“A cop put a gun to my head in Orlando just for having a nice car and being in a nice neighborhood,” he recalls of one of two incidents of being racially profiled by police. Our interview took place days after the violence in Charlottesville, which for all of its harrowing images, wasn’t as shocking for those who have experience with America’s long history of racism. And as a black man in America, he says he has “beat the odds.” Sammie has weathered the proverbial storm that many child stars haven’t been so lucky to overcome. Interview: Sammie Is Looking To Restore R&B’s Core With ‘I’m Him&rsquo… “Now I do everything and I like it this way,” he says. Up until a year ago, Sammie was his own manager, answering emails under one name, and commissioning a friend’s help when he needed someone to be the “voice” of his manager character. The experience turned him off from managers and ignited an inner businessman that had been “suppressed” because the manager “coached” him to focus on his craft, rather than his finances. At the time, his credit was still intact and his cash flow was “so good,” that he didn’t initially notice the money scheme. Over the course of two years, Sammie claims the manager - who he didn’t name but says that he considered him to be a “big brother” - manipulated his mind and his money. He later signed to Dallas Austin’s Rowdy Records and released a self-titled debut led by the Young Bloodz-assisted single “You Should Be My Girl.” On the surface, things appeared to be going well, but by 2009, Sammie announced that he was forming his own company, StarCamp Music, and taking legal action against his manager to “ rectify any discrepancies and/or business transactions” made without his knowledge. With only $400 in graduation money, he moved out of his mother’s house and headed for Atlanta with his former manager. “She felt like you lived your dream, go to college and play it safe.”
“She gave me an ultimatum because she tried to protect me from snakes ,” he says. But the comeback meant defying his mother’s wishes. Back in 2005, Sammie was fresh out of high school and ready to return to the very industry that he left behind.
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