Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay - Beyonce's 'Black Is King' and Tayshia Adams Is The Bachelorette

Episode Date: August 4, 2020

Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay react to the rumors that Tayshia Adams is the new Bachelorette (0:30) and then discuss their thoughts on Beyonce’s visual album ‘Black Is King’ (16:16), Jonathan Isaac’s decision to stand for the national anthem and not wear a Black Lives Matter T-shirt (36:49), President Trump threatening to ban TikTok from the U.S. (46:00), and the upcoming Verzuz Battle between 2 Chainz and Rick Ross (56:35). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Trading derivatives involve significant risk and may not be suitable for all investors. Manage your activity with our consumer protection tool. Restrictions apply. See terms at Fandul.com slash predict slash bonus dash offer dash terms. I am so excited, guys. Welcome to higher learning thought warriors. Put your theme caps on. It's Van Lathen.

And Rachel Lindsay, y'all, if you could see the smile, that happiness, pure bliss on Van's face. Tell them why you're smiling, Van. Tell you're so happy. We actually all just took a celebratory shot before we started. We actually did. Before we started the podcast. because Rachel, you're now not an anomaly.

You're now officially a trailblazer. You have blazed a trail. What you guys have to understand is, Rach broke down a door and now another melanated mama has walked through. Taisha Adams. Taisha Adams is the second black Bachelorette.

Rach, you did it. I did it. Give it up for Tisha Adams. I would just like to thank all those who helped me get to this spot. It's been a long time coming, but we finally made it, guys. Two people.

Two people in the 40 seasons that it's been? 40. I would also like to say that her name is Tasha, but I'm going to let Van Call her. what he feels. Taisha's blacker to me, and so she's gonna be Taisha. I looked her up.

I went on her gram, by the way. I went on her gram. And what are your thoughts? Yeah, she's, uh, yeah, she's not, yeah, she's, yeah, I'd say so. I mean, like, she's, you know, uh, yeah, you know, being respectful. She's a, I don't know much about her.

She's a nice looking lady. That's all I would say. Okay, a couple of questions here, because this just kind of just happened. happen. Because I'm a gigantic bachelor fan now. I love it. And the Bachelor fans love you, Van.

Well, I'm one of them. They're going to love this. Go ahead. I'm part of batch nation. Was that what it's called? That is what it's called. I'm a batchie. I'm a batchie.

Okay, nobody says that, but you can start this. That's brand new. Guys, we're rebranding. We're batchies. Oh, no, no, no, no. We're not batchies. You know what we are? We're batches.

We have a bunch of batches. So, wait, can I just tell you for my Baster Podcasts? We tried that name and they were like, that's very offensive. It's like bitches. That's the fucking point. Exactly. Exactly. But there is a Betches.

There's a Betches site. There's a betches side. But in Higher Learning Circle, we're batches. That's what we're called. We're batches. We're batches. We're batches. So I just got this news that she became the second

black bachelorette and I was wondering when you heard that what was the first thing that went through your head? So I'm not going to confirm this is true. I'm going to speak in the context of the Entertainment Tonight article

that came out that is saying their sources are saying it's Tasha. So I'm going to speak, just give you that disclaimer. I'm going to speak in those in that context. I'm thrilled. One, I feel like The weight isn't on my shoulders anymore.

You know, I'm happy to pass the torch. I'm happy. I've met Tasha. She's quite lovely. I'm excited for her. She's had a couple of go-arounds at this before. And now she's in control. What does that mean?

Well, she was on The Bachelor. And then she was in Bachelor in Paradise. Now she's in charge. She's in the driver's seat. She's the lead. I love this power move for her. I'm excited. I don't care that it's a COVID season.

I don't care they're not traveling. I don't care that she could possibly have the Claire. Claire was the Batseret before her, the girl who apparently dipped out. I don't care if she has her men. I am happy to see diversity and I am happy that it's Tasia. Because she's really, wait, wait, what, what?

What is that face for? What? What's the face for? Okay. Well, we're going to, we're going to discuss this because is there a possibility? that the last sentence that you just said was a tiny bit shady?

No, because that's what people are going to say. I've already seen the negative talk. Right. It's kind of like it's, but you just, you know, it's kind of you said, I don't care that it's a COVID season. There wasn't a little bit of shade. It's not a tiny bit of shade?

No, you're making it shady. I'm not. What I'm trying to do, No, what I'm trying to do is I have seen people talk. And they're saying, oh, it's not fair. It's a COVID season. Oh, she's going to get the men from the past Bachelorette. That doesn't matter.

The fact is they could have chosen other women. There are plenty of other white women to choose from. And they chose Tasha. That's my point. Forget all of that. This is who is representing the Bachelorette. I am excited for her. I am happy to see the diversity because that means for the first time ever,

we're getting back to back black. Tasha and then Matt James Bachelor nation is not going to know what to do with this. This is beautiful. I am so happy for this moment. I hope I get to be a part of Tisha's season. If it's true. Batch is beautiful.

Batch is beautiful. Make the T-shirts. I'm talking about. Batch is beautiful with the Bachelor thing. Does the Bachelor have a logo? No, but roses are. But you could turn that rose into that fist. No, you take the rose into the fist or you put the rose growing up out of Africa.

You know what I'm saying? You got the red, black and green of Africa, but then out of the red, there's a rose. You know what I'm saying? Batch is beautiful. So, like, is there any part of you that, and just I'm asking because, look, I'll be honest with you. I'll tell you guys about something that happens. And this is, I'm going to share with you for a second. Okay.

I might have talked about this before. So you're on TMZ. For me, I was on TMZ for a long time. It was the only black male that was on the show for a long time. And sometimes when you're the only brother there, that in and of itself becomes your power. Yeah. And because what you're known for, right? Nobody else has the perspective that you have.

Nobody else has the experiences that you have. So that in and of itself becomes your thing. Mm-hmm. And being in a room full of all the rest of the white people, you feel like that's kind of what you are. You don't even, and there's a lot of things that I know about a lot of things I'm knowledgeable about. and that was kind of able to make me at TMZ more than anything else. But there is sometimes, and this happens, and we're trying to get it to the point to where this happens less,

but it's a thing to where somebody else is black or walk in a room, and you have to stop yourself from going, yo, do I need to compete with that person? Is this person going to take away? By the end of it at TMZ, really, never really took hold, but I was so proud and happy that there was more diversity on the show that then when I left and when I came.

Yeah. But naturally, there was like a little bit of, oh, shit, what if they get somebody better looking, Swover, could someone possibly be blacker than me, the whole deal? With you, do you feel in any way that a little

bit of your uniqueness has been taken away? Or was there any part of you that felt in any of those ways when this happened? So there's a term for this, what you are describing. It is called the crab mentality. Wow.

Which we, okay. But that's, but there is a term for that. And I, but I'm so, so glad that you brought this up. Because I in no way feel this in regards to the Bachelorette. First of all, I, I've always wanted to be known as more than a Bachelorette. I had a whole law career before I came in. and it's been challenging to combat that people are seeing me, and they're like, oh, that's the black bachelorette,

but I'm so much more than that. I am so happy that I can pass the torch and there's somebody else stepping in. I feel like I've done all I can do in this franchise. I've been vocal. I have fought for inclusion. I fought for diversity. And this is exactly what I wanted.

I wanted to make a way so other people of color feel included. And Tasia is half black and half Hispanic. So we got, we're checking off two boxes. boxes here. This is great. It's only one box, but that's okay. Okay. Well, I get what you're saying.

I get what you're saying. But she does have that. I'm not going to deny that part of her culture as well. But I get what you're saying. Anyways, no, I couldn't be more happy about this. I don't feel any kind of way. I've done all I can in this batch of franchise. And the only thing left for me to do at this point is pass the torch.

