Not Your Common Conversation Podcast
Episode 20 | "Election Year"
(upbeat music) (upbeat music) ♪ Got pressin' the boot, got no more to ♪ ♪ All the lucky listeners know we do it for you ♪ ♪ Not your common conversation, never to know ♪ ♪ We speakin' the truth like we need us to do ♪ ♪ Ain't not your common conversation ♪ ♪ Not your common conversation ♪ ♪ Not your common conversation ♪ ♪ Well, work is born and beyond and beyond ♪ (upbeat music) - It's been a minute since we recorded. - Yeah. - Here we are back on the air. My co-host Omar Henderson, I'm Chris Downing, and we got some other cats in. Of course, you know Brandon, Brandon Belly Harper, and we got my man, Dom, Dominic Mendez. And Dom and I have probably known each other the longest. It's been a minute, probably been close to 20 years ago, it's coming up. And it's been a minute since we've been on the airways. We wanted to get back out there and talk about all the stuff that's going on in the world. - Yeah, let's talk about it. - We all want to start. - Well, first of all, I want to welcome our lucky listeners to yet another episode of - "Not your common conversation." - That's right, that's right. Thank you, Omar. - And today, we're out on the deck on a beautiful Tuesday afternoon. - That's right. - Guys, how do you know my deck? - It's a nice day, right? - It's a lovely day, it's a lovely day. - So what y'all want to talk about? - I don't know. - I mean, the obvious is, I mean, the obvious, we cannot not talk about that debate last week, that debacle. - I know. - Y'all still got your black jobs, it didn't make sense. - I know, right? The black jobs. - I swear to God, I woke up to the next morning and then worried about my black jobs. - Wait a minute, my black jobs. - I will say that when he said black jobs, not even trying to be like old racist, racist, but it did feel like he's saying there are certain types of jobs that black people do and you get more of those or the Mexicans are taking them. And my argument is, I don't necessarily think that's true. - Yeah, I don't think it's true too. I was like, what are you talking about? Like the attorneys, the lawyers, I mean, the doctors, what's the black job? What qualifies as a black job? That's what I would have said. That's the first thing I felt like, what's his name, President Biden missed an opportunity 'cause the first thing that came up out, black jobs. But obviously he wasn't offended either, huh? - He missed a couple opportunities. - Yeah, he missed a lot of opportunity. - All of them, every last one. - Biden didn't care there, he came out there anxious and he's old and anxious are not two things that mix well because if he would come, he would let Trump ramble on and trick him up over all of this crap. What he did, he was anxious to defend. He was anxious to defend and discredit and that anxiety plus his age weren't a good mix. - Plus, I think they prepared him. Whoever prepared him, prepared him wrong. - Yeah, they did. - I mean, like you said, there was so many missed opportunities. Oh, I mean, he could have just counter-punched. He could have just waited for him to say something crazy in which he did 30-some times and just got it. Bam. - Well, the best thing that he could come up with, you're a liar. Biden, that's the best thing Biden could come up with. - You're a liar. - He said you have the morals of an alicia. - Yeah, he can't. - I love that actually. - I did too, I did too. - You know you get those old schools. - I liked the two. - It's the two insults. - But, but, yeah, if somebody else said it, I just had opportunities. - Well, let me actually, I thought I've been thinking about this. I thought, I said, I wonder what Brandon is thinking. I want to know what you're talking about. - I was thinking of Brandon. - I was like, what's Brandon thinking? - I'm a, I didn't watch the whole thing. I couldn't get through it, honestly. (laughing) So, so what do we got? We got Biden obviously, he can't finish, right? He can't finish right now. - You think they need to put somebody else in there? - I'm like, you gotta put somebody else in there. - Do you give any credence to the fact that he might have been on cold meds or something like that? - He did better than I thought he was going to do, honestly. I thought he was going to be H. - Wow. - I thought it was going to be, I thought he was literally going to Mitch McConnell up there. - He kind of did. - He did, he did a couple times, but yeah. - He was, he was better than I thought he was. - And that says a lot. - The beach ball was spinning for me. - Yeah, it was definitely spinning, right? It was buffering like a month. - And then at some point, somebody walked across his camera. I was like, did somebody just plug him back in or something? Like, the plug came out and they plugged him. No, I think that, listen, there's no, to your point, Brandon, I think he was, and I always speak for you, but there's no doubt that he's old, right? There's no way around that, the guy. - And we know that. - And listen, we all want to get old. We all want to get 81. So there's no dissing my man 'cause he's old. - No. - But being the president, that's not what you want. That's not what you want to see. - On many different reasons. - And far as Trump is like, I honestly felt like he didn't go as crazy as I thought he would either. I felt like he was kind of still like, but more like, I feel like he really could have stopped. - He was a little reserved too. - Yeah, exactly, reserved. - He was reserved because Biden really didn't attack him to prick a nerd. - Exactly. - All Biden said was he was a liar, and you know, anybody can put up with that. - Yeah, that's normal. - Yeah, Trump hears that all the time, he's like, "Life." - Yeah, exactly, but I think about Trump's obviously, he was lying, like he'd be lying all the time, but to the point that we were making the previous time we spoke, if I'm somebody that's a world leader outside of the United States of America, I feel like you just can't put Biden right there. It's just too weak, too weak. It just feels like invasion. It feels like I'll do what I want over there. It ain't running, it's just issues that I feel like if he's supposed to be the face of the country, that's not stopping nobody from doing what they want to do. At the end of the day, like I said before, Trump is at least fluid enough at his older age to kind of make people second-guess it. He was saying it too, he was like, if I was president or Putin would have never decided they'll blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. To some degree, but-- - But you know, I want to remind people that Biden did beat Trump already, okay? Let's not forget, he beat him already. And there are a few things that we can look at what's happening in Israel and that whole mess. And I know people aren't crazy about America funding Israel for what's going on and for whatever side of the fence that you're on. Everybody has, as my uncle would say, has a pigeon to deal with, has something to bear. Every president, like Obama had the healthcare. Excuse me, no president walks out unscathed. Everybody has something that comes