Speaker 1: Talk, let's talk talk to We're just two unapologetically black
Speaker 1: women with an opinion who talks.
Speaker 2: What's up y'all?
Speaker 3: Thank you for tuning that for a new episode of
Speaker 3: We Talked Back, a show dedicated to these niggas in
Speaker 3: you hoes E ESU girl A J.
Speaker 2: Holliday. What is that? I don't know? What's up?
Speaker 1: Girl? Y'all was tearing.
Speaker 2: Bam. I love y'all.
Speaker 1: Thank y'all for tuning in again. We missed y'all since
Speaker 1: last Thursday.
Speaker 2: How was your weekend?
Speaker 1: Girl?
Speaker 2: Rainy?
Speaker 3: It was rainy this weekend, but I did manage to
Speaker 3: get out the house, put my face on, took a
Speaker 3: goddamn gummy and didn't really make it out the house.
Speaker 1: Damn because of the gummy. Yeah, you and your little
Speaker 1: gummy situation. Because I remember just a couple of weeks
Speaker 1: ago you had another gummy situation. Are you a gummy addict?
Speaker 4: Mal?
Speaker 2: I don't know, but I like deep sleep.
Speaker 3: Me and my homegirl said we was gonna make some
Speaker 3: T shirts that say I love to lay down, Because bitch,
Speaker 3: what I tell you, I love to lay down. Don't
Speaker 3: let me lay down. I had my mind made up.
Speaker 3: I was going out I laid down with a face
Speaker 3: full of makeup.
Speaker 1: Well, let me tell you what I did on Friday.
Speaker 1: I bit sixteen and a half miles in forty five minutes.
Speaker 1: That's the most I've ever done. The most I've ever
Speaker 1: done in that forty five minute session, I was getting it.
Speaker 2: She had down her bikes. They got time, said shin
Speaker 2: shwin bikes.
Speaker 1: I don't know, girl, I look go to I go
Speaker 1: today cycle bar.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, they got shoing bikes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I go there. I'll go today at I thirty.
Speaker 1: I love it. I love spin class, I love smart girl.
Speaker 1: That is my new favorite shit to do. And then
Speaker 1: after that, I saw a little baby. It was random,
Speaker 1: one of my friends from a capitol. He was here
Speaker 1: with baby and was like, come on, I got a
Speaker 1: ticket for you. So I went to the show and
Speaker 1: I walked past all my old niggas up to the front,
Speaker 1: right up to the stage.
Speaker 3: Excuse me, excellent, excellent.
Speaker 1: I literally had to like walk past one of my
Speaker 1: old niggas with some girl and they was like standing
Speaker 1: in the aisle. I was like, excuse me, move bitch.
Speaker 1: I ain't say move bitch, but that's house. That's the
Speaker 1: energy energy. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Oh that was so excellent.
Speaker 3: Ain't nothing like a future flex? Yeah, the flex of
Speaker 3: a nigga right quick. And that's really all because it
Speaker 3: did rain. So after that, I just kind of chilled
Speaker 3: for the rest of the weekend. I mean I went
Speaker 3: to work, of course, but after that, I just chilled.
Speaker 1: Nothing else. Just a little quick flex on these holes,
Speaker 1: puss as holes.
Speaker 2: Listen, we're gonna start stupid that news off with a song.
Speaker 1: A dude, I don't know the pain.
Speaker 3: That's not stupid internet news. It's not, but it is news,
Speaker 3: and it's taking.
Speaker 2: I love fuck it ain't just a y'all.
Speaker 1: Rest in peace to our good sister.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Irish from seven oh two, you know her sister
Speaker 3: passed away in two thousand and eight from kwe Yeah, and.
Speaker 2: Now they're saying she passed. I don't know why. They
Speaker 2: just said she was battling some disease for a while.
Speaker 3: I love seven o two man, that was one of
Speaker 3: my favorite groups, Girl, Black Jade, s WV, all ofm
Speaker 3: that from that time into black girl groups.
Speaker 2: I don't know that kill missed it. We missed it.
Speaker 1: We missed them. Yeah, So rest in peace to her
Speaker 1: all right?
Speaker 2: So now, yeah, g Z let's get the gz ass
Speaker 2: right quick.
Speaker 3: So JZ and Jenny Mi are now getting a divorce
Speaker 3: after two years of marriage and one baby later, Kay
Speaker 3: in my mind, and he filed for divorce. Now you
Speaker 3: know they always like to say, oh, it's always the
Speaker 3: woman doing the paperwork. Sta Jesus said that I'm about
Speaker 3: to get the fuck up out of here.
Speaker 2: She was calling him the N word.
Speaker 1: I really believe she was in there calling him the
Speaker 1: N word when she got mad.
Speaker 2: Did you see that.
Speaker 3: Video that resurfaced her talking about her anger issues and
Speaker 3: how she didn't realize she had anger issues until she
Speaker 3: got with GIZI because you were what white men and
Speaker 3: they probably was letting you talk to them crazy.
Speaker 1: M h.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Now you got this black man who like.
Speaker 1: Chill out that video on her talking about how she
Speaker 1: has dark meat on the side, but white meat keeps
Speaker 1: her meaning lean. I really think that there's a big
Speaker 1: part of her that felt like getting with Jezi was
Speaker 1: her dating down and she probably gave him that type
Speaker 1: of energy when.
Speaker 2: She was mad.
Speaker 1: You think so I settled for you?
Speaker 2: No, ain't no the way you think.
Speaker 1: You settled for If dark meat is on the side
Speaker 1: and white and me keep her meaningly, did she thinks
Speaker 1: she that's a fucking slave owner, white bitch. Kind of
Speaker 1: complex kind of energy, like I go sneak down to
Speaker 1: the slave hut and fuck the slave, but I'm with
Speaker 1: my white husband. I could never be with one of them.
Speaker 3: And you know, I was trying to point that shit
Speaker 3: out when they first got engaged, like I'm trying to
Speaker 3: figure out, has this nigga?
Speaker 2: No I seen this, like y'all haven't seen this, And
Speaker 2: now in the.
Speaker 3: Video is resurfaced, and she actually said that live on
Speaker 3: the real that black men are essentially a side like
Speaker 3: macaroni and cheese or black eyed peas.
Speaker 1: Well, wait, macaroni and cheese is very good, so you're.
Speaker 2: Not just eating just that for dinner. I would, I would.
Speaker 2: So I also saw this other document, I mean see it.
Speaker 3: Sorry, I also saw this other post where this girl
Speaker 3: had the actual document through the courts.
Speaker 2: So Jeezi filed for divorce June fifteenth, now.
Speaker 1: Right before Juneteenth. She wants to call her a nigga
Speaker 1: on this fourteenth, and you were like, you know what,
Speaker 1: it's June, it's about to be juneteenth, and I'm not
Speaker 1: doing this no more.
Speaker 3: So you know, she recently she was posting videos even
Speaker 3: like for Father's Day, she posted him a video. He
Speaker 3: had a book just come out, and you know, she
Speaker 3: posted in the caption, my husband da da da da.
Speaker 2: Like, so to me, she's been trying to save face
Speaker 2: face we.
Speaker 1: Don't marriage why or maybe trying to save their marriage.
Speaker 1: You know, she probably want him as her husband still,
Speaker 1: you never know.
Speaker 2: I hate you know, I hate that.
Speaker 1: I hate to see another black child without their dad
Speaker 1: in the home because I mean, essentially that is a
Speaker 1: black baby, So I hate that for them.
Speaker 2: But who did we not see it coming.
Speaker 3: It's almost like they think they're gonna get different, treated
Speaker 3: different from different races of people, Like this is an
Speaker 3: Archaea type of a type of person.
Speaker 2: It doesn't have any color to it. So we don't
Speaker 2: know why they're not together.
Speaker 3: But I think that black men assume that other groups
Speaker 3: of women, other cultures are gonna be just just totally different,
Speaker 3: gonna let you do what the fuck you want to do.
Speaker 3: We're gonna always shut the fuck up.
Speaker 2: And it's just not true.
Speaker 3: That's a personality trait. You don't know what you're gonna
Speaker 3: get from anybody, right, you know what I'm saying. But
Speaker 3: Black women are seen to be like the most hard
Speaker 3: to get along with, the most argumentative, always got an attitude,
Speaker 3: We got a lot of shit to have an attitude about. Okay,
Speaker 3: but we still stay with y'all, l ass for a
Speaker 3: very long time. But if a black man has followed
Speaker 3: for divorce from your ass, I need to know why.
Speaker 3: I really really want to know why. And I never invested.
Speaker 3: Yeah the man, So I think she's sick. She gives
Speaker 3: sickening energy over the damn Internet.
Speaker 2: But I don't know.
Speaker 3: Maybe we'll see some more about this story later on
Speaker 3: to actually understand why.
Speaker 2: But they do have a prenup.
Speaker 3: They got the prenup actually the day before they got married,
Speaker 3: and one may say that she might be able to
Speaker 3: dispute it. Maybe she'll say she did it she signed
Speaker 3: under durest because it was just the day before she's
Speaker 3: supposed to get married.
