Yep, Charlemagne the God.    Squarespace makes it easy to create a beautiful website, engage with your audience and sell anything from products to content to time, all in one place, all in your terms. Head to squarespace.com for a free trial.   Let's start the show. Heather Kyle Walker, he's not joining us this week. I'm about to be out. I'm going on a spiritual retreat, ladies and gentlemen. I'm going on a little spiritual retreat for the next 48 hours. I'm really big on mindfulness and all things mental health and I'm getting the opportunity to go on a really cool retreat for the next 48 hours, which I am very excited about because last night I got to see Andre 3000 perform. All of y'all claim to love Andre 3000, but have you gone to one of his flute shows yet? Have you? Have you? I'm not sitting. Have you gone? Alex is here by the way. Taylor is here. We got my man, Glasses Locke. He'll be checking in in a second. But have you heard the flute album, Alex, first of all? I skipped through it, yes. What do you mean you skipped through it? How do you skip through a flute album? Like you don't even know? I thought he was pump faking and I thought he was going to have some bars on it. So I was like skipping through the song to see if there was a verse on any song and there wasn't and then that's it. No, y'all niggas don't deserve words. I'm not into flute music. That's not my thing. You're crazy. You like the spa? Yeah, I don't go listen to the songs or the albums that are playing at the spa. Yeah, but you like the spa music. No, I like what's happening at the spa. If they had hip hop on that would be even better. No, it would. Yes it would. The whole thing about the spa is the ambience. Music is a frequency. Music is a vibration. So when you're in the spa and you're about to get a massage or you're about to get a facial, you want to hear that nice, calm, soothing music. That music that feels like a breeze. You know how like a light summer breeze feels? That's what you want. And that's what 100,000 flute music is.    They ain't had a facial in forever. Their muscles is mad tight because they ain't had a massage and who knows when. 100,000 album is a soundtrack for brothers like myself who understand self-care. And when I went to that show last night, when I went to that show last night, he had it at a, I can't remember the name of the church. It's in Brooklyn. It holds about a thousand people sold out.  And what I appreciated about that moment was what I saw on that stage was a free man. Ain't none of y'all niggas as free as y'all be acting. You know why y'all not free? Cause y'all slaves to the algorithm. 100,000 is not a slave to the algorithm in any way, shape or form.  Most of y'all is just surfers riding waves. 103,000 has been his own wave since the day he stepped foot into the hip hop industry.  And not just one flute, an assortment of flutes, and he got a band. So anybody out there, man, if a, if, if new, if new blue sun, yes, that's the name of the tour, the new blue sun tour. If the new blue sun tour comes to your city, go get you some of those new blue sun rays. And it ain't for everybody. It ain't, it ain't for everybody. It's like, I'm telling you, man, a lot of us, and I'm starting to see a lot more people catching up. A lot of us been on our healing journey for a long time. But question, have you ever been to a flute concert before that wasn't it? Andre? Why the hell would I do that? That's what I'm saying. So why would you go to this one? Because it's Andre 3000. Yeah, but he's not giving you the Andre that you want. Why not? Here's the thing. It's not about the Andre that I want. It's about the Andre that exists in this moment.   That's not true. Why not? Because if you go to Kanye, when you were a Kanye fan at one point and now you don't care at all about his music. I've said multiple times on this podcast, we're always going to check for Kanye's art. Kanye has put out so much great art that we're always going to check for it. Whether it's good or not, that's up to him. But we're always going to check for it. Andre 3000, you know, is a person when he drops the verse, we listen. He drops the flute out and we listen. But once again, for somebody like me who's been on the healing journey, who, you know, enjoys that type of therapeutic music, who looks at music as medicine. I love the flute out. I promise you, man, I was sitting in the concert. I'm sitting in the pew at the top and I'm just watching. And he got like this, this ill light show on stage. But this light show is like the lights are doing all these weird things and you're listening to the flute. Yeah, I meditated. I meditated like three or four times in the concert.  Not because, not because it's boring, but because that's what that type of music does to you. Like it really just had me too relaxed and think about it. I'm a person that deals with really bad anxiety. Y'all know, I don't like to be out nowhere.   I'm just relaxed. I'm just so relaxed. Man, Andre 3000 is setting the mood, man. He's setting the right energy. Yeah, but why would you have to leave your house for that experience? Like you want to be relaxed and at peace at home. Like I'm not going to put clothes on, go out into the environment, be around 999 people just to hear some music. It's both of course, Alex. Damn. You know, Alex, you make a good point because, you know, I don't want to give away too much from the show, but it's like a jam session in a lot of ways, right? So it's Andre 3000 and it's his band. So you might not hear the same things every night. What I would have liked. Oh, it's like going to like a jazz show when I just like, you know, like ripping and, okay, okay, okay. Now that's different. I thought you just. No. Peaceful boots the entire time. Okay. I actually called him and he was like, I don't know, I don't know. I actually called it Love Jones 3000 because if you've ever seen the movie Love Jones, it's one of my wife's favorite movies, that in the color purple, the original, not the new one. But if you've ever seen Love Jones, they go to this club called The Sanctuary. And in The Sanctuary, you know, that's what they, you know, it's that vibe, it's that frequency, it's that energy, everybody's snapping. It felt like Love Jones 3000. I'm not saying 3000 because that's his name. I'm saying 3000 because it felt like a futuristic version of being in The Sanctuary. But what I wish Andre would have done, and maybe this is something he can add in the future, I should have told him this last night, but I just thought about it just now. But I wish that the recording, like everybody that came to that show, I wish they could buy the live recording of that show. I wish, I wish, I wish as we left, there was like some lake we could download to go purchase the live version of that show later because every city is getting something new. You know, so to your point, yeah, I want that vibe. That vibe I felt last night, I want that vibe. I really do. But yes, if the new blue sun tour comes to your city, go get you some of those new blue sun rays, man. Spies should endorse in his album as well. I'm sure they will. I'm sure in a moment they're going to be licensed in Andre 3000's music. And I mean, I just really appreciate it. Andre is dope.  I'm not that guy. I feel like Andre 3000 has given us enough between all the outcast projects, between all the features, between the love box, speaker box, the love below. I don't need Andre 3000 to give me a rap album. Not that I personally, I personally don't. Some people might feel otherwise, but I personally don't. Well, yes, man. Like I said, make sure you go check out Andre 3000's new blue sun ray tour. If you have it, man, when it comes to your city, I think he's going to California next. It is definitely a great day night. Take the one you love. Okay. Go experience that energy. Go experience that frequency. Go experience that vibration. Salute to the good brother Andre 3000. What else happened this week, Taylor? Put me on. Okay. For all means necessary. Oh God. Did y'all see Stevie Wonder and Mariah Carey? Stevie Wonder didn't see Stevie Wonder and Mariah Carey. It says Stevie Wonder deserves an Oscar for pretending to be blind. People don't believe he's blind. See, he's going to be a gentleman. Give him, give her the mic. She's just. I love Stevie, but. Why did he pretend to be blind? He looked pretty blind.   I hate to be that older guy that always has to say that to y'all, but y'all really are the stupidest motherfuckers that ever walked in. Do you realize that when a person is blind, all their other senses are heightened? Do y'all realize that y'all understand the way Stevie Wonder receives sound is totally different? Like he receives sound like an insect almost like. Adults, but yeah, like a bag like this. Like what are y'all talking about? He can hear somebody say his name and you're going to turn and wave to him because he knows exactly what direction that person is in. But also I went to a Stevie Wonder concert and people don't think take his jokes here or he just likes to play around with people because. Um, India, I read came out and he was like, I like your yellow dress. And he's clearly just making fun glasses. Was he wearing a yellow dress? She was wearing a yellow dress, but you can like, it's made like he's like, he's making jokes out of it. I'm sure somebody told him that. Exactly. That she's wearing a yellow dress. I saw Stevie Wonder one night. Actually, the look just pulled up. I saw Stevie Wonder one night in LA. I can't remember the name of the hotel. There was this hotel we used to stay at and it was like off in the cut. It wasn't like the SLS Beverly Hills or like the Four Seas. It was like this nice hotel that was just like off this, this street. I don't know if it was, is this off Pico? Does that sound familiar glasses? Off Pico, what about it off Pico? Is there any luxury hotels over there? Luxury hotels off Pico. I'm coming from downtown driving up. Yeah, not too luxury. That's kind of, you have to go really west to get to some luxury on Pico. Well, this was a really nice hotel. Every time I used to stay there, I used to see people, but it was kind of like on the low. And this was like 2000. Man, this had to be like old, maybe old 708. I saw Stevie Wonder and there was a beautiful woman one night. Beautiful woman walking down the hallway.  And I said, I was a little drunk. I said, Stevie, if there's any doubt, you got one. If there's any doubt, you got, you got to tell me about that flu concert. It was amazing. I was like, yo, man, I don't, here's my thing with artists, right? I don't have any expectations for artists. I don't go in there thinking I'm about to hear someone play a listed Cadillac music. I'm not about to hear AT Aliens. I'm not about to hear Speak-A-Box Love Below. I listen to New Blue Sun. I like New Blue Sun because that's a frequency that I'm on Saturday morning, Sunday morning at the house in the kitchen with the wife and the kids. That's on. That's plain. Like, you know. Y'all cleaning up the New Blue Sun? Absolutely. I play when we just cook and breakfast. I play what I want to meditate. And literally, that's what I got. He had it in a church. It was in a church. Like, and I think that he did that in Brooklyn, but last week he did it at a jazz club. So, so the stage is set. And I told him earlier, man, it felt like Love Jones 3000. It felt like we was in a futuristic version of the Sanctuary. And he got like the lights going and it's just like these ill lights that'll kind of just like hypnotize you. And as you're sitting there, man, if you just really just let yourself go and feel the frequency and the vibration, you're going to find yourself meditating. Like, I literally took a nap. Not on some, like, cause it was orange just because I was sweet. No, it's that kind of music. It's really like, it's really like good music to sleep to. Yes. You know, honey, I think we all walked into it thinking of Ron Burgundy. Ron Burgundy? Yeah. You know, like solos, like, you know how like Ron Burgundy played the jazz flute in Anchorman. Yeah. Yeah. I think we came out of it with something a little bit more like like I said, it reminds you of that stuff that, you know, when you play, like you're going to sleep like the rain. Yes. He could do it like, like to help people sleep better. Yes. It was cool. And I respect it because here's the thing. Andre has been living this life for at least 20 years. Like this ain't like, he didn't just wake up and say, you almost start playing the flute. He's been doing it for 20 years. But he's been walking around the world playing the flute before he even thought about saying, you know what? Here's some music. Here's an album. You know what I mean? Like this is not something he just decided to wake up and do, you know, yesterday. So I respect it personally. For Glasses Froze, I thought he was just looking at me all judgmental. He had the super judgmental look on. I thought he was just looking at me all judgmental. I'm sorry. We're doing this by Riverside. Like I said, man, I'm about to be out or I'm going to Oh, yeah. What is that? What is your spiritual retreat? I tell y'all when I come back. I tell y'all when I come back. What else we got to tell him? Well, we were just talking about Kanye. So are you a friend of his new music video? I didn't watch it. You didn't hear it at all? No, I saw it on the shade room and I was scrolling through it. But I wasn't interested. I'm not like, oh, I don't mean this in a disrespectful way. I'm just not interested in hearing the artist's kids. Okay. She's only in the first part. She's not an entire dollar comes in. Yeah, I'm just, I'll be honest. I'm just, I'm honestly not interested. Like, you know, that didn't catch me.  