The Life N Times Network

Of Music & Men #39 LNT

• Natheer

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On Of Music & Men from The Life N Times Network, Dre and Natheer unpack the week in music and culture, connecting how the internet, the industry, and everyday life shape what we hear. Expect lively debate, clear takeaways, and a few laughs as we give our two cents to the artists with all the change.

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SPEAKER_01:

It's Late in LA of Music and Men, episode 39. Me and Dre were back. Dre is back in America. It took a while to get him back. This movie's called Coming to America.

SPEAKER_00:

Dre flood America.

SPEAKER_01:

He fled America before all the shit happened. Everything happened while Dre was away, but now Trey's back. How you feeling, Dre?

SPEAKER_04:

Good. That was a peaceful, uh, peaceful couple of months.

SPEAKER_01:

You act like Bad Bunny now, bro. You're not trying to read a rate the stints, bro.

SPEAKER_04:

Peaceful couple of months. I watched the news, I think, two times. I was like, yep, good thing I ain't gotta be there.

SPEAKER_01:

Bro, you're glowing, man. I'm not gonna lie.

unknown:

Thanks, you know.

SPEAKER_04:

Slim down a little bit. The food outside the country is great.

SPEAKER_01:

Hey, bro, when you go post to take me back.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, I forgot that was a trend. Yeah, I forgot that was a thing.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, man. Let's take something else back. Can Cardi B take back uh let's let's talk about Cardi B, guys. I'm gonna be respectful. I don't know. I'll I'm gonna have an opinion. It may not be what people like. Cardi B is what she had a child offset. They have, I think, three, right? Is it two or three?

SPEAKER_04:

Something between there. Two and three.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, two or three. She's now having another child with Stephon Diggs, but Stephon Diggs is a baller, so you know you had to get the triple double. He went to go get King King, the girl, King. I didn't even know this. Like, all right, that's a wow like moniker that like to earn, right? Like the girl from this song and that song. But hey, that's her resume. She's also pregnant, and they're the double mint twins. What do you feel? Because a lot of people in a lot of social media was saying she got her lick back, but was it as tasty as she thought?

SPEAKER_04:

Well, personally, I don't care who you are. I'm never going to agree with cheating back on someone who cheated on you is a lick back. I always think you should just leave. That's personally me. If you choose to use your body in that way, you're grown. But look where it got you.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. I think it's just embarrassing, bro. It's not a lot of cognitive thought happening. It's very emotional, very trying to get you back. Very sad for the children. Because that ultimately is what's gonna go down. Her and Nicki Minaj are going back and forth about their children online.

SPEAKER_04:

Her and Nicki Minaj are arguing for like seven seven years. I feel like they just love each other.

SPEAKER_01:

They're I think uh they try to use Cardi B as it is insulting, right? It is insulting as Nicki Minaj to be compared to Cardi B in whatever form. She was just a brand, she branded herself like Nicki Minaj, but she never had bars and musicality or talent level of uh Nicki Minaj, and that's just facts.

SPEAKER_04:

That is, but she has the popularity more to show that in her heyday, yes, but Nikki has fallen down from where she was, and she's fallen to a level, and she keeps bringing herself to a level of Cardi B.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so like in p you know the stature of the argument, they look the same. Yeah, because they're doing the same thing, even though they're not the same musically, and that's the thing. I didn't even like like how like Siza was trying to come at her and this and that.

SPEAKER_04:

I feel like she's an internet troll.

SPEAKER_01:

I feel like Sizza, like for her to talk about anybody online, or to have aggressive energy when she can't handle any comments about her online at all or conflict, it seems, you know, and then she's doing the status thing, you know, like it's very weird and condescending, and it's it's doesn't look like a good look for just women in general, far as unity, far as what we're looking at, um, role model-wise. What does my sister say? The girls are fighting. Clock it, Dre.

SPEAKER_04:

And people will watch it because they think, you know, like, oh, it's drama, it's just girls, it's it's fine. And I'm like, y'all don't understand because we don't just only talk about girls, we talk about mental hurt too. Above all, everyone is an influence and is conditioning the youth who look up to them. So if you were the only or you were the biggest female artist in a male-dominated space historically, the example that you're setting for other women who want to join that space is this is how I need to behave.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and listen, bro, nobody wants to be a role model, they just want to cheddar, right? So if they just want to cheddar, we can't look at these people. And I I urge everyone, please, like, don't look up to these people. Like, don't go get your lick back. That's not gonna help. This is not gonna help anybody. Everybody's gonna be more fucked up for it.

unknown:

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01:

There's gonna be kids growing up, the trigger warning is like, hey, you can't say Google around me, you Google my mom, you see all this crazy shit. I gotta deal with that, I got therapy for it, I got this trauma doctor for it. Like, just think about in the future where like with AI, the face swap, and all this other stuff, there's uglier sides to technology that people are exposing their children to for no reason. And it's a it's preventable. And that's like I think that's the like all of this is preventable. Every single action in this whole situation could have been stopped if we took a second to act like the pill, like you know, when you're making money, right? You're supposed to change, right? Like when I was younger and I was making this much amount of money, I had a different personality, I had a different look, look, and purview of the world, right? But like I think because these guys get rich instantaneously, it just makes them like more of what they are. They didn't grow, yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

They can't, they they didn't grow at all, they didn't grow with their money, the money came to them, and they did not have the time to adapt their mindset, so that's why a lot of them still act like kids.

SPEAKER_01:

Now, I want to know why we are excited about this. Bro, bro, people were excited that the billionaire company got to take advantage of its artists.

SPEAKER_03:

Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

Like, and they were black and they were excited about it, and and like, and this is what happens with people who have their narratives co-opted by other people, right? Like, like knock like not like us in Kendrick Lamar's performance at the Super Bowl were co-opted or controlled by others, right? Like far as the business of it, the sound and what happened is still moments that matter, but the business of it is what's gonna keep happening, it's it's a repeatable thing. People don't do a it's a business model for a reason, it can be replicated, yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

So profitable and made sense to them, that's why they allowed it, and you know, the money from it, right? That's gonna continue. But if we look at like everything that's happened since the beef, since the Super Bowl, like what were the effects that people were hoping was gonna come out of Kendrick and the Super Bowl? Like, do we have tangible effects? Is the community closer together? Have we started anything that is going to have longevity as a community since the Super Bowl? Like the kind of couple I have.

SPEAKER_01:

That's a lot of no's, bro. Now, to your question is there's a bunch of no's. Like, none of that happened, but there's a cognitive dissonance in the black community for what looks good and what's actually happening. It looks good for the drug dealers to bring turkeys through, but for the rest of the year, they were shooting you the fuck up, or serving your mom or your family member, or somebody else or wants you to serve. Hey, hey, hey, yo bo. Oh, hey, come here. Like you're you're about to be a child soldier, you're 12. Welcome.

SPEAKER_04:

Protected the communities and like on Thanksgiving. That's what we do.

SPEAKER_01:

We give out them turkeys, dog. He was solid. He was solid, bro. He was solid. He ain't tough. Like, hey man. Bro, I I listen, I have my brushes with it, and I was like, man, this is the rules.

SPEAKER_04:

I want a different game.

SPEAKER_01:

Man, I think I'm like it just sells like you know, solar and stuff. This gotta be, this can't be life. Jay-Z said it. Yeah, it's it's but uh so like we're we're dealing with a culture that is happy to laugh at itself when it's attacking someone we deem lower, but we have to remember the history of this, right? We don't have a lot of musicians going against the label and getting away with anything or gaining anything from it. Michael Jackson didn't get anything from it, Prince didn't get much from it. And we we didn't celebrate when those guys' cases didn't go all the way through. There's a lot of people who are fighting cases and dealing with things with this company or have been dismantled by this company for years. And if we're gonna be pro-music, pro the artist, pro what Kendrick is talking about, right? Like, fuck like like it has to be just a person because it can't be the it can't be the morality of it, right? It's just a person, and if it's just a person, then that's dumb, bro. It it really is dumb because the larger the issue is, the bigger and the better the ripple effects for everyone else. We wanted to see this Drake case go as far as possible. So if Kendrick has a case or all these other like all these other dudes had issues with their labels, it just was quiet, or they dealt with it, they they waited.

