Speaker 1: I would go as far as it says more than
Speaker 1: one of them had a king at any given time,
Speaker 1: because at one point it was just the thing to
Speaker 1: be a dude in an R and B group and
Speaker 1: have a ca I bought one from my brother for Christmas.
Speaker 1: I was like, it was a rite of passage for
Speaker 1: just the young black dudes at the time. A brother,
Speaker 1: you know you need a king and he he might
Speaker 1: still have it. I just saw him yesterday.
Speaker 2: I should have asked, I pray to God you kneeled
Speaker 2: when you handed it off during I want that more
Speaker 2: than anything.
Speaker 3: My chips in yours are.
Speaker 2: Racist layers, money.
Speaker 3: Turned stuff I.
Speaker 4: Can't tell me. Welcome to another phenomenal episode of My Mama.
Speaker 2: Told the podcast when we dive deep, deep into the
Speaker 2: pockets of black conspiracy theories.
Speaker 4: And we finally worked to prove that Kyler Pratt did,
Speaker 4: in fact sacrifice her television father flex Alexander's career two
Speaker 4: of the Black Illuminati, in exchange for eternal youth.
Speaker 2: It sounds right to me, I'll be honest, that sounds
Speaker 2: exactly right. Kyla Pratt has not aged a day since
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety one.
Speaker 4: She looks amazing.
Speaker 2: She looks fantastic and something had to have happened. You
Speaker 2: can't see the same girl from Loving Basketball forever?
Speaker 4: Where's Flex? He was on a rocket ship to the Moon.
Speaker 4: I haven't seen him since.
Speaker 2: You know he was in If I'm remembering correctly, he
Speaker 2: was in Snakes on a plane.
Speaker 4: If I'm not mistaken, who wound up briefly in that
Speaker 4: I was on a plane briefly. That's no barometer for success.
Speaker 2: This easily could have been a Flex Alexander hologram or Washington.
Speaker 2: Which one was Washington or Alexander flex Alexander.
Speaker 4: I believe he was Flex Washington on the show on one?
Speaker 2: Why why do that? Why not pick a full different
Speaker 2: name if you're gonna be in a multi cam on
Speaker 2: upn Why why why commit so hard?
Speaker 4: I think you want the name Flex is what's going
Speaker 4: to travel Alexander Washington. It's all very interchangeable, but Flex
Speaker 4: is what they want us to remember.
Speaker 2: He said, Alexander is my slave name, but Flex, that's.
Speaker 4: Washington is my lesser slave name.
Speaker 2: Washington it's my chosen slave name. If I have to
Speaker 2: choose a slave name, I want the best slave owner.
Speaker 4: I E Washington. No, they had dental the Washington. So
Speaker 4: it's a good family. Yeah, it was a solid family,
Speaker 4: solid slave owner.
Speaker 2: Shout out to the slave owner in Washington's if you're
Speaker 2: still out there, Hell yeah, you got it, baby, you're
Speaker 2: the best.
Speaker 4: What are we one minute in? All right, I'm dreaming.
Speaker 2: Board and I'm your co host, Langston Carman. We're so
Speaker 2: happy to be here with you. We're we're talking shit
Speaker 2: about uh apparently flex flex Alexander and and Kyler Pratt
Speaker 2: and George Washington a little bit. But but let's see
Speaker 2: him for some reason. But our guest today, I would
Speaker 2: dare to say that that he hasn't owned any slaves,
Speaker 2: nor it would he would he well, I think he'd
Speaker 2: go so far.
Speaker 4: Okay, maybe maybe he would. He's not certain. He's wavering
Speaker 4: on the subject. But he's such a.
Speaker 2: Funny comedian, hysterical. You've seen him in so many things. Specifically,
Speaker 2: he is a a writer producer for The Great North
Speaker 2: on Fox, so fucking funny. Please give it up for
Speaker 2: our guests, mister Kevin Avery, how are you. We're excited
Speaker 2: you're here.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go no on on the slave owning. Damn,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna make that official. Yeah, Okay, this feels put.
Speaker 4: It on watch.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to be on the on the right side
Speaker 1: of things, you know. I feel like I feel like
Speaker 1: slave owning is a dangerous, dangerous precedent.
Speaker 5: To start to show it out there now.
Speaker 2: It would be a weird way to start the episode
Speaker 2: and expect people to eventually be on your and.
Speaker 4: Then just.
Speaker 5: Go back to the part where he said he don't slaves.
Speaker 2: Okay, hear me out, Yeah I do own slaves, but yeah, yeah, okay,
Speaker 2: So I'm good. So noticed slave voting and that's fine.
Speaker 2: To each his own. A is what I always say.
Speaker 2: But you came to us this week with a conspiracy theory,
Speaker 2: and I'm I say you, but the truth is this
Speaker 2: is a bit of a unique episode because you did not,
Speaker 2: in fact come to us with its conspiracy theory. You
Speaker 2: came to us with an open heart. You said, you said,
Speaker 2: if you fellas have something you want to discuss, I
Speaker 2: am more than open to to taking that on. I'm
Speaker 2: not afraid of what possibly could come down the pipeline.
Speaker 2: And then Bori immediately raised his hand. He could not
Speaker 2: have raised his hand faster. Kevin, I want you to
Speaker 2: know how quickly this happened. Unbelievably fast. He raised his
Speaker 2: hand with a conspiracy theory that I would argue is
Speaker 2: maybe the most unfounded thing that we are going to
Speaker 2: take on in this in this conversation.
Speaker 4: Ever, that's crazy.
Speaker 1: Wow, okay, already starting with the look, I'm going to
Speaker 1: say this on the and you haven't said it yet.
Speaker 5: This was a theory.
Speaker 1: That I I definitely was riding with for a minute.
Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you for a minute, and then then
Speaker 1: I really thought about it.
Speaker 4: But I mean, I just want to note that we're
Speaker 4: five minutes in, like Sin has already positioned me in
Speaker 4: the position of the buffoon. Who oh of the wild card. Wow,
Speaker 4: this is episode my god.
Speaker 2: Okay, so so now now there's a hierarchy being formed.
Speaker 5: Have I walked into some unsettled ship that?
Speaker 4: Oh? For me? Personally? This goes back to before grade.
Speaker 4: This is a life long.
Speaker 5: I can't I can't wait.
Speaker 1: I mean this, I will say this too about the
Speaker 1: theory you chose it hit me right right here his
Speaker 1: heart not.
Speaker 4: I know, I know that you have skin in the
Speaker 4: game personally, That's why I chose it for you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, okay, I appreciate that. Let us let us
Speaker 2: not linger any longer. Let us not leave our audience
Speaker 2: with baited breath. The conspiracy theory that was presented. It
Speaker 2: was my mama told.
Speaker 4: Me life scan people are good at R and B.
Speaker 2: M let's let's unpack it. Fellas David, this is yours,
Speaker 2: this is your baby. I'd love for you to kick
Speaker 2: us off. I just have felt throughout and I don't listen.
Speaker 4: First of all, I personally do not think that light
Speaker 4: skinned people are better than dark skinned people at R
Speaker 4: and B. I think that it's even whoa oh wait,
Speaker 4: I think there's been a lot of I think there's
Speaker 4: been a lot of dark skinned erasure in the R
Speaker 4: and B game in general, just like I think, quite honest,
Speaker 4: there's been a lot of fat eraser in the R
Speaker 4: and B game as well as well.
Speaker 6: Because we all remember Woody from Drew Hill. What happened Jazz?
