Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay - Beyoncé vs. NFL, Plus Masculinity and Painted Nails With Demetrius Harmon

Episode Date: February 13, 2024

Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay react to the back-and-forth between Shannon Sharpe and Mike Epps (:12) before recapping a Super Bowl Sunday that saw Usher and Beyoncé dominate headlines (12:27). Then, a discussion of the Israeli bombardment of a city packed with refugees (37:30), before internet personality Demetrius Harmon joins to talk masculinity amidst a viral post about straight men with painted nails (1:03:47). Hosts: Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay Guest: Demetrius Harmon Producers: Donnie Beacham Jr. and Ashleigh Smith Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Yo, yo, yo, thought warriors. What is up? Howard Learning is on. It is I, Van Lathen, Jr. And it's me, Rachel and Lindsay. Mike Epps has threatened to shoot. Is that what we're starting with? What's going on?

Miss. Begets Miss, begets mess. I do feel like people, do you feel like it's a fair criticism of club Shay-Shay? Just let people know what's going on. Mike Epps just did a video, like literally. And in this video, he's responding to Shannon Sharp, starting off with the messiness. He's responding to Shannon Sharp.

Shannon Sharp, Mike Epps is responding to Shannon Sharp who's responding to Mike Epps. Mike Epps had a comedy show where he said that Shannon Sharp had asked him to come on Club Shea, and then he goes on to make gay jokes about Shannon Sharp. He says that Shannon Sharp was trying to look at Cat Wood. limbs, his balls. Were people laughing? Yeah, I mean.

It just doesn't sound funny. So that's why I'm asking. Well, I mean, he said, so they've been making a couple of jokes. By the way, speaking of this, we have Demetrius Harmon coming on the show later on to talk about masculinity. Yeah. Toxic or otherwise. Mieter's Harmon is an internet personality, an actor, an activist, a clothing designer who got into a long conversation because he paints his nails. So we're going to be talking about that later on.

but Shannon Sharp heard Mike Epps say that he was basically a wig away from being Medea. And he's like club Shayshay. See what I'm saying? Well, that one was funny. It's funny, right? He's like, club shayshay. He's like, he's trying to tell you. He's doing the whole thing.

Shannon Sharp came back. Actually, Donnie played the back and forth. Play a little bit of Mike. Yeah, let me hear it because I've heard it. That niggas, Sandy Sharp called me trying to. to do an interview. I said, no, Medea. I ain't doing no interview.

So you can sit across me and look at my balls. I'm sitting down, nigga. I thought he was going to attack cat, that nigga there is. The niggas shit is called Shay-Shay. The niggas telling you. All right, okay, cut it off. I fuck with Shannon. Hard.

Like, Shannon is the, I see Shannon at the gym. Shannon is the strongest man I've ever seen. God, I saw him for the first time in person this weekend. fucking gigantic. And he was wearing a suit. And I was like, how did he get the suit on? It was like mega-grant. He's a gigantic, bro.

I knew who he was without even seen his face. He's a super nice man. So I'm not laughing at him. That was a funny line, though. Janet didn't appreciate it on the nightcap show that he has. I got to be honest with you guys. A lot of this is hate. A lot of this is hate from people because Shannon Sharp is dominating media in a way.

that I haven't seen anybody in a while. He has club Shayshay, then he's got the nightcap show, then he's on first take. Shannon Sharp is having a very singular and specific moment that I haven't really seen anybody have like this, quite like this in a while in terms of like different alternative media things

that are popping. Shand Sharpe. Yeah, exactly, right. Shan Sharp came back and said this. I'm going to put this out there. Uh-huh. And this, and I'm going to fire this shot over your head, mofo. And you will know exactly who I'm talking about.

Yeah. You mention my name again. Yeah. And I'm going to put the DMs. I'm going to put, and I don't like doing this. Yeah. But you're lying. See, and I don't care about all that other stuff.

You could say I'm gay and you can say I don't care about that. Because I won't chase a lot, but I won't let you lie on my name. Yeah. Now, you can say all that other stuff, I can deal with that. I don't know. Look, I heard that a thousand times. Yes. Like everybody jumping in the chat,

talking about, oh, he don't like number white women. Right. I don't date a lot of different races. Yeah. Hey, listen, you like Skittles now. You eat every color. Come on.

Talk to me. I don't eat. I don't eat. I don't eat or suck. They all do all. So, Sean and Sharp, pause real quick. Pause.

Shand Sharp don't eat pussy? I guess that. I guess not. Can I be honest with you guys? Or maybe he means eat ass. Eat ass. Eat ass. Eat the whole thing.

My thing is, it's like, I want to hear from the guys now. this to be a breakout because Shanan Sharpe said this. I haven't heard this sentiment in a long time. This is a very 1996 sort of sentiment. About that. Yeah. Are there still guys? You just see here rappers. Like rappers are saying. I don't eat. No. Are there still guys that don't like E. Plysset? Or there still is. That's got to be

gone. That there's not. Donnie, what about you? I think this is a generational thing. I think people of Shannon's generation maybe not. He's like holding on to these old ideas, I feel like. But Donnie, you personally, though? Oh, me personally, yeah. I am a giver. Yes, as well as I, as well as I. And good lovers are. Yeah.

So I just, so that was interesting to hear Shannon say that. Because that's a very 1996, 97. I don't believe it. I just remember I don't believe it either. I never believe that. No, they just said it. It just said it. It's just like, I just remember back in the day, hey, bro.

I was like the first guy in my clique. They just was like, yeah, you know. it was fun. And did the flood gates open? Yeah, everybody else says that. The floodgates open, man. Because it was, it was me and then it was Ian. Ryan has still, I could call Ryan, right?

I should call Ryan right now. Don't go, go right. No, don't. Because we never. Right. I've got to stop answering your phone calls Mondays and Thursdays. Like, we never, I've actually never asked Ryan about this before. Hold on.

I've actually never asked Ryan because it was me and then Ian and then Ryan and then the pussy eating. I've never had anybody tell me. I don't do that. It was a thing. Well, you're a little bit younger than me. We're the same generation. I was the last generation of guys who were like they don't do it. Like, let's see if Ryan answered the phone.

He might, if Ryan answers the phone, like he's going to call back. It's a possibility that he says he doesn't. That he might still be keeping it real. Does he know he's on the microphone? No, it's not going to know. He's not going to know. Like, he's a possibility that he, it's a possibility. When Ryan calls back, we'll ask him.

Anyway, not to get sidetracked, even though we did. Donnie, continue to run it. I'm telling you this, and I want you to, and I want somebody to send it to you, and y'all been, I've been sitting in the chat. Y'all know who I'm talking about. I don't know who you talk about, but I'm with you. Nick, make my name again, and I'm going to put the, and I'm going to release the DMs because you're lying.

Yeah. You said I reached out to you to come on club, Shay, Shee, and you are a motho lie. Now, when I see you, I'm going to see you, I'm going to see if you're about that. Okay. So nobody wants to fight Shannon Sharp. I mean, that's just a thing, right? Nobody's, I don't think that Mike Epps, I know a bunch of people,

I don't think a Mike Epps wants to fight Shannon Sharp. No. And Mike Epps said he didn't want to fight Shannon Sharp. He said that he would handle it a different way, Donnie? I don't be doing no fighting lately. I don't do no fighting. So, you know, it's only one other option. If you don't fight, you do blank, blank, blank, blank, blank,

Blank, Blank, Blank. And Ocho, you shut up and go get some eyebrows. You're looking like a whole milk duds sitting there, agitating. We watch the white boy kick your ass. Okay. Turn it off time. Cut it off. Please.

Please. Turn it off time. So Mike Epps goes on to saying that they're going to see each other in Indiana and the All-Star Game. And if he sees him in Indiana when he's basically said that he'll put that iron on Shannon Sharp. That's where we are now because of a lot of the talk. Remember, D.L. Hughley has criticized Shannon Sharp for what's been going on on Club Shay-Shay. It's like, and now we got Shannon Sharp threatening to beat up Mike Epps and Mike Epps threatening to shoot Shannon Sharp. OG's going wild.

O'G's gone wild. Is what we're seeing right now. It's unnecessary. They need to quit all of that. But, I mean, listen, the more that Club Shaysay continues to have people on who feel comfortable enough to just talk for hours on hours on hours. And specifically, it's been comedians as of late. We're going to have people that are riled up and are going to want to respond back and more

of the aunties and the uncles showing out on social media. It's really going to continue. You're right. Now, are we interested in it? Yes. We talk about it every single time. Do I want to see that? No.

I want to see them actually turn it all into a tour. Let's bring all these people to come out. Monique and Kat are going to. going out on tour together. Oh, I miss that. Yeah, the Dark Matters to. Like Monique and Kat came together.

She did her first show a couple of nights ago. Here? No, somewhere else. Look, here's the thing. It's interesting. So the Breakfast Club, which has now

actually transitioned to a show that has more tools in the toolkit because the Breakfast Club gives you all the interviews with the people who are coming up and popping, but it also gives you interviews with authors. It's become.

over... It's become over the course of its run a much more serious platform than what it was when it first exploded onto the scene, right? It's now you got presidential candidates on there, you got politicians on there, you got authors on there,

you got financial experts on there, you got all different types of people on there. Club Shay Shay is like a Gen X version, almost a baby boomer version of what the breakfast Club was in say 2013, 2014. Yeah.

And his crowd, think about it. We talk about beef with Ricky Smiley and beef with Cat Williams and beef with Mike Epps and Steve Harvey and Sedgett the entertainer. The older crowd, the uncles and the aunties, they never had a place where they could go and get shit off their chest like this about each other. We never really saw this before. And Club Shay-Shay has given them that, so it's going to be that way. And a lot of these people is different.

Not so much Mike Epps because he's been going back and forth with people in the past. But a lot of these people aren't used to having this type of shit talked about them. No, that's true. Because it's been a while since they're older. And they're, you know, anybody you can see on a cruise or doing a gospel brunt Saturday comedy show is not used to being called out. You know what I'm saying? And they don't respond. I mean, Cedric really didn't respond.

He might have a couple of comments. But Cedrick didn't, right? But that's what I mean. Ricky Smiley, Steve Harvey, they just let it go. Ricky Smiley did respond. Yeah, but not like in a Mike Epps type way. Yeah. Mike's calling people, he's calling people out in the middle of his response.

That's not what they're doing. As Shannon does it, this is kind of going to be the thing. Shannon is kind of in that same space that Sharr was in during the time where everybody was like, you just go up there, you talk a bunch of shit. But now that platform has actually evolved. And Club Shayshay is the hottest place to go and talk your shit. It is. It is.

It just is. Everybody that wants to get something off their chest is going to go talk. And it's interesting because, like, in between Kat and Monique, fucking Usher was on Club Shet. He was? Yeah. And it just... How did I miss that?

But he because he did not really talk his shit. Because that's what people, you go on there now to talk your shit. And now it's time for Beauty Chronicles. An all new segment brought to you by Ulta Beauty because it's our month, man. It's Black History Month. Alta Beauty is celebrating Black-owned and founded brands this month and every month, not just in February. And it got us thinking about how important it is to support and uplift Black voices in the beauty world. Okay.

I would say over the last couple of years I've been very invested in my skin because I've been having a lot of skin issues we talked about it here on the podcast. Taking care of my skin before I put on my makeup. Do you have like a go-to beauty routine or maybe like a particular type of product

that you love to use? Because then I can tell you a black-on-one-one, an ultra beauty that you should be using. So I like to use toner and moisturizer. Okay. I like to use a little toner. Okay.

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Okay, so butter. Butter! Doreen or not? That's right. The man. The man, right? Yeah. From Texas.

Mm-hmm. His products at Ulta, for us, buy us. And he has really great products. Moisturizers, one of them, you talked about it. I actually have one. And why that's so great is because, like I said, it's for us, by us, but it's for our skin and it gives us the attention that we need and that we deserve. Now then, this is not a you.

This is for me. Fenty Beauty also sold it older, Rihanna. I love to put on top of my skin, too, for makeup. I use everything that they have. I use their skin tent. I use their powder. I use their lip cloths. Like, you name it.

