WEBVTT - Georgia Anne Muldrow On The Personal Origin Of "Stay Woke" 0:00:00.240 --> 0:00:21.560 The quest Left show is a production of iHeart Radio. Okay, 0:00:21.760 --> 0:00:24.800 I was going to avoid this question, So here's the thing. 0:00:25.000 --> 0:00:31.920 Like I initially, I initially had so many musical questions, 0:00:31.920 --> 0:00:35.200 but because I didn't know you as a human being, 0:00:35.240 --> 0:00:37.480 I wanted to go through that route and just ask 0:00:37.520 --> 0:00:39.559 about your life as a human and a creator. 0:00:41.280 --> 0:00:43.400 But I'm going to close on. 0:00:43.280 --> 0:00:49.760 This last question, which is, how does it feel well 0:00:49.800 --> 0:00:54.320 to see something that you created, as in three words, 0:00:55.520 --> 0:01:03.360 that suddenly becomes all my It's like you you named 0:01:03.400 --> 0:01:06.600 this period like when we look at the time period 0:01:06.640 --> 0:01:10.880 when we speak of, uh, the Jim Crow period, when 0:01:10.920 --> 0:01:14.280 we speak of the civil rights period, when we speak 0:01:14.319 --> 0:01:21.320 of the reconstruction period, we will probably call the twenties. 0:01:21.720 --> 0:01:24.320 I don't know, but I know the word woke is 0:01:24.560 --> 0:01:29.959 going to to enter the lexicon when it comes to 0:01:32.640 --> 0:01:38.480 like describing it. What point did you realize, Holy shit, 0:01:38.680 --> 0:01:42.280 this like when I realized that, you know, white political 0:01:42.400 --> 0:01:45.400 pundits were now using it, when our enemies were using 0:01:45.440 --> 0:01:46.959 it especially I. 0:01:48.960 --> 0:01:51.720 Kept saying, right. 0:01:51.560 --> 0:01:54.480 But I kept saying, like God, I pray to Guy 0:01:54.480 --> 0:01:59.600 that Georgia like trademark that word so that it stays 0:01:59.600 --> 0:02:03.720 with her. When did you first coin the term was 0:02:03.720 --> 0:02:06.280 it when you were doing Master Teacher or like how 0:02:06.320 --> 0:02:06.560 did it? 0:02:07.280 --> 0:02:08.080 How did it come to be? 0:02:08.840 --> 0:02:13.720 It's so interesting, right because just even with Massive Teacher, right, 0:02:13.960 --> 0:02:17.160 like that song, like that was a day before I 0:02:17.200 --> 0:02:20.160 had a nervous breakdown, Like if I meant anything, I 0:02:20.200 --> 0:02:22.600 said it that day, do you know what I'm saying? 0:02:22.960 --> 0:02:25.000 So like if I meant anything, if I was like 0:02:25.040 --> 0:02:29.160 about it, like so many times I be so cringey 0:02:29.160 --> 0:02:31.640 about that song because like of what would happen the 0:02:31.720 --> 0:02:34.720 day after I made that song, you know, and it 0:02:34.840 --> 0:02:39.639 and I think that that's something so beautiful because it's 0:02:39.680 --> 0:02:43.040 like when you mean something so much, anything can happen. 0:02:43.560 --> 0:02:46.720 When you're actually cheating yourself, anything can happen. And so 0:02:46.919 --> 0:02:50.040 the state of Walk came from me and Lakeisha Benjamin 0:02:51.960 --> 0:02:55.040 being in New York in school trying to figure out 0:02:55.040 --> 0:02:57.120 how we're gonna get it out through the music like 0:02:57.160 --> 0:03:02.120 Cold Trane and and like you know, getting it out 0:03:02.160 --> 0:03:04.720 through the music, finding language for what it is that 0:03:04.840 --> 0:03:09.440 we're experiencing, you know. And at that time, Lakeisha Benjamin, I, 0:03:09.600 --> 0:03:12.560 like you know, we were jam session mates, you know, 0:03:12.919 --> 0:03:15.400 because I decided to drop out of the jazz program 0:03:15.480 --> 0:03:18.919 to just go learn by just being put in the blender, you. 0:03:18.840 --> 0:03:19.600 Know, and. 0:03:21.720 --> 0:03:26.800 Yeah, yeah, but she graduated. 0:03:26.840 --> 0:03:27.720 I ain't graduate. 