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Speaker 1: You're listening waiting on reparations, the production of I Heart Radio,

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Speaker 1: waiting a reparation, the reparation check it out. It's been

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Speaker 1: a mess so long we forgot the meaning and cleaning

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Speaker 1: and only magic and patch it up. So we dream

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Speaker 1: in the genie, by which I mean that we dream

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Speaker 1: into freedom. But freedom is leading, but which I mean

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Speaker 1: between seeing people beating and bleeding on our TV's in

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Speaker 1: the lately on the weekly, I just want to relax

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Speaker 1: a bit cracker paths and watch the videos and cats

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Speaker 1: and ship wishing these idiots and athens where equipped with

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Speaker 1: the classism. But I'm really the shitty activist because everyone

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Speaker 1: want to complain about the state of the system, congratulate

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Speaker 1: themselves on Facebook and paying attention and hop me. I

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Speaker 1: know you're right for if nobody mobile lozz is a

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Speaker 1: noble fight. We stay in slaves for a century and

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Speaker 1: we're something. Giving the ship would fix it. Whish giving

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Speaker 1: the ship was the simplest Wiston Dixie. The only way

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Speaker 1: I had to fix it was catching my chips in.

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Speaker 1: So who hast to fix the system first? I have

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Speaker 1: to fix yo. I'm blowing up enough that ship run

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Speaker 1: past kids chilling with a blood that slit fuck fascist,

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Speaker 1: eat them up for lunch back quick with the college

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Speaker 1: for a year. Then I said funk that ship. Put

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Speaker 1: my hands in the street. You couldn't stand the defeat

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Speaker 1: that my man valid said, I could slam. Wanna be

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Speaker 1: We made a crew, started a clan that was deep.

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Speaker 1: Only thing you don't want with dope Sandwich is beef.

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Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure it's coming back. You just gotta wait

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Speaker 1: for it. I'm on another different realm of thinking. It

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Speaker 1: was a person on the earth of it, a helmet

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Speaker 1: and pan rom swelled to sink in. Just watch us

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Speaker 1: breaking it down, taking your town like miss monsters. It

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Speaker 1: gets bonkers. So we slapped with a whole hand. It

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Speaker 1: spent to any beat, even rapping a slow jams you

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Speaker 1: in my bro hand. How you gonna be in the

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Speaker 1: damn Senate? And there's a pandemic with no plan mother, yo, yeah,

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Speaker 1: waiting no reparation, reparation. You know my name is Dope

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Speaker 1: Knight and we are waiting on reparations. Hurry the fuck up.

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Speaker 1: All right, We're back once again, another week of politics

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Speaker 1: and hip hop. What's going on in your world, dope knife, Oh,

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Speaker 1: I've in recent weeks. I've hit that bug where I've

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Speaker 1: just been working on a lot of rapidy rap raps,

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Speaker 1: so I'll have some stuff for people listen too soon.

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Speaker 1: But other than that, it's been hard to avoid keeping

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Speaker 1: up with the election. As of when we're recording this,

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Speaker 1: it's seven days away, but when you guys hear this,

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Speaker 1: it should be five days before the election between Donald

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Speaker 1: Trump and Joe Biden. There's already been unprecedented early voting,

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Speaker 1: so millions and millions of people have already voted. And

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Speaker 1: at this point it's so close that you know, what

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Speaker 1: else is there to say? How are you feeling about

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Speaker 1: the whole thing? I'm good. I'm mostly looking ahead towards

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Speaker 1: November four with regards to just like organizing for whatever

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Speaker 1: aftermath of the election comes, knowing that best case scenario

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Speaker 1: is still massive civil unrest either way, and so um

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Speaker 1: just yeah, connecting with comrades and like Atlanta and like

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Speaker 1: within like anarchists and anti fascist circles here in Athens.

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Speaker 1: Regarding Mike, what are we gonna do? What I mean,

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Speaker 1: you know, just in all fairness, we don't know that

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Speaker 1: there's going to be civil unrest, you know, but it

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Speaker 1: is always good to prepare for it. I mean, best

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Speaker 1: case scenario, one of them could win decisively and no

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Speaker 1: one's mad, and the demoralized, demoralized people uh ransack J C. Pennies,

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Speaker 1: demoralized people crawl through broken plate glass windows to steal

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Speaker 1: jewelry off a mannequins, Like, yeah, are you just thinking

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Speaker 1: about this for the first time? I'm in No, of

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Speaker 1: course not. But there's definitely like a Y two K

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Speaker 1: sort of vibe to it where I don't want to

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Speaker 1: be on the record saying that the end is coming

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Speaker 1: and then it doesn't, you know. I mean, I'm old

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Speaker 1: enough to remember when motherfucker's thought they were going to

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Speaker 1: put people in FEMA camps. That never happened. Well, we'll

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Speaker 1: cross their tru Yeah, we'll cross that bridge when we

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Speaker 1: get there. How are you feeling about the outcome of

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Speaker 1: the election or do you just are you completelytimistic? I mean,

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Speaker 1: like I feel like either way, like the fight goes on.

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Speaker 1: I would prefer Joe Biden as an enemy. I would

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Speaker 1: prefer John ass Off as an enemy. I would prefer

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Speaker 1: Raphael Warnock as an enemy. And so um. The fact

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Speaker 1: that they are all doing well on the poles here

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Speaker 1: in Georgia is a point of uplift for me. So

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Speaker 1: as a question, not to get too off topic, but

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Speaker 1: given given what the what the other side has to offer,

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Speaker 1: what do you would you like? Do you would you

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Speaker 1: consider John ass Off to be an enemy or we're

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Speaker 1: gonna have to fight him to fight him for? Yeah?

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Speaker 1: Is there no difference between an enemy and opposition? I mean,

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna have to fight either of these people for

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Speaker 1: like basic rights to like healthcare and housing. I would

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Speaker 1: much rather right John ausuf on it then David Purdue.

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Speaker 1: And but I'm not saying there's no difference between that.

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Speaker 1: I would I would prefer John Auto because there is

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Speaker 1: a difference between these two sides. I don't see them

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Speaker 1: as equally one size diametrically opposed. All that I stand

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Speaker 1: with stand for the other I feel like just doesn't

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Speaker 1: get it. So, you know, not to hate, you know,

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Speaker 1: I voted for both of those cats. I voted for

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Speaker 1: all these cats. Last week. UM went down down to

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Speaker 1: vote on the first day of early voting, and the

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Speaker 1: line was wrapped around the block, And so I took

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Speaker 1: a time lapse video of the line, posting it online. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and I was actually chastised by fellow commissioner who said,

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Speaker 1: with long lines become the story and depresses turn out

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Speaker 1: like it was like a disservice I had done to

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Speaker 1: the public to let people know that the lines along.

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Speaker 1: Maybe pack a snack, maybe bring a friend, maybe loads

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Speaker 1: some loads some episodes of Watchman onto your phone. Well,

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Speaker 1: what's the suggestion that, like people just it's better for

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Speaker 1: people to show up there and be surprised by a lot.

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Speaker 1: They're more likely to walk away from that want of

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Speaker 1: people to know where they're getting into. I want folks to,

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Speaker 1: you know, bring change with the parking leader meter, get

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Speaker 1: time off works, and the responsibility from their calendar for

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Speaker 1: an hour or two if need be. There's no sense

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Speaker 1: in denying the facts. A ton of people are trying

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Speaker 1: to vote early, perhaps because of the scaremongering around mail

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Speaker 1: and ballots and tamporary with the post office has gotten

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Speaker 1: to people. I really think the right has won the

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Speaker 1: discourse with regards to mail and voting. Well, the right

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Speaker 1: definitely does propaganda way better than the left does, so

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Speaker 1: you know, their messaging is just more on point, just

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Speaker 1: in terms of how much they drone any particular thing

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Speaker 1: that they want a message at a time, and I

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Speaker 1: want to make one thing very clear. I feel like

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Speaker 1: I told it like a very sin line between like,

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Speaker 1: you know, I believe people should engage typically in every

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Speaker 1: way they can, while recognizing some shit is disrect For example,

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Speaker 1: Thomala Harris tweeted out something like vote and you can

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Speaker 1: change two things. And I saw, you know, a lot

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Speaker 1: of leftist sounding off in the response that she had

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Speaker 1: been appointed to the second highest position possible without ever

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Speaker 1: having received a single ballot cast in her favor in

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Speaker 1: the presidential primary. And so yes, some should have just rigged.

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Speaker 1: But because some should have just rigged, it's necessary for

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Speaker 1: us to push at every point of weakness in the

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Speaker 1: system possible, including uh, spitting in the face of voter

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Speaker 1: suppression by voting by any means necessary. Most of deff,

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Speaker 1: I mean, if your vote didn't mean anything, they wouldn't

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Speaker 1: be trying so hard to prevent you from voting. And

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Speaker 1: make no mistake, they there there is a side that

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Speaker 1: is actively trying to prevent people from voting black people, specifically,

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Speaker 1: so you know, you should be a middle finger in

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Speaker 1: their face because of that alone. Now is presidential election

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Speaker 1: tumbles towards us with daily reports of bold face voter

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Speaker 1: suppression by the way of ballot purging, mail tampering, and disinformation.

