Speaker 1: What's up family, It's your girl to meek A D.
Speaker 2: Mallory and it's your boy Might song the Gentleman.
Speaker 3: And we are your host of street Politicians, the PA
Speaker 3: and politics.
Speaker 4: Me.
Speaker 1: When I hear us.
Speaker 3: Talking saying street politicians, I keep wondering when we're gonna
Speaker 3: announce our new name. I thought, we we we you know,
Speaker 3: we didn't let the people vote. We should do the
Speaker 3: people choice.
Speaker 1: On the names. We should we should do that. We
Speaker 1: should do the people's choice. Actually I like that, I do,
Speaker 1: so let's do that.
Speaker 3: I think because I came up with it, I kind
Speaker 3: of have like an affinity to the name.
Speaker 1: But also I also understand evolution, and I did too.
Speaker 3: It was me that came up with Yes, I I did.
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, Okay, so you came up.
Speaker 2: With it, of course I did.
Speaker 3: You forget you did not come anyway today because today
Speaker 3: we are on a ti time crazy got our guest.
Speaker 3: I'm not gonna get caught up on you, just like
Speaker 3: I'm not going to stay caught up on Carly Russell
Speaker 3: for the rest of my life, because Lord have mercy.
Speaker 1: People are still It's days and days and days later, and.
Speaker 3: They're not gonna just and and and you know what
Speaker 3: someone said to me or said They didn't say it
Speaker 3: to me, they wrote in the comments section of one
Speaker 3: thing or the other.
Speaker 1: Either the Shade Room reposted my.
Speaker 3: Comments on the situation when it first happened right after
Speaker 3: the press conference last week, and it was either there
Speaker 3: or on my page where someone said, it's so crazy
Speaker 3: that people want us to just move on and be
Speaker 3: more mad at us for being mad at Carly than
Speaker 3: we are than they are at Carly. So I don't
Speaker 3: know if they were talking to me, but I know
Speaker 3: that the fact that it came up on my feed
Speaker 3: means it was in some of those comment sessions. And
Speaker 3: I was thinking, I don't think anybody is telling people
Speaker 3: to move on. I know I haven't said that. I
Speaker 3: think there's a whole lot of discovery and deep dives
Speaker 3: and discussion that needs to be had, So you know,
Speaker 3: I'm not I wouldn't say that. I definitely definitely don't
Speaker 3: think that people should just move on. I think that
Speaker 3: people have the right to go through all different types
Speaker 3: of emotions. There's some grief, there's some anger, there's frustration,
Speaker 3: there's disappointment.
Speaker 1: There's a lot.
Speaker 3: Of things that I think people have the right to feel,
Speaker 3: and I think people have the right to call for accountability.
Speaker 2: No, no, I agree.
Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying, And my thing is this,
Speaker 4: I'm not mad at y'all being mad at the situation.
Speaker 4: I'm not mad at you being mad because you know
Speaker 4: there's a possibility that the lady lie.
Speaker 2: I wouldn't. I'm not angry at that.
Speaker 4: I'm confused with why people are mad at other people
Speaker 4: who have good hearts and good natures for trying to
Speaker 4: save somebody's life that they thought was in trouble, Like
Speaker 4: because you, because you you're overly skeptical, and if you
Speaker 4: would because the thing is, if you if the people
Speaker 4: who were saying she was lying was wrong and she
Speaker 4: would have died, I could have been okay with that.
Speaker 4: You're to say what I'm saying, because what's the worst
Speaker 4: of her, Well, the worst. When I looked at both
Speaker 4: case scenarios, I said to myself, if this is not
Speaker 4: the truth, the worst case scenario is we find out
Speaker 4: it's not the truth, nobody dies. If somebody is done
Speaker 4: something illegal, they go to jail.
Speaker 2: Cool.
Speaker 4: But the worst case scenario, if I'm wrong for not
Speaker 4: believing or trying to find out if something happened to
Speaker 4: this woman that she could lose her life, and that wasn't.
Speaker 2: I mean, the trade off for me was easy.
Speaker 4: It's like, okay, now, whatever colleagues issues is, whatever the
Speaker 4: problem is, whatever her the legal ramifications is for whatever,
Speaker 4: if they are. You know, those are things that she
Speaker 4: kind of deal with. But me, on my heart, I
Speaker 4: did the right thing, and I would do it every
Speaker 4: time every time I see in the situation where women
Speaker 4: was you know, quote unquote supposedly abducted, nobody knew who
Speaker 4: she was, and people were trying to find it. I
Speaker 4: would lend my voice in my platform every time to
Speaker 4: try to find out where she is without question.
Speaker 3: And I said, and I said every time that I can, right,
Speaker 3: because I want to be honest that none of us
Speaker 3: are going to show up the right way every time.
Speaker 3: And I saw Teslin figure out our girl from a
Speaker 3: straight shot, no chaser talking about how it's classism as well, right,
Speaker 3: because there are a lot of people who are missing
Speaker 3: that never get the type of attention that Carly Russell received.
Speaker 3: And a part of the reason why she got that
Speaker 3: attention was because her status, her parents' status, they were
Speaker 3: able to reach people who reached people who took it
Speaker 3: to a high level. So it wasn't really on the
Speaker 3: news at all until Star Jones contacted you know, different
Speaker 3: people in the media. And I know she did it
Speaker 3: because she was we was on textreads and she was like, Okay,
Speaker 3: they're gonna running on CNN at this time in that
Speaker 3: time and this and that, because she's got those relationships.
Speaker 3: I mean, we know who Star Jones is and so
Speaker 3: if you don't look her up and so that helped.
Speaker 1: But what I will say is.
Speaker 3: That from our perspective, Breonna Taylor didn't have that type
Speaker 3: of profile.
Speaker 1: She didn't have that type of profile.
Speaker 3: And there's other cases that we worked on where they
Speaker 3: did not have those types of profiles or they didn't
Speaker 3: she didn't come from a family that was you know, sorority.
Speaker 1: Members and whatever.
