Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay - "New Face of Hollywood,” Boosie’s Pardon Play, and Rachel’s Finest

Episode Date: July 17, 2026

Van and Rachel react to a problematic Hollywood Reporter article and some Christian blacklash for KevOnStage, before discussing Boosie’s failed efforts to get a pardon and recent killings at the hands of ICE. Then Rachel gives her list of “top five finest men.” (0:00) Intro (24:38) New face of Hollywood (46:08) KevOnStage upsets some fans (1:05:27) Boosie’s pardon play (1:17:32) Memphis Bleek and community (1:34:48) ICE shootings (1:54:24) Rachel’s finest (2:02:18) Remembering a community hero Hosts: Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay Producers: Donnie Beacham Jr. and Jade Whaley Social Producer: Bernard Moore Video Supervision: Chris Thomas and Jacob Cornett Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Yo, you know, you're all, Warriors. What is up? How Learning is on and Zyvan Lansing Jr. And it's me, Rachel and Lindsay. We're here on Friday. It's Friday morning.

It's 8 a.m. This podcast is coming out a little bit later on today. Was that communicated to the people? Yeah, I was posted on social. I didn't look at the comments. Yes, I posted it. I posted it. Yeah, you did have a little bit of a country accent.

Are Van and I rubbing off on you? I posted it. I don't know. You know I'm supposed to be going to Dallas, so. That's not. the country, man. Dallas is a big city. Hey, you know Dallas?

Don't let, we have our own accent in Dallas for sure. Yeah, I definitely have their own accent. But Dallas is, I think Dallas is the biggest landlocked city in the country. I think that's true. I'm gonna be, I've never thought about that. No, somebody brought it up when we were doing, we were down there for hip-hop homicides.

We stayed in the hotel, disgusting hotel. And outside of, we were talking to somebody and said, Dallas is the biggest, biggest landlocked city. And let me look this up. Landlock. My guess would have been Chicago, but I guess that is Chicago landlocked with Lake Michigan?

I don't know if you can call Chicago landlocked. Oh, here it is. Depending on how you measure size, the answer is very between Phoenix, Arizona, by population, and Indianapolis, Indiana by land area. Hmm. So maybe they were wrong. Maybe they lie on.

But Houston is landlocked. Is it? Yeah. Is Houston landlocked? It is. By city limits, Dallas is, oh, Dallas is a little smaller, but the whole Dallas metro area is probably like four million people or something.

You're including Fort Worth? Yeah, only outsiders do that. Oh, here's the deal. By metropolitan area, so apparently it's not only outsiders, the Metroplex is the largest landlocked metropolitan area in the U.S. with the population exceeding 8.4 million people. That's what they were trying to say.

Yeah, if you include Fort Worth, sure. 40 Worth, nobody includes Fort Worth. What goes on to Fort Worth? Fort Worth is up and coming. I mean, not up and coming. It really is. They've really built out their doubt, like around the downtown area by TCU.

I think the Taylor Sheridan of it all helps. I mean, if you watch Landman, it's all Fort Worth. Like, they're constantly going to Fort Worth. Private clubs, restaurants, all that. It says Houston is not landlocked because it is connected directly to the ocean via the man-made Houston Ship Channel. This is a 50-mile waterway that allows ocean-going vessels and massive cargo ships to reach the port of Houston. So Houston is not landlocked. So that's out of here.

It's out. Do you like Broadway? A little bit. I think it's cool. Last Broadway play, you say. I can't remember. Okay. I saw two and one years.

Are you a play person or more than musicals? Do you mean plays on Broadway or do you remain, do you mean just even here? Even here like at the Pantages and stuff like that. So like, I don't know. Are you a theater person? I saw a wicked there. I saw a couple of things there. Okay.

Okay. Why? What's up? So. Hey, we just did a whole part of the podcast that we cut out and we're going to put it back in Monday. We have something very important. Can you tease what we're going to talk about? Like, can I tell you I would just say, Rachel just got me right.

because it's very serious issue happening and I was joking too much about it. So we're going to have a larger conversation on Monday about what? Just Broadway for all the theater fans out there. I don't know if you guys have seen Catch the Jellicle Ball. It's outstanding. It's amazing.