Speaker 6: What happen Jazz? Jazz was the heavier one, last king,
Speaker 6: last of the thick kings. As far as could sing,
Speaker 6: Ruben stuttered, But that was not Ruben stuttered. Wasn't making
Speaker 6: like panty dropping.
Speaker 4: He tried, well, he had a small.
Speaker 5: Window in a moment. He had a moment he did Yeah, it.
Speaker 4: Was I'm sorry for two thousand and four that was not.
Speaker 2: I mean, here's what I'll say is that Ruben really
Speaker 2: he tried a little bit of everything that is the
Speaker 2: formula of R and B. He apologized, he he made love,
Speaker 2: and he walked in the rain, and none of it
Speaker 2: seemed to satisfy the missing piece, which was us looking
Speaker 2: at Ruben Stutter and being like, yeah, I'll buy that album. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I'll take what you're giving me, big dog.
Speaker 4: Big deal. Yeah. I don't even know if he did.
Speaker 4: Did he win? I don't know, Yes, Ruben Stutter did.
Speaker 4: He did win.
Speaker 2: Clay Agin got second place and now is running for
Speaker 2: governor I believe.
Speaker 1: I don't know what office he's run for. I know
Speaker 1: he's been a politician for for some time now.
Speaker 4: Okay, yeah, but back back to this, back to back,
Speaker 4: back back to what really matters, the hard hitting stuff.
Speaker 4: I've just felt like my whole life there's always been
Speaker 4: this like light skin predisposition to sexy stuff, and then
Speaker 4: dark skin we got like I didn't want to play
Speaker 4: offensive linemen a weight thing. Yeah, but like all the
Speaker 4: DB's light skins, they remallo. I remember him specifically basically white.
Speaker 4: And I'll say this.
Speaker 2: No one's ever asked me to play offensive line, and
Speaker 2: I have to assume that's because of the color of
Speaker 2: my skin.
Speaker 4: It's across their mind, like did you play power forward? Ever? No,
Speaker 4: of course not. No.
Speaker 2: It wasn't because I was smaller than everybody else and
Speaker 2: had to play point guard.
Speaker 4: I don't think so. I think it's probably because I'm
Speaker 4: light skin. That makes more sense. Has anybody ever come
Speaker 4: up to you and been like, you seem like you
Speaker 4: could sing? They have it.
Speaker 2: But but also I had my voice the whole time. Kevin,
Speaker 2: please jump in here.
Speaker 5: I have had that.
Speaker 1: I've had a weird thing where a couple of times
Speaker 1: white women have been like, I want to hear you sing.
Speaker 1: I bet you could sing, And I'm like, who, I know.
Speaker 1: I didn't say I could sing, right, I don't.
Speaker 5: I didn't. I didn't really put that out there.
Speaker 1: I mean, not not back when this was happening a lot.
Speaker 5: But yeah, that's definitely you know.
Speaker 1: And I'll say this, I did play linebacker when I
Speaker 1: played football in junior high.
Speaker 4: What's a multipurpose position? Though, that's an anybody can be
Speaker 4: a linebacker.
Speaker 5: Okay, all right, fair enough?
Speaker 1: And also I was the yeah, I was the only
Speaker 1: black kid in the in the school at the time,
Speaker 1: aside from my brother. So I mean they went with
Speaker 1: the darkest one for so I guess I'm.
Speaker 4: Proving your point.
Speaker 5: I'm saying I tried out for a wide receiver and
Speaker 5: I did not get that.
Speaker 4: No, they were like, we need a bet a tough
Speaker 4: guy position. You. Also, I know this about you. You
Speaker 4: were in an R and B group. I was, Oh
Speaker 4: my gosh, hold on, wait a minute. That's how they
Speaker 4: get you.
Speaker 2: That's how they get you. This is, if nothing else,
Speaker 2: helping David towards this point. So please tell us more
Speaker 2: about this R and B group you were a part of.
Speaker 1: Look, I didn't say we were good, but that we
Speaker 1: were we were all right, And I'm gonna say we
Speaker 1: were called uh, we were called four now with the
Speaker 1: four with the number four and now and even though
Speaker 1: there were six of us, that was a gross error.
Speaker 1: It was an accident, a miss We were mistitled miss
Speaker 1: labeled before a show, and that just was the name
Speaker 1: we stuck with. Yeah, we were, but they were like
Speaker 1: I think there were out of the gate, three dark
Speaker 1: skin cats and three light skin okay in the group.
Speaker 5: So when split down, sit down, center.
Speaker 4: Yeah. But now here's my question. When you were performing,
Speaker 4: I assume your group dances and things of that nature,
Speaker 4: where were the lights standing in position in comparison to
Speaker 4: the darks.
Speaker 1: I mean it depended. You know, it's a group, you
Speaker 1: mix it up and stuff. I can tell you this.
Speaker 5: The first performance we did, we covered can You Stand
Speaker 5: the Rain. I was in the middle.
Speaker 2: Not a light skinned man made that song, by the way.
Speaker 4: He was in the middle. By the way I was
Speaker 4: in the middle.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 5: The two dark skin men wrote that song.
Speaker 2: That's what I'm saying. That's that's a lot of That's
Speaker 2: a song that's almost exclusively been performed by dark skinned people.
Speaker 4: But go ahead, finish. Written written as doesn't count who
Speaker 4: sang for who wrote freaking you? Nobody knows.
Speaker 1: I'll say this on that song. The leads and this
Speaker 1: is this is why I'm going against your theory. Now,
Speaker 1: the leads were all the dark skin dudes, and well
Speaker 1: and and the In new addition, it's it's Treasvent, Ricky
Speaker 1: bell and and Johnny gill uh in our group. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was all three of the dark skin dudesang the
Speaker 1: leads on the park.
Speaker 4: Okay, and the.
Speaker 5: Rest of us sang back up.
Speaker 1: I told everybody, hey, y'all, let's go get wet. And
Speaker 1: that was I did. I did that in the middle
Speaker 1: of the song. Uh, and that was and that was it.
Speaker 1: And then did a little bit some choreography and sang
Speaker 1: the backup.
Speaker 2: Wait, so you stood in the middle and sang backup?
Speaker 2: How that's this is confusing?
Speaker 1: Well, because remember there are six of us, so it's
Speaker 1: all all the whole regular game plan just goes out
Speaker 1: the window. So I can't remember exactly where everyone else
Speaker 1: was lined up, but I think there was a dark
Speaker 1: skinned dude on my on my left, you were flanked
Speaker 1: by dark I think I was flanked by dark.
Speaker 4: Skin, almost like some type of a security detail.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but they were trying to protect me at all,
Speaker 1: protect the light skin.
Speaker 4: We gotta keep the money safe, right.
Speaker 1: But then we like it became this very interchangeable thing
Speaker 1: where we broke up and we came together and there
Speaker 1: were only three of us for a minute, and then
Speaker 1: there were four of us and and you know, so
Speaker 1: the ratio of light skin to dark skin it kept changing.
Speaker 4: Okay, what would you say the ratio was at your
Speaker 4: most successful? Oh? Whoa spicy question.
Speaker 2: He's coming in hot, and I want you to be
Speaker 2: careful when you answer this, because.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's such a loaded question.
Speaker 4: I mean, the gun.
Speaker 2: Couldn't be closer to your throat.
Speaker 5: What the hell man.
Speaker 4: Look asking the real questions here.
Speaker 1: Were the hardest interview I've ever had to do. This
Speaker 1: for for now, twenty some odd years later.