SPEAKER_04:

I'm sure Kendrick a lot of people wait till their career is over before they feel like they can even say anything.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. Like, I'm sure Kendrick had issues with his label. He's like, Man, I need to get a lawyer, you know? So like people are you know saying it wasn't for the culture for Drake to do this, but now the culture is dealing with the ripple effects. Like, we have Lucky who's getting sued by his label, says there's some missing money, says there's something funny. Like, like and now why aren't people championing Empire?

SPEAKER_04:

Because they don't involve Kendrick. This is the control that they have because what they told him was hey, according to our deal, you're not allowed to release music, which people once again don't understand how these deals are bad and these labels are bad. You release this music when I say you can release this music, right? So he releases music under a different label. He's gotta get paid, he's gotta eat, he's got a family to feed. They're like, you're not allowed to do that. Not only are you going to stop releasing music, you're going to pay us the money you made from that song. Say, read the contract.

SPEAKER_01:

And then people were saying, Let's go U of G. Like, and I just wouldn't like this is why I layered it this way. Like, the like what's going on on this list. We're gonna be talking about the law. Because people told me that hip hop and the law doesn't mix, but now a label's going after a fucking artist under the precedent that even Drake can't get a fair fucking shame.

SPEAKER_04:

You're all beat.

SPEAKER_01:

You're all beat. Lucky's gonna have to pay that fucking tab. He don't even have he's probably gonna have to go bankrupt for this shit, because I know he don't have that shit liquid. If he does, God bless him, I'll shut the fuck up. But it doesn't seem so.

SPEAKER_04:

Right, and he still has to sit and be under control of this label, so they're in charge of when he can make new music, which means they are in charge of when he can make money, they could keep him poor for the rest of his life because he's not allowed to make music without their say, y'all. These people are in slave contracts.

SPEAKER_01:

And you guys are hyped that Drake lost his case and has to make music for a company that openly mass pushed him being a pedophile. Like you guys are cool with that. That's just good business.

SPEAKER_04:

Like, like, like, like, like, like, I don't understand and get over like they're just like, look, Drake, you lost, stop crying.

SPEAKER_01:

Bro, I don't understand like this. It's like a phenomenon that's going on nowadays where regular people think they're billionaires, and if they align themselves and act like them or acquiesce to their thought patterns, that they will somehow end up like them, and they never do. There's like some poor motherfucker that retweets every Elon tweet, like it's crazy. It's cognitive dissonance.

SPEAKER_04:

They're gods, and they are in so much support that the mere fact of telling billion, like it's like when you talk about taxes, people are like, hey, we're gonna tax the rich more. You have poor people, you got people who are paycheck to paycheck being like absolutely not. That's not fair to those guys, buddy. That man pays less taxes than you. You'd be surprised to find that out, bro. A billionaire could lose half of their income and never notice the fact that their lifestyle has no noticeable change. There is not a feasible way to spend the billions of dollars that they have in a noticeable way for a human being or a family.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it's completely pointless, right? Like money at a certain point, right? Like, say I start making 100k, right, every month. But month 12, I'm cool. Like I'm fine. Now I'm on a farm, I pay for the shit cash, nobody can touch me, everything's bought up. Like, like, like, like, like, it and I don't have to work anymore. If you know how to like now, I'm just saying for the average person, 100k could set you up pretty.

SPEAKER_04:

But they can't conceptualize billions, right?

SPEAKER_01:

And they just want it, they just want it.

SPEAKER_04:

Like, I I think there was there's there's like a meme or something that goes around, and it was something I think was like if you take a million seconds, you know, it ends up being like a month, but if you take a billion seconds, it ends up being like years, like you people do not understand like the amount of money a billion dollars is. So when y'all defend billionaires who literally believe that they could buy you and um that is how they move through the world, there's something wrong.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and so you know, we used to go into the castle and take the king off the throne when he started being weird, cut his head off. But we don't do that no more, and now we gotta deal with the oligarchs, right? And this is spilling into music as well, like it can't be I'm here for freedom, I'm here for expression, I'm here for black people, I'm here for the progression of the artists, and we pick and choose because Lucky has a weaker fucking case now.

SPEAKER_04:

There's a precedent for suing the labels. There they now it's like all these artists don't know what they're talking about.

SPEAKER_01:

Look at the Drake case. They're going to reference it. It all and that's why we're gonna talk about it. But Drake appealed it. There's a reason these things happen because if this lay lays out for some time, it becomes a new precedent over all artists.

unknown:

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01:

Now, I really want to know, and and this is for the people that told me that Drake suing U of G was not hip-hop. What is this? We have Cameron suing J. Cole. Is this hip-hop? This is Killer Cam from Harlem.

SPEAKER_03:

Tough guy.

SPEAKER_01:

He can't get J. Cole to get give him his bread.

SPEAKER_04:

And the thing with this, too. Or give him a show, like and here's why I don't agree with because from Cam's own words to his suing, right? They did a project, they did something, and Cam waited till they were in the studio. So they did a project, did a song, they did another song. Cam was like, hey, you know, in the future, either be on a project of mine or we do a song together, credit me, right? Cam waited till they were in a studio already doing another song to say, hey, agree to these terms, or I'm not giving you permission to release this song that we're making. So he got a verbal agreement from Cole. Then you wait till we're I'm spending time, money, we're in a studio. We're already making a song from his own words. While we were in a studio recording another song, I told him, Hey, I'm not giving permission to release this until you blah blah blah blah blah. That's fine, bro.

SPEAKER_01:

Bro, he just strong armed them. He and this is this is going on throughout hip hop. That's cool, and now because you got to consent under coercion, you want to take it to court. That's gonna get spanked in court, bro, or it's gonna get long and lengthy.

SPEAKER_04:

Hey, he agreed, he agreed to this in the studio. You mean when y'all had already spent the money to do something for him, y'all were working on one of his songs, and you told him I'm not gonna let you release a song unless you do something for me. That should have been negotiated before we got here.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and Jake Hall needs to be, and this is probably why he doesn't he's not on the scene like that, right? Like these guys, and I looked up to Kim, right? Like, these guys are just bullies, bro.

SPEAKER_04:

Like earn it by the people who did it to them, which were their labels.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and they just copy this process, and now they're suing people, but this is hip hop. You you bullied somebody that probably looked up to you for consent, and now you're suing them. Nah, bro.

SPEAKER_04:

It's cool if they like you, you know.

SPEAKER_01:

It's crazy, it's it's wild, and that's uh, you know, colorism that's within the community as well. And like, as a brown skinned dude, I never faced that much, you know? Yeah, like I'm right in the middle. Like, if I'm out in the sun long enough, you you be like, uh, you know, like like uh uh I don't know how to insult you, right? So like I never had to deal with the extremes, but I've definitely seen it within the community.

SPEAKER_04:

It's like and honestly when I've I've made the jokes, right? Of course, everybody makes the jokes.

SPEAKER_03:

But at a certain point, you just gotta be like, why?

SPEAKER_04:

Like, like if I really want to be a better person, like if I want the community to be better, that shit really gotta stop.

SPEAKER_01:

Like, it's just gotta that shit has to stop when you're 17, 18, bro. I'm sorry. Basically, yeah, yeah, like it's cool when you're a kid, you're young, uh, it's cool, but like if you're a man with these ideologies, yo, I did ask when I was younger. There's a grown man, dark-skinned dude, street dude, or tough guy, whatever, right? Arguing with my grandma about if light-skinned guys were tough.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, they didn't never heal.

