Speaker 1: That's what's up. Family. It's your girl to me Ka
Speaker 1: d Mallory.
Speaker 2: And it's your boy, my son and gentlemen.
Speaker 1: And we are your host of street politicians, the place
Speaker 1: where the streets and politics me.
Speaker 3: Finally, you don't sound like you're not saying it trying
Speaker 3: to copy how well I say it.
Speaker 2: I've told you already to what it is, and I'm
Speaker 2: doing that. If you want to keep reiterating the same thing,
Speaker 2: then go on there.
Speaker 1: Copy me.
Speaker 2: Okay, that's that's what it is.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So I and you were on at different parts of
Speaker 3: the last few weeks. You and others have been on
Speaker 3: the road. We've all been on the road together. But
Speaker 3: I was on the road for about three weeks. And
Speaker 3: I don't know if I can sustain living in America,
Speaker 3: Like I might have to move because the call lost
Speaker 3: of survival. And by the way, I tried to do
Speaker 3: one or two fun things too, like when everybody was
Speaker 3: gone and it was just me by myself, you know,
Speaker 3: I try to like do a little fun and I
Speaker 3: was trying to just like literally by myself, focus on
Speaker 3: a few fun things. And I don't understand how people
Speaker 3: are surviving with these numbers they keep saying there's no inflation,
Speaker 3: I mean no recession. They keep saying there's no recession.
Speaker 3: I don't know why, and I don't hear it usually
Speaker 3: when the Democrats lie, because they lie and they try
Speaker 3: to cover up things. Of course, every political party is
Speaker 3: going to try to suppress any negative information because they
Speaker 3: don't want when especially when they're coming up on election time,
Speaker 3: to have you know, certain dark clouds open. So every
Speaker 3: administration does that. Every political part already is gonna speak
Speaker 3: talk up their good side. So but I also don't
Speaker 3: hear a counterbalance from the Republicans saying that there is
Speaker 3: a recession. It seems like no one is saying there's
Speaker 3: a recession. Maybe there, of course they are analysts than others.
Speaker 3: But I a person who am not I'm not struggling.
Speaker 3: Am telling you it is way.
Speaker 1: Too expensive.
Speaker 3: Flights, hotel, car services, just services in general. Three hundred
Speaker 3: and fifty dollars for makeup, you know, four hundred dollars,
Speaker 3: but there's two hundred dollars. It's a lot of money
Speaker 3: to survive, and it's just it makes me feel very
Speaker 3: I don't. I just know, and I know I keep
Speaker 3: ask saying the same thing almost every show. But I'm
Speaker 3: I feel like it's getting worse.
Speaker 2: I mean, I definitely agree with you. You know, of
Speaker 2: course living is has skyrocketed, and being you know, being
Speaker 2: in a position to actually be able to pay your
Speaker 2: bills out worrying about that and then like you said,
Speaker 2: trying to have a good time. You actually see how
Speaker 2: fast when he goes and you it's just like thousand
Speaker 2: dollars here, fifty five hundred dollars here, every this and that,
Speaker 2: this and that, just trying just to maintain and the
Speaker 2: average person, you know, has to be dealing with a lot,
Speaker 2: you know, I know, case the point, we just see
Speaker 2: all these robberies are starting to happen, you know, and
Speaker 2: and I think that's like who who who was it
Speaker 2: that that got robbed?
Speaker 1: We damns and indrests. He's an actor.
Speaker 3: And then of course, you know, our our auntie Tina,
Speaker 3: Tina knows our house was also burglarized where an entire
Speaker 3: safe was removed. And listen, that's very triggering to me because,
Speaker 3: as you know, my son's father was murdered over a
Speaker 3: safety and removed from a high house that he was
Speaker 3: living in with some people in Pennsylvania. And the one
Speaker 3: thing I know is that whenever somebody physically moves a
Speaker 3: whole safe, they have information about where it is, how
Speaker 3: long they're gonna have to get it out, because I'm
Speaker 3: sure and by the way, we haven't even heard Tina
Speaker 3: Knowles confirmed anything about this. So they're saying it's a
Speaker 3: million dollars in the safe. You know, the media that
Speaker 3: they make up anything all the time, So we don't
Speaker 3: know how much money was really in it. But a
Speaker 3: million dollars is a lot of money to move. And
Speaker 3: so if they did move a million and jury in
Speaker 3: a safe, the safe was not light, that means that
Speaker 3: they knew they had time to physically move the safe.
Speaker 3: And it's funny, Masan because my parents never told the
Speaker 3: neighbors when they were going to be out of town.
Speaker 3: But in the social media erar you, it's hard for
Speaker 3: people not to know that you're on tour with your
Speaker 3: daughter in Europe.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know what I'm saying. It's hard for people
Speaker 1: not to.
Speaker 3: Know that you're on a yacht with Magic Johnson and
Speaker 3: Cookie Johnson and they, you know, they do their trip
Speaker 3: every year.
Speaker 1: Samuel Jackson.
Speaker 3: It's a big trip that I you know, I always
Speaker 3: sit and just fantasize on what it would be like
Speaker 3: to spend time just sitting with them and listening to
Speaker 3: the wisdom and the stories and the funnies. So this
Speaker 3: is stuff that people are watching. So while you're out
Speaker 3: of town, they know how long it's going to be
Speaker 3: before you retire.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and people are hungry. You know that It goes
Speaker 2: down to that the inflation that they say is not
Speaker 2: happening in the recession, they say, we're not in you know,
Speaker 2: people are really like we're talking about that. People are
Speaker 2: really trying to figure out because there's a lifestyle and
Speaker 2: I think what happens with social media, it also shows
Speaker 2: shows people really living and enjoying life. Right, And if
Speaker 2: you're just.
Speaker 1: Somebody, they look like they.
Speaker 2: Are, well, they look like they are, but you don't
Speaker 2: really look like you. Are you on a boat, you
Speaker 2: know in the Seven Seeds with with five or six
Speaker 2: millionaires and billionaires, you don't really look like you have
Speaker 2: you at a party surrounded by the top artists or
Speaker 2: you know, And everybody got on and they got a
Speaker 2: whole page on how much the watches cost. They had
Speaker 2: fifty people that was in a certain party and they
Speaker 2: were showing the watches that range anywhere from fifty to
Speaker 2: a million dollars. They were just showing the watches that
Speaker 2: each of them had on, So it don't really look
Speaker 2: like you actually can you can pretty much concur that
Speaker 2: these people are living their best life.
Speaker 3: And when you but you don't know what people got
Speaker 3: going on, you just know you don't.
Speaker 2: But I'm just trying to say, it's hard for you
Speaker 2: to believe that they not. You know, when you look
Speaker 2: and you like, you know, I know where I would
Speaker 2: be enjoying myself with that. But you got about fifty
Speaker 2: dollars dollars in your pocket, the bills is coming, the
Speaker 2: kids is hungry, you know, the gas, you got your
Speaker 2: check engine light on. You know, Oh, you're young and
Speaker 2: just impressionable. So it's a lot. It's a lot of
Speaker 2: pressures that I realized that this generation deals with that
Speaker 2: we didn't have to do. We just had to deal
Speaker 2: with seeing the people from our block have a couple
Speaker 2: of things that we didn't have. But when you go
Speaker 2: to the social media and it looks like everybody in
Speaker 2: the world is doing better than you, you know, it's
Speaker 2: it's a lot. It's a lot of stress. So with
Speaker 2: I say all the time, poverty is violence, man. And
Speaker 2: I'm I'm I'm thankful that there was nobody in those homes.
Speaker 2: You know that the only thing it was with some
Speaker 2: property that they probably have and so on. Yeah, they
Speaker 2: probably can ensure and get back whatever it is that
Speaker 2: they lost, but you know, we just had some real
Speaker 2: tough times.
Speaker 1: No it is, I mean, and and the robber, the burglaries.
Speaker 3: Everybody has to be aware because it's like, you know,
Speaker 3: in my house, it's a total different situation because there
Speaker 3: are people here all the time, twenty four hours a day,
Speaker 3: round the clock. It's somebody in the house, people watching
Speaker 3: my house. You know, we have it set up that way.
Speaker 3: But and I'm not saying that there's not in Tina
Speaker 3: Knowles's house either. Obviously she didn't have the same you know, resource.
Speaker 3: I mean, I don't have the same resources that she has.
Speaker 3: But I actually live with other people, you know what
Speaker 3: I'm saying, So it's different. It's a total different situation.
Speaker 3: I live with other people, so it's people always around. Nonetheless,
Speaker 3: when I say we're going to Kentucky to fight Daniel Cameron,
Speaker 3: or we're going to the exact spot where aj Owens
Speaker 3: was murdered, when I say those things, people know that
Speaker 3: you're not around, you're not at home, or at least
Speaker 3: they think that you're not at home.
Speaker 1: And just like you said, I'm.
Speaker 3: Glad that no one was in those homes that was harmed.
Speaker 3: The other side of it is, I'm glad you didn't
Speaker 3: walk into somebody's house trying to steal their stuff and
Speaker 3: they were home and put a bullet all the way
Speaker 3: through your behind. So this is a time that people
Speaker 3: are living real dangerous because folks is not gonna let
Speaker 3: you just take their stuff because you going through whatever
Speaker 3: you go through, they're not going to allow it to
Speaker 3: have it.
Speaker 1: So you're gonna see more people.
Speaker 3: Did you ever see I don't know if I ever
Speaker 3: told you, or maybe I did send it to you
Speaker 3: when the Uber Eats or one of those delivery services
Speaker 3: when he tried to twist the doorknob of a woman
Speaker 3: and the woman pulled a gun on him and held
Speaker 3: him at at a gunpoint until the police arrived. Like,
Speaker 3: you're gonna mess around and go up in something and
Speaker 3: find out that people are not playing about their stuff.
Speaker 3: And you know what I think is so funny. If
Speaker 3: it it's true that there was a million dollars in
Speaker 3: Teena Ole's house, right, if it's true. Now, these are
Speaker 3: people who had massive resources, massive resources, and yet and
Speaker 3: still she still has some cash in. Now, black coats
Speaker 3: gonna put some cash in the house in case anything
Speaker 3: shall have it happened to have That's oh.
Speaker 2: That's old school, Manma. We was taught that. Man, the
Speaker 2: banks might close, don't put all your faith in you know,
Speaker 2: technology and all like, have you some money and just
Speaker 2: in case anything go bad. So you know, yeah, Mama Tina,
Speaker 2: don't play she from the old.
Speaker 1: School at your little cash in the house.
Speaker 3: But again, we don't know that that story is exactly
Speaker 3: as it's being told. So on speaking of money, the
Speaker 3: family of Tyree Nichols is suing the city of Memphis
Speaker 3: for five hundred million dollars and the audacity and I
Speaker 3: get it. Lawyer's gone lawyer right, any system it is
Speaker 3: going to try to protect itself. But they're trying to
Speaker 3: get the city of Memphis is trying to get the
Speaker 3: lawsuit drop so that they don't have to pay this
Speaker 3: family to five hundred million dollars. I don't I mean,
Speaker 3: I don't know what they're talking about. We saw it,
Speaker 3: like everybody saw why it's five hundred million is not
Speaker 3: even enough for the trauma of the whole community. They
Speaker 3: ought to be paying everybody, all of us that had
Speaker 3: to watch Tyree Nichols being beat to death by those officers.
Speaker 3: So the audacity of them to even try to they
Speaker 3: should be saying, let's just settle it quietly. I do understand. Again,
Speaker 3: lawyers are gonna lawyer, but you know, even even I
Speaker 3: don't know, you know, it's just like, okay, yeah, I think.
Speaker 2: I think that's a no brainer. I think y'all figure
Speaker 2: out how you can set or if they were five hundred,
Speaker 2: give them for ninety nine, man, because I ain't got
Speaker 2: a snowballed chance in hell what they did to that man.
Speaker 2: The greediousness, the fact that you know that it even
Speaker 2: happens is you can't you can't. First of all, you
Speaker 2: can't put a price tag on life, you know. And
Speaker 2: the fact that his mother, his parents, and his family
Speaker 2: have to be reminded of the way he was brutally
Speaker 2: and just beat and you know, it seemed like it
Speaker 2: was so malicious, you know, And the fact that just
Speaker 2: that that vision, yeah, exactly, and just that vision being
Speaker 2: able to go all over your head. I don't think
Speaker 2: you can put no price. I think, actually you asked me,
Speaker 2: they should be asking for a billion dollars, you know.