Speaker 4: Address the racial disparities from your R and B group
Speaker 4: of twenty years ago.
Speaker 1: I would say, I would say, oh, oh shit, you know, no,
Speaker 1: still half in half, still half in half, because because
Speaker 1: they were eventually there, eventually worth four of us, and
Speaker 1: by then we changed the name, but it was still
Speaker 1: two dark skinned dudes and two light skin dudes.
Speaker 4: And how dark are we talking on l like a
Speaker 4: scale of Langston to myself.
Speaker 1: I mean it was literally the dark skinned guy like Ron,
Speaker 1: the other light skin cat was about Langston's complexion.
Speaker 5: And then my man Corey, So there you go.
Speaker 4: You can't do that, you can't do that. I just
Speaker 4: I just like to hear it.
Speaker 2: I like to hear if there's somebody else out there
Speaker 2: doing the baby's all right.
Speaker 5: Someone else making it happen. Light skin, keep selling the brain.
Speaker 1: But then and then Corey, yeah, David, he was about
Speaker 1: It was about your complexion.
Speaker 5: Corey and Patrick. Corey, Patrick was a little younger or younger,
Speaker 5: a little lighter than you.
Speaker 4: Okay, people do conflate younger and lighter a lot. Sure.
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, dark brother is hurt today. Uh so,
Speaker 2: so so tell me a little bit more. You you
Speaker 2: start this R and B group, is that the goal?
Speaker 2: Are you guys going to be like R and B
Speaker 2: superstars or was this just like a fun Hey?
Speaker 4: It was?
Speaker 1: It was We were a dance crew to start, and
Speaker 1: I'm trying to remember the race again.
Speaker 5: That was split down the middle.
Speaker 1: There were there were four of us in a dance crew,
Speaker 1: and then some of us in like sort of the
Speaker 1: outside crew of that joint. We started singing together. But
Speaker 1: even in the dance crew, two light skinned, two dark
Speaker 1: skin cats and so.
Speaker 2: And I would argue that that dance crew with black
Speaker 2: that's Korean eraser. If you ask me, those job.
Speaker 4: They just got here, don't do that. Don't do that. Wait,
Speaker 4: don't do that, don't do that. It's still in good,
Speaker 4: fine Korean jobs they got they for the dance they
Speaker 4: just got there wasn't there's a bunch now, but I'm
Speaker 4: not there wasn't a bunch.
Speaker 7: In like eighty eight of Korean Dance Cruise, right, No, No,
Speaker 7: I would say, I would say, you're looking at I mean,
Speaker 7: I don't know the history of the Korean dance Yo.
Speaker 5: Trap me up, yeah, trap me up on some ship.
Speaker 4: No. Every week. I finished this being really worried about
Speaker 4: the things I've said.
Speaker 5: Yeah, not mee.
Speaker 3: E.
Speaker 5: Langston just goes straight to sleep comfortably.
Speaker 1: But but yeah, I mean, yeah, it was we were
Speaker 1: like this, We were like this little dance crew and
Speaker 1: then we started hanging out and singing together, and we
Speaker 1: were like, we should really take this seriously. And so
Speaker 1: we started performing together a little bit and uh, and
Speaker 1: then we knew a guy who had some recording equipment
Speaker 1: and I wrote music.
Speaker 5: So I started writing some stuff. We started recording.
Speaker 1: There was another guy who kind of would produce some
Speaker 1: of the other stuff that.
Speaker 5: We we sang.
Speaker 1: And yeah, we just started doing it and we yeah,
Speaker 1: our goal was to kind of blow up and do
Speaker 1: the whole the whole thing, but it just sort of
Speaker 1: fell apart. We were all from different parts of the country.
Speaker 1: We met in the South and so yeah, and so
Speaker 1: it just kind of flew apart. And also it was
Speaker 1: at a time when that was kind of it looked
Speaker 1: like that was about to go away, that whole thing
Speaker 1: New Addition had come and gone, and even Bell BIV
Speaker 1: Devaux was like hi bye for you know, like in
Speaker 1: early nineties. Yeah, but they made such a huge splash.
Speaker 1: But then they bounced and then it was a lot
Speaker 1: of other groups that did that thing for a while.
Speaker 1: But it just felt like what we were trying to do,
Speaker 1: we were trying to go for it wasn't gonna, you know,
Speaker 1: go the way we wanted to.
Speaker 4: Would you have likened yourself to like like an O
Speaker 4: Town no H town.
Speaker 2: Town, maybe the worst boy band in all the boy bands?
Speaker 2: Would you say you were you were just fucking awful?
Speaker 4: That was That was my fault.
Speaker 5: It was that was It took me. I had to reload.
Speaker 4: That was bad. That was bad. That was really bad.
Speaker 1: I would say we were and I don't mean to,
Speaker 1: but we were very New Addition esque when they were
Speaker 1: the sixth of Us and then because then like when
Speaker 1: the group was reduced, we had a much more bell
Speaker 1: bit devoti ish sort of angle. I mean, there were
Speaker 1: genuine hip hop heads in the group. So I feel
Speaker 1: like not no shade against bell Bit's vote. But like
Speaker 1: the hip hop we were doing was we were trying
Speaker 1: to probably to our detriment, we were probably trying.
Speaker 4: To be to y'all.
Speaker 2: Were trying to.
Speaker 5: Experiment with ship and it sounded it didn't it didn't work.
Speaker 4: So you were so you were you were past new
Speaker 4: Jack Swing. You were like, yeah, yeah, it was. I mean,
Speaker 4: but we played around with some of that. I mean,
Speaker 4: we didn't know what we were doing.
Speaker 1: Man, I go, I have some of the the demo
Speaker 1: tapes that we did and I listened to that. I'm
Speaker 1: just like, who the hell let us? We had no friends.
Speaker 5: No one said hey, hey, y'all, come here, come come.
Speaker 2: Let me gather all six of you brothers around.
Speaker 4: You're making a mistake here.
Speaker 5: Fellas you know some of us. Some of it was good,
Speaker 5: but a lot of it was like what the hell
Speaker 5: were we.
Speaker 4: Can you give? Can you drop a couple of song
Speaker 4: titles just.
Speaker 1: So we Yeah, we had something called and we're a
Speaker 1: group that took ourselves and everything the moment too seriously.
Speaker 5: One time we did was called the Experiment, and it
Speaker 5: was literally just us.
Speaker 1: It was that thing I was talking about, we gotta
Speaker 1: we're gonna have like a a sort of like a
Speaker 1: house or a club section, and then we're gonna have
Speaker 1: like a straight hip hop section, and then we're gonna
Speaker 1: know it doesn't music doesn't work that. Music doesn't do that.
Speaker 1: It just doesn't do that.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 5: We had another song called It's a black Thing? Okay, because.
Speaker 1: We had a song called what was the black Thing?
Speaker 1: It was literally, it was just what it's a black thing?
Speaker 5: It was.
Speaker 2: That was the phrase of the moment, y'all, David, if
Speaker 2: you got to ask, you'll never know, buddy, it's a
Speaker 2: black thing.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to remember my first the first line of
Speaker 1: my because that was just that was that was a
Speaker 1: that was hip hop but with like a see this
Speaker 1: is what I'm talking about.
Speaker 5: It had kind of like.
Speaker 1: A an up tempo, almost house beat, but we were
Speaker 1: rapping over it, and then it had a we were
Speaker 1: singing the hook.
Speaker 4: There's a lot of qualifiers here.