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Speaker 1: This episode, we discuss America's uneven history with its citizens

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Speaker 1: right to vote, as well as dive into what role,

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Speaker 1: if any, hip hop has played in electoral politics. I

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Speaker 1: want to just like frame this idea of voting around

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Speaker 1: the idea of just like resisting ah voter suppression and

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Speaker 1: just like really in this small way, but small but

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Speaker 1: powerful way, like agitating against so many forces at play

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Speaker 1: and that have been at play historically that I've tried

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Speaker 1: to disenfranchise us from what through our really shitty civics

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Speaker 1: education available to us in America is framed as like

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Speaker 1: the highest form of participation in the government, Like oh go,

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Speaker 1: you know, you do your you do your mock collections

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Speaker 1: in your fourth grade class, and everyone puts your little

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Speaker 1: you know, I remember putting my little Native vote in

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Speaker 1: the ballot box, you know, and we tabulate, you know,

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Speaker 1: and like it's seen as like this is how you participate,

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Speaker 1: and that like marching and all these other things like

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Speaker 1: are seen as like historical. Do you think it's Do

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Speaker 1: you think it's because of the easiest form of participation,

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Speaker 1: And that's the thing. That's what I'm trying. That's what

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Speaker 1: I like to lay out today, that it's it's not

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Speaker 1: even and because it's hard, it's it's worth doing. UM

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Speaker 1: I'd say it's easier to go stand in the street

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Speaker 1: and yell no justice, no peace for two hours and

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Speaker 1: block traffic. I enjoyed, I personally enjoyed a great deal

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Speaker 1: more than going to vote. But because it's hard is

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Speaker 1: why it's so valuable to do. And so let's take

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Speaker 1: a trip back through time, starting back in eighteen seventy,

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Speaker 1: when the fifteenth Amendment was ratified. UM, I can look

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Speaker 1: a little bit about the history of voter suppression in America.

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Speaker 1: So back in the seventh decade of the eight hundreds,

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Speaker 1: states were prohibited from disenfranchising voter is on a koind

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Speaker 1: of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. However, it

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Speaker 1: did not provide automatic writing voting rights for African Americans. UM,

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Speaker 1: and Congress did not enforce a fifteen Amendment immediately. UM. Tennessee,

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Speaker 1: as a matter of fact, was the last state to

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Speaker 1: formally ratify the fifteen Amendment in guess what year, nineteen

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Speaker 1: nine seven seven. I can only imagine how many obvious

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Speaker 1: laws were passed like recently, I know, UM Alabama didn't

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Speaker 1: make interracial marriage legal until two thousand and showed, oh no,

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Speaker 1: our country is backwards. So by eighteen seventy twenty eight

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Speaker 1: states that adopted a version of these laws prohibiting convicted

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Speaker 1: felons the right to vote. According to the Journal of

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Speaker 1: Criminal Law and Criminology, some states still enact these laws.

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Speaker 1: Literacy tests were implemented to stop those who were uneducated

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Speaker 1: from participating in the voting process. The tests were administered

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Speaker 1: by those in charge of the voting red frustration and

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Speaker 1: often discriminated against African Americans. You gotta remember that African

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Speaker 1: Americans who took part in these tests for the descendants

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Speaker 1: of slaves, who were not allowed to read or write

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Speaker 1: in supple states to antiliteracy law. So like five years

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Speaker 1: before the right like literally right before this, like it

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Speaker 1: was illegal for them to read a write. Suddenly they

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Speaker 1: have the right to vote. They're like, wow, you gotta

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Speaker 1: be able to read a write. Bit So, according to

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Speaker 1: the American Civil Liberties Union, only two states Vermont, you

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Speaker 1: have everyone the uninhibited right to vote. UM Free States

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Speaker 1: UM currently disenfranchised fells from voting permanently. Iowa, Kentucky, and Virginia.

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Speaker 1: Poll taxes meant to prevent people of color from voting,

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Speaker 1: continued into the twentieth century. Now, as of nineteen sixty four, Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Texas, Virginia,

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Speaker 1: they all clung to the poll taxes. And that was

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Speaker 1: reported in the New York Times. And that's all the

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Speaker 1: way back in nineteen sixty four. Poll taxes were abolished

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Speaker 1: in nine four with the Fourth Amendment, and literacy tests

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Speaker 1: were outlawed under the Voting Rights Act of nineteen sixty five. However,

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Speaker 1: Florida still makes formally in cautrate to people pay off

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Speaker 1: their fines before being able to vote, which some have

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Speaker 1: called a modern poll tax, which brings us to um

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Speaker 1: the villain, the true villain. Like I don't know if

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Speaker 1: there's like a comic book analog for like Donald Trump

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Speaker 1: is the true villain? Who is Michael Bloomberg and like

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Speaker 1: the Marvel cinematic universe of presidential election. Now, you might

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Speaker 1: have to give me some d C in that. Okay,

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Speaker 1: gave me some of that. Well, Mike Bloomberg is kind

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Speaker 1: of like Dark Knight returns Batman in a way. Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: because you know, it's like he definitely thinks he's the

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Speaker 1: good guy. So that's that would be a big difference

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Speaker 1: between him and like, uh, you know, diabolical evil genius

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Speaker 1: who knows that he's diabolical and evil. Well, you know,

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Speaker 1: he promised to pour millions in new billions into this

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Speaker 1: president election and pretty much hasn't shown up until quite

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Speaker 1: recently to do such, raising more than sixteen million dollars

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Speaker 1: to pay fines and restitution for convicted bellains in Florida's

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Speaker 1: they're able to to vote ahead of election um, adding

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Speaker 1: to the five million dollars that was raised by the

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Speaker 1: nonpartisan voting rights advocacy group Florida Rights Restoration Correalition. Just

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Speaker 1: a little bit of a clip. He has been um

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Speaker 1: paying for a lot of ads for Biden, I think

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Speaker 1: in Florida as well, but also might be elsewhere. So

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Speaker 1: you know, good job for him, clap club. It just

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Speaker 1: sucks that, you know, contributions like that can only come

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Speaker 1: from as far left as Mike Bloomberg. You know, I

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Speaker 1: imagine there are some rich, rich people whose politics are

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Speaker 1: a bit more in line with mine than Mike Bloomberg.

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Speaker 1: But you know, definitely the right has that sort of

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Speaker 1: shipped on lock. I mean fucking Republicans they spend money

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Speaker 1: on that on ship like that, you know what I'm saying.

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Speaker 1: Like the Republican billionaires and conservative billionaires, they fund think

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Speaker 1: tanks and they on YouTube channels and failed comedians, infringe

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Speaker 1: professors and whatever other little sneaky ship they can do

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Speaker 1: to spread their ideology and their messaging and their propaganda

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Speaker 1: and to actually get cold hard policy passed in their favor. So,

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Speaker 1: you know, good for Bloomberg got to play the game.

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Speaker 1: So Lebron James and his More Than a Vote group

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Speaker 1: recently announced a partnership with the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition

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Speaker 1: to help Florida voters with past felony convictions. James team

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Speaker 1: fellow NBA players Trey Young, Skylar Diggin Smith, and other

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Speaker 1: black celebrities and athletes from the Voter Rights Organization with

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Speaker 1: the goal to fight against voter suppression. And so all

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Speaker 1: of this to me, I mean I feel like you

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Speaker 1: here oftentimes like you know, vote because our our fore

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Speaker 1: fathers and four mothers fought for the right. And it's like, yes,

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Speaker 1: that's true, but I find it I'm more much more

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Speaker 1: generative framing. It's a lot easier to do things out

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Speaker 1: of younger than out of respect. Um. I think that

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Speaker 1: has animated a lot of the like brunch liberal organizing

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Speaker 1: against Trump, the resistance over the last four years, like

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Speaker 1: they were sleep. As long as it was organized, it

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Speaker 1: was animated by respect for people doing good. As soon

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Speaker 1: as it was animated by disdain for those doing evil,

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Speaker 1: it was like boom, everyone's a member of you know,

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Speaker 1: Surge and whatever. You know, Black lives matter, signs of

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Speaker 1: the yard. And so I just want this to anger you.

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Speaker 1: I want I want the knowledge of like the poll

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Speaker 1: taxes and the literacy tests and the way that the

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Speaker 1: poll taxes are still alive today to hold back people

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Speaker 1: who are living under the new gym. Crow to piss

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Speaker 1: you the fuck off and get you so fired up

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Speaker 1: to stick too, middle fingers up in the air to

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Speaker 1: these assholes that want to ensure that we continue to

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Speaker 1: have no say in our electoral process by fucking getting

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Speaker 1: in that fucking line in the rain, And would you

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Speaker 1: went rain boots on? Bring you know, stop at Chipotle,

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Speaker 1: ber you or burrito, Like call up your homegirl you

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Speaker 1: ain't talked to you know, how quick forty five minutes?

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Speaker 1: Chat it fucking just go and wait in line of

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Speaker 1: vote to say fuck you, but them to say fuck

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Speaker 1: you to them. But I think something that's important, at

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Speaker 1: least for me, and I don't want to be a

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Speaker 1: centrist about this, is we gotta call a spade to Spain.

