Drink Champs - Episode 408 w/ Eric Adams (Mayor of New York City)

Episode Date: May 3, 2024

N.O.R.E. & DJ EFN are the Drink Champs in this episode the champs chop it up with the one and only, Mayor Eric Adams! The mayor of the most iconic city in the world, New York City, Mayor Eric Adams joins us to share his journey!  Mayor Adams, talks the pressure and responsibilities of being Mayor of New York City.  Mayor Adams, also shares stories of building affordable housing, life in the city through the pandemic, and touches on topics related to Migrants, and much much more! NY General, Mysonne joins us a special co-host!  Lots of great stories that you don’t want to miss! Make some noise for Mayor Eric Adams and Mysonne!!! 💐💐💐🏆🏆🏆 🎉🎉🎉   Sign up for Underdog Fantasy HERE with promo code DRINKCHAMPS and get a $100 first deposit match: https://play.underdogfantasy.com/p-drink-champs *Subscribe to Patreon NOW for exclusive content, discount codes, M&G’s + more:  🏆* https://www.patreon.com/drinkchamps *Listen and subscribe at https://www.drinkchamps.com Follow Drink Champs: https://www.instagram.com/drinkchamps https://www.twitter.com/drinkchamps https://www.facebook.com/drinkchamps https://www.youtube.com/drinkchamps DJ EFN https://www.crazyhood.com https://www.instagram.com/whoscrazy https://www.twitter.com/djefn https://www.facebook.com/crazyhoodproductions N.O.R.E. https://www.instagram.com/therealnoreaga https://www.twitter.com/noreagaSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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And this is Drink Chaps. Happy hour. Make some noise! Today, if you asked me in 1996, when I started my career, would I be sitting here interviewing anybody, let alone interviewing a person who runs my city literally, who's the mayor of our city, who looks like us, dresses like us, acts like us. It's like he's, what is it? We got to call him the fool boy of the mayor. You know what I'm saying? Dope as hell.

They call him the nightlife mayor. And it's crazy because I met him at night. You know, legalized bud from what I know from my city. I got arrested so many times i stopped i stopped smoking outside and now you're gonna but this man is is great he's great for us i wanted to salute him we wanted to give him his flowers we got mr eric adams the mayor of new york now all the time i saw your Breakfast Club interview. We're not going to go that political like that.

We're going to ask you some questions. That was crazy. I was like, holy moly, guacamole, you was trapped. They set you up. But let's talk about your music history. Yeah, but go back for a moment. OK, OK. Because we need to really lay some groundwork.

People see the interview and say, you know, you were set up. I could never be set up because I'm authentic and I'm good in any setting. That's right. You know, because I'm true. I'm not new to this. I'm true to this. That's right. And, you know, we need to really connect where I am and the role that cats like you play.

Right, right. You know, this is 50 years of hip hop. Right, 50 years. And, you know, people say I'm the hip hop mayor. Hip hop mayor. I grew up listening to hip hop and it inspired me throughout. You know, it inspired me when I was going through some hard times. I was able to throw on hip hop.

And I think brothers who were part of that music genre should not allow themselves to be relegated to saying that you were just the music folk. Now, if you do an analysis of where we are right now in the country, the first African-American to be the leader of a party in Congress is Hakeem Jeffries, hip-hop. All right. That's in Jersey. No, he's in Washington, D.C., hip-hop. Letitia James, the most important attorney general in the country, grew up in hip-hop. Wow.

Jumaane Williams, hip-hop. Wow. Eric Adams, hip-hop. Adrian Adams, the leader of the speaker, hip-hop. Four of the black mayors that's running the major cities in America, Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston, New York, all hip-hop. And that's where the migrants are coming to, right? Exactly, exactly. We're going to dig into that.

But what I want to show is that we all grew up and the seeds were planted in hip hop. So the fruits of our harvest right now, you know, I am the most important mayor on the globe. On the globe. And so you guys should be celebrating, this is who we made. This is who all of this leadership you see right now is what you guys made. I keep telling folks, when we celebrated

the 50 years of hip hop, it was the coming together of all of that power finally getting together. But now the question is with all of this chocolate, what are we going to do with it? We got to something with it we got to make some real changes because people been playing us black folks have been played for years and we got to be willing to use this power correctly now i lived in new york city my whole life born and raised right and you know there's been mayors that come around it's been a couple of mayors, I believe, David Dinkins visited my neighborhood. But, like, it was so dope to say, yo, you know, I met the mayor.

And they're like, wait, wait, what about a Nas party? Like, that was like hip-hop to me. Like, you know, like me and the mayor at fucking Nas party. Like, how do you balance that, like, by being, like, a mayor, but still, like, you know, you know what I mean? Like, because that was dope that I speak to you at my friend's party. So, like, how do you balance that? And Nas is doing some great things. And it is a balance because I don't fit the mold.

And I didn't go in to fit the mold. I went in to fit the mold. I went in to break the mold. And, you know, when you do an analysis, you know, I'm perfectly imperfect, brother. You know, growing up in South Jamaica, Queens. I know you left, Brad, growing up in South Jamaica, Queens, running numbers, you know, buying a nickel bag, making eight joints so mommy could put some food on the table. Right. You know, I used to walk in the classroom. They used to have in the back of the chair the dumb student. People used to walk in the classroom, they used to have in the back of the chair the dumb student. People used to mock me. I used to wake up every morning and pray,

God, don't let me read, because people would mimic me throughout the day and say, let's act like we Eric Readin'. And it wasn't until I stumbled into college that I learned that I was dyslexic. It wasn't that I was dumb, I was dyslexic. Right, I'm dyslexic. And you're dyslexic.

Yeah, I'm dyslexic as well. And I'm a Virgo too. You're a Virgo, right? You know what I'm saying. I got my you're dyslexic. Yeah, I'm dyslexic as well. And I'm a Virgo too. You're a Virgo, right? You know what I'm saying. Yeah, I'm like, I got my little man eye. Look at that. And so it's that when I'm in these settings, and it's so important because, you know,

my brother and I, we got arrested at 15, 103rd Precent. I need cats that are in class right now and don't believe they can learn wait a minute my male went through this I need cats that are on Rikers right now I've been on Rikers more than any man in the history of the city I got baptized, re-baptized on Rikers a couple of weeks ago with a group

of inmates because I wanted them to know listen man, y'all need to know I'm you, I've been here with you and we take in funnel like look what you're doing what you brothers are doing you've taken your street skills because that's that's education that's academics too people people think academics is just because you're in college no academics is i knew uh the the economics by taking a nickel bag and making eight joints man that. That's economics.

I ain't gonna lie. What kind of nickel bags did you have? Because I ain't gonna lie. I heard you say it earlier, and I was like, wait a minute. You know what I mean? Like, I made two out of a dime, but like, eight out of a nickel.

You're strapped. You're strapped. But it was different times. It was different times. We weren't doing blunts. Oh, yeah, we were doing joints. That's right. It was just a joint. and so it was like you'll be blown

away what we learned and that is transferable you know when you look at what fat cat nickels and those other cats were doing right those are those are great economists yeah but you can transfer it into the empower that you want it's true it's like a lot of hustlers can make great managers in the music business. Definitely. You know what I mean? Because of the gift of gab. But hold on. So this is what I want to ask you, right?

I go worldwide, right? Yes. And if a person is from New York and they ask me where am I from, I immediately say Queens. Right. If a person is not from New York and they ask me where I'm from, I automatically say New York, right? So I want to play a game with you.

What do you think you're more, Queens? Because I've read that you're born in Brooklyn, but then you was raised in Queens, right? Right, right. So what do you claim more, Queens or New York? Brooklyn. Brooklyn? Okay, now we're going to battle. All right, cool.

So you're going to name people. All right, cool. So you're going to name people from Brooklyn that's famous in Congress, whatever, whatever, whatever, right? Right, right, right. I'm going to name people from Queens. Right, right. You're going to name people from Brooklyn that's famous in Congress, whatever, whatever, whatever, right? Right, right, right. I'm going to name people from Queens. Right, right. You're going to name people from the Bronx.

Okay. All right, cool. We're going to play. This mic's off, by the way. This mic's off. We got him as co-host. We're just going to do New York shit now. Fuck.

I was throwing off. I thought he was going to pick New York. I thought he was going to pick Queens. And Miami will mediate. Miami will mediate. Okay, okay, okay, cool. So you're going to run the timer. You just call it going to pick Louisiana. And Miami will mediate. Miami will mediate. So you're going to run the timer.

How much time do you think we should have? You want to time yourself? Yeah, I mean, we can't just beat Jumanji after this motherfucker. So, oh yeah. Three minutes, like a boxing fight? Per person? No, no. Oh, no.

Three minutes. Okay, just the Bronx, right? Thank you. Just Brooklyn. Yes. And I'm going to do me some vodka and clubs, though. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'm outside. I'm going to have a drink with the mayor. The mayor going to drink, god damn it. We're going to have some fun today. Okay. Where's the chalkboard at? Okay. So, I'm going to start it off.

When you start, I start the timer. Okay. Remember, people from the Bronx, people from Brooklyn, people from Queens. I feel like I got it easy. And anybody, y'all can help me out. If I forget, y'all can help anybody. You got to throw some shit out there. Okay.

Yo, we got Mr. Lee right here. This is the school system of New York City. We're going to show you how fucked up the school system of New York City is right now. Because this nigga right here. Everybody right here. Give it nigga writing. Everybody writing. Give it to the girl or something. Give it to the girl. I'm not convinced that him writing.

He don't speak right. How you write? It's an autocorrect. Imagine he writes immaculately. Come on. Are you ready? You ready? You got it?

Let me see. We need to see the board. Yeah, yeah. Okay. All right. All right. This will be interesting. Being that you're the guest, we're going to let you go first. Brooklyn. Name somebody. J.C. J.C. That's a good one.

Melly Mel. Melly Mel. 50 Cent. Bernard Cain. Fat Joe. Tony Yeo Yeo. Tony Yale. Somebody poked some... Biggie. Oh, come on, Biggie.

Biggie, Biggie. Okay, KRS-One. Mark D. M.O.P. Yes, M.O.P.? Yes, M.O.P. See, I got it. No, what the fuck? That's right.

I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it.

I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it.

I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it.

I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it.

I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it.

I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it.

I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. I got it. Give me another one. Come on, crowd. ODB? Yeah, I know, too. Okay, ODB? O'Dirty Bastard, that's right. Remy. Who? Remy. Okay. Donald Trump. Fucked y'all up with that one.

Nobody want to claim him. I'm going to say Bill Clinton. Isn't he from Brooklyn? No, no, no. Yes, Big Daddy. Big Daddy K. More babies made off of his music. Folk Flex, he said.

Kenny Anderson. Steph. Steph Marbury. J-Lo. Who? J-Lo. J-Lo? Okay, that means you went low.

Russell Simmons. Or Mike Tyson. Oh, big Mike. Mike Tyson. Come on. Big Mike. Mike Tyson. Cardi B. Run DMC Cardi B

He said Cardi B Then run DMC Come on DJ DJ show me Oh Static Sonic Okay I'll take that Static Sonic

Go ahead Grandmaster Kaz Kaz Yeah I'll take that. Static Sonic. Grandmaster Kaz. Kaz. Yeah. Nicki Minaj. What's my little Kim? Ooh.

Kim. 30 seconds on the clock. Peter Guns. MC Shan. Andy Murphy. Yes, right, right. And Master C. Pop.

What's from the Bronx? Molly Ball. Woo! See, we're going to perfect this game. That's the first time we do it. Yeah, that's the first time. Oh, you said Molly Ball. Yeah. Yeah, since the first time. You said Molly Wild. Yeah.

That's time. Yeah, all right. All right. I think we're pretty close. I think it's pretty close. Count how many names. But why did they count? Oh, yeah, Sean Price for Brooklyn. Wait.

All right. 30 frames. What do I want? Each one. Yeah, each one. Yeah. Come on. See, I told you.

Diego, that's the reason why I told you to get the boy. This is the reason why, bro. You and Eric won. Y'all got us in my car. Y'all took it uptown for no reason. So. Oh, damn. You ain't see me in a minute, Jamie.

Jesus. This was it. We're having early drinks. Yes, yes, yes. I remember bouncing around with subjects. Let it flow. I remember I went with subjects. Yeah, yeah, no, feel free, man. Flow, let it flow. I remember I went to New Orleans.

I had the number one record. It was 1998, best year of my life. Went to New Orleans, traveled around the world. Went to New Orleans, met with Juvenile. You know, because, you know, it wasn't checking in and none of that shit. So I went to see him. Went for the Ritz-Carlton. Four rats just came out.

I said, holy shit, I made fun of New Orleans all day. For years. Years. I was like, you motherfucking, you got the best food, but your shit is motherfucking.

And then recently, you called me. I was like, did you see what's going on with your city? I had no defense. Right, right. What do I do to defend myself against Juvenile?

Because they're trying to tell me that the city is full with rodents. The goddamn country is full of rodents, man. No, no, no, but it's different now. Y'all had the rack and the pizza slice. Wait, chill out, man. Oh, yeah. We did. That wasn't New York.

