Brain Soda Podcast - Episode 37 - Hajj of the Concords

Episode Date: October 14, 2023

On this week's episode we're talking about the Flight of the Concords and Mansa Musa!

all the way live from the Thoma Michigan to Timbuktu. Brain soda. Welcome everybody to the Brain Soda podcast. I, as always, am your host Kyle, joined by my co-host and cohort Brad. How's it going? Today, we're going to be talking about Monsamusa, but first, Brad.

Yes, Kyle. Let me ask you, when it comes to folk rock parody bands, okay, what, what acoustic folk rock parody bands, right, from New Zealand? Who would you think would be like the fourth most popular one? Man, there's just so many. And there's so, you know, I can't, but only the fourth most popular one. Man, there's just so many. And there's so, you know, I can't. But only the fourth most popular.

I couldn't name one of them. I couldn't even name one of them. Well, today we're gonna be talking about just them. Flight of the Concords. All right. I love these guys. Another one, another thing that you introduced me to that I would have never known about

and without you, I'm sure. You know, I, so I won't lie lie man when when I got research to do this I was I was kind of surprised that like it's just this kind of snapshot in time in these guys' career for a certain extent but like at the time when I was the biggest fan of them and they have the most notoriety and kind of cloud in the entertainment business. Like they were just at the end the 10 year run, right? You know what I mean? Like they formed in 1998. It's 2008, 2009 and they're like heavily featured on HBO with that two-season stint and then they just kind of left. Oh yeah. And like I

wanted to talk about them today though because like God man it it was such a fun thing to be able to see their rise. You know what I mean like see them grow from being this alternative comedy act. I guess you could consider them. That kind of rose up through the ranks and became one of the hottest things in comedy. And even to this day, man, when you look at some of the roles and things they're in, in present day, like how much they've still stayed with the zeitgeist too, I think is really interesting, man. So we're gonna have some fun talking about it. Well, yeah. Are they still active? So the most recent thing that they've really done is they had a live in London special,

they did like a two nights in there and they've kind of interminently toured together or done random like three nights sets in places and things like that. And it's just two people right? Yeah, so Brett McKenzie and Dremain Clement from Wellington, New Zealand. It's capital, right? And they originally, like, before they really kind of broke out in the early 2000s, had a pitch to TVNZ, right? So that like New Zealand's BBC, right? You know what I mean? Like, they're domestic television.

Like, BBN. And it was called, it was flight of the Concords, but what essentially it was is they were dropped in as if like into archival footage or parodies of such and then parroting the musical trends of a David Bowie or a Cora famous New Zealand quartet and one of the jokes that I saw them talk about in an interview was Originally they were the sex tat but TV New Zealand didn't want that that word on television So they edited them out. That's that was the premise of the skit, right?

And they're like, still a funny joke, still a funny joke. But, but NZTV did not pick up on that pilot, unfortunately, right? But I do think it was kind of fortunate in the sense that it probably put a bit of drive in these guys. These guys appeared at like just for laughs that year and stuff like that. And let's talk a little bit about like the, these guys. These guys appeared at like just for laughs that year and stuff like that. And

let's let's talk a little bit about like the not themes but like the the kind of presentation of things because they're not doing any one typical genre at any given point more than a song or two really, right? Like, they always have this kind of Wes Anderson awkwardness, flat, you know, almost British style comedy, obviously, right? Like, yeah, they are. I always thought they're British. I didn't know they're New Zealanders. Yeah. And another thing is too is like,

they're humor and wit is so good, but like, they play some funky kind of like you know cowbell funk grooves and stuff like that like like bap bap bap bap like that or it in songs like business time like so yeah I mean it kind of does have that big like want like chunky bass line to it and things like that. But like, I know again, for being guys just from New Zealand. So I do, I do feel like, you know, if you were to see these guys, and even hearing it in some of their crowd banter

in the way they present themselves at times like, it would fit or be fit a West Anderson style film. Really? Is the production up there though? Well, when we're talking about their live stage show even. Yeah, I mean, compared to Gwar, all right. Because Gwar is like one of the most produced. No, it is a super simple two dudes on a stool live show.

