Raymond Smith interviewed by Valentin Sorto
Valentine Sorto (00:01): Okay, my name is Valentine, and today is Thursday 18, and I'm here with Mr. Smith. We're interviewing you about this program, and we're trying to get a response about how you feel. Can you say your name and why you're here?
Raymond Smith (00:28): Yeah, my name is [inaudible 00:28].
Valentine Sorto (00:29): And you're here.
Raymond Smith (00:35): Yeah, I'm here, but I ain't here.
Valentine Sorto (00:44): (laughing) Okay, I got it. And I like that one- the resp- like- (laughing) Okay. Great. (laughing)
Raymond Smith (01:11): (laughing) Whooee. You all right, Mr. Narrator?
Valentine Sorto (01:13): Yeah.
Raymond Smith (01:13): You know what I'm saying?
Valentine Sorto (01:23): Okay, let me ask the next question.
Raymond Smith (01:29): (laughing) That how you got that, that's what you got to do for the parole- (laughing).
Valentine Sorto (01:35): Okay. (laughing) That's a great way ... Do you remember that? That's excellent. That's very healthy, and, and ...
Raymond Smith (01:44): Yeah, but you got, you got tears in your eyes, Mr., Mr. - (laughing).
Valentine Sorto (01:50): Okay, let me ask you one question.
Raymond Smith (01:52): All right, go ahead.
Valentine Sorto (01:53): We'll start it with this one, uh, how did you being in this class made you feel.
Raymond Smith (02:00): Uh, it made me feel real, man. You know, it made me feel, sometime I need to use my steel. (laughing)
Valentine Sorto (02:05): Okay.
Raymond Smith (02:05): Actually. Actually.
Valentine Sorto (02:05): Okay. Uh ... Okay. And tell me about, your favorite memories from this class.
Raymond Smith (02:24): Yeah, I got good ones, I got bad ones, but I think I got more good ones than bad ones.
Valentine Sorto (02:30): Can you describe one, please?
Raymond Smith (02:31): Well, you know, I figure a good one, I'm trying to learn how to play that bass guitar. The bad one, I got to sit here and have a interview with you.
Valentine Sorto (02:38): (laughs).
Raymond Smith (02:40): And I don't like you, I don't like you, Mr. Valentine.
Valentine Sorto (02:42): Oh, you know ...
Raymond Smith (02:43): (laughs)
Valentine Sorto (02:48): You got the best friend right here with you, you know?
Raymond Smith (02:50): Yeah, I don't need no friends in jail, little man, you know. I'm a lone wolf.
Valentine Sorto (02:55): Oh, okay.
Raymond Smith (02:55): (Growls)
Valentine Sorto (02:58): That's excellent. Okay, uh, so for how you feel to be interviewed?
Raymond Smith (03:06): Well, I don't like to be interviewed, man, because you might use it to the authorities, like I'm almost getting set up. It's almost like a, wired up, like I told Annie.
Valentine Sorto (03:20): Okay.
Raymond Smith (03:20): I told her, you know, talking on this thing here, in my voice, you know, I'm kind of skeptical, man. Because I don't want another bid. Getting ready to make that parole board, and I don't want to come out the front door, and they got me on another charge or something. (laughs)
Valentine Sorto (03:37): Okay. Yes, yes. Okay. Excellent. Let me ask you this question, right?
Raymond Smith (03:45): Three minutes.
Valentine Sorto (03:47): Three minute?
Raymond Smith (03:47): Yeah, we got three minutes to go.
Valentine Sorto (03:49): What is something you would like to carry, though, with you from this class?
Raymond Smith (03:56): Oh, when I get out of the class I tell everybody, don't take it, man. Worst class I ever took in my life. That's what I'ma tell 'em. I don't want nobody to take it no more. I want Wave to be shut down, because I'm a gangster. (laughs)
Valentine Sorto (04:08): Okay.
Raymond Smith (04:10): You know what I'm saying? Not a prankster, but a gangster.
Valentine Sorto (04:12): Right, right, right.
Raymond Smith (04:12): You know what I'm saying? With a capital G.
Valentine Sorto (04:15): Okay. All capital letters.
Raymond Smith (04:18): Yeah, all capital letters. There you go. See, now we on the r- on the same page.
Valentine Sorto (04:21): Okay. I got you.
Raymond Smith (04:23): You know? That's why I can be truthful with you, Mr. Valentine.
Valentine Sorto (04:26): Yes.
Raymond Smith (04:27): Or whatever your name is. I don't know what your real name is. (laughs) That could be a fake name. I don't know.
Valentine Sorto (04:33): Yeah, uh, yeah, you don't really know. But we going to give you a little bit about how would you describe yourself as an artist?
Raymond Smith (04:49): As a what?
Valentine Sorto (04:50): Artist.