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There was so much going on yesterday. There was a lot going on. I'm so glad that we watched it together, though, because there was so much going on. It's a lot. I mean, where do we start? Well, we start by taking a break. Oh.

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Call 1-800-526-7736 to learn more or visit Trimfair Radio.com. All right, Super Bowl. Rachel, go. Well, first off, it turned out to be a good game, right? started off slow to the point where I was walking around. I really wasn't even tapped in that much the first half. Low scoring. I think people thought it would be more of a high scoring game.

Surprised by Kansas City's defense that can't really talk about them a certain way now because the Chiefs did really good shutting down 49ers. Obviously they won. But definitely in the first half, or not the first half, second half, I mean. It was a good game. It was a good game. Neither one of my teams. So I'm not invested in it in that way.

but I was rooting for the Niners. I will say that. Disappointed that they didn't step up. I really felt like they were going to win this. I felt like who was favored? That I don't even know. I don't remember. Donnie looked that up for it.

I can't remember what the line was. He was probably close, but I feel like it was the Niners. I bet it was the Niners by like two. And so I just won't too. I guess that doesn't really make a difference. But I expected more from them. Yeah. Not necessarily from Brock Purdy,

but I expected everybody else. to step up around him in a way that would carry them to the wind. The Niners are cursed. Did you see that mean? The Niners are cursed. You guys, the Niners are cursed. Look, you guys think that this doesn't exist. But energetically, these things exist.

The Red Sox were cursed for a long time because what? what's our curse? What's the Cowboys curse? Yeah. The Jerry Jones curse. The Civil Rights era. Him being present. Jerry Jones,

y'all, first of all, y'all have one under Jerry Jones, so it's not that much of a curse. He's got like three superiors. Yeah, but I mean, where we are now. But, like, for a long time, I really do believe in energy. I do, too.

I believe in things energetically, and I actually think that the 49ers are cursed. they're losing in the most excruciating ways. They're right there for the super. Think about the things that happened in the game last night. Oh, man. The ball bouncing off of the guy on the punt return. Yes.

The missed extra point. These types of things, we're watching the game last night with the great bitracial. It was a big Niners fan. Big Niners fan. And I was rooting for a team last night because I was reading against Taylor Swift. Whoa. You said it this time. And it was bumbling mishaps. Some of them not even their fault.

I mean, a miss at your point is a miss at your point. That's a block extra point. Rarely happens. The punt is a freak occurrence. There was a football god somewhere with an afro making sure the 49ers didn't win. The 49ers need to make this right. with Colin Kaepernick or I don't think they're going to win, man.

Well, yes, it wasn't just that. I mean, their defense, the second half, like the way that they were just, it was wide open in the middle, the mistackles. It was really bad, but there was something else. Phantom injuries. Oh, the Phantom injuries. Phantom injuries.

It ran off, came back, remember that. Yeah. But did you see the report, Kyle, whose name I last, and I cannot pronounce the fullback? Eustach. Thank you. Kyle Eusechek,

I think it was him, came out and said, They didn't know the rules. Because they're idiots. For overtime. Yeah. That's part of the Afro God as well. Afro God.

How do you not know the overtime rules in the postseason? That is funny, though. That's happened a couple of times before. I would even admit that. Yeah. I think it happened to Donovan. So were they really not trying to go? I saw him the second do.

Oh, you did? Everybody's super well. But so does that mean the 49ers weren't trying to score a touchdown? They were just trying to score? No, no, no, no, no. I don't think they thought that. I think they thought that if they scored a touchdown, the game was over. And they weren't the only people who thought that.

Tony Romo thought that as well, because Tony Romo clearly said on the broadcast. Not to diss Tony Romo. No, no. Tony Romo clearly said on the broadcast when the Niners were close to their end zone, excuse me, to the Chief's end zone. They were about to score. He goes, you hit that, you hit that pass. You win the Super Bowl.

And that's not the way that the game works. Why would Tony Romo know? What I mean? Tony Roewell? He should know the rules of the game. He doesn't have. real life experience. That's a dis.

And it should be a dis. That's a dis to Romo. It's a dis to Roomo. But it's not just Romo. It's everybody. It's Romo. It's fucking Quincy. The rules were up on the screen.

It's Quincy Carter. Where is he? I have no idea what Quincy Carter is from Georgia. It's fucking Dack Prescott. Anyway, game goes to overtime. She's find a way to win. Question now becomes where's Patrick Mahomes all time? He's got three Super Bowls.

He is 28 years old. Three Super Bowls, three MVP's. Three Super Bowls, three MVP's been to four Super Bowls. Andy Reed is going to coach until he's in one of those hover things like the leader of the Harkin is from Dune. You ever see Dune? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know the big motherfucker, Stel Skull, Scars Guard plays him in Dune and he's like all around. He's fucking, like, Andy Reed is going to coach until he's in one of those things.

because you can't leave. Now, Andy Reid goes from having no Super Bowls to now having three Super Bowls. He's got to ride this out till he's in that thing like the motherfucker from Dune just figuring out how many Super Bowls he could win. Because he's got, Patrick Mahomes is the golden nigger of football. He is.

This is insane. He is the golden nigga from football. He is the one that we've been waiting for. It's nuts. He always gets it done. Like even when I thought, because we talked about this last night, they didn't have the most stellar regular season. If you win this Super Bowl, if they win this Super Bowl, this is the, the mark of a dynasty isn't when you win when you have your most dominant team. The mark of a dynasty is when you have a slightly off year when there's a lot of things going wrong and you,

through gut, guile, championship medal, experience, and fortitude still end up winning. Because this is what I was just looking up. I was like, when it's Hyriek He'll leave? Because when he left, it was like, oh, man, that's it for the Chiefs. They don't have their weapon. And they've won two Super Bowls without him. Yeah. Two.

Yeah. Do you like dynasties? Think dynasties are good for sports. But as a fan, as a viewer, don't you like the change up? I think people think that they like parody, but I think parity is bad for sports. So not that I want some random teams to make it, right? You want to see a good Super Bowl.

You want to see big franchises, right? Popular teams, teams with a big fan base that will travel. But at the same time, I can still have that and not watch the same teams win over and over again. Despite being a Cowboys fan, I would have loved to have seen the Eagles win last year. The thing that boxing has is that it's the same fighter, right? It's a bunch of different fighters and a bunch of different weight classes,

but Floyd Mayweather is Floyd Mayweather. Whenever he fights, you're either rooting for or against Floyd Mayweather, and that's going to go until he retires, right? Having one big thing, one big figure there that you can either relate to or root against increases interest to me. I think that a lot of times these sports are marked. more than there is a dominant team because that makes the achievement of the team

that beats that team looked at better, like more significant. And it also makes that team's historical importance a little bit more scrutinized because you can look and you can say, okay, now are the chiefs as good as the Patriots, are the chiefs as good as the Cowboys from the 90s or the Chiefs as good as the 49ers? it raises the stakes when you have a team like that.

Not that they have to win every year, but I never think that dominance is bad for sports. Like, Usain Bolt, the question becomes, okay, is Usain Bolt going to break the real record? Then can he win again? Then can someone beat him? It's just good for it. You know the only difference I will say about you giving a tracking

and a boxing example? They're individual sports. So it's like you don't see them winning as often. So it feels different, right? If I'm watching the Chiefs, even though we said they didn't have a, a great regular season. I'm watching them constantly win, win,

win over and over again. It's different. 17 games as opposed to like the Olympics. World championship. One boxing match a year. Whatever it may be. It's different. All right.

Congratulations to the Kansas City Chiefs. I have a question about them. Another question about them a little later. I'll ask in a second, but we have to talk about Usher. Usher Hensher Hensher Haphton. Donnie, your thoughts. It was entertaining.

I thought it was everything we wanted from it. Like I didn't feel disappointed at all. Our expectations went in high. So I feel like when that is the case, it is very easy to be disappointed. And that didn't happen. I thought this case were dope. So I had moments. It started off.

We were excited because we were all like, what's the first song going to be? It was cool to see the Vegas. You called it. Yeah. It was cool to see the Vegas implemented in that opening number. But then in the middle. I got lost. I didn't think.

I like Alicia Keys. I love the song that she performed. Not a fan of my boo, but I loved her song that she performed. If I ain't got you. That's how she did. I can't remember. We didn't need it.

It slowed it down too much. I think Usher needed it as a performer, but to me, the whole medley of slow songs threw me off a bit. But then when he changed back into that blue and black, sparkly outfit,

the skaters came out. I thought it brought it right back. I thought it was a fantastic. I do think it's one of the best. Definitely a top 10, maybe a top five. It was very good. Somehow in 15 minutes, he was able to fit in several songs. And I like that he didn't keep it to himself. Because, you know, sometimes people don't like to share the stage. I like that he brought out ludicrous, little John, perfectly implemented in the show. It was smooth. It was fluid. I just, I really liked it all. I would give it a nine.

I'm not going to talk about my boo because we've had our say. We know how we feel about it. Okay. Let's just keep it positive. Okay. Donnie made the point, which is the most salient point. Usher's Super Bowl halftime show was good. It was entertaining.

It was very good. Okay. We will never like anything as much as we're supposed to like it ever again. Ever, it's over. Our expectations for everything are so out of whack. that we will never like things as much as we used to like them. You know what we used to do? You know how things used to go?

It used to be like, oh, Usher is performing at the Super Bowl show. And it would be like, oh, shit, it's Usher performing at the Super Bowl show. Wow. Interesting. Okay, cool. You go on about our lives. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Sunday. Boom, boom.

And then, boom, Usher's there. That's not how things work anymore. How things work now is, and we did it here on this podcast, and we will do it because it's the way things go. because we have an infinity new cycle that goes on and on and on and on. What is Usher going to do? Who is Usher going to bring out? Is Usher going to bring out Justin Bieber?

Is Usher going to bring out Janet Jackson? Has Michael Jackson been reincarnated? Are him and Usher going to dance off against one another? I saw people that said that Usher should bring out Arkelly and really fuck people up. Arkelly's in jail, guys. The fucking man is in prison. Okay? It's like where everybody's so, what's going to happen?

What's going to do? Boom, boom, boom. For you to beat those types of expectations, the expectations we're putting on everything. I'm thinking about Dune 2 every day. Every day I think about Dune 2. I don't go a day where I don't think about Dune. Wow.

When does it come out? It comes out March. March 1st, I think. March 1st, I can't remember. Every day I think about Dune. Our expectations are so different now that there's really not a good way. to avoid being let down.

It was Usher's performance a little bit of a letdown? Yeah, but it had nothing to do with Usher. That had nothing to do with Usher. Usher went out there and did his thing. Usher out there dancing. I want people to understand. People talk about Usher had to take some breaks.

That's still a 45-year-old man out there giving it to you guys, looking like a 27-year-old kid. It's great. Just doing this thing. It was great. It was great. For everyone that expected more, it's like my vision pro.

I got my vision pro. I love my vision pro. My vision pro is great for what it was. I thought I was going to be Tony Stark inside the vision pro. Oh, wow. Okay. I kind of am Tony Stark inside the vision pro. You guys, Vision Pro is sick.

It's fucking crazy. You can't really do much. I thought it was different, but whatever. So I'm saying, Usher was performing against the expectations of Usher that we were going to have, and there was no way he could beat those expectations. So I think you're speaking for yourself because I think I'm really good at managing my expectations. You're a pessimist.

No. You are definitely a pessimist. I'm more of a realist fan. That's what all pessimists say. I know because that's what y'all put on us. Like, y'all make us say that because we have to defend ourselves. We're not pessimist. But I just think I'm very good at, I want it to be entertained.

I wanted to be a good show. There were certain things that I wanted that I felt like I got. I wanted other people to be on the stage. I wanted certain songs to be there. So for me, I was pleased. I'm really good. I think in managing it, my expectations in that way. So I think as long as you do that, right, if you're a person who can say, I'm not going to get too excited, I'm not going to expect him, he's not going to blow my mind away, but it's definitely going to be worth the hype.

