Speaker 1: You're listening to waiting on Reparations A production. I heartt
Speaker 1: um Lingua franca. I'm dope nice and we are waiting
Speaker 1: on reparations. So this week, I mean, I feel like
Speaker 1: things still feel pretty bleak. Yeah, getting a new president,
Speaker 1: uh president that uh told you know, billionaire hedge fund
Speaker 1: assholes of nothing fun of them menally going to change
Speaker 1: enders presidency. Uh So I mean like that doesn't give
Speaker 1: me a ton of hope. Um, Fascism doesn't just go
Speaker 1: away when Donald Trump leaves the White House, And still
Speaker 1: we have to confront those thress you know, both to
Speaker 1: the body politics into our literal bodies in the streets
Speaker 1: and in our homes. Um, until we figure out as
Speaker 1: we spoke of in previous episodes of Recent that you know,
Speaker 1: a suite of Paul seems to like heal the nation
Speaker 1: more so than rhetoric can. And so I personally feel
Speaker 1: like it'll be nice this week to take a lighthearted
Speaker 1: turn from the usual gloom and doomersion that I think
Speaker 1: comes with the reality of grappling with public policy in
Speaker 1: America the way it has inflected hip hop. Am I
Speaker 1: talking about stuff that it brings us to joy? Um?
Speaker 1: I know you Mac just are really into comic books
Speaker 1: in cinema and things like that. And so today we're
Speaker 1: going to take a swirl, take a to world. I
Speaker 1: think it's world around the world of after futurism, UM,
Speaker 1: both in its embodiments through comic books, through video games.
Speaker 1: We're going to speak with in the video game con world, UM,
Speaker 1: how we got into that and sort of what brings
Speaker 1: him joy in those regards, as well as kind of
Speaker 1: unpack what after futurism is and speak briefly about how
Speaker 1: it can inflect our politics um in the way that
Speaker 1: it's represented in the music genre of hip hop as
Speaker 1: well from artists like Lutin Clin, M F. Doom, Missy Elliott,
Speaker 1: and Alminet people like that. The term after futurism was
Speaker 1: coined by cultural critic Mark Dairy in a forty four
Speaker 1: page essay from RIETEENEE entitled Black to the Future, in
Speaker 1: which Darry who Admitaly, is a white author, interviews to
Speaker 1: have a prominent black voices from musician and former Village
Speaker 1: Voice writer Greg Tay to Tricia Rose, director of the
Speaker 1: Center for Study of Race and Ethnicity in America. Brown
Speaker 1: is also written extensively on hip hop um sci fi
Speaker 1: writer uh Samuel Delaney, and drawn from these interviews, Dairy
Speaker 1: came up with the idea of speculative fiction that treats
Speaker 1: African American themes and addresses African American concerns in the
Speaker 1: context of the twentieth century technoculture as afro futurism. More
Speaker 1: generally beyond um are you know basic sensive, speculative fiction
Speaker 1: is like science fiction like oh dystopia, dreaming of a future,
Speaker 1: but it's also signification that appropriates images of technology um
Speaker 1: so um. Within hip hop. As an example, you've got beatboxing,
Speaker 1: making these computer computerized sounds with your mouth, or replicating
Speaker 1: the sounds of a drum the scene physically with your
Speaker 1: tongue and your cheeks and your throat, or you know,
Speaker 1: doing the robot dance to like make your physical corporal,
Speaker 1: corporeal form mimic that of like of like um of
Speaker 1: a mechanized creature. Um. Even in the scratching and sampling
Speaker 1: methods of hip hop, it's like the specific misuse and
Speaker 1: conscientious desecration, Delaney UM said of after futures of hip hop,
Speaker 1: it's um the specific misuse of consciousness desecration of the
Speaker 1: artifacts of technology and entertainment media. So this blending of afrodias,
Speaker 1: boric aesthetics and perspectives UM through the use of technology.
Speaker 1: And so that's why I mean some might say that
Speaker 1: it's a stretch to include, like graphic novels broadly, but
Speaker 1: particularly with regards to video games, to like place the
Speaker 1: black body, the you know, black character within a technologically
Speaker 1: created world um on the screen makes control with your
Speaker 1: own controller, etcetera. Like I think it's an extension to
Speaker 1: that some degree UM, as well as in graphic novels
Speaker 1: like Black Panther um, where you've got this technological advanced
Speaker 1: society UM. You know, like the way that those less
Speaker 1: than literary forms like comic books can also be used
Speaker 1: to imagine a different present, you know, a different twenty
Speaker 1: one century, as well as a different future um enhanced
Speaker 1: by technology. UM. And then you know, if you want
Speaker 1: to just think just general, like after futuristic works, of course, uh,
Speaker 1: people like O. G. Octavia Butler novels come to mind,
Speaker 1: as well as you know, literary trends that wrote main
Speaker 1: alive and well today with the likes of Nettie or
Speaker 1: Kora fors BNTI series and novellas art of John Michelle Baski,
Speaker 1: Yacht within music, You've got like the funky extra terrestrial
Speaker 1: mythos of like Parliament, Cathelic, Delton thirty thirty, col Keith
Speaker 1: thro in jazz. You've got Son raw Um Son Raw especially,
Speaker 1: you know, he's got space age Egyptian alien thing going on.
