Speaker 1: Uh uh, we wait our reparations. You're listening to waiting
Speaker 1: our reparation to production of I Heart Radio. It isn't
Speaker 1: lynching light or being skinned alive, genocide of force the
Speaker 1: working class to choose between paying that run on time
Speaker 1: and getting back to work. Catching the German bings at
Speaker 1: heaven side. It's freedom out its finest, and it's their
Speaker 1: crime if they're not getting by, And it's my right
Speaker 1: to fix my frost and tips and hit the gym
Speaker 1: and miss my spit all over them. So tell me,
Speaker 1: why are you so threatened by what's that? Now? You
Speaker 1: value human life more than investment sized and so does Denmark,
Speaker 1: South Korea, Canada, Australia, Friends, Ireland, Italy, Germany, UK, Spain
Speaker 1: and the Netherlands enough to paint the people you be
Speaker 1: so they can sit inside, and we deserve the same.
Speaker 1: To first to me, you want a general strike, ha ha,
Speaker 1: that's all right. We're Congress back in business, just like
Speaker 1: Georgia is, with hamp to deal with shortages, events and
Speaker 1: bank rolling their courtporate friends who once again exhort the
Speaker 1: dumps as much as the Republicans will buck this up again,
Speaker 1: give us relief with mortgages and rent. You leave us
Speaker 1: force to pick between the Morrigan. Pitch intensely on the
Speaker 1: pick that they'll be coming west forth to eat the rich.
Speaker 1: For it to eat the rich, of course you'd be
Speaker 1: a dish. Huh. Yeah, I thought that I had seen
Speaker 1: it all. I don't know what's more to get living
Speaker 1: under quarantine, got a nick good border stress, gave you
Speaker 1: acid check, need more, but they show impressed. Seen three recessions,
Speaker 1: three wars. I ain't forty year. It was gonna get
Speaker 1: system failed. They can deny it. Ship is frail. Listen, well,
Speaker 1: they're gonna want you to go get as sick as
Speaker 1: hell for somebody else to stop Cloud going for the
Speaker 1: rebound getting boxed out. Hope it doesn't happen. But I
Speaker 1: got doubts. While you win, you're fortressing the people getting
Speaker 1: shot down because they're in the streets, and now the
Speaker 1: cops are using hot rounds. I don't even want y'all
Speaker 1: massive gets swung on, watch the world burn with some
Speaker 1: gasoline draws on make that. But I'd rather take all
Speaker 1: ship and as long as you flowers put a face
Speaker 1: on it, wait for it. Not saying that I hate
Speaker 1: all rich, but I smoke an l for all of
Speaker 1: that hate. Y'all get dope. He my name is Dope
Speaker 1: night Frank, and we are waiting on reparations. Hurry up.
Speaker 1: Ah So fuck well, I mean, there's no it's no
Speaker 1: easy way to say. We might as well just say
Speaker 1: because it's on both of our minds. But um, you know,
Speaker 1: this episode comes after unfortunate bit of news this week,
Speaker 1: the passing of journalists, political commentator, and activist Michael Brooks.
Speaker 1: It's weighed pretty heavily on both of us. I was devastated.
Speaker 1: I am devastated. We're both pretty big fans. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: had recently, only recently gotten into his work, and it
Speaker 1: felt like I was only very very recently becoming like
Speaker 1: smart enough to fucking understand it. Like he had such
Speaker 1: a like internationalist perspective, and she's like such deep care
Speaker 1: for the struggles of working people around the globe. And
Speaker 1: I learned so much from him about like uprisings from
Speaker 1: Brazil to like communism in India in the way that
Speaker 1: they had organizedly effectively under COVID, and um, it's really
Speaker 1: apartide and just like so many topics, And to find
Speaker 1: out that he's gone, he hurts it's like every time
Speaker 1: you listen to him speak, it's like you learned something
Speaker 1: each time. But it's funny that you said that, because
Speaker 1: it's like the way that I found out about him was, um,
Speaker 1: it was actually him being funny. It was he was
Speaker 1: he was hilarious. He was playing a clip of h
Speaker 1: I mean, I had seen him, you know, guests appear
Speaker 1: on like Young Turks and you know, Majority Report, but
Speaker 1: he was you know, at this point he had had
Speaker 1: his show, I think, and he was playing a clip
Speaker 1: of Alex Jones, like berating Ben Shapiro. But he said
Speaker 1: it to the beat for Nazis Ether and it was
Speaker 1: like the funniest shit I had ever heard. I was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I gotta find out who this guy. Yeah, yeah, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's unfortunate. You know. Definitely was hoping at some point,
Speaker 1: the more that we keep doing this, maybe being able
Speaker 1: to talk to him. Yeah. Yeah. So if all our
Speaker 1: listeners out there, if you would please join us in
Speaker 1: a brief moment of silence for Michael, we really appreciate it.
Speaker 1: So yeah, go check out some of Michael streams with
Speaker 1: the Michael Brooks Show on YouTube, um Patreon. He had
Speaker 1: a book out about the Intellectual Dark Web that I
Speaker 1: recently started reading and it's really good, um that you
Speaker 1: can get via red Emma's and highly recommend um. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Just it's not too late to learn from him even
Speaker 1: though he's gone. The thing about when you follow people
Speaker 1: on YouTube like that is you feel like you know them,
Speaker 1: so something like this happens, or you know, you feel
Speaker 1: every day you feel a little bit harder than you
Speaker 1: do for usually in situations like this. But then also
Speaker 1: because of the nature of being a YouTuber, this is
Speaker 1: just endless amount of content that you can always look
Speaker 1: to remember him ever, Yeah, so go check that out
Speaker 1: for sure. What else is going on with you? Oh? Um,
Speaker 1: I'm finally ready to let you read my comic book
Speaker 1: because I'm finished writing it. Finished writing it. Yeah, Like
Speaker 1: I mean to explain, the comic book was written, but
Speaker 1: I kind of went with the what they call in
Speaker 1: the industry the stan Lee method, where I outlined the
Speaker 1: story and then I drew it and then I put
Speaker 1: the you know, the dialogue and word balloons after and stuff.
