WEBVTT - Tupac Lives! (with Jay Ellis) 0:00:04.600 --> 0:00:07.520 There's a part of me that feels like a fifty 0:00:07.600 --> 0:00:10.480 year old tupacet is not gonna be He ain't the 0:00:10.520 --> 0:00:12.720 hero we want him to be. That's not gonna be 0:00:12.800 --> 0:00:15.560 the greatest rapper of all time. That's just gonna be 0:00:15.600 --> 0:00:20.800 a dude whilom trash ass opinions about like women, respectability, politics, 0:00:20.920 --> 0:00:23.160 you know what I mean. There's a whole different animal. 0:00:23.160 --> 0:00:25.240 Now we're looking at his stuff all through the lens 0:00:25.280 --> 0:00:28.240 of you know whatever, that year, even though today we're 0:00:28.240 --> 0:00:30.400 looking at it all through the lens of twenty. We're like, 0:00:30.440 --> 0:00:34.800 bro harpy about you, Harby, gonna share all if you don't, yeh, 0:00:36.600 --> 0:00:39.080 shut up, man, You're weird, your jeans are too big, 0:00:39.159 --> 0:00:50.519 and you're making me uncomfortable with your thoughts. Chips in 0:00:50.600 --> 0:01:04.000 your nails. Man racist also most money materney stuff you 0:01:04.080 --> 0:01:11.800 can't tell me. Yeah, there it is. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, 0:01:11.840 --> 0:01:17.560 to another A magnificent, a devastating, a spectacular episode of 0:01:17.640 --> 0:01:22.120 My Mama Told Me, The podcast where we died deep deep, 0:01:22.520 --> 0:01:26.040 super deep into the pockets of black conspiracy theories and 0:01:26.200 --> 0:01:30.759 we finally figure out where the government is hiding. Jazz Faye, 0:01:31.040 --> 0:01:35.559 Where's jazz government. We know you got him. Fuck Carmen 0:01:35.640 --> 0:01:38.399 San Diego. Show me where Jazz Faye is. Where in 0:01:38.440 --> 0:01:43.039 the world is jazz fake ladies, ladies, ladies and gentle lazy. 0:01:43.680 --> 0:01:47.400 I need to know where jasse By is. He didn't 0:01:47.400 --> 0:01:50.160 do anything to anybody. The man's probably he probably did. 0:01:50.240 --> 0:01:53.120 I haven't likely. I haven't been doing my jazz favor research. 0:01:53.520 --> 0:01:55.800 Maybe he got canceled at some point along the way, 0:01:55.840 --> 0:01:58.600 and I just don't know. This is exciting. I'm your host, 0:01:58.760 --> 0:02:02.160 Lankston Kerman. As always, I was thinking about this the 0:02:02.240 --> 0:02:04.880 other day that this is the only I think and 0:02:04.920 --> 0:02:07.560 I dare to say this. This is the only conspiracy 0:02:07.640 --> 0:02:10.880 theory podcast where we say the word nigga and it's 0:02:10.919 --> 0:02:13.280 not coming from a place of hate. Do you know 0:02:13.320 --> 0:02:16.480 what I mean? Every other conspiracy theory podcast they call 0:02:16.560 --> 0:02:20.359 people nigga and it's it's a mean nigga. But this 0:02:20.440 --> 0:02:22.480 is a kind of nigga. This is a loving nigga. 0:02:22.520 --> 0:02:24.680 My dad hates that I say be in words so much, 0:02:25.080 --> 0:02:27.160 But you know who doesn't hate that I say the 0:02:27.240 --> 0:02:29.600 in word. I have no idea how it feels about 0:02:29.880 --> 0:02:33.520 me say the in word. It's my guest today he's spectacular, 0:02:33.880 --> 0:02:38.840 he's hilarious. He's an amazing actor, Champion of champions. You 0:02:38.880 --> 0:02:42.079 know him from Insecure, you know him from Mrs America, 0:02:42.160 --> 0:02:45.200 you know him from his podcast The Untold Story Policing. 