now, I was like, “I read that book.”

[00:30:53] Brother Michael: She was like, “You didn’t read that book.” Ooh. I said, “Yeah, I read the book.” I said, “I read the book.” She was like, “Tell me something that you learned [00:31:00] in it.” And I gave her a principle from the book. Yeah. And she said, “Dang, you really did read the book.” And I was like, “Yeah.” Not the, not the son of the- Wait, which one, which one did-

[00:31:07] Brother Michael: was it the son of the- What did you tell her? Wait, do you remember what you said? Um, the, the principle, uh, was, um, about slavery. Mm. And how, you know, uh, you can chain- you can be in physical slavery, but mental slavery is worse than physical slavery. Mm. 

[00:31:24] Yeah. 

[00:31:25] Brother Michael: So, um, and the Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught us that, that we were physically in chain during the transatlantic slave trade.

[00:31:33] Brother Michael: Yeah. But mental slavery is wor- worse than that. Mm-hmm. It’s worse. Because you’re no longer a physical slave, but you’re still- Like we still have all of this violence in our community against one another- Mm-hmm … because of our mind And it’s not as plain to see. Because of our mind. That’s, 

[00:31:48] Aaron: yeah, that’s the, the thing.

[00:31:49] Aaron: The physical 

[00:31:49] Brother Michael: one, you can 

[00:31:50] Aaron: see it. 

[00:31:50] Brother Michael: The physical, yeah. You can identify it. The physical one. So you can, you can do something. This mental and spiritual- Yeah … slavery is way far more worse than that. So when I told her that, she never heard me [00:32:00] talk like that. Yeah. Like, I never talk… I’m smoking weed. I don’t talk like that, right?

[00:32:03] Brother Michael: Mm. So she never heard me break that down like that. Yeah. And when I did it, she was like, “Yeah, you did read that book.” And I said, “I wanna, I wanna learn more.” Yeah. And from there, I started studying. So then you went, then you went to the mosque. Right. And things. ‘Cause I was, I was… What L. Ron Hubbard said, the way you get to people is you gotta get people to read books.

[00:32:22] Brother Michael: That’s right. That’s right. Yeah, absolutely. So a lot of people who- Mm-hmm … disseminate their religion, they’re always trying to teach and talk to people. Yeah. They’re always trying to teach, teach, and talk. Let me tell you about it. Tell you about it, right. Yeah. Well, you gotta read the Bible. Yeah. Well, the Bible is great.

[00:32:35] Brother Michael: The Holy Quran is great. Yeah. These are great books, but people get mad at the Nation, like other Muslim communities, because we have what is called The Final Call newspaper. They don’t understand, well, that’s not the Quran. But people who are blind, deaf, and dumb, they’re not just gonna jump. They’re on a grade.

[00:32:52] Brother Michael: You gotta get people on a gradient or a step-by-step ladder. Mm-hmm. Yeah. You’re trying to get somebody who smokes weed, carries a gun, gang bang, [00:33:00] or chases women in the strip club, throwing bottles, you know, whatever, whatever we do- Mm-hmm … in life, right? Mm-hmm. Wiling out, you know. Mm-hmm. Sleeping with mo- promiscuous.

[00:33:09] Brother Michael: You’re trying to get this person that’s thinking about sex, sex, and drugs every day, and get them to a highly spiritual level- Yeah … and read the whole Holy Quran, and be sitting there meditating the next day. “Mm, I’m no longer a slave.” Yeah, 

[00:33:21] yeah, yeah, yeah. It 

[00:33:22] Brother Michael: doesn’t work. Yeah, yeah. You have to get them on a level.

[00:33:24] Yeah. 

[00:33:24] Brother Michael: So The Final Call is a, is a thing that we can get people news, information, and then there’s spiritual wisdom lectures that are transcribed in the paper. And inside the paper, they’ll read a bunch of different things, and it leads them to a spiritual message, and the spiritual message is not 15 pages.

[00:33:41] Brother Michael: It’s, like, two or three. Yeah. Yeah. One page. Something quick. Yeah. Right? Uh, L. Ron said that a few misunderstood words is better than no words at all. That’s 

[00:33:51] Aaron: right. Wow. You never, 

[00:33:52] Brother Michael: you 

[00:33:52] Aaron: don’t find another one. 

[00:33:53] Brother Michael: It’s 

[00:33:54] Aaron: the intro routes. That’s right. That’s correct. It’s 

[00:33:55] Brother Michael: the, it’s the intro routes. You read something.

[00:33:57] Brother Michael: So a few… It’s when people go through the intro routes [00:34:00] at s- at, at- Yeah … at, at the church. Yeah. So, ’cause he addressed that. A few misunderstood words- Yeah … in your introduction or- Yeah … whatever you getting somebody- Yeah … is better than no words at all. Yeah. So it’s better for me- Wow … to give you the paper- Yeah

[00:34:14] Brother Michael: and give you a book- Yeah … so that you can read a book. If I can get you to read a book- You may have the mis… You’re not gonna understand everything- You won’t … but whatever you understand in there- Mm-hmm … that’s better than me giving you a full-blown lecture on the street trying to get you to understand everything all at once.

[00:34:30] Brother Michael: Yep. And so people don’t understand that. Yeah. So the book, Knock the Gods, was that for me. Yeah. Mm. So that was the quickener to my thought, and when I read the book, I said, “Yeah, I wanna learn more.” That’s amazing. Wow. That’s amazing. You know, 

[00:34:43] Brad: on 

[00:34:43] Brother Michael: the, 

[00:34:44] Brad: on the point of the, like, mental slavery idea and concept, I feel like it was probably a couple years ago, Kanye West said something about this, and he got destroyed in the media.

[00:34:55] Brad: You know what I’m talking about? Yeah, yeah. I… When I heard what he was saying, obviously I didn’t say anything [00:35:00] publicly about it, so I’m like- Right … “Ugh.” But actually, what he was saying, I thought, it… Well, unless I was misunderstanding it, I thought he was actually going down a very similar train of thought to what you just described.

[00:35:11] Brad: Uh-huh. Is that, is that right? Do you remember that? 

[00:35:13] Brother Michael: Uh, when he was- Did you, or did you hear about that? … talking about the, the, the controllers of the music industry? The ones who control the music industry or- Yeah … the slavery in music and the contra- He was on the Drink Champs? 

[00:35:24] Brad: It probably was that, yeah.

[00:35:25] Brad: Okay. What did you say? The Drink Champs? 