up on their watch that they got to deal with that has, a lot of times, very little to deal with them. It's just, it's just issues that come up and they got to deal with it. I get what you're saying, no brand about the optics in terms of Biden. He doesn't look presidential or not, it's not about presidential. He doesn't look, he doesn't look stable enough. - Yeah, it just, yeah. - But he still, he still leads this country and we're still, I don't even think he does. That's what I'm saying. - Does any president? - Exactly, so if that's the case, put the strongest facing feature. The strongest energy that you can, just because that's what the whole world is paying attention to, you wouldn't put the weakest because, like, that's how I said, the same reason that people like Trump, I feel like the same reason people like Obama, it's the charisma, it's the way to take over the swag, yeah. So if we're not even putting somebody up there like that, I just think that we're just, I don't know, man, I bum somebody from another country and I really feel like coming in here, I feel like who runs it over there, like that guy? - Well, he's got a cabinet, remember? I think this showed itself during the Bush presidency and the Trump presidency. The cabinet members are the ones that enact what the president wants and also, I would say, for lack of a better word, scheme and devise how to get it. So, the president just basically holds a vision of this is what I wanna see and everybody else executes, or, or, you have cabinet members that have an agenda and then what happens with them, they have an agenda and they put a dummy in the office. - W? - So W had-- - That dummy in the office. - So W had the main dude in charge, that was Cheney. - Yeah, they had-- - And he had like Andy Carter's chief of staff, mainly Cheney. - Mainly Cheney. - But that's all he needed. - Yeah, exactly, exactly. - Yeah, I forget about that, Cheney. - We can't forget that 'cause W was not running stuff. He was what his handlers wanted to, what his donors wanted him to do. - So who does Biden have in his, in his, in his camp? That's strong though, that's a good question. - But look, the country's been running though. - The country has been running. And so you can't just negate that, I think. So the issue I had, I have some times with Kamala Harris is because I feel like, I don't know what she stands on. Like, you know what I mean? Like, our first ladies have been more vocal than she has. I feel like we need to hear more from her. Well-- - Well, I know I hear all the time that, what do they say, white men won't vote on her, but she's vice president. - And she, well, you know, in her defense, and I totally get where you're coming from, because I feel like she just parrots whatever Biden says or whatever the Democratic agenda is. I don't hear, and you know, it may be a lost opportunity for her, I don't hear any, even if it were, she were forwarding the Democratic agenda. I don't hear anything from her that's motivating or inspiring. I just hear copycat stuff, you know. But, so that's the criticism. In her defense, you didn't hear much from Biden when Obama was president. Biden was just vice president, eating ice cream, wearing sunglasses, you know, just, that's a BFD man. (laughing) Big fucking deal to pass Obamacare, right? - So, this is what I wanna know 'cause y'all are more versed in politics than me, 'cause I can just, like, surface. When I'm watching the debate, I'm just, like, surface. That doesn't look, that looks crazy. Maybe we can work with that. I don't know the interests, you know, like y'all do. - The optics mean something. And not, you know, at first glance, it does. I mean, I'm not gonna just disqualify that. I think optics are important, man. I think people see him as a old feeble guy. It's not just about being old because we kind of felt that way about towards the end about Reagan. Reagan showed up very old and feeble and we said the same thing. - Yeah, I wanna ask is that, so we had Obama twice, then we had Trump, then we had Biden for four years. So I guess the Democrats would have roughly like 12, 15-ish years to try to get somebody in position to make something happen. So the fact that they don't have anybody is crazy. - Well, that's something to think about. - If you think you were forward, you would be like, okay. - That's a problem with leadership in America is that a lot of it is very independent. They don't think about it. And, you know, I would dare say that that trickles down, now that trickles down to a lot of organizations, very few people are groomed, for leadership. I mean, I look at, so, you know, I look at my own Muslim community, you know, and I see some of these leaders out here. I don't see people who are groomed by these leaders to step up. I mean, quite honestly, people don't wanna-- - Did Martin Luther King groom anybody to replace him? - Wow, I just wonder-- - Probably not. - I don't-- - I mean, that's what you could say. - You could say Jesse Jackson was that guy. - Well, Jesse Jackson was-- - Well, Jesse Jackson, but then there was still-- - He tried. Remember, he ran for president too. - Yeah, he did, but then there was Stokely Carmichael. There were a few other heads here and there. It's like, there was no-- - They weren't gonna do so. - There wasn't-- - Way too black. - You know, so that says something about this democratic system, quite honestly. - It does. - Speaking of black and the Democrats, so the BET Awards was-- - I got a watch. - Did you see it? - Or something like that. - I see, I've-- - Pissed the pieces, so this is really black. - So, Brandon, I never really watch it, but you see what happens. - Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. - That's what I was-- - I didn't watch it either. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's-- - Sexy Rain. - So, before we get to Sexy Rain-- - What's up with Sexy Rain? - Did you see it? - Before we get to Sexy Rain, I got this tweet that I brought up, right? And this is Taraji who hosted the show-- - Yeah. - Talking to-- Kamala Harris. - Kamala Harris. - Yeah, it's talking to Kamala Harris, right? - She was on there? Kamala was on there? - Yes. - So, we're gonna play the clip. - Hold on. - Oh, what? - Yeah. - Yeah. - Women's reproductive rights, all the way. - So, watch out, all the way. - Our Supreme Court is on the line. Our basic freedoms are being tested, madam, BP. I know you've been traveling across the country. What are you hearing? - Yeah, girl, I'm out here on these streets. - And let me tell you, you're right, Taraji. - There is so much at stake in this moment. The majority of us believe in freedom and equality. But these extremists, as they say, they not like us. - No, they not. There's a full-on attack on our fundamental freedoms. The freedom to vote. - Yep. - The freedom to love who you loved, the freedom to be safe from gun violence, the freedom for a woman to make decisions about her own body and not having her government tell her what to do. - Ooh, man. - Ooh. - So-- - I didn't think I would hear any streets was a nice touch. (laughing) - They not like us. - You gotta do that