Montell Jordan talks beating cancer TWICE, "This Is How We Do It," new children's book & Slick Rick's impact

Joe and Jada

R&B legend and pastor Montell Jordan joins Fat Joe and Jadakiss for an intimate conversation about his journey as a two-time cancer survivor

Key takeaways

• Montell Jordan's second battle with cancer deepened his faith and led to a spiritual revelation: God trusts him as much as he trusts God.
• Cancer survivorship is not just about physical recovery but also about becoming a testimony and advocate for others facing similar struggles.

Main topics

• Montell Jordan's two-time cancer journey and faith-based resilience
• Prostate cancer awareness advocacy

Notable quotes

"I realized I'm in a position where I'm thinking, God, I trust you. And God is saying, Montel, I trust you."

"You don't question God and you know that at the end of the day, we're God's children and we go where he takes us."

Conclusion

Montell Jordan shares his powerful story of faith, resilience, and purpose, transforming personal

Transcript preview

Speaker 7 (0:00) Didn't catch the latest Roland Martin unfiltered Speaker 2 (0:02) podcast? Here's what you missed. There should not be a single law enforcement agency that does not have body cameras. It's real. Black farmers have been under attack. This is just the latest example of them just slapping DEI on anything. It's raw. And I'm sitting here going, they are playing y'all for fools. Catch Roland Martin's daily commentary on the Black Information Network. And download Roland Martin unfiltered on Speaker 7 (0:25) the Speaker 2 (0:25) iHeartRadio Speaker 7 (0:26) app, Apple Speaker 1 (0:27) Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. You might have the most perfect record in hip-hop history. I'm saying the best perfect song. Speaker 1 (0:45) ever created is what I'm trying to say. You know, this is how we do Speaker 5 (0:50) it. It's Friday night and the Speaker 3 (0:52) party's on at the West Side. I let that song sit because I was like, I can't mess this up. Like I gotta, it was already here. I can't mess this up. Speaker 5 (1:14) Yeah, yeah. What up, y'all? This is the most spiritual one. Joe Crack the Dog. You Speaker 6 (1:20) know who it is, your boy Jada. It's the Joe and Jada Show. Every show legendary, every show iconic, and we've been keeping our word. Bang. We're crushing y'all. Legacy. You know what I mean? We ain't even going to play with it today. We're going to get right into things. When you think of today's guests, you think about a record that changed the temperature every time it came on. From house parties to cookouts, from clubs to weddings. The minute that bass line drops, everybody knows what time it is. It's way more than one of the biggest records of the 90s. He's a singer, songwriter. performer, husband, father, author, entrepreneur, a man who's faced down real life battles with faith and strength, a two-time cancer survivor, Speaker 1 (2:31) still Speaker 6 (2:32) standing tall, still giving back. and now helping put the spotlight on prostate cancer awareness. Please welcome. Speaker 1 (2:43) Hold up. Pastor. Pastor, too. He's a pastor. Pastor. Okay, okay. Please welcome pastor Speaker 6 (2:52) and true R &B hit maker and cultural staple, Montel Jordan. Yo! Speaker 3 (3:03) Mama, I made it. Mama, I made it. Tell my moms I made it. Get her watching right now. I'm telling you, I used to think Saturday Night Live. I said, I know I made it when I get to Saturday Night Live one day. I'm going to tell you right now, real talk, this is my joint right here. I've been waiting to get here on this couch. I've been waiting for it. I've been waiting for it. Speaker 5 (3:26) Montel, we've been waiting for you, man. You know, you're one of my favorite Speaker 1 (3:29) people on earth. Musically, just as a brother, every time we cross paths, it's always positivity. Yeah. And you always spreading the word, spreading the faith. I'm going to go right there. All right. Right? So you're a man of God, you and your wife. You catch cancer. That's last time I saw you, I just beat it. And then I Speaker 5 (3:54) turned on the ball alert or whatever. And it's like Montel got cancer again. Yeah. Speaker 1 (4:00) What's your conversations with God like at that second time right there? At that moment of truth, what are you talking to God about at that time right