Speaker 1: Wait that ass up in the morning. Breakfast Club Morning.
Speaker 1: Everybody is DJ mvy angela ye Charlemagne the guy. We
Speaker 1: are the Breakfast Club. We have a special guests in
Speaker 1: the building. The legend Kevin Low's welcome brother was good.
Speaker 1: What's good? How my guys? Girls doing? You really got
Speaker 1: the big cigar early in the morning. It's breakfast. It's
Speaker 1: my it's my my coffee. Man y y'all drink coffee.
Speaker 1: You know I smoke cigards. The whole case, you know,
Speaker 1: the case is down stairs. I got fifty in the car.
Speaker 1: You know how much one of those cars? But this
Speaker 1: one is forty nine dollars. And what is that? It's
Speaker 1: an adda back. It's an ADDI back. Okay, this is
Speaker 1: like my new thing that I do and I love.
Speaker 1: Everybody got their vices and this is just one of
Speaker 1: the things that I've taken up and become a connoisseur. True, true.
Speaker 1: Now you know, on a sad day, we want to
Speaker 1: start with one of the groups that you first signed
Speaker 1: to me. Man, one of the members Takeoff was killed. Uh,
Speaker 1: people that don't know. I just want to go back
Speaker 1: to what made you first signed Megos? What in the
Speaker 1: Meagles that made you sign them. Talk about his personality
Speaker 1: because a lot of people just won't know, you know,
Speaker 1: but listen, I and you know how I feel when
Speaker 1: you have a great partners And UM, first of all,
Speaker 1: my candolences to his family, UM to the Megos and
Speaker 1: um QC coach and PUM. I know what it is
Speaker 1: since you know I've been in the bin for forty
Speaker 1: years to lose an artists and employee, m a family member,
Speaker 1: and he was all those things. UM to them H
Speaker 1: And as I came up here to talk about protecting
Speaker 1: black art, I still got to talk about protecting us.
Speaker 1: And I think, UM, we're putting ourselves in a situation
Speaker 1: where we're not humanizing everyday lives. You know where we Yes,
Speaker 1: we we are superheroes, but we're still human. And stage
Speaker 1: names are one thing. But you're somebody's son, give somebody brother,
Speaker 1: you somebody's aunt, and a life taken too short. You understand.
Speaker 1: I literally just went through this with Rock. You know
Speaker 1: what I mean. And these are not people that I
Speaker 1: just know or listen to their music. I know them personally,
Speaker 1: and so UM, I didn't sign me goos. I work
Speaker 1: with coaching p and to develop a group that became
Speaker 1: one of the number one groups in the country and
Speaker 1: now we're sitting here today saddened by another unnecessary loss
Speaker 1: that's happening far too too much, in my opinion, and
Speaker 1: I think it's based on a lot of things. Um, COVID,
Speaker 1: people coming outside of COVID, lack of education, constant oppression,
Speaker 1: constant um of the gun law, is not getting passing
Speaker 1: the right where it's like, there's a whole host of things.
Speaker 1: But more point, that's somebody's son. It's not hitting them
Speaker 1: more man. And you know, I got I got a
Speaker 1: twenty four year old you're in Uh, it's sad, sad,
Speaker 1: you know, to your point, there's so many socioeconomic conditions
Speaker 1: that you know, just lead to crime or lead to
Speaker 1: putting people in that state of mind with something like
Speaker 1: that can happen. But you know a lot of people
Speaker 1: feel like the hip hop, the music you know is
Speaker 1: has become has either become always been a deaf lifestyle.
Speaker 1: What do you say to that? Um, I live it,
Speaker 1: and UM, I haven't killed anybody, and I consume more
Speaker 1: hip hop and part of hip hop than most people.
Speaker 1: But I will tell you that, UM, there's an issue.
Speaker 1: Um that UM it's it's black on black crime. Because
Speaker 1: we were taught to be um against each other. I
Speaker 1: had to be better than you, I had to do
Speaker 1: more than you. That's not that's hip hop. That's what
Speaker 1: we've been taught in an oppressive country. That you know,
Speaker 1: the things that that we shouldn't value. Life um like
Speaker 1: it's meant to be valued. And for those of us
Speaker 1: we're black, white, green, purple, or whatever, club that believe
Speaker 1: that music kills no gun kills, lack of education, education kills,
Speaker 1: racism kills, white supremacy kills. Those are the things. And
Speaker 1: I don't believe hip hop kills people. I believe people
Speaker 1: kill people. And hip hop provides a lot of opportunities
Speaker 1: for people too, for the artists, for the people that
Speaker 1: work with the artists, for people that have anything to do.
Speaker 1: I think that it has done a lot for us.
Speaker 1: Some people will tell you that the hip hop saved
Speaker 1: their life. Well, hip hop saved my life. I think
Speaker 1: I'm sitting in a room with people that if it
Speaker 1: weren't for hip hop, you guys wouldn't be here. You
Speaker 1: can act like breakfast club would exist without it. But
Speaker 1: that's good. It's good and bad and everything and that's good.
Speaker 1: And if you think about it, I think as we
Speaker 1: talk about the protecting black art, I think we don't
Speaker 1: have enough conversations. I commend you Charlemagne and all the
Speaker 1: conversations we're having around mental health. You know, but think
Speaker 1: about these massacures that happened. I'm not talking about one
Speaker 1: person killing another. So I'm thinking somebody thinking it's okay
Speaker 1: to take a gun and go to a school, it's
Speaker 1: okay to take a gun and go to a church.
