Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay - Calmatic Remixes House Party, Plus Biden’s Classified Docs

Episode Date: January 13, 2023

Van and Rachel react to the discovery of Joe Biden’s classified documents (7:59), and Chris Harrison’s first time addressing his exit from ‘The Bachelor’ (24:23). Then, director Calmatic joins to discuss his feature film debut, 'House Party' (35:19), plus a TikTok chef’s old tweets come back to haunt him (58:01). Hosts: Van Lathan Jr. and Rachel Lindsay Guest: Calmatic 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? Higher learning is on. It is I, Van Lathan Jr. And it's me, Rachel and Lindsay. Rachel, how are you? You know, man, I am doing a juice cleanse right now. Okay.

And have you ever done a juice cleanse? Not really. So this is called a waterfall cleanse. And it's supposed to be mind, body, and spirit. I'm on day two. I have to say I'm doing okay. I know a lot of people are like, well, you don't really care for, you know, for food. I'm not a foodie, but this is difficult.

It makes you crave things in a way you never did before. So I'm doing hot water with like lemon and ginger. I'm doing these smoothies, mid-morning, afternoon, early evening, and then I detox at night with like a certain type of tea. So you'll see me drinking this green juice throughout. She makes some for you, drops them off, It's a three-day plans. Name is Kimberly Snyder.

She's incredible. She's incredible. So, two days in. So I'm doing okay. How are you? I'm okay. I'm okay. Things are good,

especially because today we were nominated for an M-A-CP. Image Award. Shodney. Hand-claps. Rachel, what was it like for you? when you heard that we were nominated for an NAC. Oh my gosh.

Best podcast, society and culture. Which is a very competitive category. Let me just say. Society and culture is competitive. A lot of fantastic podcasts. I found out, because you text us, I felt like I looked at the text four or five times before I was irregistered. I was like, oh, my gosh.

Were we nominated? And it took me back because this is a very new category for the Image Awards. and it started last year. And I remember when we submitted last year and I remember wanting it so badly and being disappointed when we weren't nominated because I think we do good stuff, great stuff here. So to get the nomination,

I didn't even know that was coming today. And it just came at a time where I really needed to hear some good news that I just, it made emotional. I was not expecting to get emotional. And yeah, she had to, I was in a moment. the makeup chair, should be touched my makeup.

Yeah, you were about to cry. I did cry. I did. I shed a couple of tears. I don't know. Why was it so meaningful to you? Well, you guys know that if, one, if you've read my book and if you haven't already, please go check me with that.

But the way I grew up and then even being on The Bachelor and the Bachelorette, people constantly question my blackness. not as much anymore, but I feel like there have been moments in my life, especially growing up in Bastor Time, where I had to defend myself and explain the people how black I was or try to prove that, which is something no black person should ever have to do. And a lot of that came from, I felt, black people. And so this podcast has meant more to me than people will know because even my friends who know me, I'm talking about my black friends, will say that. they feel like I am most myself on this podcast, that they feel like other people are really getting

to know who I am. Because you didn't always see that when people first met me on a national level with the Bachelor and the Bachelor franchise. So I feel like this podcast has given me selfishly so much. So to get that recognition from us, when this podcast is for us, it's about us, it's about the culture and how everything else intersects with it, it just, hit me in a way that I wasn't expecting. And I guess it just brought out all these feelings that you know, I've had from the past or maybe that I suppressed at times. I don't know. I just felt I don't know. I'm taking this to another level, but I'm just speaking to the tears. It just made me feel this podcast, those who work on it, all of you, Ashley, Donnie, man, it just made,

I felt like we were seen in a way and the work that we do is respected. So it just meant a lot to me. And so now I understand, can I just say one more thing? Now I understand that when I'm, you know, doing interviews and I say to people, what does it feel like to be nominated? What does it, you know, feel like what if you want an award? I really understand when people are like, I'm just happy to be nominated. Of course, it's fantastic to win. But I'm speaking all to this just from a nomination.

So I get it. You? It was. It was amazing. for me. It was amazing for me because I was watching I was watching something and in watching it I was I was watching something that I wanted all day long. I was watching people get

nominated and people talk about I was like God damn man it would be great to get an image award nomination. getting the image award nomination would be fantastic because even when we did two distant strangers even when we did two distant strangers the image award nomination never came

we got the Oscar nomination but the image award nomination never came and so with that situation I was like you know just kind of being sort of being sort of recognized by, you know, your people. The Oscars an amazing accomplishment, right?

But especially with the subject matter there, I really, really was hoping the Afghas were great to us, and I'm presented at the Afghans this year, and I can't wait to do it. But it was, I liked it. It mattered a lot to me. It mattered. It mattered, yes.

The award show is February 25th. I will be there, February 25th. You will be there, February 25th. And so, oh, I will be there. Fantastic. It's back in person after a couple of years. It hasn't been in person for some years.

Back in person at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium. You know where that is, right? Yeah, daytime enemies were there. it's where Motown 25 was. No. Yeah. No. Yeah.

Motown 25 was. I didn't even realize that when I was there. Where Michael Jackson first did the moonwalk? Michael Jackson first hit the moonwalk right there. Right there. Wow. It's a stacked category.

And congratulations to everybody else that was nominated as well. Sure. What a fun time. What a fun time. Okay. We have an interview later on with Cal Maddo, who is the director of the new house party movie, the new house party movie, which will be coming out. It will be out by the time you are listening to this podcast. Fascinating and exciting young film. We are encouraging all of you guys to go out there and see House Party for yourself. But on the other side of this, we've got to get to some serious shit. The big deal of the day is Joe Biden's not so class.

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Big deal of the day. Here we go. I don't know where you've been if you haven't heard about what's going on. The latest, actually the latest in the Biden administration. Biden is under, and correct me if I'm wrong. They are now at the third batch of classified documents that they have found in either Biden's residence or one of his. offices when he was vice president. Am I correct on that?

Are we at the third? Because I know our rundowns is the second, but I feel like since we started this podcast, we are on the third batch of classified documents that have been identified at this point. I think it's one at the Penn Center and then one at his private residence and there might be another one.

And there might be another one. Okay. Doesn't matter if it's two or three. It's the fact that they found classified documents in Biden's possession. Should be known that Biden's, Biden has said at this point that he was unaware of the fact that he had any classified documents. And I believe the way it was is that they were moving stuff out of that office and they discovered,

his team discovered these classified documents and immediately notified the National Archives was back in November of last year that they had discovered this batch of classified documents. Van, the internet is going wild. The Republicans are getting even more wild. You're not even your thoughts, but I guess when you heard that Biden had classified documents, knowing how we responded when we knew that Trump did, knowing how the administration responded,

the Democrats responded, this very podcast responded, what were your thoughts when you first heard? Oh, the now president of the United States also has classified documents in his possession. A couple of things. Number one, I was curious on if these cases were a one-to-one. And there are some differences, we should say. I guess one of the main differences, and you can go through, a lot of people have covered like what, how the situations are similar to one another, how the situations are several than another. one of the situations one way that they're kind of different

is how these documents were uncovered. So the National Archives the National Archives is supposed to get these types of documents when the president exits to the White House. That is the Presidential Records Act. It's supposed to go to the National Archives.

The National Archives in the case of Donald Trump realized that there were some documents that they didn't have that they needed. So then they asked them for those documents, Some of them were turned over. They asked them again. They held up with it. They'd then subpoenaed those documents.

Still didn't get them. And they had to go and arrayed his Ray Mar-a-Lago to get the documents back. So that's the way it happened there. There seemed to be a reason that Trump was dragging his feet and returning the documents. There seemed to be a reason that some of the documents in Trump's possession seemed to be either manipulated, destroyed, shredded, or things of that nature. And there was a lot of what you could say obstruction in the case of Donald Trump. In this case, there are far less documents as far as we know.

There may be like 10. Yeah. Okay. It's what people are saying. And it was actually President Biden's people when they were cleaning up some stuff that found them, immediately reported them. The FBI then says, okay, or whomever says, okay, these documents, we need them back. and we need to also go search other places

that they might have more documents as well. Right. Okay. Having said all of that, having said all of that right there, I think this is a major problem that people have when it talks about, when you talk about the difference

between Democrats and Republicans. And sometimes it seems like in this situation that what Donald Trump is doing is illegal, evil, nefarious, and all fuck. up, right? Like he's evil. And it seems like what Joe Biden is doing is just negligent and stupid. But at that level of power, there's no difference. Yeah. At that level of, at that level of power, treating those types of documents in a place where you would have them in your private home in Wilmington,

which Joe Biden did, okay? Or you would have them at a think tank for diplomatic studies, which is the other place that they were. It seems that in that place, like having them in that in that sense, it doesn't really matter. The intent here seems to be clearly on one side with one guy to be, no, obstructive and shady. And with the other guy, it doesn't seem like the intent is the same, not given Biden any escape.

