Speaker 1: You're listening and waiting on reparations production of iHeart Radio.
Speaker 1: This means a point point go support man other way
Speaker 1: from Kenosha, Wisconsin over there to Portland. It's Athens, Shorgeia.
Speaker 1: We were importing in. We got to be out here
Speaker 1: marching the importing man doing it. I'm important these ideas
Speaker 1: to all the people who have such fear from the
Speaker 1: cops when they come near with the gun. Strong. But
Speaker 1: it's okay because I'm gonna tell them, get up off
Speaker 1: of my lawn, get a buffer by law, and I'm
Speaker 1: taking your back. You don't listen to them, and they're
Speaker 1: shooting you in the back of like funk that, and
Speaker 1: you know I'm about to attack. I'm about to go
Speaker 1: and just dunk on them like our name was Shock
Speaker 1: and this is not basketball and make a fall when
Speaker 1: they got to grab the fucking phone and call them
Speaker 1: black carrot. You about to raise a red Harry. And
Speaker 1: now I'm about to go and just show you that
Speaker 1: I'm piercing because I'm the dope knife and this is
Speaker 1: Lingua rank everybody coming, thank God when I come up
Speaker 1: in the place. So yeah, I'm about to hit you
Speaker 1: in the face, make you feel like you're a lazer.
Speaker 1: I'm more lazy on the feat when I slightly haven't
Speaker 1: done it lately. It's all right because I'm skate team
Speaker 1: so smoothly. She's skate teas all these motherfucker's seat he
Speaker 1: hate team. Now I gotta show you how we're about
Speaker 1: to do the late thing. Get up on the microphone
Speaker 1: recording late at night. Everybody know we be the illest
Speaker 1: with the mic device and we hold it down. We're
Speaker 1: coming around with that bomb fast. Motherfucker's get on the mic.
Speaker 1: Listen to our podcast. You better call us god fast
Speaker 1: because I got robs in it. Out last something that salvageable,
Speaker 1: like the first part I did, hold the whole first two.
Speaker 1: Whole first two was fine. Okay, we are waiting onations. Hurry,
Speaker 1: So how's everybody doing out there? Can hear? You'll give
Speaker 1: you three seconds. It feels like the nap thing to ask, like,
Speaker 1: you know, now that we're getting the groove of it,
Speaker 1: you know, I got my sunglasses on at night, I
Speaker 1: feel like I should like break the freestyle with, Hey,
Speaker 1: how's everybody doing out there? I said, how's everybody doing
Speaker 1: out there? You know? Oh man, don't get me reminded
Speaker 1: about being on stage. I know, I know, I know,
Speaker 1: I know. So how was your week? It's good. I
Speaker 1: actually just got back from a rally in solidarity with
Speaker 1: Jacob Blake, who we're going to talk about a little
Speaker 1: bit today at City Hall. About a hundred people showed out,
Speaker 1: and we kind of put it together pretty last minute,
Speaker 1: I mean, because this is like breaking news. Um. There
Speaker 1: were like four counter protesters. There were wearing maga hats, um,
Speaker 1: no maga hats that didn't have Jesus related signs, and
Speaker 1: one of them kept yelling like y'all, Like what was
Speaker 1: he saying? It was like black babies don't matter, that's
Speaker 1: why y'all support abortion. And they called me out by
Speaker 1: name on some ship, but we were like just chanting,
Speaker 1: like chanting too loud for anyone to actually hear them.
Speaker 1: That allortion one actually might be fresh in their head
Speaker 1: because the Republican National Convention things going on right now,
Speaker 1: and they had this anti abortion lady who was talking
Speaker 1: about how plant parenthood was racist, eugenics campaign to destroy
Speaker 1: the black community and stuff. Yeah, because you know, the
Speaker 1: maggots are the most concerned with what's going on in
Speaker 1: the black community. But that's I've been, you know, doing
Speaker 1: my political junkie thing and watching the these conventions and
Speaker 1: the coverage and analysis and stuff like that. Just say,
Speaker 1: it's very difficult to do. But I've been doing it
Speaker 1: since I was like sixteen, so I might as well
Speaker 1: just keep tradition going. But it's sucking, yo. I mean
Speaker 1: we were talking about a little bit earlier. But people
Speaker 1: who were you know, I guess of the left persuasion,
Speaker 1: it would serve them well to not completely be in
Speaker 1: the dark about what's going on on the other side
Speaker 1: because they're fucking nuts. I mean, that ship is like
Speaker 1: fucking trap music for white people. Yo. They are just
Speaker 1: soaking it up and reveling in some pretty ugly stuff
Speaker 1: over there. But um, speaking of ugly stuff, the shooting
Speaker 1: at Jacob Blake. Yeah, let's go ahead and get into
Speaker 1: some of that. So on Sunday, uh, as many of
Speaker 1: us know by now, twenty nine year old father Jacob
Speaker 1: Blake's breaking up a fight in this neighborhood and Conoshal, Wisconsin.
Speaker 1: When the cops arrived on scene, and subsequently social media
Speaker 1: video circulated of Blake walking away from the cops, who
Speaker 1: had their guns drawn while attempting to get into his vehicle,
Speaker 1: and the cop pulled on the back of his shirt
Speaker 1: and fired his gun seven times, point blank into Blake's back.
Speaker 1: Three of his kids were in the car when the
Speaker 1: shooting occurred, and in fact, it was one of the
Speaker 1: children's birthday. Seeing that on your birthday, that's gonna Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's gonna change that child's life forever. I mean yeah, forever. Ever,
Speaker 1: straight up traumatized. I mean, how do you feel that
Speaker 1: the whole thing terrible? I mean, I know it's it's
Speaker 1: like another one in a long string of cases. But
Speaker 1: does this strike you in any particular way at the
Speaker 1: same time, Like, I feel like, you know what happened
Speaker 1: if Jacob is terrible, and I'm really glad that he's okay,
Speaker 1: even though he is less on the ways down from
Speaker 1: what I've heard. Um, Like, this kind of has to
Speaker 1: keep happening in order for people to continue to push.
Speaker 1: Like there was a really big explosion of energy earlier
Speaker 1: in the summer. In some places it's been sustained through
Speaker 1: the summer, and other places they've taken early losses and
Speaker 1: kind of picked up their ball and gone home. In
Speaker 1: places like Athens, for example, where people feel kind of
Speaker 1: discouraged when their initial efforts were thwarted by some of
Speaker 1: their city officials, etcetera. Um, And so I'm glad people
Speaker 1: are back in the streets. I'm glad people are margining
Speaker 1: and protesting and you know, taking up this mantle again.
Speaker 1: It's so sad it takes this to happen for us.
Speaker 1: You get back that out there and keep fighting. But
Speaker 1: maybe it has to be this way. There are martyrs
Speaker 1: for the cause of drawing people's attention to the the
Speaker 1: deeply just deep down in its core, rotten nous of
Speaker 1: our system of policing. I just don't understand if you're
Speaker 1: gonna be that scared of ship, Like why are you
Speaker 1: even a cop in the first place, Like, I mean,
Speaker 1: the police job is supposed to be. Is it a
Speaker 1: thirst for violence? I really know. I think it's like
Speaker 1: if you want to be treated as a hero, then
Speaker 1: the whole thing about it is that you're like not
Speaker 1: supposed to react like a normal motherfucker with the situation.
