Joe Rogan Experience #2163 - Freeway Rick Ross

1. 0:00 – 3:34

   Reunion after nine years: the “real Rick Ross” and the T-shirt that changed everything

   1. NANarrator0:00

      (drumming music) Joe Rogan podcast, check it out.

   2. The Joe Rogan Experience.

   3. JRJoe Rogan0:06

      Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day. (rock music) Good to see you again, my friend.

   4. FRFreeway Rick Ross0:13

      Man, it's been a long time.

   5. JRJoe Rogan0:15

      It's been, yeah, like nine years. Yeah, we were talking about it.

   6. FRFreeway Rick Ross0:18

      Yeah, yeah.

   7. JRJoe Rogan0:19

      It's been a while.

   8. FRFreeway Rick Ross0:20

      Yeah, yeah. I've been-

   9. JRJoe Rogan0:20

      For people who don't know-

   10. FRFreeway Rick Ross0:21

       ... I've been waiting.

   11. JRJoe Rogan0:23

       (laughs)

   12. FRFreeway Rick Ross0:24

       (laughs) I was like, um... You know, I dialed your number and it wasn't working no more. I was like, "Okay, he gonna- he'll-"

   13. JRJoe Rogan0:30

       I've had about eight different numbers since then.

   14. FRFreeway Rick Ross0:32

       "... he'll call me."

   15. JRJoe Rogan0:33

       (laughs)

   16. FRFreeway Rick Ross0:33

       (laughs)

   17. JRJoe Rogan0:34

       Yeah.

   18. FRFreeway Rick Ross0:34

       I said, "He'll call me."

   19. JRJoe Rogan0:36

       Yeah. For people who don't know, the real Rick Ross is not a rapper, just like your shirt says.

   20. FRFreeway Rick Ross0:40

       And you know, you know who inspired that shirt?

   21. JRJoe Rogan0:43

       I think I did.

   22. FRFreeway Rick Ross0:44

       You did, you did.

   23. JRJoe Rogan0:44

       (laughs)

   24. FRFreeway Rick Ross0:46

       And you don't even know the whole story.

   25. JRJoe Rogan0:47

       What's the story?

   26. FRFreeway Rick Ross0:49

       Well, you know after that day you, you told me that I needed a shirt, right?

   27. JRJoe Rogan0:53

       Yeah.

   28. FRFreeway Rick Ross0:53

       You know I was, I was really homeless then.

   29. JRJoe Rogan0:56

       Really?

   30. FRFreeway Rick Ross0:56

       You didn't know that part of the story?
2. 3:34 – 4:27

   Writing a prison ‘how-to’ book to warn kids about the drug game

   1. JRJoe Rogan3:34

      You wrote a book?

   2. FRFreeway Rick Ross3:35

      I wrote a... I had already wrote the book.

   3. JRJoe Rogan3:37

      Oh, okay.

   4. FRFreeway Rick Ross3:37

      I wrote the book in prison-

   5. JRJoe Rogan3:39

      Oh.

   6. FRFreeway Rick Ross3:39

      ... when I had a life sentence. You, you know, I wrote this book, this was kind of like my message to the world about what it takes to become a drug dealer, how you become a drug dealer. I wrote it for kids so they would know if they started to be a drug dealer, what they was gonna run into.

   7. JRJoe Rogan3:53

      Like a how-to manual.

   8. FRFreeway Rick Ross3:55

      Like a how-to manual.

   9. JRJoe Rogan3:56

      (laughs)

   10. FRFreeway Rick Ross3:56

       'Cause I said, "Nobody ever wrote a book about..." Well, I look at it like this, Joe. You know, we- we always talk to kids about why not to sell drugs, but why not give them all the information and they make their own decision? Okay, there's... You sell drugs, yeah, you might get a big house, you might get the cars, but at the end of that rainbow is some cuff links-

   11. JRJoe Rogan4:18

       Yeah.

   12. FRFreeway Rick Ross4:18

       ... and a prison sentence. So I felt that-

   13. JRJoe Rogan4:22

       You wanted to give them all the information?

   14. FRFreeway Rick Ross4:23

       ... I wanted to give them all the information, so I wrote this. And I brought you one-

   15. JRJoe Rogan4:26

       Oh.

   16. FRFreeway Rick Ross4:26

       ... as a gift.

3. 4:27 – 7:12

   Iran-Contra context and the three-strikes legal fight that freed him

   1. JRJoe Rogan4:27

      Beautiful, thank you very much. Your story is incredible. And for people who don't know, just because, you know, we- we've done a, we did a couple podcasts in the past, but just for people that don't know, you unknowingly were s-... During the whole Contras versus the Sandinistas, uh, war-

   2. FRFreeway Rick Ross4:46

      Yep.

   3. JRJoe Rogan4:47

      ... the United States government or some people inside the United States government were selling crack in the hood, and probably other places too. And they were using that to fund this war.

   4. FRFreeway Rick Ross5:01

      Yeah.

   5. JRJoe Rogan5:01

      They're using the money to fund this war.

   6. FRFreeway Rick Ross5:03

      Yeah.

   7. JRJoe Rogan5:03

      And you were the one who was moving the drugs.

   8. FRFreeway Rick Ross5:07

      Correct.

   9. JRJoe Rogan5:07

      And you-

   10. FRFreeway Rick Ross5:08

       A lot of it.

   11. JRJoe Rogan5:08

       And you didn't know. You had-

   12. FRFreeway Rick Ross5:10

       Well-

   13. JRJoe Rogan5:10

       ... no idea where-

   14. FRFreeway Rick Ross5:12

       I was just a dumb kid from South Central, man.

   15. JRJoe Rogan5:14

       Yeah.

   16. FRFreeway Rick Ross5:14

       I never read a book.