But it's still insanely disappointing, especially when you're looking to a candidate or a particular party to be better. or different than their counterparts. And either through their own design or simply their folly, they can't do that. And that's what I thought. I was just like, Jesus, what a humongous way to fuck up. And also, if I were the Republicans, I would have a lot of questions. Like, for example, all of this happened on November 2nd, right?

The midterms were November 8th. That's only six days. But that seems plenty enough. for this story to have leaked and broken in some sort of way. I know there are a lot of like a lot of hoops and things to be jumped over. The fact that this story broke only after the midterms, only after like the new Congress has been sworn in, I guess just worn in after the 17th or 18th try or whatever it was,

16th try, I'd be like, huh, interesting. interesting. Look, it might have not been enough time for it to leak through the whatever channels and go wherever it was supposed to do and hit the news cycle. But, I mean, it was in November that they notified

the National Archives. So like, what's the, what's the news going to be? They didn't know how many. They didn't know specifically what it was. Oh, the news was going to be, hold on, I've used the bathroom. Okay.

Oh, damn, that was quick. Did you wash your hands? No. You can leave it in, too. I feel like it's such a guy thing. It's just I got to get back here and do the podcast. So yeah, but I guess the story was that classified documents were found in the clutches of President Obama. They found out in early November before the midterms.

They were the ones that reported it to the National Archives. So I don't know what the story would have been pre midterm. other than he potentially has. We don't know possibly as classified documents. We don't know specifically what those are, how many they are, how they were kept. I just think there were too many details to go through. But I do think that there's a difference in the sense that there's obviously a difference in, as you stated, the number of documents that Trump has versus the number that we have to date now with Joe Biden.

There's a difference in how the documents were kept. There's a difference in where they were kept. There's a difference in Trump. In January 2021, they knew that Trump had classified documents. They were negotiating with him for well over a year before they went in there and seized those boxes. Joe Biden has been a couple of months. And I don't even know how long a year and a half before they even put special counsel on it. Whereas Joe Biden, it's been a couple of months.

they say that now, I believe that there's a third batch and they're like, we've got to have a special counsel. It's, I think Mayor Garland and the Justice Department are doing that. They have the pressure to. They feel pressure to. Not even pressure to. I think if we, I would like to know how prevalent this is, how prevalent it is that classified documents could be willy-nilly

at somebody's personal residence or at the think tank that, like, I believe that. That to me is. is worth looking into. That's worth a very serious investigation that the American people should know where documents like that. Like, yeah, how serious people are being with them.

You are absolutely right. My first thought, one of my first thoughts was how common is this? You know, I don't understand how you don't know you have classified documents. I really don't. Maybe there's a level, I mean, there are levels to what is classified

or how high the classification is. I just don't understand how this happens. And now I'm curious, how many other presidents, former presidents are out there or vice presidents with classified documents, their homes just haven't been searched or their former offices haven't. How many people are unaware that they have classified documents? I get that. But I guess it is interesting to me that it took very long for them when this was a former president,

President Trump, well, while he was president, was taking them to Mar-a-Loggo. Then after he finished his presidency, no wait, sorry, take that part out, Donnie was 20-21. after he finished his presidency, had those classified documents, they knew about it and spent time negotiating with him before they went and seized them or even had a special counsel. Why did it take a year and a half? I feel like that's something that we need to be talking about more. I'm not saying it's wrong that they have appointed special counsel to investigate what's happening with Joe Biden. But why did it take only a couple of months for them to do that with Joe Biden versus how they handle it with Trump? maybe the answer is, oh, he feels more pressure based on how the current administration responded to Trump.

But I am curious and I would love for somebody to ask that question and for Merrick Garland or somebody in the DOJ to respond to why there's this discrepancy and how you handled one that seems to be far more serious and have more harsh repercussions than possibly with Biden. because there's also a legal difference. The way that Trump handled this situation in regards to that he refused to give back a lot of these documents, which is why they had to go seize them, is why his rises to the level of violating the Espionage Act versus Biden, who the moment they found them was reporting them, it seems more it rises to negligence. So there is a difference because if this is handled in a legal sense, they're going to be punished at a different way. way if one is gross negligence and the, or negligence, and the other one is a violation of the espionage. If you read the Presidential Records Act, negligence is a part of it, though. Negligence with the documents is tantamount to being criminal in and of itself, if you read it. Secondly,

there's something else here. Like, yeah, secondly, there's something else here. They, the courtesy that they were doing for Donald Trump is the courtesy. that they were giving an ex-president. That was decorum. It was decorum that they were saying, hey, we know that you have these documents, right? We know that you have them. We need them back.

Can you give them back? There's no reason that they thought that Donald Trump wouldn't give these documents back. Okay? So they're like, give us the documents back. He didn't do it. After he didn't do it, they raid him. After they raid him,

now it's out in the public because the FBI is at Mar-a-Lago. So now people are asking Merrick Garland, what are you going to do? This seems to be clearly a crime. And the covering up of it seems to be clearly a crime. Is there something criminal there? And the investigation isn't necessarily to put Donald Trump in jail or to levy any criminal charges at Donald Trump. It's to investigate whether or not something criminal happened.

Amount to it. Yes. Yeah. Which would have never happened had Trump just. complied and cooperated with the archives and with the subpoena. With Joe Biden, I think it's the same thing. If you find classified documents that would probably classify, at the time that he took them,

they probably weren't declassified in any way. I've read a lot that says these were probably classified documents. The investigation is into why they're there. It doesn't have to be an investigation. It's not necessarily like, was a law broken? We know that he's not supposed to have them. We know that it's a violation. So the investigation is to why they're there.

So I think there needs to be a special investigation. And in terms of how this went, it's kind of just bad luck on Biden's part, right? It's like it's either bad luck on Biden's part or good luck. Because had this happened and there had been no investigation into Trump and no raid at Mar-a-Lago, he'd actually look worse. Now he just looks just as bad. You know what I mean? Right. Are you saying that

because I agree that there should be an investigation. I'm not, I'm talking about it in the way one investigation was handled versus this investigation. And are you saying that this one, they were giving a courtesy to a former president because he currently wasn't sitting in office. So maybe they took their time masking.

Or, and are you saying that there's more of a sense of urgency because he is a sitting president? Is that what you're saying? No, I'm saying, no, I'm saying they gave a courtesy to a sitting president. president because that, they gave a courtesy to a former president because of the

the way to the office. And now they, they're doing what they're doing now because it would look completely unfair. That's, yes, that's what I'm saying. I think they're filled pressure to, which is why there's a, they're acting on it in a quick and a more

quick, but it's still appropriate, though. I agree. Yeah. I'm not against it. Yeah, it's still appropriate. I think what they tried to do with Donald Trump was they tried to have this not be an issue at all. They didn't want to. It's not like they said, it's not like they said, hey, they tried to not have this be an issue at all.

Now I think I'm interested in both investigations because I want to know how and why classified documents or ending up at somebody's house. Yeah. Like after they're the president. So I want to know kind of like how and why that's happening. And as an American, I think a lot of Americans should be interested in that

because the stakes are pretty high for that type of information. I agree. It's just so bad that this is happening especially the way that Biden responded to it and rightfully so we all did when it was Trump. And now here we are with Biden,

who is running, Trump's running again. It just gives ammunition to the other side to now, you know, go after Biden the way that we were going after him. And I think we were going after Trump when it was just Trump. And the first thing I thought is, you know what, the way that our society works right now and the way that we take in information, it's not going to matter how many documents Biden had versus Trump. It's not going to matter where he kept them. It's not going to even matter specifically what those documents were.

The public, a lot of the public, is all they're going to see is Trump had classified information. Biden had classified information. And that perception is their reality. is going to be detrimental in this upcoming election. Because I think the Democrats were definitely going to use this and they can't now. It's a wash. All right.

Chris Harrison. Go ahead. You wanted it. Most dramatic podcast ever. I listened to it. Did you listen to it? I did listen to it. You listened to both parts?