Speaker 1: You know, like your job is supposed to be to
Speaker 1: risk your life, to protect everybody, that risk everybody's life,
Speaker 1: protect yourself, Like like I mean, obviously we don't know
Speaker 1: why the cops had their guns drawn in the first place,
Speaker 1: but it doesn't matter. Why do you have fucking guns drawn? Like, like,
Speaker 1: I mean, there's just there's no there's no explanation that
Speaker 1: could come out of it that justifies shooting somebody seven
Speaker 1: times in the back. There's nothing. Nothing. Even if they
Speaker 1: were to say, like we were afraid that he was
Speaker 1: reaching into his car to get a gun, it's like,
Speaker 1: then fucking get shot. You signed up for this job.
Speaker 1: I mean, you signed up for this job to put
Speaker 1: your life on the line for the citizenry of Kenosha wherever.
Speaker 1: Like why, Like I don't understand. It's ill. How when
Speaker 1: when you don't want the motherfucker's to use any for us,
Speaker 1: then they're beating people's ass. Yeah, when they should just
Speaker 1: beat somebody's ass or rough them up, they're shooting them
Speaker 1: seven times, you know. I mean, it's like, what the
Speaker 1: there's never like, there's never like proportionate for It's never
Speaker 1: a proportionate I mean, like, in all honesty, if that
Speaker 1: had been hey don't go to your car, Hey, don't
Speaker 1: go to your car, and then they grab them and
Speaker 1: stopping him from getting getting his car, we're having a
Speaker 1: completely different conversation right now, completely different conversation, and somebody's
Speaker 1: not paralyzed from the waist down. And I mean, I
Speaker 1: hope he gets a grip of money from those motherfucker's,
Speaker 1: you know. But when he does get a grip of
Speaker 1: money from those motherfucker's, it's gonna come out of the
Speaker 1: city's budget that could be otherwise spent. It's not gonna
Speaker 1: come out of the police pension. It's not gonna come
Speaker 1: out of the police budget. Is going to come out
Speaker 1: of their general fund um that could otherwise have been
Speaker 1: spent on youth development programming, on cultivating community gardens. And
Speaker 1: so that's problem with I mean, like, yes, get the money,
Speaker 1: but like we gotta fix the way that city governments
Speaker 1: do that ship too, Like the Kenosho City Council. Whoever,
Speaker 1: when when they paid out that money for Jacob Blake,
Speaker 1: they need to take it out of the police budget
Speaker 1: or the police pension. Well, we talked in a earlier
Speaker 1: episode and I kind of mentioned how just personally I
Speaker 1: didn't think that defund the police was necessarily the best
Speaker 1: slogan as it were. But if you want like an
Speaker 1: idea that I think a majority of people could get,
Speaker 1: get you know easily get on board for as if
Speaker 1: you make when cops get sued for misconduct and stuff
Speaker 1: and police departments get sued if it comes out of
Speaker 1: their pension, like more like that'd be like if you'll
Speaker 1: suck around one more time, like if something like that,
Speaker 1: if something like that did pass, watch how quick stuff
Speaker 1: would be. They'd be more hesitant to pull out their
Speaker 1: gun on somebody. So in response, connotions took to the streets,
Speaker 1: knocking an officer at the scene of a shooting out
Speaker 1: with a brick to the head, arching on, breaking into
Speaker 1: the police department and ransacking it, setting fire to the
Speaker 1: county courthouse, as well as a garbage truck that have
Speaker 1: been positioned as a barricade. UM. I believe it later
Speaker 1: exploded um in addition to several dozen cars at at
Speaker 1: least one auto dealership. And that was just Sunday night, Okay,
Speaker 1: So Monday night protests continued with about a thousand, two
Speaker 1: thousand people taking to the streets, setting fire to the
Speaker 1: Department of Corrections, provoking cops to deploy tear gas second
Speaker 1: night in a row to disburse the crowd. Echoing seems familiar.
Speaker 1: As protests reached their ninetieth Day. Yeah, I saw at
Speaker 1: least one Portland based organizer tweet out for weeks people
Speaker 1: all of the world marched in solidarity with Portland. Tonight,
Speaker 1: Portland marches with Kenosha, which brings us to our topic
Speaker 1: of today, Portland, Oregon. Portland quickly blew up and somewhat
Speaker 1: faded from the national consciousness as earlier the summer they
Speaker 1: fitted off federal troops deployed there to quell the uprising.
Speaker 1: But we're left with some lingering questions, particularly what is
Speaker 1: really at the root of the Portland protests, How does
Speaker 1: Portland hip hop community feel about the Portland uprising, and
Speaker 1: how has it taken part and a little bit we're
Speaker 1: gonna be talking with Max Smith, Portland based hip hop
Speaker 1: journalists and police abolitionists. But first some background in the
Speaker 1: Portland City Council budget talks of the summer, and some
Speaker 1: lessons other municipalities can gain from the work they've done.
Speaker 1: Their work. Many would argue still have a long way
Speaker 1: to go to Portland's seventies percent white, but it's no
Speaker 1: stranger to cops gutting down black Portlanders in the last decade.
Speaker 1: Former Portland in a CP president and the first ever
Speaker 1: black women elected to the Portland City Council. Commissioners Joe
Speaker 1: and hard to See called out white Portlanders for their
Speaker 1: silence around the slayings of Kendrick James in two thousand
Speaker 1: and three, Aaron Campbell in two thousand and ten, and
Speaker 1: other black residents in recent years. Now mid that silence.
Speaker 1: The Portland Police Bureau's budget has gone from two hundred
Speaker 1: and fourteen point nine million in two thousand seventeen to
Speaker 1: two hundred and thirty one point six million twenty eighteen
Speaker 1: to two hundred and forty one point five million twenty nineteen.
Speaker 1: In May, the Portland City Council unanimously approved the city
Speaker 1: budget that included amendments allocating six hundred thirty three thousand
Speaker 1: dollars to the Portland Street Fund, a city contract police
Speaker 1: alternative that we'll talk about a little bit later, as
Speaker 1: well as five hundred and forty seven thousand dollars in
Speaker 1: local cannabis tax dollars to fund social equity grants. Together,
Speaker 1: fire and police makeup about six of the half a
Speaker 1: billion dollars city budget. But then just a couple of
Speaker 1: days later after they approved this initial budget, the uprising
Speaker 1: began costing them word to go back to the negotiating
Speaker 1: table and trying to meet public demands, which at the
Speaker 1: time community consensus was a call for a fifty million
Speaker 1: reduction in their children forty something million dollar police budget.