Raymond Smith (04:51): A artist?
Valentine Sorto (04:52): Yes.
Raymond Smith (04:54): Well, you know, I'm a smooth, I'm a smooth character, man. Smooth operator. That's why I chose the bass.
Valentine Sorto (05:02): Mm.
Raymond Smith (05:02): You know, because I'm smooth. You know, I don't like to, you know, be all with rowdy and singing and carrying on. You know, I like to be in the background. You heard?
Valentine Sorto (05:13): Yes.
Raymond Smith (05:14): All right.
Valentine Sorto (05:14): You like to be in the background, and ...
Raymond Smith (05:16): Yeah. I like to be in the background making sounds.
Valentine Sorto (05:20): But that's great, because the bass make people jump ...
Raymond Smith (05:26): That's right.
Valentine Sorto (05:26): ... doing a lot of stuff that-
Raymond Smith (05:28): See, when you, when you hear that thump, everybody talk about the bass.
Valentine Sorto (05:31): Yeah.
Raymond Smith (05:31): So when you talk about the bass, I want you to be thinking about me.
Valentine Sorto (05:34): Okay.
Raymond Smith (05:34): You know.
Valentine Sorto (05:35): So, I'm shaking my head like this, like, you know.
Raymond Smith (05:38): That's right, that's right. Don't be thinking about me in your dreams and all that. Know what I'm saying?
Valentine Sorto (05:42): No, no. I- Definitely not. Okay.
Raymond Smith (05:44): Well, I'm just making sure, you know.
Valentine Sorto (05:46): All right.
Raymond Smith (05:46): Put- put that on, on the tape.
Valentine Sorto (05:48): Yes.
Raymond Smith (05:48): (laughs)
Valentine Sorto (05:51): All right. You want me to ask you a last question?
Raymond Smith (05:55): Yeah, you can ask me the last question.
Valentine Sorto (05:57): All right, is there anything you wrote in the writing survey that you would like to say more about it here?
Raymond Smith (06:08): Yeah ... Uh, I wish the class was shorter. One session is good for me. That's what I wish. Because right now I'm mad. I don't feel like talking.
Valentine Sorto (06:21): You think about the board.
Raymond Smith (06:22): Yeah, yeah, I'm thinking about the parole board, even though I got a year to go. You know? Because y- you going before me, so I'm mad, jealous, upset.
Valentine Sorto (06:32): I will make- I will make the, the room for you no way back.
Raymond Smith (06:36): Well, I know you getting ready to make it anyway, man. Anybody that's going, I give them a thumbs up, instead of a thumbs down.
Valentine Sorto (06:44): Okay.
Raymond Smith (06:45): You heard?
Valentine Sorto (06:46): Yes. And the last question is this.
Raymond Smith (06:50): What's that?
Valentine Sorto (06:50): Would you like to bring this to the street? These skills?
Raymond Smith (06:55): Yeah, my own skills. I don't know about nobody else's, but I'm, I'm concerned about me, numero uno, as I say in my native language.
Valentine Sorto (07:03): Okay.
Raymond Smith (07:04): You know. You know what my native language is, right? Numero uno?
Valentine Sorto (07:09): Numero uno, yes.
Raymond Smith (07:09): Yeah. Okay, so what that mean to you?
Valentine Sorto (07:13): That mean, uh, number one.
Raymond Smith (07:16): Yeah, but what language.
Valentine Sorto (07:18): Uh, Spanish.
Raymond Smith (07:19): There you go. That's, that's my native tongue.
Valentine Sorto (07:21): Okay. Eh, okay, we going to close the interview. Eh, I appreciate you participating, you answers, and I would like to see you again.
Raymond Smith (07:35): Man, I don't want to see you again, man. I hopef- I hopefully it's the last night I going to see you.
Valentine Sorto (07:39): Okay.
Raymond Smith (07:40): I don't want to see you in my dreams. I don't want to see you no more.
Valentine Sorto (07:43): Right. That's excellent.
Raymond Smith (07:44): Th- this was enough for me.
Valentine Sorto (07:46): So, this, this-
Raymond Smith (07:46): You heard?
Valentine Sorto (07:47): Yes. So, I appreciate and you come here, and concern you sincerity and do everything for the people who will listen to you at this moment.
Raymond Smith (08:01): Yeah, but I come here, I came here to fight, man. That's what I came here for.
Valentine Sorto (08:04): Okay.
Raymond Smith (08:05): You know, nothing else.
Valentine Sorto (08:07): Thank you very much. Muchas Gracias, okay?
Raymond Smith (08:08): Yeah, thank you. Mucho gracias, in my native tongue.
Valentine Sorto (08:11): All right. Mucho gracias.
Raymond Smith (08:13): De nada.
Valentine Sorto (08:13): Okay.