Speaker 3: I don't know anything about what this family has, but
Speaker 3: just based upon what I'm able to gather, the relationships
Speaker 3: that she had helped them to get this story going
Speaker 3: the way that it did. In a situation with Brianna,
Speaker 3: it took two months. And so I do agree with
Speaker 3: Tesla's point that based upon where you sit in life
Speaker 3: sometimes and circumstances because it's looking for a child on
Speaker 3: the side of the road and blah blah blah, and
Speaker 3: then you go missing. That would make people respond quicker.
Speaker 3: And Breonna Taylor's case, there was a drug dealer boyfriend
Speaker 3: and they were trying their best to make it the
Speaker 3: worst story ever, and as a result, people kind of
Speaker 3: turned a blind eye, really didn't know about it. The
Speaker 3: media didn't cover it, and it took people like Ben
Speaker 3: Crump and I'll needed Baker and Sam Agyar and the
Speaker 3: local community and all of us to get together and
Speaker 3: bring it to life. So I think to you know,
Speaker 3: those are conversations we have to have that we can't
Speaker 3: just we can't stop at Carly Russell. But we also
Speaker 3: have to think about what are the things that block
Speaker 3: us or stop us from engaging in these situations, and
Speaker 3: then how do we use the same power for the
Speaker 3: hundreds of thousands of people who are harmed, missing, whatever
Speaker 3: in different ways, the kidnappings, the children that are missing
Speaker 3: in Ohio, the people being killed by police. And it
Speaker 3: takes me to the topic of right now, what we
Speaker 3: should be talking about all this legislative shit that's happening.
Speaker 3: Because I understand that people are so worn out and
Speaker 3: we say it all the time because we want to
Speaker 3: acknowledge that folks feel tired. They feel tired, they feel like,
Speaker 3: you know, it's just too much of the same thing.
Speaker 3: Keep on having a conversation about the legislators and this
Speaker 3: and that. But this stuff is really, really, really really serious.
Speaker 3: And the only point that I would make is that,
Speaker 3: you know, first of all, let me just read what
Speaker 3: happened in Florida last week. Very simple thing that happened
Speaker 3: in Florida last week, and it was going on at
Speaker 3: the same time as the Carly Russell discovery or uncovering
Speaker 3: What's happening. So the Florida Board of Education approves several
Speaker 3: new controversial laws passed by the legislature and signed by
Speaker 3: Governor Ron DeSantis. Several Democratic state lawmakers attended the board
Speaker 3: meetings on Wednesday, and each disagreed with the standards.
Speaker 1: So all of this shit that people.
Speaker 3: Arguing with us about political sides, and they all ain't nothing.
Speaker 3: One group was pushing for these laws, the other group
Speaker 3: disagreed with it and tried to fight it.
Speaker 1: Okay, they took particular issue.
Speaker 3: With one instructional change that includes how slaves developed skills,
Speaker 3: skills which in some instances could be applied for their
Speaker 3: personal benefit. So basically, what they're doing is changing the
Speaker 3: way that history is told.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 3: I know y'all say, well, people need to tell a
Speaker 3: history to their children, that's not the point. You need
Speaker 3: to do all that, but your kids should still not
Speaker 3: be going to a.
Speaker 2: School to the public get to the public to the public.
Speaker 3: School that is teaching them that being enslaved meant that
Speaker 3: you were able to develop skills for later on in life.
Speaker 2: And some people just don't know.
Speaker 4: To Mika, some of the parents don't Some of the
Speaker 4: parents are the reality situations. What I realized was my
Speaker 4: I didn't mean to cut you off, no, please. What
Speaker 4: I realized with my parents, my grandparents, my grandparents, they
Speaker 4: sacrifice so that we can have a better education in them, right,
Speaker 4: they sacrificed. They weren't as aware of our history. They
Speaker 4: didn't know all those things. I remember coming home with
Speaker 4: lessons and teaching it to my grandmother and telling her.
Speaker 4: She was like, I didn't know that, And I would
Speaker 4: teach her things and she wanted to learn, but her
Speaker 4: job was, you know, I'm gona make sure that your
Speaker 4: mother has a better education. And me and my mother
Speaker 4: told us to make sure I have education in her.
Speaker 4: Sometimes we don't know the things. So while we while
Speaker 4: our parents were working hard and putting a a position
Speaker 4: to be able to go to school and not have
Speaker 4: to worry about if we starve or if we don't
Speaker 4: have clothes on our backs, you know, the schools that
Speaker 4: say that we go to should be teaching us the
Speaker 4: proper curriculum. And that's the bottom mind. It's not even
Speaker 4: though of course it would be ideal if every parent
Speaker 4: was able to teach you know, African history and African
Speaker 4: American history to their children and be accurate upon it.
Speaker 4: But that's not the reality. And we shouldn't have to.
Speaker 4: You know, we should want to if we're able to,
Speaker 4: but we shouldn't have to. We shouldn't be able to
Speaker 4: go to schools and get the proper education.
Speaker 1: And gactually schools that are paid for by our tax.
Speaker 2: The public schools.
Speaker 3: Yes, But can I say one thing though, and this
Speaker 3: is my thought of the day today as we get
Speaker 3: ready to and you know, we were supposed to talk
Speaker 3: about Daniel Cameron, and I guess we need to probably
Speaker 3: do a live or something to really break that down.
Speaker 3: I just before I get to my thought of the day.
Speaker 3: I want to encourage everybody. You already said what you said,
Speaker 3: so let's just wrap that up and make the point
Speaker 3: that even though yes, we absolutely and I disagree with you,
Speaker 3: I don't think it's that we shouldn't have to. We
Speaker 3: should want to, We should have no, we should absolutely
Speaker 3: make it a one hundred percent demand that in our
Speaker 3: homes we teach our.
Speaker 1: Children history the right way.
Speaker 3: They're never gonna teach it exactly as it needs to
Speaker 3: be told for the benefit of our children and our
Speaker 3: communities and for our well being and our understanding and.
Speaker 1: For their well being. They're never gonna do that.