Speaker 1: You've got the incorporation of digital synthesizers, so you have
Speaker 1: the literal technology as like a medium through which these
Speaker 1: sounds are being created. Um. And then you know, I
Speaker 1: think the most modern popular block busting incarnation of after futurism,
Speaker 1: and I think what brought it into like contemporary conversation
Speaker 1: was of course Black Panther um. I. You know, I
Speaker 1: feel like I would be remiss musically not to mention
Speaker 1: groundbreaking work of people like Missy Elliott, particularly in our
Speaker 1: music videos from the nineties that like felt very you
Speaker 1: know today feel very retrofuturistic, but at the time had
Speaker 1: a very like space ag ahead of its time vibe.
Speaker 1: And then today people like Janelle Monet um with her
Speaker 1: like weird obsession androids things like that afro futurists or
Speaker 1: reimagining public policy through um that afro diasporic blended with
Speaker 1: technology technology lens um. In two thousand sixteen, afro futurists
Speaker 1: and art curator Ngland the Fleur through a hat in
Speaker 1: the ring for the Detroit Mayor's race, collectingdition signatures needed
Speaker 1: to get her name on the ballot to challenge Mayor mcduggan,
Speaker 1: the first white mayor in the majority black city since
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy three. And akin to some of the splitting
Speaker 1: images guests we've had on this show, people like Sean
Speaker 1: Patar and paper Boy Prints, the Fleur credited her unconventional
Speaker 1: background as an art curator and someone that identifies mostly
Speaker 1: with afro futurism UM to reimagine you know what that
Speaker 1: meant for her reality, to reimagine their role with politicians.
Speaker 1: She said, as a curator and artists have learned how
Speaker 1: to bring people together to solve problems creatively UM and
Speaker 1: to be a good organizer and a good researcher. Her
Speaker 1: platform included plans to focus on UM ending water shut off,
Speaker 1: stopping city foreclosures, are vitalizing and beautifying neighborhoods, and in
Speaker 1: eradicating poverty. As a native detroitter, La Fleur also co
Speaker 1: facilitates the Detroit Culture Council, which organized the strategies for
Speaker 1: artists to be better representative at the city government. And
Speaker 1: what I really love about Lafleur's campaign is that she
Speaker 1: launched her campaign the dance party called Detroit at the
Speaker 1: feature at the headquarters of creative activist collective One Mile,
Speaker 1: and it featured after a futurist space capsule created by
Speaker 1: Detroit Architecture and Design form firm, a cookie like what
Speaker 1: a way to fun. And I mean, That's what I'm
Speaker 1: all about. It's just like making politics, making politics fun,
Speaker 1: making them at a party somehow, um and so I
Speaker 1: just really love that. But I hope in UM subsequent
Speaker 1: episodes is an afro futurist collective in Atlanta that has
Speaker 1: been really uh central to things like the push to
Speaker 1: close the Atlanta Jail and re imagine that space as
Speaker 1: like a wellness center and like a community building space.
Speaker 1: UM and I really really love to talk to them
Speaker 1: about their work. So we'll dive more into the political
Speaker 1: implications of afro futurism, hopefully in an episode to come.
Speaker 1: But today we're going to focus on the fun ship
Speaker 1: the Nurstion, and we're gonna speak with rapper Mega Ran
Speaker 1: along the way. So we're here with rapper, producer Master
Speaker 1: Show oh Man and now author of a brand new memoir,
Speaker 1: dream Master. I wanna give a welcome to Raheim jarbo
Speaker 1: a k A Mega Ran. I always I always joked that,
Speaker 1: like I wish this was live so there would be
Speaker 1: like an audience for when I like introduced people, plus
Speaker 1: like the you know, the gun shots or whatever. So
Speaker 1: how are you? How are you doing? Man? I'm good man.
Speaker 1: You know, made it limp through a crazy year. You
Speaker 1: know that goes. But you know, just I've been I
Speaker 1: learned a lot throughout this past year. So just been
Speaker 1: learning to apply it and uh and making the most
Speaker 1: of the situation. You know, the reinvention and you just
Speaker 1: finding new you know, sources of inspiration and creativity have
Speaker 1: been a challenge, but but you know it's something that
Speaker 1: I welcome. So it's just making the most of it.
Speaker 1: You know, I feel you. So how long have you
Speaker 1: been working on the memoir? Man? This has been like
Speaker 1: five six years of me just you know, I read
Speaker 1: a chapter here, a paragraph there. You know, um up
Speaker 1: until literally November, I was still writing because um me,
Speaker 1: you know, as as a writer, like it's never really perfect,
Speaker 1: you know, until it's you know, even when it comes out,
Speaker 1: you're like, oh, man, I could have said this way
Speaker 1: and did this, you know. So I was like in
Speaker 1: an over editing phase that everything time I read it,
Speaker 1: I was like, oh yeah, I could add a little more.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I can see this. So I forgot about that.
Speaker 1: So even now that it's done, I'm like, man, I
Speaker 1: forgot to talk about scribblege or this this this particular
Speaker 1: moment that was really big to my life. But my
Speaker 1: editor gave me a lot of great advice. She was like,
Speaker 1: save it for the next book, you know, like think
Speaker 1: about it that way like anything. Definitely, you definitely think
Speaker 1: you're gonna do the next book. This guy to be
Speaker 1: the next book, I guess. You know, there's you know
Speaker 1: that there's always the next album, you know, like when
Speaker 1: you make movies, you're thinking about sequels and stuff. So
Speaker 1: you know, so it helped me to think differently about it,
Speaker 1: like this doesn't have to be the final peace, you know,
Speaker 1: like did anything about the like you know, anything about
Speaker 1: kind of Light of Fire of Urgency to at least
Speaker 1: get this first part of it done. Absolutely, I was
Speaker 1: like man, the world is up in smoke. I've had
Speaker 1: a harry up. We may not have a world left.