Speaker 1: That's not hip hop. That's not right. That's that's that's
Speaker 1: it's racism. It's it's it's it's things that people have
Speaker 1: been It's okay now you know, it's okay now to
Speaker 1: let your racism out to everybody, and it's okay now
Speaker 1: to go do it because oh, I'm just gonna get
Speaker 1: locked up. But we've been locked up for four hundred
Speaker 1: years and we're still still mask in conceration. And you
Speaker 1: can't put that around a genre of music, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. So I guess your differences, Oh, I
Speaker 1: guess the difference isn't. Uh, this is what we're here
Speaker 1: to talk about. Right. Some people would be like, well,
Speaker 1: other people don't put it in their music. They don't
Speaker 1: celebrate it, you know, they don't glorify it through the
Speaker 1: art that they create. Well, what about Johnny Cash? What
Speaker 1: about the guy who said I shot the sheriff? You
Speaker 1: know what, you tell your story. So there was a
Speaker 1: country song and it was lyrics, and they gave it
Speaker 1: to one group of people and say, he's a country artist,
Speaker 1: his lyrics. And they took the same lyrics and gave
Speaker 1: it to another group of people and said, you know what,
Speaker 1: it's a rap song. Which one did people say offended
Speaker 1: people the most, the country song. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: You gave me the country lyrics, and technically it was
Speaker 1: the country song, right, And so I'll take it a
Speaker 1: step further. There's been a study five hundred cases where
Speaker 1: lyrics were used against black and brown people, and since
Speaker 1: nineteen fifty only four cases have been of lyrics have
Speaker 1: been used. Three of them got thrown out and one
Speaker 1: of them was overturned. Right. And then, even if you
Speaker 1: listen to heavy metal music, some of the things that
Speaker 1: they say are rock music. I remember Guns and Roses
Speaker 1: had that song. I used to love her, but I
Speaker 1: had to kill her right to come listen. It makes
Speaker 1: but did the person really kill somebody though? Okay, and
Speaker 1: ninety percent of the people didn't didn't kill people. Ship
Speaker 1: they're talking about is entertainment. Listen if you want to
Speaker 1: go there. And I'm a person that says, as long
Speaker 1: as this for everybody, as long as it's justice for everyone, right,
Speaker 1: I'm cool with it. But I can't I have guys
Speaker 1: sitting behind prison, I mean in prison right now. Not
Speaker 1: even they're using this racial biased thing to scare jurors,
Speaker 1: to scare the judges, to scare the community, to say, hey,
Speaker 1: they're a rap artists. Hey you know what, they call
Speaker 1: them king slime. So therefore he's the head of a game.
Speaker 1: Well how about this Atlanta. They've been Fulton County, they've
Speaker 1: been locked up for fomus. Crime is still up, Rapist
Speaker 1: still up, burglars still up. So what are we talking about?
Speaker 1: We're talking about lyrics here. Let's talk about because a
Speaker 1: lot of people would say, yeah, they agree to a
Speaker 1: certain extent, but then somebody would say, like, you know,
Speaker 1: if you're a rapper and you commit a crime and
Speaker 1: then you wrap that crime in your lyrics, you should
Speaker 1: be prosecuted for it. Okay, if you're a rapper and
Speaker 1: you're snitching on yourself. You do. I do believe you should.
Speaker 1: Actually the lyrics should be able to be talked to
Speaker 1: the judge and see if they could be used, but
Speaker 1: not if you can't just do it just to hold somebody. See,
Speaker 1: that's that's why I agree with that. So that's that's
Speaker 1: the laws that have been that's the laws that that's
Speaker 1: the legislation that Newsom signed off on. The legislation that
Speaker 1: a bowman and um a man Hank Johnson Atlanta is
Speaker 1: going federally. So these are things, but we got a
Speaker 1: lot of work to do right now. Young thug is
Speaker 1: sitting in prison and he can't be a father to
Speaker 1: his six kids. He couldn't bury his man. Little kid
Speaker 1: gonna is sitting can't take kids mother. These are these
Speaker 1: are pillars in the community. And if you got this
Speaker 1: thisten to what they're doing, they're taking positive things out
Speaker 1: of the community. So then you have chaos again. And
Speaker 1: so this is what If you've never been to Cleveland, n.
Speaker 1: And you never talked to somebody on Cleveland, N. Then
Speaker 1: you you don't know what I'm saying. But I know
Speaker 1: that in Baltimore because the streets there because people know it.
Speaker 1: I know people think differently. I know when you did
Speaker 1: the back to school festival, I know when you do
Speaker 1: the Christmas thing and Thanksgiving it. I know people think differently,
Speaker 1: and this is what these kids were doing. Now, I
Speaker 1: did see something which I didn't understand it, and I
Speaker 1: don't know how they're getting away with it. I've seen
Speaker 1: in the Thud case when the prosecutor said he was
Speaker 1: reading the lyrics right, and the prosecutors were like yeah,
Speaker 1: and even says the judge, and I couldn't understand how
Speaker 1: they were basically saying him fucking. The judge was basically saying,
Speaker 1: fucking you're that judge. That your time, And of course
Speaker 1: the judge held them for longer. But how are they
Speaker 1: getting away with just using just random lyrics to make
Speaker 1: it fit for a case They've been They've been getting
Speaker 1: away with it since inwa They've been getting away with
Speaker 1: since Iced Tea. I mean, it's this, this is I'm
Speaker 1: I'm forty years in the business right now, I've been
Speaker 1: fighting the same fight. But understand, if we let this go,
Speaker 1: I don't know if we'll have another Spike Lee. If
Speaker 1: we let this go, I don't know if we have
Speaker 1: another Steven Spielberg. I don't know if we have another
Speaker 1: creative or artists if we let this go. I think
Speaker 1: the difference with film and music is we know film
Speaker 1: is entertainment. Film is says this is fiction. We notice
Speaker 1: is not a real story. But rappers always based their
Speaker 1: lyrics on being real. Okay, And I have to tell you, um,
Speaker 1: because uh, maybe America doesn't want to see what's happening
Speaker 1: in a press place. Is that they maybe they don't
Speaker 1: want the news every single day. But I believe that
Speaker 1: stories are a lot of stories, and movies and games
Speaker 1: are created from really the call of duty. For those
Speaker 1: of us who play what there's no wars that ever happened,
Speaker 1: a simulation of wars that have happened before. Let's talk
Speaker 1: about um, Tony soprano. Let's talk about scar face. That's
Speaker 1: what you are all still fictional things. We know, it's
Speaker 1: not it's not it's not it's what's it's not fictional.
