Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay - Kaiya Hamilton on the Viral Clip of Her and Rick Ross From ‘Signed’

Episode Date: January 26, 2021

Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay discuss the NFL championship games from the weekend (2:00), then bring Kaiya Hamilton on to explain the viral clip of her, Just Brittany, and Rick Ross from VH1's ‘Signed’ (20:00). Then Van and Rachel unpack Kmele Foster’s recent appearance on ‘Real Time With Bill Maher’ (38:00) and pay their respects to Kobe Bryant on the one-year anniversary of his passing (1:16:00). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Yo, yo, yo, thought warriors. What is up? It is I, Van Lathen. And it's me, Rachel Lindsay. Higher learning is on, Rachel. How was your weekend? Weekend, you know, same old, same old. Locked in.

Some good football. Really enjoyed the games. Good football. Little sis came over. We hung out and we started a new show. What's the show? The show's not new, just new to us. It's called The Servant.

Oh, I've heard about that. I haven't seen it. I'm really into. The M-Night Chamelon? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I really, really enjoy him. It's a little slow. It's definitely creepy.

I'm talking first episode, he hits you with the punch. Like, it's a little creepy. Right. I didn't finish it, but it's good. I recommend it. Then that's some of my creepy baby or something like that,

some baby? Yeah, and I don't do well with dolls. What's the baby about? Why is their baby? I can't tell. If I talk about the baby, it gives away too much already. Like, you find out in the first episode.

And they're only 30 minutes. Oh, 30 minutes? Yeah, like you can hit it quick. How's your weekend? It was pretty good. I ate like a peer. I can't stop myself. I don't know what's happening.

But, you know, my therapist say that don't worry about it. They say, don't worry about it. Good. They're like, one day, you'll just say, don't worry about it, whatever. Does it make you happy? No. Okay. It's just a thing.

But it's, I have to stop. It's disgusting. I'm disgusting. But I was able to hang out with some friends. Okay. You know what I mean? It was like the four of us, you know. That's good.

And, you know, we watched Connor McGregor. Oh, y'all did. I'm glad I didn't. Yeah, Conner McGregor got his ass beat. But did you think that was going to happen? Because a lot of people felt, you know, it might be a little rusty. It's been a minute.

I didn't really know. But it looked like he had control of the fight in the first round. And then the second round, he got a one-way bus ticket to one of my favorite places. He got a one-way bus ticket to put it on that ass Baptist Church That's your favorite place

Is it Hello Connor McGregor Come right up here In front of the congregation Of Put it on that ass Baptist Church I'm your church pastor

We're about to take thousands of offers I'm your church pastor Here Put it on that ass Baptist Church That's fucked up by the way And you just said that about Pastor Carl You don't want to talk about put it on that ass Baptist Church.

That's what I was saying. That's why you should tell people. Pastor Lynch. Shut up. Shut up. That's why I used to tell people back in the day when I was cooking them. Welcome to put it on that ass Baptist Church. And that's where Connall McGregor went to.

He went to put it on that ass Baptist Church. He got to put it on that ass. It was nasty too, Rach. You didn't see the knockout? I saw the knockout. I saw the knockout. But you know what? I saw the clip.

The knockout, it didn't look like he got him. I was expected one punch and he was out. Like, you know what I mean? Like there were kind of like a bunch of little... It was like accumulation. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he's just kind of stumbling back. I mean, I felt like it would have been more impactful

if I've been watching the whole thing. It lost its effect in clips. Have you ever been kicked in the leg before? Does anybody kick in your leg? I'm sure I have. I, listen, I box all the time. Okay. Okay.

And it's cool. And I think that I can do it because nobody's kicking me in my leg. I watch the UFC and every, you hear smack, smack, smack. I'm not into it. And if somebody getting kicked in their leg

and after a while, the calf kicks had, Jackson, Isaiah, did y'all see the fight? The calf kicks had neutralized McGregor to a degree to where I was starting to feel sorry for him that Dustin Porier, we should mention

Dustin Porier, who was the guy who won the fight. Shout out to Louisiana. The leg kicks were just Yeah Yeah the leg kicks was just destroying Destroying Connor Did you see the videos after the fight of him on crutches?

Connor? He was like he like could have walk So is that I'm not I'm not in a UFC right I'm much more in the boxing the UFC Is that normal to go after the legs? Yeah people get leg kicks are a big part of mixed martial arts

Okay But normally you move around You check the leg kick you make angles. And a lot of times with McGregor, he's such an elite striker that he would check your leg kick and then counter it with a straight left

and guys would get hesitant to throw him. But I guess his timing was off. He hadn't been in the cage very much, so he wasn't super sharp. So he was just eating leg kicks. He was just, they drove him up in a sparkling black limousine and dropped him off

right in front of put it on that ass. Baptist Church and he strode right in there he sat down in the first pew put it on that I don't want to hear you say that again

Baptist church your list keeps getting heavier and heavier and I don't want to hear you say it anymore and also he wasn't the only one that went there

Aaron Rogers went there Aaron Rogers went to put on an ass Baptist Church Like he did He was there Yeah he did It's not like they got Wooft like that

They just lost At home And they almost came back They almost came back They should have won that game They should have won Especially with Especially with the Bucks

Secondary badly I mean Two of their starters out They should have won Should have won Yeah Tom Brady got done again Tom Brady

So the soul to the devil Telling you I believe Is that what that When you have What that means? Who? Who named three people who you think sold their souls to the demo?

I don't think we want to have this conversation. I do. Thought warriors? I can hear them now. Who named three people. One, you said Tom Brady's one. So that takes that off. Name two more people.

Or is there a family you want to name? No, I'm going to be honest with you. Okay. But it's going to get weird. Nah, I don't want to do it. Because three people that sold this whole to the demo. Come on, man. We don't shy away.

We don't shy away. Okay. So Tom Brady. Mm-hmm. Michael Jackson. I don't want to hear anymore. I don't want to hear number three. I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. We're going to do that. I'm sorry. That's a textbook. Why can't it be Joe? Why is it got to be the, Joe's the one who made the kids?

All the kids were successful. You know what? You know what? Let's do that. That's actually, I like that. Let's Joe. Okay. It's Joe Jackson.

Okay. I'm back. It's Joe. Is Joe Jackson. That many talented kids? That many talented kids. And he's the one who whipped them into shape? You know what? You know what?

You know what? It would make, hold on. First of all, you just brought something up. It makes more sense that as Joe. You know why? Because Michael didn't even have time to sell us so because he was a kid. He got paid. Exactly.

But Joe was working at the steel mill one time and one of his buddies. Whatever it was, it was a steel mill? It was a steel mill. I was just laughing. Joe was working to steal mill one day. One of his buddies walks up and his buddy, hey, I'm a Harold. You know, you've known me forever. Yeah, I don't know.

You seem familiar. Hey, man. What if I told you there was something you could do? Get yourself out of this whole situation. Then Joe goes, hey, Harold, why ain't you got no reflection, man? Harold, why? Harold, why you got a tale?

I 100% believe Joe Jackson saw his son to the devil. Because in his last years, he really was looking, You're real devil. She was dressed in like the red and black, had the super arched eyebrows, had the hat on, you know what I mean? Right. Okay, who's number three?

Oh, man. I used to have a list. Me and my homeboys did this thing where we had a list. And the list was of all of these people. Somebody would get, somebody would fall off major. And as soon as they will fall off, me and my boy, Gino, shout out to Walter, Gino McLaughlin. We'd be like, so to the devil.

So I can't remember, though. But I remember it was, we actually said Michael. It was Michael. Now you could add a whole bunch of people to the list. OJ. OJ was on there. OJ. For sure.

OJ. OJ was on there. OJ was on there. OJ was on there. People usually say the Kardashians. The Kardashians could be on there, definitely. But I'll remember now, there has to be a fatal flaw, though. So it can't just be somebody that's super famous.