Speaker 1: So that's what I've been doing for the last month
Speaker 1: and finally finished that. So um, yeah, look in your
Speaker 1: in box soon you'll be everybody about everybody who's read
Speaker 1: it so far said it's been dope. So you describe
Speaker 1: it to me? I was just fucking mind blown. This
Speaker 1: is the thing that exists or what exists to the one.
Speaker 1: And because I've been like doing the dialogue, you know, recently,
Speaker 1: it's it's been influenced by everything that's been going on,
Speaker 1: so a lot of my current thoughts on stuff have
Speaker 1: been incorporated into the story of it. I I don't
Speaker 1: want to like tease it too much because it doesn't
Speaker 1: you know, it's no one can hold it in their
Speaker 1: hands yet, So fucking download that ship. What about you?
Speaker 1: Fun man? Just watching what's going down in Chicago and
Speaker 1: Portland's Yeah, did they already send troops Chicago? I don't
Speaker 1: think they had. What's going on in um I believe
Speaker 1: Friday night they had a de colonized Zega gong hopefully
Speaker 1: and pronouncing that right, protest for Black and Indigenous solidarity,
Speaker 1: asking for us for you know, the government to decolonized
Speaker 1: by like protecting community gardens in Chicago, by bringing down
Speaker 1: the Columbus Christopher Columbus statue, and you know, obviously to
Speaker 1: fund the CPD and get uh Chicago cops out of
Speaker 1: schools and uh protesters where I met with violence by CPD.
Speaker 1: A eighteen year old activist with a Good Kids Mad
Speaker 1: City named Miracle Boyd while filming an arrest, got several
Speaker 1: teeth knocked out by a Chicago police officer. And UM,
Speaker 1: I've been really heartened by the act. They haven't really
Speaker 1: let up in that aftermath, Like the very next night
Speaker 1: they were outside of Lory Lightfoot's house once again demanding
Speaker 1: to fund CPD. UM. You know, I think at this
Speaker 1: point the word is out about what's happening in Portland.
Speaker 1: The mainstream media's finally picked up on what's going on.
Speaker 1: I mean, they're they've been going at it um as
Speaker 1: far as like covering it. So that's been encouraging because
Speaker 1: I mean you would think if there's ever gonna be
Speaker 1: a moment that's going to unify just everybody on like
Speaker 1: different political spectrums, it would be literal jack booted thugs
Speaker 1: like kidnapping people off the streets. You think the fucking
Speaker 1: libertarians would have something to say about this. And Uh,
Speaker 1: I mean no, there's definitely boot liquors out there. I've
Speaker 1: been I've been seeing them. There's like all of the
Speaker 1: freedom of speech warriors that are always down to declare
Speaker 1: the end of Western civilization the minute some purple haired
Speaker 1: kid won't let Jordan Peters and speak somewhere where are
Speaker 1: you nig is at? Huh you can stop those in
Speaker 1: the street where you at? Yeah? I digress, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean, I guess this is all fitting with you know,
Speaker 1: Donald Trump's America. You know, on this podcast, um, and
Speaker 1: maybe it's mostly just me, but you know, by extension,
Speaker 1: on this podcast, um, we talk a lot about the
Speaker 1: revolutionary roots and potential for hip hop a lot of times,
Speaker 1: but um, it's inevitable that eventually, sometimes occasionally we uh
Speaker 1: in diving deep into hip hop's complexities and contradictions, we
Speaker 1: address it's fawning over the President of the United States,
Speaker 1: Donald Day Trump. Donald and So this is a topic that,
Speaker 1: like you feel really impassionate about it. I definitely have
Speaker 1: thoughts to say, Louise, well, you know what, I feel
Speaker 1: that we should clarify this right, like we should maybe
Speaker 1: amend it and not necessarily talk about hip hop's relationship
Speaker 1: to Donald Trump, but talk about rappers relationships Donald trup.
Speaker 1: Hip hop is so many different things that I think
Speaker 1: it's kind of unfair to just mask all of it
Speaker 1: like be boys and be girls and graffiti artists, every
Speaker 1: this is this is more of a rapper thing because
Speaker 1: it has to do with personas, Yeah, and like the
Speaker 1: cultivation of like very specific kind of personas in hip
Speaker 1: hop and in the rise of Donald Trump. Donald Trump,
Speaker 1: in many ways, Donald Trump's very essence pre presidency represents
Speaker 1: in a lot of ways the very id of what
Speaker 1: for at the very least mainstream American hip hop what now,
Speaker 1: you know, obviously there's much to be said about the
Speaker 1: turn that hip hop is taken on Donald Trump. This
Speaker 1: is a public figure and that's all that we're really
Speaker 1: dealing with here, Like, trust me, well, we can get into,
Speaker 1: like you know, the political ramifications of this, but I
Speaker 1: think that's pretty easy, you know what I mean. It's
Speaker 1: fun Donald Trump all day in hip hop at this point,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, because of what he represents politically.
Speaker 1: But as we all know, that wasn't always the case.
Speaker 1: And Donald Trump was definitely a figure that was a
Speaker 1: referenced numerous times over two d times, over two hundred
Speaker 1: times in the last thirty years. So the takeaway from
Speaker 1: all these references positive and negative, and most are positive
Speaker 1: and favorable. By a count done by of song lyrics
Speaker 1: about Trump were negative, while sixty we're positive. Two hundred
Speaker 1: rap songs. Obviously, I know they've been way more than
Speaker 1: two hundred rap songs created in that time, but that's
Speaker 1: really that's a lot of references for anyone. That's crazy
Speaker 1: if you think about that, you know what I'm saying, Like,
Speaker 1: the only only other you know, figure that I can
Speaker 1: think of that has that many references in hip hop
Speaker 1: would be like Tony Montana, who's like famously not really
Speaker 1: notoriously not a real person, not even necessarily his um
Speaker 1: rise to political power, but he became such a commonly
Speaker 1: referenced character in the story that is hip hop if
Speaker 1: you actually go back and you listen to it. So
Speaker 1: let's just give you a brief little history. So the
Speaker 1: earliest that anyone can really recall hearing references to Donald
Speaker 1: Trump and rap songs would be around and that unfortunate,
Speaker 1: unfortunate accolade is going to either go to the Beastie Boys,
Speaker 1: the Fat Boys, or my pick of the goat iced tea.