SPEAKER_01:

Like, what is what this is like two, three generations of what the fuck. You know what I'm saying? Like, like, what is going on over here? And and like, I think for especially the black community, we just have to stop doing it. It didn't work. Like, I have uh like it doesn't work. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_04:

I forget why they like okay, like you know, a little empathy. Older generations, it was different. Y'all was really getting treated. Y'all were getting treated bad by y'all parents, y'all aunts and uncles for being darker or lighter. I understand it. We are no longer in that time. There's no more fields, there's no more house unless you choose it.

SPEAKER_01:

So, yeah, and everything you don't agree with doesn't make someone a cool. Like, bro said pull your pants up because it probably would make you you know more productive. Like, I don't I don't know. I don't know, bro. That's just me throwing in my two cents.

SPEAKER_04:

You need a belt, hey.

SPEAKER_01:

If you don't got a belt, bro, I can buy you. Get you a belt, brother. Get you a belt. I'm telling you, man, the block doesn't work. We tried it. All right, the war on drugs, right? Didn't they end the war on drugs? Like, they don't say it anymore, right? So whenever whenever they stopped saying that is when we should have stopped too. It don't work, man.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, the CIA moved on a new tactics.

SPEAKER_01:

I think the blow shit fully winning in this yeah, they they they they was like, nah, man versus woman. The drugs have flooded the community. It's fine, it's gonna keep cycling. Now we gotta get the man versus even more, even more. It's it's hilarious, man. And it goes throughout everything, though. Like, I when I when I talk about these topics, like it hits all communities. We're just talking about our experience because we're black. Sorry if you didn't know, by the way.

SPEAKER_04:

You were black, that's crazy, right?

SPEAKER_01:

How are you? I I keep people safe, I make them feel safe.

SPEAKER_04:

Okay, anything.

SPEAKER_01:

One time I take the glasses off, you know.

SPEAKER_00:

That was great.

SPEAKER_01:

All right, so now it says hip hop is back. He credits the clips and Kendrick Lamar. Listen, man, can you get Earl Sweatshirt ever get a shout out from the OHIS? Why don't Earl Earl Sweatsher get any love? He's a lyricist. Why why why didn't Larry Jew getting you love? He's a lyricist. Why didn't Freddie Gibbs get any love? He's a lyricist. Like, I'm just saying it was more than what those two guys did.

SPEAKER_04:

And I will be honest, the clips had a that was a great album. I'm still not on board as much with them being at the Vatican. A little worried to me, but that was a great album. But if you are going to choose to credit hip hop coming back based on you know a subset of people, Boldy James Crouts, eyes what makes you say those people, you know.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I think uh Nas uh you know there's there's some things percolating in there. I feel like uh Nas is on Kendrick's side because when he went against Jay-Z, he was Kendrick, basically. And I think he's there for that, but I don't think he likes the business with Jay-Z. And I I think he he he's more on the artistic side than the business side with Kendrick.

SPEAKER_04:

And I can say that, and like that's why like respectfully, like I'm sure Nas is plenty of money, but Nas is never gonna be the richest, you know, artist or anything like that. It's because like he's really there for the music.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I don't know. I thought that shit was funny. I I like because I get it, like I get what you're saying, and I get it's trendy, but like there's so many other artists, and you're Nas.

SPEAKER_04:

So, like Want to be more tapped into the culture, you should be more tapped in.

SPEAKER_01:

Like, if you only know about the Kendrick Eclipse album and you're talking about lyrical rap this year, then you're you're missing out. Like, that Freddie Gibbs album is incredible. I listen to that shit every day. And the Larry Jume album, like the Chance the Rapper's album is pretty good as well. So, like, there's music out here, man. Joey Badass album is great too. So, like, I didn't I was surprised he didn't say Joey Badass. So, like, it was just weird. And like, I think that was some coded shit against somebody else, which is cool, it can be cute, but it's not cute when you're like 40 plus, dog. Like, you're you're supposed to be an elder statement of hip-hop. Put the young bulls on. This is the biggest problem in hip-hop. There is nobody young that can rap as well as Kendrick, Drake, or J. Cole that we all listen to. True, and that's the problem when Jay-Z and them had to get out because J. Cole, Drake, and Kendrick are all dropping out like it's like yo, he's dropped good good kid, Matt City. The lyrical lane is like ate up right now.

SPEAKER_04:

Drake just uh how I believe they fought to keep their spot, and that that's why that era was so good, because it was like everyone was still in there, but they rightfully took their place as heads of the generation, the old ones still making music, but they were like, All right, it's time to step back. These guys have the scene, as you said, there's no one taking the scene, there's pockets, like some fans here for these guys, fans here for these guys. Not as much collaboration and and joint stuff that I were seeing.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, Joey could have had it, man. I feel like Joey could have had it. He had to stop piecing up with the West Coast dudes during the beef. He's supposed to keep it full beef. Because then you can start making the claim. Then you can be like king of New York and this and that, right? Like, there's no king of New York. Like, Joey's probably the best rapper out of New York, but I can't say he's the king of New York, you know? Because there's no one like sound, like there's a kind of like and then he doesn't have a real like what's his title? Like, who do he go against to become the king of New York? You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_04:

Like, he picked up an empty crown.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it's an empty crown, like there's no one there really, and it it was no competition there for it, he's just the best.

SPEAKER_04:

And he when he went to go prove his crown, he's like, I mean, so I mean, so look, okay, let's say this, right? And I and this might be wild, and I only say this because, like, J. Cole, would we say the king of because look, here's the thing. Now hear me out, he's from North Carolina, right? He's from North Carolina, right? But J. Cole's whole start like from 2009, yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

I hear New York.

SPEAKER_04:

And I'm like, hey yo, if we gonna say that Tupac's a West Coast dude, and bros from the East Coast, but that's where he came up and made his music. So he's a West Coast guy? That's fine. Y'all have that, right?

SPEAKER_01:

I don't know. I think J. Cole's the king of the South. Really?

SPEAKER_04:

He has too many Atlanta rappers for that. Whoa, to be titled King of the Coast.

SPEAKER_01:

He's not he's not uh street enough to be king of the South, then, right? And that's fine. That's gonna be cool.

SPEAKER_04:

King of the East Coast.

SPEAKER_01:

I would say Joey would this I would say Joey would disagree. Like the people will go at that, but like he has to be the king of the East Coast. I agree, but like, yeah, I I can say that. I can say that.

SPEAKER_04:

And if we're like if we were gonna say people in competition, right? If we're gonna say there is a crown, who would people want to see holding that? It would have like it has to be Jake, yeah, he would have to give that conversation to be there. There is great music coming out of New York again, and there's great music coming out of Philly, and there's so the East Coast is still has a very strong sound. But if we're gonna, you know, it's Drake, J. Cole Kendrick, J. Cole's the only one on that side, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Drake's the king of the north. Yo, yo, for real. That's like continent.

SPEAKER_04:

Is the international like got it?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, got it. Far like that's why that's why they start talking about kids, they make up kids and shit.

SPEAKER_04:

He's like, y'all fighting over coast, and Drake's like, I don't even have to be in your bad bunny, bro.

SPEAKER_01:

You don't have to you don't have to be in the States, bro.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, I'm I hate how uneducated America is. If I see another post of saying saying bad bunny is not an American artist, like they don't know, that'll be um Puerto Rico.

SPEAKER_01:

Like bro, I I'm I'm gonna I I wanna like, and this is no this, man. I I want to add racism and you know I wanna add that to the mental health list, like ignorance, it's a detriment to. To that extent. Like, I think it's just a mental health disorder at this point.

SPEAKER_05:

But they say Trump's talk with the president of Puerto Rico.

SPEAKER_02:

That's the that's that's the boss. That's the boss.

SPEAKER_05:

They said was in the mirror talking to himself.