It has to come with great heartache and a great price, which is why they're so, you know what I'm saying? sold it as the devil or something like that. But is that, is that Brady? Well, yeah, yeah, yeah. He did. He has had, it did come with a great price. Being the biggest fucking weenie on the earth. He is the biggest weenie that has ever lived.

Is he? Just watch. Yes, he is. He's a gigantic weenie. You know, I'll be honest with you. You got a bad weenie radar. You do. No, no, just because I don't participate doesn't mean that I don't recognize it, okay?

You got a bad weenie. Bad weenie radar. By the way, I just want to let you know that Matt James is still being a weenie. I saw a video clip. This is supposed to wait till the Friday podcast. I just saw a video clip. Okay, never mind. I'm not going to do it.

I'm not going to do it. So it's coming. I'll just let you know. Matt James is being a weenie. He's still being a weenie. But I'm not going to roast them right now. I'm going to roast them right now. For adults with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis symptoms,

every choice matters. Tramphia offers self-injection or intravenous infusion from the start. Tramphia is administered as injections under the skin or infusions through a vein every four weeks, followed by injections under the skin every four or eight weeks. If your doctor decides that you can self-inject trumphia, proper training is required. Tramphia is a prescription medicine used to treat adults with moderately to severely active Crohn's disease and adults with moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis. Serious allergic reactions, increased risk of infections or lower ability to fight them, and liver problems may occur.

Before treatment, get checked for infections and tuberculosis. Tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu-like symptoms, or need a vaccine. Explore what's possible. Ask your doctor about Tramphia today. Call 1-800-526-7736 to learn more or visit Trimfairadio.com. This episode is brought to you by Sweet Green. The day doesn't ask for permission. Lunch window?

Gone before you saw it coming. You deserve a break that actually satisfies. Sweet Green's new wraps have got you. Real ingredients? Zero shortcuts. Everything you love in one hand. Think green goddess chicken. Garlic aoli.

Crumbled bacon. Corn salsa. Forty grams of protein. Made to keep up with whatever comes next. New sweetgreen wraps hit different. Order now at order. sweetgreen.com. You wanted me to,

we talked about something earlier and you asked me about it. What was it? And you said, save it for the top of the podcast. I can't remember what it was. Oh, you were going to tell me

about the commercial you saw than nobody else saw. That was that, right? Oh, the time I thought I was seeing the commercial and it was only me that could see the commercial. Did I not just say that? I forgot.

Did I not just say? Are you okay? I don't know. Yes. So you have a sec real quick, thought wario audience. This is actually happening. So I think it was circa 2001 or 2002. I was in college.

So you're an adult. I'm an adult. I'm in college, right? And I'm up late at night because I was stay up late at night to watch BET uncut. You're a pervert. That's exactly what you are. I was stay up. Wait a little. Let's see.

Because it came out of two weeks. It came a clock, two o'clock in the morning. Two o'clock in the morning. It came on. So it's like... I just have a visual of you. Like, did you, like, have, like, popcorn with you?

Did you have, like, the dream? Did you set the mood? The whole nine. The whole nine. Everybody's sleep. You know what I'm saying? Tell me what that thing smell like. I want to kick all of them.

Do you remember the white girls? White girls? Oh, Mighty Casey. One of the greatest songs. I'm telling it on myself. Mighty Casey. Clearly. One of the greatest songs ever.

White girls. If y'all don't know it, please go looking up. In my world. All right. Hey, y'all, if somebody can find Mighty Casey, I want to have Mighty Casey on this podcast. Mighty Casey, White Girls. But it had that, it had the disco inferno. It had the uncunversion of, I like the way you do it right there.

It had tip drill. All of those songs on there, right? So in Baton Rouge, and I'm watching. BET uncut. And then there was a commercial that came on. And the commercial it was in a kitchen being serious. It was in the kitchen

and it was a clown that grabbed, went to the refrigerator. I'm serious. It's a clown that went to the refrigerator and grabbed a carton of milk out of the refrigerator. bit into the carton of milk, or no, like open the carton of milk, drank the carton of milk,

and it was blood that came out. And then I'm getting fucking freaked out just thinking about it. And you should. And then he looked into the camera and he said, got blood? And then all of a sudden, I promise you. I promise you. And then all of a sudden, the got blood thing came up at the end of the, at the bottom of the thing, and it all turned red.

And then the commercial went off. So peep this. I am, there was not a product that was endorsed, okay, in this commercial. Nothing was endorsed, all right? No product. I am laying, just blood. Just the blood. And it goes off, it doesn't say buy this.

It's not for a movie or whatever. And I sit up and my heart is racing. And remember at this point, we're living in Zachary, Louisiana, in the country. It's pitch dark. Like your neighbor's a half a mile or a mile away. It is pitch dark. I stay up the entire night. Can't get back to sleep.

I go get my 20 gauge out of closet. I load it, put it next to my bed. If it's a supernatural clown, I know you can't kill him. I know. And so here's the deal. I don't bring this up to anyone. The whole day, the whole next day, I walk around seriously thinking

that I am the only person who saw this commercial. And I watch BT Uncut the next two nights, hoping to see it again, it doesn't play. And I'm thinking to myself, yo, man, first of all, I'm thinking that I hallucin. I was it a nightmare?

Like, what's going on? But I know I was away, right? So this goes on for about, I say, three days. And I'm like really freaking out, and I'm afraid to tell anybody. I'm afraid to tell my mom that I'm seeing weird commercials. I'm afraid to tell my sister because she'll believe it. And then all of a sudden, it'll be like an 80s horror movie where we're tooling up and going to the wise old lady to try to get information on how to kill the demon inside the TV.

You know what I mean? Like the whole nine, right? And so it gets to the point to where this is how bad my anxiety is to where after the second day that I watched me, ET and cut and I couldn't see it, I turned my TV off and I wouldn't cut it back on. Like, seriously. Okay. I mean.

And so what happened was I was at a friend's house. I was at a friend's house and we're at their house and I see a little white boy riding his bike down the street. and on the TV. And then all of a sudden this little white guy looks at the camera and then the TV

like it freezes. And then the picture of the little white kid ends up on the back of the milk carton. The commercials back on with an extra part that I didn't see before. The picture of the kid is on the milk carton. Then it goes just like it went before. The clown goes over to the refrigerator,

opens up the refrigerator. The kid is on the milk carton because the clown had abducted the kid and killed him. That he drinks it and it says, got blood. The exact same thing is happening except this time.

At the end of it, it says, Carnival 2 at the LSU Civic Center. Blah, blah, blah. It was Halloween time and it was an advertisement for a haunted house. What had happened was during BET and Cut,

these commercials would be glitchy because of the programming and the time that they were on, they were cutting and they were cut off. Sometimes you would be watching BET Uncut and Beet Uncut will pop in in the middle of a commercial or something like that. Something must have fucked up.

But it was a commercial for Carn Evil, which was a haunted house that they had at LSU and Ban Rouge. And yo, I swear to God, I'm at my homie's house and I'm like, oh, okay, yes, yes. And he runs in here like,

bro, what's wrong with you? I'm like, nothing, man. Nothing. Woo! I was super elated. Super elated. I'm telling you, for four or five days, I was convinced,

convinced that either I was going crazy or I was about to do spiritual warfare. Why couldn't you think, though, that maybe it was glitching since you know things glitched during uncut? Well, it wasn't until then that I did know, and I'll tell you why, because there was another commercial for that movie The Ring.

And there was a commercial for that movie The Ring that was scary as hell. Okay? But sometimes at night after this, an uncut, they only play part of the commercial. And it wouldn't show you that it was a commercial for a movie. It would just show that little girl. And then she'd jump off of a cliff or whatever it was. But it was for that movie The Ring. But they were playing at night.