Speaker 1: On the second go around, the Portland City Council passed
Speaker 1: a budget that redirected more than fifty million dollars from
Speaker 1: the police bureau to other city programs and initiatives. The
Speaker 1: cuts included disbanding police units that work in schools, that
Speaker 1: investigate gun violence, and those that patrol the regional public
Speaker 1: transit system, bringing the police budget down to about two
Speaker 1: d million dollars. Now that reduction on police that investigated
Speaker 1: gun violence, is that necessarily a good thing, though, so
Speaker 1: I believe. I read that they had done an audit
Speaker 1: of the work that this task course had under undertaken
Speaker 1: in recent years and found that, you know, it was
Speaker 1: over policing black Portland, it was discriminatory. And so I mean, sure,
Speaker 1: investigate gun violence generally, but if the system you have
Speaker 1: in place isn't working and echoes calls that you know
Speaker 1: have been become common across the country at this point,
Speaker 1: that you disband the rotten system and put something new
Speaker 1: in place that actually gets the work done. So from
Speaker 1: the way that you're talking about, it sounds like it
Speaker 1: might have been one of those like rogue you know,
Speaker 1: rogue units that they create, like the crash unit in
Speaker 1: l A that went rogue, and it was pretty much
Speaker 1: being drug dealers themselves, like pretty much just abusing the
Speaker 1: part when you have these little you know, special task
Speaker 1: force within police departments and they have like special powers
Speaker 1: and special you know privileges that kind of get away
Speaker 1: with things and then start going overboard with us. So
Speaker 1: I would argue that in this case, it's not even
Speaker 1: going rogue enacting what police departments do effectively, but when
Speaker 1: you actually like get into the data of that looks
Speaker 1: like on the department department or you know, are they
Speaker 1: actually are they actually stop? Yeah, so um complicated vote.
Speaker 1: You know, some folks that research and our practitioners and
Speaker 1: alternatives to policing have found that with particularly gang violence,
Speaker 1: having um former gang members mediate gang conflicts as a
Speaker 1: way is can be a very effective way of like
Speaker 1: producing at least gang related gun violence. And so there's
Speaker 1: alternatives that exist that maybe can get funded in their
Speaker 1: next year's budget. But I think cracking down on in
Speaker 1: like you know, wiping out uh sub department that's not
Speaker 1: working like kindative is in line with this abolitionist way
Speaker 1: of that is resting all across the country anyway. So
Speaker 1: Commissioner Hardesty had harsh words for the folks who have
Speaker 1: said it isn't enough. I want you to know that
Speaker 1: it is not appropriate for you to say that I
Speaker 1: have not gone far enough. She said, you don't know
Speaker 1: the shoes that I've walked in for over the thirty
Speaker 1: years that I've lived in Portland. And I understand where
Speaker 1: she's coming from. I mean, cop between the seemingly utopian
Speaker 1: demands if a radicalized public and the dead end realities
Speaker 1: of governance, like when you like the police of the
Speaker 1: police to bureau is going to argue that every single
Speaker 1: dime they get is essential and that there can't be
Speaker 1: any budget cuts anywhere. And so that's the nature of
Speaker 1: like most government agencies. They're gonna they're going to argue
Speaker 1: for their survival by any means necessary. And so it
Speaker 1: it hinders our ability to think critically and creatively about
Speaker 1: where cuts are possible, because if someone's telling you, if
Speaker 1: you're asking supposedly the experts on how a department is run,
Speaker 1: where can we cut the fat? And they're not giving
Speaker 1: you anything, Like you're not the expert. How are you
Speaker 1: supposed to know? Like how are you supposed to call
Speaker 1: them bullshit? And so I run into issues like that
Speaker 1: all the times, where like the framing of the debate
Speaker 1: of what is possible, Like like we we turn to
Speaker 1: these experts, these engineers, these you know, traffic designers, these
Speaker 1: steward experts, and you you like want to like rely
Speaker 1: on their expertise, but you don't know, um uh, you
Speaker 1: don't have any specific what do you can talk about?
Speaker 1: Do you specific example? I mean like, um, I mean
Speaker 1: the police department here? Yeah, fucking police department here. Um.
Speaker 1: When we're designing anything from like sidewalks, you're leaning on
Speaker 1: the expertise quote unquote of like these uh design contractors, etcetera.
Speaker 1: Like I don't have a background of that. I have
Speaker 1: to most of the time trust that their calculations and
Speaker 1: their estimates and they're all that stuff is you know,
Speaker 1: informed by you know, is data driven and informed by
Speaker 1: like really robust educational background. But what if they're fucking around?
Speaker 1: What if they're fucking line to mean, what are they
Speaker 1: funk about? To me about how much sidewalk costs. How
Speaker 1: might I supposed to another line to me about how
Speaker 1: much the sidewalk costs. And so you know, that's what
Speaker 1: we run into all the time with civil servants that
Speaker 1: have to be these jack of all trades for this
Speaker 1: variety of kinds of public good the government is in
Speaker 1: charge of delivering. So let's talk a little bit about
Speaker 1: Portland Street Response. Yeah, so they up their investment in
Speaker 1: their police alternative program in the Portland Street Response to
Speaker 1: four point eight million in this revised budget. Now. PSR
Speaker 1: is modeled after a program in Eugene, Oregon known as
Speaker 1: CAHOOTS or Crisis Assistants Helping Out on Our Streets, which
Speaker 1: is run by um an organization called the White Bird Clinic.
Speaker 1: So Whitebird Clinic launched CAHOOTS as a community policing initiative
Speaker 1: in That's all right, thirty one years ago, before we
Speaker 1: were even having this conversation in the main stream, the
Speaker 1: HOOTS was operating as a police alternative that the city
Speaker 1: contracts with the handle crisis related to homelessness, intoxication, and
Speaker 1: substance abuse. The program mobilizes two person teams consisting of
Speaker 1: a medic there's a paramedic getting at something like that
Speaker 1: um as well as a crisis worker who has to
Speaker 1: stand till training and experience in the mental health field.
Speaker 1: The COHOPS teams deal with a wide range of mental
Speaker 1: health related crises, anything from conflict the resolution the substance abuse,
Speaker 1: to welfare checks, suicide threats, and more, reling on a
Speaker 1: trauma informed de escalation and harm reduction technique. Now, according
Speaker 1: to the newspaper The Oregonian, CAHOOTS, the o G version
Speaker 1: of PSR fields about of all calls to nine one
Speaker 1: one another non emergency lines to the Greater Eugene, Oregon
Speaker 1: area in two thousand eighteen. Of the twenty two thousand
Speaker 1: calls the CAHOOTS responded to, less than a hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty led to CAHOOTS requesting police for backup. Program leaders
Speaker 1: estimated that it saves the city of Eugene seven million
Speaker 1: dollars annually in medical costs and an estimated eight point
Speaker 1: five million dollars in public spending every single year because
Speaker 1: so many of the people that the non police teams
Speaker 1: help would otherwise end up in emergency rooms or you know,
Speaker 1: in jail. So how so that's been going on for
Speaker 1: a while. Thirty one years they've been doing it in
Speaker 1: Eugene and I'm not sure how recently they piloted it
Speaker 1: in UM in Portland the PSR version that's sort of
Speaker 1: modeled after cahoots. But uh, with the additional funding that
Speaker 1: was approved for it in their second round of their
Speaker 1: budget talks, they're able to to like spread it out
Speaker 1: over wider area in the city UM And uh, yeah, well,
Speaker 1: I mean that's that's interesting. I wonder if the police
Speaker 1: backup comes with them on the scene or if it's requested,
Speaker 1: like after they got check out after Okay, I was
Speaker 1: I think I was reading or watching something with someone
Speaker 1: who was a social worker who that they were talking
Speaker 1: about defunding the police, and they were making that case
Speaker 1: that they were like, well, would I be able to
Speaker 1: have back up with me just in case I needed it?