And it was for me because I managed them. I don't know what more you could have expected from Usher in that performance. We even had laughs. I mean, almost said, Silo. Germain DePri coming out. We forgot to add a talk about the Germain DePree, probably because so many people were confused as to who that was and what he was doing. Germain DePri. Stop, man.

I believe it was. I believe it was Nina Parker who first shot it out. Is that Celia? Y'all got to, we got to stop doing our legends like this, man. He did it to himself. He dressed himself. No, stop, stop, stop. I was excited to see.

I was excited to see Jermaine DeFri pop up. But you cannot lie. When you saw him, you said, Huh? So wait a second, man. People said, we can't do our legends like this, man. They said that he looked like one of the lollipop kids. We can't.

We can't. We can't do our legends like this, man. They said that he was dressed like a child from 1905. It's sick. I saw this one tweet. I don't know why it resonated with me so much. They had a picture of Jermain Dupre and it said,

I'm a little laugh that loves the baby's cream. Wait, what? It said what? We were break. We love our legends, but it doesn't mean our legends don't have some missteps. And the black shoes, the loafers, with the rolled down, ruffled socks like we used to wear

when we were 10 and under going to church, it was a misstep. It was a misstep. What did you say? I don't know why it's so funny to me. What did you say? I don't know why it's so funny in me. It was just a picture of Jermaine Dupree.

Take your time. It was just a picture of Jermaine from the... Y'all, y'all don't even know how important Jermaine Dupre is to hip-hop and culture. Nobody's saying that. He's not known for his style choices. What did the tweet? I mean, the picture said.

It's just not even... I don't know why it's so funny to me. this is a picture of Jermaine Duprety was doing like this. It's just saying, it's here, I'm a little lad that loves berries and cream. Oh, damn, man, it's not funny, bro. Wait, I'm a cry. Wait. It's not funny. It's not funny.

What is ours doing? We can't do our legends like this, man. We can't. We can't. We can't. His arms, we can't. We can't do our legends like this. I swear.

I'm being serious now. Donnie, break it out. I'm being serious now. I'm being serious now. I seriously want to say this. It is just... It doesn't take away from his career, man. Nobody's saying he doesn't need a lot.

You guys, Jermaine Dupree is such an important musician. Just culturally, man. Like, everything that he's been able to do over the course of it... You need to do this. I'm not going to stop talking because I don't like this, man. I don't like this. I'm not going to stop talking about everything JD than done.

We can't do our lenses. He's not known for his fashion choices. That's fine. But somebody on that team should have said, I don't think that this is going to go over. Germain DuPri is known for being one of the

flies niggas having all of the ice and the jury. Okay, we'll just move on. Let's just move on, man. But it would be remiss of us to not have mentioned that, that appearance. We talked about everybody else, and we You forgot that. I have a theory about last night.

Please, go ahead. Beyonce declared war on the NFL last night. Just her? I thought some other people could have gotten it too. Taylor Swift is a part of this NFL thing. Taylor Swift was with the NFL last night. And Beyonce, last night, decided that she would derail the Super Bowl, and she did.

She did. Everyone was going around asking questions about who was bigger out of Taylor Swift and Beyonce. Would Beyonce be, we asked the questions here on the podcast. Would Beyonce's involvement

with the NFL be this big and Beyonce went, I'm going to fucking show you. And if you don't think that it worked, it fucking did work. There was a time at Rachel's house last night where we were trying to

to stream the new Beyonce song while the game was on. We put the game on pause. We put the game on pause to listen to it. And me and Tracy had to be like, wait a big guys, we got to watch the Super Bowl. Like, we can watch the game. We can listen to the song after the Super Bowl.

We got to watch the Super Bowl. The moment that the Verizon commercial came out and then Beyonce said, let's break the internet, drop new music. She actually flexed her muscle because she neutered the Super Bowl. that's a fact. It happened.

Like that's a fact. She knew that the Super Bowl. Everybody was on her IG. There was a full room of people wondering what was going on. I'm not saying this was like this everywhere, but I'm saying it was like this a lot of places. Beyonce showed last night. I felt like she wanted to assert herself by stepping in it during the biggest game of the year

where Taylor Swift was prominently featured. She did. And I can say I was fully immersed in all of this. and we all know that I'm not a member of the Beehive, but you cannot deny the execution, the thought process, how calculated it all was. It was pure perfection and genius. Because we're watching the commercial,

which we have major fans that were in our midst last night who were freaking out over the commercials. So they're already just, they're totally satisfied that they got a full Beyonce commercial. And it was cute and it was interesting, and it was a lot of Beyonce. I don't know who at first said, let me just check my phone.

Maybe they went on Twitter to see what people were saying and then they saw that it dropped. I got to say, and then the fact that it's a country, country album, it all is tied together because I know what you guys were thinking.

I don't care how big of a Beyonce fan. You were questioning that outfit choice at the Grammys. You were trying to understand why she was in a cowboy hat, a Bolo, and like just this whole kind of cowgirl outfit. It didn't really make sense.

It does now. She was dropping, y'all talk about Taylor Swift and her Easter eggs. She was dropping Easter eggs for you guys because she knew what was coming and nobody else did. Genius. Also, I think Jay-Z sang what he said when he accepted his award at the Grammys was an Easter egg. Because now she has a new album coming out. The spotlight is so on the Grammys because she will be nominated. The question is, will you give her album of the year?

Then if she wins, the conversation becomes, did she have to do a country rock? album for you guys to finally give her album of the year. Also, her choosing country, she's stepping back into the category that Taylor Swift left. Taylor Swift turned over to pop. Remember, Taylor Swift can't answer the phone right now? Beyonce said, I'll answer. I'm coming to country. I'm going to take this over and take another genre.

It was genius. Now, I will say I didn't like the song. Well, I didn't hear it yet. So you're kind of, Beyonce is officially, I'm rooting for her. Beyonce right now is officially the biggest country artists of all time. Nobody could do this, what she just pulled off. What I'm saying right now is non-controversial. Beyonce, right now, as it stands, is both the biggest country artists in the world

and maybe the biggest country artists of all time. I won't say of all time because that dismisses Dolly Parton and other people that would be. Hank Williams. A lot of people it dismisses. Garth Brooks a while time. I like Garth. But I will say right now

that right now as it stands, I'm ready to make a declaration. Beyonce is the biggest country artist in the world. It's the biggest country, country and western. Country and Western,

by the way, guys, country and Western, which is our music, black people's music. Like, all American music emanates from black music. We're not

wading into country. We're taking country back. We're not waiting into rock and roll. We're taking rock and roll back. Higher learning might do a whole episode breakdown about black people's place in country and western music. The sounds that come from the Mississippi Delta. We might talk about all of this stuff, how it works, where it came from, black musical and cultural innovation.

Rachel, you got something for us right now? No, I'm just looking. I was just looking at the biggest black country singers. Charlie Pride? Actually, they don't even have Charlie Pride, but they have Ray Charles. Ray Charles! Hey, y'all, you know, stop trying to act like Will. Anyway, yeah, so just so people know,

Beyonce's new album, Act 2 is going to be released March 29th. It's the second part of Renaissance. It has a country rock theme. One of my favorite country songs ever, Daddy Lessons by Beyonce. I love it. Beyonce, she stuck her... That's a country song? Daddy Lessons is definitely a country song.

I got to hear, I'm not, I don't know. You never heard that record before? I don't think so. That's a crazy record. That record is dope. What's the album? That's on Eliminate. Oh, then maybe I have, but I definitely don't remember a country.

But go ahead. You never heard. My daddy said shoot. But here they went white man came around. And the bad man came to town, my daddy said shoot. All right. An eye back to the world. As Americans,

descended into the depths of normalized the warfare and consumerism, there was actual warfare taking place last night. The Rafe offensive is happening in Gaza right now as we speak. Now, when I say the Rafe offensive, I mean the bombing of the southern most large city in the Gaza Strip, a city where, Palestinians were specifically told to evacuate two as Israel began its offensive in the north. Right now in Rafah, a place that normally held about 200 to 250,000 people, which is very close to the border of Egypt down there, the rafa crossing. You hear people talk about. There are about 1.4 Palestinians living there, and they are under bombardment from IDF artillery.

And if you are watching or paying attention to intelligence, to troop movement, and to some of the musings that are coming out of the area, Israel seems to be gathering itself, preparing itself for a ground offensive in Ratham, which has been roundly and uniformly condemned. by various members of the international community. Egypt, Saudi Arabia, other neighboring states in the Gulf, along with the European Union. And right here, the United States of America have all warned Egypt, excuse me, warned Israel,

against a prolonged Iran invasion, an aggressive operation in Rafa. But Nanyahu seems undaunted. Donnie gave me some sound. Quote, the family's request to immediately meet with the members of the cabinet and hear if it is still committed to the release of the abductees or whether the power to run negotiations should be transferred to a party that sees itself as committed to saving their lives. So let me understand

your priorities. What is the higher priority at this moment? Totally eliminating Hamas or saving the lives of those hostages and getting them freed? They're not mutually exclusive. The reason we succeeded in getting 110 hostages out, that's half the hostages, is because we applied military pressure, not because we stopped applying it, but because we applied it. Look, I think the families of the hostages are in a terrible bind. I mean, it just tears your heart out to listen to them and to think about what their relatives are going through. I'm committed to getting them out. We'll make every effort. It requires pressure, and pressure has worked, and pressure will work Again.

That's Ndjahou essentially saying that in order to remove the rest of the Hamas militants that they believe to be in Gaza. He has to continue a pressure campaign. And that pressure campaign means bombardments of Rafa. 67 Palestinians were killed in Israeli air strikes and sea attacks on Rafa early on Monday. Of course, those are attacks that were happening during the time that the game was on. Look, Joe Biden has said that without a credible and executable plan that they shouldn't go in, he's said that he believed that the response of Israel in this entire conflict and war against Hamas has been over the top. But Israel led by its increasingly unpopular and hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seems undaunted. And they seem like their mission, according to them, is to wipe Hamas from the face of the planet.

By any means necessary. It doesn't matter. It seems that if there is collective punishment involved in that, if there is collateral damage involved in that, talking about 28,000 people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, about 12,000 children. And now people specifically being bombarded in a place where they were told to evacuate for safety. Now, I watched another interview in that same interview with Benjamin Nd Yahoo. I watched entire thing. When asked where the people who are now in Rafa living in a tent city down there should go, then Yahoo said to evacuate back to the north, places that the IDF has already cleared.

The problem with that is that those places have been demolished. So unless there is some far-reaching international. national effort to build quick tent cities in those places. Like we're talking about 85% of the infrastructure of the entire place gone. Right. So there's nowhere to go. Like this is the place where you told them to go and they're down there. And he says that he believes that there's still a couple of Hamas sales working down there.

They've taken out, I think he said 19 of 24 or something like that. And he believes that they're down there. And so they're going to bomb there. And there will be a ground offensive, in my opinion, in Rafa. and it doesn't matter what anyone says, they're going to go through with it. Okay, so when we started off talking in this podcast, you were saying there's so many things

that were going on during the Super Bowl. It was wild to be watching the Super Bowl and then for somebody to say, hey, they're bombing Rafa right now. Like Israel's bombing. While we're all distracted with Beyonce and Taylor and Chiefs and the Niners and the Super Bowl,

which is such a huge American tradition, this is what's happening right now in the other part of the world. As you were talking, it was making me think of, and you kind of said it, it's like when they were bombing Gaza, when they first, you know, after October 7th, and they went in there, you know, to attack Hamas,

and there was this major outcry about being a humanitarian and the people that live there and how they're innocent, these innocent civilians are getting caught up. up in this, Israel always said, well, they can go to Rafa. Like, this is where, this is where they can go. Like, we've built basically refugee camps for them as well as they're making it seem.

We're giving humanitarian aid to them. And as you were talking, you made me think, what if that was always the plan? What if the plan was always, we'll keep you here, right? Because they're there. They've destroyed pretty much the rest of Gaza. There's no humanitarian aid. And out there, even if they do leave and say, okay, well, now you're not bombing here, we'll go here. How do they have any type of life?