   17. JRJoe Rogan5:15

       You couldn't read?

   18. FRFreeway Rick Ross5:16

       I couldn't read at that time.

   19. JRJoe Rogan5:17

       Which is so crazy. Uh, let me keep going. So you get arrested, you go to jail, you learn how to read in jail, learn how to become a lawyer in jail.

   20. FRFreeway Rick Ross5:26

       Yep.

   21. JRJoe Rogan5:26

       Figure out that they, the way they did you with three strikes was bullshit, because it's supposed to be three different instances-

   22. FRFreeway Rick Ross5:36

       Yep.

   23. JRJoe Rogan5:36

       ... of you being arrested. They used the three instances of whatever they tried to pin on you-

   24. FRFreeway Rick Ross5:41

       Correct.

   25. JRJoe Rogan5:42

       ... from one case. And so you got outta jail.

   26. FRFreeway Rick Ross5:45

       I got outta jail.

   27. JRJoe Rogan5:46

       You would still be in jail right now.

   28. FRFreeway Rick Ross5:47

       Right now.

   29. JRJoe Rogan5:48

       If you didn't-

   30. FRFreeway Rick Ross5:49

       And if I would've listened to my lawyer, too.
4. 7:12 – 8:14

   Post-prison life updates: family, tennis, and being ‘good with life’

   1. FRFreeway Rick Ross7:12

      And it's getting more crazy, man.

   2. JRJoe Rogan7:13

      Yeah?

   3. FRFreeway Rick Ross7:14

      I, I've been having so much fun, Joe. Like, wow, man.

   4. JRJoe Rogan7:16

      What's been going on?

   5. FRFreeway Rick Ross7:17

      And you know what? And, and I owe you a lot of the credit, man, 'cause you really like, you kinda set me off, you know? You know, like, I don't know where I would've been had I not did that fucking T-shirt. You know what I'm saying?

   6. JRJoe Rogan7:29

      (laughs)

   7. FRFreeway Rick Ross7:29

      That fucking T-shirt paid our rent, man.

   8. JRJoe Rogan7:32

      Wow.

   9. FRFreeway Rick Ross7:32

      I mean, you know, and my fucking kids now are playing tennis, Joe. My daughter's so fucking good at tennis.

   10. JRJoe Rogan7:38

       That's amazing.

   11. FRFreeway Rick Ross7:39

       Man, she's like 20...

   12. JRJoe Rogan7:40

       Well, you're a great tennis player.

   13. FRFreeway Rick Ross7:41

       I was good. (laughs)

   14. JRJoe Rogan7:44

       (laughs)

   15. FRFreeway Rick Ross7:44

       I'm talking about like-

   16. JRJoe Rogan7:45

       Really good.

   17. FRFreeway Rick Ross7:46

       ... they saying she like Serena good.

   18. JRJoe Rogan7:48

       Really?

   19. FRFreeway Rick Ross7:48

       Yeah.

   20. JRJoe Rogan7:49

       Wow.

   21. FRFreeway Rick Ross7:49

       Like, and, and, and I try not to like, you know, because it's my daughter, so I gotta like keep myself honest. You know what I'm saying?

   22. JRJoe Rogan8:00

       Mm-hmm.

   23. FRFreeway Rick Ross8:00

       But I'm seeing her do things that I was doing at 16 and 17, and she's, just turned 12 and she's doing those things right now.

   24. JRJoe Rogan8:09

       Wow.

   25. FRFreeway Rick Ross8:09

       And I'm like, wow can she be this good? You know.

   26. JRJoe Rogan8:13

       That's incredible.

5. 8:14 – 13:48

   Being exploited in media: losing his documentary money and ‘Snowfall’ claims

   1. FRFreeway Rick Ross8:14

      Yeah, so, I mean, I'm just having so much fun, man. It's like my life has been good. You know, if, um, you know, if I die today, you know, I wouldn't be mad. I just want to see them two grow up to be 20, 30 years old and... I've had a great life, man. I met some great people and... you know, and I had some, and I had some things happen to me too, it ain't all been rosy. You know, my documentary, I think... Was we working on a documentary when I did You The Last Time?

   2. JRJoe Rogan8:41

      I don't know.

   3. FRFreeway Rick Ross8:41

      Well, you know, they took the documentary from me.

   4. JRJoe Rogan8:43

      What do you mean? What happened?

   5. FRFreeway Rick Ross8:45

      Well, you know, we shot the documentary and, um, when it was time to put it out, we finished it, my two partners who put up most of the money got into an argument and I went with the one who I thought was right. So we go to court and the court ruled that, uh, Mark Levin and, and Mike, uh, Munger won in court, and they had all the say-so about the documentary and I had no say-so, no accounting. So they sold the documentary (laughs) to, uh, Al Jazeera, rented it to Al Jazeera, rented it to Netflix and I got zero dollars out of it. (clears throat)

   6. JRJoe Rogan9:22

      Oh my God.

   7. FRFreeway Rick Ross9:22

      The judge said I had no accounting rights, you know, no right to see how much money was being made, uh...

   8. JRJoe Rogan9:27

      On a documentary on your life?

   9. FRFreeway Rick Ross9:29

      Did I put money? I put, I took money, T-shirt money and put it into the documentary.

   10. JRJoe Rogan9:34

       (laughs)

   11. FRFreeway Rick Ross9:34

       I put about $15,000 of my own money into making it. We spent about, about $120,000 making the documentary, and here I am on Netflix, on the front page too. I made the front page of Netflix for like a year.

   12. JRJoe Rogan9:46

       Wow.

   13. FRFreeway Rick Ross9:47

       And I got zero dollars out of it. And then John Singleton, you know, he was working with me on the movie. He take all the stuff that we did from the movie and do this show called Snowfall, which was one of the biggest TV shows on TV, and I got zero dollars out of that.