[00:35:27] Brother Michael: Drink Champs ep- uh, it’s called Drink, Drink Champs, uh, podcast. Podcast, yeah. Yeah. That probably was what… I just heard a soundbite of it. A soundbite. And he was talking about- Do you remember, like, what, what, like- Mm … some of the- 

[00:35:38] Brad: I, what, what I remember him saying is that slavery really was a mental situation.

[00:35:43] Brother Michael: Oh, I remember that- And they were like- … that controversy. Yeah. Yeah. It was… People were mad because they thought he was disrespecting slavery. 

[00:35:49] Brad: Yeah, and, like, people were basically like, “He’s saying slavery never happened.” 

[00:35:54] Brother Michael: Yeah, I remember that. Yeah. I don’t remember the… I’m trying to think. I think he was saying something like, um, [00:36:00] slavery wasn’t as…

[00:36:03] Brother Michael: Maybe slavery wasn’t as bad because mental slavery is worse than physical. I think that is what he was saying. That’s what I’m gonna say maybe. Something like- Yeah, I think that’s exactly what he was saying. It, it was either that or something else. Yeah. But people felt offended. Um, yeah. It’s, it’s, um, the, the, the, um, the honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan and his teacher, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, said that, um, “I didn’t raise you to be mockers of another people.”

[00:36:30] Mm. 

[00:36:31] Brother Michael: So whatever knowledge we learn, whatever history we learn, it’s not to go out and, and laugh at other people and make mockery of other people. Mm. It’s science, it’s history, it’s learning the history so you can correct now and make a better future for tomorrow. So, um, a lot of times we get conscious in the commun- in the Black community, we’ll get conscious, and then we’ll become super political.

[00:36:57] Brother Michael: Oh. Really political. 

[00:36:59] Yeah. 

[00:36:59] Brother Michael: [00:37:00] Right? “Uh, man, you know, yeah, man, we gotta fight the power, man. Fight the power.” And it’s just like, yeah, but the greatest enemy is within myself. 

[00:37:07] Mm. 

[00:37:09] Brother Michael: That’s what the Nation of Islam- Mm … uh, we, we, we have a strong message, but- The core message is clean up your neighborhood- That’s right

[00:37:20] Brother Michael: and make your community- Yeah … a safe and decent place to live. Yeah. That was the, that’s the core of the message. All of the other teachings are really, really medicines to get… Like, to handle certain things. Yeah. Right? For certain people. But it, it, it is put in context, right? It has to be put in context.

[00:37:40] Brother Michael: For example, um, uh, uh, uh, the honorable Elijah Muhammad asked one time, “Well, who’s responsible, the clay or the potter?” So in other words, slavery happened to us, but God is the one who allowed it to happen. Mm. So why did he allow it to happen? Mm. [00:38:00] See? So when we wake up, we like, “Yeah, slavery is deep, man. We need reparations,” and boom, boom, boom.

[00:38:05] Brother Michael: And rightfully so. Rightfully so. But is it for us to go out and get angry and do to people what was done to us? Or is it to go out and say, and ask God, “Why did you permit slavery?” Right? “Why did you allow it to happen, and what’s the purpose of it?” Yeah. Mm. “And what can we do to kinda, like, look at the purpose?”

[00:38:28] Brother Michael: Yeah. And so, um, the message of the Minister is along that lines, even though people hear him talk about a lot of different things, but, um, there is a core message in the Minister’s word and the Nation of Islam’s teachings that makes Black people more responsible. 

[00:38:46] Aaron: Yes, sir. That’s beautiful. 

[00:38:47] Brother Michael: It’s a message of responsibility.

[00:38:49] Brother Michael: Yeah. And responsibility, it just means you’re able to respond to a problem, and the greatest problem that we have is ourselves. Mm-hmm. With sla- we, we can… We look at slavery to [00:39:00] say, “Look at what it did to us.” Mm-hmm. So now… And then look at what we’re doing to ourselves, and we have to put a stop to that, right?

[00:39:08] Brother Michael: And then once we put a stop to what we’re doing to self, then we can come out and say, “I’m a civilized human being. Now I can come to the table with the Japanese, the Chinese, with the Caucasian, with Muslims, with Christians.” Now we can come to the table with the whole human family and say, “Listen, uh, this is what we wanna add to the onward march of civilization.

[00:39:27] Brother Michael: We have scientists, we have architects, we have engineers, we have our community.” Mm-hmm. “We have this, we have that. You know, we would like to help you all with this. We have science and medicine, and we have… We’ve found a cure for this. Maybe we can help you all over here.” That’s what the message of the Nation of Islam is really solely really the core message.

[00:39:45] Brother Michael: That’s what it’s about. Wow. 

[00:39:47] Aaron: Yeah. And, and I wanna add to here, so if you guys wanna hear, uh, Final Call News, uh, there is a, a link we’re gonna put down below to the Million Man March pledge. Yeah. Um, and you’ll see that’s on finalcall.com, [00:40:00] I think is the website. But it’ll be down in the links. And, um, that’s what I’ve seen over and over, uh, Minister Farrakhan talking about building, talking about respect, talking about, um, music- Using music to uplift, and I think, I think you’re doing a fantastic job- Yeah

[00:40:17] Aaron: with that message because the transition, at least that you, you briefly talked about here of what you were before and now your opening rap is just an example of, like, taking and just making it the thing to do, to be responsible, to be caring, to be respectful- Yeah … to build- Yeah … and to, and to be a father- Yeah

[00:40:37] Aaron: and to be a r- responsible, uh, contributing member of society, which I think all religions have that as a goal. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Any true religion has the goal of bringing people to be more civilized- 

[00:40:51] Brother Michael: Yeah … 

[00:40:52] Aaron: more godlike, more like more than just a savage. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Right? Mm-hmm. [00:41:00] Being higher, and so that’s all that I– that’s what I’ve seen in, in, in the teachings, um, as an outsider.

[00:41:05] Aaron: I’m, I mean, I’m- Right, right, right. Yeah … I’m not a member, but- Yeah, yeah … a question. I’m, I’m not Black. 

[00:41:09] Brother Michael: Okay. 

[00:41:10] Aaron: Could, could I become a member, or is it, like, not only Black people? Like, actually, I don’t know. If I want- For the Nation? … if I… I’m not saying I wanna be a member, I’m just saying, like, 

[00:41:17] Brother Michael: how is that- Um- And I’m less Black than Aaron, so what about me?