0:02:45.680 --> 0:02:47.840 He's the best. Give it up for my guest today, 0:02:47.960 --> 0:02:55.000 Mr j ellis over our Koala bearers racist for real. 0:02:55.520 --> 0:02:57.639 I don't know if I heard that whispering there. I 0:02:57.720 --> 0:03:01.400 heard that whispering there. Uh, you know what it is. 0:03:01.639 --> 0:03:04.960 They're from Australia, and I feel like almost everybody in 0:03:05.000 --> 0:03:08.600 Australia is pretty racist, so I'm willing to go that way. 0:03:08.760 --> 0:03:12.040 Oh I won't hold a quala bear ever, now, yeah 0:03:12.080 --> 0:03:16.760 you shouldn't. They're also filled with diseases. There's like a 0:03:16.760 --> 0:03:19.080 real rule. I don't know if you've ever been to Australia, 0:03:19.120 --> 0:03:21.800 but there are like real rules in certain cities that 0:03:21.840 --> 0:03:25.720 you're actually not allowed to hold Koala bears because they 0:03:25.760 --> 0:03:29.640 are number one, super like endangered and also uh covered 0:03:29.680 --> 0:03:33.120 in diseases that they only give the black people. Yeah, 0:03:33.639 --> 0:03:42.480 specifically they hold out. Now, you don't get it today, 0:03:42.520 --> 0:03:45.760 you don't get it. You don't get it. The Koala 0:03:45.800 --> 0:03:48.800 bears love the paper bag test. They can't get enough 0:03:48.880 --> 0:03:51.720 of it. How are you? I'm good, bro, How you doing. 0:03:52.280 --> 0:03:54.800 I'm doing all right, it's a good day. I'm glad 0:03:54.840 --> 0:03:59.160 you're here. You brought to us a conspiracy theory that 0:03:59.640 --> 0:04:02.240 that I feel like, and I dare say, is the 0:04:02.440 --> 0:04:07.480 first conspiracy theory I ever subscribe to. That like I 0:04:07.600 --> 0:04:10.680 ever was like, oh wow, I think I believe in 0:04:10.880 --> 0:04:13.840 something that the world doesn't want me to believe in. 0:04:13.960 --> 0:04:17.560 If that you said, And I want to make sure 0:04:17.600 --> 0:04:20.039 I get this right, you said, my mama told me 0:04:21.640 --> 0:04:30.560 tupockets alive and hiding in Cuba. Yeah, she got it 0:04:30.560 --> 0:04:32.080 from a magazine rush. She got it from one of 0:04:32.120 --> 0:04:34.560 the joints in the grocery aisle, you know what I'm saying. 0:04:34.600 --> 0:04:36.279 And she came home one day and she showed it 0:04:36.320 --> 0:04:37.880 to me, and she was like, you gotta believe it 0:04:37.880 --> 0:04:42.480 because the Inquirer said it. Sure, Why would the National 0:04:42.640 --> 0:04:46.000 enquire a lot of us? I mean, they are a 0:04:46.000 --> 0:04:48.200 truth teller, right, Like, that's what they do, you know 0:04:48.200 --> 0:04:54.080 what I'm saying, So plish, gotta be real. It's gotta 0:04:54.120 --> 0:04:56.440 be bro. They had pictures that they had facts. I 0:04:56.480 --> 0:04:58.520 don't know that they were where they got the facts from, 0:04:58.600 --> 0:05:00.920 but they had them. You know, they had him. They 0:05:00.920 --> 0:05:04.679 put him in bold, so you knew that they were legit. Wait, 0:05:04.760 --> 0:05:07.600 so so your mother, in fact, was the person that 0:05:07.720 --> 0:05:10.080 first introduced this to you. So here's the thing. So 0:05:10.160 --> 0:05:14.640 my grandpa, my mom's dad, was a truck driver and 0:05:14.720 --> 0:05:17.200 he would stop and he drove all across the country, right, 0:05:17.240 --> 0:05:21.120 and his thing was literally to get the inquiry, all 0:05:21.160 --> 0:05:23.120 the all the what do they call those things now? 0:05:23.120 --> 0:05:24.640 I can't even think of him. He would get all 0:05:24.680 --> 0:05:27.080 the magazines, the tabloids there you go. He would get 0:05:27.120 --> 0:05:31.160 all the tabloids along his stops. Right, so as he 0:05:31.200 --> 0:05:33.560 would stop and see us, we were told home at 0:05:33.600 --> 0:05:35.680 the time, and when he would stop and see us, 0:05:36.040 --> 0:05:38.440 he would always like give a little bit of wisdom. 0:05:38.600 --> 0:05:42.120 So my mom was actually I think my mom was 0:05:42.200 --> 0:05:44.320 actually like he was the first person that told me 0:05:44.400 --> 0:05:47.240 there was an alien cult that worshiped Oprah for example. 0:05:47.320 --> 0:05:51.599 You know what I mean? Oh, okay, he was Okay, 0:05:52.360 --> 0:05:56.720 he was out there. He's coming back from home every 0:05:56.760 --> 0:05:59.359 time with a little treat for you to go a 0:05:59.400 --> 0:06:02.599 little more crazy with out in Tulsa. Just let's shake 0:06:02.640 --> 0:06:04.680 things up around here. And then he getting this truck 0:06:04.680 --> 0:06:07.080 and he did well I think my my mom, I 0:06:07.120 --> 0:06:09.520 think was actually telling me this as a joke. I 0:06:09.560 --> 0:06:11.840 think she was like playing she was. I think she 0:06:11.920 --> 0:06:13.479 was making fun of my grandpa. You know what I'm saying. 