D’Angelo performs a live vocal rendition of ‘Without You’ by Breakavenger, weaving in a spoken-word piece that draws on his personal experience being incarcerated in juvenile detention at age 13 and frames life’s struggles through a NASCAR metaphor — urging the audience to recognize their own inherent worth and race only against themselves.
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Transcript
[03:43:33] Was not expecting that, but that was awesome.
[03:43:35] Yeah, thank you, Mike.
[03:43:36] Off the dome with the jokes, I like it.
[03:43:38] Yeah.
[03:43:39] All right, now we have one last,
[03:43:43] before we start our meditation,
[03:43:44] which you’re probably gonna put me in a bedtime mode,
[03:43:48] I’m just saying right now.
[03:43:49] So we got D’Angelo, and D’Angelo coming to the stage.
[03:43:57] Come on up.
[03:44:05] First and foremost.
[03:44:07] Shout out to this man right here.
[03:44:17] This man has put up with my shit
[03:44:19] for three years, dude.
[03:44:20] Let me tell you, it was a lot of it.
[03:44:25] So much so that even the hogs can play with it.
[03:44:30] My man knows what’s up.
[03:44:31] By the way, y’all are cool and shit.
[03:44:34] Like, can we give him another round of applause?
[03:44:41] But, I’m gonna get straight to the point.
[03:44:44] I’m a humongous NASCAR fan, right?
[03:44:47] So y’all are gonna answer my mind.
[03:44:49] And I want y’all to take whatever you take out of my mind.
[03:44:54] I’m also gonna say a song, and it’s called,
[03:44:58] not that, see I’m getting a little sorry.
[03:45:01] I appreciate y’all being here.
[03:45:04] It’s called Without You by Breakavenger.
[03:45:07] All right.
[03:45:08] You know what’s up?
[03:45:09] I know what’s up.
[03:45:10] I know what’s up.
[03:45:11] I know what’s up.
[03:45:12] I know what’s up.
[03:45:13] I know what’s up.
[03:45:14] I know what’s up.
[03:45:15] I know what’s up.
[03:45:16] I know what’s up.
[03:45:17] I know what’s up.
[03:45:18] I know what’s up.
[03:45:19] I know what’s up.
[03:45:20] I know what’s up.
[03:45:21] I know what’s up.
[03:45:23] Hey man!
[03:45:24] Here, Benjamin.
[03:45:25] Benjamin Benjamin, man.
[03:45:26] Benjamin Benjamin, underrated, hella underrated.
[03:45:27] Grover.
[03:45:28] Right.
[03:45:29] Honestly.
[03:45:30] A diary of Jane.
[03:45:31] Oh come on.
[03:45:32] Yes.
[03:45:33] You kidding me?
[03:45:35] My cell phone right now.
[03:45:37] You could be though?
[03:45:38] No, rip talk.
[03:45:39] But, you know how they say, gentlemen, the driver starts the engines?
[03:45:40] You gonna change that up a little bit.
[03:45:45] Humans of all kind.
[03:45:46] I hear something.
[03:45:47] Come on, man.
[03:45:48] Humans of all kind, stimulate your brain!
[03:46:03] I searched for the answers I knew all along.
[03:46:07] I lost myself and no one else.
[03:46:11] Never the wiser of what I have become.
[03:46:15] Alone I stand.
[03:46:19] A lonely man.
[03:46:21] And all I have is this one last chance and I will turn my back on you.
[03:46:26] Take my hand!
[03:46:29] Drag me down.
[03:46:31] Cause if you fall, then I will too.
[03:46:35] The dark can’t save what’s left of you.
[03:46:40] Say something new, I got nothing left.
[03:46:43] But I can’t face the dark without you.
[03:46:45] There’s nothing left to who or what it all begins.
[03:46:50] I can’t face the dark without you.
[03:46:53] Swallow me under and pull me apart.
[03:46:56] I lost myself and no one else.
[03:46:59] Pain so familiar and close to the end.
[03:47:05] Alone I breathe.