[00:41:20] Brother Michael: There, there’s a tenet on the back of “The Final Call.” It’s a principle, um,

[00:41:28] Brother Michael: it’s, uh, in the back of what the Mus- what the Muslims want and what the Muslims believe. Um, and it says here, “We believe further, and lastly, that Allah is God, and besides him there is no God, and he will bring about a universal government of peace wherein we all can live in peace together.” Mm. So, um, the, uh…

[00:41:49] Brother Michael: And then in another, uh, principle, “We believe in the resurrection of the dead, not in physical resurrection, but in mental resurrection. We believe that the so-called Negroes are most in need of [00:42:00] mental resurrection.” Mm. Um, “Furthermore, we believe we are the people of God’s choice. Um, we believe in the resurrection of the righteous.”

[00:42:08] Brother Michael: There’s, like, principles. So, “We believe in the resurrection of the righteous.” Mm-hmm. Any human being that desires good, righteousness, peace, right? Any human being. The, the Nation is a representation of that person. Mm. So, the Nation is really a government, um, universal. But, you know, God talks that he’s gonna set up a kingdom on Earth.

[00:42:33] Brother Michael: Mm-hmm. The kingdom- Mm-hmm … in, in so many words. Yeah. So, but it’s not like, um, nobody can be in the Nation. The, y- there’s the mosque and then there’s the Nation. So, the mosque is definitely, like, you know, you’re joining something and you’re signing up for, like, to give your life- Mm-hmm … to this cause. Mm-hmm.

[00:42:50] Brother Michael: Like, dedicating your whole life forever- Mm-hmm … to the cause, right? Mm-hmm. Um, to… It’s, the mosque is like an incubator of future leaders. Mm. Leaders in- [00:43:00] this developmental stage and program. But the Nation is a, is a, a universal, um, government of peace wherein we all can live in peace together, and we believe in the resurrection of the righteous, period, no matter what, where they’re at on the planet.

[00:43:15] Brother Michael: Mm-hmm. Right? So that’s what the Nation of Islam really represents, and the end goal is to, is to heal people and save people throughout the entire planet. Mm-hmm. Um, and it’s not that, you know, uh, my brother can be wicked one day and be righteous the next. That’s right. So it, it’s not like, “Okay, these people are doing evil.

[00:43:36] Brother Michael: They’re in, in China, and they’re doing evil. To hell with them.” Mm-hmm. No, it’s just like, well, how do you get people from evil to good? You gotta give them a word. You gotta give them a message. You gotta get them to read. A book. Yeah. You gotta get them to see something different. So, um, that really is just saying the righteous, meaning that anybody that desires good, peace, and righteousness, they can be a part of the Nation of Islam.

[00:43:59] Brother Michael: Oh, [00:44:00] wow. 

[00:44:01] Brad: Okay, so- So basically, ba- 

[00:44:02] Brother Michael: basically- Yeah … non-Blacks are invited. Yeah. So, so you can come to Saviors’ Day. Okay. Um, you can study the teachings online. Yeah. The teach, the teachings… Like, the Nation is not a cult. Yeah. Uh, we had a, um- Cult, 

[00:44:16] Brad: cult defined as, by the 

[00:44:17] Brother Michael: way, a closed group. Closed group. Right.

[00:44:19] Brother Michael: That’s the true definition- So it’s- … of an actual cult. It’s not a c- our teachings are online. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s a, it’s like, you know, we have certain private meet, but every organization, every- Of course … every business has private meetings, you know? That’s right. Of course, of course. Right. Like Amazon has executive meetings.

[00:44:33] Brother Michael: They don’t invite all Amazon employees even- That’s right. No. Of course, of course, of course … to their executive meetings, right? They… I can… You can be the biggest Amazon, “Hey, man, I,” or, “I spend a billion dollars at Amazon,” right? Mm-hmm. Yeah. You’re not gonna be invited into- That’s right. You’re not invited

[00:44:45] Brother Michael: the Amazon executive meeting- Of course. Of course … with Jeff Bezos. Of 

[00:44:47] Brad: course. 

[00:44:47] Brother Michael: So everybody has their 

[00:44:49] Brad: core- Hell, you can, you can be, you can own a billion dollars of Amazon stock- Right. Stock … and you still won’t be invited. 

[00:44:53] Brother Michael: Exactly. Yeah. So everybody- That’s right … has private things to deal with their own- Yep

[00:44:58] Brother Michael: internal- Yep … organization [00:45:00] policies and whatnot, but in terms of the Amazon family- Mm-hmm … that’s anybody can be a part of the Amazon fam- Mm-hmm … and our teachings are online. Mm-hmm. Um, I had a Jewish, uh, Scientology lady. She was Jewish. 

[00:45:10] Mm-hmm. 

[00:45:11] Brother Michael: And, uh, she was like, “When is the next time the Minister… When, when is he speaking?”

[00:45:15] Brother Michael: And we told her when he was, when he was speaking, and she says, “I watch the Minister every time he speaks.” Mm-hmm. So, I mean, his… The teachings are already in every household. Whoever wants to pull it down, they can pull it down- Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm … study it, order a book, learn it, practice it, and be like, “I don’t have a problem with that.”

[00:45:30] Yeah. 

[00:45:30] Brad: Yeah. Brilliant. Thank you. And so how, how did Scientology become involved? How did you find Scientology? 

[00:45:38] Brother Michael: Through Minister Farrakhan. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Can you talk us through how, how that happened? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So in 20, uh, 11, um… No, in 2010, my brother called me. My younger brother called me in LA. “Yo.” Yo, you gotta look into the, the Church of Scientology stuff, man.

[00:45:55] Brother Michael: Minister Farrakhan just spoke in Hollywood. Bro, I’m telling you, bro, this the [00:46:00] next thing, man. You gotta… I’m like, and I’m in The Nation, he’s not. Like, he… Well, I’m, we’re in The Nation- What? Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on, hold on. But he’s- What? I’m registered. Like, I’m registered- Yeah … in the, in the- You’re initiated.

[00:46:12] Brother Michael: Well, it’s like the Sea Org and the staff member. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right? You have Sea Org, you have staff members, so you have, like, a dedicated group that’s dedicated 24/7- Yeah, yeah … seven days a week. Yeah, yeah. 365 days a year. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you have just regular people that just help out, you know?

[00:46:26] Brother Michael: Yeah. But they work, but they’re not like- So which, so what part are you? I’m, like, more so dedicated every day. The top. Yeah. Is that, uh- FOI. Are you part… FOI. Yeah, FOI. Okay, so you’re FOI. FOI, yeah, yeah. But I mean, I’m just saying, like, you’re supposed to be- Wait, what does, 

[00:46:36] Aaron: what does Fe- FOI stand for? 

[00:46:38] Brother Michael: Fruit of Islam.