0:03:28.280 --> 0:03:30.520 So it was just like those things was just like 0:03:30.600 --> 0:03:33.640 it was wild because there were certain things that the 0:03:33.680 --> 0:03:36.600 composition teacher didn't know what to tell me what my 0:03:36.720 --> 0:03:39.160 chords were, and it was all types of weird stuff 0:03:39.200 --> 0:03:41.080 going on like that. I'm just sat in the stage 0:03:41.080 --> 0:03:44.840 for coming from a community as you well know, like 0:03:44.920 --> 0:03:47.520 being from Philly. You know what I'm saying, Gamble up, 0:03:47.600 --> 0:03:51.080 somebody got a coofy on. Like it's like it's like 0:03:51.240 --> 0:03:53.360 somebody got consciousness, you know what I'm saying. Oh, Jay's 0:03:53.360 --> 0:03:56.600 got animal rights songs, they got chugarhoy, they got branded. 0:03:57.240 --> 0:03:59.680 It's like they're going through the whole gamut of like 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:00.840 every walk. 0:04:00.600 --> 0:04:01.400 A lot, you feel me. 0:04:01.560 --> 0:04:03.440 So I'm just saying it like because you're on my side, 0:04:03.480 --> 0:04:05.320 you feel me, decided to put you there. But like 0:04:06.280 --> 0:04:09.520 coming from the Mert Park where it's like like coming 0:04:09.560 --> 0:04:12.840 from the world stage, like my dad owned like a 0:04:12.920 --> 0:04:15.960 coop for every day of the year. Jazz or it's 0:04:16.000 --> 0:04:21.600 so called jazz right was never not an afrocentric expression 0:04:22.200 --> 0:04:26.599 in my whole life. It was always an afrocentric expression. 0:04:26.640 --> 0:04:30.400 It was always a diaspora, you know, a gem of 0:04:30.440 --> 0:04:34.040 the diaspora. It was never a question of is jazz 0:04:34.120 --> 0:04:36.760 even black. So when I go to school and they 0:04:36.800 --> 0:04:39.279 go like, jazz isn't black at all, I have to 0:04:39.279 --> 0:04:42.280 stand up and be like, sir, you lying. Children are 0:04:42.279 --> 0:04:45.600 from Japan and different parts of the world because they 0:04:45.640 --> 0:04:47.360 want to learn the truth. They're paying you to tell 0:04:47.480 --> 0:04:49.760 the truth, and now you're not telling the truth, so and. 0:04:49.640 --> 0:04:50.680 I have to tell you the truth. 0:04:51.040 --> 0:04:52.679 So it's like this was woke. 0:04:53.040 --> 0:04:56.680 Okay, this was the same thing as not pledging allegiance 0:04:56.760 --> 0:05:00.400 in school, you know, and like it was like the 0:05:00.440 --> 0:05:02.719 build up of that time at the time going to 0:05:03.680 --> 0:05:08.520 MARCHI again's occupation in Palestine as a child in elementary school, 0:05:08.680 --> 0:05:11.640 junior hi, you know, all of that kind of stuff, 0:05:11.760 --> 0:05:17.360 like being politically active since birth, right, going like, well, 0:05:17.400 --> 0:05:21.279 how does this translate into tones? Right? So we're like 0:05:21.400 --> 0:05:24.120 talking and talking for like a long conversation like this one, 0:05:24.200 --> 0:05:27.720 but even longer. Yeah, like marathon conversation. I'm going to 0:05:27.760 --> 0:05:29.440 see her tomorrow, but we're trying to get to the 0:05:29.440 --> 0:05:32.200 bottom of it because it was like there is a 0:05:32.240 --> 0:05:36.080 translation for this and so but we couldn't get down 0:05:36.120 --> 0:05:39.080 to the bottom of it in the night, so Keisha, 0:05:39.120 --> 0:05:41.040 of course would be the first one to fall asleep, 0:05:41.400 --> 0:05:43.880 and then she'd be like, yo, I'm trying to stay woke. 0:05:43.960 --> 0:05:49.040 But yeah, I'm trying to stay woke, but I'm I'm 0:05:49.080 --> 0:05:51.480 passing out. I'm like, yo, I'll trying to stay woke. 0:05:52.360 --> 0:05:54.960 And for me, I was in the thing just as 0:05:54.960 --> 0:05:56.919 a visual I've been always been a visual