Joe Rogan Experience #2353 - Shaka Senghor

(drumming) Joe Rogan podcast, check it out. The Joe Rogan Experience.

Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night. All day. (instrumental music plays)

Joe. Yeah. What's up? Pleasure to meet you.

Ah, such a pleasure to be here.

My, yeah, it's, um ... I s- I heard your story. Why don't you tell everybody your story? Because the story's ... it's pretty wild.

Yeah. So I, I grew up in Detroit, um, working class neighborhood. Dad was in the, uh, Air Force and worked for the state. Mom was a homemaker. So on the outside looking in, it really looked like a household where the kids should make it. Um, but unfortunately, it was a very abusive household. And I ran away when I was about 13 years old. And at the time, prior to that, you know, honor roll, scholarship student, dreams of being a doctor, artist. Um, I wanted to be a doctor 'cause I felt like that was a occupation where I felt like you can help people. And, unfortunately, you know, when I ran away, I thought that I would basically just kinda get welcomed into the home of someone who would see this kid and be like, "Oh, you know, this kid just deserves love," or whatever. But I found myself on the east side of Detroit, in an apartment with a gun to my head. And it was my introduction to the street culture. I was being robbed, um, and I was r- being robbed by this guy who, later we would learn, his name was Tiny, um, even though he was, like, big, fat, probably about six feet tall. And him and his partner, Lily, robbed me at gunpoint, took my drugs, took the money, and I think that was, like, one of those moments where the innocence of being a kid just was shattered. You know? It's like, you know, now I'm in this world where my life is in danger, uh, but I stayed in that culture. My childhood friend was murdered, um, I was beat nearly to death, and despite that, I just continued to sell drugs. You know, it's, it's ... One of the things when I, when I think back to, you know, even that part of my life, you know, there's the glorification of, like, the hustler, right?

Mm-hmm.

It's like, you, you know, we're out here making money, we're doing things, but the reality is, it's a kid navigating a very dangerous adult world at the time that crack is just penetrating the, the community. And one of the, one of the things that always go back to this image of the first time I made a lot of money, and I just had this wad of cash, like, it's just, like, all singles, $5 bills, $10 bills, and I went to the store on the corner, and I bought all the cereal that I can think of.