Speaker 3: But they should not be allowed legislatively to pass laws
Speaker 3: that erase our history and their history. They should be
Speaker 3: exposed to and it is not right, and we should
Speaker 3: not sit by and say, well, I don't care, and
Speaker 3: allow it to happen. Because no matter what you teach
Speaker 3: your children at home, if they go somewhere else every
Speaker 3: single day and spend more time in that place than
Speaker 3: they do at home with their parents and they're being
Speaker 3: taught something different, it conflicts what you're telling them, and
Speaker 3: that is not okay. You pay taxes, The taxes should
Speaker 3: be spent to do the right job. So we need
Speaker 3: to first of all put that to this side. On
Speaker 3: the other side, right, this is the Daniel Cameron story,
Speaker 3: y'all know, We talk about it all the time.
Speaker 2: Y'all know the deal.
Speaker 3: This is the Attorney General of Kentucky and what he
Speaker 3: did to Brianna Taylor's family where he refused to prosecute
Speaker 3: those officers. The jurors came forward and said that they
Speaker 3: were never presented with charges for Brianna Taylor's killers, and
Speaker 3: that if they hadn't been presented with the charges, they
Speaker 3: would have indicted them because they believed that what those
Speaker 3: officers did was wrong. He did nothing. He only got
Speaker 3: an indictment for the wall and the potential for the
Speaker 3: bullets that went through a wall to harm other people,
Speaker 3: and nothing for a dead woman nor a young man
Speaker 3: whose life has been destroyed forever, which is Kenny Walker.
Speaker 3: So we know that we know that that's what the
Speaker 3: Attorney General's done. We know that his relationship with Mitch
Speaker 3: McConnell and his status as a very high ranking Republican.
Speaker 3: He is a well liked Republican in the state of Kentucky.
Speaker 1: He has a twelve point plan that includes.
Speaker 3: Drug offenders being getting the death penalty. This is what
Speaker 3: he's running on. This is his platform. He wants to
Speaker 3: get rid of the Civilian Complaint Review Board so that
Speaker 3: there is no recourse, no mechanism for being able to
Speaker 3: challenge police officers and hold them accountable when they when
Speaker 3: they when I want to say when they assault, but
Speaker 3: that's not the right word because it's not just assault.
Speaker 1: It's also just illegal behavior.
Speaker 3: In general, the way that they treat people in communities.
Speaker 3: So when they are wrong, when they are God what
Speaker 3: I don't know. I want to because I keep going
Speaker 3: to violent part, but I have to always remind myself
Speaker 3: that it's not always just violence. Sometimes it's harassment in
Speaker 3: communities and people are able to report what police officers
Speaker 3: have done. And he wants to get rid of the
Speaker 3: Civilian Complaint Review Board, which people fought for to make
Speaker 3: sure that we had a mechanism for accountability within policing. Okay,
Speaker 3: he's talking about centering police and now he's running for governor.
Speaker 1: We need your help.
Speaker 3: We are going to fight Daniel Cameron tooth and nail,
Speaker 3: and in order to fight him, we are asking you.
Speaker 3: I know, it's a lot fifty dollars for a T shirt.
Speaker 3: You gotta be kidding me. The T shirt on the
Speaker 3: front set has a beautiful picture of Brionna Taylor.
Speaker 1: It's the shirt that we wore when we wore when
Speaker 1: we went.
Speaker 3: To the Beyonce concert or the Renaissance tour with forty
Speaker 3: of our people, protesters and lawyers and others who've been
Speaker 3: involved in the Brionna Taylor movement. And we are asking
Speaker 3: you to spend fifty dollars to buy yourself and everybody
Speaker 3: in your family stretch as far as you can, and
Speaker 3: a T shirt on until Freedom's website. Right now, you
Speaker 3: go to until freedom dot com and purchase a T shirt.
Speaker 3: We need to sell ten thousand T shirts at fifty
Speaker 3: dollars so that we can pay for our office space
Speaker 3: in Louisville, Kentucky and in Lexington, Kentucky, hire our staff
Speaker 3: and put people to work to fight this man and
Speaker 3: not allow him to be rewarded to go from attorney
Speaker 3: general to governor. Because he becomes governor, he can become president.
Speaker 3: So we have to put a stop to it. So
Speaker 3: I'm gonna let you respond to that, but I just
Speaker 3: want to give you my thought of the day and
Speaker 3: then you take us out and take us to our guests. Okay,
Speaker 3: here's my thought of the day.
Speaker 1: It's a damn lie.
Speaker 3: So, first of all, it's one thing to try to
Speaker 3: change history and try to skew it where it sounds
Speaker 3: better and it's softer. So you don't want to say
Speaker 3: that these people were brutally beaten, they were murdered, they
Speaker 3: were rates, they were robbed from their homeland. It is
Speaker 3: absolutely one hundred percent alive. Now you can try to
Speaker 3: change history so it sounds better, so it feels better,
Speaker 3: so that people don't understand that the Africans who were
Speaker 3: robbed and and stolen and brought to America under freaking
Speaker 3: the worst atrocity that this country has ever or that
Speaker 3: the Europeans have ever committed in order to create this
Speaker 3: nation that we're in, that they.
Speaker 1: Stole from another group of people. So that that's the history.
Speaker 3: That's the history, and you could try to change it
Speaker 3: to make it sound softer so it feels better, and
Speaker 3: so people will not take with them your history when
Speaker 3: they're voting, when they're spending their money, and when they
Speaker 3: are just living in their everyday lives and have to
Speaker 3: make decisions. Understand the devil that exists within some of
Speaker 3: those who are still walking among us. So you can
Speaker 3: try to change it, but then you're a damn liar
Speaker 3: because you sit there and say, and this new Florida,
Speaker 3: these legislative items have been put in place to make
Speaker 3: it seem like, from our history perspective, when we got
Speaker 3: here to America, we learned skills. That's a damn lie.
