Curtis Daniel used to tell Russel “Block” Spencer that Block’s son, Malik Spencer, would be a Spartan Dawg some day.

That’s back when Malik was a youngster, a Pop Warner star at several positions, before Malik won all those Georgia state championships at Buford High, before he became a Rivals.com high three-star recruit, and before Malik received his first Power Five scholarship offer from Mel Tucker … when Tucker was head coach at Colorado.

And before Malik’s college signing day, which is scheduled for Wednesday, with Michigan State and Tucker slated to get his signature.

Back when Malik was a pre-teen, and even before that, Daniel would see Block Spencer regularly at Daniel’s PatchWerk Recording Studios in Atlanta.

Daniel was a small-role team player for Michigan State in the early-to-mid 1990s. He has become a big-time wheel in the recording industry in Atlanta, as owner and operator of PatchWerk. Superstars have recorded there, including Madonna, Beyoncé, Missy Elliott and The Notorious B.I.G.

Some of Block’s artists have recorded at PatchWerk, too. Block capitalized on an amazing eye for talent and tunnel-vision work ethic to become a music executive, founding Block Entertainment, with representation and management interests in successful artists such as Rick Ross, Ciara, Young Jeezy and Boyz N Da Hood.

Block is big-time in hip-hop and rap circles. His son is a big-time member of Michigan State’s 2022 recruiting class. And there was a day when Block said it would never happen.

“Let me tell you a story, man,” Block said. “I remember going to the studio and Curtis has that big Spartan head logo in his office.

“I would say, ‘Man, my son isn’t going to that damn school with all that green.’ He would laugh about it.

“As time went, he said, ‘He’s going to be a Spartan Dawg. Watch what I tell you.’”

All these years later …

“And here we go,” Big Block said with a laugh. “He did speak it to existence. He told me a long time ago.”

He told him back when Block was just breaking into the business. Back when he was becoming a football father to a young Malik Spencer. Back when Block was trying to mix the lessons of Block’s tough native Atlanta with the luxuries of the Spencers’ current home in the plush outskirts of the city.

Block’s success has enabled him to provide handsomely for Malik, and his twin brother Mekhi, along with Block’s wife of four years, Kris. But some lessons can’t be learned in the suburbs, or at college.

When Malik was a kid, Block would leave work at his Block Entertainment offices in Atlanta and drive 45 minutes back to their home in order to pick up Malik after school and then drive 45 minutes back to Hotlanta.

“I would bring him back to the city and let him train and work out with them city boys,” Block said. “I just felt like if you want anything in this sport, you need to be tough. Sometimes when you play ball outside the city, they don’t play so rough. I just wanted mine to be tough. I said if my kids want to play ball, I want to bring them up in a tougher environment. I don’t want them to be babied because this is not that type of sport.”

Football wasn’t Block’s idea. Malik, ranked the No. 50 high school player in Georgia, fell in love with the sport at a young age.

“One thing I always tell my kids: If there is anything you want to do, you take the first step and then I’m going to push you all the way,” Block said. “But you have to be in front of me. I can’t be in front of you and push you. Anything you want out of life, you take the first step and I’ll be there for you every step.

“Mekhi is into the music business with me. And Malik has always been six or seven steps ahead of me with football. Straight A student, great kid, humble kid. He said, ‘Dad, this is what I want to do. Football.’”

Block wasn’t a football guy. But he knew the sport required toughness. Block knows toughness. And he saw it in Malik.

“Malik and Mekhi are very competitive,” Block said. “I was a workout guru. I still get up at 4 a.m. every morning to work out. I would ask him and his brother, ‘How many push-ups can you do? Now pull-ups.’

“I saw the dog in Malik outside of football. I saw him and his brother fight every day. I saw he was very competitive. He wasn’t going to lose. Regardless of what it was, he kept coming. In anything he did, he did not like get beat. And Malik is not a sore loser. He would be like, ‘Okay cool. Now let’s go back at it.’”

Block grew up boxing. He never entered any tournaments. He sparred and fought around the neighborhood. He trained in garages, basements and later in prison.

“It was a way of life, where I grew up,” Block said. “Just hands on hands.”

Block wanted a better neighborhood for Malik, but Block didn’t want to leave the lessons of the ring behind.

“Malik, he’d been playing football since he was 4- or 5-years-old,” Block said. “And that was his heart. That’s what he wanted to do. He was never one of those kids that wanted to play video games all day. He would train, he would go workout, he would do push-ups. And this was when he was younger. So I knew he just had it in him.”

Block pushed him further.

“I would use the workouts for discipline too,” Block said. “If you go out there and you mess up a play, okay I’m going to put a 40-pound vest on you and you’re going to do these stairs. I had 19 steps you had to go up.”

He tested Malik physically and mentally.

“I said if you’re going to be any kind of player, you have to think,” Block said. “You have to learn to set up anything you do. In any sport, you have to think and you have to work hard. And nobody works harder than a boxer.