Speaker 1: There was a whole thing. But I think I'm trying
Speaker 1: to remember my I think that it was like BO
Speaker 1: knows this, BO knows that, but BO don't know a
Speaker 1: damn thing about the lyrics that a brother bring.
Speaker 5: I can't remember the rest of the goddamn song.
Speaker 4: Because inside out, it's wiggedy wiggedy way, how'd you know
Speaker 4: you bought?
Speaker 5: He bought our album?
Speaker 4: You got that demo?
Speaker 1: What was I can't, damn, I can't. I wish I
Speaker 1: could remember the rest of it. It was the really ridiculous.
Speaker 2: Let me before we go to break. I have to ask,
Speaker 2: because you started this this episode off by saying that
Speaker 2: you did at one point believe in the conspiracy theory
Speaker 2: that that bory is laying down, And I have to
Speaker 2: know how that came to be what you believed in.
Speaker 4: What has changed since?
Speaker 1: Because I did look into it, and you know, and
Speaker 1: there and I saw a couple of articles about like, hey,
Speaker 1: why are about colorism and music and and specifically why
Speaker 1: light skin performers do better? And the list was like Beyonce,
Speaker 1: Mariah Carey. You know, I was thinking of Chris Brown
Speaker 1: at one point, you know, he popped with.
Speaker 4: Some of the light some of those they blew her up,
Speaker 4: some of those videos.
Speaker 1: And then and then the woman, I'm thinking, I'm forgetting
Speaker 1: Alicia Keys, but then I I don't. Then I started
Speaker 1: thinking about all the other artists that I mean, new
Speaker 1: addition is mostly dark skin, and and the light Skin
Speaker 1: Brothers are in the background, you know, like I was
Speaker 1: a I was a Ronnie de Vaux, I was a
Speaker 1: Michael Bivens, you know what I mean, like kind of
Speaker 1: hanging out in the.
Speaker 5: Back, do the harmon age. I just wanted to play ball,
Speaker 5: you know.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: But like I Neo Akon, I think there are so
Speaker 1: many more dark skinned kings.
Speaker 4: You're spitting now.
Speaker 1: Boys to men are a dark skinned group after seven? Yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean here's what I think. I think what the
Speaker 1: light skin folks have or what they do, is they
Speaker 1: find a way to rise above. I mean, there are
Speaker 1: four people in Destiny's Child, four people in Destiny's Child.
Speaker 1: Somehow Beyonce just went all the way, you know what.
Speaker 4: I mean, cannibalized the whole ship.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, uh devote. Look, every new addition fan, male
Speaker 1: or female will tell you the coolest cat in that
Speaker 1: group is Ronnie Devout.
Speaker 5: I mean, Ralph is.
Speaker 4: A close second.
Speaker 2: I'm a Ralph man myself, but I'm a Bobby guy.
Speaker 4: But I understand why that's talking for everybody.
Speaker 1: But okay, but there again, Bobby brown, dark skinned dude
Speaker 1: left new new addition and then just went far.
Speaker 5: Beyond what they were right. They were doing so nasty,
Speaker 5: you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And so I think dark skinned folks have been,
Speaker 1: you know, putting it down in R and B for
Speaker 1: a while. But now but the light skin folks do
Speaker 1: find a way to peek through there and and you.
Speaker 5: Know, steal sometimes steal the shine.
Speaker 4: And what would that talent be? What would you call
Speaker 4: that skill? Again? Be careful?
Speaker 5: And I was like, what about that break? When are
Speaker 5: we going on to the fellas?
Speaker 2: I don't think you have to answer it. I'm happy
Speaker 2: to throw the break.
Speaker 5: I'm thirsty. I'm about to let me take this.
Speaker 4: Go ahead and take a SWI we're gonna take a break.
Speaker 5: We'll be back with too hard he laughing, too damn hard.
Speaker 4: And more, my mama told me. And we are.
Speaker 3: Back stop stop, I do are stop.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're back here. We're back with more Kevin Avery more.
Speaker 4: My mama told me.
Speaker 2: We're still talking about the possibility that light skin people
Speaker 2: are are inherently naturally God given good at R and
Speaker 2: b uh. That drop came to us from a listener
Speaker 2: named Gary. Gary sent us that drop, and it seemed
Speaker 2: very apt to play today given the conversation.
Speaker 5: Mm hmm.
Speaker 1: Indeed, something just occurred to me, some just occurred to me.
Speaker 1: I wonder if there we've seen a turn and that
Speaker 1: back in the day, the birth of these girls, the
Speaker 1: motown groups and stuff, if that's when the light skin
Speaker 1: singers really had their day.
Speaker 4: Michael, we're talking a Smokey Robinson.
Speaker 5: I think I keep thinking about Smoky.
Speaker 4: I don't.
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know those groups. I don't know
Speaker 1: the lineup of those groups that well, I don't, you know,
Speaker 1: But with a temptation, who are the lights can catch?
Speaker 1: And like the temptations, Michael was dark.
Speaker 2: You know, he made a choice that don't count.
Speaker 5: Yeah, Michael slid into light skinism.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that was he learned. He learned it late in life.
Speaker 4: There were no dark there were no light skin temptations.
Speaker 4: I don't think.
Speaker 5: No, you know, I don't remember a light skin pip.
Speaker 4: I don't think there was a light skin pip.
Speaker 5: I think it was smoky.
Speaker 2: Smokey is the best example I think anybody can come
Speaker 2: up with. And he he had light eyes. So I
Speaker 2: feel like that's a that's a whole different type of person,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean?
Speaker 4: Yes, this is I'm not qualified to speak on that lights.
Speaker 4: Being with light eyes feels like a different game than
Speaker 4: what I'm playing. Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 2: Michael E Lee and Boris Kojo are not putting the
Speaker 2: same okay, the same energy out in the world.
Speaker 4: I think that's reasonable. I think it's Yeah. I think
Speaker 4: that's how I feel about like very physically fit, dark
Speaker 4: skinned men and myself. Yeah, exactly. It's like you see
Speaker 4: jam and Hansu without a shirt on. That's not that's
Speaker 4: not Those aren't the worlds I'm going for.
Speaker 2: No, we didn't have the same opportunities laid in front
Speaker 2: of U.
Speaker 4: No, Tay Diggs was in the theater.
Speaker 1: I see Michael Ealy around my neighborhood semi regularly, and
Speaker 1: I just seem suddenly it's just I feel like he's
Speaker 1: my nemesis for no at all. The brother's never done
Speaker 1: anything to me, but I see him and I'm just like.
Speaker 4: The eyes they are piercing. Yeah, and let me let
Speaker 4: me break this down. I think a lot of this
Speaker 4: work came from this is actually this is this is
Speaker 4: good for my my personal story. I'm getting this right now.
Speaker 4: I have a play cousin who is six years older
Speaker 4: than me, who is light skinned with green eyes, oh
Speaker 4: and sang on and being danced in all that Okay time,
Speaker 4: and we would go to the mall and shit and
Speaker 4: people would ask if he could sing and shit like that.
Speaker 4: So I think that this may be, this may be,
Speaker 4: this may be about light skinned people with green eyes.
Speaker 4: For me, there we also had we also had another
Speaker 4: girl that was around us all the time, and she
Speaker 4: had blue eyes, but she was not as light skinned
Speaker 4: as he was.
Speaker 2: And I'm so happy I guess they hear you saying this,
Speaker 2: because it does feel like now we're getting to the
Speaker 2: root of where some of this this feeling is coming from.
Speaker 4: Right that.
