Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right, y'all. Welcome to another episode of Civic Cipher.
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Ramses Josh, call me Q Ward and
Speaker 1: uh yeah, today's another special show that we have for
Speaker 1: You've got another special guest.
Speaker 2: Extra infhas is on special. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Man, he's the Man of Man, the Man of the decade.
Speaker 2: I want to say, now, you're being kind there's kindness
Speaker 2: in there.
Speaker 3: Listen.
Speaker 1: If you know who I'm talking about, you know exactly
Speaker 1: why I say that. You know, for a lot of
Speaker 1: folks who listen to the show who are not based
Speaker 1: in Phoenix, Arizona, it's very important that I paint a
Speaker 1: picture of today's guest on the show. He goes by
Speaker 1: the name of Thad Shay. So, first off, welcome for being.
Speaker 2: On the show. Thank you for having me. Thank you
Speaker 2: you and Q I appreciate you. Thank you very much.
Speaker 1: And I want to tell a personal story just to
Speaker 1: give you an idea of who he is, and then
Speaker 1: I'll let you know why it's important that we had
Speaker 1: him up on today's episode. So for those that know,
Speaker 1: I used to do a show called Friday Night Flavors,
Speaker 1: later change the name to Ready Said Radio. Later changed
Speaker 1: the name to Ryman reason later changed the name to
Speaker 1: Radio Sostice. You might know the story. And somewhere along
Speaker 1: the line, I met an artist's name Uncut.
Speaker 3: Based on his Twitter handle.
Speaker 1: This was back before Instagram was out, it was just
Speaker 1: Twitter at the time, and he had a song that
Speaker 1: I loved. Well, I'll sing the President this song as
Speaker 1: long as I'm able to. Yeah that I didn't time,
Speaker 1: I won it all record.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 4: And as I could yeah yeah.
Speaker 1: Anyway, a prolific voice, an extremely talented artist, and you know,
Speaker 1: being in that position, you're not really in a position
Speaker 1: to play favorites.
Speaker 3: But since I.
Speaker 1: Don't do that anymore, I just let everybody know I
Speaker 1: was definitely playing favorites because that song wasn't my favorite.
Speaker 1: I was very much looking forward to all your new
Speaker 1: releases and all that sort of stuff. I did not
Speaker 1: know that, man, Yeah, man, absolutely, I'm I'm glad I
Speaker 1: got to tell.
Speaker 2: You Whendy's number three on me. I appreciate you.
Speaker 3: Man, It's all worth it.
Speaker 1: But you know, things change, you know, as they do,
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, we we're all looking for, you know, progression, evolution,
Speaker 1: the next step in our careers, and you know, fad
Speaker 1: Shade went from uncut A or uncut rather to uh
Speaker 1: Fattius Shade. This was when by by now Instagram had
Speaker 1: come out, you know, all these sorts of things, and
Speaker 1: he had, because of his ability to know at work
Speaker 1: to inspire people to get people to like him. You know,
Speaker 1: just a very likable person, a large, huge personality, uh,
Speaker 1: extremely funny, just the sort of person everybody wants to
Speaker 1: be around and you know, be close to party with
Speaker 1: that energy all the way through and through he ended
Speaker 1: up finding himself around a lot of promotions promoters rather
Speaker 1: than doing a lot of promoting.
Speaker 3: And I love to see this evolution.
Speaker 1: I watched it, you know a lot of it from Afar,
Speaker 1: but you know, of course I monitored it over the years.
Speaker 1: And his humor, he was one of the few people
Speaker 1: early on who was able to translate his personality and
Speaker 1: his humor through his social media. As a result of that,
Speaker 1: he was able to build a huge organic following on
Speaker 1: social media across various platforms, which further established him as
Speaker 1: in my opinion, based on what I know, I would
Speaker 1: say the premier promoter in Arizona in terms of your
Speaker 1: in terms of at least in terms of your capacity
Speaker 1: to get the word out.
Speaker 3: To many thousands of people.
Speaker 1: And I don't think that that's really something that anybody
Speaker 1: could really argue because I'm talking about numbers. With that said,
Speaker 1: today's episode, we're going to talk about the discrimination that
Speaker 1: a lot of times black folks find in nightlife, in
Speaker 1: entertainment in various cities, not just in Phoenix. You know,
Speaker 1: all of us have you know, moved around quite a bit.
Speaker 1: But I happen to know that you know, Q has
Speaker 1: spent a lot of time and a significant part of
Speaker 1: his DJ career in Arizona and Phoenix and on the
Speaker 1: West Coast DJ and of course Dad Shade you know,
Speaker 1: as in my opinion or at least based on the numbers,
Speaker 1: the premiere the largest UH promoter in Arizona. You know,
Speaker 1: it felt like having these two voices at this table
Speaker 1: to have this conversation was appropriate. So once again back
Speaker 1: to the show. Yes, you know Q, obviously, you know
Speaker 1: I got I got plans for Q. But but today
Speaker 1: we're gonna make it about you, mister Shade.
Speaker 2: Well, thank you.
Speaker 3: So, you know I told a little bit of the story.
Speaker 1: Is there anything that I missed in terms of you know,
Speaker 1: getting into the game, uh, the promotion game, and and
Speaker 1: you know, getting really established in in old town Scottsdale,
Speaker 1: which has a history of really not letting black folks,
Speaker 1: you know, take take rout out there.
Speaker 4: Well, first of all, Man, thank you for the kind words. Again,
Speaker 4: I don't do a lot of shows, you know what
Speaker 4: I'm saying. I've gotten asked, and I don't for one
Speaker 4: reason or another. I uh, you know, dip and dodge
Speaker 4: or whatever the case may be. But I did really
Speaker 4: want to come because listen, I was Uh, I was sleepy, Man,
Speaker 4: I was sleepy.
Speaker 2: Let me just say that I was. I was sleepy.
Speaker 2: I was talking to Dave Youn on the phone.
Speaker 4: And I was like, Man, Ramses is my guy. But
Speaker 4: I'm looking through my live book, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: Oh can I say that my bed, I'm looking through
Speaker 4: my lives.
Speaker 2: I'm like my black lives. How about that Black lives matter?
Speaker 5: Right?
Speaker 2: Black lives matter?
Speaker 4: And uh, but now I was like, man's Ramses, I'm
Speaker 4: gonna I'm gonna get it together to go so I
Speaker 4: don't get a chance to hear people actually kind.
Speaker 2: Of Uh, it's gonna.
Speaker 4: Sound bad, I guess kind of acknowledge, Uh, you know,
Speaker 4: I consider myself a billboard, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 4: So uh Fresh maybe doing something. You may be doing something.
Speaker 4: If you send it to me, I feel like I'm
Speaker 4: a billboard. Like people will get a chance to really
Speaker 4: see it, as far as like homere's your question again, man, Well,
Speaker 4: first I remember, don't worry about it.
Speaker 2: I'm just messing with you. Now, go ahead, go ahead?
Speaker 2: What was it? Well?
Speaker 1: Okay, first off, I want to make sure that that
Speaker 1: I acknowledge a couple of names that you mentioned. One
Speaker 1: was Daveon. He's just another one of the uh the
Speaker 1: the the bigger promoters in this town. And then fresh Maker,
Speaker 1: although I don't consider him a promoter, is certainly a
Speaker 1: champion of the black agenda, and here is among the
Speaker 1: bigger promoters he in my opinion, he's more of a
Speaker 1: DJ and a host and so a very important part
Speaker 1: of the nightlife scene. And there's some other folks too.