I just haven't given it a listen. Like it hasn't piqued my interest. I'm curious. Why, why aren't you interested in hearing people's kids? Like what if she has like Jackson five abilities? She does it, but I'll just say you never know until you listen to it. Yeah, you don't know. That's a good point. I mean, I was, I was raised up a good point, but I'm put it like this fine. If I heard Jackson five ability, she would add me in the first five, six seconds. And I think it's so wack when people critique people's kids, even though, you know, it is music and they are putting music out there for public consumption. Like is, should you even be grading this? Like would we be even if North West wasn't Kanye's child? Or, you know, even when Drake's son put out a rap record, if Drake's son wasn't Drake's son, when we be even critiquing their music, or we would just say, oh, these some kids having a good time. Yeah. Like it's weird. It's weird to grade them the way we try to grade their parents. You know what I mean? Yeah. But is it weird for the parents to put them out like that? No, do you think it's weird for them to? I think it's not weird, but it's not weird. I just don't, I haven't heard why they would want to yet. But I feel like It's not weird. I just haven't heard why they would want to. Like I, if you, Joe Jackson, you know why you let Michael get busy. You know what I'm saying? Okay. Like if you, if you're Joe Jackson, we can listen to Michael at that age and understand why Michael got busy. I guess maybe that's what I'm trying to say. For me, it's like, if y'all are going to do it, let's really do it. Like it don't feel like, it don't feel like they're, they're, they're taking it serious. Don't feel like the parents are taking it serious. I don't know how serious I should take it. You know? Yeah. It doesn't sound like Bow Wow Rabbit. Like Bow Wow had, he was a kid, but he was actually nice. Yes. Yeah. First time we, I mean, the first time I heard Bow Wow was on our city hall show when he came out of freestyle, I think was Snoopophone. But I'm talking about what he's saying, what you made him free. We heard records. Like we heard like, well put together crafted records. You know, I haven't heard that yet. I mean, it's cool.  And I mean, what I hear from North is cool, but I hear like, I hear like my daughter's friends walking around reciting that, you know, down Miss West. The other thing about like, I'm literally, I've heard, I've heard them reciting that. So I mean, that's, it's not for me.  Oh, no. I would say though, it sounds like, I remember when she first put it out Northwest, but now with like actual hearing the whole music song. But so it doesn't sound bad to me. And I want to start. You shouldn't even be critiquing it. I understand. I heard you, but. How old is it? It's 11 or something? 12 or something? But I mean, listen, I don't know. It'll be a good look for. I actually liked that little snippet that was on Drake's album with his son. I never listened to the full song. Actually, they put the full version out. But when he just put that little like chorus part on it, like, I thought that was actually dope. Like it actually added to the song and it was good. Tell me a time kids haven't sounded good on a record. Oh, the kids. I mean, not sure.  It's gonna sound good. Yeah. You can hear it, G. Can you hear me now? Yep. Yeah. Okay. There we go. Shit. All right. Okay. So let's, all right, G kid, G's with us now. I want to go back before we come back to the kids. G, does Andre 3000 need a solo album to be considered one of the greatest MCs of all time? Yes. Yes, you have to have a solo album. At least one. Why? To be considered a solo rapper to have a solo album. Nah, just to be considered one of the coldest rappers of all time. Like he hasn't given us enough work with the outcast albums for that and the features. That's why it's outcast. That's why it's outcast. Well, we know he can rap. Sure. What next Andre 3000?  Well, yeah, next to Big. Excuse me.  He's like, unbelievable. But it's a different thing to carry a body of work completely by yourself outside of just creation, but even marketing it yourself. You know what I mean? You stuck in a different position. And that's why it's fair for us to judge him as part of the greatest group in the history of hip hop, which is outcast, but not as a top 10 solo rapper to compare him to other solo rappers who carry, you know, the burden of the work, the body of work. Now, I understand that. I don't I don't. I love Andre. He's not in my top five. He's not in my top seven. And it's probably for those reasons, but he is one of the best to ever do it. And in the illest thing about Drake, I was listening to the Southern player listed Cadillac music this morning. Him and Big Boy, the way they evolved is as rappers over the years compared to the Southern player listed Cadillac music. It's it's unbelievable. Nah, man, it's outcast is unbelievable. Like outcast do the dance. You know what I mean? And Andre is a huge reason why outcast is fantastic. We just got to remember Big Boy is a really important and more than capable MC. Even if we enjoy what Andre 3000 do is because Big Boy is there to, you know, allow it to happen. Andre go, I think Andre goes out of his way to not be regarded as a solo act. And it might be a disservice to even his desires and Big Boy when we consider him that or like we solo him out as much as we do as this solo rapper, especially comparing them to guys who have released bodies of work by theyself. But I mean, make no mistake, you know, Andre, it's a reason why outcast is the greatest rap group ever. You know, Andre 3000 is one half of it. I'm not arguing that. It's between, for me, it's between outcast and Wu-Tang. I know for you it's between outcast and probably West Side Connection or NWA. No, just outcast. No, just outcast by theyself. You know, Wu-Tang, I really got to, I've been growing to really enjoy Wu-Tang. Like Rizza has risen high inside of my producer top 10 count. Like I didn't even, you know, he don't get enough credit. Really? Rizza is unbelievable. Oh, he top five to me Wu-Tang. See, he wouldn't have been up there before for me. You know what I mean? Don't get me wrong. I heard all Andre. I heard all the excuse me Wu-Tang stuff and the different things. But when you really unpack everything he did, like reading about, you know, what he had to pour together, it's different. Like he special. And his sound, his sound is like, it's not as polished as other people's stuff. But man, it don't lack in soul, man. It overcompensates with soul and feel.  You know, for everybody to me making something out of nothing, what, you know, what hip hop really represents. I say that all the time. If aliens came down right now and they were like, yo, let me hear what hip hop sounds like. I would let them hear only built from Cuban lakes, from Rayquan in the Sheffan, Gold's Face. And I would let them hear Dog Motivation 101 by Jeezy and Snoop Dogg Doggy style. Like those are the three. I would probably pick songs. I probably would play cream. Like just the instrumental, the cream is just without the words. It's like, how did you make that out of nothing? Like, you know what I mean? Like, that's the greatness of hip hop. Like, like listen to that. Like, you know, he didn't know anything. I remember meeting Dr. Dre in 2005 and him explaining to me how much he didn't know about. He couldn't play the piano. Yeah. Like this is 2005.   You know what I mean? Like, all that's crazy to not know how to play an instrument. Yeah. But he's still a producer because he got a ear. And he know what he wants things to sound like. So he can have like an orchestra in the studio. He can have dads and whoever else and be given direction. DJ pool and be given direction. You know, you mentioned cream and cream is the greatest hip hop acronym of all time. Cash rules, everything around me. And I put it as like, if I had to play a beat for like an alien, like I'd probably play cream. Like if they was like, what's hip hop? And that's crazy coming from somebody that grew up on the West. Like, but the more I listen to it, it's just like, that's truly taking something out of nothing. That's not having a keyboard player in the room. Yeah. You know what I mean? That just taking something off of vinyl and giving it a feel, man. That Riz is something special, man. He don't get enough credit, man. He is unbelievable. You know, if aliens came down right now and they saw the acronym cream and then they looked at the internet yesterday, they would think that that's the for Cox rule, everything around me.    I don't have no problem with it. But yesterday was ridiculous.  There's no reason for me to see headlines of people that have built platforms commentating on Drake's penis. People desperate to align themselves with success. So it don't matter. He could have did anything and make on the line. Who built platforms? What are you talking about? You must not have been paying no attention. I saw about three or four headlines yesterday about Drake's penis.  That's what you saw that.   Like it's kind of crazy, y'all. Didn't even have it. Well, I would tell you from a girl's point of view that I don't, we don't want to hear nothing to put up with. Why? He sound jealous. He sound jealous. Okay, we not even talking about what you want to talk about. What you want to talk about, we don't want to talk about. I'm trying to tell you why people, at least for the females where they were reacting to it. I didn't see no women. That's the crazy part. I didn't see no women talking about it. I saw guys. It was God, but it was a lot of white boys.  I will say that. I didn't see a lot of, I didn't see a lot of brothers talking about that shit.  So I can't, I don't want to put that on everybody, but I'm just like, man, y'all ain't got nothing else to talk about. It was a slow news week. It got to be, man. And then it's like, y'all super bold. It goes back to what we was talking about with the children, right? We was talking about kids glasses. We was talking about Kanye's daughter making music now, I guess, and Drake's son rapping. To me, that ain't even nothing to care about. If it wasn't Kanye's daughter, if it wasn't Drake's son, we would just be like, we wouldn't even be paying it no attention. It'd be like all some kids rapping. We wouldn't pay no attention to let it was unbelievable.  That's like LeBron Thun at USC. It's like, y'all days felt like really? They be too hard on him though. But that's the problem when you follow that type of greatness. You know what I mean? You're going to have it out. It's definitely going to get you, you know, an easier trip to destination, but boy, you're going to be under a microscope and that's what's happening in the north. That's what's happening to Drake's kid and all of that. Man, it's going to be tough. It's going to be tough if people look at them with the expectation of them being as great in that field as their parents. But to me, somebody like Bronny already won. He was good enough to get a scholarship to USC. I don't even know if he was even good enough. Ha, ha, ha. Why did you say that? How do you figure that, man? It's good business to have LeBron's son at your school, man. It's just a great business. I mean, I don't know. Again, I haven't watched a lot of him. I've watched him hoop, but I remember him being like the third best player at high school. And it's really rare that the third best player at the high school gets a D1 scholarship.  Maybe that gets him an MBA. We talked about this before years ago. See where it's about Black people need to practice more of that family. Nepotism. You know, that nepotism and putting their kids on. So I hope Bronn get him an MBA. I hope he's able to get a million dollars, millions of dollars of contracts and chew deals. I mean, if that's your dad, same thing for North. Same thing for Drake. Like I hope their kids do well. I hope we start to practice that. I hope that becomes a part of what we do as Black people as well. I'm not against it, but I think you still have to be somewhat good for the nepotism to really work. Because it ain't like people are running around screaming, oh man, Bronny only got the scholarship because of Bronn. Like Bronn has been good enough to be able to get to USC. Nah, nah. Why y'all keep saying nah, man? He was like a top 20 high school player. Nah, nah. Man, top 20 high school players get D1 scholarship glasses, man. I don't think he was a top 20 high school player. Yes, he was. Look it up, Taylor, Alex. If that... Bronny James definitely was top 20. I understand the rankings, but again, being the Bronn son comes with benefits. Like he probably wouldn't be a top 20. Did you see... I saw a clip of Russell on Flagrant, right? And Russell was talking about how labels fake screams. Right? I saw that. But he was saying you can't do that with artists that aren't already popular. But he's not like... He's just a four-star recruit. He's not a five-star recruit. Probably like a three-star. Goddamn glasses. I mean, listen, if we be honest, I don't want to talk about nobody kid. Like it's one thing to be critical over... I feel the same way. ...the greatness people. So I don't want to be hypercritical. I'm glad everything worked out with his health. You know, I hope he gets to the NBA and gets on the team and gets to play with his dad. This is kind of... Like I'm... Everybody know, like I pretty much hate LeBron fans. Like, you know, they're probably... Between them and the Barb's, it's the worst fan base in the history of the free world. Right? So it's like I'm not a fan of LeBron fans. So I don't really necessarily check into the game as much with LeBron. I just enjoy it. He's a Laker. He hooping. But I'm really rooting for him to play on the same team with his son. Like I want to see something like that happen in my life. I mean, the fact that LeBron James is still so good at 38 years old that we know he can still be around in two or three years, put that to half and says a lot. Well, again, I don't know if he's still good enough, but he's still worth the money in the business. What if you're being on LeBron still good enough? We're not in the playoffs. It's really bad over here. I don't know if you've been watching it for us. It's pretty bad. He's still hooping for his A's though. Nah, he's just getting a lot of opportunity for his A's. No, man. Come on, LeBron. Come on, LeBron. What's LeBron averaging, Taylor? Glasses just being glasses right now. It's just the wins. It's the wins. We don't care about the empty stats. Like him and A.D. in 10th place is just, that shows you he's not in the prime of his career. I don't even think it's LeBron. I think that he don't have the pieces around him, which is you, which, by the way, by the way, has been the story of LeBron's career, by the way. You ever noticed that that is the story of his career and his career only historically? That's just, but that is the truth, though. LeBron James, for the type of player he is, he needs those pieces around him to get the best out of Bron. Taylor LeBron. Nah, it's not Bronny. Oh, God. Oh, by the way, it's how you know Bronny James making his own name. When we told Taylor to pull up LeBron James, she pulled up Bronny James' stats. Bronny making his own name. Bronny averaging 10th game this year. I didn't know. Glathens, you said something about the Bobs, man. The Bobs might be the worst fan base in the history of hip-hop, but they're the greatest fan base in the history of hip-hop. Oh, if you, Nicki Minaj, you are like the greatest. Not just Nicki.  