Speaker 1: Welcome to another episode of Civic Cyper. I am your host,
Speaker 1: Ramsey's joh.
Speaker 2: You know, most of the time I tell you guys
Speaker 2: my name, I give you, you know, some synonyms for
Speaker 2: that name, some colloquialisms and some some different go buys
Speaker 2: and bkas and akas and pka's. The content of our
Speaker 2: show is about to make me change my name, Ramseys.
Speaker 2: That's up to like something pseudo political militant with an
Speaker 2: X on the end of it, cause it's getting.
Speaker 1: Out of control. Bro qx is two letters something.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Bro, I'm leaning towards something like that. Well, because
Speaker 2: it's getting hard because I do that to kind of
Speaker 2: start us off on a light note and really like
Speaker 2: take you down the list of names that the Reverend
Speaker 2: Estella Seacrest called me throughout my life in Ramseys and
Speaker 2: my brothers and sisters and even some of the stuff
Speaker 2: that i've you know, using the entertainment space. But man,
Speaker 2: it's getting hard to be light. It's getting hard to laugh.
Speaker 2: It is becoming more and more difficult for me to
Speaker 2: come across as neutral on a lot of these things
Speaker 2: we talk about. And I know I've made this a
Speaker 2: much longer intro than typical. But it's hard to not
Speaker 2: be angry just from what we have to consume in
Speaker 2: preparation for our show every week. Folks. It is getting harder,
Speaker 2: not easier. And the and the and the the less
Speaker 2: hopeful version of me that you guys maybe used to
Speaker 2: hear when we first started doing the show. He's creeping.
Speaker 2: He's creeping back into the studio. Man, my more hopeful
Speaker 2: brother Ramses is going to have to be the entirety
Speaker 2: of our hope here pretty soon because mine is dwindling.
Speaker 1: Well, how about we do this then, Let's let's do
Speaker 1: like we always do at this time and start off
Speaker 1: with some ebony excellence. That's a positive note. I think
Speaker 1: we can start on that work for you. Sure, okay,
Speaker 1: all right, Well, we're a big fan of this guy, Drake.
Speaker 2: I'm a bigger fan of him than people realize.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I think Drake is the man. I won't
Speaker 1: take nothing from him, you know. But for those who
Speaker 1: are fans of Drake, you might recall a video, God's
Speaker 1: Plan video that came out some years back, and he
Speaker 1: took the budget from the video and ended up just
Speaker 1: kind of giving it away and shot the video on
Speaker 1: the street instead of using this big budget to shoot
Speaker 1: some cool video. One of the people that he gave
Speaker 1: some money to was a college student. Her name is
Speaker 1: Destiny James, and recently she graduated, so I want to
Speaker 1: read a bit of a report back from her. Says
Speaker 1: that she was gifted fifty dollars by the and she
Speaker 1: ended up speaking to Entertainment tonight about the impact of
Speaker 1: that moment. She says, the biggest effect is that he
Speaker 1: gave me an opportunity to really just live as a
Speaker 1: college student without the financial burden that I had before
Speaker 1: the scholarship. James, who was a junior at the University
Speaker 1: of Miami at the time, shared the scholarship went toward
Speaker 1: my senior year. He was hands down the best year
Speaker 1: had in college because I didn't have to worry about
Speaker 1: trying to work multiple jobs to make sure that I
Speaker 1: have money, or worrying about my tuition bill and whether
Speaker 1: or not it was going to be paid. So of
Speaker 1: all these issues that she had prior to receiving the scholarship,
Speaker 1: they just went away, she said. When I sent him
Speaker 1: that I was graduating with my masters this weekend, he
Speaker 1: responded immediately, she revealed. Before I could respond to his message,
Speaker 1: he was already on my picture commenting and driving my
Speaker 1: page crazy. But he's very genuine. Even though we don't
Speaker 1: speak on a regular basis. When we do, he's genuine
Speaker 1: and he's very supportive. He's a big cheerleader. So shout
Speaker 1: out to Drake and for those of you who donate
Speaker 1: to the United Negro College Fund or any college fund,
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's good to hear stories like this
Speaker 1: because education matters. Black women are the most educated group
Speaker 1: in the United States, and to see these outcomes really
Speaker 1: helps us on our way toward painting it, establishing a
Speaker 1: different narrative. So shout out to Drake, but also values education.