SPEAKER_04:

Like, bro, you can't you can't make this up. But yes, art. I just as a black person and as an American, it is an embarrassment to the international community to watch us shame and shit on our own people. Because, yeah, and I I think was uh I think you sent me the video of the one blood interview we were talking with I forget which DJ it was, and they were talking about you know him doing the thing, and bro's like, why can't why should he be shamed for being in America speaking his mother tongue, which he learned in America because Puerto Rican and then going to the Super Bowl and performing that? What should the shame in that be?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, there's no shame, there's just a lack of education, like and that's what it really is. Like most people, I wouldn't say most people, the average person, right, that's commenting something negatively, they either are uneducated or they don't want to be educated, right? Like there's this a layer, I call it a wrinkle of ignorance, right? Like, I remember I was in the car with this lady, and she was Jewish, right? She was my Uber driver, and then she started complaining about this person, and then she started talking about Mexicans. Now she's Jewish talking to a black person about Mexicans, so that and she's like 40 plus, so that wrinkle of ignorance, everything that Jewish people went through, all their tri all the stigmas and stuff that she learned nothing. Wrinkle of ignorance, she's like, Yeah, these Mexicans. I'm like, whoa! Right? And you can imagine what she would say about my group once I'm not in her place. Right, yeah, right. So it's just like there's a level of ignorance that you can't really compete with.

SPEAKER_04:

And I hate when it like in this book, my last name. We can move on. I hate when ignorance especially comes from minority or groups of people who immigrated here through favor because their number one complaint is well, people need to come here the right way, people need to come here, blah blah blah blah blah. Y'all genuinely have no knowledge of our immigration system, and you need to just be more cognitive. Like you were favored to come here, you were chosen to come here, and you were allowed leeway, right? I just met a dude last week and he's from Turkey, and he was like, Yeah, I came in through the asylum system, which I'm wondering how you got in here through the asylum system because there usually has to be things that be going on in the country for that to happen. But he's been here for four years. Government brought him here, set him up one apartment, gave them money for four months, got them jobs. All within a year, I think, of applying. There are people who have been on the wait list for 10 years trying to get into the United States, so it's not as easy as what everyone thinks, just do the right thing.

SPEAKER_01:

Sometimes your family doesn't have time for well, immigration, like a lot of things, is about the wealth disparity. There's obviously gonna be rich kids. I mean, we went to Penn State, right? There's rich kids, international students getting into Ferraris, like their parents paid that Fetty to get here. That's what it is, and that's what like there's differences. When I was in LA, I met real migrant workers that had to do certain things, and I met and I respected them in their story. So, like, people who have these narratives and disrespect for migrant people who made it to America, especially you know, the second generation, the children that are born here. Yes, the kids, we're always gonna disagree on that with me. And and that it is not just a topic for me. So, like, if if somebody bring it up, I'm not gonna act like this is a regular fucking thing. Yeah, no, it's a line in the sand for me.

SPEAKER_04:

Y'all gotta like these kids have to go their whole lives with that chip on their shoulder and that stigma, and it's there's a lot that goes into having to make that sacrifice in danger for yourself and then try to do that thing for your kids. So people just just kick them out, just do this. Y'all, y'all are not having the or it's November.

SPEAKER_01:

Let's talk about the origins of Thanksgiving. Let's talk about how this shit started. Like, come on, bro. I'm not dumb. Like, yeah, picking and choosing.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, like it's it's it's it's very fucking clear to anybody that's picking and choosing, just like the government's picking and choosing, because we're not going after undocumented people because let's talk about the number of undocumented people who came here on school and never left. But we're not looking for those ones.

SPEAKER_01:

Nope. No, it is a category, it's a reason. We're not talking about the mental health system when the dude got hopped out of the system 18 times. We talk about when he killed the girl, right? Right, and how she's beautiful Ukrainian, uh blonde hair with blue hair, blonde hair, blue eyes. Like, and we understand. It is a tragedy.

SPEAKER_04:

But do we consider that Trump was just talking bad on their president? And now all of a sudden, this this woman is a tragedy. She escaped the war to come here and die.

SPEAKER_01:

You have no respect for the Ukrainian people prior to that, but bro, and then they were like trying to say black people are this or that. There was a guy, a black man, took his fucking shirt off to stop the bleeding. First person to leap into action after she was stabbed. So, like it's not everybody.

unknown:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

Human beings in the human experience is case by case. If you are generalizing and you are not under 18, you're an idiot.

SPEAKER_05:

You have been forever.

SPEAKER_01:

You have no brain. Like, I can't talk to you. Like, it's not objective. You can't put two different things, you can't correlate, you don't know what conflate means, you don't know what like I why are we even getting into it? You know, it doesn't even affect you, right? Like, that's the funniest and the most disrespectful people to run into the academics, the people who think your issues are like a fucking crouton for conversation. It's like, oh, how do the blacks get it all together? Anyway, hip-hop falls off. But no, hip hop, like, so NASA that hip-hop is back, and then lauded the clips in Kendrick Lamar. The charts say we are off for the first time. 35 years, and this is what happens when we shit on the most marketable person in our community instead of using him as a vehicle to bring more music and sound to the forefront, which he's done for 15 years. So, but he's not like us.

SPEAKER_04:

So, two things on this. This is personally not as bad. So, it's it sounds like a great headline, but it is not as bad as people think. But also, yes, it wouldn't even have been a headline if the community wasn't attacking Drake. So, for one, hip hop has fallen with the billboard's top 45 first time in 35 years because the billboard decided to change the rules on how long music gets to stay on there. Now, that in itself, there's nothing wrong with that. Why is that bad for hip-hop? Well, because our most popular artists do not drop that much. Now, if Drake wasn't being attacked, Luther wouldn't have been the only song that had been up there. He's the most consistent hip-hop artist who keeps dropping music that is popular, and so this one even had been a headline, but his image has been taking a hit. So a lot of his music has not had the same numbers as they used to. So, yes, when you are solely depending on Kendrick, and Kendrick's dropping history is irregular and not frequent, you get one hit, and all of hip hop was depending on that one hit to stay on the billboard according to old rules. Now, I think it's fine because this allows new music to frequently enter the billboards, and this will push people because these people care about numbers and fame. Well, then you need to drop more. If you want to make it on billboard and you want to stay on billboard, this forces you to be consistent. If not, you will continuously fall, just fall off, and people won't hear from so all these artists who were going, you know, I'm gonna do something every five years, every six years, they're not letting stuff sit on the billboards for three years anymore. That stuff has to get taken off, they're taking it off. I think 50 weeks is the longest something can stay on once it's no longer in the top 50s.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and it's it's great, it's great business. I think it will, you know, urge people to be more competitive and push the music scene. But yes, we got a black eye. Hip hop has a black eye, but like it it's so counterintuitive, and it it's really like almost a metaphor for what happens in a community when we have an educated, or not even educated, a person who grew up in the same environments, right?

SPEAKER_00:

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01:

But chose more positive paths. I think that is the only difference between Drake and every other black American who has had who has this critique of him. He has a single mom. He has a single mom. She works as a teacher. We know teachers don't make a lot of money. They don't make much shit. Okay. His dad is an entertainer. He has to go from Canada to America.

SPEAKER_04:

That that's already right, isn't that where his dad's from? Memphis.

SPEAKER_01:

He's from Memphis, yeah. His dad's a a le a legendary Memphis guy, and also his uncle. Like they're both legendary, I'm pretty sure a bass player. I don't want to mess that up. All right. Because Dennis made, I think it was either drums or guitar. But both of them are very famous musicians already in Drake's family. So that's his start, right? Him and the mom are struggling. His dad's not kicking in. You can ask him.

SPEAKER_04:

His dad is not in the picture. Met his mom, left of them went back to the states.

SPEAKER_01:

Left of them went back to the states. We are at the same level. Now instead of going, he's not going to a bad neighborhood. He's not in a bad neighborhood. That's his best start. Right? But now you're going to a white-dominated school and you're Jewish and you're black. I I know he got bullied.

SPEAKER_04:

Oh, absolutely. So became an actor. He was a drama kid. I know he got bullied.