No, we, when we, and the number one thing is when we came in, you're right. The rack complaints was through the roof. And you know what? Nothing could traumatize you, Dave, more than a rack. These are some normal racks. Especially the ones that's not scared. Right. You go like this, and they don't move.

You're like, wait a minute, you what? They don't even have a rat. You what? Yeah. But what we did. Oh, Luke, I did it. Hey! What we did, we zeroed in on it.

We hired, what New Orleans didn't do do we hired a rat czar right and what we found the number one reason that there's so many with so many rotors on the street bags there you go plastic bags you know and they the previous mayor came up with these mint plastic bags that was supposed to scare rats those rats are are like, man, are you kidding me? Right, right, yeah. They're little cats. Right, right. And so we zeroed in on it. And now rats complain across the city. They have gone down. And then what we call rat mitigation zones

was like a high level. They've also gone, have gone down. We're going to move to take all our trash off the streets, out of plastic bags, and we're going to containerize it. Everybody's told us it was going to take five years. I said, no, that's too long and we're going to containerize it. Everybody's told us it was going to take five years. I said, no, that's too long. We're going to do it

in two and a half years. We're going to containerize all our garbage. It's going to be, everything is going to go into containers. So you're going to be able to call him back

and tell him how you like me now. Because, you know what I'm saying, I like to say, even though I don't live in New York City now, that's still my city. I can't never like, anywhere I go, as soon as I talk, they say, ah, you're from New York. Like, because this is, so.

And we're moving, man. We're not surviving. We're thriving. Right. You know, on a number of occasions. When we came into the city, no one wanted to be on the subway system. We were dealing with some real issues economically. Coming out

of COVID, remember when I came in, we were still in COVID. It's just a slew of problems. All that has turned around. Now people are hating, don't want to show what it is because there's a feeling that black and brown

mayors can't manage. But we managed the hell out of this city. There's independent reviewers who look at the city and determine, are we going to raise your bond rating based on your ability to manage it? They raised my bond rating. They say this cat has taken on 180,000 migrants asylum seekers. We got to talk about it, right? Yeah. And folks, because I see it here. As was, as I was moving, I'm seeing, you know, some, some indicators here

and folks, you know, you know, black folks, man, they like, you know, Eric, what you doing, man? You giving away the whole city, you know, mayors can't stop buses from coming in their city. Right. Mayors can't say that you're in the city. So I can't give you three meals a day, a place to sleep. That's against the law. It's against the law for me to even allow them to work. I can't even allow them to work. And that's all they said they wanted to do. They said, listen, we want to work, man.

We don't want anything free from you. Doesn't that push them to criminality? Right. Because just think about it. If you can't work, but you're getting housing. You got to eat, man. You got to eat. You got to feed family.

I have never seen that before like it's been since COVID like I remember driving by Elmhurst Hospital during COVID and I remember looking like

it was World War III because it was like every nationality that's the one thing about Queens you can't kind of be racist and live in Queens because every nationality

is there it's a Haitian person that's your neighbor. And I remember driving by Elmhurst Hospital and I remember witnessing that. But do you think that the migrate great problem and

the rat problem is probably coincide? No, no. That's a great question. And the reason I'm saying that is because when I came into office, we used to have encampments all over the place. We had tent cities, people living in cardboard boxes. And when I went in around January and February, I went into the streets. As soon as I got into office and I went into those, human waste, drug paraphernalia. So I told the team, yo, we're not living it like this. And we were able to remove all those encampments off our streets and get people to care. About 7,000 people, we cycle into our system. People are living on the subway system. You still see remnants of that, but there's a difference.

When you go Google these other cities and you see... I've seen San Francisco. I heard you said you went and visited the people of San Francisco. We saw what was happening in LA. We saw what was happening in many of the other cities.

I said we can't, because the visual, like you said, if your visual is there, people are going to believe your city is out of control. So I want to just first of all, I just want you to state, you know, because I listened to the Breakfast Club interview and you were talking about why the migrants were here. You know, because I know I've been saying this for a long time about, you know, different governors shipping them over here intentionally. You know, because it's political. about the different governors shipping them over here intentionally. Part of this stuff. Part of this stuff. Because it's political. So I want you to state that for this show

because it's a different audience and I want you to reiterate those things. Right, right. And first of all, this is what's deep. They focus on, for the most part, four cities. Chicago.

Chicago, New York, Houston, Los Angeles. What are those four cities? Those are four cities with black mayors. All Democrats? All Democrats. And so what happened, they came across the border. It started with Governor Abbott. Governor Abbott started busing them to these four cities, destabilized these cities.

And then when you think about it, it was a wicked plan that he did. Because what you did, you targeted the four largest cities where you had these black mayors. So, number one, you destabilized those cities. It's going to be votes. But number two, you sent a signal out to tell people to think that, hey, these black mayors don't know how to govern. And so I'm the only second black mayor in New York City's history. David Diggins being the first. Right, right, right.

And my sister, Mayor Bass, was the first African-American woman mayor in Los Angeles. So when you do that, you erode. And then you turn your base against you. Because, you know, if folks are hungry, they say, wait a minute, why are you giving everything to these migrants when, in fact, you're not? But they send that cord out. so now you got your base, because this is what they did with David Dinkins. They want to destabilize your base.

Because when I won for mayor, there's something called this, they like to say the New York Times readership, Upper West Side, Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill, Park Slope. No mayor has ever won without winning those areas, those parts of the city. I did. I lost all of that. I won from straight folks from the community that said, listen, man, this guy's one of us, man. This guy's one of us. Let me cut you off for one second. The difference is all of us come from the inner cities, right? The hood, right? And all of us are probably on welfare if he was or he wasn't what is the difference between us being on welfare and

then these migrants that's coming there and and you actually giving them because i heard you you're doing like uh yeah that's a great question that's a great question yeah so so migrants and asylum seekers are not allowed to get. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just want to know. I'm outside. You know, my name is Victor. That little bit more than me. So the food stamps, WIC, SNAP, all of those benefits, migrants and asylum seekers are not eligible for. So the law requires me to feed them three meals a day.

Right. It requires. What we were doing is buying the food from these large conglomerates. Buying food that they didn't want. Right. And 10% of the food they were not eating. Wasting, being discarded. So my first deputy mayor and her team, they came up with this card called a mocha fire card, black owned company, where you give them a card where they are given $13 a day to eat and they go to the local bodegas and supermarkets. Put the money back in them. There you go. Put the money back into the community. Buying what you want.

You can't buy anything other than food and baby supplies. So we save $600,000 a month, $7 million a year. But people wanted to blow it up and say, hey, you're giving them a credit card. They knew that was all bullshit. You know what I'm saying? So that's how the management skills that the team, what we have been doing. And so what the governor did, he wanted to destabilize our city, but we managed it better than anyone can even thought we was

going to manage. 180,000 people showing up at your doorstep, can't work, can't provide for themselves. 30,000 children they put in our educational system doing it without a problem that one child of family sleeping on which governor is the state governor governor governor the governor of um of texas governor abbott you know that's the house who sent them there right would you say it's it's racially motivated versus partisan motivated great Great. I think it's a combination. It's a combination. I think that he wanted to send a signal to the national government because they need to fix the problem.

Let me be clear on that. They need to fix the problem. But there was a hell of a lot of other cities he could have sent them to. Why are you picking cities? They didn't even send them to Los Angeles. Wisconsin. Right, right, right. you picking the cities right they didn't even send them to los angeles wisconsin right right they didn't even send them to los angeles until mayor bass became mayor they didn't even send them to philadelphia until the sister became the mayor the day she swore in a plane

landed with migrants asylum seekers so he wanted to send a message but the message he wanted to send was on the back of black and brown mayors. That's heavy. I've been saying that from the beginning. I've been saying that this is politics and they're supposed to do that. They want certain laws to be passed. They want to change the immigration policies.

Why not focus on the other party? When you said the racial part, I didn't even add that part. For me, i understand that you get so much scrutiny like being a black man being unapologetically hip-hop being you know coming into our communities building with the hip hop community being outside as we say a lot and i do i never want to add to that i think for me you know when we voted and we seen you come into office that's what we said to ourselves one of us it's like you know the inmates got the

building you know what I'm saying so that was the mind state and I think for me I wanted to see a radical shift right I wanted to see things changed right I wanted you to take chances and say, okay, we need to change this now. Right, right. Unfortunately, people say a lot about Trump, but Trump don't give a damn about what you say. He's going in there and his base said, this is what we want, that's what y'all want. And he's going to dismantle whatever it takes to get that.

And I love that. And that's what people respect. That's hip-hop. That's what hip-hop is to me. That's hip-hop. So when I look at New York, right, and I say, there has been $9 billion in the police department. And every other education, housing is being cut. You know, I say to myself,

that's not what I thought radical change looked like. I thought when we said that, we were going to give more resources to the communities. We were going to give the kids better opportunities. We were going to have programs. When we're taking away the after-school programs, when we're taking away the early education programs, when we're taking away

those things that are needed for our kids to flourish and stay out of prisons, then what are we really saying? So I think that's what it is for me. They say when you want to know what someone is invested in, see what they're spending money on. No, without a doubt. Without a doubt. And this is so important because you have to peel back the distortion and the radical change you were talking about.

That's what we're doing. Okay. We have invested more, built more affordable housing in one year than the history of the city. Our young people have been crying for years for summer youth employment. We had put in place 100,000 summer youth employment, more than the history of the city. We put in place something called Summer Rising, all school long for our young people because it was a real loss after cold COVID We put more people in those programs in the history of the city So the radical change the money that we invested the MWB ease billions of dollars in black and brown on business

They only get 2% we came in and put in place my chief diversity officer, Mike Gardner, and we're putting money back into black and brown business and entrepreneurs with our procurement approaches. So the radical changes are right there. Like even foster care children, we knew our foster care children aged out at 18 and we knew that they were either homeless, in jail, victim of a crime, mental health issues. We're now allowing our foster care children to have life coaches until they're 21, paying their college tuition with a stipend. And we have the highest number of foster care children that enrolled in college because of what we've done in the history of the city. There's a whole lot of radical changes coming about,

but you're not going to read it if all they try to put out is that we saw Eric last night at the club. I don't think for me it's reading it. It's just me being in the community, doing the work that I do on the ground. I know that the community centers are closed. I know that the after-school programs are closed. I know that those things have been taken out.

I literally see that. I know these kids are on the corners that want to be able to go to play basketball, to want to be able to go to the shop class, to want to be able to go to a music program after school. And those programs have been closed because I'm in the schools every day and I'm talking to the teachers

and they say, we don't have the budget for those things. Those things have been taken out. Let me share this with you because this is why this is so crucial. What the former mayor did, he put in place a lot of permanent programs using COVID stimulus dollars that sunsetted in 2024. Some sunsetted in 23, then sunsetted in 24. So what we had to do is he knew that, listen, I'm not going to be here and I know these dollars are going to sunset.

We had to find money to keep those programs going. We kept 3K and pre-K, although the dollars went away. We kept Summer Rising, although the dollars went away. We kept the midnight basketball going on. We put money back into those programs with a $4 billion price tag that came from the migrants and asylum seekers. That money, I got to balance my budget by law. But the money has been cut. The budget has literally been cut. You're telling me that you put more money into it, but the budget has been cut. The numbers are saying that the budgets are

cut for school, for afterschool programs. The money is not there. So when we're having this conversation, I hear what you're saying, but it's not funneling into the hoods that we come from. When you're saying that we're going to put more police on the grounds, but we're taking away resources that these kids actually need so they don't go to jail, then what are we saying that we're investing in? Are we investing in them to go to jail, or are we trying to stop them from going to jail? Because if we don't have the resources to stop them from going to i heard you talking about the prisons that you took the programs out of prisons i'm formerly incarcerated i know how a lot of those programs helped us i know how to a lot of those programs kept us out of trouble inside the prison i know how a lot of those those programs prepared us to come home from prison actually those programs should be outside

they should they should morph into programs that we have extend without a doubt so when we're taking away those programs and you're saying that people are making money or trying to get rich off of the poverty of community but we putting more police aren't the police making money off of it if we put more police in the train station we put more police in our communities And a lot of these police are not even community-based officers. They're not culturally competent to be in our communities. Well, go back for a moment, bro, because I think that is so important. And what we should do, you should come in and see what we're doing with my DYCD. Y'all met each other that night, too, right?

Well, me and the man were supposed to have a meeting months ago, last year and it just never happened but you know i know you're busy going through a lot of stuff busy i'm busy on steroids i'm always open for me i'm busy i'm busy on steroids brother who would have thought when i got in office january 2022 i was gonna have a hundred thousand people showing up imagine imagine having 70 people come to your house and all of a sudden say, you got to take care of me. You got to take care of my food, my clothing, my medical needs. Man, this was dropped into my lap. And with dropping that into my lap, it came with a $4 billion price tag.