That's what I thought. Okay, that's what I thought, huh? Yeah, I'm not saying that. I'm saying, that's what I thought of. Because they're comedians. Like that is the thing about it is unlike a Gore, whatever. You're in this hyper personal situation where you're here with the crowd and you're trying to entertain them and also like get them to rise and be funny and work

a crowd like a comedian does. So they have crowd better than the Demetri Martin. Yeah that is a very good comparative like or I should I say Demetri Martin is like them yeah because you know they're older than him. I would they're from the same era they're from the same era. I would say are they really? I'm not gonna look up when Demetri Martin got started up but I know he's a guy who existed around like the early to mid 2000s. You know what I mean? Like that's enough for me to say yeah. But yes, I would agree. Dimitri Martin kind of has that like off-kilter but slow methodical delivery, right? and very serious demeanor delivery that like makes it work. And it's the same thing with flaila concords where it's like, you just get these kind of

ludicrous ideas or bits and pieces that happen in between songs when they have crowd banter and things like that that just, it makes it work so well, right? Like, the delivery is kind of deadpan, and the humor itself is kind of nuanced, and like, I don't feel like they drop a lot of jokes that people might miss, but they definitely, you know what I mean? Like, they definitely have some nuance to them. There's a little bit of nougat in there.

Yeah, they're more like, a little more, a little more. Yeah, it's a story. They don't tell stories, do they? I mean, it's more like a little more a little more. It's a story. They don't they don't tell stories do they? I mean, it's more like skits still, but The songs themselves are are very reminiscent of skits. No, I won't disagree with that. There is definitely elements of this So one of the things I did want to talk about is they always kept that moniker or New Zealand's fourth most popular folk kept that moniker or New Zealand's fourth most popular folk acoustic folk actor whatever right.

It was just kind of this joke about how absurdly niche their band was as a premise and yet still they could be so lowly and look at unsuccessful or mediocre whatever it be. But like these guys won a Grammy in 2008 and Brett McKenzie goes on to win an Oscar for Manor Muppet from the Muppets films and like he's been involved in several different films really just in general is like a music supervisor what do you think are some key roles that you would know Brett McKenzie from if you never heard of play to the con chords. I have no clue. I don't know. No. Okay. So he actually is in the Lord of the Rings and like all the Habit films. Really? Yeah. Who is that? Now he's just like a little enroll in the first. Oh okay. Lord of the Rings film and he returned by the time they filmed return in the king, right? But he plays a different character who also appeared in the fellowship of the rings book, I believe, in the Hobbits, right? Lindy, that's the name of his character.

My apologies. His name is... He's probably an important character not a party character but someone that talks and stuff in the books a bigger character within yeah the books yeah he's very much a part of Lord of the Rings franchise right and remain Clement you might remember especially because you got some kids kicking around right he's the big crab from Moana. Okay. The one that sings a big song that has all the jewels and stuff. Yeah. All right. All right. That's interesting. That's pretty cool. Like, so they're like, I mean, yeah, they've won Grammys and Oscars and stuff, so like, they're pretty deep into Hollywood. Well, even just into the zeitgeist of modern American kind of film and things like that, because like during our time of coming up,

they would constantly appear on like Craig Ferguson, Conan O'Brien, Letterman, you know what I mean? Like, yeah, I would say they were one of the more successful comedic acts of the time. And then when we get into like the end of that time of us being in high school, they're on HBO having like one of their biggest stints and a lot of that stems from appearance on HBO's One Night Stand. And that's where I first saw them from, right? Like I'd probably seen Conan appearances and

things like that, but to watch them for that full half hour is still something that like watch them for that full half hour is still something that like sticks with me because all the songs hit so well that first season is just littered with them of the HBO show and man dude it is just pretty it's a pretty good half hour that I like at the very least I suggest a rate check out that HBO one night stand is well worth your time. They appeared in the 22nd season in the Simpson disease camp counselors at our art camp that Lisa goes to.

