- Some say I'm brutally honest, you know, but I'm kind of in my own world,
like, you know what I mean? So sometimes when I say things, it rubs people the right way. Sometimes it rubs people the wrong way, but I always tell 'em, "You
don't gotta follow me." (cool rhythmic music) - What's going on, I'm
Mia Belle and "BET Talks." Welcome the co-founder of the most legendary group in hip hop. I'm talking about The Lox, of course. Entrepreneur, what else? Health guru, plant-based pusher, He goes by t
he name of Styles P. and he's sitting in the chair right now. - How you feel?
- I'm great, how are you? - I'm good, I'm great, I woke up - Really good because you're sitting here. Of course.
- Thank you. - The legend.
- Thank you very much. - Did you get your
workout in this morning? - Yes, I did. - Let me tell you something,
seeing you on the Gram, getting it in?
- Yeah. - All the time. - I got lazy in the past
year and some change, so I had to pull it back together and say, let me get back on
one, two,
and just be super focused. The older you get, in all actuality, that I'm vintage, I'm not
getting old, I'm getting vintage. - I love vintage, come on. (laughs) - But say when you injure
something and you wait around, it seems like something else breaks down or something else breaks down, so I just put my mind forward and say, I'm just keep pushing and keep pushing and get myself lined back up correctly. - Right, of course.
- Yeah. - Now, in all your days, with all the life that you've
lived, would you ever think then that
you'd be in this space now with just such a healthy kick behind you where you are so focused on
really, you know, yourself, your body, the inner? - No.
- No? - No.
- Mmhmm. - The journey just
happened to fall in place, and, you know, fortunate enough, it's hip hop that got me there
because when you make music and you are able to live
a more affluent lifestyle and move to better neighborhoods and you get to see the differences than from the neighborhood
you w
ere originate from, so that made me passionate, wanting to take care of
myself and my family, and my loved ones around me, but then also to extend it to my community because we don't look at our
health as our wealth enough. Like, you know what I mean? It really, you can't enjoy nothing if you're not in good health. You can have all the money in the world, but if you're in bad health,
you won't get to enjoy it. - Exactly. And even with having all
the money in the world too, I think coming from ou
r community, sometimes we don't even know what to do with it in that sense. - Yeah.
- And it makes me curious to know when it really kicked in for you, where you were like, "Hold on, I think I need to make a better choice when it comes to what I'm eating, how I'm sleeping, everything." Because hip hop is a
whole nother ball game. - Definitely. I would say, really, after my first album, because happened to be in
a county pen for the album and being in a county pen, you
know, I stepped on the scal
e, I was 240 pounds.
- Wow. I can't even see that on you.
- Yeah. And it was just, I knew I had to make, it's not like I wore it very bad, but it just wasn't healthy.
- Right. - And you know, at that point, I became a vegetarian pretty much in there because I didn't eat the
trays and just was like, we eat oatmeal, fruits.
- Right. - Things of that nature. And then when I got out, I was like, "I'm not going to eat chicken anymore." Already didn't eat red
meat before I went in and I quit red meat
my
first year on "Bad Boy," I would say.
- Oh wow. - So then I was like, you know,
I'm gonna be a vegetarian. And then from '03 to
'13, I was a vegetarian. I really became plant-based
by a total mistake. As I said, I was vegetarian, but every Thanksgiving
I ate with my family. - Uh huh, you ate everything. - I ate, you know what I mean? Mac and cheese, the yams,
the turkey, all that. Thanksgiving, the 13th, I
didn't feel good after I ate. So it was like, you know, I
just wasn't feeling great. An
d then I decided on New Year's Eve that I would do a three week cleanse. - Right. - And this New Year's is 10 years later, I just never went back.
- Wow. - I just kind of, so I didn't
plan to be playing bass, I just went on a cleanse
and just never went back. I felt so much better. Like, you know, I had
postnasal drips, cyanosis, eczema, and just a host of issues. - Right, and these are things that a lot of Black people suffer from. - Yeah, and they just kind of disappeared. And then-
- Naturall
y. - Naturally, and then on top of, more so than for health reasons, 'cause people always think it's health. For me it was really, even to this day, it's more spiritual than anything. Like, it was better for
my vibration to just, you know, be off of fruits and plants. - Absolutely.
- And my energy, so that kind of works for me in that way. - It gets rid of the attitude, right? - Yeah.
(talking over each other) - No way.