I just listened to the first one. What did I miss in the second? He said he was scared after his bachelor and he said he received death threats, he lost 20 pounds and he couldn't eat or sleep. Yeah. You listened to both.

What did you think? So a lot of people, as you would imagine, have hit me up. Either ask me what I think, asking me if I've listened, or sadly, and a lot of it, it has brought up all the attacks that I got from before when this happened almost two years ago,

which is crazy. This happened almost two years ago. A lot of the social media attacks and the DMs have started again because, you know, it's bringing up something that happened almost two years ago. So I'm not going to speak too much to it, but a lot of people are like, it's not fit. Some people support, you know, are like, I don't think, I don't like the way that he addressed it. your name was mentioned, which when we talked about it, when this podcast was announced, I said,

he's going to talk about how he feels. He's not going to mention my name. Why would he? This is his opportunity to tell his side of it because he hasn't before, which he is totally and has the right to do. He starts off episode one talking about who this podcast is for. It's for the people who've supported him. It's for his fans.

it's for those have reached out. Those have wondered where he is, who have checked on him. That's all I needed to know. So for all the people who are like, I can't believe this wasn't addressed, I can't believe this wasn't said. He told y'all who this podcast is for.

It's not for y'all. It's for his supporters. That's who he was talking to. He wasn't there to address the past. He was there to talk to them. in a place where the people who love, and that was it. That's what I expected.

It set the tone for the whole thing. So I don't know why people thought that they were going to get something, either some tea or even some, you know, like something towards me or what happened. No, that podcast is for his fans. That's it. You know what's crazy is I had a whole take,

but when you look at it that way, there's really nothing to say. if the podcast was for his fans, then there's no expectation of any sort of intellectual or emotional truth. And then that's kind of what it is. Like people expecting me to get mad about it. Oh, I can't believe he,

if y'all think I'm sitting around waiting for, for something for Chris Harrison, but I really don't know me. So I wasn't expecting that. I, again, he said that I listened to the whole thing, You know, I hadn't heard him speak on it too. I was curious to what he was going to say. But I knew who it was for.

It wasn't for me. It wasn't. He's building something. I think he announced that he's got some projects coming. So this was about building what's next for him and talking to those people who will support him along that journey. Do you think that it was cowardly in any way? Because he didn't address it? Because there seemed to.

be, there seemed to be a lack of, hmm, how can I put this? Well, if it, while you're thinking of that, I mean, he flat out said, I stand by what I said. He just said it was sloppy. Yeah. I mean, I feel, I think that I know that he stands by what he said. His, his, look, I'm on record by saying, I don't think that he should have been fired for what happened to him. Right. Yeah. No, I don't think that he should have been fired. I thought that what he was basically saying was, look, the girl fucked up, why are we coming down on her blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And he came out in the wrong way because there's this entitlement oozing out of his pores. And that's just the way that things go. And that to me, this is a perfect idea. You kick somebody in their ass. People fuck up all the time. Kick them in their ass. You let them understand the stakes. And then you see if they can readjust to whatever it is that people are demanding of them.

And then you move on. Right. But in this particular case, it seemed as if I maybe got a little bit more insight into why maybe they did fire him. Because, well, he didn't seem to, there was a sniveling sort of shit-eating sort of tonal. to it. I realize that the guy's been through a lot, but he seemed in a way

to have almost zero humility, you know, about anything. It didn't, to me, mentioning your name in that whole situation is sort of

it's almost admitted. or acknowledging that there was a human being on the other side of the interview, like a person. And it wasn't like a thing that kind of was getting volleyed back and forth, that there was a person there and that the way that you,

and look, I'm not in any way trying to act like I'm some great moral guy. But what I'm saying is in this situation, it seemed like the thing that he didn't get then, it's kind of still a thing that he seemingly doesn't get now. And I get that, but he was talking around it. It wasn't fucking enough for me. It wasn't fucking, I said what I said.

And it wasn't, look, I'm sorry, I get all of these things. I understand all of this. It wasn't any of that. It was that sort of putrid middle that really doesn't move anything anywhere. And if he kind of had that, if he had that attitude at all with them when they were trying to to get their show back together and get their universe back together, I could see why somebody might be like, well, this fucking guy,

I'll never get it, move on, and let them go and go with God and do whatever it was. Yeah. But even in a, even a con, I always was so curious about The Bachelor and why something that seems to be, an entity that seems to be so dependent on human connection, didn't even have like the, they didn't have the infrastructure or the

the structure at all to just be able to have actual real conversations about this that make people you know feel like they're enlightened or that they're a part of the discourse it seemed to be such a mass experiment in cowardice that they you know what I mean? Well because the show was never intended to have these types of

conversations. The show was built for a particular audience. I've said it multiple times. It was cultivated to be a certain way. People of color didn't make it past the first couple of weeks. They didn't have them as leads. They didn't have these real life conversations. It was a fantasy world.

And that's what it was. You ate a certain way. You traveled a certain way. You spoke about this a certain way. This week, you do this. We always used to call it a social experiment when we were on the show. But I think to your point about humility, there's, I can't remember if he says this in part one or part two, but he talks about losing himself in all of it, right, of what people were asking him to do about having a crisis manager.

And he talks about losing himself and he did something with his telling his brother to take a post down where he felt like that wasn't him and he kind of lost himself. and that's when he hit a wall and was like, I've got to take control of this. And to me, that's when he unfollowed me. He didn't say this, but I mean, that was the line in the sand. I think that's the term he uses. He unfollowed me. He followed Brian.

He changed his entire social media, and every step forward was in a different direction. And so to me, I feel like that humility was everything prior to that. When he talked about losing himself, it made it seem like he didn't want to do certain things that he was doing. He was doing it to retain his job or to get back in good favor with the public. So I feel like the direction that he's taken now is him putting, drawing a line in the sand, this is me, this is how I'm going to be, and I'm going to continue to move in this way. And I'm going to talk and fuck with the people that have supported me along the way. I mean, he lists a lot of

list of people, names them by names, names them specifically of who has supported him. Shout out to Eric Beeger, who supported him. That's how he referred to Eric. There's only a couple of black people. Eric's name is Eric Bigger. I would just like to say he calls him Eric Beeger. Right.

Yeah, like, yeah, that's told me also everything I needed to know. I just would think Eric Beeger, it's bigger. got everybody else's day, right? All right, well, we'll see what happens, man. Good luck to you, Sue. Yeah, y'all, like, don't get upset over it. This is what he's doing what he's doing for the people he wants to do it for. And that's that.

He's got to, he can't come back without addressing it. So he addressed it in the way that you would expect. So there you have. Okay, old tweets. Oh, you know what? Before we get into old tweets, let's talk to CalMatic. House party, house party, the remake, House Party, it's a house party, right?

Just House Party. House Party is in theaters. As you listen to this right now, the director of the movie Calmatic will join us on the other side. And I want you guys to listen to this interview. Very impressive young man, young brother. Check it out.

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Services not available in all areas. Something very important happens this weekend. This podcast is coming out on a Friday. And this Friday, we're going back to the Ola-Ola-A days of my YouTube. But with the first. twist because House Party is coming to screens near you. Now look, my man Jacob Lattimore is in this movie. I'm a big Jacob Lattimore fan, but there's some new talent that you might have not heard of.

One of our brothers from across the pond that plays in Doctor Who is in this. What's that brother's name? Comatic. Coase and Cole. Coase and Cole. The voice that you're hearing. Towson Cole with a Toson Cole. The voice that you're hearing right now is the director of the House Party,

remake feature film reimagining or remake CalMatic. He joins us today on Higher Learning. What would you say that it is? Man, I mean, for me, to be honest, I've been calling it like a remix. Like, you know, I come from music, right? And so for me, it's like, you know, we're taking the original, we're chopping it up. Like, we're changing the pitch. But we're adding, like, new drums and new synthesizers.

So, like, it has a modern sound. So to me, it's like a flip, you know what I'm saying? To be honest, like, you know, it doesn't have. to be called house party. It could be called anything, but I think, you know, that namesake is just like what people, what gets people going to the theaters. And, you know, we're keeping the legacy going. I mean, at the end of the day, it's a hip-hop movie where kids are having one at a party. So, house party. Yeah, man. Yeah. Yes. Calmatic. I've seen it. Oh, okay. Congratulations. It's good. I said I did, I did the jacket already. I was able to talk to some of the, you know, the stars in it.