Speaker 1: There's a VIP Enterprises with Corey, and there's you know,
Speaker 1: uh uh Black I know it was one of them,
Speaker 1: Mike Cooper, Trees, Yeah, Micha Laurie. A lot of folks
Speaker 1: and if I'm forgetting your name, it's just because you know,
Speaker 1: I'm on the spot. But it's important to establish that
Speaker 1: that there are.
Speaker 3: A lot of black folks.
Speaker 1: Who, at least in the city where I'm from and
Speaker 1: a lot of the cities where I do this sort
Speaker 1: of work, really have a tremendous amount of business sense.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: The promotion game is, you know, it's it's just kind
Speaker 1: of a tough game and it's a shady game, but
Speaker 1: people who are able to make a go of it in.
Speaker 3: Terms of entertaining.
Speaker 1: The thing is is that it wasn't always this case
Speaker 1: in old town scott Stille where there were black voices
Speaker 1: at the table, and I know that that was an
Speaker 1: uphill battle. So originally what I was asking is, in
Speaker 1: terms of your getting established, do you recall, you know,
Speaker 1: did I leave anything out of the story? You know,
Speaker 1: in terms of you getting sort of your legs under you.
Speaker 4: Oh, okay, As far as like starting to promote and
Speaker 4: stuff like that, One thing I learned early was to
Speaker 4: be a comeleion of faces like I prefer like to
Speaker 4: be in the crib are comic books, you know, looking
Speaker 4: at Bruce Lee videos and you know, and watching old
Speaker 4: nineties Sitcomps's where I prefer to be. That's why I've
Speaker 4: always wanted to be right, just be chilling, you know,
Speaker 4: making some dollars chilling and enjoying those things.
Speaker 2: But early on.
Speaker 4: I really learned that, man, you I don't really have
Speaker 4: a lot of different uh faces, just you know, being
Speaker 4: able to adapt on on spot to who you're dealing with,
Speaker 4: uh up front and in front of you. Kind of
Speaker 4: uh picking that up from you know, I'm from Kansas City, Missouri,
Speaker 4: so picking that up uh street wise was something I
Speaker 4: always uh something that something just I just kind of
Speaker 4: gravitory gravitated to. My brother was a hustler and that
Speaker 4: linked down to me. So everything I did was uh
Speaker 4: just learning how to sell you whatever you needed.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 4: So now that fast forward all that so I'm going
Speaker 4: through all the old man stuff, I will fast forward
Speaker 4: all that to.
Speaker 2: Music.
Speaker 4: So when I was doing music, being able to take
Speaker 4: that sharpie and didn't take a you know, ah you know,
Speaker 4: blank desk, handwrite my name on there, and I ain't
Speaker 4: got I got handwriting. I got doctor's handwriting. So my
Speaker 4: trash being able to write my name on there and
Speaker 4: then go down to the local gas station or the
Speaker 4: gas station down there.
Speaker 2: Where ain't number ain't number of brothers.
Speaker 4: I can't because you told me you almost ain't number brothers.
Speaker 4: You got box Chevies and monies and everybody a d
Speaker 4: boy they got. You know, this is real, real street,
Speaker 4: real street stuff, right. Being able, Yeah, I'm sorry, it's
Speaker 4: gonna make it easy. Yeah, yeah, street stuff. So being
Speaker 4: able to sell somebody some scribble was something I was
Speaker 4: heavily impressed with with myself. Do you understand what I'm saying? Like,
Speaker 4: I got music on there, but I ain't got no
Speaker 4: decorations on here. I ain't got no pictures. I ain't
Speaker 4: got no artwork on here, ain't no farm animals, nothing
Speaker 4: on here. I'm just gonna write my name on here,
Speaker 4: decide decide my name of this album, and I'm gonna
Speaker 4: scribble it on here, and I'm gonna walk up to
Speaker 4: you know what I'm saying, the Thuggies and Thuggies and
Speaker 4: I'm like, brother, you know what I'm saying, what's up? Man?
Speaker 2: This is what I'm doing? Da da da da.
Speaker 4: You could put it in check it out if you
Speaker 4: need be. And I was selling. So when I realized
Speaker 4: I was able to do that, that really ran and
Speaker 4: I got out here.
Speaker 2: I got out here when I was like twenty one
Speaker 2: or like twenty two.
Speaker 4: And I wasn't ooh it was you know what I'm saying, Bro,
Speaker 4: I'm old.
Speaker 2: Bro. It was two thousand.
Speaker 4: Four approximately five, oh you know what, like two thousand
Speaker 4: full five. But I take that and I'll take that,
Speaker 4: and I just brought that with me. So when I
Speaker 4: got out here, now, listen, I had never you know,
Speaker 4: me and planes and I'm I'm Kansas City. Everything I
Speaker 4: did was it was, it was. It was in the slums,
Speaker 4: it was in the hood. I moved around, I did
Speaker 4: things that would you know, product of environment type stuff.
Speaker 2: So when I got out here, I was like, oh,
Speaker 2: oh this is this is nice. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: The weather is nice, the palm trees, the women he's nice,
Speaker 2: and you know, the women's is nice. And the roads
Speaker 2: is paved. You know what I'm saying. It ain't potholes.
Speaker 3: And so.
Speaker 2: I really enjoyed the first time I came out here,
Speaker 2: but I didn't stay.
Speaker 4: I would go back and i'd go forth because I
Speaker 4: was just having a hard time leaving your fami.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: When I got out here, I think I got I
Speaker 4: made that decision. I know, it's a long wind to
Speaker 4: stick with me, folks. I got out here and it
Speaker 4: was like seventy five and it was around Christmas time,
Speaker 4: and I was sold because I don't know if y'all you.
Speaker 2: You know Detroit, yes, you know my story, y'all would think.
Speaker 5: Y'all would think I was just like I read his
Speaker 5: script and just reset it.
Speaker 2: It's almost identical. Yeah. Man, it wasn't Christmas.
Speaker 5: It was February, but it was seventy five degrees and
Speaker 5: everything just did what I said, all that nice, every
Speaker 5: category of nice.
Speaker 2: He just said me too. Yeah, one thousand percent.
Speaker 4: Man, not having to snow and you know, ice storms
Speaker 4: and branches breaking and all types of stuff.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 4: I just I just was sold, man. And plus I
Speaker 4: was doing some back home. My mom's was out here,
Speaker 4: my uncle's out here, right. Sorry, Oh man, you know
Speaker 4: I got you. Man, I'm I'm i'ma don't cuse okay,
Speaker 4: cool and anyway.
Speaker 2: Man. So when I got out here, it was the
Speaker 2: first club I ever I was sorry about that. First
Speaker 2: club I.
Speaker 4: Ever went to was a club next right, And I
Speaker 4: had to do that through new times. At the time,
Speaker 4: I was opening up new times, like see what hip
Speaker 4: hop clubs I had because I.
Speaker 2: Didn't know how to you know, figure out, you know,
Speaker 2: to reach anybody.
Speaker 4: I knew that I knew how to sell some stuff
Speaker 4: and I could hustle my way in there. But I was, man,
Speaker 4: I was like three thirty at the time, and I
Speaker 4: was wearing like five XT's and like fifty ways June
Speaker 4: I was back, you know, clothes a baggy.
Speaker 2: So I was baggy and I didn't know that.
Speaker 4: You know, I was coming up Scottsdale and it was
Speaker 4: it was real white and you know that wasn't the thing. Brother,
Speaker 4: How do you know?
Speaker 2: What do you know?
Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying. We can't have you come
Speaker 4: in here like that. You know what I'm saying. Look,
Speaker 4: I got like fifty dollars on me. I can't have
Speaker 4: you take that from me. That's really what you know
Speaker 4: what I'm saying. The energy that I felt, right, So
Speaker 4: I just I managed to get past folks by talking
Speaker 4: you know what I'm saying, and being able to once
Speaker 4: again adapt to how they were talking to me.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying. I had to bring their
Speaker 2: guard down.