artist. So 0:05:56.960 --> 0:06:00.440 what I would do is is somebody said something cool 0:06:00.520 --> 0:06:03.760 like it was like my it was like my visual 0:06:03.800 --> 0:06:06.600 Prince Paul, the way I could take a snapshot out 0:06:06.640 --> 0:06:10.320 of something I love so much, I write it on 0:06:10.400 --> 0:06:13.640 my clothes, just as like it's like I write on 0:06:13.640 --> 0:06:17.000 my clothes, or like if like my roommate say Dancy 0:06:17.080 --> 0:06:20.360 Dancy and I wrote it. I wrote my clothes Dancy Dancy, 0:06:20.480 --> 0:06:22.440 you know. And I remember she's like, heyo, you're making 0:06:22.480 --> 0:06:23.719 me cringe with that shit stopped that ship. 0:06:23.720 --> 0:06:27.279 I'm like no, no, like no, this is part of 0:06:27.320 --> 0:06:28.880 my thoughts, Like shut up, you're right. 0:06:28.920 --> 0:06:30.880 So it was like that's what it was. But I 0:06:30.920 --> 0:06:36.800 remember very vividly I wrote stay Woke with a kiddie 0:06:36.800 --> 0:06:40.360 marker on this old white t shirt, you know, and 0:06:41.480 --> 0:06:44.440 it was just right there over my heart, and I 0:06:44.480 --> 0:06:47.320 remember I wrote it as a reminder not to kill myself, 0:06:48.560 --> 0:06:51.560 you know. I wrote it as a reminder to like 0:06:51.960 --> 0:06:56.279 survive the day that, don't kill yourself yet you know, 0:06:56.360 --> 0:07:00.919 stay woke. Like yeah, it was definitely like during those moments, 0:07:00.960 --> 0:07:03.960 like you know what I mean. And just the sheer 0:07:04.000 --> 0:07:08.400 amount of volume in my lifetime of these black student 0:07:08.560 --> 0:07:13.160 union programs having their fundraising T shirts be saying stay woke, 0:07:13.680 --> 0:07:16.040 and it's like the NASA logo and they sample, like 0:07:16.080 --> 0:07:18.680 they sample and logos and then say stay woke. The 0:07:18.800 --> 0:07:24.679 amount of stay woke shirts, like even before the politicians 0:07:24.720 --> 0:07:28.880 did it, it was the student the students that did it, 0:07:29.160 --> 0:07:32.480 the black students. That when I saw that coming back 0:07:32.520 --> 0:07:37.520 at me, I said, whoa, it was real like there 0:07:37.560 --> 0:07:41.480 had been a transmission made, you know. And that's where 0:07:42.360 --> 0:07:46.080 I just have such a love for like being kind 0:07:46.120 --> 0:07:48.520 of person what concepts me more than me than like 0:07:49.120 --> 0:07:52.920 than exposure. You know, I care more about what people 0:07:53.200 --> 0:07:55.560 care about themselves. I care more about what people think 0:07:55.600 --> 0:07:57.560 about themselves than I do. What they think of me 0:07:58.440 --> 0:08:01.000 or if they know me. I want to know that 0:08:01.240 --> 0:08:03.440 if after I've been here on this planet, that they 0:08:03.560 --> 0:08:06.680 people have strived to know theirself more that they know 0:08:06.760 --> 0:08:10.000 who they are. They they value that they're special, that 0:08:10.040 --> 0:08:16.679 their uniqueness is intrinsic to the elevation of us coming 0:08:16.720 --> 0:08:20.880 together as a whole in a permanent, conscious, every day, 0:08:20.920 --> 0:08:23.679 every moment kind of way. Well, if you don't love yourself, 0:08:23.680 --> 0:08:26.920 you can't do that as a group, you know. So 0:08:27.040 --> 0:08:30.680 I care more about that, you know. So in that 0:08:30.840 --> 0:08:33.360 care when you see there's flashes of that kind of care, 0:08:33.400 --> 0:08:36.640 that just like thing and it really happens that way. 0:08:37.000 --> 0:08:41.600 It's wonderful. And then when people who are subscribed to 0:08:42.000 --> 0:08:44.960 whiteness as a religious spirit, you know, with the religious 0:08:44.960 --> 0:08:47.560 spirit of whiteness, when they say that they hate me, 0:08:48.440 --> 0:08:50.839 then I'm like, that means I'm doing everything right. 