@WildWayne talks with @Lucky_Johnson about the new @TylerPerry documentary #MaxinesBaby

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Q ninety three. Boy wild Wayman, always some great things happening around
town and Manland. I tell you, yesterday I was able to go check
out this amazing documentary. It wascalled Maxines Baby. I don't know if
you have heard about it yet,but it is an amazing piece about my

(00:21):
main man, Tyler Perry, NewOrleans product and he has done some amazing
things. And I did not realizehow many amazing things he has done,
but he has definitely been a globaltrandsetter when it comes to the movie industry.
He is a giant in the industryand right here from New Orleans.
Now, the crazy thing is,you know I'm true and true n O.

(00:45):
I used to live next door toMiss Maxine and mister Perry, that's
Tyler Perry's dad. When when Iwas coming up six and Baron was the
spot, uh, never knowing thatTyler Perry is gonna blow up to be
as big as he has become.Now, I was privy to meet one

(01:07):
of his cousins way back in theZ and I have him on the line.
You know him and you love him, My man, Lucky Johnson,
what's up, brother? What's up? Wild words out? Yeah? Now
the reason why I wanted to makesure and include Lucky Johnson. You've seen
him in various movies doing his thing, representing the n O to the fullest.

(01:30):
But he's first cousin with Tyler Perryand additionally, he is one of
the narrators of this documentary, whichis called Maxine's Baby. It debuts on
November seventeenth on Amazon Prime. Buthow did it feel, Lucky, because
you told me we're gonna make thishappen. Yeah, it was phenomenal,

(01:52):
man. I was just excited andelated to be a part of the project.
We've been working on it for afew years now and it's finally here.
It's finally coming out, and uh, it was. It's a great
journey in the life and experiences,trials and triplations of Tyler growing up in
New Orleans six and Baron. Yeah, and like you stated, you know
you you you were our neighbor.We stayed around the corner on six and

(02:15):
A Maxine and Tyler was on Barrongwhile you was going to Davy University.
Runn Nicklas together and get you somebrand and meat. Yes, Oh,
but I was I was so poor. People don't know that part. Man,
I always I always treasured living nextdoor to Miss Maxine, mister Emma,

(02:35):
because Miss Maxine would look out forme when I ain't really have nothing,
you know what I'm saying. Soshe used to always tell me my
son Junior gonna make it big.And I used to be like, who
the hell is Jr? Because hewas he was never around. But uh,
she was spot on and correct withthat one. Man. Uh yeah,
he's the apple of her eye.Yes, yes, she definitely spoken

(02:59):
into existence and she loved her son. He loved his mom and all the
way up to her untimedly demid shedied of cancer. You would love her.
We miss her. She is anangel in disguise. And the title,
you know, Maxine's baby, andrightfully so because she she just wanted
him to be well lost, youknow. And he's doing really good for

(03:21):
himself, and we're so proud ofhim. Man, I'm just excited to
be a part of the documentary.I'm not rating from the beginning, middle
of the end. I close itout right before him and you guys are
for a real good treat as faras education wise, prosperity. You know,
it's a powerful peace. You knowwhat I mean absolutely, And it's
called Maxine's Baby, and it's definitelytalked about the dynamic between Tyler and his

(03:44):
mother, Miss Maxine, and alsothe dynamic between Tyler and his father,
mister Emmett. Now, my pictureof mister Emmett was different because I wasn't
his son, but I was.I was just drinking, buddy, So
we had a great time, that'scorrect. But the relationship between Tyler,
who was actually Emmett Junior in realin the real world, his real government

(04:09):
name. Uh, it was avery dark and contentious relationship, but I
think it may be made Tyler theman that he is. Yeah, No,
absolutely, And what happens Wayne isa lot of times what goes on
inside of your house people don't know. So you know, back in the
day, our our my DearS orour big mombers at what they uh,

(04:31):
what goes on in this house staysin this house. You don't tell people
out in the street, so youknow, it was kind of like a
hidden thing where you were on theoutside everything looked beautiful, but on the
inside it was kind of tough forhim, you know, really really tough.
And it was unfortunate in my opinion, because I don't think he deserved
it to go through so much turmoiland hell and tough and beatings. You