Yo, Megan Thee Stallion got a number one record in the country right now. Megan Thee Stallion his is number one on Billboard because of Nicki Minaj and the Bobs. Nicki Minaj and the Bobs are the greatest promotional team ever. Not just for Nicki, but for other people. Because if she want to have a 200,000 first week, she need to come out with a diss record and get on Nick, kick it off. You think she should do another one? If I was spinning the, what? Yes. Because what happened is your song will do well, but your album won't. You got to drop the video, and the only way we can hear it is a part of your album. Now you got to drop your, you got to eat through the situation. Remember when Jay dropped Takeover? Remember that was a response to the little kind of shot Nas threw and then Jay dropped Takeover. Then Ether came and sold SteelMatic. Like we didn't care about the, we don't remember the singles on SteelMatic. The only thing we remember about SteelMatic is Ether. Oh, you don't come on. Why do you say these things like this? The singles. One mic was phenomenal. Yeah, but that was like the fourth single. But that was the one like one mic was phenomenal. Six, 700,000 before that. I remember one mic. One mic was phenomenal. Yeah, that was fantastic. That album was great. This is actually my second favorite Nas album. But man, hip hop is all about when you get those chances, those moments, like how Poc realized like this is my moment. Like what am I going to do to market myself? You know what I mean? And I think this is this is mixed chance to truly launch herself as a brand into the next level. Like take on the beat. Everybody likes a fight. We want to see the fight. I don't know if Megan needs another diss record, but I would name, if I was Megan, I would name my next album Megan's Law. I wouldn't do a whole disc, but I would name it Megan's Law because what that's going to do, it's going to make all those bars. Rush to hear what's on this album. Same way, Alex went to go here, Andre 3000 to see if he was rapping. And a lot of other people did that. On that food album? A lot. They're going to rush to hear what Megan's talking about on Megan's Law. She could drop a diss record called Megan's Law on this album. You might not get another chance if you don't really get it right. Like you got to get it right. And so this is the moment. Listen, these are the moments hip. The universe opens up these moments, right? And then it's up to you to kind of jump through the window. This is a moment for Niki. You see Megan, you mentioned in one line to for Megan, excuse me. You mentioned one line and you got all of this. Get on her, get, get, give it to, go. Take all. It was organic then. I think Megan needs hip records. That's what I think Megan needs right now. That's the thing Niki got, which is, which is so, it's still so interesting to me how she chose to respond to the, to the his freestyle because if I was Niki, I probably would have ignored it. Sure, it didn't matter. Like you got hip records. Here's your chance to drop back to back. You said what? Here's your chance to drop back to back. Back to back. Oh, she missed that already. No, no, no, she missed. No, because everybody, we looking for the response to that whack Niki this. No. Oh, you mean, you mean it's Megan's chance to drop back to back? It's Megan's, forgive me. It's Megan's chance, forgive me. I'm sorry. Yeah, that's, that's what disappointed me about the whole Niki situation. I think I spoke about this last week, but that's what disappointed me. It's like, I thought Niki was going to give us something like that. I thought Niki, the way she was acting on social media toward this situation, I thought she was about to come with one of them, like one of them all-time disc records. That's how Meek was. Meek was on Twitter going crazy. He was talking crazy. He dropped that, that record, that record. Horrible. I was like, damn, Meek. Oh, they remember it. The record just came, he cleaned people up. Was that after back to back? No, no, he dropped one record first and then they dropped the other record. Was it, wait a minute. I don't remember. He dropped it. But they dropped that record. And I remember being so disappointed.  He took a long time to drop it. Back to Back came back because he took too long. And then Meek- Back to Back came back. Back to Back never left when he- No, no, no, I'm saying that Drake dropped another song before Meek could release it because it took too long. Back to Back is the top five disc record of all time. I got it at five. You pushing it. I got it at five. Why? You don't think so? Glasses. Why? Not a top five. Top 10. Top five. What's number one? Nah, actually, number one for me is, uh, it's changed over the years, but it's Cube, no Vaseline. It's changed over the years. It's changed over the years. And I tell you why it's changed over the years. I think I used to have Jay-Z take over at number one. The reason I put Cube, no Vaseline. Cube really took out a whole crew, man. Yeah, he did. Like, like, like you- Like they was strange. One man, Army took out a whole crew and Cube's back was really against the wall because he just had left the group. And to, and to your point, G, you only get that one moment. Like you only get that one opportunity to lose yourself. And he lost himself with that no Vaseline.     Yeah, it was special. No Vaseline. I'm going no Vaseline at one. Ether at two. Wow. Hit him up at three. Take over at four. Man, maybe back to back. Well, I like Dre Day at five, too. I got no Vaseline at one. One of the ones that you don't really give credit to. You know, Dre, when he was dissing easy and Luke and all of them, you don't really trip it in such a big record. So I'm not mad at maybe, maybe back to back is six on a national scale. I got Dre Day. I got, I got, I got Ice Cube, no Vaseline. I got Jay-Z take over. I have Tupac. Hit him up. I actually have, I have, it might be, it might be Dre, Dre Day and then back to back. Are y'all, are y'all dissing off the internet? I got, I got to eat that. Like, I got to eat the out of the top five. That's crazy. I got to eat the out of the top five. The reason I got to eat the out of the top five, when I go back and listen to eat the now, it's like, it just sounds elementary. Like, it just sounds like an elementary grade school diss, like dick-sucking lips and, you know, they're like, rock or fill it out at age. Oh, he did it. As a hardcore Jay-Z fan, as a hardcore Jay-Z fan, I was devastated. Yeah. I mean, in the moment, it was a great moment, but I don't think Ethan stood the test of time at all. All he doesn't even talk about stood the test of time. Even now, when I hear that. People still use that as an answer term. Yeah. Yeah, like, even when I hear the terms, I'm like, oh, you eat through them, it always kind of hurts me as a Jay-Z fan.  Why y'all forgetting about Remy Meisner in the top? He'll tell it. Just please. It's, it's a different thing. What? Dude, I'm trying to get woman empowerment. Damn. It's just that. I put Jada Kisses, Son of a Kiss. I put that one up there because he destroyed me on that. Jada had a better one than Son of a Kiss. Jada had one. If I went to, yeah, my favorite five would probably be DJ Quick. This is eight dollars and cents. That was big here. Yeah, if it got personal, but just national, man, it's hard to. Sheesh. I like, I like anybody who can, the reason I like Dre Day, the reason I like Back to Back, the reason I like hit them up, it's one thing when you listen into a diss record about yourself on a mixtape.   Is that a world tour? Your girl's talk, you know? Please, second floor, why are it be like, God dang it, like, you know. Crazy is every time I think of that conversation, I always remember Back to Back. I'd be like, back to back and scorn. I would not want to get that word. Glasses, he didn't curse one time. Yeah, that's really good. It was the most polite diss record ever. Yeah. He literally said that one point in the record. Now I don't want to hear about this ever again. Yeah. You know what I mean?  Now I don't want to hear about this ever again. All right. That was the drakest record of all Drake records. Yes. It was hella polite. It was concise and on point. That's devastating. I'm surprised Meek recovered. And it took Drake to help Meek recover. Yes. And Drake out, the most impressive thing about it and slew to Meek. Meek is doing a lot of great things. We're just having a conversation about hip hop right now. Being the hip hop historians, we are. The greatest thing about that record is he out hip hop, the hip hop guy in that moment. Like the records that we love is when it's the underdogs coming out. If you notice, all of those. He was the short underdog. Yes. All of those records we named with the exception of TakeOver and hit them up, all of those guys were underdogs. Because you can remember, Drake was trying to bounce back after Rue Fletcher. Q was bouncing back after NWA.  Nas, Ethel was bouncing back after Jay said he was the top 10 and I mentioned it all. That's the ones we like. It's about that underdog bouncing back. Here's Megan. We fast forward. Now we hear with Megan. This is Megan's chance. Like you could actually slay the all-time great female hip hop artists of all time. Like you may not, but you could put yourself in a ring, like push your teeth, change his fortune, battle and Drake. Like that's every level. On every level, like remember, so Drake came in kind of more arrogant in that battle as somebody who slayed Meek and kind of took who was in the ring a little lightly and it was devastating. You know what I mean? He got devastated really bad. Which is very interesting to me. I'll go ahead out. The thing with Megan, I think it's best if she doesn't reply because she kind of got the win already because people are saying how bad Nicki's diss track was. So now she put something out and it's not that good. Now she actually hurts us. I think right now she's walking away with the win by not even putting out a diss track. But you know, you don't get, you got to still fight the fights. You know what I mean? You can't be scared of making a mistake. And what happened is this record to do well, right? This record obviously is the number one record in the country, right? But guess what happened? Your album must still come out and do 60,000. Like this is like Tupac was smart. He didn't, you know, he held it. He waited till he got something going and then he put it out in the middle of everything going and that pushed this record to another place.  And this is a chance. I agree with Alex.  So whenever y'all be talking shit about me and I be trending, I'll be seeing it. But somebody showed me the conversation they were having because they bought up this old donkey at the day I did on Nicki. And I gave Nicki donkey at a day for not responding to Remy in a reasonable amount of time. I think I might even have gave me donkey at a day too for not responding to Drake in a reasonable amount of time.  The reason I didn't give Megan donkey at a day is because Megan bombed first. Megan dropped her bomb and then it was up for Nicki to respond.  So it's like, why? If I'm Megan, I won. And I got a number one record in the country. I won. I'm keep going. I won. But once again, that's why the Barb's are the best because the Barb's think that's the best diss track that ever came out. What? The Barb's, they feel that Nicki's diss track is the best diss track ever put up. They are the best fans of anybody got. I don't want fans like that. I want, I like, I like, I like, I respect anybody who got a code like following but I don't want fans that just, like I'm a delusional fan like that because I'm a cowboy fan. Every year, every year I tell y'all the Cowboys going to the Super Bowl. You can't tell me the Cowboys are the greatest team of all time. I have no reason to believe that in the past. That's delusion. I don't want delusional. I don't want to be a delusional fan. I'm a delusional fan. I don't want those. Like I think Megan should go. I think what happened is Megan to do well for a single and she won't have a reason to check the album. You have to give people a reason to check the streams to get to the album. That's why you name it Megan's love. If you name it Megan's love, people are going to think you're talking about Nicky. But I mean, she had to change the whole album now but right now she's not going to change the album. Make a song called Megan's Love. Put it on the album. Be like, I got this next Nicki Minaj's Disregard on the album. Y'all check it out when the album drops. You want to run them streams up. You got to participate and you can't be scared to lose. You know what I mean? Like one thing I realized being in the culture a lot more that the artistic expression of it all, you got to be willing to be wrong and you got to be willing to go up there and everybody not understand you. But you got to put yourself into the situation. Like she'll just end up with a good song and won't have a successful album. It's easy to have a great song and then sell 60,000 per week. But that's why she needs a great body at work and I think she needs great records because Nicki can still win the war. Like this just was a battle. But the intro, we told Nicki's already won. Like Nicki Minaj is Nicki Minaj. That's the other thing we got to understand too. Exactly. So it ain't like you're going to top Nicki Minaj. Just fucking... This is the greatest female hip hop artist of all time. Shout out to Kim, right? But like look at her. How long she been going? Like she is the one. So the one has your attention. The one. Why is she the greatest of all time? Why do you think she the greatest? Maybe it might be like 13. Why do you think she's the greatest female rapper of all time? I mean just everything she's done in the business. You know what I mean? She's like even to be this good right now, how you sell platinum in a month?  