Speaker 4: That's the one thing black folks is, believe it or not,
Speaker 4: We're really good at de arming people, you know what
Speaker 4: I'm saying, like like just bringing yeah, whenever you need
Speaker 4: to like you, You when when you're in front of
Speaker 4: somebody who's not black and you can tell that they
Speaker 4: are uncomfortable, we have a way of like, come on,
Speaker 4: it's all right, all right, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: I almost like being hugged by Beyonce on a on
Speaker 4: a Sunday Sunday afternoon. You know what I'm saying. Just
Speaker 4: got done giving you a glass of lemonade. She gave
Speaker 4: you a big hug.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying. We able to make you
Speaker 2: feel good, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: And so once I did that, man I got in
Speaker 4: with the manager there and the GM there. He would
Speaker 4: let me come in there, and man, I would I
Speaker 4: sell CDs in there inside the club in Old Town?
Speaker 2: I would.
Speaker 4: I got a chance to talk to people, meet people.
Speaker 4: That's how I linked up with Swiss Beats. I mean,
Speaker 4: everything that has happened to me out here was you know,
Speaker 4: was from that moment and being in Old Town to
Speaker 4: watch now for doing music shifting that into promotion. Those
Speaker 4: go hand in hand, believe it or not, Because if
Speaker 4: you're an independent artist, you got to be a better
Speaker 4: marketer than the labels.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying. You have to know how to.
Speaker 4: Market yourself better than the labels. You gotta be able
Speaker 4: to talk better than what a label manager can talk.
Speaker 4: You got to be able to spit the game, right.
Speaker 3: I think that that's.
Speaker 1: Very important, especially when you consider the climate of two
Speaker 1: thousand and five Scottsdale, Arizona. And I'll even fast.
Speaker 3: Forward a bit.
Speaker 2: I'm I was a winded right there.
Speaker 1: Oh no, no, no, you're good. You're good good, That's what
Speaker 1: I wanted to hear. So how about this, When there
Speaker 1: was a time a little more than ten years ago,
Speaker 1: we'll call it eight through maybe two thousand and twelve ish,
Speaker 1: And it wasn't just Scottsdale, Arizona. It wasn't just Phoenix,
Speaker 1: It was Vegas.
Speaker 3: I would dj in Vegas. It was La. A lot
Speaker 3: of the clubs in La, you.
Speaker 1: Know, And and there was a lot of cities that
Speaker 1: really caught onto this wave of EDM music.
Speaker 3: And I'm gonna say this real quick, just because a
Speaker 3: lot of folks might know it.
Speaker 1: EDM music comes from house music, house music from black
Speaker 1: people in Chicago. If you do your research, you understand that.
Speaker 1: So that's still black music. You go, you'd be hard
Speaker 1: pressed in this country and most of the countries on
Speaker 1: the earth.
Speaker 4: Most of the songs I think was a little bit
Speaker 4: in there too, right, But you know, yeah, but in
Speaker 4: the development you know, So y'all know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: In any event, uh, I recall at that time in
Speaker 4: at least Scottsdale in Vegas, because I spent I had
Speaker 4: a residency at Planet Hollywood in twenty ten, so I
Speaker 4: was there on the.
Speaker 1: Strip every Sunday night that hip hop music. If you
Speaker 1: played hip hop music, people were worried that it would
Speaker 1: bring the wrong crowd. And you have these cryptic uh
Speaker 1: words and phrases crowd. And then here in Phoenix, you know,
Speaker 1: there's a group at the time it was called EEG
Speaker 1: Evening Entertainment Group by a couple named less than I Am,
Speaker 1: who are known racists.
Speaker 2: And you're gonna put me okay, all right, go ahead,
Speaker 2: now you're going you're right, because.
Speaker 4: Well I'm not. I'm just telling you what I know
Speaker 4: to be true of my experience. No no, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 4: me and you were on the same page. I got
Speaker 4: to go back to work in Skoy'sdale.
Speaker 2: So good.
Speaker 3: I don't have that problem, so let me tell it.
Speaker 1: But these people would uh you know, and they've had
Speaker 1: many night clubs over the years, and this is I'm
Speaker 1: picking on them, but this, this sentiment is prevalent not
Speaker 1: just in old town, but I experienced in even more
Speaker 1: global cities. Like I said, Vegas was really where I
Speaker 1: spent a lot of that d M where Edim was
Speaker 1: sort of peaking musically in this country. And during that time,
Speaker 1: I recall myself having to wait in line, you know.
Speaker 1: I'd be invited places by you know, who ever is
Speaker 1: you know, the GM of the club, you know, but
Speaker 1: the security is so trained to keep anyone with brown
Speaker 1: skin at the door facts, you know, and to discriminate.
Speaker 1: They're taught to discriminate. I remember hearing the phrase non swimmers.
Speaker 1: I remember hearing the uh someone this is I think
Speaker 1: it was Less himself had gone up to a friend
Speaker 1: of mine in Radio j Philla and mentioned to him like, wow,
Speaker 1: it's a dark knight in here, isn't it, referring to
Speaker 1: the that there was heard too many black men and
Speaker 1: there's a ratio established at the door. So in a
Speaker 1: lot of cities around the country, there has been established
Speaker 1: this idea.
Speaker 3: That if you wear tennis shoes or George but tennis shoes,
Speaker 3: and it.
Speaker 2: Was almost very specifically Jordan's.
Speaker 1: But here's what I'm what I'm going to say, you know,
Speaker 1: because once upon a time, it was like, you can't
Speaker 1: wear a plain T shirt. Then it became well, you
Speaker 1: have to have a collar, and then it became well
Speaker 1: you can't have a chain on, and and all these
Speaker 1: sorts of things, which truthfully only applied to folks who
Speaker 1: had brown skin, who were those clothes in such a
Speaker 1: way that it looked a little bit different from what
Speaker 1: they were trying to establish in those clubs. And they
Speaker 1: would tell their bouncers to embarrass us while we stood
Speaker 1: in line, to discriminate, and it you know, standing in line.
Speaker 1: And I don't think this gets said enough. And I
Speaker 1: think it's important to say names. I think it's important
Speaker 1: to say the names of institutions because at present in
Speaker 1: this country, we're going through a time of reconciliation, we're
Speaker 1: going through a time of healing and understanding what it
Speaker 1: is that it's like to be us, and these subtle traumas,
Speaker 1: if you will have subtle impacts over time, and then
Speaker 1: it boils, it boils up, and then eventually it boils over.
Speaker 1: Now then you start to feel like, well, the world
Speaker 1: hates me, you know, And I don't think that that
Speaker 1: is a healthy.
Speaker 3: Thing to do.
Speaker 1: And so while we have this platform, it's very important
Speaker 1: for us to talk about it. But I will say
Speaker 1: this in my own experience, I've been made to stand
Speaker 1: out in front of the clubs. Now, I'm the person
Speaker 1: who's from the radio, primetime, I'm on TV, and yet
Speaker 1: these security guards, these bouncers are making me stand out
Speaker 1: and then someone has to come down. I have to
Speaker 1: text somebody standing there looking stupid after nobody stood in
Speaker 1: a line, and then wait my turn for someone to
Speaker 1: come and rescue me from my own black and say, oh,
Speaker 1: he's one of the good ones. And you have to
Speaker 1: understand how humiliating that is. And I think it's important
Speaker 1: that all of us kind of have these sorts of
Speaker 1: conversations so that we know that it's not just happening
Speaker 1: to me. And if you're listening to my voice right now,
Speaker 1: that you recognize that this is not happening just to you,
Speaker 1: or if you're an ally to black folks, or brown folks,
Speaker 1: because I do recognize that our brown brothers and sisters
Speaker 1: endure these sorts of of things as well, that you
Speaker 1: understand how to be a better ally to folks who
Speaker 1: might endure these sorts of things, you know, and then
Speaker 1: we all again I say this a lot, but we
Speaker 1: all take a step forward as brothers and sisters. So
Speaker 1: in these clubs where you know they're playing black music,
Speaker 1: I don't care how much you want to whitewash it.