That's dope. That's dope. Yeah, that mentality happens sometimes when you get to a place and you're not secure in who you are. are there. Yeah. You know what I mean? When you start playing that role that you want them to play.

But when you start to realize how much better it is overall and how much effect you can have on brands and shows and the culture in numbers. And what it means, they're, you know, there are kids that are working there now that might have not been able to get their shine on there had I not come through there. You know what I mean? Yeah. By the way, me personally, personally at TMZ, if it wasn't for the amazing Nina Parker at Miss Gossip Girl,

who actually was the first person that, like, make me feel like I was included there. It would have been the same thing. So, you know. She told me to tell you what's up, by the way, too. Who, Nina? Yeah, I did an interview with her not too long ago. She was like, oh, man, that's my people.

That's my girl. I mean, Nina is the way, like, I come to TMZ, right? And it's a room full of people that have been working together for a long time. And, you know, really more than just the competition, everybody's fighting for screen time. And here comes this, this loud black dude. And I'm from the very first show, I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You're doing my whole thing, right?

Just checking all the stereotypes. Yeah, boom, boom, boom, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. Hey, fuck you, fuck you, fuck you, the entire thing. And it was hard. I ended up making great friends and becoming friends with almost all of my coworkers. That's great. feel some of my best friends. But early on,

it's hard to get into the club. And I remember I'm in there one time and I'm with the rest of the tour guides because we had our own little thing because we were the only people that would talk to one another. And Nina comes in and Nina goes, hey, just let you guys know

if you guys want, we're going to the din tonight to like hang out. And like, and I remember looking and going, yo, you're talking to me? And she's like, yeah, yeah, if you guys want to come with us later on tonight. After work, we're going to the den

over in Hollywood and hang out. We go over there into the den and we hang out and me and Nina start talking. I'm like, yo, she's a big deal. She's on the television show and everybody and that kind of broke the whole thing down. And like even something like that from another person of color, from

something, then she started giving me the inside tea, person to color, black person, giving me the insati of what's going on at TMZ and how I need to, you know, comport myself there and all that stuff like that. It's just, it means something. And it It means something to have had somebody there before you. So you were probably that for Taisha.

And I love that you keep corner of that. And this is the thing, if you do it right, you do it well, you don't have to worry about all that, right? Like I did exactly what I needed to do. I made a name for myself and I'm good. You know, I'll always be remembered in a certain regard. It's time for somebody else to step up. And I am so, I am beyond. If this is true, I am beyond happy for Tatia.

Yeah, so I guess, interesting. So she's half black, half what now? Hispanic. Hispanic. But her name is Tasha. Tasha, yes, yes. Interesting. I always wonder about that.

We've seen her family on the show before because she made it far enough on The Bachelor to where she got a hometown. So we've gotten a little insight into her family. Her father's black. Her mom's Hispanic. I always wonder if I would have got with like a Hispanic lady if my son would have been, you know, like,

Jamil or Jorge. Like, how's that decision made? You know what I'm saying? Like, because, you know, you got, because her name is Tasha, that's a very black name. But then, is there a mom that's Hispanic? Wait, yeah, it's her mom.

So then did her mom not want her to have maybe more of his Spanish? I always wonder about that. Because I have brothers, and then the kids are just like, they have been assueling. And when it is like, Johnny? And I always look at the kid, I'd be like, you could have like a, you could have been like a Rinaldo or something. You could have like a dope.

So you're making me think about my child's name. Well, yeah, see? Something like that. By the last name, the last name is Spanish, is Abasolo. So. Yeah, but that's even more reason to give him like, first of all, I think I personally want to go for,

I like those African names. Like, I have a little nephew and his name is Cinque. And it's Cinque. That's pretty. from both Amistat, but then also it's Sinkay because he's the fifth. I'm like, yo, that's dope. That's amazing. But, you know, I'm not talking about like Johnny or Mike or Brian.

If your last name is like, what is it? It's my husband's name. I know, but I'm saying, what's his last name? Abas Solo. Abas Solo, you got to go with like Ephraim or something like that. Like, think about that name. Ephraim Abolol. That's a fucking pimp.

I like that. Efferein, you know, like, that's, you know, there needs to be no, no picture comes with that bio. You know exactly what you're going to. You know, exactly. Like, he goes into like a,

you know, he's at, he's in Cancun at senior frogs. It's, uh, the widest establishment in Cancun. But it don't matter, though, because he's on spring break. If such a thing still exists when he gets to college.

And it's, yo, what's your name? I'm Ephraeim. though, whatever. So I've completely gone off topic. But you, you're happy. I'm so, I am so happy for her. Well, look, I'm happy to. Progress is great.

I don't understand how it got started with somebody else's season, and now it's kind of her stuff. I don't know how that works. Apparently the girl has fallen in love with another guy. May I add? And let me add, because I know you don't know this.

The rumors are that she's falling in love with somebody else. And she's like, I don't want to I just want to be with him. He's black. Oh, my God. We're taking over. Jesus Christ.

We're taking over. He's black. She's falling in love with somebody like off the show? No, no. Apparently she's on the show. This is all the rumors. Apparently she's falling in love with a guy,

the guy that they named, he is black. He was one of the men that came to be on her season. And they just hit it off that quick? That's what she says. Oh, I know what happened here. That's what the rumors are. Fantasy suite. I love it because you just found out about a fantasy suite.

Yeah, they went to the fantasy suite early and that Alabama Black Snake. Oh, my God. Wow, we shouldn't have really, we shouldn't have taken that shot before the podcast. Are you hot? I'm hot. You're hot? You're hot because you drank too, you drank too much. Yeah, you're drunk.

You're drunk rage. I'm not drunk off one shot. You drunk off the Hennessy, like, like, like, Pock. So this past weekend, we got treated to something, it's a cultural moment, Nick Rache. It's a big time cultural moment, the entire culture. Black is king by Beyonce. Now, normally, I don't pull back the curtain and let people have a peek inside it to how the sausage is made here on higher learning, but I have to in this particular situation. We're talking about topics that we are going to have in order to, you know, have the show.

We're talking about topics we're going to do on the show. We send emails. Jackson's involved and Jordan when she doesn't betray us and go on vacation is involved. And I say it's involved. And we run down the topics and then we discuss what we're going to discuss. Rachel more often than not sends her topics through first. She's very good at picking topics. Rachel is a good producer.

She's good at these things. Integral part. It's just, it's a big deal, Rachel. Then we go back and forth and we flush out the topics and we decide what we're going to talk about. Rachel wanted to talk about Black is King and also had to ask us as a staff and a family to borrow somebody's Disney Plus account password.

What? What's the problem? I'm saying, I'm saying, I wouldn't have expected you to go that far. That's kind of, that's what I spent my cousins to do that. Yo, Van, can I get the Disney Plus? You're trying to watch Endgame. You know what I'm saying? And did you, did they hook you up with a Disney Plus password?

I got a password. Exactly. Shout out to the ringer. I got, I have, I have absolutely no shame. This is something that I knew we needed to talk about. Shout out to the people who call me out for not watching. whatever it is that we talk about. I refuse to come on this podcast

and talk about Black as King, which was a celebratory moment for the black culture and not have seen it. So I asked, and Joy is an understatement. I was hypnotized by it. Did you like it? Oh, no.

Okay, so let me start off with the positives here. Sure. I didn't have high expectations. Okay. Beehive people, please don't come after me right now. Okay? I've admitted I'm not in it, but I have a huge amount of respect for Beyonce.