Speaker 2: Shout out to Drizzy Man, Shout out to Ovo, Shout
Speaker 2: out to Canada.
Speaker 1: Yeah man, one time. All right, So now we're going
Speaker 1: to have to get into some heavier things, and I
Speaker 1: apologize I didn't get to tease all this stuff this year,
Speaker 1: but you know, we do have a pretty interesting show
Speaker 1: lined up for you. We will be talking a bit
Speaker 1: later about, uh, you know, some how, how how melanin
Speaker 1: appears to be a weaponized and how there's oftentimes a
Speaker 1: very strong police response to that. We're also going to
Speaker 1: talk about something called the African Dodger game, which is
Speaker 1: the precursor to the dunk you know, I forget the
Speaker 1: name of it. It's like a dunk game that you
Speaker 1: play at a carnival where you throw a ball and
Speaker 1: hit a plate and it dunks a person sitting on
Speaker 1: a seat. There used to be a game where they
Speaker 1: would throw baseballs at black people's heads, and that was
Speaker 1: a precursor of that game. So we're going to talk
Speaker 1: about that as well. But first we're going to talk
Speaker 1: about the Super Bowl halftime show. Now, normally I don't
Speaker 1: really have too much to say about sports, but I
Speaker 1: do have something to say about music, just a little bit.
Speaker 1: You know, I recognize that this show has carried on
Speaker 1: a lot of music format stations, and rightfully so, because
Speaker 1: we do need to have those stations carrying programming like
Speaker 1: this so that we can paint a different side of ourselves.
Speaker 1: You know, Black people are not just rappers and singers.
Speaker 1: We're thinkers, and we do have issues in our communities
Speaker 1: and as we relate to each other across racial lines,
Speaker 1: and having a platform like this allows us to say
Speaker 1: our piece and fortify ourselves and our allies against you know,
Speaker 1: the forces that exist in this world that would crush us,
Speaker 1: you know, not the least of which is you know,
Speaker 1: white supremacist institutions. However, I will talk about the Super
Speaker 1: Bowl halftime show because there were a lot of unfounded
Speaker 1: attacks on that halftime show. Now full disclosure. I am
Speaker 1: a fan of hip hop music. I'm a DJ use
Speaker 1: the DJ too, right.
Speaker 2: You Yeah, but you know that maybe that would change
Speaker 2: in the future soon.
Speaker 1: At present, if you give us some turn tables and
Speaker 1: some records, we can rock a party. So and you
Speaker 1: know that's what we do. But also I'll say that
Speaker 1: I am from California. I was born in Compton, California.
Speaker 1: So for those that saw the super Bowl, it was
Speaker 1: Doctor dre Kendrick Lamar, Snoop Dogg, fifty Eminem and Mary J.
Speaker 1: Blige where the you know, the bigger acts on the
Speaker 1: Super Bowl. And then there were some other folks there.
Speaker 1: I think Anderson Pack and some other folks were there
Speaker 1: as well. But it was really a big day for
Speaker 1: West Coast hip hop and I am a West Coaster
Speaker 1: to the death of me. You know, I got my
Speaker 1: low Rider bike. You know, I still got a bunch
Speaker 1: of pairs of Chucks. It is just a part of
Speaker 1: who I am. So when I speak about what happened here,
Speaker 1: I need you to know that, just so that if
Speaker 1: it seems a bit biased, you know, I'm being honest.
Speaker 1: I'm being forthright.
Speaker 2: And how fitting was it that Compton met Detroit on
Speaker 2: that stage at the super Bowl?
Speaker 1: Oh? I didn't even put that together. Huh how about that.
Speaker 2: I'm just saying, yeah, man, we we're gonna talk about eminem.
Speaker 2: I'm just saying so.