(04:54):
know. I mean all of ushad dads that was kind of rough.
But again it was kind of exceptive, you know. So you'll see in
the doc men or even when Iwent to go and talk to him just
to humanize him and get an ideaof where he came from, where he
was raised at and his background,he was like, you don't whip hey,
hey, you know knowing knowing thatfamily and living next door. Uh,

(05:15):
it was interesting to see how Tylerwove a number of the family members
into the characters that you see todayportrayed in a number of Tyler Perry movies
and plays. Yes. Absolutely,you know, if you're not strong enough,
you could end up just the frontof your PPSD depression, you see.
So you could take that thing becausethe front of you and turn of

(05:38):
it. You could turn a calamityinto victory. And that's what he did.
And he took those voices of allthose various women that would come to
the parties, that would come tothe card games with a Maxine and Uck
image, and that'll be around hislife. My mom my, Aunties and
he he would uh embody those peoplein his mind. And then in the

(06:00):
early eighties Oprah Winfred said, itwas started to write things down in a
journal. So that was that allowedit to be therapeutic for him to release
those I ain't gonna say demons,but just those those fears of being beaten
all the time. And then lateron in life he was able to trans
transfer those into characters. And nowyou have all these shows and these shows

(06:20):
and films and plays of these characters. You know, that was just bettered
in his brain from yo right rightnow. It talks about the family dynamics
between Miss Maxim, mister emm andof course Tyler. But this movie is
even bigger than that because it championsthe success of Tyler Perry, especially in

(06:42):
a movie industry that had not givenAfrican Americans a fair shake in the past.
And it was kind of really interestingto see because I knew about how
successful these plays were. I knewthe first ones that they did, and
they did it was okay, ButI remember seeing them to Jumping, you
know, all of these different playsselling out at the sanger and coming back

(07:05):
and selling out again, and reallyhe kind of crept up on the movie
industry because they didn't know he wasso freaking popular and so successful. But
it shows how he overtook the movieindustry, how they gave him the bread.
Uh. And he also elevated otherpioneers in the movie industry. Uh.

(07:26):
So, well, how do youknow, absolutely I'm trying to cut
off his ironic Just say that,Wayne, because if you're you're been in
mainstream media for many, many,many years. And so what happened is
when he came up through the clinchesand what they consider the Chiman circuit,
White America just wasn't on point withit. So he cleared to an audience

(07:47):
that was forgotten about short of speed, you see. So he wasn't pumping
it through the radio, pumping throughTV commercials because he had created a website
where you could just you could justjoin my clicking the button that said joined.
So you're gonna have subscribe. Thankyou, Yeah, subscribers. So
once you subscribed, he had millionsof people at his fingertip. So no

(08:11):
matter where he went, Chicago,La, New York, anywhere down south,
he would say, come to mystage, player and it was packed.
So by the time White the Mellersgot a hold to it. The
train was already at full speed,you know, so they couldn't jump on.
So he would go and say,hey, I want to do a
TV show. Can you guys distributeit? Oh no, nobody never heard

(08:33):
of you. Okay, well youguys haven't heard of me, supribes So,
like the gentleman said at Lionsgate,once the once the rocket ship took
off, it was too late becauseit landed. But there wasn't you know,
it was like, Okay, he'sgonna fly by night, he'll come
and go. It's just a fadlike anything else. But it wasn't it
Just seventeen eighteen years later month,say Philberg Quin Tarantino, Tyler Perry is

(09:00):
the number one box office cellar inthe last seventeen years. None of these
guys have had a run like that. And that's amazing to me. Oh
man, I did not realize allof his achievements. I'll tell you that.
The two things that probably blew mymind the most in the documentary one
was Spike Lee. Spike Lee wasa very condescending opponent of the work that

(09:28):
Tyler Perry was doing. Early calledit buffoonery and a mockery of African Americans
and etc. But later after hishuge success, he changed that storyline and
became an advocate of Tyler Perry.I thought that was amazing. Yeah,
you can't beat them, join them, and in all saraens, as a

(09:50):
people, we should always try andsupport an uplift one another. Coler Dian
create the woman's suit. We doall the way back to Gerald Deane.
You know, I mean Eddie Murcydid it? Uh uh uh uh uh,
Jamie Fox did it? Lawrence didit? You know, a missus

(10:11):
doubtfire recipees to to forget his name. The white comedian did missus Doubtfire.
So when other people and and racistsdo it, they're not talking about a
clown. It's all comedy, it'sall sat tire, and it's all to
get you to understand what we gothrough as a people. With with everybody