Spotlighted at the Tony Awards, won a lot of a Tony Awards. But, and it was announced, oh, it's extended through 2027. Everyone's excited. And then the announcement came out last week that actually the last show is August 7th. So not even, even a month left for you to go see it. A lot of people are talking about it,

about why this show in particular, after being rewarded so much, is now going to be taken off Broadway. And it's just like a bigger issue of Broadway and theater and all of that. So anyways, we'll talk about it. They're being racist? I'm not going to jump there.

We'll talk about it. Okay. I mean, if they're being racist, they're being racist. Who isn't being racist right now? Oh, man. Have you been eating lettuce? I have a lot of friends who are like, I've had a salad every day this week.

they don't care you know see that meme that's like on my way to get the diarrhea salad so I can lose these last 15 pounds that's insane that's what everybody's saying you've been eating lettuce I mean yeah not really

like I like a little gym salad I recently figured out what a little gym why they call it a little gym because I didn't understand so people would say you'd see it be a little gym salad and you'd be like this was crisp and delightful

like why is it a little gym I ask a weeker and she goes Oh, because a little gym is a different type of lettuce leaf. It's phenomenal. But I have to say that like gastrointestinal distress is a huge deterrent to me. And things overall. Like if I- You have issues?

You have GI issues? Not really. But if I do something and it makes me nauseous, I can never do it again. I remember the nauseousness. So just- I understand. understand that wholeheartedly. Gastrointestinal is distress.

I think it's actually probably the chocolate companies and the fucking the processed food companies that are doing this, hey, you can't eat it. It's nothing, something bad happening because we have an incompetent government. But when I looked at that, I'm like, that made me not every time I see a salad,

I think about being on the sugar. Really? I've still been eating it. Now, I saw a report yesterday that said that maybe the suppliers from California, which is interesting because most of the cases are in Michigan, not here. So I don't know if that's true or not

because they're trying to figure out where it's coming from to stop it, but it hasn't stopped me from eating. And nothing's happening. I stopped like berries. No berries. But I do have grapes down there because you're supposed to only eat peeled and cooked. But can't you eat like,

can't you wash the shit at like 150 degrees or something like that and it'll be fine? Boil well, wash it. Well, yes, you can boil water and wash it. Well, yes, you can boil water to wash it. You know, I have this little thing because I got to pour warm water over the Bozily-Wosily's food because he- Oh, he eats that kind of food?

Well, so the Bozily-Wosierly has, even his kibble, put some warm water over the kibble. If you don't do that, he'll look at you like, will you prepare my food properly, please? Will you do the things that you need to do? And then you take the just food for dogs. you make a and then you microwave that a little bit for him take it out put it over the top of it serve him his meal as he waits

he waits like this for it so but so I have this thing that like or we have this thing that like just boils the water really quickly boils the water super quickly and so then after that you can just use that if you want to just pour it over your grapes and wash your grapes up and then you won't get the bubble guts

I wonder what that would do to grapes like you think that would impact the grapes pouring boiling water over it I think it probably will. But like it is, it's like, I think something bad will happen. But like, look, you ever know, do you, have you been paying attention to how in the dirt we are? In what way? Just overall, like, I don't know if you guys.

Like America? Just period. I don't know if you guys realize, but things are really in the dirt. Like we, I've talked about this a little bit before. But so no matter where you are. Some fuck shit is going on in a major way, though. Like if you're living in the New York area right now, you're breathing in smoke from Canadian wildfire flyers.

If you're around the country, you can't eat lettuce and special grapes because you're going to get the bubble. Berries, lettuce, yeah. All types of shit like that. Before the next track starts, have you ever wondered, who are the people in my old family photos?

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Visit ancestry.ca slash beginners for details. Terms apply. We're going to have a special El Nino this year, weather-wise. I know, but I feel like they've been saying that all year. Is it happening already? This Nino going to be different. So when is it? It's coming.