Speaker 1: Because they were talking about how domestic domestic disputes usually
Speaker 1: kind of do end with violence that they might Yeah.
Speaker 1: So the way it works here, we have mental health
Speaker 1: UM response teams that consist of a mental health professional
Speaker 1: and a police officer that are floyd when there's suicide
Speaker 1: threats or someone having some sort of mental health breakdown.
Speaker 1: Our crisis and that model is okay. But like if
Speaker 1: I am on the verge of killing myself and the
Speaker 1: cops show up, it's like, that's a perfect I'm going
Speaker 1: to provoke that motherfucker so that he'll shoot me and
Speaker 1: it's suicide by cop. We've had that. I mean, we've
Speaker 1: had people, you know, like one of the police murders
Speaker 1: that happened last year, a gentleman had a knife and
Speaker 1: he was shouting at the cops to do it, do it,
Speaker 1: do it, and they did it, and they fucking shot
Speaker 1: him dead. And so I mean the way that armed
Speaker 1: response if any kind, escalates these kinds of situations, you know,
Speaker 1: weighing that against yeah, what does what happens if it
Speaker 1: does escalate. But in the case of who it's twenty
Speaker 1: calls only a fifties, they need to call armed back
Speaker 1: up and they were able to, you know, non violently.
Speaker 1: Otherwise the escalate the situation. Um. So, I think this
Speaker 1: is a really interesting example of expanding specialized responses to crises.
Speaker 1: What police abolition could look like is piloting more and
Speaker 1: more programs like these, tailored let's say, to domestic violence
Speaker 1: or disputes, hiring former gang members, I go saying earlier
Speaker 1: to de escalate gun conflicts until you've got this really
Speaker 1: wide umbrella of crisis responses, in addition to, of course,
Speaker 1: full funding for social services that help curb crimes of survival.
Speaker 1: This month, Oregon Senator Ron Wyden has recently proposed a
Speaker 1: national alternative to using police's first responders to mental health crisis.
Speaker 1: The Cahoots Act is modeled after Eugene's eponymous program and
Speaker 1: would provide medicaid match for local municipalities across the nation
Speaker 1: that implements such program. Too bad they haven't expanded medicaid
Speaker 1: in Georgia. Fucked again. Portland has surpass us it's eightieth
Speaker 1: day of continuous protests since the George Floyd uprising began
Speaker 1: in May. And today we're joined by Max Smith, Portland
Speaker 1: hip hop journalists and promoter, an advocate for defunding and
Speaker 1: abolishing the Portland Police Bureau. You're gonna talk to us
Speaker 1: a little bit about the Portland hip hop scene and
Speaker 1: its role in the uprising. There, Mac tell us a
Speaker 1: little bit about who you are and how you got
Speaker 1: where you are today, particularly your involvement in the Pacific
Speaker 1: Northwest hip hop scene through projects like The Thesis and
Speaker 1: We out Here Magazine. Yeah, I'm Max Smith. Um, I'm
Speaker 1: a dad. I feel a concerts here called the Thesis,
Speaker 1: and I've run We out Here magazine, which is an
Speaker 1: online blog that focuses on hip hop culture for the
Speaker 1: last think it or so, Um I've been I thought
Speaker 1: what the Thesis for about five years until the COVID hit.
Speaker 1: We had five years traded concerts and and most of
Speaker 1: the things I do, the goal is to not really
Speaker 1: become like a big corporation or a big you know,
Speaker 1: a big organization, but rather to just try and bring
Speaker 1: in profit or money and then it spread that throughout
Speaker 1: our community. So like with a Thesis, it's a concert
Speaker 1: that's completely um fueled by a door fees and so
Speaker 1: it's a really no frills, no guest list type of
Speaker 1: event that actually has a lot of of culture and
Speaker 1: art involved in it. And we ensure that all the
Speaker 1: artists are are are paid and so there's no money
Speaker 1: that goes back to anybody. It just all goes to
Speaker 1: the artists. So in most of the projects that I
Speaker 1: work on, they kind of work in that way where
Speaker 1: it generates income for people who are doing the work
Speaker 1: and minimizes the incomfortable that are organizing. So with that,
Speaker 1: um coming into this, all of this um protests life,
Speaker 1: I'm no stranger to dealing with the police and dealing
Speaker 1: with the different city organizations that kind of have have
Speaker 1: worked to oppress so over the years to just based
Speaker 1: on working in music, not being a person that that
Speaker 1: coordinate with the police has always been a thing in
Speaker 1: my life. So UM, as this came up, I kind
Speaker 1: of had a position already in that regard and people
Speaker 1: already knew me in that regard, so um that allowed
Speaker 1: me to do the work pretty well. How often have
Speaker 1: you been out in the streets since everything started going
Speaker 1: down and what type of things if you witnessed out there? UM,
Speaker 1: I would probably say, without saying too much, I'm probably
Speaker 1: out of the nights that we're out. Um the nights
Speaker 1: I'm out. Um. All the work though, isn't done at
Speaker 1: night at the protests, you know though, that's I think
Speaker 1: a big thing to keep in mind that with the
Speaker 1: protests being there, you know, the physical portion of being
Speaker 1: there with the police and all that, that's really just
Speaker 1: a small part of the protests. So I mean, realistically,
Speaker 1: I'm active every day, is there is there anything in
Speaker 1: particular that you see that's kind of being misrepresented about
Speaker 1: the protests just in the broader national media. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a that's a deep one. Um. Pretty much everything
Speaker 1: is being is being misconstrued about the protests. I mean,
Speaker 1: from who's protesting to what we're protesting for. Um, it's
Speaker 1: all been misconstrued. So when you think about it, this
Speaker 1: is a protest of Portland, Oregon, a majority white city
Speaker 1: where you have a lot of people all banding together
Speaker 1: two to dismantle the police, um as they exist here.