Speaker 1: But one of those cats had the first Donald Trump
Speaker 1: bar I did a cart in the White House, and
Speaker 1: after that Donald It's hard to think of Donald Trump
Speaker 1: as anything other than a politician. At this point. You
Speaker 1: can't really divorce him from his office or his power
Speaker 1: or the party that's behind him. But if you really
Speaker 1: do try to, just like take yourself back to a
Speaker 1: time before that this brash, arrogant, self important, um verbose
Speaker 1: dangerous like might be a criminal, but has like an
Speaker 1: acceptance in legit business. Just there's just a lot about
Speaker 1: who Donald Trump was as a figure that totally makes
Speaker 1: sense that he was dealt with the way that he
Speaker 1: was in hip hop up to that time. I mean,
Speaker 1: no different than I mean if you just consider, if
Speaker 1: you if Tony Montana was a real person, pretty sure
Speaker 1: it would be like a horrible human being, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. Yeah, like not a good person. Pretty
Speaker 1: sure Al Capome was not like a good guy. I'm
Speaker 1: pretty sure Noriega wasn't a good guy, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. Like, these are all figures that have been
Speaker 1: referenced in hip hop time and time again, and I
Speaker 1: don't think anyone is going to to to question the
Speaker 1: references that will come in the future, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. The aspect of Donald Trump that makes it
Speaker 1: such a regrettable reference going back is what he's become,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, which to reveal himself to be.
Speaker 1: But that is the issue to me, is that the
Speaker 1: deal breaker he has revealed himself. Yeah, like like was
Speaker 1: that not something that was obvious to people? All right?
Speaker 1: So my thesis, as it were, if hip hop is
Speaker 1: the most powerful cultural entertainment phenomena to happen in the
Speaker 1: last thirty years, with its mainstream incarnation being at the forefront,
Speaker 1: then does mainstream American hip hop have any influence over
Speaker 1: Donald Trump's rise to power? Now? By power, I don't
Speaker 1: necessarily mean political power because again, one of the reasons
Speaker 1: that we're not really tackling what hip hop's relationship to
Speaker 1: Donald Trump is now is because like at this point
Speaker 1: it's kind of cliche, Like the consensus is fun Donald
Speaker 1: Trump for the most part, it's it really is something.
Speaker 1: I mean, I've I've asked several rapper friends of mine,
Speaker 1: and it's kind of a hard thing to deal with
Speaker 1: in music now because like making a song about your
Speaker 1: thoughts about Donald Trump is like it's kind of passing.
Speaker 1: It's like cancer is bad word, dude. Yeah, it's a
Speaker 1: really interesting song exactly what racism is bad, you know,
Speaker 1: like word, okay, we got we got you? Yeah, what
Speaker 1: is what is your thoughts on that? Just just your
Speaker 1: initial thoughts on just like that question he just wrote
Speaker 1: out of the deal. He has pretty much lied his
Speaker 1: way into people thinking he is something he's not. It's
Speaker 1: already begun and he's gotten embraced by That's that's the
Speaker 1: power I'm talking about. Yeah, Like does hip hop have
Speaker 1: have anything to do with his rise to that? I
Speaker 1: do not think hip hop is responsible for the rise
Speaker 1: of Donald Trump. I wanted I wanted to make clear
Speaker 1: something about that, because it's not as if these positive
Speaker 1: Trump references to the decades have been turning young black
Speaker 1: men out to vote for Trump in droves. According to
Speaker 1: the n y T, only of black men voted for him.
Speaker 1: So I don't know if we can really make the
Speaker 1: connection of like these positive references throughout the the years,
Speaker 1: and like, it's not that um saying that hip hop
Speaker 1: is responsible for the rise of Donald Trump. I do
Speaker 1: not believe that. But I don't believe that The Apprentice
Speaker 1: is responsible for the rise of Donald Trump either. But
Speaker 1: I definitely know that there's a there's a part in
Speaker 1: conditioning the public to be comfortable with Donald Trump as
Speaker 1: a public figure. That the Apprentice definitely played right. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: that's all I'm saying. Well, what I think is that, Um,
Speaker 1: you know, Donald D. Trump was a young man in
Speaker 1: New York during the air of hip hop's ascendency. He was,
Speaker 1: even if distantly there when it came up, and he
Speaker 1: reportedly liked hip hop. Um, he had friendships with the
Speaker 1: had friendships with people like Russell Simmons. Um. And I'd
Speaker 1: say that this relationship between Donald Trump and hip hop,
Speaker 1: and indeed some shared characteristics between hip hop creators, rappers specifically,
Speaker 1: and the current president are what they are because they
Speaker 1: were cooked up in the same cauldron. The same social,
Speaker 1: cultural political forces that gave birth to hip hop, and
Speaker 1: the same mentality that circulated within hip hop as a
Speaker 1: result of these cultural forces also shaped Donald Trump and
Speaker 1: who he has, who he became, who has become Um,
Speaker 1: and and and and some and some have even said,
Speaker 1: you know, Charles blow In two thousand eighteen even ventured
Speaker 1: to say that Trump took after hip hop in some ways.
Speaker 1: He and he quote unquote invidd he aped it. He
Speaker 1: admired the men who learned how to monetize swagger. So
Speaker 1: I think the really interesting question is to what degree
Speaker 1: did hip hop Makedonald Trump who he is? That is true,
Speaker 1: but even the implications of that, to me, like I
Speaker 1: never even thought about it that way. But even that,
Speaker 1: with what we know of Donald Trump, now, do we
Speaker 1: think any of that reverence or respect was genuine? No,
Speaker 1: I mean it was like it's in cultural appropriation and
Speaker 1: it's superficial. I talk about the fact that Donald Trump
Speaker 1: has always been a racist. Going back to seventy three,
Speaker 1: the Justice Department that Trump discriminated against prospective black tenants
Speaker 1: of his apartment complexes, rather than just screening out low
Speaker 1: income applicants as they claimed at the time. The Department
Speaker 1: of Justice said, black testers to more than half a
Speaker 1: dozen buildings and we're denied apartments. But but similar white
Speaker 1: testers would then be offer departments in the same apartment buildings.