(10:33):
can relate to my dear from theirgrandmother, they auntie, their mama,
or they sister. Somebody is mydear, you know. And and his
stories that he's portraying, he's sheddingthe light on what we go through and
culturally, if you're not from ourbackground, or our neighborhood or our our
dynamics demogram you're not gonna know whatcertain things are or means. So yeah,

(10:56):
it was a it's a powerful peace, Wayne, and I want I'm
excited for everybody did so they canunderstand that he kept fighting because they kept
saying no, and he kept saying, hey, you know, this is
something you guys should be interested in. They're like, no, we're gonna
go ahead and shoot Superman and thatokay, Right. He changed a lot
of people's minds after he had suchmassive, massive success, and that was

(11:18):
one of the points that resonated withme. Additionally, the other thing to
me that was mind blowing was thescope of his production studio out there in
Georgia. That, oh my goodness, I have not been there. I
know you've been there, lucky,but like how huge Tyler Perry Studios is

(11:45):
in his latest iteration of the studio, absolutely so I worked there. Now
I'm working on all the Queens Man, and we got a bunch of other
projects I'm working on at the studio. And he went from one studio to
another studio. The first studio wason Crap then he ended up another studio
on Greenbrier. But he kept growingand getting bigger and bigger. So now
his latest studio is at Bot McPherson, which was an army base, the

(12:09):
Confederate Army Base, which I lovedwhat he said, and it was of
how ironic for us they hold up. They're trying to keep thirty nine million
black people enslaves and now here togo one black man that owns the whole
base. And that was so beautifulbecause when he bought that particular location,
he named the found Stages after OprahWinspear, Will Smith, Denzel watchingson Holly

(12:33):
Berry and even Spike Lee, andyou know it was a little disappointing and
disheartening, but Spike to speak onit in such a manner because it's that
competitive like that. You know,everybody have their own art and so and
everybody have their own displayed. Spikeis from New York, Tyler is from
New Auklands. So he displayed hisimagery and his conception from what he saw

(12:54):
and was raised with. And SpikeLee did his you know, do the
right thing and side Man and MalcolmX. You know, he come up
in that era of you know,equality and civil rights and things of that
nature so rightfully, so he wasable to he was rightfully, so he
was able to infuse that into hiswork and let people see and understand his

(13:18):
point of view. You know whatI mean, right right that that studio
looked like looked like a small cityor something. Man it is and listen,
well there was. He bought theproperty value up tremendously. It was
the poorest black city up in Atlanta, and he bought the property the property
of value up tremendously. Because everybodywant to come down film, you know,

(13:39):
so let me see this real quick. So before he got there,
they was making it well from sayseven nine million dollars a year when he
came, and they might have employedfour thousand people. Now they've employed over
thirty five forty thousand people and it'sa six seven billion dollar industry in Georgia.
So once you see the Georgia peach, you take your head off to

(14:03):
Cayler Perry, no doubt, nodoubt, a small brown boy from New
Orleans, from uptown, from thethird one from six and Barrown made it
big. He was, in factMaxine's baby. Man. Y'all make sure
and check for the documentary. It'llbe dropping on Amazon Prime. That's gonna

(14:24):
be November seventeenth. So we're alittle over a week away from that debut
and you'll be able to see notonly Tyler Perry and all his accolades and
achievements in the Dynamics with his family, but it'll be narrated by none other
than my brother, Lucky Johnson.Man, congratulates everything you got going,
brother, Thank you so much,man, and thank everybody for going out

(14:45):
look at it. Shout out tomy cousin color parent for let me be
in it and do it the wayI did it and real quick, who
else better to do it than afamily member? Because all the way up
to this point, he's always toldhis own stories and all the things you've
heard from him always been narrated fromsomeone else other than the family. So
I walked with him, I wasraised with him. I saw his struggle,
and I'm just excited to be apart of it. Brother. Thank

(15:05):
you. Wa Ain't it not aproblem? There is? That was all
about Maxine's baby. If you wantto follow Lucky Johnson on social media,
where can they find you? BrotherLucky Undercore Johnson on Instagram and Lucky Johnson
on Facebook and Twitter? All right, there, you have to make sure
and check for the doc when itdrops once again November seventeenth. You already

(15:26):
got Amazon Prime, so just watchthe thing all right right on