“I brought him up boxing and wrestling. I wanted him to do different stuff like wrestling and boxing to help his football. In wrestling, everything goes to the ground. I kind of wanted him to be able to twist, angle and all those things. And boxing is a thinking game, it’s a set-up game. You get hit, you get tired. But you’ve got to keep thinking! Got to keep thinking, man.”

Block was 17-years-old, a senior in high school, when he was sentenced to five years in prison. The charge? The crime? That doesn’t matter to the reader today. But Block is remorseful.

“It was just young stuff, and fights turn to shootouts and somebody got shot and they ended up giving me five years and I ended up doing four-and-a-half years,” Block said. “Honestly, I wish it never would have happened. But when you live in the streets, the streets don’t care about you. Sometimes it’s about survival.”

He had a daughter at the age of 16, the first of his six children.

“I went and did the time,” he said. “I got out and had a second daughter.

“I wanted something for my daughter. I just wanted my daughter to be proud of me. I wanted to be something.”

He knew he had the smarts and work ethic to make it.

“I was hustling, trying to make some money,” he said. “And I wanted to turn my money into something. I didn’t want to spend it on a car or clothes. I wanted to invest in something. I put it into music.”

Block never performed music. He loved Run-DMC, like everybody else, back in the day. But unlike most, he had an eye and an ear for the “it” factor. Mix that with his street smarts and hustle, and he had a chance.

“I met this dude, DJ Greg Street,” Block said.

Street was the most popular radio deejay in Atlanta. Block approached him outside the radio studios of V-103 FM.

“He was interviewing some artists, and I just walked up to him and said, ‘Hey, I’m trying to be in the business, can you help me out?’” Block said.

Block is direct, confident, completely un-shy. It works. He has something about him. People let him in, even the biggest of stars.

“Greg gave me his number,” Block said. “I called him a week or two later. He told me to come into the radio station and kick it with him. I went into the radio station and kicked it, and we just formed a relationship, a brotherhood.”

Pretty soon he was rubbing elbows with Atlanta native Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, who was with mega-successful R&B group TLC at the time.

Then came a chance meeting with a young artist named Lil-Noah.

“I discovered him at the radio station with Greg Street,” Block said. “I used to go to the radio station two or three times a week. You would see artists come up there and try to get their stuff played, or try to get on the radio. So I used to snatch ‘em up.’”

Block and Left Eye managed Lil-Noah. Got him a gig on an MTV program.

“Left Eye was in TLC, so she could teach me some things,” Block said. “They won Grammys and had No. 1 records. They had inside information on the business. That’s what I like. I love having people tell me things that regular people don’t know.”

Then he met Tupac Shakur’s sister. She introduced him to Tupac. Before long, Block was in with Tupac.

“I came up under Tupac,” Block said. “He showed me how to manage. He took me on the road with him.”

Tupac was one of the most famous rappers in history. He took a liking to Block.

“I was just a team player, whatever he needed done,” Block said. “I wasn’t trying to step on their toes. I wasn’t trying to be them. That’s one thing when you partner up with people, not everybody can sit in that one chair. I knew I was just playing a role. You do you and I’m going to do me.

“When he was in the studio and he needed me to help put something together, I did it. Whatever needed to be done, I was a team player.”

Meanwhile, Block kept that eye out for talent. His pull in the industry expanded as he began working for a record label, and then created one of his own. That’s when his artists started recording at PatchWerk.

“Really man, I was just trying to make an artist,” he said. “I was just trying to be successful. I was just trying to be a student. When you’re fresh and new, you need to be a student first. It’s cool to be a great follower. To be a great leader, first you have to pay attention and be a great follower.

“That’s the play. That’s the tradeoff. I was hands-on. It’s like swimming. I could tell you all day long what it’s like to go swimming. But until you jump in that water yourself, you don’t know. You got to jump out there, so to speak. And that’s what I did. I jumped out there.”

He gave some rappers their first break, like a two-star recruit. Others were already on their way, and he gave them a push, like a talent in the transfer portal.

“Some artists don’t have anything going on, and I put them in the studio,” he said. “Other artists, like Rick Ross, he had some stuff going and I just partnered with him because I had connections and relationships. I’ve been with him since 1996.”

He helped represent Tupac’s old group, The Outlawz. He had success with Young Jeezy and Rick Ross, who hit it big in 2006 with “Every day I’m hustlin’,” which sports fans might recognize as J.D. Martinez’s walk-up music.

Ross was one of Block’s first discoveries. Ross’s success led to an eventual management partnership between Block and Jay-Z.

Later, Block discovered R&B singer Ciara and helped launch her career, which has netted five Grammy nominations and one Grammy win. Ciara is married to Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson.

Block has maintained a positive, healthy disposition on life, despite tragedies that have surrounded him.

Lopes, the one-time wife of former Spartan great Andre Rison, died in a car crash in 2002.

Shakur was murdered in an infamous drive-by shooting in Las Vegas in 1996.

“I met Tupac’s sister first, so we were like family,” Block said. “Then he moved to Atlanta and that’s when I got to know him, in Atlanta, until he passed.