Okay. But Germain has appeared in a number of different things. Like dinner for schmuck. He's one of the voices from Despicable Me. He's had video games rules like Ratchet and Clank. He appeared in Lego Batman and Soron. So are they like voice actors? Well no he's just appeared in like so many. And when you think about the times that we are kind of in now we're like animated kids films do some well. Oh yeah I'm sure it's easy. It's probably easy

to do it too. I mean for voice actors. Yeah, and there's so much crossover appeal From the adults to a CM right and to be fair I think there's a lot of people who were fans of that guy right and they're like man You know what? Dramayne has such a distinct voice that's bring him in and We get to hang out with Dramayne Clement for a day too. I feel, honestly, right? But so the thing I wanted to get into is around 2014, he makes a film with Takati Wattiti, right?

They make what we do in the shadows. This small independent film about four vampires of flat in Wellington. Really? Right. And that spins off into the show that is now on FX of the same name. And really, I mean, at least in my area, I was very big. Yeah, I was gonna say, and like, though I've never watched it, I know it has a lot of critical claim, a certain level, fan base in like, it's a great show.

It really is. I was gonna say you were exclaiming about it when we started the podcast so like yeah again man I feel like even if in 2008 2009 you weren't somebody who was willing to watch this kind of like it wasn't screwball it wasn't ever too dark or super silly but like this really kind of fun kind of oddball comedic show. And, you know, these guys just kind of walked away from it. They had said that, you know, it wasn't fun anymore. They'd been doing it for 10 years together whenever else.

And like, like we said, they seem to be amicable. The flight of the kind of chord show? No, no, I mean, they had been the flight of the Concord together for 10 years. Oh, okay. I was gonna ask that. Yeah. The show itself only lasted for two seasons, and they stepped away from a third.

Okay. And I feel like maybe to an extent that might be for the best, because while maybe they've not had the same television success, like, again, you have them up, it's film granting Mackenzie and Oscar and like obviously a lot of exposure and other offers and things like that. And then would remain now like he's involved in the executive production and things like that of what we do in the shadows. So they're still kind of like prevalent in things going on around you at all times.

And how old are they now? Ooh, I don't know their actual ages. I mean, I'm pretty sure. I mean, they're probably like 50. Maybe 40 or 50s. Okay, so they still got some years, especially Hollywood. Yeah. Okay, cool.

That's really interesting, man. Do you think they ever went and like I got a long like trip and like gave out a bunch of stuff or because they seemed like kind of like a comedy thing. So like maybe they would like do as like a prank or something. And do they ever do something like that? No, I don't. I don't think so. They definitely did do a a charity single for Red Nose Day in a Mervi years back. Okay.

Like 10 years ago, maybe. Well, I mean, I wanna talk to you about someone named Monsomusa. Okay. And I mean, I don't really know if he did what he did for charity. I think it was more just bragging rights, but well, do you know about him?

Have you heard about him? I had heard the name reference before in some things I can't really remember what but like that is one of the few big names I feel like probably transcends the zeitgeist from africa's continent to america's culture right? yes but one of the few exactly I would say Zulu warriors Zulu uh, you say Bolt The only other person I can really think of is like Nelson Mandela Really like, I mean, because I can't think of like a lot of people from Africa That is more modern African history like we're talking about like

Yeah, I feel like the Zulu warrior Yeah, like I said, like a Is the only right exactly is the old and time tale of the continent of Africa that really is at least quasi well known here. And you know like okay and that you're right that is that's very true and I want to kind of quell this in this episode a little bit not much because that's not what the point of this episode is. But yeah let. But, yeah, let's get into it. So, Matsumusa was a 14th century Mali King that was possibly the most richest man ever to live.

That's dubious claim, probably not true, but we'll just go with that for right now. Well, it's probably just one of the most largest purchasing power powers power influences. Yes, exactly. Right. Money in volume of its day and age by far, right? So what is Mali as we would know it today?