Speaker 3: We already had the skills when we got here. That's
Speaker 3: why you came to get us. Because the Europeans were
Speaker 3: among the people in Africa. They were on the continent,
Speaker 3: and they learned that we were already some of the
Speaker 3: most skillful people in the world. There was nobody anywhere
Speaker 3: else that was more skillful than us as Africans.
Speaker 4: These that was one of the reasons why they chose
Speaker 4: Africans as sleet. Absolutely, they realized how talented, durable all
Speaker 4: the things in the world.
Speaker 3: Right, we were not just talented, but we also could
Speaker 3: stay in the sun for longer than any other group
Speaker 3: of people. And so they found us to be a commodity.
Speaker 3: We was a hot commodity. Don't you let anybody tell
Speaker 3: you that when we got here we developed skills. No,
Speaker 3: we bought our skills here. We bought skills that the
Speaker 3: Europeans didn't have. They didn't have the skills to build
Speaker 3: their own white house, to build their own monuments, to
Speaker 3: build their own society. They did not even have the
Speaker 3: skills to be a civilized people. We were the ones.
Speaker 1: Who had the skill set, who had.
Speaker 3: The ability to even raise their babies and feed their children.
Speaker 3: That was us, okay, that was Africans who were robbed
Speaker 3: of our homeland, our culture, everything everything about us, our names.
Speaker 3: They took everything and they stripped us down so that
Speaker 3: they could bring here.
Speaker 1: So bring us here.
Speaker 3: And use the skills that we already had. We were
Speaker 3: already carpenters. We were all refreshed. What are you talking about?
Speaker 3: First of all, if you go into Egypt and look
Speaker 3: at the walls, we were writing.
Speaker 1: We were already writing.
Speaker 3: When you think about how TV shows were made, if
Speaker 3: you look at the cinema and how all those things happened,
Speaker 3: where you see an image and another image and another
Speaker 3: image and another image and it tells a full story.
Speaker 3: That's on the walls in the damn pyramids and inside
Speaker 3: of the different tombs and whatnot. In Egypt, in Africa,
Speaker 3: it's already there. So we had the skills. We built
Speaker 3: things that the world can't even imagine, that you would
Speaker 3: never have been able to And we're still doing it now.
Speaker 2: We ain't land on Plymouth rock. Plymouth Rock landed on us.
Speaker 3: I'm just saying it's a lie. It's not just it's
Speaker 3: not just distorted. It's a flat line that we had
Speaker 3: to learn those skills. No, we were the farmers, we
Speaker 3: were the carpenters, We raised the children, We were the builders.
Speaker 1: We did the cooking. We found things in the.
Speaker 3: Gardens and out in the wild that they didn't even
Speaker 3: know existed, to create the food that we all still
Speaker 3: eat right.
Speaker 2: Now, that's a fact.
Speaker 4: I mean, we've contributed so much to American civilization, you know,
Speaker 4: so to for Florida to even come up with this
Speaker 4: stupid ass you know, laws and legislation they're trying to
Speaker 4: pass in these schools, it's it's actually just disrespectful, you know.
Speaker 2: And and I just say to myself, we realized this America,
Speaker 2: you know, this is this is what they've done.
Speaker 4: They've they've done so many atrocities to so many different people,
Speaker 4: but black people being the most, and continue to compound
Speaker 4: those atrocities by trying to erase the history of those
Speaker 4: atrocity these and not reckon with that history, you know,
Speaker 4: and not be honest.
Speaker 2: About that history. It's just just so disrespectful to me.
Speaker 3: The thing about it is that it's not just disrespectful,
Speaker 3: it's criminal because it's coming from elected officials, right, And
Speaker 3: we better, we better, we better Carly that because we're
Speaker 3: busy worrying about h that's we better car Lead that.
Speaker 3: You're us what a lie can do, and a lie
Speaker 3: can do great damage, and it has done great damage.
Speaker 3: But if you think that Carly's lie is worse than
Speaker 3: the lie that they're trying to tell to the people
Speaker 3: of the whole state of Florida and across this world, no, sir, no,
Speaker 3: it ain't the same.
Speaker 1: Do you be mad at you?
Speaker 2: Especially?
Speaker 4: My thing is this, Especially if you're somebody who supported her,
Speaker 4: and you know you you were actually scared, praying for her,
Speaker 4: you know, trying to reach out, utilizing your platforms to
Speaker 4: speak up for her, and then you find this out,
Speaker 4: you have no right. You have every right, I mean,
Speaker 4: to be disappointed, you know, and to say that you
Speaker 4: know what she did was wrong because you actually supported
Speaker 4: the person but those of you who just wanted to
Speaker 4: say I told you, and I ain't never believe that anyway,
Speaker 4: and just want to ask you to the fire, like
Speaker 4: your opinion doesn't really matter, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 4: because the reality is you never support her anyway, So
Speaker 4: she doesn't care about or nobody should care about what
Speaker 4: you think about somebody when you never supported them. If
Speaker 4: you supported Carli, you didn't support You supported a woman
Speaker 4: you didn't know, Carley.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying. You supported a black woman
Speaker 2: that you felt was.
Speaker 4: In need, that life was in jeopardy, and that's something
Speaker 4: that you would probably do every time, and you should
Speaker 4: do every time. So to put it all on Carly,
Speaker 4: it's like, no, I supported a woman, a black woman,
Speaker 4: who I thought was abducted, and there was no evidence
Speaker 4: that that time that suggested anything else, you know. So
Speaker 4: what I did was utilize my voice platform whatever I
Speaker 4: had to amplify that.
Speaker 2: And I'm not going to be angry about that.
Speaker 4: I'm not going to you know, I'm not even gonna
Speaker 4: let her take my joy or take because it just
Speaker 4: shows me the individual I am. You know, it shows
Speaker 4: my own character, So I can't focus I wish her
Speaker 4: the best. I hope, you know, whatever help she needs,
Speaker 4: she receives it. You know, whatever time she has, she reflects.
Speaker 4: It reflects on what's going on here. And you know,
Speaker 4: and if what they say is true, then you know,
Speaker 4: at some point this needs to be some level accountability.
Speaker 4: But it's not my job to say what that is.
