Speaker 1: What's up family, It's your girl to me could Mallory.
Speaker 2: And it's your boy my song the Gentleman, and.
Speaker 3: We are your host of street politicians, the place and politics.
Speaker 2: Me.
Speaker 3: When I hear us talking saying street politicians, I keep
Speaker 3: wondering when we're gonna announce our new name. I thought,
Speaker 3: we we we you know, we didn't let the people vote.
Speaker 3: We should do the people choice.
Speaker 1: On the names.
Speaker 2: We should we should do that.
Speaker 1: We should do the people's choice. Actually I like that,
Speaker 1: I do, so let's do that.
Speaker 3: I think because I came up with it, I kind
Speaker 3: of have like an affinity to the name.
Speaker 1: But also I also understand evolution, and I did too.
Speaker 1: It was me that came up with Yes, I did.
Speaker 1: I did. Oh my gosh. You okay, so you.
Speaker 2: Came up with it, of course I did. You forget.
Speaker 3: You did not come anyway today because today we are
Speaker 3: on a ti time got our guests telling you, I'm
Speaker 3: not gonna get caught up on you, just like I'm
Speaker 3: not going to stay caught up on Carly.
Speaker 1: Russell for the rest of my life, because Lord have mercy.
Speaker 1: People are still.
Speaker 3: It's days and days and days later, and they're not
Speaker 3: gonna just and and and you know what someone said
Speaker 3: to me or said They didn't say it to me,
Speaker 3: they wrote in the comments section of one thing or
Speaker 3: the other.
Speaker 1: Either the Shade Room reposted my.
Speaker 3: Comments on the situation when it first happened right after
Speaker 3: the press conference last week, and it was either there
Speaker 3: or on my page where someone said, it's so crazy
Speaker 3: that people want us to just move on and be
Speaker 3: more mad at us for being mad at Carly than
Speaker 3: we are than they are at Carly. So I don't
Speaker 3: know if they would talk to me, but I know
Speaker 3: that the fact that it came up in on my
Speaker 3: feed means it was in some of those comment sections,
Speaker 3: And I was thinking, I don't think anybody is telling
Speaker 3: people to move on. I know I haven't said that.
Speaker 3: I think there's a whole lot of discovery and deep
Speaker 3: dives and discussion that needs to be had, So you know,
Speaker 3: I'm not I wouldn't say that. I definitely definitely don't
Speaker 3: think that people should just move on. I think that
Speaker 3: people have the right to go through all different types
Speaker 3: of emotions. There's some grief, there's some anger, there's frustration,
Speaker 3: there's disappointment.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of.
Speaker 3: Things that I think people have the right to feel,
Speaker 3: and I think people have the right to call for accountability.
Speaker 2: No, no, I agree. You know what I'm saying, And
Speaker 2: my thing is this, I'm not mad at y'all being
Speaker 2: mad at the situation. I'm not mad at you being
Speaker 2: mad because you know there's a possibility that the lady lie,
Speaker 2: I wouldn't. I'm not angry at that. I'm confused with
Speaker 2: why people are mad at other people who have good
Speaker 2: hearts and good natures for trying to save somebody's life
Speaker 2: that they thought was in trouble, Like because you, because
Speaker 2: you you're overly skeptical, and if you would because the
Speaker 2: thing is, if you if the people who were saying
Speaker 2: she was lying was wrong and she would have died,
Speaker 2: I could have been okay with that. You're to say,
Speaker 2: I'm saying because what's the worst of her, Well, the worst.
Speaker 2: When I looked at both case scenarios, I said to myself,
Speaker 2: if this is not the truth, the worst case scenario
Speaker 2: is we find out it's not the truth, nobody dies.
Speaker 2: If somebody is done something illegal, they go to jail. Cool.
Speaker 2: But the worst case scenario, if I'm wrong for not
Speaker 2: believing or trying to find out if something happened to
Speaker 2: this woman that she could lose her life, and that
Speaker 2: wasn't I mean, the trade off for me was easy.
Speaker 2: It's like, okay, now, whatever colleagues issues is, whatever the
Speaker 2: problem is, whatever her the legal ramifications is for whatever,
Speaker 2: if they were are. You know, those are things that
Speaker 2: she kind of deal with. But me, on my heart,
Speaker 2: I did the right thing, and I would do it
Speaker 2: every time. Every time I see the situation where women
Speaker 2: was you know, quote unquote supposedly abducted, nobody knew who
Speaker 2: she was, and people were trying to find it. I
Speaker 2: would lend my voice in my platform every time to
Speaker 2: try to find out where she is without question.
Speaker 3: And I said, and I said every time that I can, right,
Speaker 3: because I want to be honest that none of us
Speaker 3: are going to show up the right way every time.
Speaker 3: And I saw Teslin figure out our girl from a
Speaker 3: straight shot, no chaser talking about how it's classism as well, right,
Speaker 3: because there are a lot of people who are missing
Speaker 3: that never get the type of attention that Carlie Russell received.
Speaker 3: And a part of the reason why she got that
Speaker 3: attention was because her status, her parents' status, they were
Speaker 3: able to reach people who reached people who took it
Speaker 3: to a high level. So it wasn't really on the
Speaker 3: news at all until Star Jones contacted you know, different
Speaker 3: people in the media. And I know she did it
Speaker 3: because she was We was on text threads and she
Speaker 3: was like, Okay, they're gonna running on CNN at this
Speaker 3: time in that time and this and that, because she's
Speaker 3: got those relationships. I mean, we know who Star Jones
Speaker 3: is and so if you don't look her up and
Speaker 3: so that helped. But what I will say is that
Speaker 3: from our perspective, Breonna Taylor didn't have that type of profile.
Speaker 1: She didn't have that type of profile.
Speaker 3: And there's other cases that we worked on where they
Speaker 3: did not have those types of profiles or they didn't
Speaker 3: she didn't come from a family that was you know,
Speaker 3: sorority members and whatever. I don't know anything about what
Speaker 3: this family has, but just based upon what I'm able
Speaker 3: to gather, the relationships that she had helped them to
Speaker 3: get this story going the way that it did.