I get it. But there's still young kids are dying and going to jail at a high rate, especially young black. So that's what I'm saying. As a black man, that's supposed to be a priority to me. I don't care what position I get in life anywhere. This is why I do boycott black murder. This is why I focus

on young black males because I understand that we are dropping out of schools at the highest rates. We're dying at the highest rates and we're being incarcerated at the highest rates. So if we're not truly focusing on, how do we redirect? Because if we're saying that we're being incarcerated at the highest rates. So if we're not truly focusing on how do we redirect? Because if we're saying that we're putting more money into prisons and we got more police officers on the community, and the police officers that come in the community are sometimes agitating because most of them don't come in to stop the violence.

But it has to be multifaceted. Exactly. It has to be multifaceted. I like to say it has to be intervention and prevention. That's a fact. And you're aware, we put more money in our crisis management team with A.T. Mitchell, Man Up, SOS. We put more money into that than anyone has done before, going on the ground and meeting these young people where it is. And look at the numbers in Brownsville.

No one was able to turn around Brownsville. Shout out to AT. AT is my brother. So, you know, I work with AT on a daily basis. But what I'm trying to say, there's no. The American West with Dan Flores is the latest show from the Meat Eater Podcast Network, hosted by me, writer and historian Dan Flores, and brought to you by Velvet Buck. This podcast looks at a West available nowhere else. Each episode, I'll be diving into

some of the lesser known histories of the West. I'll then be joined in conversation by guests such as Western historian, Dr. Randall Williams, and bestselling author and Meat Eater founder, Stephen Rinella. I'll correct my kids now and then where they'll say when cave people were here and I'll say it seems like the ice age people that were here didn't have a real affinity for caves. So join me starting Tuesday, May 6th where we'll delve into stories of the West and come to understand how it helps inform the ways in which we experience the region today. Listen to the American West with Dan Flores on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time,

have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary

mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated,

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast.

Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player,

Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding

of what this quote-unquote drug ban. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Caramouch. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them.

It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Functionable plan for prevention in our community.

There's no, like, shout out, let me just get up. Let's make it up. Let me say it. So that's what I'm saying. That's what I want to do. You know, shout out to Ross J. Barack in New community. There's no, like, shout out, let me just, let me say, so that's what I'm saying. That's what I want to do. You know, shout out to Ross J. Barak in Newark.

Like, he has a motto for violence prevention. Who's that? He's the black man in Newark. That's not my man. He's still going through

something. No, I'm not losing it. Ross Barak, his dad was Ross Barak also. And Ross is my dude. And still going through some issues in Newark also.

All of these cities are going through issues. But I'm trying to say there's an intentional, he has funded the community. Like we don't want to say, everybody hates to say to defund the police because that doesn't, the verbiage doesn't sound right. But we want to refund the community, right? Because they're community people who, if you invest

the dollars in the community, then you see the change. And I've been working in Newark with Raj J. Barak on those things, so I know what can happen. I just think that when we, you know, there's been a lot of instances, a few instances where you stand by police that I think there should be some level of, that's not okay. No, I stand by public safety. That's the difference between standing by police and standing by public safety. When you go into our communities, when I do a bunch of town halls in our community, when I speak in my communities, those communities that you're talking about, Harlem or what have you, they tell me their

needs. I respond to the needs. It's not what I want to respond to. What are the needs you want in your community? And so when you say there's not a master plan, I think first we should sit down and look at my plan. Look at what we're doing with foster care children. Look at what we're doing in summer youth employment. Look at what we're doing. 30 to 40% of the inmates at Rikers Island are dyslexic. I have a dyslexic screening. We have to be prevention and not just intervention. And so I think that before we say, okay, there's no plan, look at my plan. Because you're not going to learn my plan by hearing what people are saying. You're going to learn my plan and look at exactly what we're doing. Something as simple as we dropped the course of childcare for parents. That's what was preventing our mothers from going back to work. We dropped it from $55 a week to less than $5 a week. We're leaning into maternal morbidity.

No one has focused on this. Black women are dying at a rate that's just proportionate to maternal morbidity. Fund funding those crisis management team. And so I don't think there's a full analysis of that, you know, our full plan. So you should sit down with the team and look at the plan. I don't know your full plan, but I work with the crisis management people on a daily basis. And I know a lot of them still are underfunded. I know a lot of in a lot of resources they don't have, you know, in a lot of communities, they're not able to fund certain situations.

When we look at Rikers Island, over 20 some people have died. And whatever the reason is, you know, the police of the correctional officers are care, custody and control. So that means that somebody failed at something. Right. And I haven't heard I've never heard the mayor say, you know what? Somebody in there may be responsible for those things. No, bro, that's not accurate. Let's dig into Rikers for a moment. Okay.

Because I love how people talk about Rikers. What happened many years ago, we closed a lot of our psychiatric facilities. We closed all over. There was a big move. The advocates called to close them down. Was that one after you get off the Triperal Bridge? Creedmoor. Creed was a big move. The advocates called to close them down. Was there one after you get off the Trafalgar Bridge? Cremor and others.

What they did, they did not give people the services they needed. 70% of folks on Rikers Island have mental health illness. 18% have severe mental health illness. Because they come to the street, they don't get to care, and then they

just cycle back into Rikers Island. We're up there having focus group with our inmates and officers because remember, 80% of the officers are black and brown. Over 85% of the inmates are black and brown. 40% of them are women. So what has happened historically, they just threw black and brown correction officers, black and brown inmates into the facilities and said listen you guys fight among each other i don't care i went up there and we did when my brother father listened no more program a real program not just some symbolic program where somebody's making 14 million dollars a year this brother's up there and i'm up there with him sitting down with those young men, talking with those young men. No matter how busy my day is, I'm on Rikers Island because I know I can't have these brothers come out and go back in. Bill de Blasio didn't go on Rikers Island.

Bloomberg didn't go on Rikers Island. Look at where these mayors are. I'm on the ground with these brothers talking to them and they're seeing me saying this mayor is willing to take his time out and go spend time to come and find out what do you brothers need here that system was broken for years brother and it's still broke and that's what i'm trying and i think for me is that that's why i know you have the ability to do what i'm saying because you on the ground right you're going in having those conversations if you know what's going on the records there are documentaries about records i was on records islands for seven seven to eight months i know a bunch of people records island is not run it's not run with kid custody and control it's ran like it's ran like a gang house that's you know and a lot and a lot of

the officers are responsible for the officers i will say that i will say i will say that bringing drugs in a lot of the in paraphernalia. A lot of the times, the officers are gang members. They are gang members. So these are realities that we're dealing with. So when the answer seems to be that we put more officers and we pay more the budget to the police, when a lot of them are the problem. You know, I've seen you stand, an officer went to arrest somebody. So this is a lot of things that I don't understand.

Officers make arrests, right? The officer has a responsibility. An officer is trained. He's paid, right? He has a responsibility to de-escalate. If I'm an officer and I come to arrest a citizen or even engage a citizen, I know they might be irate. They might be drinking. They might have mental health.

Right. My job is to try to de-escalate a situation, right, before it escalates. If a lady is angry with me and she does something to my hand, I'm not supposed to punch her in the face. Right? Without a doubt. I agree. So what I'm saying is, you say without a doubt she agreed,

but that exact situation happened. And you said that she wasn't supposed to engage the officer. And he punched the lady in the face. Do you remember that circumstance? I remember the circumstance.

I spoke to the family and everything. Feel back the circumstance. Yeah, okay. Feel back the circumstance. I do understand. So what happened was there was a guy,

he had drugs on him, he was trying to run, and he was trying to,. He had drugs on him. He was trying to run. And he was trying to... He came out of a building. He was trying to stash something. I think he was trying to... That wasn't a circumstance, brother. That wasn't a circumstance.

Guy was wanted for murder. He had a gun on him. They were arresting him for having the gun on him. The sister went in the middle of the melee as they'd taken the gun off of him. That's not what happened. Okay, okay. We may be talking about different circumstances. The sister was standing there, and the officer pushed her.

The officer grabbed her and threw her. We may be talking about... No, I remember the same exact situation. Okay, all right. And then after he pushed her, she pushed him back, and he punched her in the face with a closed fist. Now, regardless of what you're saying, those situations, when you engage civilians in that manner, then you can't expect them to have any level of respect

for authority. And that's the point that you're raising, if I'm understanding you correctly, is that if somebody, first of all, there's no one in this room going to sit here and say they didn't have negative encounters with police. Let's be clear on that. I'm not here to, I got arrested, I was kicked in my groin as a 15-year-old by a white cop that stood over me, kicking my brother in the groin. They said that's why you became a...

Right, right, right. So I'm not here to defend the horrific actions of policing. So I don't want to all of a sudden walk away with folks saying, okay, you're the poster child for what's great about policing. No, I'm not. What you're saying is that we have to have the right people, because we do need police. Let's not get out, sir. I wouldn't say we need it. You know what I'm saying? No, sir. Because if you're telling me you don't need police, that's not what these grandmothers are telling me.

No, I'm not saying that. Here's what I'm saying to you, and this is difficult for a lot of people to understand. I've been mayor two years and four months, brother. This city has been fucked up for decades. Brother comes in, two years, four months, with all of this mess coming down on him. And they all, okay, brother, why are you in the part to see yet? But what, when you look at the role of being mayor. Yes, sir. You know, being mayor of the most important city on the globe.

Right. 8.3 million people, everything from rats to stick up cats, you know, to a broken correction facility. You said you were in Reikers. It was, it was fucked up when you were there. That's right so why would people think that eric you get in office you inherited covid you heard you inherited a financial mess you've inherited thousands of guns in your streets you inherited a broken reichers system for generations now you here for two two years and four months. Eric, why don't we see this turn around on the right? Come on, come on.

Is it a broken political system? Is it bureaucracy? Is it money mismanagement? Is it corruption? Is it all of that? All of that. All of that. So the first thing you have to do, anyone who takes over a business, the first thing you have to do is get in there and analyze, what the hell do I have here?

This stuff was a mess when we got here. the first thing you have to do is get in there and analyze what the hell do i have here this stuff was a mess when we got here so so unlike other folks i went in and brought my own team i i'm the first man in history that you see authentic on the ground black and brown folks running my administration right and and we turned this city around in two years in two years we turned the city around they said everybody said it's going to take five years so i know we're not where we ought we ought to be brother i'm with that we're not where we ought to be but we're moving where we ought to be when you do an analysis what i have been doing for black and brown people in this city from procurement billions of dollars into my nonprofits,

investing in our children, managing the financial crises that we had. No one thought we could do this. You took $4 billion out of your budget, not $4 million, $4 billion out of your budget, and still had to manage this city. And so I know the mess that I inherited. And I know we're not there where we ought to be. But you know what I do know? I know my heart.

I know my heart. The city abandoned and betrayed my mother, raised six children, robbed my sister of her childhood because mom had to do those three goddamn jobs and Sandra had to stay home and take us. So I'm coming from what I saw growing up. And so my fight against police brutality, it did not come because I saw when I was a cop. It came because I know what they did to us. My brother still is not okay over this. And I hear you. I just don't hear that stated when the situation's happening, man. I just don't hear that stated when the situation's happening. I just don't hear when there are direct situations. The young boy, what's his name, Wynn,

who was just killed two weeks ago. I haven't heard that level of understanding that a mentally ill person who calls for somebody to come help him is killed in his home. I just haven't heard I haven't heard that. I've heard you speak about when something happened to the

police officer and you went to the funeral and you said that you had to stand by and you should. But I think that mother who lost her child should have the same enthusiasm. She'd have you saying that I'm sorry for what happened to your child. I'm sorry that your child lost his life because

Don't disagree. Call the mother. I don't see it, but you should call her. I shouldn't have. No, no, no. I didn't say you should call. I said I called the mother. Okay. I called the mother. I called the pastor and said when she's ready to see me I would like to come and see her. Okay.

But when you're the mayor of this. Why would you not publicly state that? Because I did. I never heard it. You're never going to hear anything good I say, brother. Because the people who are writing my. See, people. That's why it's called history. My story is not being told, brother. You know, because based on what they want to pay me.

This is the same game they did with Dinkins. They want to create the image to erode my base. I didn't get elected by them. And so they said, let's keep eroding his base and have his base turn against them. Go back and look at what they did with Dinkins, brother. That's what I'm trying to tell you. I'm so aware. And if I wasn't seeing these things, I don't listen to half the things the news say. You know what I'm saying? I have, like, you know, I'm tuned in with the people on the inside. You're solid.

You're solid. So I'm coming at you as a black man that wants to see you be successful. But I think in order for us, for me, because I'm in these communities taking guns out of these kids' hands every day. I'm in the communities telling them that they need to change their ways.

And when there's a posture taken that the police can do whatever they want in the communities, when they see what they believe that's what's being seen by the top cop in this city and watching officers just do what they want,

then there becomes this like, well, fuck that. It's me against them because they become a gang. The police inside New York City have become a gang. There are certain pockets of police that have gang mentality

and activities. So if we understand that and my job is and my job is because I'm trying to save these babies lives and keep them off the streets and redirect them, then we have to be intentional. Like me and you have to sit down and show that we

intend. That's what I say that Ross is doing. He has the police. He sits down and shows them, look, this is how we're going to do this. Police are not going to respond to every situation. We got mental health officers that go. If the mental health officers had went, Wynn would still be alive, right? If community-based organizations had went when he called and the officers said, look, I'm not really trained to do that. That's not really my forte.