   14. JRJoe Rogan10:04

       What?

   15. FRFreeway Rick Ross10:05

       Yeah, yeah. So, it ain't-

   16. JRJoe Rogan10:07

       John Singleton?

   17. FRFreeway Rick Ross10:08

       John Singleton did me like that, man.

   18. JRJoe Rogan10:10

       No way.

   19. FRFreeway Rick Ross10:11

       Yes. He went with me to the premier. Me and him went to the premier of the documentary together. The day of the premier I got my first books from that book there, and I had my demo books. He bought one for a 100 bucks which I thought was like, "Yeah, I'm gonna do good with this book." (laughs) "100 bucks for one book?" So, um, he took that book and he did Snowfall, and he didn't count me as an advisor or he didn't count me-

   20. JRJoe Rogan10:39

       Nothing?

   21. FRFreeway Rick Ross10:39

       ... in at all. Nothing.

   22. JRJoe Rogan10:39

       Did you talk to him?

   23. FRFreeway Rick Ross10:40

       I saw him one time. He changed his number.

   24. JRJoe Rogan10:43

       (sighs)

   25. FRFreeway Rick Ross10:43

       And I saw him one time about eight months before he died, and he was like, "Man, I owe you money." But you know, he was probably, he was in South Central LA in the wrong area. (laughs) And so he probably-

   26. JRJoe Rogan10:56

       He probably said that just to get the fuck out. (laughs)

   27. FRFreeway Rick Ross11:00

       (laughs)

   28. JRJoe Rogan11:00

       I gotcha. Let me get outta here. (laughs)

   29. FRFreeway Rick Ross11:05

       (laughs) So I totally understood. But, uh, other than that, you know, it's, it's been all right.

   30. JRJoe Rogan11:11

       There's a lot of people that disappoint you in this life.
6. 13:48 – 18:42

   Second chances, prison rehabilitation, and why ‘bootstraps’ rhetoric fails

   1. JRJoe Rogan13:48

      It's, uh... You know, it's funny. We, uh, we've done a lot of work with, uh, this guy Josh Dubin, who used to work with the, uh, Innocence Project. And, um, we, just through this podcast, have gotten people out of jail that were wrongly convicted, a bunch of people.

   2. FRFreeway Rick Ross14:05

      Yeah.

   3. JRJoe Rogan14:06

      And then, (laughs) then we had one dude on who wasn't wrongly convicted, but he got convicted for 50 years for pistol-whipping somebody. A drug dealer who owed him money, someone who stole money from him, he pistol-whipped this dude, wound up going to jail for 50 years. Gets out, they, they reduced his sentence to 25 years. You know, Josh brought him in to show someone who can be rehabilitated, someone who's good. A month later, he gets out and cuts some dude's head off and gets caught. (laughs) He gets ca-

   4. FRFreeway Rick Ross14:35

      Wow. (laughs) .

   5. JRJoe Rogan14:36

      (laughs) He gets, he gets caught on, on, uh, security camera with a blonde wig on. Like just the whole thing was so crazy. But the dude was like, "We were hanging out with that guy that day."

   6. FRFreeway Rick Ross14:45

      (laughs)

   7. JRJoe Rogan14:45

      "Took him to the comedy club that night." It's like, it doesn't always work out. And then also, you know, the system itself, once you're inside, once you're a part of the system, man, that can fuck you up. You do 25... I mean, how many years did you do in there?

   8. FRFreeway Rick Ross14:59

      I did 20 years and three months.

   9. JRJoe Rogan15:01

      Wow.

   10. FRFreeway Rick Ross15:03

       Yeah, so, so you know, the system is... And, and you're absolutely correct. The system can either make you or break you. You know, um, I was mad when I first went to jail. You know, um, but then, you know, I, I, I started analyzing my life. And, you know, I wanted to know how I got there. You know, "What, what are you doing here?" You know, "This wasn't part of the plan." (laughs)

   11. JRJoe Rogan15:25

       Right. Right.

   12. FRFreeway Rick Ross15:25

       And I, I just figured I made some bad turns. You know, I listened to some people that, uh, for the most part, loved me to death, you know, woulda, woulda died with me. And they gave me what they had to give me. You know? And what they had to give me was the drug game.

   13. JRJoe Rogan15:41

       Yeah. It's just so crazy that you were connected to this enormous story with Oliver North and Ronald Reagan. You know, Ronald Reagan had to testify about it. You know? I mean, the whole thing was really insane. It was, it was an insane cultural moment 'cause I remember, I was young at the time, I remember watching it all play out on TV and seeing how this ins- insane story was playing out. That they were selling drugs? What? The government-

   14. FRFreeway Rick Ross16:13

       Yeah.

   15. JRJoe Rogan16:13

       ... was involved in the drug game so that they could fund-

   16. FRFreeway Rick Ross16:15

       When Gary Webb came-

   17. JRJoe Rogan16:17

       Mm-hmm.

   18. FRFreeway Rick Ross16:17

       ... and told us about this, I could not believe it. You know? Like, no, not, not Ricky Ross. You're not... You, you're talking about Ricky Ross, right? The guy who, um, couldn't read in school. Uh, the guy who couldn't get outta high school, who was pretty good at tennis but he couldn't make it in tennis. You know what I'm saying? Now you're telling me that he was working with the White House, with Oliver North and George Bush and Ronald Reagan and-

   19. JRJoe Rogan16:43

       Crazy.

   20. FRFreeway Rick Ross16:43

       ... and then the CIA come to my cell and Maxine Waters come to my cell. And what? All these people? (laughs)

   21. JRJoe Rogan16:51

       I know.