So Mali, or at least at his time, like where, like, by the end of his reign, it encompassed, like, it was Western Africa right but parts are most of or all of modern day Mauritania Senegal Gambia Guinea Berkina Passo Niger Nigeria and Chad so it was it was a huge empire so was this like the big bubble at the northern west. Yes exactly. That, yeah, like the northwest, like below the Sahara desert. So like arguably the biggest landmass of Africa besides Africa. Kind of, I mean like South Africa. Southern Africa has kind of always been a little bit more. I guess like, I don't know. Africa has like, definitely populated. Yes, I would say that, well, no, no, because like Northern Africa, like, to do what they call it, not sub-Saharan,

but like the north part of the Sahara has always been like, you know, on the Mediterranean. That side's always been very densely populated. Egypt on over, you know, Morocco. Oh, great, great, great. And the New York thing is over there. Places like that, Libya, right? Yeah, but like this is like below the Sahara, right. I think it's over there. Places like that, Libya, right? Yeah, but like this is like below the Sahara, right?

We're talking Western Africa, that bulge and then going over from the Atlantic Ocean over to like Lake Chad at Timbuktu, which we'll get into in a second, Timbuktu. I just, I like saying Timbuktu, but man, that was, I always knew that from like cartoons or something. You know, like, well, I'm gonna send you off to Tim Buck too. You know, like, you're not going off to Tim Buck too

or something, you know, like, Minio's far away because it was, it was like this crazy trading post, you know, like from kind of like a Sahara trading post, almost, you know, like a desert or, you know, where you get to. Right, like all the furthest traveling merchants and and caravans and things like that would probably meet there because it was like this always cross

locale or like did it become the place to seek out. Think of like you said the bulge right like south of the Sahara like that whole entire area you know like that that Western area of Africa like that bulge on The northern the northwestern side that is was Mali the Mali empire There's still a big, you know, I definitely a Mali still a big country if you look at it You know in Timbuktu's part of it, you know Mali is Yeah modern day Mali Oh my bad. Yeah. But, um, like that, it was a, it was a very powerful at the time. And, but I guess we'll get into a minute,

we'll get into why they were in a minute. Let's, let's get back to Monsomosa and his early life, right? Which there's really not much of. I'm sure, you know, again, if I would have read like some primary sources and stuff like that. And man, I wish, you know, guys, you know, get on that Patreon. Let me do this full time and I will research. I'll do some primary source reading. I'd love to. Yeah, for real. He's born around 1280 and like not much is known of his birth or pretty much or his childhood

for what I could read but he is set at the throne around 1307 or 1312 so either when he's like 27 or 32-ish and that was after the death of his brother, Monsa, Abu Bakar, the second, also Kanku Musa, are also known as Kanku Musa. The reason with this, this Monsa, this Musa, right? Like his name was actually Musa, which meant Moses in Arabic, because he was actually Islamic, you know? Like that, a lot of people in that area, in Northern Africa at that time,

once Islam spread through like all of Northern Africa, and over in Spain actually. Monsa meant king though, so in the Mali language or the Mali culture. So he was like king Moussa, essentially. So Monsa Moussa or Monsa Abu Bhakar, the second, yeah, like them, it king. the second, yeah, like that meant King. But he was the ninth months of the Mali Empire and only the grandson or the grand nephew of the Sun Diatta who was the founder of his family's dynasty. So like it really was a pretty early dynasty.

I mean, if you think about it, it's only like three generations is not much for a dynasty. But okay, so but he's the ninth in his lineage. Ninth of the Mali Empire. So, even that, I don't know, it's well, nine, I mean, think of average, maybe 15, 20, you know, 15, 20 year rule. Okay. An average.

So, like, that's pretty long for an empire. I didn't look up how long the Mali Empire total lasted. But, but anyways, at that time though, it was pretty, like his brother, you know, like made it pretty strong. At that, like he was a conquerant a lot of stuff and he was able to, you know, secure most of that area. And by that time, Monsomusa kind of came in and you know, secured the rest of it.

Okay, all right. But it's not really sure what like, it's not really like known exactly why the Mali Empire was so strong. Like they did have, they had a lot of salt mines. Like that was a big thing, is they had a ton of salt mines, which obviously everyone needs salt is a very essential commodity. I mean nowadays we mine it like-

Right, and especially in that day and age, no refrigeration, spice trades, and they work out. Exactly. Flourish, right. Salary comes from the word salt, actually. Back in the ancient Roman times, it was said that they would get paid in salt

for the, you know, or soldiers would get paid in salt for their salary you know, or soldiers would get paid in salt for their salary. So that's where we get, sal was their word for salt. Sal, it's crazy. But they also had like lots of gold too, you know, like there was like gold, lots of gold panning done there and gold mines and things like that.