There's nothing there for them. There's already starvation happening right there at the south of it. And the north, everything has completely been obliterated. But it makes me wonder, was the plan always to move them there? They can't go into Egypt. So that city is bordered by Egypt that they can't go into. was the plan always to trap them there. And completely, I'm, obviously I'm speculating that has not been said,

but as I'm listening to you talk, it's, I wonder, because he's baited very clear whether he outright says it or implies it, that by any means necessary, he even said only continued military pressure until total victory. That is it. He says they're not, they're mutually exclusive, or do you say they're not mutually exclusive? Whatever it is, his goal is to completely wipe it out.

And it makes me wonder, was it your point to trap so that they're there? And, you know, because it's always Hamas is there. They're hostages in there. I don't know how much of that is true or not. But the excuse of why we have to do this is because this is where Hamas is who we're trying to take out. But I feel like they're stuck and trapped there, and they've made it to where there is nowhere else to go. Even him saying going to the north, there's no detailed plan of how you're going to properly move. these innocent civilians to the north

and how they will be provided for. There's nothing or how they'll have any chance of survival. You're just saying it in such a flippant manner, but there's no plan of action. They're trapped. So a couple of things to me. And Egypt's threatening if they do this to break their treating.

Yeah, no, Egypt has skin in the game in terms of... There's a couple of things from Egypt's... perspective. Number one, they don't want to deal with a refugee crisis. But number two, if we're being honest, Egypt also doesn't want to deal with any more Islamic militants that could be hiding amongst the population that's there in southern Gaza, that would then join with Islamic Brotherhood factions that exist in Egypt that have been giving them a lot of trouble for a long time. They blew up a plane some years ago.

And so Egypt is looking at this twofold. Number one, the first thing is they don't want to deal with a refugee crisis. And there's a cultural and ideological, if you ask me, allegiance with a lot of the people that are there in the South now. They just don't want this to happen to them. And number two, they don't want an influx of people, some who they might deem to be bad actors or not even bad actors that are already bad actors. But you'd have to think that. some of these people have been radicalized, even more so than they might have already been

because of what's going on, and then Egypt is going to have to deal with them. The only way to solve this problem is justice, and justice is the one thing that Benjamin Njahou, Benjamin Nanyahu seems to not care about for Palestinians. The only way to solve this problem is justice. That's the only way that you can solve it, right? He's been very forthright about rejecting the two-state solution,

which if people don't know, the two-state solution, is obviously a Jewish state and Palestinian state, Israel and Palestine, live in side by side with the right of self-determination for the Palestinian people, both in Gaza and in the West Bank, that in there's a lot of things including in that. It might be the expulsion of the over 800,000 illegal settlements, excuse me, not 800,000 settlements, 800,000 people that are living in the West Bank right now. in settlements that are illegal, according to international law. People that live in a Bantu Stan system there in the West Bank that don't have a good way to get around, where there are settlements, there are towns that are non-contiguous.

There's no way to really get from the West Bank to Gaza in a good way. You can't leave. You can't come back. There are four different types of ID cards. Your life as a Palestinian living in that region, is anything but free. And that's me being as charitable as I can be to the entire situation. The two-state solution was the best solution for a lot of people.

There have been a lot of different attempts to make that a reality. They've all fallen through. I think with what we saw on October 7th, there are many people in Israel at the top, I would say, because there are vast, vast disagreements inside of Israel about the way this should be going and how this should be handled. And the Lakuz and Benjamin Netanyahu

are increasingly becoming unpopular as they increasingly become unwilling to prioritize hostage return in this entire situation. They are prioritizing military operation when there are a lot of people back in Israel, their protests, and, you know, the families are being very loud about the fact

that they want their loved ones returned and they want hostages to go, prioritized. But there's a military action to be done, and that's what Nanyahu seems to be preoccupied with. Then Yahoo said he doesn't want this two-state solution. Right. You said that the two-state solution cannot happen right now

because he doesn't believe that the Palestinians are responsible enough to live next to the Israelis. In the same interview that I watched, he said, well, what does that mean? Does that mean the Palestinians having a standing army? Does that mean the Palestinians being able to buy weapons from Iran? Does that mean this? Does that mean that? And yeah, it means all of that. When you have, not specifically buying weapons from Iran, like, but when you have the right to defense and self-determination,

when you have the right to protect your lives, that means you must have the means to do it. That means all of that. A state is a state. That's what it is. It's a state. And states have militaries. States have weaponry. States have armies. States have governments. And if, you're talking about giving people freedom or letting them have freedom, then yeah, they're going to need all of that stuff. He says that it's not a secure enough. He doesn't believe in the population enough for them to be able to have that.

Okay. The other option is one Israeli state where all of those people become citizens. Right? Israel from the river to the sea. Fine. cool, one person won't vote. That'll never happen. You already said you can't live next to them.

Well, it'll never happen because the demographics don't work. Yeah. There are so many people that if you actually have a state that is not an ethno state where Jewish supremacy is codified, then there might be a point where it's not a land for Jewish people. Right, right. Because one person won't vote, then you never know you'd have to negotiate all. those things is not. So the question is, is there anything left for Palestinians besides slaughter?

And I'm asking that question, I'm really being as honest about it as I can be, is slaughter the only option for Palestinians? And I would ask everyone that that cares about this and cares about justice, I would ask, my friends who were Zionists, I would ask, is there anything other than slaughter that's available? So we're saying a two-state solution doesn't work, a one-state solution doesn't work. There doesn't seem to be any humanitarian options that work, right? UNRWA has been defunded. So aid, schools, all that, none of that stuff works. Is there anything, is there any option other than slaughter?

And if there is an option other than slaughter, explain to me how we're going to get there. And the leadership of the United States of America, NATO, people in the European Union, everyone in the Gulf states, I'm talking about the Sunni states, the Shia states, who are vastly different in terms of the way they want to deal with Israel. All of these people should be asking this question of Israel. because once again, I'm not lobbying any huge and large accusations here. What I'm saying is what seems to be being said is the only option is to kill as many as we can. Because when I say as many as we can, I want to understand it's implicit that in order to kill Hamas people, to kill Hamas terrorists, that you have to kill some civilians.

So it doesn't matter whether or not you're doing it on accident or on purpose. It really doesn't matter. I know it feels like it matters, but it really doesn't matter. It doesn't matter whether or not you're doing it on accident or on purpose. It's like, sure, we're doing the best we can. I get it, but like 12,000 dead kids is 12,000 dead kids. If you trust the numbers from the Palestinian health ministry, they say that those are Hamas numbers.

There's no way to, when you get into a situation where there's no way to have accountability, and there's no way to have discussion, then you're in a no-in situation. You're like, you're just in a no-in situation. I can't talk to you about it, and I can't hold you accountable. I got to let you do what you do. So you're in the north, go south.

You went south. Now they're killing you in the south. We'll go back north. There's nothing north to go back to. Okay, well, what about, should we start talking about Tuesdays? Well, no, we can't talk about two states. We don't want to remorse for October 7th.

Cool, fine. All right. So then what has? happens to the Palestinian people. They have no homes to live in. Right. They have no homes to living. Like, Rafa's about to be bombed out. You're going to have a refugee crisis of upper proportions. These other states around there are not going to take them because they have their own internal problems, some of which are structural, some of which are cultural, right? It's like they're, they're, I'm sorry to say this.

and I know that I don't want to be hyperbolic, but they're culling them. Like, is there any, and I would love to, and I'm not, I'm not, I don't know what to. You're asking valid questions, which is why this has been such a fight for so many years. Nobody has the answer. Other than war, not that that's the answer,

but I'm just saying that just seems fighting, seems to be the only thing that actually does get done. Here's my question. Do you think that, because you talk about it, is the only way slaughter? Here's my question. Which people in general, are you specifically talking about the Palestinians

because of what's happening right now? People are upset. I said earlier, Egypt is potentially talking, if they keep bombing to the Rafa crossing. Like Egypt's talking about, possibly like breaking their treaty and doing something. Will it involve other people where they join in the fight

and there's just slaughter, period. Well, I mean, so like, the reason why, okay, let's take the situation in Ukraine, right? Let's take the situation in Ukraine. So, and by the way, if you look at this holistically, and I don't claim they be an expert

on geopolitics, I read, I stay up on stuff, whatever. This unilateral action, the world to be damned. This is learned behavior. The United States has been guilty of this. The United States has 9-11 happen. They build a flimsy coalition based on bullying.

And then they go in and they take over the countries they want to take over. Like had our post-9-11 action been actually about trying to root out al-Qaeda and Kilosama bin Laden, if we use the scalpel instead of a meat cleaver, our moral standing on this issue could probably be a lot different. But we often don't ask permission before we go into a nation

and, you know, laterally take action to affect the type of military end that we deem. We drone. We break humanitarian and international law. So you get into a situation, situation now where this is politically non-viable for the administration here now. And I think that has a lot to do with why they are applying the type of pressure that they're applying.

From a moral standpoint, they don't really have much of a leg to stand on. Because the reality is, like, if I'm the Israeli brass, I say we have more of a need to go into Gaza than you did to go into Iraq. rack. We have more of it. Like you put together a murder board and connected all of these dots that weren't really true and then bullied your friends to help you out. And then you went in there and did this, right? Like we know that people did something and then they went back over here. So you can't really tell us what we're going to do and not going to do to defend our people. So the United States is in a bad position

philosophically to challenge Israel on this because we've been such bad actors in the world. The reason why I asked the question about slaughter is because if you take the situation in Ukraine, right? Well, if you're Ukrainian, if you're Zelenskyy or if you know what their option is, their option is to fight. And why is their option to fight?

The option is to fight because they're being funded by the West in order to fight. They're being funded by the West. They're being funded by the West to fight. They're fighting the people that have invaded their country. They're fighting them. Okay. And so they're being given some agency to defend themselves. This situation is more tricky because this attack on October 7th was launched by Hamas.

Right. And whatever context you want to put it in, what happened on October 7th was disgusting, murderous, and abhorrent, right? So you got to get Hamas, you got to go to where Hamas is, you got to root out Hamas, you got to do it, however you have to do it, whatever. My thing is this,

no one is going to help the Palestinians fight Israel, except for some Iranian groups, maybe some Lebanese groups, whatever. No major state is going to help them, right? No one can make Israel stop. No one can get humanitarian stuff in there because that's seen as an affront to what Israel is doing.

The question is, what is there left to do? Like, if, and you ask this question to people who I have conversations with them and these are people that I'm talking to, in good faith, like people who I believe to be good people, right? And I'm asking them, okay, so the only way to do it is just kill as many people as you can kill until you feel like you've killed enough people. You feel like you've done enough.

And then you stop. Well, after you stop doing that, everything is gone. I watched a woman today that talked about her child was killed. she said she will hate them until she dies. She'll hate them forever. Like, what is being accomplished here? Like, and so that's the only thing I'm asking. Like, when I see Netanyahu, he's so sure.

And when I see Biden, they're mimicking. I mean, the question is really, you're just, you're asking people just to sit back and just go, okay, just, all right, cool. Like, literally, you're asking the whole world to go, okay, cool, just kill as many people as you need to. and maybe that's the way it works geopolitically. I don't know kill as many people as you need to.

When you ask it like that, it's so upfront and harsh. It's like, wow. All right. I mean, I'm just, look, you guys, I certainly don't want to, but I'm just saying the offensive is going to happen in Rafa. There's like no place to go. You're literally pushing people. That's what I'm saying.

To the, it's like. And it seems intentional. And it just, well, certainly, it's intentional. But you know what I mean? When I said, is this been the plan all along? Yeah. And so like, I just ask. I want to hear from people who are much more

because we need to revisit this. We haven't talked about it as much on the podcast. I want to hear from people who are much more educated on this than I am. I want to have talks here. And when we have these talks, man, I want you guys to understand that I can speak for

Rachel and Donnie and Ash when I say that what we, the lens that we use here on higher learning when we discuss something is for the justice, safety, and agency for all people. That's whether you're a Jew living in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem or you're a Palestinian living in Rafah or Gaza City or Ramallah.