   22. FRFreeway Rick Ross16:52

       It's just like... For me, it was, it was unbelievable. But even, even, even when I, when I, when I first went to jail, before all of the stuff hit the fan, you know, one of the guys that went to elementary school with me, he came up and he said, "Man, I heard the stories, but I couldn't believe it was you. You was the poorest kid in, in the school. Like you and your brothers used to change pants, and you had holes in your tennis shoes, and you used to put tennis balls on your, on your shoes so your feet wouldn't be on the ground, and that was really you." And I was like, "Yeah." He was like, "Man, you used to make millions of dollars?" So it was one of those stories that, you know, you really had to see it to believe it.

   23. JRJoe Rogan17:30

       We had, uh, Michael Ruper on the podcast back when he was alive. Michael Ruper was the cop that-

   24. FRFreeway Rick Ross17:36

       I knew Michael.

   25. JRJoe Rogan17:37

       Yeah. Michael testified on C-SPAN. He was at one of those C-SPAN hearings and testified that he witnessed the CIA selling drugs in South Central Los Angeles. It, it is one of the craziest videos. Michael was courageous.

   26. FRFreeway Rick Ross17:55

       I read his book.

   27. JRJoe Rogan17:56

       Yeah. Which one?

   28. FRFreeway Rick Ross17:57

       Uh, I don't remember. (laughs) It was so long ago.

   29. JRJoe Rogan17:59

       Crossing the Rubicon?

   30. FRFreeway Rick Ross18:00

       Yeah, yeah.
7. 18:42 – 32:57

   Homelessness on the ground: Oakland shantytowns, wasted potential, and solutions

   1. FRFreeway Rick Ross18:42

      Well, I mean, if, if you, if you go in the streets right now and you see the homeless problem that we having around the country... You know, 'cause I- I travel the whole country now. You know, I, I'm doing motivational speaking, and so (clears throat) I'm working with different homeless organizations. One of the main ones I'm working with is out of Oakland, uh, Lulu House (clears throat) . And, uh, they're helping homeless people get off the streets. It is so bad out here, man. I mean, it's like-

   2. JRJoe Rogan19:11

      Worse than ever.

   3. FRFreeway Rick Ross19:13

      Like, some of these places that we go, and, and I would be afraid to go there without a gun. And it, it's like a third world country. It's like a jungle. They got cardboard boxes-

   4. JRJoe Rogan19:22

      Yeah.

   5. FRFreeway Rick Ross19:23

      ... and-

   6. JRJoe Rogan19:23

      Crazy.

   7. FRFreeway Rick Ross19:23

      ... crates and tents and makeshift, uh-

   8. JRJoe Rogan19:26

      Shantytowns.

   9. FRFreeway Rick Ross19:27

      ... plastic and-

   10. JRJoe Rogan19:28

       Yeah.

   11. FRFreeway Rick Ross19:28

       ... and, and it's like, miles of these places. And Oakland is, is, is-

   12. JRJoe Rogan19:32

       Oakland's crazy.

   13. FRFreeway Rick Ross19:33

       Oakland is terrible.

   14. JRJoe Rogan19:34

       It's so crazy. I watched a video about it the other day, where these people were driving. They were documenting it, and driving down Oakland, down the worst areas where these people have these shantytowns set up, these tent town set up. And it's just open air, drugs and violence, and no police presence and no help and no nothing. And this is in America. And this is why we have $175 billion to send overseas to help them help people in Ukraine, help people in Israel. We don't have anything to clean this problem up, this massive problem?

   15. FRFreeway Rick Ross20:08

       Yeah.

   16. JRJoe Rogan20:08

       And all those people, all those people out there are wasted potential. All of 'em. All of 'em. Who knows how many of those people, if they had a little bit of help, if they got the right counseling, they got the right this, the right that, they started to get a pa- a path towards a good life, they could turn it around.

   17. FRFreeway Rick Ross20:26

       I mean, look, I was like that.

   18. JRJoe Rogan20:27

       Yes.

   19. FRFreeway Rick Ross20:27

       You know, I was one of those people-

   20. JRJoe Rogan20:29

       Yeah.

   21. FRFreeway Rick Ross20:29

       ... uh, uh, eight, nine years ago j- just outta prison. And, and, and Joe, you know, when I was in prison, I educated my... I read over 300 books while I was in prison, because I didn't want to come out and get into the same thing that put me in jail. So, what I wanted to do, I never had a job. You know, I never had a job. Right now today, I've never had... I mean, you know, I get paid for doing speaking engagements and stuff, but I'm saying I've never had a job where I punch a clock or I had to fill out an application. None of that stuff, because I couldn't fill out an application before I went to prison. And now, you know, I- I'm not gonna fill out... (laughs)

   22. JRJoe Rogan21:04

       (laughs)

   23. FRFreeway Rick Ross21:04

       Now, I'm not gonna fill out an application. But I had all this potential, but I had nobody to, to, to give me a boost, you know? To say... Uh, um, and, and that's one of the things that, that I was saying about Lulu House that they're doing, is they got housing for you where people get outta jail, they can go stay there for a while. They give 'em clothes, they feed 'em. Because sometimes you need those type of things to, to... You know, my break was y- you putting on that damn T-shirt. (laughs)

   24. JRJoe Rogan21:34

       (laughs)

   25. FRFreeway Rick Ross21:35

       Had I, had I not got that break, I don't know where I would be at right now. And, and you know, I wasn't gonna sit around and let my kids be hungry. You know, I had two, I had two new babies. Did... You knew I had two new babies when we did that show?

   26. JRJoe Rogan21:47

       I don't remember.

   27. FRFreeway Rick Ross21:49

       Yeah, I had two new babies.

   28. JRJoe Rogan21:50

       Wow.