- Yeah. I used to have a, I mean, I had a great
attitude too, but I also- -
(laughs) But depending on the day... - Depending on the day or who I'm around, like, you know what I mean, that would pretty much dictate
which way I'm gonna be. And this lifestyle makes me dictate how I want to be all the time. I choose to be on a positive vibe. - Right.
- Most of the time. - Yeah, and you're spreading
that awareness everywhere. You're amplifying it with
everything that you do. I mean, Juices for Life, Farmacy for Life, you have everything at the palm of the community's hands f
or them to really get into it. Now, what about your family? Are you like the guy
who's putting everybody on to what to eat and how to get themselves- - I think naturally when you, your first, I would say the first years
of, I don't say I'm a vegan, I say I plant-based because-
- Tell us the difference, 'cause a lot of people don't know, including myself sometimes.
- Well vegans fight more for the rights of animals. Now I believe in fighting
for the rights of animals, but I still wear leather.
-
Mmhmm. - And I'm not as graceful and
gracious as Dick Gregory yet. - Right. (laughs) - So I focus more on
equality for human beings, then I'll go fight for the animals. I think vegans fight more for the animals, you know, what's going on
with the animal's life. And I believe in that too, but I don't think we have
enough equality as human beings- - Right.
- Yet, so- - As Black folks.
- I'm not that graceful yet. I'll get there one day, hopefully. - We gotta fight out battles
first, like you said.
(laughs) - Yeah, you know, 'cause I respect, like, I'm cool with some folk at PITA, I'm cool with some folk at
the Humane Society, but- - They know not to throw
the paint over here. - Yeah, they ain't gonna
throw no paint at ghosts. But also it is like, I think more people would pay
attention to animal's rights if the people who was paying
attention to animal's rights also spread the word on what was happening with other humans.
- That's right. - So, you know, sometimes
as a person of color, wh
en you think about
it, just think about it, like the difference between
me, you, and somebody White is really our skin color
and some parts of our DNA, but two eyes, two ears, one mouth, one nose, 10 fingers, 10 toes. But some people have
more empathy and sympathy and compassion for an animal
than to someone who has more things in common with them. - Yeah.
- So, you know, hopefully one day we get to the equality amongst human beings, but I believe a plant-based
lifestyle gets there. - Yeah, I th
ink so too. - Plays part in getting us there because the common denominator
for a lot of folks, for me, especially my White friends that I met in all kind of places, the common denominator was weed. - Really?
- Yeah. Like weed is a plant that's for everybody. Like you don't, if I smoke, you smoke, and it's like, I don't
care where you from, we got things in common.
- One thing in common, right? - But a plant-based
lifestyle does the same thing 'cause you're in the supermarket where all sort of w
alks from life, so I'm speaking to the old White lady, old Asian man, old Black
folks, young Latin person, and we, you know, it's "How is that cilantro smelling? Them avocados look like they-"
- Come on. - Conversations with
people who you normally wouldn't have a conversation with. So, I believe that lifestyle's
a common denominator to bring unity for people also. - I think so too, and you know, you say that and I also hear
it from the streets where, you know, DJ E-Stylez, one
of my brothers in
music, he had a cold and he was like,
"Man, I gotta hit Styles P. and I gotta go get my
vitamins and do all this." And he did just that.
- Yeah, Farmacy for Life. Shout out, shout it out, yeah. That was the brainchild of me and my wife and my wife noticing that
people were paying attention to what we were doing
with Juices for Life. You know, our initial aim was
to open a store in the Bronx and do good and through the grace of God, we were able to have five juice bars now. - Yep, Green Supreme,
extra
ginger for me. (laughs) - Yeah, there you go. So we're noticing that
people were catching on and willing to make a
change in their lifestyle. My wife is like, "We need to introduce some
of the things that we take, and that's in our medicine cabinet also." So it's like we're stepping
with our community. So black seed oil, sea
moss, oil of oregano, (indecipherable) elderberry,
zinc, vitamin B, C, D, different forms of, not magical mushrooms, but mushrooms for the brain, you know- - The focu
s, yeah. - (indecipherable) weed, ashwagandha, maca root for the libido,
keep the pencil writing. - Come on.