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Speaker 1: There is a political party that is dedicated towards voter

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Speaker 1: suppression right now. And for all of our complaints, it's

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Speaker 1: not the Democrats, you know what I'm saying. So it's

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Speaker 1: just let's just get that out there. Is that if

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Speaker 1: the way that Republicans are going, if they had half

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Speaker 1: a chance, they literally would be doing like literacy tests

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Speaker 1: and ship like that. And I just want to do

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Speaker 1: a quick side note. But like when I think about

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Speaker 1: my work as an elected official here in Athens, I

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Speaker 1: I even think about it as strengthening democracy because voter

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Speaker 1: suppression also takes the form of of having to pay

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Speaker 1: a dollar seventy five to ride the bus, a bus

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Speaker 1: that only comes once an hour. It doesn't take you

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Speaker 1: right to your to your destination. Voter suppression is also

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Speaker 1: not having paid leave from work. Voter suppression is also

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Speaker 1: not having access to affordable childcare. It's not having electually

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Speaker 1: not being in a holiday it's uh, not having access

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Speaker 1: to affordable healthcare so that you have chronic conditions that

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Speaker 1: you know, make it so that you you know, just

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Speaker 1: with reguards to the built environment, you know, you gotta

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Speaker 1: wheel your wheelchair up to the voting booth. You might

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Speaker 1: decide not to go because it feels like too daunting,

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Speaker 1: And so all of these policies I'm trying to pass

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Speaker 1: on the local level, it's like, yes, to improve people's lives,

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Speaker 1: but also the idea that like when we lower the

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Speaker 1: barriers to to access to civic spaces for folks by

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Speaker 1: making fair free, making public transit fair free, by like

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Speaker 1: raising a way doesn't get in, mandating paid time off

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Speaker 1: and make the election day holiday, and giving people access

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Speaker 1: to healthcare and giving people access to sheld care where

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Speaker 1: people will participate, and when more people participate, that's when

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Speaker 1: should actually gets better. I don't think I can do

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Speaker 1: a whole lot of ship, but I can do a

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Speaker 1: whole lot more ship if all these barriers are lowered

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Speaker 1: and there's a lot more people getting out and voting,

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Speaker 1: a lot more people showing up at these town halls,

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Speaker 1: a lot more people come in to city hall, a

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Speaker 1: lot more people here canvasing and knocking on tours for

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Speaker 1: initiatives that they believe in, and so like, uh, I

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Speaker 1: think we need to think more broadly about what voter

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Speaker 1: suppression means and like what we can accomplish when we

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Speaker 1: combat it everywhere. It manifests in that project, and that

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Speaker 1: project isn't just oh, you know Stacey Abrams organization like

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Speaker 1: making sure there's pull watchers or whatever that is. That's

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Speaker 1: the work that goes on year round with regards to

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Speaker 1: agitating for policy, Like, that's fighting voters oppression as well.

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Speaker 1: And that's not just about casting about it's about making

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Speaker 1: the lives of your neighbor is better. And that's something

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Speaker 1: that's going to happen on November two. That's what's gonna

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Speaker 1: happen on number four in November four, and like it's

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Speaker 1: gonna keep going. Life is voter suppression, you know what

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Speaker 1: I mean? The whole thing is designed so that you

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Speaker 1: feel discouraged from voting. Now, I'm gonna have to push

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Speaker 1: back on that because I think the ultimate voter suppression

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Speaker 1: is being dead. Being alive is it enables voting more

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Speaker 1: so than really any other condition ontologically anything short of Yeah,

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Speaker 1: the thing short of of of being dead. But yeah,

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Speaker 1: you know, it's just like with everything that people have

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Speaker 1: to worry about in their day to day it does

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Speaker 1: sometimes feel like, you know, the whole you know, rat

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Speaker 1: rat race, chasing the cheese. It feels like everybody is

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Speaker 1: in such a hustle that things like being involved in

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Speaker 1: the election process can sometimes seem as like a second

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Speaker 1: or third thought, especially in these times when you have

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Speaker 1: I'm amazed that the voting is the way that it

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Speaker 1: is when you have a pandemic and economic anxiety going on,

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Speaker 1: real economic anxiety is there. There needs to be I

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Speaker 1: think in America of a reconnection with like civics, you know,

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Speaker 1: and just just so that the average person understands, at

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Speaker 1: least in theory, how the government is supposed to work,

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Speaker 1: you know. I feel like that being more of a

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Speaker 1: of a broader knowledge to people, even people who don't

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Speaker 1: agree with anything that people like us have to say.

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Speaker 1: I think based knowledge at a younger age of how

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Speaker 1: American government is supposed to operate and function kind of

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Speaker 1: disqualifies a lot of trump Ism type. I feel like

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Speaker 1: the knowledge of how the government functions is only useful

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Speaker 1: when paired with knowledge of how to intercept it. At

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Speaker 1: various points collectively to get shipped done, which is what

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Speaker 1: not what we're teaching kids in schools. Um, they're seeing,

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Speaker 1: you know, people marching in the streets, but they don't

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Speaker 1: understand what it takes to put together a rally. They're

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Speaker 1: like seeing on the news, like you know, people marching

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Speaker 1: on the capitol, but not understanding how those policy demands

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Speaker 1: were settled upon by these organizations. And that's civics and

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Speaker 1: that's what we need to start teaching you so that yes,

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Speaker 1: they vote because they have a very robust repertoire of

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Speaker 1: forms of civic engagement that they do year round. But

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Speaker 1: do you think we need to teach that in schools?

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Speaker 1: And I don't mean from a moral standpoint, I just

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Speaker 1: mean from like do we really I mean, what type

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Speaker 1: of what type of protests are you going to learn

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Speaker 1: in school? Like officially? Like isn't that more something that

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Speaker 1: you pick up like outside of the system, because that's

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Speaker 1: how it has worked traditionally. But imagine if we taught

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Speaker 1: like community organizing as a part of our civis education.

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Speaker 1: I mean, what do you remember learning about civics in school? Oh?

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Speaker 1: I went to a series of international schools as a kid,

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Speaker 1: so I definitely got a bit more of a robust

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Speaker 1: education about how American government and politics operated when I

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Speaker 1: was younger. Um, something that comes to mind that I

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Speaker 1: guess kind of plays into what you're talking about. I

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Speaker 1: remember in eighth grade, I think it was I had

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Speaker 1: a teacher who off the books gave us a or

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Speaker 1: I should say off the record, gave us a for

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Speaker 1: class textbook that year was this book called Don't Know

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Speaker 1: Much about American History, and it was just kind of

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Speaker 1: like a debunking of all the traditional historic stories that

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Speaker 1: you're told and then it gives you the you know,

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Speaker 1: real hardcore truth about what happened in that particular incident.

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Speaker 1: But that was like our whole textbook for history class. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I've never I've never had a civics class. Um, I've

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Speaker 1: only ever taken like social studies were like this is

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Speaker 1: how a bill becomes a lot, but not like you know,

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Speaker 1: if the Senate does this and that, you'll show up

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Speaker 1: at d C with a hundred thousand of your homegirls

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Speaker 1: and you know, fucking fight. Well, this is We're going

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Speaker 1: to kind of get into this when we do the

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Speaker 1: music discussion. But I feel like situations like that are

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Speaker 1: where hip hop could easily fill in that gap where

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Speaker 1: you know, motherfucker's just incorporating ship like that into their

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Speaker 1: music so that people are at least picking up some

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Speaker 1: knowledge and stuff, you know, some fucking schoolhouse rock type ship. Anyway,

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Speaker 1: let's move on and talk a little bit about modern

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Speaker 1: forms of voter suppression. Definitely, so we're seeing again some

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Speaker 1: of the Republicans frequently do right before an election, which

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Speaker 1: is a launch of voter fraud investigations in order to

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Speaker 1: suppress turn out. For example, this happened in two thousand

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Speaker 1: seventeen ahead of Alabama's special state election, when Republican Secretary

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Speaker 1: of State John Merrow claimed that nearly seven people had

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Speaker 1: illegally voted in the Republican primary. He wanted to prosecute

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Speaker 1: the alleged offenders for felonies that would carry it prison

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Speaker 1: sentimps up to ten years, but appropriate judges ultimately found

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Speaker 1: that a hundred for people had voted in the Democratic

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Speaker 1: primary then illegally voted in the Republican parties runoff. It's

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Speaker 1: likely because of so called crossover voting, which was legal

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Speaker 1: until the state legislature and made it a crime earlier

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Speaker 1: that year. A change Merrold did very little to make

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Speaker 1: the public aware of because it did not finis narrative. UM,

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Speaker 1: so the judges recommended no cases for prosecution and the

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Speaker 1: issue just ended just quietly. It was a non event.