And I am a fan. I'm just not in the Beehive. I didn't know what to expect with Black is King. As soon as I got my password from the ringer, shout out to the ringer. I couldn't stop watching it. I was mesmerized. was hypnotized by it. Now, there were some certain things I could do without, right? I didn't like

them interweaving the Lion King into it. At first, I was like, oh, this is so great. We have Mufossa narrating it. And then I realized those were clips from the movie. I didn't like that part. But I liked the celebration of the culture. I liked the blackness of it. It was rich. It was deep. It was immaculate. I just felt it was celebrating us in a sense of, It was like royalty. And I loved every single bit of it. Now, I will say the one, I thought, wait, I will say, I thought this should have been called homecoming. From the way that they were talking in between each song and each video, I felt like this was a homecoming.

As opposed to the actual homecoming we saw at Coachella a couple of years ago, this could have been called homecoming. I love this. I can't wait to hear what you have to say. I just felt like this was an opportunity. there's so many, growing up, you are taught, not from our people, but you're taught by society to not appreciate and uplift being black. You're not told to accept your natural beauty. It's almost you're told to accept this manufactured beauty in a European standard.

And I appreciated this film because it was about celebrating our beauty, our richness and our culture. And I loved every bit of it. The one part that stood out to me was at the very, very beginning, though, when Beyonce was walking with the baby and she was, it was talking and she was talking about her, the coils of her hair,

but she was wearing a wig. That bothered me so much. I mean, later she had braids, but I just was like, how can you speak these terms but not embrace your full natural beauty? That's the only thing that really bothered me in this

because it was a bit contradictory. You know what I mean? I'm not even, going to touch that. Because I don't like like I get it, I guess, but I'm not going to touch black lady's hair or what's real. It was the term.

I get it. If she hadn't said it, I wouldn't thought of it. But she was like our, our beautiful black coils. And I was like where? But maybe. But but. But but. But, but. But maybe the wig is made out of somebody's beautiful black coils. It's not. That's not. That's not what coils are. How do you know? I mean, I don't, I don't. Because I got.

them. I know what they are. I would defer to your knowledge of that. It was the only part I hated. That was it. I don't talk about, I don't talk about Black Lady's hair.

Like that's your, Rach, it's big for big rage. It was just like, no, we could have changed the line. Okay. Very curious to know what you think, though.

Okay. So, here's the thing. Everything about it was beautiful and amazingly shot and well done, right? Everything. Shout out to Blitz of the ambassador who had compliments

sandwich. Shout out to Blitz the ambassador who is a brilliant creative that I had on my podcast a while back, Ava introduced me to him. He is an amazing guy. He was responsible for a lot of the images that you saw in Black as King. Now, my situation with Black is King has nothing to do with Black as King. Black is King, nothing to do with it. Okay. I'm not in the mood to celebrate. I'm in the mood to liberate. And I'm not in the right. frame of mind to pause and being off. It has nothing to do with Beyonce. I watched it and it felt like I was being performative even in watching it.

Like I get it. By the way, this is a van thing. It's nothing to anybody else. I couldn't fully delve into something so heavily symbolic. It is beautiful. It is well done. But I'm having trouble in any form or fashion. celebrating right now.

Just with so much. And y'all, I promise you, I'm just keeping it real with y'all. I'm not trying to nitpick or find reasons. It's just not, everything feels different. You know what I mean? Like everything, nothing feels,

like I wasn't able to get hooked in and be, like, awestruck by it because I get awestruck by numbers and by injustice and all of these things like that. I think I've used up all my awe in these last, I don't think I can be awed at anything right now. I just want change and for people to be feeling and doing better in so many different ways that I couldn't step out of my own self

to really get wrapped up in it. And I kind of felt like that was going to be a thing, and to be honest with you, if we wouldn't have had a podcast, I probably wouldn't have even watched. But don't get me wrong. That has nothing to do. It has nothing to do.

And, you know, people have talked about Blackest King and what it means. You know, No Name discussed it a little bit. And, you know, no name is somebody who, we've talked about No Name on the podcast before. No Name is somebody that I follow to make sure that I always keep my eye on the ball

in terms of the bigger issues. Don't always agree, but always. appreciate my one wish for her is that she would have never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever change, ever change. Because it's like capturing somebody in their 20s who has all of that youthful energy and that uncompromising view of the world. It's too often what happens is when the 30s hit, when the 40s hit, we lose people like that to, you know, different parts of commerce and things like that. But we need her. But not even any of that stuff about capitalism or Beyonce or any of any of.

are the messages that came from some people who are African who didn't appreciate some of the depictions there from whatever reason. But look, it's not so much that they didn't appreciate the depictions is I think people want Africa viewed in a more holistic way and to stop sort of fetishizing the king and queen situation that goes. But even that, not my sort of, like, I would never dare to speak for any of those opinions that I saw. I just read some of them and I try to intends.

both sides of it. It's just for me, I just couldn't do what I normally have to do. Like when Homecoming comes out, you watch Homecoming, you're like, oh shit, being her bag. And she looked good. Beyonce looked good. The thing was moving. All right? To be honest, Beyonce looked good. She is a fantastic performer. She is maybe the finest performer

that we've had since Michael Jackson. And all of that stuff, the aesthetic is all beautiful, all well done, all top notch, the narrative, all of it, all of it. I just couldn't get into it the way that I needed to get into it. I think that's interesting. And I think it's great that you said that because I'm sure there are a lot of people who feel your same sentiments when it comes to this. I think for me, I am not normally a positive person. So to see this and to not really have any expectation of it.

It was like, oh, she's doing this. That's great. But then to sit and watch it and be hooked the way I was, it almost made me feel like this is what I needed to see. I needed to see us celebrated in a way. And I think what I love so much about what Beyonce is doing, criticize her for whatever reason you may want to, but what you cannot knock is that she has gotten to a place where she can be unapologetically herself.

She played the game. She did what she had to do. And now she is putting content out there that she wants to that celebrates who she is and what she is. And I love, love it. And I think that's what I was in. with in watching this, watching her,

watching her family, watching the tributes to the Lion King in a different way, watching the tributes to coming to America, just celebrating blackness, and it was rich. And to me, I felt I needed that,

especially too as a woman when we are so often more than black men compared to our beauty is compared to a European standard, more than black men. And so, to be celebrated in that way, I thought was very, very powerful and beautiful to see.

And I kept thinking as I was watching it, because she had her children within the film, I kept thinking, I want my children to see this at a very young age. I want my children to appreciate where they come from, who they are and what they look like in a way that maybe I didn't necessarily get, no fault to my parents, just the society we grew up in. And I just kept thinking about that. I really, really enjoyed it more than I thought. Yeah. I was talking to a friend of mine who's from Ghana.

And he said something. Shout out to humble, smart, money man. Money man, one of the best money men in the business. Humble. Single? Huh? Single? I got ladies.

I think he's single. Okay. I got ladies. I'm just saying. Hey, man. Y'all don't, like these ladies are not ready. for Humble. Humble, like, we all get outside, we're leaving, and Humble got a Mayback out there with a driver. Ladies!

They're not ready for Humble, man. I asked Humble one time, me and Humble at a party, I was like, how do you do the Mayback thing? He was like, what? I was like, because it would be interesting, if I had, like, a Mayback and a driver, and I was out there like that. Um, like, how do you do the Mayback thing? You know, if I was single Mayback dude, how do you do it? do you, if you're going on a date with a girl and you have the Mayback, do you send the Mayback to pick her up without you in it, then have her meet you at the restaurant. So she just gets a solo ride in the Mayback, right, with the driver,

which is kind of like a play of way to do it because like the car has been sent for, you're too busy to get there. You're going to meet her at the restaurant. And when she gets there, she's been delivered. She gets to step out of the Mayback on her own. I would hate this. I have her own little. So I'm asking which way you do it.