   29. FRFreeway Rick Ross21:50

       I had... Uh, 'cause my kids right now, they're 13 and 12. So, at that time, they probably was like three maybe, four, four.

   30. JRJoe Rogan21:59

       Right. Yeah.
8. 32:57 – 36:50

   Drug-war economics: legalization, cartels, and the value created by illegality

   1. JRJoe Rogan32:57

      You know what's really crazy, Rick? (clears throat) That here we are, in 2024, you know, this is, uh, 40 years later, right?

   2. FRFreeway Rick Ross33:05

      Mm-hmm.

   3. JRJoe Rogan33:05

      Forty years. Forty years later and nothing's changed in terms of drug dealing. Nothing's changed in terms of drugs being legalized. They're still giving money to criminals, and, and particularly criminals in Mexico. I mean, that's literally what funds the cartels. And the fact that there's a demand in America (clears throat) and the supply is all brought over, or for the most part, a lot of it is brought over, by the Mexican cartels, we're just empowering them. We're just giving them money.

   4. FRFreeway Rick Ross33:38

      And... and... and... and, you know, I, I thought about that a lot, about what you saying, and... because, i- in order to get rid of drugs the way they trying to do it, they would have to get rid of all three elements.

   5. JRJoe Rogan33:50

      Right.

   6. FRFreeway Rick Ross33:50

      You know, you'd have to get rid of the- the manufacturers.

   7. JRJoe Rogan33:53

      Yeah.

   8. FRFreeway Rick Ross33:53

      You'd have to get rid of the distr- distributors, and you have to get rid of the users.

   9. JRJoe Rogan33:57

      Yeah.

   10. FRFreeway Rick Ross33:57

       Because if you get rid of one, the other two are gonna create that one again.

   11. JRJoe Rogan34:03

       And I would like to know... I mean, I don't necessarily think you should do cocaine. I've never done it. I, I got lucky (clears throat) excuse me. When I was in high school, uh, my friend's cousin got hooked on coke, and I watched his life fall apart. And I was like, "Oh, I don't want nothing to do with that." I was always terrified that I was gonna do something that was gonna turn me into a loser. So, you know, I- I grew up poor, and we moved around a lot, and I always felt out of place. I never felt like I had anything going on in my life until I started doing martial arts when I was a kid, when I was, like, 15. That's when I really got into it. And then, from then on, I said, "This is the key to life. The key to life is discipline and focus, and I don't want nothing that's gonna take away my focus. Nothing that's gonna take away my drive." And I saw my friend's cousin, and I was like, "Goddam, he was a good dude, and now he's, like, a vampire. And now he's, like, hiding in his attic apartment, and they're all just, like, doing coke all the time and selling coke." It was horrible.

   12. FRFreeway Rick Ross35:00

       Yeah.

   13. JRJoe Rogan35:00

       So I never fucked with coke. But I know a lot of successful people that, every now and then, they do a little coke, you know? And I think it's like everything else. I think it's... I mean, there's a lot of thing... Alcohol is addictive. I like a little alcohol every now and then. I don't think it's that bad.

   14. FRFreeway Rick Ross35:17

       Yeah.

   15. JRJoe Rogan35:17

       You know, I don't think weed's bad. I don't... I don't think any of these things are bad. I think what's bad is bad behavior and bad thinking and not understanding the consequences of what you're doing. And the consequences of what we're doing by making drugs illegal is so crazy, because all we're doing... we're not reducing the demand, we're not reducing the supply. We're just empowering criminal elements in another country-

   16. FRFreeway Rick Ross35:42

       Absolutely.

   17. JRJoe Rogan35:42

       ... that now are immensely powerful.

   18. FRFreeway Rick Ross35:45

       And it makes people want to get involved because of the money.

   19. JRJoe Rogan35:48

       Incredible amounts of money.

   20. FRFreeway Rick Ross35:50

       You know?

   21. JRJoe Rogan35:50

       And if you're living in Mexico, shit, you think South Central is poor. You know, try being born in these places where you live in these houses with no windows and dirt floors, and you see some dude driving by in a fucking beautiful car, you know, with a g- gold-plated gun, and that's... that's the fucking... that's El Jefe, and that's the dude. That's who you look up to. That's what you want to be. And we're empowering that. We're empowering all of that in this country by our s- stupid fucking laws.

   22. FRFreeway Rick Ross36:18

       I agree. I totally agree what you saying. And, and I thought about that, that... what would happen if coke lost its value totally? You know, if it had no value? I... I mean, if it was worth what it's really worth. You know, it grow... it's a plant, so it grows wild, so it doesn't-

   23. JRJoe Rogan36:35

       Right.

   24. FRFreeway Rick Ross36:35

       It doesn't take anybody to grow it. So, you're talking about it might be worth pennies, but it's the value that-

   25. JRJoe Rogan36:41

       (sniffs)

   26. FRFreeway Rick Ross36:41

       ... we create that attracts people to-

   27. JRJoe Rogan36:44

       Right.

   28. FRFreeway Rick Ross36:44

       ... coke, uh, and... and... and-

   29. JRJoe Rogan36:45

       It's also making it illegal, so it's difficult to get.

   30. FRFreeway Rick Ross36:48

       Yeah, well, making it illegal-
9. 36:50 – 40:07

   Ross’s personal brush with addiction—and quitting cocaine for good

   1. FRFreeway Rick Ross36:50

      Because if it wasn't illegal, people would just...... let it sit there or they would traffic it and then it wouldn't be worth, you know, it wouldn't be worth hauling because everybody would have it. Um, and, and the way I see it that if it loses its value, most people that I saw get started with coke start off selling, and they get curious. Well, what does it do for you? And they try it, and they don't... are not capable of not doing it anymore. I did it for about two weeks, you know. Uh, I, when I got up to like a ounce, my, uh, my cousins talked me into, "Hey, go ahead and try it. Go ahead and try it." 'Cause I had never tried it before. I had never smoked marijuana or nothing at that time. And they talked me into trying it, and when I looked up I had like $300. I had, I had about $9,000 worth of coke, and when we finished I had $300.

