Roy Wood Jr.

Good to see you.

I appreciate what you're saying, but I guarantee if you point out any part of my game, it was amazing.

I got it from watching somebody else, my damn self.

I think the drive and the gumption, you have to be a little crazy to bet on yourself.

That's inherent.

But I think that the belief that, oh, I could do this, that didn't come from me, that came from Ricky Smiley.

I saw Ricky Smiley on TV in the late 90s, and he was repping Alabama hard.

He didn't just put Birmingham on his back.

He put the whole state on his back.

And nobody asked him to do that.

He just did it.

And when I saw that, I was like, oh, bet.

He can be from the north side and get on TV?

I can do it from the west side.

And that was it.

It wasn't even no big...

Whatever debate or doubt I had about whether or not I belong in entertainment, gone.

I do what I do in an effort to better inform, to confirm to our people, to Black people, that they aren't crazy in what they're seeing or what they're feeling.

because so many people will gaslight us into thinking that what we see is not there.

So, you know, if I can confirm to Black folks what they're thinking and feeling while opening new eyes from non-Black people on what we're going through, then mission accomplished, you know, because a lot of people don't know what's happening, you know, to our people.