It's coming. That nigga comes. I never really understood the first El Nino, if I'm going to be honest. I feel like it was just a term everybody kept throwing out there. It's a special pressurized

type of meteorologist situation and it becomes El Nino. But this one is so bad, we might have to call this one the nigger. Why got to be the nigger? Because it's, you know what I'm saying? Coming for you.

Why instead of like El Nino, it can't be like, instead of the boy, make it the man. You could. But I just look at it like that nigger coming. Okay. That's what's going to happen to all the other. So just everything, so

and when we look at this in the dirt era that we're in. You need to mention what happened in L.A. Huh? Yesterday. What? Oh. Waterman breaks. Destroy Sunset Boulevard.

And Mike, my friend's car is completely underwater. SUV, all the way to the top. And the water ran for four more hours after that. And look, these things you guys might think, oh, whatever, this confluence of things is all because of human dysfunction. See, like, you know, man, like mercury and retrograde.

Can we talk of mercury? It's early, man. Can we talk about mercury? Before I get to that, you know, the water main breaking, that's infrastructure problem. The El Nino situation, that is climate change. Bubble gut lettuce. That's mismanagement at the top levels. of the United States health infrastructure,

like the wildfires, once again, human, all of this stuff, dirt, dirt, dirt, dirt, dirt, measles and all of this. I don't think we are going to be able to properly contextualize the ramifications of the anti-science and progress wing of modern humanity and what they are seeking to do. I saw a billboard on sunset about Little House on the Prairie. Oh, yeah, I saw that came back. They brought it back.

Yeah, on Netflix. They brought a little house on the Prairie Brad. That's how they want you. They want you guys driving around in a wagon, dying of cholera, worshiping the Lord. That's what they really want. Like that is, I'm telling you right now, is legitimately people sitting around that truly believe that life was never. never better than it was in like 1875.

People who have no idea what life was actually like back then. Revisionist, the good old days. You don't even know what it was like. By the way, just before we get off this, everyone is wrong about everything all the time. No one is right. Okay. I'm definitely not right. So don't think that I'm right.

Everyone is wrong. So it's a bunch of people like talking about how, oh, they're going to bring back a little House on the Prairie and it's going to have all of this. Little House on the Prairie was woke as shit. They had Arnold's older brother, Todd Bridges, right? What was Arnold's older brother name again? That's right. But what was his name on the show?

Willis. Willis? What you're talking about Willis? They had Willis on there talking like James Baldwin. Do you ever, do you remember this? I did not watch Little House on the Prairie. Oh my God. Willis was on there.

was like, am I a nigger? Like, he looked around the class and he was asking questions about his identity as a black man. Michael Landon was shocked. Play the clip. Put the clip in so y'all know that Little House on the Prairie was looking around, like asking societal

questions. He was like, hey, can I do this because I was a nigger. I was a nigger is what he was asking on the show. It's like, I'm not saying that the show was evolved, but I'm saying, that the show dealt with all of these issues of being a good neighbor,

having a family that was dealing with stuff. Were they colonizers? Yes. But the show was trying to dig into some shit. And now if you had the same thing that they did in the 70s or 80s or whatever it was that Little House was rocking, if you did the same thing right now,

if you had a black kid in a school asking about his identity as a black person in this all-white world, they would swear that it was woke, but we've been doing this. Do you know that Eartha Kitt played Helen and Troy? Oh, no, I did not know that, actually.

Y'all was so dumb. Who are you talking to? Do you know who I'm talking to? My damn it. Orson Wells cast Eartha Kitt as Helena Troy. Niggas, I just stop doing this. I want to break everything.

Okay. I think they dated too. Did they date? I think there might have been a little song on, aren't there? Earth was that shit, man. Orson kind of was too Orson Orson had something to him

He was the man a little bit He was the man a little bit So but earth the kid Standard Abusing Rumman Am I They denied rumors What they were lovers But there was a lot going on

Because you know He called her the most exciting woman In the world Whenever a white man I saw talking like that You know what that means Like when a white man is really Especially a white man

Of that He didn't just go She is so fine A white man in that age She's the most exciting woman in the world. She illuminates my life a different way. I want to go to Paris and Rome with her. What else you got going on?