Speaker 1: With what I'm saying is there was a scar face.
Speaker 1: It might not have been named scarface, but there was
Speaker 1: a big drug dealer that came from somewhere that did it.
Speaker 1: There was a Tony soprano it might not have been
Speaker 1: in that pere. There was a wire. I lived it.
Speaker 1: So these things have happened. It's just that we've been
Speaker 1: programmed to say that is that, and this is this,
Speaker 1: and Freddie Merker, you could say you shot a man,
Speaker 1: that's to watch him down. You can say that, but
Speaker 1: you can't say that in your music. That's the issue
Speaker 1: here is I think we've been programmed in a way
Speaker 1: to think it's not all creativity. And again I preface
Speaker 1: this by saying, if you said my name is Kevin
Speaker 1: and I kicked down your door and robbed you, and
Speaker 1: I actually went and did that, I think you are
Speaker 1: snitching on yourself. And here's a point in time when yes,
Speaker 1: if you committed this crime and then you wrapped about it,
Speaker 1: then it should be permissible. But it shouldn't be something
Speaker 1: that's used. If it's something that's vague and ambiguous, that
Speaker 1: maybe doesn't apply. But it's just a story that somebody's
Speaker 1: telling it Like T Grizzly put out his album and
Speaker 1: he's telling stories, and they could be fiction ol it
Speaker 1: could be something based on things you know that he
Speaker 1: saw our experience or I could not you know T
Speaker 1: said to me because I think it's one of the
Speaker 1: most creative albums I've heard in a very long time.
Speaker 1: To actually tell stories, he said, Man, I had to
Speaker 1: watch of me saying it was me that I had
Speaker 1: to tell. It was a story that because if you
Speaker 1: can slip up in any kind of way, and it's
Speaker 1: a saying to you, m Charlemagne, that if guess what,
Speaker 1: if you say some thing out your mouth, it could
Speaker 1: be used against you because you said it just because
Speaker 1: you're a black man or a brown person in America,
Speaker 1: and we can do that to you, but we won't
Speaker 1: do it to other people. That's the problem I have.
Speaker 1: Think about the insurrection. What if that we with the
Speaker 1: black people decided to go take over the Capitol. What
Speaker 1: do you think why we wouldn't be having a conversation
Speaker 1: about bond, jail, jewelry. No, we dead, be dead sold.
Speaker 1: To me, I just think it's it's injustice for all.
Speaker 1: And this is the first time in the history of
Speaker 1: our business where we put the best signal up and
Speaker 1: we got cold played. To Megan, to Drake, to Spotify, YouTube, ACLU,
Speaker 1: to Color, Color of Change. You got so many groups
Speaker 1: that said every listen. If you think about it, do
Speaker 1: you think that uh, you know, you know I gonna say,
Speaker 1: but I'm gonna say anyway, when you think the companies
Speaker 1: would support the rhetoric I talk about white supremacy and
Speaker 1: all these things that is this No, but every universe
Speaker 1: wanna Sony. Everybody's backing it because enough is enough because
Speaker 1: as soon it's gonna happen, it's going to affect every industry.
Speaker 1: And so I approad them. Kevin, what do you think
Speaker 1: it's happening in Atlanta in particular, because it feels like
Speaker 1: Atlanta has really taken this to the next like extreme level.
Speaker 1: What's happening in Atlanta with their justice? But they attacking
Speaker 1: rappers in Atlanta? Um, I think it was in New
Speaker 1: York before then it was La whatever, it's the hottest
Speaker 1: music band. It's going to happen because it's a way
Speaker 1: to intimidate and and get racial bias to jurors and
Speaker 1: people at the community. I guarantee you right now, if
Speaker 1: you put one hundred people from Cleveland, ab and said,
Speaker 1: should young thug is he good for the community or
Speaker 1: bad for the community, because says he's good for the community.
Speaker 1: The same thing with Gunna. These guys are doing things
Speaker 1: that nobody else is doing in that community and ip
Speaker 1: plad them. Now, what are your thoughts on them? You know,
Speaker 1: at one time when they were trying to quote unquote
Speaker 1: banned drill music and ban the negative type of music,
Speaker 1: what are your thoughts on things like that? It's it's
Speaker 1: how I feel about banning any body from having freedom
Speaker 1: of speech, banning anybody from having an opportunity to say
Speaker 1: what's going on. Unfortunately, and unfortunately, drill music is driman.