one. - They not like us. - So this tweet-- - Aw. - Yeah, I don't know. - So this tweet says the Kamala Harris just quoted Kendrick Lamar's not like us for a Biden campaign ad with Taraji P. Henson during the 2024 BET Awards. - Did the BET Awards come on after the debater before? - They came on after the debater. - Okay, all right, all right. - So the reason why this tweet is up is because there's somebody that retweeted it and said, this woman played a black role during the election every time then disappeared. - Then disappeared? - Then disappeared. - Ooh, wow. - And so, it's chronic. So you wanna say something? - Nah, I just wanna know what y'all think. - Well, it's kinda crazy, man, 'cause black people are put in a certain place. Like, they bring us out when they need us and then they put us away when they don't. (laughing) We have the history of doing that. The black thing is cool when it needs to be black or you need to have swag. And then, okay, don't be too black, right? It's almost like, yeah, it's, it's, so I get it, 'cause I mean, I get Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris is around my age, right? Probably exactly my age, literally. So, you know, I get her, I mean, we're still, I'm sure she looked like, I know she had, I saw something on Facebook or one of the platforms where she was a big peep-fon, Parliament Funkadelic fan. - Oh, really? - I get that. Of course she is, 'cause she grew up, and that's what we listen to, doing our time. No different than listening to-- - I know how much she went to Howard. - Yeah, so of course she is. Of course, I mean, it means it's hard, that's part of the black experience, right? - You sure you ain't know her? - No, I didn't know her. I didn't know her. I didn't know her. - You went to Howard. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm out at Howard, for sure, I live by. But I couldn't, I'm sure I was in the same room at some point, or somewhere in close proximity. So I get that, and I get that she probably still has a little ear for black music, and even new, she probably knows who somebody like Anderson Pack is, or something like that. And it's hard to keep up. I mean, listen, I try to stay relevant and hear music. I mean, it's good shit, and there's some bad shit out there. But, or shit, I don't, everybody has two kinds of music. You like it, music you don't. I mean, you know, it doesn't matter. You know what I mean? I mean, it doesn't matter what period or whatever. Yeah, I mean, so to me, it behooves her to come. That was her attempt to me to appeal to the black audience, which is to me perfectly fine, no different than somebody appealing to tell the swift audience, you know what I mean? Excuse me. We get, you know, the black thing gets really polarized because for so long, still to this day, to be black is at the end of the totem pole. I can remember growing up, or being in school, and if somebody talked proper English, then it meant they were talking white. So they expected-- I was guilty of that. Yeah, me too, everybody was like, you know, you had the, you had the, it's almost like being black meant being dumb. Lesser, and we even did it to ourselves. We fell for that ourselves. And so when somebody, you know-- You know, amongst white folk too. Even amongst white, it's ridiculous. I just thought it was something that's funny. I saw, it must have been Kamala Harris of standing next to Biden, and I think there was a performance. It might have been somebody like Beyonce. And he was just like, he had that crazy look. And of course he has that crazy look. He's an 81 year old black man who probably is like, he didn't grow up listening to this. He has no proximity, close proximity to this. He's, if it is, he only sees it in a commercial and it being, you know, popularized by, you know, social, where I wanna see, you know, the masses. By the time it gets to that point, it's watered down. So you start doing the black thing. And that's, to me, that's the issue on both sides, that we don't get used to being around our counterparts. You know what I mean? Like, we all need to know who, and not be like, oh, you know, 'cause what we run the risk of is stereotyping each other. You know what I mean? It's easy to go, oh, that white person. Everybody's not the same. You know, every white person is the same. Every black person isn't the same. Every Latino person is the same. People are their own people. And so it's too easy just to put everybody in a box. I understand we generate, over-generize everything and that kind of thing. But I think, so you played that. - Do you think it's interesting so that the type of stuff that gets checked, 'cause I think that the one thing I will say about the black community sometimes, I feel like we take too many checks. I feel like we take every check, and we don't need to take every check. - What do you mean by take every check? - Like, I mean, if somebody got an idea that's like, oh, Taraji, I need you to do this, or do that, or whatever like that. I think they'd be like, I ain't gonna do it for that number, but pay me this number and I do it, more so of like, almost like minstrel show. So it's like, I, and I feel like sometimes-- - Well, who else would you do, so Taraji said, in terms of her being a host for the show? - Yeah, not being a host for the show. I'm just saying that certain ads and having them, I feel like Taraji is around black women that speak, like you were saying, not like dumb, or whatever the case may be. So when you do an ad with the vice president, and y'all are speaking to the community on the BET Awards, why do you say, oh my God, girl, do you know that the reproductive rights and, yeah, girl, I'm in these streets, girl, whatever like that. And it's like, no, no, it's like we, I know that that exists out here. I know that there's a percentage of black women that do talk like that, I'm not ignorant to that. I'm just saying, I think that it's not a huge percentage. I feel like it's the minority part of the story. So we're appealing to them. - I may stay on BET Awards. - But that is, but that's, yeah, I mean-- - But I'm just saying, they probably talk, I bet you, I bet you some part of them is that. I mean, we talk, we talk like that too. All right, listen, if I go to a meeting, I'm not talking like, I'm, you know, I'm not talking necessarily like that. You might get a little bit of that in there, but there's a different swag that you have. I got a suit on, or if I got a sports coat on, and I'm in a professional meeting, that's not a professional setting. And they also run the risk of sounding of what we just discussed, of like, why these two middle-aged women trying to talk all proper, they're talking over us, they're talking down to it. - Right, right, right, right. - I understand your point, but I feel like there's a balance. - How do you split the difference? - Because, far as, when I was growing up, like, I had many shows to watch with a bunch of different black flavors, and people had money, maybe they didn't have money, there was all different types of artists I could listen to, like, girl artists was like, guy artists, they all had their own