Speaker 1: And also like, um, you know, in a serious note,
Speaker 1: my father passed this past year and that really got
Speaker 1: my button gear too, because um, the book ends at
Speaker 1: two thousand eighteen. It was like at a very particularly
Speaker 1: great moment, like a high to end the book AT's
Speaker 1: me getting againness world record and so oh it's four
Speaker 1: let me see it's right here, let me read it.
Speaker 1: Uh since for the most songs to reference reference video
Speaker 1: game franchises. Yeah, so it's one of those like number
Speaker 1: of doing a thing a lot of times, so like
Speaker 1: it's yeah, it's a little weird and funny, like basically
Speaker 1: just puts a target on my back, like as a
Speaker 1: hundred and thirty of these now, so if anybody like
Speaker 1: wants to aim for something, yeah, one and you know
Speaker 1: it's like oh the guy who jumped broke the most
Speaker 1: times or somebody just has to do it one more time.
Speaker 1: You just gotta want to do it a little bit
Speaker 1: more than that other person. And uh yeah, so the
Speaker 1: guy kiss me up in uh just a weird random
Speaker 1: email like hey man, I'm with Guinness and we know
Speaker 1: you make a lot of music about video games. Just curious,
Speaker 1: how many songs do you have? And I was like, uh,
Speaker 1: you got a minute. So I started going through accounting
Speaker 1: and U and I'm like, yeah, I have a hundred thirty,
Speaker 1: like about Mega Man particularly. He was like, oh, well
Speaker 1: this is definitely the most songs I't want particular. He
Speaker 1: just knew it off the bat, like, yeah, this is
Speaker 1: this is by a long shot, this is a record.
Speaker 1: He's like, so, you know, if you're ever in London,
Speaker 1: It's one of those things that people always do to us,
Speaker 1: you know, independent artists. Yo, if you're ever in my town,
Speaker 1: I got you. And it's like London, Like how often
Speaker 1: am I in London? So I decided, Yo, what how
Speaker 1: many times am I ever going to get this type
Speaker 1: of opportunity. So I was like, well, actually I'll be
Speaker 1: in London next month. Was I going to be in
Speaker 1: London next month? No? But I con sure make plans too,
Speaker 1: So I called on my homies, I'll put up you
Speaker 1: set up a little mini tour in London and just
Speaker 1: made it happen and like because I was like, I
Speaker 1: gotta take advantage of this opportunity, like you know, you
Speaker 1: might not work there, you know next year when I
Speaker 1: want to do this. So uh so yeah, I just
Speaker 1: went out there for that. But we based a tour
Speaker 1: around it and had a really good time. And I'm
Speaker 1: glad you you we went on that tangent about the
Speaker 1: Guinness Big Or Records because this particular episode we're talking
Speaker 1: about just like black nerd um and hip hop's relationship
Speaker 1: with things that people consider to be part of nerd culture,
Speaker 1: like hip hop's relationship with comic books and anime and
Speaker 1: vice versa and the cross between them and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: So what to you, what does nerd them mean? Like
Speaker 1: if somebody, if somebody says nerd you into that nerd ship, like,
Speaker 1: what do you imagine? What do you imagine that they're
Speaker 1: talking about? Man, I've heard that. I'm sorry. Let me
Speaker 1: let me let me say another thing to our audience
Speaker 1: is um and this is this is according to wick
Speaker 1: to uh your your wiki page. But but Mega Ran
Speaker 1: is one of like the forefront um artists in the
Speaker 1: sub genre of nerd core. Is that what be a
Speaker 1: fair thing to say? That would be a fair thing
Speaker 1: to say? Yes, So okay, so can you can you
Speaker 1: explain to heads what nerd core is and how you
Speaker 1: found yourself in that space in hip hop. Okay, So
Speaker 1: nerdcore is, at least to me when I first heard it,
Speaker 1: it's a subgenre of of whatever you attached to it.
Speaker 1: So it could become nerdcore hip hop, it could become
Speaker 1: nerd core rock, nerd coore, whatever um gets attached to that.
Speaker 1: It's usually people who have a deep interest in things
Speaker 1: that people who may consider nerdy are a little French.
Speaker 1: So you got he sorry are the coast? Mariah is here? Mariah?
Speaker 1: What up? Good? We were only six minutes in, but
Speaker 1: I was. He was just telling us about what he
Speaker 1: was explaining what nerd core hip hop is and his
Speaker 1: journey into it. He just just started, So where go on?