Speaker 1: Obviously nowadays and you know, you know, twenty twenty era.
Speaker 1: I can't say twenty twenty because no clubs have been
Speaker 1: open in twenty twenty, but you know, in the past
Speaker 1: few years, and I would imagine in the coming years,
Speaker 1: hip hop has you know, regained its center stage definitely
Speaker 1: status musically and in terms of nightlife. And it's interesting
Speaker 1: to know that a club will and I want you
Speaker 1: to speak to this Q, A club will hire a
Speaker 1: black DJ two gives some authenticity to their hip hop
Speaker 1: night on Saturday. And my understanding is where you were DJing,
Speaker 1: was the biggest club in Arizona, or least the most
Speaker 1: expensive and not let black folks and or at the
Speaker 1: very least give them a hard time when it came
Speaker 1: to coming in.
Speaker 3: It just reflect your experience, so.
Speaker 2: Very very interesting.
Speaker 5: My perspective similar to that and maybe similar to yours
Speaker 5: as well, as I wasn't introduced to this city or
Speaker 5: to this space as a DJ when I met both
Speaker 5: of you guys. I was a rep for a very
Speaker 5: successful French luxury brand that has an alcohol in spirits division,
Speaker 5: Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy, and we were introducing to the
Speaker 5: market for the first time in almost three hundred years
Speaker 5: a new mark of alcohol from that brand group, and
Speaker 5: it was called Hennessy Black. One of the most successful
Speaker 5: reps in the United States, highest sales conversion, most new engagement,
Speaker 5: most cocktails soul per night, however you want to measure it,
Speaker 5: I was tops in the country and a lot of
Speaker 5: the first meetings that I went to, and it's even
Speaker 5: really difficult to say this out loud now, I think
Speaker 5: all of us are hypothetically revolutionary. If anybody ever steps
Speaker 5: to me with some racist stuff or challenges me in
Speaker 5: that way, I'm going to respond. This way is how
Speaker 5: we all hypothetically think until the way that we make
Speaker 5: a living and feed ourselves and our families are adjacent
Speaker 5: to that hypothetical revolutionary. So I'm trying to introduce a
Speaker 5: new cognac to Arizona at large, but Scottsdale specifically, and
Speaker 5: the word Hennessy in two thousand and eight, and Scott'sdale
Speaker 5: really really wasn't the word that you want to step
Speaker 5: into these meetings with because I got to be put
Speaker 5: in the position of exceptional negro. I'll say, you know,
Speaker 5: if you've ever seen the movie Django, the way that
Speaker 5: DiCaprio's character speaks about the exceptional negro, the one in however,
Speaker 5: many that's different because he speaks better, because he presents
Speaker 5: himself as more put together, because he's friendlier or disarming,
Speaker 5: as my brother said earlier in the interview. So I
Speaker 5: had people tell me to my face, Q, we love you,
Speaker 5: but we don't want your crowd, and like I'm shaking
Speaker 5: saying it now because it's so overtly insulting. But in
Speaker 5: those meetings, I didn't get mad and storm out. I sat,
Speaker 5: finished my meeting, finished my pitch, and had to figure
Speaker 5: out how am I going to come back next week
Speaker 5: and get these people to buy this liquor from me.
Speaker 5: They didn't even say we don't want the product. They
Speaker 5: tasted it, they thought it was great. But like the
Speaker 5: worst of us are going to show up and destroy
Speaker 5: their business if they if they put Henessy behind the bar,
Speaker 5: the worst of us, because I'm not I'm not the
Speaker 5: worst of us.
Speaker 2: I'm exceptionally. They loved me. But if they bring Hennessy
Speaker 2: in here, especially Hennessy Black.
Speaker 5: Then the worst black and brown people, the worst, the
Speaker 5: non exceptional negroes are going to show up and destroy
Speaker 5: our clubs.
Speaker 2: I want to say that we can't have that.
Speaker 1: You did get that off uh in downtown Phoenix, which
Speaker 1: is has a different culture than.
Speaker 3: At least at least at that time at the time.
Speaker 1: But I think that's important that you mentioned that because,
Speaker 1: as I stated earlier, not only have you thad been
Speaker 1: able to sort of overcome that climate, but you've also
Speaker 1: been able to thrive. And my understanding is that out
Speaker 1: of your promotional efforts, you've been able to get many
Speaker 1: successful nights with many partners all working together. From where
Speaker 1: it from where from where I sit, it doesn't look
Speaker 1: like you take a lot in the way of L's
Speaker 1: in terms of your the nights you promote, and then
Speaker 1: you've been able to parlay that into other efforts, in
Speaker 1: other words, a successful black owned business. And I'll share
Speaker 1: a quick story with those listening. I had a chance
Speaker 1: to recently sit down with you and and and a
Speaker 1: lot of your the folks you work with, your team,
Speaker 1: and based on some miscommunication, some misunderstanding, you know, I
Speaker 1: kind of warranted the meeting. But the one thing that
Speaker 1: I was able to say, and I'll say it again,
Speaker 1: is that I'm very very.
Speaker 3: Proud of you, all of you.
Speaker 1: If if the rest of you are listening to this,
Speaker 1: and and then I'm also proud of anyone in any
Speaker 1: other city as well who has managed to make a
Speaker 1: go of this because they do recognize that the discrimination
Speaker 1: of black folks while using black culture to make money
Speaker 1: is something that is prevalent. And as a black person,
Speaker 1: to know that your culture is good enough, your music's
Speaker 1: good enough, the way you dress and the way you talk,
Speaker 1: and you know, everything about you is cool.
Speaker 4: Your athletes are cool, everything about you is cool. But you, personally,
Speaker 4: you the individual, the human who is endowed with consciousness.
Speaker 4: I would rather you didn't involve yourself to any significant degree.
Speaker 4: I just want to take all the good parts of
Speaker 4: you over here in party and everything that makes you
Speaker 4: who you are.
Speaker 1: Please keep that on that side. That's to me, seems
Speaker 1: like an attack on a character and your integrity. And
Speaker 1: to have to endure that to make a successful go
Speaker 1: at some thing across the board, or to even have
Speaker 1: to endure it to just go out and have a
Speaker 1: good time.
Speaker 3: You know, even if this isn't your your career path
Speaker 3: or whatever.
Speaker 1: If you're just a person who works a job and
Speaker 1: you know, once a month or once every three months,
Speaker 1: or you get to go out and have a good
Speaker 1: time and you get held up at the door discriminated against.
Speaker 3: You know, I really.
Speaker 1: I have this platform, and I wanted to make sure
Speaker 1: that I said that this is not an experience that
Speaker 1: is exclusive to you.
Speaker 3: It happens to a lot of folks.