Speaker 1: So again, for those that saw the super Bowl, I'm
Speaker 1: not going to spoil anything, or I'm gonna try not
Speaker 1: spoil anything. But those who saw the super Bowl, you
Speaker 1: saw that it was a I don't want to call
Speaker 1: it a tame halftime show, but there's certainly been more
Speaker 1: controversial halftime shows. Yes, you know that.
Speaker 2: I'd argue that's true. Yeah, I wouldn't even have to
Speaker 2: argue there's flagrantly there's been flagrantly more provocative sure halftime performances. Sure.
Speaker 1: And I think that the super Bowl over time has
Speaker 1: learned to be sensitive to American sensibilities, you know, just
Speaker 1: kind of the general you know, population. You can't make
Speaker 1: everyone happy, but you know, let's we have to try,
Speaker 1: because this is entertainment right, but you'd be surprised. There's
Speaker 1: a lot of people who are on the right, more
Speaker 1: conservative types, that have taken issue with this particular halftime performance.
Speaker 1: And normally I wouldn't make a big deal out of
Speaker 1: people's opinions on the Super Bowl because I, well, everybody's
Speaker 1: entitled to their opinion. But I just kind of feel
Speaker 1: like a lot of these people, in order to get views, clicks, engagement,
Speaker 1: to stir up the rage in their you know, subscriber base,
Speaker 1: or just to have something to talk about, will formulate
Speaker 1: these baseless attacks on anything that is liberal, right, or
Speaker 1: anything that's not conservative. We'll call it that not traditional Americana,
Speaker 1: you know, like fifties drive in you know, roller skating rinks,
Speaker 1: you know, ice cream and apple pie. They want to
Speaker 1: they would prefer them in America that look like that,
Speaker 1: and if it doesn't, then they launch attacks. A lot
Speaker 1: of that. There's a lot of anger that comes off
Speaker 1: of that wing of politics. A lot less so that
Speaker 1: comes from the left wing, And again I normally wouldn't
Speaker 1: make a big deal out of it, but what I
Speaker 1: do feel is happening a lot, and this is perhaps
Speaker 1: the best example of it, is race is increasingly becoming
Speaker 1: a factor, and people have this very interesting way of
Speaker 1: talking around race while still speaking about it. It's almost
Speaker 1: like an act of cowardice. It's almost like them saying,
Speaker 1: look at those black people doing their black stuff. Oh wait,
Speaker 1: I'm not racist. Look there's a black person here with me. Right.
Speaker 1: So there's this coded language, it's sort of dog whistle language.
Speaker 1: And these again baseless attacks on what now is very American.
Speaker 1: It's a very American art form. It's not novel, it's
Speaker 1: not new, it's not for the kids. You know, everyone
Speaker 1: that knew all those songs by heart are in their forties, fifties,
Speaker 1: you know, late thirties. You know, this is America, right,
Speaker 1: And this art form, hip hop was born in America,
Speaker 1: same as R and B. Right. And these attacks that
Speaker 1: I'm about to go into feel very unfair, and I've
Speaker 1: seen a few of them, but I haven't seen much
Speaker 1: in the way of a defense, perhaps because a lot
Speaker 1: of us know that they're baseless attacks, that these people
Speaker 1: are just talking to their own little echo chambers, and
Speaker 1: you know, it's not going to get any further than that.
Speaker 1: We all saw what happened. We knew what it was
Speaker 1: and what it wasn't. It's fine, But because they are
Speaker 1: journalists I use that term loosely, or because they have
Speaker 1: journalistic quote unquote outlets, I feel like it's important for
Speaker 1: us to challenge that narrative or otherwise chronicle our own
Speaker 1: and defend that halftime performance against what it is that
Speaker 1: they've said. Now, one such thing that came about very
Speaker 1: early on was there's a guy who's a conservative talk
Speaker 1: show hosted name is Charlie Kirk. You might not have
Speaker 1: heard of him. I never heard of him, but this
Speaker 1: guy has over a million one point seven million dollar
Speaker 1: followers on his Twitter right and says he's a co
Speaker 1: founder and executive director of the right wing student group
Speaker 1: Turning Point USA, which I have heard of. And he
Speaker 1: says that he thinks that the super Bowl halftime performance
Speaker 1: should have been banned. Huh. It goes on to say
Speaker 1: that Kirk commented that quote, the NFL is now the
Speaker 1: league of sexual anarchy. This halftime show should not be
Speaker 1: allowed on television. Okay, So what were your thoughts on
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl performance? Just general thoughts.