Speaker 1: Go on? Mr Rand Okay, Uh so yeah, nerd core,
Speaker 1: as I learned later, at first I just thought it
Speaker 1: was nerd core hip but then I learned that nerd
Speaker 1: cork can attach to any other genre and anything that's
Speaker 1: about nerdiness. You know. I think the term came from
Speaker 1: m c front a lot who just came up, was
Speaker 1: coming up with a word to defind what he was
Speaker 1: doing because it was so different um, and then people
Speaker 1: kind of lashed onto that and thought it was interesting
Speaker 1: like news uh you know, outlets and CNN and some
Speaker 1: other people started wind up talking to them about it,
Speaker 1: like this is some novel news thing that smart kids
Speaker 1: are doing, you know, and and it kind of like
Speaker 1: backfired on it a little bit, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: because it's like when the when the mainstream gets involved
Speaker 1: with those things that we really love, they kind of
Speaker 1: they're like, look at this quirky thing, you know, and
Speaker 1: they really turn it into a joke or a parody
Speaker 1: or something like that. So so I feel like that
Speaker 1: kind of happened, and and for that reason it's maybe
Speaker 1: it's remained very niche, you know. But um but yeah,
Speaker 1: a front of Life told me that it's just music
Speaker 1: from a perspective of someone who is very much into
Speaker 1: and a fan of things that, you know, people considered
Speaker 1: to be nerdy, whether it's video games, comic books, coding,
Speaker 1: you know, like the Life of At least at that time,
Speaker 1: it was like the Life of the I T. Guy
Speaker 1: who also had bars, you know, So that that's kind
Speaker 1: of what it was at that time. And then it's grown,
Speaker 1: you know, as nerd culture has become synonymous with pop culture. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, there's a huge segment of nerd or YouTube
Speaker 1: rappers who are um like right on the pulse of
Speaker 1: what's hot and like instantly making rap songs about you
Speaker 1: know whatever, the new anime, the new show, the new
Speaker 1: Marvel movie, you know, things like that. And so yeah,
Speaker 1: it's become kind of pop culture rap. But I think
Speaker 1: it began as just the the kids who were into
Speaker 1: the things that nobody thought was cool and and trying
Speaker 1: to either make them sound cool or at least speak
Speaker 1: at a high level of knowledge about those things. You know.
Speaker 1: So the initial nerd core stuff, I didn't even know
Speaker 1: what was going on in like it just I knew
Speaker 1: if it sounded good at a beat, But if you're
Speaker 1: you know, making a song about coding or whatever, like
Speaker 1: in two thousand seven or whatever, for me, I was like,
Speaker 1: what is this? So around that time I kind of
Speaker 1: took a break from hip hop and started making, uh,
Speaker 1: just making beats and playing around and playing video games again.
Speaker 1: And I discovered these things on emulators, which is the
Speaker 1: way to play really old Nintendo games on your PC,
Speaker 1: you know. So I started playing Mario and Sonic and
Speaker 1: all that stuff, and I was like, man, these games
Speaker 1: are so fun. And I think I paused the game
Speaker 1: on Mega Man and the music continues to play, and
Speaker 1: I was, as I'm walking away to get a sandwich
Speaker 1: or something, that come back and I'm like, yeah, that
Speaker 1: kind of slaps, like you know what I mean. So
Speaker 1: I'm like, I wonder if I slowed this downpped it up,
Speaker 1: you know, flipped it, I could make something good out
Speaker 1: of this. So I did. I literally did that. I stopped,
Speaker 1: I put the tracks into like Reason or something else,
Speaker 1: and started messing with them and coming up with beats
Speaker 1: that were sampling video games. And uh, I had like
Speaker 1: ten Mega Man beats and I was like, you know what,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna just do a Mega Man EP and just
Speaker 1: have some fun with it. And so we did. And
Speaker 1: I was really scared because I thought, you know, Capcom,
Speaker 1: the company that makes this, is gonna find me and
Speaker 1: like sue my black ass, you know. I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: it's a rap. So I created. I mean, this is
Speaker 1: back in the days of my Space, so that now
Speaker 1: I remember I was following you back then, so I
Speaker 1: remember I remember all this. Okay, you're O g O
Speaker 1: O g uh Internet MC like myself, so fans, thank you.
Speaker 1: So yeah, man, we were. Um. I was like, let
Speaker 1: me make a separate MySpace page because I don't want
Speaker 1: this to get like deleted or something with me doing
Speaker 1: all this copyright stuff. So I made another page. And
Speaker 1: I was very much inspired by like what MF. Doom
Speaker 1: had done prior Rest in Peace, what Dell was able
Speaker 1: to do with Deltron, like all that was so influential
Speaker 1: in what I was trying to do was take you know,
Speaker 1: hip hop heads who also are into nerty stuff and
Speaker 1: just make it dope, you know. And and so that's
Speaker 1: what I did. I was like, all right, well, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna become from random then to Mega rand and that
Speaker 1: would be like my second identity or something. And uh
Speaker 1: so then I get an email. It's from a dude
Speaker 1: that capcom was like, hey, we just heard this thing
Speaker 1: you did. And I'm like, oh what meat now rap
Speaker 1: Like the dude was like, but you know what, man,
Speaker 1: this is really cool. We've let everybody hear it at
Speaker 1: the company and they love it. Would you like to
Speaker 1: I think Comic Con was coming up, and he was like,
Speaker 1: would you like to come to San Diego Comic Con?
Speaker 1: And I was like what, Like I had only read
Speaker 1: about comic Con my entire life. And it was such
Speaker 1: a big like, you know, it was like that that
Speaker 1: that untouchable holy grail of nerd them. Yeah, I had
Speaker 1: read about, you know, and they were like, you could
Speaker 1: come and be our guests, you know, because this thing
Speaker 1: is kind of blowing up on the Internet and we
Speaker 1: want you to kinda sit here and you know, sign autographs.