0:08:50.920 --> 0:08:51.960 This is great. You know. 0:08:52.520 --> 0:08:54.520 It's the new nigga where it's like they could say woke. 0:08:55.360 --> 0:08:59.240 They call somebody woke and wokeism is killing America. I'm like, 0:08:59.480 --> 0:09:02.320 this is one Like I love that like for me, 0:09:03.000 --> 0:09:05.719 because the deal is, you know what, for me, it 0:09:05.880 --> 0:09:09.280 was too for real mirrors Like yo, I got songs 0:09:09.320 --> 0:09:12.400 about Venezuela that's like, you know, seventeen years old, like 0:09:12.480 --> 0:09:15.200 you know, I really do. So I went through a 0:09:15.240 --> 0:09:18.719 lot of intimidation under like behind the radar. I went 0:09:18.720 --> 0:09:20.480 through a lot of different things like that, you know, 0:09:21.040 --> 0:09:24.319 but I still get small because I'm still alive. They 0:09:24.360 --> 0:09:27.320 can't do nothing to me, you know. So it's like 0:09:27.840 --> 0:09:32.000 going through those things, right when they say that, that 0:09:32.120 --> 0:09:35.839 verifies those things like yeah, yeah, you can't even hold 0:09:35.880 --> 0:09:38.719 that back. Oh I do scare you? 0:09:39.840 --> 0:09:40.040 Yeah? 0:09:40.080 --> 0:09:44.760 And and the part that's scaries that there's more of 0:09:44.880 --> 0:09:50.360 me everywhere. There's more people who have taken creative licenses 0:09:50.520 --> 0:09:53.400 to be all of who they are, you know, and 0:09:53.800 --> 0:09:59.560 to not withhold their blackness for love, you know, not 0:09:59.679 --> 0:10:03.760 with their self love right, the love of themselves so 0:10:03.800 --> 0:10:06.120 that someone else can love them. Because now it's all 0:10:06.120 --> 0:10:08.840 following apart. It's like, you know, if everybody focus on 0:10:08.920 --> 0:10:11.520 loving themselves more than we wouldn't have this drama. People 0:10:11.520 --> 0:10:14.760 wouldn't be hurting other people. You do your personal growth exercise, 0:10:15.240 --> 0:10:18.120 you know, you figure out what's wrong with you. You 0:10:18.120 --> 0:10:20.560 know what I'm saying, And sometimes you got to call 0:10:20.640 --> 0:10:22.520 for help and get to figure out what's wrong with you. 0:10:22.920 --> 0:10:25.600 But that's a way of loving yourself instead of hurting people. 0:10:26.000 --> 0:10:29.640 And so I just always hope that for me, woke 0:10:29.720 --> 0:10:34.440 mean to be undomesticated. You know, your awareness is undomesticated. 0:10:35.240 --> 0:10:37.960 You know, there's something of a bit wild and feral 0:10:38.080 --> 0:10:39.880 about you that hopes for good things. 0:10:55.520 --> 0:11:00.720 So I heard this clip of Georgia Animaldreaux and you're 0:11:00.760 --> 0:11:05.880 asking her about coining the term woke. Yeah, the turn 0:11:05.960 --> 0:11:09.920 has become so synonymous with our age and just how 0:11:09.920 --> 0:11:15.800 she feels about the scale that that's taken on and 0:11:15.880 --> 0:11:19.560 the story of the the original Yeah. 0:11:20.120 --> 0:11:24.440 I wasn't expecting that answer, and you know, because I'll 0:11:24.440 --> 0:11:25.240 admit that. 0:11:26.520 --> 0:11:26.840 Okay. 0:11:26.920 --> 0:11:36.760 So oftentimes the gatekeeping issue of like this language. 