Imagine hustling through your life, moving from city to city, grappling with the harsh realities of gang life, and surviving the trauma of multiple shootings. This is the life story of Rolando Oates, a man whose resilience and unwavering pursuit for a better life led him to a path of finding solace in dogs and the world of dog-breeding.
Join us as we walk through Rolando's experiences - from childhood shaped by a hardworking mother, navigating through the entangled streets of Minnesota, to surviving bullets and dealing with the aftermath. The journey is a raw revelation of a life where the only constant is change and uncertainty. Rolando's vulnerability as he opens up about guilt and PTSD after being the last one standing from his old group is heart-wrenching, yet his strength and courage shines through.
The story takes an unexpected turn when Rolando discovers his passion for dogs, leading him to the shady world of dog breeding. Rolando, a decade deep in the game now, tells us about his dog breeding enterprise, BMG Kennels, and how he strives to place different breeds of bullies in loving homes. From getting his first dog as a set up from his cousin to dealing with shifty dog game players, Rolando's tale is as captivating as it is inspiring. Tune in to hear it all, and find out how you can connect with BMG Kennels.
Imagine hustling through your life, moving from city to city, grappling with the harsh realities of gang life, and surviving the trauma of multiple shootings. This is the life story of Rolando Oates, a man whose resilience and unwavering pursuit for a better life led him to a path of finding solace in dogs and the world of dog-breeding.
Join us as we walk through Rolando's experiences - from childhood shaped by a hardworking mother, navigating through the entangled streets of Minnesota, to surviving bullets and dealing with the aftermath. The journey is a raw revelation of a life where the only constant is change and uncertainty. Rolando's vulnerability as he opens up about guilt and PTSD after being the last one standing from his old group is heart-wrenching, yet his strength and courage shines through.
The story takes an unexpected turn when Rolando discovers his passion for dogs, leading him to the shady world of dog breeding. Rolando, a decade deep in the game now, tells us about his dog breeding enterprise, BMG Kennels, and how he strives to place different breeds of bullies in loving homes. From getting his first dog as a set up from his cousin to dealing with shifty dog game players, Rolando's tale is as captivating as it is inspiring. Tune in to hear it all, and find out how you can connect with BMG Kennels.
What's up everybody. This is your host.
Speaker 2:D-Star here with Ro from BMG Kennels owner out of Minnesota. How you doing.
Speaker 1:Man, I'm good, good how you doing. I am blessed and highly favored.
Speaker 2:Same here, same here.
Speaker 1:Hey, seriously, man, it's been a long time coming. I've known this young man for years. We actually came up together. It's taken a while for him to actually share his story, because his story isn't done yet. So we've just given you a little piece of his story today, with hopes it might inspire some people to change their life, and with that said, for the people that don't know you, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Speaker 2:Rolando Oates, born in Carmendale, illinois, moved to Minnesota around the age of seven, eight, basically moving. You know what I'm saying Mom, trying to keep us out of trouble, moving us around different schools. You know what I'm saying, getting us in the right situation. From Minnesota we moved to Wisconsin about 13. That's where I met Dee at school. You know her just shifting us around making sure we weren't getting in trouble, trying to get us into a nicer area neighborhood. I should say, and yeah, that's where it went, that's where we at right now.
Speaker 1:Your story is very, very layered.
Speaker 2:So we're going to start from Carmendale, carmendale Illinois, correct? Yep, carmendale, illinois, known as a college town. My whole family is from Carmendale, illinois. You know mom and dad side Around. Seven and eight is when we actually moved from Carmendale, and when you say we mom and two brothers besides me Okay.
Speaker 2:So I was young, like I said, I was seven and eight, but my mom was trying to move my brothers out of the area, which got us to Minnesota. So, with her moving us to Minnesota, that's when I started growing up. Well, in Minnesota I got to middle school, you know, started doing stuff she wasn't approved of, so she had to do it again. She moved me to Wisconsin. By the time we moved to Wisconsin, my brother was already gone. He had did his little prison bed or whatever. This your older brother, right? Yep, this was one of my older brothers. So you're the baby, I'm the baby. So, me being the baby. But we moved to Wisconsin, my brothers was already gone. They had already grew up. One had went to prison, one had moved out, got his own house doing good or whatever.
