Speaker 1: Natively and pod is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership
Speaker 1: with Reason Choice Media.
Speaker 2: Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome. Now.
Speaker 3: I want to go way back to nineteen ninety two,
Speaker 3: the year Nirvana's Nevermind went number one on the US
Speaker 3: Billboard two hundred charts. Tornad O'Connor stirred up controversy by
Speaker 3: ripping a picture of the Pope on Saturday Night Live.
Speaker 3: You remember that, and Bill Clinton defeated George Bush in
Speaker 3: the presidential election. But before all that happened, this happened
Speaker 3: on my show. That was then Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton
Speaker 3: belting out a soul for rendition of Heartbreak Hotel on
Speaker 3: my show, The Arsenio Hall Show. That changed presidential campaign forever.
Speaker 2: Welcome home, everybody. This is Tiffany Cross, Angela Ray and
Speaker 2: me and I don't know if they're on my left right,
Speaker 2: but I did point to my left and am I right.
Speaker 2: Welcome y'all. There's a quick mini pod we wanted to
Speaker 2: get into with you all as we talk about, are
Speaker 2: there spaces that are below the belt a little too
Speaker 2: gotter for our presidential candidates to go? Where do they
Speaker 2: go to talk to as many people as they can.
Speaker 2: We're interested in hearing each other's thoughts on that, and
Speaker 2: maybe you walking weigh into Angela, what you got? What
Speaker 2: do you think set this up out? Well?
Speaker 4: I think, first of all, there should be no place
Speaker 4: really off limits to reach voters. I do think that
Speaker 4: that comes with some contingencies. I think that we should
Speaker 4: never put our candidates in harms away. I think that
Speaker 4: there are some platforms where they want to go viral
Speaker 4: or make a name for themselves, and so in those
Speaker 4: instances it's probably not the best I think. One thing
Speaker 4: that I've been particularly interested to see is there is
Speaker 4: a new conservative platform, or a new ish conservative platform
Speaker 4: called Rumble. This guy DJ Academics has been paid to
Speaker 4: go on Rumble and earlier this year said that he
Speaker 4: was going to be streaming on Rumble from Trump's crib.
Speaker 4: I don't know if Donald Trump is going to go
Speaker 4: on Rumble with him, but that's interesting to me. To me,
Speaker 4: you know, when folks don't have any political background whatsoever,
Speaker 4: what role should they really play? And I think that's
Speaker 4: a conversation that both sides of the aisle really should
Speaker 4: be having. We've spent a lot of time focusing on
Speaker 4: influencers and their role in campaigns. And I'm almost of
Speaker 4: the school of thought now where I believe the role
Speaker 4: of an influencer has an outsized place and focus on
Speaker 4: campaigns to the to this in the same ways in
Speaker 4: which we talked about on our last podcast, money Right.
Speaker 4: And so there are some folks who are niche influencers
Speaker 4: or micro influencers, are targeted and specific and no politics
Speaker 4: very well. I think those folks who are educated in
Speaker 4: the space, have political background, and have some political acumen
Speaker 4: should have more influence over over the electorate than folks
Speaker 4: who sometimes do like I'm actually really irritated about fifty
Speaker 4: cent and the role that he's played in this election.
Speaker 4: I'm irritated, frankly with some of the things that ice
Speaker 4: Cube did last cycle, and I wish that if they
Speaker 4: were to engage, that they took the time to sit
Speaker 4: down with folks who do this work every single day,
Speaker 4: like we do when we're talking about hip hop, or
Speaker 4: like we do when we're talking about making movies or
Speaker 4: making shows. I just think to Pont, I mean, anyone
Speaker 4: should can have an opinion. You're a voter, you have
Speaker 4: every right to weigh in exactly how you see fit,
Speaker 4: but I would like to see them yoke up and
Speaker 4: link up with folks who actually know the space a
Speaker 4: little bit more. I do think that to be in
Speaker 4: pop culture and find people who don't watch cable news,
Speaker 4: especially with those numbers decreasing every single day, I think
Speaker 4: it's worth it to go meet people where they are.