Speaker 1: So this is back in n seventy three, before before
Speaker 1: he even has a claim to the fame of the
Speaker 1: Trump Tower, before hip hop was even really a thing.
Speaker 1: So I do not disagree with anything that you said.
Speaker 1: I just feel like there's a reason that they referenced
Speaker 1: him so much. I'm not saying that there's no like
Speaker 1: mitigating factors behind it, and there's very well a reason
Speaker 1: for why there was that connection. There's a reason why
Speaker 1: Donald Trump was hanging in those scenes and was around
Speaker 1: those people. I don't mean it and like, I gotcha,
Speaker 1: see what you did. Yeah, that's not really how I
Speaker 1: mean it. I mean it more so just is like
Speaker 1: you know what, maybe just letting any old body get
Speaker 1: into our hip hop ship is not like a good idea.
Speaker 1: Do you think people are have wisened up to them? No? No, no,
Speaker 1: not at all. If anything, it's power has been in
Speaker 1: the way it has fueled the white suburban imagination about
Speaker 1: Black America and stoking those fears of it through reporting
Speaker 1: on what's happening on the ground in Black America. Oh God,
Speaker 1: these thugs are gonna come and rape your wives and
Speaker 1: like whatever. Um that's sort of like white supremacy. Uh
Speaker 1: that you know has linked arms with Donald Trump? Is
Speaker 1: that have foisted him up as they're champion. Like hip
Speaker 1: hop has definitely influenced that to a degree and sort
Speaker 1: of stoked most fears that gave an opportunity for someone
Speaker 1: like uh, Donald Trump too. I'm just always curious, right,
Speaker 1: maybe it's I didn't grow up in the States, And
Speaker 1: something that will discover as as we go on with
Speaker 1: these episodes is like there's certain things that I perceived
Speaker 1: one way because I was living overseas as a kid
Speaker 1: when it was happening, that maybe it didn't have the
Speaker 1: same perception. Like there definitely was a point in my
Speaker 1: childhood when Donald Trump is a figure I just knew
Speaker 1: him to be like this rich guy. Yeah, but there
Speaker 1: definitely was a point in my childhood when Donald Trump's
Speaker 1: bankruptcy and like just the concept of bankruptcy was just
Speaker 1: something that like I associated with Donald Trump. He was
Speaker 1: like the most famous person that I knew that went bankrupt.
Speaker 1: I didn't even really know what bankruptcy meant except that
Speaker 1: you money is the only concept I had it, So
Speaker 1: like I knew that, And from all of the research
Speaker 1: that we've been doing, it doesn't seem like that was
Speaker 1: ever like held against Donald Trump. Yeah, let me get
Speaker 1: you know, Like there's never any like I can't find
Speaker 1: any references to you ni is gonna go broke like
Speaker 1: Donald Trump, Like no one was ever saying that, like
Speaker 1: he even though that was the reality of his life,
Speaker 1: it seemed to escape between two tho nine. Trump's hotelling
Speaker 1: casino business has declared bankruptcy six times due to inability
Speaker 1: to meet requiring payments and renegotiate debt with bis Yo.
Speaker 1: I mean, so that's like it's like the heyday of
Speaker 1: most of these quotes that were like, yeah, that's like
Speaker 1: over a decade of failure for this to catch. But
Speaker 1: even the reference doesn't make sense that. Yeah, the aspect
Speaker 1: of like Trump being like such a bumbastad figure also
Speaker 1: playing into it too, because you know, surely, like Bill
Speaker 1: Gates is a famous, rich guy, but he didn't get
Speaker 1: as many shoutouts or like comparisons or things like that
Speaker 1: as Trump because he's not like showy. Yeah, that's a
Speaker 1: good point. That's a good point. Yeah. I know hip
Speaker 1: hop is supposed to be inclusive and everybody can get
Speaker 1: in and YadA, YadA, YadA, YadA, all that all that
Speaker 1: ship I'm saying. So I guess the thing's just like disheartening.
Speaker 1: The lesson that I don't think is being learned because
Speaker 1: maybe it's just some ship that only I'm thinking about,
Speaker 1: but is who we let into hip hop and how
Speaker 1: this Donald Trump situation is not the first time that
Speaker 1: some body fake in the funk, got open arms, embrace,
Speaker 1: and then flipped around on the other side and turned
Speaker 1: it turned out to not even be not a decent person,
Speaker 1: not be for the culture. Like nothing, know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: Like I look at Donald Trump's fall from grace, no
Speaker 1: different than Kid Rocks. You feel what I'm saying. But
Speaker 1: there's a lot of people who listen to mainstream hip
Speaker 1: hop who, like I'm pretty sure, don't give two funks
Speaker 1: about the people making it or anybody that looks like though, no, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, this is a college town that we're in
Speaker 1: right now, and like you definitely see like hoisted pickup trucks,
Speaker 1: you know, Magga Hat asked, Motherfucker's out here and the
Speaker 1: newest Mego song. I just feel like, obviously there's nothing
Speaker 1: anybody can do to change the path. But in hindsight,
Speaker 1: you know the fact that there's no self reflection as
Speaker 1: to like, damn, you know what wasn't about what I
Speaker 1: was doing that would have made a motherfucker like that
Speaker 1: feel comfortable? Because what do you what do you see
Speaker 1: as the deal breaker for Trump and hip hop? I
Speaker 1: don't think. I don't think you can ask me that
Speaker 1: question because I feel like we should have been not
Speaker 1: fucking with him all along. I agree, No, I agree
Speaker 1: for you. So I'm not talking about you personally. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm talking about what what do you see like? Because
Speaker 1: obviously there's a switch right like Trump has been he's
Speaker 1: been doing he's been being Trump and doing all of
Speaker 1: his Trump things and having all of his Trump is
Speaker 1: um and then in hip hop was this I'm doing
Speaker 1: I'm living. It's always I'm living like I'm with um,
Speaker 1: you know. I mean, I'm getting money like Trump. That
Speaker 1: they're staying in Trump hotels, they're well known, like him,
Speaker 1: they're saying to the black version of him. And so
Speaker 1: Trump has represented as an expiring example of wealth and
Speaker 1: success and that and something they want, someone they want
Speaker 1: to be close to, whether socially or in terms of
Speaker 1: emulating that success. If there was a switch to where
Speaker 1: it was just universally fuck Donald Trump. What aspect of
Speaker 1: Donald Trump do you think is the deal breaker? It's
Speaker 1: hard to say, because I mean, like its latest two
Speaker 1: thousand and fifteen jaw Rule was saying not even like
Speaker 1: rapping about Trump, but saying things like Trump is very entertaining.
