- [Chike] 50/50.
- [Coodie] Thank you Lord for bringing us all together.
We have nothing but gratitude for everything
that you do for us, give us the strength
and the words that you want us to say Lord.
- What, what, Channel Zero y'all
like I say we back on the scene!
- [Announcer] Give it up for y'all niggas
Kanye Titta from Chicago motherfuckers!
(audience screaming)
- What an honor it is to be sitting here
with two of my brothers sitting
here screening and discussing!
(low chuckling)
- Let's go!
- One of the biggest directorial projects yet man.
- Oh man.
- Yeah man.
- I mean this whole project man about Kanye West.
Did you even think that we'll be sitting there doing this?
I mean to be honest with you I did.
(soft laughing)
- I mean we here though now right?
- I'm just happy you did this with us.
You know what I'm saying.
- Man we fam!
Kanye was another guy coming up in the game.
I remember being at the Cotton Club in the back
of the Cotton Club, the Go-Getters.
- [Coodie] Yeah.
- [Deon] Performing and you'll go
back there and you support him.
If anybody was good you supported them.
That's just what it was, you know?
And Coodie saw something that we all saw
but Coodie saw way grander than what we did.
- [Chike] Right, right, right, right, that's wild yeah.
- [Deon] You know what I mean, so.
- But the film was like we decided
well this is bigger than like Kanye and Coodie.
This is about like, how can we use this film
to make impact to people and how can they,
to teach people how to unlock their inner genius?
Everybody has an inner genius.
Everybody has a purpose.
Some's are just, it's deeper down.
- [Deon] Yeah, yeah.
- You got little bit more digging it
to unleash it but then you gotta have this faith.
You know what I'm saying?
- [Deon] Yeah.
- In a higher power, we say in God,
to be able to you know really walk through
adversities when you start to embark on that journey.
- [Deon] Absolutely.
- And that's the only thing that can really
kind of anchor you, you know what I'm saying?
- Jesus walks.
- [Deon] And little do people know too
I just wanna throw this fun fact out there
and people don't know that Jesus Walks dance
that Kanye did, Coodie taught him that.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [Deon] Through this dance that used to be
- At Jackson State.
- [Deon] At Jackson State yeah, yeah, yeah!
- Back then it was called the gangster walk.
- Well Coodie taught him that dance.
- [Chike] That's crazy.
- Let's take the gangster off of that and
make it Jesus and Kanye was like yeah and then we.
- You should bring it out on stage!
(joyful laughing)
- [Deon] Coodie used to do that dance!
He used to do that dance like on stage.
- Yeah.
- [Chike] It's so funny 'cause Kanye
was just doing it recently when he was performing.
- Yeah I saw that.
- Yeah for real, he still do it!
- He should've brought me out there.
I'm like should of brought me out there.
- Right, right!
(joyful laughing)
- 'Cause I do it way better.
(loud laughing)
Hey, hey!
- [Woman] What type of camera is that?
Oh wait, a Canon?
- Canon GL1.
- [Woman] Are you good with Final Cut Pro?
- I mean like I'm not good at editing
but I'm a good director.
- [Deon] You having a camera on Ye the way
that you did is something I never seen before.
But what you was documenting was hope.
- [Coodie] Yeah.
- And what you was documenting was passion
and drive is what you was documenting.
- Yeah.
- That's what you filmed.
- Yeah.
- For 20 years.
- Yep.
- So episode two is called Purpose right?
What a great title, like tell me
how did you all see that in this episode?
- [Chike] Well again just to bring it back
to that whole like, you know,
we're giving people a blueprint and
it's the concept of like once you have a vision
and you align with that vision
now you know where you're trying to go.
So now you're moving with purpose.
- [Coodie] Next thing we know we
in the studio with Jay-Z and
Kanye asked him can he spit on
a song, The Bounce, you know?
And Jay-Z gave him that opportunity.
So that was, you know, that's what
really, really gave him a lot of confidence.
Then he had a car accident.
He could have died.
- [Deon] Yeah.
- You know what I mean?
- Absolutely.
- He could have died but God saved him for this reason.
- Did you see it in any way kill his purpose?
Did it shut it down a little bit?
- I mean I just couldn't believe like few weeks
after maybe two weeks after the accident
when they like he broke his jaw in three places.
And he called me talking about man
I got this song I want you to hear, I'm like what?
Like, slow down, dude calm down!
(low chuckling)
Like you just broke your jaw man!
You know I don't need to hear this song, man.
You know, he like, no you got to hear it
you know, Through the Wire, you know?
And he started rapping the song to me.
And I felt, you know how you feel somebody pain like.
(loud exhaling)
Oo as he rapping but then I'm like
yo this is incredible what he's rapping to me right now.
- That was another question I wanted
to ask you too about watching this.
It seemed like he just and he still do this to this day.
He bring equipment anywhere and everywhere he go.
Was there like a guy who set up this equipment?
(soft chuckling)
- [Deon] Like you know what I mean?
I was like, who is, is Coodie hooking up
the sound system, like who was putting that together?
- [Coodie] Credit to Dame Dash is he got him that
all that equipment after he had the accident.