Speaker 4: And this won't be the first time that folks went
Speaker 4: to go meet people.
Speaker 5: Where they are.
Speaker 4: And we know that we played the clipper earlier. Of
Speaker 4: Bill Clinton going on our senior hall and playing the saxophone,
Speaker 4: I think that earned him the title the first black president.
Speaker 4: I would like to correct history and say our first
Speaker 4: black president was in fact Barack with Saint Obama. But
Speaker 4: that's what made him. No no, no, no, don't come on,
Speaker 4: Donald Trump, don't do me.
Speaker 2: We used to growing up. If we used to debate
Speaker 2: Lincoln was black, wasn't Yeah?
Speaker 5: Not, asked Frederick John So anyway, I.
Speaker 2: Know my history who was also biracial.
Speaker 5: But yes, we mean also, I mean, hey, Braham, come on. Anyway.
Speaker 5: Back to the point.
Speaker 4: The point is please go reach people like Andrew who
Speaker 4: spread misinformation on podcast. Go talk to him and can
Speaker 4: fact check and get the registry anyway.
Speaker 1: That's because you know the fact that I think it
Speaker 1: was ninety one when Bill Clinton went on Our Senio Hall,
Speaker 1: and that was a huge deal. But now for a
Speaker 1: presidential candidate to go on a late night talk show
Speaker 1: is not that big a deal. I remember when Bill
Speaker 1: Clinton was there playing the saxophone and he had on
Speaker 1: the glasses and it was so big. And look, the
Speaker 1: elephant in the room at the time was he didn't
Speaker 1: just go on the late night talk show.
Speaker 5: It wasn't Johnny Carson.
Speaker 1: He went on with a black late night talk show
Speaker 1: and Arsenio Hall was you know, you know, like the big,
Speaker 1: the big, the first to do it. Yeah, he was
Speaker 1: the first to do it at that time. What was interesting, though,
Speaker 1: is George H. W. Bush had refused to go on
Speaker 1: Our Senio Hall, and he made some sort of comment
Speaker 1: about it. I can't remember, but Our Senio Hall and
Speaker 1: his stand up a few days later, uh like clap
Speaker 1: back at President Bush and was like, ain't nobody invite
Speaker 1: you irregular heart beating and he had just had like
Speaker 1: some sort of heart condition or something.
Speaker 5: But the audience went wild.
Speaker 1: But the thing is it made Bill Clinton more accessible.
Speaker 1: And I just want to say, the person who donned
Speaker 1: him the first black president was our luminary Tony Morrison,
Speaker 1: you know who we love, So you know it did
Speaker 1: resonate with some people. Obviously, is not our first black president,
Speaker 1: and his policies were not always in our favor, as
Speaker 1: history can rewrite itself. But I like the point that
Speaker 1: Angela was making about where people get their news. You know,
Speaker 1: as a journalist, I read the trades every morning, and
Speaker 1: just this week and Pointer highlighted, you know, there's ever
Speaker 1: every day there's some big news platform that's collapsing or
Speaker 1: having layoffs, and just this week they highlighted that readers
Speaker 1: are increasingly getting their news from influencers. That frightens me
Speaker 1: because I've seen these influencers and because you have a
Speaker 1: lot of followers. Does not a journalist make. Even though
Speaker 1: there can be intelligent and intellectual people, that doesn't necessarily
Speaker 1: mean like there is training to go and figure out
Speaker 1: how to present a story with all that pertinent accurate
Speaker 1: information that is unbiased but can still honor the community,
Speaker 1: that is not confusing. They're not you know, speaking inside baseball.
Speaker 1: You're presenting, you know, both sides of a story, not nonsense,
Speaker 1: but both sides of an accurate story. And so when
Speaker 1: I see people, you know, it kind of gives this
Speaker 1: like this false inflated sense of intellect that's not really there,
Speaker 1: because it's like, oh, well, I saw this person say
Speaker 1: it on TikTok, and so now I'm informed about this
Speaker 1: topic that I got while they were you know, doing
Speaker 1: a little dance and gave it to me in thirty seconds.