SPEAKER_01:

I know he got bullied. So like now he's facing all that. He's probably the only black person in a lot of rooms. Now he's one of the most popular black people on the show, Degrassi, and he's helping his mom pay the bills. What part of that story is bad?

SPEAKER_03:

Like it's come up.

SPEAKER_01:

Like, I don't understand that. And if you can take the time out, like people, like really, like that story should be common in the black community. Right? Like uh like as far as it being largely positive and changed by hard work. Like this story of us surviving this trenches and being these super like like that doesn't change anything for our neighborhoods. That doesn't change anything for our community. Guys who get out of the hood and get a regular job, right, don't come back because it's that fucked up. Now you're this is probably the greatest resource you have. Someone that actually understands exactly what you've been through and wants to change it, but he's not like us anymore.

SPEAKER_04:

Like y'all could have easily and okay, look, once again, we're not saying Drake's a perfect person. There's definitely issues with Drake. Drake has done things in the industry that a bunch of people don't like. That is fine. But y'all could have looked at him as a resource or an example, right? Because I think people who are upset about Drake's upbringing, background, he's not black, he's white now, all this stuff like that. These are the same people who would, as you say, call people sellouts, shame their friends who got out. You're gonna have kids, right? So, like, are you also going to treat your kid bad because they have a good life that you guys provide? Like, isn't that why you're doing the things? Because you wanted to make sure your kids weren't hungry and they had a roof over their head, but you're going to shame someone and call them white because they didn't have as bad of a black upbringing as you did. Like is what you would want for your kids. You want your kids to be able to I want my kid to be able to pursue their dreams, be a child actor, be a child musician, go on and get money. Like, that's what you want.

SPEAKER_01:

That's what we want, right? I think we have married tragedy to culture, and it's not a culture, it's not normal to have someone be shot and killed, and you know, and everybody knows about the shit, and it's very common, and it's not the first time it's gonna happen to you. And that's and that's a big thing, like you know, kids that grow up in poor, impoverished parts of America in these inner cities are in war zones that they didn't sign up to be in. Like, there's regular children in these environments, right?

SPEAKER_04:

Like, and there's good kids that won't even like you prepare soldiers for when they're gonna go overseas.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, by the time they get like by the time I was 18, bro, like my demeanor, like it took years to lose that shit. And then I got it all right back when I went back to LA. I was like, oh no, I'm back in the city. But like it it really took years to lose that edge I had with people, and I still it like flares up everywhere because it's a part of your DNA, you had to be ready for things, like there was no help in those environments, and like the environments that your favorite rappers coming in, coming from and like glorifying, those guys have survived hell, and now are the only thing we respect is hell, and that's not progression, and like and I I think you said something important that is like tragedy is not culture, and I think like that's a narrative people have of us, right?

SPEAKER_04:

Like the people who are ignorant or racist, right? They're like, Oh, it's it's just their culture, it's their DNA. No, it is circumstances that I think we are running into an issue where a lot of white people are starting to believe that narrative. That well, just coming from tragedy, that is our culture, that is not, and it doesn't have to be that way. There are circumstances, but there are so many other things that are in our DNA than just being drug dealers and being bums and being gangbangers and killing each other and having to do all this stuff and then try to overcome it. Like that is not everywhere, and that is not everyone's experience, and for us to push other people's experiences while pushing the tragic ones because it sounds good for a story. We are back into a situation where we are commoditizing and selling off our tragedy as our culture and trying to export that to people for them to buy and then be upset when they believe it. We're doing that ourselves.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and the label's helping by picking artists and pushing artists and disagreeing.

SPEAKER_03:

Who will do that?

SPEAKER_01:

And who will do that? And Kendrick is the guy they used to counteract the Drake situation. Because I'm sure there's a million uh millions of black theater kids, nerdy who's like, well, Drake did it. You know what I'm saying? And and like they have to exist though, like like there has to be other versions of black reality that can persist and exist because that version is not it it bro, nobody grows there.

SPEAKER_04:

Right. That's a dead end, that's a dead end.

SPEAKER_01:

It's a dead end. So what are we doing and what are we applauding? And I I think that's my biggest gripe with this whole situation because bro, I've been in and seen real shit, and people think this shit is a game or a song or some shit. Like, this music is coming from real places. Like, I remember I came into my high school and they were playing, they weren't playing, they were rapping Tony's story. Like the kids, like this is this is the this is my introduction. Welcome to ninth grade. Like, Tony killed his old man for a whole break, lined them all up, and gave him the whole clip. Said he wasn't needy, he wanted his own shit. Like that shit is ingrained, right? Like that, like that's not a joke.

SPEAKER_04:

Hip hop, rap, music, it is art, and this was supposed to be an art for people to express their pain and their history and their own stories and make it out, and be stopped seeing it as art and started admiring it as something else, right? You don't go and look at a painting with dark spirals, and after you look at it and understand it, aspire to be that painting. You see where the artists came from, see the work they put in, and you're like, I see this, I see you, and that's what a lot of artists wanted originally. I do think we've got into we've talked about the drill and all the other stuff like that, and we've started wanting people that we but a lot of artists and the ones chosen by labels and promoted by labels have found people who are okay with pulling people into their darkness.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and you know, you're gonna stay away from the crash outs, but here's some positive news DDG and Haley have patched things up, they have both dropped their suits, they have uh have temporary custody of the child, both of them, neither one of their family members can post. I think this is the best situation for both parties. I think both situations happen.

unknown:

Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

You don't drop something because it didn't happen, you drop something because if we were to litigate this, it's gonna be crazy. You can't delete text messages, nor like that whole situation. Like when people go through moments like that, like everything's being trapped. Once the police come, once they're involved, they're gonna go through your phone and read every message. Who really started what? Who's trying to stop? Well, you guys told us this, but we have every single message.

SPEAKER_04:

And your phone client, I'm sorry to tell you, has a history of every message you ever put out in the sent. You don't delete it off that don't mean shit. The cops are going right to ATZ, and they're like, hey, they're in court, and we need this date's text history, right?

SPEAKER_01:

So please, please do not start something and not understand what you're actually starting. Because people get into litigation or threaten litigation and think it's just a joke. Once these police get involved, once these cops get involved, once these detectives get involved, once they start talking to people, they're gonna find out shit. You you you wish you never even told them shit. And that's the thing. Like, they looked into both of these people during this situation, and both parties had enough to proceed. Like, and you know, Haley's tied up with Disney, she tied up with Big Jay-Z.

SPEAKER_04:

And that's why this really got dropped. Like, first off, she's she started a lot of this stuff, and she felt she had an advantage over him. I'm happy DDG, and this is what like I'm happy DG is in a situation where he has the money to defend himself because it's hard to do that as a man in America. But also, yes, she thought she had an advantage over him when they are both guilty of a lot of the things they said about each other, but neither of you are innocent, and so you know, I'm almost happy that this went through court simply because now it's legalized that they have to do these things, right? If it stayed in the shadows, there'd probably be a lot more stuff going on.

SPEAKER_01:

It would have reached it would have escalated higher.

SPEAKER_04:

Oh, yeah, it would have been a lot more dangerous, a lot worse for the kid. A lot so like I'm happy he took this path. DDG's a smart person. I'm happy he's gotten like good advice to continue. Doing the stuff the legal way. This is an example of someone who, you know, these are things we like to see. Like, no one's life is perfect, things happen. He's not perfect. I'm not saying the shit he did was great either, but doing things the proper way to handle situations, we don't need more situations when people are stealing their kid or shooting their baby mom or doing something.

SPEAKER_01:

Go to court, go to court, go to court. Hey, stop posting shit, go to court. Stop internet, get off Twitter, stop sending threats, go to court, go to court because like people will be fucking around and like it really be perception. Like people be playing around perception versus reality. Like, you gotta stay in reality, especially when it comes to your kids, especially when it comes to you know, relationships. It's very serious. So, you know, it is what it is in that situation, but I'm glad that DDG and Haley both got their kid, you know? Yeah, they both got their kid and they both got an agreement. Hopefully, no more anything else happens. I I'll tell DDG this don't ever, ever, ever pick up that kid by yourself. Always have somebody with you.

