Gerald King and Manuela Velasquez

[00:02] MANUELA VELAZQUEZ: I'm Manuela Velazquez. I'm 23. It's July 14, 2023. I'm here in Kalamazoo, Michigan, with Gerald who we're going to learn a little bit more about today.

[00:12] GERALD KING: All right? And my name is Gerald g ry King I am 45 years old. I have a birthday coming up next month. Today is July 14, 2023, and we are in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and I am speaking with Emanuela. Did I get that right?

[00:27] MANUELA VELAZQUEZ: Yes, sir. All right, Gerald so tell me, I mean, obviously, you know, just met you ten minutes ago, but tell me a little bit about yourself. Like, what was your life like growing up? Like, what was your life like in your childhood?

[00:42] GERALD KING: Oh, man. Yeah. Here we go. I don't want to answer that. No, I'm joking. Well, I was originally born in Chicago, Illinois. My father was a photographer, still is, but he does a lot of, like, landscaping and pictures like that. He done the whole thing, graduations, parties, just freelance photography. And that's kind of where I got my artistic eye. And I grew up here in Kalamazoo, Michigan, after my parents divorced, went to elementary school, you know, high school, Kalamazoo central graduate. I'm really known for being the artist around town. You know, I've been an artist since I was a kid. I always loved, like, animation and watching different cartoons and just learning how to, you know, do that type of stuff. And then when I, you know, when I grew up and I went to college, I actually learned how to animate and do things like that. And so that's kind of where I am now. Just different forms of art. You know, being behind the camera, drawing, painting, whatever it takes to, you know, create. That's what I'm sort of into. So I kind of do it all. I'm a jack of all trades.

[01:52] MANUELA VELAZQUEZ: Yeah. So it sounds like your dad being a photographer was one of the, one of the initial creative influences in your life that kind of set you on this creative jack of all trades path. Do you feel like there are other influences that have kind of led you to tap into that creativity?

[02:10] GERALD KING: Yes, definitely. Hip hop. I was born in 77, and that was kind of the beginning of the whole hip hop culture. I mean, you guys know, being from New York, how influential that is, and, you know, watching, you know, watching MTV and stuff like that, you know, it kind of made me want to be a rap artist. And that was something I didn't learn in school. I kind of learned on my own, you know, just from, you know, hanging out with my friends and listening to different music, different forms of music, not just hip hop, but I would. I would take anything I like, and I would bring it into, you know, my hip hop spectrum, but I learned how to write and, you know, write songs and stanzas and poems and, you know, anything like that that I tried to get into. And it was something to keep me off the streets, too. Between that and drawing pictures, you know, I stayed away from the gangs and just negative influences. Just being an artist and just repping myself. So.

[03:01] MANUELA VELAZQUEZ: So you're a photographer. You animate. You mentioned that you painted a mural, like, you do hip hop. Yeah. So tell me a little bit more about. I mean, in engaging in so many different art styles, do you find there are thematic similarities between how you approach the different mediums or, like, what. What do you love about doing so many different styles of work?

[03:25] GERALD KING: Well, what I love is finding the common thread and everything. When I got to college, I took intro to animation. I took, let me see, intro to art, you know, just going back to basic painting and stuff like that. And then I took intro to psychology, and when I went home, I'm reading all three books, and I found that all three books had pretty much the same, like, 50% of the same material in it when it came to projection and perspective and all that stuff, you know, and at first, people were like, you know, why you reading psychology if you want to be an animator? You know, but if I got to find a table and make. Give this table a personality and make it hop on across the screen with eyeballs and all that stuff, it should have a personality. So it helps to know different people. And. And I always studied different people, different backgrounds, you know, different races, different religions. I was always fascinated with that stuff, and it was always material that fed me to be more creative. So one genre kind of feeds the next. Like, if I go out and take pictures and I'm doing landscaping, okay, I therefore take those pictures, and I have something to draw in the background of my comic books, and then I can take my comic books and do it. You know, it's like. It's like a pipeline, almost. And I just like finding a common thread in everything because we all are connected, and everything in art is connected, and I just like to show that.