So I only realized that after that, that like it was popping in. and doing all of that stuff like that. Because, you know, four or five days is a long time to hold that. I would have been telling everybody what I saw because that's very much so it. Like, you were describing it to me. So I was like, oh, are you going to tell me

that this was all about it? Hold on. I bet you, you know what I've never tried to do? You know what I've never tried to do? I bet you I can find this commercial. Wasn't it local? I bet you can't. Wasn't it a local commercial?

I don't think Zachary commercials make it to. The YouTube. Carn Evil LSU. I bet you I can find that commercial. I know I can't. It's got to be on here. I can't be the only...

I know I can. I can't be the only person that ever saw this. I don't know. It would take forever. Because if I could find a commercial, I certainly would, I certainly would, like,

put it into the, the podcast or something like that. But anyway, yeah. Well, I'm glad it wasn't real. Honestly, clowns are terrifying. Clowns and dolls are terrifying. That would have scared me. I thought you were going to say you never watched Uncut again.

Like, it scares you. Like, you took it as a sign to be like, I can't watch this kind of stuff because... No. That didn't happen. As a matter of fact... So four or five days later, are you tuned in? Or you started recording it.

The reality is, like, after I told... I think I told my dad... after story, my dad was like, that's what you get. That's what you get. You're in there, you're at night, you're in your room, and you're in there abusing yourself. I know what you're in there doing. You're in there abusing yourself, and that's what you get.

My father. All right, look, I really want to find the Carnival commercial. Okay. But we can't worry about it right now. If y'all know, try to help us out, send it to us if y'all can find it. If you can find the car, this is like 2001, 2002. I know there are other Carnival commercials, but I'm talking specifically about the Got Blood commercial. Okay.

We're going to take a break. Come right back. This episode is brought to you by Spectrum Business. Fast, reliable Internet means everything for your business. And even this podcast, that's why I trust Spectrum Business to keep companies of all sizes connected with Internet, advanced Wi-Fi, phone, TV, mobile services, plus 24-7 U.S.-based support. Millions of business owners already trust Spectrum Business. So visit spectrum.com slash business to learn more. Restrictions apply.

Services not available in all areas. This episode is brought to you by WeatherTech. Everyone knows winter is the MVP and making a mess. You don't need WeatherTech floor liners in the summer unless you hit the beach or go camping. Then you'd want a cargo liner. Or a road trip goes sideways, ketchup goes rogue, ice cream drips. Yeah, you'd be pretty happy about those weather tech seat protectors. So just to be clear as the mud, you're inevitably going to step into the summer.

you don't need weather tech unless you plan on doing summer. Visit weathertech.com today. Okay, there was, I guess, a mini controversy, not many. I say many. It started off. It started off. As a video on the old Twitter sphere, I'm not going to lie, I saw the video. And when I saw the video, I then screen recorded it and posted it to my Instagram as well

because I was so shocked at what I was seeing. The video, just to set it up real quick, took place. I think this was, and any time I get anything wrong, Kyle, you can jump in. It took place. The show was back in 2017.

It was called Signed. Right. And it was on VH1. Now, there were three judges on this show that I saw in this particular clip, The Dream, Rick Ross, and Lenny S from Rock Nation, okay? Yes, sir.

And it was a sinking competition where each person was going to give somebody a deal. Right. First of all, let's welcome Kaya to the show, everybody. Welcome Kaya to Highland. We're jumping right to deal right now. Kaya was in the center of the eye of the

storm here. Now, wait, can I ask you this? Was it that each person was going to get, like one, there was one winner or one person was assigned to each label? That part was actually up in the air. So I think, but if I'm not mistaken,

I think it was probably one person per judge that was supposed to be getting signed. Mm-hmm. Okay. So the first person in the clip, I recognized a lady from Houston by the name of Just Brittany. Just Brittany I had seen before. I actually thought she had had a deal before.

I thought she had been with cash money or something like that. Yeah, but I just had seen her. I knew of her from her online presence or whatever. She goes up and she sings a song. Each person has a beat. I'm sure you guys have seen the video. She sings a song. She sings a song in the tune of Aston Mark.

music and everybody's vibing to it, got to be honest with you. Didn't sound that great, all right? That's objective. That's objective. Didn't sound that great. Not saying it just Brittany, it's not talented, not just Britney. But just saying at that point, it didn't sound

that great. What made it worse was after this, after she sang, another young lady came up who had the same beat as her, and then she sank. All right? Now, actually, you know what we're going to do? we're going to right now let you guys hear

yes yes both are in dishes just a little bit so we're going to have the audio guys cut in right now this is Brittany okay now okay now after a while

Britney sat down and now this is Kaye okay so the reason why the clip went viral is because most people say they watched it and they assumed that there was colorism or sexism involved in the judge's response to each singer.

Is that fair for me to say, ladies? Yes. Rachel, I sent it to you this weekend. What did you think? I mean, I think I had the response that most people had. I believe that the first video I saw the person had captioned it, like this is the music industry, kind of in a nutshell. And then I was like,

oh, well, what is this clip? And then I watched it. I'm more, I know what I thought, but I'm more curious, Kaya. I need to know you were there. It was you. You lived it. In that moment,

what were you thinking? To be frank, I guess I was a little thrown off, more so than anything. I'm not saying that in a sense, Like I was, you know, better than her or whatever the case was. But I guess in that particular setting, I was getting a lot of, I guess, feedback from the sound prior to that particular recording just from, you know, the cast and all that.

So I was pretty, I guess, confident in what I had, you know, done. So whatever the case was, I wasn't expecting to get such negative feedback in that setting. Like whether they liked the song or not or whatever the case was, I wasn't expecting, I guess, the negativity that came up. You know, everybody's entitled to their opinion or whatever the case is, but I didn't think it was going to be so much like, oh, well, yours wasn't that good. Her sounded better, if that makes sense.

That was kind of just like, oh, okay, I guess, you know. But, yeah, I guess I was a bit taken aback more so than anything. So when you watch the clip now or in that moment, did you ever think or have any of the conclusions that many people that watched the video had, that it was because of Britney's body or because of Britney's color or because of maybe even the content of what she had

in the song itself, because her rendition was raunchier. She was saying different things. What did you think, or what do you think now, the difference was in the clip. Do you think that the people that are saying that it was colorism or sexism, do you think there's anything to that?

Honestly, I didn't maybe necessarily in that moment, I didn't necessarily think colorism, but definitely sexism. I mean, we were all, you know, watching it with all the other clips that were surrounding that portion that everybody saw.

So I definitely thought it was a little bit of sexism going on. But yeah, I just, yeah, I did. So you said, y'all can't see her face if you're just listening to this, but she kind of made a face like, I thought there was some sexism. And I don't know if you saw this, but there was a clip that came out after where Ross was explaining favoritism that he had towards just Britt. Is that what you felt in that moment? And did you see that going on throughout the time you were filming the show?

What's actually crazy is I never saw that clip until today. I never knew that was even said. Even though that might have been how I felt in my heart, I never knew that that's actually, you know, I didn't know he actually came out and, you know, said that. So I would have to agree with him, you know. He said it and I felt it. But yeah, I think it was probably a little bit of favoritism, you know,

going on. I kind of felt like I wasn't really given a fair chance because of that, which is kind of, you know, unfortunate. But I guess in the end, a blessing kind of came out of it because, you know, since this resurfacing, I've been, you know, getting connections going on. So I'm not, I can't say I'm necessarily upset about it now, you know, it'll be the blessing for me in the end. So.

