SID: Hello, Sid Roth, your investigative reporter here with Isaiah Reed. Isaiah, according to my notes, a newspaper said you were the most vicious pimp in Hawaii.
ISAIAH: that’s true.
SID: How – you don’t look that way now.
ISAIAH: Thank you Jesus.
SID: For sure. I want to take you back; you were raised with a Godly mother.
ISAIAH: Yes Sir.
SID: But you kind of liked using violence, even as a youngster, and fighting, and gangs.
ISAIAH: Well, it was contrary to the lifestyle that I was brought up into and really it was a challenge to me to make a decision. I was kind of in a fork of the road in my life; we didn’t practice, we practiced non-violence in our home. My father preached, and my mother preached still.
SID: How many generations of ministers were in your family?
ISAIAH: Five, five generations of preachers. And it was prophesized when my mother was 17 years old that I would minister the gospel. Of course nobody asked me if that was going to be my choice but growing up in that environment and kind of being indoctrinated into that kind of Christian lifestyle, I even went to Catholic school and attended a Baptist church. So the community that I was aware of, not only in my family, but the community that I was aware of as a child concerning my boundaries was all in a religious format. I didn’t know any other environment or lifestyle or culture at that particular time. But the long and short of it is, my sister was being bullied at a school and I asked the bully to leave her alone, and he wanted to beat me so I ran. You know, I ran for my life and he began to chase me, because I was fearful, I never had been in a physical altercation.
SID: Right.
ISAIAH: And I was about maybe twelve or so, and you know how young people are if they see you run you’re going to get beat up, everybody wants to watch, so a crowd kind of was running after me, instigating and so on and so forth. Anyway I made it home but I had a cousin there who says no, you know, we don’t run from nobody, you need to you know stand up and be a man and that kind of thing you know that macho thing and I was very afraid, very afraid. And I was more afraid of my older cousin than of the bully that was chasing me so I kind of stood my ground, and I just lunged at him really, and closed my eyes, and I guess out of the fear and out of terror I just grabbed a hold of him as tight as I could and I was strangling him. We ended up on the ground, but I was holding on, basically so he couldn’t get up and hurt me, but I had overpowered him and strangled him and he was you know crying out “uncle” let me go you know, enough, it’s enough already. And they pulled me off but what took place, it changed me inside, with the accolades. Everybody was happy, everybody was proud of me, and I had never experienced that before where all the attention and all the praise came upon me for something that I had done, and that was the pride of life. And so when the pride of life came on me I had an appetite for it. And I’m not saying that my parents never praised me, or never encouraged me…
SID: No, no, I understand. But let me ask you Isaiah; then you went in the military. Did you get straightened out?
ISAIAH: Well, the military came from being involved in crime. I was doing drive by shootings, because I had an appetite for it so I got involved in gangs. And during that time, during the Vietnam era, they were taking you know incorrigibles, gang members, and that sort and giving us a choice, either go to prison or go to war.
SID: Oh, I see, you went in reluctantly.
ISAIAH: Yeah. And since I was under age, my father said send him somewhere as long as he don’t come back home, because I had just become just too unbearable for my family. I mean by that time I had two young ladies and I’m living with my parents, pregnant, you know out of wedlock, that kind of thing, drive by shoots, already dabbling in narcotics, selling drugs.
SID: Your parents must have gone through a lot of grief with you.
ISAIAH: Oh yeah, a lot of grief. But one thing my parents did do, they stood on the promises of God.
SID: Yeah, I talked to your mother. She would really get in your face and say, my son is not a pimp, he’s a preacher.
ISAIAH: Oh yeah, often and much, much as she could. And I really thank her, and thank God for that tenacity and that tenaciousness. And I think every parent, whatever your family situation, whether you’re a parent, whether you’re a spouse, whether you’re a sibling, if you are the only one that has a promise or has something strong inside of you, a strong faith that you can stand on, on the confidence that is found in the word of God, then you need to stand, because what it looks like is not what it is. And that’s what mother- and the more she stood and the more she believed the worse I got. It seemed like the situation wouldn’t change, but it would grow. I mean the military, you know I could put on a uniform, I could be a chameleon so to speak, I could do the military thing. Of course violence, during that time was what they were promoting to defend this nation, but I liked the violence on a more personal level as far as promoting my own, being more intimidating, you know learning how to shoot, learning how to operate in weapons, learning hand to hand combat.
SID: So that actually enhanced your desire. At the top of your career as a pimp, how much money were you making?
ISAIAH: Oh, I think if I was to just average it out, 27 million.
SID: What does someone do with 27 million dollars?
ISAIAH: Well, there’s maintenance in that kind of lifestyle.
SID: You’re talking about a year.
ISAIAH: Yeah. If you have a high
SID: Did you hear that? 27 million dollars a year! I mean it would take a genius to figure out I think how to spend it. But give me a try; I’ll be able to do it, Isaiah. We’ll be right back after this word.