Speaker 2: Who knows. We'll see what happens though. Well, good luck
Speaker 2: to both of them. Oh, speaking of breakup.
Speaker 1: More breakup news, Tiana Taylor and Imon Shemper are separated.
Speaker 1: They're not divorced, but they've been separated for a minute now, apparently,
Speaker 1: according to Tiana, she posted on social media that it
Speaker 1: was a lot of conversations going on, and she just
Speaker 1: wanted to clear the air that they didn't break up
Speaker 1: over infidelity, that they had other issues in their marriage
Speaker 1: and that was the reason for their departure. But they
Speaker 1: copare well and they still best friends. So maybe they'll
Speaker 1: come back together one day. Who knows. They were married
Speaker 1: for seven years together for ten. I liked them as
Speaker 1: a couple.
Speaker 2: I like him.
Speaker 1: I know, y'all, this bitch slid in his deals last night.
Speaker 1: I hey, big head, that nig and voice memos that
Speaker 1: I know them dms. Both of the dms blew up,
Speaker 1: both of them.
Speaker 2: Yeah you know, y'all got the ladies at the niggas, okay, right,
Speaker 2: both of them ms? Oh goodness, you know.
Speaker 1: I like, I don't know in my spirit, and I'm
Speaker 1: probably wrong, and forgive me if I'm wrong, But I
Speaker 1: just feel like Tianna Taylor and Lari Harvey have like
Speaker 1: a thing.
Speaker 2: In a relationship, thing not in a relationship, but like we're.
Speaker 1: Best friends, we have fun together, but we also might
Speaker 1: fuck every now and then kind of thing. Why would
Speaker 1: you think that though, just because of how they be
Speaker 1: like hugged up on each other when they're out.
Speaker 2: I never really even know they hang out. I didn't
Speaker 2: see them hanging out. But maybe I'm wrong. You know
Speaker 2: who you know, but I see, I mean, they be
Speaker 2: like you know in your mind. See sorry if I'm wrong. Nah, bitch,
Speaker 2: I think it's on your mind. Man together and not
Speaker 2: the rubbing absick man? What else? Have a girl? All right?
Speaker 2: So halle Berry is pissed at Drake.
Speaker 3: So apparently her people reached out to his people and
Speaker 3: vice versa wanted to use her image for his album.
Speaker 2: Artwork, and she said hell to the motherfucker.
Speaker 3: Nah, and this nigga still took it upon himself and
Speaker 3: used her image, and she feels like that's like a
Speaker 3: real life slap in the face. Fuck you girl, I'm
Speaker 3: gonna do what I want. So apparently they went to
Speaker 3: Geddy Images, who owns the image, which I just.
Speaker 2: I hate that.
Speaker 3: I hate that somebody can sneak take a picture of you,
Speaker 3: or even if like you actually pose for a picture.
Speaker 3: And because they took the picture, my image no longer
Speaker 3: belongs to me. My likeness isn't mine. No that, so
Speaker 3: Drake has her covered in slime.
Speaker 1: She doesn't well, I mean, Nickelodeon slimed her. It was
Speaker 1: Nickelodeon who slammed her. It wasn't Drake. But I can't
Speaker 1: understand why she's upset. But I can also understand why
Speaker 1: it's like, is it really a big deal?
Speaker 2: Is it really a big deal?
Speaker 3: Why did you even ask me? If he was gonna
Speaker 3: do what the fuck you wanted in the first place?
Speaker 2: Why ask me.
Speaker 1: As a as a what's the word I'm looking for?
Speaker 2: As a cancer?
Speaker 1: Just as a consideration for you.
Speaker 2: That is why I asked.
Speaker 1: But the image don't belong to you, So I asked
Speaker 1: you to be kind. But really I didn't have to
Speaker 1: ask you anyway. And that's basically what Drake's people is
Speaker 1: saying by using it. And I doubt Drake even knew.
Speaker 1: I'm sure if Drake knew that she said no, he
Speaker 1: probably would have been like, all right, let's find something else.
Speaker 3: You know, he probably really wanted to use that image.
Speaker 3: Or maybe it's his people like get that image from me,
Speaker 3: and they got it. Listen, Drake have so much trouble
Speaker 3: anytime he do anything. Remember he did the Vogue and
Speaker 3: Vogue suit him for using a fake Vogue magazine.
Speaker 2: Just because why are you doing what the fuck you want, Like,
Speaker 2: why are you doing that? You can't do what you want?
Speaker 3: I mean you can.
Speaker 1: I'm mad me and you took a Vogue magazine and
Speaker 1: posted pictures with it. Wouldn't nobody to give a fuck,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. Yeah, until we got real
Speaker 1: big Yeah, it's just because it's here.
Speaker 2: My poor baby, he just touched by this be defending
Speaker 2: bullshit because it's my man, my man, my man.
Speaker 3: So Tyler Perry is in the news, okay, Uh for
Speaker 3: his thoughts on women. Okay, black women in particular. Uh,
Speaker 3: he says, in our society right now, No, let me start,
Speaker 3: let me read the full thing. He said, a lot
Speaker 3: of women, especially black women. And I might get in
Speaker 3: trouble for saying this, but I will. And he carries on.
Speaker 3: He's says, in our society right now, black women are
Speaker 3: making a lot more money, for the most part than
Speaker 3: black men.
Speaker 2: If you could.
Speaker 3: Find love, if that man works at whatever job, and
Speaker 3: it is a good man, and it's good to you
Speaker 3: and honors you and honors a house, and honors his
Speaker 3: wife and does what he can because his gift might
Speaker 3: not be your gift. And that's okay, that's not he says,
Speaker 3: that's not somebody that's beneath you. That's somebody who came
Speaker 3: to love you at your worth. So he's basically saying,
Speaker 3: you know, meet people where they are. And he adds
Speaker 3: and says, as long as he's secure in himself to
Speaker 3: know white to know that. Excuse me, And he says,
Speaker 3: as long as he's secure in himself to know that, Yeah,
Speaker 3: she makes most of the money.
Speaker 2: All I could pay is a life bill.
Speaker 3: As long as she's comfortable enough to say I'm going
Speaker 3: to cover the mortgage and all the other stuff, that's fine. Absolutely,
Speaker 3: that's fine. Right, But do you think that most men
Speaker 3: are able to rest in that position? Because it's an
Speaker 3: unnatural position.
Speaker 2: You know, you know, I can't say that most men are.
Speaker 2: I know, I know.
Speaker 1: I have a friend who left her husband because he
Speaker 1: just wasn't earning as much as her. Right, he just
Speaker 1: wasn't as ambitious, Yeah, as ambitious, as ambitious or earning
Speaker 1: as much money as her.
Speaker 4: But he was.
Speaker 1: He loved her dirty drawers, he didn't step out on her.
Speaker 1: They had fun together, he was a good father to
Speaker 1: their kids. He just did all the things except that,
Speaker 1: and she left them, and she left them. They separated
Speaker 1: for many years, and then she went back. She went
Speaker 1: back to him because she was like, I had to
Speaker 1: realize that what he provided was greater than money, what
Speaker 1: he provided me was greater than money. I went back outside,
Speaker 1: and I couldn't find that kind of love that I
Speaker 1: had with my husband. I couldn't find it. So, I mean,
Speaker 1: I guess it's just about where your value lies. You know,
Speaker 1: what's more important to you? Is it things or is
Speaker 1: it having someone who can really love you?
Speaker 2: Absolutely?
Speaker 3: So on the only drawback I see, right, the only
Speaker 3: issue I see what he said was I just don't
Speaker 3: really like when people get on public platforms, especially being
Speaker 3: somebody as big as he is, right, and then singles
Speaker 3: out black women collectively and generalizing situations because majority of
Speaker 3: black women are into trenches with black men. And when
Speaker 3: I say, like, we might be making more, we might
Speaker 3: be making less, but nonetheless we are with a black man.
Speaker 2: Right, So I feel like we're the only group.
Speaker 3: Of women where somebody's constantly telling us y'all need to
Speaker 3: bring y'all standards down.
Speaker 1: Well, I think we're the only group of women in
Speaker 1: this country that make more than our don't count.
Speaker 2: That's true.
Speaker 1: I don't even think it's white women are making more
Speaker 1: than white men.
Speaker 3: No, no, no, I don't think that black women are
Speaker 3: making more money on a greater scale than black men.
Speaker 3: I don't bel I come from a corporate setting, so
Speaker 3: I know that black men, and that's just my small
Speaker 3: sample size, right, the black men have higher positions and
Speaker 3: they are higher earners. So I don't think I haven't
Speaker 3: seen any statistics to to to prove that, right.
Speaker 2: I know black women come on more debt.
Speaker 3: I've actually looked at those statistics because we talk about
Speaker 3: higher education and stuff like that.
Speaker 2: Your man might have never went to college.
Speaker 3: You started a trucking company making half a million dollars,
Speaker 3: You got half a million dollars in student loans. You
Speaker 3: know what I'm saying. So it just I don't know
Speaker 3: where the stats come from that people like to use.