0:06:13.480 --> 0:06:15.760 I don't think she was necessarily truthful that pocket was 0:06:15.839 --> 0:06:17.440 hidening cube, but maybe she was. I don't know. I 0:06:17.480 --> 0:06:20.120 should ask her, But I remember her coming home one 0:06:20.160 --> 0:06:22.120 day and she had bought an inquiry and it was 0:06:22.200 --> 0:06:26.000 like one of those super super grainy photos of like 0:06:27.000 --> 0:06:29.400 a black cuban on a beach who happened to be 0:06:29.480 --> 0:06:35.280 ball headed, just one dude with a goatee and he 0:06:35.400 --> 0:06:38.960 had a tattoo. You know what I'm saying. It didn't 0:06:38.960 --> 0:06:42.560 even say thug life. It just said, uh, trabajo. But 0:06:43.000 --> 0:06:46.760 you know, so, so after that, you know what I'm saying, 0:06:46.760 --> 0:06:49.360 She she she put it in my head. I got 0:06:49.400 --> 0:06:52.600 you and so and so she puts this in your head. Well, 0:06:52.880 --> 0:06:55.560 your grandfather he puts it in her head. She puts 0:06:55.640 --> 0:06:58.680 this in your head. And then you do you believe it? 0:06:58.720 --> 0:07:01.800 Are you a hundred percent? Audiend? Yeah? I think we 0:07:01.880 --> 0:07:03.680 all were like, do you remember the first time you 0:07:03.720 --> 0:07:05.520 heard about it? I think when we all first I 0:07:05.520 --> 0:07:07.839 think when we saw the images because even the images 0:07:07.880 --> 0:07:10.760 weren't so clear that it was him, because his head 0:07:10.800 --> 0:07:12.480 was turned the other way I think, or it was 0:07:12.520 --> 0:07:14.840 kind of like slumped down, so like it almost felt 0:07:14.840 --> 0:07:16.280 like it could be staged, or it could have been 0:07:16.280 --> 0:07:18.720 somebody else. And so yeah, I fully believed that Park 0:07:18.800 --> 0:07:22.600 was in Cuba. Well to your point, so many of 0:07:22.640 --> 0:07:27.600 the images related to Tupac's death were like unfinished, do 0:07:27.680 --> 0:07:29.440 you know what I mean? Like we never got like 0:07:29.480 --> 0:07:33.360 a definitive that's Tupac he dead photo, And so I 0:07:33.400 --> 0:07:37.080 think everybody was like, I don't know, bro, there's a 0:07:37.120 --> 0:07:40.000 lot of space for negotiation at this point because we 0:07:40.080 --> 0:07:43.000 don't know. We never saw it. When nobody saw him dead. Also, 0:07:43.120 --> 0:07:46.000 everybody knew somebody ball. I went to school with a 0:07:46.040 --> 0:07:49.600 kid named b J Coleman. B J looked like a 0:07:49.720 --> 0:07:52.920 young Poc. Like everybody knew somebody who shaved their head, 0:07:52.960 --> 0:07:55.160 who had a mustache, or who had a goatee, who like, 0:07:55.480 --> 0:07:59.640 at the right distance, in the right way, with some 0:07:59.720 --> 0:08:03.840 face gold on that's gonna turn their ears green. Hundred 0:08:03.880 --> 0:08:08.960 yards away, I am Tupac. If you get me hundred 0:08:09.040 --> 0:08:11.600 yards away, I'm Tupac. Up close, I'm you know, I'm 0:08:11.640 --> 0:08:14.280 a completely different person, but at a certain angle in 0:08:14.320 --> 0:08:17.840 the right life, we could all be Tupac. It's a 0:08:17.880 --> 0:08:22.040 fascinating thing because I remember specifically hearing that Tupac had 0:08:22.080 --> 0:08:25.680 gotten shot and he didn't die instantly, and so I 0:08:25.720 --> 0:08:29.160 think so many of us, like the other times that 0:08:29.200 --> 0:08:32.120 he got shot, were like, he'll be all right, hence 0:08:32.840 --> 0:08:37.000 he'll bounce back, and then he supposedly didn't bounce back, 0:08:37.360 --> 0:08:40.040 and so I was like, no, I think he bounced 0:08:40.080 --> 0:08:44.800 back because right I refused