Speaker 2: But I just think that all of our tax player,
Speaker 2: we send money to people that ain't done ship for us,
Speaker 2: that don't deserve it. We give millions and billions of
Speaker 2: dollars to other countries and shit, and we always say
Speaker 2: we don't have money. Well, this was to me, this
Speaker 2: would be our tax money going to the right thing,
Speaker 2: you know. And then and hopefully we start ending this
Speaker 2: qualified immunity so these officers can have to pay up
Speaker 2: their own pocket, you know, and be dead broke, you know,
Speaker 2: we you know, unfortunately the man lost his life and
Speaker 2: he's dead, but we want you to be dead broke while.
Speaker 1: You live, right because the thing is the way that
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 3: Legislatively, we still are fighting to change the laws, and
Speaker 3: there is a fight against us to get that done.
Speaker 3: But economically, you can certainly make sure, as Attorney Crump
Speaker 3: always says, that we make killing a black man or
Speaker 3: woman unjustifiably so expensive that the country can't even continue
Speaker 3: to pay the fees too, you know, for for this
Speaker 3: immunity of murder. God, you know, it's just we need
Speaker 3: it to be so so expensive that they say we
Speaker 3: got to do something different because we keep on we
Speaker 3: can't keep on paying out this type of money. And
Speaker 3: yes it is taxpayer dollars, there's also some insurance policies
Speaker 3: and other things that play into us. So it's not
Speaker 3: all taxpayer dollars. There's some other pieces that play into
Speaker 3: how the departments have to pay as well, and the
Speaker 3: City of Memphis all of them. And like you said,
Speaker 3: the police officers ought to be paying themselves. They should
Speaker 3: never ever, ever, ever ever be comfortable anywhere in their lives.
Speaker 3: They shouldn't have no money. They should be shamed, they
Speaker 3: should be they should have to move for people doing
Speaker 3: protests outside of their homes. They should just be as
Speaker 3: uncomfortable as possible. That's what I think about that. So Essence,
Speaker 3: we just came out of Essence weekend and you know,
Speaker 3: over a million black women, specifically more people but black
Speaker 3: women getting together in New Orleans in that city. And
Speaker 3: you know something that I was thinking to myself, that
Speaker 3: is really the one place that when I look around,
Speaker 3: I do not see white people.
Speaker 1: They don't be there. I don't see him.
Speaker 3: I mean, I know they are Orleans. But in terms
Speaker 3: of like, you know, how white folks always find like
Speaker 3: at the rallies and different things, you see white people,
Speaker 3: you see we you know we we just finished at
Speaker 3: the rally for a j Owens and there was white
Speaker 3: there was white people there.
Speaker 1: White people always aren't But for whatever reason, during essence, people.
Speaker 2: Ain't no white people there.
Speaker 1: People go during that.
Speaker 2: I don't know, it's it's not they think. I think
Speaker 2: I think, you know.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm not saying they should be there. I'm
Speaker 1: just saying.
Speaker 2: It's like you might see one or two. I don't
Speaker 2: even know if you see one or two, actually I
Speaker 2: don't know. But you know, there's a couple, it's a couple.
Speaker 2: There's a couple of people that come to the cookout
Speaker 2: that you know, you might see here and there. But
Speaker 2: for the most part, like you said, it's really not
Speaker 2: many Caucasians there.
Speaker 3: But while Jill Scott was singing the star Spangled Banner,
Speaker 3: the or the at the black star Spangled Banner, which
Speaker 3: I thought was powerful by the way, I was looking
Speaker 3: around because that's heavy, and I was looking around to
Speaker 3: see the discomfort.
Speaker 1: Of you know, white folks, and it occurred to me
Speaker 1: that there were.
Speaker 2: There ain't nothing to be discomfort.
Speaker 1: Hm hm, well that's interesting.
Speaker 2: But what bothers me? Okay, forget that work? This is
Speaker 2: no no you no, no, it's not don't work for me.
Speaker 2: This notion that when we critique America and when we
Speaker 2: say things and we bring up history, historical events that
Speaker 2: we know when she talked about all the things that
Speaker 2: she said in that Star Spangled banner, when she she
Speaker 2: reritted rewrote it so.
Speaker 1: That if nineteen years old, yes.
Speaker 2: So that it fits the narrative of what we actually
Speaker 2: deal with and have dealt with in America, that there
Speaker 2: were so many people with this. Well, if you don't
Speaker 2: like it here, whyon't you just go? And that shit
Speaker 2: bothers me more than anything. You know, the fact that
Speaker 2: we actually live here and we and like she said,
Speaker 2: this fucking country is built on our backs. We have
Speaker 2: every right to critique, We have every right to point
Speaker 2: our historical events that have been not so favorable that
Speaker 2: we've had to endure, that our ancestors have had to endure.
Speaker 2: And nobody gets to keep telling us that we don't
Speaker 2: we shouldn't be here if we're not okay with the
Speaker 2: fact that our people were enslaved. It's like the dumbest
Speaker 2: shit ever, you know, And I hate that. I hate that,
Speaker 2: you know, somebody who's on my page. It's this one
Speaker 2: person on my page that said that shit, and I
Speaker 2: think it's over a thousand people that's underneath him calling
Speaker 2: him that every dumb mother effort that they can, as
Speaker 2: we think of. And it's just sad that there are
Speaker 2: people who think that we're supposed to be silent about
Speaker 2: a pinion, a historical one of the most egregious, the
Speaker 2: most egregious event in history in American history, that we
Speaker 2: should be silent, especially after we see the remnants and
Speaker 2: the remembrance of what has happened to our people. You know,
Speaker 2: when we look and see the conditions that our people
Speaker 2: are faced today, they are direct, you know, results of
Speaker 2: what we talk about. So all of y'all with the
Speaker 2: if we don't like it, leave, if you can't see it,
Speaker 2: then my middle fingers up.
Speaker 3: Well, there's a lot of people that if you don't
Speaker 3: like it, leave, because that was a big part of
Speaker 3: the whole essence debate. You know, several nights of a
Speaker 3: concert and of course Janelle Monnee I was there for
Speaker 3: her performance while waiting for Lauren Hill to come out.
Speaker 3: And then I think the next night, or maybe the
Speaker 3: last night, which I wasn't there for Meg, the Stallion
Speaker 3: performed and there was some we don't like it, so
Speaker 3: either we're leaving or we really what they What I
Speaker 3: heard people saying was they wanted Meg and Janelle Monet
Speaker 3: to either tongue down in or don't be in the show.
Speaker 3: And you know, I thought to myself, first of all,
Speaker 3: Joanel Monne and Meg in her own way, they are
Speaker 3: a special cup of tea that you have to want, right,
Speaker 3: like you It's not regular lifting, right, this is whatever
Speaker 3: whatever thing. It's got spice and all that in it.
Speaker 3: But sure I'm not gonna take that. I understand. I
Speaker 3: also understand that we live in a highly sexually charged
Speaker 3: time so right.
Speaker 1: Now sex sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex, sex sex.
Speaker 3: I get it. Totally understand that there are people who feel,
Speaker 3: like you know, every time they turn on their cell phone,
Speaker 3: every time they, you know, anything they do, they're seeing
Speaker 3: this sex being pushed in their faces, and therefore their
Speaker 3: children are impacted by it.
Speaker 1: I do not disagree or not understand it.
Speaker 3: I don't, But what I would say to offer a
Speaker 3: balanced approach, right, And I guess it's very much so
Speaker 3: the thought of the day for me. The first night
Speaker 3: of the concert, Lauryn Hill had on about full outfits.
Speaker 3: In one thing, she had on some big feathers thing
Speaker 3: covering up everything she had. Her full body was covered.
Speaker 3: She didn't work, not one time, right, So Larren Hill
Speaker 3: came on, I mean Janelle came on before she pulled
Speaker 3: out the nipple. I don't really understand. I was there,
Speaker 3: but I don't think I was paying attention close enough
Speaker 3: to understand the context of what happened in that moment,
Speaker 3: which nipple was covered by the way, but still she
Speaker 3: pulled her breast out. So that was one thing. Then
Speaker 3: you had Lauryn Hill right Then after Lauren, the next
Speaker 3: night you had Missy Elliott, who we know is fully
Speaker 3: dressed with the shimmerie and even the baggy clothes, and
Speaker 3: she's Missy doing what Missy does right.
Speaker 1: A little bit of sexy, but she's not overly sexy.
Speaker 3: The last night you had Meg the Stallion and some twerkers.
Speaker 3: My thing is everything you wanted was there? There's people women?
Speaker 3: When you got a million women, a million women going
Speaker 3: to a show, participating in a conference. It is true
Speaker 3: that they are going to be different types of women
Speaker 3: who are interested in different things.
Speaker 1: And I think from my.
Speaker 3: Perspective, right one, you don't have to participate in the
Speaker 3: parts you don't want to see what I do. Every year,
Speaker 3: I get the Essence schedule. I don't like to go
Speaker 3: out every night. That's not my thing. So I look
Speaker 3: at the schedule and I see who I am interested in.
Speaker 1: Lauren was somebody.
Speaker 3: I was there, my homegirl and I and we sat
Speaker 3: for hours on end while Essence.
Speaker 1: For whatever reason the schedule I don't know, but it
Speaker 1: was late before Lauren came out, and it was not
Speaker 1: her fault because she came right out once.
Speaker 3: You know her people was doing their set while Kenny
Speaker 3: Burns and DJ Clark Kent was doing their thing. The
Speaker 3: set was being built, and as soon as the set
Speaker 3: was finished, Lauren was on the stage. So we're not
Speaker 3: gonna do the lauryn Hi'll be late thing. I know
Speaker 3: she does this sometimes, but she wasn't this time. But
Speaker 3: it was super late by the time she came out.
Speaker 3: That's who I wanted to see. There were other things
Speaker 3: on the schedule that I was an interested in, so
Speaker 3: Therefore I didn't show up early or I left early.
Speaker 3: I tailored my experience to my taste. So if I
Speaker 3: don't want to see mag thee Stallion and the Magnes
Speaker 3: do that work thing she does, which, by the way,
Speaker 3: I like it, I'm not gonna lie like I'm I
Speaker 3: guess I'm of a generation or whatever the case may be.
Speaker 3: I'm not against Meg and her turk and I'm just not.
Speaker 3: But I understand there's people who don't like it, so
Speaker 3: then you don't have to see it. And then you
Speaker 3: were saying something the other day. I heard you saying that.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, what I want to say. Huh No, I wasn't.
Speaker 2: I wanted to reiterate this, but if you want to
Speaker 2: repeat that, you can.
Speaker 3: So you were saying that Essence has been a certain thing,
Speaker 3: so people are looking for a certain quality.
Speaker 2: But I think I'm not saying quality because I'm not
Speaker 2: trying to make it seem like what Meg does is
Speaker 2: of less quality. It's just a different genre, it's a
Speaker 2: different feel, it's a different dynamic. And I think since
Speaker 2: I've been going to Essence, there's always been this this
Speaker 2: theme of dynamic. Right, it's hip hop excellence, it's more
Speaker 2: geared towards not more of the conservative kind of understanding.
Speaker 2: I think most artists who come and perform at Essence
Speaker 2: have pretty much classic hits pretty much. They have either
Speaker 2: classic hits or new classic hits, and they perform them
Speaker 2: as if they perform it for a certain crowd, right.
Speaker 2: And I think even even some of our most explicit
Speaker 2: and people who push radical artists, who push the envelope sexually,
Speaker 2: when they come to Essence, they perform it in a
Speaker 2: different in a different way. And I think, I mean
Speaker 2: because I don't think I don't think that I've seen
Speaker 2: anyone who performed at Essence with the level of sexuality
Speaker 2: that Janelle did or that Meg did. Yet maybe they
Speaker 2: have been Maybe maybe we can go to former you know,
Speaker 2: performances and say, oh, such and such did this and
Speaker 2: such and such was way more explicit than that. I
Speaker 2: don't think that's a dynamic that has really been introduced.
Speaker 2: And I think, you know, to your point, like you said,
Speaker 2: that they're trying to attack, attract a younger audience and
Speaker 2: and keep you know, moving and moving to a different space.
Speaker 2: And it actually maybe evolved, but it's a lot of
Speaker 2: people that just like their stuff the way they had
Speaker 2: it right. There's a lot of people that go to
Speaker 2: Essence every year and they're used to a thing. They
Speaker 2: used to hearing their favorite artists you know that they've
Speaker 2: been in love with for the last ten, fifteen, twenty years,
Speaker 2: sing their classics, do their songs jump up and down.