Speaker 3: But I think he generalized a lot of things in
Speaker 3: a statement he made. And I just want black men
Speaker 3: to talk to other black men, right, because I always
Speaker 3: say this, Black women we talk to each.
Speaker 2: Other, but we talk to each other, but we also
Speaker 2: talk to men.
Speaker 1: So it's not fair to tell men that they can't
Speaker 1: talk to women when we sit on our show and
Speaker 1: literally talk to men all the time on what they
Speaker 1: need to do and what they should do.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 3: So I feel like I feel like when we talk
Speaker 3: about it, really, when I think about when I started
Speaker 3: talking about men, I really be thinking about men that
Speaker 3: I've dealt with or the type of man that I want,
Speaker 3: I don't really be trying to generalize, like, oh, all,
Speaker 3: y'all niggas need to lower y'all standards, right, I don't
Speaker 3: say no shit like that. That's really what he's saying
Speaker 3: on a public platform, and we are not Tyler Perry.
Speaker 3: Tyler Perry is a huge personality, you know. I don't
Speaker 3: think he's saying lower your standards. He said, if this
Speaker 3: man is providing all the things that money.
Speaker 1: That's a given, a given, I know, because look at
Speaker 1: the status of relationships in our country right now with
Speaker 1: black people.
Speaker 2: If that was a given, then things would be better.
Speaker 3: Don't you think so you think that black women collectively
Speaker 3: need to lower their standards.
Speaker 1: No, I don't think nobody's everybodys I just don't think
Speaker 1: you should base your relationship solely on money. That's all
Speaker 1: I'm thinking.
Speaker 3: But look at the economy right now, right and I've
Speaker 3: never been in a relationship that I based solely on money.
Speaker 2: Ever, Right, But.
Speaker 3: The more you start loving man because you fucking love them,
Speaker 3: you start reflecting, like maybe I should start focusing on
Speaker 3: the money. Most women aren't focusing on the money. So
Speaker 3: for him to make a blaked statement like that, it's
Speaker 3: just not true. And I feel like we might verbally
Speaker 3: say that, but that's not really how we live in
Speaker 3: our lives.
Speaker 2: I know, you know a bitch taking care of a
Speaker 2: man right now?
Speaker 3: I do.
Speaker 1: I can't think of nobody I know, But I don't
Speaker 1: know nobody taking care of no man. But I do
Speaker 1: know women who make more than their men. You know,
Speaker 1: Does that count as taken care of them if they
Speaker 1: make more?
Speaker 2: If he's just paying a light bold like he just suggested,
Speaker 2: he was wild with it, just the lights.
Speaker 1: He was wilding with that statement. But I mean, I
Speaker 1: feel like I know people who, you know, they have
Speaker 1: their dynamic that works, and their man is not the
Speaker 1: bread winner they are, you know, so and I envy
Speaker 1: their relationship. It's beautiful, they're happy, they look like they're
Speaker 1: having fun. They out on boats, and she probably futting
Speaker 1: a lot of the bill, you know, But everything else
Speaker 1: is just immaculate.
Speaker 2: For them, soide looking in I don't know, you know.
Speaker 3: For sure, how he said if the man is comfortable
Speaker 3: in that position, But oftentimes men aren't comfortable in that position.
Speaker 2: They want to be able to provide, right.
Speaker 3: So if you can get one that's not an ego
Speaker 3: about you making more money than them and not trying
Speaker 3: to make you feel bad for having higher education or
Speaker 3: earning more, then it's cool. But I think a lot
Speaker 3: of problems. I don't think it comes from like a
Speaker 3: woman debo in the situation. It's because that's not a
Speaker 3: natural position for a man. He wants to be the
Speaker 3: one doing those things. And that's why you'll see like
Speaker 3: and I hate to use celebrities for example, right, but
Speaker 3: this is like the best reference for most people. You'll see,
Speaker 3: they were with this one wife and they struggle, struggle, struggled, right,
Speaker 3: and then.
Speaker 2: When they get on they marry what they really want.
Speaker 3: Right. So I don't think we should be suggesting struggle
Speaker 3: love to black women because no other culture gets that.
Speaker 3: Look a look at the passport bros. They go out
Speaker 3: the country so they can get somebody who costs less. Basically, Yeah, but.
Speaker 1: With celebrities, the majority of us are not gonna be celebrities, right,
Speaker 1: you know, the majority of people are not gonna be celebrities.
Speaker 1: So that's like you're gonna get what you get. You're
Speaker 1: gonna date on your level, and that's probably gonna be
Speaker 1: your level for most of the rest of your life.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I feel like black men are hypergaments. I don't
Speaker 3: feel like black men really date down how they suggest
Speaker 3: Black women to date down.
Speaker 1: No, I think so.
Speaker 2: Hypergaments man.
Speaker 1: Black men will find a woman that he like ringing
Speaker 1: up shit at Target and marry her because of who
Speaker 1: she is. In love. I don't think women aren't typically
Speaker 1: going to pick up a man for Target. No shade
Speaker 1: on Target workers. I love y'all and I love Target,
Speaker 1: but you know, a successful woman is just that doesn'tcount.
Speaker 1: Like going to pick up the guy working the registered Target.
Speaker 1: She want him doing more and he might be the
Speaker 1: best nigga for her, you know what I'm saying. That's
Speaker 1: what I think. That's what Tyler Perry's trying to say.
Speaker 1: But like you at home lonely because he work at Target.
Speaker 2: But I don't feel like he has to say that.
Speaker 3: I feel like women are oftentimes dating somebody that's not
Speaker 3: on a level especially in a black community. So why
Speaker 3: are you trying to reiterate that? We're trying to get
Speaker 3: out of that? So how do we get out of that?
Speaker 3: Do you see what I'm saying? You talk to the men,
Speaker 3: so the men know the standard. But maybe grow together,
Speaker 3: perhaps and your twenties. Absolutely grow together, y'all, both for real,
Speaker 3: for real in the trenches when you find yourself so
Speaker 3: single in your thirties and forties, like you're really looking
Speaker 3: for somebody, not so much of growing, like merging when
Speaker 3: you have.
Speaker 1: What I got?
Speaker 2: What can we do to make this bigger? Right?
Speaker 3: But if we always starting at ground zero, you stole
Speaker 3: at ground zero and I gotta work with you that.
Speaker 1: Why are we asking black women to do that? It's
Speaker 1: a rat rac and it sucks. Knty, What the fuck
Speaker 1: you want? A fucking metal?
Speaker 2: What movie is that? I don't know, Bar Centers Club, whatever, y'all,
Speaker 2: I'm lying.
Speaker 1: Don't tell mom the Babysitter's Dead with Christina Applegate, Like.
Speaker 2: Why I'm gonna know that girl? Why wouldn't you know that?
Speaker 1: It's a cult classic?
Speaker 2: Y'all? Listen?
Speaker 3: Okay, So today's guest. Today's guest is the CEO of
Speaker 3: Afro Future.
Speaker 2: Y'all going this year. We're going, yes, formerly known as
Speaker 2: Afro Tella. Yeah, it's lit.
Speaker 1: We're going.
Speaker 2: M y'all stay tuned.
Speaker 3: All right, y'all listen. So today's guest is the CEO
Speaker 3: and founder of one of the world's largest festivals, a Future,
Speaker 3: formerly known as Afro Cella. Y'all welcome, mister.
Speaker 2: Abdul Kareem Abdullah to we talk back. Yay, thank you
Speaker 2: for coming on. We excited.
Speaker 4: Hey, I'm excited too. I'm excited to be here with
Speaker 4: you guys.
Speaker 2: Listen, we're trying to come party. I'm just gonna get
Speaker 2: that out period. You trying to go to party?
Speaker 1: Period?
Speaker 2: Everybody going?
Speaker 1: I see.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Yeah, it's very exciting, you know.
Speaker 5: I mean the Year of Return sparked you know a
Speaker 5: lot of emotion and people and definitely has attracted a
Speaker 5: lot more people to come to Ghana to you know,
Speaker 5: to one celebrate, like you said, turn up, but also
Speaker 5: just kind of reconnect with people, you know, understand a
Speaker 5: different narrative than what you've been taught, you know, or
Speaker 5: what you may have known before. You know, it's a
Speaker 5: great opportunity to kind of build that bar and to
Speaker 5: build that Bridge as well.
Speaker 1: So talk to us about like how you guys started
Speaker 1: with this, because this was like at least six or
Speaker 1: seven years ago when y'all started.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Absolutely, I mean we you know, got us home for
Speaker 5: us and like more African countries, a lot of people
Speaker 5: tend to travel back home in December to the you know,
Speaker 5: to to see family, to see friends, to celebrate, and
Speaker 5: it's really just kind of like a two week three
Speaker 5: week long festival, depending on how long you have the
Speaker 5: ability to stay. And you know when I when I
Speaker 5: was going back, I just realized that it wasn't a
Speaker 5: lot of Americans there, and you know, at the time,
Speaker 5: there was still a lot of you know, cultural wars,
Speaker 5: and you know, we wanted to be able to kind
Speaker 5: of have change the direction from you know, he has
Speaker 5: appropriation to like education and inviting people back. It just
Speaker 5: so happened online that three years later will be the
Speaker 5: year return, right. So when I was going with my friend,
Speaker 5: my partner and I we were going back and forth
Speaker 5: to Ghana, and we just kind of started bringing friends
Speaker 5: and recording our experiences, uh, and then that channeled them
Speaker 5: to us doing events in New York City. Eventually we
Speaker 5: were just kind of in the swing of things, and
Speaker 5: we knew that we needed a way to kind of
Speaker 5: get people to speak to each other because we were
Speaker 5: party all night and sleep all day and god and
Speaker 5: during December because everybody's on is on holiday, and we
Speaker 5: wanted to change that a little bit, bring more data
Speaker 5: type of events, get more people speaking to each other,
Speaker 5: and see what we could build as far as creativity
Speaker 5: with the people who are doing some amazing.