Speaker 1: And I was like what, you know. So that was
Speaker 1: the beginning of my my relationship with them. And uh
Speaker 1: and through that someone, I think someone maybe interviewed me
Speaker 1: and was like, oh, you make nerd core and I
Speaker 1: was like, what's that? And that nerd coor? And I
Speaker 1: realized that I was kind of operating parallel with this
Speaker 1: thing called nerd coors, you know. And I think the
Speaker 1: only time I had heard it, at least a little later,
Speaker 1: was Shardish Gambino said it in a song, but he
Speaker 1: didn't say it in a very nice way. He said
Speaker 1: like ef nerd car. Honestly, I think it was like
Speaker 1: a part of a line where he was just saying, like,
Speaker 1: different genres and subgenres in places, you're trying to classify
Speaker 1: me and get all those you know, I just do me,
Speaker 1: you know, that kind of thing, so it wasn't necessarily
Speaker 1: a shot, you know what I mean. Like so, but
Speaker 1: then I started meeting the people who were doing it
Speaker 1: because they were also having concerts around San Diego, like
Speaker 1: being invited out by a lot of different companies to
Speaker 1: do stuff, and and they were all really cool dudes.
Speaker 1: So just like I felt a real family atmosphere, like, oh, me,
Speaker 1: and these guys are they love hip hop? You know,
Speaker 1: first first and foremost. I wanted to make sure these
Speaker 1: guys had a love and appreciation for hip hop culture,
Speaker 1: and they did, you know, and on top of that,
Speaker 1: you know, bringing something new to the game, you know.
Speaker 1: So I had nothing but but love for it. And
Speaker 1: then from then on, I just we just started all
Speaker 1: operating in the same circles, meeting up at shows, then
Speaker 1: touring together, and it just created this really interesting niche
Speaker 1: that I I had no idea about, you know, like, uh,
Speaker 1: but it was a lot easier than trying to impress, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, the most stoic of hip hop heads who
Speaker 1: are at a show like all right, but then like yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I have my arms, I have a cowl
Speaker 1: on my faith and you know, but you know, it
Speaker 1: was it was such a welcome difference from that, you know,
Speaker 1: and and at the same time, I still it took
Speaker 1: me a lot of courage to do this. But eventually,
Speaker 1: when I was playing those shows with the stoic arms crossed,
Speaker 1: you know, mcs, m ces UH, I'd make a reference
Speaker 1: to a game and they'd be like, yeo, I remember that. Okay,
Speaker 1: let let me talk to you about this, and then
Speaker 1: you find out that we had so much in common
Speaker 1: those kind of Since the beginning, it's been my goal,
Speaker 1: and I don't know how successful I've been at it,
Speaker 1: but to try to unify these worlds like I just
Speaker 1: wish they weren't they didn't feel like such night and day,
Speaker 1: you know, because we're all nerds. I think anybody that
Speaker 1: could put words together and make them rhyme, it's a
Speaker 1: nerd and something. Yeah you know what I mean, like
Speaker 1: you know something and you're using those eighth grade spell
Speaker 1: of words to this day in those raps, So like
Speaker 1: what is your I mean, I think like nerd core
Speaker 1: and like sub genres of hip hop like this, and
Speaker 1: and the idea of like of you know, kind of
Speaker 1: tying in loosely to the idea of afro futurism. Like
Speaker 1: you know that we can we can be super space
Speaker 1: marauders and you know, fighting aliens and slaying dragons and
Speaker 1: you know all you know all this stuff. We're not
Speaker 1: just like oh, you know eighteen eighty two, like you know,
Speaker 1: reconstructions grow like we we you know, black people can
Speaker 1: be all of these things. Like I think, I think
Speaker 1: it's like really important for you know, this kind of
Speaker 1: music is very important for expanding our ideas of what
Speaker 1: like blackness can be. UM And I wonder if you
Speaker 1: have experienced any like pushback in the other direction, Like
Speaker 1: I feel like I see sometimes where people are like, oh,
Speaker 1: that ships you know, Matt Corny of the ship's whack,
Speaker 1: but that ship is white, like any sort of responses
Speaker 1: of that's where people are trying to constrain what you
Speaker 1: know counts is blackness based on like who like is
Speaker 1: typically cast as like the central characters in like a
Speaker 1: subgenre like the video game culture or within the like
Speaker 1: a field like coding and things like that. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I hadn't even thought about it. But in the very beginning,
Speaker 1: the very first uh like imagery I used to create
Speaker 1: this Mega Ran universe was a black Mega man. So
Speaker 1: is the character that was, you know, for forever a
Speaker 1: white kid, you know, and we shaded him black or brown,
Speaker 1: and a lot of people were like yo, what the
Speaker 1: hell they And they come to me and tell me
Speaker 1: that that was literally the moment that they were like,
Speaker 1: all right, I gotta sets, you know, and they will
Speaker 1: come to me. And I've even had, you know, people
Speaker 1: of color come to me and be like yo, Like
Speaker 1: it made me think like yo, why why can't we
Speaker 1: be in that space? Like why can't we be the protagonist?
Speaker 1: So I can't, you know, And it really created some
Speaker 1: dialogue in that space and and I I wasn't necessarily
Speaker 1: trying to do that, but as I realized later, like yeah,
Speaker 1: like why can't we be the person in the spaceship
Speaker 1: or the the leader or things like that, And so
Speaker 1: it's definitely helped to challenge I think a lot of
Speaker 1: those roles to the point now where I see it
Speaker 1: when video games come out and it's like, oh really,
Speaker 1: the white dude, Oh where this? Like, you know, I
Speaker 1: see those conversations happening like and it's like that's dope.