[00:46:38] Brother Michael: Fruit of Islam. Fruit of Islam. Okay, got it. Yeah, um- 

[00:46:40] Aaron: And this is for… Is that a for life thing? Yeah. Okay. 

[00:46:43] Brother Michael: Yeah, yeah. You, once you, once you… I mean, you can take a break. You know, you take… Like, right now I have my mom’s situation- Sure. Yeah … um, you know. It, it, it- Leave of absence type … you have, yeah, certain things.

[00:46:53] Brother Michael: Yeah. Okay, okay. Um, but you’re supposed to always have it. Like, you’re never, like… It, it’s, it’s… [00:47:00] Anybody… It’s freedom, justice, and equality, so you- Of course … can leave whenever you want. Of course, of course. But if you leave, it’s consequences. Of course. Yeah, yeah. And the consequences are simply you gave your word.

[00:47:08] Brother Michael: Correct. You signed up. Yeah. Somebody gave you some wisdom and knowledge. You gave your word. Well, what kind of consequences are you talking about? Well, every time you see somebody suffering, you’re gonna feel bad because you’re not doing nothing about it. That’s right. Yeah. Right? So, some- so my brother i- hasn’t signed up like that, but he studies, so he’s- Yeah

[00:47:25] Brother Michael: like more like he’s in it. So he’s a member. He’s a member. So he’s a member. Yeah, he’s- Okay, okay … just like anybody who studies and believes in it. So he’s calling me, “I just left this meeting. The minister spoke to these, all these white folk, Church of Scientology. Bro, you gotta go check out this book, Dianetics.”

[00:47:41] Brother Michael: And I’m, I’m inside feeling, feeling mad because I’m like, “Bro, you telling me to do something that I should be telling you to do.” Oh, yeah. Yeah. “Because I’m on the inside, and you, like… ” You know. Yeah. So I was just like, “Yeah, yeah. You know, I, I mean, I’ma, I’ma hear about it, I’m sure.” You know, I was kinda feeling like that.

[00:47:57] Brother Michael: So then I went downtown to go check it out, [00:48:00] and I walked past the building and I saw a Church of Scientology building, and Dianetics was in the window. So I went inside and I was like, “Um, yeah, the, it… I’m just interested and curious of, of, like, what can I do. Like, there’s something I can… Like a course or a book I can read?”

[00:48:15] Yeah. 

[00:48:15] Brother Michael: And, uh, I remember the staff member, she was just like, “Yeah, I was at Saver’s Day. Are you on… Do you know what course the minister wants you to do?” And I’m like, “Well, not really.” So I left and- Yeah … and kept going home. Uh, staying downtown at the time, and the minister was telling us, “I don’t want you all rushing down there.

[00:48:36] Brother Michael: We, we’re gonna roll this out.” Yeah. ‘Cause he didn’t want us, like, jumping into anything. Like you go… So the first thing he wanted us to do was the Dianetics. Mm-hmm. Yeah. That was the first thing he wanted us to be introduced to. But if you go down there on your own and you go ahead of what he’s telling us to do- Mm

[00:48:52] Brother Michael: you can kinda, like, do something and, and then you can get turned away and say, “This is not really something that we should be doing.” Mm-hmm. Yeah. So he wanted us to [00:49:00] follow chain of command and- Go t- and go together. Right, and go together, right. So the first wave was all of the, uh, the top officials and executives of the Nation of Islam, they went- Mm-hmm

[00:49:11] Brother Michael: and studied first. Yeah. Then he opened up the second wave for a general body of believers, and I was in that body. I went down. I was having anger issues in some of my relationships. Yeah. Um, my mom’s relationship wasn’t that great, and I watched the whole Dianetics. They tra- fa- played some chapters from how to y- how to, uh, how to use Dianetics.

[00:49:35] Brother Michael: How to use that next book. Mm. DVD. And they, they… Then they played the testimonies at the end, and the whole time, I’m, like, focused the whole time. Um, and during the testimony, one girl said, uh, that, “I had a session and I had some therapy from something that happened to me, and I went back in the womb of my mom.”

[00:49:56] Mm. “And 

[00:49:57] Brother Michael: I came out of the session and I called my [00:50:00] mom, and I said, ‘Mom, you the best mom I’ve ever had.’” And when she said that, tears rolled down my face- Wow. Wow … thinking about my mom. Oh my God. And when I heard that, I said, “This must be something that I was looking for.” Mm. So I ASAP connected it to things that I was going through.

[00:50:18] Brother Michael: Yeah. And I said… They said, “So who… Is anybody here that wants to…” I said, “Yep,” like that. Yeah. And, uh, a brother named Fernando came over, and he was like, “Yeah, so you wanna do the, you wanna do the, this, the, the whole course?” I just, “Yeah, let me just study the book, um, and the course.” “Well, how, how much, how much do I…”

[00:50:36] Brother Michael: “2150.” I pulled… I had $21 in my pocket. Gave him the money. I read the book, and, uh, that’s how we got introduced. Um, w- when I was reading the book, I had to keep flipping back to the front ’cause I couldn’t believe who the, who the author was. Mm. ‘Cause it was in agreement with everything that… A lot of things that we study in the Nation of Islam, the science part of it, is all in [00:51:00] Dianetics, and I didn’t know that.

[00:51:01] Brother Michael: Wow. Wow. So I had to kept flipping to the front, ’cause I didn’t really… It’s not that I didn’t believe in L. Ron Hubbard, I just wanted to second-guess like, “Who wrote this book again?” Yeah. I kept doing that. 

[00:51:13] Brad: Becau- because it aligned so closely. It aligned, yeah. It 

[00:51:15] Brother Michael: aligned, yeah. Yeah. It was ali- it was in alignment.

[00:51:17] Brother Michael: Um, ’cause the minister said that he hates spiritual c- uh, uh, intellectual cowardice. Mm. He can’t stand that, you know? People who can’t merge science with religious principles- Mm … and be able to blend the two, right? The Nation does that all day. We, you know, yeah, you know, uh, Go- Jesus said he came to give us life and give us life more abundantly.

[00:51:41] Brother Michael: The Nation of Islam says if you don’t change your diet and fix it, you’re gonna pass before your time. So how are you gonna have life more abundantly if you don’t eat right? That’s 

[00:51:50] Aaron: right. 

[00:51:50] Brother Michael: Mm. So it’s like science to it, right? It’s like, okay, this is a principle, this is truth, but then the, the demonstration of it is change your [00:52:00] diet, fix your diet, correct your diet- Yeah

[00:52:02] Brother Michael: in order to have abundant life, right? 

[00:52:04] Yeah. 