Speaker 4: Work and about already.
Speaker 1: So you were living in the States, you were living
Speaker 1: in the States and just going back to Ghana.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so I grew up. I grew up in Ghana.
Speaker 4: I went to school there for eight years.
Speaker 5: I came back here to the US, went to high
Speaker 5: school and to college, and then yeah, we would go
Speaker 5: back annually.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 5: Now I go back multiple times a year, but we'll
Speaker 5: go back annually to Ghana December and just really tapping
Speaker 5: with all the folks and friends from all over the
Speaker 5: world and family from all over the world that comes
Speaker 5: back home to kind of celebrate the holiday season.
Speaker 3: So are y'all never planning to have the well now
Speaker 3: Afro future in the States in America at any point?
Speaker 5: I mean, it's not our goal. We'll probably have some
Speaker 5: type of experience that you know, really markets and encourages
Speaker 5: people to come back to the content that our goals
Speaker 5: around building the resources on the continent, building away on
Speaker 5: the continent. Again, people don't want to come to the continent.
Speaker 5: That's that's a part of our goal, that tourism, right,
Speaker 5: I mean, I think before us, you know, there have
Speaker 5: been several efforts in different times, you know where people
Speaker 5: have come back to Africa, but not in as much
Speaker 5: in mass as we have been able to kind of
Speaker 5: channel through Ghana. So we want to continue to educate
Speaker 5: people by encouraging them to come to the continent and
Speaker 5: not just Ghana, but all the countries around the continent
Speaker 5: that look at the opportunities that exist.
Speaker 4: You know, Africa is the youngest continent in the world.
Speaker 4: You know, in the world.
Speaker 5: You know, by twenty fifty one or four people will
Speaker 5: be African, you know, so that means there's a lot
Speaker 5: of jobs that are going to be creative. Industry is
Speaker 5: going to becoming to Africa. You know, we're going through
Speaker 5: a whole industrial revolution. I love it, and I think
Speaker 5: black people, black people should should be a part of
Speaker 5: that industrial growth, right, we should be able to under
Speaker 5: dispel those narratives that separate us and find ways to
Speaker 5: come together and build.
Speaker 4: With each other.
Speaker 5: So that's some of the work that we're doing on
Speaker 5: the continent, not just us, but across the continent, all
Speaker 5: the people that are building these similar properties.
Speaker 1: So in twenty seventeen, y'all hat your first one and
Speaker 1: you were like you and your homeboy was just sitting
Speaker 1: around you was like, man, let's throw a big ass party.
Speaker 1: Like how did y'all come up with the idea?
Speaker 5: Yeah, So it's funny because we were doing events in
Speaker 5: the US and we were very successful because, you know,
Speaker 5: afrobeats was not was very niche at the time.
Speaker 4: It wasn't on radio.
Speaker 5: So I remember the first time I ever heard, you know,
Speaker 5: afrobeat saw on radio and how it made me feel.
Speaker 4: So we would do events and we have big numbers.
Speaker 5: People were flying from over the states to come to
Speaker 5: our parties because unlike now, it wasn't as popular when
Speaker 5: we were doing it. So we had a lot of audacity.
Speaker 5: Decided to go to God and just kind of throw
Speaker 5: a party, and it didn't do well. The party, the
Speaker 5: first one we ever did, didn't do well. So it
Speaker 5: was just kind of for me it was a silver
Speaker 5: lining because I saw something else. I saw that there
Speaker 5: was a lot of amazing talent that were performing and
Speaker 5: that they were performing hard despite the event not going
Speaker 5: as planned, and I wanted to kind of tap into
Speaker 5: that talent and be able to understand it. More so,
Speaker 5: I knew that we had to kind of move away.
Speaker 5: In addition to that, so many people that are coming
Speaker 5: to Ghana and December are doing amazing things no matter
Speaker 5: where they are right whether they're in the States, their
Speaker 5: record label execs, their creative geniuses, their scientists or doctors,
Speaker 5: their nurses, you know, not only in Americas, but in
Speaker 5: London and in Berlin and Japan and Australia. So it
Speaker 5: just I felt like it was this service to the
Speaker 5: people or the continent who were doing some amazing things
Speaker 5: not to be able to tap in with some of
Speaker 5: these people when they came to the continent, and we
Speaker 5: knew that, like the festival will be able to kind
Speaker 5: of bring that energy around what we were trying to do.
Speaker 5: So that's how the idea for the festival came. But
Speaker 5: it took some time to kind of figure out what
Speaker 5: it was going to look like, where it was going
Speaker 5: to be, how it was going to feel and how
Speaker 5: it was going to pay for.
Speaker 4: So so yeah, certainly, right, yeah, exactly. So my partner,
Speaker 4: you know, but he's a big supporter.
Speaker 5: Like you know, when we were finally ready and I
Speaker 5: just kind of knew where I wanted the event to happen,
Speaker 5: you know, how I wanted to shape up.
Speaker 4: When I told him, he didn't hesitate.
Speaker 5: Like the same day we had the venue booked and
Speaker 5: we had about seven months to plan the first one.
Speaker 5: You know, I think that no matter how, you know,
Speaker 5: if you have an idea, you have something good to
Speaker 5: put into the world, you just have to kind of
Speaker 5: put it out there and like the world will galvinize
Speaker 5: around you to kind of build it, build it.
Speaker 2: So how would you say it is the festival has
Speaker 2: evolved since it's inception?
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, I mean, well you said before it was
Speaker 5: you know, Afrotilla was and you know Afro Future is, right.
Speaker 5: I think that what we learned in our journey to
Speaker 5: kind of invite people to Africa was that one there
Speaker 5: has to be a lot of education around people who
Speaker 5: were interested in visiting the continent. It's not just you know,
Speaker 5: tourism on the continent is not what it is in
Speaker 5: the Caribbean, it's not what it is in Europe. It's
Speaker 5: very brand new, right even to each other. Right within
Speaker 5: the continent, people have not visited each other's countries because
Speaker 5: you know, we don't have It's not as easy to
Speaker 5: kind of hop on a flight and go to La
Speaker 5: like it is in Africa. Is not as easy to
Speaker 5: do that because you might have to leave the continent
Speaker 5: to go to another country on the continent, you know,
Speaker 5: just kind of our way the way the countries are
Speaker 5: set up, or you might need a visa to go
Speaker 5: to another country on the continent, which was asinine, but
Speaker 5: you know that's what happened. So really, you know, our
Speaker 5: ability to kind of bring people together was a goal
Speaker 5: for us and putting us together.
Speaker 1: So all right, I might this is gonna sound ignorant,
Speaker 1: but just roll with it, Okay. So the continent of Africa,
Speaker 1: you have several countries, so fifty fifty four countries, so
Speaker 1: it wouldn't be similar to like are you know how
Speaker 1: in the USA we're going to different states, right, so
Speaker 1: within different the countries, you would need like a visa
Speaker 1: to go to every country, or you can just travel
Speaker 1: to different countries in the continent without it.
Speaker 5: So with your American passport, you can probably visit more
Speaker 5: countries than a citizen of Somoya can visit countries on
Speaker 5: the continent. That really yeah, you might be able to
Speaker 5: you can get into South Africa, but a citizen of
Speaker 5: Nigerian Nigeria needs a visa to get into South Africa.
Speaker 4: Your American past.
Speaker 1: Interesting, Why is that.
Speaker 5: Because of neo colonials. A lot of people don't understand this,
Speaker 5: but like you know, a lot of African countries recently
Speaker 5: you hear about the coupdatars happening. Yeah, I love it
Speaker 5: because you know it's just people fighting back, right. You know,
Speaker 5: the internet is allowed as educating us. You know, there's
Speaker 5: a lot of things that we need to learn and
Speaker 5: un learn about Africa, you know what I mean. And
Speaker 5: you know, just kind of how you're surprised that your
Speaker 5: American passport can get you in an African country and
Speaker 5: an African when an African passport can't get into that country.
Speaker 4: It's just the way you know, the powers that be
Speaker 4: have set up you know, you know the world.