She's just like a... She's a different type of animal. You know what I mean? She's a different type of beast. But Megan might be like 14 all the time. But guess what? You get a shot at the heavyweight title. And you can't make it just one round. You got to get in there and squabble. Make her dedicate some energy to you. Get some of that. Glasses, you think Drake's not hip hop, right? He's not at all. Not even think. So is Nicky hip hop? Yeah. But they make the same type of music? It's not just that. Drake represents no culture in his music, except everybody's culture, like Madonna. So because Nicky is from Queens... And talks like she's from Queens. Okay, I get it. All right. Okay, okay. I asked her if she's from Queens. Hip hop is street... Okay, Taylor. Hip hop is street urban culture personified through the arts. Street urban culture. We've had this conversation, right? The reason you know what kind of cars guys in LA and Miami drive is because of hip hop. The reason you know slang out of New Orleans is because of hip hop. The reason you know pronunciation techniques in St. Louis, like with words like there, is because of hip hop. The reason that kind of wheels people driving Houston. The reason you know is because of hip hop. Drake has had 100 albums, 70 videos. I don't know. Endless material. You would not be able to tell us one thing about Toronto. That's not true, G. That is a farce.  Pants? What's their pants? Yeah. Like New Orleans guys wear jebos. LA guys wear dickies. New York guys... I don't think New Orleans people wore jebos in a long time. I'm saying they did. I'm telling you. Tell me one thing about... Tell me one thing. I only know about Toronto because of Drake. I actually think Drake's best moments musically... Is when he's Toronto. When he's Toronto. Yes. Yes. And he's very rarely Toronto. No, he's always Toronto. I feel like since his second album on, he's been super Toronto. I think they created their own sound. You know, even... They got people running around calling Toronto the sixth, like it's Brooklyn. That's because he made that up. But that's... I think that's great when pop artists make pop slogans. Nah, that's not a pop slogan. Yeah. That's a pop slogan. That's it. Why people are calling Toronto the sixth as well? I feel like everybody calls it the sixth at this point. Because Drake made that up. And I think that's fantastic, but he doesn't represent any street urban culture at all. None. I don't think it has to be a street though. Like I was watching... I saw Donald Glover this week. And we can assert all these clips too, Taylor. I saw Donald Glover this week. And Donald Glover was saying that, you know, it's because of Kanye. That, in fact, let's pay some bills and come back and talk about that. Hold on. Let's pay some bills. Hold on. Let's pay some bills and come back and talk about that. Salute to Chime. You know, Chime, man. I really appreciate you. Y'all have been supporting me since I was doing my late night talk show. The God's Honest Truth on Comedy Central. And y'all supporting the Brilliant Ideas podcast now. I want to tell y'all, man, it's time to break up with overdraft fees. Every SID counts towards your big financial goals this year. The Chime checking account can handle all the heavy lifting while you get a handle on achieving your goals for the year. 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Use insights to grow your business, learn where your site business and sales are coming from, and analyze which channels are most effective, improve your website and build a marketing strategy based on your top keywords and most popular products and content.  Let's get back to the show. Church announcements. Lopes, you got any church announcements? What's a church announcement? Self-view promoting. You know you got the album out? Nah, man, I'm chilling right now. No silence. No silence. This is my fourth season. I'm trying to figure out a visual way to present it that's really dope. I haven't figured it out, but I am really proud of what's happening at no silence. The podcast on black effects, iHeart, y'all got to check that out. It's really getting good. And this year is really going to hit another level. This season right here is going to be special. It's a great podcast because glasses, people like to call glasses a contrarian. I don't think glasses is a contrarian. I think glasses looks at situations, observes situations, and I just think he has a different POV. And the POV ain't really off.  You're not saying that. That's what I be off. I swear to God, I'll be thinking. I'll be like, even if I was talking to Taylor, I'm like, I'll be thinking. I was like, I had to think to myself. I was like, I told the girls on... What's the name of the girls' podcast? Harbour Decision. No, we talk back. No, no, Horrible Decisions. It was Horrible Decisions. I said, you should hold sex until you get married. That's my advice. Do you know the girls cuss me out? Well, the podcast is called Horrible Decisions.  What was your reason though? Why do you think that? They were saying, what's the best thing to do to meet the right guy? Why should they... Oh, okay. If you say it like that. When the Bible said that, by the way, I mean, if the Bible's real, so many women going to help. I mean, and guys too, because we all had sex before marriage. But to me, man, it's just mathematics. Like most of the things, even when we talk about hip hop, everything, I'm just doing math, right? I'm like, okay, let's take the origin, let's break it out, let's pull it out, and let's figure out what makes it work together. So to me, it makes sense, but it's when people feel like... Because it's a bias, I guess. Why is it a bias? Because why do we have to wait till marriage for us? The Bible says so. No, no, no. Besides the Bible, I'm saying to find a good man though. God said so. You don't have to wait till marriage to find a good man, right? But... Because I feel like you're not holding men accountable then. Like why aren't they better men? Like why do we have to hold ourselves accountable to not have sex restrained from sex but y'all can do whatever you want. Everybody should be restrained from sex. The Bible says so. No, you're right. But I'm just saying when it comes to women, why... But mine is... But it's more even biblically, even the Bible is mathematics, it makes sense. It's like men's job, they're genetically wired to go around and procreate, right? Sophistication is how we achieve any true level of, right, what is it called, monogamy, right? So you decide if men could have sex. You decide. So it does fall on the greater species to kind of set the standard, right? Like if vagina is cheap, you know, men will buy cheap. I think I do with the mindset. I've... Not up to myself. I know someone. Wow, tell me. You're like... Obviously it's not you, Taylor. Okay, fine, I'll just be right about it. I've had sex with guys and I've been in relationships with them. But that's their mindset, though. And I feel like I've had sex with guys where they just wanted to hit. So I think it depends on the mindset. You don't really know if you like nobody until you hit. That's the problem. Like you don't really know... Like you could... Like something... I'm telling you, Taylor, something... As Charlemagne in his prime day, I know it's been a long time, but as anybody who's in their prime day, right? Like you would think you really like somebody until you hit. But that's... Something happens. That's not necessarily... That's not true. There's so many girls that put up with... Are you saying like if this sex was good or bad or... No, it's not that. Okay, so... Something happens. It's like magic. No, Douglas, you got what you wanted. Like if it's not a woman that you're looking to wife up and be with, once you accomplish that goal of sleeping with her, it's like all to the next. I don't know because I've met girls that I really thought I liked until I hit and it wasn't like a bad experience. It doesn't matter. It's life after the night. You just were able to release and now you're good. Maybe the vagina was average. That's not right because I wasn't even thinking I really liked them. The vagina might have been average. When you say... It wasn't... Wait, you said something earlier that made me think... You said you slept with a guy that just wanted to hit. Why couldn't you have that mindset? I have. Oh, okay, okay, okay. I'm not saying girls can't have that, but I'm just... Why are we... I'm glad, why did you not like her anymore? Like everything about her you just didn't like? I can't logically produce it. I'm telling you this is where the magic has to happen. Was there a smell? No. She was actually an awesome girl. You're saying it has nothing to do with the sex? I'm saying, Alex, are you married, Alex? No, I'm engaged, though. To a white woman. Okay. You remember meeting girls like all the time? No, to a Spanish woman. To a Spanish woman. And I'm a Spanish man.  What a old... And you hate them. You're not clean as... That's it. Man.  I'm both. Oh, oh. But Charlotte and Charlotte need to be on the blood. No, I'm not a Black man. I'm not Black. I'm not a Black man. That's crazy. I'm not a Brown. Yo. People will check on these pictures. In the Black History Month, that's crazy. I don't read it. It is, yo. Yo, how are you? Change your password to WTF2 then. You Afro-Latino. You are Black, man. I'm Afro-Latino. Yo. It's something my mother was born in Puerto Rico. My dad was born in Atlanta. I am Afro-Latino. All right, let's proceed. Have you ever met a girl? Yeah, have you ever met a girl that you thought you liked and then you hit it? And it wasn't bad. It was just like nothing. Like it just, the magic didn't happen. Yeah, that's happened a lot all the time. It's not just men that feel like that. Girls have the same. So Taylor, so that's what I'm saying to you. But you can marry someone and it could be the same thing. So it doesn't matter. I'm not saying, I'm not saying that. Well, it depends on how much value you put on, you know, the factory itself. I don't think it's meant to be really abused like that. No, like the baby-making factory that's inside Joe Avenue. I agree.  You know what I'm saying? Like, I feel- I don't know because I think the dick was made to be abused, right? At that point, it literally can, every day a woman gets pregnant, a man can go out and make babies, which again, sophistication is what allows you to, the side is not worthy, right? You don't want to just father any, a child with every woman, right? That's the sophistication. But the genetic programming is a lot different than that. So even the starting point is working with something different, which is different. But back to the point I digress, because I don't want to get cussed out this week about this. I'm saying everything I say, best believe I read and thought about it. Like glasses is never just, I'm not a contrarian, I genuinely, I'm not saying if I'm talking about Drake not being hip hop, it's because I understand hip hop at the origin. Now we could talk about evolving, like you said, what Donald Glover was saying about Kanye, because we talked about that too. Well, I said like, man, I realized that is when it switched with Kanye, it became very almost not street at all. And I'm glad, because I think that street is only one aspect of a black experience. And I don't want to even say that being, being street is just regulated to black, but I think that we for so long in hip hop, we had so many people rapping from that perspective. It was very refreshing when Kanye came with lay registration. I mean, Kanye appeared from the time he came out with college, about the reason I think lay registration, because remember, the industry pitted street against what Kanye was doing. It was 50, remember that whole thing, 50 versus Kanye, and who would sell the most, the industry had to look back since. But this is the problem. Like, if you understand why hip hop was important, you would understand why that was probably the beginning of the end. It's the same thing they did to rock and roll.  Like, black life didn't have a problem expressing itself without hip hop. Like, you don't have to just be black and do hip hop. Remember, black people started rock and roll. Yeah, jazz. They started mostly all the dreamers, right? But the problem is, is when you actually put people who are represented in some level into the same space where there was no representation, people from the street had no representation until hip hop. Our story wasn't told until hip hop. And it became still, to this day, the only way to tell our story. As much as gangbanging, right, let's say the culture that's gangbanging, minus all the violence, just the camaraderie, the culture of it all. There's less than 10 movies. Gangbanging is a bigger influence and more popular than the mafia, but there's probably 70 to 100 mafia movies. There's still less than 10 movies. But that's easy, though. That's because, you know, those mafia movies, a lot of them were critically acclaimed. A lot of them made a lot of money. I think what we're about to see now, you know, is the, I guess you would call it the renaissance of the Black Street story. Because not only what Fifty Thin is doing, man, we still ain't seen those Donald Goins books. You know what I'm saying? Turned into films and TV shows. We gonna see that.   