0:11:32.480 --> 0:11:35.960 Of black folks, like once it enters the. 0:11:36.400 --> 0:11:39.120 Mainstream John for instance, Yeah, then. 0:11:39.080 --> 0:11:41.760 Suddling, it's over, Like it's over, you know, close the 0:11:41.800 --> 0:11:46.640 shop up. But now I feel like some sort of 0:11:46.679 --> 0:11:52.199 like renewed sense of purpose of keeping it in with purpose, 0:11:52.760 --> 0:11:55.360 you know, now that I know her definition of it, 0:11:56.040 --> 0:12:00.800 of it all and of course at its ugliest, currently 0:12:00.840 --> 0:12:05.120 being used as a way to weaponize or to describe, 0:12:06.160 --> 0:12:07.920 you know, I. 0:12:07.880 --> 0:12:13.040 Guess the coloquialism of just what we're supposed to. 0:12:13.160 --> 0:12:15.440 You know, you hear woke politics or you know, but. 0:12:15.840 --> 0:12:19.640 It's interesting too, because what when people are railing against 0:12:19.880 --> 0:12:24.680 woke politics, they're like railing against humanism. Yeah, liket, they're 0:12:24.760 --> 0:12:28.320 railing against caring about people who don't look like safe. 0:12:29.120 --> 0:12:30.559 Yeah, it's a safe way. 0:12:30.559 --> 0:12:33.640 It's the new inward right. I mean what in word 0:12:33.920 --> 0:12:37.240 was for the nineties or whatever. Now it's like woke politics, 0:12:37.320 --> 0:12:37.960 which you know. 0:12:38.800 --> 0:12:44.280 Yeah, but again hearing her describe what that means to 0:12:44.320 --> 0:12:47.319 her and how that like saved her life, like. 0:12:47.400 --> 0:12:49.160 Kind of literally saved their life. 0:12:49.200 --> 0:12:52.080 And I know Georgia personally, she talked in that clip 0:12:52.120 --> 0:12:53.760 about running around in the Myrt Park. I used to 0:12:53.800 --> 0:12:56.440 run around the Murt Park with her, Like we go 0:12:56.559 --> 0:12:59.000 back years and years and years. And when she said 0:12:59.000 --> 0:13:03.920 that about like she wrote that to like stay alive. 0:13:04.400 --> 0:13:08.880 She wrote that to give her fuel to not kill herself. 0:13:09.559 --> 0:13:13.240 Like I felt that so deeply because she's she's like 0:13:13.800 --> 0:13:16.680 that kind of person. Like you know, there are people 0:13:16.679 --> 0:13:19.679 in life that are just fireballs, like they are just 0:13:20.679 --> 0:13:24.000 made of energy from somewhere else and they don't belong 0:13:24.080 --> 0:13:25.959 here on this plane in this time. And a lot 0:13:26.000 --> 0:13:29.800 of times, like people like that, with that purity of spirit, 0:13:29.880 --> 0:13:35.240 they struggle to exist in this world. And it's amazing 0:13:35.400 --> 0:13:42.160 that in her challenge to stay connected to people, she 0:13:42.320 --> 0:13:46.480 comes up with a term like that, captures it and 0:13:46.520 --> 0:13:47.480 gives it to the world. 0:13:48.360 --> 0:13:52.240 Yeah, I you know, she gets all the gratitude for 0:13:52.320 --> 0:13:57.240 me for that. And again, normally slang, especially now might 0:13:57.400 --> 0:13:59.679 only slang used to last. 0:13:59.520 --> 0:14:00.120 For two years. 0:14:00.720 --> 0:14:03.640 When's the last time you were at six seven? So well, 0:14:04.960 --> 0:14:07.400 I watch a lot of NBA basketball. So whenever they 0:14:07.520 --> 0:14:09.880 still doing that, whenever they cut to the to the 0:14:09.920 --> 0:14:10.839 little kids at the. 0:14:10.840 --> 0:14:14.080 Game, they they don't like, they don't, they don't know. 0:14:14.240 --> 0:14:16.439 It's like how they used to floss dance ten years 0:14:16.480 --> 0:14:18.120 ago just because they didn't know what else to do 0:14:18.160 --> 0:14:20.600 with their bodies. It's like that kind of thing. Now 0:14:21.480 --> 0:14:24.720 that's what they're It's a default. Got you Yeah, so 0:14:25.760 --> 0:14:28.720 for you, what does the term mean now? 0:14:28.760 --> 0:14:29.560 For you? Personally? 0:14:29.920 --> 0:14:35.400 I only see people saying it now in a negative connotation. 0:14:35.560 --> 0:14:38.560 I only see it on Twitter. I only see it 0:14:38.640 --> 0:14:42.160 like or hear it when somebody who I don't agree 0:14:42.200 --> 0:14:46.360 with is talking about politics or media like it's a 0:14:46.600 --> 0:14:49.960 terrible sort of claiming that they've made of It reminds 0:14:50.040 --> 0:14:53.520 me of like hotep, like that term used. 0:14:53.360 --> 0:14:55.080 To miss Chicago. 