[00:52:04] Brother Michael: So, um, so when I read the book, the next thing I did was the, the auditor’s course, ’cause I was a believer, and then I got my first session, um, in Dianetics, and my first auditing session was when I was almost thrown out of the, a moving car on the highway, sitting next to my little brother, who only wanted the seatbelt around the waist, and he always hated the strap around my- Mm-hmm.

[00:52:29] Brother Michael: Yeah … chest. And I was fiddling with the door, and my dad, he’s from Trinidad, they drive… Trinidad, anybody– I don’t know if it’s just Ja- Jamaicans, Tri- people from the Caribbean, but he drive crazy. Yes. So he’s, like, driving crazy on the highway, you know, boom, boom, boom, and I’m playing with the door, and the door flies open on the highway- Yeah

[00:52:48] Brother Michael: and my face is underneath the car looking at the highway. It’s a near-death experience. Wow. ‘Cause had my dad not yanked me back- Mm-hmm … and I would’ve fell out, either I would’ve died, gotten [00:53:00] hit- You’re… Yeah … or got severely injured. 

[00:53:01] Brad: Yeah, yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. You’re not in a good way. 

[00:53:03] Brother Michael: That was my first… That was my, uh, I think my second auditing session.

[00:53:08] Brother Michael: And, and specifically what you’re saying is- Therapy … that’s the incident that came up- Yeah, that was the incident … that you handled. Yeah. That I, that I handled. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. So after those, those first two, uh, therapy sessions, I was a believer in that. I was like, “This work.” Yeah. Yeah, I, I was… ASAP was like, “Yeah, this work.”

[00:53:24] Brother Michael: Mm-hmm. You know, ’cause it was sci- s- because we’re not… The thing, the thing about it is the minister, the minister is the most out of the religious community, even political people, I don’t know a, a more universal man than Minister Farrakhan. Mm-hmm. Like, I don’t know, personally. Because a lot of religious people who have their flock and community- Mm-hmm

[00:53:45] Brother Michael: they’re not crossing into another man’s religion- Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm … studying another man’s stuff- Work. Mm-hmm … and saying, “We gonna use this in our organization.” Like it’s a part of us, like it’s always been a part. And it’s just like the m- the minister was deep [00:54:00] because he was giving us, like, the understanding of our mission, and, like, some of these principles, he’s giving it to us, and to me it makes sense.

[00:54:09] Brother Michael: ‘Cause I went to college, you know what I’m saying? I did art, I did, uh, engineering and, and- Mm-hmm … and I have an associate’s degree in that. And, uh, you know, I never asked none of my instructors, um… all my instructors were, were, were white. I never asked them, “Hey, man, uh, do you believe in Barack Obama?” Or, “Do you believe in Nelson Mandela?”

[00:54:28] Brother Michael: Or, “Do you believe in Africa?” Mm-hmm. I don’t care I don’t care what you believe in, I’m here to get a degree. Yeah. And if, and if I need some tutoring, I’m like, “Hey man, can I get some tutoring? I can’t, I can’t get this thing right.” I’m gonna ask my question. In college, when you’re going to get trained and taught by people, you’re not there to challenge the instructors.

[00:54:47] Brother Michael: Yeah. You’re there to learn- Mm-hmm … and get something so you can better your life. Yeah. And it would be foolish to challenge an instructor ’cause you can get a failing grade. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So, um, the minister is always teaching us, [00:55:00] like, when you go out to get knowledge, you know, go out and be a student and be a humble student to learn.

[00:55:06] Brother Michael: Mm. And allow life to teach us. So that’s what Dianetics was doing. And when I studied it, um, I told the course instructors when I was on my HDA studying- Hubbard Dianetics Auditor, by the way … Hubbard Dianetics Auditor, studying to become an auditor in Dianetics. I said, “Man, when I was 18, man, I seen a, a billboard and a advertisement at a bus stop, and I seen this book, ‘Dianetics.’”

[00:55:32] Brother Michael: And I told him, I said, “Man, I s- I seen that book,” and I was just so turned off. And I said, “Man, everybody’s just out here trying to get some money, man. This is crazy.” And they started laughing. The book… The, the… ‘Cause it was like modern science and mental health, and I was just turned off by it, right? Boom.

[00:55:47] Brother Michael: Yeah. But I had no knowledge, no wisdom, no religious other than the church, smoking weed, and so it was just that. The minister was the one in the teachings and training of us as [00:56:00] Muslims, Prophet Muhammad, uh, and I said this the other day and I’ll say this right now. Mm-hmm. Prophet Muhammad said, uh, that there’s a hadith, and a hadith just means, um, sayings of the prophet.

[00:56:10] Brother Michael: Mm-hmm. 

[00:56:10] Mm-hmm. 

[00:56:11] Brother Michael: Um, uh, one learned man is harder on the enemy of God or the devil than a thousand ignorant worshipers. Mm. Wow. And, uh- 

[00:56:23] Brad: Let me see if I got that. So one learned man- Learned … is harder on the devil than a thousand ignorant 

[00:56:27] Brother Michael: worshipers. Than a thousand ignorant worshipers. Mm. So you have a lot of 

[00:56:32] Aaron: ignorant worshipers everywhere.

[00:56:34] Aaron: Yeah. One learned- And these are worshipers, worshipers of God, 

[00:56:37] Brother Michael: not worshipers of the devil. You’re talking about- Yeah, these are worshipers of God. Yeah. Mm. Yeah. One learned man- Wow. Mm … learned, educated- Yeah … wise, studied, a student. One learned man is harder on Satan than 1,000 ignorant worshipers praying all day and every day.

[00:56:53] Brother Michael: Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Right? Why? Because he said that, um, you know, a Muslim should be in the search of [00:57:00] knowledge and in the path of knowledge from the cradle to the grave and e- even if you have to go to far off China. So we have these principles in religion, but people pick and choose what they wanna believe.

[00:57:12] Brother Michael: You know, when you sit down with a Muslim, uh, a Scientologist was telling me this the other day. They were, um… She was married to a, uh, I guess a Muslim before, and we were having a conversation. And I said, um, you know, you know, “I didn’t really know how to handle him ’cause he didn’t really believe in-” uh, Scientology, you know, I was brand new.

[00:57:32] Brother Michael: And, uh, I said, “You know, I was talking to a Muslim one day, a Muslim brother from another community, and we were talking about Dianetics.” He was like, “Nah, all I need is the Sunnah, the Prophet Muhammad’s way.” Uh, the Sunnah, his way, um, or studying, like, the way he did things, right? “All I need is the Sunnah and the Quran, nothing else.”

