WEBVTT - QLS Celebrates Black History Month Part 1 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:08.200 Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:08.920 --> 0:00:11.280 So welcome back to QLs. This is Questlove. 0:00:11.320 --> 0:00:14.600 Then every year we do special programming in February for 0:00:14.720 --> 0:00:15.600 Black History Month. 0:00:16.239 --> 0:00:18.759 That's especially important for this year. I don't need to 0:00:18.760 --> 0:00:19.200 tell you all that. 0:00:19.280 --> 0:00:22.319 As we gear up for some new conversations, the team 0:00:22.320 --> 0:00:24.840 and I compiled some clips from this show that are 0:00:24.880 --> 0:00:30.000 worth revisiting. Of course, we are about all types of 0:00:30.120 --> 0:00:34.839 history here at a Questlove Supreme. This is kind of 0:00:34.840 --> 0:00:37.879 a historical records platform, but. 0:00:37.920 --> 0:00:39.440 You know, black history is important. 0:00:39.840 --> 0:00:42.280 One to know that we have a history, but also 0:00:42.360 --> 0:00:45.760 to achnowledge that Black history is American history. 0:00:46.080 --> 0:00:47.239 You know, it's not separate. 0:00:48.120 --> 0:00:51.280 And as we can plainly see if your eyes are open, 0:00:51.800 --> 0:00:56.000 if you are awake, you clearly see how easy it 0:00:56.080 --> 0:00:59.720 is with a little bit of misinformation, with a lot 0:00:59.720 --> 0:01:06.119 of unprocessed emotions and a lot of facts turn upside down, 0:01:06.240 --> 0:01:10.440 how easy it is to lose history, to lose information. 0:01:10.840 --> 0:01:14.120 You know, it's a lie one moment, then it's lost 0:01:14.200 --> 0:01:17.440 history years later. So it's important to always keep these 0:01:17.480 --> 0:01:21.160 stories alive. And you know what I really love about 0:01:21.440 --> 0:01:26.520 this platform at Quest Love Supreme is that you know, 0:01:26.600 --> 0:01:29.679 when we have artists come on. Most people come to 0:01:29.720 --> 0:01:36.000 a platform like specifically promote something from you know that's 0:01:36.040 --> 0:01:38.959 currently out, like oh, my new album or my new movie. 0:01:39.040 --> 0:01:40.200 We rarely do that. 0:01:40.319 --> 0:01:42.720 Like when you're a guest on Quest Love Supreme, I'm 0:01:42.760 --> 0:01:46.000 trying to first of all, we want your history just 0:01:46.040 --> 0:01:48.960 so that's on the record, and then ask you more 0:01:49.000 --> 0:01:51.600 timeless questions that don't have anything to do with the 0:01:51.600 --> 0:01:54.840 deadline or like some program that you're on, some movie 0:01:54.880 --> 0:01:58.080 that you're on. So that's why history is important, and 0:01:58.120 --> 0:02:01.440 that's why I think the show, no matter what episode 0:02:02.120 --> 0:02:06.360 we feature or that's in our cannon, it'll be timeless 0:02:06.400 --> 0:02:10.160 because you know, once you create something, it becomes history, 0:02:10.160 --> 0:02:13.920 and history is important. So that's why we are gung 0:02:14.040 --> 0:02:19.240 ho on history here at Questlep Supreme. All Right, so 0:02:19.280 --> 0:02:22.000 we're gonna begin with a good friend of the show, 0:02:22.240 --> 0:02:27.200 my personal friend, fellow aquarian Chris Rock, who spoke about 0:02:27.200 --> 0:02:31.880 how Saturday Night Live trained him for his career. I 0:02:32.160 --> 0:02:36.240 just had the good fortune to spend seventy two hours 0:02:37.240 --> 0:02:40.320 in SNL land. It's always one of those be careful 0:02:40.360 --> 0:02:44.160 for what you ask for movements. Of course, working at 0:02:44.160 --> 0:02:46.840 the Tonight show, going to what I call thirty Rock 0:02:47.000 --> 0:02:51.440 University any chance that I get to roam on the 0:02:51.560 --> 0:02:56.720 eighth floor and just I mean going through the pictures 0:02:56.720 --> 0:03:01.680 on the walls or one thing, but also like looking 0:03:01.720 --> 0:03:06.760 at the historical artifacts, just walking in Studio eight h 0:03:07.360 --> 0:03:12.960 studying the theater structure. It's just it's a one of 0:03:13.040 --> 0:03:18.359 one and it teaches me everything I know about not 0:03:18.440 --> 0:03:22.760 only how comedy shows work, but how creativity works, how 0:03:22.919 --> 0:03:27.680 leadership works. To describe the machine that is SNL, just 0:03:27.760 --> 0:03:30.760 as an outsider, I would take an hour explain that 0:03:30.800 --> 0:03:35.360 to you. But yeah, I spent time with all the greats, 0:03:35.360 --> 0:03:40.920 with Chris Rock, Eddie Murphy, Tracy Morgan celebrating the fiftieth 0:03:40.920 --> 0:03:44.720 anniversary weekend of Saturday Night Live. There was a musical 0:03:44.840 --> 0:03:47.760 concert that we did, and there was also like a 0:03:47.960 --> 0:03:51.520 kind of soret that we did with Lauren Michaels to 0:03:51.520 --> 0:03:54.280 toast him and his history. And then there was of 0:03:54.320 --> 0:03:59.760 course the blowout SNL fifty show, in which pretty much 0:03:59.760 --> 0:04:03.720 every cast member from all fifty years was represented in 0:04:03.800 --> 0:04:06.720 that studio, just like going to an All Star game, 0:04:06.800 --> 0:04:11.440 like watching people together, watching Eddie Murphy and Keenan Thompson 0:04:11.640 --> 0:04:15.240 and Will Furrow, like in the sketch together. I mean, 0:04:15.280 --> 0:04:20.359 that's just anyway, enjoy this Chris episode. 0:04:20.440 --> 0:04:22.839 Yoh, like who recommends? 0:04:23.800 --> 0:04:25.480 Did you audition or I auditioned? 0:04:25.680 --> 0:04:31.400 A guy named James Dixon who's John Stewart's agents, and 0:04:32.680 --> 0:04:33.520 a couple other people. 0:04:33.520 --> 0:04:34.840 Who's the Higgins at the time. 0:04:35.080 --> 0:04:37.279 Who's the Higgins at the Higgins at the time was 0:04:37.360 --> 0:04:40.120 Jim Downey, And who's Higgins? Who's the head writer? 0:04:40.800 --> 0:04:44.360 Higgins is our Sideki Jim No no, no, no, but. 0:04:46.760 --> 0:04:48.239 And Senator Al Franken. 0:04:49.480 --> 0:04:51.600 Oh, keep forgetting it. 0:04:52.120 --> 0:04:55.680 I forgot Al Franken was a senator, he was I 0:04:55.720 --> 0:04:58.680 think they were both the head writers. Conan O'Brien was 0:04:58.720 --> 0:05:02.799 a writer on the show. Bob Odenkirk was a writer 0:05:02.920 --> 0:05:04.599 on the show. Yeah. 0:05:05.160 --> 0:05:07.000 Did you ever have any issues with the things that 0:05:07.040 --> 0:05:08.560 you wrote on that show? I always wonder like, is 0:05:08.600 --> 0:05:10.720 it ever too black for SNL? No? 0:05:10.800 --> 0:05:13.920 I mean or it was too black? Nothing was ever 0:05:13.960 --> 0:05:17.400 too black. It was just it was a situation. First 0:05:17.400 --> 0:05:19.400 of all, I had an amazing time at SNL. Is 0:05:19.400 --> 0:05:21.720 the best thing. It's absolutely the best thing that ever 0:05:21.720 --> 0:05:24.400 happened to me. Really, yeah, because it kind of made 0:05:24.440 --> 0:05:26.240 me legit, you know what I mean, Like it was 0:05:26.279 --> 0:05:27.880 like graduating Harvard. 0:05:27.920 --> 0:05:29.840 Which you did for the up and coming comedians from 0:05:29.839 --> 0:05:31.880 Howard and stuff made it even Yeah. 0:05:31.760 --> 0:05:32.800 I mean, like. 0:05:34.240 --> 0:05:38.680 I was on SNL man, it's only you know, come 0:05:38.720 --> 0:05:45.359 on like SNL forget even black, Like SNL is the 0:05:45.600 --> 0:05:47.160 X Men school of comedy. 0:05:48.200 --> 0:05:50.479 Okay, did Eddie give you any kind of preparation on 0:05:50.600 --> 0:05:51.279 what to expect? 0:05:51.520 --> 0:05:53.480 No, Eddie. The only thing Eddie told me, he kept 0:05:53.520 --> 0:05:56.240 telling me, is like, just just make sure you write 0:05:56.279 --> 0:05:59.200 stuff for update because it's the easiest spot to get on. 0:06:02.000 --> 0:06:03.280 But uh, what was your question? 0:06:03.640 --> 0:06:05.280 I was just asking it was it ever too edgy 0:06:05.360 --> 0:06:05.640 or black? 0:06:05.640 --> 0:06:07.960 To like it was too edgy or black? It was like, 0:06:08.040 --> 0:06:11.480 it's like this situation just white people in general. It's 0:06:11.520 --> 0:06:14.960 like the things they understand about black people tends to 0:06:15.000 --> 0:06:17.599 be it has to have a racial element to it. 0:06:18.320 --> 0:06:21.880 So a lot of stuff I did it was more 0:06:21.920 --> 0:06:25.920 obvious like net X chilling like that stuff's like obvious 0:06:25.960 --> 0:06:28.200 black stuff, you know what I mean. It wasn't really 0:06:28.200 --> 0:06:32.120 at the weird I wasn't allowed to get into my 0:06:32.480 --> 0:06:35.200 weird side the other you know. 0:06:35.200 --> 0:06:37.839 Like it had to be black. 0:06:38.200 --> 0:06:41.240 Yah, so it had to be black, you know what 0:06:41.240 --> 0:06:44.320 I mean? So you know, it's not Essenal, it's just 0:06:44.360 --> 0:06:45.320 white people in general. 0:06:45.920 --> 0:06:48.520 Is that the arcinio factor kicking in? Was that the 0:06:48.640 --> 0:06:50.159 Living Color factor kicking in? 0:06:50.279 --> 0:06:52.239 I got hired because of Living Color. I got hired 0:06:52.360 --> 0:06:56.080 just like every like whatever. That was the girl I 0:06:56.120 --> 0:06:57.279 keep forgetting her name. 0:06:57.839 --> 0:06:59.960 Se Shira I was. 0:07:02.160 --> 0:07:04.839 I got hired pretty much under the same circumstances. SNL 0:07:04.920 --> 0:07:08.400 hadn't had a black cast member in nine years, and 0:07:08.600 --> 0:07:11.720 Living Color was hopping, and they went out looking for 0:07:11.760 --> 0:07:13.720 a black cast member, and you know, I got the job, 0:07:16.800 --> 0:07:19.400 but I forgot what I was getting ready to say. No, 0:07:19.600 --> 0:07:22.680 just white people in general, when they're looking for black stuff, 0:07:22.720 --> 0:07:27.440 they tend to like something either ridiculously black. This is 0:07:27.440 --> 0:07:31.760 what it basically goes to, either Tracy Borga or Larry Wilmore, 0:07:32.240 --> 0:07:34.560 you know what I mean, like in the middle, in 0:07:34.600 --> 0:07:35.720 the middle, nothing. 0:07:35.480 --> 0:07:36.480 In the middle, not for nothing. 0:07:36.560 --> 0:07:40.280 I'm taking well because you explained, but you explain in 0:07:40.360 --> 0:07:43.160 your whole, in your whole theory of you did a 0:07:43.240 --> 0:07:47.960 joke about Obama can only hope to be mediocre? Is again, 0:07:48.040 --> 0:07:50.720 it's like, you know, it's either the perception that we're 0:07:51.400 --> 0:07:54.480 animals or we are super huge. 0:07:54.520 --> 0:07:56.680 We're not calling any person an animal, let's let's let's 0:07:56.720 --> 0:07:57.000 get up. 0:07:57.040 --> 0:08:00.440 Well no, no, no, but I've meant like just whatever the 0:08:00.600 --> 0:08:03.680 one side of the spectrum where it's the extreme, it's 0:08:03.840 --> 0:08:06.880 triple raw or extreme. 0:08:06.520 --> 0:08:09.440 Caricature versus extreme intellect. 0:08:09.760 --> 0:08:13.360 Yes, but the thing with being ground zero middle is 0:08:13.360 --> 0:08:18.640 that that's just regular human yes, which is harder to Yeah. 0:08:18.640 --> 0:08:21.520 I mean that's what's Hey, that's why a letter's genius, 0:08:22.760 --> 0:08:26.679 because it walks that thing. It's like, I was very rounded. 0:08:26.760 --> 0:08:28.560 I was recently told by a bunch of white women 0:08:28.600 --> 0:08:30.920 I take like a comedy class neiahbor I made one joke. 0:08:30.960 --> 0:08:32.920 I get really nervous about making black jokes in front 0:08:32.960 --> 0:08:35.520 of white people, and so when I did finally write one, 0:08:35.559 --> 0:08:37.240 they were like, oh my god, we love it. Tell 0:08:37.320 --> 0:08:39.160 us more about ourselves, tell us about white women. 0:08:39.200 --> 0:08:42.319 And I was like, really, that's to see that. 0:08:42.000 --> 0:08:44.360 That bothers me too, because I feel like that's almost 0:08:44.360 --> 0:08:46.720 like fetishizing. 0:08:47.559 --> 0:08:50.160 Or you know, the whole guilt the guilt factor kick 0:08:50.200 --> 0:08:50.640 it in, and. 0:08:50.800 --> 0:08:52.240 I was wonder if it was a setup. I didn't know, 0:08:52.240 --> 0:08:53.400 but I was like, okay, I got a lot th. 0:08:54.440 --> 0:09:00.000 That's a setup. Damn, I'm sorry, that's a setup. 0:09:00.320 --> 0:09:00.840 Set up. 0:09:01.720 --> 0:09:05.920 So okay, so you you're you're fine with your experience there, and. 0:09:05.760 --> 0:09:08.280 The best experience is literally the best thing that ever 0:09:08.280 --> 0:09:11.480 happened to me. I met the best people, uh not 0:09:11.720 --> 0:09:15.320 just I mean ay, I got exposed about around a 0:09:15.360 --> 0:09:20.320 bunch of comedy. So you know, I'm a guy from 0:09:20.360 --> 0:09:25.160 Bedsty who came through this white system. So I still 0:09:25.240 --> 0:09:29.920 I'm still the guy who has to go and with 0:09:30.080 --> 0:09:32.520 my uncle to go get the guns before the bad 0:09:32.600 --> 0:09:36.520 cousins come. And at the same time, I know, Conan O'Brien, 0:09:37.600 --> 0:09:40.080 how can you fuck with me? You can't fuck with me, 0:09:40.800 --> 0:09:42.680 you know what I mean. Like that's all like, that's 0:09:42.720 --> 0:09:45.359 a lot of route, that's a lot of education. 0:09:45.120 --> 0:09:48.440 Which all right, So that leads me to evan the 0:09:48.480 --> 0:09:51.000 period between your your your in. 0:09:52.200 --> 0:09:55.280 Something forrom I'm sorry, cut you off. I wrote I 0:09:55.320 --> 0:10:01.480 think SNL. We edited a spin magazine that magazine and yes, 0:10:01.600 --> 0:10:05.400 I wrote an article about the end of the black 0:10:05.480 --> 0:10:10.199 super comic is coming because TV was getting more segregated 0:10:11.480 --> 0:10:15.800 and the black supercomic is me. Okay, let's take me 0:10:15.840 --> 0:10:17.400 out of it, because that sounds I sound like I 0:10:17.440 --> 0:10:21.760 sound like a cornerback, right, But uh, you know, there's 0:10:21.760 --> 0:10:25.959 a reason Eddie Murphy, Richard pryor all the greatest black comedians, 0:10:26.280 --> 0:10:29.679 the greatest comedians in America tend to be black. It's 0:10:29.720 --> 0:10:33.160 because you had to work these two systems in a 0:10:33.200 --> 0:10:36.280 world that everybody else has to work one. 0:10:38.400 --> 0:10:41.000 So you're saying Sam Cook record in Harlem, which is 0:10:41.040 --> 0:10:43.000 more blacker than the Sam Cook record at. 0:10:42.880 --> 0:10:45.280 The COPA, he had two live records come. 0:10:45.200 --> 0:10:47.920 Out, and this is the same thing that produced Michael Jackson. 0:10:47.960 --> 0:10:52.120 And like the the fact that you had to work 0:10:52.240 --> 0:10:56.560 two audiences in a world everybody else worked one. It's like, 0:10:56.679 --> 0:11:01.800 how can they fuck with you? Possible? Can't fuck with 0:11:01.840 --> 0:11:05.319 a guy that could work the Apollo and Carniou Hall. 0:11:05.400 --> 0:11:06.640 You can't fuck with that. 0:11:07.800 --> 0:11:08.160 All right. 0:11:08.200 --> 0:11:11.520 So that was Chris Rock speaking on having to maintain 0:11:11.600 --> 0:11:15.080 two audiences in his career, a black audience and a 0:11:15.120 --> 0:11:19.560 mainstream audience. I think that if you want international appeal, 0:11:20.760 --> 0:11:23.880 you have to learn how to code switch. And I 0:11:23.920 --> 0:11:28.840 think that's for everyone, of course, with black creatives, and 0:11:28.880 --> 0:11:34.240 this is what I explore in the slide documentary. I 0:11:34.280 --> 0:11:37.600 think for us it's a little bit deeper, like for 0:11:37.720 --> 0:11:43.120 some people it's you know, studying demographics to grow their 0:11:43.200 --> 0:11:49.040 audience as a creative exercise. My parents came from the 0:11:49.080 --> 0:11:54.439 generation in which you kind of had to adapt to 0:11:56.400 --> 0:12:01.199 cultural lifestyles that weren't your own, just for survivals. And 0:12:01.280 --> 0:12:04.360 I guess even growing up, you know, the way that 0:12:04.720 --> 0:12:08.599 I took to all types of music, maybe I inherently 0:12:08.720 --> 0:12:13.040 or subconsciously knew early that I had to learn the 0:12:13.200 --> 0:12:19.840 language of every type of music genre in order to 0:12:19.880 --> 0:12:22.319 survive in the world. For me, music was how I 0:12:22.440 --> 0:12:26.559 made friends. And if you listen to certain types of music, 0:12:26.640 --> 0:12:29.880 then that's something that you have in common with people. 0:12:30.040 --> 0:12:30.760 Because I went to. 0:12:30.720 --> 0:12:36.520 School with various you know, backgrounds and whatnot of different people. 0:12:37.320 --> 0:12:39.720 I saw the power of knowing other songs. 0:12:40.120 --> 0:12:42.680 Like in the ninth grade, I didn't know nothing about 0:12:42.760 --> 0:12:45.800 led Zeppelin, didn't want to learn anything about led Zeppelin. 0:12:45.920 --> 0:12:48.120 Like I fell for the I drank the kool aid. 0:12:48.240 --> 0:12:50.960 I went to a church that, like you know, was 0:12:51.000 --> 0:12:54.760 staunchly against rock music and MTV and the Thriller video 0:12:54.760 --> 0:12:58.000 and all that stuff. And so we were just told, 0:12:58.920 --> 0:13:01.640 you know, that's the problem them with where we are now. 0:13:01.720 --> 0:13:04.280 Like you just get told by an authority figure and 0:13:04.320 --> 0:13:08.480 you take that ass law without investigating it. So I 0:13:08.520 --> 0:13:10.200 was led to believe that led Zeppelin was like a 0:13:10.200 --> 0:13:15.360 demonic group. You know, if you're a music head, Bustle 0:13:15.480 --> 0:13:18.719 in your Head, Growl, google that. I believe there was 0:13:18.760 --> 0:13:22.920 a some past or something Baptist said that led Zeppelin 0:13:23.080 --> 0:13:28.480 was trying to lure our kids into Satanism, some silly shit, 0:13:28.800 --> 0:13:34.600 and they spun backwards the song Stairway to Heaven, and 0:13:34.880 --> 0:13:39.280 somehow he believes that Bustle in your Head Growl was 0:13:39.360 --> 0:13:43.640 some sort of demonic demon chant. That's the only words 0:13:43.640 --> 0:13:46.520 they can make from the backwards masking of Stairway to 0:13:46.559 --> 0:13:52.040 Heaven anyway, So the whole point is that, you know, 0:13:52.559 --> 0:13:57.360 I started to get into led Zeppelin well, firstly because 0:13:57.360 --> 0:14:03.040 the Beastie Boys started sampling them, so immediately my curiosity speaked. 0:14:03.040 --> 0:14:07.520 And soon thereafter, like if bands were having a jam 0:14:07.679 --> 0:14:09.320 or whatever and they would call out a song like 0:14:09.360 --> 0:14:14.240 the Lemons Song or Custard Pie or you know, in 0:14:14.320 --> 0:14:17.839 My Time of Dying or any of those led Zeppelin classics, 0:14:17.880 --> 0:14:21.000 I immediately knew it. So you know, it never hurts 0:14:21.040 --> 0:14:25.720 to why in your vocabulary, but it also I think, 0:14:26.680 --> 0:14:29.840 you know, you should also be aware of your history 0:14:30.520 --> 0:14:33.880 and not uphold your history in a way that it's 0:14:34.400 --> 0:14:39.240 disparaging to others or traumatic for others. Be proud of 0:14:39.240 --> 0:14:43.160 your history and learn other people's history too. So it 0:14:43.200 --> 0:14:47.400 should go without saying that QLs listeners know that already. 