Speaker 2: It's not you know, and it's a lot more families,
Speaker 2: family orientated show. It's not a lot of it's not
Speaker 2: a lot of you know, that kind of material that's
Speaker 2: been there. So people are there. You got in the
Speaker 2: Essence crowd. You got people from twenty to eighty. There's
Speaker 2: eighty year older women that's sitting in there. And because
Speaker 2: they wanted. They fans of Lauren Hill. They fans are Missy,
Speaker 2: they've been you know, they like certain songs that they've
Speaker 2: come there every year, and there's certain artists that they
Speaker 2: they you know, this is their time. They go to there,
Speaker 2: they see their friends, you know, they get their same
Speaker 2: seats every year, and this is their thing. So when
Speaker 2: they see something that's completely new and is on the
Speaker 2: side of sexual that's not more family orientated, some of
Speaker 2: the all gonna be irritated. Their kids are gonna be like, oh,
Speaker 2: that's my girl. Megan, but some of the elder people
Speaker 2: who've been going to Essence for twenty and thirty years,
Speaker 2: they're not gonna it's gonna be okay with it.
Speaker 1: Well, but let me just say this right.
Speaker 3: Well, first of all, India I read had and hopefully
Speaker 3: when our guest joined, we'll get an opportunity to talk
Speaker 3: about this some more, because I made a comment on
Speaker 3: his page when he was saying thank you to India,
Speaker 3: and I think India.
Speaker 1: Iria is a goddess.
Speaker 3: Anything she say, I love Indi Iri is like for.
Speaker 1: Me, she is, She's she.
Speaker 3: I want to see her on my TV and listen
Speaker 3: to her all the time. I love nd I re
Speaker 3: anybody who knows you know I love India, my posician know.
Speaker 3: What she said is that you know why we're trying
Speaker 3: to we're making this culture mainstream and I don't like
Speaker 3: this moment. And my response to those two things at
Speaker 3: once is that the reason why you didn't necessarily see
Speaker 3: and I can't.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I can't remember every show, right, so
Speaker 1: I can't say for sure what's in every show. I
Speaker 1: think I generally agree with you that because we know
Speaker 1: that working or the work culture, which by the way
Speaker 1: I know for it, And I asked my mama to
Speaker 1: be clear because somebody else said, no, it's getting worse.
Speaker 1: I asked my mama.
Speaker 3: When Tina Turner started came you know out and started
Speaker 3: shaking with the shimmery with her butt and doing them,
Speaker 3: I thought that was too much. They thought it was
Speaker 3: too much. They said it was too By the way, Beyonce,
Speaker 3: Beyonce has been told even by some of our own
Speaker 3: leaders to put some.
Speaker 1: More clothes on and that she's too sexy and too explicit. Right, but.
Speaker 3: Let me let me just finishing what I'm saying. So
Speaker 3: these so the thing is Essence has a responsibility to stay.
Speaker 1: Relevant to the whole culture.
Speaker 2: It's not about I don't know if that's I don't
Speaker 2: know if that's I don't know if that's what people
Speaker 2: are saying. I don't know if because it's like it's
Speaker 2: just like Iri, no, no, no, Because Indy Iri has
Speaker 2: a brand that she with India, Irin says is what
Speaker 2: she's always She came into the game with that same
Speaker 2: mentality that's the Brandon. So what she's saying is not
Speaker 2: far fetched for India to say, like this is what
Speaker 2: India is to say. So with people. Anybody that critiques
Speaker 2: what she says, that's how that's who she's always been.
Speaker 2: She's always been. I don't know why women are taken
Speaker 2: the clothes on, and I'm not going to do that.
Speaker 1: And I'm not critiquing that. I'm not critiquing that. I'm
Speaker 1: saying that she was trying to push back.
Speaker 3: Against Essence, and Essence released a statement which they did
Speaker 3: not call her name, but they said, we have a
Speaker 3: wide array of folks that we are trying to bring
Speaker 3: the entertainment that they like to that right now, granted,
Speaker 3: say whatever you want. I looked at the footage. I
Speaker 3: wasn't there for Meg, but I looked at the footage
Speaker 3: and I saw some older people who you were talking
Speaker 3: about getting down because they like a few of Meg's songs.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: So I'm saying that you're never are going to please everybody.
Speaker 3: And I do understand that there's a thin line because
Speaker 3: the issue is so much bigger than just Meg and
Speaker 3: Janelle Twerking, Right, It's bigger than that, I get it.
Speaker 3: The broader conversation here is what is happening to our
Speaker 3: society and our women and our men and whatever because
Speaker 3: of so many different issues that we're seeing.
Speaker 1: We see in the Christian.
Speaker 3: Rocks and the or and I guess that's when you
Speaker 3: tell me it's Christian, excuse me her and the sexy.
Speaker 1: It's a lie.
Speaker 3: But I truly do believe my opinion. I don't think
Speaker 3: these people are gonna last long. And I'm not talking
Speaker 3: about Meg and Carty and folks like that. I'm talking
Speaker 3: about these other young ladies. I don't think it's going
Speaker 3: I don't think they're gonna have to evolve, even in
Speaker 3: their brands, because eventually you can only be but so
Speaker 3: many booty holes before people like, all right, we got it.
Speaker 2: Well, I hear what you're saying, but I just wanted
Speaker 2: to go back to a point because I guess it's
Speaker 2: in the r when we need to bring them on
Speaker 2: in a second. But when you talk about Tina Turner, right,
Speaker 2: and then you talk about Beyonce and you talk and
Speaker 2: you talk about how people were saying that was too much, right,
Speaker 2: you see that there's less and less clothes every time,
Speaker 2: right you So you so what I'm saying is you
Speaker 2: you'll definitely see it. It's not it's not the same.
Speaker 2: So it's not when we're saying something this definitely it's
Speaker 2: going to a point where Tina Tina had she shook
Speaker 2: a butt at the camera and she had a little
Speaker 2: shimmery thing. Now this person gonna shake her button and
Speaker 2: she's gonna have half it. She's gonna have Leo tard on.
Speaker 2: This person gonna have a throng on. This one's gonna
Speaker 2: be naked. Like the the there is growth. So everybody
Speaker 2: is not going to agree with it. And that's what
Speaker 2: I'm trying to say. I'm saying that there has to
Speaker 2: be and it can be. It doesn't. Everything doesn't have
Speaker 2: to fit into one thing. Like I'm not going nobody's
Speaker 2: gonna make me think that the church is going involved
Speaker 2: to the preacher up there or the the whoever is
Speaker 2: the priest. If there's a female she's up there talking,
Speaker 2: because this is the church. You want, I don't. I don't,
Speaker 2: I don't. So that's what I'm trying to say. We
Speaker 2: can't say that we want to appeal to it because
Speaker 2: there are people that's in the church that that love
Speaker 2: Magda Staff, but they're not.
Speaker 1: Gonna go to church to say church. You know.
Speaker 2: What I'm trying to say is nobody was the Essence
Speaker 2: Fast has a certain brand and people go there because
Speaker 2: that brand represents a thing and if if, if that
Speaker 2: brand stops a lot of and that's what a lot
Speaker 2: of artists do is it's called a lot of artists
Speaker 2: and an attempt to reach a new demographic and get
Speaker 2: a new fan base, they do something different and you
Speaker 2: go away from what your brand is established, that has
Speaker 2: you did for thirty and forty years, and what you
Speaker 2: start doing, you start you're not actually gaining because that
Speaker 2: demographic that you're going after is not really your fan base.
Speaker 1: But but but but because.
Speaker 2: We go because the thing is this you like, But
Speaker 2: you you've been going to Essence for something else because
Speaker 2: that's when you go there. That's not using.
Speaker 3: But I'm not gonna not go to Essence. By the way,
Speaker 3: I don't think I want to see some of these
Speaker 3: other type of artists out there.
Speaker 1: But I don't see meg as being.
Speaker 2: I'm not saying, I'm not saying artist.
Speaker 3: That's not gonna stop me. That's not gonna stop me
Speaker 3: from going to the concert. And the majority of women
Speaker 3: will continue to go, but they do have everybody does
Speaker 3: have to have an element of the different, you know,
Speaker 3: little tastes.
Speaker 1: If you do a festival, you're gonna put a taste.
Speaker 5: The bottom line is, there's no there's another There's nothing.
Speaker 2: Wrong with having a brain saying what I'm saying with
Speaker 2: your brain.
Speaker 3: But it's not about Sticky because the brand had evolved.
Speaker 3: I'm sure there were things that they did before that
Speaker 3: they started doing something else and people were like, I
Speaker 3: don't like this, why is this happening? It always going
Speaker 3: to be people that are not gonna like different elements,
Speaker 3: But the overwhelming majority, from Lauren to Missy to Jill
Speaker 3: Scott to this one and that one was on on key,
Speaker 3: they had one or two things that was a little different.
Speaker 2: It's not I'm but with those artists. We all but
Speaker 2: there's nothing wrong with those artists because reality situation is,
Speaker 2: I don't think people go to the essence to see
Speaker 2: to see the visuals of those things.
Speaker 3: They might all they was in the owls dancing, okay,
Speaker 3: loving it up.
Speaker 1: So maybe we should bring our guests.
Speaker 2: As always, I would show it was full of our friends,
Speaker 2: and this guest is no different. He's one of a
Speaker 2: brother I respect musically, you know, I love what he
Speaker 2: does for his community, with the community at large, he's
Speaker 2: an educator, he's dope lyricists, and he's one of my guys.
Speaker 2: This brother here, Haqeen Green from Channel Live, the founder
Speaker 2: of twenty four Hours of Peace, and a New Jersey native.
Speaker 2: He is here to join us today. How you doing today, brother.
Speaker 5: I'm great, I'm excellent. Thank you for having me on
Speaker 5: the show. It is completely my honor. Thank you, Sef
Speaker 5: ma'am peace, Queen.
Speaker 1: What's up man? You know how much we love you Haqeen.
Speaker 3: You know we always speak very highly of you because
Speaker 3: you're just that type of dude. And everywhere I've not
Speaker 3: ever heard anyone say something bad about Hakeen Green.
Speaker 4: I just had is somebody out there with some darts
Speaker 4: for me.
Speaker 1: They don't say it.
Speaker 3: To me, and trust me, people got something to tell
Speaker 3: me about everybody, but they say anything bad about you,
Speaker 3: And I think that is a true testament, you know,
Speaker 3: to to to who.
Speaker 1: You are and what you've done.
Speaker 3: My dad is that type of guy that everywhere he
Speaker 3: goes people say positive things about him, and that's just
Speaker 3: a that's a good thing when you can actually walk
Speaker 3: in and out of rooms and have people you know,
Speaker 3: carry your name and uphold your legacy in a positive way.
Speaker 4: Well, I think my mother she gets all the credit.
Speaker 2: Yes, as she should. Man, Yes, sir, so Hakem. I
Speaker 2: know you do a bunch of work. You know, you're
Speaker 2: a part of the legendary Channel Live and in that concert.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna even a couple of tickets. I can. I
Speaker 2: got to call me a favor.
Speaker 4: Man.
Speaker 2: You know that a Yankee stadium.
Speaker 4: Oh no, no, no, I'm not gonna be a Yankee stadium.
Speaker 2: You're not coming to Yankee Stadium.
Speaker 5: Man, I can't afford Yankee Stadium. It's crazy. Dave Jackie
Speaker 5: robs Up, he got your arm behind that. They look,
Speaker 5: you should be at the Yankee Stadium. Man, I'm gonna
Speaker 5: I'm gonna try. I'm gonna try. But we're working hard
Speaker 5: to pull off. August twelfth, the very next day KRS
Speaker 5: one Temple of hip Hop, twenty four hours a piece.
Speaker 5: We're doing a hip hop celebration on the block in
Speaker 5: front of fifteen to twenty Central Avenue on the twelfth
Speaker 5: the next day.
Speaker 2: Oh so you're gonna be in the hood. That's my hood.
Speaker 2: You know, I'm from University and all that, So that's
Speaker 2: right down the block I was born.
Speaker 5: That's what that's what hip hop is about, being in
Speaker 5: the hood and touching down with the people.
Speaker 4: You see how we're doing Nork every year.
Speaker 5: So it's the fiftieth anniversary of hip hop and the
Speaker 5: community that gave us hip hop, we need to give
Speaker 5: something back, so you know, we're doing our effort for free.
Speaker 5: Even though the Yankee Stadium event is looking quite legendary,
Speaker 5: it's it's crazy.