Speaker 4: But I think we have to definitely make sure that
Speaker 4: people know that we can't play with serious things like this.
Speaker 4: This is not one of those things.
Speaker 3: So I could have stayed on those topics. I mean,
Speaker 3: like I said, I have so much more to talk about.
Speaker 3: You know, I got a lot to talk about. But
Speaker 3: we during this summer right here, we are doing our
Speaker 3: work and trying to find ways to celebrate the culture
Speaker 3: and enjoy ourselves. And these next two individuals that's coming up,
Speaker 3: I mean, they do more than make people enjoy themselves,
Speaker 3: but they certainly.
Speaker 1: Have been helping us enjoy ourselves.
Speaker 3: So I'm excited to bring out two new friends to
Speaker 3: the Two Street Politicians today. You know, I love when
Speaker 3: I find black people, especially black men. You know, this
Speaker 3: show we cover a lot of black women. I have
Speaker 3: to give it to you that you are very, very
Speaker 3: gracious with making sure black women get the proper representation
Speaker 3: and time on Street Politicians. But whenever I find and
Speaker 3: whatever we are able to bring forth black men that
Speaker 3: are doing powerful things and helping to transform people's life,
Speaker 3: their energy, their time, and to lend themselves to the culture,
Speaker 3: I get really excited about it.
Speaker 1: So let me.
Speaker 3: Introduce these two gentlemen, these too young black men. First
Speaker 3: of all, we have the founder of Fan Meyer, which
Speaker 3: you all are about to learn all about this company,
Speaker 3: Fan Meyer, and his name is Jamel Anderson, so thank
Speaker 3: you for joining Street Politicians. And then there's author Thomason,
Speaker 3: who is from the Bronx where I currently live, and
Speaker 3: you kind of from the Bronx, I guess, I mean.
Speaker 1: I think from Harlem.
Speaker 3: Okay, So Jamel and Ire, you know we're together more
Speaker 3: than the Bronx people. But this is a gentleman who
Speaker 3: went from being a marine all the way to the
Speaker 3: chief branding officer at Fan Meyers. So we're about to
Speaker 3: figure out, like how do you go from that to that?
Speaker 3: What's the transition? And I guess the best way to
Speaker 3: kick it off is for Jamail, first of all, for
Speaker 3: you to tell us why did you start this company
Speaker 3: and what is Fan Meyer.
Speaker 1: Thank y'all so much for joining Street Politicians.
Speaker 5: Thank you, thanks guys for having us. And you know,
Speaker 5: I'm always excited to talk about famire. The name represents
Speaker 5: a fan, admirer and a favorite whatever, right. I grew
Speaker 5: up a big time sports fan and I loved my
Speaker 5: Next Giants, and I had the opportunity to stick my
Speaker 5: toe in the concert business. I was unsuccessful to fund
Speaker 5: major tours and it was like a lot of one offs,
Speaker 5: but nothing was short of missing in terms of excitement
Speaker 5: and sellouts to a lot of these shows. And it
Speaker 5: was one in particular, it was a little Wayne Tour
Speaker 5: when he was first coming home. That tour went on
Speaker 5: to gross forty six million, and I was like, wait
Speaker 5: a minute, the Aions and the it was back then,
Speaker 5: the Meadowlands and the Garden, it was another arena. All
Speaker 5: of these shows sold out like in two days, in
Speaker 5: like five venues. So I asked myself, way back then,
Speaker 5: how can you connect that energy around what fans have
Speaker 5: for the things that they love in a digital way.
Speaker 5: So we fast forward a few years later. A friend
Speaker 5: of mine was doing a commercial in MSG and he
Speaker 5: was the silhouette for the top fiftieth Moments Ali Moe
Speaker 5: from Harlem. He was a silhouette for the Top fiftieth
Speaker 5: fifty Greatest Moments in MSG. Then I had all access
Speaker 5: pads in there, and I'm like, wow, this is what
Speaker 5: John Starks do with at, this is what Patrick Ewing
Speaker 5: is at every night. And I said, I can imagine
Speaker 5: people want to experience what it's like in these arenas
Speaker 5: after the game, after the show. So I said, wait
Speaker 5: a minute, I need to do some research and see
Speaker 5: if anything like this exists. And back then it didn't, right, So,
Speaker 5: you know, one thing led to another, but that energy
Speaker 5: never left me. I galvanized the team. We did some
Speaker 5: research and development for about two years. I built some
Speaker 5: versions of it that didn't work. So for me, connection
Speaker 5: and bringing people together was something I was always passionate about.
Speaker 5: So the concept kind of fit my personality and me
Speaker 5: and already known each other for over twenty years now
Speaker 5: and we've had success at things on both sides of life,
Speaker 5: and our friendship maintained throughout that. So I built this thing,
Speaker 5: and there were versions of it that you know, we
Speaker 5: could have made better. I made it Wes Seth where
Speaker 5: I was you know, invited to do capstone projects, and
Speaker 5: if these kids would select family as a project didn't
Speaker 5: work on, they would pick us. And I kind of
Speaker 5: knew when I went there one year and we would selected.
Speaker 5: I think I was in a pool with DocuSign and
Speaker 5: to it. So when these kids picked this project to
Speaker 5: work on, I kind of knew from there, like, you know,
Speaker 5: we need to finish this thing out. And that's that's
Speaker 5: kind of how it all came together.
Speaker 4: Wow, So that's amazing. How long has fan might have
Speaker 4: been in business?
Speaker 5: Well, I had the concept a little over ten years ago,
Speaker 5: but what I would say is right during the pandemic,
Speaker 5: it was it was only fans and myself and a
Speaker 5: few others out there that that was still dormant. Then
Speaker 5: only fans took off. So I had the idea for
Speaker 5: ten years, but I would say about three years ago
Speaker 5: is when it all started to come together.
Speaker 1: You said something I think is important.