[04:47] MANUELA VELAZQUEZ: What are some of the common threads that you feel like you focused on in your art creation?

[04:53] GERALD KING: Well, recently, you know, with social media, you know, I've done a logo for Marvel plus podcast, and. And the guy, you know, the guy on the podcast, he found me. You know, he's like, hey, I need a logo I done it for him and all this stuff, and now I'm like, hey, I work with Marvel, you know, and, you know, since I grew up reading those comic books and everything, it was, like, my pleasure to do it. You know, I didn't get paid much, but I did get a t shirt, so not this one, but I get to rock it every now and then. But just things like that. You know, when I was 13 years old, going to Hillside middle school here in Kalamazoo, that was when I really, like, that's when I first got my, like, thousand comic books. Like, I was collecting them, you know, just going to different flea markets and just reading them. And I didn't just read the stories. I looked at the pictures. I looked at the way the bubbles were, you know, the way people talk, the dialogue, and. And I learned how to, you know, when I got older and I wanted to do films, I learned how to script write through reading the comic books. Most people, you know, they learn it through journalism and stuff like that, you know, kind of what you guys are doing, which is great, but I kind of had a different background than most people that I went to school with because back then I was a comic book nerd. Now those same comic books are billion dollar movies. And, you know, they got, every summer, the same comic books I got made fun of for are, you know, now these same people, their kids are watching it and they, you know, hey, Joe, can you draw this picture or know, can you draw a picture of Black Panther and all this stuff? And it's just funny now because everything is coming around full circle, so that's just the fun part of it. And then when I do murals and stuff like that, I always keep that in mind. Like, I try to make them fun. You know, some of them are kind of political, and those are the only ones that I ever received backlash for. But all my other murals are cool. So, like, this mural out front in front of this library, you know, news three website, they, you know, some people kind of in the comments saying some, you know, some racial prejudice stuff, so. But that kind of came to the territory, and I was prepared for it, but that was the only time somebody had a problem with my artwork. Like, I've done, like, over 100 murals, and they just had a problem with that one. So. So it kind of just shows you where society is, too. So, yeah, no, go for it.

[07:21] MANUELA VELAZQUEZ: Can you tell manvala about a piece.

[07:23] GERALD KING: You'Re particularly proud of, like, one of my mural pieces that I'm proud of or any piece? Yeah. Yes. My piece that I did at Hillside middle school by the music room, because when I was 13, like I said, it was, it's been 30 years since I've been at that school. So when I went, they hired me to do the mural, and I went in there, and I'm walking through the hallway, I kind of got. I felt this sense of anxiety or, like, pressure because I haven't been in that school in so long. And, you know, you're 13 years old, every. You know, everything is, you know, you're worried about a lot of stuff. You're growing up, you're, you know, you feel. You feel awkward and all that stuff. And it was weird because 30 years later, I still felt like that walking through the hallway, and I'm like, you know, I'm not supposed to be having all these memories. Like, I'm supposed to forget about all this stuff. And once I started to paint the mural and everything, it's like it became a whole different experience of me being in that school. You know, I had a lot of bad memories there, you know, getting into fights and getting suspended and all this stuff. And now they hired me to come back to do something positive, so I always kind of felt proud of that, you know? And I love doing music, too, so see how that all kind of tied in, and they let me do what I want. They let me, you know, paint the mural. He kind of just told me, you know, just. Just make something. Just surprise me. I come back down and, you know, just make something good. And I did it, and everybody loved it. And I was also working with three other people. We have this group called the artists of color initiative that we started here, and all four of us went to this, went to Hillside middle school. So we all came back and, you know, did a different mural. I did the music department. One of my other friends did the history class, you know, and we. One other friend did the other side of the gym, and we just kind of made the school look a little bit better, you know, add a little color to the wall so it don't look so dull. Maybe the kids are, like, going there now, I don't know. But that was one particular piece I was proud of.