Speaker 5: And the hope is that we can untangle that and
Speaker 5: we can you know, encourage more black people to kind
Speaker 5: of learn about each other, Like we need to learn
Speaker 5: about each other in order for us to build with
Speaker 5: each other, you know what I mean. It's unfortunate, but
Speaker 5: that's that's what it is right now. But there's a
Speaker 5: new I just kind of feel like, if I'm going
Speaker 5: to say the bad side, that you say the optimistic
Speaker 5: side as well. Like there's a new trade agreement that
Speaker 5: the African Union has adopted. It's called the af CFTA,
Speaker 5: which is the African Free Trade Agreement. And the hope
Speaker 5: is that we can get more I guess, cooperation amongst
Speaker 5: the African countries to do more trade with each other
Speaker 5: and to also you know, you know, reduce barriers between
Speaker 5: people being able to get from country to country without
Speaker 5: visas and things of that nature. Yeah, it is very
Speaker 5: easy for you as an American to go, you know,
Speaker 5: within the States than it is for African countries to
Speaker 5: go within the African countries. But you know, on most maps,
Speaker 5: a lot of people they draw Africa smaller, but most
Speaker 5: all the continents can fit on the African continent right right, It's.
Speaker 1: Never to size. What would you say is the greatest
Speaker 1: hardship of building something like this because this I mean
Speaker 1: has grown really really huge. What would you say was
Speaker 1: the greatest hardship of building it so far thus far?
Speaker 5: I mean I was saying there was a lot of
Speaker 5: learning on the job for us, and you know, I
Speaker 5: think we also scaled very fast. You know, we went
Speaker 5: from forty seven hundred people year one to twelve thousand
Speaker 5: year two, to ninety to six thousand year three.
Speaker 4: Last year we did thirty one thousand.
Speaker 5: You know, So we haven't been able to match the
Speaker 5: amount of skill we have to the amount of money
Speaker 5: we've been able to raise. So that has been a
Speaker 5: difficult process, right being able to kind of make can
Speaker 5: make sense for all the people who are coming to
Speaker 5: the event. But thankfully we've been able to kind of
Speaker 5: make lemon out of lemonades, lemonades out of lemon and.
Speaker 4: You know, we've been able to kind of put on
Speaker 4: a very successful event.
Speaker 5: You know, it's attracting people from all over the world,
Speaker 5: celebrities and artists and talent, and it's been going pretty well.
Speaker 1: Do you get to enjoy it? Are you just like
Speaker 1: running around like a chicken with your hair cut off
Speaker 1: for the whole time because you're working, or do you
Speaker 1: actually get to enjoy what you create?
Speaker 4: Yeah? For the first couple of years, I didn't enjoy it.
Speaker 5: The only way I knew the experience was through the
Speaker 5: feedback I was getting from people, and that was really
Speaker 5: like the fuel that allowed that motivated me to keep going.
Speaker 4: How people felt about it, how it impacted their lives.
Speaker 5: Some people brought their whole families, their mothers, their their wives,
Speaker 5: their kids, and just kind of seeing how it affected
Speaker 5: other people was something that kind of encouraged me, you know,
Speaker 5: because in the first couple of years of a business,
Speaker 5: you're not really seeing you know.
Speaker 4: And also we had a very small team, you know.
Speaker 4: We've since expanded our team.
Speaker 5: So last year and the year before were the first
Speaker 5: year is that I got to actually experience it with
Speaker 5: people and walk through the entire field while people are
Speaker 5: enjoying it and watching hearing them talk and just you know,
Speaker 5: people watching, and it's an incredible experience.
Speaker 4: It's an incredible experience.
Speaker 1: What would you say is your favorite, absolute favorite part
Speaker 1: of the festival so I can know where I need
Speaker 1: to be when I go.
Speaker 5: My favorite part of the festival obviously like the different
Speaker 5: photo moments and interactive moments that people get to enjoy
Speaker 5: on the field and watching them interact with them. I
Speaker 5: think that is really really cool. I think also just
Speaker 5: kind of watching you know, people connect, you know. You know,
Speaker 5: I've seen engagements happen on our festival field. I've seen
Speaker 5: you know, married couples come out because they met at
Speaker 5: our festival field, and those testimonias kind of keep it
Speaker 5: like you know, and also just kind of seeing how
Speaker 5: people react to Ghana, like you know, having you know,
Speaker 5: one of the coolest things that I felt was that
Speaker 5: Ghana so safe as a country.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 5: I was walking down, I was driving my car, and
Speaker 5: as I was driving my car, I look out my
Speaker 5: window to the left and I see two of my
Speaker 5: friends from Brooklyn, New York walking the streets of our crop,
Speaker 5: like you know, in the middle of the city. And
Speaker 5: that was such a proud moment for me because it
Speaker 5: was just kind of like, yo, they walking down, they
Speaker 5: walking down a crowd, like it's flatbush, like you know
Speaker 5: what I mean.
Speaker 4: I felt like I was.
Speaker 5: Kind of kind of see them just walking there, free
Speaker 5: about it, you know. So, you know, there's so many
Speaker 5: amazing things to do in Ghana, whether it's if you
Speaker 5: want a club, you can party all night in the morning,
Speaker 5: you know, people literally their viral videos and.
Speaker 4: People on the beach at eight am. You know, people
Speaker 4: you can do that.
Speaker 5: But there are so many cool restaurants, you know, there's
Speaker 5: so many you know, educational activities that's happening on the ground.
Speaker 5: There's so many, you know, sights to see, places to
Speaker 5: visit once you come there. For me, as the beaches,
Speaker 5: I love to drive. There's a beach that Blue Lagoon
Speaker 5: is about two and a half hours away from a craft.
Speaker 5: It's so serene, it's quiet, it's private, it's clean. You know,
Speaker 5: it's one of my favorite places to go when I
Speaker 5: just want to hear myself in the ocean, the ocean
Speaker 5: hit you know.
Speaker 4: I think it's just like one of the best places
Speaker 4: in the cross And.
Speaker 2: So do you be dancing?
Speaker 1: Can you dance?
Speaker 2: You don't go to the club?
Speaker 4: I mean, I'm in New Yorker, man, you know, you know,
Speaker 4: you got to be able to do a little one
Speaker 4: two step, you know, like, can't be stiff. You know,
Speaker 4: I don't have paint on the wall, you know. I
Speaker 4: you know, I was a part of the Little Shake era.
Speaker 4: I got a little shake in. They're a little five thousand,
Speaker 4: so a little bit, you know, and you know, when
Speaker 4: the pends of that from meets. I could do it.
Speaker 4: I can do a little you know, I could.
Speaker 1: Do it a little two step, yeah, you know, shoulder work.
Speaker 4: I got it all.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 3: So, at the end of the twenty twenty two Afrochella,
Speaker 3: you guys announced that the festival would not be returning.
Speaker 2: I know a lot of the festival goers are probably upset.
Speaker 3: But now we find that the name of the festival
Speaker 3: has just changed now to Afro Future.
Speaker 2: Let's talk about what's going on with that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, afro Tella was and after Future is.
Speaker 5: You know, not only did we feel internally that it
Speaker 5: was time for us to kind of grow into our
Speaker 5: step into our big boy pants as far as shoes
Speaker 5: and what we wanted to tell. As far as the
Speaker 5: storytelling component, we knew that the future is Africa and
Speaker 5: we want our festival to be synonymous with that. As
Speaker 5: far as the connectivity of the bridge that's being built
Speaker 5: between the diaspora and the continent. You know, we don't
Speaker 5: have any issues with the the team. We just really
Speaker 5: was just kind of standing on ground as far as
Speaker 5: what we felt like we deserved and who we were.
Speaker 5: You know, eventually we was able to come to an agreement,
Speaker 5: and that's why we exist how we exist now as
Speaker 5: a future I like it.
Speaker 1: Can you tell us, like, what's the lineup for this December?
Speaker 4: It's coming up. I mean, we have a deal to
Speaker 4: do with exclusive release, but it's definitely coming up within
Speaker 4: the next week or so, so you all get that information.
Speaker 5: But it's gonna be pretty exciting in the past. Last
Speaker 5: year we had Burn and Boy headline alongside Fireboy and
Speaker 5: a few other exciting acts. Twenty twenty one we had
Speaker 5: Whist Kid, we had our Lennox and a few others.
Speaker 5: So this year is gonna be not in short of that,
Speaker 5: it's gonna be pretty amazing.
Speaker 3: What do you think about Burn and Boys saying it
Speaker 3: that we don't have any culture over here black Americans.
Speaker 2: I think that.
Speaker 5: I think what he meant and what he said are
Speaker 5: two different things, you know what I mean. But you know,
Speaker 5: I think think it was all off to interpretation. Like
Speaker 5: I said earlier, we we definitely need to learn more
Speaker 5: about each other's coaches and understand each other's perspectives, and
Speaker 5: I think that would have formed how we should speak
Speaker 5: on or about each other, you know. So, yeah, there's
Speaker 5: a lot of education on both sides of the spectrum
Speaker 5: that need to be had in order for us to
Speaker 5: kind of stop these little cultural awards that that continue to.
Speaker 4: Kind of purpose.
Speaker 1: What's your background? Is your background like, where's where'd you
Speaker 1: go to school for?
Speaker 4: I went to school, funny enough, for bio psychology and
Speaker 4: public health.