[00:57:53] Brother Michael: So I said, “You don’t, you don’t subscribe to nothing else?” “All I… Yeah, brother, all I need is the Sunnah and the Quran.” So I [00:58:00] said, “If your s- if your nephew wanted to learn how to lay concrete- Mm-hmm … and pour concrete, you would tell him the only thing he needed to study was the Sunnah and the Quran in order to pour concrete?”

[00:58:12] Brother Michael: Guess what he said? He said, “Yeah.” Oh. “Yeah, brother, that 

[00:58:16] make sense.” No, no, no. Oh, man. It doesn’t make sense. Yeah. And I was telling 

[00:58:19] Brother Michael: her, I said, “See, the Minister gives me this un- Wow. I get this understanding- That’s the worshiper … from Minister Farrakhan.” I was just gonna say, yeah. It’s the worshiper. Yeah. But even Muslims and Christians, they have these teachings and principles from Jesus- Mm-hmm

[00:58:33] Brother Michael: to Abraham to Muhammad, but you gotta understand it. Yeah. So the Minister is the one that gave us this understanding. Mm-hmm. And I’m, and I’m talking to him, and I said, “Brother,” and it’s really, really hypocritical. Mm-hmm. It’s very hypocritical. You have Muslims all throughout the world that go to college- Yeah.

[00:58:50] Brother Michael: Mm-hmm … and study all kinda degrees. Oh, that’s true. “Oh, that L. Ron Hubbard, nah. That, that na-na-nah. That final call, nah.” But you just went and [00:59:00] studied at this university in California. Mm-hmm. How do you know the owner of the university- Correct … is not a pedophile? 

[00:59:06] Aaron: W- c-correct. What did you- How do you- What were their teachings?

[00:59:08] Aaron: Who even put the curriculum? How, how do you know- Yeah. You can’t see it … how do you know the dean- Who wrote the textbooks? How do you know the 

[00:59:11] Brother Michael: dean- Yeah … is not the biggest… Well, how do you know the dean looks at Muslims in the Middle East and is burning a Holy Quran in the house? Mm-hmm. Mm. You don’t know that.

[00:59:21] Brother Michael: Mm-hmm. But you’re not there. You don’t care about that. Mm-hmm. You’re there to get a degree in medicine so you can go back and practice medicine, and Muslims can come to your hospital or your clinic to get some aid. Yeah. So, uh, but it’s not L. Ron Hubbard. “Well, yeah, yeah, see, you don’t know what L. Ron Hubbard believe in.”

[00:59:40] Brother Michael: Uh, i-i-i, I know in the book, the Minister said, “I don’t know ’cause I wasn’t there with him.” Mm-hmm. “But in the books, I ain’t find nothing evil in the books. I find nothing but good for me and my community in the books.” That’s right. Yeah. So it really w- at this point, it don’t matter- Yeah. … what he personally said and believe.

[00:59:56] Brother Michael: Yeah. I don’t give a damn, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That’s the Minister. But [01:00:00] even though, you know, we wouldn’t wanna believe that and fish for those things. Yeah, yeah. But you have people who are… It’s really hypocrisy. Yeah. Because you go to the, you go to the gas station, who’s the owner of BP? Does the owner of BP love Muslims?

[01:00:13] Brother Michael: Do they love Jesus? Some, someone British 

[01:00:15] Aaron: Who knows? 

[01:00:16] Brother Michael: I don’t know. Yeah, I mean, what do they do in their personal life? But they own BP, they give you oil. But you’re not gonna question the owners of BP, “Man, if you don’t, if you don’t, if th- this thing don’t align with Islam, I’m not putting gas in my car.” Well, you’re not gonna drive anywhere.

[01:00:32] Brother Michael: It, that, it’s, it’s foolishness, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s, and it’s really another thing that it says people strain at, they swallow a camel and strain at a gnat, you know? Because they’re- Oh … focusing on something so small- Yeah … that you’re missing the big, the, the big picture. Yeah. The big picture at the end of the day, get you some knowledge and help yourself out- Yeah

[01:00:52] Brother Michael: at the end of the day. That’s right. So that was the minister’s under, when he was breaking things down like that to, he didn’t have to go that far with a lot of us. Sure, sure. Yeah. But he [01:01:00] was just explaining certain things, ’cause, you know, it’s new. 

[01:01:02] Yeah. 

[01:01:02] Brother Michael: You gotta, you know, take your time. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. But once I got my first audience session, I was like, “Yo, this work.”

[01:01:08] Brother Michael: Mm-hmm. And that’s, at the end of the day- Yeah … it’s like when you get a new phone, I’m, I, I’m in cinematography and they’re like, “You need to get the iPhone 16 Pro Max.” I get the Pro Max, I go out there and shoot a video, and I put log on the camera, and I’m like, “Damn.” And I go back and edit it, and I’m like, “Damn, this phone, this phone, this camera is really great.

[01:01:24] Brother Michael: I like the iPhone.” Mm-hmm. It’s as simple as that. Yeah. But I’m not, I don’t care about what the owner of Apple- Yeah … is personally believing in- Mm-hmm … in his personal life. Nobody does. Yep. That’s right. And I’m, I’m sure he has some crazy thoughts about a whole bunch of people in they- Mm-hmm … in they belief system.

[01:01:39] Brother Michael: Mm-hmm. I don’t know and I don’t care. All, all I wanna know is does this camera take good photos? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Can I do good videos with it? Can I call my wife, call… You know what I’m saying? And enjoy my phone, and if you have a product that I can enjoy, that I can use and benefit myself, that’s what matters to everybody on the planet.

[01:01:56] Brother Michael: Yeah. Nobody is gonna say, “No, it does matter.” No, it doesn’t. Yeah. ‘Cause [01:02:00] you prove it every day that it doesn’t matter. Mm-hmm. 

[01:02:01] That’s right. Yeah. Amazing. 

[01:02:03] Brother Michael: Thank you. So that’s how I got into, uh- Thank you. Thank you … initially into the technology, yeah. 

[01:02:07] Aaron: Oh, amazing. So I, I have a, I guess a, a, a question that I have never asked.

[01:02:13] Aaron: And since, for, for the nation as a whole, right, I don’t know how much you know or how much you can divulge, right, but being, uh, being, uh, in the FOI, how have, what have you seen in the nation itself from around 2010, 2011- Mm … that time until now? I mean, it’s been- That’s a great question … 14, 15 years, 15, 16 years- Mm

[01:02:35] Aaron: that, um, Farrakhan has, um, been looking into Dynex and saying, “Hey, use Dynex to get better.” How, how, what have you seen the change in your brothers and sisters and in the nation as a whole? 