Speaker 1:So did you grow up in a single family home?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I did. Dad was out doing what he was doing Every now and then we tapped in with each other. I wouldn't you know, my dad ain't necessarily always been there With me in life, but he ain't never not tapped in and made sure I was all right. When a young boy, becoming a teenager, is living with his mom, growing up alone she at work all day I landed to do my own little thing in the streets trying to figure out a way myself. I would say I did a lot of things. I wouldn't tell my big brother about it. I would say it like that. I wasn't happy to tell him when he came home.
Speaker 1:Your mom is at work. You pretty much just have to create by yourself. When you came to Wisconsin from Minnesota, you guys were in a transitional phase. You actually didn't have a house, you actually lived in a hotel.
Speaker 2:No. So we moved from Minnesota down here with my auntie and my auntie had a house, so we stayed with her for a little bit. Well, my auntie decided what she was doing with Wisconsin. She wanted to go somewhere else. Well, at the time my mom wasn't going to just get up and follow her or go with her or whatever the case, so she was like we stay in here. We went straight to a hotel from there and months and months of being in the hotel, my mom did what she had to do, got us our apartment and from the hotel we moved out the hotel to our apartment. So things started getting better and better as time went.
Speaker 1:The people that know you. They know you as a legendary, known stunner Ever since you was a kid. That's why you got the words big time tattooed on your forearms, because everything you did, you tried to do it big.
Speaker 2:That was given to me. They put that on me. Trials and tribulations though, I would say. The little things that other kids would notice having a dad, just like little things, like getting in trouble and your dad being there popping up. You know you need that. Young teenage boys growing up, they need that. I really didn't have that. We ain't have a lot we ain't like. We had to make do with certain situations. We had to do what we could. You know what I mean, but don't get me wrong. My mom did the best she could do. You know what I mean. She made it happen. But shout out to mom Dukes yeah, yeah, shout out.
Speaker 1:Mom. Seriously, she really worked hard. The reason why she wasn't there is because she was at work.
Speaker 2:Yes, yep, yep, you know, and overnight yeah.
Speaker 1:And the crazy thing is he was one of the freshest kids ever. She kept him fresh, she made sure that. She made sure he had the freshest clothes, the freshest shoes, everything. She wasn't there, but when she wasn't there she made sure he was good.
Speaker 2:Straight up, straight up, see, so you get where it comes from by herself. Yeah, yep, so that's where it came from. That's where the stun came from Not having a lot, but let me make do with what I do get, just knowing how to put things together, whatever the case be, but the fact that it was hard not having a father figure.
Speaker 1:Well, you did have somewhat of a father figure. Yeah, keith, yeah Keith man Shout out to Keith man, yeah shout out to Keith man, I miss Keith.
Speaker 2:That's the thing. That's the thing you know when you're growing up it might be certain things that your mom's boyfriend or whatever the case, you might not like certain things that he do, but when you grow older and you have your own kids, you realize there was a certain things that you missed. There was things that you missed. There was things that you could teach your kids.
Speaker 1:Leigh Joakie is the right way, Because he didn't try to tell you nothing wrong. No, not at all, but back then I didn't know nothing, you weren't trying to hear it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I wasn't trying to hear it, didn't know no better.
Speaker 1:And he was from Chicago too, so he was from the streets, you know.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, yeah, yeah, he bent through it. Yep. So yeah, yeah, Keith was a good dude. That was my mom's boyfriend or whatever, but he had actually left around the time my brother came home from prison. Yep, he had left around the time my brother came home from prison. When my brother came home from prison, it was over with, Right. It was like what? No more, none of that, you know, Keith. Yes.
Speaker 2:I was scared of my brother Right Like to this day, like, yeah, you know, that's big bro. So when my brother came home, I tried to straighten it up. I tried to make it look like everything was in line, which it wasn't. And you can't fool somebody that just sat in prison for 10 years and he know right from wrong. He know exactly when you're doing what you're not supposed to be doing or when you. He know when you're going the right way and you're doing what you're supposed to be doing. So I used to try to hide certain things from him.