Speaker 2: So I'm gonna let our audience in on something here.
Speaker 1: Okay, Q.
Speaker 2: Was at work during the entirety of the Super Bowl.
Speaker 2: I did not see the game or what many have
Speaker 2: dubbed the greatest halftime show of all time. Okay, okay,
Speaker 2: now I know the lineup of the halftime show. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so I knew at worse it would be good. But
Speaker 2: from what I've heard, it was excellent. Okay, Okay, we'll
Speaker 2: take that. I cried in the car.
Speaker 1: Sure, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: I cried in the car.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that makes sense. I couldn't imagine. And I'll be honest,
Speaker 1: I didn't watch the Super Bowl, but I did watch
Speaker 1: the halftime performance. I'm not I just yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: I heard that LA won, which is great for LA
Speaker 1: because LA kind of needed a win. You know.
Speaker 2: First of all, I'm gonna cut Ramdas off. Y'all, LA
Speaker 2: did not need a win. Well, they're already Los Angeles, California.
Speaker 2: Let's start there. They're already that the Dodgers and Lakers
Speaker 2: in the last two years have both won. That's the
Speaker 2: championship of their respective leagues.
Speaker 1: You know, there's I was saying that there's a lot
Speaker 1: of hurt still surrounding sports, surrounding the city, surrounding the people.
Speaker 1: See the people, right, and then I think that for
Speaker 1: there to be Snoop Dogg and Doctor Dre at the
Speaker 1: halftime performance. Word that is, there's something to be said
Speaker 1: about Nipsey. In fact, I remember in the halftime performance
Speaker 1: they had like a photo of Nipsy somewhere on the
Speaker 1: back on the backdrop.
Speaker 2: And the team that won the Super Bowl they took
Speaker 2: the field two last time that I checked by the
Speaker 2: late great Nipsey Hustle and or mentioned Nipsey Hustle, yes,
Speaker 2: and then one for the West Coast.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So, and then the same with Kobe. You know,
Speaker 1: just the city suffering, not really suffering, but kind of
Speaker 1: still dealing with the loss of those kind of powerful figures.
Speaker 1: So that's why I said that. But for this man,
Speaker 1: Charlie Kirk to call the NFL uh the League of
Speaker 1: sexual anarchy based off of that halftime performance, what are
Speaker 1: you talking about?
Speaker 2: Yes, miss Kirk.
Speaker 1: Now and him saying that it should not be allowed
Speaker 1: on television based by his own account on the sexual
Speaker 1: nature of it is absolutely askline. First off, the only
Speaker 1: person who I think he might have been referring to
Speaker 1: was Mary J. Blige. And even if you don't know
Speaker 1: Mary J. Blige, I employ you to go back and
Speaker 1: look at the performance again. There was nothing sexual about
Speaker 1: her performance at all. Sexy. Perhaps she's a woman, she
Speaker 1: dresses nice, she keeps herself in good shape. She's a
Speaker 1: dancer and a singer, you know, but she wasn't dancing
Speaker 1: gyrating on anyone. There was nothing overtly sexual about her performance.
Speaker 1: Mary's is married, she's you know, she's like Auntie, you know,
Speaker 1: she's not like she doesn't have like Beyonce energy or
Speaker 1: Rihanna energy. I mean, I guess Rihanna's kind of graduated now,
Speaker 1: but she's go ahead jump in.
Speaker 2: You know. Usually RAMS is to give somebody the benefit
Speaker 2: of the doubt portion of the show, but I do
Speaker 2: from time to chime in to make sure people are
Speaker 2: not accusing us of turning an intentional blind eye to things.