You about to see a lot of Black Street stories in a minute. And that's what I was saying. You know, you know how I am about Kanye. Like, you know how I feel about Kanye. We've had all kind of great conversations. But the more I think about it, I just, I'm really starting to feel he was bad for hip hop. No, man. I agree with what Donald Glover said when Donald Glover said, all of these rappers now sound like Kanye, but. Go rapper. To me, Kanye. To me, I know that's controversial. But I feel like we would not have any of the rappers we have now without him. I'll take it a step further. I think he meant the generation that came before because I've been said this a long time ago. Without Kanye, there's no Drake. There's no Kendrick. There's no Cole. There's no Chance the Rapper. There's no Wale. There's no Cuddy. There's no Big Sean. Like he's literally responsible for that old wave of hip hop that came out. And as much as I enjoy it, obviously mine is not out of that conversation. But as much as I enjoy it, I think what happens is now this allows white businessmen to start putting people that look closer to them and to a pop mainstream to be able to sell. Like the same thing happened to Jazz and Rock and Roll. Like if you don't actually have to be cultured to have a hip hop conversation or to represent it. All those people will coach it, though. Like, easily. J Cole came out telling us his story from Fayetteville. Drake came out telling us his story. I don't even know. Kendrick ain't cultured glasses? I keep telling you, take that out of it. I think most of them are not cultured. Wale ain't not cultured. I think he's the closest one. He got that go-go stuff going. But what happened to him? Big Sean's not cultured? Probably not. Come on. Cultured? Yes. He represents the culture of Detroit. He's dripping in flavor. He's dribbling in flavor. Wow, he's extremely well. I didn't say he wasn't a skilled and talented record writer or an emcee. He's dripping in flavor. Dude, you turned into the whitest white guy I've watched. He's dripping in flavor. I'm just saying, he's dripping in flavor. Like, these dudes are Taco Bell to Mexican food. They're Green Burrito to Mexican food. That's crazy. But you don't think it's a good thing for the culture? Because once you don't have cultured, once you gentrify it, you don't have... That's like saying that gentrification is Brooklyn is great for Brooklyn. No, but I'm saying, isn't it a positive thing for the culture? Because if you only had just street rap, then you're going to keep pushing that message and that's going to influence another generation of, oh, all we could do is just be gangsta. And everybody be dead.  But that's also not a message. Like, they're reflecting the traumas going on in their community. They didn't inspire a next generation. No, you got to stop it. Even though they're talking about their own story, they're still influencing a generation. How? Which middle-class community has ever been influenced? What do you mean? I'm talking about the... I'm talking about influencing the culture. I want to say one other thing, G. I want to throw something else in the mix. Sure. Kanye wasn't the only person who influenced that generation. There's a group that influenced that generation that nobody ever talks about. And that's Little Brother. Sure, that's fair. And I think Little Brother is great. Kanye and Little Brother influenced that old generation. All of those guys we just named, always cite Kanye and Little Brother as their influence. Man, I'm... And I think those guys are fantastic. But what I'm saying is, I think if you created a culture or artistic expression that helps people who weren't represented in the conversation in mainstream America have a voice, and then you take the voice back and give it back to Eddie Winslow, it does no good. I don't believe that because I think all of them niggas is Eddie Winslow. Every last one of them niggas is Eddie Winslow. Every one of them niggas is Willis from Good Times. But the hood had Eddie Winslow. The hood had Willis from Good Times? No, it's different. It's a different version of it. Like, Kendrick to me is those guys. He was the good kid in a mad city. That's not true. He's a bad kid. Don't mistake the title.  He was talking about being around and involved in all of the stuff. That's just a title. He was a bad kid in the bad... But you got to be a criminal in order for it to be considered hip hop. Not a criminal. Not a criminal. But crying where crime inspired the culture. Crime-written, disly populated communities inspire the culture. It's the way we talk. It's the reason why we dress. But again, I don't like... All of this stuff is things that I've thought about, like going back to the spades and the Bronx and the Bronxdale projects. And then I just come forward and I see where it dies. But it is disingenuous to say hip hop is inspiring the culture when actually the life is inspiring hip hop. Like nobody's making this stuff up as like this is happening. Like everything happening in Drill is happening in Chicago. And instead of us taking that alarm that those little dudes is ringing for us... Drill is done already. But I'm saying instead of us taking the alarms that these guys are raising in their community and really trying to do something to figure it out, we're punishing them because they're saying this is happening. No, they're punishing themselves. The lifespan of Drill music is shorter than the lifespan of a Drill rapper.  Like they're literally using the music just to glorify the beats they got going on the screen. Sure, hence why all the black people we should be trying to figure out their problem instead of sitting back condemning it. That's what hip hop did. It gave a voice to people who didn't have one. I don't think people like Kanye never didn't have a voice. People have their stories about people who got in car accidents with insurances. There's movies of mine. There's films about guys who had jobs and got accused of stealing because they worked at the Gap as a black person. These were not ill-represented stories in America. Like being black in America has been represented in film for some decent years. It's just the life that we come through. I think if we kept hip hop strictly street there would be age limits on hip hop. Killer Mike wouldn't have wanted Grammy this weekend. Yes, he wouldn't have. No, he wouldn't have because when you're 48 years old you're not rapping about being in the street. You shouldn't be. If you're still rapping about being in the street and killing people, something is wrong. Somebody's either lying or something's wrong. But it's not about rapping about being in the street. The streets structure you. It frame you a certain way. It's not about like Jay-Z still carries himself like a street guy to this day. Like there's certain things he would never do. Like it formats us in a certain way. That's really brilliant. Like the way we talk to other people. Like we don't say stuff like in Taylor's America people could say what they want to say and it don't matter. Like you could talk crazy to anybody in our America you got to watch what you say to people because it could come with repercussions. I think that's changed so much, Gene. Like anybody can blow your head off now I didn't. No, I watch white people cuss each other out at McDonald's all the time. A white lady be getting some Big Mac.   Especially with that Big Mac combo being $18 now. Man, that should be worth killing them. That should be worth killing them. But the $18 combo. This is the kind of stuff we do on those cities. We really get into the foundation of things and build out. We get into that's what I like to do. I like to get into the foundation. This year I plan to talk to a lot of different people but like I'm not talking to them. Like if it's a rapper we're not going to talk about rap. I need to see what life is like for you outside of these things. And that's what I hope to achieve. I like the way hip hop is right now, man. I salute to my main killer, Mike. I saw something the other day. I saw this Nila posted this. Let me read this to y'all real quick. So we had Russ on Flagrin. And Russ was saying how we have to have the discussion how white people are obsessed with Black trauma. And also how rappers need to take accountability for the impact that they have on the culture. And how like in a negative way. But it does it doesn't it doesn't it doesn't make sense because we do know rappers are influential. But how are they? How is it reflective? How is the mirror to be blamed for how you look? So let's say Juice World, for example, Juice World said, hey, I saw Future taking drugs and that made me want to do drugs. And now he's gone to the Eagles. Or do we blame shot eight? Shot dead. I mean, they're not they're not putting out negative message. We just have words about him. Of course, they have the same message him. Rick James is a million people with songs about you. You won't hip hop to be one way. No, no, no. Yes, you do. You won't hip hop to be one way. No, no. I love the exception to the rules. I love daylight. So I love tribe called Quest. But what I don't want is to think people like that's there now are speaking for the ghetto people that had no voice in the first. And I do want the they're not. And I do want the ghetto people to keep. They're not Drake doesn't speak for the ghetto. J. Cole don't speak for. The code speaks for the rural areas of Fayetteville, North Carolina. And I think that's the major roads. But the single wide. Totally agree. But I still want to have our voices being magnified in this space. I don't want the same thing to happen to rock and roll. It's going to to happen to hip hop.  The only reason that don't make no sense because the 90s is what started that.  He they're the ones that turned hip hop to rock and roll. There's no bigger rock and roll artist in hip hop than Snoop Dogg. Snoop advertising is any and everything. And he is street as they come, G. I agree. But that that gives the ghetto a chance that it wouldn't have on any other level like dog. Like that the ghetto won't have a chance. Like right now there won't be future black rock and roll stars at any high level because as soon as you begin to gentrify a genre and it gets lighter, lighter, lighter, lighter, lighter. Till it gets white in America. That's every last the history of every last thing that's ever been gentrified. Brother, no, it is not hip hop's fault that the culture, the culture is a reflection. They're talking about being on drugs because they're on drugs culturally in these places. This is the thing that they do culturally. That's not a good thing though. Why is that not considered street urban culture? What is it? Being a drug youth. It is something. It is in Houston. No, everywhere. It's a clean. We grew up on the dealers. Now these kids are growing up on the users. But you can't have one without the other. George, George. Them niggas, they definitely part of the hood. You can't even be any of these things you're talking about. I think future is a part of the culture. Yes, that's that's super. Yeah, I'm just telling him that I'm telling him future is a mirror to blame the mirror for how you look. It's crazy. Yeah. Nicki Minaj said she was speaking the future and future said he doesn't even use the dam at 90 percent of the drugs he talked about using. So now he's putting a fake message into the culture that actually hurts the culture. No, no, it's not true. He represents the culture of Atlanta. The thing about hip hop, it speaks for us, not just me. See, that's where people was turning hip hop now into just a me conversation. Hip hop before was the qualification to speak for us. So future is one of those few people that speaks for the street culture in Atlanta that we're talking about. Now, I can see if he didn't start that. If he's the first person to talk about this, and then he made it a trend. No, Atlanta was already doing this, and he's informing you on what's going on. So outcast and goodie mob don't represent the streets. Yes, they did. That's what they didn't rap about dope and all that. They just wrapped it up. You don't have to rap. I didn't say you have to rap about dope. Ice Cube didn't rap about dope. You don't have to rap about dope, but it's the way it's a slang you use. It's the way you dress. It's representing us. It's the culture of all those guys. All those guys with a name that you said sucked except for Kendrick. They absolutely did that. Rapsody. I don't know if they all represent the culture of us. I don't. I would genuinely disagree. You don't think Rapsody is hip hop? Of course I think Rapsody is hip hop, but I don't think Big Sean represents the culture of Detroit. Yes. No. Full artistry. I know a lot of Detroit people. And you don't think he represents the culture? No, man. I think Big Sean is a tactic. I think Big Sean is a talented MC beyond with skills comparable to probably some of the best to ever do this. He is an underrated. Rekarate is a fantastic act. Again, I'm not saying he's not even hip hop. What I'm saying is I like the hip hop drenched in flavor.  