[09:27] MANUELA VELAZQUEZ: That is so great that, like, it was all people who had gone to that school get to come back and, you know, contribute to its future and decorated a little bit, a little nicer.

[09:37] GERALD KING: I wanted to do that when I was going to the school, you know, but I couldn't graffiti the walls back then.

[09:43] MANUELA VELAZQUEZ: So, Gerald how has your life been different than what you'd imagined.

[09:48] GERALD KING: Oh, man, we could be here all day with that question. Well, when I was younger, I always wanted to. I always wanted to get into animation and make cartoons. Like, make the cartoons I watched on tv, you know, kind of give the kid the same feeling I got when I was watching those cartoons, and I wanted to grow up and be an artist and all that stuff. I want another kid to have that feeling, you know what I'm saying? But when I was growing up, everybody tried to push me to be either a basketball player, football player, you know, that's the only thing you can ever do, you know, and I kind of showed people the other way. Like, you can be creative and still love what you do, you know, I've made money, and I lost a lot of money, but it's not really about that. It's about the impact and just creating and just making the world a better place through that. That's what I always felt. But today, society can push you in different directions. I've worked in factories, and I did stuff to pay the bills. It wasn't always a good thing, just being an artist. And when I got married, telling my wife, hey, I'm going to quit my job, do murals full time, that wasn't a pleasant conversation. So it is now, you know, five years later. But when I first told her, it was like, man, how am I do this? Because I didn't know what I wanted to do either, you know? But a few years went by. I've done a few vendor shows, I've done a few events, and this was something I couldn't imagine as a kid, that I would have to. That I would actually love the work that I do. You know, I always thought out, like, I would be working at some factory and then be doing this on the side, and this would be, like, my side job. That's where my dad grew up. But when he quit his job and started doing photography full time, he ended up in Jamaica, and he's doing all this other stuff. And it didn't start off like that at first, but I saw the progression. And when you have a passion for something, it's not always work. It's just what you do. And once I learned that lesson, it was like. I'm like, okay, this is what it's all about. It's not about the. Not necessarily about the money that I make or anything like that. It's just that people know me for being an artist, and that's all I ever wanted, and I got that. So, you know.

[12:01] MANUELA VELAZQUEZ: Yeah. How do you think, like, what are some ways that you could envision spreading that lesson or that, I don't know, like, that belief in, like, youth today where it's like, you can take this creative path or, like, you can make your life different than, you know, what you've been told. It should look like, well, good old.

[12:21] GERALD KING: Good old social media. You know, most people my age, they had a different, they had a different look on social media because they saw it coming and they saw the impact of it, and they seeing. They're seeing what, like, these next generation of kids who grew up with social media. You know, it was something that was invented while I was, you know, after I was born. But now. Now, like, you know, my daughter, she grew up with it. She does a lot of her communication on there. She talked to a lot of her friends on there. She basically lives on social media. So that was one way to get my message out. And when I started my, I started a tv show at PMN called throw tv, and this was, this was a way to just take everything I do. The murals and the, you know, the artwork, the comic book, it was, this was one way to take everything I do and put it into one show or put it into one place so that way I can have, like, a hub. And we had some, we had kids come down there, and they learned about being behind the camera and just basic filmmaking and stuff like that. And that's my next frontier to explore filmmaking. And I want to do a feature film one day, like, maybe one of these Marvel films or any other comic book, but Marvel is kind of getting, you know, they're getting kind of big. But I don't think too many people know these stories like I do. Like I said, I've been reading them for 40 years.

[13:41] MANUELA VELAZQUEZ: You grew up with it. That's totally different to grow up reading it.

[13:44] GERALD KING: So I'm one of those people, like, when I see movies and I'm like, hey, didn't happen like that. But I would never put that on the Internet. Like, hey, I'm not gonna see this movie. I'm not one of them people either. I don't need how to energy, because I love all of it, you know, the bad films and the good films. I love it all because I didn't have it when I was growing up.