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Speaker 1: Even so, he made a huge deal of the voters oppression,

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Speaker 1: We're gonna get them for felonies, and it's like, uh,

429
00:24:52,920 --> 00:24:55,480
Speaker 1: they didn't realize they're breaking a law because previously you

430
00:24:55,560 --> 00:24:57,879
Speaker 1: were totally allowed to vote a Democratic primary and then

431
00:24:57,880 --> 00:25:01,399
Speaker 1: a Republican run off. UM. But it generated these scary

432
00:25:01,440 --> 00:25:04,600
Speaker 1: headlines about voter fraud and felonies carrying ten years sentences

433
00:25:04,800 --> 00:25:08,360
Speaker 1: and was effective in suppressing the turnout. It's all part

434
00:25:08,400 --> 00:25:11,560
Speaker 1: of their narrative. In Georgia, in two thousand and eighteen,

435
00:25:12,119 --> 00:25:15,119
Speaker 1: two days before the mid term, Secretary of State Brian

436
00:25:15,359 --> 00:25:20,000
Speaker 1: Kemp he came out with an explosive announcement. So he

437
00:25:20,080 --> 00:25:23,640
Speaker 1: said they were investigating the state Democratic Party for attempting

438
00:25:23,720 --> 00:25:27,000
Speaker 1: to hack the state's voter registration system. At the time,

439
00:25:27,520 --> 00:25:30,800
Speaker 1: Kemp was both the state's top election official and the

440
00:25:30,840 --> 00:25:33,960
Speaker 1: Republican nominee for governor in a dead heat race against

441
00:25:34,000 --> 00:25:37,199
Speaker 1: Democrat Stacey Abrams. Kemp had a history could have had

442
00:25:37,240 --> 00:25:43,000
Speaker 1: a bad bitch. Kemp had a history of bogus voter

443
00:25:43,160 --> 00:25:47,119
Speaker 1: fraud allegations against his political opponents, and many recognized this

444
00:25:47,320 --> 00:25:51,160
Speaker 1: brazen tactic. At the time. Election law expert Rick Hanson

445
00:25:51,240 --> 00:25:55,440
Speaker 1: called it perhaps the most outrageous example of election administration

446
00:25:55,560 --> 00:26:02,760
Speaker 1: partisanship in the modern era. Just basically banana republic type stuff. Quote.

447
00:26:02,920 --> 00:26:05,720
Speaker 1: But the allegation allowed Kemp to accuse his opponent and

448
00:26:05,840 --> 00:26:09,200
Speaker 1: the opposition party of a serious crime, distracting from his

449
00:26:09,280 --> 00:26:12,600
Speaker 1: own failures as Secretary of State. Kempt won a narrow

450
00:26:12,720 --> 00:26:16,440
Speaker 1: victory by less than fifty five thousand votes. I remember that,

451
00:26:16,480 --> 00:26:19,080
Speaker 1: should I remember that that I knew exactly what he

452
00:26:19,200 --> 00:26:20,840
Speaker 1: was doing and knew exactly what he was trying to do.

453
00:26:21,280 --> 00:26:22,879
Speaker 1: Didn't realize at the time. There's a part of a

454
00:26:23,000 --> 00:26:25,920
Speaker 1: long standing Republican playbook, and here it is happening again

455
00:26:26,040 --> 00:26:32,600
Speaker 1: with the Trump Justice Department successfully generating news about voter fraud. UM.

456
00:26:32,960 --> 00:26:35,000
Speaker 1: You know, it's a central strategy once again to the

457
00:26:35,000 --> 00:26:38,000
Speaker 1: Trump campaign Republican National Committee to fight court battles, to

458
00:26:38,040 --> 00:26:40,080
Speaker 1: make it harder to vote by a mail, and to

459
00:26:40,200 --> 00:26:44,120
Speaker 1: prepare to contest absentee ballots after the election, and recently,

460
00:26:44,720 --> 00:26:48,360
Speaker 1: UM in Wisconsin, they ruled the Wisconsin Supreme Court rule

461
00:26:48,480 --> 00:26:51,280
Speaker 1: that I have to stop counting absentee ballots at midnight

462
00:26:51,359 --> 00:26:54,720
Speaker 1: on election day, which I'm not sure about Wisconsin law,

463
00:26:56,280 --> 00:26:59,520
Speaker 1: but most places, Georgie included, they can't even start counting

464
00:26:59,520 --> 00:27:03,359
Speaker 1: absentee ballots until election day, which gives them like a

465
00:27:03,440 --> 00:27:05,760
Speaker 1: twelve hour window in which to count what could be

466
00:27:05,880 --> 00:27:08,959
Speaker 1: tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of absiditty ballots.

467
00:27:09,600 --> 00:27:11,359
Speaker 1: And like you know, and the and the pressure that

468
00:27:11,400 --> 00:27:13,240
Speaker 1: puts on the polling staff, the people that are in

469
00:27:13,240 --> 00:27:16,159
Speaker 1: there counting these fucking ballots and ship like, it's just

470
00:27:17,359 --> 00:27:21,320
Speaker 1: it's just like anyone that tries to say supreme courts

471
00:27:21,359 --> 00:27:26,679
Speaker 1: of anything, our neutral entities, that just no, these niggas,

472
00:27:26,720 --> 00:27:30,119
Speaker 1: it's sucking appointed by the Republicans, and they do their bidding,

473
00:27:31,080 --> 00:27:34,280
Speaker 1: consume their narratives and get them the festers in their brains,

474
00:27:34,359 --> 00:27:38,080
Speaker 1: like you know, damn black mold. Yeah, we're gonna have

475
00:27:38,200 --> 00:27:41,000
Speaker 1: to do something about these courts, just in terms of

476
00:27:41,040 --> 00:27:44,600
Speaker 1: a strategy to get around them. There's something, but that's

477
00:27:44,680 --> 00:27:48,600
Speaker 1: a topic for a whole another episode there. We've got

478
00:27:48,680 --> 00:27:52,320
Speaker 1: what's going on in Texas. So Governor Abbott in October

479
00:27:53,080 --> 00:27:56,520
Speaker 1: made a declaration that there be just one ballad drop

480
00:27:56,600 --> 00:27:59,720
Speaker 1: box in each county. He said it would help curb

481
00:28:00,040 --> 00:28:05,160
Speaker 1: legal voting, mirroring President Donald Trump's claims made without evidence,

482
00:28:05,600 --> 00:28:09,320
Speaker 1: that postal voting is a major source of electoral fraud,

483
00:28:09,920 --> 00:28:14,560
Speaker 1: despite Federal Election Commission rejecting these claims. But you know,

484
00:28:14,640 --> 00:28:16,520
Speaker 1: there there there was a back and forth. At one

485
00:28:16,600 --> 00:28:19,879
Speaker 1: point a judge ruled that he couldn't do it, But

486
00:28:20,280 --> 00:28:22,960
Speaker 1: as of now of us recording it, another judge is

487
00:28:23,080 --> 00:28:25,119
Speaker 1: ruled in his favor. So there is going to be

488
00:28:25,359 --> 00:28:32,119
Speaker 1: only one ballad drop box. This this is ridiculous. This

489
00:28:32,280 --> 00:28:36,080
Speaker 1: is And then in California you had Republicans setting up

490
00:28:36,320 --> 00:28:45,040
Speaker 1: fake ballad drop boxes. Fucking fake drop boxes. Think about

491
00:28:45,120 --> 00:28:50,640
Speaker 1: that ship. That's like a crime. Let this enrage you,

492
00:28:50,960 --> 00:28:56,440
Speaker 1: Let this boil your blood and bring you near tears,

493
00:28:57,280 --> 00:29:00,320
Speaker 1: and on the brink of tearing. Every fall a coal

494
00:29:00,400 --> 00:29:05,920
Speaker 1: of hair from your scalp, and fucking blastsom goddamn R

495
00:29:06,000 --> 00:29:10,480
Speaker 1: T J or whatever you listen to. Reel out in

496
00:29:10,600 --> 00:29:14,840
Speaker 1: your car as you roll up and pop out, lock

497
00:29:14,920 --> 00:29:16,800
Speaker 1: your doors and put a little bit of change in

498
00:29:16,840 --> 00:29:19,840
Speaker 1: the meter. Get out, pop up your umbrella, if it's

499
00:29:19,920 --> 00:29:24,680
Speaker 1: raining standing on my fucking line, vote early in person,

500
00:29:24,760 --> 00:29:28,080
Speaker 1: because clearly they want these ballot boxes. Man, if I

501
00:29:28,120 --> 00:29:30,200
Speaker 1: can win these ballot boxes, they're trying to make it

502
00:29:30,240 --> 00:29:33,080
Speaker 1: so that they're gonna stop counting the ballots at midnight

503
00:29:33,160 --> 00:29:36,160
Speaker 1: on election night, all this ship is going to be crazy,

504
00:29:36,280 --> 00:29:39,560
Speaker 1: illegal battles on one step at a time. All we

505
00:29:39,640 --> 00:29:42,120
Speaker 1: can do, we can do, we can control. All we

506
00:29:42,160 --> 00:29:45,440
Speaker 1: can do is do and like, if you're going to participate,

507
00:29:46,080 --> 00:29:47,840
Speaker 1: then just make sure you know how you're going to

508
00:29:48,000 --> 00:29:52,520
Speaker 1: vote in the next five to seven days. Make sure

509
00:29:52,640 --> 00:29:55,560
Speaker 1: you if you're gonna wait for election day, make sure

510
00:29:55,640 --> 00:29:57,840
Speaker 1: you have your plan in place, bring a friend, bring

511
00:29:57,920 --> 00:30:02,920
Speaker 1: a family member, and uh yeah, you know that's uh,

512
00:30:03,160 --> 00:30:06,120
Speaker 1: that's all we can really do is to just you know,

513
00:30:06,200 --> 00:30:08,320
Speaker 1: if you're paying attention, then you know what the stakes

514
00:30:08,400 --> 00:30:12,120
Speaker 1: are so out there and do your part and be

515
00:30:12,240 --> 00:30:15,280
Speaker 1: safe while you're doing it. So let's get into the