I don't want to eat Taco Bell. Sean's seasoning is all Detroit. Sean is big D. Pause. I ain't talking about no. Okay. I'm just saying he's big Detroit energy, man. Big D energy. I think Sean got a lot of... Big Sean, Big Detroit. I think I hear a lot of... I think... I'm not mad at that. I'm just saying I like when hip hop is drenched in culture. I think that was the point of it. And that's the goal. The goal is what to be achieved is to keep it there. Not to allow it to be gentrified into a space to where people get older and they feel good about it versus how we all saw it as a representation of our attitudes at that time. I want to... I think it's really important to keep it drenched in flavor. Hip hop is that one lane that gave the ghetto a chance. You know what I mean? To be heard. And if you start putting suburban kids in that line, there are many more suburban kids than there is ghetto kids. And it's way more... It's not... I want these ghetto kids to grow from the ghetto and get to the suburbs. Yes. I want to see those ghettos get gentrified and those black kids still get to live there. That's not going to happen. They're going to kick them out. It always happens every time. It's not going to happen because they're either going to get kicked out or they're going to get killed or they're going to die a drug over those glasses once you're out of the community and move somewhere else and be displaced is what's happening in Chicago right now. Let me ask you a question. This is a good point. If I get displaced from an area and I rap about that displacement, I'm not a hood kid. I'm just a kid from the ghetto. I rap about the displacement. I rap about what my hood is going through. I'm not hip hop. Of course you are. That's fire. Yes. I'm waiting on that guy. Yes. But you're going to get displaced to another poor place and you're going to talk about what it's like being in foreign places, not generations of your family being here. I would love to hear that perspective. I think that's where a lot of times we're at today. But what I'm saying is you can't fix, you don't fix a flu by ignoring the symptoms. You don't fix a flu by covering your mouth. You don't fix things by ignoring them and feeling like let's cover them up. Okay, long as they get gentrified and they kick all these poor people out and push them out somewhere else where the displacement of places that's unfamiliar, you don't fix a problem. All you do is create a worse problem for more people. I agree with that, but I also think we can't ignore the other spectrums of the hood. Like the hood, the ghetto with the spectrum. That's why we have to do a much better job of creating opportunities there. That's why it's the hood in the first place because it lacks opportunity. It's not the hood because people just crazy. It's the hood because there's not many ways to literally make a livable wage in the range. That's what make it the hood. If it had opportunities, if it was factories and warehouses around the corner and down the street, you feel me? It wouldn't be the hood. But every person is not going to wrap about that criminal aspect of the hood. Some people are going to wrap about just living there and trying to get out. Some of these kids might really want to go to college. Some of these kids might be the hoopers, the ball players. I'm all in. I think Tribecaw Quest. I can keep naming Daylife Soul. Exhibit? You know what I mean? I think that's great. But what's happening is you having less representation of the ghetto, of the streets at this point. And it's getting blander. It's going to get blander. The potato salad is going to get raisins. It's just the inevitable. You don't think Larusso is the ghetto? No. Not even you slaying. Larusso? No. Glasses. You got to stop. He's so belated. What are we talking about? Of course he's not. You ever met a guy from Vallejo? Yes. Larusso and E40. You met a guy from Vallejo? Yes. Larusso and E40. I'm talking about somebody that's not been a successful rapper for 30 years. Not that guy.  But I'm saying, talk to Belegit. Just sit on the phone and let Belegit talk to you. Talk to guys there. Like talk to them. You will hear that there's this cultural thing happening. And that's what I loved about my hip hop. No diss to all of the guys that are gentrifying it and and blanding it and putting raisins in a potato salad. I'm not mad at that. But there should still be potato salad on the table. Right? That literally has less season. So Larusso is super belated. Old glasses. Look, all you do is show us his hood. He does shows in his yard. Doesn't live in the hood. I don't know what it is. I don't know how you look like the hood. You can't. Like your house in Beverly Hills is not the hood. He's not in Beverly Hills. He literally lives in his mom's house in Vallejo. Like they put this the residency in the backyard.  Yes. I think that's an amazing black family business like the Jackson Five. But I'm saying they're still a ghetto. Jackson Five was in the hood. I'm not. Listen, that's the difference. It's in the hood and they made it out. And I'm not mad at that story. But I'm saying I want to make sure we keep hip hop with authentic Mexican food, not just Taco Bell on the table. There's too much Taco Bell on the table. Glasses want Mexican OT to be the biggest rapper in the game. He's not going to be happy. I love Mexican OT. It's a Mexican OT. Oh, Mexican OT. That's it. That's it. That's it. But again, I don't want to sound like I don't like Larusso.  One day I'm going to talk to him about it because it's insulting. And I'll be offended when I listen to it. He has a lot of ignorant street takes.     No, like he said something even in the rap. He was like, if it's the OG, why are you always hanging with the little niggas? Like that is just the furthest thing from the truth with OGs. Like that's just not how it is. That's like, and the problem is people will listen to him and really think that's how it is. It's much more nuanced and deeper than that. And you have to put respect on the culture itself if you don't know it. And I don't think he knows it. And I think that's what we're hearing with a lot of rappers. We're hearing a lot of people. Like even Alex is saying like, bro, he's saying he's like, you want to blame hip hop for a culture that's already happening here and they're broadcasting it. Like they're not rappers are not responsible for anything. Like Run DMC didn't start the track suit. Run DMC let us know that the drug dealers in New York where we're in track suit. That's a fact. They didn't start the track suit. They didn't start the lingo. They start talking like the guys in the street. Snoop and Dre are not the first guys to have a low rider. They're not the first guys to own a gun and live their life in some way. They reflected the culture of people. This is how they're living. Now, as black people doing well, everybody up in here and everybody who listens to this podcast, we can do things to help these communities. But the last thing we should be doing is talking shit about them saying this is what's wrong or this is what's happening or them being proud of surviving it and somehow embracing it and making it a part of surviving.  I think that it's okay to call out, you know, where we can definitely be better, especially when we've got generations and generations of examples that show us none of this stuff is productive. We know it. But I don't know. At that point, then at that point, we could never really blame slavery. We could never really say nothing about systemic oppression or racism. We could just act like it's all self. We could just obtain better, like Kanye's right. Slavery is a choice. We could have just died all together or we could have just did whatever. Or you can actually acknowledge the fact, right, that literally people are going through a lot of shit trying to figure out how to deal with this. And we could act like that really exists. We could act like that this system ain't fair, that they literally do deny black people opportunity and chances and understand why people respond the way they respond. We know that, though. I don't never judge anybody for what they do in survival mode, ever. So then let's stay right there. And then let's focus on fixing that versus saying, well, I did it. You can do it too. Because that's not really a solution. No, that isn't fixing that.  Because you know why? Because I know that hustling ultimately leaves.  So I can't let you stay on that path. No, but we have to tell you that. But we have to also understand why you are hustling. That is my job. And I think I do a fantastic job. I think Dre and them did a fantastic job.  I think they tell you, hey, this could happen at the end of this. Most likely this can happen. But we do all understand why it's happening. We will refuse to not acknowledge the fact that you are in a really bad situation. And I'm not going to tell you to go get a job. I totally understand you. That's why I've been having this conversation for the past few weeks in regards to what's happening at the border. Because what I see is a lot of people having conversations that let me know they're so disconnected from the everyday working class person. They're so disconnected from poor and disenfranchised people. Because I'm listening to these, they're really political talking points. Like niggas in the hood, they screaming, close the border. Just because they want the border closed. They're not even saying that at all. They're saying we don't have no resources, but y'all are giving all those resources to them. Where are they? I saw people having a conversation and they were saying how Black people are saying, oh, they're coming over here and taking resources from us. That is not the conversation. Ain't nobody saying they're taking from us. Nobody wants to do this. We never had, but we see these people getting the basic necessities, which is food, shelter. The basic necessities is the life of food, clothing and shelter. Those are the three things you need to have a healthy, sustainable community. These people that we're talking about, these Black people in Chicago, these Black people in Boston, these Black people in Maine that are having these conversations about the migrants, all they're simply saying is, how come y'all can find so much money for them but don't have any resources for us?  They feel like that when they see all that money going to Ukraine. They feel like that when they see all that money going to Israel. They feel like that when they see money going to Gaza. I saw this thing the other day in New York where they were talking about reparations for the Holocaust. Black people was in the comments about, wait a minute. Gee, is that not common sense though? Yeah. But again, it's easy, but this is what I was saying to the brother. This is what I'm saying to him. I'm like, some of this stuff be obvious. Like right, hip hop is not to blame because it's reflecting what's happening. It's not starting, it's reflecting. And then other people are like, damn, that's what you're doing. So instead of us, right? Especially us, like at this level where we're all doing okay for ourselves and we could do things. Instead of us coming up with solutions to fix the problem, we're like, how are you telling people this is happening?  Like when I heard the Chicago dudes, I just thought that was crazy. Same thing when I hear all these stories where I hear people in those comments. You see them on the comments like, wait a minute. Y'all got a hundred. Y'all seen 700 million to Ukraine? It's common sense. 900 million to Israel. Look, right, hey. We're right here in your backyard, starving, homeless. Don't have no food. How can you be upset at them? Everything you're saying right now, what you're saying about hip hop is the migrant situation is literally the perfect example because y'all not even seeing these people over here that are going through it. And you put things on them, right? Like you say, oh, now you pushing MAGA messaging. You know what I mean? Now you talking like the conservatives and representatives talk.   The have nots. And that's hip hop was for the have nots. And that's all I fight to keep it for is to keep us space for the have nots. Look, y'all can have potato salad with raisins on the table. Don't get rid of the greens. Don't get rid of the greens. Every day they're taking the greens off the table. They got the greens off the table. Now it's just, now it's cold slaw. Where's the greens? Why is it cold slaw here? I'm not saying cold slaw is not a tasty dish when it's cooked correctly. You know what I mean? Especially when it's a barbecue. Listen to what that guy did. You put some barbecue on that motherfucker. Barbecue on the cold slaw? You know? What? Some pulled barbecue chicken? Man, you gotta do some stuff. I'm just saying hip hop at this point, if I leave it to everybody else, they will turn hip hop into a white barbecue. So you're saying build the walls. That's probably what you're saying. You're saying build the walls, close the border, keep out suburban kids from hip hop is what you're saying. No, I'm saying there's a room. Pop music has a wide open, right? Which Drake is a pop artist. You can make him a pop artist. The problem is when you allow him to win in the space as hip hop, that takes away budget from ghetto kids. Because ghetto kids will not be allowed to do these things. We would have requirements for them to escape at that level. We wouldn't even support a ghetto kid doing it. Gee, Drake has supported a lot of ghetto kids. I don't think Drake is fantastic as a human being. Drake has given so much ghetto, rapless, stimulus packages. The chupamoy JB's, Lil Baby's, all of those guys. In true Jewish fashion, in true Jewish fashion, he has done really great things by the black community in America. I'm not denying it. You don't have that conversation enough in hip hop either. Sure, we don't never touch nobody. In Jewish relationship and black relationship, it's the reason hip hop is hip hop. Look it now, we're Maze Millionaire. You don't talk about that enough. I'm saying, but it's Maze Millionaire, so I'm not taking that away. But what I'm saying is, just leave space on the picnic table for greens. I'm saying if you keep moving it to cold slog and potato salads with raisins and all this stuff, hot dogs, there's no hot links on the table. It's just hot dogs. I'm not mad at hot dogs at a barbecue, but when I come to it, I could have made hot dogs at home. I want, where's the ribs? I want the flavor. And that's what makes hip hop great. It gave an expression point for ghetto kids to express themselves in the culture that they created. Again, it's always never just been ghetto kids. They lost soul, but they still talked. The talk, we all talked the same. We all represented. They lost soul represented like everybody else represented. All these guys I named, all these guys and women I named, they do too, to me anyway. It's really cold slog at a certain place. It ain't really greens, man. It ain't greens. It's like Kraft macaroni. It ain't home baked. It ain't brown at the top. It's like Kraft. You just though, I don't think you like it. It's like you like a lot of the new recipes. You don't like a lot of the new recipes. But that's just still. I do like them. No, I disagree. I enjoy. Listen, I think J. Cole is one of the greatest rappers ever. J. Cole is Tim Duncan. That's right. He is that good. The big fundamental. He's fantastic. The big fundamental. And I think having them there is important. Having cold slog at the table is important. But I'm just saying now it's not enough greens. Where is the soul food at the table? Right now, if I asked you with a top five artist, where's greens? You couldn't name nobody that got that much seed. Who is the modern day version of, who got that seasoning? Where is the seasoning at? I think there's a lot of fantastic artists out right now. And I think that a lot of them are. They're fantastic. I think it's a mixture of veterans and a mixture of youngins right now. I got Larus. Totally agree. I got Killer Mike still. I got Kodak Black. I got 21 Savage. Kodak Black is greens. Kodak Black is green. 