Speaker 1: And that's not always the case, you guys. I feel like, well, Andrew,
Speaker 1: you anyway have like I try to strike a balance
Speaker 1: because I don't want to like be like elitists, like
Speaker 1: you only have to get your news from the Times,
Speaker 1: you know, like cause that's a problem too. And I
Speaker 1: feel like, to Angelo's point, these cable news platforms, you
Speaker 1: ask for it, You ask for people to tune out,
Speaker 1: you know, when you summarily ignored our communities forever, then
Speaker 1: of course people were gonna start getting their news and
Speaker 1: information someplace else. So there is some legitimacy to going
Speaker 1: into some of these spaces that some people made THEMB
Speaker 1: their nose a. But it's like, as we are increasingly
Speaker 1: ignored by these mainstream platforms that only platform people that
Speaker 1: make white people comfortable, then yeah, you gotta go out
Speaker 1: and talk to people in a different way. And I'm
Speaker 1: torn with the influencer piece because you know, I was
Speaker 1: super annoyed too, Angela with ice Cube and the plan
Speaker 1: he came out with and people were like, oh my god.
Speaker 5: I Ececubs a genius.
Speaker 1: I'm like, have y'all ever heard of actual think things?
Speaker 1: And members of are Congressional Black Caucus And this is
Speaker 1: not the first time these things were asked for. There's
Speaker 1: also the gaming industry, you know, there are I think
Speaker 1: that was a place in two thousand. I want to
Speaker 1: say sixteen is the first time that was utilized. And
Speaker 1: black people are the second largest demographics to participate in
Speaker 1: gaming industry, so on platforms like Twitch, which Amazon bought for.
Speaker 1: I can't remember how much I wrote about it in
Speaker 1: my book, but I like, like a billion dollars, like
Speaker 1: nine hundred and sixteen million dollars, and the black folks
Speaker 1: are the second largest demographic and there wasn't really a
Speaker 1: lot of people engaging them there. So I think we
Speaker 1: have to go meet people.
Speaker 5: Angela.
Speaker 1: I think your perspective though, is like go into some
Speaker 1: of these more hostile environments and make your case, you know,
Speaker 1: like show up to the fight, like, noo, give you buck,
Speaker 1: I'm showing up that one. I think there's some legitimacy
Speaker 1: to that. But then I wonder, is that the role
Speaker 1: of a surrogate, Like do you send a mayor pete
Speaker 1: in there and not necessarily the candidate or does that
Speaker 1: take away it's like you sending you sent your boy
Speaker 1: to fight me. You ain't even able to fight me yourself. Like,
Speaker 1: I don't know, I'm still I'm still torn on that.
Speaker 1: All right, we got to take a quick break, but
Speaker 1: we'll see you on the other side.
Speaker 2: Don't go anywhere, you know.
Speaker 6: I think I'm probably oddly enough very liberal on this
Speaker 6: because I think you go everywhere. By and large, I
Speaker 6: think the rules of the game have changed drastically. I mean,
Speaker 6: I remember, tiff, as you pointed out, the breaking news
Speaker 6: of Bill Clinton on Late Night with a.
Speaker 2: Black host and and what that did for him, and
Speaker 2: it made him relevant in the culture and a different
Speaker 2: kind of way before we were referring to it as
Speaker 2: relevant in the culture today. Though. My issue with him,
Speaker 2: First of all, if you're a citizen, you're in America,
Speaker 2: you're breathing, you can have an opinion, you can have choice,
Speaker 2: You can have all those things, and you can have
Speaker 2: your own reasons for why it is you're doing what
Speaker 2: it is you're doing politically. So I can't begrudge people
Speaker 2: who go down that road. I've said it before, I'll
Speaker 2: say it again fifty cent. He and I may share complexion,
Speaker 2: but that's kind of probably where it's at. We're in
Speaker 2: a different tax bracket. He's got a whole another world
Speaker 2: of concerns and care or frankly, I got a whole
Speaker 2: different kind of world of concern and bills and so on,
Speaker 2: and tax brackets and so on and so forth. And
Speaker 2: so when I see people like him move, I don't
Speaker 2: attribute it to be in our collective community best inrists.