Speaker 1: In a situation with Brianna, it took two months.
Speaker 3: And so I do agree with Tesla's point that based
Speaker 3: upon where you sit in life sometimes and circumstances because
Speaker 3: it's looking for a child on the side of the
Speaker 3: road and blah blah blah, and then you go missing.
Speaker 3: That would make people respond quicker. And Breonna Taylor's case,
Speaker 3: there was a drug dealer boyfriend and they were trying
Speaker 3: their best to make it the worst story ever, and
Speaker 3: as a result, people kind of turned a blind eye,
Speaker 3: really didn't know about it. The media didn't cover it,
Speaker 3: and it took people like Ben Crump and I'll needed
Speaker 3: Baker and Sam Agyar and the local community and all
Speaker 3: of us to get together and bring it to life.
Speaker 3: So I think to you know, those are conversations we
Speaker 3: have to have that we can't just we can't stop
Speaker 3: at Carly Russell. But we also have to think about
Speaker 3: what are the things that block us or stop us
Speaker 3: from engaging in these situations, and then how do we
Speaker 3: use the same power for the hundreds of thousands of
Speaker 3: people who are harmed, missing, whatever in different ways, the kidnappings,
Speaker 3: the children that are missing in Ohio, the people being
Speaker 3: killed by police. And it takes me to the topic
Speaker 3: of right now, what we should be talking about all
Speaker 3: this legislative shit that's happening. Because I understand that people
Speaker 3: are so worn out and we say it all the
Speaker 3: time because we want to acknowledge that folks feel tired.
Speaker 3: They feel tired, they feel like, you know, it's just
Speaker 3: too much of the same thing. Keep on having a
Speaker 3: conversation about the legislators and this and that. But this
Speaker 3: stuff is really, really, really really serious. And the only
Speaker 3: point that I would make is that, you know, first
Speaker 3: of all, let me just read what happened in Florida
Speaker 3: last week. Very simple thing that happened in Florida last week,
Speaker 3: and it was going on at the same time as
Speaker 3: the Carly Russell discovery or uncovering What's happening. So the
Speaker 3: Florida Board of Education approves several new controversial laws passed
Speaker 3: by the legislature and signed by Governor Ron DeSantis. Several
Speaker 3: Democratic state lawmakers attended the board meetings on Wednesday, and
Speaker 3: each disagreed with the standards. So all of this shit
Speaker 3: that people arguing with us about political sides, and they
Speaker 3: all ain't nothing. One group was pushing for these laws,
Speaker 3: the other group disagreed with it and tried to fight it. Okay,
Speaker 3: they took particular issue with one instructional change that includes
Speaker 3: how slaves developed skills, skills which in some instances could
Speaker 3: be applied for their personal benefit. So basically, what they're
Speaker 3: doing is changing the way that history is told.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 3: I know y'all say, well, people need to tell a
Speaker 3: history to their children.
Speaker 1: That's not the point.
Speaker 3: You need to do all that, but your kids should
Speaker 3: still not be going to a school.
Speaker 2: To the public year, to the public.
Speaker 1: To the public school.
Speaker 3: That is teaching them that being enslaved meant that you
Speaker 3: were able to develop skills for later on in life.
Speaker 2: And some people just don't know. To Mika, some of
Speaker 2: the parents don't some of the parents are the reality situations.
Speaker 2: What I realized was my I didn't mean to cut.
Speaker 1: You off, no, please.
Speaker 2: What I realized was my parents, my grandparents, my grandparents,
Speaker 2: they sacrifice so that we can have a better education
Speaker 2: in them, right, they sacrificed. They weren't as aware of
Speaker 2: our history. They didn't know all those things. I remember
Speaker 2: coming home with lessons and teaching it to my grandmother
Speaker 2: and telling her. She was like, I didn't know that,
Speaker 2: and I would teach her things and she wanted to learn.
Speaker 2: But her job was, you know, I'm gonna make sure
Speaker 2: that your mother has a better education, and me and
Speaker 2: my mother's to us to make sure I have education
Speaker 2: in her. Sometimes we don't know the things so while
Speaker 2: we while our parents were working hard and putting, that's
Speaker 2: a position to be able to go to school and
Speaker 2: not have to worry about if we starve or if
Speaker 2: we didn't have clothes on our backs. You know, the
Speaker 2: schools that say that we go to should be teaching
Speaker 2: us the proper curriculum. And that's the bottom mind it
Speaker 2: it's not even though of course it would be ideal
Speaker 2: if every parent was able to teach you know, African
Speaker 2: history and African American history to their children and be
Speaker 2: accurate upon it. But that's not the reality. And we
Speaker 2: shouldn't have to. You know, we should want to if
Speaker 2: we're able to, but we shouldn't have to. We shouldn't
Speaker 2: be able to go to schools and get the proper
Speaker 2: education and gractually.
Speaker 1: Schools that are paid for by our tax.
Speaker 2: The public schools.
Speaker 3: Yes, but can I say one thing though, and this
Speaker 3: is my thought of the day today as we get
Speaker 3: ready to and you know, we were supposed to talk
Speaker 3: about Daniel Cameron, and I guess we need to probably
Speaker 3: do a live or something to really break that down.
Speaker 3: I just before I get to my thought of the day,
Speaker 3: I want to encourage everybody. You already said what you said,
Speaker 3: so let's just wrap that up and make the point
Speaker 3: that even though yes, we absolutely and I disagree with you,
Speaker 3: I don't think it's that we shouldn't have to We
Speaker 3: should want to know.
Speaker 1: We should absolutely make it a.
Speaker 3: One hundred percent demand that in our homes we teach
Speaker 3: our children history the right way. They're never gonna teach
Speaker 3: it exactly as it needs to be told for the
Speaker 3: benefit of our children and our communities and for our
Speaker 3: well being and our understanding and for their well being.
Speaker 1: They're never gonna do that.