Hmm. Hmm. Do you think that the people that, because when people looked at it, they, they said colorism, things like that, you're seeming to say that you probably, you, you, you, you, you don't think that it was that. Do you think that people were necessarily jumping to a premature conclusion in saying, hey, it's the fairest skin woman getting the shake, and it's the darker skin woman

that's getting made to sit in the back of the bus? Even though I didn't necessarily feel that at the time, I mean, people went based off of what they've seen. So, I mean, if that's the conclusion you got out of it, I mean, that that was, you know, I guess the energy that was placed, in that clip. So I didn't necessarily like get that personally. Like I didn't

I didn't feel inferior because I was dark skin, even though I'm not saying that that wasn't the case. I'm just saying I didn't personally feel that at the time. But with all the other stuff that was with it with the, I guess the sex appeal part, I did feel that. That I did feel.

So, but I can't, I can't, honestly, I can't say that that didn't have anything to do with it. I'm hoping it didn't. I'm, I'm It's very unfortunate if it did, but I can't person say that. I think the reason people saw it in that way is because it has been an issue in the music industry and beyond. It's just within our society. It's been colorism is a big issue.

And it's really been brought to the forefront in 2020 and now 2021. For you personally, with your music career, has colorism been an issue? Yes. I've kind of been in Atlanta since I was probably about 15 or 16, and there's definitely been situations where they were picking, you know, lighter tone people against myself. So I definitely have felt inferior doing this. And I honestly didn't think, even though I was striving to do music and everything, I was actually in a space where I didn't really feel it was going to go far because of that. It wasn't going to go because of that. and sexism. Like I'm not an overly, you know, sexual person or whatever the case may be. And me being a dark-skinned female, I didn't think, I guess I didn't think I was going to excel,

I guess, as quickly as other women might have, be another right of tone. So following the show, because I contacted you on social media about this entire thing. So prior to the show, had you, you had kind of slowed down your, social, after the show, subsequently after the show, I said. You had kind of slowed down on

social media a little bit. You hadn't been on there. Had you, in a sense, given up on your dream because of colorism and sexism? I can't say that it didn't put a damper in things.

I will say it affected me a lot. I mean, I was still doing music, but but I wasn't, I guess I wasn't as confident in doing it. Like I, I don't know, I guess it kind of just, it was the whole thing has just been disheartening, you know, feeling like you always have to be second

because of something, you know, you have absolutely no control over. And people just, I guess, look at you in somewhat of a negative light because of my, you know, skin tone, nothing. I have any control over it. And, yeah, I slow down a bit due to some of those things. I'm sorry that you went through that and that you felt that way and other people put that on you to make you feel that way.

But how does it feel for you right now with the response that you're getting from people who are recognizing you? Right. And you are a beautiful, beautiful woman. Thank you. looking beyond that and recognizing you for your talent. How does that feel? That's probably the most amazing part about this.

I didn't, I mean, of course, like being an artist, it comes with an image and, you know, you have to, you know, look a certain way or whatever the case may be. But I wanted people to focus more on, you know, my voice, like me singing. I didn't want, you know, whatever was seen in that clip to be the focus point of my future as an artist. because, like, I can, you know, anybody can put on a wig and some makeup, you know, to look better or different, whatever the case may be. So the fact that now people are more focused on me singing

versus my skin complexion or whatever the case is, and that's just been amazing, honestly. It's really been a blessing. Have you had any contact with Just Brittany since all of this has happened? I did. She reached out to me. and just briefly we just basically said like there was no issues.

I didn't have any issues with her then, honestly. I didn't have any ill feelings towards her or, you know, anything that was said. But she just basically, you know, we just said that like there was no issues between us. Like it's all love. Like it wasn't, you know, no problems or anything. Are you glad that the video came out? Honestly, yes. I am.

Yeah. Yeah. I feel like that was something that needed to be seen, honestly. And being the fact that when it was first released on the show, you know, they really get as much recognition. But now that people are seeing this, like, you know, yeah, like now that people are seeing it and I guess they're seeing the truth or whatever the case may be, I'm very glad people saw it.

Are you, I guess do you kind of see it as a blessing in disguise? Because when you're, I'm not sure of the months that this, that signed was filming, but I'm assuming you didn't have contact with the outside world because during that same year, there were some really controversial and derogatory comments that Rick Ross made on the breakfast club about the women that he signs. I don't know. Are you familiar with that? Yes, I know I've heard bits and pieces of it, not a lot of it. Yeah, he basically was saying that he hasn't signed a woman for a reason that he felt like he would sleep with them or he would want something from them because he was giving them a certain opportunity.

I'm paraphrasing here, but that's the gist of it. Knowing that now, how does that make you feel about not being under Rick Ross's label? I guess that's a bit of relief I'm in this for the music So I guess that's another fish to fry If I was working with someone And having to worry about doing music And I'm so worrying about

You know, I guess them Looking at me In a certain way other than business So I guess I'm a bit relieved So what's next? What's next now? You said people reaching out Yeah

You got studio time booked. You got offers. We booked and busy. Like, what's popping now, sister? We out here? This has been very overwhelming, but yes, I am in the studio. I'm working on a project now, and I'm very excited. Who you're working with?

Tell us everything. Right now. Give us some. Tell us we need to. No, no. Hell no. And let's give us, like, the style of it. Like, yeah.

Yeah, come on. Um. You're making a diss song to all light skin women? No. I'm not going to do it. I'm here for it. I'm here for it. No, sir.

But yeah, just a couple of R&B songwriters and producers and stuff. So I'm excited. I'm excited for my future. And we are excited for your future too. Yes, we are. Thank you. And by the way, I just want to say something real quick.

It, uh, this isn't a, this isn't about bashing any it's about making sure that this erasure doesn't happen. Right. That's what it's really about. Like people, obviously, we black in this country, people have been trying to pit us against each other for the entire time that we've been here. That's, we're not going to get into that.

What we're making sure is that this amazingly talented woman right here feels seen and respected and has not been erased by any bullshit perceptions that date way back to back, who knows when. Right. So I'm happy that that was conquered in that instance right there. And can I just say kudos to you and Brittany for not falling into that either? You know what I mean?

Y'all were above it and it seems like y'all moved on. You support each other and whatever it is that you do, even to this day, no matter how you were feeling in that moment. So kudos to y'all for that. I think it would be dope if, you know, on this project to call Britney up. Y'all have y'all. Yo, man. Maybe we have to.

Maybe you. Maybe y'all get together on the track. You know what I mean? I don't know. I don't know. You know, go, this will be like a whole thing back in the day. Like the Crips and the Bloods made this song together and it was dope. Stop.

This could be the same type of thing. I'm just messing around. I'm just, but I'm happy that you're seeing and you're feeling in power sister. Thank you. And it worked out. Slow down, take it all in and protect your life. Yes, sir.

All right. Thank you for being here. No, before you leave, tell people what they can follow you on Instagram. We found us now. Okay, okay, okay. Y'all can follow me on Instagram at I underscore Kaya, I underscore K-A-I-Y-A. And y'all can also follow me on Twitter at the artist Kaya, the artist K-A-I-Y-A. There you go.

Follow Kaya. We're going to be on a look out for your sister. So, so happy that you joined us today on Higher Ler, and we appreciate you. Thank you for having me. No problem. Take care. Be safe. Thank you, y'all too.

Bye. Bye. Bye. This episode is brought to you by Prime. Obsession is in session. And this summer, Prime originals have everything you want. Steamy romances, irresistible love stories, and the book to screen favorites you've already read twice. Off campus, L. every year after, the love hypothesis, Sterling Point, and more.

Slow burns, second chances, chemistry you can feel through the screen. Your next obsession is waiting. Watch only on Prime. Transport your senses with Sol de Janeiro's limited edition perfume mist collection at Sephora. Sprits on lush notes of rainforest orchid and crisp seabreeze with Hefresco Paraiso. Embrace a floral and fruity scent inspired by Rio's nude beach with chiqui bikini or capture sun-kissed bliss with limonada gelada, where zesty Brazilian lemonade accord meets coconut milk and golden brown sugar. Don't miss Sol de Janeiro's limited edition perfume mist collection only at Sephora.