Speaker 1: He speaks very openly and candidly about what he feels.
Speaker 1: I think it's a breath of fresh air. Right, And
Speaker 1: so there was already this undercurrent of like questioning the
Speaker 1: belonging of African American folks in this country, and like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, let's not forget about all of the housing
Speaker 1: discrimination stuff back in five. I think it's overt racism
Speaker 1: is the deal breaker. To me, that's very easy. I
Speaker 1: think there's a lesson to be learned from that. We
Speaker 1: all look at Donald Trump now, we're like, wait a minute,
Speaker 1: this guy's a fucking idiot, right, like like he doesn't
Speaker 1: know anything, He's dumb, Like why is he always lying
Speaker 1: all the time in abloviate like like this is really
Speaker 1: like damn, who the fund shoul for anything that this
Speaker 1: guy was saying. You know, That's how we look at
Speaker 1: him now, And she's like that. But the thing is
Speaker 1: he's always been that. So if the only different factor
Speaker 1: is that he came down the escalator and said that
Speaker 1: Mexicans are rapists, ah, Like we don't like that ship.
Speaker 1: Everything else we were cool with, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: Like all the other ship, all the like crooked dealings
Speaker 1: and moralistic selfishness, misogyny, like all that ship. It's like,
Speaker 1: I mean, when I think of all of the things
Speaker 1: that I think are bad about Donald Trump, when I
Speaker 1: go down the list, there would be like two or
Speaker 1: three things that would come out that I would imagine,
Speaker 1: like that, why is anybody funk with this person? And
Speaker 1: racism comes in a like number three or two? Do
Speaker 1: you feel what I'm saying? Period? But I think that
Speaker 1: if there was a Donald Trump, or if there was
Speaker 1: an alternate reality where Donald Trump didn't come down the
Speaker 1: escalator and say that Mexicans are rapists, I have a
Speaker 1: hard time imagining a reality where you would not see
Speaker 1: a lot of your favorite mainstream rappers at the Mcarellies.
Speaker 1: I fell you on that. I feel you on that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So I think you're making a good point. But like,
Speaker 1: the thing that I really wonder in these times is that, Okay,
Speaker 1: rappers have been trash talking Trump since seventeen, But what
Speaker 1: are rappers gonna do? Like? Are they gonna mobilize people
Speaker 1: to vote? Are they gonna come out and endorse candidates?
Speaker 1: Are they gonna campaign for candidates? Are they gonna benefit
Speaker 1: conference constants for candidates? Like? What are what are we
Speaker 1: going to do? What are they going to do? I
Speaker 1: don't even think that we necessary. That isn't a must
Speaker 1: that rappers go out there and necessarily speak on behalf
Speaker 1: of like a candidate or anything like that. But going
Speaker 1: we had like the we had like jay z and
Speaker 1: like Beyonce indorsed Obama and and but when when jay
Speaker 1: z or endorsed the Hillary Clinton, what did he say
Speaker 1: when he did it? Said something to the effect of, now,
Speaker 1: I got no problem with Trumph. He's a nice guy,
Speaker 1: but like Hillary Clinton. You know what I'm saying, It's like, nah, man,
Speaker 1: obviously we you know, I'm kind of passionate about this,
Speaker 1: and I'm totally open to being wrong, But I feel
Speaker 1: that for thirty years hip hop has been like yo,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, I gotta get mine flash
Speaker 1: flash Flash. We've been putting it out there and it's
Speaker 1: I mean, we're living in in woke times and more
Speaker 1: aware times where people were more aware and more you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. So it doesn't mean that shipped
Speaker 1: from the past is like bad, but I would think
Speaker 1: that people would want to reflect this like damn you
Speaker 1: know what, like maybe maybe we have some sort of
Speaker 1: like responsibility to take this guy down like a particular responsibility,
Speaker 1: Like we have some some of the burden on our
Speaker 1: filders of the guilt the past. We have to patone
Speaker 1: for our previous actions by like doing something about the situation.
Speaker 1: Everybody who everyone who works at the crew of the
Speaker 1: Apprentice television show I feel, feel the exact same way.
Speaker 1: It's like, yo, man, we was working on making this
Speaker 1: type of ship like mad regular. You know what I mean,
Speaker 1: to normalize, you know what I'm saying, And now that
Speaker 1: doesn't seem cool anymore. So people who worked on that
Speaker 1: show should be dropping all those like tapes that no
Speaker 1: one is seen yet. I think rappers should. Rappers should
Speaker 1: make more of an effort if they feel this way.
Speaker 1: If they don't feel that way, then it's different. But like,
Speaker 1: if there are things that you recognize in Trump and
Speaker 1: Trump is m that like you see is like yo,
Speaker 1: that's like a whack way for people to be, then
Speaker 1: you should speak on it and speak on it in
Speaker 1: your music because more people are going to hear that
Speaker 1: than they're gonna hear any interviews that you did. Right,
Speaker 1: they might see on like Billboard or Rolling Stone that
Speaker 1: you endorse someone one time in their feet, but they're
Speaker 1: gonna listen to that song in their car exact day,
Speaker 1: and that's what's gonna drive people out to vote. That's
Speaker 1: when it's gonna embraise critical consciousness about the issues. So
Speaker 1: I guess that's what we need to do. Remains to
Speaker 1: be seen if it will see it, But we can
Speaker 1: only hope. The only hope it only man. I would
Speaker 1: kill to go to see like a hip hop show.