Speaker 3: But they should not be allowed legislatively to pass laws
Speaker 3: that erase our history and their history. They should be
Speaker 3: exposed to and it is not right, and we should
Speaker 3: not sit by and say, well, I don't care, and
Speaker 3: allow it to happen.
Speaker 1: Because no matter what you teach.
Speaker 3: Your children at home, if they go somewhere else every
Speaker 3: single day and spend more time in that place than
Speaker 3: they do at home with their parents and they're being
Speaker 3: taught something different, it conflicts what you're telling them, and
Speaker 3: that is not okay. You pay taxes, the taxes should
Speaker 3: be spent to do the right job. So we needed
Speaker 3: first of all put that to this side. On the
Speaker 3: other side, right, this is the Daniel Cameron story, y'all know.
Speaker 3: We talk about it all the time. Y'all know the deal.
Speaker 3: This is the Attorney General of Kentucky and what he
Speaker 3: did to Brianna Taylor's family where he refused to prosecute
Speaker 3: those officers. The jurors came forward and said that they
Speaker 3: were never presented with charges for Brionna Taylor's killers, and
Speaker 3: that if they hadn't been presented with the charges, would
Speaker 3: they would have indicted them because they believed that what
Speaker 3: those officers did was wrong.
Speaker 1: He did nothing.
Speaker 3: He only got an indictment for the wall and the
Speaker 3: potential for the bullets that went through a wall to
Speaker 3: harm other people, and nothing for a dead woman nor
Speaker 3: a young man whose life has been destroyed forever, which
Speaker 3: is Kenny Walker. So we know that we know that
Speaker 3: that's what the Attorney General's done. We know that his
Speaker 3: relationship with Mitch McConnell and his status as a very
Speaker 3: high ranking Republican. He is a well liked Republican in
Speaker 3: the state of Kentucky. He has a twelve point plan
Speaker 3: that includes drug offenders being getting the death penalty. This
Speaker 3: is what he's running on. This is his platform. He
Speaker 3: wants to get rid of the Civilian Complaint Review Board
Speaker 3: so that there is no recourse, no mechanism for being
Speaker 3: able to challenge police officers and hold them accountable when
Speaker 3: they when they when I want to say when they assault,
Speaker 3: but that's not the right word because it's not just assault.
Speaker 3: It's also just illegal behavior in general, the way that
Speaker 3: they treat people in communities. So when they are wrong,
Speaker 3: when they are God what I don't know. I want
Speaker 3: to because I keep going to a violent part, but
Speaker 3: I have to always remind myself that it's not always
Speaker 3: just violence. Sometimes it's harassment in communities and people are
Speaker 3: able to report what police officers have done.
Speaker 1: And he wants to get rid of the Civilian Complaint.
Speaker 3: Review Board, which people fought for to make sure that
Speaker 3: we had a mechanism for accountability within policing. Okay, he's
Speaker 3: talking about centering police and now he's running for governor.
Speaker 1: We need your help.
Speaker 3: We are going to fight Daniel Cameron tooth and nail,
Speaker 3: and in order to fight him, we are asking you.
Speaker 3: I know it's a lot fifty dollars for a T shirt.
Speaker 3: You gotta be kidding me. The T shirt on the
Speaker 3: front has a beautiful picture of Breonna Taylor.
Speaker 1: It's the shirt that we wore when we wore when
Speaker 1: we went.
Speaker 3: To the Beyonce concert or the Renaissance tour with forty
Speaker 3: of our people, protesters and lawyers and others who've been
Speaker 3: involved in the Brionna Taylor movement. And we are asking
Speaker 3: you to spend fifty dollars to buy yourself and everybody
Speaker 3: in your family stretch as far as you can, and
Speaker 3: a T shirt on Until Freedom's website. Right now, you
Speaker 3: go to until freedom dot com and purchase a T shirt.
Speaker 3: We need to sell ten thousand T shirts at fifty
Speaker 3: dollars so that we can pay for our office space
Speaker 3: in Louisville, Kentucky and in Lexington, Kentucky, hire our staff
Speaker 3: and put people to work to fight this man and
Speaker 3: not allow him to be rewarded to go from attorney
Speaker 3: general to governor. Because he becomes governor, he can become president.
Speaker 3: So we have to put a stop to it. So
Speaker 3: I'm gonna let you respond to that, but I just
Speaker 3: want to give you my thought of the day and
Speaker 3: then you take us out.
Speaker 1: And take us to our guests. Okay, here's my thought.
Speaker 3: Of the day.
Speaker 1: It's a damn lie.
Speaker 3: So, first of all, it's one thing to try to
Speaker 3: change history and try to skew it where it sounds
Speaker 3: better and it's softer. So you don't want to say
Speaker 3: that these people were brutally beaten, they were murdered, they
Speaker 3: were rates, they were robbed from their homeland. It is
Speaker 3: absolutely one hundred percent alive. Now you can try to
Speaker 3: change history so it sounds better, so it feels better,
Speaker 3: so that people don't understand that the Africans who were
Speaker 3: robbed and and stolen and brought to America under freaking
Speaker 3: the worst atrocity that this country has ever or that
Speaker 3: the Europeans have ever committed in order to create this
Speaker 3: nation that we're in, that they stole from another group
Speaker 3: of people.
Speaker 1: So that that's the history.
Speaker 3: That's the history, and you could try to change it
Speaker 3: to make it sound softer so it feels better, and
Speaker 3: so people will not take with them your history when
Speaker 3: they're voting, when they're spending their money, and when they
Speaker 3: are just living in their everyday lives and have to
Speaker 3: make decisions. Understand the devil that exists within some of
Speaker 3: those who are still walking among us. So you can
Speaker 3: try to change it, but then you're a damn liar
Speaker 3: because you sit there and say, and this new Florida,
Speaker 3: these legislative items have been put in place to make
Speaker 3: it seem like, from our history perspective, when we got
Speaker 3: here to America, we learned skills.
Speaker 1: That's a damn lie.