[14:01] MANUELA VELAZQUEZ: So if you could. If you could draw yourself or animate yourself as a comic book character, what would you. Or how would you do that for yourself?

[14:08] GERALD KING: Okay, well, I have.

[14:10] MANUELA VELAZQUEZ: Let's hear about it.

[14:14] GERALD KING: I was actually. I animated myself. We had to. Well, I took intro to animation, and we had to do a rotoscope animation. And that's just basically, I just, I pretend like I was a boxer and I'm throwing punches and doing like this in the left, right, and I had to stand, like, I had to stand with my left hand, make a picture and stand with my right hand, make a picture. And then I spent, like the last 8 hours drawing the picture in between those two to make it look like I made a movement. And then he was like, okay, now you got to do that again and again and again and again and again. And I'm like, I'm just sitting there doing it. This is before I had the computer and everything. I could just make copies, just, you know, control C. Control C. But I had to sit there and draw myself throwing punches like this. And, you know, 1234-5678 912 and. And it was like the hardest thing I ever did in my life. I had a migraine for two days. But when I got, when I got done with it and I saw that the pictures actually move, it was just like, it was like, oh, like, that's what, that's what I was doing. And it's a, it's a feeling you get when you, like, when you work on something for that long, that tedious. And to see it like, you know, to see it all come together, that it's a whole different, it's a whole different feeling. It's like, it's almost like having a baby. Like, you know, you wait nine months and, you know, all the pain and stuff, and then a baby comes out, it's like, oh, you forget about the whole, you know, morning sickness and all that stuff. So that's kind of how I look at it now. That was one animation I did, and then I I tried to do a stop motion animation, and that was a little bit easier, but a lot more tedious. And this was when I first started using my camera on my phone. So I had so many pictures that it took up all of my memory, and I didn't ever think that could happen, so I was like, wow, you know, but, yes, but I'm looking to do another. I'm working on another animation now, but I'm still in a. It takes longer to plan this stuff than actually do it, so I might write my, I'm trying to write myself into one of these Star wars stories. That's, that's my next mission. So. Because I'm a big Star wars fan, too, so. And that's, that's coming back on Disney right now, so.

[16:35] MANUELA VELAZQUEZ: That's so awesome. Yeah, it really sounds like in so many of these creative endeavors, like, you've really just stayed true to, like, what you want to pursue, and, like, you've made your own path. And it's making me wonder, like, do you, is there anything that you regret in your life, anything that you haven't done that you want to do still?

[16:53] GERALD KING: Well, yeah, kind of. The year I graduated in 95, that's when, you know, I wanted to go to college to do animation. I was getting out and everything. I was like, I'm gonna go straight into doing animation and art that way. But the movie toy story came out, and it was like, dun dun, dun. Everybody was like, what is this? What type of animation is this? Like, how did they, you know, all this stuff? And that's when 3d animation came out. And so when I got to college, I had to. They changed my major from animation to, well, they changed it from graphic design to animation because they didn't even have a animation degree at the college I was going to. Or they didn't have, like, intro to 3d animation because they didn't even know how. What it was. What it was. Nobody had a Pixar camera. No, you. You know what I'm saying? So by the time I got to college, I had to learn all of this new stuff that even my teacher didn't know. And it was kind of weird because we were all learning things together, you know, how to, you know, how to work with 3d images. And most of us had to go back to basic art because, you know, we had to learn how to make a circle in a sphere again, you know, the stuff I thought I already knew. But that's the thing about art. You can always go back to, okay, I need to learn how to make a square in a circle again. And I'm just like, oh, no, I know how to do that.

[18:09] MANUELA VELAZQUEZ: So, yeah, the basics, for sure. Yeah. So let's say, like, if you were to suddenly. This is an intense question, but it's written on the sheets. I'm gonna ask you, if you were to die suddenly this evening, what would you regret not having done? Like, why haven't you done that?

[18:29] GERALD KING: Let's see. Probably the. The motion picture thing.

[18:34] MANUELA VELAZQUEZ: Yeah.