“He actually introduced me to Andre Rison. That was a little bit after he was married to Left Eye. Andre and Tupac were good friends. Good times, man. Good times. He introduced me to the business, all the way. I learned a lot from Tupac. Good times.”

Malik was 4-years-old when former welterweight champion of the world Vernon Forrest bought him his first boxing gloves and shoes.

Forrest met Block in the Atlanta neighborhoods as both became successes.

“Vernon was one of my best friends,” Block said. “He was Malik’s Godfather.

“Me and Vernon came up around the city of Atlanta. He used to do a lot of mentorships. He mentored a lot of kids. We met through the boxing gyms in the projects. He used to go to the projects to train kids, and I was part of the same place, right around Bankhead in Atlanta.”

There were plans for Malik to maybe get into Golden Gloves around the Augusta area where Vernon was from.

Forest was Ring Magazine’s Boxer of the Year in 2002, the year he beat Shane Mosley twice.

“Vernon worked out with Malik when he was little,” Block said. “Malik might not even remember it.”

Vernon Forest was 38-years-old and holder of the WBC super welterweight belt when he was murdered at an Atlanta gas station in 2009.

“They robbed him and he ended up chasing them and they ended up shooting him in the back,” Block said. “Sad, man. Very sad. Vernon was the man.”

Block began focusing harder than ever on fatherhood, his business, and instilling discipline in Malik and Mekhi. He didn’t waste one day.

“Me and Malik’s mom, we separated when he was 7 or 8 years old, so it was just us three,” Block said. “From 7 years old till he was 12, it was just us. I was a single parent. I dedicated a lot and led by example on how to be a hard worker. I said put God first and work for everything you get. There ain’t no hand-outs.

“I met Kris five years later.”

Block never stopped punching, and thinking, learning and teaching.

“There’s a lot to learn in the city,” Block said. “In football, in the city, they play real hard. They play fast and hard. There’s a lot of competition. So if you make that spot on the team, you kick ass. I wanted him to toughen up.

“But my plan was to make sure he went to Buford High School. That’s one of the schools in Atlanta that you want your kids to go to. Great education and great football program.”

Malik helped lead Buford to its third straight 6A Georgia state championship last Friday. Malik was quick, physical and occasionally dominant, once again, from his slot nickel position.

Against the run, he takes on offensive linemen and tight end blocking with physicality and high football IQ smarts with proper leverage and shoulder angles.

When in pass coverage, he has the hip turn and acceleration of a safety or cornerback.

Mel Tucker recognized Malik’s skill and athleticism in the ninth grade. Tucker recruited the state hard as defensive coordinator of the Georgia Bulldogs from 2016-18. Tucker kept tabs with the Buford program as head coach at Colorado in 2019. That’s when Malik Spencer’s first Power Five offer rolled in, from Tucker and Colorado.

Then in February of 2020, Michigan State hired Tucker as head coach.

“So when Mel came to Michigan State, he re-offered Malik at Michigan State,” Block said.

Around that time, Curtis Daniel grew a big smile on his face.

“I got on a Zoom call with Mel Tucker during COVID,” Block said, “and he told me straight up and down, ‘Hey man, we work hard to play on the field. If your son works hard, he can get on the field.’ And I liked that.

“I like when a person comes in and you feel like they’re telling you the truth. Some people will try to tell you what you want to hear. I’m a vibe person. I just felt it. I’ve been on the streets all my life and something made me feel, ‘Oh, this is it.’ I just felt good about the situation.”

It’s what Daniel had been predicting all along.

Malik committed to Michigan State in March. Then he visited Michigan State in June. Block couldn’t make the trip with him, but he heard all about it.

“Malik loved it,” Block said. “He felt like it was family. He loved the visit. He said everybody was cool.”

Then came Block’s first face-to-face meeting with Tucker last week during the Michigan State coaching staff’s in-home visit with Malik.

Kris made an impression on Tucker with her cooking.

“Gave him some of the best chicken he ever had in his life,” Block said. “He just set back and enjoyed it.”

Tucker made an impression on Block as well.

“Man, great stand-up guy,” Block said. “When a man looks in my eyes and tells me he’s going to do it, that’s a stand-up guy.

“Mel kind of reminds me of me. The way I work, the way I go hard, the way I find artists, the way I do things. Reminds me of me. Tuck comin’. Block comin’.”

Block plans to visit East Lansing for the first time in January. That’s when Malik will take his official visit. Malik couldn’t take his official visit last weekend with most of the other verbal commitments because he was too busy winning another championship.

Block watched Michigan State closely this season as the Spartans went 10-2, finished the regular season with a No. 10 ranking and earned a bid to play in the Chik-fil-A Peach Bowl in Atlanta on Dec. 30.

“I watched them all year,” Block said. “Absolutely, man. I loved it. Hard work pays off.”

It’s paying off for Malik Spencer, too.

Block’s thoughts on Malik’s plans to sign a letter of intent with Michigan State on Wednesday?

“Man, it’s a blessing,” Block said. “It’s something we sought out to do. His dream was to play college football and then pro football and I set out to help him. On that day, I’ll be a proud dad.”