Speaker 3: You said, first it didn't work and you had some
Speaker 3: asks that it just wasn't it wasn't right. So I
Speaker 3: think that's important because a lot of people they feel
Speaker 3: like as soon as they do something, it's supposed to
Speaker 3: just pop immediately. But you're you know, you're an example
Speaker 3: of how it takes time.
Speaker 5: Yeah, listen, technology concept and idea it never works right
Speaker 5: you just at the present moment of where you are,
Speaker 5: it's just going right because it always can be enhanced
Speaker 5: and anything that you're doing around connecting is always going
Speaker 5: to take more effort.
Speaker 6: Right.
Speaker 5: So for me, yes, a lot of those versions within
Speaker 5: the technology, it felt, the concept wasn't the concept wasn't clean.
Speaker 5: So you know, it felt I felt, and I continue
Speaker 5: to fail. But for me, it's about failing forward. So
Speaker 5: you know, it takes time. I mean, I'm talking about
Speaker 5: I'm twelve years in right, so this is not overnight.
Speaker 5: You only can lose it overnight, right, but we constantly
Speaker 5: stand at it and you know, so for me, it
Speaker 5: just takes tom and we like where we are today.
Speaker 5: It's a lot of energy around what we're doing. We're
Speaker 5: starting to meet decent people, the relationships are for going
Speaker 5: into place. I know later on in the show you'll
Speaker 5: probably ask me about the whole journey around VCS. And
Speaker 5: we know that one percent of black founders get funded,
Speaker 5: so it's an uphill battle to say the least, But
Speaker 5: I don't have an option but to do it, you know,
Speaker 5: So it motivates you, so, Arthur, what.
Speaker 4: You know, I know this is your friend, you know,
Speaker 4: just watching your transition being from the VX, you know,
Speaker 4: shout out to the VX and you know, being in
Speaker 4: the Marines then going into construction. Like, what what made
Speaker 4: you shift and say I want to be a part
Speaker 4: of this? What was it?
Speaker 7: Well, like he said, we've been friends for like twenty years, right,
Speaker 7: and we've done many things together right on all walks
Speaker 7: of life.
Speaker 6: Mel has always been the passionate one.
Speaker 7: So when he started fan Meier, obviously me coming out
Speaker 7: of the military, and then I started in the Union.
Speaker 7: I'm working Local seventy nine. And then I started my
Speaker 7: own business. I started my own construct company, and obviously
Speaker 7: that's what keeps the lights on, That's how I support myself.
Speaker 7: But Mel's been super, super passionate about family and us
Speaker 7: being so so close to friends. We started spending a
Speaker 7: lot of time together and I started learning more and
Speaker 7: more about it and it wasn't just his passion.
Speaker 6: I realized, like this is this is real.
Speaker 7: And I'm more of like the go getter, like I'm outside,
Speaker 7: I'm I'm gonna figure it out, Like he's the brains
Speaker 7: he figured he he puts all the pieces together.
Speaker 6: But then I'm gonna go out and make it happen.
Speaker 7: So as we start to spend more time together and
Speaker 7: talk about it, I just jumped on full fledged. And
Speaker 7: it's been like we've been gaining so much traction together,
Speaker 7: you know, like we every day we have meetings and
Speaker 7: we sit down and we figure out how to bring value,
Speaker 7: how to move forward.
Speaker 6: And it's him.
Speaker 7: It's the passion that he has, and I just pretty
Speaker 7: much follow mail, follow his lead and regards.
Speaker 4: Give us like a complete understanding of what you do
Speaker 4: as family, like exactly what you do.
Speaker 6: How I were best describe it is, I'm more like
Speaker 6: the glue. Right.
Speaker 7: So we have certain we have a team that goes
Speaker 7: out and they start vetting potential influences, potential creators, potential ambassadors.
Speaker 7: Right and obviously with having all the moving parts, they
Speaker 7: would come to me after that and the vetting process
Speaker 7: will start. Right, We'll figure out if this person is
Speaker 7: a good fit, if this person works, So putting pretty
Speaker 7: much all the pieces together and then making sure it
Speaker 7: works before we on board anybody, before we figure out
Speaker 7: if this is a relationship that would that would potentially work.
Speaker 2: Who have you guys worked with in the past.
Speaker 7: Yeah, we have Davits on the platform. We have Peter
Speaker 7: Guns on the on the platform.
Speaker 2: B X, that's right, BX.
Speaker 6: We have Fred I don't know if familiar.
Speaker 7: Fred Degard has a brother, fat boy guy all right,
Speaker 7: on the platform. Now heavy this is what we're doing.
Speaker 7: I'm saying it's X heavy man. So yeah, we have
Speaker 7: so many. We have a bunch of smaller influences that
Speaker 7: we've been talking to, a bunch of models, stylists, Like
Speaker 7: anyone could be an influencer, right, anyone can have followers, right.
Speaker 7: So this is where right now it's getting is getting busy,
Speaker 7: where we're getting barrage with calls or potential influence. People
Speaker 7: want to come on, but there's a vetting process because
Speaker 7: on Fanmire there's no sex, no cyberbullion, no negativity.
Speaker 6: So there's a vetting process.
Speaker 7: Everybody's not gonna we can't We're not only fans, right,
Speaker 7: We're not selling sex. So on, once they go through
Speaker 7: the proper channels in the process, then we on board
Speaker 7: them and then the rest is history.
Speaker 4: I want to ask, so, being a black own company,
Speaker 4: is it hard for you to get certain opportunities and funding.
Speaker 5: What I would say. You know, I'm one to not
Speaker 5: try to complain or use obvious adversities as a crutch, right,
Speaker 5: But I think it's an understatement of is it hard? Right?
Speaker 5: It's virtually impossible in a lot of cases. But I
Speaker 5: feel fortunate in that I've been afforded a lot of
Speaker 5: support through friends and family. So what I can say
Speaker 5: is like funding this thing thus far has been just
Speaker 5: everything for me, the wife, friends and family. So VC
Speaker 5: money has been really a hurdle for myself.
Speaker 6: Right.
Speaker 5: So but what I will tell you is we presently
Speaker 5: just secured it.