So that's it. There's nothing more than that. This is state criticism of a state, not of a people. I don't know anyone who doesn't want the safety and security an agency of Jewish people. I don't want anyone who wants that. And I don't, but what I want to know is just, like how many kids got to die.

Yeah. We'll take a break. All right. masculinity painting your nails with Demetris Harmon good interview of my little brother Meach um my brother Meach I ain't little bro in him um my brother

meach next on higher learning The playoffs are here and you can predict the action all the way to the finals with Fandul predicts follow all the playoff dishes swishes wishes and misses predict the spread the total points and even the game winner. Sign up for Fandual Predicts and predicted from the couch. Offered by Fandual

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Visit weathertech.com today. Here on how I learn we've been talking about issues of masculinity, sexuality, all the showalities here, okay? And a friend of mine, a really talented young man. Meach, how long we knowed each other now? Shit, I don't know. I feel like I met you when I first moved to LA or before, honestly. So it's going on six or seven years.

Six or seven years, man. Demetrius Harmon, internet personality, actor, writer, poet. I first knew him because the skits were so hilarious. I'm like, God damn, this dude is fucking talented. And since then, Amitius' movement, you matter, the hoodies, all of it. He's just upgraded to different levels every time. I see that You Matter, hoodies all over the place. I have some.

They are very comfortable and have a very important message. And I feel like Meach that, first of all, welcome to higher learning. Thank you for joining us. Amen. But I feel like that with all the stuff you do, you're also very meaningful to scores and scores and scores of young people who look up to you. which is why the conversation that you recently got on, got into on Twitter was so interesting to me.

My first question for you is, nigga, you gay? No, what have you felt? What happened? So I saw this entire conversation happen around a fashion choice that you make, a style choice that you make, you paint your nails,

and then you went on a long back and forth on Twitter talking with people about what that means, about sexuality, about masculinity, just get us into it a little bit so we can open up the conversation. I mean, I'm a fucking, I'm a Twitter guy. I'm a TikTok guy. You know what I mean? Like, I didn't do. I just joke. You know what I mean? So I didn't expect that shit. I have posted the video just because, like, I'm trying to get people to go to my TikTok. As TikTok panes. You know what I mean? You know, I got the for you page and the follow me. I have posted. I don't really be on Twitter just because, like, I don't like too much pointless discourse,

like back and forth. Like, I just see a lot of, like, y'all just happen to being because it's something, a topic is presented in front of you. You're wasting a lot of energy as well as Twitter is paying niggas

for interactions, so you see a lot of interaction baiting. So I get back on. I see on my four you page like, somebody put tweet me. Like, no, like,

y'all niggas, you gotta act like this, but just say you gay and go about your day, bro. I'm like, oh, like,

I didn't realize this was even happens under my pulse or like being like such. So I want to say I started my day and like man we talked about it like the last time of me you did a podcast of like where I am with like public opinion like

people think I'm transphobic for like a situation that happened so I was debunking that and that's when I saw the other things so it was like a full day of just like open dialogue but I was speaking to that saw that tweet and I was like oh like this isn't a real thing you know what I mean like

I don't really argue with people, especially on internet, it's usually for the sake of conversation or when I do choose to share my opinion, it's something I very much are like, no, I feel strongly above, but it's like, this is stupid, you know what I mean? And so I just kept being called, damn, I'm like, that doesn't bother me at all, you know what I mean? But, like, why is that where you're, like, I'm more so asking the question. I want you further explain yourself of, like, yeah, this nail, like, paint on my fingers is where you, or like, no, that's not, man. You know what I mean?

And I seem like a lot of, like, tweets or, like, comments in my video or IG where it's like, and we got a niggas, oh, geez, boom, boom, you feel, me? Like, where I was raised, you feel, me, is like a man take care of his lady, take care of his mom, be somebody, the children and your family can look up to you, take care of the bills, you make sure everything good, and you work hard, and you're responsible, and you, you, you feel of me, like, a trustworthy person. That's what a man is, anything else is just extras. You know what I mean?

And like, again, it's Twitter. There's people I don't know. I don't really give a fuck about the opinion, but it's more so just like... The intellectual exercise. You said what? The intellectual exercise of it. Yeah, it's like,

I'm sitting the tweet out and murder my dog and I'm on a smoker, but I'm like, it's really not the thing that bothered me. You feel me? It was just more so like, again, like you said, it's people that look up to me that may not have the same like mental fortitude to rash you don't affect me. You know what I mean? Like, I've seen somebody that followed me.

Like, I'm a gay, mask, and I'm presenting a man. You feel, me like, and I don't want to pay my nails, but I get shit for it. You know what I mean? Like, you made me for a fucking to do this. It's like, straight, you know what I mean? So I'm going to defend y'all. I'm going to defend this for y'all. You feel?

I don't really need to explain myself to, like, a nigger with an AI twibber picture. You feel? I don't. Like, they're not making or breaking my day. You know what I mean? Bill's still getting paid. Work still getting done. People are my life.

life and my family. People with my family, the people I love still love and accept me for whoever I decided to present myself as that day. And so, like, again, I said in a tweet, I'm like, I take care of my lady. You feel me? I'm like, I'm a straight man. I'm going to give you the facts. But then again, it's like, if I was getting, what would that take away for me being a man? You know, that was like the, let's talk about it. You feel me? Like, I'm not a part of the community, but I don't understand why a lot of our masculinity is represented in like all these toxic things still. Yeah.

I feel like it's changing too. And that's why I love what you said about someone reaching out and saying, hey, you're making me feel more comfortable because I have two nephews, they paint their nails. They don't think anything of it. And it seems like this next generation, they look at it as art. Oh, this is my favorite color. Hey, I want to paint my nails. And there's no type of stigma that's tied to it.

But my question is, why do you think there seems to be a selective outrage? Because I feel like there's some men that nobody cares that they do it, right? Jason Mamoa paints his nails. Nobody really says anything. Or at least I don't see it. Dwayne Wade paints his nails. Nobody really says anything. Oh, they'd be on his ass.

Do it? Maybe on his ass for other reasons. For other reasons. But they be on Dway to. They'd be on Dway to ask. I think it's like, okay, we'll take him out. Like Jason Mamoa. I don't really see people, and maybe because he's not black.

I don't know. I'm asking you the question. Why do you think there's a selective outrage? I think black people for a long time was only focused on survival, and now we got too much time in their hands. But I also think, like, outside of black people, I think, like, men, if they don't aspire to be like that man in certain degrees, you know what I mean? Like, Jason Moore, stocky-do.

Lisa Bonnet, you know what I mean? It's a whole lot of things, right? You look at him, like, oh. So when you see the nail polish, it's like, maybe I don't want to paint my nails, but he got his life going on, you feel me? And so I just think, like, I don't know, it's definitely selective outrage,

but it's just like, it's pointless outrage, girl. You know what I mean? Like, it's not really making or breaking nothing. You know what I mean? There's a lot of outrage about me painting my nails. It's not enough outrage about me and, like, being misogynistic and things like that,

because that's what's accepted. That's what makes you a man. It's like, you know what I mean? So like, I don't know, it's strange, but I do think it's more so in the black community. I would see it's definitely a lot of, in general, being a man, but I would say like a large perspective of it is the black community. Let me ask you a question.

Ask me any question. When you're having a conversation as black men, because I do this too, right? I would like to get everybody's opinion on this because I do this too. When I'm defending members of the LGBTQ plus community, gay people, whatever, I always feel the need to say I'm not gay. I do that. Do you?

Yeah. I always feel the need to say, hey, I'm not gay. But let me tell you about this and this and this and that. Why do we do that? Why do? Yeah. I would say this is the first time I've ever stated that I'm straight. Okay.

I'm not the need to do so. You know what I mean? Like, but I also don't post my relationships. You know what I mean? Like, you know what I mean? So it was just, hey, this is what it is. I'm not. And that's what I also put, um, even if I was.

You know what I mean? Because I'm not saying being gay is a bad thing. That's what I would feel like to say if I was like, no, I'm straight, bro. and then defend my choice is more so like whatever you want to think of me or think I am or like whatever sexuality you believe I have let's put that on me as well as like if you think I'm gay

what does that stop me from being a man? You know what I mean? I am straight and I also do this thing. You know what I mean? Why do you paint your nails? I love like art. Like right now I got speaker box nails. Oh, I'll catch shit.

Yeah, you feel like? But it's just a way to express yourself. You can feel me. It's been more healthy for me to do, like, my nails. Or, like, you see me. I was always having crazy. I was colors in my hair. Mm-hmm.

I mean, like, coming from self-harming, it was self-harming, then I would get a bunch of tattoos because it would replace that feeling, like the pain therapy. But I always loved art. You feel like I would draw my hands. I used to draw in school, you know what I mean?

So, like, trying to have a healthier way to express yourself, hurt yourself or leave you with like permanent something permanent on your body you know what I mean yeah and then birthday outfit I'd get the matching nails with the fit that's even crazy I have I love it I'm a nailer arm and inspired nails so like all the different types of like this an ounce he had in his hair when I turned 23 I had like the 85 Jordans I don't you feel me the Dennis Robin nails

this is one shit really niggas can tell you know what I mean but like it's funny into the video like in the video like in the video even the skits like we used to do like v'angelo, they all were improv. So you just turn the camera on and you start talking. That's still how the videos are now. So I just start talking. I know I got 15 seconds.

So at the end of it, I'm like, whole time, I'm a little shorty. When I like color you're that? Like, I'm not doing this to attract a woman. I'm doing this for myself. You know what I mean? But I'm like, it's funny that like any negative feedback I've gotten in person,

and it's never in person. It's never like this in person. But any negative feedback I get in the comments or like, yeah, right. But why you're doing this news? It's always a dude. And I'm like, this raises the question where it's like a dude is more concerned about what I'm doing than like a woman is either they like it, they like it.

But if they don't like it, I say it then if they do, it's a compliment. You know what I mean? A dude is typically the one that's like coming out their body to like basically try to police my masculinity. You know what I'm saying? Why do you think we do that to each other? Yeah, that's what I was going to say. I think there's a lot of our identity.

Being a man is a lot of like a man's identity. And it's, for a long time, it was very, like, a small, narrow room of what makes a man. You know what I mean? It was, like, very stupid things. Like, gather, hunter, you know, provider. You know what I mean? Like, I still, like, about things that are toxic. It's just, as a man, I know, like, if I'm out with my lady, like, I was raised by my mom, my dad,

Southern Grandma from Alabama, you feel me? I'm not going to let her walk in that side of the street. You know what I'm saying? Like, that, those things is. If I'm not a man, if I had protected, you know what I mean? Like, that's my role in your life. But those are the things, you feel you, me? Nothing else.

Literally nothing else. You know what I mean? It's like the positive things, though. You know what I mean? Protectively, providing those things. Make sure everybody's straight. Like, everybody's safe. That's what being a man is to me.

And, like, has always been a steal to me as such. We talk about gender roles a lot. We call them gender wars on this podcast. and I guess going back to what I was saying with my nephews, do you think that certain gender roles are just going to exist always, like stereotypes, like no matter how hard you try, you fight for 50-50 equality, there's just certain things that are so embedded in us

that, like you're talking about walking on the outside of the street, you know, like that kind of stuff is just there. But do you see, going back to my nephews, do you see the tide changing a bit where people are loosening what those roles are are. Yeah, most definitely in like,

like, my brother, I'm the youngest of three older brothers and my brother, his son was like, yeah, I want a purse,

I see on the beach with a purse. I'm like, you can do whatever you want, but like my brother's reality, my brother's a hood street naked, you know what I mean? And his reaction was just like, you're not old enough

to be saying those things. like in a sense of like, make the decisions, but know why you make the decisions. Don't do it because you look up to your uncle and you want it to be like him. He like, ask him why he has a brother. And he asked him why he has friends. I was like, just to carry stuff, bro.

Like, you know what I mean? But I was like, this is a Louis of the time person I'm not going to walk. If I need to carry my laptop, I'm going to get a jazz for a backpack. I'm like, do you want to carry stuff or do you want to like, is it a fashion thing?

