Cancer survivor performs at the Magic Bag

Team the Franchise. Gene, brother, how you doing, man? What's up, man? Are you good? I'm excellent, excellent, excellent. How about yourself? Hey, man, I'm doing well. I'm doing great. It's good to talk to you. Look, man, salute to you. You're a cancer survivor. You survived stage three Hodgkin's lymphoma. Am I right? For sure, yep. Tomorrow, you're going to be at Magic Bag in Ferndale telling people a story and the importance of betting on yourself. Share about where the inspiration for that comes from and how you're able to take your life experience and want to share with others. Yeah, absolutely. It really just comes from just seeing the resilience that I've been so fortunate to have, having a group of people around me, family, friends, and just seeing just the everyday person, including myself, just continue to thrive through life, strive through life. And so the inspiration came just from me being a hip-hop artist, me having dreams, me having goals and ideas. And then, of course, life happened. Storm happened. Catastrophe happened. And it just comes to the point to where either it's going to stop or I'm going to stop. And I just got to the point that I said, you know what? I'm not allowing this thing to beat me. There are other heroes that I've seen that have overcome this. So I just began to take on that, take on that mentality, and that spawned into just life. Just continue to press, press through, continue to strive, continue to figure it out, continue to network and build and be around those who have the same mentality. So here we are. You know, I had a former boss tell me, you can't have a testimony without being tested. I'm preaching. Hey, you know, and I want to ask you this. So you talk about storms, and I want to ask you, the storm of the cancer diagnosis, where were you at in your rap career and what gave you the inspiration to keep going? Yeah, for sure. So I would say midway, I was making some noise and some headway. By this time, I was in Houston. I went down to Houston for a bit to stay there. My mom is down there. So I went down there for a little bit and bam, life happens. It just came out the blue and no way to pinpoint how it came or where it came from. And so, you know, things were rolling for me, network and starting to get into these offices and meeting people and meeting major labels and certain things. I was really fortunate and blessed to be in those positions. And then this happened, and then it becomes a toll on you financially, emotionally, mentally, spiritually, physically. It just takes a toll and it just derails you. And so again, the inspiration just came from shout out to my mom. She prays a lot and definitely just her words of wisdom and encouragement. And I have a lot of aunties. I have a great host of people around me that are just believers and have operating faith. And so that was the thing that surrounded me during that time, just having that army of people. I watched a lot of Martin. I tell people that I watched a lot of Martin. And so I had a really good support system and, you know, people wouldn't allow me. Don't get me wrong. I had those times. I was like, this is it. I'm at stage three. You know, when I was going to chemo, I would show up the next following week or the next day and it would be people that were there with me and they wasn't there anymore. So, of course, those thoughts was going through my mind. So, again, really just hanging on to hope. Sometimes you have to believe in others' belief in you until your belief kick in. And I began to do that. And, you know, I just was really fortunate and graced to be here. So I just taken that and compact that. And I really believe that my art imitates life. And so here we are. I put all that into my music, even when the music turns off and I'm talking to people or introduced to people. I definitely share that because there's so many other things that can be happening. But I'm just really blessed to say, yo, the storm here, yo, we still. I hear you. Look, man, that's beautiful. And, you know, at the end of the day, when we may not know who's praying for us, we can always count mama and the aunties to come through for us. Tomorrow, you're at the Magic Bag tomorrow. You're going to perform a little bit, right? Absolutely. Yeah. So you're going to perform tomorrow. But what can people expect when they when they come out to Ferndale? Yeah, you definitely can expect the atmosphere of people that are dreamers, that are creators, that have dreams, that have goals, that has aspirations. And this concert was prompted by I took my nephew to the Magic Bag back in November and we went to see the cool kids. And when we walked in there, the first thing he said to me was, oh, why haven't you had a show here? And just that thought really sparked something for me. And I contacted the Magic Bag, told him my idea, told him, you know, what I was doing. And again, just even him asking me, you know, why I haven't been there. It began. I saw how a little bit I was kind of slipping into, like, I'm waiting on somebody to discover me, like, man, discover yourself. Right. And so the atmosphere is dreamers, is other artists, C3, the artists be there, artists by the name of Arpida, a few of these artists, they even went to Dime Detroit. So they are Detroit based, got that Detroit grit, that Detroit sound and Motown and R&B. So it's different genres of music. Myself being a hip hop artist, we have R&B. And so it's just gonna be a great time. All kids, all ages are welcome. You know, the grandma can come and the baby, you know, and everybody in between. You know, I purposely, you know, love to make music that way. Yeah, no, you're speaking to the families now. Look, it's funny. Maybe you need to get your nephew a cut of whatever profit, because he's the one that booked you in this situation, right? Indirectly, indirectly. Maybe he might have a future. He might have a future as a manager, a booker, agent or whatnot. But, you know, I think this is definitely needed because I think the thing is a lot of people think and it's the same thing. I remember coming up in my career early, like you're always thinking of, well, somebody's got to, you know, approach me. Somebody's got to approach me. Well, sometimes when you say, why not me? You got to say, why am I not doing this? And you got to go out and get it. And a lot of times people aren't going to help you until they see you helping yourself. So, look, man, Keem, I appreciate you coming through. Thanks for sharing your story. And we look forward to tomorrow. Tickets are $26.93 at the door. Well, actually, they're available online, too. Doors open at 7 o'clock. Magic bag. Come here, Keem the Franchise. Brother, I appreciate you. And we'll catch up with you again soon. Absolutely. Thanks for having me. And I'm pretty sure we'll be talking soon. Yes, sir. Also, keep watching Martin, man. It's a classic. Listen, listen, man, it never gets old. It never gets old. It's funny, no matter how many TV shows debut, especially in this streaming space, there's something about those 90s sitcoms that continue to stand the test of time. And they will forever be undefeated in my book. And I'm sure your book, too. For sure. All right, man, take care of yourself. OK, thanks a lot, my guy. No problem, man.