- So we just got things for the gut, different sorts of roots, fennel root, ginger root,
peppermint for the gut. So just trying to work
on preventative measures 'cause poor people and people of color usually are scared to go to the hospital or don't have insurance money. So the best thing to do
with understanding that is to practice preventative measures. Just kind of work on
a lifestyle
of balance to the best of your ability,
and keep pushing like that. - Yeah, and it's important. We need to hear that,
especially Black men too. - [Styles P] Yeah, definitely. - And in the space that
we're in with music, hip hop and the audience that's listening, I feel like they also need to hear it, living in a food desert, you need to know what your options are. And what would you say for someone who does live in a food desert? What are the best things to order in the places where you pretty m
uch- - For everybody who
lives in a food desert, I say one, it's about switching your mind and then programming what's there for you. So when, you know, poor
Black neighborhoods, poor Latin neighborhoods used
to seeing a liquor store, fast food, liquor store, fast
food, every other corner, and you start immediately
thinking of your options of what you see.
- Mmhmm. - You have to start practicing going to the supermarket for lunch also. Or the supermarket for dinner also, and not just the good fo
od,
like if you're on the road, you're coming here, say
you're going to work and you are in a rush and
you're not sure what to do, you could simply stop at the supermarket, grab a couple avocados-
- Right. - You know, cashews, almonds,
peanuts, whatever you like. Dates, bananas, water, of course, just things you're not used
to implementing in you're diet and implement that and just
really worry about the inside of your body as much as you
worry about the outside, 'cause you know, we like
to look
good and feel good, you know, where you know
where everything's from. You know where your gear's from, you know where your watch is from. You know where all of that's from. You take as much showers as
you possibly can in a day, but you have to treat the inside as well as you're treating the outside. And I think that, once we practice that, and at least put that into our philosophy, it helps you work on a life of balance. Because I'm not telling
anybody go out there and be a workout fanatic.
- R
ight. - I'm not telling anybody
go be plant-based, what I'm saying it is just monitor what you're putting in your body, monitor how it makes you feel, and then monitor on
working on the balancing, doing the information, like getting the knowledge on the things that you are putting in your body. Like you're absolutely worth it. - Yeah, we are.
- Yeah. - Yeah. Now, how do you feel, getting
ready for this tour now? 'Cause you all good on the inside. - Yeah, I feel great, I feel great. That's what t
he getting up,
working out, eating clean. I'm prepared for life's
journey, as as it's gonna go. So what I am gonna do is I wanna rearrange some of my tour dates because I really, now wanna focus on finishing this album. - Mm, the last solo album. - Last solo album. I'm also gonna work on a
collaboration with Black Thought. - I saw that.
- Yeah. So hold on, that's gonna be with the Lox because you did say that
after this solo album, no more solo.
- Yeah, I'm either doing collabs
or Lox, that's, y
ou know, so Black Thought and
myself will be the collab, working on Lox music and the last solo. So I have a packed schedule, so to say. - Okay, and we're ready for it. - Yeah, me too. - Now I saw that you
were with Black Thought, he was also here on the show.
- Yeah. - And his book, "Up-cycled
Self" is coming out, probably out by the time this comes out. When is your memoir coming out? Because you got a lot of life to tell. - People ask me that. I'm not sure. Pretty soon, but that's part of the
reason why I wanna retire as a soloist, to have more room to write, you know- - You should save that for your 50th. - I put a fiction novel
out before, "Invincible," so I want to get back to that. This close to wrapping up
a documentary on Yonkers, which is gonna be a pretty
amazing documentary. So I do want to get back
into books and film heavy. So I'm making room for it. - Okay.
- You know? - I think you should save
the memoir for your 50th. We're celebrating the 49th.
- Yeah. I'm a little cr
azy, so
I'm like, I don't know if, you know, my memoir is gonna be like a- - It's gonna be a lot,
that's what I need it. - It's gonna be a ride. It'll be a ride, you know what I mean? - Yeah.
- But I'm definitely gonna put one together someday, and then plus, my wife, with her being,
she's written two books, and so I'm the fake author in the house 'cause I've only written one. - Okay.
- So I gotta- - You gotta up it.
- I gotta up it. - Yeah, for sure, you do.
- So I'll get there. - Yeah.
- I'll
get there. - Now, "Respect My Legacy."
- Yeah. - What would you say about your own legacy that you've created and
everything that you've done in this space when it comes to hip hop, entrepreneurialism, health,
everything that you've done? - For me, you know, at this
point in my life, health is the- - Main.
- The main one, and my legacy will be of being a messenger who cared about my people.
- Mm. - That's what I look
forward to the most really, because the accolades you get in hip hop definitely
go to my group and myself, and they're things to
very much be proud of. Being smart enough to
do multiple businesses- - Right.