Speaker 4: It's crazy, but for the people.
Speaker 5: We over on Central Gavenue fifteen twenty Central g Cavenue
Speaker 5: on August twelfth.
Speaker 2: See it's over there August twelfth.
Speaker 4: I saw you with Chris at the jah Roof show.
Speaker 5: A few weeks back, and I know you guys chopped
Speaker 5: it up, so I'm hoping we got my side on
Speaker 5: the bill.
Speaker 2: Well, listen, man, from your mouth to gods is man,
Speaker 2: listen you. I would love to be there. That's the hood,
Speaker 2: you know, I'm wanting. I started rapping because of Chris,
Speaker 2: So it's that you know you if you're from the
Speaker 2: Bronx and Chris didn influenced you as a lyricist, you know,
Speaker 2: then then I don't even know what you was doing.
Speaker 2: So I'm definitely would love to be there.
Speaker 5: Right So vitalizing the flyer right now talking about promotion.
Speaker 5: So we're gonna add my SiGe name on there.
Speaker 2: If you don't mind thease, do do business right right time,
Speaker 2: right in time. So tell tell people about twenty four
Speaker 2: hours a piece, how it started? You know, what is
Speaker 2: the goal and every where it is? Everything?
Speaker 4: Yeah, like you out like you.
Speaker 5: I was highly influenced by KRS one. Of course I
Speaker 5: work with him with Chanel Lives Matters and Record. But
Speaker 5: in two thousand and six we reconnected and we initiated
Speaker 5: to Stop the Violence Movement as a nonprofit. So in
Speaker 5: doing that work and kind of coal us and using
Speaker 5: hip hop to coal us around peace, love, unity, safety,
Speaker 5: having fun, it kind of allowed me to carry this
Speaker 5: over to Jersey where I hooked up with ros Baraco
Speaker 5: who was then Southwork Councilman's principal Central High School, and
Speaker 5: following him and the North Anti Violence Coalition, it was like, Okay,
Speaker 5: how can we use hip hop culture to peace to
Speaker 5: push peace, love, unity, safety, having fun.
Speaker 4: I got with a Mary Baraka Junior.
Speaker 5: He was like, Yo, we need to put the hip
Speaker 5: hop out on the block for twenty four hours hot,
Speaker 5: all day, all night. I'm like twenty four hours. Why
Speaker 5: don't we just do something like forty six hours in
Speaker 5: and out, you know, easy setup. No, we got to
Speaker 5: make a statement and do this for twenty four hours,
Speaker 5: and that's how twenty four Hours of Peace was launched.
Speaker 4: Peace, Love, Unity, safety, having fun.
Speaker 5: There's a lot of people in our community who are
Speaker 5: already doing the work. I mentioned the North Anti Violence
Speaker 5: Coalition and like yourself, you guys are doing the real work.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 5: The commercial is the commercial right, and as artists and
Speaker 5: creatives we have the ability and the power to shape
Speaker 5: the messaging in a certain way. So that's what I'm
Speaker 5: doing with you know, my effort to support the work,
Speaker 5: the real work that you guys do.
Speaker 4: The folks that are in Newark, New Jersey.
Speaker 5: Big shout out to the Office of Violence Prevention and
Speaker 5: Trauma Recovery and the Brick City Peace Collective. You guys
Speaker 5: are your research, but we're talking about that real work,
Speaker 5: tending to people who have suffered violence, traumatic experiences, getting
Speaker 5: that extra support, organizing city government around that effort. That's
Speaker 5: what it's about. And we can use hip hop to
Speaker 5: engage folks in that way.
Speaker 2: Definitely, Definitely, you've been and you've been. You know, a
Speaker 2: stead work, a start work in that area for years.
Speaker 2: You know, I remember when you brought me up to
Speaker 2: twenty five hours a piece, and you know, I was amazed,
Speaker 2: like dag, it's just this level of energy. I think
Speaker 2: Queen Latifa was. There was so many people there, you know,
Speaker 2: and it was a dope event. So when is the
Speaker 2: next twenty four When is twenty five hours a piece?
Speaker 4: This year?
Speaker 5: The next one is September first and second, of course
Speaker 5: in North New Jersey, and we try to schedule it
Speaker 5: towards the end of the summer, heading back to school,
Speaker 5: just to start the school year off on a positive note.
Speaker 5: And we've been able to do that fight well since
Speaker 5: twenty ten. Every year since twenty ten except for the
Speaker 5: pandemic year.
Speaker 3: Now have you seen like in terms of the data.
Speaker 3: I never forget the New York City. One of the
Speaker 3: biggest fights I had with Mayor Bloomberg was around getting
Speaker 3: money for the anti violence work. You know, of course
Speaker 3: Erica Ford and At Mitchell and so many people in
Speaker 3: the City of New York. We were fighting for resources
Speaker 3: and Mayor Bloomberg said that there was no data to
Speaker 3: prove that funding small grassroows groups would actually help to
Speaker 3: reduce violence. He thought it should be all about the
Speaker 3: political side, and you know, of course passing legislation to
Speaker 3: get guns off the street and all of that, and
Speaker 3: we said, no, that's part two.
Speaker 1: Part one is invest in our communities. So from the
Speaker 1: twenty four hours.
Speaker 3: Of component and thinking of you know, his well, let
Speaker 3: me go backwards and say, but when he talked about data,
Speaker 3: we understood then that that was the that was necessary
Speaker 3: going forward. So we would never be caught out there
Speaker 3: again without data points. So no one could deny resources
Speaker 3: based upon that. So what do you have, you know,
Speaker 3: what do you think in terms of what twenty four
Speaker 3: hours a piece the impact.
Speaker 1: That it has on the community.
Speaker 5: Okay, so let me let's you say, twenty four hours
Speaker 5: a piece is one day in a year, right, and
Speaker 5: you know it's organizing the cultural the cultural community, the
Speaker 5: artist community, plugging into the nonprofits that already exists, and
Speaker 5: of course with the city comes behind it, with the support.
Speaker 4: It's a part of a larger effort. Spirit had it
Speaker 4: by the mayor.
Speaker 5: Before he was the mayor, he launched the Initiative to
Speaker 5: Declare Violence of Public Health Issue, which was about local, state,
Speaker 5: federal government investing in community. The number one resource is
Speaker 5: human resource, so we don't invest in human beings. Everything
Speaker 5: else is gottage, right, So raz understanding that has a
Speaker 5: series of initiatives. Office of Bole of Prevention, Drama Recovery,
Speaker 5: Brick City Peace Collective are just two of the flowers
Speaker 5: on that tree. It's an overarching and I don't want
Speaker 5: to speak like an expert as if I know all
Speaker 5: the bits and pieces that said Nork is experiencing the
Speaker 5: lowest violence and crime rates since before the Nork riots
Speaker 5: in sixty seven. Last year, a New York police department
Speaker 5: didn't fire their gun one time, not shoot somebody. They
Speaker 5: didn't fire their weapon one time. And I think that
Speaker 5: the city has throughout the entire year. In North last year,
Speaker 5: nor police department didn't fire their weapon one time.
Speaker 1: And he defunded the police.
Speaker 2: That's the culture.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't. I don't, you know, said, I don't
Speaker 4: work for the mayor, I don't work for the city.
Speaker 2: I don't think.
Speaker 5: I know over there that you know, people get a
Speaker 5: little itchy about the defund word, but it is what
Speaker 5: it is.
Speaker 4: He took money from the police department and put it
Speaker 4: into these programs.
Speaker 3: Yes, and I say he abolished the police obviously, and
Speaker 3: that's not what defund means.
Speaker 1: Like people try to twist it on purpose because they
Speaker 1: want to confuse folks.
Speaker 3: Defunding needs take some money, as you said, and shift
Speaker 3: it to other places, and you are able to prove
Speaker 3: that when you invest in the human resources is the
Speaker 3: best resource. When you invest in community and not so
Speaker 3: much impunitive damage method methods that you'll see more success
Speaker 3: in terms of safety and so on and so forth.
Speaker 3: And by the way, I mean I know these things
Speaker 3: because obviously we talked to Mayor Baracco all the time.
Speaker 3: It is also dangerous to have police officers having to
Speaker 3: fill the role of being the mental health therapists. You
Speaker 3: were gonna say, go ahead, well no, it's.
Speaker 5: You know they they're called peace officers, right, and you
Speaker 5: know that first line of defense should be offense should
Speaker 5: be the work of peace officers who are trained professionals,
Speaker 5: social workers, psychologists, educators who know how to you know,
Speaker 5: talk to talk when it comes to de escalating people
Speaker 5: having mental health crisis, walk them, get them over to
Speaker 5: the other side.
Speaker 4: They're needed.
Speaker 5: You know, people are crying out for help or having
Speaker 5: meltdowns at a lot of a lot of times and
Speaker 5: they need professionals, not just somebody to short up with
Speaker 5: a gun. And you know what raz Mayor Barack has
Speaker 5: been doing in North New Jersey, not just with getting
Speaker 5: behind twenty four hours of piece, but everything he's doing
Speaker 5: is transforming the city in a positive way.
Speaker 2: You're definitely shout out to rest Rock. We've been doing
Speaker 2: We've been doing work with Boycott Black Murder in Newark.
Speaker 2: You know, shout out to Keisha Yuri, Shout out to
Speaker 2: Kylisha Hill, the people who work those those programs that
Speaker 2: you're talking about, and a lot of other organizations like
Speaker 2: New Direction, who I work with, you know, one of
Speaker 2: the the ny Brothers who work out there. It's a lot,
Speaker 2: it's it's a real collective.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: I've been working with these individuals and they're very intentional
Speaker 2: and it's serious about the community. So the work that's
Speaker 2: happening there, you know, it's a blueprint. It's a blueprint
Speaker 2: for the rest of the cities and the rest of
Speaker 2: the states. You know that if you actually invest the
Speaker 2: money in people in the community, that you'll see change.
Speaker 3: So make sure we uh spread love to our brother
Speaker 3: Bashir Anelli. You know, he's another brother that before and
Speaker 3: before everybody got to Newark to start doing anti violence work,
Speaker 3: he was on the ground. This brother has been assist
Speaker 3: that he is like the father, if you will, of
Speaker 3: anti violence, organize it in my eyes. Now, I know
Speaker 3: there were people before him, but I'm saying I'm forty
Speaker 3: three years old and I've been knowing.
Speaker 5: I know Bashir since i was eight years old exactly,
Speaker 5: So I like, in terms of our walk, like we
Speaker 5: walk together, it's a crew of us that you know,
Speaker 5: I graduated high school nineteen eighty seven, So it's like,
Speaker 5: you know, a lot of the folks that I work
Speaker 5: with in North now, folks that I've known from the
Speaker 5: sandbox literally, you know. And what's happening in North is
Speaker 5: about you know, people on the inside who have been
Speaker 5: doing the work for years and Mayor Baraka empowering him
Speaker 5: to come inside city Hall to continue that work. And
Speaker 5: you know, Vasher is just one of those folks. You know, again,
Speaker 5: one of the North Anti Violence Coalition, and if the
Speaker 5: peace was inspired by watching the work of the North
Speaker 5: Anti Violence Coalition, Rest in peace. Natasha Allen one of
Speaker 5: the powerful sisters in the North community who you know,
Speaker 5: one of the executive members of the North Kentry Polace
Speaker 5: coalition passed away last year and alexis trustee. Just you
Speaker 5: know again, I've been knowing these folks since the sandbox,
Speaker 5: grew up with them and to see them, you know,
Speaker 5: transform their community like you got to pitch in, you
Speaker 5: gotta help. So for all the artists out there, that's
Speaker 5: our responsibility is to help the real work going.
Speaker 3: On now you're still making music. Also, because you know,
Speaker 3: my son is always very clear because people are like
Speaker 3: my son is an active he's that I'm an artist
Speaker 3: and an activist. So he is a ractivist, that is no,
Speaker 3: his his title is raptivist. He say sure that people know,
Speaker 3: don't try to act like I'm not still outside and
Speaker 3: I don't still.
Speaker 4: Have got these bars. I met the God.
Speaker 5: First time I met you was at Tramps at the
Speaker 5: kras One Redman show.
Speaker 4: This was probably.