Speaker 1:Once upon a time I came up to your crib. I had a low rider. Yeah, I had the low rider. Actually, I had four cars, but that day I was in the low rider and banging crazy. I'm like I pull up. He's sitting outside with a dog. I'm like yo where Ro at. He's like hey bro, you got to turn that music down. I can't hear you like two blocks away. Turn that music down, man, this is my mama house. I said all right, you're right, you're right.
Speaker 2:New authority around the front Right, right you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:What a mean mug. I ain't know him from Adam.
Speaker 2:I'm like I don't know, that's him. Yeah, I love my brother Shots out to my brother too. Yeah, shout out to bro, but him though, like just basically trying to walk on egg shields around him as he came home.
Speaker 2:He's been older and older now is 14, 15, 16, and he home. Now I'm trying to do this the right way to, but he seen it wasn't. He seen I was going the wrong way. He used to tell me, he used to get on me then too, but me being me, like we said, me being me, it just being a kid at that age, when somebody telling you the right from wrong, you just you ain't listening. Now I wish I'd have listened, I wish I'd have paid attention to what he was trying to teach me and what was going on. But yeah, other than that though, but I love my brother man. My brother's a good dude man. Besides what he had to do or his past, he's still a good dude.
Speaker 1:Absolutely Real good dude, when did the love of cars start?
Speaker 2:I say my love of cars started around about 16, 17. My love of cars came when I figured out it was possible for me to have one Because I went to school in the middle of Wisconsin. When you turn 16 or 15, all these kids come to school with cars Brand new, brand new. It kind of you know what I'm saying. You can't do that. Mine can't go get you a new car like that. So it was like when I started realizing, like hold on, I could actually get out here and try to make it happen. I bought my first car for $600. To everybody else it wasn't you know what I'm saying it was. But to me, to me, that was my proudest position. That's the only thing that I had that I felt was valuable. It might not have been valuable to the next, but to me it was valuable to me. Then it started from there. It was a hoopty, was that the Cadillac?
Speaker 1:Yes, cadillac, the White Cadillac. Yeah, 87 with the red interior. Yeah, bro ham. Yes sir, Red interior. Yes, sir.
Speaker 2:Yep, yep, that was my first car.
Speaker 2:And then, after that man I had went to Minnesota one time and I visited my cousins but I seen like the cars and the situations they got, like you know what I'm saying, like young dudes too, they young riding around with rims, and you know what I'm saying, stuff like that, and that turned you up, turn me right out, turn me straight up. I knew when I seen this, I knew when I get to West Conson I bring a little bit of flavor like that. I'ma be him, yeah, i'ma be the man. That's what happened, started doing what I started doing. I tried to figure out ways to hustle whatever I can do or whatever I can't do.
Speaker 2:I had dogs. I had a passion for dogs back then, but I didn't know that it can really get as big as it can get. I didn't understand it. You know what I'm saying. I was just love dogs, had dogs, dogs having puppies. I didn't know the real business side of doing this dog thing. I ain't no back then. But I did with them, dabbled a little bit. You know what I'm saying, had a little. I had a situation where my dogs had puppies, sold a few puppies, bought another car, which was I had a blue Cadillac, you remember that one?
Speaker 1:Had a.
Speaker 2:Cadillac I bought that one put some speakers in it, put some rims on it and right then and now I knew it was possible to keep going.
Speaker 1:Your mom got fed up with Wisconsin and moved you back to Minnesota.
Speaker 2:No, what really happened was I was getting into a lot of trouble, a lot of things was happening, stuff would transpire, and it would be the fact that they knew my name versus I did it. You know what I mean. It would be like oh, he was there, oh well, then he had something to do with it, so she got tired of A lot of fights, a lot of shootouts, Shootouts fights, robberies, burglaries.
Speaker 2:So she knew, like some of the times there'd be certain things that happen. She knows certain things that happen, but I'd be at home, I'd be asleep or something. I'd be at home, sleep and then come knocking on the door saying I did this, or people saying I'm doing this, and it took a one, two, three times to see that, okay, they just gonna point you out of the crowd just because of your name. Now I gotta get you out of here again. Now I gotta move you again. I gotta keep moving, keep moving. She wanted to. But what the situation was?