Rachel Man Did you happen to catch Real Time with Bill Maher this past week? I did. You watched it. Hmm. You watched it, you did.

Now, what did you think? What did you think of it? No, you go. You tell me what you thought about it. All right. So I was put on to through Bill Maher like a very interesting, what I find to be interesting,

new conservative slash libertarian voice. The guy's name is Camel Foster. I saw that, what happened was this. One of our thought warriors or somebody who follows me said, hey, Camel Foster on Bill Maher, you got to see it, you got to get at him, blah, blah, blah, blah. He's being an Uncle Tom or something like that. That was the message.

I don't mean to. So you weren't aware of him prior to. because I wasn't either. Wasn't aware of him prior to this. Wasn't aware of him. Because somebody put me on to watch, notify me to watch it as well. Right.

Charlemagne knows him well. I have, I was not familiar with him. He is the host of a podcast. I think the podcast is called the fifth column. It is. The fifth column podcast. He's the host of the podcast,

a podcast that I will be on this coming Wednesday. I'm going to go on his podcast. But I watched it and I got to admit, I watched his podcast. I watched him on real time. And I was inspired for a reason. I was inspired. I did not agree with anything Camel Foster said.

Very little of it did I agree with. And in some ways, I thought a lot of what he said was wrongheaded. And it was looking at society in a way that I feel like is counterproductive to black people. Absolutely. But there was a caveat to this. Okay. it was a legitimate disagreement. I didn't feel like I was at odds with a firebrand.

I didn't feel like I was at odds with someone who was a charlatan who was trying to lead people down a primrose path or stoking flames or riling people up to make himself a bigger name. It reminded me of a time when you would talk to people and have legitimate disagreements with them based on worldview, looking at the world in a different way. That offers the promise of some sort of compromise or some sort of sharing of information

that might in a way, might possibly lead to some type of positive outcome. It was a dazzling performance by someone who I really don't think reflected any of my values or any of my views, but I didn't get angry by watching it. And that was an unfamiliar feeling to me from having sort of been in the trenches, intellectually, if you will, for so, so long. It felt like somebody who I didn't agree with at all,

but that I could talk to. You know what I mean? And so that is why I thought it was such a fine performance from him on real time. That's interesting that you say that because I feel like, yeah, I mean, I didn't, I wasn't anger, you know, it didn't bring out like something that a Candace Owens would bring out of me. Yeah, I didn't feel like he was saying things just to say things for attention or to go viral. I didn't feel that way. However, I still felt like what he was saying was

problematic. And I felt like Bill brought him on his show because he didn't want someone who really was going to go against what he said. He was trying to bring someone on who was going to back up the things that he was saying about race. Like Bill never strays away from a controversial argument. He knew he was going to be talking about race. And I feel like he more so had Kamel doing the dirty work rather than him having to do it. He was asking him questions, almost seeming as if he knew what the answers were going to be. And I felt like that was a little bit problematic. Yes, people were calling him, you know,

Kamel, they were calling him a house slave. They were calling him an Uncle Tom. That's not necessarily how I felt. By the way, nobody says house slave. Somebody on Twitter said it. House nigger. Okay, well, house slave was the tweet I saw. Sorry.

If you're saying house slave, you're not using the right slurs. If it said it, I would have. Who says house? That must have been somebody. House slave. It was a tweet I saw. So I'm quoting the tweet I saw. Who says house, slave?

House nigger. Well, I said it. I mean, I said somebody's tweet. It wasn't me. I really didn't read what somebody said in the tweet. Right. But, but I just thought of my train of it. I'm sorry.

No, no, no, no. That's okay. But yeah, yeah, I still felt like he was extremely problematic in what he was saying in regards to race. I, it's problematic to me when you have somebody who's black, who speaks on a larger platform, because what happens is someone who does, who's white, who believes what he is saying, makes him the face of what, they become the face of almost what they're trying to push forward as well. Well, he said it, and he's black,

so it must be true for all blacks. And that's how I felt when I was watching him. He was saying, don't feel sorry for me. I'm an individual. You know, race is a subjective, allegation. I felt those claims were really problematic. And I don't want him speaking on behalf of black people because then you had Bill coinciding with that argument saying, well, I've asked my black friends and they feel this, which is, we, you know that's like the number one thing you don't say. My black friend said this. I'm married to a black person, whatever it may be. I just felt it was extremely, he might have been very eloquent in how he was saying it. It might not have made you upset, but you have to admit it was problematic.

Well, so here's the deal in terms of it being problematic. I feel like the term problematic is an interesting one in and of itself, because if problematic means that it's a problem to people who don't agree with it, then sure. if problematic means that it is hurtful, then no. So here's the thing. You don't think what he said was hurtful. Didn't hurt me.

It didn't hurt you. What about black people? I can't speak for all black people. I know you can't, but we do, we do speak in that way on the show. I know, but no, I speak in terms, do I think that what he says, do I feel like what he's saying is harmful or to black people? No, I think it's wrongheaded. I think it's, I think that it's wrongheaded. and I think that it's impotent for black people.

It doesn't solve any of black people's problems. So I'll tell you what I mean. So I think you look like you want to say something now. No, no, no, no. I was just going to say it is harmful if people take that ideology and start applying it. It is harmful if people say, oh, well, that's what Kamel said. And he's speaking on behalf of black people. And they take that and they actually live by that.

Then it does become a problem. It's not just living in that moment with that conversation. he had on that panel with Bill. Yeah, but that's neither here nor there because he doesn't have any control over that, right? If you, like it, well, some people would then look at Colin Kaepernick as being problematic because they think it's problematic to not stand for the flag. I happen to think it's heroic. Like, that's very subjective.

So it, so to me, in that particular case, that's almost not worth arguing. I think problematic, I think, I think, this is what I say is, this is what I say would be problematic. Problematic is if you get somebody on a show or something like that and they make a remark about violence against trans people or they make a joke about violence against black people. Those things are problematic because they normalize violence and they normalize things like that. Opinions that are wrong to me aren't necessarily problematic

even if they give cover to white privilege, which is what his opinion did, but I think that that's just the way it shakes out. So it, and this is why I say that. So of course his opinion gave cover to bill because we have to understand how white men view society. White men don't really view society

as if they're part of society. White men view society as if they're God, right? So they view society. They are like straight white men live in a society where they are exalted, protected, wholly observed, right, to where they see everything, they think that they created everything,

and that everything runs through them. You have to ask their permission for everything. Well, that's a God complex. And as liberal as Bill Maher thinks he is, he suffers from that. Absolutely. Right. So he suffers from a complex to where he doesn't want you telling him

how you see the world. He thinks he has a way. and that way he's been working just fine, and you're a glitch in that matrix. So when Kamel says, hey, I am this and I am that, and I don't need to hear this bill goes, finally. It's like when you're around one of your guys, I recently witnessed an argument between two people,

two black people, and there was a white person there, and one of the black guy says black, white people, black people need to get over slavery. As soon as he says that, he gives the white person that's in the argument, that's observing it, the license to say, I do feel like you guys, on slavery too much.

Mm-hmm. Without having understood the argument. Camel's point, when he was talking, was that looking at things through a racial lens is divisive. Right. That's what he said.

At the end of the day, because it's so divisive and it's so charged that it's a non-starter. That it doesn't, that you shouldn't look at things that way. I guess I just don't agree with the fact that having an opinion, you can have an opinion about something

and it can be problematic. Because if you start to act on what it is that the opinion that you believe or you start to say certain things, because, I mean, for example, what he was talking about on the show, he says he tends to agree with Donald Trump about diversity and inclusion training

because it causes people to be racially insensitive. It can increase that. And he thinks that it can make the workplace less harmonious. That's what he's, he's, so he's, diversity training. He's against right. Because that's what Donald Trump was trying to get rid of. He is against... I spoke with him about that.