Speaker 1: So that's really the purpose of what we're here to
Speaker 1: protest for. And UM, that's that's rarely represented in the
Speaker 1: in the main media. I mean they're almost always just
Speaker 1: saying that we're here for black lives matter, We're here
Speaker 1: for um, you know, education reform, we're here for financial reasons,
Speaker 1: and we're not We're here to disband the police and
Speaker 1: and use that money for our communities. UM. I think
Speaker 1: that's that's probably the main thing. The other thing that's
Speaker 1: often misconstrued is that is who's running the protest, and
Speaker 1: really it's a really multicultural assortment of people who are
Speaker 1: into this. UM. But there's this idea that it's being
Speaker 1: fueled by like Antifa, white kids who are definitely out
Speaker 1: there part of the collective, But that's not the whole
Speaker 1: story by any means. Um. There's also a lot of
Speaker 1: stories about the violence that occurs. And um, the same
Speaker 1: thing kind of happened in Seattle where people who really
Speaker 1: weren't a part of the protests started doing crazy stuff
Speaker 1: and then the police blame on the protest. So there's
Speaker 1: a lot of that currently going on. And also they're
Speaker 1: not talking about how we're being repeatedly attacked by white
Speaker 1: supremacist in the streets and the police student do nothing
Speaker 1: about it. In fact, a lot of them areful there
Speaker 1: were shots fired. I actually had a bomb with the
Speaker 1: recently and then and yeah, and so I follow a
Speaker 1: lot of independent Portland journalists who cover that kind of thing.
Speaker 1: But that's not the type of thing you see on CNN,
Speaker 1: not at all. Is the no. No is the protesters
Speaker 1: defending themselves or they latch onto property damage and things
Speaker 1: like that, rather than right the lives that are at stake.
Speaker 1: When someone tries to drive their truck there a crowd. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and that's and that's factual. That's factual. Um, that's what
Speaker 1: they do. They allow these this violence to occur on
Speaker 1: one side, and then they and then they on the
Speaker 1: other side. They just don't even talk about it that
Speaker 1: I think it's not even happening. It seems like there's
Speaker 1: almost like an effort to push the narrative that there's
Speaker 1: not many black voices that are behind the protests. Why
Speaker 1: do you think that is? Yeah, yeah, definitely. I mean
Speaker 1: all of the attempts to change the narrative of what
Speaker 1: the protests are about or who is behind it, I
Speaker 1: believe are coordinated. I don't believe any of it's accidental. Um,
Speaker 1: that's not how these things work. People don't just start
Speaker 1: saying I'm going to go to the protest every single
Speaker 1: day and cause problems like why would you do that?
Speaker 1: You know what I mean? So I definitely think there's
Speaker 1: coordination on all levels of it. Um. I think there's
Speaker 1: coordination to try and change the narrative of who is
Speaker 1: doing what and and also who's in charge of what,
Speaker 1: because in real this is a very natural organic grassroot,
Speaker 1: this thing that's occurring here. There's no one saying, hey,
Speaker 1: we're gonna meet every day at this place, and that's
Speaker 1: what happens. It's literally people just deciding and going to
Speaker 1: spot and that's why you're seeing protests, which they also
Speaker 1: don't talk about. You see protests in different parts of
Speaker 1: town every day, so the protestings aren't aren't huge, but
Speaker 1: there's also like there might be thirty people at the
Speaker 1: police station in the north, a hundred and fifty people
Speaker 1: at the union office, and there might be another fifty
Speaker 1: five people somewhere else that you know, a county building
Speaker 1: of protesting and the police are dealing with all of
Speaker 1: that as a result instead of just disbanding and and
Speaker 1: re building. Can you talk to us a little bit
Speaker 1: about some of the behind the scenes organizing that goes
Speaker 1: on that doesn't catch the eye of the media that
Speaker 1: you were referring to a little bit earlier. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of organizing that occurs in the in
Speaker 1: the form of mutual aid. So that's been that's been
Speaker 1: a huge thing they've also not talked about much in
Speaker 1: the media. And as well as that, they've also used
Speaker 1: um they've also at hacked our mutual aid. So there
Speaker 1: have been a really some really good things. When the
Speaker 1: protests first started and they were going downtown and whatnot,
Speaker 1: especially after the East Side big parades kind of ended. Um,
Speaker 1: there was a lot of mutual aid. A lot of
Speaker 1: actually came out at the big place on the East Side.
Speaker 1: But there were systems that were put in place for
Speaker 1: medical care for the protesters. That's for your charge, uh,
Speaker 1: food around the clock for the protesters, as well as
Speaker 1: the homeless, and the and the and the medal care
Speaker 1: also applied to the homeless. So over the first probably
Speaker 1: a month and a half two months the protests, there
Speaker 1: was a ton of mutual aid. Crime actually dropped around
Speaker 1: the city. UM. And if you don't, if you don't
Speaker 1: I know about I think like sixty percent of our
Speaker 1: emergency calls go to work homeless situation. So when the
Speaker 1: hobo started getting fed every day and eating every day
Speaker 1: off of the donations from you know, just crowdsource the donations, UM,
Speaker 1: that changed a lot, changed a lot, and it changed
Speaker 1: our narrative that this this revolution really one of substances.
Speaker 1: It is one that actually provides for the people where
Speaker 1: the city and the government have not. There's never been
Speaker 1: an end to hunger importland until we started protesting, and
Speaker 1: we end hunger too early, and then we had a
Speaker 1: free healthcare. We in fact, you still have a free
Speaker 1: healthcare athority protest because we have so many doctors and
Speaker 1: nurses and medics that have that are are volunteering that
Speaker 1: they've just organized and created essentially free healthcare. I got
Speaker 1: a shot in the face wearing a face shield and
Speaker 1: unfortunately at a supper day a pretty good nod in
Speaker 1: a concussion. And I didn't get any big, any bill
Speaker 1: for the chief that I got. And other people actually
Speaker 1: shop like with bullets and they've actually pulled bulls out
Speaker 1: of people, so you know, it's it's it's a real thing.
Speaker 1: There's no ambulance views, you know, if they have to
Speaker 1: take you to the hospital. And that's the whole thing
Speaker 1: is like through the struggle, there's a lot of positive
Speaker 1: you know, a lot of positivity that can be enacted.
Speaker 1: It took you know, Obama was elected twelve years ago
Speaker 1: and obviously universal healthcare and and we did it in
Speaker 1: two weeks. So it's really a mental will in a
Speaker 1: manner of saying that if we are resisting, then we
Speaker 1: are resisting everything. And as that grows, start to see
Speaker 1: them attacking our mutual aid. They destroyed riot Race, which
Speaker 1: was lighting the food. They they've tried to to destroy
Speaker 1: the med trucks, the med cards, They've been popping the
Speaker 1: tires on the snap bands, um, all those kind of
Speaker 1: things that libor food and sustenance to the protesters. They've
Speaker 1: attacked all of those things. So that's a really big
Speaker 1: point is that they're they're not attacking those things because attacked,
Speaker 1: but reason they're doing it because they don't want us
Speaker 1: to be independent. Yeah that's right, that's right. Yeah, what
Speaker 1: has what was the mood as the national media at
Speaker 1: the federal jack boots descended upon Portland, and what has
Speaker 1: the mood been since those forces have retreated. I think
Speaker 1: the big thing about the federal occupation was that it
Speaker 1: was really unexpected and it was really violent. Um. I
Speaker 1: really just feel like it was an escalation that was
Speaker 1: intended in order to in order to be able to
Speaker 1: de escalate later to the normal levels of a police
Speaker 1: of violence and be able to consider that to be
Speaker 1: a win. UM. So kind of you know, if someone's
Speaker 1: bullying you and you could playing, they bully you harder
Speaker 1: and then they go back to bullying you, you know
Speaker 1: you normally and you just say that's as close to no, um,
Speaker 1: But that's not something that we're falling for. The mood
Speaker 1: just basically got more aggressive when they came. We just
Speaker 1: became more upset. You know, as they escalated their tactics,
Speaker 1: we escalated our defense tactics. And that's really what the
Speaker 1: mood you know was. They really just got us tighter.
