♫ Everybody got a dream, listen to me.♫

♫ Everybody has a dream, but not everybody got a grind.♫

♫ You are where you are because of how you think.♫

♫ And if you were to change your thinking,♫

♫ You would change your world.♫

♫ Monday I grind, Tuesday I grind, Wednesday I grind,♫

♫ Thursday I grind, Friday I grind, ♫

♫ Saturday I grind, Sunday I grind.♫

♫ And that's why I'm here today.♫

♫ And listen to me, your problem is you're not grinding.♫

♫ You're not grinding♫

- All right, so real quick, I brought my man Toby up

because he's closer to your age.

Just got a degree.

I brought C.J. up because he's closer to you guy's age.

And I remember what Toby is doing,

you know the whole, like being silly and all of that.

I remember when I first started speaking

I used to do more of that kinda stuff.

But like things have changed for me a little bit

because I got a son whose a junior in college.

And my daughter's a senior in high school.

And I'm just gonna be real.

When I, like on my way here as I was driving,

I'm like, yo this, I'm like wow.

Like I almost cried.

I'm lookin' at the buildings and stuff on the way.

I'm like, wow you gotta, like wow this generation,

you gotta go to school, like you gotta go through

all that to get to here?

Like for real, I mean sure what I went through in Detroit.

that my kids didn't go through that.

Listen to me, I made up in my mind when I was in my 20's

that my kids ain't gonna go through what I went through.

My father wasn't there for me

and ain't nothin' I can do about it.

His father wasn't there.

My grandfather was a high school drop out.

My father was a high school drop out.

I was a high school drop out.

I said to myself, my kids will never

go through what I went through.

My son, listen to me, like I'm from the D.

My wife from the D.

I don't even take my son to where I grew up.

Like I don't even know if I left my son,

just left my man there, if he could hang.

He ain't never been through that before.

My son went through high school,

he 's never had a fight a day in his life.

I'm like, I'm lookin' at my son like you this is crazy.

Where I grew up, even if you didn't wanna fight,

you gotta fight.

I'm like yo, I didn't even like fighting,

and I had to fight.

So I put my son in a school where

he never had to go through that.

Listen to what I'm tellin' you.

I'm a high school drop out.

So how did I go from a high school drop out

to doin' what I'm doin' now?

Number one, I got a why.

I remember when I was goin' to school.

Like for real, I hate school.

Like I'm a grown man with a PhD and I hate school.

So somebody say, if you hate school so much, why do you go?

Because sometimes in life you have to do

what you don't like to do,

so you can live like you wanna live.

The first thing I had to do was say,

I'm gonna break the cycle.

All right, I need you to think about this real quick.

How many of you in this room,

live with your mother, your grandmother,

there's somebody that you like love?

With all your heart, there's somebody in this room

that you love, I need you to raise your hand for me.

Somebody you love.

Look, hands down.

We're gonna do it one more time.

I need you to do me a huge favor, huge favor.

You're not talkin' to nobody.

I need you to really think about what I'm sayin'

You got a mom in here who workin' two jobs,

you got a grandma that's still workin'.

Right, I need you to think about what I'm sayin'.

I'm not playin' now, and this is why I get so frustrated.

Somebody still talkin', come on.

Bro, I promise you I love you bro.

Listen to me very closely, they pay me

50,000 dollars to 100,000 dollars

when I speak to corporate America.

I got to a basketball program they pay me good.

I ain't gettin' a dime here.

I'm here because I love you,

but I'll be darned if I come here for free

and you disrespect me.

I ain't 20 years old, I ain't 19 years old.

I'm a grown man.

I'm here because I love you.

I'm here because I love y'all.

They ain't pay me a dime,

as a matter of fact I came and used my influence

to raise money so a group of kids can go to Costa Rica.

I'm not here to get nothin', I'm here to give you somethin'.

I'm not here to take nothin' from you.

I'm here to give you somethin'.

And listen to me closely,

when people love you, you don't do them like dirt.

When people care for you, you don't disrespect them.

You ain't got but a few people who care about you

in this world.

Didn't you hear what I just said?

You in the wrong place you gonna get shot and killed

and ain't nobody gonna go to jail for it.

Ain't nobody gonna go to jail for it.

Ain't nobody gonna do no time for it.

So the few people that you do have that care,

you can't treat them like garbage.

You can't disrespect the people

that's tryin' to look out for you.

'Cause you ain't got a whole bunch of,

you ain't got a lot of dudes.

Look me up.

You ain't got a lot a dudes that do what I do

comin' to your school.

No disrespect, the dudes you listenin' to,

you listenin' to my man and jammin' to his album,

he ain't comin' here.

And I just heard we had a rapper here last night.

How many schools did he go to?

How many elementary schools?

He came and took your money,

but he didn't invest nothin' back into you.

And you gonna have the nerve to laugh and joke

when teachers tryin' to teach you?

You got the nerve to act a fool

when somebody cares about you?

You talkin' while I'm talkin'?

Do you know if I go to a Jewish school, them kids quite.

If I go to a White school, them kids quite.

If I go to a Latino school, they quite.

The only kids that disrespect me is black kids.

That's it.

My own are the only ones that disrespect me.

I walk into any other school, they like there got E.T.

We takin' notes.

I come home, you talkin'

You copin' jokes, you think somethin' funny.

Look how we're livin', ain't nothin' funny.

Ain't nothin' funny, y'all.

They, look when I got my PhD it would embarrass me.

I'm in there they askin' me, like what's wrong

with our urban schools?

Like why are you askin' me I'm in class like you in class.

The teachers wanna know, professors wanna know,

why are your kids, what's the problem in the school system?

I'm embarrassed y'all.

I'm a grown man, I'm embarrassed that they talk about y'all.

You know why I'm embarrassed?

Because what they don't know is that you

ain't even tryin' when you take the test.

You didn't give your best.

They think you dumb, you ain't dumb.

You can't take our people from Africa

and put us in a diaspora and spread us all over the world

and we still survived slavery and we can't pass a test?

Come on.

I ain't stupid.

You take everything from us and we still survive,

you gonna tell me we can't learn how to write?

Have you lost your mind?

We are survivors.

That's all we do is survive,

and you gonna come and tell me you can't take a test.

You can take a test, the problem is

when you take the test you barely take the test.

I challenge you to go in there

and get that doggone piece of paper and that pencil

and do your best.

I challenge you.

I challenge you to go to class

and act like you got some sense.

Ain't nobody gotta put you on medicine.

You know how to sit down and shut up.

You do it when you watchin' videos.

So listen to me, you mine.

To spite that other voice tellin' me

that I would never get a PhD,

I did it anyway.

Win, lose or draw, but do me a favor

don't die not trying.

♫ You gotta feel me on this one. ♫

♫ You can't fail. ♫

- [Students] I can.

- [E.T] I will.

- [Students] I will.

- [E.T.] I must.

- [Students] I must.

- [E.T.] Come on, I must.

- [Students] I must.