Yeah. I spoke with him about that. Yeah. He is against I mean, if you're allowing people to harbor these covert or subconscious feelings about people about race, you have certain opinions or stereotypes against certain race

and you don't deal with it, then you act on those things. And then that's a problem. So it is problematic. If you act on your... If you act on a that you have. I think black people are lazy. That's how you feel. That's your opinion, right?

That's a statement. It's not necessarily harmful, but what if I start acting on that feeling? Well, because I think that they're lazy, I'm not going to hire them. Because I think that they're... Do you see what I'm saying? Then it becomes problematic.

Well, there's a difference, though. He didn't say that. So the difference is, if he were to say that, yeah, that would be problematic, but that wasn't said. So we have to understand that propagating the stereotype

about an entire race of people is of course problematic. But saying that you don't think that racism is, looking at society through a racial lens, it gets us anywhere in terms of outcomes, is just an opinion. And it's a wrong opinion in my point, but it is just an opinion, right? I think that you, that you make a leap from-

So it depends on what the opinion is. Is that what you're saying? What I'm saying is, if an opinion, like if an opinion in some way cast like an inherent evil onto people that they can't escape that that's just who they are, then yeah, of course that's a problem

because then that dehumanizes somebody. So he says racism is a subjective allegation. Yeah. What he means is he says that, and he used COVID as an example. And if you listen to what he said, he'll say it better. He used COVID as example.

He goes, he's heard it over and over again that COVID disproportionately affects black and brown people, but the reality is that COVID doesn't disproportionately affect black and brown people. It disproportionately affects people that are living in certain urban settings, and those people happen to be black and brown people, right? So he thinks it's wrongheaded to cast COVID out as a racial killer when solutions, are easier to come by if you look at what he thinks

is the data that proves there's a certain segment of American society that is affected by COVID and we should look at the things that make those people what they are. See, the only problem with that to me is if it, to me,

in some way implies that all the black and brown people decided one day we'll move to the ghetto. That there wasn't, that there wasn't generations and generations that we spoke about this. Generations and generations of intentional, and I'm just going to speak on behalf of black people, intentional actions that led black Americans to lead the lives that they lead. Now, not accidental things, but intentional things from the beginning of black American existence

in America. Hey, we intentionally make you slaves. Then we intentionally impose things where you can't vote. Then we intentionally redline you. Then all of these things are done intentionally. And we're not even getting to microaggressions or inherent things to where the otherness of who you are stops you from being completely absorbed into American society. And so I think looking at like looking at America or looking at people as numbers and figures is not just a less compelling way of viewing society, compelling for all kinds of reasons. But it actually subtracts the main thing that this argument need, the main thing that. the main thing that this argument needs to have, which is the human element to it. Like people aren't just numbers and figures,

their emotions, their generational trauma, and they're all of these things. And you just can't do it that way. And I think it's a disservice to a lot of the black people that fought against some of these things to do it that way.

And him and I can have that argument, right? We can have that argument. I don't mind having that argument. I don't mind somebody who says, look, I have all of this stuff and blah blah, blah, blah, and all it is. I don't mind having that argument.

argument. But I can't argue what I've been arguing with people for the last four to five years, which is for my humanity. Like that's not an argument. That's a war. Right. And it was good for me to have a back and forth with someone and it was just about ideas. It wasn't about whether or not I'm a person. So that's to me why I thought, I mean, look, Bill, like Bill Maher is a guy who is sick of hearing about this shit. Yeah, he pretty much said that. Right. He's sick of hearing about it.

Like, he's sick of hearing about it. What I would say is, there have been many independent studies that have been done about sort of disparities in hiring practice, disparities in hiring practices, disparities in wage, disparities in all of these things

that exist inside of a workplace. If those things go away, then the programs and the training can go away too. So obviously you need the training. So there was more to be said. Well, to me, I mean, look. And no, I agree with you. There was more to be said.

Yeah. So if you like, if you go to a bunch of, if you go to a bunch of guys, right, forget about race. Let's make it about gender. If you go to a bunch of guys to have to sit through a sexual harassment seminar at work and you ask them how they feel about the sexual harassment seminar after, they're not going to. to tell you that they felt amazing about it. Nobody wants to hear that there's a specific way that you have to talk to your female coworkers. Nobody wants to be lectured.

Nobody wants to be told. Not even me. The bleeding heart liberal, no, I feel like I know how to talk to women. I feel like I know all of these things. And if you ask me, if you take a servant, it doesn't mean we don't need it. Doesn't mean that it doesn't make the women in the office feel better that at least people know what they're not supposed to be doing.

If you're a woman listening to that, you might just need to know what it is that you, like what it is that you should be able to expect not to happen in the workplace. Because that also can be, you know, confusing for people. Yeah. I need to hear Kamel, maybe I need to listen to his podcast. I need to hear more from him

and not him answering Bill Maher's questions. I think you're saying. I think you disagree. I mean, look. Yeah, I mean, I didn't have, I wasn't like, oh my gosh, you know what I mean? Like, I wasn't like deeply offended. I just was kind of like, huh, I don't agree with what you said. And I do think a little bit of it as problematic, which I said already before.

But, yeah, I got a lot of messages that people wanted us to talk about this on the podcast. And I didn't feel as enraged as some of the people who wrote me. But I had a problem with it. So there's something else. I mean, the thing that bothered me the most actually wasn't even that. It was the comparison of, so there was something that he said, he compared the insurrectionist at the White House, of course, to the BLM riders and everyone's done this. And he talked about how he said BLM is a very specific political movement and it's rooted in Marxism and it's rooted in all of these different things. We kind of have to understand how some of those things work.

I'm not going to speak for the roots of BLM and Marxism and whatever. I'm also not going to speak to how hypercapitalism has affected the American worker and the wage growth here in this country. And whether or not places, because him and I talked at length about places in Appalachian, I'm not going to talk about whether or not globalism and hypercapitalism, how well that that's affected those people, right? So I think just like elections have consequences, markets have consequences too on either side of it, right? Yeah.

I think that when people compare the BLM marches, and he said something, he said that he went and looked at the fact that people were marching in Portland. And he looked at the statistics from police involved shootings and incidents in Portland. Oh, yeah. And that Portland doesn't have a problem with this police, so it made no sense that they were out there marching. well then if you use that logic then he said there's no genocide on black people

is what he's I believe that either he said that or Bill said that I don't think there's anyone at the hands of the police that's what he was saying I don't I don't think there's any genocide on black people at the hands of police genocide is a gigantic big word right his word his word is what he is genocide is a gigantic big word I think that they're I think that black people are police targets

I think that the evidence bears that out. I think that black communities are over-policed. I think the police training and the institution of policing isn't steeped up in public safety. It is too steeped in law and order. And because of those things, somebody has to lose and the people that lose are us. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely. So for me, for me, period, right?

I look at I look at what he said with the BLM marches and I think that makes sense except for the fact that you leave out the part where the entire world because those marches didn't just happen here that happened all over the world

watched a man executed like in front of them they watched it right and it's a reaction to not that not just that but a lot of other things and it's a reaction to a real reality a real relationship that those people have with their police.

They haven't been killed, but they die smaller little deaths. Right. When the police stop them, profile them, harass them. And so they can believe that the cops are there to kill them. Right.

So all of those things, like if you break people down the statistics and numbers of figures, then you're sort of doing this weird humanity sabermetrics. Like in baseball, where everything is, that's not a player,

it's an out, it's not a strong arm, it's a walk. And you just can't do that with people. Right. So I think that's the biggest problem I have with him. Look, the entire internet thought it was problematic. He was getting it the entire time.