Speaker 5: Six or seven or twenty first Street, and like you
Speaker 5: were like the talk of the town, like every my
Speaker 5: sign my side, like you were next right, so you know,
Speaker 5: to know what happened and the trand you know what
Speaker 5: and you come out on the other side and you're
Speaker 5: doing this and like you're over where I'm at, Like
Speaker 5: you was over there you come through the belly of
Speaker 5: the beasts and you hear and it's like your confirmation
Speaker 5: for what I've been working towards for, like you know,
Speaker 5: since I got put on by Chuck Chris Exclaim so
Speaker 5: forth and someone that ability to speak the language of
Speaker 5: the people to elevate them. So it's like, man, you know,
Speaker 5: you influenced me as much as I'm the og and
Speaker 5: I'm before it. Man, you influenced me in ways we
Speaker 5: have no idea and we have a song together called Don't.
Speaker 2: Truck Don't Trump right, we definitely do so.
Speaker 5: Yes Aubrey album produced entirely by Rob Lawrence, Hitman Legend.
Speaker 4: I got Carl Thomas, carris.
Speaker 5: One, Selo Green Freeway step on the project and g
Speaker 5: Simone Big Shot the g Simone. Krras One's wife, she's
Speaker 5: on the project. And we got some bangers on there.
Speaker 4: Check it out.
Speaker 5: Rob Lawrence is no joke on the on the tracks
Speaker 5: and like my side test, I got them bars.
Speaker 3: Well, speaking of bars, you and I had I dropped
Speaker 3: what I thought was some bars on your game the
Speaker 3: other day and we were just talking about, you know,
Speaker 3: this this moment that we're in where which we all
Speaker 3: agree the three of us won't argue that this is
Speaker 3: a super super sexualized time right where it's a lot
Speaker 3: of sex out here, everybody's selling something, you know whatever.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna leave that at that.
Speaker 3: And I think that I and and and also I
Speaker 3: said on your post, where you would, you know, basically
Speaker 3: showing love to nd I re for her position that
Speaker 3: she doesn't like this moment that we're in where we're
Speaker 3: sort of mainstreaming sex in a place.
Speaker 1: Like Essence Fest.
Speaker 3: I think one of the things, and I don't. I'm
Speaker 3: not against Ndia, I Rea. I respect her position. I
Speaker 3: think her position is necessary because it must be a
Speaker 3: balanced conversation. Never have our culture be, you know, in
Speaker 3: a space where Auntie or sister sister, we're gonna still
Speaker 3: call her sister, can't step into the chat and say, hey,
Speaker 3: let's make sure we keep.
Speaker 1: Our shit together, right, So I don't.
Speaker 3: I'm not against her for that, But I do have
Speaker 3: other another perspective, or I think a broadened perspective on it.
Speaker 3: And I talked about how the show has so many
Speaker 3: different elements. It was it was full of all the
Speaker 3: things that anybody wanted to see. I was saying to
Speaker 3: my son, I go to essence. Every year, I would
Speaker 3: like to be out at one and two o'clock in
Speaker 3: the morning every night. I wish they would start a
Speaker 3: concert at two o'clock in the afternoons, so I go
Speaker 3: to bed at ten o'clock, like, but that's not what
Speaker 3: they do. Concerts go till two o'clock in the morning.
Speaker 3: And I look at the schedule and decide what I
Speaker 3: want to see. You know, I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't go to everything. Some nights I'm like, you know,
Speaker 1: some years, I want to see this. I want to
Speaker 1: see that. I know I'm not gonna stay up three nights.
Speaker 1: That's not going to happen. So I need to pick
Speaker 1: a hall, a.
Speaker 3: Solid tooth, and that's what I do. So I feel
Speaker 3: like understanding that I saw. I watched Laurren Hill put
Speaker 3: on one of the best performances ever one only one
Speaker 3: other time, and I've seen Lauren Hill several times. One
Speaker 3: other time, PUFF had a small thing and my son
Speaker 3: and I somehow ended up at the front table, and
Speaker 3: I and.
Speaker 2: My son.
Speaker 3: Nobody else was dead except him at Laurenn Hill in
Speaker 3: the room that night, because you know, she performed and
Speaker 3: she was so amazing, but this she was in Oh
Speaker 3: she was oh hakem at essence. Lauren was on high,
Speaker 3: she was amazing, she was radiant and all that. So
Speaker 3: you got that, and you had she was fully dressed,
Speaker 3: she had everything on. Then you had you know, Jill
Speaker 3: Scott who came with the old Negro spiritual the new
Speaker 3: star Spangled banner then and she was of course fully dressed.
Speaker 1: Missy Elliott was fully dressed. She wasn't twerking. She was shimmering,
Speaker 1: but not twerking.
Speaker 3: You had a lot of people, right, and then of
Speaker 3: course you also have the element of the time that
Speaker 3: we're in where these younger girls they doing what they're doing,
Speaker 3: and there's other young girls that are not doing that.
Speaker 1: So I just know that, you know, I feel like
Speaker 1: the variety of things that's out there.
Speaker 3: When you have a million women coming together, people want
Speaker 3: to see different things, and so I just feel that
Speaker 3: it wasn't overly it wasn't overly done. There was more
Speaker 3: of the other stuff and less of the meg and
Speaker 3: Janelle Monee Tourken moments.
Speaker 1: That was one moment in a full three days.
Speaker 2: Of a festival.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 5: Well, I don't think the critique is about the whole thing.
Speaker 5: I think the critique is about that moment. So if
Speaker 5: anything goes, everything will. If we allow for anything, everything will.
Speaker 5: Now this is my first essence festival. But when I
Speaker 5: think of essence an essence festival, I don't think of
Speaker 5: black tails, don't I think of there's a level of
Speaker 5: excellence that essence represents that you tarnish your legacy when
Speaker 5: you would go down to the to attach it.
Speaker 4: Now, there's a respectful way to do everything.
Speaker 5: But when you allow for anything, everything goes, and you
Speaker 5: can't then control what goes and what doesn't go because
Speaker 5: why can they do it but I can't do it?
Speaker 5: You get into that argument now, you know, I understand
Speaker 5: the times that we're in and there's a reason for it.
Speaker 5: Like as much as there's a sexual revolution, I can
Speaker 5: enslave you with sex, there's really you gotta be careful
Speaker 5: o the sexual revolution. No, in a lot of ways,
Speaker 5: it's you becoming a slave to your desires and your
Speaker 5: passions and creating the environment where indecency rules today, where
Speaker 5: indecency is, decency isn't. So when things go wrong and
Speaker 5: you're expecting decency to step up, decency left the room
Speaker 5: when indecency stepped in.
Speaker 4: So I ain't perfect. I got my garbage. Like I said,
Speaker 4: there's somebody out there. It darts for me too.
Speaker 3: But struggle with I struggle with the use of the
Speaker 3: term in decency when we're talking about Meg and Janelle
Speaker 3: Monette specifically. I'm just talking about those two sisters specifically
Speaker 3: because they was the target of India's point, right. They
Speaker 3: were they were, they were the two and I think
Speaker 3: both of them are incredibly talented. I think that Meg
Speaker 3: the Stallion is a great artist. I think that she's
Speaker 3: got some she I mean, yeah, she'd be twerking and
Speaker 3: it is what it is. But I don't I if
Speaker 3: they had sexy read up there talking about booty whatever
Speaker 3: they talking about, whatever that is, then I might agree
Speaker 3: with you.
Speaker 1: But the problem, the.
Speaker 2: Problem is the problem is the problem is this. It
Speaker 2: opens the door for sexy rich.
Speaker 1: I don't think they're gonna have a let.
Speaker 5: I'm not even gonna put it on. Like I'm not
Speaker 5: saying Meg and Janelle they were an artist form. They
Speaker 5: were when they let.
Speaker 4: All the other sisters up on stage. That's when indecency
Speaker 4: go was on it we allowed. But that you can't decide, Ma.
Speaker 4: We don't want to see the crack of your ass.
Speaker 4: We just don't know. Oh yah, yeah.
Speaker 5: I always brought another comparison to just so it's not
Speaker 5: about women, right, So when the whole sagging pants thing happened,
Speaker 5: right with males sagging their pants and the whole show
Speaker 5: in your underwear, like that's just indecent, bars.
Speaker 4: Don't want it's indecent. It's not for every environment.
Speaker 3: It may be indecent, but I see it all the
Speaker 3: time in some places that un quote unquote so supposed
Speaker 3: to be so professionally whatever.
Speaker 5: And they are wrong, and you're right, Like what you
Speaker 5: said is right. It ain't wrong just because I might
Speaker 5: or man I identify with it.
Speaker 4: It's wrong. It's wrong.
Speaker 3: And I also feel like I also struggle here, right,
Speaker 3: I struggle in this other area.
Speaker 1: I struggle because I feel like I hear a lot
Speaker 1: of men.
Speaker 3: Very loudly trying to help determine what is decent or
Speaker 3: boundaries for women.
Speaker 1: And I understand that we have to respect our kings.
Speaker 1: I don't. I'm not one.
Speaker 3: I mean, I'm all about respecting our kings. But I
Speaker 3: also think that we as women probably need a space
Speaker 3: where we can try to work some of that stuff out. Right,
Speaker 3: Because We've always been being told how we should show up.
Speaker 3: We've always been being told by men what we should
Speaker 3: look like. And I think that some of it is
Speaker 3: resistance to that. So it might be out of control.
Speaker 3: It might be out of control in some aspects. Right,
Speaker 3: I'm not saying all of it, but some of it
Speaker 3: may be just a barrier breakdown of always being told
Speaker 3: what we should look like, how we should dress, how
Speaker 3: we should show up, and what is okay with society
Speaker 3: for women. Right, we have been censored, if you will,
Speaker 3: and our lifestyles and everything about us has been so
Speaker 3: controlled by whatever society things, which includes men, not just
Speaker 3: black men, but men in general. So I think we're
Speaker 3: seeing some resistance to that happening in this moment as well.
Speaker 4: Yes, I agree with you there, and a lot of times.
Speaker 5: That environment to express yourself is tied to the exploitation
Speaker 5: of who gets the dollar at the end. Right, So
Speaker 5: when we look at the advertisers and the sponsors and
Speaker 5: and so forth and so ons who come in and are.
Speaker 4: Willing to dump money here but not dump money there, it's.
Speaker 5: Because you know, to the lowest common denominators what appeals
Speaker 5: to the most people.
Speaker 4: But so if I can keep you here, this is
Speaker 4: where all the investment's going to go.
Speaker 3: I agree, but you but we can't say that about essence,
Speaker 3: right because at essence the investment is covering a wide
Speaker 3: array of the celebration of black talent, right, It's covering everything.
Speaker 3: It's not like, well, they're narrowing in on a certain
Speaker 3: type of thing. And I wouldn't I wouldn't bear to
Speaker 3: say that there's probably some sponsors that didn't even like
Speaker 3: the whole trque thing and the bood thing and the
Speaker 3: whole thing. They probably are not even really with that.
Speaker 3: And it might be a little bit of shock to
Speaker 3: the system as well, because I know a lot of
Speaker 3: the women specifically who handle the accounts that are millions
Speaker 3: of dollars worth of sponsorship to Essen, And I can
Speaker 3: tell you that there's not outside in that way. But
Speaker 3: I also saw them on camera up in there with Meg,
Speaker 3: like know, because they like it as well.
Speaker 2: So it's I just think just as artists, as individuals,
Speaker 2: just as professionals. Right when you when you have a
Speaker 2: catalog right there, there's there's there's a way that you
Speaker 2: show up right. You understand, you understand the dynamics, you
Speaker 2: understand your your audience. I just don't think if certain
Speaker 2: people will actually perform at certain other events that they
Speaker 2: would show.
Speaker 1: Up certain ways Meg does.
Speaker 4: No.
Speaker 2: I just I don't know what I've seen I've seen.
Speaker 2: I've seen Meg come out without having on a leotard
Speaker 2: and without having on like I've seen her, but I've
Speaker 2: seen him come out without having what even if she
Speaker 2: does the certain dances, but the way, it's a certain
Speaker 2: way that she presents herself that I've seen her perform
Speaker 2: at different shows and different things where there's a different
Speaker 2: dynamic and understanding that this dynamic is different. But I
Speaker 2: think artists we have to because there's certain songs that
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna perform everywhere. Like I know, I'm not
Speaker 2: performing my song lefty gunna be in the right pom
Speaker 2: when I go to the school. I'm just not doing
Speaker 2: that because that's not the audience for that song. Right,
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna address a certain way. This what I'm
Speaker 2: saying is the Essence has Like he said, there's a
Speaker 2: brand that there's a brand of black excellence. The Essence
Speaker 2: represents right. And I think that each of those artists
Speaker 2: you're talking about have songs and have things that are
Speaker 2: so dynamic that the Essence wants those things, and I
Speaker 2: just think that we have to attach it to the excellence.