You get a backpack, you know what I mean? That opens up his eyes to it. But I maybe say five, six years ago if I wasn't like so comfortable with being who I was. I am, not even the influence on my nephew, you know what I mean, the influence on my brother to be open to things. You know what I mean?

Like, my brother is open to a lot more things as well as, like, viciously defensive of me when anybody approaches him with any, like, malicious intent or malicious thought about the way I choose to carry in my life. That might not have failed down on his kids, you know what I mean? That type of patience or allowing to be themselves, you know what I mean? Like, I think if my nephew wanted a purse, and it was really like, I just want a person, he would have got up first. But I think the ability to allow him to think for himself as well as like further had a conversation, I'm just like, what is it that you want to do with yourself?

You know what I mean? I think that it's safer because no one's hurting anymore. You know what I mean? Like, and no one's being stopped to be who they are. When you can't be yourself or at least think for yourself, you know? I mean, like without the exterior consequences of what people think of you. It just eats you up a lot. Yeah, for sure.

It makes me think about the color pink. Like, remember growing up, it was like, you can't, men cannot wear pink at all. And then Cameron came out. And it just changed the conversation. And niggas want to be Cameron. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean, most of this stuff is a pretty arbitrary, but we are so, girded up about it.

Yeah. I was so serious about it. Like I, it was people that was saying Meach was part of the agenda. When did you make the decision to be a part of the agenda? How did they approach you? Did they, when they were

inducting you into the agenda, because they haven't come to me yet to be a part of it, but when they were inducting you to be a part of the agenda, how does that work? Like, what do they do? Did they come to you? That's a fuck up. No, but the shit is crazy too.

Like, for me, you feel me? Like, man, I'm just a regular nigga that just worked for it. You know what I mean? Like, I just so happened to have a phone. Like, right? Like, generation I mean, that born in 1998 is like, I remember having to be in the room. I remember having to dial up. You know what I mean?

But, like, I also Instagram came out when I graduated from 8th grade. So I got to see it from its beginning. We weren't getting money. I remember seeing creators just on YouTube. to be a creator and there's maybe 30 people that are getting paid from YouTube and it's a thousand creators, you know what I mean? And so like it's always been seen very normal for me.

This wasn't like my career path. You know what I mean? It just happened and worked. But I was growing up through it. I was growing up with social media. You know what I mean? Like I was becoming and going through my adolescent through social media being a thing. Like Bond came out when I was in eighth grade. It got

the leader with 12. You know what I mean? And so like just for regular a nigga, you know what I mean? Like that, but I'm larger in life to some people because they see a million followers or they see a verified check, you know what I mean? Or like, boom, boom, but it's like, well, I can come back home. I'm from Detroit, Michigan.

I'm from Joy Row in Detroit. You know what I mean? Like, how do the guys in Detroit when you're out on the street? How do they react to your nails being painted? Don't I even notice my nails being. You know what I mean? But it's love. It's my city I'm from.

You know what I mean? Like, a lot of niggas know me. Like, they know my family. You know what I mean? So like, like I said, it's not even like, like tough guy shit, but it's just like a lot of this shit does not happen in person. It won't ever happen in person. You know what I mean?

Like, and that's just, it's just funny to me, like the just positioner. Like, yeah, like, I'll pay my nails, but like, I'm not the nigga that you go, like, approach and be on bullshit with. You know what I mean? And that's just because in the sense of it's jokes. Like, because you're a sparker niggas. To talk your shit. Because you're running, because you got the, you got the fucking.

on you, bro. You're a sparking niggum. And that's not like threats type of shit, but it's just like I said, like the demeanor of a man, you know what I mean? Like, you have to approach me correctly. You have to approach people around correctly. You got to respect what we got going on. You know what I mean? If you don't

like, not even like, oh, you're in your hand, you're packed up my blood. It's just like you're not going to allow it to even enter that space. You feel? And me like, but that again, it's like you take me, paint my nails and you decide I'm not man. And if you try to like approach you from that perspective is not going to work because like none of those

things should be an indication of such. Of course. You know what I mean? Right. And so that allows you to completely ignore who I am as a person and who I present to you for me to be like in the full sphere of things. You know what I'm saying? Like, I think you should do more videos like this.

I know you said that this isn't your thing. You do TikTok. You don't really do opinion base. But look at the beautiful conversation we're having in all the dialogue that was on Twitter. You should do more of this. You should do more. I'm like, I'm like, yeah. And you know what?

It's funny, it's funny. I just don't do an opinion shit because I'm like, your opinions are so, like, my opinions, I'm like, y'all things, like. And they are. And it's like, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, I was telling me. I was like, because because of the, the, the, the, this particular situation I'm in with like, you matter being such a uplifting brand. And like, that's my whole thing. You know what I mean? That's, I just want a safe space for everybody.

But if niggas is also like weird old broke shit, I'm gonna call you a weird or broke nigga. But then it's like, bro, I thought she said you matter. You know what I mean? So I just try to keep my piece to myself because they can be harsh.

You know what I mean? And it's like, let me not get to going on my flow too crazy. But like, I'd be looking at shit nags me saying. I'm like, this is stupid. Y'all is stupid.

Y'all got shit going off yourself. But you know what? You should come out with a different hoodie and it could be all kinds of weird. I'm serious. It says, not you don't matter. You don't matter.

You don't matter. You don't matter. It should say weirdos matter too. I will buy that because the weirdos look, here's the thing about the people out here that's like flying the flag of what you think masculinity is. First of all, I just have to be honest with you and I don't want to go too deep.

You have an incredibly, incredibly Western European idea of what masculinity is. And I do this all the time. I do this all the time. I was like, yo, my man, you say painting your nails is for women. What if I can show you Egyptians that are doing it? What if I can show you all of the stuff that you say? You say wearing a wraparound, the skirt is whatever.

What if I can show you Africans and all of these different people that are doing this? What if I tell you it was a white man who dressed you up in pants and did you all of this stuff and told you all of this stuff was masculine and this stuff? What if I told you that? If I showed you this, would you then, no, you wouldn't because you're trying to be a man in the eyes of what you think is a man, which is a white man. You're trying to be a white man. It's his idea of masculinity that you aspire to. I don't even want to get into that because then you become like the 10 buck two, nigger.

It's just true. But it's the truth. You know what I mean? Like, nigger, we were playing fly football. And, uh, man, because my brother put me here to like the Willie Lynch book, like a while ago when I was in high school. And, uh, it's not real. This is playing like behind this. You feel me.

And, uh, you just hear, they should have dark black ass up. And he's like, you light skating months. But I'm like, oh, this is still, this is still present. I don't know how. I don't know what's happening. But this shit is terrible. You know what I mean? But it's like, I talk to people a lot.

Like, even like, right now with black, black, like, uh, And like, handling it where you matter. Like, I talk, I speak a lot about, like, the insecurity we have of, like, not having and knowing our heritage and, like, our lineage. You know what I mean? And, like, that whole thing are being stripped away from us and, like, having to make a culture from the ground up. And then it's like, oh, yeah, we got taken away from our homes. And then when we make something that's good enough and it's marketed, it gets taken away from us. You know what I mean?

So now it's country is not ours. Now the blues are not ours. You know what I mean? It's like the complete. cycle over and over again. It's like what really is the identity to be black. You know what does it really mean as well as like the history of America, not removing the indigenous people, but like when people from outside of America think about America, it's black and white and everybody else kind of came over and was able to keep their story, their legacy, their heritage intact.

You know what I mean? Like there's traces that can trace back where they didn't come from and be able to like still feel like they're representative or not representative, you know what I mean? I went to Newburghahat, which is newborn is the highest Arab Muslims. Arab Americans, yeah. Yeah, and so man, it'd be toxic,

but it'd be like, no, you disgrace in our culture. And, like, they can look back and they can look at the Kudan. And it's not like, if you're Muslim, a lot of Muslims, a majority of Muslims are Arab. You know what I mean? I'd say that there's not other Muslims from other cultures or other races, but

how many different races and cultures are Christian. You know what I mean? So when we look toward that book, that it's a lot of black people are Christian, it's like, what does this really represent for us? You know what I mean?

It's not even, that's not even ours, you know what I mean? And so just that whole thing. It's just like, how much of this shit is ours. Yeah. And what are you subscribing to?

You know what I mean? That's why, like, I said, like, my heroes was my dad, my mom. You know what I mean? My mom taught me how to be gentle with, like, with a woman and with myself. My dad taught. me, like what it means to really be a man.

You know what I mean? Like, I didn't see this thing could come home, bloodshot eyes after driving a truck for 12 hours. Like, I give that same work ethic to the social media shit. You know what I mean? Like, if this is what I'm choosing to do, then like, give it your all and you can't, just because it's 11 p.m. and, you know what I mean?

Your team ain't win in the NFC. You know what I mean? You still got to work. You know what I mean? Because you've got people at the depending upon you. You got people that look up towards you. You know what I mean? Yeah, being from Detroit. And that's like when you are being a man is.

Yeah, being from Detroit, he had to work through the losses because that's all that there were. So, you know, his team was losing every Sunday. So he had to show, right. You said yourself.

Like, he, like, he's, he had to be resilient. So shout out to him. Last question for me. Because I remember, I remember when I was dating a girl, Paulette Gray. Why you always name them?

Because it's funny. Because she'll hear this and she'll remember. And so this was the first one that was really like, you know, I remember she looked at me one time and she was like, she's like, Van, you're too cute for your nails to be dirty and stuff like that. And I was like, oh, like you care about that? She was like, yeah, you should clean your nails and you should like make sure your nails are up kept.

So I remember I went and I got the whole. nail thing done. I got a manicure. This is like 98. So I'm like, this is before this is the year you were born. So this is like, ha ha, ha. It's funny. I laugh because I just know the time. It's just, no. Nah, you like, this nigga,

oh, ah, I was a senior. Are you a boy? Yeah, anyway. Oh, so. So. 37? I'm 43. Shut the fuck up, Meech. Like, I gave you, hey, look, I can't get let. I get your poor light left.

So I remember I go and I get the manicure or whatever And the lady giving me the manicure She goes do you want clear polish And I was like sure Like why not And she put the clear polish on my shit And I remember looking at it like Oh my God

This is beautiful I was like look at it me, bro. I was like, I was like, oh my God. I was like, look at me. And I'm going around, you know, I go over to her house and she's looking at my niece. I'm like, look, I'm like, yeah, that shit is crazy, right? And I'm feeling the best about it. I get home. My dad comes in. My dad goes, what? He's like, huh? Well, you're a shiny nigger, huh? Well, you're a shiny nigga, huh? I was like, he was like,

oh, I see, I got a, I got a shiny nigga in here. All right, nigga, don't shine too much now. That's all he said.

And he let it go. He's like, don't shine too. He's like, don't shine too much. He was just like, you know, my dad would say to me,

all right, man, that's enough of that. I tell people all that all the time. But like, and the question is, I'm asking,

is like, for me, don't shine too much. Now I was so nervous. He's like, don't shine too much, nigga. Like,

the question for me, is you just said something because even in that, he didn't tear me apart for the clear fingernails or whatever. He just, that was his way of doing it. He would always be like, I, Van Kool, just not too much of it. Whatever it was, he'd be like just, because he knows I overindulge. A part of my confidence and a part of my sense of self,

and this is so unfair that so many brothers were I'm about to say, it's because I had a father and I had an example in my home of somebody that didn't give a shit about anything else other than their priorities. Like, I had, somebody was right there every day that gave me an example and the proximity to someone who was just like, this is what counts in the world

and this is what doesn't count in the world. He was like, you can go out there to be fake tough, you'll be real dead. He was like, he was just showing me ways to, I just, it just came from him. And so I would get out there and people would do whatever they do and say whatever they say. And it was really only one, one guy's opinion who mattered, right? It was really only one guy who, who, it's because I was so close to him.