- Is something to be proud of. But being a messenger to your people and, you know, there's
been great, many people, I didn't invent fruits and vegetables, I didn't invent herbs and oils, I'm not, you know, we've had
Dick Gregory, we have Dr. Zevy, we've had many people who
do the same thing I do. - And still, mmhmm.
- And still, so I'm proud to just be on board and be a
s a messenger
that's effective in hip hop. Like, you know what I mean? It's a blessing to say I've
been able to help people in their lives at least
feel somewhat better. So.
- Right. - That'll be my legacy
to go down in history as a messenger of health. - Yeah. Would you say that's your purpose as well? - Definitely. I think you have to find
something that you're here for. You know, when I go, I
heard a saying before, and I guess it always stuck with me. When you go, you're not gonna think
about
the things you did, you're gonna think about
the things you didn't do. So I want to be the type of man who made sure I helped my people. I don't want to get there,
laying on my deathbed, and be like, "****, I wasn't
beneficial to anyone else." Like, if I could leave the Earth
beneficial to someone else, that's a blessing in itself. - Absolutely, and you're doing just that, walking in your purpose. Of course you know that.
- Yeah. - Now I love how vocal
you are about the things that are happenin
g on your daily, on the ground, all of that.
(pair laughs) I tap in just to see what's going on. We not doing the bell bottoms. - Nah, I don't knock nobody- (laughs) - We not doing all of the new fashions. - Nah.
- We keeping it real simple. - Yeah, I keep it real,
I keep it real simple, and I don't knock like other people, like, I don't have the structured body for- - You know yourself, you know your style. - Yeah, you know, my
attitude and personality and body type don't reflect wearing what e
verybody else is wearing. Plus, I'm like an uncle,
like, you know what I mean? I'm the cool uncle, like-
- Right. - So I think when you get
cool uncle or OG status, you can't be jumping in the young boys- - And trying all the new things. - You know, it looks good on like, I guess tall slim dudes
or certain size dudes, it's just flare jeans wouldn't work on me. Just sweats or simple cargo.
- Got you. If you guys are confused, you gotta go to Styles P. Instagram, because every day he's updating us
on- - Yeah, when you go to the store though, it's hard to, like I went to
Neman and Sacks the other day, was all flare jeans.
- Mmhmm, that's the style right now. - Yeah, it was like every jean in there. Then they pulled out a
sweatsuit, I was like, "Oh, I like that sweatsuit, it's cool." It was a flare sweatsuit, I
was like, "Come on, y'all." I'm too short to be walking around with- - [Mia Belle] (laughs) They
taking us back to the seventies. - Yeah, I can't do it like that. I missed that era.
- Has anyone ever approached
you about a podcast or doing more media based
things because of your opinions? - Yeah, like sometimes I get
in trouble for my opinion, sometimes it makes people laugh. Well, I wouldn't say trouble,
sometimes my opinions, I'm a shag, so I just say what
I say, like, I'm like just- - Y'all are a lot. (laughs) - Some say I'm brutally honest, you know. I'm kind of in my own world,
like, you know what I mean? So sometimes when I say things, it rubs people the right way, s
ometimes it rubs people the wrong way, but I always tell 'em, "You
don't gotta follow me." - Right, that's life. - Not paying attention
to what I'm saying, but- - Would you ever go that route with having the microphone in your face and, you know, commenting on-
- Yeah, I don't mind. I love speaking my mind.
- Mmhmm. - I love speaking my mind, and then, well sometimes I'm gonna say things that are gonna really bother people or that's going to either make
them think in a certain way. And here's th
e thing, when you are right, and people don't see you are right yet, they criticized the crap outta you. Then when they found out you're right, they don't come back and apologize. - Nope.
- So it's good, like, you know what I mean?
- Uh huh. - I'd like a couple apologies from some people when I was right. Like, you know what I mean? But it's all good. - I think the podcast should
definitely come next too. Once you get all those
other things out the way 'cause I know it's a lot.
- Yeah. - But we
definitely want to
hear more of your opinions. We can't wait for the album. We can't wait for the book.
- Thank you. - And of course the tour.
- Yeah. - And your birthday that's coming up. - Yeah, I'm gonna have a good time. - Yes you are, and we're all gonna be
here to enjoy it with you. - Thank you. - Thank you so much for being here. Thanks for having me.
- "BET Talks." Y'all see it, the king. (cool rhythmic music)
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