to think otherwise. And then 0:08:44.800 --> 0:08:47.400 when all the stuff came out about like the relationship 0:08:47.440 --> 0:08:50.720 we should and not paying him and buying him cars 0:08:50.760 --> 0:08:52.640 to drag him along and all that, then you're like, oh, 0:08:52.720 --> 0:08:55.720 I understand why a dude would fake his death, And 0:08:55.800 --> 0:08:57.959 right like it all started to like make sense where 0:08:58.000 --> 0:09:00.360 you're like, oh, like the cops are matter to him 0:09:00.400 --> 0:09:03.400 for this sugar won't pay him he got, you know, 0:09:03.440 --> 0:09:05.040 he feels like he had a deal with the devil 0:09:05.080 --> 0:09:08.040 he can't get out of. Understand why this dude, You 0:09:08.040 --> 0:09:09.959 know what I'm saying, It's like, yeah, I'm gonna fake 0:09:09.960 --> 0:09:13.320 my dad and run get right, So to your point, 0:09:13.400 --> 0:09:16.760 and I think this is very fair. He had legitimate 0:09:16.880 --> 0:09:19.760 reasons to want to fake his death. This wasn't like 0:09:19.800 --> 0:09:22.560 a guy who just did it for entertainment value. He 0:09:22.640 --> 0:09:25.600 legitimately was caught up in like you know what they 0:09:25.640 --> 0:09:28.240 call like the three sixty deal and like the whole 0:09:28.520 --> 0:09:31.280 year he's being scammed out of his money. Tupac was 0:09:31.320 --> 0:09:34.640 the most famous man alive who basically wasn't benefiting from 0:09:34.640 --> 0:09:37.959 his own celebrity exactly exactly. So, I mean, if I'm 0:09:37.960 --> 0:09:41.240 in that situation, you know, the insurance money looks good 0:09:41.240 --> 0:09:44.079 for the family, you know what I mean, sures check 0:09:44.160 --> 0:09:46.079 looks good for the family. If I'm in that situation, 0:09:46.160 --> 0:09:48.080 you know what I mean, There's only so many people 0:09:48.120 --> 0:09:49.840 you can go to for help because you are who 0:09:49.840 --> 0:09:53.480 you are. Okay, so you hear this, you believe it? 0:09:53.679 --> 0:09:58.040 Do you start spreading it? Are you the conceiver of 0:09:58.080 --> 0:10:01.320 this conspiracy theory? Are you paid and zero in your school? 0:10:01.440 --> 0:10:02.960 Or do you go and people are like, yeah, we 0:10:03.000 --> 0:10:05.280 already knew that, Jay, we got it all figured out. 0:10:05.640 --> 0:10:08.640 My middle school was all black, and so everybody in 0:10:08.720 --> 0:10:10.800 my school knew about it. Every you know what I mean, 0:10:10.840 --> 0:10:13.080 Like it was like I got there and I was late, 0:10:13.200 --> 0:10:14.439 you know what I mean. I got there and it 0:10:14.600 --> 0:10:17.600 was like, man, where you where you being? Like, of 0:10:17.679 --> 0:10:20.720 course he hiding in Cuba. This is in the curriculum 0:10:21.360 --> 0:10:24.560 in English class like Mr Williams was teaching about it 0:10:24.640 --> 0:10:26.959 last week before he was even dead. So what you're 0:10:26.960 --> 0:10:31.880 talking about and go to Cuba? Right, I'm just saying. 0:10:33.480 --> 0:10:35.559 There was a couple of kids even popping my head 0:10:35.600 --> 0:10:38.319 I could think of who looked at me sideways like yeah, man, 0:10:38.360 --> 0:10:40.160 what you mean like of course he in Cuba. Like 0:10:40.400 --> 0:10:42.600 he bought a house, you know what I'm saying, Like 0:10:42.960 --> 0:10:44.640 his kids is with him, his wife is with him, 0:10:44.640 --> 0:10:47.000 and like he just kicking it, making music with you 0:10:47.000 --> 0:10:49.280 know what I'm saying, Bob Marley or somebody, you know 0:10:49.320 --> 0:10:51.640 what I mean. They just started adding on to the conspiracy. 