styles, vibes, and stuff like that. Now I feel like over the last 10, 15 years, we only get that, and that's when it's the problem. Like, it's like-- - That's funny, 'cause you know there wasn't work that was a word for that. - After that, you get sexy wear performing, which is cool, but all I'm-- - Oh, sexy wear, yo. - It's like, it's music, and it's just, it's just turned up music, it's like party music club, hidden music, or whatever, which is cool, or whatever, but I'm just saying it's not enough of a balance, and I feel like it might be money in the balance. Like, I say, you still have rappers like the Drake's, the Kendrick Lamar's, the J Coles, they do sell more than all the other stuff, so it's like, maybe if you did Source, and put a little bit of money around something a little bit different, maybe it will go crazy, that's all I'm saying. - Oh, I'm not much sure I'm saying it's not enough of a-- - I just think there's a, there'll, maybe, will always be a class element to this, right? Because, so, you know, we're of a certain age or whatever, and I see sexy red, and I'm like, we came all this way for this, you know? Like, when we were coming up and you heard it, we had NWA on one side, you had PE on the other side, you know? It was, it was a range, but now, like, okay, so sexy red, and you can check me brand, and I don't know, her biggest hit, how I found out about her, her line was, my pussy pig, my booty-hole brown, and now-- - Yeah, where did it go from there? - Right, but the thing that really angers me about her is, I saw a video, a clip, of course, it's on Twitter, whatever, where, you know what happens, every so often they have one of these popular artists going to a school, and it's a surprise for the kids. - Right, right, right. - So, they had sexy red show up to one of these schools, and all of the kids, all black, like-- - You know about this? - Yeah, yeah. - They're screaming, like, ah, okay, that's the artists of the day, right? That's what they wanna see, but they're all rapping along to this song with the lyric I just told you. - Oh, wow. - And in my mind, I'm like, okay, where did we come to this point where the administration thinks that she needs to be a performer for these kids? - Yeah, where did they get out of this? - And I think going between generations, too often, in the same way that us we dubbed, whatever buttoned up black folks want to overdo it and try to impress upon ourselves to the hood elements, or the young, or the ghetto element, for lack of a better term to show, yeah, I'm real, I understand it. - Okay, what you got here? - Oh, that's the screw, I said, oh, that's sexy red. I've seen her before. - Yeah, she has red hair glasses. - So, you know what's really been, what's really crazy about this, listen, who doesn't like sex, right? But what we've been reduced to is selling sex. We've been reduced to pimps and homes, right? And I understand, so I grew up listening to, what would be equivalent to that in the area that I grew up, that we wouldn't... - No, I mean, actually, I know it's funny. - 'Cause my band is covering a song by Funkadelic. And it was an edgy song by the musical. - Right, or a long, loose booty. - Loose booty, right, there's loose booty, right. P-fop. - Right, right, right, but it was a parody on junkies and pushers, that's what it was. - Or a super fly. - Yeah, see, my idea is that I don't really got a problem with sexy red, because I just think it's not enough variety, that's the only thing I'm saying, like if it's only that, if every, and if she's the best one, then that means that all the other ones are trying to imitate her style. So now you got a million sexy red clones. - Well, everybody's gonna do it. - And then they are also, but they also get a chance to be something because they're girls and they get money pushed behind them a little bit, get a little buzz, and then it just seems like the only thing you can do if you're a woman that wants to be artistic is be like that. - I got a problem with sexy red. - I got a problem with sexy red. I do, and if I'm honest about, listen, I can respect her for artistic flavor. - In integrity? (laughing) - She's being real, so her slopin' her. - So you say she's being real, because what? She's a hooker, she's a hulk? - I mean, honestly, I wouldn't defer to Brandon because-- - Yeah, she's around the way joint. The only thing I'm saying is that, the only reason I can't say that I'm mad at her is because I feel like that is how she is. I just think that-- - What do you mean that's how she is? - Like, I feel like she's not being somebody different. Like, she's from St. Louis, slums, whatever, stuff like that. - Yeah, but is she a hooker? 'Cause she said to me, when I see that, when I hear that, I think of hooker. - Yeah, yeah. - Right, so what is she saying? What's the message that she's given? I get it on a fun level. Who doesn't like to watch porn, right? But I don't want, but back in the day, porn was something we did in secrecy. - Yeah, man. - And there's a reason why we did it in secrecy, because we knew that, hey, I don't want this to get out to everybody. Yes, I'm doing bad shit, but I'm a shame of my bad shit. The problem with her is she's sending a message to young people saying, do bad shit, and have no shame about it. - Okay, so right there, that I agree, but the only reason that I can't give her all the blame is because she's getting paid to do that, so that people that are paying her, I'm wondering why do y'all find this so interesting that out of all the artists in the world, y'all go and tell you, I want that one, and I want to put millions of dollars behind that one, I want to put that one in all the schools, I want to do that, instead of saying, oh, I want to take this one instead and put, that's the problem, saying she's just going to be her. I'm not going to be mad at her for being her. - So you're saying, so your thing is, why pick her to go in the school? - Yeah, and put millions of dollars. She's had her songs with Drake, she's been on stage, she's been on-- - They do it by numbers, she's getting numbers, right? - No, they're creating those numbers. What I'm saying is, I know from-- - Yeah, guess who's doing it? - Yeah, the companies, the big companies. - Yes, because they're like, see, we keep falling for that, they're like, look. - So we agree. - It's like McDonald's, I'ma feed you garbage, because you keep eating garbage. - So what I'm saying is, these aren't black people that run these labels, these Chinese people and white people that run these labels, so I'm saying that they're looking at, oh, I think, like you were saying, we don't spend enough time around each other. We don't spend enough time around each other, so we don't really have an understanding of each other. So they'd be like, oh, it could be more sinister than that. Who knows? But they'd be like, oh, I think that's a representation of what my daughter's and stuff. So I'm gonna put money behind her, 'cause my daughter likes that. - And the danger is that we can cipher what's right and wrong. Those young folks can't-- - This is our community, exactly. - These young people, they don't