So like, I mean, in Africa, there still is. It's just that Africa has tons of forests, you know, or different, Africa, it's a land of extremes, you know, you either got your forests or your deserts or you're like, yeah, so. Yeah, but either way, Monsomusa did bring like decades of peace though.

He lived real for like 25 years. And like, within that though, he really, like yes, he did attack people, but it was mostly smaller countries or cities or city states and stuff like that. So it like he, there was nobody, like attacking the home, you know. So he was peaceful in that area at least.

Being in development, you know, a devoted Muslim, he wanted to do his pilgrimage or Hajj. I think that's how you say it. It's H-A-J-J. That's how it spelled in English. I think it's Hage. But yeah, exactly. His pilgrimage to Mecca, right? And he's a king, so he's gonna do it very lavishly. So like he started like gathering up from the moment he became king. It was it was said that he gathered up like 6,000 people a year like different slaves and you know, um, different people artisans and merchants and think you know, people that he needs of scholars and stuff like that to like to get ready to go to Mecca because

he's over on the western side of Africa and he's got to go all the way over to, you know, the Middle East. This is a big trip. Right. Yeah, this is, yeah, this is a month's long, months, plur- Oh, journey, right? Exactly. Yeah. And it'll be like two years long, which you're like, meh, it's actually not that long though if you think about it.

I mean, two years, like, to go that far on foot, or maybe not on foot, but not without, like, modern transportation. That's pretty crazy. Yeah, that's a, yeah, that's a huge deal. That's a huge deal. And like, I should have looked up just a map of, like, his route, but like, because he, I just hear he went to Egypt.

Like, he went from Timbuktu to Egypt, and I'm guessing he went to the, on the lower part of the Sahara. I don't know if he went up to the coast of the Mediterranean. That's the one thing I didn't look at. But like he, you know, he like, that's where he started. And in 1324, is when he started. And at that time, he said he captured 24 cities and that was like how many people he gathered people from that.

So many of these people were like slaves. They weren't all slaves though. It was a lot of like, you know, people from Mali or even, you know, maybe people not from Mali, but not slaves, right? When I'm talking about slaves, you know, this is, you know, this is the 1300s, right? This is a hundredish, maybe 150 years, right? Before Columbus and all that. Well, and like we've said before, slave had necessarily like a different definition at this time. Well, I mean, yes and no. Yes, and like, well, this is the thing. Like, I don't know, there was slavery.

Like, at this time in this region. The Muslims in that area, they definitely did enslaved people. And they did, there was a slave trade. And like, I'm not saying that, like, this is not justifying American slave trade or, you know, the Muslim slave trade or anything, but that was something that happened. I'm just going to say that was happening at that time. And, you know, that was, that was a normal thing, okay? Right, at the time it's also a normal thing, right?

And like, there's a big view of like, Africa being like this like primitive continent, where it's just like much of savages and stuff like that, you know? But it's not like that, like this was a huge empire, right? This was like a place with like huge palaces and like it was an infrastructure and all this. Like this was an empire, okay? Like it wasn't some like primitive,

like people and huts and stuff like that. This was the Miley empire, but so he departed in 1324. And this spanned, this hodge, spanned over 2,700 miles. And he, it was reported that he had 60,000 men and all of them were wearing like richly roving fabric and Like silks and stuff like that like they were all like just dressed to the nights, right? Yeah, so

Essentially this guy's just got like the entourage with them in the entirety of his travels, right? Yeah, I mean like think of like you can't just like any of those like, you know, like ancient history movies, or you know, like medieval movies, like I wanted King's travel. The adored one. The adored one. Yeah, exactly, like, and like he was like, it was just like crazy.

He went to like the extreme with it, you know? He had a reportedly 12,000 slaves with him, and they each carried four pounds in gold bars. So each one of them were carrying, you know. Just rolling in it. Yeah. With the flaunt. Yeah, like going through, you know, like, again,

this is like a lot of this area was not like rich, you know, and it still isn't. And it was like that at that time, you know, like, at that time it was like, well, I can't, some of it was some of the port cities again. I don't know. He, I'm pretty sure he did not go up to the Mediterranean. I think he went from like 10 buck to area on the southern part over to Egypt.