   2. JRJoe Rogan37:45

      (Exhales)

   3. FRFreeway Rick Ross37:45

      So what I realized is that they had tricked me into getting started so that they could get high.

   4. JRJoe Rogan37:52

      Ah. (laughs)

   5. FRFreeway Rick Ross37:54

      'Cause they didn't have any money. (laughs) So I vowed that day when, when I, when I, when I finally cleared my head up I said, "You know what? I'm never doing it again." And I never done coke again.

   6. JRJoe Rogan38:06

      Yeah, it's not a good drug. But there's a lot of things that aren't good drugs. Y- do you, do you know who, uh, Dr. Carl Hart is?

   7. FRFreeway Rick Ross38:14

      No, I never heard of him.

   8. JRJoe Rogan38:15

      He's a professor at Columbia, and he's a, he was a, a clinical researcher, and he was a very straight-laced guy. Never did any drugs, no nothing. And when he started doing clinical research on different drugs and different things, he realized that all the things that we're being told about drugs are incorrect. A lot of it is over-inflated, a lot of it is exaggerated, and you know, he talks openly about responsible drug use. I mean this guy's a professor, legitimate academic, an intellectual. He talks openly about his own personal drug use-

   9. FRFreeway Rick Ross38:53

      Yeah.

   10. JRJoe Rogan38:53

       ... about how, you know, th- that these things can be used responsibly but that, that thought is never out there. That nobody says that. Nobody d- everybody tells you if you do drugs you're gonna be an addict. You do drugs you're gonna be a loser.

   11. FRFreeway Rick Ross39:05

       Well, you know these people, it's so p- so many people are making money off of the illegal drug market.

   12. JRJoe Rogan39:09

       Mm-hmm.

   13. FRFreeway Rick Ross39:09

       I mean, y- if, if, if you just imagine how much money is being spent on incarceration, on probation, on policing-

   14. JRJoe Rogan39:18

       Just prisons themselves. Privatized prisons.

   15. FRFreeway Rick Ross39:21

       So, so these people don't want, they don't want drugs to, to, to, to, to not be valuable to the system. They want it to stay the way it is so they can keep making that money. So they do commercials and, and, and they market just like everybody else market their business to, to stay in business.

   16. JRJoe Rogan39:35

       Right.

   17. FRFreeway Rick Ross39:36

       So, uh, those are the things that, that we're dealing with and we have to get people, um, that are more sensible, you know. Um, when I got home and, and, and found out that marijuana was legal, you know, (laughs) it was like, "Wow. Finally, we waking up." You know? Uh, um-

   18. JRJoe Rogan39:53

       That was just 2016 though in California where it was made legal.

   19. FRFreeway Rick Ross39:57

       Well when I got, uh, w- medically, medically it was legal when I got home.

   20. JRJoe Rogan40:01

       Right. Yeah-

   21. FRFreeway Rick Ross40:02

       Yeah.

   22. JRJoe Rogan40:02

       ... it was med- medically legal in the '90s.

   23. FRFreeway Rick Ross40:03

       Yeah, yeah.

   24. JRJoe Rogan40:04

       I mean I got a card.

   25. FRFreeway Rick Ross40:06

       (laughs)

   26. JRJoe Rogan40:06

       I get headaches, man. (laughs)

10. 40:07 – 46:02

    Legal marijuana era: dispensaries, felon access, and arguing equity to city council

    1. FRFreeway Rick Ross40:07

       No, you, hey, you were smoking when I was on the show, you don't remember?

    2. JRJoe Rogan40:11

       (laughs) Yeah.

    3. FRFreeway Rick Ross40:11

       And, and that leads me to...

    4. JRJoe Rogan40:13

       Uh-oh, you're in the business?

    5. FRFreeway Rick Ross40:14

       I'm in the business.

    6. JRJoe Rogan40:15

       Well, you know what's interesting? Is there's, there's cert-

    7. FRFreeway Rick Ross40:17

       I bought you some gifts.

    8. JRJoe Rogan40:18

       Oh, what do you got here?

    9. FRFreeway Rick Ross40:19

       These are my new strains.

    10. JRJoe Rogan40:21

        All right-

    11. FRFreeway Rick Ross40:21

        You know I got a dis-

    12. JRJoe Rogan40:22

        Big Boss has got strains.

    13. FRFreeway Rick Ross40:22

        You know I got a dispensary.

    14. JRJoe Rogan40:24

        You do?

    15. FRFreeway Rick Ross40:24

        I got a dispensary.

    16. JRJoe Rogan40:25

        Where?

    17. FRFreeway Rick Ross40:25

        I'm a legal marijuana dealer. The state's on my... (laughs)

    18. JRJoe Rogan40:27

        That's incredible.

    19. FRFreeway Rick Ross40:29

        (laughs)

    20. JRJoe Rogan40:30

        That's incredible.

    21. FRFreeway Rick Ross40:30

        I told you we've been going a long time, man.

    22. JRJoe Rogan40:32

        Wow. That's great to hear though, man. Look, I'm a big fan of that. Uh, in, uh, y- in Texas it's illegal but you can get this stuff called Delta-9 THC that's legal, and apparently it's legal federally, so you can just get that.

    23. FRFreeway Rick Ross40:47

        Yeah.

    24. JRJoe Rogan40:47

        It's just, it's very str- the whole thing's very strange. It's like there's worse things in this world than marijuana.