Let me send out some mental health officers. Let me call a community-based organization to go over there and see what they can do because i'm gonna take a a pair of scissors out of a young boy's arms before i'm gonna try to kill him and i but i don't disagree with you but i think that that's why it's so important to dig into these cases the case was not a mental health job and i can't go into the details of these cases because now it's in a legal arena. But in the real world of policing, you have to create that. And we have created that. We have created to have mental health professionals go when those jobs come over. We created that because that's the combination that you need.

You don't need just sometimes the police can aggravate. Someone sees that uniform, they can aggravate it in a real way. But if I were to come to you, you've been doing this for a while. And you have an authentic, good approach to what you're doing in Harlem. And I remember we were rapping about after somebody was shot in the community. But if I were to come to you and say that with all the work you have been doing, there's still shootings in Harlem and it's your fault. That makes no sense. You out there, you on the ground committed your life to this work and you're doing more than enough. So when we look at what is happening in cities,

what's going on with Chicago, we see what my brother Johnson is going through in Chicago, what's happening in Los Angeles. When we look at these black mayors that inherited these systems that were destructive and all of a sudden to say, listen, man, you guys have been there for two years. Why you got to fix it now? That's like me going to you and say, brother, you've been doing this work for so years. Why we don't have any more homicides in Harlem? That's not what we should be doing to each other. We should be coming together and say, is this person authentic about this work?

There's never been a mayor in this city that has been more authentic about this work the way I am. And the results are there. When you sit down and look, I had my team the other day say, we got to put together a wins list because people don't know how we have changed this game. People are going to

look back later and they're going to say, we can't believe this brother did this. But they have played us to the point that, you know what? There's a mission in the city. This cat never could be made again.

He can't be reelected. You know who we think he's coming in and going to now take these billions of dollars that we've been eating off for years. Because I'm not fighting against the people who are running against me, brother. I'm fighting against the people who have been eaten off of us for years. Poverty is profitable. People have been hustling us, man. If you don't give a young person dyslexia screening, he ends up in Rikers Island. Now you got all these programs in Rikers Island. And then do analysis who are running these programs.

They don't look like us. People have played us, man, for so long. And I think that's what the issue is for me. You understand that poverty is violence. Yes. We understand that we don't give these kids every opportunity. I remember, you know, before I got incarcerated, the reason why I didn't go to jail is because I had to have the school programs. I went and played basketball and we went on these trips and these kids don't have that.

They literally they literally do not. I'm just you they don't. I work in schools. I'm creating curriculums. I'm creating after schools where there are none of those things. So I know it's not. Yeah, let me know. I have to bring you this. I want you to come see what I'm dealing with. I'm dealing with this on a daily basis.

There should be way more community centers. You know, like the Brother A.T. has in Brooklyn. Those type of centers, they should be complete centers to where— Here's my analysis today. And I want to make a point in a minute or so about, you know, what we're talking about. Give me a drink, man. You got to come in. Listen to me.

This is black men. This is black men that I respect. And I know it's hard. It's in the right place. But I want—it's just—I need you all to say— this is black men This is black men that I respect And I know it's hard as in the right place But I want, I need you y'all to say This is my problem with the Democratic Party Y'all don't say it with your chest Because they saying it with their chest Governor Abbott is saying, I'm going to send all of these over there And I don't give a fuck what y'all say

Trump says, I'm going to do this because that's where my base went And I don't give a fuck what y'all say Y'all trying to Let me say one thing Me, i'm the most simplistic person here i'm dyslexic to the fullest i see cat i see car like i look oh shit i see it's like and then i'll make it make sense of it that's right right so i look at things in the most simplistic form i don't't like Biden because he doesn't wear a presidential Rolex. How are you the fucking president?

And you got a fucking date dress. What the fuck? That shit doesn't make sense. I don't know if that was clap worthy. Yeah, it wasn't clap worthy. I'm simplistic. The thing about Trump, and I'm going to say something, right?

He plays on that to us. He went to Chick-fil-A. Now, anybody that's got, if you got a little bit of black in you, you know Chick-fil-A. That's like got our heart. Even though that's why they close on a Sunday. Because they know that's where we want to go at the church.

He went to a fucking Chick-fil-A. And I'm looking, I'm sorry. The American West with Dan Flores is the latest show from the Meat Eater Podcast Network, hosted by me, writer and historian Dan Flores, and brought to you by Velvet Buck. This podcast looks at a West available nowhere else. Each episode, I'll be diving into some of the lesser known histories of the West. I'll then be joined in conversation by guests such as Western historian, Dr. Randall Williams, and bestselling author and meat eater founder, Stephen Ranella.

I'll correct my kids now and then where they'll say when cave people were here. And I'll say, it seems like the Ice Age people that were here didn't have a real affinity for caves. So join me starting Tuesday, May 6th, where we'll delve into stories of the West and come to understand how it helps inform the ways in which we experience the region today. Listen to The American West with Dan Flores on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time,

have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened

when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th.

Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes sir, we are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of

what this quote-unquote drug man. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things.

Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.

I look at Biden and I'm like, damn, I ain't seen him at a Roy Rogers. The church is fried. He ain't go to Charlie's in Harlem, man. He ain't go to the juice bar in Bronx. He don't have a hip hop. And you're right.

But see what you said, two things, two observations. My bad, because I'm a simple guy. Two observations that I think is important. Number one, we're having the same conversation that we had on the breakfast club but you're seeing we're conversating right that's right his mission wasn't you know what i just want to come in and just be disruptive i want to talk all you i want to just listen people know uh black folks know how to dislike each other But let's show how we love each other. You know what I'm saying?

And so what you're doing is like, listen, Eric, I disagree, but I'm going to hear you, then I'm going to hear you. I love this. That's what I'm saying. Because nothing people like more than, you know what, we're going to always show that they can't get along. Right. But showing how we get along, then the brothers on the street are going to say, here's a brother that's on the street,

here's a man in the city of New York, they're sitting in the same room, and they're learning from each other. That's the key. That's fine. That's fine. I don't know. Whatever y'all got.

Whatever y'all got. No, no, no, no. We need, listen. This is the most beautiful thing about this show. I got some tequila. Okay, all right. I'm going to be honest. Hold on, hold on. We're going to get serious. You got to relax. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, his love, his leaderhood. Most money is success. He's still in college ways. I'm sorry. I couldn't tell you. What I'm saying is because the mission and the goal

is for us to win. I'm not here. You're not my adversary. When I see a black man in position, I want to see him win. When I'm looking, I'm not just looking from my lens. I'm looking at, okay, what are they seeing? What is the community seeing? Right, right. having a conversation with you, I'm giving you the perspective from somebody that's from the outside looking and saying, if you really, which I really believe that you want to change, that you want to be, you know, that have that radical change, then you have to be very

intentional, right? Because a lot of people, you know, the news and soundbites, they're going to soundbite you to death. So what you have to do is be intentional about saying and doing certain things and being able to say, this is what it is. It's crazy to me that every time I'm in close proximity to you, I hear the message that I want to hear. When we did the 100

black men's meeting, you were speaking, I was like, that's what I want to hear. Why I can't get that nowhere else? Everybody sees all politicians. They's what I want to hear. Why I can't get that nowhere else, right? And so I don't know- And everybody sees all politicians like that. They say what you want to hear, but then it doesn't relate to on the ground. So that's what I'm saying. So I don't know if it's intentional, which I do know is intentional for most, some venues and avenues and narratives that they're trying to paint. But I also know that somehow Trump's message gets to everybody, right? The people that he don't like and the people he do like.

His fan base is always going to say Trump said exactly what the fuck we wanted to hear. So I think that we have to be intentional about that. You know, like that we have to be intentional about saying, look, I understand who my base is. I understand what I'm trying to do. And I know I'm going to get a little pushback here and there from the other people that don't exactly agree, but I have to be intentional in saying, look, these communities, these black communities,

we have to start funding these communities more. We have to make sure. We got to go and talk to Raheem and James on the corner and see exactly what it is. We got to put resources. My little nigga, right? We got to put resources in those communities because it's hard for me to take guns out their hands when there's no resources. 100%.

And what, and what I'm, what I'm saying, which is interesting is that when you do an analysis, exactly what you're saying we should be doing is what we are doing. We have shifted the, the whole funding stream to those who are in need.

And that's what you were talking about. That's what I was explaining on the breakfast club. You have these organizations that were going to Rikers providing services, getting paid, but no one was in them.

And so what I said to them, show me, now we're bringing some new cats in that's going to have folks like an A.T. Mitchell. Yeah, well, we got a bunch of programs. I work with A.T. I've been on Rikers Island. We had good programs that they stopped funding.

It was just like, why would you stop funding? I worked with the bartenders. You know where we went. Giant and bartenders. And they could stop. Bobby Smyrna was in there. We was going to his house every day and working with his mind. And they could stop. And these were real. We was, Bobby Smyrna was in there and we was going to his house every day

and working with his mind and he came home and stayed. You could, first of all, you don't have to do time. You could do something with the time.

There's no reason, what I'm saying is instead of having them sit down, we got a whole green economy that we're rolling out. I should be teaching those brothers right now

how to do battery installation, how to install solar panel. If the cats get that real job skill, then they come home and they don't have to go back to that life. You know what's deep? When I sit down with those who I talk on a regular that's involved, that's out there hustling and swinging, I say, how many of you are dyslexic? How many of you have a learning disability? It's overwhelming, brother. Those brothers were no different than me. Laughed at, bullied out, thrown out, and said, why am I sitting in here?

You know, I'm not learning. That's where we have to go down to the foundation of this. And brother, I'm telling you, when you do an analysis of what we have been doing, you're going to walk away with saying this is an authentic act. But I want to be able to do the analysis, and I want to be able to sit down and see that and be able to go outside and say that. Right? Because I want to be armed with the facts to be able to say, no, that's what y'all are saying is wrong.

I love that. And I love that. You know what Kanye said when he was on here? He said some wild shit when he was on here. But this was something that was very, very deep.

He said he went to visit a prison and all he saw was the wrong made decisions of RZA. Like he said, he seen a person that could have been RZA, but he made one decision.

Without a doubt. He said he met like the Nas's, the Drake's, the J. Cole's, or whoever. And he was like, yo, he was meeting them. He was like, it was the same person with one bad decision. Without a doubt. Without a doubt.

So is that what you're talking about, like almost crazy enough for him? That's exactly what I'm talking about. And what we need is, like when Conrad, my brother and I got arrested, you know, we had these fake gold chains. We used to go down to Canal Street and sell these fake gold chains to tourists. And this. You was one of them, too. You was one of them, too.

That's where Sonny gets all the money. Yeah, I was never forget, man. We had to go over to 40 projects to see this counselor. And we walked in. And after she did our first session, she told my brother, listen, I want you to come back next week. And she says, Eric, you don't have to bother coming back. In her mind, you know, you're just so fucked up, man. This is a waste of my time sitting here talking to you and she was like you know don't even bother coming back

and I remember walking down the block down Guy Brewer Boulevard it was called yeah yeah it was called New York Boulevard at the time I was walking down the block and I was like, you know, like, what's that all about? And so Pedro, who arrested, who had to speak with me to get us out, he showed me that gold chain, and he was like, I bet you I could get you to buy this gold chain. I was like, man, what the fuck are you talking about? This shit is fake. And he pulled out this book called State of Black America. The Urban League, I think, used to put it out at the time.

It showed how many, by the time you get 18, how many black youth would be arrested. I was arrested. How many will have children. My young girlfriend already aborted a child. How many will be dropping out of school. So all that stuff that they said, they predicted that was going to happen to us, I was like right in there. So someone else defined my life.

And that pissed me the hell off, man. And that was like the turning point for me that I said, you know what? This is not the life I'm going to have someone predict for me. And so we need, you and me, is what the recipe is for us, only in new york just worldwide i like it yeah right right because what we're going through in new york go look at chicago go look at los angeles go look at san francisco you know go go look at miami the record that was in the 60s,

brother's going to work it out. Nobody's going to do this for us. We're catching hell across the globe. Black men universally is catching hell across the globe. When I'm on the continent of Africa, me and my brothers over there, same type of exploitation. No matter where we are,

black men are catching hell across the globe. We got to do this. We got to sit down together and say, okay, here's Eric what I think you can improve on. Here's what not. And then we got to push back on the street. When people talk about madness on the street, you know, they did it to Dinkins. Who do we get? Julianne.

Oh, no, we don't like Julianne. You know what I'm saying? We got to push back because people are hurting. People are hurting on the street. And when you're hurting on the street, you even look at those who are giving you that life wrath and taking you to the next level. You begin to even despise them. There's never been a mayor like me, brother, in the city. Never been a mayor like me there's never been a mayor that will go when that barbershop closes on

Fulton Street at 1 a.m. In the morning to sit down with them and see what's going on in the ground How do we help dealers a Burger King? Right here we are I pick up the paper and I read the paper and they said that you know what drug dealers. There was homeless. Right, right. Here we are. I pick up the paper, and I read the paper, and they said that, you know what, drug dealers are hanging out in front of Burger King. And we— What borough? In Manhattan. Long Manhattan, right by Wall Street. Oh, shit.