He had to have, I should have looked that up. And I'm sorry, I didn't, but because it just like, it's, it immediately reports Cairo. So I'm like, well, if they're just going to me the report Cairo Then it seems like that's the fastest distance to Cairo exactly. Yeah, right. Yeah, but He had like her own stress dressed in silks and wear like goldstaffs and like like so like these you know the people that yours You're like you know like the trumpet players or whatever But like these are all just like, just extremely, like, just extravagance, extravagance to the extreme.

Extreme extravagance to the extreme. Yeah. Yeah. Look at the slaves, the slaves were carrying gold. 80 camels carried 50 to 300 pounds of gold dust. So maybe it was just those in the camels out of all the camels carried 50 to 300 pounds of gold dust so maybe it was just those old camels out of all the camels carried the gold dust but yeah but so like as you travel along though he would like give out this gold dust to random passerbys right and that kind of with things okay so you got to think about it like people don't know about inflation or anything like that at the time

There's not none of that but These guys, you know, they're going around like here. It takes some gold takes some gold and now all the sudden all these people in this area Or you know anywhere he goes has a bunch of gold. And it was like said that some economies crashed. Like some local towns were like, they're rush with golds and then the economies crashed because they didn't know what the hell was going on. Right, they're just stuck in this limbo. Yeah, oh my God.

Well, yeah, inflation essentially. I guess that's what it would be, right? Like if everybody has gold, then it's not worth anything. I mean, it's almost like a barbed wire. It's embarrassing too though, right? Like there can't be this giant influx. Yeah, like it has to be dispersed. Like everybody can't have a bunch of cash. You know, every poor person can get, yeah. But you know, what he did to do though is he also built like a mosque every Friday. Every Friday, he would build a mosque where he would stay at. One historian though named Alamari, when he visited Cairo, it was like right after Monsomuso was there. He reported that it was like a quote, lavish display of power, wealth, and

unprecedented by its size and pageantry. That kind of shows just from his like March, you know, right, like it's all about flaunting. Exactly, right. Like he's just like spreading money everywhere, exactly. And like, so he gets there, right? He, like, well, when he gets to Egypt, he has like, he has a little spat with a ruler of Egypt at the time, the Sultan.

Just a little spat. Well, he didn't want to bow to him, right? Because he's like, oh like I'm a king too. I don't want to I'm not gonna bow to you I'm massamuse that you see me yeah, but he's like well, I'm the Sultan of Egypt I mean in that like you mean yes, he was rich, but like you know rich versus power like money is True, but that but I have authority here, right? Yeah, like I'm reading the Witcher books right now And there's this like there's this part where they're in this place called Tucson and it's like this this wine growing region And they're rich, but they don't have an army because like they're in the mountains and everything kind of like Switzerland In a way, but they wrote right like it's so insulated

Yeah, but like they're rich, but like they're not powerful. Hey, yeah, really really really wanted to get him You know a powerful country. That's true. Right. Yeah, but yeah anyways Not to give anybody any ideas or anything. Yeah, yeah I don't think that's what how Molly was or anything, but I'm just saying like be right like having money and being powerful Yes, it does go hand in hand, but not always. But they're just stinkly different, right? Exactly. It is distinctly different, for sure. But anyways, he did end up bowing to the Egyptian salt and though. So, but it was just a thing that happened.

But when he got there, it's occurred to see. Yeah, yeah. After Egypt, right, he travels along, finally makes it to Medina and then Mecca, which is in Saudi Arabia. Or modern day, Saudi Arabia, should I say. Okay, so what would have been at this time then like Ottoman Empire maybe? At this time, it would have been like, the, is a lot, like there was like different Islamic empires, like the Sultans and stuff like that.

There was like different groups of it, but it was mostly ran by like a salt and in that area. So he gets to Mecca. I guess there was like this spat between like two different groups of pilgrims from like two different areas, you know, say they're both Muslim, I think, or you know, both worshipers of Islam, but they, they like, whatever, they just, we're in different areas, got an argument about something.