Has so many questions because there's so much to talk about in regards to the movie. But for people who haven't seen it, how did you decide, you know, how you wanted to pay homage to the original movie, but then still keep it your movie with this, with this 2023 version? That's a good question. I mean, I feel like, you know, the original film was just like a snapshot of the culture at that time, right? Like the way they dance, the way they, the way they rap, the way they dressed, the way they got the haircuts. And so I feel like the only way we could pay like true homages to do the same thing and, and, you know, make sure that this film was a snapshot of what's happening right now in the culture. And right now, you know, there's a

lot of like, quote unquote, clout chasing in the culture. Like, I feel like celebrity culture and, you know, faking it till you make it is kind of a part of the hip-hop culture right now, especially in L.A. And so I felt like, you know, the story that we set up with LeBron's house just kind of set the stage for all that shenanigans. Whose idea was to have LeBron's house being in the movie because this is being produced. Shout out to Jamal and the people over at Spring Hill. Shout out to Mav. I see Mav wherever I go.

I go somewhere and I look over and I see Mr. mover and shaker, wheeler and dealer of the town, Maverick Carter everywhere. You look up a shot of tequila's at your table and then it's Maverick Carter. I'm like, Mavs, chill. Whose idea was it to put LeBron's crib in the movie? Like, did LeBron go, yeah, this is my company.

So we're about to talk about how my shit is right now. Yeah. I mean, to be honest, I'm assuming that's how it happened. I mean, I didn't come into the, I didn't come into the process until,

you know, the script was already written, um, Stephen Glover and Jamal from, from Atlanta on FX. They wrote the script. Yeah. Fantastic guys.

Came like that. Yeah. So I'm, I'm assuming that was the, that it would be at LeBron's crib. Why not? And I don't know if I can say this, but it's, well, no, because this, this podcast comes out tomorrow, as does it premiere. So, you know, you just don't want to spoil it because I'm not spruly anything.

I'm not going to see the movie, Rachel. And Kamada can tell me if I, if I am, but I'm just saying like, you know, LeBron. Well, never mind. I'm just talking about it. Don't spoil it. No, let me say this. No, let me say this. Let me say this.

There are a lot of cameos in this, which I think is so cool to watch because you never know. who's going to be around the corner who has, I mean, I'm some cameos that have big parts in this movie. I don't know if you can tell us, but who, maybe outside of the trailer is in the movie. If you can't give us one.

I mean, outside the trailer, I tell you this, somebody from the show Martin is in the movie. That makes sense. Oh, but not Martin. Oh. Wait, oh, yes. I was like, wait, I missed that.

that I think I know what that is. I mean, to be honest, there's so many faces and I felt like, you know, that was the thing going into this. We was like, man, we don't want to give away any cameos, but we didn't, I know we have like eight cameos in the trailer, but there's like eight more that we did the show, you know what I'm saying? So I think people

are going to be in for a treat when they watched this. And can I piggyback on that really quickly, man? And when it came to came to cameos, were people just like knocking at the door? Was LeBron just like, hey, come be in this movie? Were you calling up people, say it be in the movie? How did that come about? Yeah, it was a little bit of both.

I mean, we definitely had some people in mind where we were putting together the script. But, you know, some of the people that we were like, no one has their number. We don't know how to get in contact with them. You know, we did rely on LeBron's phone book, literally to, like, you know, reach out to those people. So we got some people in the movie

that I don't think they've ever been in the film. I feel like there's people like Little Wayne where it's like, you don't just run into Little Wayne anywhere. You know what I'm saying? You know, people like him are in his film. And like I said, it's just full of, celebrities, but at the same time, like, that's the LA lifestyle. Like, this movie takes place.

Like, if you go to a party in the hills, you're going to see some A-listers easily. Rachel, me and Rachel went to a party in the hills. We did. And we saw some folks, did we not? And they were everywhere. It was crawling with them. They all got together and took a picture. And my manager was like, man, you should go jump in the picture with those.

I'm like, no. He definitely did tell you that. I'm like, no, they go to fucking talk about. All right. So the guys who wrote this are the guys from Atlanta. Stephen Glover. And who else did you say? Jamal Laurie.

Jamal Laurie. From Atlanta, okay. They have a really interesting way in telling story. On the show, there are a lot of directors that direct episodes, but, you know, of course, humorize one of the people that directs a lot with them. And it's very sort of ethereal and surreal. How, what was it like working with them to make this movie just, to for you guys to for you to be as uh ambitious director as you are and for them to be so ambitious

and storytelling what was that like man it's so it's so funny because i feel like for the last like three four years i've i've probably said it should be like Atlanta you know 50 million times about 50 different projects i feel like they just kind of set a new tone for like how black film can you know be uh can be felt so to speak you know what i'm saying and And I think, you know, when we're in a process, like, putting the script together, you know, like, they had so many twist and turns that I didn't see coming. And, like, when you watch the film, you'll see, like, the biggest twist ever. And you're going to be like, okay, I can't believe, not only can I believe this is happening, but I can't believe this is happening so long with this particular person. You know what I'm saying? I feel like, you know, you've seen it, right? So you know, exactly what's talking about. And so I feel like, you know, they have the ability to kind of just, like, make things awkward and make things, like, weird. But, you know, you know, you know, But for some reason, like, it feels possible and real at the same time. And it was just a pleasure working with them, man. And to be a part of their legacy, man, I'm big fans of them.

And, you know, I'm sure they got way more coming down the line. So here's an underrated thing about the original House Party trilogy of movies. What's up people don't know? Broke on screen a lot of legendary black comedic talent. people don't know this don't get credit for this Martin Lawrence Chris Tucker

Bernie Mac David Edwards Michael Collier so many different huge huge voices in black comedy are sprinkled throughout those movies

real facts real facts when you go back and look at those films and kid and play will tell you that that is one of the things that they are most proud of in terms of the House Party films is how many fresh faces got to be on screen for the first time in a big movie like that

in that way. I saw all three movies in the theaters. That's how old I am coming. I'll go my bad. Oh, sure. No, no. I just want to ask you to ask that question is, who are we going to learn about from this movie? Yeah, I mean, we're definitely going to learn about our two leads. Obviously, I think people know Jacob Latimore. He's on a shy. He kills it. But like you said, at the beginning, toasting coal, I feel like, you know, this is this coming out party. Like, you know, he's from across

the pond, but he's a student of the culture. And he dialed in and gave us something that I don't think the world is, is ready for. It's, it's a, he has a realness about him. You know, coming into this movie, I was like, man, we can't have just like a young, you know, TikTok type of kid. We got to have a quote unquote real nigga played like the play role. You You know what I'm saying? And, you know, when I saw Toson's audition, I was like, yo, that's him right there. And, you know, I think kind of going back to the discovery thing, you know, I think, you know, a lot of the comedians in this film, you know, D.C. Young Fly, you know, Davis, Wattsomi Kwan. These are people that are considered, quote, unquote, IG comedians. And I think that's kind of, you know, underserving for them. I feel like, you know, the reason why they're on IG is because they're not enough roles for them to, you know, display their skills.

And so I felt like, you know, with this movie, like, this is my opportunity to, like, reach out to those folks who've been putting in work literally daily, you know, for everybody on social media to, like get the opportunity, you know, for a theater, you know, debut. That's interesting because D.C. Youngfly said that when I was talking to him, he said he had to fight to convince some people to get the role. And, you know, I didn't think about that because I see him so much. I think he's very funny. He does tours and everything. but I guess some people can't separate what he does, you know what I mean, on IG or maybe even with Wailing Out to the big screen, which I thought he was great. Yeah, he's great. And that's the thing too.

I think people think that he has like one note, but like he's very well-rounded as an actor. Like I think, you know, he could get a big break by being in something extremely like dramatic and, you know, something like snowfall or, you know, whatever. One of these 824 movies that are like super creative and I feel like he would do really well in that space. That whole line of back and forth just pissed me off.

He said that. He said he was like, I have to fight for it. Let me tell you why it pissed me off, man. I want to shout out D.C. Young Fly, Carlos, Chico, the 85 South comedies. These are some of the, look, I get it. Like, D.C. Young Fly is a fucking star. Those brothers are stars.

I'm talking about. nigga, Oakland, Seattle, Baton Rouge, Atlanta, Boston, Miami, wherever you go, 85 South is there. They got a fucking whole arena of people lit up. That's why we need to see more of all three of them brothers. They are bona fide comedy stars. Some about some DC Youngfly. Give DC Youngfly and all of those brothers, all the things, man.