Speaker 2:I had turned 19 and my girlfriend at the time was going to college in Minnesota. She got offered to go to college in Minnesota. So she went to college in Minnesota and I figured, you know what, I might as well go back too. You know, since she going to college out there, I might as well go back. I could be out there with family and stuff like that or whatever. So we went out there. We stayed out there for some months. I even stayed at the dorm room at her college campus with her For a few months.
Speaker 2:I stayed out there, I stayed out there, and then they just called my mom, brothers and them. They called like my friend and come up there with you. Yeah, we got a U-Haul, came back down here, got my mom, got everybody packed up the bags and I actually had to sneak out of here. I couldn't get in the U-Haul because the police knew we was moving, so I actually had to jump in another car, lay down, get covered up with a sheet and drive two streets over while the U-Haul trying to go this way. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, yeah, moved back to Minnesota and, to be honest with you, I ain't gonna lie, I feel like that was a bad decision.
Speaker 1:So you're back in Minnesota, still having Lee in the streets.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:And you started to get involved with gangs.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:And start to get involved with the street life in Minnesota. Yeah, how did that come?
Speaker 2:about. Well, it really wasn't about gangs, it was more about areas, yeah, yeah, areas. And we had said, yeah, blocks, area sections. And when I had got back to Minnesota, I had already, you know, I got cousins and stuff like that, so they was already picking A side. So I had to, you know, follow suit.
Speaker 2:We was from one side, they was from one side, and it just kept going and kept going and kept going and next thing, you know, we was too deep. We was way too deep. We was way deep and we couldn't do nothing about it. Besides, try to go the opposite way. We came, that's about it. But, yeah, I got a few cousins that stayed out there. So as soon as I got out there, I was already good. They was in love with the car situation too. So we was doing the car situation together. We even tried to make something positive about the situation back then by starting our own car club. That's what was the name of the car club Stressless car club. So we tried to, you know, start our own car club just to avoid the rough part of what we was going through. That would be a way for us to vent, that would be a way for us to be ourselves, feel good, and you know what I mean Stuff like that.
Speaker 1:So you start beefing.
Speaker 2:I see what you want to get into. I'm just asking the question. I see what you want to get into.
Speaker 1:I'm just asking the questions. Okay, yeah, you know, and the only reason why I'm doing it you know I don't do gotcha journalism your story is so unique that I think it's a cautionary tale and an inspirationary tale for the youth. They can learn something from all of the things that you've been through and I really feel that all of the things that you've been through it just shouldn't go to waste. People should really learn from your story. So that's why I really wanted you to come on the platform and really tell your story and that's why I captioned it the realest story ever told.
Speaker 2:Right With being in the streets, street situations, beef come with it. What side you from stuff like that? Who you know, who you friends with? Stuff like that came about. Yeah, we feel heavy. When I say heavy into it, we feel heavy into it, very heavy. You know, I see a lot of stuff nowadays. I see they might like to glorify it a little bit, but there ain't no way to glorify it. It wasn't no way to it. Don't matter who you is. You can be the biggest, the baddest, the toughest. It don't matter who you is, where you from, what you done. It's always a good and a bad. You're going to have to win and you're going to have to lose. That's just come. That's what come with it. Ain't no way around it. We was thinking we could be the scarface of the city or something. You know what I mean we could be. But no man fight, yeah, party fights, shootings and being a victim, everything come with it. Getting shot, that's the part, right. There is what made me like open my eyes and try to.
Speaker 1:Absolutely so. Can you tell us as much as you can, the circumstances around you being shot the first time?
Speaker 2:First time, oh yeah, so the first time I got shot, I actually got shot. It was a case of wrong place at the wrong time. One of my friends friends passed and we was at a candlelight you know barbecue and they was doing whatever they was doing. But it just so happened wrong place, wrong time. The other side of town wanted to come to the candlelight and start shooting. Well, they came there, started shooting. Shots went off, about 15, 20 shots went off. Mind you, there's like 100 people at this park or whatever. There's like 100 people. People pull up, they're shooting. 20 shots go off. I get hit three times. Nobody else get hit. I'm the only person that got shot. That was about it.