Speaker 3: We already had the skills when we got here. That's
Speaker 3: why you came to get us. Because the Europeans were
Speaker 3: among the people in Africa. They were on the continent,
Speaker 3: and they learned that we were already some of the
Speaker 3: most skillful people.
Speaker 1: In the world.
Speaker 3: There was nobody anywhere else that was more skillful than
Speaker 3: us as Africans.
Speaker 2: These that was one of the reasons why they chose
Speaker 2: Africans as set Absolutely, they realized how talented, durable all
Speaker 2: the things in the world.
Speaker 3: Right, we were not just talented, but we also could
Speaker 3: stay in the sun for longer than any other group
Speaker 3: of people, and so they found us to be a commodity.
Speaker 3: We was a hot commodity. So don't you let anybody
Speaker 3: tell you that when we got here we developed skills. No,
Speaker 3: we bought our skills here. We bought skills that the
Speaker 3: Europeans didn't have. They didn't have the skills to build
Speaker 3: their own white house, to build their own monuments, to
Speaker 3: build their own society. They did not even have the
Speaker 3: skills to be a civilized people. We were the ones
Speaker 3: who had the skills set, who had the ability to
Speaker 3: even raise their babies and feed their children. That was us, Okay,
Speaker 3: that was Africans who were robbed of our homeland, our culture,
Speaker 3: everything everything about us, our names. They took everything and
Speaker 3: they stripped us down so that they could bring here.
Speaker 3: So bring us here and use the skills.
Speaker 1: That we already had.
Speaker 3: We were already carpenters. We were all refraed. What are
Speaker 3: you talking about? First of all, if you go into
Speaker 3: Egypt and look at the walls, we were writing. We
Speaker 3: were already writing. When you think about how TV shows
Speaker 3: were made, if you look at the cinema and how
Speaker 3: all those things happened, where you see an image and
Speaker 3: another image and another image and another image and it
Speaker 3: tells a full story. That's on the walls in the
Speaker 3: damn pyramids and inside of the different tombs and whatnot.
Speaker 3: In Egypt, in Africa, it's already there. So we had
Speaker 3: the skills. We built things that the world can't even imagine,
Speaker 3: that you would never have been able to and we're
Speaker 3: still doing it now.
Speaker 2: We ain't land on Plymouth rock. Plymouth rock landed on us.
Speaker 3: I'm just saying it's a lie. It's not just it's
Speaker 3: not just distorted. It's a flat line that we had
Speaker 3: to learn those skills. No, we were the farmers, we
Speaker 3: were the carpenters, We raised the children, We were the builders.
Speaker 3: We did the cooking. We found things in the gardens
Speaker 3: and out in the wild that they didn't even know existed,
Speaker 3: to create the food that we all still eat right now,
Speaker 3: that's a fact.
Speaker 2: I mean, we've contributed so much to American civilization, you know,
Speaker 2: so to for Florida to even come up with this
Speaker 2: stupid ass you know, laws and legislation they're trying to
Speaker 2: pass in these schools, it's it's actually just disrespectful, you know.
Speaker 2: And I just say to myself, we realized this America,
Speaker 2: you know, this is this is what they've done. They've
Speaker 2: they've done so many atrocities to so many different people,
Speaker 2: but black people being the most. Continue to compound those
Speaker 2: atrocities by trying to erase the history of those atrocity
Speaker 2: these and not reckon with that history, you know, and
Speaker 2: not be honest about that history. It's just just so
Speaker 2: disrespectful to me.
Speaker 3: The thing about it is that it's not just disrespectful,
Speaker 3: it's criminal because it's coming from elected officials, right.
Speaker 1: And we better, we better, we better Carly.
Speaker 3: That because we're busy worrying about huh.
Speaker 1: That's we better car Lead that you're hustle.
Speaker 3: That is what a lie can do, and a lie
Speaker 3: can do great damage, and it has done great damage.
Speaker 3: But if you think that Carly's lie is worse than
Speaker 3: a lie that they're trying to tell to the people
Speaker 3: of the whole state of Florida and across this world, no, sir, no,
Speaker 3: it ain't the same.
Speaker 4: Do you be mad at you?
Speaker 2: Especially? My thing is this, Especially if you're somebody who
Speaker 2: supported her, and you know you you were actually scared,
Speaker 2: praying for her, you know, trying to reach out, utilizing
Speaker 2: your platforms to speak up for her, and then you
Speaker 2: find this out, you have no right. You have every right,
Speaker 2: I mean, to be disappointed, you know, and to say
Speaker 2: that you know what she did was wrong because you
Speaker 2: actually supported the person. But those of you who were
Speaker 2: just wanted to say I told you and I ain't
Speaker 2: never believe that anyway, and just want to ask you
Speaker 2: to the fire, like your opinion doesn't really matter, you
Speaker 2: know what I'm saying, because the reality is you never
Speaker 2: support her anyway, So she doesn't care about or nobody
Speaker 2: should care about what you think about somebody when you
Speaker 2: never supported them. If you supported Carli, you didn't support
Speaker 2: You supported a woman you didn't know, Carley. You know
Speaker 2: what I'm saying. You supported a black woman that you
Speaker 2: felt was in need, that life was in jeopardy, and
Speaker 2: that's something that you would probably do every time, and
Speaker 2: you should do every time. So to put it all
Speaker 2: on Carly, it's like, no, I supported a woman, a
Speaker 2: black woman, who I thought was abducted, and there was
Speaker 2: no evidence that that time that suggested anything else, you know.
Speaker 2: So what I did was utilize my voice platform whatever
Speaker 2: I had to amplify that. And I'm not going to
Speaker 2: be angry about that. I'm not going to you know,
Speaker 2: I'm not even gonna let her take my joy or
Speaker 2: take because it just shows me the individual I am,
Speaker 2: you know, it shows my own character, So I can't
Speaker 2: focus I wish her the best. I hope, you know,
Speaker 2: whatever help she needs, she receives it. You know, whatever
Speaker 2: time she has, she reflects. It reflects on what's going
Speaker 2: on here. And you know, and if what they say
Speaker 2: is true, then you know, at some point this needs
Speaker 2: to be some level accountability. But it's not my job
Speaker 2: to say what that is. But I think we have
Speaker 2: to definitely make sure that people know that we can't
Speaker 2: play with serious things like this. This is not one
Speaker 2: of those things.