Speaker 1: You know. Well, since the fans have left, a lot
Speaker 1: of the people are out of the battle. You know,
Speaker 1: a lot of people really came out because before the
Speaker 1: fence came, there were a few hundred people every night.
Speaker 1: I've just centered, you know, protesting and get mad whatever else.
Speaker 1: But um, when the fans came there with thousands, everyone's like, no,
Speaker 1: screw that, They're not gonna come occupied, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. So that brought out a different contingent oftentimes. Um,
Speaker 1: and when the fans left a lot of those people
Speaker 1: went home. Okay, we've fought off the fans and we're done.
Speaker 1: So we kind of expected that, like you had to
Speaker 1: expect that drop off. Some people came out because the
Speaker 1: Feds were here that they don't actually have a big
Speaker 1: beef with the police. They might support it, but the
Speaker 1: fans are are I'm going outside. So a lot of
Speaker 1: people now are back in their homes and they're still supporting.
Speaker 1: Some people have states since the fans came because they
Speaker 1: just saw how bad it was and they realized the
Speaker 1: whole game plan. But the the the numbers are lower
Speaker 1: now and at this point right now, UM, we're really
Speaker 1: dealing with a lot of the counter insurgency stuff with um,
Speaker 1: you know, again the protests that are not a part
Speaker 1: of the protests that are attacking people downtown and doing
Speaker 1: things that the nature that get really bad press. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, if you see a black guy downtown and
Speaker 1: he attacks somebody, then all of this and it looks
Speaker 1: like a black you know, Lives Matter protest or whatever
Speaker 1: is doing something. So there's a lot of bad right now.
Speaker 1: And so the the mood right now is very tentative,
Speaker 1: especially with the fact that we have white supremacists coming
Speaker 1: down armed this weekend that they have you know, and
Speaker 1: they did last weekend and shot at people with with
Speaker 1: with a paint balls and plastic balls and pepper balls
Speaker 1: and all kind of other things and bear mason people public.
Speaker 1: So when you have that kind of stuff as well,
Speaker 1: then people start to escalate. So the mood right now
Speaker 1: is very tentative. People aren't sure if they want to
Speaker 1: come against the white supremacists with their own weaponry, or
Speaker 1: are they going to you to be defensive or at
Speaker 1: what point does it escalate to these random citizens are
Speaker 1: shooting at us and we're gonna start shooting them back.
Speaker 1: So there's a lot of questions right now that they're
Speaker 1: going on. There's a lot of conversations about why we're here,
Speaker 1: you know, are we here for a peaceful thing? You know,
Speaker 1: for not a peaceful thing, because there's no justice, so
Speaker 1: there's no peace. But are we here to be non violent?
Speaker 1: Are we here to be aggressors? Are we here to
Speaker 1: push that? So there's a lot of conversation around that,
Speaker 1: and people have different opinions. Obviously, people have different levels
Speaker 1: of hatred for the police. Um I, personally, I am
Speaker 1: not a person that believes in hating people, but we
Speaker 1: definitely don't agree with the system of policing and we're
Speaker 1: definitely remitted to dismantleft by enemy is necessary. So um
Speaker 1: I think there's a lot in there, and there's a
Speaker 1: lot where is it a point where people are really
Speaker 1: are actually wondering what's next? And the mood is very
Speaker 1: very uh, it's it's very tentative. Where do you think
Speaker 1: Portland's unique resiliency in this battle against um, the police
Speaker 1: state comes from. This is Portland's you know, if you've
Speaker 1: ever seen a movie like you know, uh, what's that
Speaker 1: movie where they avery what's called all those movies where
Speaker 1: folks like you know, uh, the terrorists come and and
Speaker 1: the and the and the white man go to the
Speaker 1: mountains and become you know, mountain minute fight back. That's like,
Speaker 1: you know, that's how they think out here. Like you know,
Speaker 1: when the fans come or the government comes for us,
Speaker 1: we're gonna arm up. This is the Northwest. Like guns
Speaker 1: are very easy to get. There's not a whole lot
Speaker 1: of laws about that kind of stuff. You can get
Speaker 1: away with a lot in the Northwest. So there's a
Speaker 1: lot of you know, it's very a pioneer state. UM.
Speaker 1: And over the years they've heard they tried hearts to
Speaker 1: not let the black folks be a part of that,
Speaker 1: but we've become a part of that too. And just
Speaker 1: the culture here in Portland is to always protests. They've
Speaker 1: been calling us a little the bey routs since I
Speaker 1: think the eighties. You know, Um, this is a place
Speaker 1: where if there's injustice, then people hit the streets Director
Speaker 1: of Democracy is a very very real thing here. So
Speaker 1: this is nothing new for us. The duration is new,
Speaker 1: but you gotta keep in mind like we had the
Speaker 1: Occupy a High thing here forever, we had the w
Speaker 1: h O protests, We've had the Trade on Martin protests,
Speaker 1: we had the Donald Trump a protest. We've had I mean,
Speaker 1: I've been in more put the back and I can
Speaker 1: think of I've been a going protests for almost twenty years.
Speaker 1: So this is definitely it's it's it's nothing new. So
Speaker 1: with um Portland's having a lot of protests like that
Speaker 1: is the uh is the hip hop scene politically active
Speaker 1: there as well? A little bit differently seeing here is
Speaker 1: definitely political and that's part of why I've been involved
Speaker 1: for years. We had to fight at the cops here
Speaker 1: a few years ago, I think five or six years ago,
Speaker 1: we had to actually do a bunch of stuff and
Speaker 1: the police were shutting down all the venues. That or
Speaker 1: the police in the five department we're working together with
Speaker 1: with O L's sec fueled the Liquor Commission here to
Speaker 1: shut down hip hop shows, hip hop parties at any
Speaker 1: clubs that played hip hop music. People that wore black
Speaker 1: looking clothes all that stuff. So we had to fight
Speaker 1: a lot of battles with the media and with the
Speaker 1: police and in city hall to try and get this
Speaker 1: stuff done and it hasn't been easy, but we definitely
Speaker 1: are getting it done. So it's so yet the politics
Speaker 1: here in the hip hop scene are definitely evident. All
Speaker 1: the hip hop artists are not into politics, and I
Speaker 1: wouldn't say that, but there's actually definitely a strong um
Speaker 1: hip hop under a current that that follows these protests.