[01:02:48] Brother Michael: Um, one, um, we’re still changing and evolving, and we still need… We’ve come a long way. Mm-hmm. We have a long way to go, but we’ve come a long way.[01:03:00] 

[01:03:00] Brother Michael: Um, uh, family is the, um, we’re, there’s a principle we’re taught that family is the cornerstone of a nation. Yes. And marriage is the cornerstone of family. And that the- Not just a Muslim belief, by the way. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, definitely. Mm-hmm. Um, and, uh, right now the enemy of God worldwide, particularly in America, is doing everything, you can call them SPs, suppressive personalities, Satan, the society, the evil ones, spiritual wickedness in high places, um, they’re doing everything they can to make sure that family is eroded and destroyed- Mm-hmm.

[01:03:39] Brother Michael: That’s right … in this country. That’s right. Um, you have, uh, uh, infidelity in all the music. Mm-hmm. In the movies. Like, you know, there’s loose, promiscuous behavior promoted everywhere. Mm-hmm. You know, you have people get married and they’re famous and they have a lot of money. They wait a few years and every time, every time you look around, [01:04:00] such and such is calling for another divorce.

[01:04:01] Brother Michael: Yeah. Another divorce and another divorce and another divorce. And man, she’s asking for all this money and then the divorce. And it’s just family is really, really, really getting attacked. Mm-hmm. And it’s been like that for a minute. Mm-hmm. Yes. But the Nation is really big on family. And one of our student, uh, uh, uh, officials, executives, um, uh, he’s, uh, in California and he did a…

[01:04:24] Brother Michael: We were having a meeting, and he did this survival rundown. Mm-hmm. Which I started, and I’m, I’m f- gonna finish. I’ve already started it. Um, and he, uh… So I asked him, I said, um… I went up to at the end of the meeting, I said, “You did that?” I said, um, “Do you recommend the brothers do that before they get married?”

[01:04:42] Brother Michael: He said, “Oh, absolutely, brother.” And I said, “You know, what, what did… Did it do something for you that you can share?” And he said he was married for, like, over 14 years and got a divorce and was done. 

[01:04:55] Mm. 

[01:04:56] Brother Michael: Completely done. They was going, they separated, paperwork [01:05:00] was done, everything. He said, “Brother, I just started this survival rundown, and I went back and realized how much of a fool I was- Mm

[01:05:06] Brother Michael: and remarried my wife.” 

[01:05:08] Wow. Wow. 

[01:05:10] Brother Michael: That’s what he told me. So the, those who use the, the technology and the knowledge, I mean, you can fix a, a relationship off of the technology, and many believers are doing that. Wow. So, um, being able to hold things together, um, especially when the sci- Scientology gets you to look at self.

[01:05:35] Brother Michael: You know how many divorced pe- I meet so many people who have divorces, and I a- I, I just ask them- Yeah … “You couldn’t…” ‘Cause they say, you know, “I got a divorce.” “How long you been married?” “15 years.” “Damn, you couldn’t save that?” Yeah. And e- just about everybody I ask, “You couldn’t do nothing to save it? No, no, nut?”

[01:05:52] Brother Michael: And the reason why they feel they couldn’t save it is ’cause of the other person. That’s right. Always. 

[01:05:57] Brad: Yeah. 

[01:05:58] Brother Michael: It’s ’cause of the other person. [01:06:00] So if, if something- Wow … if you go in a s- if a, if, if a student brother or a brother in the Nation of Islam that’s very high in his executive position, right, and very respected, right?

[01:06:13] Brother Michael: And, uh, you know, strong, big, and you know, you know, people look up to him. And I walk up to him, and he tells me, “Brother, I went back and remarried my wife off of just starting the, the, the therapy.” Yeah. So that is to say, what was it that caused him to look at himself, right, that made him say, “I…” ‘Cause he told, he said he realized how much of a fool he was.

[01:06:41] Brother Michael: Mm. He didn’t tell me, “I realized how much of a fool she was, and she needed me.” Yeah. “So I went back and convinced her, ‘You, you need me, ’cause you was a fool.’” He said, “Brother, I realized how much of a fool I was, and I went back and remarried my wife.” Yeah. So that right there just showed me that it’s really, um, making the [01:07:00] change that we wanna see- Yeah

[01:07:02] Brother Michael: in the nation, because we can teach the community, you know, ’cause you, you go out, and you, you share knowledge with the community, and, you know, you’re, you’re disseminating your Islam and your belief. But what good is it to dis- the Bible says, what good is it, um, to, uh, uh, uh, you know, go out there and try to s- I think that’s Holy Quran.

[01:07:23] Brother Michael: But the purpose, uh, the, the re- what I’m trying to say is what good is it to go out and get other souls saved and lose your own soul? Mm. Yeah. You know what I’m saying? Yeah. So it, it doesn’t matter how many people I’m trying to save. If I can’t save me, what’s the point? Yeah. You know, at the end of the day.

[01:07:40] Brother Michael: So the minister wanted us to use this inside the house first before we brought it out. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Um, because if I can save my marriage, then of course I can go save your marriage. Absolutely. You know? ‘Cause I mean, at the end of the day, we, we… If, if I c- if I’m studying s- the Holy Quran, praying, fasting, [01:08:00] eating right, right, listening to Minister Farrakhan, all his lectures, the doingness of being a Muslim, and going out, and doing all of this, and I can’t save my marriage- Mm

[01:08:10] Brother Michael: it’s, it’s tough. It’s a bad look. So it’s… Yeah. Yeah. It’s a ba- right. It’s a bad look. Yeah. If, because I’m doing all of this. What if I can go out and help somebody save they marriage, and they’re not doing all of the doingness that I have. Mm-hmm. They don’t have all the responsibilities that I got. I can sit down and say, “Hey, listen, man.

[01:08:27] Brother Michael: The main thing, y’all just don’t pray together. When’s the last time y’all prayed together?” “Well, we don’t pray at all.” Well, that’s the big problem, right? Mm-hmm. So it, it becomes more simple, but then I can give a, a testimony and saying, “Listen, if you just fixed a few of these things and got a little therapy, I think y’all gonna be all right.”

[01:08:43] Brother Michael: Yeah. So, you know, we should be able to go out and save people, but the nation really strongly preaches family. Yeah. Family is super big in the nation, and we’re being attacked right now in this country, and really throughout the world, with family. 

[01:08:58] Brad: Yeah. It’s true. [01:09:00] You know, one, one thing that L. Ron Hubbard talks about a lot in a lot of different places is the idea of power and how do you as an individual get into a condition of power in, in your own life and your, in whatever sphere you’re in, right?