It'd be like, I'd laugh. I, I, nigg, like, whatever it was, how much of your fortitude and how strong you are comes from the fact that you had a father, that you had somebody right there. whose opinion mattered, who you know made you matter. When you look at somebody and you say you matter, you know that you matter because a man, a black man, made you feel like you mattered

because he took care of you and poured into you and all of that stuff. And so many of the brothers that I see and I listen to now, oh man, they're getting their masculinity from hip hop. They're getting their masculinity from their gang. They go and find a father somewhere. and a lot of these father figures that they're making for themselves

are just wholly insufficient. They just don't. You know what I mean? It's not the right thing because some of these guys haven't even found their manhood yet. How much of your confidence comes from the fact that you had a dad at home with you, you think? I'll probably say a lot of it because, like, me and my dad, we wasn't on good terms, like, a lot.

You know what I mean? My dad's dad's dad passed when I think he was 12. So we was good. And when I got 12, he's like, fuck, I don't know to do this.

Right. And like, I'm the, I'm the more complicated kid I've been along with mid 12th issues. You know what I mean? The RTC kid

that's on a computer all day. Same. Like, what the whole? You know what I mean? Like, I'm the one that don't want to play to their neighborhood kids.

You know what I mean? I'm the one that grew up in the house when we moved out to hood. You know what I mean? So like, it was a bit of he didn't understand me. It was a bit of like, I don't even know how to do this

as well as like I said I have two other brothers. He raised my brothers, but I'm his first biolac with God. We has another one now, my younger brother. I always try not to explain him. But it's different raising your blood, you know what I mean? So he raised it through 12 through 18. But it's like, oh, I don't want to fuck you up at all. So he was just on me.

You know what I mean? And we did like a documentary where we talked to like the trauma or stuff like that. But I told him, I'm like, nigga, you may have like, abuse me. or anything like that, but I ain't never seen you not take care of our family. You know what I mean? I ain't never seen you not when it come down to it, just be focused on making sure we good, making sure we eat. I ain't never had a day where I eat.

You know what I mean? I had seen you be stressed out on some like Christmas might not be how Christmas was, but you was prioritizing making sure we was good. You know what I mean? Like, and I would say the second part for me is having mom never really accepted me. I'm really like saw that I was like a sensitive child

you know what I mean and like she never got mad at me for crying you know what I mean where it was my dad I was fucking crying

and that would be like his frustration and anger of like nigga what the fuck is wrong now oh my god me's bro like me's bro

I'm gonna go toe to toe with this nigga like bro you tweak it out he's overwhelmed it's okay you know what I mean like my mom took me

the borders like so I can get the books I was interested in it never made you feel weird for reading Naruto, you know what I mean? But I would say even now as an adult, and still like a fresh adult, you know, I'm 25. I would say that support system still is there and still is very important.

Because like I've been known on social media, I would say like to it's like where it's been to a weird height where a lot of people are coming in at home and I've got to be able to like just go away with them. since I was 18 you know what I mean and like that's not really something

anybody can prepare you for like my dad can be like yeah it just fuck them you know what I mean like he don't really he never been in his shoes you know what I mean

but he do know what it feel like to get lost in like the thoughts of everybody else and the opinions everybody else my mom

you know my friend I would say I have a really good support system and it's not even like they have to say anything it's just like you what I mean like everybody love me for me.

You know what I mean? Like in the comments, like when I like, because I repost, I, I, screenshot I repost on Instagram. Just,

especially when it's stuff about like my character, like, I'm not going to defend against me being a stranger again. That it changes nothing for who I am. You know what I mean?

But if you're like, oh, like, Meach is homophobic or, oh, me scam me. And I'm like, that didn't happen.

Let me clear this. Those are the things I'm going to always, like, sit on top of and be like, this is not. what we're going to do, you feel me. But in the comments of that, when I posted on IG,

like, one of my homegirls is, like, it's funny that, like, you guys with media people who talk to you about you, but, like, that people that have the blessing of knowing you, love you to death. You know what I mean? Like, that's all that matter. That's all that matters. That's all that matters. This is the reality of the situation. You know what I mean?

Like, these are the people that's shown up. Mm-hmm. You know what I mean? Like, it's real. There's real love or real consequence. You know what I mean? With the people that are actually in my life, And the type of person I am, I don't really argue. Like, I don't, I'm not mad into these things.

I stand out as crazy shit. You hear of me? Like, I haven't anybody DMs. And you like, let me give you my perspective. You give me your perspective. I do it too. Rachel hates it. Yeah.

Respect me. Right. Rachel hates it. Don't message me. We're going to let you get out of here, bro. We need some new, new mad. You mad and stuff, bro. Next time you, look at it.

I got to get some. Yeah, Rachel got to get some. She needed bad, bro. You ain't got no hair, though, man. I ain't going to see you to say it. It's a sadden line. Okay, Meach. Oh my gosh, it's perfect.

But Meach, first of all, I don't have no, you say I don't have no hair, but let me tell you what's happening. Bosley. Not Bosley, nigga. Bosley's not going to help the situation I got. You about to get the toupee? Nah, not that. We did talk about that, though. March 8th.

What? Zering Medical in Beverly Hills. You're doing it? You get an implant? You get a transplant? You're doing it? My headline coming back, baby. I don't give a.

Fuck y'all niggas. You're doing it. Wait, wait. He told a story about the guy approaching him at the gym. Is that the guy? The guy told me, the guy approached me at the gym. The guy goes, hey man, I just want to let you know. You have a decent head of hair.

I'm like, yo, what the fuck is going on? He goes, it's just a couple of spots. A couple of spots. And you, a couple of spots. And it'll be done. It'll be done. And at first, I'm like, see, this is a good story. Because at first I'm like, man, what the fuck is this weird old ass to that?

I'm like, you'll listen to it. over course March 8th, bam. I'm ready. I'm ready. I can't wait for you to take me through this process. It's going to be funny. Us through this process. And then I want my sad hoodie.

Fuck you, Mitch. All you guys, that was Dimitri. Dmitrius Harmon. Thank you for joining us on Higher Learning. Support his movement. Literally, I'm way older than him, and his movement has gotten me through some tough times, like in my life.

Just a positive, a positive guy, incredibly talented. I still want to put him in the movie and make him like a huge acting star, but we'll talk about that later. I got a lot of life left for me. I know you're going on your field.

You're talking about how much you appreciate me. I want you to know growing up, we watch TMZ every day. And for you to wear my shit on TV, that meant a lot to me. My dog watch it, my mom watch it. That's our ritual before bed. So I really appreciate you being a stand-up deal.

You know, you got my heart, anything. I'm always here. But, yeah, a lot of niggas are in opportunities to help other people or other people on or just even shine in spotlight. And they choose not to. And you have never chosen not to. So I appreciate that. Appreciate you, Mitch.

Thank you for joining us on Higher Learning, brother. Thank you. This episode is brought to you by Sweet Green. The day doesn't ask for permission. Lunch window? Gone before you saw it coming. You deserve a break that actually. satisfies sweet greens new wraps have got you real ingredients zero shortcuts everything you love in one

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Good conversation. See, like, that's like the, well, it wasn't really gender wars, but those are like, the gender stereotype conversations we should have. You know, instead of us just going back and forth with each other, going at it, me having to talk about, like, how toxic you are. Damn. And how, I'm just kidding.

The Gender Wars were in full effect this weekend. Did you see that anonymous post? Anonymous was where? Oh, you didn't see this? I'm so tempted to pose this question to you. Ask me. Okay. Where was this posted?

It was posting on the Instagram. I feel like the gender wars, they just... Wait, did you send this in the... chat? I might have. That long paragraph? The credit scores and all that. Yeah, that was ridiculous. Okay, I just want to ask your, I want to ask you, since we got on it, real quick,

gender wars, gender wars. This is it. I don't want everybody to think about it. Okay. Candice posted this. My wife's credit court, my wife's credit score, my wife's credit score dropped significantly from 7-11 to 540 because she co-signed for a car for a car for. her brother, which eventually got repossessed. When she asked me for advice before making this decision, I strongly advised against it, but she went ahead anyway. Fast forward to two years later, and my wife needed a new car after the motor of her

current one gave out. She wanted to purchase a brand new 2004 Camry. However, due to her low credit score, she was only approved for an older model 2021 Camry to be exact. She was pissed because I wouldn't co-sign for. for her. Even though I have an 812 credit score and we've co-signed for each other in the past, I was showing her she has to be held accountable for her poor decision. This led to us, this led us both into another argument about our differences regarding how much risk is acceptable

when helping family members financially by co-signing large purchases like cars. I told her that she was going to have to settle for the 2021 because she didn't take my advice initially. Was I wrong? Would you have giving into helping her out? She told me that I was a selfish son of a witch. All comments are welcome, M.T. This is wife, right? This is wife, yeah. Yeah, you don't punish your significant other

because they didn't do what they told you, what you told them to do. Like, the lesson is she's already learned it. She wanted to do something for a family member. It affected her credit score. She's a bad credit score now. But then as your partner, you don't say, I told you not to do that.

So now you got to suffer and settle for this. I'm not going to help you out. That's not what marriage is. It's not tit for tat. It's not, hey, you couldn't get this, make this, or you know, you didn't do what I said. So why are you looking at me like that? I think I'm so don't agree with him. Why are you looking at me?

Marriage is about sacrifice. It's about compromise. Even if they have to be marriage, just a partner, a partnership. That's what it's about. And if you start a habit of, well, you didn't do this because I said this. and this is the result, I'm going to teach you a lesson, and that's how we handle conflict. That's our conflict resolution now.

Well, if you don't do it the way I said to, or it didn't work out how I thought it would work out, then this is how we're going to handle it. That's unhealthy habits. Couples probably not going to be together much longer, and he is selfish. Obviously, I disagree. Obviously, I disagree.

I do. And let me tell you why. Do you think that he's right for punishing her? I don't think that he's, so this is what he did. This is what I would say. It wouldn't, the gender, here doesn't matter. No, it doesn't.

All right, this is what I would say. When we are married, if we're married together, Union 1, a financial decision that you make for you is a financial decision that you make for me.

So if you come to me and you say, hey, I want to co-sign on a car for my brother and I say, nah, I don't know this. Like, I'm assuming he knows her brother,

whatever. Hey, I don't think you should do this. I don't think you should co-sign on the car for a brother. you say, hey, I got to do this, whatever I got to do it. You make a decision to unilaterally co-sign for the car for your brother. Okay, cool.

That's the decision that you've made. Individually. Individually. You've made that decision individually. Now, you're asking, when he co-signs for her on this car, his credit's going to go down. Because he's not like that. But it doesn't matter. His credit's not going to go down necessarily.

It depends how much debt he has. You're like, your credit is going to take, well, he's taking on debt because, Hold on, wait, hold on. Wait, he's taking on debt because now he's taking on the debt of her car, right? So my thing is, the accountability to me is not about punishment.

I think sometimes people think accountability and punishment are the same thing, particularly, never mind, not even say that. I think punishment and accountability are not the same thing. I think accountability sometimes means just understand that you made a decision unilaterally that affected your credit.

And now I am not going to make a decision that's going to affect mine. And if our union isn't strong enough to where you're not going to take my advice on something that's going to affect both of us financially, why should it then be, if you're going to put yourself in that position, why should then I come back and say,

okay, like, I'll get you out of it. like she decided she wanted to help her brother that's a chance that she took when he said hey I don't think you should do that we're married your credit problems are going to become my credit problems it's the same

I look my deal is okay let's not do that let's figure out a different way to help your brother like if let's I don't think you should co-sign off for a car on your brother can we afford to give him a little money on his down payment whatever

I don't think you should hook your credit to this guy whatever but now you say no and then you ask for me to put my credit in jeopardy after you didn't listen to what I said. You're not looking for a partner. You're looking for a savior. So, okay, partner, sometimes in a partnership, you bail the other person out, right? Like, I heard a lot of me and my.

That's what she did? Okay, but here's the thing. Wait a minute. Hold on. Did she not say, hold on, hold on. Did she ask her, hold on. See, this one, she asked her husband for his advice. He said, I don't think that she should do that.

And she goes, no, I am going to do it anyway. Okay. She did it individually. It affected her credit. Right. His credit is not, so it was like $800 and $500. His credit might go down like 20 points for co-signing. It's going to go down.