Speaker 1: In fact, like every other Friday or so, there's like
Speaker 1: a hip hop stands up event. It's like a protest
Speaker 1: where there's a concert involving. There's been a lot of
Speaker 1: of of music, especially black music um played here. There's
Speaker 1: artist here named named uh Na a Swiggle Mandela and
Speaker 1: he's got a song called uh Deer Portland Police that
Speaker 1: he put out a few years ago, and it's really
Speaker 1: become like the unofficial anthem of the protest. People just
Speaker 1: walk around with speakers and play on loop and you know,
Speaker 1: during the protests. So and in the Star Wars death
Speaker 1: Mark kind of like our yeah quick aside, every episode
Speaker 1: we do a music discussion and so we'll definitely be
Speaker 1: playing that and uh uh that's acting. That is a
Speaker 1: part of this episode. Anything else, do you want to
Speaker 1: shout out or highlight? Um, while we've got your what
Speaker 1: got you here? I would say, you know, shout out,
Speaker 1: shout out everybody black. I'm rooted for all of us. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, I would definitely say Harris m aggress right.
Speaker 1: You know that being said, I I do think that
Speaker 1: as people, as a people, as black people, UM, we
Speaker 1: definitely oftentimes fall for the performative, you know, and the
Speaker 1: goal of hey we got something, and I think that's
Speaker 1: really been to our detriment historically. So um, you know,
Speaker 1: I know that there's no control over the national politics
Speaker 1: at this level, so you know, I definitely support the
Speaker 1: better of the two evils at this point, I guess.
Speaker 1: But Um, the biggest thing is that here important we
Speaker 1: understand that a democracy can be a direct it can
Speaker 1: happen directly in the streets. Um. We don't have to
Speaker 1: wait for everyone to understand what's going on. We can
Speaker 1: just start teaching them and making the difference to ourselves.
Speaker 1: And that's I think is what makes this whole thing
Speaker 1: here in Portland, this whole revolution here in Portland a
Speaker 1: last so long is that people are seeing the long
Speaker 1: and story and not just you know, getting stuck in
Speaker 1: the day to day. As as long as we can
Speaker 1: do that, then I think it is gonna continue on
Speaker 1: for for quite a while. Well, hey man, thank you
Speaker 1: for taking the time. I'm sorry about the technical difficulties
Speaker 1: at the all right, thank you, all right, we'll happen.
Speaker 1: Good night, Thanks so much. Now let's turn to our
Speaker 1: music discussion for this week, focused on on Portland's hip
Speaker 1: hop artists, particularly who've been involved in the movement there.
Speaker 1: So up first we have artists Swiggle Mandela and his
Speaker 1: track which is part of his Dear series. This one's
Speaker 1: called do you Know Where You At? Has there ever
Speaker 1: even been a governor over a mayor that was black?
Speaker 1: That's definitely got like a really strong, like spoken word vibe. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I like that. I like that. It's a real smooth
Speaker 1: on this rective meditative yeah. Um. It covers a lot
Speaker 1: of issues. Opens with your why Portland, why can't it
Speaker 1: afford a house in Alberta, addressing issues of gentrication and
Speaker 1: rising housing costs. Um. I think it's really interesting, he says,
Speaker 1: how come I couldn't sell weed? But you can kind
Speaker 1: of touching on equity issues in marijuana legalization because of
Speaker 1: prohibition for so many years, was particularly used to target
Speaker 1: black folks. Uh, what happens now that giant you know,
Speaker 1: we entrepreneurs, conglomerates and stuff. Yeah, with their trust fund
Speaker 1: seed money for these giant grow operations are the ones
Speaker 1: that are really cashing in. We're going to change. We're
Speaker 1: going to cover that definitely in our Weed episode. Yes, Um,
Speaker 1: I like the use of breaking up pretty much every
Speaker 1: line with that flow. So like you were saying, it
Speaker 1: has a sort of spoken wordy sort of quality to it,
Speaker 1: and because it has that broken up aspect to it,
Speaker 1: but when a line sticks with you, it really sticks
Speaker 1: because you have that room for it to breathe after
Speaker 1: he says it. So like that part where he was
Speaker 1: like a dear white Portland, why won't you treat me
Speaker 1: like a man, and it just you know, you just
Speaker 1: get the beat playing after he says it, with an
Speaker 1: echoing like, I love that. I love that. So Swiger
Speaker 1: Mandell also, you know, part of his Dear series, this
Speaker 1: is the one um Max Smith was talking about the
Speaker 1: kind of it's become like a protest anthem in the
Speaker 1: streets of Portland. It's called Portland Portland Police. I just
Speaker 1: want my peace. They don't free little swag, keep back
Speaker 1: on the street. Street. They traded and they she stay
Speaker 1: traded and they we don't fun. You don't want to
Speaker 1: beat fucking bangs? Actually, hey, hey dear Portland police. Hey,
Speaker 1: that's cool. That's cool, and I think that so it
Speaker 1: premiered earlier this month and ship bangs. Honestly, I mean
Speaker 1: that's definitely is part of that, uh you know the
Speaker 1: ongoing theme that we're always talking about, which is if
Speaker 1: you have a message and you put it into the
Speaker 1: right rhyme or the right song and right beat, it
Speaker 1: makes them usage just so much more so much more.
Speaker 1: I feel palpable and like translatable, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: I feel like you could put this on for somebody
Speaker 1: who's not even necessarily up to speed of what's going on.
Speaker 1: It's just like your poor little police. You know, there's
Speaker 1: this aesthetic overlap between hip hop and like protest culture
Speaker 1: with like really catchy call it responsor. It's like if
Speaker 1: you can figure out, you know, just how to encapsulate
Speaker 1: something in like three words where that that were like
Speaker 1: that that base is sort of implied and and all,
Speaker 1: like all the weight of the message just behind like
Speaker 1: you know, a simple like slogan. It's so good. Imagine
Speaker 1: what that ship is like when they're like actually bumping
Speaker 1: it like on the street and you're just like surrounded
Speaker 1: by people. Yeah, yo, yo, this is an interesting one.
Speaker 1: So this is Mike Crenshaw, rapper, activist, an educator. He's
Speaker 1: originally from Chicago, but he's been living in Portland since
Speaker 1: the nineties. Now we're gonna listen to a bit of
Speaker 1: his song and then get our reaction to it. But
Speaker 1: I'm going to tell you a little bit more about
Speaker 1: him afterwards because it leads into the artist that we
Speaker 1: have after him. So this is Mike Crenshaw with the
Speaker 1: track heavy Bag. Saw something that always raised this struc
Speaker 1: being totally producted heavy Heavy Bag with this heavy I
Speaker 1: was bumping this like multiple times in the room. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like in a row. The beat is ill. I like
Speaker 1: how in the video he's wrapping this whole verse like
Speaker 1: a a fucking clans dude that you got held up?
Speaker 1: Oh Portland, y'all do that? Y'all got that right there?
Speaker 1: That's a good one. That's a good one. He's the
Speaker 1: founding member of the Anti Racist Action, which is a
Speaker 1: decentralized network of anti fascist and anti racist in North America,
Speaker 1: which has existed from nineteen seven up until two thousand
Speaker 1: and thirteen. Mike Crenshaw worked with a global group of
Speaker 1: artists to found Africa Hip Hop Caravan a mission. Their
Speaker 1: mission is to connect artists across Africa and the dispora
Speaker 1: through annual performance and tours through Eastern Southern Africa. The
Speaker 1: white guy gets to be strong, like yeah, and it heavy.