0:14:47.480 --> 0:14:50.280 Anyway, I thought I had my two cents. 0:14:51.120 --> 0:14:55.120 Next is the great late Prodigy of Mob Deep and 0:14:55.520 --> 0:14:58.080 Prodigy is going to speak about his family and their 0:14:58.120 --> 0:15:02.240 contributions to black culture through dance around New York City, 0:15:02.880 --> 0:15:05.320 and he shows that the black experience. 0:15:04.880 --> 0:15:06.080 Is not a monolith. 0:15:07.320 --> 0:15:11.640 Like what eventually brought you to the city to Queens. 0:15:12.720 --> 0:15:16.280 When I turned like eleven twelve, my mom's moved to 0:15:16.360 --> 0:15:20.080 Left Rack. She moved to Left Rack City. My pops 0:15:20.080 --> 0:15:23.280 had split up because my pop said did some crazy shit. 0:15:23.320 --> 0:15:26.840 My pops was wild man. He he had kidnapped me, 0:15:27.000 --> 0:15:28.960 took me to Detroit. We was living in Detroit for 0:15:29.040 --> 0:15:31.160 a minute, balling out of control. He was working in 0:15:31.160 --> 0:15:33.720 the stock market doing some crazy shit. 0:15:34.080 --> 0:15:36.080 And when did you live in Detroit? 0:15:36.640 --> 0:15:36.840 Man? 0:15:36.920 --> 0:15:40.120 This is like early eighties when scofid what year the 0:15:40.160 --> 0:15:42.480 scafface came out? Eighty three to three? Because my pops 0:15:42.480 --> 0:15:48.680 took me to the way. My pops took me to 0:15:48.720 --> 0:15:52.560 the movies in Detroit when at the premiere when Scarface 0:15:52.640 --> 0:15:54.560 first came out. So that's when I was out there. 0:15:54.520 --> 0:15:56.800 In age when you were nine, I was nine. 0:15:57.080 --> 0:15:59.760 So the lyrics pop talked, you try to shooting was 0:15:59.800 --> 0:16:01.360 seven and that was real that really? Oh yeah, the 0:16:01.480 --> 0:16:04.080 pop man, he was off the man that that that 0:16:04.200 --> 0:16:08.480 boy is something else? He was something else? Man. 0:16:08.760 --> 0:16:09.880 Was he a musician as well? 0:16:10.000 --> 0:16:11.880 Or like, yeah, he was. He was a singer, you 0:16:11.920 --> 0:16:13.840 know what I mean. Like I said, he had that group, 0:16:13.920 --> 0:16:16.120 the Chances du Ok group. They had a couple of 0:16:16.200 --> 0:16:20.200 dope songs, you know what I mean. But my father's 0:16:20.240 --> 0:16:23.960 things was computers. In the early eighties. He I remember, 0:16:24.040 --> 0:16:26.160 being like probably five six years old. 0:16:26.240 --> 0:16:26.800 My father was. 0:16:26.800 --> 0:16:29.280 Working on Mcinitar's writing programs, you know what I'm saying. 0:16:29.520 --> 0:16:32.960 Really he was really really dope with it. I think 0:16:33.000 --> 0:16:35.960 it's a school called TCI. I think it's called TCI. 0:16:37.640 --> 0:16:40.520 My father went there and he actually got so good 0:16:40.560 --> 0:16:43.560 he became like a professor there. He started teaching. He 0:16:43.600 --> 0:16:45.840 was in the commercials and all that. Like after a while, 0:16:46.160 --> 0:16:49.640 he got really nice with it, and you know that's 0:16:49.680 --> 0:16:55.920 what he was into. Computers, heroin, alcohol, karate. My father 0:16:56.000 --> 0:16:58.520 had a dojo on Jamaica Avenue, you know what I mean. 0:16:58.560 --> 0:16:59.680 So he used to teach karate. 0:16:59.760 --> 0:17:12.720 You just said that convo back then. Computer it's crazy 0:17:13.440 --> 0:17:13.800 all that. 0:17:13.880 --> 0:17:17.960 It's very crazy, man. My pop's life was wow, it 0:17:18.080 --> 0:17:22.000 was wild. That was his thing. He loved computers and 0:17:22.040 --> 0:17:25.440 he loved fighting and just doing wold ship. He was crazy, man. 0:17:26.359 --> 0:17:28.320 And I know that you you have a closeness with 0:17:28.640 --> 0:17:31.480 your grandmother as well, that she was in the artist. 0:17:31.760 --> 0:17:35.240 Yeah, my grandma, My grandmother was ill. She was she 0:17:35.320 --> 0:17:38.000 was one of the first Cotton Club dances when they 0:17:38.000 --> 0:17:41.280 first opened the Cotton Club way back and uh, you know, 0:17:41.400 --> 0:17:44.320 she was friends with Lena Horn. Horn used to dance 0:17:44.359 --> 0:17:48.360 there early before she became famous, you know. And that's 0:17:48.359 --> 0:17:51.760 how my grandmother met my grandfather because my grandfather used 0:17:51.760 --> 0:17:54.520 to play in the band at the Cotton Club, So 0:17:54.720 --> 0:17:59.200 that's how they met. And you know, after my grandmother 0:17:59.320 --> 0:18:02.160 started a dance school business in a basement of crib 0:18:02.240 --> 0:18:05.879 on a god Brewer and she started with like five students, 0:18:06.119 --> 0:18:07.520 you know what I mean, And it just grew and 0:18:07.560 --> 0:18:10.280 grew over the years until to a point where she 0:18:10.320 --> 0:18:12.760 started renting the building. And then it grew to a 0:18:12.800 --> 0:18:16.159 point where she actually bought her own commercial building in Queens. 0:18:16.160 --> 0:18:18.040 She was like the first black woman to own a 0:18:18.080 --> 0:18:22.159 commercial space in Queens. So you know, it was a 0:18:22.240 --> 0:18:24.239 dance school business, you know what I mean. She was 0:18:24.280 --> 0:18:27.400 that was her thing, dancing. So a lot of her students, man, 0:18:27.440 --> 0:18:31.400 she has some famous students that she uh that she raised, 0:18:31.440 --> 0:18:34.320 like Ben Vereen is one of she raised. Seen like 0:18:34.320 --> 0:18:36.879 you know what I mean? And uh, he used to 0:18:36.920 --> 0:18:38.359 you know, be in the house all the time, like 0:18:38.440 --> 0:18:41.479 you know what I mean, anytime he had something going on. 0:18:41.520 --> 0:18:42.960 We used to watch it in the crab. I don't 0:18:42.960 --> 0:18:48.000 seen roots thousands of times, you know what I mean. 0:18:48.040 --> 0:18:50.639 That's like, everybody get together watch Ben Ben is on. 0:18:51.680 --> 0:18:54.480 You know Michael Peters, he was a famous choreographer, Michael 0:18:57.320 --> 0:18:59.639 Michael Peters. Was that my grandmama's. That was when my 0:18:59.640 --> 0:19:00.760 grandma's students. 0:19:01.600 --> 0:19:02.120 So much shook. 0:19:02.160 --> 0:19:02.760 He did beat it. 0:19:02.800 --> 0:19:06.800 He dancing he did so like that was like events 0:19:06.800 --> 0:19:07.240 same thing. 0:19:07.320 --> 0:19:12.080 Like matter of fact, Peters is the and the beating 0:19:12.320 --> 0:19:13.280 nine battle. 0:19:13.400 --> 0:19:17.840 He's the one in all white. 0:19:16.280 --> 0:19:17.679 Be the one that got their hands tied up. 0:19:18.840 --> 0:19:20.480 When I was six, my dad introduced me to him 0:19:20.520 --> 0:19:22.119 and I was like, but you can't dance better? Than 0:19:22.119 --> 0:19:23.679 Michael Jackson, and he walked away with me with so 0:19:23.760 --> 0:19:29.639 much app toude like. 0:19:27.560 --> 0:19:29.679 Like I remember when I was a little kid, like 0:19:29.840 --> 0:19:31.399 we used to fly to Cali because a lot of 0:19:31.400 --> 0:19:33.840 her students live in Cali and whatnot, So we used 0:19:33.880 --> 0:19:35.719 to fly to Cali and visit them, and she used 0:19:35.760 --> 0:19:37.919 to take care of some business. And Michael Peters used 0:19:37.920 --> 0:19:39.760 to take me to the Universal Studios all the time. 0:19:39.800 --> 0:19:41.640 That was my favorite place when I was a little kid. 0:19:42.480 --> 0:19:45.720 Let's go again again. I've been there like a hundred 0:19:45.760 --> 0:19:48.040 times when I was a kid. That was my favorite ship, 0:19:48.240 --> 0:19:51.280 Like you know what I mean. But yeah, so this 0:19:51.359 --> 0:19:53.520 is my grandma. This is like my grandmother's life. She 0:19:54.080 --> 0:19:56.600 uh you know, this is her her thing in the 0:19:56.720 --> 0:19:59.800 dance world, and she got a lot of choreo cor 0:20:00.040 --> 0:20:03.560 aographers and she she helped out a lot of people 0:20:03.880 --> 0:20:06.280 as far as that in that world. So I grew 0:20:06.359 --> 0:20:09.320 up a lot around her concerts. She would do these 0:20:09.320 --> 0:20:12.760 concerts every year at Lincoln Center, at the Apollo at 0:20:12.800 --> 0:20:17.800 uh Carnegie Hall. You know, every year she would do 0:20:17.840 --> 0:20:20.120 like a big concert and you. 0:20:20.119 --> 0:20:21.760 Were a backstage kid. 0:20:21.840 --> 0:20:24.440 Yeah, me and my cousins be backstage wild and looking 0:20:24.480 --> 0:20:25.679 at the girls getting dressed in. 0:20:28.520 --> 0:20:29.080 Backstage. 0:20:30.240 --> 0:20:32.480 I used to watch old old ass dudes, you know, 0:20:33.200 --> 0:20:35.840 smoke reefers in the well yo. 0:20:36.680 --> 0:20:38.480 But he had a better backstage experience. 0:20:38.560 --> 0:20:43.160 Yeah, especially at my grandmother's dance school. She like hundreds 0:20:43.240 --> 0:20:47.200 of girls from Queen's Like that was like that was man. 0:20:47.400 --> 0:20:48.720 I used to love that place when I was a 0:20:48.720 --> 0:20:51.240 little kid. Man, we had so much fun running around 0:20:51.280 --> 0:20:55.120 Jamaica Avenue and you know, having fun, man with all 0:20:55.160 --> 0:20:57.800 the girls there, and it was crazy crazy growing up, 0:20:57.880 --> 0:20:58.399 Like you know what I mean. 0:21:03.880 --> 0:21:05.920 Welcome back to Quest Love Supreme. Good people. 0:21:06.800 --> 0:21:08.760 One of the things that's cool about the show is 0:21:08.800 --> 0:21:13.119 how different episodes can connect the dots. So before the 0:21:13.160 --> 0:21:17.360 ad break, Prodigy mentioned Ben Vereen and that was in 0:21:17.400 --> 0:21:22.360 the spring of twenty seventeen, before we lost p However, 0:21:22.440 --> 0:21:25.480 in twenty twenty four we had Quest Love Supreme spoke 0:21:25.560 --> 0:21:28.960 to Ben Veren, and Ben shared accounts of meeting Linkston 0:21:29.040 --> 0:21:34.400 News and his game changing work on the series Roots. 0:21:35.280 --> 0:21:37.520 Take me through your life as a creative. What was 0:21:37.560 --> 0:21:40.080 your first step into a profession. 0:21:40.720 --> 0:21:44.680 I just graduated from high school for the performing arts. 0:21:45.520 --> 0:21:49.159 There's a woman there named Janette Carol and she was 0:21:49.240 --> 0:21:53.399 doing Michelle called The Prodigal Sun off Broadway at the 0:21:53.480 --> 0:21:56.840 Greenwich News Theater. So I'm talking about about a professional show, right. 0:21:57.359 --> 0:22:00.439 I never knew anything about Broadway or the the I 0:22:00.480 --> 0:22:04.399 had never been on a Broadway stage until Bob Fosse. 0:22:04.560 --> 0:22:07.119 But I go to the show. It was in a 0:22:07.480 --> 0:22:10.480 graduate Green's roof theater. It was downstairs, a little theater, 0:22:11.080 --> 0:22:14.680 and uh, that was my first production. And one night 0:22:14.760 --> 0:22:17.280 I'm coming out of the theater. I was in my first 0:22:17.320 --> 0:22:20.359 Son of be Bonn and I was lay getting to 0:22:20.400 --> 0:22:22.240 the theater. I had to spend time with my first 0:22:22.240 --> 0:22:25.720 wife and got back to the theater and the dance 0:22:26.760 --> 0:22:29.360 captain had taken my role and gave it to his love. 0:22:30.040 --> 0:22:32.760 And I wasn't going to have that because it was 0:22:32.800 --> 0:22:35.560 my role. So I went on stage anyway. So it 0:22:36.160 --> 0:22:38.240 stage where I said, they can't do that. I said, no, 0:22:38.359 --> 0:22:40.240 they can't. So I went on stage. Guy, I got dressed, 0:22:40.480 --> 0:22:44.480 went on stage, and we're fighting doing the show on stage. 0:22:44.680 --> 0:22:47.639 I'm he's in my place. I'm hitting him, he's hitting me. 0:22:47.920 --> 0:22:50.159 This org and people must say, they're going, wow, this 0:22:50.200 --> 0:22:51.520 show is so real. 0:22:52.040 --> 0:22:52.800 I died. 0:22:52.960 --> 0:22:56.240 So I come off stage. I'm angry. I'm leaving the theater. 0:22:56.640 --> 0:22:59.440 I'm going to Glenn's house, you know, you know, getting 0:22:59.480 --> 0:23:02.880 myself hold off. And it's a little guy sitting outside 0:23:02.920 --> 0:23:06.720 of the door, and he says, he says, excuse me, Yeah, 0:23:06.760 --> 0:23:09.879 what do you want? He says, I'm looking for Benjamin Verena. 0:23:09.920 --> 0:23:12.720 I'm bench Maine. What do you want? He said, you 0:23:12.760 --> 0:23:14.880 look like you could use the dinner. My name was Langston, 0:23:15.040 --> 0:23:16.359 used I wrote this. 0:23:17.560 --> 0:23:20.399 Whoa, Well, you can't just you just drop that. You 0:23:20.440 --> 0:23:21.040 did that? 0:23:25.840 --> 0:23:29.040 Yeah, took me to dinner, he said, you looked like 0:23:30.160 --> 0:23:31.960 nobody he did it. He took me a little to 0:23:32.000 --> 0:23:34.680 a little Italian joy in the village, and we sat 0:23:34.760 --> 0:23:37.080 and talked, and he told me about himself and told 0:23:37.119 --> 0:23:39.520 me a guy he's written the play and invited me 0:23:39.600 --> 0:23:43.399 up the Harlem for the first time. So that was 0:23:43.440 --> 0:23:47.720 my first professional job. Uh. And the time would buy. 0:23:48.240 --> 0:23:51.479 And the next time I got a job was uh 0:23:51.800 --> 0:23:54.840 you'll read about in the book. Was on the subway, 0:23:54.880 --> 0:23:56.720 I jumped and turnstile. I went to New York City. 0:23:57.040 --> 0:23:58.960 I was standing on the corner. I went by my school. 0:23:59.040 --> 0:24:02.399 I was really depressed. I went by performing Arts. I 0:24:02.400 --> 0:24:04.400 looked at the school and going where am I going, 0:24:04.520 --> 0:24:07.080 what's going to happen? And I walked down to the 0:24:07.119 --> 0:24:10.800 news stand and I opened up a newspaper. Backstage in 0:24:10.840 --> 0:24:13.600 his audition for that day for a show called Sweet 0:24:13.680 --> 0:24:16.920 Charity going to a place called Las Vegas, starring Woman 0:24:16.960 --> 0:24:20.760 and Juliette Prowse, directed by Bob Fosse. And that was 0:24:20.800 --> 0:24:23.159 the first time I was stept on Broadway. Storage at 0:24:23.560 --> 0:24:26.159 at the Palace Theater. I went to the audition. It 0:24:26.280 --> 0:24:29.320 was like the opening of all that jazz. Yes, and 0:24:29.359 --> 0:24:31.119 I went, that was one of those kids on the 0:24:31.160 --> 0:24:34.240 stage standing there washing. This cool guy walked down the 0:24:34.240 --> 0:24:37.240 middle of the aisle smoking a cigarette. He gets up 0:24:37.280 --> 0:24:39.840 on stage, he does the demonstration for us to do, 0:24:40.240 --> 0:24:43.840 and the ashes never fall. I said, this. 0:24:43.680 --> 0:24:46.719 Guy, he just smoked to the end and the ashes 0:24:46.800 --> 0:24:47.960 just grew and grew. 0:24:49.080 --> 0:24:53.159 Hung there, but he did the combination turns and boom 0:24:53.200 --> 0:24:55.840 and steps and step boom, and then stopped and going 0:24:55.880 --> 0:24:58.760 you take me, okay, do the steps. We couldn't do 0:24:58.800 --> 0:25:01.520 the steps because you too watching the asses see if 0:25:01.520 --> 0:25:02.200 they're in fall. 0:25:04.640 --> 0:25:04.960 Okay. 0:25:05.040 --> 0:25:09.920 So my mother is, you know, probably the show's biggest fan, 0:25:10.240 --> 0:25:11.960 and she. 0:25:11.960 --> 0:25:12.840 Will scream on me. 0:25:13.440 --> 0:25:16.760 You drop so many names that she'll scream on me 0:25:16.920 --> 0:25:19.119 if I don't go in the further detail. And my 0:25:19.160 --> 0:25:22.240 mom's from Pittsburgh. Okay, I'm gonna ask about Bob Fosse. 0:25:22.400 --> 0:25:26.600 But you mentioned the legendary Martha Graham. You study under it. 0:25:27.200 --> 0:25:31.000 What was what was it like studying under Martha Graham. 0:25:31.480 --> 0:25:33.960 Well, I didn't actually have a class about the Graham. 0:25:34.160 --> 0:25:37.679 I studied with one of her dancers named David Woods. Okay, 0:25:38.119 --> 0:25:40.639 it was one of the teachers there. It was amazing, 0:25:41.359 --> 0:25:45.200 you know, for me getting into the middle. The first 0:25:45.280 --> 0:25:49.120 day of school, they have you line up and then 0:25:49.119 --> 0:25:52.280 they have you change and you get dressed for your class. 0:25:52.560 --> 0:25:55.639 You go to your classes. And my first day in school, 0:25:55.720 --> 0:25:59.560 I wore my suit that wore was sensational Tales to Brooklyn. 0:26:00.000 --> 0:26:02.480 My mother bought me in a tash sharecase. I stole 0:26:02.680 --> 0:26:05.280 like my attash shad case. And then they said, go 0:26:05.320 --> 0:26:07.600 get dressed. All the guys went and put on their 0:26:07.680 --> 0:26:09.879 dance clothes. I put on my dance clothes, put my 0:26:09.920 --> 0:26:13.240 suit back oncu that's what it was raised, you know, 0:26:13.960 --> 0:26:17.240 don't just walk around your underwear. So I get back 0:26:17.280 --> 0:26:19.359 out there in my suit on. She said, excuse me, 0:26:19.440 --> 0:26:22.919 doctor was saying you're taking class of that. I said, yes, said, well, 0:26:22.920 --> 0:26:28.600 where's your dance clothes? I said, my suit. You can't 0:26:28.680 --> 0:26:31.400 dance that way, Get in there, put on your dance clothes. 0:26:31.600 --> 0:26:35.679 And that was the beginning of whoa wonderment. Yeah. But 0:26:35.800 --> 0:26:39.560 David Woods who was really the foundation of my actings 0:26:39.640 --> 0:26:42.320 as well, because he would tell us, he say, you 0:26:42.400 --> 0:26:45.960 can't just dance. It's got to tell a story. So 0:26:46.359 --> 0:26:49.160 find the story that you want to tell through your movement. 0:26:49.800 --> 0:26:51.560 And that's why dance is so personal to me. 0:26:52.800 --> 0:26:53.440 You know, in. 0:26:53.480 --> 0:26:56.480 Mardern dance, you must tell a story. It isn't about 0:26:56.520 --> 0:27:01.399 just steps. It's about emotion. It's about the story that 0:27:01.480 --> 0:27:05.720 you're telling. Although it may not be the choreographer may 0:27:05.760 --> 0:27:08.320 not is telling you his story. But you got to 0:27:08.320 --> 0:27:12.320 find your story within the movement. What makes you move 0:27:12.400 --> 0:27:15.680 this way, what makes you sing this way? What makes 0:27:15.720 --> 0:27:19.080 you tell your story through drama, through the word this way? 0:27:19.320 --> 0:27:21.439 You have to create it, at least for me. You 0:27:21.480 --> 0:27:24.800 have to relate to something within you that connects to 0:27:24.840 --> 0:27:29.439 that emotion. And that's how we dance. That's how I 0:27:29.520 --> 0:27:30.520 danced for. 0:27:30.520 --> 0:27:33.159 A lot of us, at least for my generation. This 0:27:33.280 --> 0:27:37.000 conversation is really transformational as far as like my mind state, 0:27:37.040 --> 0:27:40.080 because I think every person thinks that their era in 0:27:40.119 --> 0:27:44.200 the world is the kind of you know, black and white, 0:27:44.200 --> 0:27:47.280 the color Wizard of Oz thing like everyone thinks like, oh, 0:27:47.280 --> 0:27:49.680 when I was born, then suddenly modern times began. 