know, they think, they look at that and go, she's making a lot of money, she's popular, that's my role model. - That shouldn't be, that's what I'm saying. - Yeah, same ones that give that. - They give pounds all the money. - These young people are coming to an age where they wanna be independent, you know? Like, it's like the time when you reach out to hold your child's hand and your child says, no. - But that's every generation. - I can do it by myself. - That's not just now, that's every generation. - No, it's every generation, it totally is. And the point that I'm making is that when they hear her use these lyrics, they feel empowered to express their independence, you know, 'cause they can say these words like adults, right, but they aren't quite adults yet, so there's that. But I wanna speak to your point earlier though, because I'm music industry, not because you are, I'm sorry, but the music industry is like, okay, so when that song comes on, she has to walk into the room with the executives, play it, and these executives are like, what do you think they're doing? They're just like, oh, this is my shit? Or whatever, I just think they're just saying like, oh, what did she say? Oh, she said that, okay, cool. - Oh yeah, it's a business decision. It's sensationalized, it's like it's be graduated. - Oh, it's a business decision. The unfortunate thing about it is that it has a negative impact on society. - Exactly. - And they end up making money, but I would dare say that she got to this point of saying that because someone else before her did something similar. And so she was able to stand for, you know, stand on their shoulders and be even more in your face than her predecessor was. And then there was someone before that who was in your face on some level. - And I was talking to Brandon about this last time, but she's also of this social media age, right? - Really? - Whatever, whatever, we were coming up, a woman didn't have the option of getting on an Instagram account or what have you, and getting likes and getting money just for stripping down, not even getting naked, just for being real, the city is showing everything, except that. - Right. - And it's an option now. You're talking about shame. We're in the lack of the age of the lack of shame. - Oh, I know shame at all. - And social media has everything to do with that. - Absolutely. - And you got to think about it. What does it do to somebody's psyches when every single time you do something that people deem as bad or crazy or oh, you this or you that, your bank account go up millions of dollars. Like, you're going to look at somebody like you and be like, nigga fuck what you talking about. Like, hey, I'm actually going to get more crazy because they told me if I do more and more, I'm going to get even more money because at the certain time where humans can be inherently selfish so they can just think about what they got going on. - Right, self-reservation. - And they'd be like, cool, so. - I feel like that started back in the gangster rap. I hate to say it, I hate to say it. 'Cause I can remember when it was, rap was about fun and boasting and all those kinds of things. And kind of the commentary on the street that we broke, it's like a jungle sometimes, makes you wonder, all these kinds of things. Kind of a voice against the man. You have public enemy. And then I remember, it might have been mid to late 80s, actually, and I think in that time period, they figured as much as I have mad respect for my West Coast rappers, prior to that, we know rap came out in New York, right? And guys was like, yo, we don't have anything to do. It was kind of a way to keep people out of trouble. We put up the big speakers, we got turntables, we rap about dah dah dah, and at the most, it was rapping bad about your opponent. I could rap better than you. And then at some point, I remember, 'cause public enemy came out, and they were right there at the beginning, and they had, their rap was more, it turned the corner. It turned the corner to a consciousness. Not only the man, it's like a jungle sometimes, but let me give you a little history about this. And they gave us history. And then we started, and the music, MTV, 'cause MTV was in fucking with rap. They wouldn't even fuck with it. - Black artists. - Period. - Sony had to threaten, say, look, if you don't play this Michael Jackson video, we're pulling all of our Sony artists. - So that's how much they thought about that. - Damn. - I had no idea. - Yeah, Michael was the first black artist on TV. And the show videos. And so up until that point, I'm glad you said that, up until that point, there was no visuals. And then visuals came with, from that, came, you had P.E., and they would show, we're gonna break it out of jail for the song. We break it out, and that kind of thing. And then, right underneath of that was West Coast rap. And N.W.A. and N.W.A. - I remember the easy e-tape. That was my introduction, of course, he's of N.W.A. and I was listening to it like, whoa. - Motherfucker police, fuck the police. - And that was political. - And that was political, and we liked that. But then, it was like, now we getting money, and we getting paid, and we boasting about it. And now that we got the money, and the cars, and the bling bling, we got bitches. And they all bitches to us. And then, it's a turn to a whole and pimp industry. That was the commutation. You my whole, I'm pimping, 'cause I got the money, I can do it, and women were like, okay, yeah, I'm low self-esteem, yeah, you wanna see my booty, 'cause I'm gonna get some new pocket books, a new shoe. - And then, on the East Coast, Luke was amplifying that. - Luke came in Miami, it was like-- - Yeah, it's six doing crazy stuff on video. - Luke had me so horny, and he turned the strip thing, he put the strip thing into it. And I know these cats probably, you know, listen, man, I don't wanna judge, you know, I know these cats were, at that point, it's just like the drug business, man. It's just like the drug business. The attraction was money. That carrot has always been dangled. And it's been dangled, it's been dangled, they're not, because we didn't have anything. And it was like, it's no different than the field nigger and the house nigger. The way the field, the people forget, the house nigger was a field nigger at first, until Mossad dangled that carrot and was like, if you do good, you can come on in and get some scraps. And if you get in your ass kicked on a daily basis, you're like, that carrot look real good, Mossad. I'm tired of being out in this hot sun, so-- - We sick? - Yeah, we sick too, 'cause it's like-- - I need to, listen, man, there were women stories, you look at Amastad in movies, that the slavery was so bad, and I was telling a friendness, that Kate, that you don't realize the devastation that slavery had on black people. There was a time that weak, you were grown, big-ass men, feared for their life to just walk down the street. If I've walked down the street, much less look at it, you know, a white person. - No, just look at too proud. - Look at too proud. You may not come, your father, brother, may