What did you do yesterday? I filmed something yesterday. I can't say. I don't think I could say. You can't talk about me? I don't think so. But it was fun. It was fun.

Like an all-day thing? It was an all-day thing. I'm so tired, like mentally and physically. But it was really fun. Can we try to guess? like what genre of stuff it is I won't want to blow it but can we just kind of like

television show? Yes. Oh, special so reality or scripted? Yeah, reality show. Which I haven't done in like 10 years, almost 10 years? Hell it, Daddy. That's fun. You're on a reality show. Not like on a, just like one episode. It's like a one time thing. Competition? Yeah.

Ah, it's going to be fun. Just a one time thing which I thought I've never done a competition thing. This could be fun. And I really did. Made some new friends, met some new people. Did they have great food? There's a food. There's something with food. Sure. You mean like, in what way? Did the reality show have great food? No. It wasn't great food. Was there dancing on the show? No, it's not like that. It's not one of the, it's not, it's not, it's not anything that people, it's like a one-time thing. Okay, that's fine. That's amazing. Would you have fun though? I had a lot fun. But I am tired.

Yeah, last it all day. Last it all day. I'm talking up at 6 a.m. Didn't get home till, not up at 6 a.m. Up at 5. I had to leave at 6. Home at 8.45. Yeah, for a bunch of sitting around, I bet. They weren't sitting around. No, they were working us.

Get these productions going. They were working us. You've never done something like that where you have to do like, it's not even just what you film. Then it's, okay, we got to do your OTFs. We got to do your, yeah, like, You have to like describe what it is that you're doing and talk about it and all. Like, so it's an all day thing. I've done it seven times.

What did you do? I've done a lot of different stuff. I've been on reality shows as a judge and stuff like that. Which ones? Like, you know, some of them, there was one that we did that was shot at Kevin Hart's old studio out in the valley. And I can't remember what it was. It was for BET, but Zay Tovin was there. almost like a making of the band type thing.

I've done like a ton of stuff like that. And what was your role? I can't even remember now. I think like it's like legitimately I've like obviously there was like the revolt bet on black thing which is an all day thing. Oh yeah, you did do that. Like I hosted hip hop homicides all of that stuff. But you wouldn't, I wouldn't call that reality TV.

It most certainly is. Hip hop homicides? I thought it was like a docu series. It is a docu series but it has the tenets of a very well made show by the way. No, it was. But it has the tenets of reality television. because of the way that you interview people, the shots that you would have to get.

Like, our shoots would be all day, and then you'd have inserts, it's the same thing. Yeah, I remember when you're doing. You're shooting a docu-series in like a reality format, basically. You're shooting it as a reality show, but it's a docu-series. If it was a straight-up news magazine show, then it'd just be me coming out like, I'm Van Lathen, and on this episode of Unsolved Hip Hop Mysteries,

and it would just be me to do. to the thing. Yeah, I understand what you mean, but if you do one of these, it's like, talking present tense about like, describe what was happening in this moment and like you're doing stuff and then like you're talking about it

and then you're talking about like conversations you're having. It's a, I would love to actually see you on a reality show. Which one? If you had to pick one, one, no, no, no, let's just do this, come on. If it was, we will take love out of it because you've already found that. But if it's like competition shows, Would it be a lifestyle show?

Like if you had to pick one reality show to be on, what would it be? I would like to be on a show where you take a house and then make it cool. Okay, flip my house. Yeah, I like those types of house. Because I would like to talk to the people. I would like to talk to the people

that are flipping the houses and all that stuff like that. Yo, I wish that there was one where the people didn't have to be nice. There's a clip. There's a funny clip. I don't watch those shows, but there's a funny clip of a woman.

Oh. You've seen it? Brilliant. Where they redid it and she didn't like it? She said, uh-uh. Uh-uh. It's a black one. A white woman is like showing her the reveal and she is looking around.

Like her husband is like, okay, relax. And it was hideous. I mean, it wasn't good to me. They were like, she wanted a prince theme. And then some kind of way they fucked. Yeah, she wanted a print theme. But that's the type of shit I like. I would like to do that on purpose to people.