They're amazing, huge, huge fans of those dudes, man. Now, let me ask you something. you're from LA I've heard from people around the town bro I'm gonna be honest with you Calamatta just real quick I know you're not gonna do it

I've heard from people around the town that you're the next big thing bro oh man I heard one person said to me this guy is going to be a major studio director I mean I'm already a major studio director I mean this is a major studio

I know I feel you talk to goddamn shit cow matter they mean but You know, you know what they meant. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They meant like, you're going to be, but they mean like this guy, I heard the name, somebody said, Antoine Fuqua when they were talking about you.

It's a big deal, big deal. So I'll ask you, you, you're from L.A., right? Yeah, born and you're in Laleigh. Is LeBron a top five Laker of all time? Oh, top five Laker. Let's see, let me give me, let me give you my top five Lakers first. I think I got to go with Magic. Okay.

Kobe. Kobe. Shack. Shack. I'm going to go ahead and throw Abdul Abdul-Jabbar to you because you need to put him in here. He's not my top five. You know what I'm saying?

If I really gave you up, I would have like Nick Van X or like Eddie Jones and five, you know what I'm saying? But from like a hybrid perspective of like my taste and like the, you know, the ESPN idea of it is like,

yeah, I think I think LeBron's like five and a half six just because like just by default, he's got a ring. You know what I'm saying? Like, you can't deny his greatness. And, like, he's, you know, he's won. So I think, I think, yeah, why not?

Like, yeah, why not? Yeah, why not? No, why not? Can I tell you something. Calmatic, you're going to be around for a long time, brother. I'm telling you right now, he's Calmatic going to be around for a long time. I just want to say something for you. You've had a long career in turn.

And a lot of your career started with directing music videos. Yeah, man. and I want to piggyback just real quick. The visual style of House Party was something that actually shocked me when I saw the movie. When I saw the film, the first scene that jumped out of me at the trailer, it's because you guys have really kept a lot of the story kind of on the tuck. And I think that's very smart to make people actually invest into the film by going to see it and not giving too much away in the trailer.

What did your vision for the films that you make and for the music videos that you've done? What would you say are your biggest influences? Who are your biggest influences that you watched to kind of hone your style? Man, I feel like I aspire to be like a hybrid between Spike Lee and Spike Jones, right? Wow. I feel like Spike Lee makes the surreal feel grounded and Spike Jones makes the grounded feel surreal. You know what I'm saying? And I feel like that's kind of what I try to, you know,

apply to all my, you know, projects. And I think it's just like, and I think it's just like playing with like emotions. Like I have like not to get too deep and philosophical, but like, go for it. I have like my, I have a very strong like emotional memory, right? Like I like I can't remember like how I felt when things happened in my life, good, bad, and different. And I feel like I try to reverse engineer those emotions within my, you know, film. So I think, you know, sometimes I feel weird and like, you know, and I might, you know, that might come up, come across as like, you know, someone, you know, like the Kendrick video, I just shot Rich Spirit where he's just like

laying on the ground for like, you know, six bars and then he just stops rapping. Like, that's a feeling that I felt before. And I, and I hope that it came across that way, you know, when we, you know, presented that in the films. I mean, in the music video. So I know it's probably vague, and I don't know if it translates all the way, but it's just something that internally that I feel

that I try to, you know, export on camera. Okay, I thought it was beautiful. This nigga on top of the shit. You know what I'd explain anything else? Like, shit. Absolutely beautiful. And, you know, I want to like kind of like piggyback off that. Just like that feeling and this moment that we're having.

Because I was actually surprised. Maybe I should be just because of the world. we live in. Surprise that some people felt away about a remake of House Party. Yeah, I did. I was one of them. You were one of them? Absolutely. What? Okay,

see, I wasn't. Because I guess the same way you talk about what House Party meant for you growing up, I think it's cool that a new generation is going to get to experience House Party. So for you, and like, you know, you got the other white men can't jump coming out soon too. So I just,

what would you say to those people? I said, don't fuck with that even. Look him in the aisle. I said, don't fuck with that even. So I'm trying to be nice, right? And I think the default answer that I have is like, how old are you? You know what I mean? I think that's the first question.

And so my question is like, do you think that when the original house party came out, 42-year-olds enjoyed it and understood everything and were like, I love this movie? They probably didn't get it. They probably thought kids' haircut was stupid. They probably thought, you know, they should have been inside the house and they were out too late. You know what I'm saying? I don't know. I just feel like, to be honest, I think based on like the amount of media that we have at this point,

I think there's more things that are around that we, you know, still hold on to. You know what I mean? And I think, but at the same time, like, you know, you can't enjoy this film. It's for everybody. But let the kids have something, man. Like I said, this, you know, I think, you know, house party should be a movie that's remade every 10 years. Like, it's just a snapshot of the culture.

Why can't there be a, why shouldn't there have been a house party in the 70s? or the 80s. Like, that would be the dope movie that we could look back on and, like, looking like, oh, shit, look how they dress. Look how they talk. Look how they dance. Like, it's just a snapshot of the culture. And hopefully, like, 100 years from now, we can look back and be like, damn, this is how

we did what we did. So I'll split the difference with you here, Calmatic. Because there is a comedian that I left out that was big in the original house party, and that's Robin Harris, right? Oh, yeah. And because my father loved Robin Harris. My father loved house part of the movie. And he was old when it came out.

like 1990 or whatever, my dad born in 55, the rest of the piece. So he was older when that movie came out. But I remember something very vividly that my father said when he was watching House Party. He was like, this reminds me of like movies we had in the 70s. You go out with your boys and then like something happened. He said that. I think for me, I wonder how my dad would have reacted if it was kid and play in a remake of Let's Do It Again.

Yeah. But look, we're at a different time now. I'm excited about the movie. I'm excited about fucking Jack Harlow, you guys, whatever. We'll see what I like. Like, Will, we're going to, I believe in you. I believe in you so much. Calmatic, I'm going to give Spring Hill their process right here.

We came to, we came to Jamal at Spring Hill with two distant strangers, and he passed. And we won an Academy Award. Now, this is, this is, shout out to Jamal. That's my man. I'm fucking with him. But I'll tell you something, I am so excited for your career. Like, just sitting down and talking to you right now, bro, I sincerely hope that one day we get to make something together. And I, I'm watching everything that you do because just your entire approach to filmmaking and everything that you've done is very fresh.

That's why I don't think that either one of these movies. movies will let down fans that were fans of the iterations before because because of your vision and all stuff you guys are doing over there. I'm so happy for you, brother. Yeah, man, I appreciate it, man. And, you know, I feel like I'm just getting started. You know what I'm saying? I can't want to make something like obviously these two films. I'm super proud of them. But I can't feel like, you know, give the world something original, you know, something that's fresh. And, you know, I'm working on scripts developing. So yeah, let's talk, man. Let's do it. Yeah. Yeah. You guys, do me a favor. Do me a favor. Do me a

favor. I'm on. I'm going to do more than that. I need this guy. Like, so, so, so you guys, do me a favor. It is Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend. Okay. Black movies are out there for you guys to consume. This film right here was made with a tremendous amount of heart, with a tremendous amount of talent. Go see house party this weekend.

Go see the movie. I haven't heard one person. give me a blunt review and you guys know fucking well if they had said it I tell you all right go see the movie this weekend enjoy yourself this weekend support black film support black art give them a chance if Brad Pitt was in the shit all y'all did was be on Brad Pitt's nuts for three hours at the fucking shit if Brad Pitt was in the shit you go see it goes I got sick of that shit go Calmatic Jacob Latimore what's my other brother's name again tosie Colson Tolson Cole Tolson Cole

Tristan Cole Probably LeBron James DC Young Fly Everybody's in this movie Go see House Party this weekend My brother We are very happy That you joined us on Higher Learn today

And we're going to be excited to have you back man No I appreciate you guys man Big fans, thank you For adults with Crohn's disease Or ulcerative colitis symptoms Every Choice Matters Trimfaya

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Ask your doctor about Tramphia today. Call 1-800-526-7736 to learn more or visit Trimphiaradio.com. This episode is brought to you by Two Good and Company coffee creamers. Howdy-take-your-coffee? Piping hot, ice, strong, frothy. but if you love rich, creamy goodness and delicious flavor in every sip, try two good and company creamers.

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I'm going to see it. Yeah, I saw it. I'll probably go see it again in the theater to support. But you should check it out. Because I'm interested because you're such a fan of the 1990 version as I am. I just want to see, you know, hear your take on comparing the two. I's got an uphill battle. I'm not going to bullshit you.