[18:34] GERALD KING: I want to do. I want to do a three hour movie, four hour movie, kind of like Justice League. I want to do something like that. The only reason I haven't done it is money and money and money. That's.

[18:46] MANUELA VELAZQUEZ: They spend millions.

[18:48] GERALD KING: Yeah. Not that you need a lot of money. To make a great film. But that's been my only drawback is financial support. I have all the passion in the world. I can write stories all day long, but still need some money. So that's it. Like I said, that's pretty much it. That's the only thing I regret. Like I said, I've done a lot of things in my life that most people would think is like, oh, that's extraordinary, or, that's cool. I've been, since my father being a photographer, I've been to a lot of different places. You know, I've been to Bulls games. I've seen Michael Jordan in person and all of that. And really, after that happened, after I saw Michael Jordan in person, it was like everything else in my life is like. I'm like, it's whatever, you know, me and my father don't argue no more. We haven't argued since then. You know what I'm saying? I'm like, hey, we good?

[19:39] MANUELA VELAZQUEZ: We're set.

[19:40] GERALD KING: Yeah, we're good. So it's like, after that, after all that stuff happened, and I was going to high school when all of this was happening, 91 92, when they were winning all the championships, I would go back home to Chicago and celebrate. So after that, it's like whatever I do creatively is a bonus. You know, I've done murals, I've done, you know, I've done my comic books. I've done portraits and all of the stuff. I do vendor shows, and I think that's the only thing I haven't done. I've directed movies, I've directed documentaries, and I actually won award for my last documentary.

[20:14] MANUELA VELAZQUEZ: Oh, really?

[20:15] GERALD KING: Yep. I did a. I did a documentary about hip hop in Kalamazoo and how its origins, but its origins through me, like, how, you know, through my perspective, how, you know, the first person I recorded a song with, and I interviewed him and a couple other people that I hung with back in the day, and we're looking to make it into a series, so, you know, watch out for that.

[20:34] MANUELA VELAZQUEZ: Cool. Wait, so tell me a little bit more about that. So who, who was the first person that you kind of, or that kind of introduced you into the hip hop scene in Kalamazoo?

[20:44] GERALD KING: Well, I got here in the early eighties, and it was a whole different town then. A lot of stuff didn't happen. Like I said, there was no social media, and, you know, I think they tell you how old I am. It was like cable just started coming out. Cable just started coming out. It's like the world started to expand a little bit. And, like, being from Chicago, we used to get a lot of music from New York and, you know, like different dj's used to make mixtapes and stuff like that. And they were, they would bring them to the Chicago, you know, record stores, you know. Yeah, we did have record stores back then. They used to bring them there, and I used to listen to a lot of different music, like Africa, bambata, funky four plus one more, you know, Fantastic five, and all these different rappers and Roxanne, Shanta, and just all the that. And that's how I learned where, you know, different cities in New York was through these rappers. I didn't look at maps or nothing like that. I learned where the Bronx was, was from KRS one, and I learned where Brooklyn was from Biggie, and I learned where this side of New York until I finally went to New York and seeing all these places. But that's how I learned the east coast was through these rap, these rappers I listened to. And I always wanted to be like them. I always want have the clever rhymes and all of this stuff. But as I started to grow up, I developed my own identity, my own sound. And when I went to K Central, I just found more people that, you know, we all watch the same stuff. We all watch the same stuff on tv. We all listen to the same music. So a couple of us just started doing it ourselves, getting beat machines and just recording. And I just so happened to be one of the people that got good at it, or I stayed with it. I would sit in my house all weekend and just write, you know, most people would go, you know, they would write all week and then go party. But I was just one of them kids that I wanted to be left alone, you know, and just do my own thing. And eventually I got good at it. And after that, I just started doing it myself. And I didn't really care if I was good or not. I just did it. And once I got to that point, it was like, sky's the limit.

[22:49] MANUELA VELAZQUEZ: I thought there was like some beef or maybe it was more like friendly competition between LA, New York and Chicago hip hop scene.