0:14:55.600 --> 0:14:57.600 I don't know if it's Chicago. I first started hearing 0:14:57.640 --> 0:15:00.120 it in college. I went to Southern Illinois University, so 0:15:00.160 --> 0:15:03.440 it was people from Chicago, people from Saint Louis, but 0:15:03.560 --> 0:15:06.360 it was just a type of person like the hit. 0:15:07.280 --> 0:15:08.400 Yeah, you know what I'm saying. 0:15:08.720 --> 0:15:14.160 But I remember Erica playing it for me maybe two 0:15:14.200 --> 0:15:17.520 months before the album came out, And you know, there's 0:15:17.600 --> 0:15:21.480 there's two parts of that song. It's a six to 0:15:22.240 --> 0:15:26.880 seven maybe six or seven minute song, and initially when 0:15:26.920 --> 0:15:29.080 she was playing it, like I was totally missing it 0:15:29.080 --> 0:15:32.520 because the first half of the song is just chaotic 0:15:32.600 --> 0:15:38.840 in its arrangement, like you know, Erica Georgia creative Partners 0:15:38.920 --> 0:15:41.960 like that whole creative circle. 0:15:42.040 --> 0:15:43.760 Yeah that that that that system. 0:15:44.320 --> 0:15:50.240 And of course the second half, which is just Erica 0:15:50.320 --> 0:15:54.240 James Poyson Blaw doing a slow down somba version of it, 0:15:54.840 --> 0:15:58.360 That's when I really like locked into it, yeah, and 0:15:58.360 --> 0:16:01.120 and then absorbed the song that way. It's you know, 0:16:01.400 --> 0:16:04.640 Master Teacher used to always that was like my favorite 0:16:04.680 --> 0:16:07.600 cut on that record. It's weird, like I don't think 0:16:07.600 --> 0:16:11.920 anyone has We're not mating people credit that song or 0:16:12.040 --> 0:16:15.960 Eric Abadu as the originator behind it. 0:16:16.480 --> 0:16:19.200 I mean, but it's much like six seven in that way, 0:16:19.840 --> 0:16:24.040 right where it's this cultural language that everybody's using, but 0:16:24.080 --> 0:16:26.560 nobody even questions where it came from most of the time. 0:16:26.880 --> 0:16:28.160 Well, I don't think people know. 0:16:28.520 --> 0:16:31.240 I'm very slow in trying to not make it like 0:16:31.280 --> 0:16:32.800 the self congratulatory thing. 0:16:33.000 --> 0:16:34.800 All I do know is that. 0:16:35.400 --> 0:16:37.280 You know, it had a life of its own, like 0:16:37.360 --> 0:16:41.320 at the height of Okay players powers as far as 0:16:41.360 --> 0:16:45.560 the boards are concerned, like it lived there. And then, 0:16:45.600 --> 0:16:49.440 of course two thousand and six to two thousand and seven, 0:16:49.520 --> 0:16:52.640 two thousand and eight was around the time when people 0:16:52.680 --> 0:16:55.520 started migrating from Okay Player and just going to Twitter, 0:16:56.400 --> 0:17:01.400 which really starts the genesis of what we now turn. 0:17:01.320 --> 0:17:02.280 Black Twitter or whatever. 0:17:02.960 --> 0:17:07.359 And so yeah, once I saw used outside of the 0:17:08.280 --> 0:17:12.440 Okay Player circle, that's when even I was amazed that, 0:17:12.720 --> 0:17:14.879 like the viralness of it, because I just thought it 0:17:14.920 --> 0:17:16.040 was just inside speak that. 0:17:16.240 --> 0:17:22.040 But then and then the Childish Gambino song, Yeah, yeah, 0:17:22.080 --> 0:17:24.600 I mean, and that I think that really puts I. 0:17:24.640 --> 0:17:25.760 Totally forgot about that part. 0:17:25.920 --> 0:17:28.360 Yes, yes, that put it in the stratosphere. And then 0:17:28.400 --> 0:17:34.320 everybody was like whatever that moment was, everybody glombed on 0:17:34.480 --> 0:17:36.560 to the term I feel like after. 0:17:36.320 --> 0:17:39.800 That, right, oh yeah, well then it got nashed on 0:17:39.960 --> 0:17:44.480 and then overused and whatnot. Do you find yourself using 0:17:44.520 --> 0:17:48.560 it ever and just your everyday talking vernacular? 