And then I say, and I say, do you do it that way? Or do you pull up with the Mayback and the driver, right? She walks out door open, okay, gets into the Mayback while you're in there, glass of wine or something like that. Which way do you do it? Definitely the latter. You prefer the ladder. Yeah, because that means that, okay, yeah, like you got your Mayback all that, the wine,

but you're there. So you're trying to get to know me. We're going to have some conversation on our way to where we're going. You sit in the car without you in it. You're just trying to show me what you got and who you are. All you're going to do is attract birds,

okay, with the first part. Wow. Well, okay. You know, especially in L.A. That's exactly what you're going to. It is L.A. And I'm not sure, I'm not sure, but I'll ask him if you go,

it's not. Humble, I'll introduce you to some nice, nice women. I don't know. I don't have been spoke to Humble. Humble might be spoken for. Humble very much. Humble could be spoken for.

Is that his real name? His name is Humble. His name is Humble. Humble might be spoken for. But when I was speaking to Humble, he was talking to him one day, and he was telling me about, we might have talked about this on the podcast before,

about the fact that because he's from Ghana, there is a self-worth that he has that is just by function of how he grew up, which means that the police officers were black. The beauty queens were black. The doctors were black. lawyers were black. The people who ran the country were black. All of those people were black. So you never really had to instill into humble. We were having a very open and honest conversation

about this. You never really had to instill into him that there was something that he could do because he saw people doing it every single day. And despite my feelings, and the way I felt about black is king is how I feel about everything. I'm enjoying, loving, watching NBA games. but watching an NBA game in the bubble is a reminder to me of the fact that we don't have a regular world right now or a normal world right now. So I watch the basketball and I love it, but I can't fall into it because I'm seeing the problems. I'm seeing virtual fans. I'm seeing all of this. There's a crawl under it that says this many MBLB baseball players are testing positive for COVID-19. I can't escape what's happening. And because I can't escape what's happening, I really can't. can't escape and fall into any art.

Yeah. And so that's what I, and this, and this, this art was escapism and it was a celebration, but I just don't feel like having a party. It was hard for me. It was hard for me. But he, but what he was saying to me is along the lines of what you're talking about, like, trying to establish and instill into your kids from her early age, is how beautiful, competent and sort of amazing and worthy that you are.

And that is a part of your job in establishing sort of a cultural currency with your progeny. Like that's a part of what you have to do. You have to remind them, especially in America, that they are, in fact, not just good enough, but in a lot of cases, they're going to be better and be ready for that. Be ready to win. Be ready to be better. Yeah. No, I love that.

And that's exactly how I felt watching it. It wasn't necessarily an escape for me. It was just more of pride. Like black pride. we are beautiful and we are rich and we're deep. And there's just so much history to our culture. And we, it just amazes me how, not amazes, it just saddens me how we were stripped from all of that the moment that we first came here centuries ago. And how they tried to brainwash us, not try to, did brainwash us in a way where we forgot what we were connected to.

and some of us never even knew that, just upon centuries and centuries of teaching us a certain way. So to me to see this connection back to Africa was a beautiful thing to see. Do you feel like the connection back to Africa is necessary because there's a big conversation happening right now about whether or not we need to be connected to the continent in order to really be our full selves?

Because a lot of the talk for a long time was that, that there's so much pain and hurt in our history here in America, despite the fact that that's actually not true. There's pain and hurt, of course, unbelievably astounding pain and hurt, but there's also amazing accomplishment, amazing, just like we're cultural gods here in a way. But because of the degradation that we've experienced here

at the hands of oppressors, The only true way that we can be fooled is to reconnect to Africa in some way. Do you think that that's true? I do. Really? And I felt that watching it. I just felt like there's something in me that's missing, something a part of me that I've never experienced because I haven't been connected. I've never been to the land that I actually came from.

And so I'm in a land where we were forced to be here. You know, we were captured and enslaved here. And yeah, then we built roots. We planted our roots here. But that's not where we initially come from. And I just kept thinking, I've always wanted to go to Africa. But in watching that, I was like, I got to get there. I mean, as soon as this is over with, COVID is what I mean.

I got to get to Africa. I just need to feel it. And I would hope to, you know, say what you want to about the tests that are out there. And there's different tests you can take to trace your DNA. I want to try to get as close as I can to my ancestry. so I can try to be connected to that. I want to go there. I'm not just trying to go to the touristy places,

you know, like a South Africa. I want to be connected in whatever way that I can be. I want to, yeah, I do. I felt that watching it. I really did. I wouldn't do one of those ancestry things for a million dollars.

I know people feel a certain way about them. I'm not giving the government my DNA. Okay, but there are versions that aren't that. It's not 23 of me. It's not ancestry DNA. What is it? There's a black version. I was talking to my sorority.

A black version. My sorority sisters. Shout out to Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated, which I appreciated was constantly represented in Black as King as they throw up the rock, but we'll just call it the Delta. Yeah, sure. Like, there's a black version of 23 me? Yeah, I got it.

I got a app. But my sorority sisters listen to this. They'll hold me accountable. I'm going to let you know. What is it? 23 in them niggas? They're ready for them. What is it?

Yo, 23 in the homies. I'm going to find out for you. Yeah, 23 and y'all, man. By the end of the podcast, I'm going to find out. Oh, you know what it could be called? We should start wanting to call like, yo, it should just be called. What are you from? You know what I'm saying?

Question mark, what are you from? All right. So, speaking to the NBA bubble, something happened, and I want to get your take on this. Jonathan Isaac, do you know who that is? I do now. Yes. Jonathan Isaac is a player for the Orlando Magic.

Guys, thought warriors, I want you guys to pay attention to this story so that we, not just as, not just my thought words that are black, but as human beings so we can really have a discussion here about how we treat each other. Seriously. To me, this is very seriously. So Jonathan Isaac, from the match. He is a young player there, was one of the players, have been very few in the NBA who did not kneel during a national anthem. He stood. When he was asked about why he did not kneel,

he leaned on his personal faith as to why he didn't kneel. Shout out to Taylor Rooks for doing a great interview with him. Isaac was asked if he believes that Black Lives Matter after he stopped after he declined to kneel. He said, absolutely. I believe that Black Lives Matter a lot went into my decision. And part of it is my thought that kneeling while wearing a Black Lives Matter t-shirt don't go hand in hand with supporting Black Lives. And so I felt like just me personally and what it is that I believe in, standing on a stance that I do believe in that Black Lives Matter. but I just felt like it was a decision that I had to make

and I didn't feel like putting the shirt on when hand in hand was supporting Black Lives. He discussed his faith a lot. He said, I don't think that kneeling or putting a T-shirt on personally is the answer. I feel like Black Lives are supported through the gospel. All lives are supported through the gospel. That we all have things that we do wrong sometimes and it gets into a place of pointing fingers about which wrong is worse.

The Bible tells us we all fall short of God's glory. At the end of the day, whoever will humble themselves and seek God and repent of their sins, that we could see it in a different light, see our mistakes, and see people's mistakes in a different light, see people's evil in a different light,

and that it would help bring us closer together and get past anything that's on the surface that doesn't really deal with the hearts of men and women. That was what he said about why he wasn't standing. So yesterday, or the day before, he tore his ACL. So it's a very serious injury for a basketball player. He tore his ACF.

So a couple of days ago, he does not stand. Then, I think it was yesterday, he tore his ACF. What? What are you trying to say? What are you trying to link together? Actually, I'm not trying to leak anything together. Okay. As soon as he tore his ACL, he was a young black man.

As soon as he tore his ACF, people came out of the woodworks, laughing and joking and saying, some of them were funny. One person said, I'm not even a lie, one person said that one of the ancestors just kicked him in his knee as he was running down to court.