Speaker 1: It is happening. It's out there. And you could say, well,
Speaker 1: and those are the ones that are snitching on themselves,
Speaker 1: you know, like detailing and I'm not all of them,
Speaker 1: but a lot of them are detailing exactly what happened,
Speaker 1: who had happened to in the videos with pictures of
Speaker 1: their opts and everything else, like listen. I can only say, uh,
Speaker 1: we should be smarter as a people, um um. I
Speaker 1: believe that. You know, how can you sit and actually
Speaker 1: do something and say you did it and really didn't
Speaker 1: do it? You know, I just don't believe like that's
Speaker 1: a smart way to live your life. That's not drill
Speaker 1: or rap or anything said. A smart way to be
Speaker 1: a life. Everything ain't for everybody. Now. They were saying that,
Speaker 1: you know, record labels are are bad for because they're
Speaker 1: making these records singles. Those are the records that they're
Speaker 1: going for. They're going for mixed show. And I know
Speaker 1: I've seen a clip that was running around. It was
Speaker 1: Leo Cohen when he was up there, and he was
Speaker 1: talking about how you know how you should play for
Speaker 1: I don't even know if we have the clip, but
Speaker 1: I think in the clip that Leo was talking about
Speaker 1: how he knows that sometimes rappers talk about things like
Speaker 1: promoting drugs and promoting violence, but you know, he knows
Speaker 1: it's wrong, but he still promotes it because it's almost
Speaker 1: like they're free you. I don't want to take word
Speaker 1: for where you're paraphrasing, but it's something along the line.
Speaker 1: I think. I think that's a little bit of unfair
Speaker 1: criticism to the executives, but only because artists make the
Speaker 1: music and you're letting artists be artists, and then you're
Speaker 1: distributing the art they give y'all, Yeah, I listen again.
Speaker 1: I remember when we had on ex throw your guns
Speaker 1: in there, um. But also remember when a publican he
Speaker 1: said fight the power, that's right. I also remember also
Speaker 1: think about, um, what are the artists that I love
Speaker 1: a little baby? If he did not come from where
Speaker 1: it came from, it thug didn't say his money, don't
Speaker 1: do this, that's true, he wouldn't have created the bigger picture.
Speaker 1: I do believe that Jay in his journey, wouldn't be
Speaker 1: the contributing citizen and father that he is without going
Speaker 1: through that journey. I don't believe Malcolm would have been Malcolm.
Speaker 1: But I don't believe. You go down the list of
Speaker 1: people so you can't. You can't say they used to
Speaker 1: say the same thing about jazz or Nigro spirits or
Speaker 1: race music. They used to say the same thing. This
Speaker 1: the ship. We're still fighting today. But how do we
Speaker 1: continue to fight? Right when I look at it, I
Speaker 1: look at the judge right in the Gunner case, right,
Speaker 1: and he was a brother black man, and you know,
Speaker 1: you hear all the details where you know they say
Speaker 1: basically they really have no violent information on Gunna, nothing
Speaker 1: violent on Gunna. And that the fact that the guy
Speaker 1: that looks like us that we fight for because we
Speaker 1: always say we want more people like us. In the course,
Speaker 1: the more people like us to be police officers, more
Speaker 1: people like us to be in the judicial system, and
Speaker 1: the guy that looks like us says, now we're gonna
Speaker 1: keep him in here. Yeah, you have to understand why
Speaker 1: it was a rico charge. A Rico charges to get
Speaker 1: affiliation anybody standing next to be next to the whole thing.
Speaker 1: And the only reason you would use a recal charge
Speaker 1: in this particular situation is to shake the tree. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because they don't have Noh, listen, it's to shake the tree.
Speaker 1: And I have to be honest with you. If you
Speaker 1: African American, uh in America, if you ain't been around it,
Speaker 1: seeing it, you ain't black. And that's that's that's the
Speaker 1: reality of it because we grew up not in places
Speaker 1: that um people would say are safe places. So I
Speaker 1: can't say I haven't. I think you're from a certain era.
Speaker 1: If you're from a certain era, you definitely was around it.
Speaker 1: Because you know, our kids aren't around it because we've
Speaker 1: created a different life for them. Yeah, we've created a
Speaker 1: different life. But when you say our kids, you're talking
Speaker 1: about the one percent. I only speak on the fattest
Speaker 1: part of you, and that is I joke with my kids.
Speaker 1: I said, I'm doing it protecting black ard thing I said,
Speaker 1: we're gonna go to the club later, and my son
Speaker 1: and my daughter twenty four, twenty two, they all say, well,
Speaker 1: who's DJ, But my eleven year or eight year old
Speaker 1: say the country Club. So the reality, yes, we are involvement,
Speaker 1: but we're still in the percentage of ourself. And UM,
Speaker 1: I just feel like, um, this this, this is not
Speaker 1: a moment in time. This is a movement. This is
Speaker 1: one of the biggest movements that we had. And I
Speaker 1: think we gotta be better fathers, better rappers, better human beings,
Speaker 1: better executives. And I think this is the first sign
Speaker 1: of you seeing adults um in the room and they
Speaker 1: come from our culture. I want to go back to
Speaker 1: something else you said, Kevin, just not just real quick.
Speaker 1: Why are you twenty year olds don't know the County Club?
Speaker 1: You've been a millionaire for a long time. What are
Speaker 1: you talking about? Why do you don't know the country Club? Charlemagne?
Speaker 1: I think they know the country Club, but they also
Speaker 1: know me, and so they Kevin, I want to ask you,
Speaker 1: since you said better executives, right, what a let's talk
Speaker 1: about you as an executive with your artist because we've
Speaker 1: seen you in the courtroom, we've seen you going there
Speaker 1: taking up of your artists. We see you, you know,
Speaker 1: with Megan the Stallion, supporting everything that she's doing. We
Speaker 1: see you with Tea Grizzly at you know, the screenings.