0:10:51.640 --> 0:10:54.600 Who else was down there with him? Well that's where 0:10:54.800 --> 0:10:58.440 to me became challenging to keep following the train is 0:10:58.520 --> 0:11:02.000 like people start it'd like suggesting all the people that 0:11:02.160 --> 0:11:04.920 knew and were a part of the conspiracy theory, and 0:11:04.960 --> 0:11:07.680 it's like you don't get to disappear and kick it, 0:11:07.920 --> 0:11:09.199 do you know what I mean? Like you don't get 0:11:09.240 --> 0:11:13.960 to keep vibing with everybody that's cool, while simultaneously fulling 0:11:14.040 --> 0:11:19.520 disappearing off of the face of the earth exactly. Nobody's 0:11:19.600 --> 0:11:21.640 being that cool where they're just like, all right, I 0:11:21.640 --> 0:11:26.199 won't tell anybody part especially for free. Yeah, for free. Also, 0:11:26.280 --> 0:11:28.800 we can all travel to Cuba at this point, which 0:11:28.800 --> 0:11:31.720 has been completely cut off from America. But that's fine, 0:11:32.040 --> 0:11:37.800 no resources, communist ran country, Like that's what we're gonna 0:11:37.800 --> 0:11:42.960 go do. Yeah, we're just saying, okay, so you believe it, 0:11:43.040 --> 0:11:45.480 your friends at school believe it. Is there a point 0:11:45.520 --> 0:11:49.600 in your life where you stop believing in this theory? 0:11:49.679 --> 0:11:52.359 At what point do you jump off of the tupockets 0:11:52.360 --> 0:11:55.040 in Cuba train or have you jumped off? Maybe you 0:11:55.120 --> 0:11:58.320 still bought in. No, I jumped off. I do jump off. 0:11:58.480 --> 0:12:00.400 So here's what I think would happen. I think in 0:12:00.440 --> 0:12:02.920 two thousands there was all the conspiracies that like that's 0:12:02.960 --> 0:12:05.560 when he was gonna come back, right, the Mayan calendar 0:12:05.840 --> 0:12:09.439 and two thousands, those were the two things. It was like, 0:12:09.640 --> 0:12:11.640 I don't know what you wanted to believe. And where 0:12:11.679 --> 0:12:13.880 I'm from. Where I'm from is the Bible Belt, Like 0:12:14.040 --> 0:12:16.079 it's a church on every single corner, and so like 0:12:16.320 --> 0:12:19.480 there were churches that literally would buy billboards and put 0:12:19.600 --> 0:12:22.200 up like the Mayan prophecy and like that the world 0:12:22.320 --> 0:12:25.920 was gonna come to end in two thousand. Right, wait, 0:12:26.120 --> 0:12:31.520 hold on, wait, so these churches are super conservative churches. 0:12:32.760 --> 0:12:36.600 They would get billboards saying that the world was gonna 0:12:36.600 --> 0:12:38.640 come to like are you good with God? You know 0:12:38.640 --> 0:12:42.200 what I'm saying for your sins? Because the end is 0:12:42.320 --> 0:12:46.240 near right coming. They're doing like they're doing like some 0:12:46.280 --> 0:12:49.360 cross branding ship. They're like, all right, well, if y'all 0:12:49.360 --> 0:12:53.520 all think the world is ending, Jesus is still the way. 0:12:54.280 --> 0:12:57.720 You gotta get good with Jesus. Otherwise that Mayan that's 0:12:57.720 --> 0:13:00.520 gonna get you. That's gonna get you. You can come 0:13:00.559 --> 0:13:02.840 over here, or you can deal with the mind, or 0:13:02.880 --> 0:13:05.280 you can deal with the mind. And they ain't even 0:13:05.280 --> 0:13:07.079 around no more, so we don't even know how to 0:13:07.120 --> 0:13:10.600 act with them. Do your thing, you choose. So it 0:13:10.679 --> 0:13:13.240 was a combination of that and then all of a sudden, 0:13:13.240 --> 0:13:15.000 like in school, it just started floating around it like 0:13:15.000 --> 0:13:17.160 POC was gonna come back in two thousands. So here 0:13:17.200 --> 0:13:19.120 I am thinking like, oh, one of the two is 0:13:19.160 --> 0:13:22.320 gonna happen. Either the world is gonna end or technology 0:13:22.400 --> 0:13:24.280 is gonna melt everything. Dawn remember that whole thing that 0:13:24.360 --> 0:13:25.840 they thought it was all gonna go back to zeros. 