Speaker 4: Can you say, can you explain what VC means to
Speaker 4: some of the audience, ain't going to know what it is?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 5: VC is venture capital, Right? Most projects are funded by
Speaker 5: venture capitalists. Right, you go back ten years ago. You
Speaker 5: can have a good idea on a napkin, and you
Speaker 5: know somebody can write twenty thirty million dollars for you
Speaker 5: to see if you can fulfill it. But what I've
Speaker 5: learned in this space, not only does the concept have
Speaker 5: to be right, you have to have a build. Then
Speaker 5: you actually have to be scaling it before, at least
Speaker 5: in my case, be considered to be funded. I can't
Speaker 5: speak to anyone else's journey, but the work that I
Speaker 5: did thus far with the support of the team. Man,
Speaker 5: I don't understand why it's been as hard as it's been,
Speaker 5: but it's been really hard. We haven't secured no VC
Speaker 5: funding none.
Speaker 4: Well, so everything is just you guys just believing in
Speaker 4: each other and investing.
Speaker 5: In yourself and friends and family. And what I tell
Speaker 5: you is we just what I'm proud of this. We
Speaker 5: just secured a brand partnership and sponsorship with the Brooklyn
Speaker 5: Nets in New York Liberty that has tremendously validated and
Speaker 5: infused some energy into us as a company. Our brand
Speaker 5: credibility has went up like overnight. Right, And I was
Speaker 5: listening when you was asking Artie, he's so authentic, Right, Well,
Speaker 5: what do you do? He does a lot more than that. Right,
Speaker 5: has strategically aligned every relationship that he humanly has to
Speaker 5: line up to the goals and values to Fanily. Right,
Speaker 5: And I would say we're fortunate even for this opportunity.
Speaker 5: This came from audise background networking. We have more scheduled
Speaker 5: interviews with high level influences. That's a result of a
Speaker 5: lot of Audie's ability to connect so you know, we
Speaker 5: just been really doing what we have to do to
Speaker 5: leverage resources and network to stay afloat.
Speaker 4: Well, I just want to say I appreciate you, guys.
Speaker 4: I swear like I know. I feel like me and
Speaker 4: Aldie used to hang out somewhere before.
Speaker 6: I know we know each other.
Speaker 2: I know we have I'm just I'm looking like this.
Speaker 2: We definitely met and from the BX.
Speaker 4: But you know, I just I love I love watching
Speaker 4: young black individuals just grime, you know, because a lot
Speaker 4: of times that's not something that's celebrated in a big
Speaker 4: is way. More when you grind right and you know
Speaker 4: you're not giving anything and you're not looking for anything.
Speaker 2: I love the mindset you said, you don't want to look.
Speaker 4: You notice the obvious hurdles, but you don't want to
Speaker 4: use it as a crutch because you're gonna grind regardless.
Speaker 2: What do you see, FAMI, in the next ten years?
Speaker 2: What do you want? What do you vision?
Speaker 5: I like to look at it, guys. What will happen
Speaker 5: in ten years? Right? And we'll continue to add value relationships.
Speaker 5: My philosophy will always be to give more than I ask, right,
Speaker 5: and I think will be the platform where genuine connection
Speaker 5: is preferred to be used. One of the initiatives that
Speaker 5: we got coming forth from a rebranded standpoint is to
Speaker 5: become the preferred platform for HBCUs and I got a
Speaker 5: lot of energy around what that's going to look like
Speaker 5: for us. So in ten years, I think will be
Speaker 5: a diverse community with the DNA of black creators created
Speaker 5: a home for each other that opened itself up to
Speaker 5: the world as well. So in ten years will be
Speaker 5: a place that people are still saying they found genuine
Speaker 5: and authentic connection in a responsible way.
Speaker 2: I love it, man, dude, I just want to ask,
Speaker 2: does it get hard sometimes? Do you ever feel like
Speaker 2: I don't know what I started just for?
Speaker 4: Or you always have this enthusias Because me, I'm gonna
Speaker 4: be honest with you. You know a lot of you know,
Speaker 4: I've tried so many different things. I started out in
Speaker 4: music in basketball. Like when I started music, and when
Speaker 4: I got locked up and I came home, it was frustrated,
Speaker 4: Like a lot of things frustrated me. But then I
Speaker 4: start I stopped the business part of it and then
Speaker 4: started realizing just I love music, you know, and I
Speaker 4: would do it for free.
Speaker 2: So that's how it is.
Speaker 4: And then when I transitioned into the space that I
Speaker 4: am now in doing activism, it wasn't work for me,
Speaker 4: you know. But sometimes even in this it's a little
Speaker 4: frustrating because Breonna Taylor dies and you can't get the
Speaker 4: officers arrested.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 4: It is young people getting killed and arrested every day
Speaker 4: for crimes they didn't commit, in all types of things,
Speaker 4: and then trying to stop by.
Speaker 2: So sometimes it gets a little overwhelming.
Speaker 4: Do you ever feel like you get overwhelmed or you
Speaker 4: feel like you're not progressing the way that you want to?
Speaker 5: Man, you hit a hit, you hit a nerve For
Speaker 5: me with that, right, I'm always overwhelmed. Right, And a
Speaker 5: lot of it stems from some of the things that
Speaker 5: you just said. Right. I grew up in the old Harlem, right,
Speaker 5: where all my friends' parents, who to mine, were either
Speaker 5: alcoholics or alcoholics or on drugs. Right. So I grew
Speaker 5: up in a generation where we pretty much raised ourselves. Right.
Speaker 5: I didn't know what real I didn't know what community
Speaker 5: looked like. I ain't I never been on a vacation
Speaker 5: as a child, right. My expo to the world was limited,
Speaker 5: and a lot of the things that happened in low
Speaker 5: income community has a lot to do with lack of
Speaker 5: lack of awareness and lack of resources. Right, And that's
Speaker 5: not something that is a big surprise on a big scale.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 5: So when you start hearing about you can't lock a
Speaker 5: cop up for something that he did, right, think about
Speaker 5: the limited of resources that who used the word entrepreneur
Speaker 5: twenty years ago?