Speaker 2: The Essence is not just saying I'm gonna be I'm not.
Speaker 2: I'm here to get shock value. I'm gonna do some
Speaker 2: shit that nobody did to bring shock value because I
Speaker 2: want it and I don't. I think we I think
Speaker 2: we caught up in a shock value and I don't,
Speaker 2: and I'm.
Speaker 4: Not all for that.
Speaker 2: I think a lot of times people are doing things
Speaker 2: because they want to shock somebody. When you're talent, they
Speaker 2: actually have talent. That supersedes the fact that we got
Speaker 2: to talk about that and you did this like we
Speaker 2: shouldn't even have it. Now it's overshadowed that you actually
Speaker 2: did dope ship there, you know, And I think that's
Speaker 2: what every I think that's what the ever we are
Speaker 2: in there.
Speaker 5: Add on to that, he just made me think of
Speaker 5: something in terms of, you know, the Essence brand, and
Speaker 5: maybe I gotta twist it. Maybe I'm holding Essence to
Speaker 5: a higher standard of what it really is. But where
Speaker 5: I think Essence is right, Like there's places for everything,
Speaker 5: and we know who Megan is. We know, well, we
Speaker 5: thought we know who Janell mo. They is she's becoming
Speaker 5: something else. So we're not mad at that at all.
Speaker 5: It's just she's transformeding.
Speaker 4: But we know, we know what Megan is.
Speaker 5: Essence should be the thing where Meg now steps up
Speaker 5: that says I'm gonna present myself with Yeah, Meg the style,
Speaker 5: and y'all do these gigs here and it's all good.
Speaker 5: But when it comes to essence, I'm gonna step up.
Speaker 5: And that shows systems across the board or not just systs,
Speaker 5: people's time.
Speaker 2: This is not she like, this is a woman of
Speaker 2: we know that she can do.
Speaker 1: That's what I'm saying. I think that's where my struggle
Speaker 1: is that I don't see.
Speaker 4: It.
Speaker 1: I don't think her brand was debased.
Speaker 4: I don't.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 3: I don't even I need to think about this more
Speaker 3: because and that's okay to say, like as a woman,
Speaker 3: I need to think about it more because I know
Speaker 3: that as the two of you are speaking, and I
Speaker 3: don't mean this in a in a dramatic way, there
Speaker 3: are things that you're saying that's triggering me and the
Speaker 3: freedom of my womanhood right Like, it's just it's triggering
Speaker 3: me to say that I don't I don't because.
Speaker 1: People say the same thing to me. But let me finish.
Speaker 3: No, I'm just I'm saying because essence is about for
Speaker 3: the most part, it's about women, right for the most part.
Speaker 3: And I don't know what Lil Wayne did when he
Speaker 3: was there, if any of his songs was the stuff
Speaker 3: that we know has massagyny in it, but I'm sure
Speaker 3: it probably was, and he performed, and nobody is talking
Speaker 3: about how it was ten lyrics or or three of
Speaker 3: his songs perspected or degrading women, right, But.
Speaker 2: I don't think.
Speaker 4: I agree with her.
Speaker 5: I agree with her in that sense that essence is
Speaker 5: for women, and then you have an artist who's a
Speaker 5: large portion of his music is degrading women.
Speaker 4: That's really a conflicted messaging exactly.
Speaker 3: So it's a lot of conflict in general of things
Speaker 3: that have to be negotiated in order to give people
Speaker 3: what they want, right or whatever.
Speaker 1: So it triggers me.
Speaker 3: But I also I want to be thoughtful about how
Speaker 3: all of this because you said something, and my song's
Speaker 3: been saying it to me all week, because we've been
Speaker 3: talking about this over and over again. It's all connected.
Speaker 3: And we know where in a time when things in
Speaker 3: our community there's some challenges, some serious challenges we're up
Speaker 3: against with the ways in which we behave or are
Speaker 3: behaving as a community, and a lot of things that
Speaker 3: see playing out. And I know that there must be
Speaker 3: a connection somewhere with entertainment because we know I'm black
Speaker 3: and I'm proud, and those moments were moments that lifted
Speaker 3: our people up, and we see something else happening. I'm
Speaker 3: just saying that I would like for the two of
Speaker 3: you to hear that I have people who come to
Speaker 3: my social media and I've had brothers, specifically some of
Speaker 3: my brothers, more spiritual brothers. I'm not going to put
Speaker 3: title specific titles out there. Come to me and tell
Speaker 3: me that I should not have a bikini on online
Speaker 3: because people are not going to respect me as a leader.
Speaker 1: And that's problematic for me.
Speaker 3: But what I'm trying to say so because wait, let
Speaker 3: me just finish my point and you take it. Because
Speaker 3: I'm showing up as my full self right on my
Speaker 3: social media. My full self is there. Now, it's some
Speaker 3: other things that I probably do that maybe and I
Speaker 3: don't know, maybe not, But there's some other things I
Speaker 3: might do that's not on social media, but I'm saying
Speaker 3: that I feel slightly oppressed by my own brothers that
Speaker 3: I know love me when I'm told that I can't
Speaker 3: be in the bikini online because somehow that's gonna make
Speaker 3: people not want to show up in a fight that
Speaker 3: we're in that has absolutely nothing to do with what
Speaker 3: I'm wearing. And so when I hear us talking about
Speaker 3: decency around this other thing, it triggers me. And I
Speaker 3: don't have a final I don't I can't put a
Speaker 3: punchline on what I'm saying, but we gonna come back
Speaker 3: and talk about this.
Speaker 2: Let me just say one more thing. Your social media
Speaker 2: is your personal This this is your personal life.
Speaker 1: With those million people that's on.
Speaker 2: It, they're following you, you didn't follow them. You didn't
Speaker 2: go into their arena, you didn't go into their house.
Speaker 2: You didn't go into the church with what your baby
Speaker 2: suit on and decide that you're gonna say a speech
Speaker 2: and a baby suit because you should be able to
Speaker 2: do it.
Speaker 1: You are.
Speaker 2: You are one hundred percent aware that when certain organizations
Speaker 2: and certain places come, you understand that there is something
Speaker 2: that's required to do that you dress a certain way
Speaker 2: because you're you're multi.
Speaker 1: Thus Okay, you breaking those barriers.
Speaker 3: No, you break We have been showing up places where
Speaker 3: people have expected us to do things a certain way
Speaker 3: and we have been like, that's just not what we're doing.
Speaker 2: No, but that's but that's not what we do anyway.
Speaker 2: You understand I'm saying what I'm trying to explain to you.
Speaker 2: We don't do certain things, So we don't go trying
Speaker 2: to act like we do something and the people that call.
Speaker 2: But the thing is what we also don't do. You
Speaker 2: you are you, and you know how to be. When
Speaker 2: you decide you want to look pretty on Instagram, you
Speaker 2: posted a pretty picture. When you decide that you want
Speaker 2: you have to be the beat, you post a picture
Speaker 2: to beat. That's what you want, that's your personal thing.
Speaker 2: But you understand that when you going to the rally,
Speaker 2: you ain't going in the bathing suit to the rally.
Speaker 2: You're not trying to.
Speaker 1: Get shock value. But I might wear some booty cutters.
Speaker 2: But the thing is this I'm just saying.
Speaker 3: I want to say with Miniester fa Arakon, me and
Speaker 3: the minister had a very specific conversation because you know
Speaker 3: his perspective, well, are.
Speaker 2: You going to are you going to? Are you going
Speaker 2: to the mansle booty cutters.
Speaker 1: One, of course not.
Speaker 3: But y'all think Essence, I know what I think. Everybody
Speaker 3: at Essence wants to see this thing that you got
Speaker 3: what I'm trying to say, Essence has are you all
Speaker 3: day haking? You will never get off of this thing?
Speaker 4: I want to.
Speaker 5: So we want to spin back to twenty fours apiece, right, So, okay,
Speaker 5: twenty five hours a piece, right is. Initially was for
Speaker 5: positive artists like myself, my sign to have the stage
Speaker 5: to do our thing and kind of and promote that
Speaker 5: whole message. When we do that, it was like, you know,
Speaker 5: we get six seven hundred people, fifteen hundred people, whatever.
Speaker 4: You know. Twenty twenty one was a big year.
Speaker 5: But last year we did Drill, We did five Yeofarign,
Speaker 5: g Herbal, two Rare. We had Fabulous, who's gunn heavy
Speaker 5: in all his music. We had a cls moved myself.
Speaker 5: We try to balance it out. But because the five
Speaker 5: year oldarg Herbal and Fabulous, that's what the numbers out.
Speaker 5: Now we're on stage, it's twenty four hours a piece.
Speaker 5: Every other song is I'll blow your head off, I
Speaker 5: put a gun in your mouth, I'll do this. I'll
Speaker 5: do that.
Speaker 4: Ras is looking at me like, y'all hot, you gotta
Speaker 4: fix this, you gotta do something.
Speaker 5: G Herbal set was just total murder, killed, murder, kill
Speaker 5: our sexually assault you. I'll sexually assault You'll sexually assault you.
Speaker 5: All little girls knew every word and he's talking about
Speaker 5: sexual assault.
Speaker 4: It's art. It's music. I'm not saying, you know that's
Speaker 4: what he's a valid me.
Speaker 5: It's music. But I know what he's saying. And he's
Speaker 5: talking about killing black people and sexually assaulting black men
Speaker 5: and he's being celebrated. They know every word. So after
Speaker 5: he gets off his set, I had to reset the broom,
Speaker 5: reset the table, bring people back to why we're here,
Speaker 5: because on the twenty four Hours of Peace stage, we
Speaker 5: shouldn't be promoting that, even though there's a reason why
Speaker 5: he talking about that. We know black men are oppressed,
Speaker 5: we know that, we know all these things, but at
Speaker 5: some point we got to draw a line and say
Speaker 5: you can't do that here.
Speaker 4: And I don't know if you figured it out, because
Speaker 4: we might be back to seven hundred people if we
Speaker 4: do that.
Speaker 1: You know, okay, well this is.
Speaker 3: This is this is a this is a very important
Speaker 3: conversation that we're having, and I think it's one that
Speaker 3: we need to continue to have because this is the
Speaker 3: way to do it right, Like this is the way
Speaker 3: to have the conversation about what's appropriate, what's not when
Speaker 3: and how and not have white folks determine what should
Speaker 3: and should not happen in our communities and where our
Speaker 3: people can show up certain ways. I'm just hoping that
Speaker 3: based upon me telling you about the swimsuit thing and
Speaker 3: all of that, that it also helps to broaden your
Speaker 3: perspective and understanding of what it feels like to be
Speaker 3: a woman who has many different I have all kinds
Speaker 3: of things with me, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: I've talked about work and work all the time, and.
Speaker 3: It has actually drawn lot a lot of younger people
Speaker 3: and different people, especially women, to my world and to
Speaker 3: you know, they come to me because I'm like, you know,
Speaker 3: I work and work, so I can do both things.
Speaker 1: I can be all those things.
Speaker 3: And it has been not so much a marketing tool,
Speaker 3: but it has helped people to see me in more
Speaker 3: than just one thing. And I've been winning folks into
Speaker 3: the movement because they're like, Tamika is different, right, and
Speaker 3: so I understand it as a place in time for
Speaker 3: everything I do.
Speaker 1: I get it.
Speaker 3: But I also know that Jamal and Brian are just
Speaker 3: given an example. When he's preaching, he understands that he's
Speaker 3: got to kind of go to the line in an
Speaker 3: area that is very different than the regular and he
Speaker 3: has and his church is packed full of people who
Speaker 3: are there because he's gonna get up there and say lyrics.
Speaker 3: He gonna talk about stuff that might be a little racy,
Speaker 3: and it's working in terms of his messages. So we
Speaker 3: just got to figure out a balance, that's all.
Speaker 2: It's just that, it's just like it's just like when
Speaker 2: but Dumal Brian also know when he went way too far,
Speaker 2: they tore his ass up, right, you remember that when
Speaker 2: he said when he did all that, they said, oh no, no, bro,
Speaker 2: you ain't gonna come in here with that, right, So
Speaker 2: we we gotta understand that.
Speaker 5: And to me, you know, you're talking about looking at
Speaker 5: the culture, analyzing the culture, and being strategic in how
Speaker 5: you engage with the culture. That because most people using
Speaker 5: that language, male and female, are looking to exploit young people.