I'm so, I'm serious. Look, look, but seriously, seriously, I got to say, I was tremendously disappointed in the reaction to this young man hurting himself. Yeah. I mean, okay. I wish you wouldn't have said that because obviously this is a super serious injury and it could affect his entire career. And he may never come back for it.

And this is his livelihood. And who knows who he's providing for as he's not just himself, maybe his family. I don't know his whole background, but that it's very serious. And it's troubling to see this happen to someone when it's such a short season two. And I hate it all. Now, as for him not kneeling, he didn't explain it. I mean, you said it, but it's like throwing Christianity out there is not an explanation. Saying that you're for equality, that's the whole purpose of getting down on one knee.

It's not political. It's not a separation. And the fact that you try to politicize, it shows that you don't understand why people are taking a knee. You're on the wrong side of it. Period. So, not only did the man not take a knee, he also decided not to wear a Black Lives Matter shirt. Yet he, in his statement, has said that he does believe that Black Lives Matter. I would hope so. He is a Black life. I don't understand this man. I can't even reason and have a conversation about this because he's saying one thing, which, to be honest, doesn't really make a lot of sense.

Yet he doesn't want, he's saying he believes in Black Lives Matter, but he doesn't want to do any action that goes hand in hand with showing your support of Black Lives Matter. You don't want to wear a T-shirt. You don't want to take a knee. You know, it was, it's not political. You're not politicizing black, like the rights of Black people is not something that's politics. It's just human decency. It's human nature.

and the fact that everybody decided to take a knee and show that they were equal and be in solidarity and you decided to stand, it's almost as if you're taking a stand against it. To me, that is what it shows. And you can throw a scripture at it. You can talk positivity and love. But to me, if actions speak louder than words,

then you standing on two feet while everybody else decided to take a knee and wear a T-shirt, that's all I need to really see. It's almost as if you were afraid to show that you were in support of Black Lives Matter. It just doesn't make any sense. To me, I don't know what stopped this young black man from wanting to do that, but he was fearful for some reason to show that he was in support of it by display.

I don't know. I don't know. While you were talking, I looked up everything. I'm like, where did this brother? Where did he grow up? Where did he go to school? I'm trying to understand. Okay.

And so for me, I guess, you know, I don't get why he didn't want to support it. That's fine. Like, really, to be honest with you, there aren't, there are going to be people who aren't going to take a knee. They're going to be people who, you know, stand for the pleasure of allegiance, who don't wear black lives in my shirts, all those things. All those things are going to happen. We, to me, I personally feel like showing whether or not you are supportive of a cause, it can go a lot further than the wearing of the t-shirt and the taking of the knee. like if Jonathan Isaac had declined to do both of those things, but yet he was doing things in his community.

And I don't know that he's not, by the way. He was working with kids. He was getting the message out there. He was being proactive. He was discussing these issues. He was using part of his platform that he has as an NBA player to elevate the voices of people who might not have those same platforms. I wouldn't have a problem with him not doing something that was,

that he felt like went against for whatever reasons, even though he did not give us a real answer. his religious beliefs. I do want to say, though, that I think it's particularly disgusting for the people that are making fun of him because he hurt himself. Absolutely.

And that's more of the thing that I, look, we can have a discussion about what kind of color we have to be on. What we can't do is, is decide to revel in somebody's injury or in a setback of a brother because we don't believe or support everything that they do.

We have to be united by an action, cultural patience and trust and love for each other that means, yo, even though I'm not fucking with you here, I still want to see you do your best. And hopefully I can be a part of you being your best. And so I was disappointed to see all the jokes. But by the way, Twitter's as a mean place, though. Oh, my God. It's a mean place. I knew they were coming. I knew the jokes were coming. As soon as I saw that, I was like, damn. And by the way, I'm part of the problem. I'll tell you why. Because. What did you tweet? I didn't tweet anything. But as soon as I saw this, I was like, damn, they about to roast this nigger, went straight to Twitter.

I went there to see it. I went there for the jokes because I knew they were about to even, but it's not right. We do have to be better than that. We have to be better than that. I just, I just, it's not right. It's such a shame. And I really hope he has a full recovery and he's able to come back and, and, and play in the National Basketball Association. but I do wish that he would explain his position a little bit better.

You know what I mean? Just imagine if Kaepernick, Colin Kaepernick took a knee. And then they asked him later why he took a knee. And he's like, for God so love the world that he gave his own. You know what I mean? You got to be able to explain it. That's the only thing that I wish out of that other than wishing him well and that he has a healthy recovery. This episode is brought to you by WeatherTech.

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So visit Spectrum.com slash business to learn more. Restrictions apply. Services not available in all areas. Now it's time to descend into the toilet of Trump. We haven't really talked about the president that much in the last couple of ways. We have to. He is an important person here in this country. Now, a couple of things are on the horizon with Trump.

I'm going to let you choose which one we discuss right now. Oh, okay. Do you want to talk about the potential end of TikTok? Or would you like to talk about Trump may be wanting to delay an American election? Rachel's choice of what we're going to flush down the Trump toilet today? I mean, I'm going to go with TikTok, and I'll tell you why. Because I think he has recanted that statement that he made about delaying the elections because he got so much pushback from Republicans.

Even Republicans were like, nah, you don't have the power to do that. That's not going to happen. Stop. Because at this point, I think they want him gone as much as anybody else. Right? One of the most fascinating things to watch as the poll numbers continue to dwindle over the next 90-some odd days is the Republicans that try to jump off the sinking ship in order to reform the party in front of our eyes. Yeah, yeah. That's coming, for sure.

Or definitely the people who are using their platform to make a statement. Like, Jim Jordan, he's like definitely showing out. Like, he will definitely make a run at 2024. for it. You can spot them out now. Like who's making a run for it? Who's not necessarily disassociating themselves with the party, but just really trying to make a name for themselves and all of this.

So, yeah, I'm going to pick TikTok because I think him trying to delay the election is a moot point at this point. So TikTok. We can talk about TikTok. So, yeah, so the president and his administration believed TikTok, which is owned

by a Chinese company, to be a national security risk. So he said that they were looking into banning TikTok. Now there seems to be Microsoft, Bill Gates, swoop in to the rescue. Swoop in. Swoop in Bill Gates. Bill Gates and Microsoft, I guess, are now trying to buy TikTok. Yes. They have how long to get the deal done? 45 days.

45 days to get the deal done. Now, when I heard the President Trump said that he wanted to ban TikTok, I was ecstatic. Super happy. Because... Number one, I don't use TikTok. I don't have any dog in that fight. I've never... I think that all of those kids that learn those dances, that's so fucking impressive to me.

Like, those dances are, have you seen these dances? It's not impressive to me. You're not impressed by kids who learn how to, like who are hitting these dances and all of these, the renegade dance. You're not impressed by shit like that? It looks like cheerleading to me. Like the original girl who created the renegade dance,

got it. Everybody imitating her. No, it's cheerleading. But it's not just the, it's not just the renegade. It's like all. other types of dances, specific dances, specific points in the song. Yeah, savage.

You know, if I got to see that dance one more time. You don't like it. Okay, cool. Do it, do it. Do it. I don't know how to do it. You got a shot of tequila and you. You don't move it to.

I can't do the savage dance. I tell you this, though, you seem like a get-off-my-lawn type of person right now, like that you don't want the kids to be able to express themselves with the TikTok dance. You're not impressed. Kids are fine. The children are fine. You don't like when an adult's to the TikToks.

I'm not a big fan of it. I'm a big fan of it. Okay, cool. But I like this because I thought about the fact that the main problem that Vice President Biden is going to have in the election is getting young people to care enough to come out and vote.