Speaker 2: While I'm sure there's plenty of evidence, Kevin, as you
Speaker 2: pointed out, there are some light skinned singers and performers
Speaker 2: that that populate these sort of charts as they were,
Speaker 2: there seems to me to be a pretty a pretty substantial,
Speaker 2: if not heavier leaning ratio towards dark skinned people.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Now I'm gonna say, I don't know, I don't
Speaker 4: trust what you're saying right now, but I feel heavily
Speaker 4: on the defensive for some reason.
Speaker 2: I took the time to look up you know, the list,
Speaker 2: and I do think your point about Whitney Houston in
Speaker 2: the right lighting, they probably did a bunch of stuff
Speaker 2: to make Whitney.
Speaker 4: Look darker or rather lighter than she actually was. Oh,
Speaker 4: they blew up a lot of people. I mean, I
Speaker 4: think Jojo or Casey from Casey and Jojo Freaking he's
Speaker 4: blasted with like all those videos. He looks like almost
Speaker 4: light skin.
Speaker 1: Now, I'll say this about Joasy. Davante was light skinned, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's light skinned.
Speaker 4: And he was the king of Jodason.
Speaker 5: He was the Yeah, he was the brains behind the operation.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but fellas, how'd that work out for him?
Speaker 5: I didn't That's that's true.
Speaker 4: That's true. Davonte had a run. Don't do that.
Speaker 5: Don't do that this moment.
Speaker 4: Yeah, let's not see here and down Davante. They put
Speaker 4: his name in the middle and then they kicked him out.
Speaker 4: What do you want? What do you want them to like?
Speaker 5: I don't think.
Speaker 4: Well.
Speaker 5: A couple of fun facts about jo Deasy. There's a
Speaker 5: fifth member.
Speaker 2: Oh is he fat?
Speaker 4: I don't.
Speaker 5: I've never seen him, but he's a guy.
Speaker 1: I can't remember his name, but he was on the
Speaker 1: original the original demos of the songs that they recorded
Speaker 1: that they took to Andre Herrel when they were all
Speaker 1: going to go up to New York. He was he
Speaker 1: was gonna go with him and his girlfriend got pregnant
Speaker 1: and they were like, well, hang back, bro, we're gonna
Speaker 1: go up there take care of this business. I don't
Speaker 1: know if he I think, let's to be fair, I
Speaker 1: think he was like, I need to stay with my girl.
Speaker 1: They were like, cool, we'll go handle this. It will
Speaker 1: send for you when it's when it's all about to
Speaker 1: go down. But Andre Heral was like, I like this,
Speaker 1: this two sets of brothers thing. It's just gonna be y'all.
Speaker 4: And that was that whoa, that's heartbreaking. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And then and the other thing is that Davante I
Speaker 1: believe at one point he was dating. I just thought
Speaker 1: this was the weirdest thing. He was dating the daughter
Speaker 1: of a you know, hardcore evangelist, one of the popular ones.
Speaker 5: I think it was Jim and Tammy Faye Baker. No lady,
Speaker 5: their daughter, Yo.
Speaker 4: That guy that's like forever cements him being a legend
Speaker 4: of me. That's the most amazing thing I.
Speaker 5: Never heard that.
Speaker 4: I know. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I mean, they're both they were both from like Pentecostal churches,
Speaker 1: so they were you.
Speaker 2: Know, before you celebrate too much I will say that
Speaker 2: that is technically the formula to making a light skin
Speaker 2: R and B singer is DeVante mushing into Jim and
Speaker 2: Tammy fay Baker mushing in Yep, which is another song
Speaker 2: that I think was on Kevin's demo. Mushing In one.
Speaker 4: Of our big That was one of our big that
Speaker 4: was That was an lipsies after It's a Black Thing Mushigan.
Speaker 2: When you're putting the album order together, you gotta go
Speaker 2: It's a black Thing, mushing in, mushing In.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to remember some of the other titles that
Speaker 1: I can't. There was a song called Stalking. It was
Speaker 1: not about Nope, not about that. I did want to
Speaker 1: say it, but it was it was about It was
Speaker 1: like about It was a very militant pro black song.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, yeah, it was not about the other thing.
Speaker 1: There was something called this sing. I wrote a lot
Speaker 1: of a lot of like romantic love ballads. I was
Speaker 1: that dude just kind of floating around and the you know,
Speaker 1: there are two kinds of R and B cruise. There
Speaker 1: are sexy there's the sexy boys and the sad boys.
Speaker 5: And I felt kind of in between the you know
Speaker 5: what I mean, like because like you have boys to.
Speaker 4: Men, you were more boys to men. Yes, you were
Speaker 4: wanted to be.
Speaker 1: In addition, I was a sad boy, sad boy rising Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean like, this is the thing that fascinates me
Speaker 1: about the Boys to Men's trajectory is that they came
Speaker 1: out at the same year as Jodasy. They were before Jodasy,
Speaker 1: I believe, and they were they'd hit their stride, yeah,
Speaker 1: and then Jodasy stepped out and just them overalls and
Speaker 1: nothing else and doing the whole thing, and everyone was
Speaker 1: like who are they and Boyce to Men were still
Speaker 1: on bended knee like hey hello, like just to watch.
Speaker 5: The audience leave Boys to Men and go to Jodasy.
Speaker 5: It was a very interesting.
Speaker 2: Well, I will say I think boys and Men played
Speaker 2: it right in that like Joasy took their shirts off
Speaker 2: and then boys and men were like, we'll put more
Speaker 2: sweaters on. Yeah, we were double sweater cardigans on top
Speaker 2: of cardigans. Yeah, we're not gonna play this game with
Speaker 2: you little tiny buff boys Jodas.
Speaker 1: You can't tie a bow tie, you know that's a point.
Speaker 1: You know, they weren't buff. They were all like skinny
Speaker 1: ass dudes.
Speaker 4: I think I will figure if it came down to
Speaker 4: it physically, boys to men would give Joe to the
Speaker 4: word I don't know about that didn't have this stick.
Speaker 2: Michael had this stick because he needed it because he
Speaker 2: was in crippling pain walking around trying to sing. Yeah,
Speaker 2: he had he had like some physical disease that like
Speaker 2: made it so that he needed the cane and then
Speaker 2: tried to didn't.
Speaker 4: I didn't know he was sick.
Speaker 2: So one of the things I did think to research
Speaker 2: in relation to this topic, and there isn't a lot
Speaker 2: that I felt like I could really unpack.
Speaker 4: This is this new territory.
Speaker 2: Yes, one of the things that I found is that
Speaker 2: research does show that in terms of anatomical representation representations
Speaker 2: and textbooks, one point one percent of the diagone rams
Speaker 2: represented our dark skin tones, while eighty three point five
Speaker 2: percent represented light skin tones.
Speaker 4: Jesus, who are you talent? Who are you talent? I mean, yeah,
Speaker 4: I seen one guy who looked like me on TV.
Speaker 4: It was me.
Speaker 2: You were the first in your entire life that you
Speaker 2: saw on TV that looked like you.
Speaker 4: I mean it was big. On that episode of Martin
Speaker 4: Sure it was rock towards the end when he got thicker. Ah,
Speaker 4: that's about it. Damn.
Speaker 1: This is how you're talking about big dudes and dark
Speaker 1: skinned dudes.
Speaker 4: Big dark yeah. Man, you on.
Speaker 1: Love on Love had a big parenthood Gary Anthony Williams, Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: on Well his big key, I think his big thing
Speaker 1: was his big start was Malcolm in the middle, you know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but yeah, you're right, not a lot of No what's
Speaker 1: his face the data on Family Matters, Carl wins Winslow,
Speaker 1: Carl Winslow, vel Johnson, I believe was his name.