0:27:50.800 --> 0:27:52.400 But you know, I. 0:27:52.320 --> 0:27:57.320 Would assume that until Roots came along, that a lot 0:27:57.359 --> 0:28:00.800 of African Americans weren't even thinking in terms of their 0:28:00.920 --> 0:28:05.440 history going back to Africa, unless you know, they were 0:28:05.560 --> 0:28:08.679 of the generation that watched Tarzan as a kid in 0:28:08.680 --> 0:28:10.040 the fifties and sixties. 0:28:09.720 --> 0:28:12.200 The Marcus Garvey movement, and he was down. 0:28:11.960 --> 0:28:13.640 With that, right. 0:28:13.920 --> 0:28:16.800 So what I'm asking you is when you're told to 0:28:16.880 --> 0:28:22.320 tell your story and the vocabulary of our African history 0:28:22.480 --> 0:28:26.959 really wasn't super enforced unless you were part of specialized 0:28:27.000 --> 0:28:32.000 movements in your mind, when you are expressing yourself and 0:28:32.119 --> 0:28:36.199 reaching inside for your emotions and through dance, what is 0:28:36.200 --> 0:28:38.840 it that drove you creatively? Like, what are you thinking 0:28:38.880 --> 0:28:42.160 of when they're telling you tell your story? 0:28:43.480 --> 0:28:47.960 Well, I'm thinking of my emotional feelings and what I 0:28:48.040 --> 0:28:52.920 feel in that moment of that story makes sense, all right? 0:28:53.000 --> 0:28:55.080 If I have safe For example, if I tell a 0:28:55.120 --> 0:28:59.080 story of my let's see keep a simple going to 0:28:59.200 --> 0:29:01.960 performing us. What did that make you feel? Like? How 0:29:02.000 --> 0:29:04.480 did you feel the first day you stepped on that stage, 0:29:04.840 --> 0:29:07.320 when you stepped into that studio? What was it feeling 0:29:07.320 --> 0:29:09.520 to you and feeling? What's that story that you want 0:29:09.560 --> 0:29:12.760 to tell right there? And then that creates a whole movement, 0:29:13.360 --> 0:29:16.120 yes for us coming up. And I was as far 0:29:16.160 --> 0:29:18.840 as we're talking about ancestry now, when we talk about 0:29:18.880 --> 0:29:23.040 black history in my school coming up, in my era, 0:29:23.560 --> 0:29:27.960 it was one paragraph your slave and Lincoln freed you, 0:29:27.960 --> 0:29:30.960 you know, and we know that's not true. And long 0:29:31.040 --> 0:29:34.200 comes a wonderful man named Alex Haley who says, I'm 0:29:34.200 --> 0:29:36.960 going to watch that because it's not true. And he 0:29:37.000 --> 0:29:40.360 goes back to Gambia and he finds his roots, and 0:29:40.400 --> 0:29:43.640 he writes a wonderful book called Roots. And we all 0:29:43.720 --> 0:29:47.320 now say, and now the world is going whoa wait 0:29:47.360 --> 0:29:49.920 a minute, waking up. There was more to it than 0:29:49.960 --> 0:29:53.000 this what's in our history books. There's more to my story, 0:29:53.280 --> 0:29:56.400 you see. It's so interesting. When Roots came out, it 0:29:56.520 --> 0:29:59.400 was just the book and I had heard about it, 0:29:59.480 --> 0:30:02.160 and like lot of us there, and I just knew 0:30:02.280 --> 0:30:05.400 I wanted to be a part of that movie, that 0:30:05.520 --> 0:30:08.280 TV series that was And I went to my agent 0:30:08.760 --> 0:30:12.600 and I said to him, listen, there's this book I 0:30:12.600 --> 0:30:14.880 think ABC is gonna make a movie out of it 0:30:14.960 --> 0:30:18.040 called Roots Cinder. I really i'd like to be to 0:30:18.160 --> 0:30:20.880 try out what he says to me, Ben, you're a 0:30:20.960 --> 0:30:21.880 song and dance man. 0:30:22.640 --> 0:30:26.760 They're looking for actors, he said, So listen, there's a 0:30:27.000 --> 0:30:29.400 there's this group that starting out, you got a big 0:30:29.480 --> 0:30:33.720 hit called your Family's Sister Sledge. He says, they're going 0:30:33.800 --> 0:30:35.920 to open for you in Chicago, So why don't you 0:30:36.360 --> 0:30:38.200 go do that? And you have another gig for you 0:30:38.240 --> 0:30:41.880 guys down in Savannah. So I said yeah, But Kenny said, Ben, 0:30:41.920 --> 0:30:44.720 they're looking for actors. So I get on I get 0:30:44.720 --> 0:30:47.040 on the plane. I go to Chicago. Sisters Sledge. They 0:30:47.080 --> 0:30:49.480 opened to me a wonderful these little girls, the little Girls, 0:30:49.920 --> 0:30:51.440 and we get to Sabana, Georgia. 0:30:51.640 --> 0:30:54.800 He used to do a character called Bert Williams about 0:30:55.720 --> 0:30:59.479 my ancestry, about the performer there was a time in 0:30:59.520 --> 0:31:02.800 America history where black people in the theater were not 0:31:02.920 --> 0:31:06.120 allowed on stage unless we wore a blackface, and he 0:31:06.200 --> 0:31:09.800 went through that. So I told that story and coming 0:31:09.880 --> 0:31:13.440 at the show, that afternoon in Savannah, Georgia, there was 0:31:13.480 --> 0:31:17.040 a guy came backstages and they would staying Margolis and 0:31:17.080 --> 0:31:19.480 he said, I want you to read my Chicken George. 0:31:19.840 --> 0:31:23.000 And I said, I said, said, what's the chicken George? 0:31:23.120 --> 0:31:24.760 He said, we'll shoe it down here shooting the show 0:31:24.800 --> 0:31:29.600 called Roots, he said, And I said, I don't care, man, 0:31:29.840 --> 0:31:32.200 if Chicken George's gout and the boat going, let me 0:31:32.320 --> 0:31:35.600 yut of here, let me yut here, please please, I'll 0:31:35.640 --> 0:31:38.040 be there. And that's how I got the bar. But 0:31:38.080 --> 0:31:40.200 I had no idea how deep it was going to 0:31:40.280 --> 0:31:43.720 go and what I mean. It opened up a whole 0:31:43.960 --> 0:31:47.240 avenue for me and for all of us to look 0:31:47.320 --> 0:31:51.600 back and honor our ancestry, which you must continue to do, 0:31:52.280 --> 0:31:55.720 to stay forward, because our ancestry of the reason why 0:31:55.760 --> 0:32:02.520 we're here today, their struggle, their fight, their determination to 0:32:02.600 --> 0:32:08.280 go through slavery. Imagine coming across the water, having being 0:32:08.360 --> 0:32:13.040 stolen from your family. You're on and you're put on chains, 0:32:14.000 --> 0:32:16.480 change what was a chain, and you're being put on 0:32:16.520 --> 0:32:19.520 a boat on and you put to an island and 0:32:19.560 --> 0:32:21.520 you're gone away with a bunch of people you've never 0:32:21.560 --> 0:32:24.480 seen the white and you see a bunch of other 0:32:25.200 --> 0:32:29.120 people your color, were not the same languages, and we're 0:32:29.160 --> 0:32:32.800 all chained inside this boat and someone jumping off the 0:32:32.880 --> 0:32:35.560 side as they refuse to go to They don't know 0:32:35.920 --> 0:32:37.560 what's gonna happen. They don't want to be a part 0:32:37.560 --> 0:32:40.680 of it. But the bravery of those people who went 0:32:41.080 --> 0:32:45.120 through that passage and stood on that on that slave 0:32:45.240 --> 0:32:49.440 block and watch their families being torn apart, which which 0:32:49.600 --> 0:32:56.600 I think in my mind, destroyed our culture togetherness, that strength, 0:32:57.320 --> 0:33:00.360 and to tell their stories to be forgotten. No, no, 0:33:00.440 --> 0:33:01.240 not on my watch. 0:33:02.120 --> 0:33:05.760 How long did they give you to prepare that role, 0:33:06.480 --> 0:33:11.040 take us through the process of preparing, executing, and then 0:33:11.200 --> 0:33:12.120 leaving that character. 0:33:12.760 --> 0:33:14.440 I never looked their character boar. 0:33:17.800 --> 0:33:18.960 All right, ta good joys. 0:33:20.680 --> 0:33:25.760 Well, for me, it was all because I understand my 0:33:25.960 --> 0:33:30.160 family we never sat around and talked about then, because 0:33:30.160 --> 0:33:33.479 we were surviving in the now. My family was the 0:33:34.000 --> 0:33:38.480 educators or the you know, they were not of that ilk, 0:33:38.840 --> 0:33:42.680 you know, if they were field workers, you know, survivors, 0:33:43.080 --> 0:33:48.640 and so we never sat around talked about education, about government, 0:33:49.280 --> 0:33:53.080 about what's going on day to day survival. So when 0:33:53.080 --> 0:33:55.440 I got this, I knew there was a deeper story. 0:33:55.960 --> 0:33:58.720 When I got the opportunity to tell my story, it 0:33:58.840 --> 0:34:01.240 was like, how do I find my research? So I 0:34:01.280 --> 0:34:04.560 called my elders. You know, can you tell me about 0:34:04.760 --> 0:34:07.640 what it was like during this time that time? And 0:34:07.760 --> 0:34:10.960 you know, and a lot of it came from imagination 0:34:11.160 --> 0:34:15.440 once again, what it must have felt like. And Chicken George, 0:34:16.239 --> 0:34:17.080 he's so beautiful. 0:34:17.120 --> 0:34:17.279 You know. 0:34:17.400 --> 0:34:19.359 The one thing I do is that when I get 0:34:19.360 --> 0:34:22.279 to a character, especially someone like Chicken George, I asked 0:34:22.360 --> 0:34:27.520 permission to enter into that realm of consciousness. What's been 0:34:27.719 --> 0:34:32.120 like for you? Educate me, teach me? And he took 0:34:32.120 --> 0:34:36.120 me on his journey. And I tell you the respect 0:34:36.320 --> 0:34:39.879 and the admiration that the cast and the crew had 0:34:39.920 --> 0:34:42.600 doing that, it was amazing. It was amazing. 0:34:43.040 --> 0:34:45.799 Did it feel safe? Did they provide like a cause? 0:34:45.840 --> 0:34:47.960 You know in twenty twenty if you guys made this 0:34:48.000 --> 0:34:50.200 in twenty twenty four or twenty five, there would be 0:34:50.239 --> 0:34:53.440 all kind of counseling on set, and you know, when 0:34:53.480 --> 0:34:55.520 you when you broke out a character, there'd be somebody 0:34:55.560 --> 0:34:58.120 to make sure are you okay? Like, how did y'all 0:34:58.120 --> 0:35:01.840 handle that? No? Not in twenty twenty four, Sorry to 0:35:01.920 --> 0:35:06.520 jump in now, go please, That will come later oh 0:35:06.600 --> 0:35:08.160 not in twenty twenty four, my bad. 0:35:08.000 --> 0:35:13.080 Okay yaour During that time it was self nurturing. And 0:35:13.120 --> 0:35:15.239 that's why I say the cat the crew, even the 0:35:15.320 --> 0:35:19.000 crew was aware that we were touching upon something that 0:35:19.160 --> 0:35:21.759 was in other words, I hate to use this word 0:35:21.800 --> 0:35:27.640 but taboo. But the respect and the reverence that the 0:35:27.840 --> 0:35:31.560 crew had and would like to see that one scene. 0:35:31.800 --> 0:35:35.480 I never forget the scene where Richard Rowntree was dating 0:35:35.520 --> 0:35:38.920 my mother time Leslie other one was playing kissing and 0:35:38.920 --> 0:35:42.000 there's a scene where she had talked him into taking 0:35:42.000 --> 0:35:45.640 her to find her father and they go back and 0:35:45.680 --> 0:35:51.200 they're late coming back to the plantation and his masa 0:35:51.520 --> 0:35:56.840 at the time was supposed to tastise him and Richard 0:35:56.880 --> 0:36:00.440 Rowntree was supposed to beg for him not to beat him. 0:36:00.719 --> 0:36:04.239 And I'll never get this. Richard said, you want me 0:36:04.360 --> 0:36:07.400 to grobble to a white man? Do you know why? 0:36:07.400 --> 0:36:09.480 I am mm hmm. 0:36:10.600 --> 0:36:13.560 I don't grabble for no white man. And the direct 0:36:13.600 --> 0:36:17.200 said said, Richard, we need this just for the next scene. 0:36:17.560 --> 0:36:19.719 He said no to he said, he said you can 0:36:19.760 --> 0:36:23.080 do this. He says, I ain't grabbling no white man. 0:36:24.480 --> 0:36:28.759 It's like that, And he said, well, he said just 0:36:28.920 --> 0:36:32.520 one time, he said. He looked around, he looked at them, 0:36:32.640 --> 0:36:35.400 at Kissey and my mother Leslie, looked at the castle 0:36:35.440 --> 0:36:39.759 and the crew. You went, you got one shot and 0:36:39.800 --> 0:36:41.720 he gets down. He does that scene where he says, 0:36:41.719 --> 0:36:44.279 please bost some morsel, don't beat me, and we just 0:36:44.280 --> 0:36:47.040 finished the direction that gun. Okay, that was a good friend. 0:36:47.400 --> 0:36:51.799 Anybody go home. The one said okay, thank you, thank 0:36:51.880 --> 0:36:54.480 you very much. Because it was, like, I mean, all 0:36:54.480 --> 0:36:56.800 of a sudden, we had to reflect on the fact 0:36:56.880 --> 0:37:01.000 that what it must have been like to have the 0:37:01.200 --> 0:37:07.240 wobble to white people for our survival. That the big 0:37:07.800 --> 0:37:12.440 you know, I think about my oof, don't get me started. 0:37:13.440 --> 0:37:22.680 I think about what people went through as slaves, kings, inventors, doctors, 0:37:23.360 --> 0:37:30.799 leaders being stripped. We built empires and civilizations and now 0:37:30.840 --> 0:37:34.160 we are at the bottom of the chain. They gave 0:37:34.239 --> 0:37:38.120 us slop and we made it a proisine. We made 0:37:38.160 --> 0:37:38.880 it a proisine. 0:37:39.080 --> 0:37:41.480 I can't even get to that extent of thought. It 0:37:41.560 --> 0:37:44.080 makes me think of also the artists who have had 0:37:44.120 --> 0:37:46.919 to play these roles. And it's funny because as you said, 0:37:46.960 --> 0:37:49.040 as you said, this was a taboo thing and now 0:37:49.040 --> 0:37:51.800 it's not. Now we've had several movies that have followed, 0:37:51.800 --> 0:37:54.280 and it makes me think about all the black actors 0:37:54.320 --> 0:37:57.480 who have had to tackle these roles, like from Chiwaitel 0:37:57.560 --> 0:38:01.040 e Joe for to Jamie Fox, to Lapita and Jongo. 0:38:01.600 --> 0:38:03.960 And I'm curious if anybody ever reached back to you 0:38:04.000 --> 0:38:05.960 and went, how did you do this? 0:38:06.680 --> 0:38:09.080 How did you do this thing? 0:38:09.120 --> 0:38:13.719 Because we who were there at the first beginning a 0:38:13.840 --> 0:38:17.479 waiting to say this is how we did it? Because 0:38:17.680 --> 0:38:21.960 what annoysment? I loved my brother LaVar Burden, love him, 0:38:22.840 --> 0:38:25.120 yet he felt that maybe I let me take it 0:38:25.120 --> 0:38:27.680 this way, but he never allowed us to talk to 0:38:27.880 --> 0:38:31.920 the cast, They say, what did you go through? How 0:38:31.960 --> 0:38:33.480 did you get there? At this point? 0:38:33.680 --> 0:38:35.239 Oh with the newer roots? Are you talking about the 0:38:35.280 --> 0:38:37.040 new roots? The newer roots? 0:38:37.840 --> 0:38:41.319 I said, Okay, they did a good job, but as 0:38:41.360 --> 0:38:43.600 far as they could do. But we could have given 0:38:43.640 --> 0:38:47.280 them another layer that's much deeper because we were there. 0:38:47.880 --> 0:38:49.960 We were I was curious about thank you for answering 0:38:50.000 --> 0:38:50.520 that question. 0:38:51.440 --> 0:38:55.719 We cried and wept and we what to do, but 0:38:55.800 --> 0:38:57.279 we knew we had to do it for the art 0:38:57.760 --> 0:39:01.759 and to tell the truth story as far as Hollywood 0:39:01.960 --> 0:39:04.720 would allow us to tell the true stories. You understand, 0:39:05.040 --> 0:39:09.799 Ruth just scraunged upon the surface really went down, But 0:39:09.920 --> 0:39:12.279 what really went down? You get into those wounds, you 0:39:12.360 --> 0:39:16.880 go deeper. They were knights. I come home and my 0:39:17.000 --> 0:39:20.680 wife Nancy, she go you okay, I say yeah, And 0:39:20.880 --> 0:39:24.800 nights I was just being tears and he was like, okay, okay, 0:39:24.800 --> 0:39:27.400 and let me get myself ready. Okay, let's go do 0:39:27.520 --> 0:39:30.000 the scene. And although I was friend chicken George, who 0:39:30.080 --> 0:39:32.239 was like a dandy, but there was that moment when 0:39:32.280 --> 0:39:36.080 he finds out his father is white. It's gone through 0:39:36.320 --> 0:39:43.000 and watching your fellow neighbor brothers, they whipped because they 0:39:43.040 --> 0:39:45.560 didn't want to pick up something they didn't want to do, 0:39:45.640 --> 0:39:48.040 so they said the same wrong thing because they were 0:39:48.120 --> 0:39:50.920 field niggas, then the house niggas, because it was to 0:39:51.000 --> 0:39:56.560 you a little better with the field nigga telling those stories, 0:39:56.800 --> 0:39:59.920 and I think those stories have not been told enough. 0:40:00.719 --> 0:40:03.600 As long as my Jewish brother and sisters can tell 0:40:03.680 --> 0:40:07.440 us about the Holocaust, we must talk about our Holocaust. 0:40:07.840 --> 0:40:12.239 Excuse me, agreed, Let's read so we know where we 0:40:12.360 --> 0:40:15.640 are going, otherwise they will do it to us again. 0:40:21.640 --> 0:40:23.839 So before that last break, we shared a clip from 0:40:23.840 --> 0:40:27.799 Ben Vereen, right, now we got Jennifer Lewis, who just 0:40:27.840 --> 0:40:33.080 gave team supreme wisdom on life from her experience and courage. 0:40:34.480 --> 0:40:37.480 I guess you can say in and out, I've been 0:40:37.480 --> 0:40:40.880 doing therapy for like thirty years. But you know the 0:40:41.000 --> 0:40:46.320 thing is, when the pandemic came, really you know again, 0:40:46.400 --> 0:40:48.600 like I do, I feel like a person shouldn't have 0:40:48.640 --> 0:40:52.160 to be at rock bottom to make the change. 0:40:52.280 --> 0:40:55.400 So that's why I'm really glad the pandemic happened. 0:40:55.520 --> 0:40:59.600 Because it wasn't a rock bottom moment, But that was 0:40:59.640 --> 0:41:03.480 definitely somewhat of a paradigm shift for me and taken 0:41:03.719 --> 0:41:07.320 mental health seriously and all those things. But you mentioned something, 0:41:08.600 --> 0:41:14.480 and I noticed that probably the time that I might 0:41:14.600 --> 0:41:17.520 be liable to get in an argument. 0:41:18.600 --> 0:41:19.160 I mean, not a. 0:41:19.080 --> 0:41:22.960 Fight, not like pugilism or anything. But there's a moment 0:41:23.200 --> 0:41:27.520 after I get off stage where I can't describe the feeling. 0:41:27.560 --> 0:41:30.040 And you you said that, and I was like, oh, 0:41:30.080 --> 0:41:32.640 so I'm not I've you know, I just thought like, well, 0:41:32.680 --> 0:41:35.720 me're sometimes you're just in an asshole after the thirty 0:41:35.760 --> 0:41:39.440 minutes after roots show. It's almost like after a root show, 0:41:41.000 --> 0:41:44.200 I purposely look for a place to just sit silent 0:41:44.280 --> 0:41:45.879 and literally come down and. 0:41:45.840 --> 0:41:46.719 I can't explain it. 0:41:46.760 --> 0:41:48.840 And the thing is is like right after a show, 0:41:49.200 --> 0:41:52.200 that's when people were pulling for you and Amir, let's 0:41:52.200 --> 0:41:55.600 talk to get it write, and I can't explain. And 0:41:55.640 --> 0:41:59.880 the thing is, it's like, because these people aren't entertainers, 0:42:00.680 --> 0:42:04.400 it's hard to really explain to them the process I 0:42:04.480 --> 0:42:08.920 go through, which is kind of why it's almost like 0:42:08.920 --> 0:42:12.520 an ad that feeling of when you're done a show, 0:42:12.560 --> 0:42:17.359 and that how you feel is such a description less 0:42:17.480 --> 0:42:23.319 addiction that I can't describe that. I figured out that 0:42:23.440 --> 0:42:25.279 for the at least the last thirty years, I've been 0:42:25.280 --> 0:42:28.600 doing DJ gigs after the Root show because I love 0:42:28.719 --> 0:42:31.839 music and because I love DJ, but basically I need 0:42:31.880 --> 0:42:34.400 to slowly come down off that high normalcy. 