there? Speaker 3 (4:10) Okay, so great question. I can tell you honestly, when you beat cancer the first time, when I did that, it was literally like, okay, God, thank you. I trust you. I'm super, super grateful you helped bring me through it. I had surgery, had my prostate removed, radical prostatectomy surgery, all of that. God restored me, restored intimacy between me and my wife. You know, all of that, when it comes to prostate cancer, those are things that can be in the balance. And then, you know, you look eight, nine months later and then you get a recurrence or something that was hidden or whatever. And then cancer comes back and it's like, yo, you know, now I got to go through this proton therapy, radiation, all the things I didn't want to do, you know, to begin with. And so the question, of course, you want to ask God, you know, why one? But ultimately, as a man of faith, I'm saying, God, I trust you. I don't understand this, but I trust you. I know I'm not in this by myself, but I trust you. And then I felt like the revelation that I got from that is that it's different. There's a different thing in us trusting God and God trusting us. Right. So I realized I'm in a position where I'm thinking, God, I trust you. I trust you. And God is saying, I trust you. Like to be a two time cancer survivor, I can't trust everybody with that story. I can't, everybody can't handle that story. Everybody can't navigate that or tell it or be transparent or be vulnerable or be willing to share that information of how you and your wife are navigating, how you tell your 11-year-old daughter, how do you tell your, like, everybody can't be trusted with that story. And so what I felt in that moment was not just, God, I trust you. In a difficult place, God, I trust you. But I felt like he was saying, Montel, I trust you. So that's how I felt, me and God navigating that time. Speaker 1 (5:54) Wow. And you want to know what's crazy is I got a good friend pretty new. super cancer survivor. I've been there for his wars and all that. And when he beat it, I said, this is where the work starts. He said, what do you mean? I said, well, you got to go around and tell everybody that'll listen that they can make it. Right. Speaker 5 (6:15) What do you think God saved you for, pretty new? You got to go start, you got to go talk to the people. You got to go be out there and Speaker 1 (6:22) tell your story so they can know. And that's pretty much what you said. You said, listen, All right, God used me as a spokesman. Speaker 3 (6:31) Yeah. Speaker 1 (6:32) That used me to bring hope. you know, to the people out there who are suffering this, who feel like they alone. Speaker 3 (6:40) Yeah. And a hundred, I didn't want God to use me like that. If I, if I can be straight, like you, you Speaker 1 (6:45) was Speaker 3 (6:45) being a different way, you know, Lord. And then, you know, I, I truly believe that, you know, it's our, our biggest test, you know, they become our testimony. And that was the journey of where he's allowed me to do musical stuff. He's allowed me to do ministry stuff. He's allowed me to do marriage stuff. Now he's allowed me to speak into. the medical space of what comes along with holistic and medicines, all that type of stuff. Like it all kind of comes together. It's a balance of all of that to be able to determine how my life in being undetected, moving forward to remain cancer free, you know, that is where the work begins, you know? Speaker 1 (7:21) You know, I'm with God, you know what I'm saying? Every step of the way, man, I never questioned God. I never, that's why I wanted to ask you that because I don't care. When somebody don't believe in God, I tell them, let me ask you something. If you got five seconds to live, what are you going to be saying to yourself with five seconds to live? If you don't believe, that's on Speaker 5 (7:42) you. I know where I'm going to be the last five seconds. If I got five seconds, I'm talking to God. God, take me. We'll be hanging. Let me in. You know what I'm saying? And it's so crazy because, you know, when you know full fact that, Speaker 1 (7:58) You don't question God and you know that at the end of the day, we're God's children and we go where he takes us. And so that at the end of the day, you know, you can never be a doubter. With me, I never doubt him. You Speaker 3 (8:14) know, I think that we are so concerned a lot of times with our existence here in this body, in this time, in this, you know, in earth. And I think that we don't think a lot of times about. our soul, you know what I'm saying? And when we leave here. And as a pastor, that concerns me. One, because you and I have bumped into each other a lot of times at funerals. We've done concerts together. But you know, I eulogize DJ Mr. C. These guys are dying. Everybody's dying. You know what I mean? Every day. We keep bumping each other at these funerals. And we're not talking like 80, 90, 100-year-old men. We Speaker 5 (8:49) had the Force Speaker 3 (8:49) MDs. Speaker 5 (8:50) They had them all up there. Jesse D, yeah. Mercury and all the brothers up there. Memory. The Force MDs. Jesse D, Speaker 3 (8:56) yeah. And so in that space of doing those different things, it would be negligent of me to not know what I know about faith and what comes after this space and not say something, you Speaker 1 (9:12) know? What do you think about people playing with God? Playing with God. You ever looked at somebody and said, this guy's playing? You ever seen that movie, Honk, If You Love Jesus? Speaker 6 (9:25) Yeah. Speaker 1 (9:26) It was hilarious. Yeah. That would hate to believe that it's real in any way. Yeah. Somebody can use God, use it as a business. Yeah. You know, that's the part that scares me where I'm like, you know, guys are out here playing. Yeah. And I, I know God. Yeah. But I don't know him as much as a Speaker 5 (9:50) pastor who went to school for the Bible or nothing. You a pastor and you play with God? Yeah. Speaker 1 (9:55) If you believe the power of God, like you're going to play with it. Speaker 3 (10:01) Yeah. Yeah. It is scary. And I think that there are people that don't fully understand the magnitude, you know, of what it is. And I think when you lose the reverence, right, or the fear and the awe, you know, of God, then that's where it becomes a punchline, becomes a joke, this or that. But when you realize you fully need. God, you know what I mean? When you're in a position where your life is at stake or your child's life, or there's nowhere else to run. People often say, well, you wouldn't go to God unless, you know, something. If you're doing real good, most times you're not thinking about God. You've made something else your God. Your money can be your God. Your prestige can be your God. Your fame can be your God. But when you get to the point of where you need God to be God, you know what I'm saying? Then that's when everything, you know, truly changes. And I do feel like, A lot of people be playing, be playing with God, but also know scripture said God will not be mocked. And so, yeah, you go ahead and you play for a while and do what you do. But at some point, dude, it always comes around. It always comes around where something is revealed, something is exposed, everything that's done in darkness at some point it's gonna, it comes out. Yeah, yeah. So for me, my goal is I love what we get to do here. I love that we get to make records and make content and change people's lives, change their perspective, entertain. We get to do all of that, right? And you know what I'm saying? We get to do all of that, but it would be, like I said, negligent for us to do all of that here and then get to the end of our lives and get to a space where we won't get to see each other again. We won't get to hang. Again, we won't be able to do any of that unless we handle business here. You know what I'm saying? You know, I got Speaker 1 (11:55) to salute, and I'm going to let Kiss ask you a question. I love you so much, and I just think that, you know, our fan base, they get to hear about God, but not like this. So this is a beautiful time in our platform to talk as grown men about how Speaker 5 (12:15) much we love God and how much God does for us. I want to shout out Dolly Speaker 1 (12:20) Parton. Yeah. I've always loved Dolly Parton recipes, but I never knew she donated a hundred million bucks to kids in the inner city. A hundred million bucks. Them bucks cost a dollar a book. Let's just say. That's a lot of... A hundred million bucks. And it's just... Tons of people just keep coming out every day talking about, yo, she took care of us. She took care of us. She took care of us. Yeah. Speaker 5 (12:52) While she was on