I call up the commanding officer over there, and I said, what's going on over there? You know? And he says, Eric, these are not drug dealers. These are homeless guys. And they just, you know, they feel it's just a place they can go. Sunday after church service, I go down and I meet them. I said, brothers, how y'all doing? You know, I just want to know what's going on and how can I help you?

We sat down inside of Burger King and had a conversation. And these were intelligent brothers, man. They just went through some hard times. And we then provided services, pathways with them. Things that they were able to get, but they did not know how to navigate this system.

And that's what I'm saying. Those can be isolated situations. They're not, brother. No, you beg that. You know what I'm saying. I'm saying, but that has to be those type of resources have to be available in all communities. Yes. Right?

Because there are a lot of people just outside that don't know where to go. They don't. Definitely. And there's not really, there's nothing that says, hey, you could go here to get a job. You can learn this. You can do this. There's nothing that we have in our communities that do that. A lot of these kids don't want to be outside.

No, without a doubt. They don't want to be in the streets. Without a doubt. Like, hustling ain't even really making no money no more. Scamming. They're scamming. That's what I'm saying. People are like. Cyber scam. Yeah, cyber scam. YouTube is. a doubt they don't want to be in the streets like hustling ain't even really making no money no more nobody want the streets is really dead they want to be they want to go home so we we have to be able to provide that and this is how we this is how we're doing it because you're right when when when i'm out sitting inside Because my best ideas Come from clothes Beauty salons

And barber shops Right At the end of the night Mine come from the gym When I'm working out I come over to the barber shop Right You know

I go in the back After and we sit down And we chat What brothers Were saying to me Is what you say I don't even know The starting point

Of how to find a job I don't even know Like starting point of how to find a job. I don't even know how do I begin? What is this thing about resume? What is all that? So what we did, we created something called Hiring Halls with Henry Garrido, the head of the DC37. We said, why do folks have to come

to us? Why aren't we going to them? We now go into the community, bring all the jobs that are available, and we have people come in and we walk them through the process. And you see, you got like 800... Like a job fair? Right. It's even better than a job

fair because we're finding out everything that you need. Like what's going on? Like a workshop for them. Exactly. Right. You know, and because you're right. The old model was if you don't come down and fill out this job application i was like asking people like you know we y'all paying all these recruiters why aren't they people coming in so we had to go to folks man you got to meet people where they are you can't meet people where you are you know you got to meet people

where they are and so i went down to the job fair that was in Harlem the other day, and there was a bunch of brothers standing outside talking. And they were afraid to walk inside the building. I'm telling you, black men are beat down so much, brother. They were so afraid to walk inside the building. So when I was going back to my car, I caught them in the corner of my eye. And I told my crew, I said, hold on for one moment. And I went over there to talk to the brothers. I said, you know, what's happening?

They said, well, we know they're doing jobs in there, but I don't think we could go in. I've had some problems in my life. I said, no, it's not, man. Come on, we're walking in here together. You're going to walk in with me. And folks are going to give you the services that you want. I got to be substantive, but I got to be symbolic. People need to believe again.

They no longer believe. You know, they need to believe this bald-headed, earring-wearing, dyslexic, arrested, rejected. He's now elected to be our mayor, man. I mean, that makes... Greatest city on earth. Greatest city on earth. Greatest city on earth. The most important city on the globe.

Come on. Greatest city on earth. Let me tell you something, man. God is good, man. You got the hardest job. I'm going to be honest. But if I do it right, it elevates us. It elevates us.

If I do this right, it elevates us. Because nobody... Listen, God could have made me the mayor of some small town somewhere. He made me the mayor of the most important city on the globe. Big difference in contrast. You know what I'm saying? There's countries smaller than you. And it elevates all of us, man.

Like you doing this show, man. You know, your life, you're talking about, not only are you mentally sound, but you talk health. You take care of your body. You you you on the streets. You articulate an issue. You doing this show here. Listen, all of us going to stumble. You can't be a black man and not stumble in America. Right. You know, but if we come together and show how, because as you said, Democrats are trying to be so politically

correct. They're trying to say everything right that nobody believes in them anymore. And we need to just be authentic. Take the partisan out of it. I think that's a problem as well. Because that's almost that's a bloods and crips, you know what I'm saying, mentality as well. Like, we just all need to work, the parties, the politicians need to work for the people, all people, not whether it's blue or red or whatever.

I think it's hard. I think what you're saying is more theoretical than actual. Because you got to get a base. Right. In order for everybody has to have their base of people to get fundamentally, exactly, fundamentally. So what I'm saying is

appeal to the people. Right. You know what I'm saying? As long as you appeal to the people, I don't care what color you, because I don't care about the partisan shit no more. Like, that shit is over for me.

I'm not saying, listen, if you talk about the issues, if you are ready to promise me and guarantee that you're going to do everything possible to address the issues and the needs of the communities that I come from directly, then that's the person for me. Other than that, then I don't see the need for that. I agree.

I agree 100%. I'm going to change the subject. I'm going to lighten it up a little. Can we do that? First of all, brother, the message of the success must get to the people that's right we have some good stuff we and and when people do when people will my son said the other day when we were talking about this the biggest thing that my team here i didn't know that people don't know how much we're doing and there's a coordinated effort of not getting that down and so we need to sit down

with you and others and figure out how do we know people the accessibility like our hiring halls we need to get on the street because i'm out handing out pamphlets to people i'm i'm i'm in walking through nature or walking through the community but if they're better better methods like this then you say eric here look this is a good method so we can get this down. We can walk the streets together. That was the meeting I wanted to have with you because when I started...

We gonna have this shit goddamn. That was it. Because boycott black murder for me is everything else is incentivized, publicized,

and marketed. Like, murder to our community is marketed. Who's marketing the positivity? Who's showing the quote-unquote real gangsters that's stopping the violence in the community? Who's marketing the positivity Who's showing the quote unquote Real gangsters that's stopping the violence in the community Who's showing the people that's putting us on the right path

So if we don't put The same amount of money that they Or not even because we know that they're going to put way more money But if we don't got billboards showing The leaders in our community that's doing this If we ain't on the radio stations showing leaders That's doing positive if we ain't got the leaders In our community that's doing positive stuff

at Summer Jam and all of those places. Then our kids going to think the only way to win is to do negative. The only thing I'm going to do is some drill shit. We ain't doing that.

That's it. That's what it's about. That's what it's about. We got to market it for more. We're going to lighten up the situation a little bit. But this is like... It's like...

This is a good conversation. And I, and I, let me tell you something, man. I enjoy so much to be able to, and just,

and just be among us, us, and have real conversations. That's real talk. You know what I'm saying? Bill de Blasio would not have flown to Miami

and sit here and, you know, having a drink and just talking. This is, this is an opportunity we need to capitalize on, you know what I'm saying? We need to have real, authentic

talk with each other. So, this is what we do in the barbershops, man. It's beautiful. So, me and Drink Chance, we have a famous story. Yes. Our director, his name is Rasta. He's from the Caribbean.

Where's Kevin at? My friend Sonny D came to his room one night. He's a vegan. He came to his room one night. He caught it with a shrimp pizza. Listen to the room. I'm digging it. Listen, listen. We heard you and they caught you with a fist sandwich on the 145th street. Now, if it's on the 145th street, I forgive you, my brother,

because I'm... That 145th street sandwich... It's different. It has some type of shit in it. You know what I'm talking about? Yeah, right there, yeah. So when they said they caught the man with a fist sandwich,

I said, you got to forgive him. Depending on where it came from. Do we forgive Rasta for having a shrimp pizza? No, first of all, it's not what he does. It's not what he does a day. It's what he does every day. Every day. Let me tell you something.

I woke up. I don't know what year that was, DJ. I woke up. I couldn't see the alarm clock. And I thought it was sleeping in my eyes, I kept blinking it, it wouldn't go away. I decide, you know black men, man, you got to drag this to the doctor.

I was having a pain in my stomach, I thought it was, I had colon cancer, because it wouldn't move, it wasn't like gas moving around. And I said, let me get my ass to the doctor i get to the doctor he does a uh he checks my colon check my stomach i came out of sedation he says eric uh you have an ulcer he said but your real issue is your diabetes you lose your sight in a year damn and he says you're gonna lose my fingers and toes were tingling all the time he says you know that's permanent nerve damage you're gonna lose my fingers and toes were tingling all the time he says you know that's permanent nerve damage you're going to lose some fingers and toes and he says that um you know it's not much you could we could do and i went that's how old was you then uh it was about six seven years

ago about six seven years ago and i decided man i went home you know god is you know the ancestors speak to us and they gave me these pamphlets saying living with diabetes. I had advanced stage diabetes. Your A1C should be 5.6. Eight is, you know, coma level. I was 13. You know, and the doctor told me that I went on. They gave me these pamphlets and said, living with diabetes.

And I changed one word, one word, reversing diabetes. Instead of living with diabetes, I typed in reversing diabetes, Google. All this stuff came up. And that's how I got on this journey of plant-based. It came up to show, you know, it's not our DNA, man. It's our dinner man we don't you don't inherit these diseases because your parents had it you inherit these diseases because we eat the same shit that all parents eat

like everybody on the block had diabetes because everybody on the block was eating the same food we love the Kool-Aid I love the Kool-Aid. I love the Kool-Aid. I still drink champagne. Champagne. Champagne. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I go back to my brother. So it's not about being perfect. It's about saying, wait a minute, you know what? Let me just modify some stuff. Let me make sure I eat. At least let me get a nice salad in.

At least let me make sure I get that water in. At least I'm not going to eat steak every night. You know, it's about let me modify my stuff based on what health issue I'm going through. And that modification, I went plant-based. Three weeks later, my vision came back. You know, six, seven months later, all the nerve damage went away. I don't even feel the ulcer anymore. No medicine,

you know? So, you know, if I feel like, you know what, I want a pizza with shrimp on it, you damn right I'm going to eat it. You're right. He's different. He's a roster, son. All right, listen, but listen, I also heard he offended you out here a while, too. By the way, by the way, you know, he's the pescetarian right there. Look at the guy. Look at the guy with the cholo glasses on.

The notorious Machu Picchu. But I also heard that one night they ate jamon pizza. Jamon? Jamon. One night they ate ham on pizza He was so cute. I didn't even have to force it. They had a meeting about you. You wasn't around. And they said, he had been slipped up. He went back. I'm all over. He went back.

And the dude posted you too, like, yo, hey, man. He had made me hold it down. I'm just saying, I'm throwing it out there. That is a lot of y'all. We got some flowers. We got some flowers. I love it. Listen, our show is about giving people their flowers.

I have never, I am born and raised in New York City. I, if you take me right now, you throw me in Los Angeles, you throw me in anywhere else and say that this is where you're going to be born from, I'm going to refuse it. I mean, anywhere. Because I said Los Angeles, and you laughed, and I know how this shit goes. Please calm down over there back there.

Me, I'm born and raised from New York City. John Singleton was my friend before he passed away. And I sat down with John Singleton and I said, yo, can you put me in Snowfall? And he looked at me and said, you will never be in Snowfall. And I said, damn, I thought we were friends.

And he's like, your New York accent makes you limited to wherever you go. And I was like, fuck. And I didn't know that at the time. He kept it real with me. And I was just like, fuck. It doesn't matter if I move to Saudi Arabia, to Dubai, to Monaco. I keep flossing, right?

I'm off the coast. Wherever I'm at. I'm not going to speak English. You know what they're going to tell me? You're a New York person. That's right. And I will die being a New York person. And I will live my life, loving life, knowing I'm a New York person.

I jog and people see me and they look at me and they say, you're from New York. Because the way I jog is from New York. The way I walk around in the barbershop, they know I'm from New York. The way I motherfucking tie my sneakers, they know I'm from New York. And I would be with Mitch. What, something on me or something? My haircut? Yeah, my haircut is from New York.

My dog is from New York. This nigga know me 25 years. He mad. He mad. I didn't agree with that shit in Miami. Shut up. Listen, listen, listen. I was part of the bald community

and I left the bald community. They don't like it. I'm just being honest. Look at all these bald the bald community. They don't like it. I'm just being honest. Look at all these bald motherfuckers. They don't like it. They don't like it. They're like, yo, wait a minute. And then they didn't even realize I wasn't bald.

I just liked it my hair low. My wife made me grow my hair. She's over there. It's very true. But, sir, you are not only mayor of the most important city, you are mayor of the city. When they defy any city in the world, they defy it based upon New York. And we would be remorse to not give you. Remorse.

Listen, I'm a dyslexic. Okay. He ain't understand. No, no, no. He ain't great. He ain't great. You smart motherfucker. Get the fuck out of here.