So it just for me personally, it wasn't. For me personally, I thought, here's a, here's a foil that I can have. This is somebody who I can go back and forth with. I bet though, too, when you talk to him privately, and I'm sure they're going to do the same thing when you, when you podcast with him, that you can have a, bigger conversation. He was on a panel on Bill Maher's panel answering

pretty much his questions speaking in a certain context. So I feel like if I heard him talk more, maybe I wouldn't be what the internet was. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, look, I think I was expecting to have more of an issue with it. And I

think that I didn't. In terms of Bill, it'll be interesting to see how Bill does this as Bill sorts kind of sorts as he moves into his grotesque phase as I've watched Bill Maher

and I still will continue to watch Bill Maher since I was in college and I've got some of the the best information on sort of my political theory and how I look at the world through guests on there I've been put on books, all kinds of things but as Bill moves into the

there's an inevitability that happens to most rich white guys and Bill's moving into an inevitability now He's crankier. He's sick of the bullshit. He feels like the target's on his back now. And he's raging against the dying of the light. Yeah.

And I think guys, whether they try to or not, guys like Camel give Bill space. Yeah. That was very evident in watching it. Very much stuff. Yeah, they give Bill space. They give him some space to be like, hey, a lot of this complaining y'all are doing.

Like Bill said something like He said on the show He was like You know they talk about issues They go on inside of these communities But they don't talk about I'm just going to say it frankly obesity Basically linking

Being black to being obese Okay well let's let's just Let's just stay right there Let's just talk about that for a second So There's two ways that you can look at that There's a way that that you look at that and you say, okay,

are black people obese because we're just like naturally fat, lazy slabs? Or you look at societal conditions that lead to obesity. Societal conditions that, like food deserts are like, you know, access to whole foods, how much whole foods costs, how the quality of food that you have, and all of those things. there's certainly a cultural element that in terms of diet. But then where does that culture come from? Where does the culture of frying and smothering and eating the entrails of pigs come from? Why would people do that?

Why do you need food to comfort you in the first place? Why are you eating away your pain? Why are you drinking? Why are you medicating? Right. Is there a larger story to be told about some of these things? We're not talking about sickle cell. We're not talking about something that we're just naturally more susceptible to

or hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, which is something else, a specific enlargement of the heart, that naturally occurs more in black people, right? We're not talking about any of these things. We're talking about some other things, right? Things that are societal. And if you just say, hey, well, Maybe it's disproportionately affecting you because more of you guys are fat.

Dude, you're not telling the whole story. I mean, I don't know what to tell you, dog. Like, you're not, like, you're not telling the whole story. And, like, you're not. And you can go and look at any place that has these same things. You're going to find these types of people. But don't sit up there and fix your mouth to, like, quietly say, you know, young niggas is a little heavier.

Like, it's not that simple. Right. But to be honest with you, now. you give people quarter to say shit like that. You know? That's kind of the deal. It seems like a lot of the deal of what Bill is saying, or at least in this episode that I saw,

is that stop making race the excuse for certain things. Yeah. And that goes along with what you were saying. So, I mean... That's what he was saying, too. Yeah, I know. I mean, like, he's basically saying, hey, don't look at things through a racial lens.

It's divisive. It's this. It's just so amazing to me that, it's just so interesting. That's like saying I don't see color. That's why I don't understand why you don't see how... Oh, like speaking of that. No, go ahead.

We got to, that's the next topic. I don't see color. We forgot about that. We forgot about somebody made a video. Oh, they said they didn't see color. Are we going to talk about her again? Do you want to? You don't want to?

Let's do it. No, it fits. It flows. This is all for you. This is all for you. All right, real quick. for me. Real, because black woman,

real quick, we take a break, and we're going to do a whole debate series between Camille and, and Rachel Lindsay. I can't wait. I can't wait. It's going to be good. This is the year of A,

of Rachel the Soldier, Rachel to Soldier. Rachel Soldier. The Rachel Soldier, the racial, the racial soldier. Make him stop. The racial shoulder. The racial shoulder. Soldier. She's a race soldier.

Wow. Rach. Danny Lay apologized. You saw it. Air quotes. Apologized. I saw it. Hold on real quick.

Run the video. And then to call me a color is to call me a racist. It's like, yo. How? I'm dating a whole chocolate man. I have beautiful melanin friends. It's like, y'all really took it there when it's like, Nah, like, let's...

It's not about that. That's not where I was coming from. I don't see my skin as a privilege. I never looked at myself as better than anybody more superior. It wasn't even about that. It was just me making a cocky-ass song. Like, I'm sorry. Like, I offended you guys.

Like, it was not my intention at all. Okay, that's what Danny Lace. She finally made a video about it. Rach, your thoughts? I mean, listen, she started trending even more after she apologized. I'm using air quotes. when it comes to this. I don't know who her PR is. I don't know who is leading her. I don't know who is giving her the okay.

That this is the route that you need to take when it comes to explaining yourself for your lack of knowledge in creating a song, which she said it wasn't a song. I was just vibe and I was just filling myself. You know, that's what my man likes. That's what he likes. That's what he likes. Nowhere in her statement did she recognize the issue in using the term yellow bone. Nowhere did she recognize the fact that it's problematic. Did she recognize she did talk about, oh, I wasn't trying to be hurtful towards darker skin women, but it's like she doesn't get it. And I said this on the last podcast. She doesn't get it because she doesn't have to get it. She is not a black woman. She doesn't understand the struggle of being a black woman.

She doesn't understand the complexity of being a black woman. She doesn't understand the issues that are within our society. Let me tell you how I know she further doesn't get it because on her Instagram, She reposted what Charlemagne said as if she was like, see, he gets it. I don't know. Did you hear what he said? Did you see what he said? Him and I argued about this at length.

I stopped listening. I stopped listening. It's on her Instagram page. He had it under the rumor report, and he was basically saying, I didn't see why people were up in arms. I don't understand why people are so upset. I don't get it. She just made a song.

And did he compare it to brown skin girl, fiance's song? I didn't listen to what he said, but. But me and him certainly talked about it. And he certainly said he made all little sports. I don't understand him. Like, to me, I feel like I've heard him make arguments on the other side. I don't understand how he can't see how women are upset. Black people are upset, but specifically black women are upset.

You're not a black woman, yet you are using phrases that pertain to black women to put black women down. And by you saying the phrase, I don't see, I don't see that. I don't see color. I don't know if she said that exact phrase, but that's pretty much what she said. I don't see it and I have melanated friends. You don't get it. That's not the response.

Please stop. I'm not one to say you need to cancel someone, but I would at least thought, I would have at least thought that the third time that you decided to speak out, that you would have something of substance to say towards the matter and you would actually be apologetic for offending black women. But instead, you decided to victimize yourself

and make excuses and compare, like make it okay because you have darker skin friends or you have a chocolate man, but hold up, wait a minute, sis, you don't see color. You know what I'm saying? Like you just, it's, it really bothered me that she continues to talk. I wasn't, I'm not really into her before. I'm definitely not going to be into her after. I don't even want to hear about it anymore at this point because it continues to get worse, the more and more that she talks about it. And it's offensive. I was personally offended by what she said again. Yeah. So a couple things. Me, and Charlemagne went back and forth because I just wanted to make sure that, because he,

I don't know, I think he has some people in his life who are maybe on the other side of this, who, who, I think he has friends that he talks to about it and that maybe shape his worldview a little bit. And so that was his whole thing, but him and I, we literally argued for like three hours on the phone. So he's like, I don't understand what the big deal is. And I'm like, basically my thing is black women are saying that there's a deal. First of all, I understand what the big deal is. I understand kind of what it looks like. But black women are saying it's a big deal.

And it's a big deal to them. You know, we talked with Kaya a little while ago. And so if it's a big deal to them, it's a big deal to me. But secondly, everyone knows how I feel about this. This is your space. This is like this particular issue means way, all I can do in this situation is take up oxygen. this particular issue is it's for you. It's for me to be an advocate and an ally,

but this colorism in this way doesn't affect black men the same way it affects black women. And I think that was the problem with what he did. No, it was, same thing I was talking about, about Camille. You're giving people the space to hold on to what you're saying and use that as an excuse to continue in that way. And that's what I feel like he did when he said on his platform, hey, I don't see what the big deal is.