    25. FRFreeway Rick Ross40:54

        Absolutely.

    26. JRJoe Rogan40:54

        My God, marijuana makes people calmer, makes people funnier, makes-

    27. FRFreeway Rick Ross40:58

        Make you go to sleep. I can sleep.

    28. JRJoe Rogan41:00

        Makes you go to sleep. Yeah.

    29. FRFreeway Rick Ross41:01

        I can get some sleep.

    30. JRJoe Rogan41:02

        It makes people more sensitive to other people, and it really makes you more compassionate. It does a lot of things for you.
11. 46:02 – 48:24

    Private prisons, DEA incentives, and why bureaucracy eats homelessness funding

    1. FRFreeway Rick Ross46:02

       But they tax the, they tax the shit out of us in, in California, man.

    2. JRJoe Rogan46:04

       I wish they did, and I wish they did something good with it. I wish they took those taxes and cleaned up Oakland.

    3. FRFreeway Rick Ross46:08

       They, they give, they give-

    4. JRJoe Rogan46:10

       I wish they did.

    5. FRFreeway Rick Ross46:10

       ... it to the police department.

    6. JRJoe Rogan46:11

       They don't even do that, man. They're defunding the police department in California by $150 million with the new budget proposal.

    7. FRFreeway Rick Ross46:16

       Oh yeah?

    8. JRJoe Rogan46:17

       $150 million, all the fucking problems they have, and they're defunding. They, what they should do, if you wanna tax... Look, if you wanna tax it, look, you're making plenty of money, I'm sure. A lot of people wanna buy weed. Take that money and fix the fucking problems. Use that money. Use that money to fix the problems. Stop with all the bureaucracy. Stop with all these fucking useless people that are getting paid for these pro- like, the homeless programs in Los Angeles. It's just a scam. It's just a bunch of people making money, some of them upwards of $250,000 a year, to fix the homeless problem. And they're not, they're not doing jack shit.

    9. FRFreeway Rick Ross46:55

       Yeah, I could fix the homeless problem in a couple of months.

    10. JRJoe Rogan46:57

        You think so?

    11. FRFreeway Rick Ross46:58

        Absolutely. Just go out and build some nice houses and, and let them stay there. And tell them they don't have to fill out the application. You know, most of the people that's, that's homeless, they can't, they can't... The applications, you know, when you-

    12. JRJoe Rogan47:08

        Right.

    13. FRFreeway Rick Ross47:09

        ... when you run their credit, their credit is fucked.

    14. JRJoe Rogan47:11

        Right.

    15. FRFreeway Rick Ross47:11

        You know, they didn't pay a light bill, their phone bill, and-

    16. JRJoe Rogan47:14

        Taxes, yeah.

    17. FRFreeway Rick Ross47:15

        Taxes. Whatever, you know?

    18. JRJoe Rogan47:16

        Yeah.

    19. FRFreeway Rick Ross47:16

        So their credit is fucked up and, and, and, uh, I mean, the problem can be solved. You know, but it gotta be somebody who say, "You know what? We gonna throw a few, maybe $50 million, $100 million into building some, some low-income houses that we, and we also gonna have some treatments, you know, where people get treated, where they get job training." Uh, it's just so many things. I mean, I don't know, when I, even when I look at, you know, someone who are, are supposed to be millionaires, billionaires, you know, the way they... I don't know. I, I would, I would look at this problem and I would solve it totally different. Um, 'cause even though I like making money, I'm not, I'm not like typical people. They, they get the money and they wanna harness it and they just want it for themselves so that they can look down on everybody else. I don't think money's supposed to be used like that. I think money is supposed to be put back into the community where the, the community can rejuvenate and the money circulates into the community.

    20. JRJoe Rogan48:11

        And that makes everything better for everybody.

    21. FRFreeway Rick Ross48:13

        Absolutely.

    22. JRJoe Rogan48:14

        Yeah. You don't wanna be the only one that's doing well.

    23. FRFreeway Rick Ross48:17

        No.

    24. JRJoe Rogan48:17

        That's not a good place to be in life.

    25. FRFreeway Rick Ross48:19

        Well, you know, a lot of people are like that, you know, uh-

    26. JRJoe Rogan48:21

        They're fools. It's just a foolish way of thinking.

12. 48:24 – 1:11:26

    Power, philanthropy, and being remembered for making the world better

    1. FRFreeway Rick Ross48:24

       When you look at the way, you know, the situation with Puff Daddy, you know. He had money so he treated everybody else like shit, you know?

    2. JRJoe Rogan48:29

       Mm-hmm.

    3. FRFreeway Rick Ross48:29

       Like, you know, lick, lick, uh, uh, a tampon, you know. Like, what the fuck?

    4. JRJoe Rogan48:34

       (laughs)

    5. FRFreeway Rick Ross48:34

       What kind of crazy motherfucker would want somebody to lick a tampon?

    6. JRJoe Rogan48:37

       Yeah.

    7. FRFreeway Rick Ross48:38

       You know, I mean, that's how you get your kicks? You know, I get, I would get my kick by seeing somebody do good. Like, "Look at that motherfucker, he doing good."

    8. JRJoe Rogan48:45

       That's a good kick.

    9. FRFreeway Rick Ross48:46

       "That's my, that's my motherfucking boy."

    10. JRJoe Rogan48:47

        Yeah.

    11. FRFreeway Rick Ross48:48

        You know, uh-

    12. JRJoe Rogan48:48

        That's a good kick. I like that kick.

    13. FRFreeway Rick Ross48:50

        Yeah.

    14. JRJoe Rogan48:50

        Me too. Some people get a kick off of degrading people. They get a kick off of being the most powerful person.

    15. FRFreeway Rick Ross48:56

        Yeah.