Speaker 1: The world is getting better, And if you have any
Speaker 1: residual traumas from that, that's okay, because I clearly have
Speaker 1: them myself. Should never have endured them myself. Now, because
Speaker 1: you are a business owner, a successful promoter, and obviously
Speaker 1: you've established your own culture, your own brand, your own
Speaker 1: name in a city known for its discriminatory practices, what
Speaker 1: were some of the things that you recalled during early
Speaker 1: on to reach out to black and brown folks to
Speaker 1: let them know, Hey, this is a place that's safe
Speaker 1: for you. How did you go about cultivating an environment
Speaker 1: where folks felt welcome and so forth?
Speaker 4: The reconstruction I work at Club International. Now right there,
Speaker 4: you we pretty much had to tear it down, not
Speaker 4: physically but mentally owner wise.
Speaker 2: Tear them, tear them down, and then rebuild them back up.
Speaker 4: Because much like you said, they wanted the music, they
Speaker 4: want the athletes. You know what I'm saying, Uh, they
Speaker 4: want the dollar. And most of the time when they
Speaker 4: come knocking on us, they're in the red. Their their
Speaker 4: club is struggling and they need some some some help.
Speaker 4: They need like a couple of couple of floatings or
Speaker 4: something like that.
Speaker 2: That's how it works. They in trying to get back
Speaker 2: to the black man, and uh, that was the situation.
Speaker 4: And so you gotta tear them down, man, You gotta
Speaker 4: you gotta tell them like yo, you can't. You can't
Speaker 4: want everything else. And then I want the people and
Speaker 4: joins is hip hop. That's the culture. You know what
Speaker 4: I'm saying. No, believe it or not, hats is the culture.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying. Uh, the jeans, the T.
Speaker 4: Shirts that we rock, that's all that all belongs. That's
Speaker 4: our style. You can't deny them access you.
Speaker 2: This is you.
Speaker 4: You want to go hip hop, this is what it is.
Speaker 4: This is the people that enjoy and they love it.
Speaker 4: Black brown they even what. Let me tell you something,
Speaker 4: please please. Hip hop is extremely diverse, bro. You know
Speaker 4: what I'm saying. Everybody can come into the hip hop
Speaker 4: spot and enjoy themselves.
Speaker 2: Everybody.
Speaker 4: You rarely see folks in the country, black folks, black
Speaker 4: brown folks at the country bars or you know what
Speaker 4: I'm saying. But hip hop, you can come in. You
Speaker 4: can enjoy yourself, man, super diverse. Everybody can come in it.
Speaker 2: You like you like.
Speaker 4: Luda, enjoy yourself, you want Drake, enjoy yourself. That's really
Speaker 4: what it is. But it was it's just a it
Speaker 4: was a wild start because they really didn't want Jordan's like.
Speaker 4: They didn't they didn't want the hats, they didn't they
Speaker 4: you know, you got to put them in the button up,
Speaker 4: you know what I'm saying, And not saying that we
Speaker 4: can't get all dressed up and you know, and in
Speaker 4: the Sunday's best and come shine. But a lot of
Speaker 4: the culture. Man, we'd like to put stuff together. That's
Speaker 4: we got to coordinate. We like to put stuff now.
Speaker 4: But now look, yeah, that's gonna be flying, you know
Speaker 4: what I'm saying. And that was that was a real
Speaker 4: challenge inside the building. And I mean it was a
Speaker 4: tug of war. It wasn't like you know, overnight. This
Speaker 4: was inch by inch inch by inch, inch by inch.
Speaker 4: They finally gave.
Speaker 2: A little here.
Speaker 4: We got to give a little bit. Then we had
Speaker 4: to get a little bit here. You gotta give a
Speaker 4: lot more. And then they gave a little bit and slowly, surely,
Speaker 4: now you can come in. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: You can be yourself. And that's crazy when you think
Speaker 4: about it, because it's a hip hop club, you know
Speaker 4: what I'm saying. And you know, I mean starting an
Speaker 4: international We was dealing with police. The police didn't want
Speaker 4: us there. They didn't want us, say at all, it
Speaker 4: was pure harassment. Then you can go with fire marshals
Speaker 4: constantly coming in. I mean, you name it. If it
Speaker 4: wasn't honestly, if it wasn't for us being in the
Speaker 4: corner where we're at, well, like we're in the heart
Speaker 4: of old town, like we're in the herd of old town,
Speaker 4: but we're on our little we We got our space
Speaker 4: down there, you know what I'm saying. But if we
Speaker 4: was if we were inside you know what I'm talking about,
Speaker 4: where you got mind, you got high fired autumn spots.
Speaker 5: Like that exact, that wouldn't exist.
Speaker 4: We wouldn't exist there. They can't have that, you know
Speaker 4: what I'm saying. They can't have that. They're this is
Speaker 4: this is the thing that I think they fear most,
Speaker 4: which is wild. Our club we don't have fights like that,
Speaker 4: We don't have shootings. You know what I'm saying, This
Speaker 4: is this is wild. A lot of these other bars,
Speaker 4: these country bars, and I would say predominantly white bars,
Speaker 4: these hop have way more fights in us, way, way,
Speaker 4: way way more fights. And there's this big fear is
Speaker 4: that they can't. So when I when I'm in this,
Speaker 4: when I'm in this and we're talking about it, you
Speaker 4: learn that white security really feels like they can't handle us,
Speaker 4: you know what I'm saying. And there and there's there's
Speaker 4: some truth in that. We don't surround you know what
Speaker 4: I'm saying. You put a little here to see in
Speaker 4: the oh, my Atlanta.
Speaker 2: Proceed. Please you put a little here to see in us.
Speaker 2: We're not gonna be easy, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: You a couple of a couple of white folks, they
Speaker 4: might get some beers in them and you can just
Speaker 4: push them on out, you know what I'm saying. But
Speaker 4: we're really not looking to do that. There's too many
Speaker 4: women in the spot, you know what I'm saying. And
Speaker 4: I for years after years after years after years, just
Speaker 4: a stereotype, by international stereotype about any black club is
Speaker 4: that there's just all these fights and this is this
Speaker 4: constant shooting, these constant just just just just this aggressive environment.
Speaker 4: And that's really not the case, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 4: not saying that stuff don't happen. I'm not saying we perfect.
Speaker 4: Ain't no, ain't no spot perfect, But that's really not
Speaker 4: the case. And I could just remember, like there'll be
Speaker 4: moments where you would look up and there's been times
Speaker 4: we've had an artist I ain't and you know we
Speaker 4: can I don't. We could pick any artists. We had
Speaker 4: a grip of artists, right and all of a sudden,
Speaker 4: fire marshals is there. They just sitting chilling, you know,
Speaker 4: all the other clubs down that way, they packed busy line.
Speaker 2: They just fire marshals, just chilling, you know, just chilling.
Speaker 2: I don't know what y'all doing. Everything good, looks nice
Speaker 2: in here. You got forty people and it looks good, though,
Speaker 2: looks good, y'all. Keep y'all forty people in there.
Speaker 4: And they just and then you know, Ben being Ben,
Speaker 4: and then they finally just leave and we can get
Speaker 4: back to businessman. But that's a constant thing that we've
Speaker 4: really really had to deal with. And it's wild to
Speaker 4: think that we, uh, just by being us, we cause
Speaker 4: so much fear.
Speaker 2: And I'm like, bro, oh, we we're just trying.
Speaker 4: To party like everybody else. That's really it. That's that's
Speaker 4: all were trying to do. Come out and have a
Speaker 4: good time.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: Women trying to see some men, Men trying to see
Speaker 4: some women, you know what I'm saying. And that's really
Speaker 4: that's really what it is. Man.
Speaker 2: I've seen and experienced so many things.
Speaker 4: Man, it's not to say because it's not to say that,
Speaker 4: you know, you know, there's we got some great sheriffs
Speaker 4: that work for us, you know what I'm saying, And
Speaker 4: they they really do understand. They really really really do understand.