0:42:35.520 --> 0:42:36.440 So usually after. 0:42:36.360 --> 0:42:39.040 Root show, I will DJ for three hours so that 0:42:39.120 --> 0:42:41.800 way I don't have to talk to people. I'm playing 0:42:41.920 --> 0:42:45.719 music and I come down. But and sometimes when I'm 0:42:45.800 --> 0:42:50.520 not DJing, I wonder what that is, And I thought 0:42:50.560 --> 0:42:53.280 I was the only person going through that, because again, 0:42:53.400 --> 0:42:56.879 if I feel weird in talking about the mental health 0:42:56.920 --> 0:42:59.640 space thing and have my occupation, because I always feel 0:42:59.680 --> 0:43:02.640 like people look at me like eh, here's the world 0:43:02.719 --> 0:43:06.920 Stiny's violin. Like, if people are in a certain profession, 0:43:07.080 --> 0:43:11.400 they might not. They might feel unworthy of having problems 0:43:11.480 --> 0:43:11.920 or whatnot. 0:43:12.040 --> 0:43:12.920 Like people might not. 0:43:13.760 --> 0:43:16.360 At this point, the world knows entertainers have trauma. 0:43:16.680 --> 0:43:20.520 Right, I'm just let me interject here. Yes, yes, please please. 0:43:20.640 --> 0:43:20.799 Yeah. 0:43:21.640 --> 0:43:26.760 First of all, we are not normal creatures. Yeah right, 0:43:27.360 --> 0:43:32.719 we are artists. We are different. Are we better or 0:43:32.800 --> 0:43:35.959 worse than anyone? No, we just are who we are 0:43:36.760 --> 0:43:44.920 and we form who we form the artistreet. 0:43:46.160 --> 0:43:52.720 It's like Lena Simone said, an artist's duty is. 0:43:52.760 --> 0:43:59.600 To speak to the times. Nina Simone didn't hide her 0:43:59.640 --> 0:44:03.480 pain and need. It's a more laid it on the piano. 0:44:04.320 --> 0:44:08.600 We have to learn where to put that quest. You 0:44:08.680 --> 0:44:13.279 have to put that somewhere. You have to compartmentalize that 0:44:13.560 --> 0:44:20.399 you expressed it beautifully. It's called a glory train. Love 0:44:21.440 --> 0:44:24.400 you hear me talking to you. It's a glory train. 0:44:24.719 --> 0:44:26.959 And nobody can stay on that train too long. 0:44:27.000 --> 0:44:28.200 You got to come off. 0:44:28.920 --> 0:44:30.719 You got to get in the grass, and you got 0:44:30.760 --> 0:44:36.319 to surround yourself with nature and have that gratitude. It 0:44:36.400 --> 0:44:41.120 is a gratitude moment, so use it for that. You 0:44:41.120 --> 0:44:43.160 don't have to go crazy. Most people go and get 0:44:43.239 --> 0:44:46.200 drunk and party and carry on. Okay, you get a 0:44:46.200 --> 0:44:48.560 couple of those a month, but then sit the fuck 0:44:48.640 --> 0:44:51.560 down and talk about those feelings. 0:44:52.000 --> 0:44:56.040 Write them down so that the next time you feel it, 0:44:56.280 --> 0:44:58.320 you have something to balance it. 0:44:59.120 --> 0:45:03.560 Nobody's coming with the answer, nobody's coming with the recipe. 0:45:03.760 --> 0:45:08.560 You got to pay attention to the self. It is 0:45:08.600 --> 0:45:12.480 the journey within that will get you where you need 0:45:12.520 --> 0:45:18.040 to be, because what you will discover, hmm, is how 0:45:18.080 --> 0:45:19.000 short life is. 0:45:20.400 --> 0:45:22.759 Listen to me, you want to know how You want 0:45:22.760 --> 0:45:23.520 to know how I live? 0:45:24.800 --> 0:45:27.560 I live like I got five minutes left? 0:45:28.400 --> 0:45:34.919 What if? What if you add five FDA minutes left? 0:45:35.280 --> 0:45:41.680 Who would you call? Hmm? Think about that? 0:45:41.920 --> 0:45:42.160 Shit? 0:45:43.480 --> 0:45:44.000 What if? 0:45:44.920 --> 0:45:46.719 And I live like that? I ain't gonna lie to you. 0:45:47.880 --> 0:45:54.160 Sometimes it's something as like when my assistant leaves. I 0:45:54.200 --> 0:45:58.719 want to swim, but the shadows have. 0:45:58.719 --> 0:46:01.480 Come over the pool so it gets a little. 0:46:01.320 --> 0:46:04.439 Chill, and I stand there and go, oh, I don't 0:46:04.480 --> 0:46:09.799 want to get in this pool. Jenny, get in the 0:46:09.800 --> 0:46:13.160 fucking pool and relax yourself. 0:46:13.640 --> 0:46:15.239 You gotta talk to yourself. 0:46:15.400 --> 0:46:18.040 But guess why I got in the pool, Because when 0:46:18.040 --> 0:46:22.640 I woke up, I wrote it down. You will swim today. 0:46:23.960 --> 0:46:28.000 You got That's what living on purpose is about. You 0:46:28.040 --> 0:46:30.320 can't go willy nelly through this bitch. 0:46:30.640 --> 0:46:35.319 It'll eat you a line. This is why that you 0:46:35.600 --> 0:46:39.280 are in charge. Write the ship down. 0:46:39.640 --> 0:46:43.120 You write your story instead of like I said, go 0:46:43.200 --> 0:46:47.560 on willy nilly skipping timptoeing through the fucking tulips. 0:46:47.920 --> 0:46:52.279 That's what life. Look, Life is not a rehearsal. Live 0:46:52.400 --> 0:46:53.200 this bitch. 0:46:53.760 --> 0:46:55.440 Can I just say real quick, excuse me? 0:46:55.560 --> 0:46:57.640 Let me let me just say this, And I hate 0:46:57.680 --> 0:46:59.480 to be on corny and go to the book that 0:46:59.560 --> 0:47:01.840 you have our walking in Your Joy? But I just realized, 0:47:01.880 --> 0:47:03.839 Am I saying that walking in your joy? 0:47:03.960 --> 0:47:05.480 Yes? Walking in my joy? 0:47:05.680 --> 0:47:08.759 In my joy? But it's so interesting because a lot 0:47:08.800 --> 0:47:11.000 of people write books and they say things, But I 0:47:11.080 --> 0:47:13.000 like that you have some real practical things, like what 0:47:13.080 --> 0:47:15.080 you just said to a mirror about living in those 0:47:15.080 --> 0:47:17.080 five minutes. And then you wrote something else that caught 0:47:17.080 --> 0:47:20.120 me and you said, when you're feeling down, you come 0:47:20.200 --> 0:47:22.319 up with a song about your how much you love 0:47:22.360 --> 0:47:23.200 yourself and how much. 0:47:23.120 --> 0:47:23.799 People love you. 0:47:24.120 --> 0:47:26.720 That's not I'm realizing. Although I haven't finished the book, 0:47:26.880 --> 0:47:29.399 can people like depend that like you pretty much got 0:47:29.480 --> 0:47:32.520 little workable jewels in here. Not just like girl, live 0:47:32.600 --> 0:47:37.560 your best life. It's actually like no, exactly exactly, but. 0:47:38.320 --> 0:47:42.720 Here's the work. The work is how am I gonna 0:47:42.760 --> 0:47:44.120 live my best life? 0:47:44.360 --> 0:47:44.560 Right? 0:47:44.880 --> 0:47:47.759 And that's what And that's the work. That's what you 0:47:47.800 --> 0:47:51.560 write down in the morning, y'all. I don't know if 0:47:51.560 --> 0:47:55.640 you know, but when I wrote The Mother Black Hollywood, 0:47:56.480 --> 0:48:01.640 I started writing in a journal in the seventh grade, 0:48:02.920 --> 0:48:06.799 No I because I knew I was gonna be a 0:48:06.840 --> 0:48:08.480 star and I would need my book. 0:48:10.360 --> 0:48:12.840 That's seventh grade continuously. 0:48:13.120 --> 0:48:18.160 I am sixty five. There are sixty seven journals. 0:48:18.560 --> 0:48:19.600 Oh I'm so jealous. 0:48:19.640 --> 0:48:21.200 That is why don't we do this? 0:48:21.719 --> 0:48:22.960 Why do we start and stop? 0:48:23.000 --> 0:48:24.520 And I got about six? 0:48:25.360 --> 0:48:30.520 Damn it sood details? She saw the Black Hollywood. 0:48:30.520 --> 0:48:31.160 It's so good. 0:48:31.320 --> 0:48:32.960 Because of the details. 0:48:33.120 --> 0:48:37.320 I can tell you that I had hot apple pie all. 0:48:37.239 --> 0:48:41.120 The mold with your only Ralph on this date. Damn 0:48:41.120 --> 0:48:46.160 you see, you see, you see, so nothing is wasted. 0:48:47.320 --> 0:48:48.560 Live your life. 0:48:48.800 --> 0:48:51.719 And when I got into therapy the first time, my 0:48:51.840 --> 0:48:53.680 therapist looked at me when I told her I had 0:48:53.719 --> 0:48:54.720 written all those journals. 0:48:54.760 --> 0:48:56.440 She said, that's what saved your life. 0:48:56.480 --> 0:48:57.960 Little girl, I believe it. 0:48:58.120 --> 0:49:01.360 I didn't know I was saving my life. Yeah, but that. 0:49:01.480 --> 0:49:09.520 Journal served in me learning at an early age. I 0:49:09.560 --> 0:49:15.000 didn't even know I was doing it to be in 0:49:15.200 --> 0:49:20.760 charge of me and leave other people alone. Jour people 0:49:20.800 --> 0:49:24.399 come and go for a season, let it go. When 0:49:24.400 --> 0:49:26.840 they're no longer of reflection of you. 0:49:26.840 --> 0:49:29.040 You're not gonna be comfortable around them. 0:49:29.360 --> 0:49:31.960 If the toxic shit is going on the lines and 0:49:32.000 --> 0:49:34.040 the chaos, y'all get the fuck out of there. 0:49:34.719 --> 0:49:35.279 You ain't there. 0:49:35.360 --> 0:49:39.200 There are many rooms to go to, there are many cities. 0:49:39.320 --> 0:49:42.160 All your dude, leave the room fuck out of there. 0:49:42.239 --> 0:49:46.160 Shit simple, don't sit there with all that drama and shitty. 0:49:46.040 --> 0:49:48.080 Practical things you can use. 0:49:48.600 --> 0:49:50.480 It's so boring. It's boring. 0:49:50.560 --> 0:49:50.919 I said. 0:49:51.360 --> 0:49:53.960 The greatest sin is somebody to say, oh, I'm bored, 0:49:54.080 --> 0:49:55.719 bitch thet to. 0:49:55.840 --> 0:49:56.800 Have my money. 0:49:57.440 --> 0:49:57.760 Okay. 0:49:57.960 --> 0:50:01.840 So, of course, like in the last two years is 0:50:01.880 --> 0:50:06.560 the most that I've heard black people speaking on finding 0:50:06.640 --> 0:50:10.839 joy and finding their mental health and all those things. 0:50:10.840 --> 0:50:14.120 Because previously there's a secret I would never like in 0:50:14.360 --> 0:50:18.280 two thousand and eleven, I would never share with nobody that. 0:50:18.239 --> 0:50:23.040 Likes trauma attached to that you right, because. 0:50:22.800 --> 0:50:24.879 You don't want to share like people think I'm crazy 0:50:24.920 --> 0:50:26.279 or whatever. The thing is is. 0:50:26.239 --> 0:50:31.120 That I know that for black people, their go to 0:50:32.160 --> 0:50:38.960 answer was always the church, especially of an older you know, 0:50:39.000 --> 0:50:40.080 I was born in seventy one. 0:50:40.360 --> 0:50:42.920 I know you were born before I was fifty seven. 0:50:43.960 --> 0:50:47.400 For a lot of people in you know, pre eighties 0:50:47.400 --> 0:50:50.560 people whatever, like their thing is always like I'll find 0:50:50.600 --> 0:50:51.960 God or I'll talk to my preacher. 0:50:52.800 --> 0:50:55.640 How so this is almost a phenomenally to hear. 0:50:57.040 --> 0:51:03.320 Of your generation, of your experience really not even diving 0:51:03.360 --> 0:51:05.600 into the pool of mental therapy, but I mean you're 0:51:05.640 --> 0:51:07.799 going to the abyss of it, You're going to the 0:51:07.840 --> 0:51:08.640 deepest level of it. 0:51:09.000 --> 0:51:10.319 So what was it? 0:51:10.920 --> 0:51:16.680 What was the moment that told you that my mental 0:51:16.840 --> 0:51:20.640 health has to be addressed in and handled this way 0:51:21.040 --> 0:51:25.840 as opposed to I do consider that, I do consider 0:51:25.960 --> 0:51:32.400 organized religion as a vice akin to gambling, sex, joys. 0:51:32.920 --> 0:51:34.040 Let me say this to you. 0:51:34.520 --> 0:51:37.280 Yeah, there's a line in the movie I did, Karina 0:51:37.400 --> 0:51:46.280 Karina where the the little girl says, these people believe 0:51:46.760 --> 0:51:49.480 I'm paraphrasing, but they said, these people believe in God. 0:51:50.440 --> 0:51:53.520 And the people that somebody has said it was Jewish. 0:51:53.840 --> 0:51:56.560 And the question that was asked by a child was 0:51:57.440 --> 0:52:01.759 She said, why do these people sing about this? And 0:52:01.840 --> 0:52:06.120 the mother said because it makes them feel good? And 0:52:06.160 --> 0:52:09.200 the little girl said, what's wrong with that? Mother said, 0:52:10.400 --> 0:52:14.600 I guess nothing. Look, if you want to be an 0:52:14.800 --> 0:52:18.200 organized religion, that's okay. Let people do what they want 0:52:18.239 --> 0:52:21.520 to do. That's what gets me through life. To allow 0:52:22.320 --> 0:52:25.399 allow others to be where they are. What you're gonna do, 0:52:25.719 --> 0:52:28.000 Go and make them a Buddhist, go and make them 0:52:28.040 --> 0:52:29.600 a move them. You're gonna make them what. 0:52:29.640 --> 0:52:30.120 You gonna do. 0:52:31.440 --> 0:52:38.960 Once again, once again, pay attention to yourself. Everybody on 0:52:39.000 --> 0:52:42.920 this planet has one job, and one job on it self. 0:52:43.040 --> 0:52:46.560 Care and if you need to cry to Jesus to. 0:52:46.560 --> 0:52:48.720 Do that, then you go on and cry to Jesus. 0:52:50.040 --> 0:52:52.600 But allow other people to cry to whoever the hell 0:52:52.640 --> 0:52:54.920 they want to cry to. That's what I don't like 0:52:54.960 --> 0:52:58.560 about religion. Everybody think their religion is the best one. 0:52:59.719 --> 0:53:03.360 So oh, I don't believe in that. Lead people alone, 0:53:04.000 --> 0:53:04.920 Lead people alone. 0:53:04.920 --> 0:53:07.000 If they want to work, you, let them work to Jesus, 0:53:07.280 --> 0:53:11.040 let him work the Buddha or a Mohammed or Allah. 0:53:11.160 --> 0:53:13.120 Let people do what the fuck they want to do. 0:53:14.160 --> 0:53:18.279 I know who I am. I searched every religion in 0:53:18.320 --> 0:53:18.880 this world. 0:53:19.960 --> 0:53:24.480 I have been down the road, let's travel, and when 0:53:24.520 --> 0:53:28.000 I got to the end, that wasn't nothing but the 0:53:28.160 --> 0:53:35.240 big ass mirror. You cannot run. Wherever you run, you 0:53:35.280 --> 0:53:36.760 will meet yourself. 0:53:38.120 --> 0:53:40.440 So there's no running. And I told them on the 0:53:40.520 --> 0:53:42.920 breakfast Club, I got money. 0:53:42.680 --> 0:53:46.560 To run, and you can't even run. 0:53:47.920 --> 0:53:48.640 You can't run. 0:53:49.080 --> 0:53:51.400 You can don't ask me. Don't ask me for now. 0:53:51.440 --> 0:53:52.879 I'm like, what's his name? 0:53:52.920 --> 0:53:57.800 The baby I love, Daje Pel I'm rich, bitch, don't. 0:53:57.560 --> 0:53:59.759 Ask me for shit? All right, there you go. 0:54:01.200 --> 0:54:02.120 What do you say to him? 0:54:02.560 --> 0:54:02.759 Even? 0:54:02.840 --> 0:54:05.080 Like to what onn Amir's question, like you're leading the 0:54:05.120 --> 0:54:07.560 pack of your generation in that way, like he said, 0:54:08.000 --> 0:54:10.520 like you're it is kind of special. Do you see 0:54:11.080 --> 0:54:14.399 in the difference in the generational hower Now? I'm using 0:54:14.440 --> 0:54:17.480 words and had vocabulary for things that we didn't have before. 0:54:17.719 --> 0:54:19.879 When I went I Got you. 0:54:19.960 --> 0:54:22.839 When I went on the road with the Mother Black Hollywood, 0:54:22.920 --> 0:54:27.200 because it was my journey through bipolar disorder, I was 0:54:27.239 --> 0:54:31.879 able to feel not only the temperature, but the temperament 0:54:33.239 --> 0:54:34.360 of the United States. 0:54:34.400 --> 0:54:35.080 I went all over. 0:54:35.840 --> 0:54:39.560 During the Trump era, people are starting to wake up. 0:54:40.080 --> 0:54:43.880 I was very pleased. They're starting to get counseling in churches, 0:54:44.640 --> 0:54:48.080 they are starting to put more counseling in youth centers. 0:54:48.520 --> 0:54:52.560 Our children are falling apart, and I'm not the only 0:54:52.680 --> 0:54:57.000 woman in the world that cares. People are coming together. 0:54:57.080 --> 0:55:01.000 We are getting better. Everybody wanted to talk about the stigma. Yes, 0:55:01.040 --> 0:55:04.719 there is a stigma, but we are getting better. You See, 0:55:04.760 --> 0:55:09.359 my mother didn't have the Oprah Winfrey ship. Okay, that's 0:55:09.360 --> 0:55:12.680 what I'm saying. Mamma didn't know nothing about mental illness. 0:55:12.719 --> 0:55:15.600 And yet if someone were to ask me, I would say, 0:55:15.640 --> 0:55:16.759 absolutely she was. 0:55:17.560 --> 0:55:19.280 I do believe that she was depressed. 0:55:19.400 --> 0:55:21.680 She had me when she was twenty six years old 0:55:21.840 --> 0:55:26.000 and I was her seventh child. Whoa, she was scrubbed, 0:55:26.040 --> 0:55:28.240 and she was scrubbing white people's floors. 0:55:28.280 --> 0:55:31.319 You think she had time to give me affection. 0:55:31.560 --> 0:55:36.400 She was exhausted by the time I came along. Listen 0:55:36.680 --> 0:55:39.799 eve Insler, who wrote the Vagina Monologues. 0:55:41.160 --> 0:55:42.720 She ran all around the world. 0:55:42.960 --> 0:55:46.320 She went to Africa with the women that were having 0:55:46.400 --> 0:55:48.400 the clitterictism. 0:55:48.640 --> 0:55:51.320 If it's clitterists, I don't know. If it's her plural, 0:55:51.640 --> 0:55:57.160 I only have one, all right. I used to have 0:55:57.239 --> 0:56:04.479 three but I get y'all want remember one of those 0:56:04.520 --> 0:56:06.280 first wnch stns. 0:56:05.880 --> 0:56:13.400 That bitch tied to when we just had listen, God, damn, 0:56:14.320 --> 0:56:14.640 I have. 0:56:14.719 --> 0:56:15.920 To web it. 0:56:16.000 --> 0:56:18.040 That bitch tied to glitter and she. 0:56:20.040 --> 0:56:23.759 Has something like that, something like that. 0:56:23.840 --> 0:56:26.560 It was funny, but it Let me get back to this, sorry, 0:56:27.400 --> 0:56:33.200 let me get back to serious ship. Listen all I 0:56:33.239 --> 0:56:37.359 can say that, then not go into three clitterists, honey. 0:56:37.320 --> 0:56:39.040 Last in the glitterists, I did too. 0:56:39.480 --> 0:56:42.040 I need to find somebody to tell me whether clittericist 0:56:42.280 --> 0:56:43.880 it's clitterisstens. 0:56:44.400 --> 0:56:45.600 Come on, Jennifer, if. 0:56:45.440 --> 0:56:55.319 You don't need clitter, clit glitteriz, I have no idea. 0:56:55.000 --> 0:56:56.920 You know, I'll come out of the bag with anything. 0:56:56.960 --> 0:56:59.480 I don't multiple clitterists last. 0:56:59.320 --> 0:57:00.680 Thank you? Did you look it up? 0:57:01.160 --> 0:57:03.040 No? 0:57:04.200 --> 0:57:05.160 I was in uh. 0:57:05.239 --> 0:57:08.480 When I was in the serah gaddy uh, two little 0:57:08.520 --> 0:57:12.359 baby rhinoceroses thought I had some food, so they came 0:57:12.400 --> 0:57:12.759 over to. 0:57:12.719 --> 0:57:15.759 Me and they just gone like this, just a don't get, 0:57:15.800 --> 0:57:16.800 don't get, don't. 0:57:17.080 --> 0:57:19.080 And they when they saw it and have no food, 0:57:19.120 --> 0:57:21.600 they kind of don't don't get don't away from me, 0:57:21.880 --> 0:57:23.000 and I start screaming. 