Speaker 2: I think he's got other things that bay hear. I
Speaker 2: may not know what they are. He may be for
Speaker 2: Trump because Trump is trying to reduce taxes on people
Speaker 2: who are in his bracket. He may be trying to
Speaker 2: open up in some golf courses, you know, another side hustle,
Speaker 2: or a new business venture. We never know what it
Speaker 2: is that these folks have going that necessitates how they move,
Speaker 2: particularly in political spaces. I don't I don't assign anymore,
Speaker 2: and I think I probably at one point did assign
Speaker 2: when I saw black people whose names I recognized, mostly
Speaker 2: to your point, Angelo, who were in the political space.
Speaker 2: Maxine Waters was a queen and a god to me,
Speaker 2: you know, in middle school. And if she said it,
Speaker 2: it was truth, it was Bible, it was law, and
Speaker 2: she got there by good consideration that had me and
Speaker 2: mind when she said this was going to be good
Speaker 2: for us. Long divorced myself from that belief. And I
Speaker 2: think our community has grown in many ways sophisticated enough
Speaker 2: to hear a celebrity or an influencer say something and
Speaker 2: then to process through the recesses of their mind whether
Speaker 2: or not it works for them or not the truth,
Speaker 2: but guess what. And those who aren't likely aren't impacting
Speaker 2: the process and the way that we think they should
Speaker 2: be anyway, like i e. Voting to talking about voting
Speaker 2: in the candidates that you support and the reasons why
Speaker 2: you do it. The largest influence of research substantiates this
Speaker 2: comes from your person to person contacts, relationships with people around,
Speaker 2: moving them to the different story. If it doesn't mean
Speaker 2: it's true, like people did, I don't think so. I
Speaker 2: don't think so. I thought in twenty sixteen. What we
Speaker 2: saw where influence has held then the role that they
Speaker 2: hold now, which is they bring attention largely to a
Speaker 2: candidate or an issue or a situation that might otherwise
Speaker 2: go unmerited. Oh yeah, that's what I think influences bring
Speaker 2: as a value to a campaign. That I was a
Speaker 2: struggling candidate in a primary and I needed anybody to
Speaker 2: put eyes on me that would and once they put
Speaker 2: eyes on me, maybe then the regular voter would say, oh,
Speaker 2: I didn't know about that cat, let me find out more.
Speaker 2: But they weren't saying I'm going to vote for him
Speaker 2: because Cardi B said go do it. I'm going to
Speaker 2: look for him because Cardi B said.
Speaker 5: Can I ask you a question? Well, both of you
Speaker 5: guys only fans.
Speaker 1: Let's say, is somebody out there she reads three million
Speaker 1: people a month on only fans doing all kinds of
Speaker 1: who knows?
Speaker 2: So if I got to go play with her little toe?
Speaker 1: No, sir, no sir, no sir you okay, So there
Speaker 1: is a line. Are we sending our handdate only fan?
Speaker 5: I don't think.
Speaker 4: I don't think that you send the candidate to OnlyFans.
Speaker 4: I think that you can have the only fans talent,
Speaker 4: do a video on OnlyFans and say like, I know
Speaker 4: you thought this was what she was going to get today,
Speaker 4: but let me tell you instead, this is where I'm
Speaker 4: a voter.
Speaker 5: Actually that's a good idea. It was a great idea.
Speaker 5: But here's the other.
Speaker 2: Either way, the DNC just credentialed like twenty forty influencers
Speaker 2: content creation should as official folks.
Speaker 4: That they should should And here's why the third of
Speaker 4: young people under thirty get their news from TikTok, So
Speaker 4: that's exactly what they should do. The question is how
Speaker 4: do the candidates and the campaigns engage these folks. I
Speaker 4: think part of what we see happening that is a
Speaker 4: challenge is people try to use nineteen nineties tactics with
Speaker 4: new media, and that's the part that doesn't ring true.