not come home tonight, crazy. - And you know what, circling back to our previous convo, this is why I was so upset. Beyond beyond upset, I'm tired of these black Republicans, frankly, but this Byron Donald's guy. Well, the black family was stronger during Jim Crow. - I mean, that's stupid. - I know, right. - Well, what else wasn't strong during Jim Crow? - Right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right. - Like, that black man could not be a protector of his family because if he showed that he was trying to buck, they would round up the whole white community, and he would be roasting. - And he would be roasting on a tree. You could not protect your family. And God forbid, you let off a couple shots. - Yeah. - No, they're coming back. - They're coming back. - You're either leaving town or you're gonna be roasting. - Yeah, your house is gonna be burned down. - Oh, but you're gonna shoot everybody and then get everybody killed in your family? - That's good. - So you gotta bounce. - So after generations and generations and 100 years later, yeah, when you dangle that carrot call, the music industry and these guys, these young guys are make after, you understand, this is also right, not make the crack, the height of the crack epidemic. They're like, wow. 'Cause a lot of those cats were selling crack because that was the ticket. It was very few options you had, especially if you weren't the smartest, you weren't lawyer smart or doctor smart or judge smart, you were like, hey, and of course, a lot of the cats, it's not just being smart. I don't even have it and I don't even live in an environment that's conducive to that. So what's left for me? If I'm not a good athlete, then okay, I get in the game, I sell drugs. Oh, shit, I can rap. I make beats 'cause I live in that period of time. It's like, yo, I make beats and people can rap. I was so proud, like, I can do this and we're creating something and I feel, so you're telling me now, you're taking my music and you're gonna put me on TV, make me famous and give me money? I think in my head that I'm doing a service to my people because, so anyway, I understand the psychic of that. I get it, but at the same time, in retrospect, you kind of contribute to the bigger at large problem. You were part of that. I just wanna try to get two points in quickly, but if you look at the drink champs, he had special ed on and I don't know if we saw that, but special ed got in a little bit of hot water because he made a comment basically saying, was gangsta rap worth it? He was like, I don't know, it wasn't. He's the rap, it worth it. But everything that it has wrought down the weight, so many years later, so he got in the hot water over that and he said, look, I've spoken to dads, I've spoken to corrupt, I've cleared up what I was saying, but how can, and again, like Brandon as an older guy, it's hard not to look back and say, "Damn, where did we go wrong?" And so I agree with that and I'm telling you, man, I love all that stuff, I love EZ, I love head to go. I love all the trades stuff, I love all of it, you know? But then you look at Sexy Red and you can see any number of these like black scholarly types on TV now. If you talk to them, they will be like, Chuck D got me reading, he got me into Joanne Cezamar or Stokely Carmichael, or just people, it's not like you gotta be blackly, blackly, black, but it just gave you this greater sense of work. The broader sense of who you are. And I wanna add too, 'cause I've been mentioning public enemy, there was also a way for artists who were doing things like the jungle brothers, like poor righteous teachers, like arrested development, but they didn't put all the light on them. They quickly kinda scooted, they waited for that wave to go by and they let that go. - And I think that's my point. So I just think that it's like, I still remember when I was a young kid and the Nas joint, I know I can't be what I wanna be and the vibe that was felt was like, "Oh shit, I think I can be what I wanna be." Like even from when we was growing up and stuff, that was just something you clearly knew when it came on the radio, there was a complete change and frequency vibration of the music from that, for what I was listening to to hear that. And I was like, "Oh damn, this is different," or whatever. And then you would go to school or whatever and then niggas would be like, "That's some bullshit, fuck that shit," or whatever. But no matter what they said, you still feeling your spirit a little bit like it's okay. - It's okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. - Your music is like here. - Yeah, and I love music, like you know what I'm saying? So I'm basically saying, if you keep on beating the same frequency over and over and over again, and then you say, "The only way you can get money as you do this, this, this, is when we keep on loosely saying, yeah, they didn't put the money here. They, they, they." And I'm like, "Who is they and then why is they doing that?" That's what I'm saying. 'Cause I basically was in the music industry and went to the meet-ins and stuff when they're trying to sign you and all of that. And I know for firsthand, sometimes what they're looking for. And it's like, unless you are literally like, damn near Kendall tomorrow already, where you got the whole West Coast behind you and you plugged in with the people that are plugged in out there far as gang cultures considered. So the labels gotta do what you say. You know what I'm saying? The same thing with death row back in the day. Like, if you're not that, then you ain't letting no conscious shit, they basically been like, nigga, who do you shoot? How many drugs you do? You gonna make these hoes take their clothes off or not? That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. That's what we're paying for. I mean, it's the same thing in all entertainment. I mean, the movie industry is, it's the same way. - Yeah. - You know? - That's a black movie. - Yeah, they wanna see some shit blow up. And we keep, and if you take a generation, if you, and this is the other thing, just like we talked about, what's your name? Sexy Red? When you put her in the school system, with young kids, so now you're starting a generation who wants to be fed McDonald's. I call Sexy Red McDonald's. - That's food. - She's equivalent to fast food. And so, and she, again, she's making it, whether she got enough sense or not. She like, this money show is good. - Yeah. - This money show is good, what you want? - Well, you know. - 'Cause her family is saying it's the house nigga analogy. It's like, her shit is good. Like, so it's like, yeah, I'm good. I don't care about these boys, kids. They bad anyway, they're gonna be fucking anyway. That's how they be, you know. - Right, they justified that one. - Who am I? - Until it's their team. - Until it's their team. - These people know how to make money. - Yeah. - They know how to make money. And so they guide people like her to do the things necessary to make money. And at the same time, though, they know human behavior, and they know how to dictate. - Absolutely. - They have to dictate human