Might go down 20 points for co-signing on a car with her. I don't know how much is going to go down. He's still going to be in top tier. But you're missing the point, though. No, I understand your point. And I'm not like, you made a good point. I'm not totally disagreeing with it. I guess I just feel like it creates bad habits in a relationship.

Because it would be different if she signed for both of them or somehow it affected both of their credit scores. Then I feel like that's problematic. It affected hers. She's asking for help. She's like, look, I know I messed up. You were right in this. But for him to be like, nope, I told you not to do that. It just feels a little bit like, this isn't how we should.

resolve an issue that we have. That's just how I look at it. It just creates bad habits. But I do understand your point. I'm not disagreeing with you totally. So all I'm saying is this. This is like in a long conversation, me and Candace talked about. All I'm saying is this.

To me, I think this is like a deeper, deeper thing to where I actually feel like if the shoes on the other foot here, you see a course of women going. he needs to learn his lesson. I really do. To me, it doesn't matter which way that this goes. This could be, if a woman was in this situation

and she's like, do you know how many people asked me for money to start to start things and to do stuff? They ask me for money to start things and do stuff all the time. I'm not going to go,

I'm going to go and ask somebody, everything that I do, no matter what the breakdown of who's making what is, I'm going to tell you that I'm doing it. I'm going to say, hey, I'm going to run this by you, whatever, whatever, whatever.

Okay, if I get feedback that you don't like it, I'm probably not going to do it. I'm not going to do it. In this situation, hey, like the union of, by the way, I'll tell you something else. Something else that doesn't get thought about when he says we've helped each other before. We have co-signed for cars. I didn't see that.

It's right here. I'm not doubting you. Yeah, he says before, he goes, we've co-signed for stuff for each other in the past. We have. So they had a relationship where they were able to financially lean on. one another, right? He's co-signed for her, probably helped build her credit. She's co-signed for him, probably helped build in their credit. All these co-signed and tall just takes me back to the south. And so they've helped each other in past. He doesn't have any problem helping her,

but she came to him and she made a risky financial decision. They're married. Like, you should not. I wouldn't have done that. You should not make that big of a financial decision if your partner is not okay with it. They're married. They're married. And so, After that, you, hey. So we, it's tip for tat. It's like now. He did it, so I'm going to do it too. But no, he's not, it's not, it's not tip for tat.

I'm not going to put my credit on the line after you. You did this. So this is how I'm going to handle it. No, it's, okay. I just don't understand, like, what's the point? Like, it, I don't, I don't, I don't, I kind of don't understand. Like, look, okay, so now, and it's not, by the way, it's not like she doesn't drive. I can understand if he was like, man, walk.

You can't, you got to, you got to ride to 2021. I guess I just, I see both. I see your point. I just don't think that that's the best way to handle that kind of situation. Well, what's the best way to handle voting for Joe Biden? Real quick, we're going to get this and get out. A Biden release, we told you we was going to talk about it. I would ask Donnie what he thinks, but I know he agrees with you.

You don't, you. Donnie, tell me why I'm wrong. No, yeah, you're right. I do agree, Rachel. I am not the type of person to, like, teach my wife a lesson or punish her in this way. Like, I don't think it would hurt my credit that much where it's worth, I don't know, me, like, being in that role where I feel like I am teaching her a lesson. I don't know. It feels like communication, through communication, we can get, I can get across that this situation,

like wasn't handled in the right way while still helping her out and getting her the kind of car that she wanted as opposed to being the person that's like, yo, did you learn your lesson? Yeah, I don't think it's even that simple. I'm just saying, like, all I'm saying is, hey, you did what you wanted to do?

I have to protect myself because now I know you're going to do what you want to do. I have to protect my credit. Over the relationship. Right. She did the brother thing over the relationship. What are y'all talking about? She did the brother.

I'm not saying she's right. She asked him, he asked her not to do that. I don't think Donnie and I are saying she is right. What we're saying is she messed up. She knows she messed up. If you get into like, so this is how we're going to handle your mess up. Because in a relationship, people are going to do things. There's going to be mess ups.

And the response can't be. I'm going to punish you this way. I'm going to do, because you don't look at it as punishment. I don't. You don't like that. I'm using the word punishment. I'm going to handle it this way. Well, the way I would handle it is to say,

the way I would look at that as to say, okay, all right, I mean, you messed up the brother. All right, but now I can't have it fuck up your credit and my credit. It's not messing up his credit. It's not messing up. It's not fucking up his credit. It does not mess. He's taking on a ton of. I just got a car, right?

Like when you add stuff, yes, it goes, when you add more debt, it goes down. If you co-sign for somebody with risky credit like that, 540? I guess this is, I'd be curious to know if it's different if it's your significant other. Because at the end of it, it's like not a random person. If you co-sign for somebody with a risky credit, 540, that's going to affect your credit score. And so I'm like, you mess your credit. We can't miss both of our credit up. Like, for you to have a car that's three years, there's three years.

You knew, or we can't. We don't see it on. Because of your brother. But she's wrong first. I agree. She shouldn't have done that. Countability, man. It's tough.

All right, look. President Biden, the Democrats posted this. President Biden's accomplishments for black Americans. Slash poverty among black children by 52% this first year. Fought to cancel over $132 billion in student loans. Okay. So that's not an accomplishment. He fought to do it.

Black uninsured rate reaches record lows. Capped the cost of insulin at $35 a month for Medicare recipients. That affects a lot of black people. Does. The diabetes.

Yeah. Signed an extension that boosted PPP loans for minority-owned small businesses. Directly affects black people. Increased nutrition assistance benefits for more than 40 million Americans provided $25 billion in rental assistance.

You looked at these. What do you think about them? Listen, one of the things we constantly say is talk about is the Democrats and their messaging. So they put out here, because Trump's messages, I've done more for black people than any other president.

So Biden is saying, listen, I'm not going to tell something like that, but what I am going to tell you is the accomplishments and the things that I've done or that I've implemented, or I'm still working on implementing, that are going to specifically help Black America, which he needs to do because he needs the vote,

as we know from the last election, to be Trump who he would run against in this upcoming election. So I think this is good. You know, I've looked, I particularly looked at the slashed poverty among black children by 52% for his first year. And I was like, what did he do that under? because a lot of times you have, oh, the infrastructure bill, but then there's all these things in it

and you're like, well, how specifically does that help people individually? This one was under the American Rescue Plan and it gave that refundable child tax credit, which is now expired because Republicans and Mansion, who we know works for the other side, let it expire, but now that Biden is trying to bring it back.

But like different things like that specifically talk about how from 2000, 2019, it's changed, dropped 60%. 2020, it's dropped to get 52%. Like he is doing things and implementing things and getting them passed where it's specifically helping black America. So I think spelling something out like this

or even detailing specific things that he's been able to pass through Congress really show what he's doing for black America and how it'll have a trickle-down effect and continue to help black America even hopefully when he's gone. So this is my thing. I think there's a better way to message this stuff

and we've talked about this before. You know what I thought about when I saw the caping of the insulin? The movie Soul Food. And this is who Biden doesn't have around them. I'm serious. So you're supposed to be talking about Big Mama? Big Mama.

Big Mama, your arm. Remember that? Of course. Her shit was on fire. She couldn't even feel that shit. Right? If I'm working for Biden, right? I'm like Biden.

If you're talking about insulin for black people, you have to think about the way these things that you're talking about affect, not black people, but black person. Forget about like black people as a whole. 40 million. Too many different people for you to reach them all at once with one message. Think about black person.

That's very important. So if you're talking about the fact that you capped insulin, think about people's big mamas. They muddias. They ain'ts. Think about their memos. Think about these people. You're making it easy for these women to live longer.

I would actually do an insulin-based content push, and I would start off with that scene in soul food. Big Mama, your arm, her shit is on. And I'd have somebody come out and be like, yo, Big Mama was diabetic. And in the past, women like you're a big mama that kept these families together, we lost some of them because insulin prices were so expensive.

You know who did that? But what we have to do here is make sure that we are capping these insulin prices so that you can have more Soul Food Sundays with your Big Mama. Somebody already beat me to it? No, remember that black, was he a surgeon general during COVID who stood up there with Trump? And he was like, it's for big mama. It's for the big mamas. You don't remember that tiny.

I know what you're talking about, but it's different, though. Okay. Let me tell you how it's different. It's different with him. It's different with him because he's telling Trump about big mommas. We're not trying to hear that. And by the way, what I'm trying to say is don't, I'm saying, do this and directly use the stuff that gets black people.

Show people with their big mamas. like tell, I want to hear the stories of people who are affected by this stuff. So you want Biden to tell us about us? No, I don't want, see, this is the problem with you, niggas. What I'm saying is by, not Biden, the Biden content team should highlight the stories of people who've been affected by this, which is what he tried to do when he went to the cookout situation with the kids. and dad, remember when he went to the kid's house that was affected by the student loan situation.

But make it a little ton of cheek. Have some fun. You know, use stuff from the movie. Like, talk to people about how this is affecting them, but not Biden. We don't want to see him. Anything that is being messaged has to be messaged without Biden in it.

We can't see Biden. Can we hear him? No. Can't see Biden I would rather they have Dennis Hayesberg that played the president in 24 come out and be the official messenger

Like they go Things are getting drastic Okay Like it can't come from Biden We can't see Biden Tuck Biden away Use all movie clips Use

Use rap songs Use dear mama This is a fucking slam duck ad I should be paid to do this. Put Dear Mama by Tupac under the ad. Don't go to the barbershop. We've been there too much. Put Dear Mama by Tupac under the ad.

Start off with Soul Food. Don't use the cousin. I know black women don't like her. Faith. So don't use cousin Faith. She gave it up to Miles. You could tell that they was going to fuck as soon as you heard him playing,

I ain't mad at you. You know, I was like, nah, they're about to, they're going to fuck. Like, you could tell her that that was going to happen. And it was like, that was such a well-directed scene. It was dirty, nasty, guilty sex. Remember?

And they looked at each other, like, what did we just do? Anyway, she saw it. Because, like, some of those achievements, they actually matter. Some of those, you know, you know, when you watch it, it was like, they looked at each other right after. Yeah, and they just, like, covered up. Covered up. It was like, the shame.

Think about shooting that scene. I want to talk to Michael Beach about shooting that. No, no, nothing. You know, he's always plays somebody we don't like. Michael Beach? Yeah. He went through a, he went through a phase of it, for sure. Anyway, look, this stuff is not bad.

I think there's two things that are lacking here. Number one is intentionality. This is not necessarily the stuff that they ran on. And these aren't the big, shiny issues that people get behind sometimes. And also, I think some of this stuff is my problem. Well, my statement, my statement is that, some of this stuff is stuff that people can't connect to. It's great stuff and they know that it matters,

but you need to make them feel that it matters. Yes, we've talked about the feeling before. Feeling, feeling, increased nutrition assistance benefits for more than 40 million Americans. You know, what does that look like? What does it look like? I think about shows like the wire, and I will watch the wire and the kids will go into the bomb down.

I'll be like, what they're eating? Like, who's feeding them? Well, I want to know that they now got food. You want specific examples. Like, this is the head, but the bullet points underneath are like, this is how it specifically looks. Yeah, and I wanted to be a little tongue and cheek. Okay.

And I wanted to be, I wanted to have some style to him. Big Mama's never going to happen. The Big Mama, they should. Dear Mama. The Dear Mama with Big, it should start off. Big Mama, your arm, freeze frame. Come in. I'm Dennis Hayesbert.

Let's go. Big Mama died at the end of this movie. But she didn't have. have to. Big Mama died because nobody was paying attention to the cost of insulin. That's what we're doing here at the Biden administration. We're making sure that your big mamas, your big poppas, and everyone can get their insulin. Take this from Eloise Simpson living in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Insulin was really high. No, you started off good. No, you lost it with that way. It started off good.

It was saying we got to go. We got to go. I could write it. They should let me write it. Listen, maybe next election. I'm not fucking working for the Democrats. Close us out, please. Take thing, caps, hope

but you not stop learning on in Van Lake and Jr. I'm Rachel Lynn Lindsay. Bye, guys.