Speaker 1: Like I really think that we need to be doing that.
Speaker 1: We need to be challenging all the things that we've
Speaker 1: been supporting for years, like for representation, and for a
Speaker 1: long time, it's just been in the back of our head,
Speaker 1: like throughout the eighties especially, like we love the eighties
Speaker 1: that we have, we romanticize eighties culture, but the majority
Speaker 1: of eighties culture was super white, yeah, and or super racist,
Speaker 1: like you know what I mean. It was like, oh
Speaker 1: they had the Asian guy. Oh he's the nerd, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. Like it was super racist and problematic,
Speaker 1: you know, But as much as we you know, enjoy it,
Speaker 1: we forget about those moments, like we kind of shifted
Speaker 1: out of our head, which is crazy. But I think
Speaker 1: now we're finally starting to realize that y'all, like it's
Speaker 1: not acceptable to do that today. So you know, I've
Speaker 1: been watching Cobra Kai with with like a like a
Speaker 1: fine tooth comb, you know. Nowadays, I'm like, I really
Speaker 1: enjoy this, you know, and I like the changes that
Speaker 1: they've made, you know, to to make this I think
Speaker 1: at least a little more accurate for modern you know.
Speaker 1: So I appreciate that. So between when you first were
Speaker 1: like knowingly in the nerd core space and now, would
Speaker 1: you like, have you noticed there's been an increase of
Speaker 1: like other black nerd core artists or oh yeah for sure.
Speaker 1: Um what we started and I noticed when I was
Speaker 1: going to conventions, I would maybe see the same one
Speaker 1: or two you know, um women men that were like
Speaker 1: trying to be a part of this space. And and
Speaker 1: so after a while we kept seeing each other. I
Speaker 1: was like, man, we we gotta click up, like when
Speaker 1: we see each other, you know, that's how we do.
Speaker 1: We just roll deep like yeah, we're the black kids
Speaker 1: at the epicn you know. And and from then we
Speaker 1: started a group and we called it the MPCs the
Speaker 1: Nerdy People of Color Collected and and as and as
Speaker 1: a cool dual meeting because in the game, the NPC
Speaker 1: is that non player character. It's the person who comes
Speaker 1: up and just he's like, oh that way, you know,
Speaker 1: and you can't play them. They don't really help you
Speaker 1: a whole lot. They're super bit player and uh, and
Speaker 1: that's kind of how I felt. Plc s were in
Speaker 1: the convention space and in the nerd space, like, yo,
Speaker 1: we're here, we support it, we spend money, we participate,
Speaker 1: you know, we have uh deep seated obsessions with this stuff,
Speaker 1: you know, but we're not necessarily included. So what I
Speaker 1: started doing is happened NPC panels at these conventions like
Speaker 1: all right, we're gonna get all the kids of color
Speaker 1: to come up and talk about your relationship with nerd culture,
Speaker 1: why it's important, why we need more representation, and to
Speaker 1: continue to challenge that that that way of thinking. Because
Speaker 1: I've had so many friends to be like, yo, when
Speaker 1: do you come into my town And I'm like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm coming to Joe Joe con, you know, and this day,
Speaker 1: and they're like, oh man, that's the white people ship.
Speaker 1: I ain't going to like you know, I've had so
Speaker 1: many people tell me that, like yeah, I ain't. I
Speaker 1: ain't really doing that. And I remember being on a
Speaker 1: tour with Open Mike Eagle and we did a convention
Speaker 1: in Canada on like a Saturday. We had off and
Speaker 1: and I remember him telling me like I never been
Speaker 1: to a calm before, and I was like, Oh, you're
Speaker 1: gonna love it, man. All the anime that we talked
Speaker 1: about on this ride and people dressed up as it
Speaker 1: there on the people just people just to this comic
Speaker 1: book chacters. And and afterwards I was like, yo, jea
Speaker 1: have funny He's like m I guess, you know, and
Speaker 1: I said, what you mean. He's like, yo, I didn't
Speaker 1: feel welcome at all, you know. He's like, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: just be honest. I didn't see any people of color.
Speaker 1: I didn't see any any programming based around diversity or
Speaker 1: anything like that. And I didn't really feel I didn't
Speaker 1: feel it, you know, And and it made me think
Speaker 1: like wow, Like convention spaces have a lot of work
Speaker 1: to do. And that's when you know, we started the NPC,
Speaker 1: and now any convention I go to, I asked them like,
Speaker 1: if y'all want me to wrap, then I got to
Speaker 1: speak to you know. And uh. And so therefore we
Speaker 1: always make sure that it's in the programming that we're
Speaker 1: gonna talk about diversity and really challenge traditional thought in
Speaker 1: those spaces. Do you know, like Griselda, Yeah, saying it's
Speaker 1: not like text all the time about wrestling, it's really hilarious.
Speaker 1: I was just about to say, nobody would dare be like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is nerds, nerd core exactly, you a nerds something like,
Speaker 1: you know, it might not might not go well. Like
Speaker 1: I always like Wu Tang, you know, like for me,
Speaker 1: the way Wu Tang loved you know, kung Fu is
Speaker 1: the way I love video games, Like it's the same stuff.
