Ikish Mullens

ENTREPRENEUR/AUTHOR/WRITER/CREATOR/ACTOR

Here's an excerpt from Ikish Mullens' interview on Celebrity Blvd w/ Glam & Reg Hollywood, for his new

book Mind Games: A Brick City Story.  

Glam: What was your inspiration for writing Mind Games: A Brick City Story?  

Ikish Mullens: When I first started out writing the transcript for Mind Games (A Brick City Story), I didn’t think it would become a story. But after writing out the first five chapters, a co-worker of mines at the time read what I was writing and loved it, then suggested that I publish it.  

Reg Hollywood: So you mean to tell me that you were at working when you wrote this book?  

Ikish: Yeah…I was working at a law firm down town Newark (New Jersey) as a Document Service Representative. And some days in the office we’d get a lot of down time and on this particular day, I was bored and needed something to do to pass the time. In the office, we’d listen to the radio, and I’d let them listen to what they wanted until Wendy (Williams) show came on…So while I was listening to the show she had a guest who was a self-published author, who was talking about how easy it was to publish your own book…I sat back and listened to him talk, then I sat down and reflected on my life and the things people around me always said like, “You look like you going to be famous one day.” Back then, I always said yeah right and kept doing what I was doing until I out the blue I just started to write.

Glam: Wow…  

Reg: That’s what’s up. So you got that all from one show?  

Ikish: Basically, yeah.  

Glam: I had the pleasure to read your book and found a lot of interesting things you touched on. And I can tell by the way you were wrote it that it was something you were passionate about.  

Ikish: It definitely was.  

Glam: So tell us, how did you become interested in this particular topic?  

Ikish: The topic and whole theme of Mind Games (A Brick City Story) is basically things I experience personally in my life and experiences people closet to me at the time experienced. See growing up in Bradley Courts housing projects, I saw a lot of thing happen, most of which I wasn’t proud of. Andone of the things I saw going on was drug dealing. I mean, I don’t knock nobodies hustle, to each his own. But I do have a problem when you see middle school kids more on the block than in school getting aproper education. It’s like they think hustling on the corner is the best thing, but it’s not. They really don’t know what it takes to do that type of thing. They go into hustling ignorant, focused on the potential money they can make, and pay no attention to the risks involved.

Reg: You sound like you were out there at one time.  

Ikish: Naw, that type of hustling ain’t my thing. I value life too much to do it. But honestly speaking, if the risks didn’t out weigh the reward, maybe I would have, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. It goes against everything I believe in. And knowing what I know, I’ve seen how even selling drugs can damage a family as well a taking them. Because when you’re out there doing what you do, you might think you’re doing it for a good cause, but at the end of the day, are you really? Because when the heat is on, and things start going south, now you’re pulling your family and loved ones into it. Like when you get locked up or if they receive that call that no one wants to receive, your problem becomes their problem.  

Glam: That’s deep and true. A lot of these young kids and adult for that matter don’t see it that way.  

Ikish: Exactly, all they see is the money and the cars, the woman and clubbing. But they don’t pay enough attention to the risk. I mean don’t get me wrong, there are some who know what they’re risking and chose to ignore it, but there are more who don’t. Most of them think they need to do it to fit in.  

Glam: Yeah, they fall victim to the peer pressure.  

Ikish: Which is really sad…They’d rather please the people around them to fit in instead of being themselves. And it really isn’t worth it.

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