Speaker 4: Let me be very clear, I'm friends with these shrifs.
Speaker 4: These these guys that I bet at myself. Listen, I
Speaker 4: bet at them. I put them in the thing, but
Speaker 4: I put the spotlight of them.
Speaker 2: I said, what y'all do? So these are really.
Speaker 4: Legit guys and they understand, like man, you know, especially
Speaker 4: you'll see some of the younger sheriffs come in or
Speaker 4: got the sheriffs that haven't worked the night, and you can.
Speaker 2: See their little edgy there's a lot, you know what
Speaker 2: I'm saying.
Speaker 4: And but it's funny because within you know, maybe that
Speaker 4: first night as a Friday, they work by Sunday because
Speaker 4: we're opening Sundays by Sunday. It's cool, good, same, what's
Speaker 4: up to people talking to everybody because that's not we
Speaker 4: there the party, have a good time. We're not looking
Speaker 4: for problems, man. And it's so it's it's crazy how
Speaker 4: we're so feared and it shouldn't be that way, man.
Speaker 4: We just you know, every sheriff needs to experience swag surf. Definitely,
Speaker 4: it was dead everything. Definitely, Definitely swagsurf could make the
Speaker 4: bloods and the crypts do. But that does to the
Speaker 4: room if you're a sheriff and you ain't never been
Speaker 4: in it and you see that the unity, Yeah, that's
Speaker 4: expressed when that song comes on. Yeah, I think we
Speaker 4: did a lot of that fear.
Speaker 1: For those that don't know, the Swag Surf is a
Speaker 1: song that is a it's a black song, but it's
Speaker 1: it's a song that everybody is real.
Speaker 3: Easy to get with it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and it provides it's a beautiful thing. It is.
Speaker 4: Before now, uh, I wanted to ask you something please,
Speaker 4: because obviously this is not the first time there have
Speaker 4: been complaints about the way black folks are treated in
Speaker 4: as far as like nightlife is concerned.
Speaker 1: And I do recall recently there was a resolution that
Speaker 1: was proposed to try to address some of these racist
Speaker 1: practices that these companies either have a very cavalier attitude
Speaker 1: toward or are willingly undertaking so as to you know,
Speaker 1: acquire the precise ratio of you know, white to brown
Speaker 1: to black in their clubs so that it has the
Speaker 1: aesthetic that they feel fits, you know, their business model.
Speaker 1: And this resolution, well, first off, you've seen it.
Speaker 3: I know you've seen it. How do you feel about it?
Speaker 5: I think that it was very very well put together,
Speaker 5: you know, resolution resolute to resolve, that the intentions of
Speaker 5: the document are very well articulated, and if it was
Speaker 5: given proper attention, would be something really really awesome. Except typically,
Speaker 5: and I'll use a company like Nike for instance, even
Speaker 5: if they don't love us, even if they actually don't
Speaker 5: care about us, they absolutely respect and appreciate our dollar.
Speaker 5: So if the best athletes in the world who Nike
Speaker 5: represents came to them with the resolution, they would take
Speaker 5: it very seriously. They care about their business partners, people
Speaker 5: like Lebron James. They care about their business partners. Even
Speaker 5: if they don't care about Lebron James the human, they
Speaker 5: care a whole lot about that twenty three in that crown, right,
Speaker 5: that LJ and that crown, they care a lot about that.
Speaker 5: So that would be given the proper attention, taken into
Speaker 5: actual consideration, and some action steps would be put in
Speaker 5: place so that their partners and their consumers would feel respected, appreciated,
Speaker 5: and comfortable continuing to give them their money. The problem
Speaker 5: with the audience that this document was intended for is
Speaker 5: that they don't care.
Speaker 1: You mean, the club owners would not care about a resolution.
Speaker 5: Why they don't. They actually don't want us there. I
Speaker 5: look at the camera and say that, hold on, let
Speaker 5: me fix my ad. They actually don't want us there,
Speaker 5: So there's no real reason to take such a document serious.
Speaker 5: I told you guys, those meetings I went to. Eventually
Speaker 5: I got Hennessy and all those clubs, all of them
Speaker 5: in surplus. But do you know why the market crashed
Speaker 5: and their typical consumer stopped spending money. You know who
Speaker 5: was still doing bottle service when the market crashed? Yeah,
Speaker 5: I got that swash. We were in there so because
Speaker 5: our people were the only people really spending money. When
Speaker 5: people whose wealth and well being was tied to the market,
Speaker 5: see ours wasn't. But when people whose security, sense of self,
Speaker 5: sense of well being was tied to the market and
Speaker 5: it crashed, those people got scared. They started liquid their nassets,
Speaker 5: selling golf clubs, et cetera. We were still going to
Speaker 5: the club because we just worked all week. We can't
Speaker 5: wait to go out this weekend. We just worked all
Speaker 5: week so we could go out this week, right, so
Speaker 5: we are Please give me two tables, y'all. Ain't nobody
Speaker 5: in there give me that whole? Give me that Fox
Speaker 5: and five, give me that whole section over there. So
Speaker 5: then they call like, hey, hey, Q about that henness
Speaker 5: that hennessy black right, can we do a couple of.
Speaker 2: Cases of that this weekend? See how it goes.
Speaker 5: And that got us back in the door. But as
Speaker 5: soon as they were able to float without us, the
Speaker 5: same practices that always existed, like really really random, strange,
Speaker 5: unrealistic dress codes, came right back into play.
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, okay, so let me jump in right here. Well,
Speaker 1: first off, if you're just tuning in, you're tuned in
Speaker 1: to Civic Cipher.
Speaker 3: I'my host Rams's.
Speaker 2: Jack called me q Ward and that just so happens
Speaker 2: to be my actual name.
Speaker 1: Special guest today, Dad Shade, Promoter extraordinaire Nightlight.
Speaker 5: Yeah, thank you, and an absolute genuinely good person, which
Speaker 5: means more than all the other stuff that I just said.
Speaker 4: OnlyFans dot com Chocolate Warrior it, Oh yeah, you go
Speaker 4: up this plus so listen up. He made an excellent
Speaker 4: point and I think that.
Speaker 1: At some point, and I'm not just saying this because
Speaker 1: of who I am, and I guess I'll just say it.
Speaker 1: I won't say any names, though, but for folks that
Speaker 1: know me personally, you may know that I actually own
Speaker 1: a couple of night clubs and myself I can't promote
Speaker 1: them for obvious reasons. But if you want to, you know,
Speaker 1: do a little research. It's not hard to find out
Speaker 1: for yourself. In an event, I think it's at some
Speaker 1: point in the future we do need to have a
Speaker 1: conversation about supporting black owned businesses.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 1: To be fair, there haven't always been black owned clubs,
Speaker 1: and up until I think me and I think the
Speaker 1: Worthies who came after me, there was no black ownership.
Speaker 1: But there was the next best thing, which was effectively
Speaker 1: what you were doing with Fresh and Dave Beyond and
Speaker 1: everyone else, and then taking those dollars and then investing
Speaker 1: them in barbershops and hair stons and so forth. I
Speaker 1: was so proud of you for doing that than you
Speaker 1: so I will always be proud of you. That's amazing
Speaker 1: to me. I think that at some point we really
Speaker 1: need to have a conversation if UQ are able to
Speaker 1: say that we were that excited to go as a people,
Speaker 1: that excited to go and spend our dollars and cents
Speaker 1: with people who were openly racist.
Speaker 3: You know, like out loud with it, you know.