21 Savage is greens. 21 Savage. He's even colder. He's like, what's that this day's over there? The breaded casserole, that whole thing. That's what I'm saying. My man Beef Wellington would season meat. So I think there are, but I think it still needs to be more of those than cold slow. I think Atlanta got a lot of those. A lot. It's very few, man. It actually ain't nobody 20 no more at this point. Think about it. I don't know. Think about the last guy that came out of Atlanta. I would tell you, they're getting some money over there now. It's getting gentrified. Last time you was in there, you was in there. Properties is expensive. I'ma be in Atlanta next week. I have to think about it. This, I want to salute Alice Randall. And by the way, for more conversations like this, make sure you check out Glasses Malone podcast and No Sealing's podcast on the Black Effect I Heart Radio podcast network. And I want to salute to Alice Randall. Alice Randall, she has a book coming out called My Black Country. It is the next release off my book in print, Black Privilege Publishing. It is a journey through country music, Black Pass, Present and Future. It is available April 9th. Okay, April 9th it will be released, but it's available for pre-order right now. Nice. Slew to Killer Mike. Send me the link to that talk about that book. Oh man, it's fantastic. Like she really breaks down in history. Shout out to Killer Mike who did The Impossible. I know this is not the moment for that and we're trying to get up. No it is. Shout out to my book. Let's celebrate Mike for a minute. Let's stay on Mike for a minute. Shout out to Killer Mike. That's impossible. Why you say it's impossible? Because he flew. I ain't never seen a human fly before. Talk to me. Like, how did he sweep the rap category? Because he put out the best rap music. And if you know that don't never, if you know that don't never work. Listen, I'm not even joking right? You, you been saying it to your credit. You been saying it. You know why? Because I understand the Grammys now. I understand what kind of music gets nominated for a Grammy. First time I ever heard Nipsey Hustle Victory Lab. God bless the dead. I said Nipsey. I said this album is going to get nominated for a Grammy. When I heard Rhapsody Layla's Wisdom. This was all the same year. That's a good album. I said this album is going to get nominated for a Grammy. It's a certain type of hip hop. A certain type of sound that the Grammys usually nominate. And it's a certain type of sound that usually wins. It's something to the left of center of everything we're talking about right now.   It's just like a, it's just musically hip hop produces these offerings every now and then that I know this is going to get nominated for a Grammy. And the other reason I knew Mike was going to not just get nominated and win. I've never seen a human being personally want that so bad. We were in the studio. This is so amazing. I've never, we was in the studio. It was me. It was my wife. It was Mike. It was his wife, Salute to Shea. Lord of all came. It was Mike's engineers and his people. And he let us hear the album for the first time. And I was like, I actually got the second time I heard it because he had sent it to me before. First time I heard it, I was like, oh, Mike getting nominated for a Grammy. When I already in the studio, I said, Mike, go and win a Grammy. Because that's all he was saying. He was like, I want to win rap album of the year at the Grammys. And the other reason we need to celebrate that album so much is independence. That's what I'm saying. Mike ain't signed to nobody. He swept the rap. If he won one, that's incredible. As that type of rap, shout out to the Grammys. The Grammys take a lot of slack. I don't agree with 90 percent of the slander because I think in every other category, they will like nominate some other like, who is this person? And you will go discover somebody great because the Grammy is. So shout out to the Grammys. Like, I know y'all take a lot of slander from the community, from the urban space. But trust me, the most flavored guy breathing, I get it. Because I discovered some amazing stuff when the Grammy winners get presented. I go, listen, I bet this is really good. But for Mike to get that dog and if he won one, he's not, you know, it's never been a popularity contest except in the rap category, except in the rap category. The rap category has always almost been a popularity contest. Even the Nas award that he won a couple years back was more like they owed that to him. Shout out to the Kings disease because all of that stuff was fired. But you could tell it was like finally Nas has a Grammy. But I also knew that was a Grammy nominated worthy album though when I heard it. And that was that was the move. So shout out to my little bro, Hit Boy, right? So oh, shout out to Hit Boy son of the decade for putting his daddy on. That's fire. Hell yeah. The rap category is a popularity contest sometimes. There is a lot of popularity that goes into it. So for that category to finally get treated by just what you are hearing is great. And for Mike to sweep it. I just bought one of them $100 rooms on his website. Y'all didn't send me one. Oh, that's real? He's like, you know how to buy that out? He said, yeah, he said I would have sent you one. I said, now I'm going to pay for mine. I didn't know.    Man, I love that dude, man. Let me tell you something. Killer Mike. Whenever I say Killer Mike, it's my top five favorite rappers of all time. There's two people that I'll mention when I say top five. Whenever I say Ghostface and Killer Mike, they be like Ghostface. Killer Mike. And I remember Mike saying to me, the album I'm putting out is for people like you who've been putting me in your top five for years.  It's coming. It's coming, man. It's coming.  It's here. I'm going to shout out to Will. Yeah, shout out to... I mean, but this is just... Now it's like, it's like hip hop has... Like it's been soaked, man. This is one for the streets, man. This is special, man. My man Mike is just... I'm really happy. Me too. I haven't really... Yeah, like the last time I've been this happy, well, I was really happy when Nip got nominated, but I was excited when Kendrick, because that's my friend, you know what I mean? I was happy for Cardi B. For Mike to win was for Cardi B. Yeah, Cardi won Best Rap Album one year. Oh, for sure she won Best Rap Album. It was the same year Nipsey. It was Nipsey. Nipsey was nominated. Pushin' was nominated. And she won Rap Album of the Year. Personally, I think Nipsey should've won. That's a big album too, man. Huh? That's a big album that was really constructed with. But watching Dot win, Dot was like, you know, watching him eat Louisiana chicken in the back house to win in the Grammy is a different level of personal. But Mike is like, that's three?  Why did he leave in handcuffs? Because that's what gangsta rappers do. That's a conspiracy.  I don't get what gangsta rappers do. They did not want... They didn't want kill Mike. I was gonna say, but you can't give him all the... You can't give Grammys all the love because they didn't want to televise him getting the Grammy. They didn't televise any of the rap awards. I think it was... They're white people. I can't prove it.  I feel personally that once the Grammys knew we gotta get these awards, but we're not gonna televise any of them because we gotta keep this dude off our main... Now knock him down the peel. Oh, wow. Knock him down the peel. And I also feel, G, it's just my personal opinion. I feel... And this is what I would have wanted to see and I was thinking about this. I feel like Jay-Z would have bought kill Mike on stage. Because if you think about what Jay-Z was saying, Jay-Z was like, yo, you didn't televise the Grammys and, you know, Jaddy Jeff and Fresh Prince won in the 80s. You didn't televise it when I won in 98. Now, and we both boycotted y'all for that. Now it was 2024 and y'all still not televising the rap category after you have this brilliant Morehouse graduate, one of the most brilliant black men out here, killer Mike, win three of them. Mike, come up here and give your acceptance speech. Do you know what that would have done, yo? That would have been fire. Yeah, I can't imagine that. What? That would have been... That would have been a Jay-Z thing That's what I'm saying. You know, we know these people. That's something Jay would have done. Yeah, but his mind been on his wife. That's bothering him too. One day we got to talk about her albums. Are they really kind of being a little skewed to it? But Jay, you know, I love... The blackness that happened at the Grammys this year was more special than it's been in a long time. You know what I mean? It was more special than it was in a long time. Even watching Scissor win. You know, that was like really cool. She should have won the album of the year though. I'm glad she won all three, but she should have won this year though. Yeah, that ain't gonna happen. Hey, they wouldn't finish. That'd just be too much. Before we kill it. You know what's so crazy? Is Taylor Swift's music really good? I'm sure y'all listen to it. I don't listen to it. I feel like she should have won the album of the year. I don't listen to Taylor Swift. But Taylor... Taylor? Taylor that girl though.  Is she really good, Taylor? Why do you think I listen to her? Is your name Taylor? Your name Taylor. I don't know any of her new albums. I don't know any of her new albums. I don't know any of her new albums. Like when she first came out. For what? When Andrew was doing like the shake it all. I don't know what albums they are, but whatever. Like show us what. Here's the problem with black people sometimes. Black people think because we not listening to it or because we not on it, it's not popping. And that's why I did that. I saw somebody yesterday say... It was a tweet and it was like, yo, I try to stay out of white people's business, but black Britney Spears... Oh, I ask if... Yeah, yeah, I don't say that. And I'm like, that's just not true. At this point, she surpassed it though. Who? Taylor surpassed Britney. Taylor is the number two... Yeah, that was a long time ago. Yeah, a long time ago. She's the number two selling female artists of all time. She has the highest grossing concert tour of all time. She like Madonna ear. She like in a different ear. Madonna is the number one selling female artists of all time. Taylor is number two. Yes, Taylor goes back. She's in that ear. Yeah, Madonna is like the one. Yep. Madonna, not the two. That's why I understand why people take it as a disrespect when I say Drake is the Madonna of... Who about Celine Dion? Where is she going? I'm really don't get it. I'm like, don't you know what Madonna is? Yeah, that's not offensive at all. I'm not really listening to Taylor Swift. I'm going to listen to 1989 because I need to see if it's all a hype because you just keep saying she's the only artist to ever win for a time out of the year. I don't know if she got that kind of slap. I don't know, but... But you don't think the Grammys are biased though, too? No, not that... Really? That's not that biased. How can you be biased? That's not that biased. She got to actually do it. I play at this point, Taylor Swift got a winning award. It's like... How can you be biased to the biggest artist up? Who's sold more records than Taylor last year? Nobody? Who got the highest grossing concert of all time? Taylor? Who got the highest grossing concert film of all time? Taylor? Like, anyway... I really enjoyed talking about more black people because it's black history and my thoughts feel like we need to talk about Taylor Swift. Hold on. I'm telling y'all what's going to happen here, Pop. It's gonna... It's cold slot at the table. Taylor Swift is what our country think. Hey, salute to everybody who, you know, been checking out Just a Larry. It's on the Breakfast Club too, man. It's the new... Yeah, that's so dope. It's the Just a Larry. I told you, I didn't text you about that. That little rollout was really player, man. You and NVR did that, man. Thank you. I see a lot of people... I see everybody. I see... I didn't know what the response was going to be to the people who got got. I thought that, you know, they would just maybe keep it a little bit G and be like, yeah, they got us. That was... They got us. But these motherfuckers on the internet don't ever want to just admit that they were wrong. We made y'all do that. We said it was so bad. Oh, no, no. What did they do? That was corny. No, you just got got, motherfuckers. It was corny. I was looking at Jess. Tell me how she read with her fingers. I could... Oh, I was almost... I almost crashed the code. You know, it was Mell Robbins. Salute to Mell Robbins. Mell Robbins is a woman who used to be a lawyer. She's really big in the mental health space right now. She left a comment and she said... She said, Jess is actually smarter than all of us. Research shows using your finger as a visual pacer to read makes you read faster and comprehend more. I believe that because the words do kind of... Even though I can organize a space in my mind, those words do be popping up in the middle. But Jess is dope, man. Jess is a superstar.  