0:17:48.600 --> 0:17:50.960 But I'm not sure I ever did, though. Do you 0:17:50.960 --> 0:17:53.359 feel like you have permission to use it or not? Well, 0:17:53.400 --> 0:17:56.480 I feel like if I'm using it, then I'm using 0:17:56.560 --> 0:18:00.480 it in that intentionally political way that sort of removed 0:18:00.520 --> 0:18:04.359 from the original meaning, Like like the original meaning was 0:18:04.400 --> 0:18:07.879 just kind of like stay away, stay aware, yeah, stay aware, right, 0:18:07.960 --> 0:18:11.199 you know, But like now it's got all of this, 0:18:12.400 --> 0:18:16.520 it's got different levels of culture all rolled into it now, 0:18:17.440 --> 0:18:20.719 so that when you say it, it now touches on 0:18:20.760 --> 0:18:22.919 the way that most people use it now, which is 0:18:23.880 --> 0:18:27.680 that negative connotation that political. So in this tug of war, 0:18:29.080 --> 0:18:31.720 should we try to hang on with all of our 0:18:31.840 --> 0:18:34.040 might or just like that's that's And that takes me 0:18:34.119 --> 0:18:35.959 back to the hotep thing where I remember I had 0:18:35.960 --> 0:18:37.880 an argument on Twitter with somebody. 0:18:37.560 --> 0:18:38.720 Someone call you a hotel. 0:18:39.080 --> 0:18:44.359 No, nobody eould call me a hotel. But I was 0:18:44.520 --> 0:18:46.879 arguing with somebody on Twitter. And this had to be 0:18:47.000 --> 0:18:51.080 like twenty eleven, twenty twelve or something like that, when 0:18:51.520 --> 0:18:54.919 it was first being introduced to me that some people 0:18:54.960 --> 0:18:57.639 within our community that had values that I didn't align 0:18:57.720 --> 0:19:01.800 with were calling themselves that like they were they were 0:19:01.800 --> 0:19:06.960 claiming the negative common connotation of it and calling themselves that. 0:19:07.240 --> 0:19:08.479 Do you know the origins of it? 0:19:09.000 --> 0:19:11.280 I don't know the actual I know how I first 0:19:11.320 --> 0:19:13.199 heard it, I don't know the actual origin. 0:19:13.240 --> 0:19:16.960 The first time I heard it common rhyme on it. 0:19:18.560 --> 0:19:23.240 On Ghetto Heaven, he said, hoole tep. 0:19:23.680 --> 0:19:27.080 That's the first time I heard it used in the 0:19:27.400 --> 0:19:32.639 second verse or the last verse of Ghetto Heaven. Actually, 0:19:32.680 --> 0:19:37.960 I thought he was just calling somebody a Hoe's Rasha's 0:19:38.040 --> 0:19:41.440 world famous for subliminal dishes. 0:19:41.920 --> 0:19:44.080 Back to this day, people don't know. 0:19:44.640 --> 0:19:48.520 I still when I see like seven or eight figures, 0:19:49.040 --> 0:19:51.920 if they don't respond negative to me, I'm like. 0:19:52.640 --> 0:19:55.400 Okay, you still have nothing. It went over your head, 0:19:55.560 --> 0:19:58.200 Like twenty seven years later, you still haven't listened to. 0:19:59.800 --> 0:20:02.160 Like Wanted for Chocoal the album, been like, hey wait 0:20:02.200 --> 0:20:05.240 a minute, but yeah, that's the first time I used it, 0:20:05.320 --> 0:20:05.880 and I. 0:20:06.040 --> 0:20:08.280 And that was when that was when I was in 0:20:08.600 --> 0:20:11.679 undergrad and that's when people were using it very sincerely 0:20:11.800 --> 0:20:15.800 as a way for like afrocentric people to communicate with 0:20:15.840 --> 0:20:18.280 each other and like greet each other on the yard 0:20:18.359 --> 0:20:20.120 or at the coffee shop or at the open mic 0:20:20.240 --> 0:20:22.520 like and it was it was like a term that 0:20:22.520 --> 0:20:24.960 people were using to try to point back to, like 0:20:25.880 --> 0:20:27.120 our africanness. 0:20:27.320 --> 0:20:29.800 Right, it was seen as like, oh, this is cool, like. 0:20:30.280 --> 0:20:32.879 But then it almost leads into corniness. 