Speaker 2: You know exactly what they're saying. Yeah, you know how
Speaker 2: to like word that ship real good? Like yeah, be
Speaker 2: like I'm just saying, like, you know, I'm trying to
Speaker 2: make sure politically correct.
Speaker 4: No, it's not even politically correct.
Speaker 5: It's really just kind of like, you know, I feel
Speaker 5: like I'm always going to stand on my ground off
Speaker 5: in the Bronx, like you know what I mean, that's
Speaker 5: what we do. But it's just kind of like, you know,
Speaker 5: I take the approach of education more so than I
Speaker 5: take the approach of controversy.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 5: I think that, you know, controversy is obviously what sells,
Speaker 5: and that's what a lot of people love and enjoy it.
Speaker 5: But I personally feel there's an opportunity for us to
Speaker 5: kind of educate each other.
Speaker 3: So what kind of stuff like on the ground at
Speaker 3: AFRO Future and what kind of educational and empowerment initiatives
Speaker 3: is for future involving amazing.
Speaker 4: So we do a lot of things outside of the festival.
Speaker 5: A lot of people know the festival because that's where
Speaker 5: their enjoyment is, but even at the festival, there's opportunity
Speaker 5: for you to engage with different cultural troops that we
Speaker 5: bring onto the field, Different artists and talents that we
Speaker 5: bring on to the field that are also there. The
Speaker 5: mirrorless and the painters and even some of the vendors
Speaker 5: have a lot of stories to tell and those connections
Speaker 5: are very very important to us. Off the field, we
Speaker 5: have an expo. The xpos are opportunity for us to
Speaker 5: kind of force that dialogue to whether it's in music
Speaker 5: and education, around music and entertainment, we have that We've
Speaker 5: done that a partnership with our favorite some of like YouTube,
Speaker 5: tom Core Audio Map, We've done like several panel discussions,
Speaker 5: meetups and those kind of things with them.
Speaker 4: We've done, you know, poetry events, whether.
Speaker 5: It's given creators an opportunity to kind of tap in
Speaker 5: with each other and tell their story from a poetry perspective.
Speaker 5: Last year we introduced Black Health Connect, which was an
Speaker 5: opportunity for health professionals in the diaspora to connect.
Speaker 4: I thought that was really cool. That was one of
Speaker 4: my favorites.
Speaker 5: We've had conversation around agriculture and food and how we
Speaker 5: connect around food and what opportunities we've done things about beauty.
Speaker 5: About sixty four percent of our audience a woman, so
Speaker 5: we tend to kind of also like to try and
Speaker 5: have conversations around women. Last year, we were able to
Speaker 5: collaborate with this company out of Berlin called Curl Cohn
Speaker 5: and we had conversations about beauty and starting the beauty business.
Speaker 4: And right now we're very we're empowering.
Speaker 5: Beauty brands from the continent, like topicals like I'm Coola
Speaker 5: that are doing some amazing work in the space and
Speaker 5: we want to be able to highlight them and highlight
Speaker 5: the ingredients that they use from the continent, you know,
Speaker 5: So whether it's like food activations and discussions around food
Speaker 5: as well, some of the opportunities that we dig into.
Speaker 5: Last year, we were able to collaborate with a Modern
Speaker 5: Black Girl and we ran a pitch competition.
Speaker 2: I love that. I love Modern Black Girl to to
Speaker 2: kind of like.
Speaker 5: Tapping and and win a prize to kind of help
Speaker 5: their businesses. We want to expand and have conversations around tech,
Speaker 5: around business opportunities, around you know, the Aspera dialogues.
Speaker 4: You know, what are our perspectives as men?
Speaker 5: You know, from from a diaspa point of view, as American,
Speaker 5: from a British point of view, from a British Black American?
Speaker 4: You know what, like, what are the different perspectives of men?
Speaker 4: What is our tone? You know?
Speaker 5: How do we differ? How do we have similarities? And
Speaker 5: in terms of mindset, same thing around women and wellness,
Speaker 5: and how can we speak to each other and understand
Speaker 5: each other's perspectives. Anything that brings connectivity and fosters education
Speaker 5: amongst the asked for some of the work we do
Speaker 5: in the XPO and then with our music museum, we
Speaker 5: tend to take the music off of the screen and
Speaker 5: off the sound and really put it in the museum
Speaker 5: focus because you know, I may say an artist that
Speaker 5: you guys, I'm sure you're familiar with the song, but
Speaker 5: you probably don't know the name of the artists. And
Speaker 5: that's like that for a lot of afrobeats artists and
Speaker 5: artists on the content, if they're not part of the
Speaker 5: Big Three, or they haven't done a collaboration, maybe with
Speaker 5: a Selena Gomez or something like that. Most people probably
Speaker 5: won't know who they are, and we want to change
Speaker 5: that because we want to make sure that this sticks
Speaker 5: to yourself as far as the music and the movement
Speaker 5: that we're having.
Speaker 4: So and really what it takes is the education.
Speaker 5: You know, we grew up with hip hop, like I
Speaker 5: watched mac DVD's, I read the blogs like, you know,
Speaker 5: I know this was my culture, right, you know, just
Speaker 5: kind of so I follow artists from when there was
Speaker 5: a mixtape artist and now they're like, you know, a
Speaker 5: world renowned artists like French Montana. I remember him as
Speaker 5: a cookboy on Smack DVD and now to see him
Speaker 5: as a superstar, Well why I follow that story.
Speaker 4: Most of us here in the US.
Speaker 5: Haven't had that opportunity with afrobeats artists, and that connectivity
Speaker 5: is so our museum allows us to be able to
Speaker 5: create an experience like that for artists and dig deeper
Speaker 5: into that.
Speaker 4: So we do a lot of those kinds of things,
Speaker 4: and obviously we give back.
Speaker 5: You know a lot of people say why we don't
Speaker 5: highlight that because we don't want Africa to be associated
Speaker 5: with charity. We want people to associate us with industry
Speaker 5: and to highlight some of the you know, the people
Speaker 5: on the ground doing the damn thing. You know, there's
Speaker 5: a lot of people on the ground doing a lot
Speaker 5: of amazing things and finance and tech and science and
Speaker 5: creativity and you know in fashion, you know, so you know,
Speaker 5: how do we highlight those people. That's what's more important
Speaker 5: to us.
Speaker 4: Yeah, this give back. There's an opportunity.
Speaker 5: You know, if you want to donate sneakers, we have
Speaker 5: a whole day with the kids and paint and rebuild
Speaker 5: their school or provide them with food for the day
Speaker 5: and for the year as well. You know, we do
Speaker 5: those kinds of things. But what we're trying to do
Speaker 5: is encourage people to come back tapping with people doing
Speaker 5: some amazing things and let's let's work together to create opportunity.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, I'm thinking about I want to get my citizenship
Speaker 3: in Ghana. Do they still have that program with our
Speaker 3: friends Black Americans to come over there and get a
Speaker 3: piece of land and and uh citizenship.
Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely, you can come.
Speaker 5: You can get residency and then after a while, once
Speaker 5: there's an amnesty, they do the entire citizenship together.
Speaker 4: But you start with residency.
Speaker 5: I know, a few people who have gone through that
Speaker 5: process and have started several businesses around in Donna specifically.
Speaker 1: That's dope. So let me ask you this as a novice,
Speaker 1: because I want to come. What date would you say
Speaker 1: would be the best dates to come from this day
Speaker 1: to this day would be the best opportunity to get
Speaker 1: a real experience.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: The only thing I often feel guilty when I tell
Speaker 5: people that, you know, come like before Christmas. So we
Speaker 5: tend to tell people to come in the twenty sixth
Speaker 5: and leave the fourth. You know, those are the days
Speaker 5: where we're having a majority of the activations. But it's
Speaker 5: really on and popping all December and mostly throughout January.
Speaker 5: There's there's always something to do, but the busiest part
Speaker 5: is the twenty sixth to the fourth. Those are the
Speaker 5: times where I will encourage a lot of people to
Speaker 5: come in and tap in. After the fourth, it's still fun.
Speaker 5: It's a lot less people, you know, it's calmer, you
Speaker 5: get to do a lot more relaxing stuff. But it's
Speaker 5: still a good time. God is a good time any
Speaker 5: day of the week that you go. Yeah, yesterday it
Speaker 5: was crazy.
Speaker 4: In our cry.
Speaker 1: What happened in a cry Yesterday?
Speaker 5: We had an event that we called My Piano and
Speaker 5: Brunch that we started in the pandemic and it's a
Speaker 5: pretty exciting experience. So you know, even yesterday it was
Speaker 5: a soul out event. So you know, a crowd is
Speaker 5: always popping anywhere you go in the continent. You can
Speaker 5: have an amazing time. You know, it's just really about
Speaker 5: going and seeing yourself there.
Speaker 3: So my concern is vaccinations. What type of vaccinations you
Speaker 3: got to have, if any, to go to Ghana.