Speaker 1: I would kill because like I've been seeing online that
Speaker 1: like Bernie is having these like yeah yeah, and like
Speaker 1: I would love, I would love to see, you know,
Speaker 1: Cardi B is probably gonna do. I would, I would,
Speaker 1: I would go see Cardi B. And Bernie Sanders. That's
Speaker 1: the thing about like hip hop and politics. It's just
Speaker 1: like so much of the music doesn't like match, doesn't
Speaker 1: those hand in hand. It's fine. I think the more
Speaker 1: we encourage people to see that, like you can turn
Speaker 1: up and twork on the weekend and fulfill your civic
Speaker 1: duty and vote like it doesn't have to. It's not
Speaker 1: like you're not that kind of personal, that kind of
Speaker 1: thing because you are into a certain kind of music.
Speaker 1: It's been too long that like we've carved out this
Speaker 1: space in between those identities were like, oh I am
Speaker 1: that I go to the club. That other ship is
Speaker 1: not for me. We need to start normalizing, like both, yes,
Speaker 1: twere your ass off, get down and go fucking vote.
Speaker 1: I agree, I agree, it's just funny. I'm just saying, like,
Speaker 1: no one can say that it's not funny, Like it's
Speaker 1: not funny. Well, by the time you guys are hearing this,
Speaker 1: um there's no telling. But it could be. It could
Speaker 1: be either on the eve of this ship popping off,
Speaker 1: or it could be while the primaries are still going on.
Speaker 1: But vote, you know what I'm saying, or at least
Speaker 1: at least speak up. You know what I'm saying. Ship, Yeah,
Speaker 1: vote and be a vote multiplier. Tell your roommates, tell
Speaker 1: your friends. I don't know where squally are the roommates
Speaker 1: stands politically about it. You bet your ass. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: get his asked to go vote. So let's let's maybe
Speaker 1: get into talk about some of these pre two fifteen references.
Speaker 1: One of the earliest mentions, as we kind of touched
Speaker 1: upon earlier, was um BC Boys track Johnny Ryo of
Speaker 1: the album Paul's Boutique. But I think Donald Tramp was
Speaker 1: supposed to be like some like comic coal version in
Speaker 1: the song, so he's talking about Johnny Ryle running around
Speaker 1: just doing crazy ship He's lives in the street. It's
Speaker 1: a rockabilly star for the days of old. You just
Speaker 1: have teeth off field with gold um. But then they
Speaker 1: talk about Donald Trump and Donald Tramp living in the
Speaker 1: men shelter. What are bread bag shoes and singing helter
Speaker 1: skelter he asked for? Don't let you know what's for?
Speaker 1: Man Botley always needs more. So, I mean, I don't
Speaker 1: really it's not really clear what It's not really clear
Speaker 1: to me what Donald Trump is doing in this song
Speaker 1: other than the fact that the Men Shelter is um
Speaker 1: okay homeless shelter in Brooklyn that provides temporary emergency housing
Speaker 1: for um single men who are diagnosed with mental illness
Speaker 1: and substance abuse, which I think those two uh qualifiers
Speaker 1: might have applied. I think in that context is just
Speaker 1: as a pop cultural figure, just pop culture bigger. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I want to read too much into the
Speaker 1: like I mean a lot of these are because of that.
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't think it's I don't think it's
Speaker 1: something that doesn't lend itself to be read into you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, Like, I definitely think there's room
Speaker 1: to read into it too much in a good way though,
Speaker 1: like in a way that we should be reading into it.
Speaker 1: But on their end, like I said, Donald Trump has
Speaker 1: been at this point and this is what's so fucking
Speaker 1: sad about it. And I'm glad that we're getting this
Speaker 1: episode out of the way so that we don't something
Speaker 1: about truple. But it's just like, as a figure, Donald
Speaker 1: Trump has been present and constant in American life for
Speaker 1: so long, you know what I mean, Then it just
Speaker 1: makes sense that it's just like he comes up as
Speaker 1: a default thing that you think of when you're trying
Speaker 1: to make a certain point when you're a lot of
Speaker 1: these rhymes, they don't have a very like they don't.
Speaker 1: They're not like talking about him at length any of
Speaker 1: his qualities or qualifications as a popular, powerful person. That's it.
Speaker 1: That's all. That's all the only context. Yeah, scarface and
Speaker 1: money and power jobs in nigger rolling haunts back in
Speaker 1: paper like uh you g k pocket full of Stones
Speaker 1: that I love that song dicking lick just to get
Speaker 1: up bump black Sea. The Niggers called me black Trump.
Speaker 1: No one calls you that. First of all, no one
Speaker 1: calls you. Then I like, okay, the coup, work yourself,
Speaker 1: this collection day, break yourself Trumps collection. The coup isn't that? Is? That?
Speaker 1: Is that Boots has been? Um I think so I
Speaker 1: do think that's Boots Riley's band. Yeah, so okay, so okay,
Speaker 1: the coup, Well here's that. Break yourself Trump, It's collection day. Okay, listen, No,
Speaker 1: so we have our first example of a negative Trump. Ryan,
Speaker 1: let me hear it. Now the oozy that we're once
Speaker 1: used to kill each other are now used to serve
Speaker 1: and protect the brothers and as sisters because they're packing
Speaker 1: forty five and nine were down for revolution and not
Speaker 1: just for their behind. Because the word is heard across
Speaker 1: the Bay in l A and New York, New York,
Speaker 1: Chicago and Atlanta, GA. We give a fox if you've
Speaker 1: got money in the billions, because I'm because, motherfucker, we've
Speaker 1: got possets in the billion to break yourself Bush, It's
Speaker 1: collection day, Break yourself, Trump, It's collection day, Break yourself. DuPont,
Speaker 1: It's collection day. You stole the ship from your grid
Speaker 1: from my great granddaddy. Anyway, So yeah, I mean but
Speaker 1: look at who that is. It's the Coop. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's the cool Yeah. So it's like that that makes
Speaker 1: all the sense in the world. Okay, that's cool. So
Speaker 1: who is the Coup? Just for a little bit of background,
Speaker 1: it's an Oakland, California based hip hop group that UM
Speaker 1: has frontman Boots Riley. As you may know from Uh
Speaker 1: Sorry to Bother You fame. UM they have you know,
Speaker 1: a lot of the music has a critique of capitalism,
Speaker 1: American politics, white patriarchal exploitation. The only reason I'm just
Speaker 1: not as taken aback by it, it's just because it's expected.