0:57:25.360 --> 0:57:27.080 I ever heard of Jenny Craig. 0:57:30.160 --> 0:57:31.080 Had no food for you. 0:57:32.120 --> 0:57:34.960 I'll cuts out a rhinoceros, bitch you hear me? And 0:57:35.000 --> 0:57:37.520 then I had to look up whether it was not 0:57:37.800 --> 0:57:42.240 rhinocerih because most of my friends was wait. 0:57:42.120 --> 0:57:43.360 Man, because wait a minute. 0:57:43.400 --> 0:57:48.000 Listen, because most of my friends are major intellectuals. 0:57:48.000 --> 0:57:49.440 I keep smart people around me. 0:57:49.520 --> 0:57:52.920 Honey, listen, I can feel enough for everybody. 0:57:52.920 --> 0:57:54.880 You just tell me what the ship? What's going on? 0:57:55.080 --> 0:57:55.439 But here? 0:57:55.840 --> 0:57:59.600 But if I listen, if I'm a stand in the 0:58:00.200 --> 0:58:06.200 getty and cuffs out two baby rhinoceroses, what do you 0:58:06.200 --> 0:58:08.280 think I'm gonna do with the story of the clitterists? 0:58:08.320 --> 0:58:09.720 Get the fuck out, Let's go. 0:58:09.840 --> 0:58:10.240 What's that? 0:58:12.800 --> 0:58:12.920 Oh? 0:58:13.160 --> 0:58:16.760 Cos is out? But what you need to know is, 0:58:16.880 --> 0:58:18.480 Jennifer Lord, We'll go anywhere. 0:58:18.920 --> 0:58:21.480 I ain't no shame in my game, baby, I'll do 0:58:21.520 --> 0:58:22.720 anything to make people laugh. 0:58:28.440 --> 0:58:31.360 So clearly, if you're a longtime fan of the show, 0:58:32.320 --> 0:58:38.200 you'll notice that we've had a curious metamorphosis. In the beginning, 0:58:38.320 --> 0:58:41.920 we were raw talking over each other like there's no 0:58:42.200 --> 0:58:47.640 rules of podcasting or interviewing when you first jump in 0:58:47.680 --> 0:58:50.800 the game. And of course, unlike radio, where you're supposed 0:58:50.840 --> 0:58:53.360 to go to communication school and learn how to backsell 0:58:53.480 --> 0:58:56.040 and do stuff in like fifteen seconds. 0:58:56.160 --> 0:58:59.240 Distinctly, it's really a learning process. 0:59:00.280 --> 0:59:05.000 Learning process when you podcast on your own without any 0:59:05.000 --> 0:59:09.880 communication training. Then I'll say, like, after twenty twenty kind 0:59:09.880 --> 0:59:14.080 of had a life epiphany, and without really getting too 0:59:14.080 --> 0:59:16.760 deep into it, let's just say that I became more 0:59:17.200 --> 0:59:22.200 aware of what I wanted to put out into the world. 0:59:23.040 --> 0:59:26.640 And I guess in some abstract way, I guess I'm 0:59:26.920 --> 0:59:32.400 going to Hamilton saying like not wasting my shot, or 0:59:32.560 --> 0:59:34.800 you know, Chuck de says, not rhyming for the sake 0:59:34.840 --> 0:59:38.840 of riddling. Just want to be more mindful of any 0:59:38.880 --> 0:59:42.960 content that I put out in the world. And you know, 0:59:43.480 --> 0:59:49.520 of course that's not in the kind of conservative eighties slash, 0:59:49.680 --> 0:59:53.080 you know, typic Gore way of you know, this whole 0:59:53.120 --> 0:59:56.680 idea that positivity or that sort of thing is seeing 0:59:56.720 --> 1:00:01.080 as a bore or a negative. I think wisdom an 1:00:01.120 --> 1:00:07.720 accurate information. It's important. I think processing of emotions is important. 1:00:07.720 --> 1:00:10.960 I think creativity is important. I think a lot of 1:00:11.000 --> 1:00:14.919 guests like coming onto the show because they're not here 1:00:15.240 --> 1:00:17.160 just to sell you product. 1:00:17.360 --> 1:00:19.360 You know, we're just so used to promoting the movie, 1:00:19.400 --> 1:00:20.240 promoting the movie. 1:00:20.320 --> 1:00:23.720 Promoting the movie, artists rarely get a chance to just 1:00:23.760 --> 1:00:27.920 talk about how they feel or feel safe to do, so, 1:00:28.560 --> 1:00:31.600 you know, and sometimes we've had episodes in which people 1:00:31.680 --> 1:00:36.840 have been wide open. One of the episodes which I 1:00:37.240 --> 1:00:39.320 you know, even though you've heard me say, like, oh, 1:00:39.360 --> 1:00:42.640 the Jimmy Jam episode or the Babyface episode or one 1:00:42.680 --> 1:00:47.160 of those drunken Christmas episodes, the Family Stand episode is 1:00:47.160 --> 1:00:51.320 definitely exemplary of where there was no filter whatsoever, and 1:00:52.600 --> 1:00:56.080 you know, the truth came out, feelings came out. And 1:00:56.120 --> 1:00:58.800 then there's some episodes in which people held back. We 1:00:58.920 --> 1:01:03.919 still to this day, Joe about Faith Newman's very type 1:01:04.000 --> 1:01:08.560 lipped experiences in the record industry in the eighties and nineties. 1:01:09.000 --> 1:01:09.760 Understandable. 1:01:10.360 --> 1:01:14.040 You know, what happens in life stays in life in 1:01:14.080 --> 1:01:17.720 that present moment when it was. But for me, like, 1:01:18.720 --> 1:01:23.200 wisdom is important. So that way, even if you listen 1:01:23.240 --> 1:01:26.000 to an old episode, like you could listen to that 1:01:26.080 --> 1:01:31.920 Jimmy Jam episode forever because he dropped so much wisdom gyms. 1:01:32.000 --> 1:01:38.000 So that's why wisdom's important, all right. So we've had 1:01:38.040 --> 1:01:44.200 some rather difficult conversations on Questlove Supreme as well. Back 1:01:44.240 --> 1:01:49.920 in twenty sixteen, Solange recounted how she felt profiled at 1:01:49.960 --> 1:01:54.360 a craft Work concert. There was one entry on your 1:01:54.400 --> 1:01:58.320 site that really had me curious, and I wanted to 1:01:58.320 --> 1:02:01.320 call you about it. What I've forgot to and that 1:02:01.480 --> 1:02:04.280 was the I guess we can call it the craft 1:02:04.320 --> 1:02:10.040 Work incident. Yeah, And the thing was I understood. I 1:02:10.040 --> 1:02:14.960 guess what I got from it was that it's really 1:02:15.040 --> 1:02:21.920 hard for you to make people understand that you still 1:02:21.960 --> 1:02:29.760 go through human experiences, which because people perceived you as 1:02:29.840 --> 1:02:31.680 coming from such a this. 1:02:31.680 --> 1:02:32.920 Perceived dynasty of. 1:02:34.520 --> 1:02:37.840 Giants that you know would be time to pull out 1:02:37.880 --> 1:02:42.760 the violin or whatever, like, oh, you know, and it's 1:02:42.920 --> 1:02:46.600 never validated. What I'm saying is that what I got 1:02:46.640 --> 1:02:50.200 from that entry was the fact that you were frustrated 1:02:50.240 --> 1:02:53.880 that you really couldn't figure out a way to express 1:02:54.920 --> 1:02:58.760 the anger you have when those injustices and those situations 1:02:58.800 --> 1:03:01.960 happened to you, because people don't see you as a 1:03:02.040 --> 1:03:07.040 human being and just see you as part of this, 1:03:07.200 --> 1:03:09.720 you know, this dynasty that's supposed to be taught line 1:03:09.840 --> 1:03:14.920 to emotions, and I can imagine that being frustrating. 1:03:15.160 --> 1:03:16.840 Can you explain the craft Work situation? 1:03:17.320 --> 1:03:21.600 Yes, but I will say before before I get into 1:03:21.680 --> 1:03:24.439 that just to carry on what you said. The thing 1:03:24.560 --> 1:03:27.680 is is that doctor Dre is going through this in 1:03:27.720 --> 1:03:31.040 front of his home, and Oprah Winfrey is going through this, 1:03:31.440 --> 1:03:36.240 you know, in the Hermez store, and these are billionaires, 1:03:36.720 --> 1:03:40.720 So that in that landscape, I think those kind of 1:03:40.720 --> 1:03:46.520 micro aggressions happen to everyone daily as as a black 1:03:46.560 --> 1:03:50.560 woman and man in this country. It doesn't matter your class, 1:03:51.600 --> 1:03:53.880 it doesn't matter how much money you have, what kind 1:03:53.920 --> 1:03:59.480 of quote unquote empire dynasty you come from. 1:03:59.560 --> 1:04:02.280 That's just the lay of the land. Essentially. 1:04:04.160 --> 1:04:10.040 My husband and my son who's twelve jewels, and his 1:04:10.160 --> 1:04:15.440 friend Rashid, we went to see craft work. And the 1:04:15.560 --> 1:04:18.520 interesting thing was it was a Friday night. My son 1:04:18.600 --> 1:04:22.120 had his friend over. They had never heard of craft work, 1:04:23.240 --> 1:04:25.920 to be honest, that was the last thing that they wanted. 1:04:25.640 --> 1:04:27.160 To do with their Friday night. 1:04:28.480 --> 1:04:32.960 So, you know, Allen and I are showing them YouTube 1:04:33.080 --> 1:04:36.560 videos and trying to make the link with hip hop 1:04:36.640 --> 1:04:40.880 to get them more interested, and showing them visuals and like, no, 1:04:41.080 --> 1:04:44.920 you guys are gonna love this, like you know, just 1:04:45.040 --> 1:04:53.720 relating and specifically showing the samples that Jules's uncle. 1:04:54.920 --> 1:04:57.400 Sample of craftworks. 1:04:57.600 --> 1:05:01.640 So whoever that is because it took me a minute. 1:05:02.480 --> 1:05:04.360 So essentially. 1:05:05.600 --> 1:05:09.640 That's important to note, just just for the story itself, 1:05:09.960 --> 1:05:14.560 that here you have two young black kids who are 1:05:14.600 --> 1:05:19.520 not really interested, don't have much, you know, knowledge about 1:05:19.520 --> 1:05:25.720 this bad yeah, and we are, you know, trying to 1:05:25.840 --> 1:05:29.320 navigate them into the show and build interests and whatever. 1:05:30.560 --> 1:05:33.960 As soon as we walk in, we got our three 1:05:34.000 --> 1:05:37.080 D glasses said their museum run. 1:05:37.400 --> 1:05:48.360 No, this was at the Orpheum Theater and so yeah, 1:05:48.400 --> 1:05:52.200 we're basically walking to our seats, and it just so 1:05:52.360 --> 1:05:53.920 happened the very song. 1:05:56.480 --> 1:06:02.800 Yes exactly was on, and so we were super stoked. 1:06:03.120 --> 1:06:05.880 We had box seats. 1:06:06.040 --> 1:06:09.720 There was two rows in front of us in one 1:06:09.840 --> 1:06:15.880 row behind us, and we walked our seats and we're 1:06:15.960 --> 1:06:23.480 dancing and these women essentially just started yelling at the 1:06:23.480 --> 1:06:25.080 top of their lung sit. 1:06:24.960 --> 1:06:28.400 Down, now, sit down, shut up. 1:06:28.520 --> 1:06:30.360 You guys are been so disruptive. 1:06:33.000 --> 1:06:37.600 And I turned around and I, in that moment, had 1:06:37.640 --> 1:06:40.800 to make a decision. Am I gonna respond or am 1:06:40.840 --> 1:06:44.040 I just going to enjoy this song and deal with 1:06:44.080 --> 1:06:44.520 it later. 1:06:45.160 --> 1:06:46.480 I actually clocked. 1:06:46.160 --> 1:06:48.840 Into myself, you know, you have that moment, and said 1:06:49.440 --> 1:06:51.720 I'm gonna dance to this song and then I'm gonna 1:06:51.720 --> 1:06:54.120 sit my ass down because I already know where this 1:06:54.280 --> 1:06:59.440 is heading. Simultaneously, which I didn't write about, which Alan 1:06:59.480 --> 1:07:03.080 thought was really important for me to note and note you. 1:07:03.240 --> 1:07:08.200 My son is he was eleven at the time, and 1:07:09.640 --> 1:07:13.720 this the attendant comes over to him and his friend 1:07:13.760 --> 1:07:14.680 who are sitting down. 1:07:14.920 --> 1:07:18.240 They weren't standing up dancing. Alan an hour and. 1:07:18.200 --> 1:07:23.400 Says, put your no electronic cigarettes. Put your cigarettes away 1:07:23.920 --> 1:07:24.920 to these children. 1:07:25.400 --> 1:07:28.880 Yes, yes, cigarettes, note you. 1:07:29.200 --> 1:07:31.320 As soon as we walked in and we saw these 1:07:31.320 --> 1:07:35.120 two older white men sitting in front smoking the cigarettes, 1:07:36.960 --> 1:07:40.760 we took note of that. We weren't bothered, but you know, 1:07:40.840 --> 1:07:43.360 it was just the assumption that if someone was breaking 1:07:43.360 --> 1:07:46.040 the rule, surely it was the two eleven year old 1:07:46.080 --> 1:07:47.640 black kids. 1:07:47.960 --> 1:07:50.960 Because somebody said, yeah, yeah, vaping. 1:07:53.880 --> 1:07:57.320 So it was just a lot of tension in general. 1:07:57.360 --> 1:08:00.320 And thank God, by the grace of God, Allan opped 1:08:00.320 --> 1:08:03.880 into that immediately and was like, ma'am, these are children, 1:08:04.160 --> 1:08:06.000 You've got the wrong people. 1:08:06.400 --> 1:08:06.840 Whatever. 1:08:09.400 --> 1:08:15.880 And then after that, Alan's going to kill me for 1:08:15.880 --> 1:08:19.000 for blinking on the name of the song Ottomond. 1:08:20.439 --> 1:08:21.200 That comes on. 1:08:21.720 --> 1:08:25.439 And on the ride there, Alan had played me the 1:08:25.640 --> 1:08:30.599 entire twelve minute song, and it just so happened that 1:08:30.600 --> 1:08:33.360 that's what they played. So I was like, well, I'm 1:08:33.360 --> 1:08:35.559 gonna just dance to this one too, because we had 1:08:35.680 --> 1:08:41.640 just had that moment, right, and we're at an electronic 1:08:41.720 --> 1:08:42.919 dance music concert. 1:08:43.320 --> 1:08:44.479 It's not like. 1:08:46.400 --> 1:08:48.800 Engaged in. 1:08:48.960 --> 1:08:52.960 So there's two there's two parts of this problem. The 1:08:53.120 --> 1:08:57.479 problem is also that, you know, we probably should have 1:08:57.800 --> 1:09:01.599 asked for floor seats, but we were under the assumption 1:09:01.720 --> 1:09:04.240 that people were going to be dancing all night long. 1:09:05.479 --> 1:09:06.760 So you're in the balcony of the theater. 1:09:07.040 --> 1:09:13.160 Yes, so we're dancing, and then I feel something hit 1:09:13.240 --> 1:09:16.760 me on the back of my head. But I say, 1:09:17.240 --> 1:09:21.320 surely I am tripping, must be tripping, must be tripping, right, 1:09:22.000 --> 1:09:25.000 So I actually tell Alan, I said, I swear, and 1:09:25.080 --> 1:09:28.120 maybe I'm just losing my motherfucking black ass. 1:09:28.200 --> 1:09:31.880 Might but I just felt something hit. 1:09:31.840 --> 1:09:34.320 Me on the back of my head, and he was like, babe, 1:09:34.560 --> 1:09:37.920 you might just be tripping, like just lay low. So 1:09:39.960 --> 1:09:44.760 I actually, you know, shook it off, and then I 1:09:44.880 --> 1:09:50.880 felt something harder, Oh yeah, me on my shoulder, and 1:09:50.920 --> 1:09:55.040 my son, my eleven year old son, tapped me. 1:09:56.160 --> 1:09:57.280 He picked up. 1:09:57.200 --> 1:10:01.680 A line from the ground I have eating line, and 1:10:01.720 --> 1:10:04.840 he said, Mom, I just watched these women throw this 1:10:05.000 --> 1:10:05.639 at you. 1:10:08.600 --> 1:10:21.600 Used to tested in all kinds of ways, and I feel. 1:10:21.400 --> 1:10:24.799 So bad because they gave us the tickets. 1:10:24.880 --> 1:10:27.760 I've never met them, but you know, it just it 1:10:27.920 --> 1:10:30.559 just sucks that they also had to be associated with 1:10:30.600 --> 1:10:34.240 this incident. But yeah, you know, in that moment, I 1:10:34.280 --> 1:10:41.360 basically knew we had probably three choices. One was to react, 1:10:41.640 --> 1:10:48.439 which probably would have led to someone getting arrested, you know, 1:10:49.000 --> 1:10:51.439 just spiraling out of control. 1:10:51.600 --> 1:10:53.240 Or I called the police on. 1:10:53.200 --> 1:10:59.920 Them because essentially, you know, they did throw ship at me. 1:11:02.080 --> 1:11:11.920 Yeah, I mean, you know, you're here sometimes exactly that's 1:11:11.960 --> 1:11:12.599 what they do. 1:11:13.320 --> 1:11:15.800 Literally, But I knew that even if that happened that 1:11:15.960 --> 1:11:19.760 somehow would it would still be our fault, or just 1:11:20.080 --> 1:11:23.160 to just take it and be silenced, because I knew 1:11:23.200 --> 1:11:27.959 that if I spoke to them that it would escalate. 1:11:28.160 --> 1:11:29.400 And my son was there. 1:11:29.920 --> 1:11:33.080 It was already traumatic enough for him to have to 1:11:33.160 --> 1:11:38.280 experience that, especially in a context where it was a 1:11:38.280 --> 1:11:42.240 predominantly white space, and he didn't want to be there 1:11:42.400 --> 1:11:46.400 in the first place. And so now I think the 1:11:46.479 --> 1:11:49.160 thing that saddened me the most is that here we are, 1:11:49.200 --> 1:11:53.560 as parents trying to expand, you know, his horizon and 1:11:54.479 --> 1:11:59.320 his experience and make him feel like he belongs wherever 1:11:59.680 --> 1:12:00.720 he chooses to be. 1:12:01.320 --> 1:12:03.519 But that was not the message that we got. 1:12:03.320 --> 1:12:06.519 That next, what do you think he took from that experience, Like, 1:12:06.560 --> 1:12:08.439 did you explain to him, Oh, yeah. 1:12:08.960 --> 1:12:12.799 Several talks. No, No, we had several talks. 1:12:12.880 --> 1:12:18.400 In fact, you know the we had it was it 1:12:18.439 --> 1:12:20.479 was quite a three days after that. 1:12:20.800 --> 1:12:26.000 I think that number one, I think just as as. 1:12:25.800 --> 1:12:29.800 A young man and him and Alan, both as the 1:12:29.880 --> 1:12:34.760 men and the family also felt silent and powerless just 1:12:34.920 --> 1:12:39.080 in protecting me in that situation because they are black men, 1:12:39.400 --> 1:12:41.760 and no matter what would have been said or done, 1:12:41.880 --> 1:12:45.000 they would have been the aggressive in the situation. So 1:12:45.080 --> 1:12:49.640 on one end, it was about teaching him, you know, 1:12:49.760 --> 1:12:54.120 after the last eleven twelve now twelve years of teaching 1:12:54.200 --> 1:12:57.640 him about injustices and how to stand up for himself 1:12:58.240 --> 1:13:01.439 and to not be afraid and to speak up and 1:13:02.160 --> 1:13:11.720 then having to say but right, So it was it 1:13:11.800 --> 1:13:15.519 was just it's very complicated, but I felt the need 1:13:15.600 --> 1:13:17.439 to write that piece for him. 1:13:18.080 --> 1:13:22.400 I felt the need to essentially not be. 1:13:22.479 --> 1:13:27.120 Silenced in that situation and to let him know that 1:13:27.479 --> 1:13:29.519 there is an outlet in a way to use his 1:13:29.640 --> 1:13:33.240 voice responsibly because there are so many people who read 1:13:33.320 --> 1:13:37.080 that piece who I felt had a deeper understanding of 1:13:37.120 --> 1:13:40.120 the microaggressions that we face as black men and women 1:13:40.200 --> 1:13:44.080 on a daily basis, who were able to empathize, which 1:13:44.120 --> 1:13:47.920 is something that we have the expectation of people to 1:13:48.000 --> 1:13:51.040 do on a daily basis and to treat us with humanity. 1:13:51.760 --> 1:13:57.599 But it was really interesting, and I felt regretful because 1:13:57.920 --> 1:14:01.080 I had so much rage in the moment that I 1:14:01.160 --> 1:14:04.160 started tweeting because I wanted them to see it. 1:14:04.200 --> 1:14:06.479 When they got home, they were put on blast. 1:14:06.600 --> 1:14:09.600 But I wish that I would have just channeled my 1:14:09.720 --> 1:14:14.040 emotions and that waited and channeled in that piece, And 1:14:14.120 --> 1:14:17.200 it was a great lesson learned that you know, it 1:14:17.320 --> 1:14:23.280 really is no way to condense that experience in however 1:14:23.360 --> 1:14:27.000 many letters that you get on one hundred and forty. 