[22:59] GERALD KING: No, it never was with me because Chicago was always in the middle, you know what I'm saying? I have friends from New York, I have friends from LA. I was always the guy in the middle because I'm from the midwest. Like, I'm the one that bridged the gap between those two guys. You know, I had, you know, I had, like I said, I had spice one and Curtis blow and run DMC tapes. Like, I had both of them, you know, saying, because that's what makes me, you know, and it's like that for a lot of people here in the midwest. Like, when you listen to, like, eshop or bone thugs in harmony, you can hear. And even Kanye west, even though I don't like him, but you can quote me on that. But even with his music, you hear what influences them. Listen to Michael Jackson. He's from Gary, Indiana, and he can do anything. He can make a rock song, rap song, blues song, it's whatever. It's all about the passion, you know what I'm saying? When I was growing up in the nineties, LA was killing the rap scene. I mean, I started listening to rap through the New York music, and I learned a lot from, you know, through that. But when it got to LA, you know, it was like they, they gave me the opposite side of the music. Like, it was more. It was more street stories, you know, stories from people who, you know, disenfranchised and stuff like that. So I kind of got both perspectives about the different lives that you live. You know, New York is way different in LA, you know, and, you know, with the weather, the people, you know what I'm saying? Like, but they all communicate with each other and, like. And it was always like that for me. I was always in the middle. I love both of them. And I didn't broke up many fights between two people, you know, the two sides, but it was more. That whole thing with the hip hop beef thing, the hip hop civil war thing, that was all, like, that was all the media pushing that. And I'm telling you straight up, it was the media pushing it. Like I said, cable was just blowing up. They need to put stuff on the news. You got the news report stuff 24 hours now, so we need to put stuff on there. So let's. Okay, this looks good. Let's talk about the rap beef, and then we can go through. People do that all the time. And that's how I looked at it. Cause nobody ever came up to me and tried to shoot me over. No lyrics. Nobody ever came up to my studio and shot it up. Nobody like that. That was never my life or nobody I knew. So we were always wondering where these stories came from. Tupac gets shot up, and then everybody start. All of a sudden, when I'm trying to do a show around here, nobody wants to do a show because of what happened to Tupac in New York. And I'm like, look, I don't know Tupac either. I just listen to the music like you do, you know, nobody's coming to the show. Nobody's coming up here to shoot nobody or none of that. We're not even about that. You know, we do charity events, you know. You know, we raise money for families who don't, who can't pay their medical bills. We do hip hop shows for them and stuff like that. That's, that's what I'm into, you know. And I think it was just the negative media, negative media stuff that just came out with that. And magazine started to get in on it, you know, gossip magazines and you. Now we got social media. They don't got the gossip magazine no more. You got what, the rotten tomatoes or rotten papayas, whatever they are. And now it's even worse. Cause everybody's an expert, right? Everybody's an expert journalist. Anybody can get on the Internet. And, hey, I'm a professional artist. I'm a professional at this, and you just gotta learn to weed through that stuff. But, yeah, I try to stay away from the negative stuff of hip hop. Cause I know how it looks to the rest of the world. You know, they, you know, they think we're just a bunch of people just running around. And I see these fools on the Internet all day. Just anybody could jump on, you know, YouTube and just say, whatever, and I'd just be like, oh, look at this dude. He need to stop. But I got 12 million views.

[26:54] MANUELA VELAZQUEZ: It sounds like, I mean, with, like, writing hip hop songs or, you know, making a documentary, painting these murals, like, you're always finding different ways to tell a story, and I'm wondering what you think the power in telling stories is.