[03:47:07] A broken man.
[03:47:09] Come back down!
[03:47:12] Save yourself!
[03:47:15] But I won’t turn my back on you.
[03:47:17] But I can’t bear to see the truth.
[03:47:23] Say something new.
[03:47:25] Cause I got nothing left.
[03:47:28] I can’t face the dark without you.
[03:47:33] But there’s nothing left to who or what it all begins.
[03:47:38] I can’t face the dark without you.
[03:47:41] I wanted to forget.
[03:47:43] I’m trying to forget.
[03:47:46] Don’t leave me here again.
[03:47:50] I’m talking to the younger me.
[03:47:54] The 13 year old D’Angelo that got locked in juvie.
[03:47:58] Feeling so alone.
[03:48:01] Like no one gave a shit.
[03:48:04] Rise up big man.
[03:48:09] That’s what I’d say to myself.
[03:48:11] Don’t leave me here again man.
[03:48:16] Cause I’m with you forever.
[03:48:18] The end.
[03:48:20] Say something new.
[03:48:22] I got nothing left.
[03:48:25] I can’t face the dark without you.
[03:48:30] There’s nothing left to who.
[03:48:32] The fun it never ends.
[03:48:35] I can’t face the dark without you.
[03:48:40] Holding the hands that hold me back.
[03:48:45] I forgive you.
[03:48:47] Forget you.
[03:48:48] The end.
[03:48:50] Holding the hands that hold me back.
[03:48:55] I forgive you.
[03:48:57] Forget you.
[03:48:59] The end.
[03:49:06] Richmond International Raceway.
[03:49:08] 2011.
[03:49:10] I was fortunate enough that this was my first NASCAR race.
[03:49:13] I was nine years old.
[03:49:15] Seeing Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kurt Busch, Jimmy Johnson, Jeff Gordon, all these wonderful drivers race each other, crash each other.
[03:49:24] Yeah.
[03:49:25] I call it from a mile away.
[03:49:28] But that was an experience that I’ve almost seen in my life.
[03:49:31] It was almost like you could touch the cars.
[03:49:33] They were right across the catch fence.
[03:49:36] But then that checkered flag waved.
[03:49:39] And it was all over.
[03:49:42] 400 laps, just like that.
[03:49:48] You hear that?
[03:49:52] The sound of the racetrack.
[03:49:55] You hear that?
[03:49:58] The sound I felt when I was locked up in a cage.
[03:50:01] Not a damn thing.
[03:50:04] But that’s not true about us.
[03:50:06] Whether it’s one person, two people, whether it’s a religion, or yourself.
[03:50:13] Think of yourself as money, man.
[03:50:15] And you’re going to see what I’ve won with this.
[03:50:18] You can fold.
[03:50:19] You can crumble up a dollar.
[03:50:20] No matter what way you fold it.
[03:50:23] It’s still got its motherfucking worth.
[03:50:27] Facts.
[03:50:28] Facts.
[03:50:33] 10 , 5 ,
[03:50:35] $100 with a blue stripe in the middle.
[03:50:40] But y’all lives is priceless.
[03:50:42] Can’t no one put you in a box.
[03:50:44] And that’s what I want you to remember.
[03:50:47] That checkered flag doesn’t fall for the people next to you.
[03:50:51] It falls for you.
[03:50:53] It falls for every single one of you.
[03:50:57] But you’re not racing nobody else like you are in the sport.
[03:51:02] You just racing yourself will be better.
[03:51:04] And every lap is improving your lap time.
[03:51:07] 20 seconds.
[03:51:08] 20.2.
[03:51:09] 19.8.
[03:51:11] Just gaining on the leader.
[03:51:13] And it might sound true because the leader is yourself.
[03:51:16] It’s the benchmark that you set for yourself.
[03:51:18] But once you pass it, damn do you feel unstoppable.
[03:51:24] And that’s what I want every one of you to walk away with.
[03:51:28] Don’t let nobody put you in a motherfucking box.
[03:51:31] Simple as that.