SPEAKER_04:

Oh yeah. Or be recorded.

SPEAKER_01:

Or be recorded. Same thing for Haley. I would if something like that happened in my life, I would, I would be like, yeah, I can't, I would put in a litigation. Always have a witness. Because then I just get to be a regular person. Because like but people act different when there's nobody around. So like it can turn into a whole different situation. You go pick up your kids, she's like, no, I fucking hate you. Like, like, like like I've seen shit like that.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, like argue, I'm here to go back to it. No, you didn't do this, do that. Court order.

SPEAKER_01:

It's Friday. It's Friday. We gotta call Officer Casey again.

SPEAKER_04:

Come on, but I'm not ready. We not home. Hey, the swaps at three o'clock. You not home? When you get home, please will be here.

SPEAKER_01:

Police will be there. Yeah, it's gonna be horrible for your case. Yep. We both agree to this loss. So D'Angelo passed, rest in peace with D'Angelo. He was like one of the first like RV dudes I tried to do, you know, the whole shit, like going down the street, you know, talking, you know, all that shit, like far as like what RV used to matter. Like it used to matter, like people used to sing their whole soul out, or it used to be like lustful, but like with a you know, a reason behind it. Yeah, he's like, no, I'm gonna take you out. Like, you know, like this is what they used to tell you, like they were still taking you on a date. Now it's just like no more date. The dates have been eviscerated.

SPEAKER_04:

So uh the date was when I met you at the strip club.

SPEAKER_01:

That was right. That's not a that's a crazy date. But um rest in peace to him. He's a legend, one of the forefronts, to bring in uh RB soul to mainstream music. Unfortunately, Tyler the Creator and his fans had a different response to that. They were saying a lot, a lot of heinous shit. Tyler the creator had to speak out about it, and this all points to his past, right?

SPEAKER_04:

Like, so that's why his past got exposed.

SPEAKER_01:

That's why his past got exposed. And then you know what's crazy? I forgot why I didn't listen to Tyler the Creator when I was younger.

SPEAKER_04:

I was just trying to say though, but he was just an edgy kid. Nah.

SPEAKER_01:

Hey, buddy. Cut it up.

SPEAKER_04:

If I and look, look, I'm gonna be honest with you guys, right? Everyone said a little things they shouldn't have said when they were kids. But there were certain lines that just weren't crossed, right? Like everyone magically forgot about the stuff Dojo was doing before when she was in them white supremacist chat rooms. In them changes. That's why Dojo's bad. Why are we if we don't want this behavior from other people, why would we perpetuate it ourselves? Bro was not just an edgy kid, he knew what he was doing.

SPEAKER_01:

First of all, Tyler Crane is not dumb. Not dumb. Okay, Tyler Crater is not dumb. He is a genius musically, and he's a pretty smart person. You can't tell me he isn't. Also, he's from the trenches, right? I saw the music video. You were dancing. Hey, hey, hey.

SPEAKER_04:

We saw that he was hood all of a sudden. Everybody wants to be hood.

SPEAKER_01:

I swear to God, Hood Tyler had a KK hood, he had a different hood on that time. He he hood switched. So you went from KKK to the set. That's what happens. It's a it's called evolution.

SPEAKER_04:

But he wanted to remind everybody what you say from Hawthorne or something, right? Yeah, undermined everybody from he's from the hood. But it's like they would have respected in the hood, bro.

SPEAKER_01:

They didn't respect that shit in the hood. That's part why you started making music and why you had these thoughts about black people at that time because you weren't fitting in. I understand where it's coming from, right? Logically, yeah, and I do empathize. Like, you know, I remember I was on the block with a solar car. You know, get the fuck out of here. And I like, you know, I understand, you know.

SPEAKER_04:

I don't accept it. Like, I didn't make me think, you know. He was just, yo, there's a lot of weird kids. They dyed their hair, they didn't do a lot of the stuff that a lot of these people have been doing yet.

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, he cudified himself and made money from it.

unknown:

Yes.

SPEAKER_04:

So I like maybe that's why most of his fans are white people.

SPEAKER_01:

That's that's what people were saying. So, bro, I never rated Tyler the Creator till Flower Boy. And I was like, why is that? Why didn't I listen to him? And then I remembered all this shit. He must have done some weird shit back in the day when I was younger and way different. I would have been like, ah, now you're a fucking weirdo, he's done. Like, hey, he was gone. And I got back to him in college. And I swear to god, I didn't listen to Flower, I didn't listen to Tyler the Creator consistently until Flowerboard. Like, I only knew that one song is like, I'm a fucking trial, sir. Like, I knew that.

SPEAKER_04:

I know I thought he was a weird guy, but like I didn't know his lore at all.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, because I guess innately we was like, I see weird, you know.

SPEAKER_04:

Even so musically, I know he's talented. I don't resonate with a lot of his music, but as an adult, I've grown to respect the person he has shown himself to be as an adult when he's done interviews, talks to people. I was like, okay, but I don't know about other people. I do judge people's past. I don't know. Like it's oh, yeah, no, you gotta you gotta eat that one.

SPEAKER_01:

You gotta eat that one, man. Go donate to be a limit something, try to try to fix it up.

SPEAKER_04:

It's not that you know you can't be forgiven, but forgiveness only comes when you admit and try to work through, not try to hide stuff. So, like, you just gotta come on like yeah, I was a shitty person. I was weird, you know. I was a little emo back then, bro. I don't get it.

SPEAKER_01:

I was doing a little cooning, bro. Clancy said it'll make me a couple of bucks, man. That's what I'm saying. Like, his management's white too. So, like, hey, hey, man. Hey, man, and then he was on Hawthorne though, but Hawthorne Tyler versus Kuz Cluck.

SPEAKER_02:

Which hood is strong?

SPEAKER_01:

Yo, yo, musicians are crazy.

SPEAKER_03:

Like everybody got secret life, man.

SPEAKER_01:

This is secret lives, bro. I didn't know that uh 6ix9ine used to be like a videographer. He used to like to shoot videos and shit.

SPEAKER_04:

Maybe that's why he's so entertaining.

SPEAKER_01:

Then that is. I'm gonna keep up with him though.

SPEAKER_04:

Nah, last uh I don't know the last thing I've seen.

SPEAKER_01:

I think he could like it.

SPEAKER_04:

Glad he's alive. And that's all I can say. Glad he's alive.

SPEAKER_01:

Hey bro, remember it's like bad to say, it was good that he's alive for real same thing.

SPEAKER_05:

Like it's like, nah, bro. I just watched it. Yo, street culture is a lot, bro.

SPEAKER_02:

I'm not even lying.

SPEAKER_04:

Bro takes his own life as a joke. Like, he just not everything's for the trolls and the memes, and some people gotta understand that. But I'm glad he's alive.

SPEAKER_01:

I don't know if the hood's gonna like that one. It'll be alright.

SPEAKER_02:

Hey, right, you get shot A D, right?

SPEAKER_01:

It'll be alright. Yo, I can't believe that same camera. Yo, this is crazy, bro. Hip hop is so hip hip crit hypocritical, bro. Hypocritical hip hop.

SPEAKER_04:

But to be fair, but this is what this is what people need to understand. Everyone is different, so it's it's okay that some people don't like suing, and some people do. What's wrong is for y'all to go and let these same people who call this person sue and corny and then go and do sue in themselves. Oh, now you're allowed to be different. Now you're allowed to, oh, it's acceptable when I do it, we're not calling you. No, just people are different, people have different values and different things. If you think snitching's not cool, you don't want snitching, that's fine. Rest people, most people in this world, regular civilians. You do something, they see a crime, they want to make sure their neighborhood's safe. Like they don't have to live by your rules.

SPEAKER_01:

Soon as I hit 30, I'm starting a neighborhood watch, bro. Cut it out. Cut it out, man.