Speaker 1: What is the boundary between being an executive and working
Speaker 1: with these artists, because sometimes people feel like business and
Speaker 1: what it feels like kind of a friendship sometimes gets
Speaker 1: mixed up. So what are your rules when it comes
Speaker 1: to that. I'm them, I'm I'm an artist. I'm somebody
Speaker 1: who I was an artist, and I know how I
Speaker 1: want to be treated. But more importantly, every person you
Speaker 1: talked about just now, I've met their mother and their
Speaker 1: father and they said, take care of my baby. And
Speaker 1: so you know, Megan's my daughter, you know Doug, Gunna, Tea,
Speaker 1: they're my sons. Uh and you know Jay's my brother.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean. Plus like you, this is
Speaker 1: you know a lot of I heard something to come
Speaker 1: up with what they don't treat this like family. No,
Speaker 1: I treat my artists like family. That stomach hurt, My
Speaker 1: stomach hurt. My stomach hurt. That stomach hurt. That's why
Speaker 1: you see me on the front lines. And I think
Speaker 1: we have a responsibility. See that that's the problem where
Speaker 1: our industry um uh. And they want them to get
Speaker 1: to reap the rewards, but they don't want to go
Speaker 1: through the bullshit. So I want to. I want I
Speaker 1: want to smoke. I want it because I know if
Speaker 1: I stand next to them, it's going to make them
Speaker 1: a better person if I helped them get through it.
Speaker 1: And that's why it's a different thing than me, and
Speaker 1: I applaud the executives that of a noun of coming
Speaker 1: up and understanding that it's not about sitting on the sideline.
Speaker 1: You got to be a player coach. Can't this be
Speaker 1: a coaching owner. I've always had a respect for you.
Speaker 1: I've always had the utmost respect for you. But when
Speaker 1: I saw you in the courtroom, you know, standing up
Speaker 1: for a gunna, standing up for thug, standing up for
Speaker 1: why I sell, my respect went through the roof for
Speaker 1: exactly what you just said. Because you know, people will
Speaker 1: stand next to the artists when they're in reap the
Speaker 1: benefits of but then when the things go south, they're like, oh,
Speaker 1: they back away. So I mean you did that with
Speaker 1: no hesitation. I'll do it because I come from it.
Speaker 1: But the thing that you guys I know about me.
Speaker 1: I'm always be on the front line or what's right,
Speaker 1: and especially the front line of the things that I've
Speaker 1: been able to change my life in my family's life
Speaker 1: with it. And I believe call me an executive activists, father,
Speaker 1: whatever you want, when I want to call me, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna been the ark of justice to the right side. Now,
Speaker 1: you've always been very vocal, and you know Kanye was
Speaker 1: one of your artists. When you're away deaf Jam, you
Speaker 1: ever picked up the phone and try to reach out
Speaker 1: to him and try to have some conversations with him.
Speaker 1: I spoke to Kanye prior to all of this new
Speaker 1: stuff going on, UH, and I have to tell you, man, Um,
Speaker 1: I'm against racism of all kinds. Um. I'm against uh
Speaker 1: anti Semitic rhetoric. I'm against discrimination. I'm against us not
Speaker 1: focusing on us being one human race. And so when
Speaker 1: you see someone going through what he's going through, you
Speaker 1: have to allow that moment to I'm sure enough people's
Speaker 1: talking to him to put him in the place. Kanye's
Speaker 1: not fighting with the world. He's fighting himself right now.
Speaker 1: And the best position that I think we need to
Speaker 1: do for him is to provide love and guidance, and
Speaker 1: the love and guidance has to come from different places.
Speaker 1: It doesn't come from turning people down, you know, it
Speaker 1: comes from helping them understand where they are in life
Speaker 1: and helping them get to the right. Because Kanye has
Speaker 1: helped more people than he's hurt. I think the rhetoric
Speaker 1: is wrong and what he's trying to accomplish is a
Speaker 1: better way of accomplishment. And everything doesn't have to be
Speaker 1: for the media. Things should be able to happen behind
Speaker 1: closed doors. And you guys know, we've moved a lot
Speaker 1: of things that you guys have not even heard about
Speaker 1: because we have the relationships on all sides. I want
Speaker 1: to go back to protect black God thing. How much
Speaker 1: of the focus is being put on the artists to
Speaker 1: not record records about their criminal activity, I don't. I
Speaker 1: don't think. Um if if I knew an artist was
Speaker 1: a criminal, a drug deal a murderer, I think that's
Speaker 1: a different conversation. But if I if I, if I'm
Speaker 1: with an artist and he's around certain things and that's
Speaker 1: that's his environment, broken, he poor, and he's prolific, I
Speaker 1: want to help him change the narrative of his family
Speaker 1: and his life. And I also want to have the
Speaker 1: conversations that I have with a lot of the ogs
Speaker 1: that we have to do better and we have to
Speaker 1: be in their life, um not move out of their
Speaker 1: life constantly and check them sometimes, but also listen to
Speaker 1: him and so that that is. You know when I
Speaker 1: when I turned fifty, I said, I want to listen,
Speaker 1: I want to learn, I want to lead, and I
Speaker 1: want to love. And if it don't fall in those things,
Speaker 1: I'm just not about it. Do you ever teach? Of
Speaker 1: course you teach, but I'm talking about like you do
Speaker 1: come from that era of Public Enemy, You do come
Speaker 1: from the era of socially conscious music. Do you ever
Speaker 1: tell these artists like, hey man, you might want to
Speaker 1: try to do a bigger picture. Look how many records
Speaker 1: Kendrick's so old? Look what j Cole is doing? You
Speaker 1: have you ever done that? I never say emulate, always
Speaker 1: say tell your truth. And I believe that. Uh. You
Speaker 1: know if I would have went to Public Enemy and
Speaker 1: told Chuck your right, fight the power or n W
Speaker 1: a right, No, no, you could these things. These are
Speaker 1: moments in time that a record was written. But if
Speaker 1: Marvin write what's going on that that don't come from
Speaker 1: a space of being told what to do. And I
Speaker 1: don't believe my job is to tell him what to do.