0:13:26.000 --> 0:13:29.800 They thought, like, the computers weren't ready for two thousands, 0:13:31.240 --> 0:13:34.079 why two K? And it blows my mind still that 0:13:34.120 --> 0:13:36.440 this was what why two K was. But that was 0:13:36.520 --> 0:13:39.680 the whole premise, was that our computers weren't going to 0:13:39.720 --> 0:13:43.400 be able to figure out the difference between zero zero 0:13:43.559 --> 0:13:46.920 zero zero in two thousand and so it would make 0:13:47.200 --> 0:13:51.400 rockets go off and explode the entire planet. Satellites were 0:13:51.400 --> 0:13:55.000 gonna come falling out of the sky, and cell phones 0:13:55.080 --> 0:13:57.880 were gonna be like criss crossed with like you know, uh, 0:13:58.240 --> 0:14:01.839 government signals, you know what I'm radio. So it was 0:14:01.880 --> 0:14:04.040 like all this stuff was happening at once, and then 0:14:04.040 --> 0:14:05.840 pac was supposed to come back. So I feel like, 0:14:06.120 --> 0:14:07.720 for me, when none of it happened, I think that's 0:14:07.760 --> 0:14:09.959 when I got off the conspiracy train altogether. I think 0:14:10.559 --> 0:14:12.719 you're right. When my computer didn't shut down, I was 0:14:12.760 --> 0:14:14.640 still to get up, get on a O L. You 0:14:14.679 --> 0:14:16.800 know what I'm saying. It still about the black planet. 0:14:16.880 --> 0:14:19.160 The next day, you know what I mean. I was 0:14:19.200 --> 0:14:21.400 still able to do that. On the next day, the 0:14:21.440 --> 0:14:26.640 world you had bought went to waste cans of green 0:14:26.760 --> 0:14:29.480 beans you had locked in the basement were unuseful. It's like, 0:14:29.480 --> 0:14:32.200 all right, well, maybe pocket isn't coming back. You brought 0:14:32.240 --> 0:14:35.040 up something that I'm sure our white listeners have no 0:14:35.160 --> 0:14:37.520 idea about, but it was a very important thing to 0:14:37.560 --> 0:14:40.320 me in my youth. Black Planet. Let's talk a little 0:14:40.360 --> 0:14:45.080 black pant. Yes, sir, were you active? Were you an 0:14:45.080 --> 0:14:47.680 active member of Black Planet? Was? I was for a 0:14:47.720 --> 0:14:49.960 little bit. I was through college, and then I got off. 0:14:50.000 --> 0:14:51.640 I was for a little bit. I ended up going 0:14:51.720 --> 0:14:53.600 the school that I went to. If you were black 0:14:53.600 --> 0:14:55.160 in my school, you were an athletes. So there was 0:14:55.280 --> 0:14:57.640 very few of back there. Yeah, and then just in 0:14:57.720 --> 0:14:59.800 general the city. Even I was in Portland, Oregon, so 0:14:59.840 --> 0:15:01.640 even being in that city, it didn't have a huge 0:15:01.680 --> 0:15:05.200 black population. So Black Planet was away at first. It 0:15:05.320 --> 0:15:06.760 was a way for me to kind of connect with 0:15:06.840 --> 0:15:09.000 like all my people who were either back home or 0:15:09.040 --> 0:15:10.640 friends of mine who went to you know, some of 0:15:10.640 --> 0:15:14.200 my friends went to Howard and you know, Crambling and 0:15:14.320 --> 0:15:17.320 like went to black schools and so uh hbc US, 0:15:17.440 --> 0:15:19.400 and so it was partly away for me to kind 0:15:19.400 --> 0:15:21.160 of like keep connected with them. And then after a 0:15:21.160 --> 0:15:23.200 while I just kind of fell off and then actually 0:15:23.200 --> 0:15:26.240 then Facebook kind of kicked in and I kind of 0:15:26.240 --> 0:15:28.520 like fell off and got on the Facebook train. Yeah, 0:15:28.520 --> 0:15:32.040 because Black Planets sort of existed in that weird window 0:15:32.200 --> 0:15:36.160 between my Space and Facebook that like my Space, I 0:15:36.200 --> 0:15:38.920 guess we would say is the one that initiated it 0:15:38.920 --> 0:15:41.360 at all. But then Black Planet came around and people 0:15:41.360 --> 0:15:43.600 were like, yeah, this is cool, black people talking to 0:15:43.680 --> 0:15:46.480 black people. Collern that black girls who I don't know, 0:15:47.000 --> 0:15:49.680 like that was the whole energy. And then Facebook came around. 