But that doesn't matter. That doesn't matter if I go to Seahouse Party and I love House Party or if I go to Seahouse Party and I don't dig it at all. The important thing is to give Black Art a chance. Give it a chance. It doesn't really matter. Give it a chance. And by the way, if you don't like it, then you don't like it.

But for this, I got to go see the movie. But it's an uphill battle. It's the original house part. It's uphill battle. But like you said, it's not for me. But I think that's great that your expectations are in a certain way because then all they're going to do is just prove you, prove you wrong. Boom.

All right. Old tweets. Interesting week for old tweets. There's a guy named. chef way his name is wayman wesley he's now chef way on tic-tok he posted this

video where he was making oxtail pasta I don't know if you saw this I saw the pasta oxtail pasta what I mean oxtail pasta he made the pasta himself I've never seen

I've never seen this niggas serious about cooking he made the the pasta himself the video's been viewed over 2.1 million times. The first I saw the video, it's like, oh, shit, look at this guy.

It's making oxdale pasta. It's good. I'm not saying that I like oxdale, so I'm not saying that the pasta looked amazing, but it looked great. You do or don't like oxtails? I love oxdale. Oh, okay. I love oxdale.

Nobody should eat it, though. Don't eat oxdale. No one eat it. So I love it. Because it does all kinds of stuff to you, like, it causes you to grow whiskers out of your eyeballs and all of that stuff. I don't eat. The price of ox tail too high.

Okay. So I'm watching this video and this guy looks like an exciting new chef. And it turns out this niggas like chef David Duke. He had a wild time in the history of Twitter, man. So back in the day he had some tweets. When I say back in the day, I mean 2015 here. 2015 he had some tweets and these tweets

were I weren't great they weren't great at all one of his tweets and this is a fucking doozy man I'm not even bullshit this is a fucking doozy of a tweet okay one of his tweets said

if Sandra Bland cared about black lives so much she wouldn't have taken hers wow Fuck my God. I don't even know how you can fix yourself. David Duke is right. It is like it.

Can you believe that came from a black man? Well, see, he's now, Chef Way. He used to be Waymo the God. And when he was way more the God, he was just different. There was two ladies in the pick. One was dark skin and one was light skin. And he said,

SMAs to dark skin when messed up the pick. And so, When this came out, all these women started showing tweets that he tweeted and showing ways that he specifically affected them. He apologized. He said, to those I've heard with my past tweets at every surface, I'm deeply sorry. That was a moment in my life where I was sick in more ways than one. Cooking saved me. You have watched a flawed man heal.

I will continue to heal and learn Thanks for being along the journey A lot of people said his apology sucked noting that he addressed the controversy differently on two different platforms He has a much bigger platform on TikTok And he waited 17 hours to address the issue One lady said to him, you commented on one of my old accounts

And said, my dark skin made me ugly I was in high school. Shit, called me all types of a butterface. You said if I was light-skinned, I'd look better. Now you're a chef, that's crazy. At the same time, ICE from the Joe Button podcast, they also found his old tweets. And in his old tweets, it was kind of the same thing.

It was a hashtag dark skin host situation. It was, there was this blog post that Ice wrote where it was essentially like a bunch of reasons why you know, you don't date black girls or something crazy. So I've looked into this and it's interesting. The interesting thing about it

is Chef Way says that he was going through something personal in his life. He was going through something in his life and he was hateful seven years ago. ICE's tweets, these are back from 2011, 2012, 2013, places like that. And then generally people tell me,

I wasn't on Twitter that much at this time. But generally people tell me that Twitter at some point was the Wild Wild West when it was just fucking Nazi, I fuck, rape, kill, all of this stuff. And it was jokes and it was understood. I don't really have a good handle on that climate because I wasn't tweeting that much then. You know what I mean? I wasn't really around. I wasn't even on.

The question is, is it possible that ICE, or chef way either felt a certain way at a certain time said a certain thing and that they don't feel that way any more. Sure.

It's possible that people change. Has ICE apologized? I haven't listened to the Joe Button podcast. I don't know if he's addressed it. I haven't gone to his Twitter. Can you go to ICE's Twitter and read what it says

his tagline is? Father, first professional hypocrite Joe Button podcast co-host leader of the Hater Revolution. Maybe I saw what it used to say. What did it used to say? I'm going to paraphrase, but it was like something like if you don't give a fuck what I have to say, like fuck you. But I thought that was, I thought that was what it current. That's his pinned tweet. It's pinned. Oh, excuse me. Can you read that? Thank you so

much, Johnny. Ben, can you read that? Okay, so this is the pen tweet. Oh, and as always, if you're offended by anything I tweet, fuck you and your feelings. B, that is from 1029 10. So that's from 2000. And it's pinned still to this day. And when did his tweets come out? What did his older tweets?

They were from around that same time, a couple of years after. And you've pinned it 13 years later. No, fuck you, ICE. Like, how am I supposed to, you want, I believe people can change. Absolutely. I've changed in many ways.

But when you have that tweet, and thank you, Donnie, for clarifying that and finding that, when you have that tweet and you've pinned it, and it's been pinned, well, PIN feature, I think came later, but it's been up there, tweeted it for 13 years ago, and you still have that same mindset,

and you were tweeting such hateful, disrespectful, disparaging remarks against black women. How am I supposed to believe that that's the thing that you changed about. You got caught is what you did. Your feet are being held to the fire

is what's happening at this point. I don't believe anything that you say. And to me, this isn't the first time that we've seen a public figure get dragged for their hateful tweets. If I knew that I had tweeted things like this in the past, I'd been deleting it or making a remark about it in the future, but you kept it up.

He did delete some of them after people found him. Okay, after people found them. But do you see what I'm saying? Like, you kept them up. This is your mindset. You just hadn't gotten caught about it. Between Sheffway and Ice, this won't be the last time we hear, sadly,

that somebody had some problematic tweets that are hateful to black women, that you talk to black women, like they're not human beings, that you talk to them, like they aren't the queens that they are. And you could close your eyes and swear that it wasn't a black person

that was saying those things. Those things all sound familiar and they came from racist white people, hateful white people. But this is you attacking your own people. You have to ask yourself, okay, Chef Way, you put out an apology. We don't know if ICE has at this point or not.

You put out an apology and you said that you were troubled? Is that what it was? Because he was going through something in his life, which, so he's a prosecutor down in Houston or something like that. And so, Oh, God. How many black women have, I mean,

I'm sorry, there needs to be a review of his cases. He's a prosecutor. And you feel that way. Donnie, make sure you fact check this. Apparently he's a prosecutor. Apparently he's a prosecutor in Houston. But listen, his job stuck by.

him and said that they're aware that he had a very rough time that included some substance abuse and some other addiction issues and because of those issues and that he's got past those issues, cooking has gotten past those issues. They believe in him. They believe he's a different person.

They believe now he can go on and do whatever it is. So your addiction made you hate black women? No, that's something that's internalized. I'm not knocking the fact. I'm glad that this man is on the other side of whatever it was that he was struggling through.

But it sounds like you were going through some things with addiction. Maybe there was some mental health issues that you had. But that made you hate black women for years on social media? I'm sorry, there needs to be a full review of his cases. Because if that's how you feel about black women, how many black women did you prosecute just because you didn't look at them at the same way that you look at every other woman in society?

This is a real issue. And I'm not, it doesn't settle with, me. I know I have to do an apology rating here, and I think we can all agree what my rating will be. But I understand that you're a flawed man, but that does not excuse you, not that you have to explain it, but that's not enough for me for the, for the hate that you call. Imagine how what would be enough. I'm asking, by the way, the way. Here's my thing. I want you to specifically apologize to people. You were attacking minors, people you didn't know, unsolicited. These are people you followed. This isn't somebody who tweeted

at you. You had to have been searching to find dark skin black women to terrorize. Because that's what you were doing on social media is terrorizing them. So this is not enough. So this is my thing. And it puts me

in an intellectual sort of chasm. Tell you why. You know how I feel about the old tweet situation? Yes. Yes. But you know how I feel about the old tweet situation. I feel digging up people's old tweets and going back in on them on their old tweets or old things that they've said, you know, years and years after they said them. It's just an interesting way to judge

human beings. You're essentially judging somebody based on a snapshot in their life from yesteryear or whatever. Now, that doesn't mean that that's not fair. It doesn't mean that it's not fair to judge somebody on a snapshot of something that they said years ago. The question is, how do you know that it's fit, you know? So if you're, how do you know that Chef Way hasn't changed? Like, how do you know? You don't know. And if you do know and you feel like it's all the fraud, then you go with what you do. Or by the way, there's a third thing. If somebody says something fucked up like that to you, you never have to forgive them. You, you, I want to make sure everybody's play on that. You never have to forgive them. Meaning, if I, if I,

If it's the year 2014 and I say, hey, fuck your mother, I hope, not yours, but I say to somebody, fuck your mother, I hope something, no, not you. So that's what I'm saying. Fuck your mother. I hope something happens to a blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You never have to get over that. Like you never have to, you as an individual, never, ever, ever have to forgive for that. The question is, in this case, is that as we're judging people in society, not on an individual level about whether or not somebody is a piece of shit, about whether or not somebody is a fucked up person.