How can you not? Are you not listening to what people are saying? We just sat here and had a woman talk about how she was discouraged from continuing her craft because of the way she felt she was belittled or I shouldn't say belittled, but she was she was discriminated against because her complexion was not the same as somebody else's. She almost stopped doing what she loves to do because of how she felt. Colorism is real. It affects people. When you are treated a certain way just because the color of your skin is a certain way, and you can't see that that's been an issue in our society and have we been pitted against one another and our definition of what's beautiful, even what's right, has been defined by the complexion of our skin. How can you not see that a person who's not even black is using one of those phrases and it affects black women? And you're you don't see that it's problematic. I just don't understand how somebody like him can't get it or whoever else doesn't understand why it's wrong. And for Danny Lay herself, I don't understand.

I really wish she would have said, you know what, I was wrong, and I am sorry that I offended a group of women. Obviously, I have a lot to learn about colorism. I know that it is real. I know that what I said is harmful in a lot of ways, and this is deeply rooted, and it's a phrase that I will no longer use

because I'm not a black woman because somebody even said to me that apparently during BLM, she said she wasn't black. She, yeah, she... Now she is? She held herself out to be an ally. I don't know if she ever said she was black.

Has she ever said she was black? Even if she hasn't. She says she was an ally, meaning she was not one of us. So why are you using phrases against us? Phrases that are used in a... wrong in a negative way towards darker skin women. I just, I just really wish she would have taken accountability for it because I feel like it could have gone a really long way. Even if she's like,

I don't necessarily understand it. I'm going to do the research. I'm going to figure it out. But I offended people and that's what matters. That's what matters. You're like, you're all up within our culture. You're dating, as you say, a chocolate man who has chocolate women in his family and you don't see how you, what you did offended them. It's not me being sensitive. It's not me being a hater, it's that what you did is deeply rooted within our own community. And if you can't get that that's detrimental,

what you did is detrimental to black women, then I don't have anything for you. Or for people who don't get it. We'll punctuate. We'll leave that right there. She said what she said. I'm with it. I'm with it.

Man, no quarter for that type of shit. I'm with it. I am all the way with it. And I can tell you it's a matter of time before my good brother, one of my closest friends in the world, Shaliman de God, comes on this podcast, this podcast. And y'all can go at it. Rip his fucking headtop off, Rach.

Do your thing. We live for it. I'm not here to do all that. I'm just here to have a simple conversation. Oh, don't worry. I'm not. I would never hold back. The racial.

You're right. The racial soldier. The racial soldier. The racial soldier. That's what you are. I wish I would have kept listening because I was trying to hear what Angela was trying to say. And I think I started listening.

And then I just stopped. I should have heard. I'm very curious as to what her response was. Wait, wait. So you're telling me that it came time for the black woman to speak and you just stop listening. Wow. I think I did. Wow.

Oh. I'm not going to say why. Oh, you're not going to say why. Oh, now you're about to disser. No, I'm not. I just, I just, oh, whoa. No, we got to take a break. Stop trying to get stuff started.

We're trying to get stuff started. We're putting brown against light again, man. No, I'm not. See, as soon as Trump left, now we got to kill each other. I knew it. I knew it. Okay, so today is Monday, January 25th, but this podcast comes out tomorrow,

and that will be January 26. that marks one year since we lost Kobe Bryant, which just seems it's amazing one year that Kobe's been in eternity. We never really talked about it on the show before, but...

Yeah. Kobe Bryant was my athletic hero. Really? Yeah. Yeah. He was... Because, like, he's only two years older than me.

So I watched every dribble. Mm-hmm. He was one of those guys that you didn't have to like tell me about the times when he was really great or the times where he struggled or the stuff that he went through or anything like that. I was right there for it all. And you watch the ups and the downs and all of those things. And then, you know, you watch him come on the other end of it. Obviously, Kobe's life in his career wasn't without great controversy, great peril. And, you know, people have varying different degrees of thoughts.

I think watching the man that he had become, the father that he had become, the person that he had become was incredibly inspiring. Watch some of the things he overcame and watching the way he approached his craft was something that endeared him to me. And it was for me one of the most shocking. days of my life. It was. Seriously. One of the most shocking days of my life. Oh, absolutely. You were here. You were in L.A. I was. I was. I can't even imagine what it would have been like to know what he meant to you, to have those feelings and then also to be here. I can't imagine being in the city. I was in

Miami. It was a Sunday and I was preparing for football. So I'm all day football. That's it. And I remember getting a text from the other people I was doing ESPN radio with at the time who said, hey, do we have to change the entire show? And I was like, why would we, in light of the news, if the news is true, do we have to change the entire show? Nobody was reporting it on TV at that moment. Right. And I remember looking, I was like, what is he talking about? He must have said Kobe, and I remember Googling it. I remember seeing it. I remember going into Brian, I tell him Brian, and Brian just started crying. Yeah. And didn't believe me. Brian's a big, big basketball. fan, big, big fan between Jordan and Kobe.

And we were, we just sat in from the TV and were very emotional all day. I remember I didn't want to do radio, had to do radio that night. First thing they say is Rachel talked about Kobe, and I just burst out crying on the radio. And the thing for me is, I'm younger than Kobe, but growing up playing basketball, that is who I admired. I was a little too young for Jordan. LeBron is my age. But Kobe is who it was like, I want to be like Kobe.

That's who I had, whose posters I had all on my wall growing up as a kid. So, and then, you know, things happened and I fell off a little bit. But I remembered what he meant to me growing up in that moment. And it was very, very emotional. And, you know, seeing what Kobe did, just like seeing him, like you said, become a family man and being so involved with his daughters and specifically being involved. in women's sports and women's basketball and being so supportive of the WNBA and just like grooming young women

for the next generation when it comes to basketball. I just, Kobe meant a lot to me growing up. I still meant a lot to me, you know, up until the day that he passed. And yeah, just thinking about this time last year, it was a, it was a very surreal day. And I never met Kobe. I never had the pleasure.

I never did either. But it felt like there are a couple of people that did that to me when they passed away. Michael, Whitney, Prince, and Kobe. And I never would have thought Kobe did. But I think because of the shock of the, we didn't see him grow old. He seemed to just be stepping into a whole new chapter. And there was so much more for him to do. So the shock of how it happened, he wasn't alone.

several people lost their lives on that day. It was just devastating at all. And it still stings a year later. Still stings. Still stings. So, you know, we just want to take time and acknowledge that that it's going to be something that's going to be talked about. It's going to be something that is going to move a lot of people.

You know, the Lakers went on and were able to win the NBA championship last year, which got a lot of people excited and got really got the city to kind of think. about and contextualize really the life of its greatest basketball hero. Magic Johnson it's its greatest basketball figure. Kobe Bryant is its greatest basketball

hero. Those are two different things. So yeah, just like rest in peace, thoughts and prayers to Vanessa and her children and the entire family, the families of everyone who lost people that day. And we just thought we would say that before we got out of here.

Look, Thursday, whew, not going to miss it. Not going to want to miss Thursday as we do what we do every Friday, actually, is where the podcast comes out. We roast weenies. We do not. We do it together. We roast weanies.

I am so excited tonight for The Bachelor. So excited. I can't tell you how excited I am. It's the beginning right now. I'm turning the fire on low. By the time Friday comes, it's going to be a well-roasted weenie. Might be burnt.

The wini might be burnt. The witty might be black and than Matt James is. Who knows? By the time Friday comes, who knows? Who knows? But you're not going to want to miss it. I'm telling you. All right.

Tell you the thing caps off, but do not stop learning. High Learning is over for today. I am Van Lathen. I'm Rachel Lindsay, and I am not participating in the roast. Goodbye. Goodbye.