People don't even realize what Jess Alarius is about to do. See, I've been following Jess for a decade. Like, me and Jess been partners for a decade. Like, people who... If you've been paying attention, you see me and Jess have done a lot together. Me and Jess did... We hosted the BET after show together back in, like, you know, 2018. You know what I did? The Gods on His Truth. I had her as one of my correspondents for the first season. When I wrote out Black Effect, just like my man Glasses with no ceilings, she was one of the first people I reached out to for her carefully reckless podcast. Like, I'm a huge fan of Jess Alarius. She's done... I love what she does, but she already got a base because of social media. And people don't... Like, even... She's been in a whole bunch of movies. She's been in a sitcom already. Remember, Raell had his sitcom on Fox? She was the co-star on Fox. Like, she's got a base already. All radio is gonna do is take her base and magnify at times 100. Like, there's no women... She's dope, though. Huh? She's dope. She's like... She's dope. She's not no punk. It's natural, too. It's natural. Because that's Baltimore. You talking about culture. Audemars. That D. Audemars. That T.U. and that D.U. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Audemars, everybody, you know me. That is flavor. Now, see, now we talking. That's some flavor. That is season. And she's only 31. She's about to be 32 next week. She's dope, though. Y'all got that right. That was a good pick.  She is funny. And she's honest.  You know, like, she's just as... Purpose... Y'all just sit back and watch what happens to just hilarious over the next three to five years. And also, she's the only black woman comedian on the radio. You saw... Steve Harvey was a stand-up comedian. He went to radio. You saw how his career took off. D.L. Hughley. He still does stand-up comedy. Got one of the most successful shows in the afternoon. You see how D.L. is out here moving. Ricky Smiley. Ricky Smiley is a stand-up comedian. He still does morning radio. Jess is the only black woman comedian on morning radio. I think the only black woman comedian on a nationally syndicated show. So, hopefully y'all set a trend, man. Hopefully y'all set a trend and more sisters get them looks, man. I'll be really hoping for that, man. I love Jess, man.  Okay. This is from Nandra1underscore.  Oh, go ahead, glasses. Will, hey, you talk about that. You know, I don't believe in that. That's all I know. That's all I know. You don't believe in mental health? You don't believe in mental health classes? Charlemagne know how I feel about that. What? We black. We're with Steve Harvey. We black out here. Oh, my God. Hi. I thought we was black. You said a...  I'm disappointed in you. Don't put me up under the... I'm letting Charlemagne... This is his expertise. I am the wrong one to talk about mental health. Do you believe that you have trauma though, glasses? Okay. Yes. So you don't think you... Go unpack that trauma. Yeah, you don't think you... I always do. No. It depends. What happened? Okay.  That's how I unpack the trauma. Yeah. Oh.    And then I felt better about existence. Well, you know somebody like Erica Ford. She runs around... She rides around with this thing. She got...  And she literally has a punching bag in it for people to go in there. Bum, bum, bum, bum. So there's something to it. That's what I'm telling you. Taylor, look at me crazy. Because you gotta also learn how to talk stuff out. You talk enough.  I need talking, Taylor. You have a podcast. You like talking. I know, but you don't want to know the depths of this. And let's get to the point that mental health. Tell them. What was the question, Taylor? Yeah. What is it? Guys, I'm sorry. I got a... I got a rough guy. Okay. I'm in. What was the question, Taylor?  What is the biggest challenge? Oh, no. I think I'm still dealing with it. Like, you know, I talk to my therapist quite often. Like I said, I'm going on my spiritual retreat this weekend. Where you going? I'm going. I'll tell y'all when I come back. No, that's... Boy, my boy is still... See, you still know. You still know. I never do, yeah. I tell you when I come back. Talk about this when I get back. If you see me post from... If you see me post from somewhere, I'm gone. I've been gone for days. Already back. At the airport, coming back. Yeah, but yeah, just still getting the handle on the anxiety. I don't know if anxiety is something that you ever really truly get a handle on. I just think it's something that you... You know, you kind of learn to live with. Like you get tools to have to be able to maintain it, like breathing exercises, meditation, stuff like that. Because Sarah J. Roberts told me something really ill. Slept to Sarah J. Roberts too. You can listen to the Woman of All podcast on the Black Effect I Heart Radio podcast network. But Sarah J. Roberts told me something one time in a conversation. I don't even know if she remembers this, but she said that you're always going to have anxiety because basically if you're doing what you're supposed to be doing in life, you're always constantly going to be going to new levels. And when you go to new levels, it's places you've never been before. So if you've never been there before, of course you're going to have some anxiety. You know what I mean? Like I said, it's a new space. It's a new terrain. So if you're doing life the way you're supposed to, every new level you get to, you're going to have some anxiety about it. So... New levels, new levels. That's it. What they say. What else we got, Taylor? Uh, from Charlie Marxiano, which movie character describes you the best and why? Voyagee. I'm going to say Dog Boy. From Boys in the Hood. See how you do that? That's not true. That's a great question. I had to pick a character that describes me the best. From... You go first. You go first. Let me... Let me figure it out. A character that describes me the best. I don't know, man. You know what's so interesting? This is going to sound crazy, but you know something I've always... I always visualize myself as like a Lonzo in training day. I actually can't get how that makes sense. I like Lonzo in training day, yo. That's the real you, though. I don't think he was a bad guy. Oh, gee. He was. He was trying to make sure he got himself out of the little trouble. Yes. And he took no prisoners. Yeah, but I think there was a way for him to... I think there was a way for him to channel what he had for something good, because the thing that I hated the most about that movie was how he disrespected The Hood. Like, those dudes in that project.  He used his power and his position of power to instill fear in them. There was no love. There was no love.  I knew. Right? So they knew if he didn't make that drop, he was going to die. I ain't going to be done with it. He's going to be done. So they like, you get up out of here, uh, Hoyt, we got your back. That would have never happened if Lonzo was really showing that community love, which I didn't understand why he didn't, because his son and one of his baby mamas was there. Sometimes people in their communities only know how to apply fear. There is. A lot of dudes I grew up with, older homies, they were brought up and that's all they needed was fear. And I think that's, that is something they get wrong. I do think fear is important, but I also think love is just as powerful, but you can't depend on either one. And I think he's the example of what happens when you depend on actual fear. They'll just find somebody that you're scared of and that's what happens. But how's that relating to you, Shar? I'm confused. I just like that character.  I'm saying that I like, I like everything about that character in that movie. I liked his sense of humor. You know, I liked how he was about his business and he could have took that energy and really created something great for that community. You know, that he was it. Like I just, I don't know. I just, I just liked that. I liked that long ago character a lot. For me, it's probably Thanos from Avengers. Okay. I know, right? I feel like I'm always fighting to save the world against yourself. Like I'm fighting hip hop to save hip hop against hip hop. Thanos is a good one.  Like I can see the future. I've seen this before. And it's like, yo, if we keep allowing them to move people into this space to represent us, then eventually they don't need us. And now we back in the same predicament we were in pre-1979 before the business of hip hop began. And so that's, you know, my greatest fear. So I'm fighting more people within the culture to preserve another space for the next generation. Then people outside understand it. People outside understand it. So I feel like Thanos in a lot of conversations, like I'm telling girls, hey, you know what? You should actually preserve yourself, keep yourself. Don't give yourself to these guys until they make the ultimate commitment. And like I'm getting cussed out. You shouldn't get cussed out for that. Thanos knew he needed to destroy half of the population to save the whole population that was left. Like it was being consumed too fast and he fought everybody in the space to try to save the world. And they killed him to only realize the world is going to end soon. Would you know why? Because Thanos, just like Lonzo in training day, didn't sit down and have a conversation with the community because here's the thing. We can all agree that's the motherfuckers that need to be snapped away.  You can't have all this power with Thanos and just randomly say half the population. No, let's think this through. It's just like segregation, right? Gee, I always say segregation was a great concept that was poorly executed because it shouldn't have been about race. It should have been about behavior. There's plenty of people right now we segregate ourselves from because we don't want to be around them and whatever they bullshit, they got going on. That's what Thanos should have done. He should have really thought it through, sat down with the Avengers and whoever else and figured out who really need to go. They did. That's the point. He did it at random. But that's what makes it unfair. That's not. That's actually the fair. It's like chance. That's the fairest thing in the world. It's not particular. It's not based off. You know, a lot of times we can misjudge somebody speaking of mental health.  When reality, they had an opportunity. They'd be different. If we could get rid of all the white supremacists, you can get rid of all the pedophiles. You can get rid of, you can get rid of, no, you can get rid of all the niggas who ain't going to never do nothing but kill every freaking body. But there's a lot of people you can get rid of, yo. He snapped 4 billion people away.  He snapped multiverses. He didn't just snap that one Earth. I've said 4 billion.  Like it's going to come down to some people. You know, you have to sacrifice a little bit. Here's the question.  Well, yeah, exactly. We all went back into the future and the baby was Hitler. What if the baby was Stalin? You know what I mean? What if the baby was somebody that we knew was going to throw up? Let's say it was baby Hitler.  No, I agree. Let's say it's baby Hitler in his cradle. And you knew what Hitler was going to become 47, how many years? 47 years later. But it's baby Hitler.  Yeah. You know what you know. But then baby, he's a little baby, baby Hitler. He's in his little cradle and he's looking all cute.  I don't tell him. I don't tell him. I don't believe that. I don't believe that.  You just saying if I know he's going to grow up to be Hitler, yeah. I'm saying he could grow up to be the worst person in the world, but it's a baby. So, I already know he's growing up to be. You know what I would do? That's what I would do. I would keep an eye on him. Listen, listen, listen, listen. I would try to probably instill a lot of things in him that he never had as a child. But I would still keep an eye on him. And if I saw an inkling, an inkling of that dictatorship coming out, you go after your guy. You go after your guy. And this is what people like me, you need that's going to do the work. Like everybody wants me to feel bad. That's why you look dead, dead, dead. Because it's about the world going on. And that's how I feel about hip hop. I don't care who comes under my knife at the expense of the ghetto. Having a chance to keep creating opportunities for itself because we're not doing a great enough job as a complete dashboard for people. We're doing as good as we can, but we're not doing a great enough job. You know, there's a line in Avengers. I think it's either in-game or infinity where Don Cheeto is like, why don't we just go back in time?  And it's true. And yeah, I don't have a problem with that, to be totally honest.      Not to go wheezing your way out of it.   There's Stalin. There's a lot of people. There's already somebody who wears the Hitler.  I think he killed the most. He killed the most.  Who? White man in Africa. What was it? I forgot his name. Hold on. I think his name is like, I forgot his name.  I remember him. I tried to get him on purpose. He killed way more people than Hitler. Hold on. Let's see. Let's see.  White man and Hitler. Well, I mean, white man. Damn, I never even heard of these people. Yeah, I'm telling you. This ain't right. I know this ain't right, because the person they got at number one, I know for a fact, Hitler's number is Trump. Who's at number one? Hitler's number three. Who's at number one? Stalin is number two. Number one is Mayo Zadong. He was a Chinese. This, I'm reading this off. This says he was a Chinese revolutionary, political theorist, and community leader who led the People's Republic of China. He killed between 49 and 78 million deaths. Damn. Chris Moreau should have been on this podcast. Chris, I know who that is. Stalin is number two with 23 million deaths. Adolf Hitler is number three with 17 million. Yeah. Yeah. That's about right. That's about accurate. So Thanos would be my character, man, because... Snapped him out of existence. Yeah, I'm fighting the world to save the world. I'm with you. G. I'm fighting hip hop to save hip hop. Hey, salute to the lobe. Glass is lobe. Make sure you check out the No Sealers podcast on the Black Effect I Heart Radio podcast network. I appreciate you always, G. Thank you, my guy. Much love. That's right. Taylor, thank you. And I'll see y'all when I come back for my spiritual journey. As always, if you listen to this podcast, and you think we're smart, you think we're intelligent, you think we're brilliant, you're absolutely right.   Thank you for listening.