    16. JRJoe Rogan48:56

        You know, and that's a, that's an evil inclination that is built into humanity for some reason. There's always been that impulse for some people to do that.It's very unfortunate.

    17. FRFreeway Rick Ross49:08

        I think power, you can hide your power. You don't even have to show it.

    18. JRJoe Rogan49:10

        Yeah.

    19. FRFreeway Rick Ross49:10

        You can be powerful and, and nobody even know you powerful 'cause you don't have to use it. (laughs)

    20. JRJoe Rogan49:14

        Yeah. (laughs)

    21. FRFreeway Rick Ross49:17

        That's when you really powerful, when you don't have to use it. You're like, "See, I'm so powerful, don't nobody even make me use it."

    22. JRJoe Rogan49:22

        Yeah. And you're using your power for good. Yeah. It's, um... I mean, there's a lot of people with some good ideas in this world, and I think we're m- You know, there's a lot of people that are very down on the future. Uh, uh, uh, I don't think that helps anybody. I think there's a real possibility that we come out of this better. It's just, we have to think right and act right.

    23. FRFreeway Rick Ross49:42

        And then sometimes you gotta go to the bottom, you know?

    24. JRJoe Rogan49:44

        Mm-hmm.

    25. FRFreeway Rick Ross49:44

        They say, they say, uh... One of the books I read, it said that the, the end of the storm starts at the worst.

    26. JRJoe Rogan49:52

        Mm-hmm.

    27. FRFreeway Rick Ross49:53

        You know, when you get to the worst-

    28. JRJoe Rogan49:54

        Right.

    29. FRFreeway Rick Ross49:54

        ... and you, if you can bear the worst-

    30. JRJoe Rogan49:55

        That's the beginning of the end.
13. 1:11:26 – 1:29:10

    Identity stolen: the rapper Rick Ross, the lawsuit loss, and a million-dollar judgment

    1. JRJoe Rogan1:11:26

       Have you met this rapper that has been running around with your name for all these years?

    2. FRFreeway Rick Ross1:11:30

       Oh, he dodges me. He dodges me.

    3. JRJoe Rogan1:11:32

       You've never seen him?

    4. FRFreeway Rick Ross1:11:33

       No, I call him Bad Leg Slipper. Uh, you see what happened the other night? He- he- he walked Adrien Broner into the ring and-

    5. JRJoe Rogan1:11:39

       Oh, Adrien Broner got knocked out?

    6. FRFreeway Rick Ross1:11:40

       No.

    7. JRJoe Rogan1:11:40

       Well, he got... He didn't get knocked out, he got beat up.

    8. FRFreeway Rick Ross1:11:42

       The worst- the worst-

    9. JRJoe Rogan1:11:43

       Yeah.

    10. FRFreeway Rick Ross1:11:43

        ... beating he ever got before in his life.

    11. JRJoe Rogan1:11:45

        Well, Adrien Broner is a cautionary tale, because he was an incredibly talented young man. Very, very talented when he was young, but he fucked off too much and he didn't stay the path and he did- didn't stay disciplined and, you know, he had some losses and Maidana hurt him. That was, like, the first one.

    12. FRFreeway Rick Ross1:12:04

        Yeah.

    13. JRJoe Rogan1:12:04

        There's a few different fights. He just... You know, and now, what is he? 35? 36?

    14. FRFreeway Rick Ross1:12:10

        Broke.

    15. JRJoe Rogan1:12:11

        And if you're, um... If you're... Normal men, healthy men, when they hit 36, their body starts to decline.

    16. FRFreeway Rick Ross1:12:20

        Absolutely.

    17. JRJoe Rogan1:12:21

        And he's not that healthy. I mean, he was fat just a little while ago. Gervonta Davis took him in and he started training with Gervonta and he documented it, so he showed photos of, like, he had this big belly, he looked fat and out of shape, and then leaned himself down to where he had a six-pack again, but you're just getting back in shape. These motherfuckers that you're fighting have been in shape-

    18. FRFreeway Rick Ross1:12:43

        Staying in shape.

    19. JRJoe Rogan1:12:43

        ... for a decade. They're staying-

    20. FRFreeway Rick Ross1:12:44

        (laughs)

    21. JRJoe Rogan1:12:44

        ... in shape for a decade. Their- their reflexes and timing and technique is finely honed to a razor's edge. You can't just jump back in and compete with some dude who's been on the game for 10 fucking straight years.

    22. FRFreeway Rick Ross1:12:57

        Yeah, no, I agree.

    23. JRJoe Rogan1:12:57

        And is focused and on the path.

    24. FRFreeway Rick Ross1:12:59

        I agree.

    25. JRJoe Rogan1:12:59

        It takes a long time to get back to where you were.

    26. FRFreeway Rick Ross1:13:03

        Yes.

    27. JRJoe Rogan1:13:03

        Forget about to where they are. You might look the part. You might be able to hit pads and everybody's like, "Oh, he's back." Like, the- the difference between success and failure in the boxing game is fractions of a second. Fractions of a second. The ability to maintain a pace for as many rounds as the fight is. The- the understanding of how to pace yourself, the ability to handle the pressure, the pressure of knowing that you've fucked up for so long and this is a big opportunity. The nerves, the anxiety, the sleepless nights before the fight. All that's gonna weigh on you, all those different things. When you look at the elite of the elite boxers...... to a man, to every one of 'em, they're disciplined.

    28. FRFreeway Rick Ross1:13:45

        Yeah.

    29. JRJoe Rogan1:13:45

        And they stay focused. And like, okay, you know who's the same age as Adrien Broner? Terence Crawford, best boxer in the world.

    30. FRFreeway Rick Ross1:13:52

        I agree.

Episode duration: 2:31:08