SPEAKER_05:

You're gonna be in the ring chats. Somebody's suspicious to be getting down this street.

SPEAKER_01:

Bro, I don't even like it. Then it's gonna be a kid with a lady with kids. I'm like, why you got so many kids out there? You know, it's after 8 p.m., man. Put those kids up, man. But now I don't like like just because Tyler he did a little bit of cooning, so what?

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Holy shit. That's a crazy thing to have on your jacket. That's a crazy thing to have.

SPEAKER_01:

We're not gonna talk about it because he's all right. I remember you were conflicted. He got using your influence.

SPEAKER_04:

And if Sandbase is strong enough, I mean white enough. It'll go away. It's not gonna affect his bottom dollar.

SPEAKER_01:

I bet you he's like Holelanter. He was like, never needed the blacks anyway. Yep. He never did. He never relied on uh he never relied on black consumers. So it like Tyler could have us or not have us, to be honest. He doesn't even have to serve his own community. Holy shit.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

And and you know what? Some people were fine with that information.

SPEAKER_01:

But he also is from Hawthorne. So because now we all just like the Drake, when was Drake left top line?

SPEAKER_05:

We gotta create when was he not a kicking game?

SPEAKER_01:

When was he not? When was he not? And then when did he go back to Hawthorne? Did we create Tyler? Wait, wait, wait. Then we create Tyler.

SPEAKER_04:

He made the chainsaw running the end joke live on television, and that's less controversial than some of the things that a lot of these black artists did behind closed doors that they want us to just be like.

SPEAKER_01:

Wait, how does that not make him white? Drake was white for having a good life. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

But you got Tyler Tyler the clansmen with the rubber.

SPEAKER_01:

I was just corner for a couple years. Come on, man. Y'all likes Flower Boy, man. Come on. Bro, I I'm not gonna lie, man. I had to take some Tyler off the playlist. I was like, what are we doing here? I I'm losing Flower Boy, bro.

SPEAKER_04:

I was like I'm pretty sure it might just be Earthquake.

SPEAKER_01:

I like I like Flower Boy. I like certain songs on I didn't like the one he was singing and shit. I didn't like that one that much.

SPEAKER_04:

If it wasn't for me, creative persons, and I respect his creative. Uh I feel like his beings are great.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, no, he's basically sound.

SPEAKER_04:

Like yeah, he's good, but yeah, we just need acknowledgement. Okay, we just need people to own up to their mistakes because you're human, and no matter how famous you are, that does not change. Your fame will not erase your past, it all comes out eventually. So just be like, yo, I did some shit. It's gonna come out. You don't gotta bring it up yourself, but when it does come out, just own up to it, bro.

SPEAKER_01:

I used to be, you know, drinking, drunk all the time, you know, state college. Like, I was running around, right? Like, somebody got a video of me being drunk. I'm like, damn, you got me.

SPEAKER_04:

I know someone's got a picture of me on the sidewalk on down south side. Like, I know somebody's probably seen some messages I done sent to somebody before that was like, yo, you ain't got no game, right? Like, someone's out there laughing at my.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, my low lights, my lowlights for sure. I'm like, no, no, that was me. I take that.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, like there's probably some messages like I sent at two in the morning, and they were like, Yo, who is this human? And it's like, that was a demon, was not me. And like, I just gonna look at it and be like, Yeah, that was that was a down day.

SPEAKER_01:

But like, she man, mental health. That's what I said.

SPEAKER_04:

But you keep moving, bro. Like, I'm not gonna be like, yo, Shorty's tripping. I don't know who's like, yeah, bro.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh no, that's my body, yeah. No, that's me. I'm like, my body. That was at a time of my life where I had to work on myself.

SPEAKER_04:

But else, not everybody is just born knowing how to hey. First time on this earth, I get it.

SPEAKER_01:

Hey, that's what active addiction looked like. Didn't know till then. Didn't know, didn't know. Now I know. Now I know so I'm gonna do better. I promise. Like, yo, it really is that because when you don't know what you're capable of or how far you can go, you don't know.

SPEAKER_05:

You don't know how you do what you don't know, and I let you do, you're like, yeah, that shit was.

SPEAKER_01:

Hey, I remember one time, you know, when I turned 21, I went to uh you know the what was that club called next to McDonald's downtown? Was it called Envy?

SPEAKER_04:

I think so. Or it can be Envy now, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

It was Envy or some shit, bro. I went there, you know, Deontay was working security, yeah, right? By the time I was finished, he's like, man.

SPEAKER_02:

Hey brother, hey brother, no, no, happy birthday, no you gotta go. You gotta go. No, we're talking about LAD. Ah, shit was funny, man.

SPEAKER_01:

Great times.

SPEAKER_04:

Character development.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, yeah, man.

SPEAKER_04:

One has to go through that. Like, if you come out the one perfect, I got questions.

SPEAKER_01:

I got first of all, because if everything's good, right? What's gonna happen when you get some adversity?

SPEAKER_04:

If the first time life got harder for you was 25, I know you're gonna crash out. Like, I knew. Oh, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

If the first like tough time you had is at 25, guess what? 25 to 50 is gonna be rough.

SPEAKER_05:

You probably gonna spend it in jail. I'm not gonna lie, because you can't be outside with regular people.

SPEAKER_01:

Hey, bro. I I'm glad I had all my you know, I didn't like it at the time, but all my fights when I was younger. Uh all the shit, uh, how to present myself amongst men I don't know and shit like that.

SPEAKER_04:

Like yo, imagine being a grown man, being outside and not knowing. You can't say certain things to other grown men without thinking.

SPEAKER_01:

Bro, imagine being a grown man and thinking you can just you can just do like you think the laws apply.

SPEAKER_02:

Like, no, you're a man outside. Protect yourself after this interaction.

SPEAKER_01:

Just protect yourself. We're we probably won't even look into the case. So you should protect yourself.

SPEAKER_05:

We're only coming if someone calls and if one man's getting his ass beat on the sidewalk. Probably no one's crying.

SPEAKER_01:

Probably won't even see the EMT, bro. Probably shouldn't be talking shit. It's kind of like an underlying law as a man.

SPEAKER_05:

He's gonna be back on the sidewalk and everyone just walked by.

SPEAKER_01:

Bro, I've said shit. I remember I was arguing with this dude, he's like seven foot. I was like, I accepted that he could be my ass. I just accepted it. Yeah, it's like uh I can't let it slide. So I'm gonna accept that he's gonna beat my ass. I'm gonna stand up for myself. Right? Yeah, of course I'm gonna try to get one off, but that's neither here or there. He let me slide. He's like, you know what? I was like, thank you. I think it wouldn't be tough. I knew it would be tough, bro.

SPEAKER_04:

But you know what? That's awful. You're like, you know what? This guy doesn't want to get embarrassed today. We're both in a situation we don't want to be in, and are we gonna let our pride make this worse? Or is someone gonna be the bigger man?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I appreciate him. He was very much bigger, bro. I hey yo, this is like the year after Deontay graduated. So I started looking at him like, oh, Deontay not here, huh? It's not gonna be no assist. You know, Street Fighter Capcom, you can tag it tagging, it's just gonna be me on this one. This is another episode of Music In Man.

SPEAKER_04:

Oh, wait, buddy. We got one thing left.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, what's up? Dave. Oh my god, yo, Dave's album is incredible, bro.

SPEAKER_04:

I didn't even know people were having issues with it. Let me tell you, so right now, this so all the music I've heard from Dave have been singles or features? Oh, this point. First album that I've heard from him, this is what his fourth one, I think. Yeah, I've probably played this full album four times today.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, he is he's probably the best rapper out right now. As far as content, music, talent, and range and cohesiveness.

SPEAKER_04:

I don't I don't know if this is normal, Dave, but we talk a lot about maturity and rap and a bunch of other stuff. He's young, he is our age, it was 27 years old.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that's crazy.