Speaker 1:So did you ever feel like?
Speaker 2:you were the target. To be honest with you, at that time I felt like, no, I felt like I wasn't the target. I felt like at that time I really felt like if the person that did it knew who I was, they probably wished they could change it. Or you know what I'm saying, they could change it around, Cause I ain't I'm not. If, even if I feel a certain type of way, if I feel like I'm going to do this or I'm going to do that, I'm not going to tell everybody what's going on, I'm not going to let everybody know my next move, or whatever the case may be. So people used to always be like watch out for him, he the quiet one, or you know what I mean he the quiet one, he the quiet one. But do I feel like it was intended for me or if I was the target? No, not at all. When you got shot.
Speaker 1:I actually came to the hospital and seen that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, when I got shot, so I got shot in Minnesota. You actually came all the way from Wisconsin. Yeah, came all the way from Wisconsin, drove up there and sat next to me in my hospital bed. Yep, yep, you came up there. My brother was there.
Speaker 1:Your baby mama was there.
Speaker 2:Baby, my mother was there, yep.
Speaker 1:Your mom was there. Your mom was there, couple of little homies was there. So the first time you got shot, you got shot three times.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I got shot three times.
Speaker 1:So where did you get shot?
Speaker 2:I got shot once in my hand. Where, where's that? It took off like a part of my thumb. Right here it went through directly through this hand, came out this knuckle. You can see like that's where I don't got no knuckle, right there it came out the knuckle. The second one was the second one was right here, was two centimeters away from my heart.
Speaker 1:So you got shot in the chest.
Speaker 2:Yeah, got shot in the chest and then the third one was in the arm, so you had three times the first time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what happened when second time?
Speaker 2:Second time was more of a. I knew what was going on, but me and my homies, we had got into it with somebody else we knew, which used to be our homies too. We got into it with them. Situation happened as if they wanted me to take another person's side, which I couldn't do. So I wrote with my little brother. They told us not to go. Pull up to where the people was telling us to come to. Basically, we on the phone, we getting into it, we yelling blah, blah, blah. You meet us right here, Me being me. I got kid, I got daughters. I can't sleep with the thought that somebody looking for me my daughters don't got no names. You know how that. Like they don't got no names. So you come looking for me and somebody else can get on like that.
Speaker 1:Cause your mama house got shot up before right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a few times, yeah, a few times. So when they told me to come meet them, I get in the car. My homies, like what you doing? You tripping? I'm like, nah, we finna go meet them. I'm finna go meet them. So we get in the car, we go over there, we drive over to the gas station, broad daylight. We see who we come to meet, we hop out the car. They hop out the car. Mind you, I'm telling him like, look man, we ain't even finna, do all this. Put the gun down. We gon fight, we gon let it go, we gon you gon go your way, i'ma go my way. I wasn't trying to hear that, wasn't trying to fight.
Speaker 2:So if somebody had ended up shooting me, I got shot. I got shot twice, twice in the leg, drove to the hospital. And when I was in the hospital, after I got shot, when I was coming out of recovery, a guy came and talked to me. A guy came and talked to me and he just told me, like I've been paying attention to your situation, your section, your crowd of guys, I've been watching y'all, seeing what y'all been doing. He was like I wanna come and try to help. I don't wanna necessarily just help you, but I wanna actually help the people that this is going on with. That's when it hit for real. That's when it hit like all right, once I maybe be a mistake twice, you need to change something for real, something need to happen. So that's what happened. I got shot the second time, tried to chill out. Tried to cool out.
Speaker 1:So at this point you've gotten shot five times. How does that affect your mental, they say.
Speaker 2:I got survivors guilt and PTSD. They say survivors guilt come from me being the last one, me being a crowd and this crowd of people, out of all these crowd of people, all these people that you hang with, you're the only one that's still alive.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because you just posted a memory on Facebook. I liked it because you guys were at a theme park. And it just looked like a regular day and you hanging out with your buddies and just saying, yeah, what's up? And then I liked it, the post, and I didn't think anything of it. And then, just a few minutes after I liked it, the post, you hit me up and he was like, hey, you know that post that you just liked. I'm like, yeah, like you know, everybody on that post is dead right now except me.