I like to give you people to their dream houses and then like when they come back, it's fucking terrible and just like watch the reactions. It's funny to me. Like punk people went that way. But it's so expensive to do that. Like that show would have to be, you'd have to remake the whole house

and then like whatever it's very expensive. But I'm kind of off reality shows though. Did you ever really watch them? It used to be interesting in a way. You're not a reality show person. They used to be interested in a way. That's more my world. But it's a deal.

TMZ was kind of a reality show. We have, no, it's not. The TMZ show that I was on, it was sort of a reality show. Not really. How? What category would you put that in? So that was, when I say a reality show,

I mean, we were on there as real people giving takes. That's like a live show. It wasn't live to tape. That wasn't like lifestyle, definitely, in competition. Definitely not a love one. It's not reality.

It was just unscripted because, you know, like you guys were giving your opinions. It's like an opinionated show. Like, almost like more like talk show than it is a reality show. Hmm. I can see what you're saying.

But it would have been cool. That easily could have been a reality show if like we see the workings behind the scenes. That would actually been interesting. I just think your version. So by that, rationale, then even the flip-my-house stuff is not really a reality show. That's a reality show.

So what makes something a reality show? I don't know the exact definition, but that's a news. It's a news show. You were doing a news show. The TMZ on TV? Yeah. Were you showing behind-the-scenes stuff? Well. I don't remember that. So, but they're behind the scenes on the stuff that you're doing that don't get shown.

But there is a showing of behind-the-scenes. That's like that's part of the show. No, it's not. So those shows are so heavy. I'm really trying to understand here. Yeah. Those shows are so heavily produced that what you're seeing, they're behind the scenes to what you're seeing.

Of course. Well, that's the production part of it. Right. Right. So the reality shows that you're talking about, they purport themselves to actually be, but they're actually heavily produced,

not behind the scenes shows. What would be the difference from the TMZ show you did versus extra? Well, extra. That's a good question. So Extra is actually producing, so Extra isn't getting real conversations between people. Like extra, so like the stuff that, the stuff that would happen like in the room,

those were like TMZ on television was the talk show. No, it was the filming of our morning meeting. We actually extra did that too. Right. Well, when I would watch it, it was the, if they did it, it was probably biting. But it was the film, by the way, TMZ might not be a reality show.

I'm just actually trying to, I'm not, I'm just saying, but it was the filming of Our Morning Mini, when someone said, when someone would say, people might not notice, when someone says, hey, we got, we got Bernard with a white woman at the Grove, right? When, when, when, you're pitching that video to make the television show.

So like, that is sort of behind the scenes, but of course then there's a layer of behind the scenes because then everybody breaks, and everybody goes, shut up, you shouldn't have said that to me on television, fuck you. And it was like, yeah, fuck you. And then fuck, you know, so all that stuff.

But, like, interesting. Okay, cool. Reality shows. But I would love, like, if I had unlimited wishes, one of them would be to see you. It would be such good TV. But I've done a bunch of reality stuff, and I'm telling you guys right now, the stuff that I've done, hip-hop homicides to the side because there was a point to hip-hop homicides. But even, like, the game.

on Black Revolt was a reality show. This show that I did on BET, that I cannot remember what the show was. Zaytovin was the host of this show. Can I remember what the show was? But reality shows, like, but on a bunch of them, there's nothing real about them. They're all very choreographed,

and it's like, say this thing, but say it again. Sometimes people would have reactions to stuff that would happen, and they would be like, hey, give a better reaction. Give me that reaction again that literally takes to people's. Like, let's say they throw a bombshell at you. and you come out there and you don't give the reaction that they want. Okay, now come out and give the reaction that we think that you should give for the cameras.

It's like it's reality-ish. It's reality inspired. What do you think the realest reality show ever was? Real world. Yeah, the original one. Heather B. Heather B is right across the street. They had nothing to compare.

I mean, there were reality show. There was like this family show from the 70s. Yeah. But that, but like not comparing. Real world, these were, they weren't comparing themselves to anyone. They were actually going on this show. They had real lives. They were put in this house with people from different backgrounds, personalities, experiences.