Speaker 2: It's it's something something Johnson. Yes, thank you, Reginald vel
Speaker 2: john that's it.
Speaker 4: There you go. But there's not I think that's where
Speaker 4: I'm coming from. Also, is that there's just not a
Speaker 4: lot of representation, so you sweep it all together, you
Speaker 4: know what I mean?
Speaker 2: Right, And to that researcher's note in relation to this
Speaker 2: textbook theory, not necessarily to what you're speaking to, but
Speaker 2: I imagine it has.
Speaker 4: Once again painting me in the corner.
Speaker 2: I think there's some correlation that you could create. The
Speaker 2: researchers note that such skin color bias has a negative
Speaker 2: impact on the health outcomes of people with dark skinned tones,
Speaker 2: who may avoid or delay sexual education opportunities or clinical
Speaker 2: care if they do not see themselves represented in the
Speaker 2: recommended resources.
Speaker 4: I want it on WAX. I wanted about sex early, okay,
Speaker 4: but the other things.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but that's crazy that if you don't see yourself
Speaker 2: you don't then learn to see yourself die in sex textbooks.
Speaker 2: You then will will opt not towards like sexual health
Speaker 2: and responsibility, at least based on the research. And to
Speaker 2: the larger concern, if you're not seeing yourself be sexy
Speaker 2: on TV, you will then not know the language or
Speaker 2: how to apply the language of sexy in your your
Speaker 2: other everyday shit.
Speaker 4: That's facts. Though I had to go out and get
Speaker 4: it myself. You do have to like, like like to
Speaker 4: that end. Like it was like, until I had been
Speaker 4: sexually active for a bit, I had always viewed my
Speaker 4: skin as a detriment because that's the only way it
Speaker 4: had ever been. Like like not just the lack of
Speaker 4: dark skinned people on television, but then to go to
Speaker 4: the lack of like like seeing a super dark dude
Speaker 4: get a girl on on TV is like seeing an
Speaker 4: Asian dude get a girl on TV. It doesn't happen
Speaker 4: very well, right, right.
Speaker 1: But then do you think that's potentially why and this
Speaker 1: is a reach, like there are so many dark skinned
Speaker 1: singers who at some point, let's just say, from the
Speaker 1: Joe to Ce point on, just leaned into the sexualization
Speaker 1: of themselves and their music because it was something that
Speaker 1: might not necessarily have been out there for a while.
Speaker 1: I mean, I can just I can just remember a
Speaker 1: time when I to listen to to R and B
Speaker 1: singers and being like, hey, y'all need to calm the
Speaker 1: hell that we end up doing that. I'm sure you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. But because they were all doing
Speaker 1: every one of them was like, let me tell you what.
Speaker 5: I'm a dude. You you know, it's like hey, hey, hey, hey, hey,
Speaker 5: I'm nineteen. Like wait a minute, y'all.
Speaker 4: You know, like, yeah, I wonder that's a good question.
Speaker 4: I mean, there's always been hyper sexualized black singer. So
Speaker 4: you take it back to right, Teddy Pinographs when we
Speaker 4: did concerts for women for a while. Right, Oh that's right.
Speaker 2: Wait, so that was a rule he made that like
Speaker 2: you couldn't come to his concert if you want a woman.
Speaker 4: Well that was his manager's chef Gordon being like, I
Speaker 4: believe it was shep Gordon. Somebody can quote me if
Speaker 4: I'm wrong, but that was his manager being like, that's
Speaker 4: what we lean into one hundred percent.
Speaker 1: Whoa yeah, And I think it was like an invite,
Speaker 1: like if you're a man, you could come, but.
Speaker 4: What this ain't for you? Yeah, what do you think
Speaker 4: you're gonna do that?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 4: Yeah, Teddy, p ain't talking to you. Yeah.
Speaker 5: One brother back their arms folded like all right, all.
Speaker 4: Right, okay you want me? Yeah, fair enough.
Speaker 2: So so I guess the question that I sort of
Speaker 2: have bory uh, and I'm directing this one at you,
Speaker 2: But Kevin, I'd love to hear your thoughts as well.
Speaker 2: Is given given what we know now, are you starting
Speaker 2: to at least reconsider statistically the difference, what consider the
Speaker 2: possibility that this is more about treatment inside of it
Speaker 2: than it is about the actual statistics of light skin
Speaker 2: people being naturally inclined for R and B.
Speaker 4: I mean, my whole life is a journey of learning.
Speaker 4: I'm open to that, you know what I mean. I'm
Speaker 4: not gonna sit here. I think that I think that
Speaker 4: a lot of these things about representation, though, I think
Speaker 4: it lends people to telling young people which direction to
Speaker 4: move in because of representation where it's like, if you're
Speaker 4: more inclined, maybe the visibility is there, but you're still
Speaker 4: more inclined to think that this is this type of
Speaker 4: thing for this type of person. I think that that
Speaker 4: is the type of thing that children internalize a lot
Speaker 4: exactly what I think. I think. I think definitely that
Speaker 4: is the case.
Speaker 1: Absolutely. I mean, look, the whole reason I'm in a
Speaker 1: singing group is because when I was a kid, my
Speaker 1: mom saw a new edition on TV and was like,
Speaker 1: look at these little kids singing, and I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: so little kids can do this, well, right, I mean,
Speaker 1: that's exactly how it happened. That's the only reason I was.
Speaker 1: I got excited about someday doing that. So yeah, I think,
Speaker 1: but my I just I just wonder, because yeah, I
Speaker 1: don't believe. I think it's the opposite. I think, you know, clearly,
Speaker 1: it seems like there are more dark skin singers popular
Speaker 1: dark skinned singers than there are light skin and I
Speaker 1: just wonder.
Speaker 4: And that was the whole reason I brought this up.
Speaker 4: You're not trapped in here with me. I'm trapped here
Speaker 4: with you.
Speaker 5: You want to be the way around.
Speaker 3: Me.
Speaker 4: I'm the victim, prisoner.
Speaker 2: I do think to that larger point, there is a
Speaker 2: weird association even as a light skin person, now that
Speaker 2: we are clearly the victim in this story. As a person,
Speaker 2: it is that weird thing of people being like light
Speaker 2: skin R and B singing motherfucker, and it's like, dog,
Speaker 2: it's only like three of us and one of them
Speaker 2: is I'll be sure, like it's not. We're not hitting
Speaker 2: great numbers here. Truly, John B was a white man.
Speaker 2: He scammed y'all, like, yeah, he's not even he's not black.
Speaker 2: He's just a lineup. You have yellow big Dog.
Speaker 4: All for one, that song that that group all for one.
Speaker 2: Those were white guys.
Speaker 5: They weren't.
Speaker 4: Those weren't black.
Speaker 1: Dudessian even better, thought they were Asian.
Speaker 5: I think I they'll quote me on it, but I
Speaker 5: think they were Asians.
Speaker 1: I at one point thought New Kids on the Block
Speaker 1: was black because I heard that when I heard their
Speaker 1: first that please Don't Go Girl and little Joey McIntyre
Speaker 1: singing that false out, I just assume black.
Speaker 5: First of all, there were no white kids.
Speaker 1: There were no white guys out there doing that at
Speaker 1: the time, So I just was like another singing group
Speaker 1: black kids.
Speaker 5: And then I saw him and I was like, what
Speaker 5: is happening?
Speaker 4: Yeah, not at all.