[27:07] GERALD KING: Well, it was like, I used to read a lot when I was younger. Different books from, like, Africa and Jamaica and different religions and just like, books that passed down from my grandmother about storytelling. And that's how people pass down their culture, their habits, their religion, you know, through the stories that they tell. And I always took that seriously when I was a kid. And I used to watch these films, like, I was like, Star wars and stuff like that. All the stuff was just coming out when I was a kid. And when I used to watch these films, I used to say to myself, me and my father just say, like, this, this the type of movie that's gonna be around forever. Like, our grandkids gonna watch this and other people be like, man, I just watched a movie because it's good, you know, saying, I was always, I was always more into them. Like, I was. I was sitting watch the same movie for hours or listen to the same record for hours. And people used to think I was crazy, and people still think I'm crazy, but it's different now. It's more accepted now, you know, but, and I said, just, like, study everything. Like, because I always thought the more I knew it would help if I, you know, if I did want to be a screenwriter, I'm like, I'm thinking of more stuff. I know, you know, I can be more creative, and I was always thinking about the future like that. And then, plus, I get bored real easy doing the same repetitive thing. Like, I didn't want to just be a painter or something like that. I want to just try, you know, just try different things and different ways of communicating the art, and they're always going to be different ways, you know, whether it's digital, whether it's. Whether I'm painting with my hands, whether, whether I'm creating, whether we're doing journalism. It's all art to me. Everything is an art form.

[28:48] MANUELA VELAZQUEZ: And what are some of the lessons or legacies? You mentioned that you have a daughter, right? What are some of. Yeah. Like, what's some of the wisdom that you'd like to pass down to her?

[28:57] GERALD KING: Well, she's. She's coming into her own. She, she just turned 17, and I can't believe it seemed like I was just holding her. And when I was the, when I was in college, I was the president of the animation club, and she was just, like, maybe three months old, and I had to bring her up there with me. She's seen all the anime movies, like, you know, since she was a kid. All the classics, that is, you know, they have more out now, but I try to get her into, like, art and all that stuff. Like when she was in the womb, you know, I had to put the headphones to my wife's stomach and everything. I want to listen. I wanted her to be, like, just creative as possible and just, you know, I don't want her working in any factories or doing something that she don't want to do because she feel like I, she has to do that. You know, I wanted her to jump right into this family business. Cause she'll be a third generation artist with her granddad being a photographer, and then me doing my thing, you know, and that's what I wanted, and that's just what happened. She's a brilliant artist, but the thing about her is we. I do more paint and, like, canvas type stuff, and she does everything digitally.

[30:02] MANUELA VELAZQUEZ: Oh, yeah.

[30:03] GERALD KING: But she's really, she's better at it than I am. So I teach her stuff, and she teach me stuff, too. Sometimes I. And she. She actually does work study with me two, three days out of the week, and then she goes to school two days out of the week because she's. She's ahead in all of her other categories. But when it comes to art, you know, it's like somebody can grade you on art, but they can't tell you how long to be, you know, how long to work on a project or how. How to be creative. You can't. You can't grade that stuff. So that's where she is right now. But she's. She's coming to her own, and she's doing everything that I wanted to do. I'm proud of her, you know, I didn't want to force her to do it, because sometimes when I stand over her and watch her draw, she kind of, you know, hey, dad, get back. You know, go another room or something. And two minutes later, I get a message on my phone, and it's her image, you know? So just, like, she just sent me one a minute ago, but, yeah, I love it. Yeah, she. She helps out with a lot of the murals that I do because I had to go with my father to a lot of photo shoots. So I'm just passing that down, that lesson down, too. Cause I learned a lot doing that, and so I'm passing that down to her. And she would have been here today, but she's playing minecraft right now. No, genshin impact. That's the new one.

[31:22] MANUELA VELAZQUEZ: Oh, I've heard of that. How do you feel? Like your outlook on life changed when she was born.