516
00:30:15,440 --> 00:30:40,160
Speaker 1: music discussion. So as we uh, you know, as the

517
00:30:40,240 --> 00:30:43,640
Speaker 1: election approaches. This being a hip hop show, we kind

518
00:30:43,680 --> 00:30:46,640
Speaker 1: of wanted to delve in and talk a little bit

519
00:30:46,840 --> 00:30:50,320
Speaker 1: about some examples of instances and time when rappers have

520
00:30:51,040 --> 00:30:57,360
Speaker 1: perhaps expressed their opinions on this elect election system of

521
00:30:57,480 --> 00:31:02,000
Speaker 1: ours or even tried to off directly. Yeah, both, you know,

522
00:31:02,240 --> 00:31:04,080
Speaker 1: just through statements to the media as well as in

523
00:31:04,120 --> 00:31:08,360
Speaker 1: their music. So recently Blue Face said, hell, nah, he's

524
00:31:08,400 --> 00:31:11,920
Speaker 1: not voting, quoted in double excel as having said, I

525
00:31:11,960 --> 00:31:14,680
Speaker 1: don't know, na I, I really I don't know. I

526
00:31:14,760 --> 00:31:16,720
Speaker 1: just ain't in that stage in my life. And he's

527
00:31:17,040 --> 00:31:18,600
Speaker 1: as look at my face, you think they give a

528
00:31:18,640 --> 00:31:22,120
Speaker 1: funk who I vote for, which I mean, I feel

529
00:31:22,160 --> 00:31:25,760
Speaker 1: like he's not wrong in the sense that like when

530
00:31:25,800 --> 00:31:27,719
Speaker 1: we when we think of black voters as a monolith,

531
00:31:27,800 --> 00:31:32,000
Speaker 1: the're thinking about like black lower middle to middle class

532
00:31:33,080 --> 00:31:37,720
Speaker 1: like folks that are not a part of Like no,

533
00:31:37,800 --> 00:31:41,080
Speaker 1: they're not running in the underground economy, they're not aspiring rappers.

534
00:31:41,640 --> 00:31:44,800
Speaker 1: These are the folks that are like pretty much cast

535
00:31:44,880 --> 00:31:48,960
Speaker 1: as disposable with regards to car salty like, oh, like

536
00:31:49,080 --> 00:31:50,600
Speaker 1: any day now is Nick is gonna end up in

537
00:31:50,640 --> 00:31:53,320
Speaker 1: prison and disenfranchise and can't vote anyway, So why would

538
00:31:53,360 --> 00:31:56,280
Speaker 1: we like seek them out and seek their votes? And

539
00:31:56,400 --> 00:31:58,800
Speaker 1: so like I can't I can't really be mad at

540
00:31:58,880 --> 00:32:02,480
Speaker 1: him for feeling like they don't they don't give a

541
00:32:02,520 --> 00:32:04,560
Speaker 1: funk who you vote for. A blue Face, especially as

542
00:32:04,840 --> 00:32:08,240
Speaker 1: like a personal choice, and I don't mind that at all. Yeah,

543
00:32:08,320 --> 00:32:12,680
Speaker 1: But interestingly, yeah, a Snoop Dogg said he'll be voting

544
00:32:12,760 --> 00:32:15,440
Speaker 1: for the first time next this month. And see, Snoop

545
00:32:15,480 --> 00:32:18,360
Speaker 1: Dogg isn't that stage in his life. He's like, what, Yeah,

546
00:32:18,600 --> 00:32:21,080
Speaker 1: Snoop Dogg is forty years old, He's in that stage

547
00:32:21,120 --> 00:32:24,120
Speaker 1: of life. He's that demographic. He says, I ain't never

548
00:32:24,200 --> 00:32:25,880
Speaker 1: voted a day in my life, but this year, I

549
00:32:25,920 --> 00:32:27,440
Speaker 1: think I'm gonna get out and vote because I can't

550
00:32:27,440 --> 00:32:31,320
Speaker 1: stand into this punkin office one more year, referring to Trump.

551
00:32:31,760 --> 00:32:33,400
Speaker 1: For many years they had me brainwashing thing that you

552
00:32:33,440 --> 00:32:35,400
Speaker 1: couldn't vote because you had a criminal record. I didn't

553
00:32:35,440 --> 00:32:37,400
Speaker 1: know that my record has been expunged to now can vote,

554
00:32:37,400 --> 00:32:40,400
Speaker 1: which is a very very real phenomena. And also, I

555
00:32:40,440 --> 00:32:44,520
Speaker 1: gotta say in it's that's refreshing to hear a rapper

556
00:32:44,880 --> 00:32:49,000
Speaker 1: that doesn't support Nazis. It's definitely a breath of fresh air,

557
00:32:49,080 --> 00:32:53,640
Speaker 1: since that's a it's a hard thing from Motherfux to do. Now. Apparently,

558
00:32:54,200 --> 00:32:56,240
Speaker 1: I'll never forget the story that one of my colleagues

559
00:32:56,280 --> 00:32:58,520
Speaker 1: on the Commission told me of Canvas being in a

560
00:32:58,560 --> 00:33:01,880
Speaker 1: black neighborhood and encounter a man who told her that

561
00:33:02,120 --> 00:33:05,080
Speaker 1: he couldn't vote for her because he was a felon,

562
00:33:05,160 --> 00:33:06,760
Speaker 1: And she explained to him that, you know, once you

563
00:33:07,040 --> 00:33:10,960
Speaker 1: have served your promotion time, when you're off parole or whatever,

564
00:33:11,080 --> 00:33:13,040
Speaker 1: when he's starting, you've painting all your fines, you can

565
00:33:13,160 --> 00:33:15,800
Speaker 1: get your right to vote back. This man literally cried.

566
00:33:15,880 --> 00:33:18,440
Speaker 1: He broke down and cried in front of her because

567
00:33:18,760 --> 00:33:24,360
Speaker 1: he had been eligible to vote since Obama's uh first

568
00:33:24,480 --> 00:33:28,040
Speaker 1: term in office, and he didn't realize and he cried

569
00:33:28,160 --> 00:33:30,840
Speaker 1: knowing that he could have voted for the first black president.

570
00:33:31,000 --> 00:33:34,960
Speaker 1: He did it didn't get a chance to ye. And

571
00:33:35,120 --> 00:33:38,959
Speaker 1: so thinking about just what I mean, like fucking felons

572
00:33:38,960 --> 00:33:41,640
Speaker 1: should be like, well you should everyone should be able

573
00:33:41,640 --> 00:33:43,320
Speaker 1: to vote in jail. Well, I mean, but I will

574
00:33:43,360 --> 00:33:47,880
Speaker 1: accept as a compromise automatic voter registration that includes folks

575
00:33:48,000 --> 00:33:53,120
Speaker 1: that immediately upon your release. That's the whole that should be.

576
00:33:53,200 --> 00:33:56,560
Speaker 1: The whole purpose of like going going in and serving

577
00:33:56,600 --> 00:33:59,760
Speaker 1: your time is that you come out and you have

578
00:34:00,000 --> 00:34:04,240
Speaker 1: of a second chance. I don't understand where even the

579
00:34:04,400 --> 00:34:07,200
Speaker 1: concept of like, yo, somebody is going to go and

580
00:34:07,280 --> 00:34:09,879
Speaker 1: do their bid and then come out and be less

581
00:34:10,160 --> 00:34:13,680
Speaker 1: of a citizen than everybody else. It just doesn't make

582
00:34:13,680 --> 00:34:17,960
Speaker 1: any sense now. All the way back in two thousand

583
00:34:18,040 --> 00:34:23,120
Speaker 1: and four, H. P. Diddy used his voice and platform

584
00:34:23,280 --> 00:34:27,160
Speaker 1: to try to directly affect the two thousand four election

585
00:34:27,280 --> 00:34:31,719
Speaker 1: between George Bush and John Kerry. UM Citizen Change was

586
00:34:31,880 --> 00:34:35,719
Speaker 1: a nonpartisan political service group founded in two thousand four

587
00:34:35,800 --> 00:34:38,840
Speaker 1: by P. Diddy. It was backed by Mary J. Blige,

588
00:34:39,000 --> 00:34:42,560
Speaker 1: Mariah Carey, fifty cent, and others who started with the

589
00:34:42,640 --> 00:34:45,440
Speaker 1: aim to get young people and minorities to vote. The

590
00:34:45,600 --> 00:34:49,000
Speaker 1: endeavor had P. Diddy touring campuses around the country in

591
00:34:49,040 --> 00:34:53,680
Speaker 1: a private jet dubbed Air Force Change, and they were

592
00:34:53,719 --> 00:34:57,840
Speaker 1: pledging that voting was sexy and cool as the you know,

593
00:34:58,000 --> 00:35:01,520
Speaker 1: Bush Kerry election approach. The slogan that they had plastered

594
00:35:01,560 --> 00:35:05,360
Speaker 1: all over T shirts and TV and posters everywhere that

595
00:35:05,600 --> 00:35:09,920
Speaker 1: whole summer was voter Die Now. Despite Diddy's best efforts

596
00:35:10,080 --> 00:35:15,879
Speaker 1: and mt VS twenty million loud voter registration campaign UM

597
00:35:16,880 --> 00:35:20,440
Speaker 1: young people. While they did turnout in record numbers, they