Speaker 5: I think just the kind of the basics, the stuff
Speaker 5: that's on your yellow card, the yellow fever, the memphs,
Speaker 5: the mumps, but even that, I believe the yellow fever
Speaker 5: has been updated to be taken off. Like you just
Speaker 5: want to make sure that you're vaccinated against any of
Speaker 5: like those deadly diseases. You know, you no longer need
Speaker 5: the COVID vacs. Well you should have a COVID vaccination
Speaker 5: to come to Ghana, but you don't. You no longer
Speaker 5: have to provide a PCR test runing through that nature
Speaker 5: to come into Ghana.
Speaker 1: M Me and her ain't got no husband or no keys,
Speaker 1: so we can come before Christy's Honestly.
Speaker 4: Yeah, right now, you'll have a y'all have, y'all have
Speaker 4: a blast.
Speaker 1: In terms of costs, Is this an experience that the
Speaker 1: average American can Black American or any you know race
Speaker 1: of American can come have? Or do we got to
Speaker 1: wait till twenty twenty five and get our chips together.
Speaker 4: No, no, no, It depends on where you are in life.
Speaker 5: And also when you're booking, right, we give a lot
Speaker 5: of different opportunities for people to be able to kind
Speaker 5: of pay their trip over time. You don't have to
Speaker 5: buy it all at once. Yes, the most expensive, you know,
Speaker 5: a part of this trip is the flight there. You know,
Speaker 5: that's a that's the biggest hurdle.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 5: And then also maybe sometimes depends on how you stay,
Speaker 5: the luxury you want to have once you stay there.
Speaker 5: But you can definitely go there, you know, on a
Speaker 5: pretty sleep budget, because once you're in town, your money
Speaker 5: goes a long way. The dollar is a very great
Speaker 5: currency to have on the continent, you know, it goes
Speaker 5: a long way. Unless you're out there trying to kind
Speaker 5: of like live like a king, you should be fine,
Speaker 5: right the most the biggest hurdle you're probably gonna face
Speaker 5: is your flight and accommodation. But everything else is nominal
Speaker 5: compared to the amount of money that you have. So
Speaker 5: we have a relationship with Air Affordable. It gives people
Speaker 5: an opportunity to be able to kind of pay their
Speaker 5: trip over time and spread the payments. We also have
Speaker 5: a travel agent on hand as well more travel. She
Speaker 5: also allows for people to be able to pay this
Speaker 5: over time, so we can reduce that burier for people.
Speaker 5: But you know, it's it's you know, I don't know
Speaker 5: anyone that has spent the money to come to gand
Speaker 5: that has given us bad feedback about their experience or
Speaker 5: their their experience, like what would have meant to them
Speaker 5: to be in Ghana? Right, you know, even if they
Speaker 5: didn't like anything else, they just kind of you know,
Speaker 5: that experience of being in Africa and going to the
Speaker 5: content for the first time changed a lot of people's
Speaker 5: lives that we at least the feedback that we've got.
Speaker 1: Okay, well, semi mode numbers, so I could call her
Speaker 1: get my ship together because I'm crumbing this year. Right.
Speaker 2: They take after pay.
Speaker 1: American Airlines takes after pay you guys, our klariner one
Speaker 1: so you can get your ticket like that.
Speaker 4: You know, we're looking at some airline discounts.
Speaker 5: You know, in the future, we're trying to like do
Speaker 5: tryter planes as well, you know, which will kind of
Speaker 5: help us reduce the costs. Seems like they're trying to
Speaker 5: stop black people from coming to Africa man every years.
Speaker 3: Of course, that's why that's why I was asking you about,
Speaker 3: you know, the festival ever being in America, because I
Speaker 3: understand empowering Africa for sure, but we can look at
Speaker 3: other groups of people, like I'll say the Asians for
Speaker 3: an example. Asian people like they empower their people wherever
Speaker 3: they are, right. So it's not about like really like
Speaker 3: doing this here and then sending money back or sending
Speaker 3: the resources back. It's about us taking over all ship,
Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 5: So last year year and this year, what we started
Speaker 5: doing is taking our show on the road. So between
Speaker 5: Ghana and December, we do a lot of activities leading
Speaker 5: up to December and so creating experiences here in the
Speaker 5: US so for instance, or in Europe. So this year
Speaker 5: we've done a lot of stops. We started off in Coudivoire,
Speaker 5: which was in Abajohn. Then we went to Paris, we
Speaker 5: went to London. Uh we came back to l A.
Speaker 5: We did New York earlier. This this summer, we have
Speaker 5: an event coming up with What's Happened and uh Door
Speaker 5: Dash and at Nike you know, Battle of joeloff Rice
Speaker 5: and you guys are invited. It's gonna be pretty exciting
Speaker 5: as a basketball game and jeelol Rice competition, you know.
Speaker 5: So we create experiences throughout the year preparing people for
Speaker 5: for Ghana. We even went to the Kentucky Derby this
Speaker 5: year an experience there. So we're definitely touching our audiences
Speaker 5: in the different markets that we do. But as the
Speaker 5: festival exists, you know, we create about fifteen hundred jobs
Speaker 5: for people. When when people come to the continent, we
Speaker 5: are able to accomplish one the goal of getting people
Speaker 5: who have long wondered about the continent, given them a
Speaker 5: way that is consumable for them to come to the continent,
Speaker 5: and encouraging that we're able to create opportunities for people
Speaker 5: on the ground. We're able to build connections as far
Speaker 5: as people who are coming and the people on the ground.
Speaker 5: So there's so many positive things that we are accomplishing
Speaker 5: by doing it on the continent that you know, it
Speaker 5: just doesn't make sense to leave. And also just to
Speaker 5: kind of put it in context, the world is fighting
Speaker 5: for Africa right now, like Russia, China and America fighting
Speaker 5: for influence in Africa. Black people need to be at
Speaker 5: the center of that and we need to be able
Speaker 5: to tap in as well. If if all of these
Speaker 5: superpowers are fighting for Africa, they know there's an opportunity.
Speaker 5: And for me, the opportunity should first with black people,
Speaker 5: and not just black people in the continent, but black
Speaker 5: people to the Aspa, Caribbean, the America, is Europe, Asia
Speaker 5: or wherever you are tapping with people in the continent.
Speaker 5: How can you support them, how can you invest in them?
Speaker 5: How can you work with each other to kind of,
Speaker 5: you know, do something.
Speaker 1: Some of our goals right and get in front of
Speaker 1: the white.
Speaker 4: Man always yeah, they're gonna get things, but we got
Speaker 4: to get ours.
Speaker 1: Too, you know that part. That part where's the Jall
Speaker 1: of Rice competition at.
Speaker 4: So this year is gonna be at the Nike HQ.
Speaker 5: Everybody can't get in, so you know it's gonna be
Speaker 5: a you know, it's invite only, but we got a
Speaker 5: space for you guys to pull up and enjoy yourself.
Speaker 5: It's a pretty great experience. You had a lot of
Speaker 5: amazing players, like the game was actually competitive. Jandanna has
Speaker 5: played in the past, Ross Gold, who used to be
Speaker 5: a player, She's played. We've had a few you know,
Speaker 5: pro semi pro players play on the team. So it's
Speaker 5: been pretty exciting.
Speaker 4: It's co ed.
Speaker 5: So a woman asked you on this corner on the
Speaker 5: on the court the whole time. But they're good too,
Speaker 5: and and they're dope and and they ball out. It's
Speaker 5: a pretty great experience. And we have an after party
Speaker 5: and you know, it's it's it's vibes, you know. So
Speaker 5: we have after party at Musica. So it's gonna be
Speaker 5: a very nice you know, two weeks now during Independence
Speaker 5: is October first, so we're gonna be celebrating up until
Speaker 5: the eighth of October.
Speaker 2: So this is in New York. You're saying, this is
Speaker 2: a New York Yes, okay.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I'm trying to pull up.
Speaker 4: Please.
Speaker 2: You had and you had me, You had me at.
Speaker 5: Okay, jelof Rights Champion. The Jewel of Rights that we
Speaker 5: use tis our chow restaurant. We have, you know, two
Speaker 5: little caches of Harlem and one of the Bronx. But
Speaker 5: they are two time champions.
Speaker 4: This year they get to defend it for the three peak,
Speaker 4: so I'm pretty excited for them, you know, hopefully, and
Speaker 4: Jeria can come with some heat.
Speaker 1: We're gonna see what happened, and I'm gonna taste all
Speaker 1: of it, and I'm gonna tell you which one I
Speaker 1: think should win.
Speaker 3: I've only had joel Off one time. Really, really, the
Speaker 3: food is so damn spicy, man.
Speaker 2: I like to be able to enjoy my food.
Speaker 3: I cannot enjoy my food if I'm away and in
Speaker 3: my mouth it's hot the whole time.
Speaker 1: Maybe I'll just be eating it and wiping my nose
Speaker 1: because my nose start running because it's so hot. But
Speaker 1: that's okay, baby, Just wipe my nose and keep going.
Speaker 4: That's definitely note.
Speaker 3: So what do you hope the attendees take away from
Speaker 3: Afro Future from the after Future experience and what are
Speaker 3: your aspirations for the future of the festival?