I thought that maybe there was a chance, a small chance that Trump could ban TikTok and ignite a demographic that doesn't care about anything else but making up dances to get so mad and maybe push a couple more of them to the polls. I love that Trump did this. And it also showed me, like, how, I don't know if Trump is trying suicide by cop now. Like, why in the world would you eat, would you come against the, like, you even got the

TikTokers on there that love, they got Trump loving TikTokers. We've seen the racist TikToks as well. So it was crazy, but I liked it, but it doesn't seem, seems like Microsoft is going to ruin my whole plan. I don't know if Microsoft is going to be able to afford to purchase this, this application, this Chinese application. I don't think they're going to be able to do it because it's worth like $50 billion. And Microsoft doesn't have $50 billion? From what I read, maybe it's more money than they want to spend.

I don't know how much Microsoft is worth. I have no idea. Microsoft is a fucking, Microsoft got $50 billion. This is, but not million, 50 billion. Okay. 50 billion. I didn't say million. Rage.

Rage. They want to spend all their money on TikTok? They want to spend all their money? Microsoft is worth, hold on. Look at it. Am I in the fucking Twilight Zone? But I just feel like you think I'm talking millions here.

If I said 50 million, they got it. No, I don't think that you're talking about millions. Microsoft is a very, very wealthy company. Microsoft could afford. Just Google it. How much is Microsoft for? As of April last year, it was worth. with $1 trillion.

Okay. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Wait, wait. Once again, I need you guys to come in. As of, as of last week, Microsoft was worth how much? One trillion dollars. One trillion dollars is how much Microsoft. Yes, Rach, Microsoft could afford $50 billion to buy TikTok.

Yeah. Like, I don't know if they're going to be able to. I'm not saying million, man. I'm saying billion. Maybe I'm just thinking of Bill Gates. Okay, fine. They have enough money. Bill Gates is way richer than $50 billion.

Is he? I thought he was like a few billion. No. Okay, I'm done. I'm done. I'm out. I'm not giving any more statistics. I'm done.

Bill Gates might be worth, what, 90, 80, something billion dollars? Google says Bill Gates is worth 113. $10.3 billion. Jackson, we're done with you. We're done. You're done. Don't come back.

Don't say, don't give us more statistics. Okay. So far, Microsoft can clearly afford to buy TikTok. Here's my question to you. Sure. Does Trump want to really protect the privacy of American citizens because it has been alleged that this app is acquiring personal information of Americans? or is it the fact that he wants to ban a social media platform

that continues to troll him on time after time, whether it be buying up seats to his rallies, whether it be making videos that troll him and that call his authority and intelligence into question. Which one is it? If TikTok was overwhelmingly pro-Trump, there's no fucking way he would take it. There's no way that he would.

Like Twitter. No. Right. If TikTok was overwhelmingly pro-Trump, there's no way he would take any action against it. More to the point, and then we can get off the president after this, I think the president's continuing back and forth with China is sophomoric and dangerous. Number one, I am no fan of the Chinese government. I think that it takes very, very, very little research to see some of the human rights

violations that have gone over there in China, I'm definitely not going to be hypercritical of their culture because I am not well read on it. But what I will tell you is that anyone paying attention to geopolitics or to the conditions people are living in it all over the world knows that China has a putrid, putrid history of civil rights, excuse me, of human rights violations. So I'm not going to, and there's an authoritarian regime and all of that stuff, right? Far be it for me to criticize their government, though, with the way things are going to. going on over here. But the game that President

Trump is playing with China, it threatens to be a weirdly destabilizing force in the world. He's going to take this too far. And I'm not talking about, you know, people are, I have somebody call me up and go, you know, China closed the consulate

and it's about to be World War III. I don't think we go that far. I don't think, you know, that's a deal. But I do think you want to maintain economic relations and you want to maintain some sense of world community in order to have a functioning planet that's not continuously at odds and at cross purposes. And I just don't think the president has any idea how badly he can fuck the United States of America just with these juvenile insults and tactics that he uses against some of these other countries. It's perplexing. It's weird that

that no one can corral him and that they're all going along with it. It's really weird. Well, it's politics. I feel like why they're all going along with them because they want to keep their own constituents in their, in their prospective places. But, I mean, there's no rhyme or reason to what Trump is doing unless you just conclude the fact that he just wants to exert his power and beat his chest and show what he can do. And, I mean, that's what he does all the time.

I mean, even saying, you know, to reporters that are around, I'm going to ban TikTok. You know, he's just beating his chest. See, that's all he's doing with this. There's no reason behind any of it. And that's what's scary. What's scary is he's more like the Chinese government than he wants to admit. I mean, even the Chinese government

notoriously restricted the internet use of citizens. And that's what he's trying to do with TikTok. You know, and he's even said possibly other social media platforms, which ones? We know it won't be Twitter. We know it won't be that. but he's just trying to show I'm big, I'm bad, and I can do what I want to do.

He can't, but that's what he likes to say. It just doesn't seem to be a lot of places right now where we can get a lot of comfort in this state of the world. There's one place that I always do turn when they have one going on, and that is to the world of versus. We talked a little bit about versus battles. We have, by the way, I got a lot of love from the people. Rachel, you got to be careful.

man. I got a lot of love from the people. What's you talking about? You got a lot of love from, I got a lot of love from the people with my whole stance on Mariah Carey and Mary J. Blotch. I got a lot of love from people saying he's crazy. It's like, it's not,

base it. No. Were you in my DMs? Were you at my, people say that they're not even in the same category. That's what I saw more than anything. But did you see what Timberland did? What did Timberland do?

Timmerland said, I hear this is what the people are talking about. posted a video of Mary J. And then the next slide was Mariah. I said, okay, Timberlay, you're going to give us some credit for that? It's okay. Tim, we love you, Timbo.

This is your deal. We're talking about your deal. The reality is that, you know, in the versus, I'm not going to repeat it. It's a different audience. And if I agree with you in a versus battle, she would because it's a totally different audience.

Right. Any audience that were Mariah Carey who could beat Mary J. Blase, I don't want to be in it. But there's a new versus battle that's coming up. Trap, trap kings. Okay,

two chains versus Rick Ross. Your thoughts? Well, when you say two trap kings, I'm like, Rick Ross, though? I mean, if you say two trap kings, I get two chains.

I guess I think Atlanta, so I would be like, oh, TI. You're right, you're right. Two I versus, I don't, I don't see Ross,

even though I like Ross. It's really not trap music. You're right. It's really not. It's not at all. It's not. But the dope music is a guess more when I'm talking about. Ross got hits.

I feel like we're getting out with verses and I love it. I feel like we're getting outside of being evenly matched or being in the same category and just putting two great artists up against each other. That's more so what we're getting. I'm a big two chains fan. I've seen him in concert multiple times. Back in the day, I paid for like the backstage pass access to like say hello and get a picture. I'm a big chains fan.

I repeat, I use the word fan, okay, because I don't like the smile that you, that you're giving me. I repeat a fan. I'm a big, I'm a big fan. I'm talking like I was at shows when he wasn't that popping, and I was at like the House of Blues standing room only. Like I'm really a big fan. So I'm excited for this.

I remember when he started off, you know, will we get some Titty Boy? I hope. I just, I'm very excited for. this because I'm a, I'm a big Chains fan. And so, but you don't think who you, you don't think that he can be Rick Ross?

20 songs. It'll be an interesting, it'll be an interesting matchup. I'm not sure. I, I mean, chains has my vote, but I'm not sure. Because remember last week we talked about features that comes, if that's coming in to play, I don't know.

Because, oh, but Chains has been on some good features too. I don't know. Who do you have? Yeah, he's been on some fucking fantastic. I don't know. He has. Features might be better than it. Right. Right. I'm, like, Rick Ross will probably win. You think so? Probably. Probably.