Speaker 2:I was like, wow, yeah, man, yeah, yeah. And the crazy part about it is that's just one video, that song. I got a few pictures like that. I got a few pictures like that, like I'm the only one. I'm the only one left, yeah.
Speaker 1:I got a song called the Last One's Left. Yeah, but life goes on.
Speaker 2:But life, exactly Life goes on. Yeah, that picture man, that video, that video get deep. Man, that video get deep. That's a lot more to do with just the fact that I'm the only one left in that video. But, man, I'm telling you I don't get how me, though. That's my problem. I'm not mentally, I suck. Like how me? Like Bro was special, other bro was other bro was special too. He was special, we was. We always had our own little thing in our own way. But how me? Why me? Why he picked me? Did he pick me because he feel like I'm the strongest one, I'm a I'll be able to figure it out and keep going. I don't know. I just I don't know.
Speaker 2:But yeah, the doctors told me I had survivors guilt, though that I just ain't want to believe it. I was in denial. That's how. That's how I deal with it. I kind of like like ain't the only one. It could be worse. That's how I look at it. It could be worse. You know, I could not be here, so after you got shot deep down inside, that's what I really feel as a grown man.
Speaker 2:I feel like me switching it all around at that point in time was like letting them win. I felt like I had a game I respect or Whatever the cake. I really felt like I just couldn't. I Just felt like I couldn't let them win. I felt like they would have thought that it was like me turning over. You know, I'm saying that's like me laying down or something, still in the streets, still messing up, still taking the wrong turns. It took a while, took a while, took a while, took a while.
Speaker 2:But my friend, what really really did it to me was my friend had ended up getting killed. But the way they kill him it was the Pacific way that they kill him was when I was like, alright, yeah, nah, no, I couldn't. I couldn't imagine my kids Happen to hear this happen today. Dad, I couldn't imagine, because they was already down and out when I had got shot. You feel me there was. I see, I kind of got that. That was the one that. What gave me the taste of this is not right. It's obviously ain't right. I just couldn't imagine my mom getting that call like that.
Speaker 2:So that happened in like 2020, which was like two, three years after Be getting shot the second time.
Speaker 1:So after you got shot the second time, it was still two or three years. Are you just being active, super?
Speaker 2:active, just the active, active, active, yep. It was another two, three years Just going back and forth with whoever how. They said no ops, I'm damn. My friend died which had nothing to do with what we had Going on. I either got murdered, he got. He got murdered, they shot him then took him to a Campground, cut him up, put him in a tote, had a fisherman take him out like they was going to go fishing and they dropped a tote in the water and the fisherman that took them didn't even know what was going on in front of his eye.
Speaker 2:That right there was when it was like I know I couldn't imagine my kids getting a call like that, my mom getting a call like that, my brother getting the call like that, my friend, anybody getting a call like that. Cuz, that call for me was like it took some not at me, it took you, like it took a chunk out of me and it was like I Couldn't focus for a long time, like after that I couldn't focus, like I would try my hardest to focus on this, to be concentrated on this, but I would think about this and it would throw me for a loop. This is one of the homies that I knew before I moved to Wisconsin. We knew each other before I had moved to Wisconsin, at 13, 14. We grew up together in Minnesota, playing and stuff. So this guy you've known for 20 years easy, so that's when it happened and doging and drugs and popping perks and doing that type of thing All of that came together, lean, and all of it came together.
Speaker 2:So it was like I just had to realize, if I'm a stop, then I got a stop for real. I ain't no halfway stop and ain't no, you should stop this and then try to stop this. Or it was like over with. And I feel Like the only thing that I did different was I tried to go get professional help. I tried to actually go get a counselor, talk to somebody. I had somebody to talk to every week you know what I mean Like he had come, we had talked here because I remember when you got shot the first time, there was a counselor there and said hey, you just got shot.