Speaker 1: My job has provide them by the means and the
Speaker 1: education and the resources to tell their truth. And that's
Speaker 1: what I promote it tell your truth. And if your
Speaker 1: truth is what you saw, what you did, how it was,
Speaker 1: just tell your truth because those things are the things
Speaker 1: that are gonna bring and change people's lives. What we
Speaker 1: didn't ask how is stuck and gonna doing? Like? How
Speaker 1: are they doing? I mean you speak to them daily,
Speaker 1: I'm sure how are they doing? How was they mental?
Speaker 1: How are they holding up? How how would they feeling?
Speaker 1: Because they you know, they see it from a different side. Uh,
Speaker 1: don't don't, please, don't take this the wrong way. But um,
Speaker 1: I can't normalize jail. I can't normalize right yo, not
Speaker 1: talking to your kids, your mother's sick, not being able
Speaker 1: to take us something. I can't normalize how you feel?
Speaker 1: How would you feel behind it? I know how I feel.
Speaker 1: And if I couldn't talk to my kids, I couldn't be.
Speaker 1: My father's suffering through funnel little with dementia, hasn't talking
Speaker 1: two years. I can't be there for his last day,
Speaker 1: my one of my biggest I'm gonna come out a
Speaker 1: little keep passed. I can't be at the funeral, I
Speaker 1: know I would feel so I will never normalize that
Speaker 1: those four walls and that's that hold too many black
Speaker 1: and brown people, uh, for racists and white supremacy and
Speaker 1: all the things that the oppression that's been put on myself. People,
Speaker 1: how's your man in jail? He's in jail like he
Speaker 1: was twenty twenty three and one that he was down
Speaker 1: for twenty three he couldn't come out. So I'm trying
Speaker 1: to change that for him and all that. Yeah, listen,
Speaker 1: as we don't if you know, if the people don't know,
Speaker 1: we don't and if we don't even know how how
Speaker 1: people don't even know how to fight, like how to
Speaker 1: stand up, like how they competition, how could they be
Speaker 1: a part of it? You know? Yeah, I think one
Speaker 1: of the things that we have to do, if the
Speaker 1: midterms coming up next week, we have to vote. We
Speaker 1: have to get out and put people in the places
Speaker 1: that understand who we are, why we are, and the
Speaker 1: things that we need. You know, we have laws that
Speaker 1: are still in place for hundreds of years ago that
Speaker 1: they think they should work in twenty twenty two. My
Speaker 1: cell phone from ten years ago don't work the same
Speaker 1: way my new cell phone work. So why should we
Speaker 1: change these laws for what we are right now for
Speaker 1: for twenty two and beyond. And I just look at um,
Speaker 1: what can you do today? I think you need to
Speaker 1: go and make noise about this, this racist act, because
Speaker 1: it's not only affecting Listen, how about this in New
Speaker 1: York that's awarded somebody for the Malcolm X thirty six
Speaker 1: billion dollars. Listen, this is not about lyrics. This is
Speaker 1: not about rapmeo. This is about a racist system, justicism
Speaker 1: that's put there to put more brown and black people
Speaker 1: in jail. So this is bigger. This is about you
Speaker 1: getting out and vote. This is about passing legislation and
Speaker 1: pushing your congressman, your senators, your mayors, your governors to
Speaker 1: help us protect black art. And I'm not talking about music, guys,
Speaker 1: I'm talking about your art, your art, your art. I'm
Speaker 1: about to protect us, protect us, but we also got
Speaker 1: to protect us from us. We gotta protect ourselves. We
Speaker 1: gotta protect ourselves. So you think gonna will get out
Speaker 1: next time on bail because I know we've been hopeful
Speaker 1: and it's been what four times now, right, yeah? Yeah.
Speaker 1: The I am hopeful that UM the judge will look
Speaker 1: at these past six months and see that these guys
Speaker 1: are not the reason crime is what it is in Atlanta.
Speaker 1: I'm hopeful that um now the lead prosecutors left and
Speaker 1: they got they're regrouping, they're trying to push the case back.
Speaker 1: Right now, I'm hoping that UM the judge or see
Speaker 1: through this whole lyric thing and allow them to have
Speaker 1: a fair trial. That the thing is, I don't I
Speaker 1: don't mind going to trial. I don't mind because I
Speaker 1: think the guys that I know, that's not what they do,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. But I don't mind going
Speaker 1: to trial. But I'm what I mind is the racial
Speaker 1: bias that's happening because of the music and how the
Speaker 1: guys look. So do I think he's going to get out?