I mean, like, look, Rick Ross will probably win. Rick Ross, Rick Ross is underrated to me in the scope of hip-hop. Like, Rick Ross with the number one albums that he's had and he has been, he has been the most, one of the most, maybe the most consistently great artists

of the last 10 of 15. 15 years and still is on his same purse with verses and putting out albums and doing his thing. So I mean, I think 20 songs, you know, it's going to be. The question is, I don't know. Will this hip, like, because we

get a lot of the thought warriors, like, I wonder how invested they're going to be into this battle is what I wonder. The thought warriors? The thought warriors will not. The thought warriors are a specific demographic. It's a specific.

demographic. I don't know. I'm more excited for, I don't know. I'm more excited for the music that I'm going to hear in this than I am for the matchup itself. It's like, oh, I want to hear Ross. I want to hear almost a T.I. I want to hear two chains. I will tell you, I have a Ross story. So, back in the day, you ever heard of Texas Relays? Yeah, big tech, big, big track me down there in Texas. Yeah. Big track me. You got high school, collegiate, professional comeback. It's in the offseason of football. So a lot of football players come back, especially who went to Texas and throw these big parties.

Well, shout out to Sonia Richards-Ross. At the time, she was just Sonia Richards and Aaron Ross, her husband. They used to always throw a big party, and they'd always have surprise performers. So, like, I'm rolling with Sonia and Ross up to the party. Don't know who it's going to be. Litt. Okay?

We're all having a fantastic time. I'm with my partner in crime, my cousin, Andrea. You guys are all high on cocaine. I did not say that. Please don't. My mother listened to this. That is not. I'm saying what you said?

We were lit as in alcohol. Okay. So my little sister's there. I'm feeling like a cool big sister. Stop. I feel like a cool big sister. I'm like, oh yeah, I got you. You can get in.

And at one point, we're all at the party. And Ross performs. And this, all he has is whatever his first track was. I think I'm big meech. I can't even think of what the song is called. That's not his first song. That was mainstream. Sorry.

That was big, that was big time mainstream. Yes, it was. No, that's not, but whatever. What was it then? Right.

I mean, hustling? Every day I'm hustling. That's what it was. Sorry, sorry, sorry. Sorry. Sorry, sorry, sorry. I'm sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. St.

Cicorroro. This is Cincooral. Sorry, it was hustling. It was hustling. Yes, you're right. Okay, so I'm, so he's performed. And I'm like, oh my God,

Ross is who the surprise performer was. And at one point, I'm on the stage, and I'm looking down at my sister and I'm like, Heather, have you seen Ross? And she's like, Rachel, your arm is on him. I literally have my arm on Ross like jamming.

Like rapping with him. Is that video it is? Is there a video on this? I want to see it so fucking badly. Heather was like, your arm is on him. Stop. Right. And you were asking where he was.

But my, like, I had my arm up on him. I was like, you see Ross? Like, biving. Yeah. He's right there, Rachel. Stop. Get off the stage. How long were you on the stage?

So Rachel, you like to, so we've had a couple of different discussions with you and you like to be backstage up close to the artist. Okay. I was with, I was with, I was with the people. I'm asking. Don't see how you're taking it. No, no, no, no, no. You're taking it in a specific way.

No, I'm not. In this incident, I was with the people throwing the party. So they had tables on stage. So I was on the stage. With chains, yes, I paid for backstage access. Immediately. I'm not going to the meat and greet. You got a meeting greet.

No shame. I was a big fan. I'm big Shane's fan. Have you ever had, have you ever had like a big rapper, like, crawling your DMs since you became famous and stuff like that? No, I have before. Oh, before.

Yeah. Nobody has ever tried me since this, you know, probably because I'm in a totally different world. Look, Copper's getting upset. You don't like that. Also, you know, they know you're married and stuff like that. And they, you know, far being from many of these guys to try to flirt with or hit on a merry lady, they got morals and values. Yeah.

So, but you're saying that, so you're saying that you know both of these guys and you're picking two chains. I'm picking chains. I'm riding with chains. Rachel, how drunk are you right now? You've been, are you, are you a little, you're a little tipped out? Did I say something that, did I slur one of my words? No, not at all. Not at all.

But we did drink. And you have, you have been drinking. All right, because I, we need to know. I took a shot. But you must be,

the reason I'm asking you is, you must be drunk if you think that Rick, that two chains are going to be Rick Ross and a versus battle. You got to be drunk. It's not going to happen. Come on, man. We love two chains.

Rick Ross got more hits than two chains. Rick Ross, because Rick Ross is going to play Drake records. I love Ross, though. I like Ross's cadence. So there's a, I guess two chains got Drake records, too. Because I was such a fan of chains,

that's who I'm going to ride with. But I will be watching Thursday. The battle is Thursday, you guys. That's why we're talking about us so early because by the time we podcast, it'll already have happened. Already have happened. So last thing before we go,

and I did not want to bring this up, but I'm going to bring it up. There was a producer. We're talking about hip-hop right now. Has to talk about it. Has to talk about it. So hip-hop. I want to explain to you guys something about hip-hop.

Hip-hop as an art form was started in New York, with blacks and Latinos started hip hop, right? We often talk about hip hop, and it's a, it's cultural history in the black community, but from the beginning of hip hop, it's been a collaborative thing. Latinos were right there at the beginning of it, participating in all of the different aspects of hip hop from DJ and to the B-Boy and to the rap and, all of that stuff, right? There's always been diversity inside of hip-hop.

Now, though, there's more diversity than never, and that's because hip hop is now pop music, right? So one of the biggest, probably the biggest musical art form and genre that there is. So, as a black dude, as a black guy, it is not a big deal for me to see white people doing hip hop stuff. I know that that seems like crazy that you would have to say this, but there was a time when it was. It was a time you see a white boy rap and you see a white boy want to make beats. beats and it was almost as if you were, you had a knee-jerk judgment or reaction like stay out of our shit. Get, get, like this is our shit, our music, our expression.

I'm not saying that it's not. But what I am saying is I don't have that knee-jerk reaction anymore. But there are certain times that I do have that. And that happens when certain people out themselves in terms of how they act when they are let inside of our culture and we treat them graciously. An example of this is a guy named J.W. Lucas. J.W. Lucas is a producer. He has produced for, I guess, people like Lil Uzi Vert, the baby, Pop Smoke. I had never heard of him. I had never heard of him. I didn't know who he was. But sometime last week, J.W. Lucas, who on Twitter or I guess it's the gram, actually, goes by hashtag at 702, J.W. Lucas, because he's from out there in Vegas, he said,

why is the world asking for justice for Breonna Taylor? Of course, she shouldn't have lost your life, but you do realize that she was involved with multiple drug dealers who are using her house as a trap spot. If you sign up for that life, there are consequences. Okay. So after saying that misinformed statement, he then goes on live with Tamika Mallory,

who is one of the bravest and finest leaders that we have here in our culture. and says that he really feels like she is ill-qualified to be a leader in the black community and because he is more logical than this fiercely intelligent, uh, strong and accomplished black woman that he should be leading the movement. I did not know he said that.