Speaker 1: Like if we if we should come across like a
Speaker 1: dead press you know, I don't know if it's in here,
Speaker 1: but if we should come across the dead press one
Speaker 1: and it's a negative one, that would make all the sense.
Speaker 1: I'll be surprised if it's like your master P has
Speaker 1: like a you know what I'm saying. Oh wait, my
Speaker 1: own master up. Yeah. See like now if Master P
Speaker 1: has said fuck you Trump, fuck you Bush, I got
Speaker 1: a top cocktail. Yeah, I think we could have made
Speaker 1: a difference. Um what do we got? Uh? Ray Kwan
Speaker 1: in cars rated scarface cool g wrap mafioso and I
Speaker 1: said the eight can't stop. You're stopping. I gotta cuss
Speaker 1: off the Trump plub not a lot of people talk,
Speaker 1: A lot of people talking about wanting to be to
Speaker 1: stay at the City Hotel. I'm in the Trump in
Speaker 1: the Nationale thirty floor is up, Kim, shut up, bitch.
Speaker 1: Two thousand five. Wait, yo, I'm in the Trump in
Speaker 1: the National Dirty flows up paying. Yeah, that's perfect. Kanye
Speaker 1: West two thousand ten, spawn Donald Trump taking Dallas for y'all.
Speaker 1: These are these are the ones that I'm really interested. Okay,
Speaker 1: it's the ones that occur after two thousand ten? Whoa
Speaker 1: waite on tas Ball, after I ain't trying to stand
Speaker 1: I'm gonna fighting my blood like down ther Trump? Maybe
Speaker 1: only in reference to the Apprentice? When was that? That
Speaker 1: was two Okay, yeah, that is a reference to the Apprentice,
Speaker 1: But still still right is it's like two thousand twelve
Speaker 1: Obama's running for his second tour. Yeah, the year before
Speaker 1: Donald Trump comes out wild racist birtherism ship right, And
Speaker 1: still we're getting positive references to Donald Trump, like ray
Speaker 1: k the chef, the chef chef take over the world.
Speaker 1: When I'm on my Donald Trump ship Mac Miller Rest
Speaker 1: in Peace two thousand eleven, And I remember watching the
Speaker 1: first birtherism interview, at least one of the first ones,
Speaker 1: Like I was like, I remember avidly watching it on TV,
Speaker 1: is like, oh word, this thing is racist, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. But again, to me, it's just that's
Speaker 1: just what really solidifies it in my mind that I
Speaker 1: think the visceral reaction to seeing him come down the
Speaker 1: escalator running for president and like kicking off the whole
Speaker 1: thing with like, oh, by the way, the Mexican you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, Like, I really think that that
Speaker 1: it was just like the switch of like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: we're not fucking you, you know what I'm Yeah, so
Speaker 1: Vader has said then the official end of the era
Speaker 1: of positive Donald Trump references was with how do you
Speaker 1: say this race? Shrimmer, single single up like Trump, which
Speaker 1: was really just before Trump announced his campaign and was
Speaker 1: am positive, What was it? Like? Donald Trump? Okay, I'd
Speaker 1: like Donald Trump. You know, here we are two tho fifteen,
Speaker 1: Donald Trump is running for president. Suddenly there's the escalator moment,
Speaker 1: as you you know noted, and then things then that's
Speaker 1: when you get Kendrick Lamar Black Friday, two thousand fifteen
Speaker 1: of the paget knit that get your did you better
Speaker 1: you put Donald Trump cross free Enterprise? Alway? Is it
Speaker 1: because of rich? And I know what painting is sas
Speaker 1: Nick Trump like M Simmerman. No, Donald Trump ain't safe
Speaker 1: on my block? Got your wife Atyehop Davis? Yeah yeah,
Speaker 1: I not my actual favorite though I didn't. I didn't
Speaker 1: know who said that, but like, as I was reading it,
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, this is a New York grapher. Yeah,
Speaker 1: claim you're quicker than yeah, yeah, yeah, no, that's like
Speaker 1: I think Trump had uh had probably won the primary
Speaker 1: by that point. I do remember that. I think LP
Speaker 1: has the illest Trump bar. Oh yeah, that's I mean,
Speaker 1: I mean, unless we're going for positive no, no, If
Speaker 1: it's just a reference to Donald Trump, that is the
Speaker 1: coldest bar. Likelier tumble, I like that, that's probably yeah.
Speaker 1: And then of course there's Donald Trump. I y g,
Speaker 1: he's too rich. He got the answers. He came out
Speaker 1: sing his Couch, which was purportedly inspired by Hustle's positive
Speaker 1: experience working with Mexican immigrants the US. I didn't know that.
Speaker 1: Um as many probably know, as includes some sound bites
Speaker 1: of several black protesters who were rejected from a Trump
Speaker 1: rally down Strode from US in Baldosta, Georgia, and they
Speaker 1: actually got called in the secret service to his label,
Speaker 1: def Dam and Lions got blanked out of the song
Speaker 1: so that they could include it on the final coude
Speaker 1: of the album. Yeah, it was definitely an affirmation, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, like a statement type of song.
Speaker 1: It was kind of like a it was it was
Speaker 1: just like a summer jam kind of in the sense
Speaker 1: of like people really real when you can say something
Speaker 1: a phrase and then like just naturally f d T
Speaker 1: is like you know what I'm saying, write ft T.
Speaker 1: Everybody instantly knows what it stands for. It's like you
Speaker 1: did it. You need strong song writing behind making something
Speaker 1: like that happened. And do you think they brought it? Um?
Speaker 1: You know what I mean. It's personally it's not like
Speaker 1: my favorite song, to be honest with you, um, but
Speaker 1: it's not because of anything that they did on the song.