here, she was doing her thing. Behind Speaker 3 (12:56) the scenes, she was Speaker 5 (12:57) putting it in. Behind the scenes. All this, I never knew. A hundred years Dolly Parton lived. I never heard these stories. Once she passed, it was like, yo, this woman is donating balls. Speaker 3 (13:07) Yeah. Speaker 5 (13:08) Donating this, donating this. I'm like, wow, that's the type of people I like. Speaker 3 (13:12) Yeah. You Speaker 5 (13:13) know, Speaker 6 (13:13) people Speaker 5 (13:13) who give Speaker 6 (13:14) back and help. For all the real ones out there, we keeping it 1800. Speaker 6 (13:20) Take us back early childhood LA days. What music was being played in the Speaker 3 (13:27) house? Okay. Grew up a church kid. So, you know, six days a week I'm in church. So gospel definitely is the foundation of my musical upbringing. Commission, Clark Sisters, Winans, you know, that was like the foundation. But I, as a kid, I listened to a station out West called the Mighty 690. And the Mighty 690 was like. So I also was listening to like Phil Collins and I was listening to early, you know, Michael McDonough. Oh my goodness. I was listening to that early Madonna. Like I was really eclectic in my musical stuff. And then 1580 K they came out West. And then that was my introduction to, to EPMD and Eric B and rocket. Like, so hip hop. And then. of course, being out West and you start getting NWA and things like that. And so I have this fused version of hip hop and R &B. You wasn't afraid to do it early. I loved it all. And so, because I was in church and I wasn't, you couldn't bring that in a church. No way. Me and my guys, we would find ways to kind of sneak that into the church a little bit. A little musical riff here or there. We would, you know, and that was kind of our paying, you know, homage to, what we were listening to and feeling. And yeah, so that was my upbringing. So church upbringing, hip hop, R &B, pop sensibilities, all of those were the things that I initially, you know, grew up listening to and got to college. And at that time, hip hop was really, really doing its thing. I was really into listening to Luther Vance, Freddie Jacks, you know, all of Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis, and Alexander O'Neill was the dude right there, you know. I'm a big Alexander. Speaker 5 (15:12) Alexander's a man's man. He Speaker 3 (15:14) is a Speaker 5 (15:14) man. All true man. He's a man's man. His music, I said, yo, this, he was, Speaker 3 (15:20) yo, Alexander O'Neal was like, oh no, Speaker 5 (15:24) that guy was, he's different. Yo, Speaker 3 (15:27) he was not playing, bro. And so, yeah, so that's the stuff that I grew up on. That's the stuff that I loved. And then that's the stuff I started emulating too. Me, I was trying to sound like, I didn't know who Montel Jordan sounded like. I was trying to sound like Alex. I was trying to sound like Luther. I was trying to sound like all these other people because I didn't know what Montel Jordan was supposed to sound like. And even on my very, very first music, when I finally get into the business, my demos and stuff like that, this was like early. Kells days and stuff. Like I was like emulating all the, the guy type of stuff, Aaron Hall. So I was trying to sound like Aaron Hall and all that, all that real nasally stuff. So even when you listen to like a big record, like this is how we do it. People joke with that, you know, like this is hot. Like, cause it has, but that's what I was doing at that time. I was trying to new Jack and I'm trying to find out what I supposed to sound like. Those are all... That's crazy. Yes, accumulation of all the stuff I was listening to. We create. Speaker 1 (16:26) I always say in front of you, behind your back, wherever I can say, wherever anybody can listen to me, you might have the most perfect record in hip-hop history. I'm saying the best, perfect song. Speaker 1 (16:47) ever created is what I'm trying to say. You know, this is how we do Speaker 5 (16:52) it. It's Friday night. And the party's on at the West Side. And you, Speaker 1 (16:57) this guy, they call him top five dead or alive. That song is big, bro. Speaker 1 (17:06) The most perfect song I have ever heard in my life. Speaker 5 (17:12) Like, I just, and every time, I don't care if I'm in Kazakhstan. I'm in Africa. I'm anywhere. When that joint