1:14:26.760 --> 1:14:29.280 Characters had to write a book about it. 1:14:29.360 --> 1:14:31.599 Yeah, yeah, it's really no way. 1:14:33.040 --> 1:14:36.920 Solange's experiences related to something that I shared on the 1:14:36.960 --> 1:14:42.200 show along with Journey Smollett and Journey and I shared 1:14:42.240 --> 1:14:44.479 a story of the time that both she and I 1:14:44.600 --> 1:14:49.120 got stopped by police, and these were the things that 1:14:49.160 --> 1:14:52.040 people in the mainstream may not always hear because we 1:14:52.160 --> 1:14:56.240 never get again asked about our daily life experiences. 1:14:56.280 --> 1:14:59.400 It's all about our product. 1:15:00.000 --> 1:15:04.840 We uh decided to share that story, and we felt 1:15:04.880 --> 1:15:07.760 it was important to take our you know, take the 1:15:07.800 --> 1:15:10.400 space to share our experiences journey. 1:15:10.400 --> 1:15:11.920 Are we going to tell the story. 1:15:12.439 --> 1:15:14.680 That story you're talking about, to. 1:15:14.600 --> 1:15:19.719 Tell the story? You know the story? Answer? Yes, the story? 1:15:21.280 --> 1:15:26.840 Oh said No, huh, okay, tell it, I'll tell it. 1:15:28.640 --> 1:15:31.840 I mean, it's it's we were you're talking about the 1:15:31.880 --> 1:15:32.760 Marina del Ray one. 1:15:33.520 --> 1:15:34.120 Yeah. 1:15:34.360 --> 1:15:35.920 So often what we. 1:15:35.760 --> 1:15:39.559 Were doing is we were phone bank. You know, he's 1:15:39.560 --> 1:15:47.120 talking about eight, Like really when we started heavily? No, no, no, 1:15:47.160 --> 1:15:48.080 it was Maria del Ray. 1:15:49.439 --> 1:15:52.080 We were leasing place where white people were. That's all 1:15:52.120 --> 1:15:53.200 I remember. Maria. 1:15:55.280 --> 1:16:00.719 Yeah, we were leaving a grassroots organizing meeting. Were Obama 1:16:00.800 --> 1:16:05.000 and eight and it was he was during the primaries. 1:16:05.040 --> 1:16:06.120 He hadn't even won yet. 1:16:07.600 --> 1:16:08.040 Tuesday. 1:16:08.800 --> 1:16:09.559 Yes, we were. 1:16:09.439 --> 1:16:11.719 Depressed and we were depressed. He lost cow. 1:16:13.200 --> 1:16:14.720 California to Hillary. 1:16:15.240 --> 1:16:19.760 We were so depressed and so he was driving his 1:16:19.840 --> 1:16:22.680 Mini coup whatever whenever I mean, would come to l A. 1:16:22.720 --> 1:16:27.280 Would listen. 1:16:27.360 --> 1:16:29.400 You could you could tell like who's knowing me, like 1:16:29.479 --> 1:16:31.880 based on the car I was driving, doing the period. 1:16:32.080 --> 1:16:33.080 And it just goes from there. 1:16:33.360 --> 1:16:39.360 Yeah, you remember, I forgot the we were depressed. Then 1:16:39.400 --> 1:16:41.479 we then we go see like there will be blood 1:16:41.600 --> 1:16:45.479 or something like. It was something depressing, just something I remember. 1:16:45.760 --> 1:16:48.720 I don't remember, but we got pulled over. 1:16:50.240 --> 1:16:54.360 That's that's that's that's the story that slightly putting it. Yeah, 1:16:54.400 --> 1:16:54.840 I forgot. 1:16:56.040 --> 1:16:59.320 I mean pretty much we had. It was almost like 1:16:59.320 --> 1:17:06.360 that scene I think of traffic, traffic, it was it was. 1:17:05.840 --> 1:17:07.760 It was it was traffic for you. It was more 1:17:07.800 --> 1:17:08.920 like Boys in the Hood for me. 1:17:11.000 --> 1:17:12.600 Having done she don't trying to think it was so 1:17:12.600 --> 1:17:14.600 many stories in traffic, which was. 1:17:14.640 --> 1:17:18.000 A crash crash. 1:17:18.000 --> 1:17:19.759 But they're both like the same kind of movie. 1:17:19.840 --> 1:17:22.160 They are a lot of stories and always confusing. 1:17:22.960 --> 1:17:25.559 AnyWho, we get pulled over and I pull out my 1:17:25.760 --> 1:17:28.000 camera and I'm like starting. 1:17:27.680 --> 1:17:31.400 To It's not like it's a phone camera. It's like that. 1:17:34.240 --> 1:17:34.880 Jim Quarter. 1:17:35.760 --> 1:17:37.519 You have to hit the red button like a ghetto 1:17:37.560 --> 1:17:41.120 boom box, like one of the big motherfuckers. 1:17:41.120 --> 1:17:42.840 So the cop walks up to the car and and 1:17:42.880 --> 1:17:44.000 then Journey has the record. 1:17:44.840 --> 1:17:46.240 Yeah, yeah, it was dead. 1:17:46.560 --> 1:17:49.920 Uh, it was like joy that damn thing. 1:17:50.040 --> 1:17:52.160 Wait, you ain't ele Baker right now? Okay, like to 1:17:52.240 --> 1:17:53.519 take the time to be ele Baker. 1:17:53.680 --> 1:17:59.800 Put it away because it's massive, and so they they she. 1:17:59.840 --> 1:18:03.200 Was ready to start the revolution in the car, ready. 1:18:02.880 --> 1:18:07.840 To televise it. And you know, they asked me here 1:18:07.880 --> 1:18:08.679 to get out of the car. 1:18:08.880 --> 1:18:12.920 Don't tell them why then they asked me to get 1:18:12.920 --> 1:18:13.400 out of the car. 1:18:13.960 --> 1:18:17.120 Oh oh, They start patting him down. 1:18:17.280 --> 1:18:19.880 They walk him to the back of the car and 1:18:20.840 --> 1:18:22.639 handcuff him, put him in the back of the car. 1:18:23.400 --> 1:18:27.520 They pat me down, search me in ways. 1:18:27.240 --> 1:18:30.760 That I will say it was incredibly violated. 1:18:33.240 --> 1:18:39.120 They yeah, I mean the difference between now and then 1:18:39.240 --> 1:18:43.679 is that, of course, with the technology it cell phones, 1:18:44.400 --> 1:18:46.920 you don't know if you're being recorded or not. But 1:18:46.960 --> 1:18:49.840 that was definitely, I mean, there's definitely, you know, a 1:18:49.880 --> 1:18:51.960 moment in time where they were just reckless because they 1:18:52.040 --> 1:18:55.679 knew that nobody's ever going to see this or believe 1:18:55.680 --> 1:18:57.599 this or get away with this. Even when they were 1:18:57.640 --> 1:18:58.720 asking me questions like. 1:18:58.760 --> 1:19:00.799 Yeah, what were they say, like what happens? 1:19:01.320 --> 1:19:03.720 We keep calling the thing is is that I know 1:19:03.760 --> 1:19:07.240 it's you know, it's it's it's like the price, it's 1:19:07.280 --> 1:19:10.040 like it's like being on the prices right, And it's 1:19:10.120 --> 1:19:14.640 like when you're home, you know that you know that 1:19:14.720 --> 1:19:18.320 bottle Windexes whatever six ninety nine or whatever. Like when 1:19:18.360 --> 1:19:20.679 you're home, you know, you know all the answers on Jeopardy, 1:19:21.600 --> 1:19:26.000 But when you're there and you see the look in 1:19:26.080 --> 1:19:30.000 their eyes, I was just like, I'm going to die tonight, 1:19:30.400 --> 1:19:35.280 Like this is this is the it's the most helpless, 1:19:35.520 --> 1:19:40.599 e masculating feelings ever. And you know he's talking about 1:19:41.240 --> 1:19:44.280 where's your register? I forgot what question he asked, And 1:19:44.320 --> 1:19:47.680 I said, well, you know my I said, you know, 1:19:47.800 --> 1:19:51.160 my assistant at the office Internet, I mean like office. 1:19:51.920 --> 1:19:55.320 Like it's like you can't be too smart or else 1:19:55.360 --> 1:20:02.559 your assassin or that sort of thing. And your mind 1:20:02.600 --> 1:20:04.720 is just blink because they know you don't know your 1:20:04.800 --> 1:20:07.759 rights of course, you know, knowing what I've seen now, 1:20:08.000 --> 1:20:10.439 like we shouldn't have gotten out the car. 1:20:11.360 --> 1:20:13.000 Yeah, how did he even put handcuffs on you? 1:20:13.080 --> 1:20:13.360 For what? 1:20:13.720 --> 1:20:16.400 Like, I don't well, they didn't give us any explanation. 1:20:16.479 --> 1:20:18.760 They then handcuffed me and put me in the back 1:20:18.800 --> 1:20:22.000 with the mirror and we sat there. It felt like 1:20:22.040 --> 1:20:23.960 an eternity sitting in the back of that car. 1:20:24.000 --> 1:20:24.320 Together. 1:20:24.439 --> 1:20:26.599 We like neither one of us knew what to say. 1:20:26.640 --> 1:20:28.840 We just sat there in silence, you know, in the 1:20:28.880 --> 1:20:31.120 back or in front, in back, Oh. 1:20:31.080 --> 1:20:32.040 My god, that's. 1:20:34.080 --> 1:20:34.680 Yeah. 1:20:34.720 --> 1:20:38.640 And then they came back. They had like, you know, 1:20:39.760 --> 1:20:42.120 looked throughout everything in his car and my purse and 1:20:42.400 --> 1:20:45.080 and just kind of like handed him back his driver's 1:20:45.080 --> 1:20:47.439 license and said, Okay, the weird. 1:20:47.360 --> 1:20:50.760 Ship, the weirdest ship was they wanted to look in 1:20:50.800 --> 1:20:53.720 the trunk and Journey and. 1:20:53.760 --> 1:20:55.639 I had stopped by. 1:20:57.040 --> 1:21:03.320 Borders because Dawn manager had just moved to LA and 1:21:03.360 --> 1:21:06.080 I was like, Okay, I'm gonna get her. I'm gonna 1:21:06.080 --> 1:21:08.080 get her a deluxe crap. I'm gonna get her a 1:21:08.080 --> 1:21:12.439 deluxe scrabble game. In my mind, I was like, he's 1:21:12.479 --> 1:21:15.920 going to open this trunk and see all these scrabbles 1:21:15.960 --> 1:21:19.639 and psychology books in the in the back, and he's 1:21:19.720 --> 1:21:24.040 going to say, there's no way it's this car belongs 1:21:24.040 --> 1:21:24.559 to these two. 1:21:25.200 --> 1:21:25.679 Oh. 1:21:26.439 --> 1:21:29.880 And his thing was that and I never verified it. 1:21:30.840 --> 1:21:32.400 I think we did ask like, why did. 1:21:32.360 --> 1:21:36.519 You pull us over? Rich was calling me on the phone. 1:21:37.840 --> 1:21:38.639 Here's the weird shit. 1:21:39.840 --> 1:21:42.920 Rich was calling me on the phone about Prince's table 1:21:42.960 --> 1:21:48.240 at the jam session. And me, quote being a good citizen. 1:21:48.400 --> 1:21:50.519 I was like, Okay, let me pull the car over 1:21:50.640 --> 1:21:52.479 so I can take this phone call, you know, or 1:21:52.920 --> 1:21:55.240 I could have just picked up the car, you know 1:21:55.360 --> 1:22:00.320 call while I was driving, but I didn't, and we 1:22:00.479 --> 1:22:05.760 happen to be in front of a Mini Coup dealership. 1:22:05.920 --> 1:22:09.960 I guess yeah, I mean he said. 1:22:10.120 --> 1:22:13.040 About you know, he said he said something as if 1:22:13.120 --> 1:22:15.799 the lights the plates didn't match. 1:22:15.600 --> 1:22:19.560 The rental car uh contract. 1:22:19.960 --> 1:22:22.519 And we were like, but how do you know to 1:22:22.560 --> 1:22:24.599 pull us over to check to see if the plates 1:22:24.680 --> 1:22:26.600 matched the rental car contract? 1:22:26.680 --> 1:22:27.479 Like you didn't have a. 1:22:27.479 --> 1:22:31.080 Contract when you decided to pull us over to know 1:22:31.120 --> 1:22:32.080 if they didn't match. 1:22:32.160 --> 1:22:36.479 And and it just was pretty much they let us 1:22:36.520 --> 1:22:38.280 go without a ticket. 1:22:37.960 --> 1:22:40.720 Without a warning, without anything, because there was nothing that 1:22:40.880 --> 1:22:42.320 Emir had actually done wrong. 1:22:42.560 --> 1:22:44.439 It was just he was driving while. 1:22:44.280 --> 1:22:47.400 Black in a Mini Coup with a big fro right, 1:22:47.520 --> 1:22:51.599 and and we just felt, honestly, we just when we 1:22:51.800 --> 1:22:59.120 drove away, it bring night ruined just inside Mayor you 1:22:59.200 --> 1:23:00.960 kept you kept want to Grammy that week. 1:23:01.000 --> 1:23:04.960 That's a weird thing. I don't even consider it, like 1:23:05.240 --> 1:23:07.320 even to look at that. I think that's when I 1:23:07.320 --> 1:23:11.799 started just putting my ships in them, Like I honestly, 1:23:11.880 --> 1:23:15.040 if if you week was it that week? 1:23:15.160 --> 1:23:17.599 The following Sunday I did eight? 1:23:17.680 --> 1:23:17.840 Right? 1:23:18.520 --> 1:23:21.720 Yeah, yeah, and so did you. 1:23:21.880 --> 1:23:22.160 Bill. 1:23:22.360 --> 1:23:23.439 I'm going to say it again. 1:23:24.520 --> 1:23:27.960 Oh damn, that was too Okay, you're right, Bill, You're 1:23:28.000 --> 1:23:28.800 not I get pulled over. 1:23:29.240 --> 1:23:34.640 I did win a Grammy thank you anyway, So that's 1:23:36.080 --> 1:23:36.479 talk about it. 1:23:36.600 --> 1:23:40.680 Like I was just I was gonna let that just 1:23:40.760 --> 1:23:42.439 because I know he know better, he was gonna come that. 1:23:43.120 --> 1:23:47.760 No, no, no, I'm the mini Cooper. I'm sorry. I'm making 1:23:47.760 --> 1:23:49.840 a joke. I shouldn't, but I'm so fucked up by 1:23:49.840 --> 1:23:50.120 all this. 1:23:50.200 --> 1:23:52.479 I don't know what to say. 1:23:53.040 --> 1:23:55.120 Really, this is the one story I rarely share in 1:23:55.160 --> 1:23:59.920 public because it's just, you know, just the process, just 1:24:00.080 --> 1:24:00.840 the process it. 1:24:01.439 --> 1:24:04.400 But it was that word you kept using, you kept saying, jarn. 1:24:04.439 --> 1:24:06.000 I just feel so emasculated. 1:24:06.640 --> 1:24:09.360 Yeah for you to say yeah. Also, the two of 1:24:09.400 --> 1:24:11.360 you in the back of a cop card not speaking 1:24:11.400 --> 1:24:15.400 to each other is the quietest quiet I think I've 1:24:15.400 --> 1:24:18.000 ever heard of. Quiet, Like you're the most talking of 1:24:18.080 --> 1:24:19.800 people I've met in a long time. I feel like 1:24:19.840 --> 1:24:21.679 you would have a lot to say in this particular 1:24:21.760 --> 1:24:26.439 crazy fucked up momentat quiet, it's even more the intense 1:24:26.520 --> 1:24:28.320 than we. 1:24:28.280 --> 1:24:33.120 Live in such a machismo society where I don't let 1:24:33.200 --> 1:24:37.720 other men overpower them in anything and intellect, physically or 1:24:37.760 --> 1:24:41.439 those things. But it's almost like this unspoken thing that 1:24:41.600 --> 1:24:45.280 citizens know that any moment a cop can in your 1:24:45.320 --> 1:24:49.360 life within the bounds of the quote unquote law, and for. 1:24:49.360 --> 1:24:51.519 You, Amir has been to do about it, and you 1:24:51.520 --> 1:24:52.280 had journey with you. 1:24:52.360 --> 1:24:54.639 So as a man, that's what I. 1:24:54.600 --> 1:24:57.719 Was going to say. It's it's deep. 1:24:57.840 --> 1:25:01.439 It goes back to the slave days of like, you know, 1:25:02.080 --> 1:25:05.360 the emasculation of the black man, of like, Okay, we're 1:25:05.360 --> 1:25:08.200 going to do this in front of you and say 1:25:08.280 --> 1:25:12.880 nothing this woman, and guess what, guess what you can't do. 1:25:13.360 --> 1:25:16.160 You can't stop us, right, And so that's what we 1:25:16.320 --> 1:25:19.840 both could feel as we were driving away and he 1:25:19.960 --> 1:25:21.720 kept being like, John, I'm so sorry, and I kept 1:25:21.720 --> 1:25:23.080 being like, what could you have done? 1:25:23.120 --> 1:25:25.439 There was nothing you could have done. Like, we made 1:25:25.439 --> 1:25:26.160 it out a lot. 1:25:26.720 --> 1:25:27.880 That's better than a lot. 1:25:27.760 --> 1:25:31.760 Of people in this situation can say, like, and that's 1:25:31.800 --> 1:25:35.320 a shitty that's a shitty reality to have to settle for. 1:25:35.479 --> 1:25:36.920 It's like, oh well, at least we made it out 1:25:36.960 --> 1:25:40.120 a lot, but we did, y'all. We made it out alive. 1:25:40.400 --> 1:25:40.600 You know. 1:25:41.920 --> 1:25:44.680 That's the shitty thing of driving while black, and the 1:25:44.680 --> 1:25:49.519 shitty thing of you know, walking and walking by black 1:25:49.880 --> 1:25:52.719 black or black and male. 1:25:52.920 --> 1:25:53.240 You know. 1:25:53.800 --> 1:25:58.920 Yeah, have you had any situation like that ever? Or since? 1:25:59.560 --> 1:25:59.720 Oh? 1:25:59.760 --> 1:26:03.640 God, yeah, yeah. 1:26:04.040 --> 1:26:04.240 You know. 1:26:04.920 --> 1:26:07.920 I've shot so much in the South too, you know, 1:26:08.360 --> 1:26:11.240 so I've had several experiences. I mean, I remember shooting 1:26:11.280 --> 1:26:14.479 Great Debaters. Was that after before I can't remember. I 1:26:14.520 --> 1:26:16.360 think that was before, but I remember we did the 1:26:16.439 --> 1:26:18.920 lynching scene and I was driving a set in the 1:26:19.000 --> 1:26:22.400 van and over the radio I heard one of the 1:26:22.600 --> 1:26:26.000 teamsters say, well, we're having a lunch in today, ladies 1:26:26.040 --> 1:26:29.880 and gentlemen. I mean, like, yeah, I've dealt with some 1:26:30.240 --> 1:26:35.800 crazy as stuff, you know, yeah, as you all have too. 1:26:36.400 --> 1:26:38.880 Yeah, but you deal with it and then you acted out. 1:26:38.920 --> 1:26:40.360 It's different, you like re enacted. 1:26:40.680 --> 1:26:42.160 So it's it's to me, it's like. 1:26:42.240 --> 1:26:45.559 Well that's my that's my way of channeling the pain, 1:26:45.680 --> 1:26:49.240 I guess, yeah, is trying to place it somewhere. 1:26:49.560 --> 1:26:49.800 You know. 1:26:50.360 --> 1:26:52.559 Obviously with love Craft, there was a lot I had 1:26:52.560 --> 1:26:56.479 to pull bro Okay, A lot in my life was 1:26:56.960 --> 1:26:58.160 shitty at that time. 1:26:59.680 --> 1:27:04.719 But is there talks of season two or a return or. 1:27:05.760 --> 1:27:07.800 I don't know that's interesting. 1:27:07.960 --> 1:27:11.559 Wait still, this is not an instant slam dunk. 1:27:11.600 --> 1:27:14.160 And she said we will see like we will see 1:27:14.520 --> 1:27:15.959 like we will see. 1:27:17.400 --> 1:27:18.280 I mean as in, like. 1:27:20.200 --> 1:27:23.280 The powers that be that's above my pay grades. 1:27:23.680 --> 1:27:25.439 To get their ship together. That's what I know. 1:27:27.479 --> 1:27:32.120 Nothing angers me more when I get emotionally involved in 1:27:32.200 --> 1:27:35.360 a series only for it to be yanked away. 1:27:36.800 --> 1:27:40.640 Phone calls that you can't make your phone calls at 1:27:40.640 --> 1:27:42.560 what I am exactly. 1:27:42.800 --> 1:27:46.040 The good news is that all signs point to very 1:27:46.200 --> 1:27:51.760 positive response from folks, from critics from I mean, the 1:27:52.520 --> 1:27:56.599 I was recently told the pilot is like it's, you know, 1:27:56.720 --> 1:27:58.760 setting records for how many people have watched it. 1:27:58.840 --> 1:28:03.920 So it's yeah, I'm sure that I count for I 1:28:04.000 --> 1:28:06.920 count for twenty eight of those views. Johnny, I watched 1:28:06.960 --> 1:28:09.400 the pilot like maybe eleven times because I've made other 1:28:09.439 --> 1:28:10.840 people me too. 1:28:11.280 --> 1:28:12.160 Yeah, watch as well. 1:28:12.240 --> 1:28:14.559 We're in good shape, y'all. 1:28:14.600 --> 1:28:20.960 We're in good shape, all right. 1:28:21.000 --> 1:28:25.080 So Qols discusses black history through political and global lenses. 1:28:26.120 --> 1:28:30.320 Here's Angela Raie speaking about what she learned from Congresswoman 1:28:30.439 --> 1:28:31.520 Maximum waters. 1:28:31.880 --> 1:28:34.920 I hope Angela Rye runs for office one day. 1:28:35.520 --> 1:28:38.800 I'm gonna manifest that for her, although I wouldn't wish 1:28:38.840 --> 1:28:41.600 it on anyone because of the amount of stressed and 1:28:41.640 --> 1:28:44.080 gaslighting one has to deal with, but. 1:28:45.040 --> 1:28:47.960 I would like to see that. So Angela Raie. 1:28:47.960 --> 1:28:52.360 Of course, Lensenderry for her work on the Congressional Black Caucus, 1:28:52.800 --> 1:28:58.080 and even though this was from twenty seventeen, it's unfortunately 1:28:58.960 --> 1:29:00.680 still very relevant. 