SPEAKER_04:

The fact that because once again, this is what we talk about. I want to hear from artists, I want to hear about people talking about bad things. Hip hop has always been a vehicle for talking about your problems, your community, your culture, and what's going on in the world. Why is Dave one of the only albums or put songs on that I've heard this year to talk about things going on in the world, to talk about things that will make you think like there's very few people, and this is some guy, and not some guy, but this is he's in the UK, right? Like, we have things happening, hip-hop is a black American thing, right? I'm glad it's spread to other place, and other black people are using it. But why are we not using our voices as black Americans in hip-hop to do what it was made for? It wasn't made to rap about selling drugs, okay? Like, that's not true.

SPEAKER_01:

The label said no, bro. We we talked about this. Remember, Lil Baby Dropped is bigger than black and white. Probably his best song. If we want to talk, it's probably his best song he ever made.

SPEAKER_04:

Most to me, it's his most impactful song.

SPEAKER_01:

It's all right, it's his most impactful song he ever made. Bro, we never got that little baby again. No, no, how is that a one-time thing?

SPEAKER_04:

The only other artist I know who consistently will do stuff like that is Meek Mill. Meek Mill, yeah. Like Who Decides War? I have that. I play that. That's why I guess at least once a week, right? Like he he consistently will, you know, every few projects, something like that, bring up stuff like that, or talk about things like that. He talks about the hood in Philly and better things for his neighborhood a lot. There's very little baby still talks about neighborhood issues and positivity, but we never got that. We never got that little baby ever again.

SPEAKER_01:

We never got that again. And it's I'm pretty sure they put the word out. We haven't heard Kendrick, we haven't heard from Kendrick or J. Cole since Yeah. When did he put the B Free song out?

SPEAKER_04:

It was during uh when he did that, was that SNL?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

And that's another song I play a lot, but that was years ago. That was years ago.

SPEAKER_01:

That's what I'm saying. So like they haven't been our American, like our black artists haven't been at the forefront of the black struggle for quite some time.

SPEAKER_04:

No, and it's I think we've gotten lost in the sauce. We used to say, right, you know, there's no freedom until everyone's free, right? Because everyone was fine with peace, but it's like black people still struggling, so people should care about all causes because it uplifts everyone. But we got so isolated and oh well, I'm not doing fine. My issues and we've started to ignore the broader stuff. We used to rap about shit.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, capitalism, capitalism, bro. I mean, lit like listen, bro. I grew up in a poor black environment. The way capitalism feels there is a lot different, right? So, like, that's what is being heard on in this music, like it's very, very serious, bro. Like, people aren't joking, bro. Like, the first and the 15th, you can feel that shit in the hood. Like, yeah, it's about to be Thanksgiving, you can feel that shit right now. You go outside, it you go feel it.

SPEAKER_04:

And people, I don't want anyone to think like, oh well, rap was not first off. It's like these same people who say dumb shit, like, oh, games aren't political, comics aren't political, start with the political. You motherfuckers can't read or watch. Rap hip hop's always been political. These motherfuckers used to be rap rapping about the Afghan and wars in Iraq and stuff like that. We used to talk about troops, we used to talk. Dave put stuff about women in here, he put stuff about the wars in here, he puts like these are the stories that made hip-hop popular. So, and I want to kind of tie it back to like if we're not on the top 40 charts, I don't actually care. Hip hop being on the top 40 for 35 years straight to me just shows how popularized we tried to become instead of actually being used to spread awareness. If none of our songs are on the radio again, that doesn't matter because there are people who need to hear these songs, and they're not waiting for it to be played on the radio or on Pandora or iHeart. Like they don't it was used to spread messages and awareness like this. These songs they're not gonna get played on the radio, but that doesn't matter because the people who hear them are gonna need that.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I agree with you that I think hip hop, if we're gonna go back to our origins, then let's go back to the story, but let's not make the story just one. And uh that's my only thing. And I think that's like when people keep talking about the return to hip-hop, they're not talking about a multi-layered, multifaceted everyone has a voice. Like a a working class black person can't make a rap track about uh changing tires and get like street crash. Uh not even street crash, just get respect.

SPEAKER_04:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

Like that's a problem. So if that's inclusive, like any story can be told, then great. But we'll see. I I do grade this album very high. I say it's a a 9.5 damn near perfect.

SPEAKER_04:

This was like a 9.8. Hasn't they give it a 10? Maybe I'll run it back again and maybe it'll be there. But this is this was great.

SPEAKER_01:

And you know, this is a young artist, man. We're gonna have a lot from Dave. I think Dave is gonna transcend the UK scene. He's nationally talented, lyrically gifted, and mainstream appeals there. I mean, just managing the relationship with Drake and other artists outside of the UK.

SPEAKER_04:

And then consistency. Because I think there's always your gap between his last album.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. So that I mean, but he's also writing for people, too.

SPEAKER_04:

Oh, is he?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah. And he's in the background in the he he he was also on that Netflix show, Top Boy.

SPEAKER_04:

So, like Was Dave was in there? Okay, so now I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go watch it.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it was great. It was actually really good.

SPEAKER_04:

I heard I've heard wonderful things about Top Boy.

SPEAKER_01:

No, it was it was good. Top Boy's good, bro. I watch that shit all the time, bro.

SPEAKER_04:

I'm gonna watch it.

SPEAKER_01:

Don't be always fun.

SPEAKER_04:

But no, I mean that's good. He's expanding. I mean, like, I know like I said, he's had singles, he's had features. I know he's been working these past few years, and maybe that has boosted like his popularity. Like one of those people who have only heard him and those scenes. That was the idea we had a day, right? We're thinking Sprinter, right? And then we get this, and it's like, this is showing the versatility, but I'm glad that his album was this.

SPEAKER_01:

Yo, you know what? It kind of reminds me of a more popular version of Vince Staples.

SPEAKER_03:

Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

I yeah, yo, Vince Staples hasn't dropped a bad album to me ever. I rate Vince Staples very high. But that's the crazy thing, man. Like, imagine if Vince Staples had a push. He should be the king of the West Coast, to be honest.

SPEAKER_04:

But you know what? Sometimes I think he's consistent. We want more stuff, but I think the more people stay out of the limelight. The better it is. They happen to be the more regular people, like they happen to be the more less controversial, less you're right. So it's like, okay, for my wants, I would like more, but for your sanity as a person, do you?

SPEAKER_01:

Hey, he's doing a Netflix show. Yeah, hey, you got a whole season on there, bro. It's about season two about the drop too.

SPEAKER_03:

Get your bag.

SPEAKER_01:

I appreciate it. It's just fire, it's funny.

SPEAKER_03:

Get your bag, bro.

SPEAKER_01:

It's like Alana's cousin, as far as like the humor and like what's going on.

SPEAKER_04:

I you know, I still need to see that.

SPEAKER_01:

Wait, Alana?

SPEAKER_04:

Alana. There's like a good set of like five shows that are my list. I think that's a good one. What else have you been to see? I want to see Alana. I need to watch all of Ebbit Elementary. Got it.

SPEAKER_01:

I actually gotta catch up. Season five's out now.

SPEAKER_04:

I need to go like watch like Parks and Rec. I want on there.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

So I gotta I got a list of stuff that I need to watch.

SPEAKER_01:

COVID, I hit all that up. I've been working. Hey, I didn't get enough. Oh, my fault, brother.

SPEAKER_04:

Yo, this break I just took was the only time I wasn't working since 2020.

SPEAKER_05:

Like, yeah, bro. I never got off. I never got off.

SPEAKER_01:

Bro, I had like I think I had a month or two off. I was going to sing, bro. I had like a moat of fast food. I understand how people can just collect and check and not do shit.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Like if I got 4K every month for nothing, I'm like nothing. I don't know if I'm gonna go ahead and work then, buddy. But alright, bro. It's been episode 39 of a music and men. We gave our two cents with to everybody with all the change, me and Dre all day. Thank y'all for tapping in. Tapping in Life of Time Network.