Speaker 3: So I could have stayed on those topics. I mean,
Speaker 3: like I said, I have so much more to talk about.
Speaker 3: You know, I got a lot to talk about. But
Speaker 3: we during this summer right here, we are doing our
Speaker 3: work and trying to find ways to celebrate the culture
Speaker 3: and enjoy ourselves. And these next two individuals that's coming up,
Speaker 3: I mean, they do more than make people enjoy themselves,
Speaker 3: but they certainly even helping us enjoy ourselves. So I'm
Speaker 3: excited to bring out two new friends to the Two
Speaker 3: Street Politicians today. You know, I love when I find
Speaker 3: black people, especially black men. You know, this show we
Speaker 3: cover a lot of black women. I have to give
Speaker 3: it to you that you are very very gracious with
Speaker 3: making sure black women get the proper representation and time
Speaker 3: on Street Politicians. But whenever I find and whatever we
Speaker 3: are able to bring forth black men that are doing
Speaker 3: powerful things and helping to transform people's life, their energy,
Speaker 3: their time, and to lend themselves to the culture, I
Speaker 3: get really excited about it. So let me introduce these
Speaker 3: two gentlemen, these too young black men. First of all,
Speaker 3: we have the founder of Fan Meyer, which you all
Speaker 3: are about to learn all about this company, Fan Meyer,
Speaker 3: and his name is Jamel Anderson, so thank you for
Speaker 3: joining Street Politicians. And then there's author Thomason, who is
Speaker 3: from the Bronx where I currently live, and you kind
Speaker 3: of from the Bronx, I guess, I mean I.
Speaker 1: Think from Harlem.
Speaker 3: Okay, So Jamel and Ire, you know we're together more
Speaker 3: than the Bronx people. But this is a gentleman who
Speaker 3: went from being a marine all the way to the
Speaker 3: chief branding officer at Fan Meyers. So we're about to
Speaker 3: figure out, like how do you go from that to that?
Speaker 3: What's the transition? And I guess the best way to
Speaker 3: kick it off is for Jamel, first of all, for
Speaker 3: you to tell us why did you start this company
Speaker 3: and what is Fan Meyer.
Speaker 1: Thank y'all so much for joining Street Politicians.
Speaker 4: Thank you, thanks guys for having us. And you know,
Speaker 4: I'm always excited to talk about famire. The name represents
Speaker 4: a fan admiring the favorite whatever, right. I grew up
Speaker 4: a big time sports fan and I loved my nixt Giants,
Speaker 4: and I had the opportunity to stick my toe in
Speaker 4: the concert business. I was unsuccessful to fund major tours
Speaker 4: and it was like a lot of one offs, but
Speaker 4: nothing was short of missing in terms of excitement and
Speaker 4: sellouts to a lot of these shows. And it was
Speaker 4: one in particular, it was a little Wayne Tour when
Speaker 4: he was first coming home. That tour went on to
Speaker 4: gross forty six million, and I was like, wait a minute,
Speaker 4: the Aions and the it was back then, the Meadowlands
Speaker 4: and the Garden, it was another arena. All of these
Speaker 4: shows sold out like in two days, in like five venues.
Speaker 4: So I asked myself, way back then, how can you
Speaker 4: connect that energy around what fans have for the things
Speaker 4: that they love in a digital way. So we fast
Speaker 4: forward a few years later. A friend of mine was
Speaker 4: doing a commercial in MSG and he was the silhouette
Speaker 4: for the top fiftieth Moments, Ali Mo from Harlem. He
Speaker 4: was a silhouette for the Top fiftieth fifty Greatest Moments
Speaker 4: in MSG. Then I had all access pads in there,
Speaker 4: and I'm like, wow, this is what John Starks do
Speaker 4: with at, this is what Patrick Ewing is at every night.
Speaker 4: And I said, I can imagine people want to experience
Speaker 4: what it's like in these arenas after the game, after
Speaker 4: the show. So I said, wait a minute, I need
Speaker 4: to do some research and see if anything like this exists.
Speaker 4: And back then it didn't, right, So, you know, one
Speaker 4: thing led to another, but that energy never left me.
Speaker 4: I galvanized the team. We did some research and development
Speaker 4: for about two years. I built some versions of it
Speaker 4: that didn't work. So for me, connection and bringing people
Speaker 4: together was something I was always passionate about. So the
Speaker 4: concept kind of fit my personality and me and already
Speaker 4: known each other for over twenty years now and we've
Speaker 4: had success at things on both sides of life, and
Speaker 4: our friendship maintained throughout that. So I built this thing,
Speaker 4: and there were versions of it that you know, we
Speaker 4: could have made better. I made it Wes Seth, where
Speaker 4: I was you know, invited to do Capstone projects, and
Speaker 4: if these kids would select family as a project they
Speaker 4: would work on, they would pick us. And I kind
Speaker 4: of knew when I went there one year and we
Speaker 4: were selected. I think I was in a pool with
Speaker 4: DocuSign and so when these kids picked this project to
Speaker 4: work on, I kind of knew from there, like, you know,
Speaker 4: we need to finish this thing out. And that's that's
Speaker 4: kind of how it all came together.
Speaker 2: Wow, So that's amazing. How long has fann might have
Speaker 2: been in business?
Speaker 4: Well, I had the concept a little over ten years ago,
Speaker 4: but what I would say is right during the pandemic,
Speaker 4: it was it was only fans and myself and a
Speaker 4: few others out there that that was still dormant. Then
Speaker 4: only fans took off. So I had the idea for
Speaker 4: ten years, but I would say about three years ago
Speaker 4: is when it all started to come together.
Speaker 1: You said something I think is important.