You're dyslexic over here. Get out here and get your flowers. Face to face, man. Get your flowers. And, and, and. I love that. Yes, yes, yes. Snoop said it's better than a Grammy because it's coming for your people. And, you know,

we invited my son. My son is our brother. And listen, Boycott Murder is one of the greatest things I could ever see. Solid, man. So, you know, we have never gave a guest host flowers,

but we want to give my son his flowers. And this whole thing is about. The American West with Dan Flores is the latest show from the Meat Eater Podcast Network, hosted by me, writer and historian Dan Flores, and brought to you by Velvet Buck. This podcast looks at a West available nowhere else. Each episode, I'll be diving into some of the lesser-known histories of the West. I'll then be joined in conversation by guests such as Western historian Dr. Randall Williams and best-selling author and

meat-eater founder Stephen Ranella. I'll correct my kids now and then where they'll say when cave people were here. And I'll say it seems like the Ice Age people that were here didn't have a real affinity for caves. So join me starting Tuesday, May 6th, where we'll delve into stories of the West and come to understand how it helps inform the ways in which we experience the region today. Listen to The American West with Dan Flores on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes.

But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated.

I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back.

In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This has kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug ban is.

Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Cor vet. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them.

It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus

on Apple Podcasts. Us coming together, you know, and EFN, we're going to let you be an honorary New Yorker tonight. You let you be an honorary New Yorker tonight. You let me be an honorary Miami-an every night. I'm going to let you be an honorary New Yorker tonight, even though you should rewind your time. Come on, get your life together. Get your life together. Look at myself being, you know you got some grades in there.

Come on, rewind your time. But let me just tell you something. Yes. I think the dialogue that we've been speaking about is making our city greater. Definitely, definitely. And being from the Bronx, being from Brooklyn,

moving to Queens, me being, you know, from Queens, with a lot of fucking relations to the Bronx. A lot of them. I feel like, man, the Bronx is coming up now, man. They got Starbucks

and everything now. Yo, cheese danishes. Yo, I'm like, I can get a cheese danish. I can get a mocha farbalop thing. We got to be careful. Shit is real.

We got to be careful that it doesn't come up and we lose the people who were there. The gentrification. Right, right. We talking about gentrification? Yes, yes.

Okay, you don't think gentrification is good? Sometimes I do. No, no. Diversity is good. Displacement is not. Right. You know, and so there, folks, the Bronx, we got it wrong in other boroughs. We got to get it right in the Bronx, in other parts.

It's South Jamaica, Queens. South Jamaica, Queens. There's a lot of building going on there. I haven't seen that. But I'm going to be honest. I'm going to be honest. Let me cut you off

for one second. I went to Brooklyn in the 90s. And now I go to Soho House in Brooklyn. I like it a little better. I like Soho House in Brooklyn a little bit.

But from the people that lived there in Brooklyn before, they can't go to Soho House. And that's what he's talking about. See, I can relate to people in Fort Greene. I bit. But from the people that lived there in Brooklyn before, they can't go to Soho House. And that's what he's talking about. See, I can relate to people in Fort Greene. I can't relate to the people that was already in Williamsburg that I didn't know prior to that anyway.

So is that a difference? Because, I mean, I don't know. Did I sound a little crazy? No, no, no, no. But what I'm saying is I can relate it to the people in Fort Greene. I relate it to the people in Farragut. But I didn't relate to the people that was across from there that they gentrified as well.

Right, right, right. So, I'm a bug. No, so here's the movement. This is what we're doing when we're building now is that if you are, like we did a project, Willis Point.

You know, we're changing Willis Point. We're building 2,500 units of affordable housing, 100% affordable housing, union jobs, a new school, open space. You remember how Willis Point was, you know, for all those years. So as we're building now, we're saying, listen, we got to make sure the people who are building can afford to stay in the city. You know, because we were hemorrhaging black and brown people from the city of New York. We're saying, listen, folks got to stay in the city, you know, because we were hemorrhaging black and brown people from the city of New York. We're saying, listen, folks got to stay in the city.

So it could be, you could develop without displacing. Can I, I want to say one question. Yeah. The young kids in Columbia. What's up with Columbia? Columbia College right now. Right.

I was going to bring up actual Columbia. Columbia. I'm talking about, they actually been protesting against the war in Gaza. And I've seen like 108 of them were arrested the other day. Right, right. Like, do we think that's okay that kids are being arrested for protesting? No, I don't think. Here's where this whole issue.

We can't. People want to forget what happened. October 7th was real. And a lot of people, I think the big mistake that people are not doing is showing what really happened there. We're reading about it. That's one thing. But if you see the actual what happened there to innocent people, Those are people who had a, that was a peace concert that was saying,

we want to fight to tear down the wall so the Palestinians and the Israelis can give together. I mean, to go there and cut off someone's breast and use it as a football to rape and to, I mean, it was so inhumane.

When you look at a documentary, they didn't even want to show people because of how horrific it was. Well, I want to just give a little pushback there. There has never been any confirmed rapes. I know that the murders have happened, but there has not been any yet confirmed rapes. So I'm just saying that right there, there's never been any footage or any documentation of that. Even, let me just finish no good even the president stepped back and said i haven't actually seen these things that i'm talking about all right so he said that so but what i'm saying we're at a stage now where almost 40 000 people

have been murdered right so that's pretty much that's called collective punishment right and and the majority of them are babies and women right so if we're having a conversation because i've heard you say that i heard you somebody say hey we want to end the genocide this and then you said give back the hostages and i thought that was i didn't think that was the statement to make knowing that you have constituents who are palestinians you have constituents don't disagree but then look at the history. Let's view a person from their totality. 2001, 9-11 happens. They started rounding up young Muslims and Palestinians.

I went to Palestinians, Muslims, and others and said, this is wrong what they're doing to these young men. I went to 31st Street and 3rd Avenue and had a press conference. I couldn't get one Muslim to stand with me. I was by myself. Women were being attacked for wearing hijabs in the city. I rounded up and said, we need to stop these women from being attacked. I went to march with them to do so.

I couldn't get Muslim leaders to march with me to do so. At the largest protest, when Donald Trump said, the Muslim ban at Brooklyn Borough Hall with the Yemenis community to push back against it. These Muslims leaders say, listen, y'all can say what y'all want. This guy has been with us since 2001.

I'm consistent across the board. When things happen to people, I'm going to speak out against it. It's not about anti-Palestinian pro. But I just don't I think the Palestinian community doesn't believe that you you speak up or against collective punishment and murder of baby and children in Palestine right now. Because I disagree with I've heard you. I heard you vehemently say what happened on October 7th was an issue.

I heard you say for sending home the hostages. But I have yet to hear you say, hey, we need to stop this war. These kids are being killed senselessly. These women are being killed. I've said more than once, brother, that no child should be dying because of the actions of man. But let's be consistent about this. Right now in Yemen, Muslims are killing babies against each other in Yemen.

And I've been calling for years, we need to stop this war in Yemen. In Lebanon, Hezbollah is bombing and killing innocent people in Hezbollah. In Nigeria, a group of Muslim terrorists kidnapped over 100 black girls, took them from their families.

And I stood up at Borough Hall and said, listen, we shouldn't be doing this to these girls. So we can't all of a sudden find this energy to talk about one act. I'm saying globally we should not be doing this. And so I haven't heard these groups who are now running in the streets now where were them when those nigerian girls were kidnapped they weren't standing with me well a lot of them probably didn't know like a lot of there's a lot of information like i didn't even know what's going on in congo too recently right as a black man so when you start realizing what's going on in the congo and you start realizing what happened in haiti all of these things then you're focused on it but i'm'm just saying right now, when we're looking at videos of babies just being blown up playing games, playing hopscotch, right?

Like, these are things that literally happen. This is not, like, something we think is happening. Don't disagree with you, brother. So I think just the humane part of us to say, hey, that needs to stop. But I said that more than once. And stop, the fastest way to stop that, Hamas is a terrorist. If you were in Israel when they did that, brother, they would have killed you. And I understand that, but my thing is this.

If they would have killed me, that has nothing to do with those babies and the woman. So that's what I'm trying to say. Okay, so that's the issue that everybody's having. No one is denying what happened on October 7th was a horrific situation. No one in the world is going to say anything else except for the people who probably did it. But everyone else is saying at this point

almost 40,000 people, mainly women and children, are dying. That if the humanity in our leaders can't say, okay, we need to stop this. If you're trying to get Hamas, then you need to figure out a strategy that you go in and get the people who did what they're supposed to do. But killing babies and women every day is just not okay. And it would only perpetuate

it for it to happen again. I don't disagree with you, but first of all, I'm very delicate about using the term everybody. Because there's no such thing as everybody. So what do you have to say about everybody? There's not a monolithic view on everything. I agree with that.

So, you know, you had a group of people that was on a train the other day chanting, Hamas is our hero. Hamas is our hero. On New York City? Yeah, New York City. No. Hamas is our hero. I think that's a terrible thing, but you don't see how that's being created no you don't see how the narrative is being created right because what happens is it's like anything else when you start

seeing people go against these people are it's meant it's a mental illness at some point oh I agree it's levels of mental illness and I agree agree. This is how what's happening right now is this situation is creating terrorists. People that didn't know anything. I'm watching. There's levels of anger that people are like, damn. On both sides. On both sides. On both sides.

That's what I'm saying. David versus Goliath is basically. Exactly. That's what I'm saying. So as leadership, right, well, we have to be able to say it's like this shit needs to stop. And we don't disagree, brother. Everyone agrees with you. Everyone, right?

And I've been in Palestine. I sat down with Palestinian leaders. I've been in Israel. I've sat down with Israeli leaders. believe this battle that has been going on for i mean since the days of of solomon and gomorrah you know if we believe the mayor of the city of new york is going to resolve that yeah no no and so i'm saying no innocent child should die but i'm also not in support of someone the the the first of all hostagesages who have been released talked about being raped. But if something like that happens on October 7th and people are on the street cheering and celebrating on October 8th, that's inhumane.

It is inhumane. That's in a pain of devastation and mourning and celebrate that. That is not healthy. And that is what I denounce. I denounce innocent children dying. And there's a record for my entire life of talking about what's playing out across the globe. It doesn't come across that way when somebody says the innocent kids shouldn't die and you say free the hostages. That's your response.

That wasn't, that wasn't, that wasn't, I'm very consistent. There's one thing people can say. Well, there's a video that I've seen online. The guy was like, stop the genocide, stop it. And you walked up to him and said, free the hostages and walked off. Right. Listen, I'm very consistent in my message. I said on October 7th, destroy Hamas and free the hostages.

I said on October 30th, January, February. I'm the same. I'm the same. Now, one can say, well, Eric, I don't agree with you. You have that right. My position. It's not that I don't. I'm not talking about you in general.

I don't agree with that statement. When someone is saying, stop genocide, stop killing innocent babies, and your response to that is free the hostages, you're making it seem that it's justified. As long as the hostages are there, we can kill as many people as possible as long as you have hostages. That's not what I'm saying. But that's what it says when you say that.

First of all, if someone takes a clip and they omit what they've been saying no they didn't omit it was a full clip there wasn't there was no soundbite these guys first of all the people are saying we want you to say this specifically but they're doing that to every they're doing it on both sides though that's not like and that's why i don't play that okay so let's well first of all is why I'm a big believer. And I think this was answered all together. I was angry as hell when I couldn't get a Muslim leader to stand with me in 2001 when these young men were being rounded up. I was angry when I couldn't get them to stand with me when women were being attacked for wearing a hijab.

I was angry over and over again. But I said to myself in my time of reflection, Eric, you don't have the right to judge people. God judges. Anyone that's in that street right now that think they're going to judge me, then they don't believe in the religion they say they believe in. My anger cannot judge you. God judges. I don't judge you. I got to live my life. And so if people saying, well, Eric, you didn't say this sentence the way you want, that's your problem. That's not my problem. I'm judged by God. I just think that you have constituents that are Palestinians and Muslim. And I think that the same way you've been very vocal, because I've heard you very vocal say what happened on October

7th. I've heard you seen you in situations, denouncing those situations all the time. And I've never heard you be vocal about denouncing those situations all the time, and I've never heard you be vocal about denouncing that babies and kids are dying in Palestine. I just haven't seen it. We're saying it right now. God damn it. Keep in mind, Palestinian,

the loudest is not the majority. Palestinian leaders support me. Muslims leaders support me. Arabs support me. Just because the loudest is saying something, that's not the majority. And so booing to me, yelling at me, cursing at me. I just told you at the beginning of this program, I walked in the classroom and I was yelled, booed, teased. Listen, is that all they got?

You know, you got to come to me more than calling me names and booing me and calling me this and that. I'm going to live my life based on the principles that I've always have. I believe I'm authentic and I'm going to live my life the way my mother wanted me to live. And not everybody's going to agree with that. You think everybody agree with you? No. Like you said, I'm fine with it. Right. I stand ten toes down on anything I say.

Win, lose, or draw. I'm okay with it. So why wouldn't I be like you said, I'm fine with it. Right. I stand ten toes down on anything I say. Win, lose, or draw. I'm okay with it. So why wouldn't I be like you? You should. But I'm always going to ask a question, especially when something goes against my moral compass. And I feel like it's not okay. As a human being, there's certain things that I'm not okay. I wasn't okay what happened on October 7th.