Speaker 2: I saw the set list. There was nothing overtly sexual
Speaker 2: about any of it. However, if you're the type of
Speaker 2: person that wants to find something wrong, you will. So
Speaker 2: I'm gonna figure and this is stupid, even if it's
Speaker 2: the reason, because the song itself does not give those
Speaker 2: vibes in the club.
Speaker 1: That's the only other one might.
Speaker 2: Be without argument, the biggest party record in history, right
Speaker 2: up there with like DMX party Up even. I think
Speaker 2: those two songs might even trump LMFAL because it's window
Speaker 2: was so like the LMFAL songs don't hit now like
Speaker 2: they did when they came out in the club.
Speaker 1: Already up still go. Yeah, you're right, are undefeated.
Speaker 2: Yeah you can be at a funeral if you drop one,
Speaker 2: it's going up.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're right.
Speaker 2: In the lyrics, fifty cents says I'm into having sex,
Speaker 2: I ain't into making love, so come give me a hug.
Speaker 2: And even after that line, the next line is, so
Speaker 2: come give me a hug. Like so, if he was
Speaker 2: reaching as far as he possibly could to try to
Speaker 2: find something quote unquote sexual, it might be that lyric
Speaker 2: I just said. However, fifty cents hanging upside down in
Speaker 2: a weight room, then at a party, so you know
Speaker 2: what I mean. The moments itself did not give him
Speaker 2: the vibes of sexual anarchy.
Speaker 1: Mister Kirk, Yeah, exactly, Come on, man, So, so do
Speaker 1: you see what I mean when I say it's just
Speaker 1: sort of an unfair light to cast on the Super
Speaker 1: Bowl show. And because these performers are black, it further
Speaker 1: associates blackness with you know, uh, moral immorl behavior. Uh
Speaker 1: uh priority like how do I say this? Who knows? Man?
Speaker 1: It just it just it casts every everybody on that
Speaker 1: stage and a very unflattering light. And you know between
Speaker 1: the two people were talking about today, there's two million followers, right,
Speaker 1: so this is not no one. These aren't They're not
Speaker 1: talking to no one. It's not like some creep and
Speaker 1: the backwaters of Twitter that has forty followers and is
Speaker 1: just talking to his friends and a couple of people
Speaker 1: that are work with them in bots. You know, these
Speaker 1: are some substantial voices, at least in their arenas. So
Speaker 1: you know, to your point fifty cent, you know, doing
Speaker 1: his it's a party record. You know, Eric Clapton has
Speaker 1: a song called Cocaine the Rolling Stones. There's so many
Speaker 1: groups that have songs about drugs, about sex, about you know,
Speaker 1: all these sorts of things that existed way before hip hop.
Speaker 1: And and those people will play the super Bowl, those
Speaker 1: people will you know, these guys will go to their
Speaker 1: concert who's this guy, Charlie Charlie Kirk will go to
Speaker 1: their concerts, I'm sure and you have a good old time,
Speaker 1: right and won't find fault at all because like doctor
Speaker 1: Dre and fifty cent and Snoop Doggs. There is no
Speaker 1: fault to find. It is okay to make adult music
Speaker 1: for adults who go to adult nightclubs, right, and that
Speaker 1: pursue adult activities and then buy adult libations and so forth, right,
Speaker 1: But for for them to cast it in some sort
Speaker 1: of uncultured, un American, yeah, it's just it's and then
Speaker 1: because of the blackness, it's very easy for them to
Speaker 1: find fault because it's not them. It's not American apple pie.
Speaker 1: It's hip hop. And of course everyone wanted to call
Speaker 1: it gangster rap, which I'll take that label no problem.