[01:09:15] Brad: And a lot of it comes from the ability to hold your position in space is, is one of the ways it’s described. 

[01:09:21] Yeah. 

[01:09:22] Brad: And when, you know, when it comes to the family unit being eroded, degraded, like brought down over time, really what I hear is I’m like, “Okay, people aren’t able to hold their position in space with their partner.”

[01:09:35] Mm. 

[01:09:36] Brad: Right? Mm. They can… Their- the, the stability is, is out. Mm. Right? They lose the, the sta- ’cause that’s really, when you talk about the cornerstone of a nation- Right … that’s, the cornerstone, I, I have a construction company- Yeah … the cornerstone is what makes something stable. Yeah. You build off a cornerstone.

[01:09:50] Brad: Right. Exactly. And if that’s gone- Exactly … the whole thing’s gonna fall down. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I, I have a question for you. This is a question we ask every guest. In your own [01:10:00] words, what is Scientology? 

[01:10:03] Brother Michael: Uh, Scientology is the study of knowledge, knowing more about life, and just being more aware, um, about life itself.

[01:10:11] Brother Michael: Just really the, the, uh, ’cause people are basically aware, but when you get up to the higher levels of more awareness and more awareness and more awareness and you’re more conscious that you are a, a, a being that really can control, um, the cause and effects of things in life. That’s what I would say Scientology is.

[01:10:33] Brother Michael: Um, being able to, uh, uh, be more cause over your environment. 

[01:10:39] Aaron: Amazing. Nice. And now another question. So what is the Nation of Islam? Oh, 

[01:10:45] Brother Michael: such a good question. The Nation of Islam is… Mm. The Nation of Islam is a, I would call it a universal government of peace. Um, but it’s a, [01:11:00] uh, a, an idea that comes at the end of this world right now, um, to give freedom, justice, and equality for people who are suffering injustice in this country and throughout the world.

[01:11:15] Brother Michael: And, um, the, uh, ’cause Islam just means submission to God’s will. Mm. That’s what Islam means. So really it’s like the start of building a community worldwide that is practicing, um, sub- and submission to God’s will doesn’t mean I’m, I’m praying the way Muslims pray every day, right? Um, submission to God’s will is doing good.

[01:11:43] Mm-hmm. 

[01:11:44] Brother Michael: Being a righteous human being, and that’s what God’s will would, that’s what he wills us to do. Mm-hmm. You know? Just do right. Do good. Yeah. That’s it. And it’s, it’s really based off of the universal laws and principles of the universe. So, you know, [01:12:00] if you, um, if you have a construction company and you build schools and you say, “Hey, man, I, I build schools, uh, because education is, is needed in the world,” you practicing Islam when you build that school.

[01:12:11] Brother Michael: Mm. You know, you know. So if you, but- I gotta go build a school. Yeah, so it’s just- I know that, yeah. Righteous, righteous principles. Yeah. Yes. Doing what God wills you to do, fulfilling your purpose. Mm-hmm. Yeah. That’s what God wills you to do. Mm-hmm. So if I’m fulfilling my purpose, I’m doing what God… I’m doing God’s will.

[01:12:29] Brother Michael: So it’s just really that in the, in the, in the basic sense. But, um, the nation is, like I said, it’s not a closed group. It’s really, really building a community of people, of righteous people throughout the world. It just started over here with us in America. What do you feel is your purpose? My… Oh, my purpose is art and culture.

[01:12:47] Brother Michael: Yeah. To use my gifts in creativity, art, and culture. Uh, as the honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan teaches us, um, one rap is worth a, uh, is worth 100 lectures. 

[01:12:59] Brad: [01:13:00] Mm. One 

[01:13:01] Brother Michael: rap 

[01:13:01] Brad: is worth 100 lectures. 

[01:13:03] Brother Michael: If the rap has substance in it. 

[01:13:06] Brad: Yeah, yeah, of course. Yeah, not the other, not the other… Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right, yeah.

[01:13:09] Brad: Well, may… And it- If, if people- … it could apply the other way in a negative way, though, right? Yeah. If, 

[01:13:12] Brother Michael: if the rap- Yeah … has substance in it, taking people to higher levels of thought, it doesn’t have to be preachy. Yeah. It doesn’t have to be corny- Yeah … still, ’cause he, the minister told me, “Make sure you have the right beats behind that flow, brother.”

[01:13:25] Brother Michael: That’s what he said. Make sure- It’s, it’s smart … make sure you have the right beat, production behind what you’re talking about. Yeah. But, um, one rap song, and it, it’s a lot of artists that have, both major and independent and underground, that have the demonstration- Mm-hmm … to use the art- Mm-hmm … to speak to issues or tell a story, you know.

[01:13:43] Brother Michael: It’s different forms of making a song, but as long as there’s something that people can come away with- Yeah … that takes them higher. The minister said one of those songs is worth 100 lectures. L. Ron Hubbard talks a lot about artists. The minister really, really sits with a lot of artists and gives them a lot of wisdom and [01:14:00] guidance.

[01:14:00] Brother Michael: Um, there, there’s the, the art and culture community, he said can speak the loudest for change on the planet. That’s right. That’s true. You know what I’m saying? So that’s my purpose, is to be a part of that community so we can speak the loudest for change. And, uh, of course, you know, we gotta go into other fields and- Yeah

[01:14:17] Brother Michael: you know, all, all of the fields of, are, are important, and I have, you know, my skill set, and my dad has a construction skill set and whatnot. Um, so all of that is important. And, you know, we gotta be… I don’t have to be doing so many different things, but, you know, it’s, it’s nice to be able to buy a home or buy something and remodel it and be able to fix it up and make it- Yeah

[01:14:39] Brother Michael: look better, right? That’s all dope, so I’m definitely into that. Um, but my, my core thing is to use my talents to- Uplift and inspire, so that’s my purpose 

[01:14:47] Aaron: Yeah. That’s brilliant. So guys, you can follow him. Where, where do people follow you? Yeah, get 

[01:14:50] Brother Michael: to it. Uh, Mikal Stands. @MikalStands, M-I- that’s my artist name, Mikal Stands.

[01:14:55] Brother Michael: Uh, M-I-K-A-L S-T-A-N-D-S, Mikal Stands on [01:15:00] all platforms. 

[01:15:00] Aaron: Perfect. Perfect. So guys, give him a follow. Check out his rap. You already know it’s fire. So guys, well, thank you for coming. Yeah. Yeah. I, y- yes, sir. And remember guys, don’t do nothing. Don’t do nothing. 

[01:15:11] Brother Michael: Right. Peace