0:15:49.680 --> 0:15:51.640 We're like, I don't know, I'm just gonna talk to 0:15:51.680 --> 0:15:55.800 these college kids that I actually relate to. Yeah, and 0:15:55.840 --> 0:15:57.760 you can compete. I mean, Facebook has just gotten so 0:15:57.840 --> 0:15:59.880 massive at that point. Even out Think Gate it was huge, 0:16:00.320 --> 0:16:02.320 so compete, you know what I mean. At the Gate 0:16:02.360 --> 0:16:04.120 it was big, so it was it was hard to Uh, 0:16:04.160 --> 0:16:07.520 it was hard to compete, I think. And yeah, that's fair. 0:16:07.640 --> 0:16:11.080 I think Facebook it just had the branding behind it 0:16:11.120 --> 0:16:13.880 that a lot of the black planets of the world 0:16:13.920 --> 0:16:16.120 just couldn't match. And that's probably true about a lot 0:16:16.160 --> 0:16:18.280 of black products out of the room, Like we've been 0:16:18.320 --> 0:16:21.400 making some cool ship. But then the Mark Zuckerberg show 0:16:21.480 --> 0:16:23.400 up and they do it with all the money and 0:16:23.440 --> 0:16:27.080 we can't we can't compete. Take it, market it, flip it, 0:16:27.880 --> 0:16:31.680 sell it back to you. Alright, so you stopped believing 0:16:31.680 --> 0:16:36.640 in this Tupac thing. Since have you found yourself jumping 0:16:36.720 --> 0:16:39.440 back on board at any point? Have there been times 0:16:39.560 --> 0:16:43.680 throughout the because Tupac's sort of much like the year 0:16:43.720 --> 0:16:45.920 two thousand, I think there's been a bunch of other 0:16:46.040 --> 0:16:48.760 markers that people have thrown out of, like well, this 0:16:48.840 --> 0:16:51.640 is the twentie year, which means he'll be that now 0:16:51.960 --> 0:16:56.240 because the you know, blah blah blah, and it's like, yeah, exactly. 0:16:57.600 --> 0:17:00.480 All the different claims of why he waited it's long 0:17:00.560 --> 0:17:02.840 have sort of popped. We've gone through all of them, 0:17:02.880 --> 0:17:05.120 all the windows at this point. Has there ever been 0:17:05.160 --> 0:17:07.840 a point where you were like, all right, I'm back 0:17:07.880 --> 0:17:11.520 on board. I think maybe there's a possibility. I'll say this, 0:17:11.720 --> 0:17:17.680 when Poc was at Coachella as a hologram, Uh huh, 0:17:17.960 --> 0:17:21.920 I was there that year. Okay, my thought process might 0:17:21.960 --> 0:17:25.040 have been inhibited in some ways, and understand what I'm saying, 0:17:25.560 --> 0:17:29.560 and so, you know, uh, seeing the hologram made me 0:17:29.600 --> 0:17:33.560 start thinking like what if POC actually came back? Right? 0:17:33.960 --> 0:17:36.920 So then I went down this whole thing of like, Okay, 0:17:37.080 --> 0:17:39.760 first I'm thinking, like, yo, what if Poc popped up 0:17:39.760 --> 0:17:43.320 on stage with his hologram and him and the hologram 0:17:43.320 --> 0:17:45.960 are battling? Right? Like that was my first like just 0:17:46.080 --> 0:17:49.080 like how crazy would that be? Two see Poc and 0:17:49.119 --> 0:17:50.840 it's hollogram. But then like with Poc be out of 0:17:50.840 --> 0:17:53.640 shape and the hologram is like, you know, like sold out. 0:17:54.080 --> 0:17:58.359 There's no way he's still buff. He's been forty deep 0:17:58.359 --> 0:18:02.800 in its probably yeah. And then like does real Pock 0:18:02.880 --> 0:18:05.159 know all the lyrics still? Or is he out of breath? 0:18:05.400 --> 0:18:08.320 You know what I mean? While hologram Pocket is like 0:18:08.359 --> 0:18:11.359 just killing it like he's on he got all of 0:18:11.400 --> 0:18:14.199 it um. And then I started thinking about regretting the 0:18:14.240 --> 0:18:19.480 words that he wrote down in his kids, like yeah, 0:18:19.800 --> 0:18:23.640 I got a daughter, man, Like you know what I'm saying, 0:18:23.640 --> 0:18:25.320 I can't be up here perform and I gotta go 0:18:25.359 --> 0:18:28.199 see my kids talking about how do you want it? 0:18:28.240 --> 0:18:32.880 I got a daughter, you know what? So uh then 0:18:32.880 --> 0:18:35.359 I started thinking about like what would happen if actually 0:18:35.400 --> 0:18:37.920 came back, Like how would we receive party? How would 0:18:37.920 --> 0:18:41.320 Pop fit in to this world? You know what I'm 0:18:41.359 --> 