And reportedly, Monsomuso's like, you know, calmed him down and like was able to quell the fight. Okay, right. So he was able to keep the peace. The full. Yeah, yeah. And by the end of his hodge, though, he stayed like him and like his close entourage

stayed back for a couple days. While the main group he was like go ahead and go back. So they started heading back and they kind of had a rough time. A lot of them died from cold or starvation or even like bandit raids. Yeah. Before they even got the Cairo. Because like that's like I mean if you know the area man from Egypt to like Saudi Arabia It's pretty it's like desert area. No, it's rough areas right where yeah, yeah, yeah, and even Monsomousa himself like he ran out of money But he was on his way back Why me like there?

What I mean you're like there Dr. Hayden, you're like a pocket money, you know? Yeah, yeah, but you had 80 camels carrying gold dust on you and you don't think like well What am I gonna have for the ride back? Yeah, 80 camels carrying gold dust 12,000 slaves carrying four pounds of gold each right So that's what you know forty eight thousand pounds of gold that he had on him. Yeah, buddy runs out of money. So he started taking loans for merchants and selling his trinkets that he got. He was getting souvenirs and stuff along the way. He'd be like, oh, this is cool. You know, you buy this souvenir and stuff.

Yeah, he had a sell of souvenirs. He was pretty bad that he had sell souvenirs. Right. Yeah. But I guess on his way back, that's when he's supposedly like according to the records. Well, like, because a lot of this, when I keep saying according to the records,

it's because a lot of this stuff's disputed. But like, this is when he took Timbuktu and this other like local place named Gau, or GAO, I'm gonna say Gau. Right, I would think that's yeah. But really, he really didn't have like much control over gal and like but he didn't have control over Timuk too And like he did build stuff in both areas though. He built mosques there like I said every Friday Bill's he was building mosques every every week. So like he's building mosques everywhere

He built an ancient learning center called St. Corne, my drasha a man I hope I'm saying this right, but it's now the modern University of St. Cor, my Drascha. I mean, I hope I'm saying this right, but it's now the modern University of St. Cor, which was constructed during his reign. So that was pretty good. And I think that was around Gau. He also built the Grand Palace, though, in Timbuktu. And that city, at the time, was not what it became. He was the start of Timbuktu being that

that big, you know, training hub, which becomes a legacy onto itself even after the establishment from yeah, yeah, that's cool. And like it's not really sure when he died, but it was either like 1332 or 1337, probably 1337, because there was like this record of like a place getting took Or being defended by him in 1337 so in like a reliable source, right? But yeah, but either way man like his leg is lives on and like you know He was the overseer of the peak of Molly, you know, and the local like Molly history though Like the the oral tradition and stuff don't really look kindly on him I guess from what I read yeah, they say that he was unfaithful to tradition and that he wasted a lot of Molly's wealth

You know like by going out like you know any kind of dead man, you know like you just went around like flawed and all this money That's true Yeah, previous months us did go and like do Hodges, but like he like really like did like it was extreme But yeah, and like to be that vein on a religious pilgrimage is kind of exactly You know, and I don't know I don't think I mentioned how much he was like a part of the worth right some people say they was worth like $400 billion More than Elon Musk or you know, Bezos, at least in this time period, you know,

I don't want to be the big guy in 10 years from now. That will be surpassed soon, I bet in our life's same, for sure. Anyways man, that's Monsomusa, you know, just imagine going on that trip with him. But just be like, oh my God. Just like, you have to just spend as well. I just imagine going on that trip with him Just like yeah, we're just spend as we ever ever went with like somebody who just hit the lot or something like that Like that's hit the mall baby exactly. No exactly. We'll just imagine this guy's like we're going to mech us Yep, that's exactly

Yep with that everyone we'd love to thank you for joining us here each in every week You can find us on Facebook Instagram TikTok and On Patreon where you can get early access to these episodes by one week a whole week Give us a rating review. Let us know what you thought of this or any other episode for Brad. I'm Kyle We will see you again here soon See it Blamedy the damn Man if I had 400 billion dollars I'd probably I don know, I would not ever may have that much because

I would spend it before I made that much much. Do it. Ah, brain soda. Brainsoda.