To me, that was the real. It's a candid camera reality show. Remember it? Yeah. It's a, it's an unscripted using real people show. Shut up, Donnie. All right, let's get into all. Did Donnie say move on?

No, Donnie didn't say. Oh, the next big thing on BET was the name of the show. Okay. That was the name of the show. Let's talk about the way people look in Hollywood, I guess. I saw this. I didn't... Oh, you didn't feel anything about it?

Yeah, not really. But I think it's interesting, though. Go ahead. Go ahead, Donnie. Yeah, the Hollywood Reporter launched the second edition of his new face of Hollywood digital issue, which it describes as a step inside the definitive Hollywood guide to the A-LIS face from the top doctors and latest high-tech treatments to the great filler debate and a look at the evolving pursuit of perfection. And this article features a woman, a photo of a woman who's like an amalgamation of various

famous women that make up her, quote, A-LIS face. And a lot of these women's names are, they have something in common. Let's go. Eyebrows, Ann Hithaway, nose, Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid, lips, Sabrina Carpenter, Angelina Jolie. You got Haley Bieber on this list. Lizzie Lohan. You see there's a theme here that had the internet upset. Breasts, Sidney, Sweeney, and Taylor Swift.

I have never once in life thought about Taylor Swift's titties. But that's the point. But see how forced that is? Like I saw this. This popped up on my Instagram and immediately I looked at it. I'm like, the new face of Hollywood, I can already see that this is a white person, right? So I'm already like, okay, what kind of bullshit is the Hollywood reporter about to be on? Hold on.

I'm looking this up so I can see it better. I'm like, what kind of bullshit is the Hollywood reporter about to be on with this? And I never would have imagined that next to the picture, I was like, did they take this down? Next to the picture would be arrows analyzing every single aspect of this picture's face. And this is not a real person. It's an illustration. Include down to the skin, to the ideal skin. And when I look at it, I'm immediately looking at the names.

And I'm like, oh, there's a common theme here, white, except for Zendaya and Jennifer Lopez. And if you analyze this picture, you can go to the Hollywood Reporter's Instagram. You could also probably find it on, not probably, you can find the article on the internet, too, on their website. this woman has they're doing eyes eyebrows lips jawline everything woman has full lips you couldn't find a black person for that couldn't find a black person that has she's big almond shaped eyes couldn't find a black person that has decent eyebrows couldn't find a black person with cheekbones really and then when you look at some of this as well and i know part of this is part of um this article is about plastic surgery, you're talking about the new face of Hollywood, and when you're pointing to some of these, like, oh, this person has this nose, this person has these cheekbones. A lot of these, these person has this jaw line. People have had plastic surgery. So it's like not even natural. So it's like two folds, right? When you look at the new face of Hollywood, and as you scroll through it, they're talking about what makes you a list, what makes you perfect. I think they changed some of this because it actually did say a list and perfect. I actually think that they changed the graphic on this.

talked about alist face, perfect face. And obviously there's the racial aspect of it, which if you look at the comments, people were blowing it up. I myself, one of the first people who commented was like, y'all should take this down because you're not even being coded with it. You're being outright. You are telling people that the ideal face is white.

And then you wonder why black women, brown women, or Latino women, I should say, Asian women have Indian women, these either insecurities or have these conversations like we're having right now about how we feel and how you're telling us. It's like a, it immediately made me think of the video from, what is it, 50s and 60s where the little black girl, they're doing the experiment and the little black girl looks at the black doll and she calls it ugly. And that's how she sees herself. And here we are in 2026 and you are telling us again that our features aren't beautiful. Our skin isn't beautiful. our eyes can't be beautiful, all these things, and we're just supposed to take it and accept it.

And then the other part of it is now you're also promoting what everybody should look like or what the ideal thing is. So you're talking about these beauty standards and you're telling everybody, one, I guess that they should look the same, or that you're promoting plastic surgery, you're promoting all these things rather than promoting natural beauty and telling people to accept who they are. I'm not saying you can't get work done. I'm just saying, one, you're telling people, hey, you can alter it, but when you do alter it, alter it white. Because that is the definition of beauty. And I know this isn't an old thing. I mean, this isn't a new thing to talk about, but it was just so troubling, in my opinion, as somebody who follows this Instagram page,

just to be casually scrolling and to see this and for this whiteness to be thrown in my face just so overtly. Um, wow. So, hmm. I mean, like, the beauty industry is a real thing. Yeah. And it's, I mean, like, I'm into beauty and wellness and all of that. And not like this makes me insecure in any way, but I just kept thinking of like, what young girl is scrolling past this?