Speaker 2: In fact, one of them is at least a brother
Speaker 2: to a deeply racist man who's now become a lovely
Speaker 2: I guess actor and household name.
Speaker 4: Who knows he.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's weird on the street.
Speaker 2: But the point is, I think that some of this
Speaker 2: is a little bit coming from from our expectations of
Speaker 2: each other more than it is our actual knowledge of
Speaker 2: each other.
Speaker 4: Right, right.
Speaker 1: But to go even beyond that, there is a weird
Speaker 1: thing where. I mean, look going back to the days
Speaker 1: of the Cotton Club, where in entertainment the light skin
Speaker 1: folks were put out front, and so I think it's
Speaker 1: hard to sort of shake that, even if in the
Speaker 1: current it's weird, like TV, TV, light skin music back
Speaker 1: in the day, you know, light skin, But there's been
Speaker 1: this space in between that where it's been occupied by
Speaker 1: a lot of dark at least music in the music world,
Speaker 1: it's been occupied by a lot of dark skinned folks.
Speaker 2: And I think that's that's one hundred percent fair. And
Speaker 2: something that we can't we can't skip past, right, is
Speaker 2: that there is a a priority placed on light skin
Speaker 2: performers in a lot of different spaces and.
Speaker 4: Especially more visual spaces, right, yeah, exactly, especially especially back
Speaker 4: in the day music was a lot less visual, you
Speaker 4: know what I mean, you didn't necessarily know what KC
Speaker 4: looks like, but you didn't know what the new an
Speaker 4: VIV looked like.
Speaker 2: Exactly. There there's a very intentional choosing of who will
Speaker 2: become our representation, and then it would be unfair to
Speaker 2: not acknowledge that. But statistically Lutha van Drel's baby, that's
Speaker 2: the best that ever did it and darker than that thing.
Speaker 4: Yep.
Speaker 1: Yeah, But you know, I mean I think also there's
Speaker 1: a component of a threat is more threatening when it's
Speaker 1: visual and so on, you were gonna see more light
Speaker 1: skin you know, quote unquote non threatening folks on TV.
Speaker 1: They you know, I think White America was able to
Speaker 1: look the other way. We're not worried about what these
Speaker 1: R and B singers are doing. They're doing that thing
Speaker 1: and so and especially you know, music being as segregated
Speaker 1: as it was for a long time, it was like, sure,
Speaker 1: we ain't worried about it. And so you saw a
Speaker 1: lot of dark skinned artists breaking through and really not
Speaker 1: taking over, but just you know, they were everywhere the
Speaker 1: you know, dark skinned artists like you said, I don't
Speaker 1: remember light skin due to the Temptations.
Speaker 5: Or you know, the or whatever.
Speaker 1: And so it almost is like there was a time
Speaker 1: when the you know, the dude in the sky scraper
Speaker 1: was like, let's just leave them to their own devices.
Speaker 2: Yeah, in a yuckier way. It also then reminds me
Speaker 2: the transformation it makes, because I think you're absolutely right,
Speaker 2: there was a period where they were just like the
Speaker 2: Four Tops, the del Phonics, the Temptations, They'll all be dark.
Speaker 2: We don't give a shit. That's their their stuff.
Speaker 4: And then at some.
Speaker 2: Point it became a and r's figuring out a way
Speaker 2: to sell this thing, package this thing.
Speaker 4: And it doesn't feel dissimilar to.
Speaker 2: Like the white rapper conversation. Right, yes, there are not
Speaker 2: more white rappers, but the white rappers that make it
Speaker 2: get elevated in a way that makes you feel like, yo,
Speaker 2: what the fuck is happening? That makes it so that
Speaker 2: they that, whether he's talented or not, there's no reason
Speaker 2: this individual should be so far ahead of everybody else
Speaker 2: at his same level caliber whatever.
Speaker 5: That's exactly it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it's similarly, you know, and I'm not
Speaker 1: familiar with these groups. But I you know, I've heard
Speaker 1: about this, the idea that in the fifties or sixties,
Speaker 1: there would be the the you know, whoever out there,
Speaker 1: you know, insert whatever black scene group out there doing
Speaker 1: their thing, and then they would find a white.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, they'd give it a sort of mirror what
Speaker 4: they did, yeah, exactly, and so well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, so I mean I think I think, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, the business side of music has always figured
Speaker 1: out a way to go, all right, let's let them
Speaker 1: do their thing, and we're gonna elevate our people, and
Speaker 1: you know, and sort of it's what literally happened with
Speaker 1: singing groups. It's what literally happened with I mean, there
Speaker 1: was no such thing as a boy band before nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety just it wasn't a thing. And then new kids
Speaker 1: in the block showed up, and white people have never
Speaker 1: really heard of this. What is it if there was
Speaker 1: like boys and it's a boy band, I guess, right,
Speaker 1: And now everybody who was in a singing group is
Speaker 1: a boy.
Speaker 2: Band, right, because the nobody was calling the Beatles a
Speaker 2: boy band exactly. But it's the same formula of four
Speaker 2: handsome guys and handsome for that time period. They're ugos
Speaker 2: to me and always will be, but handsome for that
Speaker 2: time period got together and had women swooning over their
Speaker 2: their popular music. It's not like a foreign concept.
Speaker 4: Right, So what I'm if I'm here, if I'm hearing
Speaker 4: you fellas correctly, I think what we need today is
Speaker 4: like an R and B group of like four ugly
Speaker 4: ass light skin dudes. I like this, okay, right, that's
Speaker 4: what we need to change the narrative. We need four
Speaker 4: maybe old kind of ust it down, like yeah, because
Speaker 4: they needed boys to.
Speaker 2: Men body, boys to men bodies. I want them to
Speaker 2: have C section scars under their eyes. I wanted to
Speaker 2: be real bad.
Speaker 4: One's got acne like adult acne, and then the one's
Speaker 4: got a dope braces.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they've they've got to look like all the stages
Speaker 2: of Little Wayne, uh, spread out across for four men, maybe.
Speaker 1: Just you know, uh, just for for shipping giggles. One
Speaker 1: of them has a bluetooth in their ear at all.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, I love that.
Speaker 2: Maybe one of those belts, you remember those belts would
Speaker 2: wear that light up and they say, with the name
Speaker 2: plate that says your name across.
Speaker 4: I wouldn't this might this might go back to a
Speaker 4: light skin dust. Now, come on, brother, we all want belts.
Speaker 4: I did not have a name don't we had one? Okay, okay, okay,
Speaker 4: I didn't have one. Though I did not have one.
Speaker 4: I did not have one. I did I didn't either.
Speaker 4: I thought about what I would program.
Speaker 2: Hey, none of us, none of us have done horrible
Speaker 2: things in our lives. We all we all made the
Speaker 2: perfect choice.
Speaker 4: No, that's not you can't do that to me because
Speaker 4: I didn't have a name plate belt. I think that's
Speaker 4: why I think that's not fair. In the middle of
Speaker 4: in the middle of my.
Speaker 2: Civil rights speech, you went, well, I don't agree with
Speaker 2: that part's.
Speaker 4: Choice. I didn't have a digital nameplate belt. You can't
Speaker 4: fault me for that, man. I got it. I understood
Speaker 4: the look. You get a long sleep white tee with
Speaker 4: like a rapper on it, you do a French dug.
Speaker 2: French's right, But don't you dare call it a French duck.
Speaker 4: Don't you go, hey, fellas, here's a French duck. No,
Speaker 4: you can't tell people it's a French duck now.