Speaker 1: And this first guy is Mica Fletcher. He was a
Speaker 1: survivor in the two thousand seventeen Portland train attack. So
Speaker 1: pretty much this white supremacist was on a train and
Speaker 1: he was yelling anti Muslim slurers two teenage black girls,
Speaker 1: and he got confronted by three men and he stabbed
Speaker 1: and killed two of them and stabbed Mica, and Mica
Speaker 1: survived and he teamed up with Mike Crenshaw and they
Speaker 1: recorded this album together as a duo, The Last of
Speaker 1: a Dying Breed. So this is one of the tracks
Speaker 1: from it. Let's listen to Mika's part. I hope I'm
Speaker 1: saying that right. It could be Mica, but his MC
Speaker 1: name is cool chief Rockers, so let's listen to his
Speaker 1: pro every day. Up next, we have C three, the Guru.
Speaker 1: I couldn't find much as far as his music online,
Speaker 1: but he has been a fixture around the protests for
Speaker 1: the last few weeks. He's a performer and activist. Let's
Speaker 1: check out a little clip from him actually on the
Speaker 1: scene and approaches women. We're not going down down, down
Speaker 1: down down. Okay, Okay, that's right. And he's been doing
Speaker 1: that like live on the scene, so you know, I mean,
Speaker 1: it sucks that I couldn't find more of his music.
Speaker 1: I'm sure it's you know, it's probably out there somewhere.
Speaker 1: It just wasn't easy to find and I didn't have
Speaker 1: enough time to find it. But that clip is enough
Speaker 1: to get me to be a fan. And plus C
Speaker 1: in an m C like actually pulled the microphone especially
Speaker 1: you know, if you could find no way to do
Speaker 1: it in these times, you might as well do it
Speaker 1: for a cause of seeing MC like in a crowd
Speaker 1: just getting busy on the mic for like a purpose
Speaker 1: is that's a beautiful, a beautiful thing to see you. Next,
Speaker 1: we got Karma Rivera with Can't trust Now Karma thinks
Speaker 1: joy is essential to keeping everyone engaged in the movement,
Speaker 1: and recently performed at a Black Lives Matter protest organized
Speaker 1: by nonprofit snack Block. Started the set with the song
Speaker 1: Can't Trust, and at first Rivera said that she was
Speaker 1: nervous that it didn't match the serious tone of the protest.
Speaker 1: But as soon as that, as soon as the record dropped,
Speaker 1: it was like everybody's energy change. It went from super
Speaker 1: serious to like everybody's dancing at least, this is what
Speaker 1: she told pops think out loud. Um, that's kind of
Speaker 1: where I fit in, she said. My music isn't overtly political.
Speaker 1: It kind of tends to disregard respectability, politics affairs, using
Speaker 1: music to support local organizers and activists to her building
Speaker 1: spaces where protesters can let loose. It is crucial to
Speaker 1: the Black Lives Matter momentum. Celebrations sustains activism ship and
Speaker 1: that's what I was selling people tonight at the protest downtown. Um.
Speaker 1: It's also it's not just about like lamenting the loss
Speaker 1: of life. It's all about celebrating the lives that were
Speaker 1: lost because they were all beautiful lives. Celebrating the fact
Speaker 1: that Jacob Blake is still alive today celebrating um our power.
Speaker 1: And so I think that non overtly political jams like
Speaker 1: these are very important for the movement. We need to
Speaker 1: sustain our energy. We need to have a little bit
Speaker 1: of fucking fun because this ship is really stressful and depressing,
Speaker 1: and if you're you know, it's good to remind everybody
Speaker 1: that ultimately we're there for like love. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm all about my bread like a methodist. I keep
Speaker 1: the most seen in the messages, and you know I'll
Speaker 1: be looking like the estimate I can't trust. I can't
Speaker 1: trust all about my bread like a methodist. Okay, girl,
Speaker 1: I hear you. It's cool. It's a nice little pop wrap. No,
Speaker 1: it's good to break to break up some of the
Speaker 1: tension and bring some levity in some of these like
Speaker 1: very heavy process. That's interesting thing that she brings up though,
Speaker 1: because especially since I started uh hanging with you and ship,
Speaker 1: I get approach to do events that um just you know,
Speaker 1: things where I personally have to ask myself, well does
Speaker 1: my music fit in at those things? Seems like everyone
Speaker 1: to hear about some some other ship, you know. But
Speaker 1: it was it was cool reading about her saying that
Speaker 1: that sometimes it not even sometimes it's a necessity that
Speaker 1: these things aren't mired in just darkness, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, Like, sometimes you need things to come enlighten.
Speaker 1: The tone in the mood to that put it puts
Speaker 1: everybody in a positive headspace. Yeah, I do. On that note,
Speaker 1: maybe we'll leave everybody with some some flex bars. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: the episode and heard how this ship started. We got
Speaker 1: that into the rab abile. Let's fit. Let's get a
Speaker 1: beat ah ah, waiting a reparaceous Yeah, we're waiting a reparationous,
Speaker 1: so better take a pick up a visis NI can
Speaker 1: get missing in this slericisn't the missrs is freaking ripping?
Speaker 1: It lifted on the slip of the sticky. They call
Speaker 1: me kick a rest for the flow warm of the
Speaker 1: glot or but but chick a resk had his whiskers
Speaker 1: crips and then think us skip them total since a
Speaker 1: fist cross the river six and sist and someone's mike, Kate,
Speaker 1: how my phone to leave your pistol? Win? But I
Speaker 1: ain't trying to kick your kids. I'm just trying to
Speaker 1: elevate you out, like come mine, he might without a
Speaker 1: switching flick flings and all the other witches on the
Speaker 1: quidditch pitcher. It's got nothing to do with fashion, is
Speaker 1: stacking up intimates. It's a prigate ripping Pakistan, and it's
Speaker 1: so syntactically disid it's practically since it's like, what end
Speaker 1: this way? God MC, that could only be one. You
Speaker 1: need run cutter Rapper's hand off and leave him. I'm
Speaker 1: all the power of course. I saw see the beast done.
Speaker 1: I'm a fat rap nut. You ain't even peak. Come
Speaker 1: you see son. You never see sun when you're buried
Speaker 1: beneath dumb if you're skirt of my speech? Ever heard
Speaker 1: of streets that I'll beat from watching Murder? Will beat
Speaker 1: when I heard him season release. Some they just person
Speaker 1: to streets, some emergency kick trito. My chadhood was shaped
Speaker 1: by West Africa Massaca. Now one days it pays if
Speaker 1: your less than half spectacular. The cameras wrappings a stuck
Speaker 1: faster than Dracula are wrapping too. The day that my
Speaker 1: face is packed with the capita. All right, I'm lingo franca,
Speaker 1: I'm dope knife. We're waiting on reparations, see you next week.
Speaker 1: Waiting on reparations, as a production of I heart Radio.
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