Speaker 1: I just feel again, it's the whole Trump thing. And
Speaker 1: even when the song came out at that point, it
Speaker 1: was like, yeah, it's like for me just personally, it's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: the guys obviously bad so so so the song had
Speaker 1: much more of a like, yeah, I agree guys. The
Speaker 1: speeds though, you know what I'm saying, we need protest anthems,
Speaker 1: We need stuff for people to rally around. Culturally, I mean,
Speaker 1: I think that's one of the link linkages between hip
Speaker 1: hop and like revolutionary culture polytics, because we can rally
Speaker 1: folks too. I don't know, feel a sense of optimism
Speaker 1: about our political situation or you know, have this Catharsis
Speaker 1: around songs like that, even if their content can be trite.
Speaker 1: The only problem with songs like that is just I
Speaker 1: feel in a way they kind of lend power to
Speaker 1: the figure that they're about. It's like it's like increasing
Speaker 1: right name recognition through positive the negative reference. So like
Speaker 1: the if you hear, like you know, if you hear
Speaker 1: someone got arrested for stealing, they just gotta you know,
Speaker 1: but they're later acquitted all your members that they got arrested,
Speaker 1: and so in your mind at the criminals, even if
Speaker 1: the one is negatively referencing a figure, gives that figure
Speaker 1: rent free in your head. Yes, yeah, that is true,
Speaker 1: all right. I have a sense that there's forces behind
Speaker 1: trump Ism and maga Ism that are like big and
Speaker 1: diabolical and evil and all that ship. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, all everyone's fucking worst live nightmare of what
Speaker 1: the fun is going on behind those scenes. Like, but
Speaker 1: then there's also an element to it that's like extremely
Speaker 1: incompetent and like stupid and dumb, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: So there's like an aspect of it that's like damn,
Speaker 1: you know, like if Mussolini had us all under his thumb, damn, Yo,
Speaker 1: fuck Mussolini. I gotta make a song about this motherfucker,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. There's an element of like
Speaker 1: how goofy the Trump is that just like seems like
Speaker 1: man that don't deserve no song about him? Okay, So
Speaker 1: I mean I think we gotta end this, like we
Speaker 1: end everything. Let's kick it. I feel like, all right,
Speaker 1: let's do it. Hey, can we gotta beat uh yeah
Speaker 1: yeah yeah uh like fun Dom Trump like fuck Dom Trump,
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah it domond Trump's like yo buck Donald Trump, Yo,
Speaker 1: funck Donald Trump and the other man like the government
Speaker 1: and Republicans. I come through motherfucker's tho. I'm smother the
Speaker 1: ring and you know I'm on the board and I'm
Speaker 1: hover ringt Yeah, you know I eat a nice meal.
Speaker 1: I'll show you motherfucker's green new deal. I'll show you
Speaker 1: motherfucker's how I mean you feel you're coming up. But
Speaker 1: your motherfucker's just wearing teal you like a seal hunt
Speaker 1: you for your blubber. I like these motherfucker's just jiggle
Speaker 1: like they flubber. And every time I keep my shirt,
Speaker 1: I'm not usher. I'll put you in a trap like
Speaker 1: he wasn't goes buster up, won't trust us not. I
Speaker 1: just go and bust until the whole machines busted, rolling
Speaker 1: real cool deeper than the three hundred. Every time I
Speaker 1: grabbed the ship, got a dope sandwich. The needs mustard.
Speaker 1: He's mustard. You must not trust them. They's the government
Speaker 1: and they're coming for your brethren, coming for your mother
Speaker 1: and other other kids. Everybody know that those people in
Speaker 1: the government ain't looking out for you. Instead, they're trying
Speaker 1: to ignore EI. This other exploit you trying to take it,
Speaker 1: and you go to the toilet. Everybody know that they'd
Speaker 1: be toilet. And if you're trying to take your fucking
Speaker 1: soil Everybody wishes that they could get like this rhyme,
Speaker 1: but they cannot because they do not have the zest
Speaker 1: of that line. Little freeze up on the spot on
Speaker 1: my sandwich. Everybody wishes they can handle it, but they can't.
Speaker 1: Bitch there. You have to have to understand it otherwise
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have to can it, and I'm going on
Speaker 1: the planet like not yo. Some makers marking a weather
Speaker 1: take apart your protection. That's the start of a lesson.
Speaker 1: I think you are second guessing drink in front of
Speaker 1: the reverence. That's why I have no adversary. Can't compare
Speaker 1: me to these cherries with their bat vocabulary, want to
Speaker 1: limit what I say. I remember that nickel snap, don't
Speaker 1: care if you're straining over democrat you fake your demo's whack.
Speaker 1: Wait until I get a crack whereever tracks in the
Speaker 1: back of places with better crap. By the way, what
Speaker 1: constitute discussing? I am too discussing when coming through percussion?
Speaker 1: An effusive husband, and I'm a dude when busting. You
Speaker 1: want to hear rhymes and I'm the dude you love it,
Speaker 1: I'm the future cousin. You hardy could rhyme Marty mcflod
Speaker 1: couldn't even see a part of my time. I was
Speaker 1: dope when all of y'all was watching Party of Five.
Speaker 1: Not a ladies man, but I bet your daughter with
Speaker 1: grind mom the library skin color. Noble looks folded like
Speaker 1: tiger wings under his over wire, then retired with yes,
Speaker 1: smiling as I passed him as I go to smoke.
Speaker 1: It's my fact, wonder where why the We're the only
Speaker 1: one who's up in Florida. Human novels stacked around. That's
Speaker 1: how what heaven could have faded? I am here the
Speaker 1: only brown wants to be bounding the town that an
Speaker 1: emancipation erab population was white and black people had sharp up.
Speaker 1: It wasn't like we left the area. Terror of shas
Speaker 1: trying to scare us off with other came of it
Speaker 1: when never were about the heart of her to misery.
Speaker 1: That's all the earth, the bitter Greek up, the licker
Speaker 1: off Trump Ya, I'm doping with Franka. We're waiting on reparation.
Speaker 1: Hurry up, see you guys next week. Peace. Waiting on
Speaker 1: Reparations is a production of I Heart Radio. Listen to
Speaker 1: Waiting on Reparations on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you get your podcasts.