Speaker 1: I pray, Angela. I pray every day. I pray every
Speaker 1: day for God to have an understanding and to give
Speaker 1: the understanding to the judge and even the prosecutor, because
Speaker 1: I don't think this is even worth They're going to
Speaker 1: trial for Godda. I wonder if the fact that you
Speaker 1: have like all of these different reco cases happening in
Speaker 1: Atlanta is hurting the wire Sel case because you do
Speaker 1: have a whole other group who were actually rapping about
Speaker 1: home invasion and stuff. So sometimes when you hear it,
Speaker 1: you just feel like it's all blurred if you're just listening,
Speaker 1: you know, in the public. Yeah. Again, but our justice
Speaker 1: system shouldn't be blurred, and that this is the this
Speaker 1: is the problem. This is And so if you think
Speaker 1: about the actions that are being taken, and you think
Speaker 1: about this this one area, we're gonna clean Atlanta, not
Speaker 1: not not not in my my my account, it was
Speaker 1: a lot of a lot of things that we need
Speaker 1: to do where it's not locking up entrepreneurs, not locking
Speaker 1: up record labels. Again, anybody who commits a crime, I
Speaker 1: think they should be given a free trial also, but
Speaker 1: I think if they're rapping about it, they snitching on
Speaker 1: it on themselves, and those those lyrics should be presented
Speaker 1: to the judgs be used evidence. But you can't just
Speaker 1: say because I'm I'm want to go to war like Russia,
Speaker 1: that I want to go to war in Atlanta. Like No,
Speaker 1: it's just that it makes no sense. What they're saying,
Speaker 1: So I don't believe that. I do want to also
Speaker 1: to what changed in hip hop, because it's not like,
Speaker 1: you know, gang affiliation is new the hip hop, So
Speaker 1: why all of a sudden now it's like, okay, now
Speaker 1: this leads to ricos where the number one music in
Speaker 1: the world. When you're number one, it's so many things
Speaker 1: go at you, and so so many things are heightened
Speaker 1: right now. I don't believe we're be able to pass
Speaker 1: the legislation that we passed if we want the number
Speaker 1: one music in the world. I think you would have
Speaker 1: people scared to even come on with the movement if
Speaker 1: you want the number one music in the world. But
Speaker 1: it's no denying who we are. While we are, you
Speaker 1: have to address the issues right now, and we're in
Speaker 1: the position where we can hold people accountable. You know,
Speaker 1: back when I was young, cav I couldn't. I couldn't
Speaker 1: say I was trying to come up. Now, I don't care.
Speaker 1: What are you gonna do say due to me. I
Speaker 1: care about my people. I've always cared about my people,
Speaker 1: and I care about to a point right now where
Speaker 1: I don't mind being on the front line and taking
Speaker 1: whatever it takes to get our people to understand that
Speaker 1: all we want is a free an opportunity to be
Speaker 1: judged like everybody else and not be persecuted because the
Speaker 1: color of our skin or the lyrics that we wrap you. Um,
Speaker 1: I heard that You're which is so it's like full circle, right,
Speaker 1: your executive producing the Milli Vanilli biopic. I heard that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean you know, I want to I want to
Speaker 1: make sure that you get the story right. You know
Speaker 1: I got I got I protect I gotta protect that
Speaker 1: black art, black art. Even if he didn't sing, I
Speaker 1: gotta protect that black art. You wrote a song that million.
Speaker 1: Can you break this down for people who don't know
Speaker 1: I was sixteen telling this story idea? Yeah, I was
Speaker 1: sixteen in love, wrote a record, put it out, sold
Speaker 1: one hundred thousand copies. You know it's true. Yeah, Gary
Speaker 1: knows too. Two years later, I'm watching MTV and somebody
Speaker 1: video comes on. I never made a video and it
Speaker 1: was Milli Vanilli and it's sold eighteen million copies. It's
Speaker 1: the only reason I'm in I would have still wanted
Speaker 1: to if I would have made it, I still would
Speaker 1: have probably want to be in the music business. The
Speaker 1: only reason I've got into the business of music. It's
Speaker 1: because I never wanted that to happen to another artist,
Speaker 1: because it changed a life in a lot of way,
Speaker 1: and I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for that opportunity.
Speaker 1: So how did that come about? Because I don't know,
Speaker 1: a lot of people are too young to remember, but
Speaker 1: milliev Nilly was a joke for a long time and
Speaker 1: they blew up. But then it became like this big
Speaker 1: joke because actually taken his own life. Yep. Was it
Speaker 1: because of that? Was because because actually couldn't he couldn't
Speaker 1: handle what was going on. But you have to say,
Speaker 1: I'm put it into perspective. They sold eighteen million copies
Speaker 1: of one single. They were the biggest group at the
Speaker 1: at that time, they were the biggest, the biggest group.
Speaker 1: You couldn't tell him anything. They would It was sex, drugs,
Speaker 1: rock and roll, all the things that you want to
Speaker 1: talk about. And when that's taken away from you and
Speaker 1: people and you know you're trying, but you got caught
Speaker 1: up in the in the system and the hype. Um,
Speaker 1: some people can't deal with it the same way. And
Speaker 1: so again I wish they would have took my call
Speaker 1: back then. Because they didn't take my car and that
Speaker 1: stole my song because I might have been able to
Speaker 1: help get through it. How did you so you end
Speaker 1: up having to take them to court to get paid
Speaker 1: in all that? Take them to court? Man, Yeah, decide.
Speaker 1: That's why I learned the business like I know it now,
Speaker 1: you know, because I had to take seventeen years old.
Speaker 1: Eighteen years old, they just stole your song that you
Speaker 1: put out that you sold copies and was like, what
Speaker 1: was your what was your name? Back then? It was
Speaker 1: crime genius, Crime genius song. That's why you want to
Speaker 1: protect black art now you know what it was? Um? Um,
Speaker 1: my record was out in Germany and you know I
Speaker 1: toured and on tour with Rob Base and um crime Genius.