598
00:35:20,560 --> 00:35:22,799
Speaker 1: pretty much made up the same percentage as they did

599
00:35:22,960 --> 00:35:26,520
Speaker 1: overall in two thousand, so it didn't really make that

600
00:35:26,680 --> 00:35:31,399
Speaker 1: much of a difference in the election. And George Bush won. Now,

601
00:35:32,000 --> 00:35:34,920
Speaker 1: you know, some people have attributed the tone deafness and

602
00:35:35,200 --> 00:35:39,120
Speaker 1: the corny nous as to why Citizen Change didn't really

603
00:35:39,520 --> 00:35:42,399
Speaker 1: have that much of an impact on the election. Two

604
00:35:42,440 --> 00:35:45,080
Speaker 1: of its main faces, Paris Hilton and fifty cent at

605
00:35:45,120 --> 00:35:47,600
Speaker 1: the time, we're both publicly not even registered to vote

606
00:35:47,600 --> 00:35:50,840
Speaker 1: at the time, and the irreverent nature of the slogan

607
00:35:51,000 --> 00:35:54,160
Speaker 1: voter die was just you know, and got spoofed on

608
00:35:54,239 --> 00:35:57,440
Speaker 1: South par Yeah, it's just like I mean, still I'm

609
00:35:57,440 --> 00:36:00,600
Speaker 1: still trying to figure out exactly what what voter die

610
00:36:00,760 --> 00:36:05,080
Speaker 1: means at this point. You know, there's you could you

611
00:36:05,120 --> 00:36:07,920
Speaker 1: could go and look up interviews of p did He

612
00:36:08,000 --> 00:36:11,239
Speaker 1: explaining it, But um, I think you're still gonna be

613
00:36:11,280 --> 00:36:12,719
Speaker 1: wondering what do you mean? What do you meant by it?

614
00:36:13,719 --> 00:36:17,160
Speaker 1: Citizen Change would eventually come under fire from the conservative

615
00:36:17,280 --> 00:36:22,000
Speaker 1: organization the National Legal Policy Center for violating election law

616
00:36:22,080 --> 00:36:24,960
Speaker 1: and promoting Kerry and opposing Bush. Funk all that a

617
00:36:25,080 --> 00:36:31,080
Speaker 1: decade later, though, back in did he had done a

618
00:36:31,200 --> 00:36:35,440
Speaker 1: complete reversal and was of the opinion that voting was

619
00:36:35,560 --> 00:36:38,360
Speaker 1: a scam and it wasn't something that you should participate in.

620
00:36:38,800 --> 00:36:43,840
Speaker 1: But recently and as recently, as July, he's come around

621
00:36:43,960 --> 00:36:47,680
Speaker 1: and he's said that, you know, Trump is a existential

622
00:36:47,719 --> 00:36:49,000
Speaker 1: threat and we got to get rid of them, so

623
00:36:49,080 --> 00:36:50,799
Speaker 1: people should vote to get rid of I can't even

624
00:36:50,840 --> 00:36:52,400
Speaker 1: be mad at that either. I feel like when we

625
00:36:52,520 --> 00:36:56,760
Speaker 1: talk about being strategic and being practical, it's also looking

626
00:36:56,840 --> 00:37:01,400
Speaker 1: at the particular dynamics of a given election and uh,

627
00:37:02,200 --> 00:37:05,719
Speaker 1: deciding whether or not it's I don't know where you

628
00:37:05,760 --> 00:37:08,719
Speaker 1: want to put your efforts. Yeah, I mean, look, it's

629
00:37:09,280 --> 00:37:10,920
Speaker 1: it's the same the same thing. I don't want to

630
00:37:10,960 --> 00:37:13,879
Speaker 1: sound like a broken record everybody, but it's the same

631
00:37:13,920 --> 00:37:18,239
Speaker 1: thing that I was saying last time. Every year that

632
00:37:18,400 --> 00:37:23,439
Speaker 1: comes around, they tell you, hey, this is the most

633
00:37:23,600 --> 00:37:26,759
Speaker 1: important election of your lifetime or ship like that. Now,

634
00:37:27,760 --> 00:37:30,759
Speaker 1: if you're if you know what there is to know,

635
00:37:31,040 --> 00:37:32,839
Speaker 1: then you know that most of the times they say

636
00:37:32,880 --> 00:37:36,560
Speaker 1: that it's bullshit. It's still kind of up to you

637
00:37:36,640 --> 00:37:39,000
Speaker 1: to decide whether you feel that way about this election.

638
00:37:39,239 --> 00:37:42,719
Speaker 1: But I definitely feel that way about this election. So

639
00:37:43,160 --> 00:37:48,320
Speaker 1: with that, I definitely don't I do not judge anybody

640
00:37:48,520 --> 00:37:53,000
Speaker 1: who is voting with like like a sense of survival.

641
00:37:53,239 --> 00:37:56,360
Speaker 1: You know. It's like looking into some of the songs

642
00:37:56,520 --> 00:38:00,760
Speaker 1: that in which folks have addressed voting, voting in elections

643
00:38:00,800 --> 00:38:02,800
Speaker 1: and stuff. All right, yeah, so two of these songs

644
00:38:02,960 --> 00:38:06,920
Speaker 1: have a pretty um strong video component that's kind of

645
00:38:07,000 --> 00:38:10,320
Speaker 1: important to the overall message. First up, we got the

646
00:38:10,480 --> 00:38:14,520
Speaker 1: Eminem song mash off his two thousand four album Encore

647
00:38:15,400 --> 00:38:20,480
Speaker 1: Now in the set the same two thousand and four election. Uh,

648
00:38:20,880 --> 00:38:24,880
Speaker 1: As the summer came to a close, you had Michael

649
00:38:24,960 --> 00:38:29,279
Speaker 1: Moore's Fahrenheit nine eleven come out, and a bunch of

650
00:38:29,360 --> 00:38:33,840
Speaker 1: celebrities started making a lot more overtly political statements and

651
00:38:34,239 --> 00:38:37,600
Speaker 1: you know, being you know, making their anti war, anti

652
00:38:37,760 --> 00:38:40,319
Speaker 1: Bush stance is a lot more obvious, and this would

653
00:38:40,360 --> 00:38:43,160
Speaker 1: be Eminem's contribution to that. So let's check this out

654
00:38:48,840 --> 00:38:53,040
Speaker 1: on videos animated and has a little documentation of a

655
00:38:53,080 --> 00:38:58,279
Speaker 1: cartoon character going to Iraq and protesting, mass protesting in

656
00:38:58,320 --> 00:39:01,719
Speaker 1: the streets, things of that nature. It's definitely one of

657
00:39:02,120 --> 00:39:05,720
Speaker 1: those songs where you know, he has a fun Bush

658
00:39:05,800 --> 00:39:08,719
Speaker 1: line in there in the imagery and the video, but

659
00:39:09,320 --> 00:39:15,280
Speaker 1: the song itself is not necessarily laser focused on bashing Bush.

660
00:39:16,160 --> 00:39:19,719
Speaker 1: I have a song kind of goes hard. It's a

661
00:39:19,800 --> 00:39:22,319
Speaker 1: dope song, and you know what it's for me? It's

662
00:39:22,360 --> 00:39:24,120
Speaker 1: definitely one of the songs where it was better when

663
00:39:24,160 --> 00:39:27,919
Speaker 1: I was younger. It's not it's not prescriptive in terms

664
00:39:28,000 --> 00:39:32,439
Speaker 1: of like how to engage. He's like articulating like let's

665
00:39:32,640 --> 00:39:35,320
Speaker 1: let's band together, everybody in the middle and the sides,

666
00:39:35,480 --> 00:39:38,640
Speaker 1: let's all grew up, let's march, let's be together, but

667
00:39:38,800 --> 00:39:42,840
Speaker 1: not like marching to the polling booth to like and

668
00:39:43,000 --> 00:39:45,640
Speaker 1: that like kind of quartified voted away. Yeah, no, I

669
00:39:45,719 --> 00:39:47,840
Speaker 1: feel you, And I don't want to speak for Eminem,

670
00:39:47,880 --> 00:39:51,000
Speaker 1: but I feel like through this song, in the publicity

671
00:39:51,080 --> 00:39:53,759
Speaker 1: that they made around it, in around it being an

672
00:39:53,760 --> 00:39:56,239
Speaker 1: anti Bush song, I just more so think this is

673
00:39:56,320 --> 00:39:59,560
Speaker 1: like a cultural play where it's just bringing into awareness. Hey,

674
00:39:59,640 --> 00:40:03,480
Speaker 1: I'm the most popular rapper on the planet, and I'm

675
00:40:03,560 --> 00:40:06,080
Speaker 1: saying fuck Bush. You know what I'm saying. I think

676
00:40:06,120 --> 00:40:08,240
Speaker 1: that was I think he felt that was an important

677
00:40:08,280 --> 00:40:11,560
Speaker 1: message to get out there or an important stance that

678
00:40:11,719 --> 00:40:14,240
Speaker 1: his fans know that he has. This is an industry

679
00:40:14,320 --> 00:40:20,400
Speaker 1: protest song. Whereas same artist, Eminem, same general time period.