Speaker 1: That's what they would call themselves. And they were some gangsters,
Speaker 1: you know, so gangster rap. Sure. But once something gets established,
Speaker 1: once everyone has grown up with it, it's it's not
Speaker 1: so alarming anymore. Right, It's not like people, you know,
Speaker 1: it's not like kids are getting into sixth grade, seventh
Speaker 1: grade and then just finding out about Doctor Dre and
Speaker 1: Snoop Dogg. They're not just getting their you know, their
Speaker 1: chronic album and oh my gosh, let me go hit
Speaker 1: the streets and game. You know, that's a bygone era
Speaker 1: and this music is a product of that era. But
Speaker 1: for them to kind of rehash all of this stuff
Speaker 1: like it's like it's thirty years ago, like it's twenty
Speaker 1: five years ago. Just shows. I believe it shows their
Speaker 1: intention is to continue to cast black culture, black music,
Speaker 1: and black people in bad Like there's another person I
Speaker 1: want to or there's another thing at a point I
Speaker 1: want to make. Rather this guy, Charlie Kirk and a
Speaker 1: lot of other people are people that, especially on the right,
Speaker 1: that fight against cancel culture. They're they're huge critics of
Speaker 1: cancel culture. They don't love cancel culture. A lot of
Speaker 1: people on the right are this way. So for him
Speaker 1: to say that the halftime show should not be allowed
Speaker 1: on television and you know, take this sort of stance
Speaker 1: against this, I think that he's actually being a hypocrite
Speaker 1: there as well, because now he's a fan of cancel
Speaker 1: culture all of a sudden, if it serves to cancel
Speaker 1: black folks. And I'll say one more thing, he says,
Speaker 1: this is the sort of guy that calls liberals snowflakes
Speaker 1: quote unquote, and is one of the people that wants
Speaker 1: to like ban CRT, you know, and and you know,
Speaker 1: now he's calling for banning on of hip hop. But
Speaker 1: he's calling the liberal people snowflakes. He's calling you know this,
Speaker 1: this this halftime show. So he's calling it like sexual anarchy,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. So you see the hypocritical
Speaker 1: nature in these talking points and in these people. It's
Speaker 1: it's such a strange thing to see. Now. I do
Speaker 1: want to say this, I do want you to jump in,
Speaker 1: but I want to make sure that I get this
Speaker 1: in here. There's another woman. Her name is Bridget Gabriel.
Speaker 1: She has almost three hundred and seventy thousand followers on Twitter.
Speaker 1: She was born this is her birth name is Hanan Quahwaji.
Speaker 1: She's born in Lebanon. She goes by Bridget Gabriel. She's
Speaker 1: a conservative author and anti Islam activist huh and founder
Speaker 1: of anti Muslim group ACT or ACT for America. I'm
Speaker 1: sure that stands for like Americans Countering terrorist them or
Speaker 1: something crazy like that, but Act for America. And she tweeted, quote,
Speaker 1: the super Bowl halftime show was basically pornography on television.
Speaker 1: Hunt absolutely disgusting. Wow, it shouldn't have been permitted for
Speaker 1: cable television. End quote. And the and here's another thing.
Speaker 1: Kendrick Lamar has has a line in his song alright,
Speaker 1: those know we gonna be all right? He has a
Speaker 1: line in there that says, and we hate Popo, right,
Speaker 1: the want to kill us dead in the Street Fall show,
Speaker 1: that's how the bar goes. And he either took it
Speaker 1: out or they muted it right, so it never made
Speaker 1: it to air. Doctor Dre has one line that stayed
Speaker 1: in it says still not loving police, which is his
Speaker 1: right as an American. And then Eminem was kneeling beyond that.
Speaker 1: I could find nothing, but we got ten seconds go ahead.
Speaker 2: I just wish they would have said they had a
Speaker 2: problem with and we hate Popo? Still not loving police
Speaker 2: said it me, Eminem nearly instead of saying that it
Speaker 2: was pornography and sexual anarchy, because what are you talkt like,
Speaker 2: what are you talking about this point? Yeah, well, why
Speaker 2: not go as usual with the low hanging fruit like
Speaker 2: you always do, even if it's baseless, at least you're
Speaker 2: being kind of honest sexual like You're right, man.
Speaker 1: Barn lies the hypocrisy. But this is a good enough
Speaker 1: time for us to take a pause for the cause,
Speaker 1: so stick around when coming back a more civic sidher
Speaker 1: right after this