Speaker 1: When I heard Inspected Deck say swinging to your town
Speaker 1: like your neighborhood spider Man, like I lit up, you know,
Speaker 1: and that was a moment in me, like the light
Speaker 1: bulb was like wow, like you can do this, like
Speaker 1: you're not a weirdo, you know what I'm saying. And
Speaker 1: so it let me know that people were like, we're
Speaker 1: all we all grew up on the same stuff. And
Speaker 1: absolutely wrestling I think is you know, they have wrestle
Speaker 1: coms now to like conventions where people who are fans
Speaker 1: of wrestling go you meet old wrestlers, you know, you
Speaker 1: hang out and do a promo like Rick Flair section
Speaker 1: and pretend you're commentating this match over here. Like so, uh,
Speaker 1: it's it's very similar, you know. Like I said, Me
Speaker 1: and Me and West text about wrestling constantly, Like did
Speaker 1: you say you know before the pandemic he was always
Speaker 1: at the a w in the front row and show
Speaker 1: absolutely man so like but yeah, like you said, but
Speaker 1: no one would dare call them like nerd rappers or
Speaker 1: anything like that. But so that's where I I don't
Speaker 1: necessarily know where the distinction and the separation comes in,
Speaker 1: you know, like while is a big wrestling fan as well,
Speaker 1: and um smoke, there's and a few other guys and man,
Speaker 1: it was just yesterday I saw a crooked eye post
Speaker 1: um something on Twitter saying like when why He's like,
Speaker 1: why is there such a separation between nerd? What's that
Speaker 1: that nerd ship and hip hop? Like? Why do we
Speaker 1: treat nerdy rappers so different? And what will that meant?
Speaker 1: Adding in those those those cool, cool or tough elements
Speaker 1: I think into the music is Uh, it's interesting cause
Speaker 1: I think Prontolo said, he's like, you know how rappers
Speaker 1: are usually the coolest guy in the room. He's like,
Speaker 1: I'm not, and therefore that's what nerd corey is. It's
Speaker 1: it's the opposite of that. It's the cool dude in
Speaker 1: the room making music, you know. And of course that
Speaker 1: sounds like something you would you would be closeted about,
Speaker 1: you almost you know what I mean. You'd be like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I make a little do a little you know, but
Speaker 1: you know, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna be out there,
Speaker 1: you know, but I do a little you know thing
Speaker 1: in my house, you know, And that's I think what
Speaker 1: a lot of nerd core is. It's not braggadocious in
Speaker 1: that way. Um, but there is a guy. His name
Speaker 1: is White t Cracker, and uh he's amazing. Um, first
Speaker 1: of all, the best name ever. But so as you'd imagine,
Speaker 1: he's a white dude and um, but he's like a
Speaker 1: professional hacker and uh so he did faces, websites and things.
Speaker 1: But now he's like a good guy hacker because when
Speaker 1: you get so good at that, companies will hire you, yeah,
Speaker 1: to protect them. So he's worked for Facebook and Tinder
Speaker 1: and all these other people. And and what he does
Speaker 1: is he's called himself a digital gangster. So in his
Speaker 1: early raps, he's threatening to like you, you know, I like, yo,
Speaker 1: He's like, I got your address right here, you know,
Speaker 1: like I'll put you know, I'll picture of a dick
Speaker 1: on your website, you know what I mean. I was like,
Speaker 1: this is the most true to self thing I've ever Like,
Speaker 1: this is amazing because like, yeah, it's like, all right,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna say I'm gonna shot you when I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna do it, but I can get your address,
Speaker 1: I can people your Facebook password. Yeah. So I was
Speaker 1: I say that to say, like, there's some of the
Speaker 1: most creative people that I've ever met with in this
Speaker 1: small like genre of nerd core and chip tune and
Speaker 1: other stuff that I've been able to like find myself
Speaker 1: in these spaces where people take a game Boy and
Speaker 1: be like, oh man, I can have that and make
Speaker 1: beats out of it, you know what I mean? And like,
Speaker 1: you know, so these are like super smart people, super
Speaker 1: creative people who were you know, kind of the wallflower
Speaker 1: in high school and uh, but like our geniuses, you know.
Speaker 1: And I think that there's absolutely should be a space
Speaker 1: for for that in what we do in our culture,
Speaker 1: and like we should encourage, like we were saying about
Speaker 1: people of color to be a part of that, Like
Speaker 1: we have we have folks who but unfortunately feel like
Speaker 1: it's that white people ship and so they won't necessarily
Speaker 1: take that step, you know. So I think that it's
Speaker 1: up to I guess people like me and then my
Speaker 1: generation to kind of open that door. So what I
Speaker 1: always try to highlight, and you know, it's shine a
Speaker 1: light on guys and guys that I see doing this
Speaker 1: that are really good at it, you know, And I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 1: we got to encourage this because It may not become
Speaker 1: the new cool you know, ever, but I think that
Speaker 1: every little bit counts, you know. Yeah, it inspires a
Speaker 1: sense of like self assuredness in the young gamers and
Speaker 1: the young comic book for people and the young like
Speaker 1: science fiction readers, where it's like yo, like yeah, like
Speaker 1: I think this is cool when I stand by that
Speaker 1: rather than like showing away from or hiding who they
Speaker 1: are because they don't. Role models that are like that
Speaker 1: are showing them, you know, how to be confident in
Speaker 1: themselves and their interests. Yeah, it's kind of happening now.