Said is, it's on video. He went live with words on video. Wow. Said that to Temeke Mallet. Uh, so I say, I'll have to say this. This is when I feel,

burnt. And this is a and the guy's a fucking clown. I'm not really going to spend too much time on him. But what I, what I will say is that for me personally is that there's always a fear as a black man that you've shared something that's so important to you, which is hip-hop,

that you've shared something that's so important to you, whatever it is, whatever form of cultural expression it is, if it's our dance, our food, our drink, whatever. You let people come in, make a little bit money off of it. But inside of them are these hateful, ignorant notions and these latent feelings of superiority

that at one day when you've let them closest to you, right? Because remember, all of this music comes from the musical legacy that we have, and that that musical legacy is born out of pain. It's one of our need to express our experiences over beats and drums and guitars and banjos. It goes very, very far back. You let somebody in, then you get kicked in your nuts

when they say something crazy. It feels very bad. What I'm saying is to see a guy like that, it makes you want to close ranks around your culture and be like nobody can be a part of what it is that we built. And that's not the right feeling to have. But it's important for people to remember that you don't get to,

And most of the white artists that do this try to be pretty good with it. You don't get to, like, you come to the barbecue is fine, but you don't get to fucking lead the refrigerator door open and shit all over the furniture and fuck up the bathroom. And you're not, it's a weird feeling.

And that's the feeling that I felt when I said that I didn't feel bad towards him. And I felt in a way bad towards us for having me. been so open and giving with everything that we have. It makes me feel like, like, we keep getting played or something like that. And this is a very small guy. It's not like, it's not like Eminem or somebody like that doing this.

But when you have a culture of ultra of this degree, it always makes you feel like, damn, man, like we got Trojan horse to get. Yeah. I mean, it makes you feel like I got to watch my back. I got to look at everybody a certain way, everybody who looks like him a certain way now. That's how it makes you feel like, okay, I'll let you. I trusted you and look what you did with it. It also makes it seem like you infiltrated our culture just to capitalize on us.

That's how I felt. You're not really about us. You're just using us for personal gain, not because you are actually here for our culture and what it is that we represent and stand for and what we're fighting against. And you just showed yourself. And then even further, when he was on, I don't know if it was Twitter or Instagram, he was talking about how he can't be canceled. He's bigger than this.

You know what I mean? what gives you the authority to feel like you can say that, the color of your skin? It was almost as like he was really speaking in authority as a, I'm a white male, how dare you try to cancel me people with different color skin than me? That's how I felt. He was really filling himself in that moment. But what I'm more upset about, not more upset, but just as equally upset, are the people who have worked with him who have not called him out. Why is Lil UziVirt silent? Why is DeBaby silent? When DeBaby did a whole video on the BET Awards about,

it was a very powerful video with his rock star and he did a remix to it and everything that he showed as far as the display, the visual display, was about police reform. And it was, it moved. I thought it was a really powerful video, what he did. And the fact that you were silent and you haven't said anything and you've worked with him

is a huge problem for me. This is when we need you to speak out and stand up and say something. Your silence does make you complicit. Your silence makes it seem like you're excusing what he did because it's not like this is a one-time thing. He kept going and going with it, even challenging somebody who's been fighting for social justice

in our community before it became popular. And I'm referring to Tamika Mallory in that sense. Like now everybody knows her name. She's been doing this. She's dedicated her life to this. And you are silent and have said nothing. And this man has profited off of you. That is what I am really upset about.

You're supposed to be a leader or role model and you've even used your platform to show that. But when it comes to this, you haven't said a thing. I don't want to see anybody working with this man before. There are people that are already said that they will. I mean, there are people that are in the comments. That said they will? There are other smaller rappers in the comments that are still supportive.

We should say he has since apologized. I don't care. I don't care either. He kept going. and going and going. You know what I mean? This is what I'm saying. We've talked about cancel culture,

and I'm not saying you've got to cancel everybody for one mistake they made. Don't do that. But when you give somebody a chance to correct what they did and they double down on it and they keep going and going, I mean, he was going three, four,

five times before he finally, somebody must have been like, you got to stop. You're never going to work in this industry again. And then he tries to apologize. Your apologies mean nothing to me. You've already shown who you, were time and time again.

This wasn't a one-time mistake. You believe this with your whole chest. You're done. You're done. Do you think it's unfair to blame the baby or Uzi for something that some white boy said? Like, well, I mean, I say some white boy. Whatever. Like some white dude that they worked with.

Like, do you feel like we get into that too much of blaming? You don't. I don't blame them for working with him when they did on these records. Fine. Who cares? But the fact that he has now shown who he is, and if you truly are about fighting against injustice, if you truly are about standing up for Brianna Taylor

and her family and other families that these things have happened to, how can you continue to align with yourself, yourself with someone who has basically tried to take away from her name and who she is and give out misinformation about what happens surrounding that murder? Yeah, continuing to work with them would be a clue. clear, clear violation. I'm just saying I also want to get into, I want to get away from the situation

where we're always blaming ourselves for something that somebody else did. You know what I mean? And so I understand what you're saying now. And it would be interesting to know exactly which songs that they work together on. I'll tell you, DeBaby can't stop. Lil UziVirt, Exotor, XO-L-Life 3.

You don't know Exotour Life 3? Oh, it was the way that it was spelled. Yeah. All my friends are dead. Push me to the edge. I got you. All my friends are dead now. It's not giving me an exact, the way it's spelled.

I'm like, is that life? That's the way the song is spelled, Rachel. All my friends are dead. Push me to the edge. Don't try to play me. All my friends are dead. Hey, push me to the edge. You're right.

Oh, my Lord. Thought warriors. We are going to get out of here. I'm going to say something before we go, though. I have been very, very impressed with the amount of mail from the Thought Warriors with the questions that we get for the podcast. I'm inclined to begin at some point to devote the entire Thursday podcast or a large portion of it to just viewer questions.

Because the Thought Warriors have a lot of questions. You've been getting a lot of feedback from the Thought Warriors, haven't you? I do. But I feel like they like to talk to. to you more than they talk why I'm just saying no but I get a lot of questions and a lot of times people will say

hey I hope you talk about this I even get the hey this is a great unexpected ally of the week do you get those too? Yeah we miss one we missed one last week which was Jeff Bezos's ex-wife her name is McKenzie first of all not Jeff Bezos's ex-wife

shame on you misogyny shame on you the misogyny just I sleeped out of my soul. She's more than that. She was a, she was, forget a fuck, Jeff Bezos. Has nothing to do with it.

McKenzie Scott. McKenzie Scott, a co-founder of Amazon. Forget about that other guy. Co-finding, she donated a shit ton of money to HBCUs. Yeah. It's something that we've specifically talked about. More people should be doing here on, on higher learning.

And so shout out to her. She doesn't get unexpected ally for either week, but we're addressing it. We missed her. That would have been a good one. Although I expected ally, kind of sometimes unexpected. Maybe she is expected.

I don't know very much about her politics. No, no, she's unexpected. She's unexpected. Okay, she's unexpected. It's unexpected. So, we are out of here. We really appreciate anything that you guys think that you would like to hear us discuss.

Bring it to us. We're going to talk about it. And I especially like hearing the stories about y'all racist ass You guys, I never knew I never knew that y'all had this many racist-ass relatives Like people hit me up like Yo, Van, like I brought my boyfriend home

And my dad looked at him and said I didn't know we was having a raccoon And I'm like, yo, it's crazy The stories are crazy I made that one up We should see I was like, who what? We should bring these people on

And have like a segment of the show where we are the mediators in this I'm with that Like you could be the demon I'll be the angel on the shoulder You know what I'm saying? Like we're like giving them advice as they as they navigate this. Right.

Listen. This is very true. I'm putting it out there right now. If you have racist family or friends and you want to bring them on higher learning and discuss these things with us, I am super down for that. This sounds like Mari. If you know, if you have a racist family member and you want to bring them on this show. I'm super down. Bring your racist ass people on.

We'll talk to them. It'll be as cordial as we could possibly be. All right. Thought Warriors. We are out of here. I am Van Lathen. I'm Rachel Lindsay. Take your thinking caps off, but don't stop thinking.

See you next time. Bye, guys.