Speaker 1:I'm here to help process that. I was there. Yeah, I remember your attitude. You know he was like man, get out of here, man, I'm good, I'm good. Yeah, yeah, you, you weren't having it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know you were not having it. Yeah, that's why I was.
Speaker 1:That's where my mom was back then like after the, after you got shot the first time, when you got shot Three times the first time, it was like it never happened. Yeah, you was like whatever, I don't care, like I'm about the, I Remember you distinctively, you saying like I can't wait to get out of here. I want to get out of here right now. I'm. I got to get back on the block right now and I was like and this, this dude who just got shot Yesterday. He just got out of surgery, they was about to cut his arm off and he's trying to get back to the streets like the craziest part about it is.
Speaker 2:The craziest part about it is when I left the hospital. That's the first place I went to. People don't even know that. Only the people that was in the car with us when we left know that.
Speaker 1:So you got shot the second time. So now at this point you've been shot five times, you feeling like two pock.
Speaker 2:I mean, I'm telling my we back and forth, it was just repeatedly, and then it was it started to scare my mom you know she was already scared Don't give me room.
Speaker 2:Well, they were shooting her house up to her, yeah, yeah. But it started like she started seeing people that are coming in front door with me. They weren't coming in the front door with me, no more. You know what I mean. Like all that's your home where you're homie. Now all of a sudden she's seeing them on my shirt. You know that's hitting different for her at the time, she thinking like any day now.
Speaker 1:Is there anybody that you want to give a shout out to right now that helped you on your road to changing your life?
Speaker 2:My mom for sure. My mom for sure, yeah, for sure. My mom was the one that always did it, though, was that one? Talk with my mom? If I tell her whatever I was embarrassed about, she told me how she really felt about it. That would be enough for me to be like I could try it now.
Speaker 2:My mom know what's going on. She know the truth to this. I, me and my mom. I talked to my mom about everything. So my mom for sure for my kids, I feel like me with my kids is like my kids, my kids, my kids. I kept that in my mind, kept that in my mind, my hope, my kids, my kids, my kids, my kids, my kids. But one thing about my story, one thing about anybody that's paying attention to see this there tell you this is true. One thing about my story, though no matter how rough I was in the street, I knew how to stop that at the door. I know how to shut that off at the door. Once I come in the house, everything that I did in the streets is left at the door. I Go in the house and be a father.
Speaker 1:Is that something that you never had right? That's exactly.
Speaker 2:That's exactly what it was. It was something that I never had and I missed and I felt like I needed, so I ain't had no choice but to go a hundred percent for my kid and shout out to mom do's one more time. Yeah, mom, for sure, for sure mom shout out to the portrayal to yeah you know, that's my man, yeah yeah, yeah, he's doing good, yeah, he's doing good.
Speaker 1:He out there in Florida living his best life man.
Speaker 2:See, it was like. It was like everything you got pulled all this together. Well, you like. If you pull it all together, then it makes sense. Like my brother coming home from a ten-year bid. You feel me from the fed. He was the ruthless of the ruthless. So if I can see him come home from a ten-year bid and change, it's possible for me to change too, to turn my life around, cuz I watched him do it. I needed something that could take my time. You know, most of the time people will sit. We sit alone, right. People do certain things out because they bored and I knew if I Said too long and being bored with being bored, then it was gonna leave me to be in back to where I ain't want to be. I had already was studying the dog game. Right around the time that I got shot out was studying the dog game. You know what I mean?
Speaker 1:Yeah nothing else to do, so you on YouTube. Land up and I remember you was telling me, like it was, like man, I was so obsessed With watching these dog videos that I used to think they thought I was weird. And not only that, you was like. I found out that I actually had one of these exotic dogs and didn't even know it, didn't know, didn't know I had Like a ten thousand dollar dog.
Speaker 1:Didn't know and didn't even know not only that, somebody stole it from me. And then I got it back. And then, and then the dog, whatever they did to the dog, made the dog aggressive. The dog ended up biting somebody, and then you had to put them down.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I actually had passion for dogs back then, back as a teenager. I had it. I just didn't know what I had. I wasn't that serious into it. You know what I mean. I wasn't that serious into it yet. So now, when I'm doing what I'm doing now and I'm studying these dogs and paying attention to what's going on, I'm seeing like hold on, wait a minute. I had this going way back then before I thought it was nothing. You know what I mean. Wait years way back then.