I don't condone any of that. Right. But just constantly watching babies and kids die every day is just not okay with me. And I think that it shouldn't be okay with everyone. Right. And I'm going to say that absolute. There's no human being of good moral compass that should be okay watching babies and kids die every day. Absolutely.

And somebody say, I don't care. We're just going to keep killing them. It's just not okay. I don't care. We just going to keep killing them. It's just no way. I don't agree with that. I don't think we should kill children and families and babies. I'm with you. I'm with you.

But I also don't support those who are saying Hamas is a hero. Oh, you should. I get that. And there's a whole body. Those same people who are sticking a mic in my face and saying, we want you to say this the exact that way, are saying Hamas is their hero.

Those are not, first of all, I don't even respect them. I don't respect them. And what you'll find is that what I say in one setting in a boardroom is what I say sitting on the block. I'm consistent in what I say. You go over my life and you're going to see someone did a whole story on me and they say, this guy's been saying the same belief. He has not waived off his beliefs. So I don't have a political comment that I'm going to say if I'm around a bunch of white folks or if I'm around a bunch of black folks, or around a Muslim, so Christian, I'm the same person, brother. You take speech after speech, comment after comment, and you're going to say, what he said in this private room is what he said in public.

Because I got to live with myself. I mean, I said, I ain't done lost. I'm like Key and Pell. When I see certain people, I get certain people with certain fives. Certain people get the good fives and then certain people get done. You know, funny shit. Or you take it back. Yo, you told me to take it back

when he told me to take it. We got to shout out Underdog. Make sure everybody downloads the Underdog Fantasy app. We got Underdog Fantasy app. Use the code DRINKCHAMPS or DRINKORCHAMPS and get matched up to $100 on the app. Let's go, Underdog. Shout out to Underdog Fantasy.

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Let's go If you call Drink Chance Put in $100 We'll match you $100 We matching. Come on, Diego. Come here for this. Listen, we're going to play Quick Time with Slime.

Oh, we still doing that. All right. Let's play Quick Time with Slime. Let's do it, man. Listen, because you are the first political, fully political individual constituent that we ever had on here. So if we don't play Quick Time with Slime, everybody's going to be like, you took a light on the man. So we can't do that. But you don't have to drink.

You can have somebody else. You can sip his drink. Or you can pick somebody else around here. Mike's on. You're going to drink with us, too. I'm going to drink with you. You got your shot right here. It was shot glasses. Hold on. You want to start it off?

I finally know a New York City mayor, Jesus, this is fucking fantastic. So here are the rules. Here are the rules. Here are the rules. We're going to give you two choices. If you pick one, nobody drinks. Nobody drinks at the table. But if you say both or neither, which would be the politically correct answer, because

you don't want to pick one of them, then we all take a shot. Every single person. All right. We're going to have some person. All right, cool. We're going to have to drink inside. Oh, yeah, Jamie. No, no, no. You should have your, yeah.

Yeah, I want tequila too. Yes. All right, so we're just going to go, and then you drink if we have to. Biden or Trump? I went with Biden. Okay, okay. And any stories you have with anybody we mentioned, please, by all chance.

Yeah, Biden got to start winning the presidential. I'm throwing it out there. I mean, if you want me to somewhat be a Democrat, like, play the party. Like, every president besides you had that. You're going to wear the downgrade of it. I'm sorry. I'm of it. I'm sorry. I'm very simplistic. I'm sorry.

You're judging him for the wrong thing. Yes, I am. But I said that from the beginning. I'm a very simplistic person. He says the indicator. Yes, I'm just texting for Rick Rinelli. Go ahead. Go ahead.

Where you going? Tupac or DMX? I'm a Tupac guy. Okay. Where does that come from? Like, what's the history of your listening to Tupac guy. Okay. Where's that come from? What's the history of your listening to Tupac? I was part of an organization called the National Black United Front. Reverend Herbert Daughtry and others and Tupac's mom were affiliated with it.

And his music is just real. I respect that. You got it? I got this one I'm kind of scared Jay-Z or Nas? I got to go with Jay Jay-Z

I thought he would have been All New Yorkers at both You should have said both Can I come back? We won Both Yeah, you should have said both. Oh, okay, damn. Can I come back? Yeah, we want both. Both, both. All right, both. Thank you.

This is going to fuck up the internet. So I'll be honest. You got to answer this. No, it's not a correct answer. Kendrick Lamar or Drake? I'm going to say both. Now that's a great answer. And that was actually the political correct answer.

Politically correct. That is the politically correct answer. Oh, I got it. J. Cole or Kanye West? J. Cole. Okay. No, nobody J. Cole. Okay. No, nobody drinks. He picked it. Podcast or radio?

Podcasts. Long version. Able to really dig into a podcast. That's right. Chris Rock or Dave Chappelle? I got to go with Dave, man. I respect that.

Malcolm X or Martin Luther King? Got to go both. They both did their thing, man. He's trying to kill us now. He's getting you back, man. Get your ass back. Okay, I want this one. Go, go.

Michael Jackson or Prince? I'm going to go with Michael. Any reason why? When you think about it, Michael really started the whole video stuff. Michael, I remember reading the first story. He was talking about he's going to do his music and turn it into this visual. And now look at it. Yeah, he made movies. Thriller was a movie.

It was a movie. It was a movie. All was a movie. It was a movie. All right. Tyson or Ali? Ali. Okay. You trying to get that man all in drinks? What are you going to do with that?

Pass it down here. MOP or Mobb D? Mobb D. Okay. We got to keep going a couple more. All right. All right. Cheers.

The American West with Dan Flores is the latest show from the Meat Eater Podcast Network, hosted by me, writer and historian Dan Flores, and brought to you by Velvet Buck. This podcast looks at a West available nowhere else. Each episode, I'll be diving into some of the lesser known histories of the West. I'll then be joined in conversation by guests such as Western historian, Dr. Randall Williams and bestselling author and meat eater founder, Stephen Rinella. I'll correct my kids now and then where they'll say when cave people were here. And I'll say, it seems like the Ice Age people that were here

didn't have a real affinity for caves. So join me starting Tuesday, May 6th, where we'll delve into stories of the West and come to understand how it helps inform the ways in which we experience the region today. Listen to The American West with Dan Flores on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes,

but there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself

to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast.

Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves.

Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug man. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette.

MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good plus on apple podcast i'm thinking this is brooklyn or queens brooklyn oh queen new york city or miami i mean he gonna say Brooklyn. New York City or Miami?

I mean, he's going to say it. That's not even fair. I wanted to say it. You said Miami. Yeah, I wanted to say it. New York. New York. God damn it.

New York. Everybody here from New York. That's right. Miami is New York. Miami is the seventh borough. Miami is the seventh borough. I'm being honest. It's the five boroughs, and it's Long Island. And New York. Miami is the seventh borough. Miami is the seventh borough. I'm being honest. It's the five boroughs,

then it's Long Island, and New Jersey makes the sixth borough, and then the seventh borough is Miami. You know who says that? Only people from New York. We don't say that. Miami don't say that. Because y'all be claiming us, too.

Nah, I'm not. You're my cousin from Brooklyn. My cousin from the Bronx. Come on. You know we the coolest cousin from the Bronx. Come on. You know we the coolest people on the planet. Come on. But by the way, before we finish the Quick Time, a slide. New York.

For anybody that's not from New York, I apologize for this segment. But when they say if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere. That's right. They're not lying. No, I think everybody could agree with that. New York is probably one of the roughest,

toughest, richest bourgeoisie cities in the world. You can get robbed on one block and turn around and have an elegant foie gras meal with caviar on the next. That's right.

And guess what? You feel beautiful about it. Not the getting robbed part. No, I'm not focusing on that part, sir. I'm saying that can happen. But New York City is the greatest city on the planet. I'm sorry for people who are probably going to tune into this. They wanted me to say one of the greatest cities. And no, I don't want to say that.

That's right. Claim it. I want to say the truth. That's right. It is the greatest city on the planet. It is the greatest city on the planet. It is the biggest city on the planet. I've been to Tokyo. Cool.

I've been to all these other places. Cool. There's no place like New York City. I don't give a fuck where you go. Let's take a shot to that. Let's shout to that. No place like New York. I I don't give a fuck where you go. Let's take a shot to that. Let's shout to that. No place like New York. I don't care where you go.

Except Miami. That's a lie. That's a lie. Yes, it's very close. But just like there's a distinctive experience when you come to Miami, and it's pretty much horny people, right? If you love Miami, you're kind of like a horny guy.

You come to New York and love New York and not be horny. It's true. You would just be out there. You would just love it. It's horny people love Miami. Let's be honest. I told you my citizen plastic.

I'm dyslexic. Resource room, Virgo. Very, shh. Well said. But New York City, I'm going to be honest with you. There was a record label. My song is signed to the same way as I'm signed to. It was called Violet. It was on 160 Varick Street same way as I'm signed to, it was called Violator.

It was on 160 Varick Street. That's right. Where Chris Lighty was alive. Classic. And we was talking about programs earlier, and he was, yeah, I was back and forth about the programs earlier. And I'm going to tell you what programs

I would like to invest in. I would like to invest in whatever program that my song has, or whatever program that Papoose has right yep yep yep because I'm gonna tell you one thing the program that we didn't realize that saved us that helped save me and you was record labels was us hanging out in record labels it replaced the. We went and we understood that we was collecting $60,000 by hanging out on the record label.

And the thing was, what we didn't realize, it was our savior, was because a lot of these people were still under the, what's it called, the 360 mentality. But imagine, that's

why I love what Pat Pooce is doing. And that's why I love what we're doing with Drink Champs. Our motto is what? We don't own nobody who signs the Drink Champs. If you sign the Drink Champs, this is your we don't own you.

We don't want to be a black and brown people that come into our that turn into our parents that we despised and we'll set you up and if you got to go afterwards because we set you up so we give you a one year deal

we give you all your publishing we do everything and we just tell you go ahead and so that's the program that we was talking about earlier it's the program

but me and you know that 160 Varick, when Chris Lighty would come meet with you, and he would... You walked into that office. Because guess what? And Q-Tip was there. Buster was there one day. But guess what, my son?

Guess what, my son? You didn't come by yourself. You came with six other individuals. Yeah, I bring my man. And guess what happened? Guess what happened? Those six other... Not only you was inspired, but those six other individuals. Yeah, I bring my man. And guess what happened? Guess what happened? Those six other, not only you was inspired,

but those six other individuals went back to the Bronx. LL was in there. I remember the first time I freestyled for LL and off. He just walked into a meeting and I'm like, this is LL.

And I'm rapping. And Chris was like, listen to him. And he started rapping. And you know what's crazy? Like, probably five or six years ago, he remembered a bar I said from that rhyme.

Mm. Mm. Mm. I never, when he said that, he said, you said something about chuck steak. I'm cooking up steak. I'm cooking up beef for these chuck steak niggas. Right. And I said, what?

We remember. And I was like, damn, that was 20 plus years ago. And you really remember? And that shit inspired me. Like, I used to walk in that office. I remember I had battles with Gilly and Jayay-z and and dame dash was just walking by and he was like we need you to judge it come in you know i'm saying like that that was a that was an energy man i think we need to have so both of you brothers was both political and by the way i shut the fuck up when y'all was

talking right because you know sometimes if you don't know the fuck you're talking about it's all good some of the best things to do is shut the fuck up but that's one of the programs that you know I see Steve Stout let me say this very

we didn't see eye to eye but who he is now and who I became to be is one of the people I honor. He's in Africa saying, fellas, I'm opening a record label.

I want us to own our own masters. Let's go. Hoyite. That's Puerto Rican. I'm sorry. I know I'm fucking African proverb up

with Spanish proverb, but it's the same proverb. That's right. He's in Africa telling, because you know what's the most popular music there is right now?

Afro. Afro fucking beats. That's right. That's right. I'm sorry. Malcolm X is coming out of me. Yo, yo. I don't know if it's Dirty Red, Malcolm X. Look. That's right. That's right. I'm sorry. Malcolm X is coming out of me. Yo, yo. I don't know if it's Dirty Red,

Malcolm X. Look. He's in Africa telling people I love that. we need to own our own masters. Our masters don't need to own us. What does that remind you of? It's political.

Man, Africa. Artists who are hot to them right now. That's right. And they can see them in offices and see them and be inspired. That's what I think is the solution. No, no, no.

That's one of the things. I'm sorry. No, no, no. I felt that. And, you know, we need to really make that connection back to the continent. Because our brothers and sisters

on the continent, they're really doing something yeah they're regaining control yes you know they're looking at their natural resources they're not allowing themselves to be exploited when i was in senegal this brother is taking over all that cocoa that is shipped to switzerland and other places to make chocolate he says no we need to do this right here you know all those natural resources we need to make that bridge again you know yeah yes man um i'll be honest man okay you want to say something no no i'm just i'm feeling the vibe i'm so honored man because

you know what as a hip hopper a person that you know I'm 46 years old hip hop is 50 so that means that I was listening to hip hop in my stroller so I don't remember I mean

did I say something smart? I mean I have a rhyme I said I said we're older hip hop is older than me I listen to it in my stroller.