1:29:01.479 --> 1:29:03.080 Can you break down what the Black CAUs does? Because 1:29:03.080 --> 1:29:04.240 there are people who really don't. 1:29:04.080 --> 1:29:07.639 Know, sure they're often they don't know, especially those that say, 1:29:07.640 --> 1:29:09.960 where's the Congressional White Caucus, as if the rest of 1:29:09.960 --> 1:29:11.679 the four hundred and thirty five members aren't white? 1:29:11.680 --> 1:29:12.240 I digress. 1:29:12.600 --> 1:29:16.439 So the Congressional Black Caucus is an entity that was 1:29:16.840 --> 1:29:20.120 founded in nineteen seventy one. By then, I think it 1:29:20.200 --> 1:29:23.920 was twelve members that were black in the House of 1:29:23.960 --> 1:29:27.679 Representatives and they established the organization so that there could 1:29:27.720 --> 1:29:30.240 be a space where black people's issues were heard. They're 1:29:30.280 --> 1:29:32.720 known as the Conscience of the Congress and now they 1:29:32.760 --> 1:29:37.040 are almost to fifty members. And of course there are 1:29:37.040 --> 1:29:40.759 two senators in the United States Senate who also serve 1:29:40.960 --> 1:29:44.000 as members of the Congressional Black Caucus. There are three 1:29:44.080 --> 1:29:49.759 Black senators, but one opted not to join. Tim Scott say, thank. 1:29:49.640 --> 1:29:50.280 You, write it down. 1:29:52.240 --> 1:29:56.280 So can I assume that most of the members of 1:29:56.400 --> 1:29:58.400 the CBC are Democrat? 1:29:58.800 --> 1:30:03.560 Yes, there is one current member of the CBC who's Republican. 1:30:03.600 --> 1:30:07.160 Her name is Mia Love. She is from Utah. My 1:30:07.280 --> 1:30:08.800 aunt that's not your aunt. 1:30:08.960 --> 1:30:11.360 Well, her last name was Love. So just that all 1:30:11.439 --> 1:30:14.080 loves related. 1:30:14.680 --> 1:30:17.200 My dad normally says maybe the same plantation. That's what 1:30:17.240 --> 1:30:19.080 he says today, Just to be honest with you, that's 1:30:19.120 --> 1:30:19.400 what he. 1:30:19.360 --> 1:30:21.360 Says, the same plantation. 1:30:21.520 --> 1:30:21.800 Yeah. 1:30:21.920 --> 1:30:23.599 Has she attended meetings or Yeah? 1:30:23.640 --> 1:30:27.040 She has been active on some issues. She it definitely 1:30:27.040 --> 1:30:30.000 divergent on others, but she's been active on some issues. 1:30:30.320 --> 1:30:30.639 I see. 1:30:32.160 --> 1:30:38.120 So not why because I appreciate your your grassroots involvement 1:30:38.160 --> 1:30:42.920 and you using elbow grease and getting down and dirty, 1:30:43.000 --> 1:30:47.000 but why would you choose this particular field? 1:30:47.160 --> 1:30:50.080 I mean, you went to law school. You could have 1:30:50.160 --> 1:30:53.080 you know, you could have just. 1:30:54.520 --> 1:30:55.559 Been some other stuff. 1:30:56.160 --> 1:30:58.120 Yeah, I mean what what truly made you? 1:30:58.280 --> 1:31:02.240 Was it following the family business or in your father's 1:31:02.680 --> 1:31:07.240 footsteps as far as the community, like what most lawyers 1:31:07.360 --> 1:31:10.320 I know are thinking in terms of, oh, success from 1:31:10.479 --> 1:31:12.760 my own law firm, being a partner and that sort 1:31:12.800 --> 1:31:13.080 of thing. 1:31:13.160 --> 1:31:14.720 So should we know who her father is? 1:31:15.760 --> 1:31:19.599 His name is Eddie Yeer Jr. He's an activist in Seattle. 1:31:19.640 --> 1:31:22.760 But it's actually a really interesting story. What I'll tell 1:31:22.800 --> 1:31:27.040 you is there were two other paths that I thought 1:31:27.080 --> 1:31:30.200 I would choose before I chose politics. I grew up 1:31:30.240 --> 1:31:32.559 in a house with a dad who's an activist, and 1:31:32.640 --> 1:31:35.600 I thought he was always on the opposite side. 1:31:35.360 --> 1:31:37.200 Of elected politics. 1:31:37.200 --> 1:31:39.240 So I hated it growing up because I couldn't understand 1:31:39.240 --> 1:31:42.080 why they didn't understand why, you know, why he was 1:31:42.120 --> 1:31:46.200 pressing pressing for you know, or a part of the 1:31:46.240 --> 1:31:50.320 parts antipartsy movements, or you know, getting involved with ensuring 1:31:50.320 --> 1:31:54.919 that subcontractors and contractors of color had an equal share. 1:31:54.720 --> 1:31:55.160 Of the pie. 1:31:55.200 --> 1:31:57.160 I didn't understand why that was even an issue, right, 1:31:58.200 --> 1:32:01.280 And so growing up with him, I hated politics because 1:32:01.280 --> 1:32:04.599 they were never on his side. And it wasn't until 1:32:04.800 --> 1:32:08.640 I was in my last year, my fall semester of 1:32:08.720 --> 1:32:12.559 law school. I wanted to do an internship in Los 1:32:12.560 --> 1:32:17.479 Angeles and Maxine Waters was someone I respected a lot, 1:32:17.520 --> 1:32:18.760 and so I was like, well, if I can learn 1:32:18.760 --> 1:32:20.640 from her, you know, maybe this will be good. But 1:32:20.680 --> 1:32:23.760 I'm gonna go so that I could be a trial attorney. 1:32:23.400 --> 1:32:24.120 Like Johnny Coppran. 1:32:24.120 --> 1:32:27.360 I just want to get an offer at the Cochran firm. 1:32:27.439 --> 1:32:29.639 And before that, I wanted to be a sports entertainment lawyer. 1:32:29.680 --> 1:32:31.719 But I'll save that story for another day. It's really 1:32:31.720 --> 1:32:35.519 interesting how that happened or didn't happen. But in my 1:32:35.960 --> 1:32:38.240 I did my internship and like fell in love with 1:32:38.520 --> 1:32:42.320 the bridge between activism and politics, and there's no better 1:32:42.400 --> 1:32:46.280 bridge for that than Maxine Waters. I started calling her 1:32:46.520 --> 1:32:49.840 the Nation's Congresswoman then that was in two thousand four, 1:32:49.920 --> 1:32:53.639 two thousand and five, and just loved working with her, 1:32:53.760 --> 1:32:58.080 loved how she made everything work together for us, regardless 1:32:58.120 --> 1:33:00.960 of if we lived in her district or not. And 1:33:01.800 --> 1:33:03.840 I did get an offer from the Cochran firm, like 1:33:03.920 --> 1:33:06.160 had a mentor, Shawn Chapman Holly shout out to Seawan 1:33:06.200 --> 1:33:09.000 Chapman Holly, who's still a good friend, had an offer 1:33:09.040 --> 1:33:12.000 with the firm, and then he died, damn, And I 1:33:12.120 --> 1:33:14.479 was like, oh Lord, maybe this wasn't the path. So 1:33:14.680 --> 1:33:17.320 at my the National Black Lost in Association. 1:33:17.439 --> 1:33:21.200 Weird he died with your thousand and five Okay. 1:33:21.800 --> 1:33:24.639 At the convention, I was getting ready to introduce Congressman 1:33:24.680 --> 1:33:25.840 Waters who came to our convention. 1:33:25.960 --> 1:33:27.320 I was like, what am I gonna do now? 1:33:27.400 --> 1:33:29.439 Johnny concran died, and She's like, I told you to 1:33:29.479 --> 1:33:31.080 go to the hill. So I was like, well, maybe 1:33:31.120 --> 1:33:34.160 y'all think about that now. And that's really the short 1:33:34.240 --> 1:33:37.120 version of how that happened. But she's never been wrong, 1:33:37.200 --> 1:33:40.200 and I'm so happy to see millennials woke about her now. 1:33:40.240 --> 1:33:43.800 But she been doing this. The nation's congresswoman, Queen Maxine's 1:33:43.880 --> 1:33:44.439 been doing this. 1:33:44.560 --> 1:33:47.519 So you got her back to it all makes sense 1:33:47.520 --> 1:33:49.599 now too. Why you had her back even more when 1:33:49.600 --> 1:33:52.519 that whole stupid bill o'reiley, I think. 1:33:52.360 --> 1:33:53.360 I would have had any results. 1:33:53.360 --> 1:33:55.280 I want to through that. That was stupid. 1:33:55.520 --> 1:33:57.960 She's on the floor of the United States House of 1:33:58.000 --> 1:34:01.120 Representatives talking about what patriots in the era of Trump 1:34:01.160 --> 1:34:05.280 really means, like it's not, you know, pledging blind allegiance 1:34:05.360 --> 1:34:08.720 to some concept. It's about standing up for what we 1:34:08.800 --> 1:34:11.559 know to be truthful and righteous. And for her to 1:34:11.560 --> 1:34:13.559 be talking about that and he's talking about it, damn 1:34:13.800 --> 1:34:15.680 James Brown Wig. It took me to send me to 1:34:15.720 --> 1:34:20.519 a place it's dismissive. Yeah, yeah, among other things, a. 1:34:20.520 --> 1:34:22.639 Lot of shit, but dismissive of the kind. 1:34:23.200 --> 1:34:24.439 Yes, that was very kind of. 1:34:25.880 --> 1:34:30.520 So do you I mean, obviously, I know it gets overwhelming, 1:34:30.840 --> 1:34:37.200 but just watching you in action, of course, like in 1:34:37.200 --> 1:34:40.640 the age of social media, a lot of people are 1:34:40.680 --> 1:34:45.439 familiar with you as as far as your your clips 1:34:45.479 --> 1:34:53.080 on the internet, usually going at people well and rightfully, 1:34:53.120 --> 1:34:58.840 so whenever facts are are are sprouted out. And that's 1:34:58.840 --> 1:35:01.599 the thing, like when I when I watch you go 1:35:01.680 --> 1:35:06.880 against two, three, four people at a time, it is 1:35:07.080 --> 1:35:08.760 I mean, it's baffling to me. I don't know if 1:35:08.800 --> 1:35:11.200 it's the equivalent of someone asking, well, you know, how 1:35:11.200 --> 1:35:13.240 do you how do you coordinate your kick drum and 1:35:13.280 --> 1:35:15.000 your high hat foot in your left hand in your 1:35:15.080 --> 1:35:17.000 right hand and talk to people? 1:35:17.000 --> 1:35:18.720 You know, how are you not exhausted? 1:35:19.200 --> 1:35:20.680 I didn't say I wasn't exhausted. 1:35:22.560 --> 1:35:26.000 I did not say that, But I mean have I mean, 1:35:26.320 --> 1:35:30.640 as I read the the era that we live in now, 1:35:30.680 --> 1:35:33.880 which is, of course, I guess the alternative facts era 1:35:34.240 --> 1:35:37.840 in which things are said with such a straight face, 1:35:38.800 --> 1:35:41.599 I think, you know, in general, a lot of us 1:35:41.640 --> 1:35:46.400 have been programmed to believe that if any information comes 1:35:46.400 --> 1:35:51.799 from someone wearing a suit and spoken in the King's English, 1:35:51.840 --> 1:35:55.040 then why should they lie to me? Like, you know, 1:35:55.760 --> 1:35:57.799 why would they want to lie to me? And usually, 1:35:57.880 --> 1:36:00.519 you know, a lot of benefits of doubt are given, 1:36:02.280 --> 1:36:07.640 and we're seeing straight up false information. How I mean 1:36:07.760 --> 1:36:10.599 to me, it's like the equivalent of you playing a 1:36:10.640 --> 1:36:14.840 tennis match to with five people on the other side. Yeah, yeah, 1:36:14.880 --> 1:36:16.920 I mean, how do you I mean, just in this era, 1:36:17.000 --> 1:36:21.760 especially when you agreed to do pundit remarks on on shows, 1:36:23.080 --> 1:36:25.519 how do you grasp your information? Because you have to 1:36:26.320 --> 1:36:28.559 know what they stand for and how they come Like 1:36:28.600 --> 1:36:30.280 do you does someone train you? 1:36:30.439 --> 1:36:30.920 Is it? 1:36:31.400 --> 1:36:31.599 No? 1:36:32.160 --> 1:36:35.720 I've never had media training, but I will say that 1:36:36.960 --> 1:36:39.840 I did get Crossfire training. I don't know if you 1:36:39.880 --> 1:36:42.120 all remember Crossfired, like the CNN show back in the 1:36:42.160 --> 1:36:43.760 day when it was all the old white dudes at 1:36:43.760 --> 1:36:44.200 the table. 1:36:45.439 --> 1:36:46.360 Just growing up with my dad. 1:36:46.439 --> 1:36:49.519 Now he doesn't lie, but we don't always agree on 1:36:49.600 --> 1:36:52.720 the means to an end goal. So growing up like 1:36:52.840 --> 1:36:55.639 just debating him or you know, talking to my friends, 1:36:55.720 --> 1:36:58.559 or debating race issues, like I went to a majority 1:36:58.560 --> 1:37:01.080 white high school, you know, started to black student union, 1:37:01.120 --> 1:37:03.640 and so you get used to having to explain to 1:37:03.680 --> 1:37:06.519 people your perspective because it's not the majority view. 1:37:06.920 --> 1:37:07.920 So whether or not. 1:37:08.160 --> 1:37:12.599 This is this may be an alternate universe, but it's 1:37:12.600 --> 1:37:15.559 still not the majority view on the panel, so it's 1:37:15.640 --> 1:37:16.320 just debating. 1:37:17.040 --> 1:37:19.120 The problem I have, and I think when. 1:37:18.960 --> 1:37:24.480 People see me get really upset is when I remember 1:37:24.720 --> 1:37:29.600 the responsibility that we have to give people factual information. 1:37:29.800 --> 1:37:32.439 I think the frustration that I have, if nothing else 1:37:32.520 --> 1:37:36.559 right now, is being able to speak to people in 1:37:36.600 --> 1:37:39.680 their homes on their TV screens is an awesome privilege, 1:37:40.120 --> 1:37:43.320 and we have an obligation to give them information they 1:37:43.360 --> 1:37:46.559 can rely upon. And so I'll normally lose it, especially 1:37:46.560 --> 1:37:48.680 on like black networks, like on TV one. If I'm 1:37:48.680 --> 1:37:52.040 on Rolling Show and somebody's lying, I flip out, like 1:37:52.280 --> 1:37:55.160 there's been you know, Jiff or Gift depending on how 1:37:55.160 --> 1:37:58.479 you said jiffable moments just from that, like please don't 1:37:58.479 --> 1:38:02.080 come here and lie to our folks. Not that folks 1:38:02.080 --> 1:38:03.960 should be lied to unseen in either, but I just 1:38:04.000 --> 1:38:07.000 think that there's a different type of responsibility and even 1:38:07.040 --> 1:38:09.759 with seeing it, and I think it is really hard 1:38:09.840 --> 1:38:14.679 because I remember one of the debates during the general 1:38:14.720 --> 1:38:20.240 election the Debate Commission decided that the moderator did not 1:38:20.400 --> 1:38:24.120 have an obligation to fact check the candidates, and I 1:38:24.200 --> 1:38:24.680 lost it. 1:38:24.720 --> 1:38:27.559 I was like, what do you mean, Like, that's your only. 1:38:27.400 --> 1:38:30.479 Responsibility besides asking the questions like you had one job 1:38:31.120 --> 1:38:33.800 or two? You know, one an one b like all 1:38:33.800 --> 1:38:35.920 in one, but you have something What do you mean like, 1:38:36.040 --> 1:38:38.479 of course you have to make sure that they're being like, 1:38:38.479 --> 1:38:41.120 what are you debating? Then if if facts become a 1:38:41.160 --> 1:38:44.040 debatable point and not just the perspectives on those facts, 1:38:44.400 --> 1:38:46.400 that is a new challenge. 1:38:46.800 --> 1:38:47.840 And so I do. 1:38:48.000 --> 1:38:52.120 I find it immensely frustrating because I don't understand how 1:38:52.200 --> 1:38:54.720 someone could be deemed credible at all if they're not 1:38:54.800 --> 1:38:57.840 relying on the same principle of truth. You know, it's 1:38:57.880 --> 1:39:01.559 just it's maddening, really, it really really is. And so 1:39:01.640 --> 1:39:03.720 to me, I just think that the energy I take 1:39:03.760 --> 1:39:06.640 into those spaces is if you're not going to be 1:39:06.680 --> 1:39:08.519 told the truth from anyone else, you're going to hear 1:39:08.520 --> 1:39:10.519 it from me. And if I'm ever if I ever 1:39:10.600 --> 1:39:13.400 misspeak on something, if a stat is wrong, you know, 1:39:13.520 --> 1:39:15.240 if I said a word wrong, I'll fact check it 1:39:15.280 --> 1:39:17.439 later on Twitter. But I'm not gonna lie to people 1:39:17.600 --> 1:39:19.479 intentionally deceiving. 1:39:19.000 --> 1:39:20.920 Them like that is just wrong. 1:39:21.720 --> 1:39:23.840 And that's just kind of where I draw the line. 1:39:24.520 --> 1:39:32.840 Now as of this particular taping. Right now, the healthcare. 1:39:34.680 --> 1:39:38.479 Situation is in the hands of the Senate, and I'm 1:39:38.520 --> 1:39:43.559 seeing a lot of them. I guess at one point 1:39:43.600 --> 1:39:45.800 on Twitter there were at least three or four of 1:39:45.800 --> 1:39:50.600 them that tweeted out or gave interviews sorted to the 1:39:50.640 --> 1:39:55.280 tune of you know, you're saying that you know that 1:39:55.760 --> 1:39:58.800 twenty two million people might lose their insurance or and 1:39:59.000 --> 1:40:02.800 this several hundred thousand might die if this law goes 1:40:02.840 --> 1:40:06.800 and you know that was that was not a good 1:40:06.840 --> 1:40:11.240 conversation point to sway them the other way. But I mean, 1:40:11.280 --> 1:40:14.400 what is for those because I have a lot of 1:40:14.479 --> 1:40:18.280 friends who are so overwhelmed with what's going on that 1:40:18.439 --> 1:40:23.120 now my friends are at the point where they're just 1:40:23.280 --> 1:40:29.120 so not even past the point of indifference, but just 1:40:29.200 --> 1:40:31.160 so overwhelmed that they don't. 1:40:30.920 --> 1:40:31.920 Watch the news at all. 1:40:33.439 --> 1:40:37.439 And these are the ones who are generally on my 1:40:37.560 --> 1:40:38.200 side of the fence. 1:40:38.200 --> 1:40:38.559 I don't know. 1:40:38.760 --> 1:40:40.920 I can't sleep at night unless I at least watch 1:40:41.560 --> 1:40:44.000 an hour or two of at least Rachel's show, or 1:40:44.200 --> 1:40:45.880 just someone that I know that's going to give. 1:40:45.800 --> 1:40:52.439 Me straight up facts. But how do you how do we. 1:40:52.439 --> 1:40:59.599 Reignite people or a community of people that just feel 1:40:59.640 --> 1:41:02.599 like it's it's no use. 1:41:03.040 --> 1:41:06.400 Yeah, no use. I started. God, have you guys heard 1:41:06.439 --> 1:41:08.400 of a handmaids Handmaid's Tale? 1:41:08.479 --> 1:41:09.400 I haven't watched it yet. 1:41:09.479 --> 1:41:11.040 Yeah, have you watched it? I haven't watched it, but 1:41:11.200 --> 1:41:13.880 I know something. It's yeah, I heard. 1:41:13.760 --> 1:41:16.000 It's the future really sad like like. 1:41:16.040 --> 1:41:18.679 If you yeah, if you think that like a House 1:41:18.720 --> 1:41:22.440 of Cards or you know, whatever's being depicted now in 1:41:22.880 --> 1:41:28.160 television as don't hamm okay, almost feels like this is 1:41:28.360 --> 1:41:29.439 that's where it's going to go to. 1:41:29.640 --> 1:41:31.600 Okay, I checked that. I haven't even watched it. I 1:41:31.640 --> 1:41:33.919 gave up on House of Cards, like I just because. 1:41:33.680 --> 1:41:33.920 It was. 1:41:36.400 --> 1:41:36.519 Right. 1:41:36.800 --> 1:41:37.400 Yeah, I don't. 1:41:37.439 --> 1:41:39.040 I don't know how they did that. Yeah, I like 1:41:39.080 --> 1:41:43.160 weight blame House of Cards actually right, all of it. 1:41:43.360 --> 1:41:44.479 You're not even being ironic. 1:41:45.000 --> 1:41:49.680 Just I need to find somebody to blame because this 1:41:49.800 --> 1:41:53.479 makes no sense besides old lad like I just I 1:41:53.520 --> 1:41:55.360 gotta I don't know, don't happen. 