680
00:40:20,440 --> 00:40:23,640
Speaker 1: Two on his album The Eminem Show, he had a

681
00:40:23,680 --> 00:40:26,640
Speaker 1: song called white America that has a verse on there

682
00:40:26,840 --> 00:40:32,759
Speaker 1: that is pretty, you know, vividly anti Bush. It's it's

683
00:40:32,960 --> 00:40:35,840
Speaker 1: like two years before this election took place, but I

684
00:40:35,960 --> 00:40:41,320
Speaker 1: think it illustrates more of his views on like the

685
00:40:41,400 --> 00:40:45,200
Speaker 1: administration and just his views on the war. I think

686
00:40:45,239 --> 00:40:46,919
Speaker 1: it did a lot of that better than this song.

687
00:40:47,280 --> 00:40:49,240
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure those are like the only two lines,

688
00:40:49,600 --> 00:40:53,759
Speaker 1: the fun Bush part and tie it to that real

689
00:40:53,920 --> 00:40:56,480
Speaker 1: to the actual to the contection video is much more

690
00:40:56,560 --> 00:41:00,719
Speaker 1: a statement against the Bush administration than I the song is.

691
00:41:01,400 --> 00:41:03,360
Speaker 1: And I feel like that's a really interesting tendency in

692
00:41:03,480 --> 00:41:05,759
Speaker 1: hip hop that like it makes me think it like

693
00:41:05,800 --> 00:41:09,560
Speaker 1: this as America or like EMM and Fans point Rain,

694
00:41:10,200 --> 00:41:15,400
Speaker 1: where like the visual adds this dimension of context to

695
00:41:15,560 --> 00:41:21,680
Speaker 1: the lyrics that like makes it more pointedly political. Um um. Next,

696
00:41:22,640 --> 00:41:30,040
Speaker 1: we have so the legendary group Black Sheep. Drezz from

697
00:41:30,080 --> 00:41:34,120
Speaker 1: Black Sheep. Around two thousand eight, he decided to go

698
00:41:34,440 --> 00:41:38,600
Speaker 1: all in for Obama and he made a reworking of

699
00:41:38,680 --> 00:41:41,160
Speaker 1: their classic song the Choice is Yours. You know, you

700
00:41:41,239 --> 00:41:43,400
Speaker 1: can go with this, you can go with that, you

701
00:41:43,440 --> 00:41:45,480
Speaker 1: can go with this, and he made like, you know,

702
00:41:46,000 --> 00:41:49,520
Speaker 1: a whole redo of the song while working with Austin

703
00:41:49,600 --> 00:41:55,000
Speaker 1: based production house Um House Voodoo Cowboy Entertainment. That's the name,

704
00:41:55,520 --> 00:42:00,440
Speaker 1: and they made this pro Obama track Choices Yours remix.

705
00:42:00,680 --> 00:42:03,319
Speaker 1: What I feel sads with me. He's got my back

706
00:42:03,360 --> 00:42:06,560
Speaker 1: to night. You know what I'm saying, people, you need

707
00:42:06,600 --> 00:42:13,200
Speaker 1: to catch it. Okay, uh, please, this is two thousand eight.

708
00:42:13,600 --> 00:42:18,560
Speaker 1: Let's just keep things in proper perspective. Please. I understand

709
00:42:18,600 --> 00:42:23,879
Speaker 1: that forty year old black rapper in two thousand its

710
00:42:23,960 --> 00:42:27,160
Speaker 1: excited enough about Obama to make a rap song about it.

711
00:42:27,239 --> 00:42:30,400
Speaker 1: I do not begrudge him of that. Like, it's not

712
00:42:30,560 --> 00:42:33,239
Speaker 1: like Barack Obama was running for abice, Like I am

713
00:42:33,360 --> 00:42:40,200
Speaker 1: going to be really centrist. I promise I won't change much,

714
00:42:41,120 --> 00:42:44,840
Speaker 1: but you can hope. Yeah, I would have. Now. This

715
00:42:45,000 --> 00:42:50,279
Speaker 1: song definitely has more lines in it that are relevant

716
00:42:50,360 --> 00:42:54,319
Speaker 1: to the election, but um, the video still does come

717
00:42:54,360 --> 00:42:59,400
Speaker 1: into play heavily. There's imagery of Sarah Palin John McCain

718
00:43:00,320 --> 00:43:04,880
Speaker 1: US stock exchange crashing to illustrate the recession going on

719
00:43:04,960 --> 00:43:06,960
Speaker 1: at the time, and then naturally when they get to

720
00:43:07,040 --> 00:43:08,600
Speaker 1: the hook, they're saying, you can get with this, so

721
00:43:08,760 --> 00:43:10,840
Speaker 1: you can get with that, showing you the choice between

722
00:43:10,880 --> 00:43:15,200
Speaker 1: Obama and McCain. The choice is yours. Yeah, you know

723
00:43:15,320 --> 00:43:19,399
Speaker 1: what I'm unoffended by that I I I was old

724
00:43:19,520 --> 00:43:22,920
Speaker 1: enough to know that or to remember like the excitement

725
00:43:22,960 --> 00:43:25,040
Speaker 1: about Obama. Then I get it. I don't. I don't

726
00:43:25,280 --> 00:43:28,759
Speaker 1: you know? Yeah? And I mean, even in crafting the

727
00:43:28,800 --> 00:43:31,719
Speaker 1: wraps for this week's episode, thinking about having to wrap

728
00:43:31,760 --> 00:43:36,600
Speaker 1: about voting, I feel fucking lamb of shit. There's just

729
00:43:36,680 --> 00:43:38,359
Speaker 1: not a way to make it cool other than well,

730
00:43:38,440 --> 00:43:42,040
Speaker 1: you don't have to make a vote because fuck them.

731
00:43:42,200 --> 00:43:47,560
Speaker 1: Let me give everybody a little insight into how things

732
00:43:47,600 --> 00:43:50,080
Speaker 1: are made. Right. So, the the only real rule that

733
00:43:50,200 --> 00:43:52,880
Speaker 1: we really give ourselves for when we're coming up with

734
00:43:53,000 --> 00:43:55,000
Speaker 1: some of these verses for the rap part is it's

735
00:43:55,080 --> 00:43:58,800
Speaker 1: just generally rapping about the subject. But we can go

736
00:43:59,200 --> 00:44:01,640
Speaker 1: whatever direction we go with it. We can go with that.

737
00:44:02,280 --> 00:44:11,560
Speaker 1: Can you go with this? All right? Days by I'm sorry, Yeah, okay,

738
00:44:11,600 --> 00:44:14,080
Speaker 1: so yellow paints my vote don't count. Let's listen to

739
00:44:14,120 --> 00:44:16,200
Speaker 1: a little bit of this. It was three branches of

740
00:44:16,280 --> 00:44:18,719
Speaker 1: the government. We forgot it when we got o. It's

741
00:44:18,760 --> 00:44:25,200
Speaker 1: the judicial, the legislative, and executive governor and the president.

742
00:44:26,880 --> 00:44:30,919
Speaker 1: Just keeping it real. God damn, there are a lot

743
00:44:31,160 --> 00:44:34,680
Speaker 1: of um there's a lot of people who could probably

744
00:44:35,360 --> 00:44:37,600
Speaker 1: learn a lot from that song. Yo, I'm about to

745
00:44:37,640 --> 00:44:39,520
Speaker 1: put that in my service classes when I get out

746
00:44:39,560 --> 00:44:45,279
Speaker 1: its PhD though straight up? That define all right? You know,

747
00:44:45,600 --> 00:44:49,640
Speaker 1: like these judges run uncontested. The state house races are uncontested.

748
00:44:50,280 --> 00:44:52,520
Speaker 1: We don't know who our congress people are. We don't

749
00:44:52,560 --> 00:44:55,120
Speaker 1: see them out in our communities, but they're the ones

750
00:44:55,200 --> 00:44:59,080
Speaker 1: that are putting the fucking legislation on the executive branches

751
00:44:59,200 --> 00:45:03,520
Speaker 1: desk to vote to a firm a vitao. And it's simple.

752
00:45:03,680 --> 00:45:06,960
Speaker 1: It's just like putting the message out there. It's civics.