Speaker 3: You said, first it didn't work, and you had some
Speaker 3: apps that it just wasn't it wasn't right. So I
Speaker 3: think that's important because a lot of people they feel
Speaker 3: like as soon as they do something, it's supposed to
Speaker 3: just pop immediately. But you're you know, you're an example
Speaker 3: of how it takes time.
Speaker 4: Yeah, listen, technology concept and idea it never works right
Speaker 4: you just at the present moment of where you are,
Speaker 4: it's just going right because it always can be enhanced
Speaker 4: and anything that you're doing around connecting is always going
Speaker 4: to take more effort. Right. So for me, yes, a
Speaker 4: lot of those versions within the technology, it felt, the
Speaker 4: concept wasn't the concept wasn't clean. So you know, it
Speaker 4: felt I felt, and I continue to fail. But for me,
Speaker 4: it's about failing forward. So you know, it takes Tom.
Speaker 4: I mean I'm talking about I'm twelve years in right,
Speaker 4: so this is not overnight. You only can lose it overnight, right,
Speaker 4: but we constantly stand at it, and you know, so
Speaker 4: for me, it just takes Tom. And we like where
Speaker 4: we are today. It's a lot of energy around what
Speaker 4: we're doing. We're starting to meet decent people, the relationships
Speaker 4: are for going into place. I know later on in
Speaker 4: the show you'll probably ask me about the whole journey
Speaker 4: around VCS. And we know that one percent of black
Speaker 4: founders get funded, so it's an uphill battle to say
Speaker 4: the least, but I don't have an option but to
Speaker 4: do it, you know, So it motivates you so, Arthur,
Speaker 4: what you know?
Speaker 2: I know this is your friend, you know, just watching
Speaker 2: your transition being from the VX, you know, shout out
Speaker 2: to the VX and you know, being in the Marines
Speaker 2: then going into construction, Like, what what made you shift
Speaker 2: and say I want to be a part of this?
Speaker 2: What was it?
Speaker 5: Well, like he said, we've been friends for like twenty years, right,
Speaker 5: and we've done many things together right on all walks
Speaker 5: of life.
Speaker 6: Mel's always been the passionate one.
Speaker 5: So when he started fan Meier, obviously me coming out
Speaker 5: of the military, and then I started in the Union,
Speaker 5: I'm working Local seventy nine, and then I started my
Speaker 5: own business. I started my own company, and obviously that's
Speaker 5: what keeps the lights on, That's how I support myself.
Speaker 5: But Mel's been super super passionate about family and us
Speaker 5: being so so close to friends. We started spending a
Speaker 5: lot of time together and I started learning more and
Speaker 5: more about it. And it wasn't just his passion. I realized,
Speaker 5: like this is this is real and I'm more of
Speaker 5: like the go getter, like I'm outside, I'm I'm gonna
Speaker 5: figure it out. Like he's the brains he figured he
Speaker 5: he puts all the pieces together, but.
Speaker 6: Then I'm gonna go out and make it happen.
Speaker 5: So as we start to spend more time together and
Speaker 5: talk about it, I just jumped on full fledged. And
Speaker 5: it's been like we've been gaining so much traction together,
Speaker 5: you know, like we every day we have meetings and
Speaker 5: we sit down and we figure out how to bring value,
Speaker 5: how to move forward.
Speaker 6: And it's him.
Speaker 5: It's the passion that he has and I just pretty
Speaker 5: much follow mel follow his lead and regards.
Speaker 2: Give us like a complete understanding of what you do
Speaker 2: as family, like exactly what you do.
Speaker 6: How I wull best describe it is, I'm more like
Speaker 6: the glue.
Speaker 5: Right, So we have certain we have a team that
Speaker 5: goes out and they start vetting potential influences, potential creators,
Speaker 5: potential ambassadors. Right, and obviously we're now having all the
Speaker 5: moving parts. They would come to me after that and
Speaker 5: the vetting process will start. Right, We'll figure out if
Speaker 5: this person is a good fit, if this person works,
Speaker 5: So putting pretty much all the pieces together and then
Speaker 5: making sure it works before we on board anybody, before
Speaker 5: we figure out if this is a relationship that would
Speaker 5: that would potentially work.
Speaker 2: Who have you guys, worked with in the past.
Speaker 5: Yeah, we have Davits on the platform. We have Peter
Speaker 5: Guns on the on the platform.
Speaker 2: B X, that's right, BX.
Speaker 5: We have Fred I don't know if familiar Fred de
Speaker 5: God has a brother, fat boy guy all right on
Speaker 5: the platform now heaven, this.
Speaker 6: Is what we're doing. What I'm saying, it's ex heavy man.
Speaker 6: So yeah, we have so many.
Speaker 5: We have a bunch of smaller influences that we've been
Speaker 5: talking to, a bunch of models, stylists, Like anyone could
Speaker 5: be an influencer, right, anyone can have followers, right. So
Speaker 5: this is where right now it's getting is getting busy,
Speaker 5: where we're getting.
Speaker 6: Barrage with calls or potential influence.
Speaker 5: People want to come on, but there's a vetting process
Speaker 5: because on fan Meire there's no sex, no cyberbiliton, no negativity.
Speaker 6: So there's a vetting process.
Speaker 5: Everybody's not gonna we can't We're not only fans, right, We're.
Speaker 6: Not selling sex.
Speaker 5: So on, once they go through the proper channels in
Speaker 5: the process, then we on board them and then the
Speaker 5: rest is its history.
Speaker 2: I want to ask, so, being a black own company,
Speaker 2: is it hard for you to get certain opportunities and funding.
Speaker 4: What I would say, You know, I'm one to not
Speaker 4: try to complain or use obvious adversities as a crutch, right,
Speaker 4: But I think it's an understatement of is it hard? Right?
Speaker 4: It's virtually impossible in a lot of cases. But I
Speaker 4: feel fortunate in that I've been afforded a lot of
Speaker 4: support through friends and family. So what I can say
Speaker 4: is like funding this thing thus far has been just
Speaker 4: everything for me, the wife, friends and family. So VC
Speaker 4: money has been really a hurdle for myself.
Speaker 6: Right.