0:18:44.600 saying like by that time, you know, yeah, is huge. 0:18:44.800 --> 0:18:47.160 Jay Z has been doing it for fifteen years at 0:18:47.200 --> 0:18:49.440 that point, almost twenty years at that point, Eminem is 0:18:49.520 --> 0:18:51.760 coming gone. Nelly. You know what I'm saying. You have 0:18:51.800 --> 0:18:54.240 all these rappers at the time, nas whatever. You've got 0:18:54.240 --> 0:18:55.920 all these rappers at the time who were like coming 0:18:55.960 --> 0:18:58.800 gone and whatever that new crop of rappers was at 0:18:58.800 --> 0:19:00.480 the time. Like would he be a would like be 0:19:00.560 --> 0:19:02.560 up there on stage with them and like spit with them? 0:19:02.560 --> 0:19:05.119 You know what I mean? Yeah, Like what would that be? Like? 0:19:05.680 --> 0:19:09.760 I think that's the scary part about all celebrity, if 0:19:09.760 --> 0:19:12.119 you will, is that, Like, I mean, we've heard it 0:19:12.160 --> 0:19:14.480 over and over again. It's like you either die young 0:19:14.600 --> 0:19:16.880 enough to be a hero or you live long enough 0:19:16.920 --> 0:19:20.320 to become the villain kind of thing. I mean. The 0:19:20.400 --> 0:19:23.719 best case scenario is Park does like a snoop, right, 0:19:24.160 --> 0:19:26.480 and you just become like, you know, the type of 0:19:26.560 --> 0:19:29.840 dude who does cooking shows and like weird sort of 0:19:29.920 --> 0:19:32.280 like you vibe with Martha Stewart and you sort of 0:19:32.320 --> 0:19:35.560 like build yourself as this cutie pie in the media. 0:19:36.160 --> 0:19:39.480 Or worst case scenario, you know, he turns into whatever. 0:19:40.000 --> 0:19:43.760 The scariest version of what Tupac was back when he 0:19:43.840 --> 0:19:50.680 was you know, at his height at Yeah, exactly right. 0:19:51.720 --> 0:19:57.800 You're just spitting on a white lady across the way. Funk. 0:19:57.880 --> 0:20:01.200 You mean I can't come to the base, stale my phone, foe, 0:20:01.280 --> 0:20:04.399 gonna make sure all your kids don't bro Wait a minute. 0:20:04.600 --> 0:20:06.400 You can't say that in the school. I can't say 0:20:06.400 --> 0:20:08.639 that in the school. There are actual children here. You 0:20:08.720 --> 0:20:12.119 can't speak that way anymore. Man. All right, we're gonna 0:20:12.119 --> 0:20:14.000 take a break and we'll be back with more j 0:20:14.160 --> 0:20:26.280 Ellis and more. My mama told me we are that, 0:20:29.800 --> 0:20:38.960 don't Yeah, we're back here with more j Ellis more. 0:20:39.119 --> 0:20:42.400 My mama told me. We're still talking about the possibility 0:20:42.400 --> 0:20:45.639 that Tupac is still alive kicking it in Cuba. This 0:20:45.720 --> 0:20:48.240 is gonna lead us easily into the research. So were 0:20:48.240 --> 0:20:52.199 there any other locations that you felt were possibilities for 0:20:52.240 --> 0:20:55.400 a Tupac still being alive? Yeah? I heard you went 0:20:55.440 --> 0:20:59.040 to like a Polynesian Southeast Asia type island for a while, 0:20:59.119 --> 0:21:01.040 you know, something like that for a while. And then 0:21:01.080 --> 0:21:04.600 remember when Dave Chappelle went to Africa. Yeah, I heard, 0:21:05.640 --> 0:21:07.760 Like I remember one of my homeboys was like, hey, 0:21:07.800 --> 0:21:12.120 you know Chappelle is going to see pot in Tanzania, 0:21:12.280 --> 0:21:15.400 and I was like, really, I don't feel right, Like right, 0:21:15.920 --> 0:21:19.960 what did they have to talk about? Why they don't 0:21:19.960 --> 0:21:21.680 even make sense? So they're gonna do kill him the 0:21:21.720 --> 0:21:25.119 Giro together, They're gonna go on a hike. Like although 0:21:25.119 --> 0:21:26.480 I would love to be a fly on the wall 0:21:26.520 --> 0:21:28.440 for that conversation at the same time because it would 0:21:28.440 --> 0:21:30.640 be a lot of genius. I mean, that's the thing, 0:21:30.760 --> 0:21:33.360 is like you wanted to be real because it's like, oh, 0:21:33.400 --> 0:21:36.200