[31:26] GERALD KING: Oh, it changed totally. It did a whole backflip before she was born. I mean, I still have my ambitions. I still had my, you know, my things that I want to do, my projects and all of this stuff. But the day. The day she was born and I brought her home and everything, I just had, like, a realization. It's like, it's not about just you anymore. It's like you have to live for her. Like, I think about her all the time. Even before I get up, I'm thinking about what she's doing and what she's eating, and it's just making that transition. And I was always good with kids. I have a really, really big family anyway, so I was always good at raising kids, and. Cause I'm a big kid myself. I still have my toys and my Spider man's and all of that stuff. So a lot of kids like to hang out with me because we watch the same movies. I make the movies that they watched, you know, and they're always honest with their reactions. You know, if. If I make a character and I see a bunch of kids like it, I know it's a hit, you know, saying, and they'll tell you, if it's not, you know? Yeah, they'll tell you. And. And it's the same thing with music. Like, sometimes I'll play a beat or whatever, and if I see the kids kind of bop into it, I'm like, I know I got them now, you know? So. So, yeah. Yep.

[32:48] MANUELA VELAZQUEZ: If you could hold on to one memory from your life forever, which would it be?

[32:52] GERALD KING: Oh, the Michael Jordan game.

[32:53] MANUELA VELAZQUEZ: Oh, sure.

[32:55] GERALD KING: He scored 54 points. He played the Washington bullets. I remember it. It was 1992.

[33:02] MANUELA VELAZQUEZ: Michael Jordan. Above it all.

[33:04] GERALD KING: Yeah, that was it right there. Yeah. It's like my whole life changed. I started being nicer to people. People started being nicer to me. Real talk.

[33:15] MANUELA VELAZQUEZ: What do you feel most grateful for in your life?

[33:20] GERALD KING: Like, the question before my daughter, I'm very grateful for her. We almost. We almost lost her a few times when my wife was pregnant or we thought we did, like, you know, you get that scare, you know, and I don't want to go through that again. So I was like, she gonna be my only child. But she came out, she was perfect, and I was like, okay, I'm done right now. That's it. I wanted more kids, but if I have more one day, I'm not going to, like, be mad about it or anything. You know what I'm saying? But, yeah, but she's my one and only. I'm glad I had her. There's a lot of boys in my family. I have a lot of nephews, like, maybe 20 nephews. And, like, she's. She's, like, one of the few girls, so. And she's the youngest, so, you know, everybody takes care of her.

[34:05] MANUELA VELAZQUEZ: Yeah, that's my prized possession, keeping everyone in line.

[34:08] GERALD KING: Oh, yeah.

[34:09] MANUELA VELAZQUEZ: How many siblings do you have?

[34:11] GERALD KING: I have four. Four sisters and a brother.

[34:15] MANUELA VELAZQUEZ: She's got a ton of sons.

[34:16] GERALD KING: Yeah, yeah. Well, my grandmother had twelve kids on one side, other grandmother had 14, so that's like. That's a lot of uncles and aunts. And then they all had kids, and they all had an average of five kids. I'm the only one that has one, you know. So big family reunion, you know, usually last, like a whole week, so just getting everybody there, but, yeah, we love them all, and we keep discovering new family members, different places, you know, different places in Michigan, Chicago, all around the midwest. So that's the fun part, too. And every family reunion, they want me to perform or rap or do something. So that's the one thing we make it happen. That's awesome.

[34:58] MANUELA VELAZQUEZ: So, Gerald as we kind of approach the end of the conversation, is there anything that you wish I'd ask you that you want to talk about? Is there anything else basically that you'd like to add that you're wondering about?

[35:12] GERALD KING: No, I think it was a great interview. I didn't know what I was going to talk about today, so I'm kind of glad that the questions kind of get thrown at me. You know what I'm saying? I get to kind of practice a little bit being on this side of the mic. But no, I think you asked, I think you asked some good questions. Nothing that I didn't get offended by anything or nothing like that.

[35:31] MANUELA VELAZQUEZ: Always a goal of ours.

[35:35] GERALD KING: Nope. It's all good. I know I supposed to meet with you guys last week. I think something happened with the, with the little truck out there, but. But, yeah, I'm good. If you're good, I'm good.

[35:47] MANUELA VELAZQUEZ: Well, thanks so much, Gerald It was really nice to meet you. And it was great getting to learn more about you, your life and your art.

[35:53] GERALD KING: All right. Appreciate it. Okay.