Speaker 4: So but what I will tell you is we presently
Speaker 4: just secured it.
Speaker 2: Can you said, can you explain what VC means to
Speaker 2: some of the audience, ain't going to know what it is?
Speaker 4: Oh? VC is venture capital right? Most projects are funded
Speaker 4: by venture capitalists. Right, you go back ten years ago.
Speaker 4: You can have a good idea on a napkin, and
Speaker 4: you know somebody can write twenty thirty million dollars for
Speaker 4: you to see if you can fulfill it. But what
Speaker 4: I've learned in this space, not only does the concept
Speaker 4: have to be right, you have to have a build.
Speaker 4: Didn't you actually have to be scaling it before, at
Speaker 4: least in my case, be considered to be funded. I
Speaker 4: can't speak to anyone else's journey, but the work that
Speaker 4: I did thus far with the support of the team. Man,
Speaker 4: I don't understand why it's been as hard as it's been,
Speaker 4: but it's been really hard. We haven't secured no VC
Speaker 4: funding none.
Speaker 2: Well, so everything is just you guys just believing in
Speaker 2: each other and investing in yourself.
Speaker 4: And friends and family. And what I tell you is
Speaker 4: we just what I'm proud of this. We just secured
Speaker 4: a brand partnership and sponsorship with the Brooklyn Nets in
Speaker 4: New York Liberty that has tremendously validated and infused some
Speaker 4: energy into us as a company. Our brand credibility has
Speaker 4: went up like overnight. Right, And I was listening when
Speaker 4: you was asking Ardi, he's so authentic, Right, Well, what
Speaker 4: do you do? He does a lot more than that. Right,
Speaker 4: has strategically aligned every relationship that he humanly has to
Speaker 4: line up to the goals and values to Fanily. Right,
Speaker 4: And I would say we're fortunate even for this opportunity.
Speaker 4: This came from audise background networking. We have more scheduled
Speaker 4: interviews with high level influences. That's a result of a
Speaker 4: lot of Audie's ability to connect. So you know, we
Speaker 4: just been really doing what we have to do to
Speaker 4: leverage resources and network to stay afloat.
Speaker 2: Well, I just want to say I appreciate you, guys.
Speaker 2: I swear like I know, I feel like me and
Speaker 2: Artie used to hang out somewhere before.
Speaker 6: I know we know each other.
Speaker 2: I know we have I'm just I'm looking like this.
Speaker 2: We've definitely met a bill from the BX. But you know,
Speaker 2: I just I love I love watching young black individuals
Speaker 2: just grime, you know, because a lot of times that's
Speaker 2: not something that's celebrated in the big is way more.
Speaker 2: When you grind right and you know you're not giving
Speaker 2: anything and you're not looking for anything. I love the
Speaker 2: mindset you said, you don't want to look. You notice
Speaker 2: the obvious hurdles, but you don't want to use it
Speaker 2: as a question because you're gonna grind regardless. What do
Speaker 2: you see, FAMI in the next ten years? What do
Speaker 2: you want? What do you vision?
Speaker 4: I like to look at it, guys, What will happen
Speaker 4: in ten years? Right? And we'll continue to add value relationships.
Speaker 4: My philosophy will always be to give more than I ask, right,
Speaker 4: and I think will be the platform where genuine connection
Speaker 4: is preferred to be used. One of the initiatives that
Speaker 4: we got coming forth from a rebranded standpoint is to
Speaker 4: become the preferred platform for HBCUs and I got a
Speaker 4: lot of energy around what that's going to look like
Speaker 4: for us. So in ten years, I think will be
Speaker 4: a diverse community with the DNA of black creators created
Speaker 4: a home for each other that opened itself up to
Speaker 4: the world as well. So in ten years will be
Speaker 4: a place that people are still saying they found genuine
Speaker 4: and authentic connection in a responsible way.
Speaker 2: I love it, man, dude, I just want to ask,
Speaker 2: does it get hard sometimes? Do you ever feel like
Speaker 2: I don't know what I started this for? Or you
Speaker 2: always have this enthusias Because me, I'm gonna be honest
Speaker 2: with you. You know a lot of you know, I've tried
Speaker 2: so many different things. I started out in music in basketball.
Speaker 2: Like when I started music, and when I got locked
Speaker 2: up and I came home, it was frustrated, Like a
Speaker 2: lot of things frustrated me. But then I start I
Speaker 2: stopped the business part of it and then started realizing
Speaker 2: just I love music, you know, and I would do
Speaker 2: it for free. So that's how it is. And then
Speaker 2: when I transitioned into the space that I am now
Speaker 2: in doing activism, it wasn't work for me, you know.
Speaker 2: But sometimes even in this it's a little frustrating because
Speaker 2: Breonna Taylor dies and you can't get the officers arrested.
Speaker 2: You know. It is young people getting killed and arrested
Speaker 2: every day for crimes they didn't commit, in all types
Speaker 2: of things, and then trying to stop by. So sometimes
Speaker 2: it gets a little overwhelming. Do you ever feel like
Speaker 2: you get overwhelmed or you feel like you're not progressing
Speaker 2: the way that you want to?
Speaker 4: Man, you hit hit, you hit a nerve for me
Speaker 4: with that, right, I'm always overwhelmed. Right, And a lot
Speaker 4: of it stems from some of the things that you
Speaker 4: just said. Right. I grew up in the old Harlem, right,
Speaker 4: where all my friends' parents, who mine, were either alcoholics
Speaker 4: or alcoholics or on drugs. Right. So I grew up
Speaker 4: in a generation where we pretty much raised ourselves. Right.