753
00:45:07,040 --> 00:45:10,680
Speaker 1: There's no difference between what he just did in like

754
00:45:10,880 --> 00:45:14,600
Speaker 1: some schoolhouse rock ship when like my little my older brother,

755
00:45:14,880 --> 00:45:17,000
Speaker 1: like my dad were like younger and ship. You know,

756
00:45:17,239 --> 00:45:21,080
Speaker 1: it's like I'm just a bill. Yes, I'm only a bill,

757
00:45:21,640 --> 00:45:25,840
Speaker 1: and I'm sitting here on Capitol. He'll come on, somebody,

758
00:45:26,040 --> 00:45:29,000
Speaker 1: somebody out there has to remember that ship too. It's

759
00:45:29,160 --> 00:45:33,200
Speaker 1: using the power of hip hop to inform people some ship,

760
00:45:33,520 --> 00:45:35,640
Speaker 1: but making it fresh, you know what I'm saying. So

761
00:45:35,800 --> 00:45:38,080
Speaker 1: it's like we was both bump into it like we

762
00:45:38,160 --> 00:45:41,560
Speaker 1: were hearing the new trapped banger in the nightclub. So

763
00:45:41,760 --> 00:45:44,160
Speaker 1: it's like that that's how you get those messages out there,

764
00:45:44,239 --> 00:45:46,279
Speaker 1: like that and the framing the framing the song is

765
00:45:46,280 --> 00:45:48,799
Speaker 1: called My Vote Don't Count and talking about its own

766
00:45:48,840 --> 00:45:52,000
Speaker 1: personal disillusionment with the system. And yet through it he

767
00:45:52,040 --> 00:45:54,279
Speaker 1: builds an argument for why we've been looking at it

768
00:45:54,360 --> 00:45:56,319
Speaker 1: all the wrong way and actually we need to pay

769
00:45:56,360 --> 00:45:59,239
Speaker 1: more attention than ever because it's not about and that's

770
00:45:59,280 --> 00:46:01,520
Speaker 1: good and it goes back specifics and how and our

771
00:46:01,560 --> 00:46:05,200
Speaker 1: civic imagination. As a country, we view the executive friend

772
00:46:05,239 --> 00:46:07,960
Speaker 1: to the federal government as this pinnacle of where decisions

773
00:46:08,000 --> 00:46:11,839
Speaker 1: get made, whereas the truth is that the judges, your

774
00:46:11,840 --> 00:46:16,000
Speaker 1: superior court, your municipal court, your magistrate court, your sheriff,

775
00:46:16,560 --> 00:46:20,960
Speaker 1: your state housepresentatives, your congress people like those are the

776
00:46:21,000 --> 00:46:23,640
Speaker 1: folks that are gonna be putting legislation on the president's desk.

777
00:46:23,719 --> 00:46:25,799
Speaker 1: Those are the folks that are going to determine whether

778
00:46:25,880 --> 00:46:28,680
Speaker 1: or not you can get your kids back, um you know,

779
00:46:28,800 --> 00:46:30,960
Speaker 1: when you get out of jail, or whether or not

780
00:46:31,040 --> 00:46:33,799
Speaker 1: you're gonna have to wear an ankle monitor, and it's

781
00:46:33,800 --> 00:46:35,400
Speaker 1: going to constrain whether or not you can leave your

782
00:46:35,440 --> 00:46:39,080
Speaker 1: fucking house. All these quality of life issues come down

783
00:46:39,200 --> 00:46:44,799
Speaker 1: to all these other elected positions that they don't they

784
00:46:45,200 --> 00:46:48,960
Speaker 1: don't know how to make important to children in school

785
00:46:49,080 --> 00:46:51,880
Speaker 1: and and and as the adults we don't care about them.

786
00:46:52,040 --> 00:46:55,360
Speaker 1: They well when we say vote and we focus on

787
00:46:55,480 --> 00:46:58,640
Speaker 1: the importance of voting, you know, I think the best

788
00:46:58,719 --> 00:47:01,680
Speaker 1: way to go about doing that without feeling like we're

789
00:47:01,760 --> 00:47:08,279
Speaker 1: just resigning to you know, feeding people more fluff about oh,

790
00:47:08,360 --> 00:47:10,719
Speaker 1: the president, vote for president. That's the most important thing

791
00:47:11,200 --> 00:47:14,040
Speaker 1: is to just, yeah, is to encourage people to vote

792
00:47:14,160 --> 00:47:18,840
Speaker 1: all the time, to actively be engaged for sheriff, Actively

793
00:47:18,920 --> 00:47:23,279
Speaker 1: be engaged with your democracy and like make make put

794
00:47:23,360 --> 00:47:26,160
Speaker 1: the people that you want in charge in charge. But

795
00:47:26,360 --> 00:47:28,759
Speaker 1: don't just don't just do it for the big one

796
00:47:28,960 --> 00:47:32,920
Speaker 1: every four years. Engage with all of them and like

797
00:47:33,200 --> 00:47:37,279
Speaker 1: make tangible change in your community that you're in right now.

798
00:47:38,320 --> 00:47:41,359
Speaker 1: But um, you know, we're gonna get into some wrap

799
00:47:41,480 --> 00:47:44,879
Speaker 1: things in a second. But you know, by the time

800
00:47:45,000 --> 00:47:50,759
Speaker 1: you guys hear this, we are either going to be

801
00:47:51,040 --> 00:47:56,640
Speaker 1: preserving the status quo for another four years or we're

802
00:47:56,680 --> 00:47:59,520
Speaker 1: gonna be getting to some real, some real foul gangs

803
00:47:59,560 --> 00:48:02,400
Speaker 1: and ship And I hope that it's the status quo

804
00:48:02,520 --> 00:48:04,400
Speaker 1: for another four years. And we'll fight that when we

805
00:48:04,520 --> 00:48:07,120
Speaker 1: get there. But that's just me. But all of y'all

806
00:48:07,160 --> 00:48:14,000
Speaker 1: out there, be safe, good luck and you know, fight

807
00:48:14,080 --> 00:48:20,600
Speaker 1: the power. Let's get a beat. Yeah yeah, we're waiting

808
00:48:20,640 --> 00:48:27,800
Speaker 1: on reprobations. Yo. Hey, yo, so take my name to

809
00:48:27,960 --> 00:48:30,600
Speaker 1: your local vallet box to give this information so they

810
00:48:30,680 --> 00:48:33,239
Speaker 1: hope you have forgotten taken from the city streets up

811
00:48:33,280 --> 00:48:35,520
Speaker 1: to the mountain tops. They consider you with threats, so

812
00:48:35,600 --> 00:48:38,080
Speaker 1: your vote they have to stop. Give you obstacles in life.

813
00:48:38,080 --> 00:48:39,600
Speaker 1: They've got lots of those. Can make you feel like

814
00:48:39,680 --> 00:48:41,600
Speaker 1: this vote and ship is kind of impossible, but not

815
00:48:41,760 --> 00:48:43,719
Speaker 1: so though. I ain't with the games in a shame

816
00:48:43,800 --> 00:48:46,040
Speaker 1: if it's not for Joe, but I ain't fucking with you.

817
00:48:46,360 --> 00:48:48,160
Speaker 1: So you guys to go all just trying to block

818
00:48:48,200 --> 00:48:50,839
Speaker 1: and vote. Pull watch tops, approach, find out where it's

819
00:48:50,880 --> 00:48:53,400
Speaker 1: going down and the flocking droves. I sent the absolute

820
00:48:53,480 --> 00:48:55,160
Speaker 1: You don't know what the god is, so do it

821
00:48:55,280 --> 00:48:57,680
Speaker 1: all in person. Don't trust this mail boxes, yo, I

822
00:48:57,840 --> 00:49:01,080
Speaker 1: called myself. They're gonna stop mail if we all go out,

823
00:49:01,200 --> 00:49:03,399
Speaker 1: and we will all not fail. If they steal ship,

824
00:49:03,560 --> 00:49:06,320
Speaker 1: get the Molotov cocktails. Don't marry. You're fifty one to

825
00:49:06,400 --> 00:49:08,879
Speaker 1: try to solve Ross well with a chain ship only

826
00:49:09,000 --> 00:49:12,359
Speaker 1: relatively best pass fascism with a new president of let

827
00:49:12,440 --> 00:49:14,960
Speaker 1: you're ready to fight whoever wins, and know so in

828
00:49:15,120 --> 00:49:19,440
Speaker 1: my middle fingers. In the year streaming voting president election

829
00:49:19,520 --> 00:49:21,880
Speaker 1: is upon us and set up in the making election

830
00:49:22,200 --> 00:49:24,720
Speaker 1: the opposite ain't just about the president, It's also about

831
00:49:24,760 --> 00:49:26,960
Speaker 1: the Senate and the sheep in the corner. Who the

832
00:49:27,040 --> 00:49:29,560
Speaker 1: fund you voting for? Down a ballet candidates they matter

833
00:49:29,640 --> 00:49:32,160
Speaker 1: just much. But most people cast a ballots without looking

834
00:49:32,200 --> 00:49:34,360
Speaker 1: them up. That ship is rookie stoff. They get voted

835
00:49:34,400 --> 00:49:36,880
Speaker 1: and without even working hard, and they fat cat friends

836
00:49:36,880 --> 00:49:39,400
Speaker 1: stay ready in the cookie jot. So looking here, everybody

837
00:49:39,520 --> 00:49:42,160
Speaker 1: knows that's been a cookie here. But on November, Betacy,

838
00:49:42,239 --> 00:49:44,800
Speaker 1: you're playing hookie, joining us in the streets, demanding the

839
00:49:44,880 --> 00:49:47,120
Speaker 1: vote to county, because when we come together, we are

840
00:49:47,160 --> 00:49:52,279
Speaker 1: bigger than our ballots. Bars bars, bars, bars bars. Get

841
00:49:52,320 --> 00:49:54,359
Speaker 1: out of voting out the streets in November for us. Hey,

842
00:49:54,440 --> 00:49:59,760
Speaker 1: I'm dope knife Franca. We are waiting. Hurry up. Follow

843
00:49:59,840 --> 00:50:03,080
Speaker 1: us on i Heeart reparations on Instagram. See you next week.

844
00:50:03,800 --> 00:50:06,560
Speaker 1: Waiting on Reparations as a production of I Heeart Radio.

845
00:50:06,840 --> 00:50:09,760
Speaker 1: Listen to Waiting on Reparations on the i Heeart radio app,

846
00:50:09,960 --> 00:50:12,440
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.