0:20:32.320 --> 0:20:38.119 And because and and it's funny because the negative aspect 0:20:38.160 --> 0:20:39.879 of it, a negative way to look at it to me, 0:20:40.000 --> 0:20:45.840 is crystallized in Fonte's verse on Yo Yo, right, and 0:20:45.880 --> 0:20:49.960 he describes that that that coffee shop doing trying to 0:20:49.960 --> 0:20:52.760 stop him from eating bacon or is talk down to 0:20:52.800 --> 0:20:55.359 him morally and ethically, but he's still all about the 0:20:55.400 --> 0:20:56.160 holes or whatever. 0:20:56.240 --> 0:20:56.720 To me, it. 0:20:56.840 --> 0:21:01.560 Literally ended to me like, oh he fined. He didn't 0:21:01.640 --> 0:21:04.679 use the word, but he defined the whole TEP and 0:21:04.720 --> 0:21:08.320 the whole TEPS politics and the things that were negative 0:21:08.560 --> 0:21:11.480 around people using that term and what And it was 0:21:11.520 --> 0:21:14.320 really what women were trying to call out about people 0:21:14.480 --> 0:21:18.760 like that, right that they presented this sort of cultural uniform. 0:21:19.960 --> 0:21:20.960 They was on some bullshit. 0:21:21.560 --> 0:21:27.679 So WHOTEP is quasi an afrocentric hypocrite? 0:21:28.520 --> 0:21:30.720 Yes, yeah, it's afrocentric hypocrite. 0:21:30.720 --> 0:21:35.280 It's like a wolf in Sheep's clothing in some senses like. 0:21:34.600 --> 0:21:38.280 Like but not to be confused with well right now, 0:21:38.600 --> 0:21:44.359 like we have our own level of podcast bros who 0:21:45.359 --> 0:21:50.000 you know for the offering their word salad kind of. 0:21:51.200 --> 0:21:54.159 Gibbering manisphere right stuff. 0:21:54.000 --> 0:21:58.199 And but not coming in the name of a koofi 0:21:58.680 --> 0:21:59.560 or that sort of thing. 0:22:00.119 --> 0:22:03.520 Damn. I just remember Jim Jones coined the term koofy smack, 0:22:05.080 --> 0:22:07.640 So I actually had to look on. 0:22:07.760 --> 0:22:11.320 Urban Dictionary to see what the proper so the original 0:22:11.359 --> 0:22:15.600 meaning derived from ancient Egyptian word meaning to be at 0:22:15.640 --> 0:22:20.879 peace or contentment, used as a greeting amongst. 0:22:20.640 --> 0:22:22.520 Black people since the nineteen seventies. 0:22:22.800 --> 0:22:27.080 Even then, when Tarik said it, because I'm not well 0:22:27.240 --> 0:22:32.439 versed in Marvel DC comics thing, I thought he was 0:22:32.480 --> 0:22:36.119 just referring to some sort of character that I'd never 0:22:37.000 --> 0:22:42.720 heard of. So to Wreek somewhere in between a pretentious, 0:22:45.240 --> 0:22:51.240 a pretentious Afrocentric and the brainschild of the most dangerous 0:22:51.240 --> 0:22:52.160 man in comedy. 0:22:52.680 --> 0:22:53.680 So there you go. 0:22:53.880 --> 0:22:56.679 But I say I bring up Potep just to answer 0:22:56.680 --> 0:22:58.879 your question because I was thinking about when I had 0:22:58.920 --> 0:23:01.840 an argument on Twitter, I was I was offended that 0:23:02.359 --> 0:23:06.119 people were trying to use the negative aspect of potep 0:23:06.240 --> 0:23:08.840 is like a term of endearment among themselves. Like basically 0:23:09.080 --> 0:23:11.800 that was like the death knell of the original meaning. 0:23:12.000 --> 0:23:14.399 Was these people who were like, yes, I am like that, 0:23:14.640 --> 0:23:18.800 call me hotel please, Like, oh, that's horrible. And I 0:23:18.840 --> 0:23:23.200 think we lost that fight, and now I'm thinking we're woke. 0:23:23.680 --> 0:23:25.359 I don't I don't know if we need to fight 0:23:25.920 --> 0:23:27.399 for the term. I don't know if we need to 0:23:27.400 --> 0:23:29.199 fight for I don't know if that's where our effort 0:23:29.240 --> 0:23:32.119 is best used, because culture and language is going to 0:23:32.200 --> 0:23:33.639 do what culture and language. 0:23:33.240 --> 0:23:36.680