Speaker 6: Right?
Speaker 5: It wasn't a word, was it. So for someone who
Speaker 5: had a passion and drive to build something, did school
Speaker 5: teach us you can build a business? Did school teach
Speaker 5: us that you could you could own something or have
Speaker 5: a Korean sports if either you were in some talented
Speaker 5: and gifted program or you played ball, or you was locked,
Speaker 5: you wasn't considered rap ball, or you were really bright.
Speaker 5: But in the middle there with where was their room at?
Speaker 5: So what drives me and keep me going is Jamel
Speaker 5: the kid didn't have the support that Jamel the man
Speaker 5: know he needs. Now I'm taking care of that kid
Speaker 5: that wasn't treated right.
Speaker 1: But that's to keep me going.
Speaker 5: So yeah, I get discourage. It's it's it's an uphill
Speaker 5: battle on roller skates. But you gotta have that energy,
Speaker 5: You gotta have that passion because you gotta. You can't
Speaker 5: get through it if you don't go through it right right.
Speaker 4: You got to go through it to get through it, man.
Speaker 4: You know so I just want to say once again,
Speaker 4: I commend you guys.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 4: Let everybody know where they can find you, guys, how
Speaker 4: they can support you, how to follow you, and just
Speaker 4: keep up with you're going with.
Speaker 5: You got going on man, Thank you.
Speaker 7: Man.
Speaker 5: It starts with fan Maya that's f A N and
Speaker 5: myr dot com. You can actually get us on Instagram
Speaker 5: too at fan Mayer, f A N and my RI.
Speaker 5: You can subscribe to be a part of our newsletters
Speaker 5: to stay in tuned for what we're doing. And uh,
Speaker 5: I'm just excited for this opportunity.
Speaker 6: This was great.
Speaker 5: Thank you and I look to forward to continue to
Speaker 5: build with you guys.
Speaker 2: Definitely, man, I you forward to continue to build you.
Speaker 4: I just want to I want you to leave us
Speaker 4: with It's a young boy from the BX.
Speaker 2: He's watching this right now.
Speaker 4: You know he's he wants to be successful and I
Speaker 4: want you to give him some words of encouragement.
Speaker 2: What would you say to him?
Speaker 7: I would say, main thing is to stay focused, right,
Speaker 7: like we talked about so many things today, so much
Speaker 7: has happened and so much is going on in society.
Speaker 7: Is stay focused, like we're trained, Like Jamel just said,
Speaker 7: play ball or if you don't play ball or your rap,
Speaker 7: you can't be successful.
Speaker 6: Stay focused.
Speaker 7: And if you stay focused and you put everything into it,
Speaker 7: you can do whatever you want to do. I got
Speaker 7: two boys, one twenty two, one sixteen, and I tell
Speaker 7: him the same thing, like, stay for whatever you want
Speaker 7: to do. I'm gonna support you. I'm not gonna steer
Speaker 7: you in no direction. Whatever you feel is your passion,
Speaker 7: whatever you want to do, I'm support you. So stay focused.
Speaker 7: It's hard, it's gonna be a little harder for us,
Speaker 7: but it's not impossible, right, And I think that's what
Speaker 7: me and Jamel trying to show people, right that people
Speaker 7: that look like you can make it happen.
Speaker 2: I hope y'all get it.
Speaker 4: Stay focused, because I tell my sons that every day, man,
Speaker 4: you know, every day it's gonna be hard. It's nothing
Speaker 4: that that's worth having, it's not gonna be worth going through.
Speaker 4: You know, you're gonna go through a lot of stuff
Speaker 4: if you're trying to really get somewhere to be successful.
Speaker 4: So I want to appreciate y'all.
Speaker 2: Everybody.
Speaker 4: Shout out Jamel Anderson, founder of fan Mayer, and author Thomason.
Speaker 4: I've been calling them audio all day, so that's what
Speaker 4: I want to be calling you Audi man, like we've
Speaker 4: been outside, Like we've been friends for forty years. So
Speaker 4: it's Aladi now man, author Thomason, Chief Brandon officer at Famine.
Speaker 2: I appreciate you guys.
Speaker 4: You know, I look forward to working with you guys,
Speaker 4: and I know in the next ten years y'all gonna
Speaker 4: be the biggest thing, so keep it going.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 5: I appreciate you guys. Thanks.
Speaker 4: So I want to thank my guests, Jamel Anderson, the
Speaker 4: founder of fan Mayer, off the time, the chief branding
Speaker 4: officer of fam Mind for coming through today.
Speaker 2: I want to support these guys.
Speaker 4: You know, you could tell that they grinded and they
Speaker 4: really believe in what they doing. You know, brand building
Speaker 4: brands and connecting brands with influencers. It's just a dope
Speaker 4: thing and is a fast growing industry right now, you know.
Speaker 2: So I love the passion in both of these guys. Man.
Speaker 4: Shout out to my co host Ms Timikid Mallory, who
Speaker 4: just threw me a curveball, you know, and vanished. I
Speaker 4: guess she had to go get her hair done and say,
Speaker 4: you know how y'all women do. Y'all got shit to
Speaker 4: do and we just got to figure it out because
Speaker 4: y'all got to go.
Speaker 2: So shout out to her, everybody. I appreciate y'all.
Speaker 5: Man.
Speaker 4: I hope y'all continue to enjoy the show. Number one
Speaker 4: podcasts in the world, Street Politicians. Let me know what
Speaker 4: you don't like, let me know what you love. Hit
Speaker 4: us up on Street Politicians Pod. Give us all your feedback.
Speaker 2: We love it.
Speaker 4: Let us know what shows who you want us to
Speaker 4: interview everything, everything you know. I'm not gonna always be
Speaker 4: right to make it the mallories not gonna always be wrong,
Speaker 4: but we both always and I mean always, be authentic.
Speaker 2: Salute y'all, and we're gonna.
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Speaker 4: And catch us every single Wednesday for the video version
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Speaker 2: That's how we owned