And again, doesn't see her beauty as something that could be defined as herself as defined as something that's beautiful. Her beauty isn't represented. Her features aren't considered it, even though black women's lips look like this. eyes look like this, eyebrows, jawline, all of that. And you couldn't find one black person, Zendaya's mixed. You couldn't find one monoracial black person to define as beautiful or to use their features as a beauty standard. You couldn't find an Asian woman. You couldn't find an Indian woman.

And then you use Jennifer Lopez and Julianne Moore as the skin. Like what are we, what is this? This is some fuck shit is what it is. really looked at this and I was like I'm I am not impacted by this as a 41 year old woman but what is the what is the woman who's 20 years younger than me

excuse me 25 years younger than me feel like when they see this like you basically told me I was ugly I mean so this is the names are crazy I'm sorry I keep interrupting you I'm sorry I'm like so upset by it it would be different if even

I wouldn't even probably talked about this if it was just the face because I would have been like okay We know about the whole like to be considered Eurocentric features all of that. We get that. But you actually went the next step and put names next to it. I reached out to the author.

I wrote him and asked him to come on this podcast. Interesting. Now, I knew he wasn't going to. Hasn't even opened it yet. But I try. What were you really trying to say here? And who approved this? This is the way I look at something like this.

All right. I'll try to be brief here. this ain't my house of will but i have thoughts number one is even if these women are one thing that is like uh consistent with like the system of whiteness white supremacy whatever you want to call it is and that's another reason why you have to another reason why you have to like be judicious about what you sell to whiteness. Because in the world that we, even example, is Iron Man a Disney character? I think Disney bought them.

You know I can't talk. Disney bottom. Iron Man is created in the 70s by Marvel, right? Maybe even before the 70s. I think like late 60s actually. Stan Lee, whatever. Marvel is its own company. Well, once Disney buys Marvel, Iron Man is a Disney character.

Iron Man is a Disney legend. Black Panther is a Disney character. Whatever you buy, you own. So, like, in this situation, when whiteness co-ops something, they own it forever. So once they can pump their lips up, them is their lips. Them lips go from being Lupita's lips or my mama's lips to being Angelina Jolie's lips. I think her lips are probably. Hers are natural, yeah.

Right. But, you know, once whiteness own something is there forever, so be careful what you let whiteness own, which is why when there is a trend or a beauty phenomenon that happens in the black community, and it makes it to one of these publications, and they go, the latest thing that the Kardashians invented, cornrows. We go, wait a minute, no, that didn't, you know, because then you'll do, you'll do, you'll, You'll see one of these pictures or whatever, and then it'll be like, hey, Cornrose, the Kendall Jenner.

And he'll be like, you know, because there's a lot of cultural power in cultural ownership. Like it has to do with, like, identifying something with someone also speaks to the ingenuity of that group. All of that to say that, like, this is what happens. These looks, these things get colonized, and they become a part of this perfect white woman. But when these white women go into these places, that's what they ask for.

They ask for the lips of Sabrina Carpenter. They don't know that the lips of Sabrina Carpenter might actually be the lips of somebody. This is what they ask for. Like there's nothing here that's really a lie. The actual lie is that we should in any way adhere to this beauty standard. That's the lie that we're going to continuously bump up against every. single generation. The lie here to me,

from the outside looking in, I don't have to be concerned with this. I got big ass black man lips and a big nose and nothing will change. But the lie, I'm not under those types of pressures. So the lie to me is that this even matters. And it matters to,

I'm not saying what you're saying is not true. It matters to a degree, right? Because this is such en masse me and we should ask them and want them to be better. But, how can I say this? Like, it's, yeah, they think that. Yeah, that's what they think.

