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Speaker 1: It's nineteen seventy four in the heart of Zaire, Africa.

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Speaker 1: Two heavyweight boxing champs are ready to rumble. In one

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Speaker 1: corner there's the outspoken, controversial and much beloved Muhammad Ali.

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Speaker 2: Ali was smart, he was bright, and he was handsome.

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Speaker 1: In the other corner is George Foreman. Younger, fitter, far stronger,

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Speaker 1: and a hell of a lot prouder to be an American.

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Speaker 1: He's almost an abstraction. He's an arch guitar.

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Speaker 2: George Foreman is champion in the world.

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Speaker 1: The guy was bigger than Ali and Foreman as everyone

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Speaker 1: fearing for Ali's life, George Foreman could kill him.

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Speaker 2: They thought he was going to be killed in the rain.

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Speaker 1: Fifty years on, the Rumble in the Jungle is still

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Speaker 1: considered one of the greatest sporting events of all time,

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Speaker 1: but few remember the legendary music festival that took place

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Speaker 1: before the heavyweight title bout James Brown Bill with Miriam Mkiba,

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Speaker 1: BB King, Hugh Masekela, all the biggest black artists on

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Speaker 1: the planet, black boxing stars, and Black Music Royalty together

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Speaker 1: for the first time in Zaire, a newly independent nation

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Speaker 1: ruled by the ruthless dictator Mabutu seyse Ciku.

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Speaker 2: Violence broke out immediately after DRC's independence.

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Speaker 1: But Buchu would stop at nothing to play host to

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Speaker 1: both spectacles three days of music and then the boxing

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Speaker 1: event with the whole world watching to see if they

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Speaker 1: could pull it off. I said, I don't see how

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Speaker 1: you go and get all these people together at one

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Speaker 1: time to do the music federal in Africa, you know,

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Speaker 1: but due to surprise and circumstance, things would indeed go

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Speaker 1: off the rails once you throw Don King into the

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Speaker 1: mix along with Herbert Muhammad and the Nation of Islam Man,

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Speaker 1: it's amazing that somebody didn't end up dead. He pulls

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Speaker 1: out a knife and he's walking down the aisle and rage.

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Speaker 1: He's going after James Brown. I'm Zaren Burnett, creator of

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Speaker 1: Black Cowboys and co host of Ridiculous Crime, inviting you

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Speaker 1: to rumble Ali Foreman and the soul of seventy four.

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Speaker 2: Jan Brown said say it loud and said, I'm black

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Speaker 2: and I'm proud.

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Speaker 1: This new podcast takes you behind the scenes of a

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Speaker 1: high stakes showcase for a fledgling African nation. What was

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Speaker 1: going on in the world at the time made this

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Speaker 1: fight as important that anything else is going on on

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Speaker 1: the planet. It's a story of a world in transformation.

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Speaker 2: Prior to that, you couldn't call a person black, okay

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Speaker 2: with Negro, and then it was say it loud, I'm

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Speaker 2: black and I'm proud.

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Speaker 1: Ultimately, what went down in Zaire in seventy four was

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Speaker 1: an epic confluence of black excellence and inspiring collision of cultures,

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Speaker 1: a peak moment in geopolitics, and a showdown of supersized

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Speaker 1: egos motivated by the soul power that connected them all.

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Speaker 2: It all started with the drum. The rhythm was all

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Speaker 2: the same. We all came from the continent of Africa.

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Speaker 1: Listen to Rumble, ali Foreman and the Soul of seventy

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Speaker 1: four on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you

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Speaker 1: get your podcasts.