Speaker 1: But you know, I know I didn't know what you
Speaker 1: were talking about, and yet I knew exactly what you meant.
Speaker 4: Yeah, man, I googled French talk not seven days ago.
Speaker 2: I learned it from Tan french.
Speaker 4: On uh unclear.
Speaker 5: I somehow just knew it. I don't think that's good.
Speaker 4: It's inherent.
Speaker 2: Oh boy, it's inherent to know the French dug. It's
Speaker 2: inherent for light skinned people to do R and B.
Speaker 2: It's there are certain things that are just God made,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 5: I mean, look, I'm living proof I did it.
Speaker 4: We all are living in my ear. Oh, I love it,
Speaker 4: the whole deal. You did that. Langston had a name
Speaker 4: plate belt and I played offensive line. There's a lot
Speaker 4: of us are just we're just we're just living the
Speaker 4: lives that we were. We're trying to we're trying to
Speaker 4: get break out of our boxes. You know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is it does feel like those those Chooser
Speaker 2: on adventure books where you're always gonna die, you know
Speaker 2: what I mean, You're never gonna make it to the
Speaker 2: end and get in the rocket ship. Something bad was
Speaker 2: gonna happen. Well, Kevin, before we before we wrap this
Speaker 2: thing up. And I think I think we nailed this
Speaker 2: episode by that.
Speaker 4: I think we got it.
Speaker 1: Oh, I think so. I think there should be a
Speaker 1: textbook and on that they should just transcribe this. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: oh he put it in a museum somewhere.
Speaker 2: Let me ask you this question, because it sounds like,
Speaker 2: was your brother a part of the group as well?
Speaker 4: Was that Were you guys in this together?
Speaker 5: No?
Speaker 1: He but no, but he did it weird thing where
Speaker 1: like he then told me he had joined some group.
Speaker 1: And I never got to the bottom of it, got
Speaker 1: to the bottom of it. I just remember he one
Speaker 1: I came home for like the holidays, and he was
Speaker 1: like he was in college and he was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: they called me sexual chocolate And I was.
Speaker 4: Like, whoa, Okay, You're like college is crazy, bro, That's
Speaker 4: what he was like.
Speaker 1: He was very excited about that, and I didn't want
Speaker 1: to hear it, and but there we were stuck in
Speaker 1: that moment together. So he I think he did it
Speaker 1: briefly and then it was it was not.
Speaker 2: A He definitely took on the R and B character,
Speaker 2: if not the actual R and B singing that you
Speaker 2: did yourself.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think he went through a lot of that stuff,
Speaker 1: Like he just sort of he's like, I'm gonna try this,
Speaker 1: and I'm going to try this, and then he went
Speaker 1: and like immediately after college, got a real job and uh,
Speaker 1: you know a lot of house and got married and
Speaker 1: did all the things.
Speaker 4: I guess the larger question comedy. But I mean that's
Speaker 4: because he got to live out his fantasy is sexual chocolate.
Speaker 5: Yeah, true, Yeah.
Speaker 2: If I, if I wouldn't dumb old Langston Herman and
Speaker 2: I got to be sexual chocolate, I probably out of
Speaker 2: landed a little differently as well.
Speaker 4: Oh are you kidding me? Bro, I'd be like, I'd
Speaker 4: be one of the top regional sellers of garn Insurance.
Speaker 4: I'd be so sexual.
Speaker 1: Chocolate would be on your name tag though, yeah yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: yeah yeah, or that'd be on the.
Speaker 5: Plaque that they give you for making your numbers.
Speaker 4: It would also be on my digital digital readout there
Speaker 4: you go.
Speaker 2: I guess the big question that I want to ask
Speaker 2: is any regrets about the R and B group?
Speaker 4: Where are you at?
Speaker 2: Intern of the full circle? You're a grown man, You've
Speaker 2: you've moved on, you make great comedy. Now, you do
Speaker 2: all the things that are opposite of what this is. Is
Speaker 2: there any part of you that's like this, This shouldn't
Speaker 2: have been part of the journey.
Speaker 8: But yeah, you are on Emmys like I mean, I
Speaker 8: think about what I wanted then, and I go, well,
Speaker 8: i'd be done by now, I think.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, I saw a new addition in
Speaker 1: concert like a month or two ago. They are one
Speaker 1: of the few groups that's still just out there doing it.
Speaker 1: But I you know, I if our group had become successful,
Speaker 1: I think we might have had a moment and then
Speaker 1: we would have been gone, like a lot of groups,
Speaker 1: and then I don't know what i'd be doing. Maybe
Speaker 1: i'd still be doing stand up, maybe i'd you know,
Speaker 1: But I think I try not to regret the trajectory,
Speaker 1: even though I overthink it a lot. I think that's
Speaker 1: part of being in this business, being an artist. Maybe
Speaker 1: I should have done this, you know whatever. But but
Speaker 1: I'm glad I that was I got to live a
Speaker 1: dream for a minute, and now I'm on to doing
Speaker 1: other things and live in other dreams.
Speaker 4: So that's beautiful. That's just beautiful.
Speaker 2: That's a nice way for us to wrap this thing up.
Speaker 5: And look, if all else fails, I'm still light skin, y'all.
Speaker 2: Hey here it is, Tonstam.
Speaker 4: That's what I need to do and say, just.
Speaker 2: Fine, I think we did it, y'all.
Speaker 4: Kevin could you tell the.
Speaker 2: People at home where they can find you on what
Speaker 2: cool shit you have going on?
Speaker 1: Uh?
Speaker 5: Yeah you can.
Speaker 1: I'm one of those people who's on Twitter, but some
Speaker 1: for some reason doesn't tweet. But I'm at Kevin Avery
Speaker 1: on Twitter if you want to follow nothing this otherwise,
Speaker 1: you can find me on Instagram at Kevin Avery Comedy.
Speaker 1: And The Great North is on Sundays at Fox at
Speaker 1: eight thirty. I think we're on hiatus now, but all
Speaker 1: are up so John Hulu, so go there and check
Speaker 1: out the show. And I'm even on the show from
Speaker 1: time to time. Look for my buddy Jarvis Dufrain and
Speaker 1: uh yeah, that's that's it.
Speaker 5: All these streets.
Speaker 4: Hit the streets.
Speaker 2: Follow Kevin and obviously watch The Great North and then David,
Speaker 2: where can they find you?
Speaker 4: What you got going on?
Speaker 2: Uh?
Speaker 4: You know? Follow me on Instagram and cool guy Jokes
Speaker 4: eighty seven. I sometimes post, you know things I've been
Speaker 4: grilling places I go stand up dates July twenty first,
Speaker 4: they're twenty third. I'm gonna be at the DC improv.
Speaker 4: I don't know when this comes out, but I assume
Speaker 4: around then. And other than that, you know, just hug
Speaker 4: your people, have a good summer.
Speaker 2: Hell yeah, have a good summer. Hug your people, go
Speaker 2: see David perform live. And as always, you can follow
Speaker 2: me at Leaston Kerrman on all platforms and if you
Speaker 2: want to send us your drops, your conspiracy theories, your
Speaker 2: degrading opinions about the work that we're doing, you can
Speaker 2: send it to my Mama pod at gmail dot com.
Speaker 4: We would love to hear from you.
Speaker 2: All Right, we did it.
Speaker 4: Bye bitch the government, brown babies, my grown chips in
Speaker 4: your nabies.
Speaker 5: All Kuala bears are racist.
Speaker 4: The layers money, our ships, many turkey stuff. You can't
Speaker 4: tell me