Speaker 4: That's the part that strikes inauthentic. We don't need Kamala
Speaker 4: Harris on Kai Sanatz trying to say stuff like him
Speaker 4: be like what game you playing? No, let me get
Speaker 4: on it, Let me get on the NBA two K
Speaker 4: with you or whatever it is. I don't even know
Speaker 4: what the game is called. So it's like you have
Speaker 4: to make sure that they still ring true. There's a
Speaker 4: video that's gaining traction of Kamala Harris saying that you know,
Speaker 4: she makes a mean pot of greens and one time
Speaker 4: she had to make so many, so many greens for
Speaker 4: Christmas that they had to watch them in the bathtub,
Speaker 4: and the dude like saying she's lying. Probably is very true.
Speaker 4: I prefer using a sterilite. But I understand exactly what
Speaker 4: you're saying. I just can't unsee ass and my grades.
Speaker 5: I can't unsee it.
Speaker 4: But I just think that there are ways that we
Speaker 4: can reach folks and it is authentic. I believe Hillary
Speaker 4: Clinton when she said she had hot sauce in her bag.
Speaker 4: I don't believe it was from Beyonce Lyric. I believe
Speaker 4: that Kamala really cooked a mean batch of greens and
Speaker 4: a bunch of other things. There are people, though, who
Speaker 4: are frustrated that Kamala recently had Meg the Stallions twerking
Speaker 4: at a rally. I didn't mind it, mean, I thought
Speaker 4: there are some young folks that it could reach. It
Speaker 4: was in Atlanta she had Quavo talking about gun violence.
Speaker 4: I also can say I would have preferred though, her
Speaker 4: sitting down to talk with Meg about what happened with
Speaker 4: her and Tory Lanez and what she did as a
Speaker 4: prosecutor to quell domestic violence, what she did as a senator,
Speaker 4: what type of legislation she introduced, what she's going to
Speaker 4: do as law. Not really, it requires Meg telling. It
Speaker 4: requires Meg telling her story, which she's done several times,
Speaker 4: and I think it would have probably gone over a
Speaker 4: little better perhaps than it did with the Gail King
Speaker 4: interview because of how Kamala is approachable in those one
Speaker 4: on ones. She did a great thing during her twenty
Speaker 4: twenty bid where a bunch of us sat down with
Speaker 4: her on criminal justice reform, some really influential people. It
Speaker 4: was like a small round table. Every influencer conversation isn't
Speaker 4: about a celebrity. It is about people who exist in
Speaker 4: our incredible and notable in certain subject matter, certain you know,
Speaker 4: have certain expertise. She could do more of those conversations.
Speaker 2: I agree. I'm just saying with certain celebrities, we are
Speaker 2: asking people to do a lot in those reveals, and
Speaker 2: so some are more comfortable with a couple of seconds.
Speaker 2: I'm with my girl, Da da da da Da da da,
Speaker 2: and I'm dying for her and I'm and I'm fine
Speaker 2: with that. Yeah, show us I will last time.
Speaker 5: I can't reference that, yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. But for people who are willing to engage
Speaker 2: and give more of themselves to illuminate for their followers,
Speaker 2: why it is that you're For instance, Cardi b talking
Speaker 2: about goddamn Obamacare when she said, just so we could
Speaker 2: go and get our Yeah, you know, look, I was like,
Speaker 2: this is some hard stuff. I love this. It was.
Speaker 2: It was I'm sorry, carludant. And I became a follower
Speaker 2: of her after seeing her do that because she spoke
Speaker 2: as plane spoken as any of us would be, just
Speaker 2: the way that I talked and laughed, you know, jokingly
Speaker 2: about Abraham Lincoln. It's because some of my boys we
Speaker 2: laugh about that. You're kind of brown. Maybe it's I
Speaker 2: tell you, I know the history, I know what the
Speaker 2: facts are, But that isn't the way regular people engage
Speaker 2: in conversation. Folklore can take twenty trips around the block
Speaker 2: before a moon before the truth gets won. Right, that's mine.
Speaker 4: Just stick with Cardi, not Abe. That's all I'm asking.