But as we're judging people in a societal way, in a way that says what opportunities that you can have, in a way that dictates where you can go, how you might be harassed, is it always fair to then judge that person based upon what they said? And there are a lot of factors that go into that. How old you were when you said it. Sure, sure. How long it's been since you've said it, what you've done and what you've shown people. I think everything that both of these brothers going through is probably fair. But what I don't want to see it become is just a blueprint to hold people back from evolving out of the bad or wrong ways that they might have been. you know what I mean?

So how these men decide to deal with whatever these situations are and black women couldn't, a lot of black women probably can't and maybe even shouldn't forgive this. But we have to in society in the world, allow people to grow from shit. You know what I'm saying? Like we like we have to. You're right.

I'm not, and you're right. I am not saying that people can't. But if we're, if we have certain factors that we're judging things by, I just don't feel like, I guess I keep thinking of the young black girl who was terrorized by him. Who knows what kind of tailspin. This could, because you were hurting, because that's what you're blaming it on. Whatever you were hurting with, you decided to attack a certain type of woman. That's what you're saying.

Over and over and over and over and over again. And I think that should be a factor how many times you were doing it, how much you did this. Who knows how that affected her? Mentally? You know what I mean? Physically? It could have damaged her for life. And I think that that's something that you're 100% right in everything that you said.

And I think that, and I'm glad you said it because it is something that people should remember. I just am on the other side of that. it's just this specifically. I'm not saying that this is for everyone, but this, when I read it, and then I read the women who had actually been affected by it, this is dark. And I'm not,

I don't call for people to, despite what people think, I don't call for people to lose their jobs or say hit up their sponsor. Well, actually we did with Crowder. Yeah, but that was, I mean. That was different. And I stand by that.

Yeah, I stand by that too. But I'm typically not that type of person, but I do think that your actions have repercussions. And you're paying for things that you did in your past. And these things were despicable. So I don't feel sorry for you when you lose your sponsorship, Chef. I don't feel sorry for you that you have to make an apology. I pray that it doesn't send you back down a dark path

that you've worked so hard to owe. overcome, but what you did impacted people. And so for that, you know, I don't feel bad for you. Apology rating? One. One. Yeah. Yeah, we'll see.

We'll see what happens. He tried, too. Two. We'll see what happens. But it seems like it's probably going to take something a lot more substantial than what he did to really move on with it. And to be real with you, I think there's probably something else that bothers people in terms of chef way.

I think the other thing that bothers people is that he tried to rebrand as a chef without acknowledging who he was in the past as if people wouldn't kind of get it. You know what I mean? And so it was working on TikTok. It came to Twitter. It is what it is. We'll see what happens. Dana White.

We didn't cover the show. Dana White smacked his wife. Twice. Now, I don't know if people have seen the video. New Year's Eve. Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Dana White's arguing with his wife. His wife slaps him.

And then Dana White retaliates slapping his wife a couple of times. It's like there's a mini-freckons after this. Mm-hmm. The first time I saw the video, do you know what I thought? What? Not going to matter.

Oh. Not going to matter. And why did you think that? Because society tends to punish the people who are easy to punish. They know why it's a little hanging fruit. They know why it's hard to punish. Okay. I want you to make sure people understand this.

Mm-hmm. They know why it's hard to punish because they know white is important. Dana White has cultivated So Dana White, TMZ breaks that video. And then where is Dana White like right after that? Somebody go to TMZ right now and read the headline.

I'm just interested. I haven't seen it. Like, Google it right now and read the headline. Of Dana White or just something? Of Dana White. Of Dana White. Of Dana White. And wife, Anne and drunken nightclub fight?

That one. Okay. No, no, no. What was the headline on the site? Oh, well, that was it on January 2nd. So that's what TMZ wrote. Yeah, Dana White and wife and in Trunken Nightclub fight on New Year's Eve. That's the, that's the headline.

Okay. Kareem Hunt is, was in a fight with a woman. Kareem Hunt, who I think is for the, I can't remember who he was. plays for it. I used to play for the cheese. He was in a fight with a woman. He was a Cleveland or Cincinnati. I can't remember. Yeah, yeah. He was in fight with a woman. And the headline is, Kansas Chiefs running back, Cream Hunt, brutalizes and kicks woman. She's. Now, let's go to Joe Mix. I don't know what this is going to be. Joe Mixing.

Timsy. I saw him this weekend. Oh, Joe Mixing? This past weekend. video of you of Oklahoma's Joe Mixing brutalized female student. This is off memory. I'm doing this because I was in the office when this was happening. And I'm thinking to myself, well, I don't know if that meets the standard of what I would call brutalize. Both of these things are incredibly wrong. In the Joe Mixing situation, in a Joe Mixing situation, he punched this girl.

like in her face, her name was Amelia Mulleter. She shoved him first. She shoved him first. He pushes it back. He pushes back. Then he hits her. Okay. He shoves him. Like he shoves her.

She shoves him. He pushes her back. Then he hits him. And both of the times that I just gave you guys, we're talking about mutual combat. So if you wanted to, in either situation, you could have said

these guys were in a fight with a woman. With Dana White, it was Dana White. What happens? What was the headline? Dana White and wife and drunk have drunken fight

on New Year's Eve or something like that. Let's deconstruct that headline. Okay? Let's deconstruct that headline as somebody who wrote headlines for a long time. Dana White and wife have drunken fight. Okay, drunken. Divorces people of responsibility right there.

Dana wife and wife. And wife means together, shared blame and culpability. So two people together got drunk, had a fight. Very relatable. In the case of these other situations, with Joe Mixing, Kareem Hunt, whomever else you want to you want to talk about. I'm not in any way excusing what happened.

Both of those brothers should have known better and not did what they did. But what we get is the situation with Kareem Hunt, where there's mutual combat, with Joe Mixing, where there's mutual combat. And the video is, the thing is, you of Oklahoma's Joe Mixen video evidence release,

vicious kale punch on female student, brutalizes female student. I'm not saying that these punches are the same. but what I'm saying is that even though there was mutual combat in the situation of one of these and there was mutual combat here because what I could say by looking at the Dana White video

is Dana White's wife smacks him he's never in any danger by the way so there's no reason for Janea White to defend himself by smacking his wife that's bullshit right Dana White is a trained fighter it's been boxing for a long time Dana White smacked his wife back because he was angry

and the way you know he smacked her back because he was angry and not in any self-defense was because he smacked her again. Like he smacked her again and then it gets kind of whatever. Tim McGraw one time. Smacked the shit out of a lady at a concert. He walked by her. It's happening at TMZ. He walked by her.

She smacked him on his butt. Okay? He continued to walk. He doubled back and knocked the shit out of her. Double back and smacked five. from a woman in the audience. He was already gone. Okay, there was no danger.

He was standing on the stage and she was down in the crowd. She smacked his butt. He comes back, smacks the goddamn shit out of her. And I remember being at the office and going, yo, that smack was totally punitive. He was punishing her and he smacked the shit out of her, right? I'm telling you, I'm telling people right there. I'm like, right now, if that's little Wayne, Kevin Gisner,

Nates, whomever, y'all are up in fucking orange, but you like Tim McGrath. This is why I said this about Dana White. Dana White and the office have a very sturdy relationship, always have. TMZ is on the cutting edge, the bleeding edge of breaking UFC content. Dana White was always calling up.

Dana White has been on TNZ sports a bunch of times, was when I was there, right? Talks to Harvey all the time. They were going to soft pedal that in any way that they could. And because of relationships, the way it goes. And then he came on TMZ live right after that and got the opportunity to tell his side of the story and apologize, right? And apologize by telling his side of the story. I'm not indicting anyone specifically what I'm saying this.