Speaker 1: And you know, I've just never heard the insult non
Speaker 1: swimmers and stuff. How in the world. And this is
Speaker 1: the people that owned access and radius. You know, I
Speaker 1: think that's less than I am. But they're not the
Speaker 1: only ones, you know.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 1: But in any event, it pains me to know that
Speaker 1: we were that excited to go back and spend our
Speaker 1: money to buy bottles from these places that hated us,
Speaker 1: changed their minds when it was fiscally convenient for them,
Speaker 1: and then as soon as what they could get back
Speaker 1: to their the base that they wanted, all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: Hennessy black is too black again, and we are relegated,
Speaker 1: as you said, to the corner where we can throw
Speaker 1: our little parties and still get harassed by far and
Speaker 1: fire marshals and the sheriffs that don't know you and
Speaker 1: haven't been vetted by you. And I think that at
Speaker 1: some point we all need to have a real conversation
Speaker 1: about what it is that we want. Do we want
Speaker 1: to be accepted by them or who hate us? Or
Speaker 1: do we want to be accepted by us? And I
Speaker 1: think that no matter who you are, you have to
Speaker 1: love yourself first. You have to come to terms with
Speaker 1: who you are in the world and determine and decide
Speaker 1: your own value. If you expect anyone else to keep
Speaker 1: that energy around, have that energy around you. So I
Speaker 1: think that that bears saying, at least in this conversation,
Speaker 1: not to take anything away from anybody who's doing anything.
Speaker 1: And I certainly, you know, I've been doing this for
Speaker 1: a very long time. I far be it for me
Speaker 1: to promote my own interest, But it just is something
Speaker 1: that needs to be said. It's long overdue. Perhaps this
Speaker 1: is the first time, at least for me, that something
Speaker 1: like this has been able.
Speaker 3: To be said out loud. This is this.
Speaker 1: These sorts of things were happening in the nineties, you know,
Speaker 1: from what I recall, I you know, I didn't have
Speaker 1: anyone who went to party in the eighties, so I
Speaker 1: didn't know if the practices were as a discriminatory way
Speaker 1: back then or if the nature.
Speaker 2: Of course I bet I bet it was.
Speaker 1: You you know what I'm saying, But before I was
Speaker 1: old enough to go to a night club, there was
Speaker 1: discriminatory practices. And here we are a solid thirty years
Speaker 1: into the future. And my understanding is that you know,
Speaker 1: with the one notable exception Old Town is still very
Speaker 1: much what it's meant to be. And then all the
Speaker 1: other old towns quote unquote, and all the other cities
Speaker 1: in this country largely.
Speaker 3: Behave the same way.
Speaker 1: That's from Miami up to Seattle and all the way
Speaker 1: well Seattle's kind of cool, but all the way down
Speaker 1: to La Yes, of course, you know New York has
Speaker 1: you know, there's parts of New York where they will
Speaker 1: definitely hold your color, your the.
Speaker 3: Language you speak against you.
Speaker 1: So you know, again that's something that really I wanted
Speaker 1: to make sure that I was able to say.
Speaker 3: Now question for both of you.
Speaker 1: Well, first off, mister Shade, that shade you spend any
Speaker 1: time ever in church? Ever been to a church in
Speaker 1: your life?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Man, yes or no?
Speaker 1: I want to ask both of y'all, what do you
Speaker 1: think is more segregated. It's just because they go together.
Speaker 1: You know, Saturday night you had a club, you know
Speaker 1: where you go Sunday morning where a lot of people
Speaker 1: go Sunday morning. Sometime they were to the same clothes
Speaker 1: to the church. And you know, my father was a minister,
Speaker 1: His father was a minister. I grew up around church folks.
Speaker 1: One of the things that I noticed when I was,
Speaker 1: you know, little all the way growing up, you know,
Speaker 1: I used to be a royal ranger. I went to
Speaker 1: Valley Cathedral, which was a predominantly white church, and I couldn't,
Speaker 1: for the life of me figure out why the preacher,
Speaker 1: although he was a Pentecostal preacher, was a white man
Speaker 1: in there. For what lots of white folks went there.
Speaker 1: I was one of the only black folks that went
Speaker 1: to that church. It was probably over a thousand people.
Speaker 1: And then, of course Black church is very segregated. But
Speaker 1: the same thing is true, I think artificially so with nightlife.
Speaker 1: But if both of you all have been in churches,
Speaker 1: you know, what do you think is more segregated nightlife or.
Speaker 2: Church?
Speaker 3: Church?
Speaker 2: Church? And it's not even close. It's not. Yeah, it's
Speaker 2: not even close.
Speaker 1: So I feel like, but I think they do run.
Speaker 1: I think that just me being able to say that
Speaker 1: suggests that the problem is of course a lot larger
Speaker 1: than you know. They're holding us up in the in
Speaker 1: the lines at the clubs, and they're not giving us,
Speaker 1: you know, the dignity that we mean.
Speaker 4: There's there's been I just want to say this, man,
Speaker 4: there's been moments. Man, I've established myself. You know what
Speaker 4: I'm saying doing this, And I've went to some of
Speaker 4: the other spots and I've been turned away for not
Speaker 4: being old enough. Look at my eydis Oh you're not
Speaker 4: old enough to get in. And I'm like, man, look bro,
Speaker 4: you know, but like, uh, but I avoid all that.
Speaker 4: I don't even deal with them spots like that was
Speaker 4: like my last jart. I was some years ago and
Speaker 4: there was a hi Fi, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 4: and do tell me I wouldn't old enough to get in?
Speaker 4: And I look, I've in my time, I've scared some
Speaker 4: some doorman because at the moment, because you can only
Speaker 4: sometimes you just not for it.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: You're not for the board, so you're not for the
Speaker 4: you're not for the you're not for the stuff.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: You know, I feel so bad, but you're not even
Speaker 4: for it. So you have these moments where you just
Speaker 4: you just let it out. And I've let it out
Speaker 4: a couple of times and then you just kind of learned, Man,
Speaker 4: don't even don't even put yourself in that. But I've
Speaker 4: been turned away for Halloween night. Oh you got on
Speaker 4: Oran it's Halloween. I've seen people come in here butt naked.
Speaker 2: It's Halloween. You've got little I'm for real for I'm
Speaker 2: not just.
Speaker 4: Right, and and guys wearing weird g stream crap whatever.
Speaker 4: But you got on Jordan's. You came, my boy, my
Speaker 4: boy Craigs with me. You can't get in? You got
Speaker 4: you got on Jordan's. It's Halloween, bro, This is like
Speaker 4: the one night that I feel like I could dress
Speaker 4: like me and y'all not supposed to be tripping. You
Speaker 4: know what I'm saying like, I'm basically what you're going
Speaker 4: out is some somebody dressed enjoys hip hop.
Speaker 2: That's what I'm going out in. That's can I Can
Speaker 2: I get in? You know what I'm saying, like, But no,
Speaker 2: I've been. I've been. It's it's it's it's insane.
Speaker 4: Man, that area and why we like to be in there.
Speaker 4: But that goes to it. You could talk to that's
Speaker 4: a that's a bigger issue behind that, man. It's something
Speaker 4: about you know, getting money and then moving to an
Speaker 4: area like that. We've always wanted to be in areas
Speaker 4: where we were not really wanted to be wanting.
Speaker 5: Science behind it isn't complicated right, the same way that
Speaker 5: I'm placed in that position of exceptional.
Speaker 2: That's why we want to go party there. Right.