Speaker 2: All I'm saying is people let me. You gotta know
Speaker 2: we talk as regular people and ways that we may
Speaker 2: not speak to each other at the live show, right,
Speaker 2: we will get close to it, but we won't be that.
Speaker 2: And I'm just saying, why not. We have to make
Speaker 2: these environments as comfortable as we can for people because
Speaker 2: we're asking them to engage personally, not on behalf of
Speaker 2: we're saying, you go take the time to vote and
Speaker 2: put your stamp on it. And that is an extension
Speaker 2: that half the country doesn't make right now. And there's
Speaker 2: a reason.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I hear that you said that we don't do
Speaker 4: that in a live show, and I asked, why not.
Speaker 5: I know that's probably a different I.
Speaker 2: Said, we do. We do, but but nah, I don't
Speaker 2: say somebody that I would like us to do because
Speaker 2: there are words that I shouldn't say.
Speaker 6: Am I.
Speaker 2: I don't have my mom and my mother in law
Speaker 2: come at me. Yeah, you know, but nah, that's always
Speaker 2: going to be real. I may I may present it
Speaker 2: slightly more appropriately, but it is what it is. I
Speaker 2: just think we're we're long past the time of you know,
Speaker 2: pearl clutching around who performed at such and such as
Speaker 2: rally and who they got of urban endorcement.
Speaker 5: So there were some people who really didn't It.
Speaker 2: May have been. It may have been, and I don't
Speaker 2: take issue with them. I think she got more than
Speaker 2: what she did. I think she got more than what
Speaker 2: she lost. And that's the analysis that I think people
Speaker 2: have to, you know, sometimes.
Speaker 5: Make a calculation.
Speaker 2: You guys.
Speaker 1: Remember when that state legislator was twerking and people had
Speaker 1: a fit.
Speaker 2: Remember she was on the Yes, I remember I knew.
Speaker 5: That legislator, you know, you knew her?
Speaker 2: Was she and p fle and we defended her MBJC.
Speaker 1: I defended her on my show at the time because
Speaker 1: I feel like, listen, as the gender, as the elected
Speaker 1: leaders get younger and younger, like we have to get
Speaker 1: rid of some of these purity tests, you know, and
Speaker 1: it's like, yeah, we are full human beings who have
Speaker 1: full lives, and you know we didn't grow up well,
Speaker 1: thank god, you know, there was no Instagram.
Speaker 5: I'm during frequent in Atlanta.
Speaker 1: You know, we didn't grow up with our homecoming, you know,
Speaker 1: being played on TikTok, you know. And so now as
Speaker 1: we have people, unless you lived your whole life like
Speaker 1: a robot, there's going to be some things out there
Speaker 1: that you did or do. And I think our social
Speaker 1: norms and morays adjust and we're going to have to adjust.
Speaker 2: Just know this, y'all. You may think it's a good
Speaker 2: idea for you to do, but you also have to
Speaker 2: be prepared to deal with the consequences. That could be
Speaker 2: a voter who is now pissed as hell at you
Speaker 2: and will no longer be voting for you. It could
Speaker 2: be a classroom of kids who said, I've never heard
Speaker 2: of you before, but when you was working and talking
Speaker 2: about the college loan forgiveness and how to apply, Like
Speaker 2: I got my life because I watched you to work
Speaker 2: and got the instructions on how to apply. I don't
Speaker 2: know what that looks like. All I'm saying is is
Speaker 2: you make the choices that are consistent with you. You
Speaker 2: can feel at home in that choice because you will
Speaker 2: have to be at home in that choice when you
Speaker 2: have to deal with the consequences of it. That's all
Speaker 2: I'm saying.
Speaker 5: Good Mini pot guys, y'all, We out of here.
Speaker 2: Chalk for your loan forgiveness, y'all, Thanks for listening. Remember
Speaker 2: to rate, review, subscribe, yeh.
Speaker 5: Add that to it the list of things you should
Speaker 5: never say again.
Speaker 2: Welcome on, y'all.
Speaker 5: What to work for your loan forgiveness.
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