1:41:55.200 --> 1:41:57.040 On the hils of what a Mirror said and on 1:41:57.080 --> 1:42:00.559 that note, how do you prioritize the issues you should 1:42:00.560 --> 1:42:02.240 be most careing about, because yes, health care is the 1:42:02.280 --> 1:42:06.040 issue right now, but there are numerous issues that you know, 1:42:06.120 --> 1:42:09.200 our president right now and his congress are about the 1:42:09.240 --> 1:42:12.040 fuck up life with. So how do you do that, Angela? 1:42:12.120 --> 1:42:16.920 How do you prioritize so first that y'all's president's that's 1:42:17.920 --> 1:42:21.200 so no. So I think that that's a really, really 1:42:21.200 --> 1:42:24.120 good question, And what I appreciate about it is I 1:42:24.160 --> 1:42:28.320 get so frustrated with whether they're elected officials that are 1:42:28.320 --> 1:42:31.200 sitting members of Congress right now, who will say, well, 1:42:31.240 --> 1:42:33.280 we don't need to be talking about Russia because what 1:42:33.320 --> 1:42:35.760 people really want to know about is their health care. 1:42:35.960 --> 1:42:37.880 What people really want to know about is you know 1:42:37.920 --> 1:42:38.280 where the. 1:42:38.240 --> 1:42:39.919 Next job is going to come from the economy. 1:42:40.680 --> 1:42:41.759 But here's the that's. 1:42:41.600 --> 1:42:44.479 Right, And if so, if we're honest, every single day, 1:42:44.560 --> 1:42:47.880 all of us are responsible for balancing something mer we 1:42:47.920 --> 1:42:50.600 were talking about your time earlier, like we're responsible for 1:42:50.720 --> 1:42:55.240 balancing some things. We are people who can walk into 1:42:55.360 --> 1:42:58.080 gum at the same time and be okay. So it's 1:42:58.120 --> 1:42:59.680 actually okay for us to try to get to the 1:42:59.680 --> 1:43:02.320 bottom of what happened with Russia and how they ended 1:43:02.400 --> 1:43:06.840 up in several you know polls, you know, precincts, messing 1:43:06.920 --> 1:43:09.720 with stuff. You know, that's important for us to understand 1:43:09.800 --> 1:43:14.680 because over time, if if countries, if entities can continue 1:43:15.200 --> 1:43:19.360 to uh interrupt and disrupt our democracy the ways in 1:43:19.400 --> 1:43:22.120 which we engage in the electoral process, people are going 1:43:22.160 --> 1:43:26.600 to become disillusioned with that. That is very very very dangerous. 1:43:26.439 --> 1:43:30.439 That's exactly right. That means a select few are picking 1:43:31.000 --> 1:43:34.080 your your leaders. And what happens is this healthcare bill 1:43:34.200 --> 1:43:36.760 to bring this back full circle, which is you know, 1:43:37.280 --> 1:43:40.800 very toxic. It is you know, it's it's it's it's 1:43:40.840 --> 1:43:43.519 a tax cut for billionaires. You know, it is a 1:43:43.560 --> 1:43:47.639 way of One of the Senate compromises that came about 1:43:47.760 --> 1:43:51.960 yesterday was okay, well we'll just uh, we'll reinstitute the 1:43:52.400 --> 1:43:57.000 mandatory healthcare you have to sign up mandatorily. But what 1:43:57.000 --> 1:43:58.720 we're going to do is if there's a lapse in 1:43:58.760 --> 1:44:02.080 your health care, then there's gonna be a six month 1:44:02.120 --> 1:44:03.559 window for you to get healthcare. 1:44:03.640 --> 1:44:03.920 Again. 1:44:04.280 --> 1:44:07.160 What happens if something happens to you in those six 1:44:07.200 --> 1:44:09.519 months and you can't afford to pay for health care 1:44:09.560 --> 1:44:10.480 out of pocket. 1:44:10.520 --> 1:44:11.720 That's not a compromise. 1:44:11.880 --> 1:44:13.880 And if it's a compromise, who is it on the 1:44:13.920 --> 1:44:16.720 backs of And those are folks who normally look like us, 1:44:16.760 --> 1:44:20.200 if they're underserved and marginalized communities, black and brown communities. 1:44:20.360 --> 1:44:21.519 We have to pay attention. 1:44:21.960 --> 1:44:24.439 And so if there's nothing else that I hope comes 1:44:24.439 --> 1:44:28.599 out of this treacherous, dangerous, awful time, it is that 1:44:28.680 --> 1:44:32.439 I hope we realize that these people are working for us. 1:44:32.439 --> 1:44:35.639 And I use this analogy on a panel the other day. 1:44:36.320 --> 1:44:38.439 There's not a single one of us who if we 1:44:38.520 --> 1:44:41.840 are employing people, just are like, Okay, we're gonna pay you. 1:44:41.840 --> 1:44:44.160 You go and do whatever, and never check in. There's 1:44:44.200 --> 1:44:47.040 a team call, there's a team meeting, there's an agenda, 1:44:47.200 --> 1:44:50.960 there's some type of metrics for accountability where they have 1:44:51.080 --> 1:44:54.240 to check in with us. We pay these people, they 1:44:54.320 --> 1:44:57.000 owe us answers, they owe us to do the right thing. 1:44:57.040 --> 1:44:59.840 I think it's town halls, and town halls aren't even 1:44:59.880 --> 1:45:02.320 a got to show up to those, and people. 1:45:02.080 --> 1:45:04.479 Are starting to show up townhouse. But even that's not enough. 1:45:04.520 --> 1:45:06.559 We need to be checking them on what they're doing, 1:45:06.640 --> 1:45:09.200 what they're doing in pacts us more in some instances 1:45:09.240 --> 1:45:10.360 than the employees that we have. 1:45:12.320 --> 1:45:15.720 All Right, here is Gina your share speaking about her 1:45:15.760 --> 1:45:20.360 family who immigrated to London, England from Nigeria and the 1:45:20.400 --> 1:45:23.320 experiences that they had and it's a fact. 1:45:23.120 --> 1:45:26.000 On Gina's upbringing. This from twenty twenty one. 1:45:27.040 --> 1:45:29.400 Can I ask the question though, because even though Gina 1:45:29.600 --> 1:45:31.840 is born and raised in London, her mother is not, 1:45:32.280 --> 1:45:34.360 and so I must think that your mother does not 1:45:34.439 --> 1:45:38.080 feel the same way about this English food. And on 1:45:38.120 --> 1:45:40.120 the back of that question, can you also break down 1:45:40.479 --> 1:45:44.000 like how dope and royal of a situation your mother 1:45:44.080 --> 1:45:45.840 came to to come and they came to London and 1:45:45.840 --> 1:45:47.280 it was a flip of thew the switch. 1:45:47.400 --> 1:45:49.919 Oh yeah, For one, my mom loves a bit of babings, 1:45:49.920 --> 1:45:50.600 don't even knock it. 1:45:50.920 --> 1:45:51.719 My mom is full. 1:45:51.640 --> 1:45:54.639 Nightge though she loves Nigean food like when mother kids 1:45:54.760 --> 1:45:57.280 at Nigeria foods in the house. But my mom loved 1:45:57.320 --> 1:46:02.519 mashed potatoes and my mom loves beans, so it was 1:46:02.680 --> 1:46:05.720 the dichotomy. But yeah, yeah, my mom was from a 1:46:05.760 --> 1:46:07.880 wealthy way well on her family. My mom's from a 1:46:07.920 --> 1:46:11.360 family called the Abasaki family and they are practically royalty 1:46:11.400 --> 1:46:13.759 in Nigeria. And my mom is from a wealthy family. 1:46:13.800 --> 1:46:15.960 Her dad had a load of wives. She was educated. 1:46:17.120 --> 1:46:19.080 Her dad traveled all over the world on business and 1:46:19.120 --> 1:46:21.320 he took her with him and she went to private 1:46:21.360 --> 1:46:25.240 school and she was a school principal in Nigeria before 1:46:25.280 --> 1:46:26.439 she was twenty four years old. 1:46:26.479 --> 1:46:27.559 So she was very you. 1:46:27.600 --> 1:46:28.360 Know, she did. 1:46:28.560 --> 1:46:31.840 Yeah, she was very She achieved a lot and then 1:46:32.080 --> 1:46:33.800 she came to England. 1:46:33.840 --> 1:46:37.599 Before why did she come to England? 1:46:37.800 --> 1:46:40.400 Well, long story short. If you read my new book 1:46:40.439 --> 1:46:44.080 that's coming, that's how you know that. My mother was 1:46:44.120 --> 1:46:47.800 the daughter of the first wife. So my grandfather had 1:46:47.800 --> 1:46:50.839 many wives. As you know, polygamy was widely practiced in Nigeria. 1:46:51.200 --> 1:46:52.000 Tell me about it. 1:46:52.080 --> 1:46:57.920 Oh yeah, lots of wives, lots of lots of wives 1:46:57.960 --> 1:47:00.759 and daughter. My mom was the daughter of the first wife. 1:47:01.040 --> 1:47:03.800 But the first wife was very powerful, as the first 1:47:03.800 --> 1:47:07.519 wife is as the first The otherwise were very jealous 1:47:07.560 --> 1:47:10.760 and there was the other wives murdered my grandmother. 1:47:11.200 --> 1:47:11.760 They pull you. 1:47:11.920 --> 1:47:18.080 Oh yeah, well we never get the beginning the throne ship. 1:47:18.280 --> 1:47:20.760 Yeah, yeah, for real greatship. 1:47:21.320 --> 1:47:23.920 So yeah, the other wives did not my mother. My 1:47:23.960 --> 1:47:26.760 grandmother was like, listen, the other wives don't like me. 1:47:26.800 --> 1:47:29.479 These bitches are trying to kill me if anything happens 1:47:29.479 --> 1:47:32.720 to me, get my daughter out of Nigeria. So she 1:47:32.840 --> 1:47:35.240 ended up dying. She was poisoned and when she died 1:47:35.240 --> 1:47:37.040 she had a mark on her throat. Now, before my 1:47:37.120 --> 1:47:39.280 grandmother died, she always used to say when I come back, 1:47:39.400 --> 1:47:41.640 when I come back, I'm going to I'm going to 1:47:41.680 --> 1:47:44.280 speak English, I'm going to be in England. I'm not 1:47:44.320 --> 1:47:45.920 going to have all these children because my mom and 1:47:46.120 --> 1:47:47.960 my grandmother had eleven kids and I don't want to 1:47:47.960 --> 1:47:48.639 all these children. 1:47:48.840 --> 1:47:50.920 I'm going to do a man's job. I'm going to 1:47:50.960 --> 1:47:52.400 have freedom, all of you. 1:47:52.479 --> 1:47:52.599 Thing. 1:47:52.720 --> 1:47:54.800 When she died from a poison she had a mark 1:47:54.840 --> 1:47:55.640 on her throat. 1:47:55.880 --> 1:47:57.559 Obviously, when she. 1:47:57.560 --> 1:48:01.200 Died, my grandfather sent my mom out the because who's 1:48:01.240 --> 1:48:02.920 like weld, I've killed the wife. I'm not going to 1:48:02.960 --> 1:48:05.200 have them kill my daughter to so he sent my 1:48:05.280 --> 1:48:07.720 mom to England to study and that is where my 1:48:07.840 --> 1:48:10.600 mom met my dad. They met each other, they had me, 1:48:11.360 --> 1:48:13.679 and I came out with this mark on my flow. 1:48:13.800 --> 1:48:17.120 So basically I'm a reincarnation of my grandmother. 1:48:17.520 --> 1:48:18.559 So that that's the story. 1:48:18.560 --> 1:48:21.120 Because Nigeras believed heavily in the incarnation, and I came 1:48:21.160 --> 1:48:26.240 out doing all the things that my grandmother said. 1:48:24.439 --> 1:48:28.120 I fulfilled everything. 1:48:28.200 --> 1:48:30.519 So when I said my mo, mom was like comedian, 1:48:30.600 --> 1:48:31.439 you want to become a clown. 1:48:31.479 --> 1:48:33.920 I was like, mom, remember this is what your mother wanted. 1:48:34.240 --> 1:48:38.400 I am your mother. That's how I get away with her. 1:48:39.080 --> 1:48:39.880 But yeah, my mom. 1:48:40.000 --> 1:48:42.479 So that's how my mother ended up in England studying 1:48:42.640 --> 1:48:44.760 and she was a teacher. She came to England. She 1:48:44.840 --> 1:48:46.920 wanted to carry on working as a teacher. For England 1:48:46.960 --> 1:48:48.920 was super racist. She couldn't my dad. 1:48:48.960 --> 1:48:49.639 She met my dad. 1:48:49.720 --> 1:48:52.960 My dad was studying for his PhD. He was and 1:48:53.240 --> 1:48:55.920 he was also a qualified lawyer. They could he couldn't 1:48:55.920 --> 1:48:59.160 get work as a lawyer in England. So basically they met, 1:48:59.200 --> 1:49:01.639 they got married, they had us, and then my dad 1:49:01.760 --> 1:49:04.439 was like, forget this, I want to go back to Nigeria. 1:49:04.640 --> 1:49:06.519 This is not I am driving a bust when I'm 1:49:06.520 --> 1:49:08.759 a lawyer. I'm a lawyer in Nigeria. I'm not staying 1:49:08.760 --> 1:49:10.519 here to drive a bus. Let's get the kids, let's go. 1:49:11.000 --> 1:49:13.519 And my mom was like, no, I've had my children 1:49:13.520 --> 1:49:16.400 in England. They are British. I want them to stay 1:49:16.400 --> 1:49:19.880 in England and be afforded all the opportunities that being 1:49:19.880 --> 1:49:24.040 British entails. I'm staying here with my kids. So basically 1:49:24.040 --> 1:49:26.160 my mom and dad's My dad went back to Nigeria 1:49:26.240 --> 1:49:27.960 when I was three and I didn't see him again 1:49:28.200 --> 1:49:30.519 till I was thirty seven, and when I went out 1:49:30.560 --> 1:49:32.080 there to do a show in Nigeria. 1:49:32.240 --> 1:49:32.840 So that was it. 1:49:33.080 --> 1:49:35.599 Wait, you met your father backstage at a show. 1:49:36.000 --> 1:49:36.960 He came to my show. 1:49:37.080 --> 1:49:40.040 So at that point I was pretty well known in 1:49:40.080 --> 1:49:42.160 England and pretty well known in Nigeria. I'd done a 1:49:42.200 --> 1:49:44.599 couple of sketches on television in England that had gone 1:49:44.680 --> 1:49:47.040 viral in Nigeria. So I got flown out to Nigeria 1:49:47.120 --> 1:49:50.120 to do a show, and obviously I still carried my 1:49:50.120 --> 1:49:52.719 father's name, so my father was like when I was going, 1:49:52.760 --> 1:49:54.479 my mom was like, oh, your father is going to 1:49:54.479 --> 1:49:54.880 turn up. 1:49:54.880 --> 1:49:55.800 You watch he's going to. 1:49:58.520 --> 1:49:58.560 You. 1:49:58.840 --> 1:49:59.360 And he did. 1:49:59.439 --> 1:50:00.880 He turned off the show with a. 1:50:00.840 --> 1:50:03.840 Bunch of brothers and sisters I'd never met. So it 1:50:03.920 --> 1:50:05.400 was it was it's all in the book. It's all 1:50:05.400 --> 1:50:06.360 in the book, people. 1:50:06.479 --> 1:50:06.720 It is. 1:50:07.000 --> 1:50:08.600 And also in the book, I remember I want to 1:50:08.600 --> 1:50:10.640 tell people too. You give a good history on the 1:50:10.640 --> 1:50:13.240 Empire of Benin and whatnot. I was like, oh, Wow, 1:50:13.280 --> 1:50:15.720 I had no idea, So can you. 1:50:15.240 --> 1:50:17.960 Can you briefly let me know about I just recently 1:50:18.000 --> 1:50:23.519 found out my lineage to Benin like a year ago and. 1:50:23.520 --> 1:50:26.280 In the country next to Nigeria or been in the 1:50:26.280 --> 1:50:30.280 city in Nigeria. I've been in this because there's two Benu. 1:50:30.360 --> 1:50:32.720 There's been in city in Nigeria, which is where my 1:50:33.120 --> 1:50:35.599 family from. And then there's been in the country which 1:50:35.640 --> 1:50:37.439 is next country, Nigeria where they speak French. 1:50:38.800 --> 1:50:41.600 Yeah, so are you. But if they say Banin in 1:50:41.640 --> 1:50:43.360 your I'm assuming it's been in the country. 1:50:44.200 --> 1:50:44.519 Okay. 1:50:44.560 --> 1:50:47.760 I believe that it was the country simply because when 1:50:47.760 --> 1:50:53.360 there was a civil war happening, the Nigerians had some 1:50:54.000 --> 1:50:58.000 beneen prisoners that they used as. 1:50:59.240 --> 1:51:00.400 Leverage to Nigger allotiate. 1:51:00.640 --> 1:51:00.760 Uh. 1:51:01.520 --> 1:51:03.639 My great your great grandfathers was one. 1:51:03.479 --> 1:51:07.360 Of those, uh those captured and sold in the slavery 1:51:07.400 --> 1:51:08.000 in America. 1:51:08.200 --> 1:51:11.760 So the country, Yeah, it's definitely the country then in yes, 1:51:12.200 --> 1:51:12.559 but yeah. 1:51:12.560 --> 1:51:16.120 I opened my book with history of Nigeria and the 1:51:16.160 --> 1:51:18.880 be In within Nigeria which is now southern Nigeria where 1:51:18.880 --> 1:51:22.160 my family is from, and and how advanced the society 1:51:22.400 --> 1:51:25.519 was and how the British came and tried to take 1:51:26.280 --> 1:51:28.519 and they got their asses handed to them by the 1:51:28.560 --> 1:51:32.720 Bnin warriors. And then they came back and burnt Been 1:51:32.760 --> 1:51:35.120 into the ground and stole all those bronzes. And hence 1:51:35.160 --> 1:51:38.600 while you've got all these bill In bronzes in museums 1:51:38.600 --> 1:51:40.719 in New York and around the world, because the British 1:51:40.760 --> 1:51:44.599 came burnt down Benin, stole all the bronzes and sold 1:51:44.680 --> 1:51:47.280 the bronzes to pay for the army that they've used 1:51:47.520 --> 1:51:48.880 to burn down Been In. 1:51:50.960 --> 1:51:53.240 The British have done to the world, man Jesus. 1:51:53.920 --> 1:51:57.720 Like, yeah, exactly when you guys go, oh Britain is 1:51:57.720 --> 1:52:00.639 so polite and genteel it, No it is they are 1:52:00.680 --> 1:52:02.679 straight savages well. 1:52:03.000 --> 1:52:05.519 And also not for nothing. Nigerians usually act like ain't 1:52:05.560 --> 1:52:07.840 nobody come and mess with them at all, So this 1:52:08.040 --> 1:52:10.080 history is not always told in that aspect. It's like 1:52:10.080 --> 1:52:12.200 anybody comes, try to colonized us, We got no, We're good. 1:52:12.400 --> 1:52:13.679 Oh no, they were coming. 1:52:14.160 --> 1:52:15.400 We only got our independence. 1:52:15.479 --> 1:52:18.880 Niger only got air independence in nineteen sixty and from 1:52:20.720 --> 1:52:23.040 nineteen sixty we got our independence, and even then, the 1:52:23.360 --> 1:52:25.639 economy was completely messed up after that because white people 1:52:26.280 --> 1:52:29.200 came out and took everything with them, and they'd already 1:52:29.280 --> 1:52:31.400 raked it of all the resources, all the oil, all 1:52:31.439 --> 1:52:34.719 the everything. And then there was a lot of money 1:52:34.720 --> 1:52:38.439 in oil for a while, but it all collapsed. 1:52:38.479 --> 1:52:39.280 It all collapsed. 1:52:39.560 --> 1:52:42.200 The school systems was based on the British school systems. 1:52:42.640 --> 1:52:45.720 You know, they took away the element that Nigerians were 1:52:45.720 --> 1:52:48.559 all about. Africans were all about family and learning trades 1:52:48.600 --> 1:52:51.280 and passing down stuff within the family. And the British 1:52:51.360 --> 1:52:55.280 came and went, now, don't forget about family stuff. That capitalism. 1:52:55.360 --> 1:52:58.120 It's all about capitalism. You learned to get these qualifications 1:52:58.160 --> 1:53:00.800 and then like it. And so they completely change the 1:53:00.840 --> 1:53:03.639 way that Nigerians worked and it's just ruined, in my opinion, 1:53:03.720 --> 1:53:05.639 ruined the country. Now you've got a few greedy people 1:53:05.920 --> 1:53:07.160 just creaming everything off there. 1:53:07.280 --> 1:53:10.040 Just so that's the history. 1:53:11.360 --> 1:53:12.840 Hey, at least you know yours. You don't have to 1:53:12.840 --> 1:53:14.439 go to Africa ancestry, right somebody? 1:53:15.040 --> 1:53:19.920 Oh yeah yeah. 1:53:19.960 --> 1:53:24.000 And that's part one of qols's celebration of Black History Month. 1:53:25.000 --> 1:53:26.800 Please come back next week for part two. 1:53:27.400 --> 1:53:37.679 All right, y'all. Peace Quest Love Supreme is a production 1:53:37.880 --> 1:53:46.080 of iHeart Radio. For more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit 1:53:46.120 --> 1:53:49.559 the iHeart radio, app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen 1:53:49.640 --> 1:53:50.519 to your favorite shows.