come on, I gotta tap whoever with me. I'm like, yo, you know, this is the best one ever. Speaker 1 (17:25) This song is like, it's just, you talk about God. Man. I didn't give you a perfect Speaker 5 (17:34) song like that. Like there's no flaws in that song. There's nothing I can find wrong. I dissected this song any way you can. Like I looked at it and I said, yup, that's what I'll be doing right there. Okay. Right there. Getting dressed. That's what I'll be doing. And okay. And yes, this is around that. I see, yo, this is the most perfect Speaker 3 (17:57) song. from A to Z. Can I give you two things about this is how we do it? People may or may not know. I Speaker 5 (18:04) want Speaker 3 (18:04) to know. You know, I follow y'all. I watch y'all. I know y'all might not feel the same about that song. I understand that. I Speaker 6 (18:10) do. Speaker 3 (18:11) No, that's Speaker 6 (18:12) the number one song ever. It makes you happy. It makes you... When that song comes on, that whole room, that song can make jail. Killers happy. Anybody, when you hear that, you got to get in the mood of partying Speaker 3 (18:27) and feeling good. All Speaker 1 (18:29) right. Music, Speaker 5 (18:30) keep that answer, right? Speaker 1 (18:31) But Speaker 5 (18:31) music, when we're talking about the soul, I've hated guys. I hated 50 Cent when I had beef with him. He came out with the, I'll give money. I said, oh my God, it's 50. I run New York. I was like, oh my God. This is incredible. There's nothing you can do. You can't deny. The music is just too powerful. There is nothing you can do. Yeah. That's what I'm trying to tell you. Like a record like that, to Jada, to me, to everybody everywhere around the world, it's too perfect. Speaker 3 (19:03) Tell us the two things about it. So the two things about it was, first of all, it was a hit before I got to it. All right. So with Slick Rick, who to me is a mentor, what he did on that song to me was perfection for me. So I remember being in rooms in college and that song would come on. And that was not like a nine o'clock record. That wasn't like a... You know, but DJ's telling the story. That wasn't a 10 o'clock record. When Children's Story dropped, it was like, last call for alcohol, you got like a good solid hour that's about to go or whatever. And in the heat of a mix or whatever, when he would drop that, that you literally could feel the room shift. And because I could feel that. Speaker 5 (19:49) I would Speaker 3 (19:51) be saying to myself, I'd goose myself. I would be saying to myself, I would be saying, yo, if I ever get in the music business, I'm going to sing over that record. If I ever get in the business, I'm going to sing over that record right there. And so even when I would eventually record my first record, you know, get a deal with Def Jam, I recorded all those records. I had that track that I put together. And my boy, OG Pierce, who's passed away now, he helped me piece all those things together. Got my first MP60. And I did all the programming, all the producing with that. And he had elements and things like that. But I let that song sit because I was like, I can't mess this up. Like I got it. It was already there. I can't mess this up. And especially there were songs you're not supposed to touch. Like facts. There's just certain loops, certain samples, things at that time. Like you just... that's off limits. And I knew that's off limits. And if I touch it, I got to do it the right way. So that's, that's the first thing was already hit. Thank God we were able to come do the right thing on it. And now I hit becomes a classic. I'm friends with Slick Rick and Mandy, and we able to, you know, we do life together outside of it. So that was, that was super cool. That's the first thing about this. It was already the template, the foundation, the bones of it was already there. The second thing about the song was that I got the opportunity. I don't know how he's doing right now, but I got the opportunity one time to sit down with Lionel Richie, who to me was one of the guys I grew up listening to. Lionel Richie pulls me and my wife into a room. I'm at Madison Square Garden. And I'm there for Phil Collins, Glory Estefan. And what was it? I was probably scalping the tickets outside to Speaker 1 (21:32) that event right there. Speaker 3 (21:33) Chances was I was scalping