It didn't make sense never until now. But it's true. Yeah. You being the hip hop man, the nightlife man. When I'm schooling you and I'm going through it, it's like Friday and Saturday night, he lit. And then Sunday morning, I said, this is dope. But Chris, let me because I know how hard it is

for your job, right? So many people look at the person that runs the marathon at the end. They say, all right, cool. I like that. Nobody understands the marathoner at the end. They say, all right, cool. I like that. Nobody understands the marathon at the beginning. And then especially a New York marathon, you got to run through each borough.

Right. I'm going to be honest with you. I'm born and raised in New York. There's certain boroughs I just won't go to. You have to go through them all. Right. How do you balance that? And just, you know,

be the same person in Brownsville that you're going to be on the Upper East Side. Let me critique you just a little bit. Yes. There's no way you can be the same way in Brownsville that you can be in Howard Beach? Yes, you can, brother. Yeah?

Yes, you can. Explain that to me, please. I like how you took a shot without us. We don't like it. Come on, come on, come on. We together. Come on, solid.

We together. Solid, solid, solid, solid. Okay, you can be the same person in Brownsville and Howard Beach. By the way, about 12 minutes away. Maybe 15. Well, first of all,

the Howard Beach, the Pelham Park, all those communities. Pelham Park Way? Right. All those communities that we once knew, they're not anymore. Really? Yeah. The Little Italy's, all these areas. When we grew up, there were certain areas you couldn't go to Bensonhurst.

You know, you couldn't go to Bay Ridge. These areas have now become one. You said Hawkins, right? Right. You said Hawkins, right. And so if you come with the same things, and we all want the same things. We want to be able to raise our families, educate our children, live in a safe community, and be gainfully employed. That's the same across the board.

And as I sit in these different communities, they all want the same. Communities have been denied the same. I have, when I go to a Howard Beach, which I won when I ran, just as I won our communities, I'm saying the same message. We have to make sure if we don't give the opportunities to all these children, then the children that they're raising, they're not going to have the opportunity. And that's what we have to make sure that we're doing. And that's our message. My message is the same and it's consistent.

And it is what I'm going to stand by. And I'm going to give them all. You know, we I know what we're doing You know We're down here now Telling one of the things we're doing while we're down here. We're gonna be talking to the international community People are looking at us internationally And saying that the way you are handling these crises that people need to duplicate

I want to give you a gift. This is from my friend. He's from Queensbridge. He's from Queensbridge. His name is J-Rock. He did time in prison, just like my son. Came home, he flipped,

and he's a construction worker now. He's part of the union. He didn't ask me to do this at all. He might be embarrassed. I bought this personally. So this is the book that I bought from him personally, and I want to give it to you. It's called Life in Queensbridge by my brother, J. Rock.

Love it, love it, love it. I can't even tell you how much time he did in prison. I don't know. He's been locked up since I was 11. But this is a message that he asked. I have a question. I will ask him, how important is union labor and the unions to his administration

in New York City? And I said, listen, when you look at the fact, first of all, I think I'm the first union member that has ever been the mayor of the city of New York. What I did when I became mayor, I settled all the union contracts. Ninety-four percent of our union contracts are settled.

And when you make a deal with the union leaders, you have to go and let the members vote. We're getting 98 percent ratification rate. All these union members, I have have over 300 000 employees in the city of new york and they're all saying that no one has given us what you have given us finally given us the pay scale the the human service workers which are overwhelmingly a woman and women of color uh they have been denied for years on the campaign trail i said i make you whole when i become mayor we're going to give you the salary you deserve. We just gave them the salary increase they deserve. These are the folks who are doing all those human services, child care, daycare.

So when you look at the union members, and you see, I was just in Hollywood, Florida, I think a month and a half ago with all of my construction, my trade, we get ready to make a deal to build housing using union pension funds with the city. And so. The American West with Dan Flores is the latest show from the Meat Eater Podcast Network, hosted by me, writer and historian Dan Flores, and brought to you by Velvet Buck. This podcast looks at a West available nowhere else. Each episode, I'll be diving into some of the lesser known histories of the West. I'll then be joined in conversation by guests such as Western historian Dr. Randall Williams and bestselling author and Meat-eater founder

Stephen Ranella. I'll correct my kids now and then where they'll say when cave people were here and I'll say it seems like the ice age people that were here didn't have a real affinity for caves. So join me starting Tuesday, May 6th where we'll delve into stories of the West and come to understand how it helps inform the ways in which we experience the region today. Listen to The American West with Dan Flores on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, Have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's

a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1.

Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1. It's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th.

Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives.

This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher.

Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does.

It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. When he talks to his membership, he'll tell you,

you got a blue-collar mayor, a union member, and I'm always going to be a union member. I got a union pension, and I know how important it is, and we have stood up for our unions. They'll tell you in a minute. I had all these major unions endorsements. DC 37, 32BJ, TWU. You go down on

the list. They've been with me from the beginning, and so I hear them. Good union paying job. Goddamn, let's make some noise for them. me from the beginning and so I hear him you know good union paying job god damn it's nice you you went to John Jay College yes I want to Louise I want to Martin Luther King which is right down the block, and then went to John Jay. Interesting. John Jay had more girls, though.

No, but you know what? Nobody had girls at Martin Luther King. LaGuardia was right next door to Martin Luther King. No, no, no. LaGuardia. All of the girls. He was with Queens a little too much. It was a different.

It was a different. We ain't nobody. It took me 14 years, man, to get my degree. 14 years, one class at a time. I'm never going to beat you with brilliance. I'm going to beat you with endurance. I'm going to wear you down, man. You know what I'm saying?

That's a bar. That's a bar. That's a bar. By the way, let me tell you, you be taking my shit. You know what I say? What I say, Ross? I say, I say, I say I say I say everyone else might have had

better product than me they're not going to stay outside as long as me that's pretty much the same shit it is you're a Virgo

you're dyslexic you gotta relax you know what I'm saying yo Virgos is wild yo I'm going to be honest man I invited my son because my son Yo, I'm going to be honest, man. I invited my son because my son really loves our community. He really is the guy that if something happens, he's there. So I didn't ask his agenda.

I just asked him to be here. Yes. And I loved it there because he's genuine. So I didn't want to. But we all have the same goal. Definitely. We want our city to be better. That's it.

I want to move back. You're a smart man. I want to move back. But I need something. Not from you. Not from you neither. We just need something. Not from you. Not from you neither. You just need something. Maybe from you. But,

you know, what do you say to these residents that come, they say, man, New York is too expensive. Then when I get there, I see certain bums outside my house. Then when I get there, I see there's rats outside my house. When I get there, I see, you know, certain bums outside my house. Then when I get there, I see there's rats outside my house. When I get there, I see

everyone smoking weed. By the way, Amsterdam is one of the best places I've ever been in my life, and drugs is legal everywhere. I love it. Not just weed. Right, right. This motherfucker's sleuthing heroin right there, like, happy as hell. What's up?

I'm sorry. I know this is not politically correct. Right, right. But there's people in Amsterdam and there's no crime. Mm-hmm. There's no crime. Like, holy moly guacamole. Mm-hmm.

Is that the next thing? Let's make heroin legal? They tried in Portland. Because y'all was giving out free needles and shit. Yeah, yeah. Because we found there's a needle injection site.

We found that if you create the environment, if people are going to use you should create an environment where they could do it safely and they could get the counseling that they deserve. Dr. Fasan, who's in charge of my... Like the wireless free zone? Yeah. You ever seen the wire? Yep. Yep. Not like that. Okay.

You wild. Not like that. I mean, that's what it sounds like. And you know that's the true story. Yeah, yeah, yep. Not like that. Okay. You wild. Not like that. I mean, that's what it sounds like. But you know that's the true story. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Wait, what? That drug-free zone?

That's what they were doing back in Baltimore? Yeah, it's all based on facts. Did they have crab legs, though? Did they have crab legs? Crab legs is the best. CNC? They got whole crabs No I'm fucking with you I'm fucking with you

I'm fucking with you Yeah but You should come back The city is back No I'm back But I leave Yeah yeah I ain't gonna lie

I come I be like I love it I bring my kids My kids Don't wanna leave They're smart You know

My kids don't wanna leave My kids They love the hood Yeah They wanna go play basketball Yeah I'm want to leave. They love the hood. They want to go play basketball. I'm like, you know, we live on the beach. Fuck the beach, dad. You don't work too hard.

Listen, man, we got to do another few stops. We're really good, man. Let's catch up when we get back. Yes, sir. We got a lot to do. You know what I'm saying? Let me just say this the right way. I thank you. I know you get scrutinized.

I know you get chastised. But you're the first. I was the first to do reggaeton. I was the first to work with Swiss Beasts. I was the first to work with Scott Storch. I was the first to do reggaeton. I was the first to work with Swiss Beasts. I was the first to work with Scott Storch. I was the first to work with Neptunes. I was the first to do reggaeton. They laughed at me.

I made it to my destination. But when I popped in my GPS, that shit didn't come up. I killed that? I like the my GPS, that shit didn't come up. I killed that? I was like, I like the way I killed that. But no, it's real talk. When I popped in to the places that I wanted to be, GPS navigation wasn't even invented. So when I complained about traffic in Great Adventures

and I didn't leave Van Wick, I knew this is what life is. Meaning, people want to hurt you before you get to your destination. I heard you say that my greatness will not be recognized until I'm out of office. That's right. That's right. That's my line. And guess recognized until I'm out of office. That's right. That's right. That's my line. And guess what? I respect that.

But I want to take a little bit before we get up out of here and tell you, being a renegade is also the same thing. Barack Obama didn't legalize marijuana throughout the whole 50 states because he didn't want to be the black person to legalize. But I'm going to tell you something. Trump will do the exact opposite to be the exact opposite. So I'm going to give you that little bit of advice and I can't give you no political advice at all.

Listen to me. I told you I'm dyslexic, resourceful, special education, everything. Put it all together. ADD. All that. But to me. I told you I'm dyslexic, resourceful, special education, everything. Put it all together. ADD. All that. But the advice I can give you is fuck it.

That's it. Listen, and... Hold on, hold on, hold on. Hold on, hold on. Because this is... It's two words. Right. Fuck it.

Put it on a t-shirt. This is what I'm giving it to you because you can do it. And that's what he was saying intelligently. And I told you I'm simplistic, man. Right. Eric Adams, Brooklyn, Queens, guy who I know knows Nas albums just as much as me. Knows Biggie albums just as much as me.

Just think about it one time. Right. The same way Trump says, fuck it sometimes. That's my only advice. Fuck it. Fuck it. And we said that January 1st, 2022,

we became elected. And trust me when I tell you, we're still saying it. And I'm going to just move to New York just to vote for you again. My man. Just for like two weeks. And then I'm going to get in the fuck saying it. And I'm going to be, I'm going to just move to New York just to vote for you again. My man. Just for like two weeks. And then I'm going to get

the fuck out of here. Guess what my quiet advice is. Guess what my quiet advice is. Fuck it. Oh, okay, okay. Okay, we got a special guest. I forgot. Hold on, hold on. Sit down, sit down. we got a special guest. I forgot. Hold on, sit down.

We have a special guest. Okay. He's part of our culture, part of hip-hop. He's here to give us a certificate. Okay. Commissioner Keon. Hey! What's up, brother?

How are you? So I've come on behalf of the mayor of Miami-Dade County and the commissioners of Miami-Dade County to show my appreciation to Drink Chats. Thank you. Drink Chats has done wonderful things for our community. It's bring about a lot of conversation that we all need. It's made opportunities to laugh and learn.

But today, to hear this political speech, you know, it's been wonderful. And so I'm presenting this certificate of appreciation as Miami-Dade County Commissioner on this day to you all for all of your wonderful work. Thank you so much. Thank you. Drink Champs is a Drink Champs LLC production, hosts and executive producers, NORE and DJEFN. Listen to Drink Champs on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Thanks for joining us for another episode of Drink Champs, hosted by yours truly, DJ EFN and NORE. Please make sure to follow us on all our socials. That's at Drink Champs across all platforms, at TheRealNoriega on IG, at Noriega on Twitter. Mine is at Who's Crazy on IG, at DJEFN on Twitter. And most importantly, stay up to date with the latest releases,

news, and merch by going to drinkchamps.com. Why is a soap opera western like Yellowstone so wildly successful? The American West with Dan Flores is the latest show from the Meat Eater Podcast Network. So join me starting Tuesday, May 6th, where we'll delve into stories of the West and come to understand how it helps inform the ways in which we experience the region today. Listen to The American West with Dan Flores on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes.

But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Your gut microbiome and those healthy bacteria can actually have positive effects. Your mental health, your immunity, your risk of cancer, almost any disease under the sun. This week on Dope Labs, Titi and I dive into the world of probiotics, the hype, the science, and what your gut bacteria are really doing behind the scenes. From drinks and gummies to probiotic pillows.

Yes, really, probiotic pillows. We're breaking down what's legit and what's just brilliant marketing. With expert insight from gastroenterologist, Dr. Roshi Raj. Listen to Dope Labs on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart Podcast.