behavior. And so they continue in this vein because they're dictating human behavior, which makes them money. - Two. - Go ahead. - Sorry, Chris. Are we skirting a racial angle, though? Because where's the white sex in red? - 'Cause it's a trailer park. - Yeah, they don't do that. - Right, but where are they? - Oh, that's a great point, that's such a great point. - That's such a great point. - So what I'm saying is it's where the dollars go. So it's just interesting to note how I think it's just consumerism as far as like, and I think music is a form for more so of like us talking to each other, us like, how they used to be on the slave on the plantation, like-- - Communication. - Communication, and I think now it's just consumerism. And I think that I can't blame my people for that because it should be fucked up. Like sometimes they'd be like, look, I'm about to sit in this small apartment for the rest of my life, or I'm about to just do what I was gonna be doing anyway, or whatever, just on a higher level and let all these kids see me do it and make millions of dollars. - Wait a minute, let me ask you questions. - The price to pay for that. - That kind of hangs on what you said. So let's compare, and this has been a concern to mine for many years with regards to black music and pop music. All right, so, and I'm gonna include in that pop rock music. It's been my experience that white artists, pop rock artists, have greater latitude about subjects to talk about, whereas black artists right now are limited to sex and money. - That's violence. - Sex money and violence, and that's it. - And drugs. - And drugs. - And drugs. - And drugs slash money. - Yeah, exactly. So my point being is that it cuts down on the expression or the ability to express. Like, what if, I'm not gonna even bring up a hypothetical, but it doesn't allow, or it doesn't encourage a black child to, I don't know, become a Steven Spielberg. Someone who reads in depth, reads Shakespeare, reads and reads Langston Hughes, reads all these authors and then let that feed his imagination. And so, the songs are kind of like, just like we said, the music is stuck in a particular place, it's just there. Whereas, the Taylor Swift's, some of the rock fans, they can sing about depression. They can sing about-- - Love. - Love. - Love. - Yeah. - In the intricacies of love. - We sing about, fuck. - Yeah, what they sing about is what makes us human. And we get caught up into this culture of, like you said, sex, drugs, 'cause I was money, and what was the other thing? Sex drugs, money. - Sex drugs, money after sex drugs. - And violence. - Violence. - And I was in the, I did a shoot a couple weeks ago. - Or the ego. - And there was some young cats there and they were in, younger than I was, and that happens a lot. And they were like, they were talking about, kind of rap that they say. It was kind of, it was kind of gangster rap, but they had maybe another word. - It's drug, drum music. - No, but they were talking about sexy rap. That's why he's sexy rap. And they were saying, there's nobody really out there. They felt like the women were actually leading the charge with gangster. And they mentioned sexy rap. And they said all the guys really are rapping about drugs. - Yeah. - Like how much drugs they take. And I didn't even, I was like, what? They were like, yeah, dudes is on this drug thing. - Yeah. - And I was like, what the fuck? Do y'all know what y'all are doing right now? And I know that sometimes I feel like they're just doing it for the sake of wilding out. I remember the show Wilding Out. And there's no diss to my man Nick Cannon. But I never was attracted to that show. 'Cause I was like, you just giving a platform for niggas to act like asshole. - Right. - And we have done that already. But don't get me wrong, mad respect for Nick Cannon. I don't want anybody, you know, like you're Nick Cannon hater. And a lot of, he put a lot of comedians down. A lot of people came out of that. So, you know. - You can like what Tyler Perry does without liking the product. - Absolutely. Respect. - And it's just variety. - But to your point in that variety, because you made that point. And the point is, was it worth it? Was it really worth it? 'Cause you have not done this. But I feel like black people, you gotta do it. 'Cause we always gotta be dumbed down. I'm like, when are we gonna elevate even on a young, even young folks? Come on, man. - Maybe, and then. - Tyler Swift is making a ton of money. She's not doing that. - Make it all the time. - So don't tell me it can't be done. It could be done. - Right, right. - Something that reaches the sensibilities. - Yeah, you just being ignorant. - Public and general. And, you know, the other thing is, you know, so, so, I'm sorry. I'm gonna just say just a quick, I gotta look at the Taylor Swift audience. And how is that demographic divided? How many blacks, Asians, and white girls? - She's killing it. - You know, are all, are all, are... - I, did she say bitch? I don't know, I don't know. - She has a few questions. - I'm sure she said, yeah. I mean, that's normal. - But it's a few. - So, so. - But she ain't, you know, describing her pussy where a pussy looks. - Yeah, yeah, I just think that we have, I just think that we have some sort. - I just think sometimes, sometimes we're just a little too open and welcoming. So, I just think we have an identity. - And we're at the expense of ourselves. - The thing about Islam and the Muslim culture I do like is that it's identity in there. Like, it's like, this is what we fuck with. This is what we don't fuck with. Don't even ask me about it. Because I don't fuck with it. And then you know that. So, it's like. - That's not wrong. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - And so, what you're talking about is, what I'm saying, and I think that, like, the whites or Asians or these other cultures, they start to see Lindsey Lohan, Britney Spears, Miley Cyrus, start to do all that other shit, and then they withdraw the white woman. - They squashed that shit there. - Yeah, yeah. - They squashed that shit. - They let you know that we don't fuck with that. - We don't, we put them in elementary school. - Yeah, yeah. - What the, we, we weren't them. - It's angry. - Oh, yeah. - Don't y'all see what you're doing here? 