What I'm telling you is that if people are wondering why the Dana White coverage hasn't been the same, it's because Dana White means something to these people. You need UFC coverage. you need Dana White whereas it's better to have Dana White there, even if you view him as an abuser, than it is to have somebody you don't have the same relationship with, right? ESPN. When Stephen A. Smith was talking about Dana White,

he made sure to discuss just how big friends he is with Dana White, right? Just how good of a person, Dano White is. Because most times, if you are white and you make a mistake, you're looked at as a decent person who got caught up in a bad situation. With Kareem Hunt, Joe Mixing, whomever else these guys are, and these guys maybe have had other problems. Some guys have all kinds of problems. This is sort of a, it gets used as a gauge to show people,

well, this is who they really are. So the moment I saw that he was in trouble, I was thinking to myself, and I don't have any opinions on Dana White per se. I don't think he should have put his hands on his wife. Right. But the moment I saw that he was in trouble, I knew that this would be okay for him. And I bet he knew that it would be okay for him.

I bet that there was that there was conversations and talk and all of that. I bet it's fine. It's not going to be a big deal. But I just want you guys to do the same thing that I do. Because I have a bunch of these. Afro-man, girl came up, grabbed Afro-Man, or did something to Afro-Man on stage. Afro-man smacked the shit out of the woman after she did that. Afro man smacked the shit out of it

and it was, and I remember the conversation it's, I'm sorry to let you, I'm sorry to tell you guys. I know you don't want to believe it. It's just different. Like it's,

it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's okay. None of it's okay. It's all fucked. It's just different.

Hmm. It's different. So going back to when you said Dana White knew it would be okay. Johnny, can you play that? People are saying, you know, he's a big public figure. He's, you know, charged this big company. Nobody's really talking about it.

You know, are there any repercussions playing from the company or self-imposed repercussions? Yeah, well, I mean, what should the repercussions be? You tell me, I take 30 days off. How does that hurt me? I mean, I told you guys when we were going through COVID, COVID the last 10 years. I could set it out and, you know what I mean?

What would be the problem? The only, it's much like COVID, actually, you know, me leaving hurts the company hurts my employees hurts the fighters that's not me I could have left in 2016 see

and if you watch it he is very he's speaking about it in a very flippant way he talks he goes on to talk about how you know he's handled it with his he and his wife had to talk about it with their kids or whatever

and you know the only way he's going to suffer is in the court of public opinion but at the end of the day he knows how much he is worth to an ESPN and to a lot of other people. And so he knows that it won't impact him in any way because they need him. And like corporate greed, man, money, all that. That's what's running it. He, like, Ben, go back and watch the clip, the clip, if you see.

He's like, so what? Suspending for 30 days? What's it going to do? I'm watching an AFRAMMAN video. No, Afro-Man. No, Afro-Man. Afro-man slapped it. Nah, man.

Afro-man, that was too much. Afro-man. Afro-man. That was too much. But he couldn't see who it was. So he didn't know. Okay. Somebody was on the stage with him.

He couldn't unloads devastating punch on female fan. Tim McGrath, bitch slaps, bitch-slaps female. I'm just saying it's different. I knew that nothing would happen to Dana White because he's too important. He's too consequential. The question is, it's always the $100 million question. If Dana White was the exact same person that he is,

not as a rapper where they expect you guys to be violent or not as a ball player where they expect it as well, where you know, subhuman entertainment machines, people would think. But if Dana White were the same person that he is right now as head of the UFC with the power with the back, all that stuff, but he were black if he would be afforded to say. I mean, if he was just as, I don't, I'm asking the question, if he was just as important, if he was just as consequential, if he was just as integral, but he just happened to be black.

He might be suspended for 30 days. I know. Once again. But if it affects people's pocketbooks, I don't think so. There you go. ESPN writer and editor Jeff Wegenerheim confirmed the observation that the network is intentionally going easy on white. We've been told not to write anything incendiary on social media about the Dana White situation. And I understand why and I've abide about that. I just ask y'all to understand that some of us at ESPN do not have a soft take on domestic violence. Clarification.

He came back and said after this. There was no edict from ESPN bosses regarding the DNA White situation. But in general, we are strongly discouraged from incendiary posts on. There you have. I'm surprised he got to say that much. Make of it what you will. All right. Do we want to do mailback now? Mailback time. Time to read your letters and then we'll reply to them. Oh, it's mailback time. Write us with your queries and we'll chime in.

All right. First mailback question comes from no stand 4, 2, 3, 5. They ask, related to last week, you get one CD slash album from the 70s, 80s, and 90s, each for the rest of time. Which albums can't be a greatest hit? I got to really think about that. Wait, are they saying you get one? Oh, yeah, from each decade. Right. So talking book from the 70s.

Of course he knows. The 80s is tough, man. I mean, the 80s, it's going to be thriller. It's probably bad for me to be a lot. I was going to say thriller or bad actually. So, either one. And in the 90s, it's me against the world. I don't know who the 70s.

You don't know anything about music. Stop it. I don't know albums off the top of my head like that. That's a good question. All right, I got my 80s. Hold on, I'm about to the name one. Oh, that is a good one. songs in the key of life

that's a good one I don't know if that's forever but that's a good one all right and in the 90s if it can't be a greatest hits can it be like

Huff Daddy and the family or something like that is that considered a greatest hits no that's a good album no way out okay that one all right

cool okay go for next one Bernie Gats Saylor asks related to Tuesday's conversation about public bathrooms.

What are your feelings on going to the bathroom outside? When is the last time you did it? You don't like that? You don't do it? I have when I'm drunk and I couldn't make it

and I hate it. But I have. I piss outside all the time. Well, you're also a guy. Yeah, so that's not like, you know, if you're talking about taking the crap outside. Oh, I've never done that.

I don't think I have. I don't think I have. I think I might have pooped it down in the woods one time with my dad, like pooped. But you can't really do that, you know, when you're out there because the deer will smell it. Then you're not going to get a hunt. But I think I had to one time. I think I had to lay a smack down in the woods. That's so gross.

Donnie, so, yeah, I mean, I pee outside all the time. I drink so much water. Sometimes I go for long waltzes. Sometimes I got to pee. You might see me on your local neighborhood security camera, pissing it down. Donnie, go to D. D. Okay.

say Von 28 asks, what's a childhood dream that you haven't fulfilled yet, but you still intend to do in the future? Go ahead, man. I still want to write and direct my own feature film. And you're on your way. I'm going to do that. I'm going to do that. I'm going to do one with Calmatic. I'm going to do one by myself.

I also want to write and direct my own future film. Rachel, well about you? I don't know. I feel like, you know what? When I was little, all I wanted to be was a lawyer. Since I was seven, I was obsessed with Matlock and my dad. And I was like, I want to be a lawyer. I want to be a lawyer.

And then I became a lawyer. So like, I don't know. I feel like I, because I guess I'm thinking of dreams in the sense of career. I don't know, guys. Maybe I was not a, I didn't have. a big imagination as a kid. I feel like, or maybe I'm just living my dreams. Sorry.

I don't expect an ally of the week. Oh, shit. I don't have one. Oh, no. Yes, I do. I'm going to steal it from, I'm going to steal it from the timeline. The Republicans in New York calling for George Santos's resignation. Is that yours?

No. Oh, yeah. They're calling for it. Now they're talking, right? I don't know what they were doing before when they were, They said they're going to start taking their vetting, the vetting process more serious because they're sharing stories now, George,

where he's talking about being a volleyball star. He told them he was a volleyball star in college and that they won the championship. And they just laughed about it. But this is serious. This is representative. Mine is Mary Garland. For the investigation.

For the investigation, I think it's important. I'm sorry, guys. I think it's important. I don't know what's going to happen. But I think it's a lot. important for the American people to be able to know how safe the secrets of the government are. And I think that this is something that should be treated with the utmost importance. Do I suspect that Biden is doing anything intentionally shady?

Odds are probably not. But at the same time, even if it's just accidentally incompetent, there needs to be a better system and a better understanding of what we're going to do about issues like this. And so, Mayor Garland, under some scrutiny, And investigate his own president for the for I mean his really is not his president. It's fucking our president. And he's the AG. That's what he's supposed to be doing.

So I was actually refreshed. All right. Tell you thing caps off. Did you not stop learning. I am Ban Latham Jr. And I'm Rachel Lynn Lindsay. Bye guys.