Speaker 4: So we create the environment where anything goes.
Speaker 5: Everything will you're talking about being strategic, setting barriers, doing
Speaker 5: things towards a higher purpose than just the culture.
Speaker 4: This is what they're doing or this is what they want.
Speaker 2: So I'm just gonna pease them because sometimes it's like
Speaker 2: you're giving it. It's like giving you a kid. Just
Speaker 2: keep giving them sugar all day because they asked for it. No,
Speaker 2: I know, I can't keep giving you sugar because it's
Speaker 2: killing you. But yeah, exactly, But you gotta like they said,
Speaker 2: you gotta put the the the cherry inside the colf
Speaker 2: drop right because you wanted to taste good. But you
Speaker 2: still but where is the colt drop? See when it
Speaker 2: ain't no colt drop, that's where the problem is.
Speaker 1: Whatever you said, I didn't see this part about the other.
Speaker 4: They bought a whole bunch of people on stage.
Speaker 5: It was like, you know, it was it's anybody, all types,
Speaker 5: all sizes, all shame, all agents. No, I mean no,
Speaker 5: the one girl, her whole thing went up. You could
Speaker 5: see the crack up behind it was a few of
Speaker 5: them that would go help. You know, it was what
Speaker 5: it was because it's meg, it's you know, we get it.
Speaker 5: But it's like, okay, this is why I'm not the
Speaker 5: when I saw the videos like, Okay, that's why I
Speaker 5: don't go to those parties.
Speaker 1: I just want you to know that B is clapping
Speaker 1: cheeks in her concert right now, this word writing.
Speaker 2: Concert, just like just like Meg gonna clap cheeks in
Speaker 2: her but she B is not gonna go to the
Speaker 2: Essence Award and clap cheeks. She just ain't gonna do it.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 4: I don't think that's should I don't.
Speaker 2: Think, but she's not gonna. But she's gonna do it
Speaker 2: with a different level.
Speaker 1: She's gonna understand it's a certain way exactly.
Speaker 4: Can ask your question, what was the watermelon song about
Speaker 4: lemonade or eliminade? Who's the Who's the song? That was
Speaker 4: some real it was real gutter, but it was Beyonce.
Speaker 4: And when it was.
Speaker 3: Eliminade about the lollipop or something, Beyonce got some ship
Speaker 3: that when you.
Speaker 5: Listen to it, right, what I'm saying, it's like, you know,
Speaker 5: the girl is super talented, one of the greatest ever
Speaker 5: do it.
Speaker 4: Don't even front I got you. But it's like certain
Speaker 4: songs you shouldn't be on the radio. Kids is going
Speaker 4: to kids is going.
Speaker 5: To school, And I had to be with it was
Speaker 5: one of my favorite songs, bunch of my favorite songs
Speaker 5: national anthems for us.
Speaker 4: It's degrading, like it sets the stage for nothing positive. Actually, and.
Speaker 2: That already by the time you got knowledge and understand
Speaker 2: that you already like the song you.
Speaker 4: Done, you don't only because you've got to go.
Speaker 3: And I want to be thoughtful about my response because
Speaker 3: again I'm taking into account that you brothers are two
Speaker 3: people that love black folks, right, So everything you're saying
Speaker 3: is because we want to see black folks at our
Speaker 3: high cels. We know what's going on in our communities.
Speaker 3: We know that our young girls, the way in which
Speaker 3: they are, some of the behavior that we see is
Speaker 3: very problematic and it's dangerous.
Speaker 1: And so the culture certainly has room for critique. And
Speaker 1: so I'm I'm for that.
Speaker 3: So that's all I'm gonna say. I'm gonna leave it
Speaker 3: at that. I want to I want to give drop
Speaker 3: a bomb in this conversation, but I think this is
Speaker 3: such a rich dialogue that it requires revisiting it and
Speaker 3: allowing other people to play a role in the conversation
Speaker 3: to talk through, you know, their feelings about about these things.
Speaker 3: I know one thing I don't agree with is when women,
Speaker 3: any entertainer says I'm not a role model, that's a lot,
Speaker 3: and that's a lot.
Speaker 1: So that's something.
Speaker 5: Yeah, And everybody, everybody's a role a role model, a
Speaker 5: good one or bad one.
Speaker 4: Everybody's a role model.
Speaker 1: That's right, that's right.
Speaker 3: Well, brother Green, Haquen Green, thank you so much for
Speaker 3: joining the street politician.
Speaker 1: I feel like we more and so sat in the
Speaker 1: living room and just kick it and talk, you know, you.
Speaker 3: Know, blessings over twenty four hours of piece because you're
Speaker 3: doing three hundred and sixty five days a piece.
Speaker 1: That's what you do every day. That's what we try
Speaker 1: to work towards.
Speaker 3: And we need all the support that we can get
Speaker 3: because there is so much attention and focus on the
Speaker 3: negative aspects of you know, in our community. And so
Speaker 3: when folks step out like you have been for so
Speaker 3: long to do the work you're doing, we have to
Speaker 3: salute you, send you.
Speaker 1: Prayers and positivity because it's not easy. It is not easy.
Speaker 1: So thank you for everything you're doing, and we love
Speaker 1: you and we hear we support you.
Speaker 4: Likewise, likewise, you guys are so.
Speaker 5: Got the battery in my back in a real way
Speaker 5: every time I see you guys out there, it's like, yeah,
Speaker 5: thank god, somebody loves.
Speaker 4: Black people, and you guys love black people.
Speaker 2: Appreciate you all right, thank you, king piece. Shout out
Speaker 2: to my brother Hakim Green Man dope conversation, the work
Speaker 2: he does in Newark and just in general, you know,
Speaker 2: as an educator and just somebody who's actually for our people.
Speaker 2: It's just dope. You know, we got music together, going
Speaker 2: to get his album Aubrey that he said he just dropped,
Speaker 2: and you know, it's not much else to say. Follow him. Man.
Speaker 2: If you don't know Hakim Green from Channel Live, the
Speaker 2: legendary group, all we do is smoke matt ism like
Speaker 2: they was one of the first people on the cannabis
Speaker 2: thing back in the days and they was signed to
Speaker 2: care rest Ones. So and he's still doing this thing
Speaker 2: on just a high level, man twenty five, like I
Speaker 2: could tell you twenty four hours a piece of a
Speaker 2: real big thing in Newark that they do, you know,
Speaker 2: So shout out to him on that. And so let
Speaker 2: me go to my I don't get it because this
Speaker 2: is like one of the biggest topics. You know, everybody's
Speaker 2: been talking about. Kiki p and her boyfriend, baby daddy whatever,
Speaker 2: And you know, there's been a lot of weighing in
Speaker 2: and it's not and it's not my job. Is not
Speaker 2: my place to tell anybody how to handle their relationship, right,
Speaker 2: because everybody's relationship is different. Things that work in somebody's
Speaker 2: relationship might not work for me, you know. And then
Speaker 2: and if you in a relationship where where there are
Speaker 2: major things that you that you have that are you know,
Speaker 2: non negotiable, and your partner doesn't have that, then you
Speaker 2: probably in the wrong relationship. Right If he feels that
Speaker 2: how she dresses wasn't something that a mom should do,
Speaker 2: and this and that, and in a relationship and they
Speaker 2: haven't come to terms with that, and you this a
Speaker 2: non started for you and she's saying pretty much on
Speaker 2: a way what I want, then you're probably in the
Speaker 2: wrong relationship. And that's just the reality. Sometimes people are
Speaker 2: not equally yok. Sometimes you attracted to somebody like somebody
Speaker 2: cool this and that, but there's certain things that you're
Speaker 2: not willing to negotiate that that person is not willing
Speaker 2: to negotiate either, on the opposite side of the spectrum,
Speaker 2: and you just have to understand that and you got
Speaker 2: to move on from that. But my other my I
Speaker 2: don't get. It is not even about that, my I
Speaker 2: don't get. It is pretty much about why grown people,
Speaker 2: family members, friends, close friends, people who claim to love
Speaker 2: you or do all these things, are utilizing social media
Speaker 2: to have discourse. Like to me, like, I'm really like,
Speaker 2: I'm so disturbed at it, Like I'm watching everybody go
Speaker 2: to social media with millions and hundreds of thousand people
Speaker 2: who don't give a fuck about you, who just want
Speaker 2: to critique you, just want to tear you down, who
Speaker 2: just want the tea on your information to where you
Speaker 2: can't even come back from me, right, Because this conversation
Speaker 2: that this man had with his women about his women
Speaker 2: as she came home and he had that same conversation
Speaker 2: and be like, yo, you mom, what the fuck is
Speaker 2: you doing over there? That might have been just a debate, Well,
Speaker 2: come on, what are you talking about? I'm sexy this,
Speaker 2: But but I don't think it was all right. I
Speaker 2: see you in this man face and this and that
Speaker 2: you like we're supposed to be in a relationship. I
Speaker 2: think it was disrespect. Whatever it was, it could have
Speaker 2: been a dialogue that they had amongst each other that
Speaker 2: could have got settled. Now you putting your personal business
Speaker 2: on the internet has caused so much, so much. We
Speaker 2: got think pieces, we got dissertations, we got everybody in
Speaker 2: the world is playing in on your relationship, right, and
Speaker 2: then what it does is it either lessens your value
Speaker 2: or it lessens her value, because now you got men
Speaker 2: trying to disrespect her, You got women disrespecting you, the
Speaker 2: other men disrespecting you. You got so it's so many
Speaker 2: different things, and the world is divided, and now you
Speaker 2: can't even have your own personal relationship normal, right, So
Speaker 2: why I just don't get why people or who told
Speaker 2: people that it made sense for you to take your
Speaker 2: personal relationship and your personal issue with people that you've
Speaker 2: known for years, people that you share intimate space with,
Speaker 2: people you got the phone, the people you could text,
Speaker 2: people you know where they live, that you can knock
Speaker 2: on the door, that you sharing your personal information and
Speaker 2: differences on the internet. I don't get what the fuck
Speaker 2: that is. I just I'm it's so far from me.
Speaker 2: I get you might have a moment, you know, you're
Speaker 2: writing I just literally just see some other shit that
Speaker 2: somebody some of our friends just sent me and I'm like, Lord,
Speaker 2: have somes Why is people putting a personal business on
Speaker 2: the internet. We gotta listen. It is a recipe for
Speaker 2: a disaster because at two seconds that you mad at
Speaker 2: your friend, your girl, this and that that you write
Speaker 2: so and anger it. Don't it don't disappear. Now, it's
Speaker 2: in the cloud. This ship is in the it's in
Speaker 2: the algorithm, and it's showing up every time when you
Speaker 2: over it and you you're trying to be cool and
Speaker 2: you walking by and nigga like, Kiki, you shouldn't be
Speaker 2: with that. Nigga too weak? Come fuck with a player
Speaker 2: and a type of shit or the girls walking up
Speaker 2: to to him. Yeah, she don't respect you. You need
Speaker 2: to like, why are you putting people in your personal business?
Speaker 3: Well, here's the thing. I mean, it's a lot that
Speaker 3: conversation is a whole different. There's so many layers to
Speaker 3: personal business on social media. A lot of people feel
Speaker 3: like it's their only outlet, and.
Speaker 1: The majority you feel like it's your only outlet.
Speaker 3: The majority of people who go to social media. And
Speaker 3: this is what I have to say about the Kiki thing.
Speaker 3: And I ended here, and there's much more. We can
Speaker 3: talk about this every week. But the majority of the
Speaker 3: reason why people go to social media is because they
Speaker 3: are looking to embarrass and or yeah, they're looking to
Speaker 3: harm a person. They want to harm their their their brands,
Speaker 3: they want to expose them, embarrass them. They are looking
Speaker 3: to do something to negatively impact that person's life, right,
Speaker 3: That's the reason why they do it. So that's what
Speaker 3: makes this whole situation with you know, with Kiki's boyfriend.
Speaker 3: That's the reason why it's problematic. It's problematic because in
Speaker 3: my opinion, I don't know him, so I can't but
Speaker 3: in my opinion, he literally was doing it to shame her, right,
Speaker 3: And that's what people that's why people go to social
Speaker 3: media because they want to shame the person who they
Speaker 3: feel hurt them, betrayed them, or whatever.
Speaker 1: They want to shame them. They want to hurt them.
Speaker 3: They want to hit them where it hurts, where they
Speaker 3: feel like everybody knows about it.
Speaker 1: The problem is, as.