'Cause really what we, if we really was about about it, the sexy reds, I'm afraid to say my girl, I'm making the style in it. - We would count to those motherfuckers. Because they're really, honestly, they're house niggas. They're really handkerchief head, my fucker. (laughing) They handkerchief head. We're seeing them as heroes, but they really handkerchief head. They, they write up, they were Clarence Thomas. - Yeah. - Some rap niggas, like that too. - They just look good doing it. That's all. - Basically, they're saying to the public, you don't have to fucking get an education. You don't have to educate yourself. - Yeah, just wiggle your ass. - Yeah, yeah. Just come up with this ass. - Shake that ass. Some witty lines, and you'll be fine. - Yeah. - But the thing about it. - And I had a lot of attitude. - The reason why it's so fucked up is because we are still the people who spend the most money. So it's like-- - Yeah. - Where we-- - So we get prostituted. - So it's like, it's like, so, it's almost like we're being hypocritical because it's like, all right, that's why I always say variety because I don't want them to stop feeding their family. That's fine. They could do what they're doing. But the fact that every other culture champions, it's just them and only them. And they don't even want to think of another rapper that's a girl that's not like Nicki Minaj or Sexy Red or Cardi B. They don't even want to hear-- - Oh, you're like-- - If you speak to another culture about that sometimes, they be like, well, I'm not trying to hear that shit, bro. Put that, that's the problem. It's like that the other cultures outside of, 'cause we know it's good in our house. I can be like, oh yeah, she a hood joint, but she goes, 'cause a lot of times the girls be Sexy Red, like Sexy Red to be cool as hell. I ain't gonna lie, like, they be hanging out. They be chilling. They be like, all right, whatever the dudes, fuck whether they be cool or all. - I'm not mad at them. I just feel like sometimes you went too far. - But the little kid. - Like one of my favorite artists is Anderson Pack. Anderson Pack curses and says crazy, but he evens it up. Like, I just feel like they just get rich-- - That's a real artist though. - Yeah. - Yeah. - You know what I'm saying? - I'm like a real artist. - I'm saying that. - I don't think Sexy Red would call it a real artist. - That's a conundrum though, right? - So what is she? - So what are your artists not going to-- - She's a trick. - I think she's an influencer. - See? - Quote, unquote. - Yeah, that's even scary though. - That's even scary. - Social media. - I think she can move the needle. I think when people speak about her, numbers go up. I think she's somebody that is polarizing. But I don't think-- - Yeah, you know what else you know? - I don't think that she's an artist. So I don't think she'll be like, I'm an artist, like Anderson Pack. - You know what else you move the needles? Move the needle? Crack. - They get crazy numbers, they get crazy numbers, but they're not helping out. - They're not helping out. So we have to, it's like we're not smart enough. We're not, young folks aren't smart enough to go, that's not good for you. That's gonna fuck you up, dude. - Brandon said something earlier, he was like, but I can't even really blame us. And you said that slavery has messed us up so much. - Yeah. - Out of the mindset that we could almost blame every single freaking thing on slavery. Like this air is in pure slavery. - Slavery, yeah. - Yeah. - That's why we got this global warming. - That's why I'm fucked up with white males. Not that I don't dislike white males. - Yeah. - I'm just like, yo man, like you said, was it really worth it? (laughing) That's it, is it really worth it? - Right. - I think the saddest part to me sometimes is just that like, no matter what, so far, we as black people haven't been able to agree on a certain story. - Agenda? - No, just a story. - And we've gotten, it's gotten worse though. - Yeah, I know, we used to be, yeah, when I was born up, when I was born up, when I was born up, you're right, when I was born up when I was young. - So that's just like in the, what, the last 50 years? - I knew like far as like where I could pull identity from, even though it wasn't the greatest identity sometimes, but it was like, oh, I know we all own the same shit out here. Now it's like to the point where it's like, oh, you got some of us doing that, some of us doing that, some of us cool with this, we got some of us doing that, it got kids, oh, she's a killer in the community. - So immediately blurred the lines on the internet. - Oh my God, we just had to talk about burn. - It's like anything, it's like we can't unite because there's too much going on. I'm like, if for me, listen man, I mean, I'm not gonna tell you, I'm an imperfect person. I like a smidgen of ratcheting this. P-Funk had a smidgen of ratcheting. But, again, how much, I mean, I like salt and sugar, but it's like, I know that I can't have too much of it, it's detrimental to my health. So you have to be careful. And that's what I'm like, yo, do you know, and I know when you're young, you're not as responsible. But I'm like, yo, we keep getting dumber and dumber and dumber and AI keeps getting smart. - And it's funny 'cause it's like, I'm afraid of it. - And it's all of us are older a little bit. So it's like, we understand how to navigate this, but it's like to the point she was making early, it's like, yo, there are five-year-olds, six-year-olds, 11-year-olds, 12-year-olds that are on the same Twitter I'm on right now that allows porn legally, that allows people getting their head shot off, blown off, people like, all type of crazy shit. So it's like, their minds are like, I just think it's, I just think it's too coincidental to be a, I just think it's a gender base. I just think it's just poisoning and rotting the minds of the people that are supposed to be like building this up. And I just think it's kind of, I'm watching it in real time. So it's like, it's insane. - So this has been a spirited conversation, guys. I love it, I love it. I know, Ma, you gotta get out of here. I just wanna thank everybody. - I just wanna say, next time we gotta circle back to the Supreme Court because that has everything to do with putting Trump in the office. So let's keep that, let's keep the Supreme Court in mind, folks, that's all. - Have you heard that? We heard that and we're gonna talk about, we're gonna talk about my man, Jordan Peterson. - Yeah. - How many months is it a way to, election four months? Five months, it's gonna be, it's gonna be-- - Well, the election is 18. - Four months? - Oh, the election? - It's July 1st now, so it's like-- - Oh, when it starts? - Yeah, it's about four months to July, right? It's about four months? - Yeah. - It's almost that time. - August. - They keep promising fireworks. I wanna see fireworks, I know it's not gonna be like-- - Ooh, it just started. - Yeah, it's gonna be crazy, so folks continue to join us on this wonderful, wonderful podcast that we have called "Not Your Common Conversation." Thank you for coming out and listening to us, and wherever you listen to your podcast, YouTube, what we got, Brandon, YouTube, Instagram, Instagram. - Yeah, we want everything. - Every way. - We want everything. - Every way, every way, Apple podcast. - That's not your common conversation.com. - That's right, that's right, that's what we up now. - Exactly. - Thank you for coming out and checking us out. Keep saying, coming out, but checking this out. And until next time, baby. - Yeah. ♪ Got Chris in the booth ♪ ♪ Got Omar too ♪ ♪ All the lucky listeners ♪ ♪ What we doing for you ♪ ♪ Not your common conversation ♪ ♪ Back with the new ♪ ♪ And we speaking the truth ♪ ♪ Like we need us to do ♪ ♪ Ain't not your common conversation ♪ ♪ Ain't not your common conversation ♪ ♪ Ain't not your common conversation ♪ ♪ Word is born and beyond and beyond ♪ (upbeat music) (upbeat music)