Speaker 1:Right, so cuz like, when you was in the streets, you was in the streets 100%, yeah, yeah. So when you decided to make the jump to start your own kennel, yeah you emerged yourself in it and I remember you said that you actually Studied for like two to three years.
Speaker 1:Two years before you even bought a dog. Yeah, you actually studied the game, watched a bunch of videos, did all of the you know the back work to actually learn, like everything about the world, Everything about the business end of it, and then you finally made the jump to actually purchase your first dog yeah and I think you said it was like five thousand dollars for your first dog and you went to.
Speaker 1:Okay, I know the story so I'm not gonna go too deep because I don't want to, because, no, shout out to Greg. Yeah, shots out, greg. He's got a good heart. He got a good heart. Yeah, he grew up in the life and he lives by a certain standard in rules. So you know he did what he had to do and it is what it is, but you got your first dog.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'll take us through that. Okay, I got my first dog from my cousin. It was a, it was all. It was really all a setup from my cousin Because we say we wasn't gonna go Yo yo.
Speaker 1:The dog game is very, very, very, very shiesty. Vicious is backstabbing. People will give you a Crazy dog. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Like you know no, that's what I mean when I say. When I say I was set up by my. What I mean by that is he had been going around telling the family this whole time. I wish Rose stopped doing what he doing with the streets and come do this with me Because we could do this dog thing together. Because when we was kids that's how it started we go around, we see somebody With some dogs somewhere and we get to asking them questions about they dog. Now me and him, we save in every dollar we got. Now we put all the money we got together and we come home with this dog. Did neither one of our parents say we can have I just want my cousin, because he knew the life I was living in the streets. So it was like I just want my cousin to come and we do this and we could go crazy with this and we Could do this and we could keep them out of that situation because you know like Don't nobody wants to see their family in that, going through that.
Speaker 1:You know right, they think I'm gonna be shot five times. You, just you out here, out here, like seriously, yeah, and he like man, maybe did you know? I know he got a love for dogs. Maybe this can change his life, you know, and he can just emerge yourself in that crazy thing was he was right, he knew.
Speaker 2:Telling me, telling me and even letting me take the dog just wasn't enough. He knew like I gotta. Actually he actually sold Some dogs to a famous rapper, but he let me see what was going on. Who's the rapper? Bankroll freddy, okay, yep, bankroll freddy. So he actually let me see what was going on with the situation. It's the dog. He just came and got this. How much he paid. When he told me this, the dog, he came and got this and turn you up, hold on, I'm already love the dogs. So it ain't just for the money, I already love the dogs.
Speaker 2:So when you tell me that it's like, alright, how can I be that person? And what kind of breed of dogs are we talking about? Azotic bullies? So we got different type of bullies. We got micro bullies. You got pocket bullies. You got nanos, you got zodiac, a stream, you got, you know, whatever your preference is. But what I, what I like and what we specialize, we trying to do microbes. So we stick to just microbes. That's what happened. We're trying to, you know, do what we can to make it all, pull it all together as a team. So that's my biggest thing, though my thing is not just only the breed, but my thing is how to better the breed. You feel me. So we not only trying to Get into the breed and better the breed, but we also make sure the dogs get into loving homes, make sure they got the right families they need.
Speaker 1:So BMG kennels. What is BMG kennels stand for? What is BMG stand?
Speaker 2:Okay, so BMG stands for bully money gang. We say gang as in the dog gang community.
Speaker 1:So BMG kennels, how can people get in contact with you IG?
Speaker 2:BMG underscore kennels Facebook. Bmg underscore kennels same thing, yeah, so BMG underscore kennels yeah, that's about it. Bmg underscore kennels all platforms.
Speaker 1:Well, roe, we really appreciate you stopping by the podcast. Thank you for sharing your story with us. We really appreciate that I'm D star. Until next time, guys.