Speaker 5: If I can get in there, I'm doing like that
Speaker 5: for most of us. I heard somebody doing an interview
Speaker 5: with It was jay Z or some very very astronomically
Speaker 5: successful rapper, and they were asking them how they're able
Speaker 5: to still have a fan base when the content of
Speaker 5: their music has moved into such an exceptional space. And
Speaker 5: it's because they become our avatar. Right for three hours
Speaker 5: on Saturday, I can be ditty, I can get a table,
Speaker 5: I can get bottles. There's lights, there's sparklers, the music
Speaker 5: is crazy, there's girls around. I've been working at the
Speaker 5: post office for three years every day, but at International
Speaker 5: on Saturday, it's my birthday. I hit that shade in
Speaker 5: his DMS. He said, here, gonna look out for me.
Speaker 5: He's gonna give me to buy one, get one on
Speaker 5: the bottles. He gonna give me an extra bottle because
Speaker 5: it's my birthday. He my man, he's gonna put my
Speaker 5: picture on the hitdie for that night. The reason why
Speaker 5: we trying so hard to get this because they said
Speaker 5: we can't. They keep telling us we can't or we're
Speaker 5: gonna get in. We're gonna kick it. We have the
Speaker 5: audacity that we're gonna go where they very very flagrantly
Speaker 5: don't want us. Right, you talk about downtown when I
Speaker 5: when I had Hennessy, I had Downtown cracking. There shouldn't
Speaker 5: have been a soul in Scottsdale because downtown embraced me.
Speaker 2: I'm Stodamre, Bobby.
Speaker 5: Wade, everybody at PHX, everybody at Start of Myers. They
Speaker 5: made me feel like family. And not only did they
Speaker 5: embrace me, they made a lot of money selling my product.
Speaker 5: I know, I saw the numbers. We still we fought
Speaker 5: to get into these spaces that told us they didn't
Speaker 5: want us. But it's that feeling of it we like.
Speaker 5: We want to feel special, that feeling of exceptionalism and
Speaker 5: wanting to be in the space where, for lack of
Speaker 5: better everybody else can't go.
Speaker 2: That's true. We like the stunt. If Instagram would have
Speaker 2: been around back then.
Speaker 5: Oh, because I had the corporate card, I didn't even
Speaker 5: have to have no actual money.
Speaker 2: And I'm coming here. I got twenty five girls with
Speaker 2: me and we skipped a line.
Speaker 5: And then afterwards, I'm gonna sit and talk to specifically y'all,
Speaker 5: to outside of the street for two hours and just
Speaker 5: talk about how good of a time we had. That's
Speaker 5: literally how I became close with these guys because they
Speaker 5: treated me like family right when we met. And after
Speaker 5: a night of spending my company's money at these clubs
Speaker 5: that a lot didn't want us there, we just sat
Speaker 5: and we caught up, and we talked about life and
Speaker 5: love and really really positive things. But that somehow we
Speaker 5: have to look at that. It's just like with relationships. Man,
Speaker 5: I'm a DJ. I get to see girls fall on
Speaker 5: their face over guys who treat them like crap. That
Speaker 5: doesn't make any sense when you're looking at it, like
Speaker 5: why is she going so hard after a dude who's
Speaker 5: made it very very clear she has no value to him.
Speaker 5: It's the same thing, bro, these clubs treat us like crap. No,
Speaker 5: you can't get in. Your shirt and your shoes the
Speaker 5: same color, man, I'm sorry, what.
Speaker 2: We gonna go change clothes? You know how crazy that is?
Speaker 2: Your shirt and your shoes are the same color. Man,
Speaker 2: I'm sorry.
Speaker 5: You can't get no problem. I take off my hat,
Speaker 5: I change my clothes. Can I get in? I buy
Speaker 5: a table, can I get like, yes, we don't have
Speaker 5: enough time to have the large Yeah, he really needs
Speaker 5: to be had. But you know, brothers like y'all specifically,
Speaker 5: who have taken this industry and take like literally taking
Speaker 5: it and made it your own. You have to find
Speaker 5: a way to be able to turn that attention and
Speaker 5: those dollars that we generate into something for ourselves because
Speaker 5: we are, by our music, by our culture, and by
Speaker 5: our presence creating life changing generational wealth for people who
Speaker 5: rather not have us in their space.
Speaker 2: Hip hop. That's crazy. Hip hop will never like.
Speaker 4: Hip hop influences so much on just it just influences
Speaker 4: so much. And I know it's got to be frustrating
Speaker 4: to other genres to how we just dominate, just dominate,
Speaker 4: We control fashion. You know what I'm saying. Attitude, you know,
Speaker 4: uh TikTok. You know, I mean we we just I
Speaker 4: mean and I and I when I hip hop is
Speaker 4: is for you know, it's it's a black thing. But man,
Speaker 4: I tell you something, man that the hip hop community
Speaker 4: is everybody and we like we really just we own it.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 4: It was it was this is my moment. I was
Speaker 4: outside at the time. It was a p c L.
Speaker 2: I can't say. Now, I can't say her name. Ain't
Speaker 2: that Ain't that something? And because you know the name
Speaker 2: of it, but now I'm acting like I can't say
Speaker 2: the name right. And I've been.
Speaker 4: Yeah and there, yeah, yep.
Speaker 2: And they had a Marie Stodamar waiting outside and I
Speaker 2: mean he was he was regular like me, and it
Speaker 2: was in his heyday.
Speaker 4: This is this is this is Nash, this is Rojah Bell,
Speaker 4: this is this is Mary Stottamar, this is.
Speaker 2: Dan Tony System, this is heyday. Stuck outside with me?
Speaker 2: How you doing, bro? You're good?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm gonna go get this two dollars back of chips, bro,
Speaker 4: because when I get back, you're still gonna be outside
Speaker 4: with me.
Speaker 2: You want something? Man? You're good? No, you're good? All right?
Speaker 4: Had him waiting outside, man waiting outside man, same thing,
Speaker 4: same thing.
Speaker 1: Well, I think that if and just so you know,
Speaker 1: the voice you just heard is that of Bad Shade.
Speaker 3: That is Shade uncut aka uncut it.
Speaker 1: If you go back some years, and at least for me,
Speaker 1: I think that if we're going to have some sort
Speaker 1: of resolution moving forward, it starts with the understanding of
Speaker 1: the optics of these dynamics here understanding that.
Speaker 3: Some of these.
Speaker 1: Places absolutely would rather us not be there, and if
Speaker 1: they have to bite the bullet because they need our
Speaker 1: dollars and they're not really fans of you know, celebrating
Speaker 1: our culture with us, but rather you know, taking parts
Speaker 1: of the culture that they can make money from and
Speaker 1: leaving us the people on the curb quite literally, then
Speaker 1: I think that we really need to take a strong
Speaker 1: look and reevaluate our position and our priority as a people.
Speaker 1: I will say it, you know, to anybody listening. Support
Speaker 1: black businesses that goes not just for black folks, but
Speaker 1: that also goes for allies of black folks that understand
Speaker 1: that even though you might be able to get into
Speaker 1: these nightclubs, your friends, you know, may not be able
Speaker 1: to get into those clubs. And therefore you should make
Speaker 1: some very uh informed decisions in terms of how you
Speaker 1: spend your money. And with that said, we're probably going
Speaker 1: to have to wrap it up here. So for more information,
Speaker 1: uh you be sure to check out civiccipher dot com.
Speaker 1: You can go there and submit questions suggest topics. If
Speaker 1: you want to donate to the show, of course we
Speaker 1: do the show for you. Your donations are always appreciated.
Speaker 1: You can donate once again at civiccipher dot com. All
Speaker 1: our social media is at civic Cipher. You can follow
Speaker 1: q ward I am q War.
Speaker 2: You can follow that Shade at Shade, and you.
Speaker 1: Can follow me at Rams's Job. Until next week, you'll
Speaker 1: take care of yourselves.