Speaker 5: Absolutely, I mean I think that my hope is that
Speaker 5: one they can build a connection or a relationship with
Speaker 5: somebody that they meet on the continent, they could be
Speaker 5: intentional about dispelling any narratives that they may have or
Speaker 5: that the people around them have. About the continent and
Speaker 5: how it exists. You know, it's twenty twenty three and
Speaker 5: people still have a lot of ignorant questions about the
Speaker 5: continent with TikTok, with YouTube, and I think it's just
Speaker 5: kind of like, you know, a lack of effort on
Speaker 5: their part to kind of really know what's happening on
Speaker 5: the continent where we are. There's been a lot of
Speaker 5: disinformation that has existed so that you know, we don't connect,
Speaker 5: and now we're trying to build that bridge to bring
Speaker 5: us back. So if the hope is that you know,
Speaker 5: once you come to the continent that you're tappening, you're
Speaker 5: familiar with what's happening on the continent, that you're familiar
Speaker 5: with the perspectives, and as opposed to taking offense, just
Speaker 5: take an approach of just kind of educating. You know,
Speaker 5: we really don't know each other. We haven't had any
Speaker 5: real interactions with each other outside of you know, the
Speaker 5: things we enjoy that are similar, right, you know, like music,
Speaker 5: TV shows and movies and things that nature. But that's
Speaker 5: not enough, right, you know, It's like you can, we
Speaker 5: can like the same movies, but we don't if we
Speaker 5: don't really have an understanding of each other's respectives and
Speaker 5: how can we respect each other, you know, So we
Speaker 5: want to faster that respect as well. And the hope
Speaker 5: is that, you know, to be able to support young
Speaker 5: people doing amazing things on the continent. How can we
Speaker 5: tap in with them, and how can we work with them,
Speaker 5: and how can we provide each other opportunities? Those are
Speaker 5: those are our main goals as far as some of
Speaker 5: the work that we're trying to do on the continent
Speaker 5: and as far as the future, you know, we want
Speaker 5: to get into more storytelling, more nie storytelling, you know,
Speaker 5: supporting podcasters on the content on the continent, supporting you know,
Speaker 5: storytellers on the continent, and leveraging them to tell stories
Speaker 5: about the continent. Now, I think that if you're coming
Speaker 5: to Ghana, you should be able to watch a movie
Speaker 5: that kind of gives you a perspective of what it's
Speaker 5: like for every day ghaniance and one that is not
Speaker 5: like the life of the rich and or the life
Speaker 5: of the famous, but one that's like everyday lives of people.
Speaker 4: And I think that we don't really have that yet.
Speaker 4: So the festival definitely wants to be able to tap
Speaker 4: into that, to that to that length.
Speaker 1: That's good, that's important. Well, I'm excited for the growth
Speaker 1: of this. I keep seeing every year, I keep seeing
Speaker 1: it growing, and this year is gonna grow bigger because
Speaker 1: tam Bar, I'm gonna be in the building.
Speaker 2: I promise I'm going this year.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I've definitely you guys be my special guests. You know,
Speaker 5: we'll have a good time. I'll make sure all my
Speaker 5: spots take care of you, guys.
Speaker 2: Husband's out there.
Speaker 5: It's gonna be so much to pick from you. I'm
Speaker 5: not gonna be able. They're gonna be on y'all too.
Speaker 5: So suppose immediately perfect. Yeah, they meet you and they.
Speaker 1: Tell you, I love it, darling, Darling, You're so beautiful, Darling,
Speaker 1: all of that.
Speaker 2: I want all of that.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So can you tell our listeners where they can find
Speaker 1: all this information so they can attend as well?
Speaker 5: Absolutely on all of our socials, Instagram, threads, uh, you know, Snapchat, TikTok,
Speaker 5: Afro Future, at afro Future, a Future festival, you should
Speaker 5: be able to find us on any of those, even
Speaker 5: on LinkedIn as well. We're on there as well as
Speaker 5: for Future Festival. You can always go to Afrofuture dot
Speaker 5: com that's our website. All of the information is there
Speaker 5: for you.
Speaker 1: All right, you hear there, Guys Afro Future, y'all look
Speaker 1: for that because we're gonna be there and it's gonna
Speaker 1: be a great opportunity to connect with Ghanaians and the
Speaker 1: whole continent. So y'all, y'all better come.
Speaker 2: And husband, I should do it. Oh yeah, let's do it. Absolutely.
Speaker 2: I'm with that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, forgot. Now we can set that up for y'all.
Speaker 1: I can do it all right, let's set that up seriously,
Speaker 1: I'm serious. Don't be giving us no Hollywood. That's the
Speaker 1: Bronx talking like, yeah, we can do a live.
Speaker 2: Show the yeah for the festival.
Speaker 3: Have y'all incorporated any podcast with the festival, like something
Speaker 3: like a live show.
Speaker 4: We've had we've had a few.
Speaker 5: We had no podcasts last year come through and they
Speaker 5: did like, you know, the backstage interviews as people came
Speaker 5: came on and off the off the stage. That was
Speaker 5: pretty exciting. We've done some live ones on on you know,
Speaker 5: in our venues as well as XPO. Some people have
Speaker 5: come out and do their live podcast. It's been pretty exciting.
Speaker 1: That's no real easy way to say.
Speaker 4: This, but.
Speaker 2: We get We ain't getting no SIMP story from Abdul.
Speaker 2: What are we doing?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, we definitely got to get a SIMP story
Speaker 1: from Abdul. Almost got away? You almost got away?
Speaker 4: I was getting ready to.
Speaker 1: All right. So we have a segment of our show
Speaker 1: called Dumby Story, our SIMP series, and you got to
Speaker 1: share a time that you got played by the opposie
Speaker 1: one story and don't don't talk about when you was
Speaker 1: in the ninth grade, talk about something from your.
Speaker 2: Food out the afro.
Speaker 1: Are you are you married?
Speaker 4: I'm not married? Are you.
Speaker 1: Not in a relationship? So prior to her, what happened?
Speaker 4: Yes? Damn yeah? Man, man, you guys want to help
Speaker 4: me with reveal the secret?
Speaker 2: I ain't never really go ahead and tell it.
Speaker 4: Oh my goodness. Yeah, you know, it happens to the
Speaker 4: best of us, most of us, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4: I was super, you know, super super, super in love,
Speaker 4: you know, and you know I just couldn't see pastor
Speaker 4: you know, and unfortunately she did me dirty, you know,
Speaker 4: one of my one of my young boys. So you
Speaker 4: know it happened to me. It happened to me in college,
Speaker 4: and that was my villain story.
Speaker 1: That was.
Speaker 2: Every one one bitch be ruining a nigga forever.
Speaker 1: I mean that was vague, but I guess we'll take it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, come on, I don't want to like, did she
Speaker 2: smash on the what does she do?
Speaker 4: You know? A whole lot of you know, you know,
Speaker 4: she just kind of you know, stepped out of me
Speaker 4: man with somebody with a.
Speaker 1: Friend with my mentor did you did you continue to
Speaker 1: mentor this person?
Speaker 4: You know, I put a body on. We're all cool.
Speaker 5: That actually is funny. It's like, you know, it was
Speaker 5: very young, and you know, I don't I don't actually
Speaker 5: blame them at all. You know, I think that was
Speaker 5: part of life. It was a lesson I need to
Speaker 5: learn to.
Speaker 2: That was a good way to take it. You're still
Speaker 2: with her too, Yeah, Yeah, we cool.
Speaker 5: She apologized a couple of years ago. It's always good
Speaker 5: like I like that. My villain stories don't end with
Speaker 5: me being a bad guy. They normally come back and apologize.
Speaker 2: So they always do, they always do.
Speaker 4: I ain't tell.
Speaker 3: You know, we tell us the time you was a
Speaker 3: damn villains when you play somebody.
Speaker 2: And I flew up going and I ain't. I put
Speaker 2: her in the hotel and I ain't see her no time.
Speaker 5: You know, I actually don't have any issues with any
Speaker 5: of my exits. Actually, well, you know, people tend to
Speaker 5: I tend to have good relationships or leave on good terms.
Speaker 5: I try to make sure it's nice and clean every time.
Speaker 2: Karma good.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't want anybody crying over me.
Speaker 3: Or all right, let our listeners know where they can
Speaker 3: find you at. And uh, you pretty much already told
Speaker 3: us about the festival and all that. So what's your
Speaker 3: socials where they can tap in with you?
Speaker 5: Absolutely? I mean I'm on, I'm on on socials at
Speaker 5: the Ruler oh two t h E r U l
Speaker 5: E R zero two. It's my handle across all of
Speaker 5: my socials.
Speaker 2: All right, y'all, that's what y'all can find the Ruler Abdu.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much man for joining us. We really
Speaker 2: appreciate you sharing this information. It's a good time, all right, y'all.
Speaker 3: If you enjoyed this episode, tune in every Thursday on
Speaker 3: the iHeartRadio app and where but the fuck you get
Speaker 3: your podcast at?
Speaker 2: This is your co host, A J. Holiday two point
Speaker 2: oh on instagrams. Kick it Tam, y'all is official.
Speaker 1: Tam Bam, I Love y'all, Thank y'all for tuning in.
Speaker 1: Remember to speak now
Speaker 2: And never hold your peace.