Speaker 3: With every situation that I have watched play out, when
Speaker 3: you try to shoot at somebody on social media, the
Speaker 3: shit backfights.
Speaker 1: It always backfights, It.
Speaker 3: Always somehow because as you said, the intention for what
Speaker 3: you're trying to do, you can't control what the response
Speaker 3: is gonna be from millions of people who are now
Speaker 3: able to weigh in on your situation. So while you
Speaker 3: think that you're just gonna harm that one person and
Speaker 3: isolate them, what generally happens is that people who share
Speaker 3: a variety of perspectives have loud voices, and you find
Speaker 3: yourself having to shut your social media down or having
Speaker 3: to protect your family maybe or your whatever whatever things
Speaker 3: that you care about, your own brand. Because now when
Speaker 3: when people when you google the brother's name because I
Speaker 3: did it, I just wanted to see, the headlines are
Speaker 3: like so and so, shame, such and such, like it's
Speaker 3: it doesn't work out for you the weigh in which
Speaker 3: you think it should, It just doesn't. It never it, never, ever,
Speaker 3: ever does. I have watched this happen so many different
Speaker 3: times where to your point, you open up the door
Speaker 3: and by the.
Speaker 1: Way, you actually might be freeing like he might have
Speaker 1: freed Kiki.
Speaker 3: From the relationship, because now you're giving people a reason
Speaker 3: to say, oh, you went to the end of that.
Speaker 1: That's like, I'm not saying she's gonna do that.
Speaker 3: I'm just saying that it is counterproductive, and it's hard
Speaker 3: because sometimes we all feel like we want people to know,
Speaker 3: or we want to rally people together around our feelings
Speaker 3: or our thoughts or whatever, but it just never works out.
Speaker 3: And it didn't work out in this situation. And if
Speaker 3: I'm in a relationship with a man, I don't give
Speaker 3: a damn what has happened.
Speaker 1: I do not care.
Speaker 3: At the moment that a man goes to social media
Speaker 3: about me, he has his level of man leanness to me.
Speaker 1: Has reduced significant. That's just my that's my feeling. I
Speaker 1: don't even hear.
Speaker 3: I don't even see, you think, because the men that
Speaker 3: I know in my family, the men I'm around, they
Speaker 3: don't even really do social media first of all, so
Speaker 3: you know, they kind.
Speaker 1: Of do it, they kind of.
Speaker 3: My brother is like, I'm kind of into it because
Speaker 3: y'all be on here all the time, so I'm gonna
Speaker 3: come over here and see what's going on. So he
Speaker 3: posts a picture of his kids and see the nieces
Speaker 3: and nephews and you know, sell his products and whatnot.
Speaker 3: But for him to get on the internet and write
Speaker 3: something specifically towards his loved.
Speaker 2: One that will never happen, It don't make sense. It's
Speaker 2: just it's just it's just very weird, and it's like,
Speaker 2: we have normalized shit that is so whack in this
Speaker 2: culture now, you know, And I think I think that's
Speaker 2: what the problem is a lot of people. People are
Speaker 2: seeing shit and people say that's old school, and it's like, why,
Speaker 2: how keeping your family business in your household is old school? Right?
Speaker 2: I just want to be old school, like my family
Speaker 2: business and my personal business with my friends and issues
Speaker 2: like I don't need the Internet to know those those issues.
Speaker 2: I just don't need it.
Speaker 3: And that's precisely why they want to do it, because
Speaker 3: they think that you don't want it to You don't
Speaker 3: that they're exposing you or there, or they're harming you
Speaker 3: by saying, oh, you know, you know, I just thinking
Speaker 3: about the fifty cent son, you know, coming out like
Speaker 3: oh we need money or I don't have any money
Speaker 3: or whatever. And it ends up in other situations. It
Speaker 3: happened with Masterpiece Son, right. It happened with a number
Speaker 3: of young people who tried to come out and say
Speaker 3: they their parents were not financially supporting them properly. And
Speaker 3: you know what ends up happening. The same kid ends
Speaker 3: up going back to the Internet, like y'all could shut
Speaker 3: up nobody ask you know, nobody asked you for your opinion.
Speaker 3: I'm not looking for a handout. You end up having
Speaker 3: to try to defend yourself because now when you was
Speaker 3: just trying to get a message to your dad or
Speaker 3: your aunt or your mama or whoever it is, now
Speaker 3: people are like, take your lazy ass to work. Nobody
Speaker 3: owe you anything.
Speaker 1: And that might not even be right. That might actually
Speaker 1: be when the parent might really be wrong, but.
Speaker 2: Which you open it to somebody else's perspective.
Speaker 1: Look at what happened with Ioki Simmons, same thing.
Speaker 3: She she came out and said what she had to
Speaker 3: say if I Russell, which I'm sure at the time,
Speaker 3: whatever was going on, she was hurt. She was angry
Speaker 3: when I saw the video of Russell responding, and you know,
Speaker 3: we know Russell's very well. So when I saw the
Speaker 3: video of how he was responding, the words that he
Speaker 3: was saying, I'm a father, I'm your father, I'm your father, it's.
Speaker 1: Some pain, that's clear.
Speaker 3: It's pain, and I can no parent is perfect, no parent.
Speaker 3: So I'm sure whatever pain is there he has had,
Speaker 3: he's been party to it. And she also, you know,
Speaker 3: she feels how she feels he's been party to it.
Speaker 3: Her mama made part it's party to it, because that's
Speaker 3: just the way it goes right as parents. It's the
Speaker 3: nature of relationships. But I know that after she came
Speaker 3: out and said what she said, she's and she could
Speaker 3: have everything she said could have been one hundred percent
Speaker 3: on point. But she spent the next few days defending
Speaker 3: herself and arguing with people online who was now given
Speaker 3: their opinion and saying nasty things about.
Speaker 2: Some shit that they really don't even know. But somebody
Speaker 2: given an opinion based on words that you said, not
Speaker 2: even understanding the dynamics, and is drawing a bigger wedge
Speaker 2: between the person that you say that you loving, you
Speaker 2: care about. So how how do you think that's progressive?
Speaker 2: Who have you seen it work for?
Speaker 3: I mean, in her defense, in her defense, this is
Speaker 3: a young lady, right, she's.
Speaker 2: A young so I wasn't even talking about her, right, That's.
Speaker 1: What I'm saying. She's a young lady. She's a young lady.
Speaker 1: So kids sometimes do things that they have to. We
Speaker 1: have to get a lot of grace to our kids.
Speaker 3: I was just using those as examples of how you
Speaker 3: find I'm sure all of the young people who've been
Speaker 3: in the last year in the press school arguing with
Speaker 3: their parents and they've had to defend themselves, they probably
Speaker 3: would advise another person, let's not do this because it
Speaker 3: doesn't really work out.
Speaker 1: Exactly as you wanted to do.
Speaker 3: I mean, even just something like where Jaden recently said, oh,
Speaker 3: my mom, you know, introduced us to psychedelics. That shit
Speaker 3: done turned into a whole big thing. And I'm sure
Speaker 3: he just was trying to say, my mom introduced us
Speaker 3: to something that's been helpful or no, no, no, whether
Speaker 3: you agreeve it or not is not the point I'm saying.
Speaker 3: I'm sure he was in charge his mother exactly.
Speaker 1: And now here we go. So you just have to
Speaker 1: be careful how you use social media because it's not
Speaker 1: it's just as not what people think it's not.
Speaker 4: It is.
Speaker 2: And the more and the more viewership you have and
Speaker 2: the more voice, bigger your voices, you have to be
Speaker 2: a lot more careful about the things that you say.
Speaker 3: Oh you know that, because I'm very surprised to hear
Speaker 3: you say that, because you one of the main damn people.
Speaker 2: I don't you tell me that, But I don't care.
Speaker 2: See what I'm trying to tell you. It's not so
Speaker 2: much that I don't care about it. The things that
Speaker 2: I say, I've already made up my mind that I'm
Speaker 2: willing to deal with the consequence of whatever I say.
Speaker 2: And I don't talk about my personal business on the internet.
Speaker 2: I just don't do that. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: I talk about ship that's public knowledge and public opinions,
Speaker 2: and i give my opinion of public ship. But I'm
Speaker 2: not going on there with my own personal shit. That's
Speaker 2: not happening. So if somebody has a problem with my
Speaker 2: my public view of some public ship, so I give
Speaker 2: a fuck about it.
Speaker 3: But still still out Yes, what you are saying is
Speaker 3: one hundred percent right. Still, the rule applies across the board.
Speaker 3: It may not be it is different, it is different,
Speaker 3: but the rule generally applies across the board that you
Speaker 3: have to be careful when you start speaking on social media.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 3: And there have been some situations in my life, your life,
Speaker 3: a lot of it, where we probably would do things
Speaker 3: differently from how you know, however we reacted on social
Speaker 3: media or how we responded. There are times when you
Speaker 3: post things right, and I'm times these are public issues.
Speaker 3: It doesn't matter. My opinion of these things is who cares? Right,
Speaker 3: Nobody but our little followers care about my opinion. And
Speaker 3: I get ready to write back to you my opinion,
Speaker 3: and then I realized I could just text you and
Speaker 3: tell you that right, or I get ready.
Speaker 1: And it happens with a lot of the people.
Speaker 3: Sometimes you do, like with the situation where ha King
Speaker 3: I dropped a very non confrontational perspective in his comments
Speaker 3: just so that it could broad into convo.
Speaker 1: And you know, and it's cool.
Speaker 2: God love needed.
Speaker 3: Sometimes when y'all my brothers be posting ship and I
Speaker 3: be pissed, like, I don't know. Angelo posted something one
Speaker 3: day about relationships or women or some shit, and I
Speaker 3: broke back, like and I thought about it, and I
Speaker 3: deleted it immediately because one of the things that I
Speaker 3: realized is that and this is a different this is
Speaker 3: a different conversation. It's one I couldn't I can text him.
Speaker 3: But two, what it does is open up the arena
Speaker 3: for the or the floodgates for people to feel like
Speaker 3: there's dissension in my organization with my friends and people
Speaker 3: that I'm close to.
Speaker 2: And I can't your voice attack them. People will utilize
Speaker 2: your voice, your taxing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's too dangerous, like our work is. It's literally dangerous.
Speaker 3: I'm talking about life threatening danger when people feel that
Speaker 3: they can see something, because then then then they become.
Speaker 1: Infiltrated and attack you and are to harm you exactly.
Speaker 2: Ride and come there we go. And with that said,
Speaker 2: lead the acts.
Speaker 1: Delete everything.
Speaker 3: I wouldn't get on a thread if they pay me,
Speaker 3: I won't get on those threads.
Speaker 2: I never like threads. Is just you can put your
Speaker 2: thoughts and people comment. You put ship up there that
Speaker 2: you're thinking and get a whole thread of people. It's cool.
Speaker 2: It's just a threatening you know. It ain't that conversation.
Speaker 3: You know, maybe one day in life, but right now,
Speaker 3: I'm gonna let y'all have that. Yeah, I just I mean,
Speaker 3: I have too much social media already.
Speaker 2: Once in a while I might write something there. For
Speaker 2: the most part, it ain't gonna be a thing. It's
Speaker 2: it's gonna be like I did Twitter. Twitter wasn't something that.
Speaker 3: I kind of thing put on Twitter and learn that
Speaker 3: once you go on there, you have to commit to
Speaker 3: fighting literally physically fighting.
Speaker 2: Was there to fight though, That's the only reason I
Speaker 2: went to Twitter.
Speaker 3: I went there because to say you know what, you
Speaker 3: ended up having to come back to me and say,
Speaker 3: you know what, you was right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I went there to fight, though I definitely
Speaker 2: went there to fight. I went there fist the cuffs
Speaker 2: balled up, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but you know whatever, whatever.
Speaker 2: Thank y'all for being tuning in to Street Politicians. We
Speaker 2: love y'all for making us the number one show in
Speaker 2: the world. We appreciate y'all. You have any ideas, critiques, anything,
Speaker 2: hit us as Street Politicians pod Let us know what
Speaker 2: you want to hear, who you want to see, give
Speaker 2: us some ideas for topics everything. We love y'all and
Speaker 2: we appreciate y'all. And as always, I'm not gonna always
Speaker 2: be right to me. It's not gonna always be wrong,
Speaker 2: but we will both always and I mean always, be authentic.
Speaker 3: List to Street Politicians on the Black Effect Network on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: And catch us every single Wednesday for the video version
Speaker 2: of Street Politicians on iwomen dot TV.
Speaker 1: That's how we own it.