So that might have been the birth.
I mean not even might have been.
That was the birth of, you know,
him making tracks and doing music in hotel rooms.
- So it was Dame who provided him?
- Provided 'cause he couldn't travel 'cause of the pressure.
- Whew!
- You know you break your jaw and
you wired up, he couldn't travel.
- [Deon] He couldn't travel.
- Dame was like, yo and that's his whole thing.
- That's his whole thing.
Anywhere he go, he set up equipment.
- Yeah, yeah.
- So what's ironic though is like
when I met Coodie with Through the Wire
he comes back from LA after the accident.
They wanna do this music video.
So he comes with this cut already.
- Mmhmm.
- It's the documentary.
See this is what's insane it's like a full circle.
It's the documentary!
So we're still in this up to that point, right?
So I'm seeing all this footage.
I mean that alone was already,
I'd never even seen nothing like that.
- [Deon] Yeah.
- Don't mind how we put it together.
I'd never seen what he brought like that before
but that's what stuck out to me.
- [Deon] Yeah, yeah.
- Was like with so much giving
Pharrell it's just like you see the first time
Pharrell's discovering and the genius that Kanye has.
And how was it like there though?
- Like I just remember us like after
Luda did his verse and Luda was kinda like
you know like, I don't know, you know,
with the camera and all, but he showed mad love.
Then we go to Pharrell and then it was either Kanye
or Old Skool that said hey yo man turn the camera off.
But you know, I'm like I'm not turning this camera.
They'll say turn the camera off.
- [Deon] Yeah I heard that.
- Yeah, yeah.
- See it's all these key words that fuel him to make him go.
- From the right people!
- From the right people to let him go
this is gonna take me for another six months.
It's gonna take me to the next level.
This is going, just these keywords.
- [Coodie] You gotta realize before
them words even came Kanye said.
But that came a lot of that came from Donda.
- His mother.
- Yeah Mama West.
- She planted that seed, that's how you realize that bond.
Like I had that similar bond with my mother.
So I can only imagine you know what I'm sayin'
with in the future but like she really,
she bought his first equipment!
- [Deon] Yeah.
- [Coodie] Yeah.
- She connected him to Dug Infinite.
- [Deon] No I.D.
- You know what I'm I'm saying?
I need to get my child, I need you to teach him.
Like she just instilled a certain
amount of confidence but then also
told him how to use that confidence.
You know what I'm saying?
- [Deon] Mmhmm.
- One day I was just going through
footage, footage, footage and
then all of a sudden I hear her say
I have something important I want
to talk to you about Kanye.
And I'm like, huh?
And then when she said what she said
I'm like why he is this giant.
She give him that advice.
And I'm like was that, did she say that now?
I mean, did she say it then or
was she saying it right now where she was?
And I just so happened at the time
'cause of Common had Kanye's email
and I was just like my subject was
your mom told me to send this to you.
'Cause she told me to say that.
- [Deon] Mmm.
- [Chike] Mmhmm.
- And I sent it and he was like
in a million years I would've
never thought that she said this.
- [Deon] Wow.
- Yeah.
- [Deon] That's crazy.
- The giant looks in the mirror and sees nothing.
Everybody else sees the giant and that's so real.
'Cause we all giants, you know what I mean?
- [Deon] Yeah, yeah.
- We all giants.
- [Deon] Oo!
- [Donda] It's just gonna get better.
Everybody who's been with us, like you Coodie.
Like Greg, where Greg at?
Everybody who's been with Kanye
we're gonna make it, we're gonna do it!
It's 2004, it's gonna be our best year ever!
And this what our resolution is.
To make this the best year that ever
was for everybody on the team!
- Yeah, 2004!
- Happy New Year!
- [Coodie] Happy New Year!
- All right!
- [Coodie] It felt like our lives were about the change.
- [All] Three, two, one, Happy New Year!
- [Coodie] Forever.
(loud cheering)
- We really separated after Mama West pass.
Mama West pass, we, it was like
I'm taking care of my daughter.
Me and Chike working on our documentaries
and movie, you know just what we was
working on and Ye was doing his thing.
So but I'm looking and seeing him
in this like bigger than life superstar Yeezy.
And I'm like, oh dang, I didn't know
if I was gonna know him.
- Yeah.
- And I, but he was still the same person.
And I remember I emailed him
I was like dude I was a little
nervous when I seen you 'cause I know
Kanye West but I never met Yeezy.
- Was it mainly you making the decision to film
or was he going hey cut the camera on.
- No, no it was me.
Yeah the whole decision of to film him.
Y'all I'm gonna come out there and film me
when I turned the camera on was
I was thinking, you know what I mean?
And then my thing when I would film
I'm like I want to be able to shoot something
on this mini DV and you don't have to even cut.
So I used to like move around cinematically
which I thought, 'cause you know
I didn't go to school for this.
I'd be like, oh, let me do it like this.
Oh look at this I angle, I'ma stay right here.
You know?
- [Deon] Yeah.
- So I'm having fun too, it's like art,
you know, but I didn't go to school for it.