Speaker 1: I'm seeing, like, especially the YouTubers, the YouTube side of things,
Speaker 1: I'm seeing kids who are you know, they are cool,
Speaker 1: Like they're wearing the hippis you know, fashions, and and
Speaker 1: they're rhyming you know, technically very well, but about anime,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. They'll name a song after
Speaker 1: an anime or a comic book and just go in,
Speaker 1: you know. And and I've seen like more and more
Speaker 1: where a lot of these kids are like really cool
Speaker 1: about it, you know, Like I think what we started
Speaker 1: with was something that was a little more nerdy and
Speaker 1: and shy about the thing we were doing. These guys
Speaker 1: are like very very proud of what they do as
Speaker 1: well as being able to say I can also wrap
Speaker 1: better than you, you know what I mean? Like that's uh.
Speaker 1: I think that's something that I'm seeing in the new
Speaker 1: generation of kids, which is really cool. So, um, when
Speaker 1: does the memoir coming out? I'm hoping next week. I
Speaker 1: have copies in my hand that I am shipping out
Speaker 1: to stores and things. I had a really hard time
Speaker 1: deciding how to put this out, Like I can release
Speaker 1: an album in my sleep, but yet you know, the
Speaker 1: world of books is a completely different things. The book
Speaker 1: is available right now for three order on Amazon and
Speaker 1: uh and so our quickly to be next. Um, where
Speaker 1: can people find you at? Oh, you can find me
Speaker 1: a Mega ran dot com or on Twitter at Mega Ran.
Speaker 1: It looks like Meg Ryan when you look real closely,
Speaker 1: like real fast too long, it's like a capital capital
Speaker 1: are Like, was that Meg Ryan? But it's Mega Ran. Um. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you'll see a black Mega man and you'll know it's me.
Speaker 1: Um when everyone's a you got any new music that's
Speaker 1: gonna be coming back shortly after the book or Yeah,
Speaker 1: what I want to do? First We're releasing the physical
Speaker 1: books and then We're going to do an audible version
Speaker 1: with some other like bonus little pieces as well as
Speaker 1: music sprinkled throughout, and there would be new songs that
Speaker 1: you can only get if you get it on audible.
Speaker 1: That'll be happening in February. I have to ask you
Speaker 1: a question, Yeah, all right, what are what are you
Speaker 1: nerd ing out on right now? Like if I was like, yo,
Speaker 1: you guys, what's the thing that you're most nerdy about?
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm really nerdy about public policy? Nice, Yeah,
Speaker 1: she's like a politics, not even just like oh, the government,
Speaker 1: you know, everyone's every wants obsessed with, like the federal government.
Speaker 1: But I'm like, oh, you know, how do we get
Speaker 1: funding for local nonprofits to life be the homeless? And like, oh,
Speaker 1: this this group of you know, lobbyists are trying to
Speaker 1: get us to build a you know, affordable housing development
Speaker 1: in this area, like lurking the local government. It's just
Speaker 1: like the weirdest, nerdiest thing that I just can't There's
Speaker 1: no there's not like a community of like you know,
Speaker 1: I guess there is probably out there our community like
Speaker 1: dive with. But I feel very lovely. Let's let's get
Speaker 1: this cracking. We need the policy nerds to unite. They
Speaker 1: got they got to be out there a Facebook group
Speaker 1: or some good Um I'm into I've always been into
Speaker 1: movies and stuff, but I found that, like in the
Speaker 1: last few years, I've really gotten super nerdy about hip
Speaker 1: hop and rap music, you know what I'm saying. And
Speaker 1: you gotta you gotta, you gotta be on clubhouse then,
Speaker 1: or you're on clubhouse. No I'm not, but I'm betty
Speaker 1: hearing about it. What is clubhouse? Well, it's just this
Speaker 1: might also be aging you guys and myself. Do you
Speaker 1: remember the party line? Did you'll have a party line
Speaker 1: in your area, Like you call this number and like
Speaker 1: everybody's on there just chatting. And if you, uh, like,
Speaker 1: if you you talk to somebody and you like make
Speaker 1: a connection, you'll be like yo, press one to send
Speaker 1: them to like a private room invite and like this
Speaker 1: was like a real cool thing when I was a teenager.
Speaker 1: And uh so it's like that you just get on
Speaker 1: him as a big conference call and like some rooms.
Speaker 1: Like last night, we're in a hip hop nerdy nerdy
Speaker 1: hip hop group with Dart Adams and Apathy and soft
Speaker 1: Funk Dust and a bunch of guys telling these like
Speaker 1: obscure stories, and like the day that we found out
Speaker 1: the doom passed, Just Blaze came into an r i
Speaker 1: P Doom room and was like, yeah, I got like
Speaker 1: been tracks with with doing I would I'm gonna play
Speaker 1: a little bit of them and tell you a little
Speaker 1: bit story. And we were like, yo, what like So
Speaker 1: there's been really dope, like hip hop nugget rooms where
Speaker 1: people have been just like sharing all kinds of like
Speaker 1: hear stories and the like, you know, just seeing the
Speaker 1: really cool stuff happen in those hip hop rooms where
Speaker 1: people are just sharing stories. I'm like, Yo, this is dope.
Speaker 1: Of course there's a lot of ratchetness on there, but
Speaker 1: but you know you gotta sift through that for the ins.
Speaker 1: But yeah, that on the app and if I have
Speaker 1: an invite, I'll send you on both points. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this has been an ad for clubhouse Man. All right,
Speaker 1: that's gonna do it for us today. My name is
Speaker 1: Dope Knife and we are Waiting on Reparations. See you
Speaker 1: next week. Waiting on Reparations as a production of I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Listen to Waiting on Reparations on the I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts,
Speaker 1: M