Speaker 1: I was, you know, big, and they heard in the
Speaker 1: club and um the guy just went and remade the song,
Speaker 1: put two people on it and never thought nobody would
Speaker 1: fight it. You know. I'm just a kid from Baltimore,
Speaker 1: you know. And really, if I didn't have the resources
Speaker 1: and I didn't have the will, you know how many
Speaker 1: people UH cheated on and and and stolen from and
Speaker 1: they just don't have the means, the means or the
Speaker 1: will or even because that's a fight, did it? Oh?
Speaker 1: All that calls you to fight that seven you know
Speaker 1: what I mean? No, man, they took us all. They
Speaker 1: they don't want to give it back. Seven million dollars.
Speaker 1: Seven million dollars. And when did you have that kind
Speaker 1: of money back age? You really was a crime genius
Speaker 1: the wire, you know you listen to God, Guys, Here's
Speaker 1: here's what I want to say. Uh, everything, everything, if
Speaker 1: every everybody, But more importantly, UM, when you're on the
Speaker 1: side of right, you have friends, you have family, you
Speaker 1: have lawyers that work uh in a sense of the
Speaker 1: set of the case, you know, and all those kinds
Speaker 1: of things. And I was just sing, um, I was
Speaker 1: so loved in the city and loved by my family
Speaker 1: that um, we were willing to clear my name and
Speaker 1: and and get what's right from my mind. That's still
Speaker 1: to this day, I'm able to sit back and collect checks,
Speaker 1: and when I'm not here, my kids will be collecting
Speaker 1: checks from from the record. And and that's why I
Speaker 1: want to be honest with you. It is why I
Speaker 1: fight uh for us, because I never want that to happen.
Speaker 1: And I'll always protect black art. No I think I
Speaker 1: think to protect black art campaign is great. The only
Speaker 1: pushback guy have is literally those guys who commit crimes
Speaker 1: and then go actually wrap in detail about the crime
Speaker 1: they committed. That's just ridiculous. And we and we are
Speaker 1: on the same page about that. And when I saying
Speaker 1: those those lyrics, if they can prove ABCD, I'm with
Speaker 1: presented to the judge. But but for the prosecutors to say,
Speaker 1: because they called you king slime, you're the leader of
Speaker 1: a gang, I'm not with that, y'all. I'm with you, right,
Speaker 1: I know with that. Here's a leader. Here's a leader.
Speaker 1: He's a leader of young stoner life. Regular you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, I'm regular, But yeah, here's a leader,
Speaker 1: you know. And I'm sorry. He's come up in a
Speaker 1: place where that the people has been oppressed and you know,
Speaker 1: people have been in and out his life in a way,
Speaker 1: and he's still learning how to be a man. This
Speaker 1: is like it goes back to cbfore. Remember C Before.
Speaker 1: Like C Before was literally a movie Chris Rock made
Speaker 1: about rappers who you know, started emulating the game in
Speaker 1: their music, just their music, just because they knew that's
Speaker 1: what would sell. Yeah, but but do you see what
Speaker 1: you that said that it was. It was a true story,
Speaker 1: just wasn't dead story. It just wasn't dead story. So
Speaker 1: all I'm saying is like artists, art man and I
Speaker 1: want to protect it. And if we don't get these
Speaker 1: let the legislations passed, if we don't get out of
Speaker 1: congressman and sentatives on on on our page. I don't
Speaker 1: know if there's gonna be another Spike Lee. He might
Speaker 1: not be to make that movie. I don't know if
Speaker 1: you're gonna end up Stephen King might make that novel.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's interesting you say that because I
Speaker 1: remember I had Making Good on my talk show last
Speaker 1: season and she she said that. Now I was like, no,
Speaker 1: I didn't even true. She was basically saying like, I
Speaker 1: gotta watch what character I play because nowadays people think
Speaker 1: that's really me, and I'm like, really as an actress,
Speaker 1: and this is this is listen, and this is the issue.
Speaker 1: This is the you that we have that yes, what
Speaker 1: you do and what you say is part of you,
Speaker 1: no matter if you're acting or not not acting. But
Speaker 1: if you're black and brown, it's definitely who you are.
Speaker 1: They're gonna say this who they will not treat, treat,
Speaker 1: they treat Denzil different than they create Russell Crowe sure
Speaker 1: it because of color and skin. And how can people
Speaker 1: follow you and help you and get more information to
Speaker 1: the course that you're running. I think it's a hashtag
Speaker 1: protect Black Art and you can go online and change
Speaker 1: dot org and look at the petition. I think we
Speaker 1: over seventy thousand people right now. And then, like I said,
Speaker 1: go out and vote. Make sure your legislators, your congressmen
Speaker 1: and senators know and your governors and hold them accountable.
Speaker 1: You know, let's let's hold them accountable for more than
Speaker 1: just saying Okay, we're doing this for this person. After
Speaker 1: this person, we got to hold them account to put
Speaker 1: laws and that help us govern our country and govern
Speaker 1: even our poor communities in a better way. All right, well,
Speaker 1: Kevil allows, Uh, what does the gene is? What is it? Crime? Genius? Genius?
Speaker 1: I'll do that, but trying to implicate him, No, don't, No,
Speaker 1: I was not a crime. I was not a crime genius.
Speaker 1: I was KG and I was in a group called Newmark.
Speaker 1: You have a lot of ladies and gentlemen. Og. We
Speaker 1: appreciate you, bro, God bless you guys. It's the Breakfast Club.
Speaker 1: Good morning,