Speaker 4: I didn't know what real I didn't know what community
Speaker 4: looked like. I ain't I never been on a vacation
Speaker 4: as a child, right. My expo to the world was limited,
Speaker 4: and a lot of the things that happened in a
Speaker 4: low income community has a lot to do with lack
Speaker 4: of lack of awareness and lack of resources. Right, And
Speaker 4: that's not something that is a big surprise on a
Speaker 4: big scale. Right. So when you start hearing about you
Speaker 4: can't lock a cop up for something that he did, right,
Speaker 4: think about the limited of resources that who used the
Speaker 4: word entrepreneur twenty years ago? Right? It wasn't a word,
Speaker 4: was it. So with someone who had a passion and
Speaker 4: drive to build something, did school teach us you can
Speaker 4: build a business? Did school teach us that you could
Speaker 4: you could own something or have a Korean sports if
Speaker 4: either you were in some talented and gifted program or
Speaker 4: you played ball, or you was locked, you wasn't considered
Speaker 4: rap ball, or you were really bright. But in the
Speaker 4: middle there with where was their room at? So what
Speaker 4: drives me and keep me going is Jamel the kid
Speaker 4: didn't have the support that Jamel the man know he needs.
Speaker 4: Now I'm taking care of that kid that wasn't treated right.
Speaker 4: But that's to keep me going. So yeah, I get discouraged.
Speaker 4: It's it's it's an uphill battle on roller skates, but
Speaker 4: you gotta have that energy you gotta have that passion
Speaker 4: because you gotta. You can't get through it if you
Speaker 4: don't go through it right, right.
Speaker 2: You got to go through it to get through it, man.
Speaker 2: You know so I just want to say once again,
Speaker 2: I commend you guys. Man. Let everybody know where they
Speaker 2: can find you, guys, how they can support you, how
Speaker 2: to follow you, and just keep up with you're.
Speaker 4: Going with you got going on man, Thank you.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 4: It starts with fan Maya that's f A N and
Speaker 4: myr dot com. You can actually get us on Instagram
Speaker 4: too at fan Mayer, f A N and my RI.
Speaker 4: You can subscribe to be a part of our newsletters
Speaker 4: to stay in tuned for what we're doing. And uh,
Speaker 4: I'm just excited for this opportunity. This was great. Thank
Speaker 4: you and I look to forward to continue to build
Speaker 4: with you guys.
Speaker 2: Definitely, Man, I make you ford to continue to build
Speaker 2: with you. I just want to I want you to
Speaker 2: leave us with It's a young boyfriend the BX. He's
Speaker 2: watching this right now. You know he's he wants to
Speaker 2: be successful, and I want you to give him some
Speaker 2: words of encouragement. What would you say to him?
Speaker 5: I would say, main thing is to stay focused, right,
Speaker 5: Like we talked about so many things today, so much
Speaker 5: has happened and so much is going on in society.
Speaker 6: Is stay focused.
Speaker 5: Like we're trained, Like Jamel just said, play ball or
Speaker 5: if you don't play ball or your rap, you can't
Speaker 5: be successful. Stay focused. And if you stay focused and
Speaker 5: you put everything into it, you can do whatever you
Speaker 5: want to do. I got two boys, one twenty two,
Speaker 5: one sixteen, and I tell him the same thing, like,
Speaker 5: stay for whatever you want to do.
Speaker 6: I'm gonna support you. I'm not gonna steer you in
Speaker 6: no direction.
Speaker 5: Whatever you feel is your passion, whatever you want to do,
Speaker 5: I'm support you.
Speaker 6: So stay focused.
Speaker 5: It's hard, it's gonna be a little harder for us,
Speaker 5: but it's not impossible, right. And I think that's what
Speaker 5: me and Jamel are trying to show people, right, that
Speaker 5: people that look like you can make it happen.
Speaker 2: I hope y'all get it. Stay focused, because I tell
Speaker 2: my sons that every day. Man, you know, every day
Speaker 2: it's gonna be hard. It's nothing that that's worth having,
Speaker 2: it's not gonna be worth going through. You know, you're
Speaker 2: gonna go through a lot of stuff if you're trying
Speaker 2: to really get somewhere to be successful. So I want
Speaker 2: to appreciate y'all. Everybody. Shout out Jamel Anderson, founder of
Speaker 2: fan Mayer and author Thomason. I've been calling them audio
Speaker 2: all day, so that's what I want to be calling
Speaker 2: you Aldi man, like we've been outside, like we've been
Speaker 2: friends for forty years. So it's Aladi now man, author Thomason,
Speaker 2: Chief Brandon officer at Famine. I appreciate you guys. You know,
Speaker 2: I look forward to working with you guys, and I
Speaker 2: know in the next ten years y'all gonna be the
Speaker 2: biggest thing, so keep it going.
Speaker 4: Thank you. I appreciate you guys. Thanks.
Speaker 2: So I want to thank my guest Jamel Anderson, the
Speaker 2: founder of fan Mayer off the time, the chief branding
Speaker 2: officer of fam Mind, for coming through today. I want
Speaker 2: to support these guys. You know, you could tell that
Speaker 2: they grinded and they really believe in what they doing.
Speaker 2: You know, brand building brands and connecting brands with influencers.
Speaker 2: It's just a dope thing and is a fast growing
Speaker 2: industry right now, you know. So I love the passion
Speaker 2: in both of these guys. Man. Shout out to my
Speaker 2: co host MS Timikid Mallory who just threw me a curveball,
Speaker 2: you know, and vanished. I guess she had to go
Speaker 2: get her head done and say, you know how y'all
Speaker 2: women do. Y'all got shit to do, and we just
Speaker 2: got to figure it out because y'all got to go.
Speaker 2: So shout out to her, everybody. I appreciate y'all.
Speaker 4: Man.
Speaker 2: I hope y'all continue to enjoy the show. Number one
Speaker 2: podcasts in the world, Street Politicians. Let me know what
Speaker 2: you don't like, let me know what you love. Hit
Speaker 2: us up on Street Politicians Pod. Give us all your feedback.
Speaker 2: We love it. Let us know what shows who you
Speaker 2: want us to interview everything, everything you know. I'm not
Speaker 2: gonna always be right to make it the Mallories not
Speaker 2: gonna always be wrong, but we will both always and
Speaker 2: I mean always, be authentic. Salute y'all, and we're gone.
Speaker 3: Listen to Street Politicians on the Black Effect Network on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: And catch us every single Wednesday for the video version
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