(upbeat music)
- [Leon] Prom. For a senior in high school,
it might be the greatest night of your life.
King and Queen for an evening.
- [Speaker] You was supposed to walk through!
- Or it could go left. Way left.
Go big or go home, I guess.
♪ Prom night ♪
♪ Prom night flex ♪
You know what?
Let me show y'all something.
You see this kid?
He's about to have the most embarrassing day
of his entire life.
Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on.
We gotta pause it right here.
All right, that was me, Leon Lozano,
Fremont High Prom Night, 1995.
Oakland, California.
You might be asking yourself if it's 1995,
what up with the timestamp for 1993?
Well, that's because I didn't know how to work
the settings on the camera.
That night, it was raining
and the limo we rented was a thunder bucket.
So, the sunroof started leaking.
- [JT] We in a broke ass limo.
- As a joke,
my homie, JT, opened an umbrella in the car.
Y'all already know that's bad luck.
The crew was me, JT, Ben, and Marv.
Later on, I'm gonna want to put these hands on Marv.
But we'll get to that.
(music squealing)
Here y'all go.
- [Speaker] Thank you.
- You're welcome.
- Bro, it's been 27 years. Let it go.
- You could have said thank you for the punch.
♪ Prom night flex ♪
Now, before we see what comes next. (hums)
Let's start from the beginning.
Nah, that's too far back.
(mellow soul music)
- In the house feeling [Indistinct]
You know what I'm saying?
(crowd chattering)
- Some of us had dates, but I didn't
because me and my girl broke up the night before prom.
We were still cool though.
We even took some pics just to show
how good we would've looked together. (whistling)
And a sister knew how to take a dope ass glamour shot.
We did shit like that back then.
So since I'm dateless,
I decided to play cameraman for the night.
- That's your date right here?
- Huh? - [Leon] That your date?
(party music)
So, prom is off the chain.
That's '90s lingo for lit, drips, slaps,
or whatever the hell y'all Gen Z'ers
be talking about nowadays.
No cap.
What's up, Sierra? - [Mr. Sierra] How 'ya doin'?
- Wait, wait. Hold up, hold up, hold up.
You see this dude?
That's Mr. Sierra. He's important to this story.
We'll get back to that in a minute.
So right about now,
I'm glad I don't have a date
because people start dancing
and a brother kind of got a fear of dancing.
At my wedding,
I was so nervous about the big dance moment
that wifey said we could just make a joke out of it.
(suspenseful music)
Actually, I'm kind of shy in general.
I tried to be a rapper one time, but since I'm shy,
I wore this. On purpose.
Shout out to Wu-Tang on the 36 Chambers album.
So fast forward and the night comes to an end.
I peeped that I was so busy recording all night
that I never got myself on camera.
Yeah, I took some fly ass photos
looking like Jim Carrey in the mask.
Somebody stop me!
But still, I wanted to remember what I looked like
on my prom night on video.
So, I set up my camera and pushed the record button.
I'm just standing there feeling kind of funny style like,
I should do something.
So, I do what any of y'all would've did
if you was at the crib by yourself.
Start stripping.
(clapping music)
Then I started moving, ain't nobody around.
So, I start dancing a little bit.
(clapping music)
Now this brings us back to Marv.
My homie since Frick Junior High.
By the time we got to Fremont,
all we wanted to be was popular.
We weren't that cool.
Just a couple extra colorful, regular ass dudes.
(school bell ringing)
Anyway, why do I wanna whoop Marv's ass?
So the day after prom, Marv asked me for a copy of my video.
I tell him, "Yeah, but don't record the end part
because the brother on here doing some wild-ass shit."
- Man, don't nobody wanna see you.
(low beat music)
(students laughing)
- The next day at school, I'm in class.
The teacher, Mr. Sierra, remember this dude?
Is playing the prom videos that he recorded.
It feels like the entire senior class is there.
The vibe is chill, side conversations are going.
All of a sudden, Marv walks in.
And I don't even notice.
He goes to Mr. Sierra and asks him
to make a copy of my prom video.
Mr. Sierra hears prom video and he's like,
"Cool, we're watching prom videos right now."
He takes the tape and pops it into the VCR.
I turn and see what's happening, but it's too late.
Sierra's already pressed play
and the video is queued up to the most embarrassing part.
This part.
♪ Prom night flex ♪
I'm flexing, I'm posing.
I'm making sexy faces.
I'm going so hard in the paint
for team light skin right now.
And everyone go crazy.
(students laughing)
Mr. Sierra finally realizes what's on the screen
and stops the tape.
Now, keep in mind, nobody noticed
when Marv gave Mr. Sierra the tape.
So half the people in the room think
that Mr. Sierra was behind the camera
at my house recording me.
And the way he rushed to stop the tape wasn't a good look.
Fuckin' Marv.
The rest of that week,
people would spot me in the hallways
and start flexing at me.
Some were just having fun with with it, but some...
- You a punk! (laughs)
- Let's just say toxic masculinity was real back then.
But we didn't have a word for it yet.
Come, let's shake, man.
But you know what?
I wasn't even tripping.
I realized I didn't care
what people thought about me anymore.
If they thought I was soft or a weirdo or whatever.
I was comfortable in my own skin, in my manhood.
And that right there,
that was my biggest flex all senior year.
(low beat music)
(music cutting)
(grunting)
(bell dinging)
♪ Like a time machine ♪
♪ Let's go back ♪
♪ In elementary, I wrote my first rap ♪
♪ And took the step to me ♪
♪ And give me my doubt ♪
♪ That's all I ever needed was my respect ♪
♪ But now I'm blanking checks ♪
♪ 'Cause times get rough and rough times get hard ♪
♪ I'm scrounging up a few bucks ♪
♪ For a new Porsche ♪
♪ See, life is tough, like WWF Sport ♪
♪ Do I make enough? ♪
♪ Oh no, I think I need more ♪
♪ More of just what's in store ♪
♪ Give it up ♪
♪ What you got, my patience out the door ♪
♪ See I didn't knock before ♪
♪ And see this lock secure ♪
♪ That I suppose I manifest how much can I adore ♪
♪ That the heaping bed ♪
♪ Make through stormy weather ♪
♪ Love the money ♪
♪ You think mix like Chester Cheese loving Cheddar ♪
♪ Spitting prophecies, feel my philosophy ♪
♪ It's where I've been ♪
♪ Where I am ♪
♪ Where I'm trying to be ♪
- [Announcer] Oakland.