Well, it's like, it's just a reminder that you're constantly telling non-white people that they don't fit in your beauty world. And that goes as far as like, you know, hair. It goes as far as, um, foundation. Like you forever couldn't find you know a certain foundation

to necessarily match your skin tone. It came to lipsticks and lip liners. It came to even as simple as like band-aids. You couldn't find the correct flesh tone and that doesn't isn't necessarily

just to women but it's like the point of we you are constantly telling us we don't fit in your beauty world. That's why when you have content creators who are not white and who who give you tips about using makeup and what products to use and that this is for you and like check out this person or use this type of thing. That's why I like I'm a faithful finti user. I've never seen anybody. I don't really wear makeup on this podcast, but I've never

seen a foundation match my skin tone. That's why I loved what Rihanna did because there she really took the time to do undertones, not just like oh, that's your color. It's what's the undertone of your color. And then there's three different foundations within that. Are you warm? Are you cool? Is it neutral? And it's, I've never, I've never had it so easy at, you know, a makeup store to find something that fits me. I feel seen. I feel included. It makes me feel like I fit in the beauty world. And when you see an article like this, which we know in the past what it's been, I'm not saying it doesn't exist in 26, but I see this and you're here again telling me you don't fit in this beauty world. It does upset me. But it doesn't upset me for me, like I said, at my age, it upsets me for young girls

who don't see themselves reflected. Like, I remember being a young girl and seeing the first Miss USA being black. Like the representation matters, you know, like for whoever watched the Bachelorette, they might be like, oh, wow, a black woman can't find love on TV or, you know, whatever it may be, to see yourself excluded from these things that are so a part of, I don't know, being a lady, it's just upsetting. I get it. I look at it from just strictly power. Oh, for sure.

Like, it is actually not that they don't think that you're beautiful. I mean, we know that because some of these features that are being chaser, your features. They just know that there is power in beauty. and this entire thing is about power displacement. Like, even if this wasn't the standard of beauty, they would say that it was so that you weren't a part of it. So then the question becomes after this is, all these conversations matter,

because we could have the same conversations about the Academy Awards or like recognition, the mushroom starting to hit. but like we could have the same conversation about that right but and the conversation then is going to be well you know that's the top of the industry and at the top of the industry there's a lot of money and power and resources that come along with being recognized in that way just like there is having your face on something like this in the magazines I'm not in any way saying that it's not but what I am saying is that the power that we will take for ourselves when we understand how beautiful we are,

it's just we're never going to find that in the Hollywood Reporter. We're never going to find that at the Academy Awards. We're not going to find it. Not that we shouldn't continue to have the conversation, but we are never going to find our beauty

in publications like this because these types of publications are purposefully creating the type of standard that they want to sell and maintain. if we are to find you know what is a shame that it went away

the jet beauty of the week oh I used to love looking at the jet beauty of the week the jet beauty of the week it's a shame that the jet beauty of the week went away the reason why is because the jet beauty of the week would be this look I know you guys are going to talk about the fact

was it the most progressive thing in the world no it's a woman in the bathing suit right but the jet beauty in the week would have this little blurb about the woman's humanity, right? It would be this beautiful natural woman from Newport News or New Orleans who would be majoring in science or be a registered nurse or whatever. And just for a moment, in a wholesome way, not always wholesome, we have some of them on the wall, in a wholesome way, you could like celebrate black and some of them women were

fair skin, some of them were dark skin, some of them were dark skin, some of whatever. But look, this is what beauty. is. This is what the like beauty is, yeah beauty. I like that type of shit. This type of shit here is you know, this is kind of the stuff I just want people to look

at this to me everything that you're saying is true I want people to look at this as what this is. This is cultural power play. This is like this is

subjugation, colonization. This is all of those things. and after a while you almost have to be kind of cynical about it to me. Yeah, but I'm also a man. But you're a man and we're older. I just like, yes, this is the Hollywood reporter and most people aren't really reading it. I truly didn't even know what the Hollywood reporter was until I became the Bachelorette. But it's true.

Yes, that's why I'm saying like it's, it's, this is an LA thing. This is an LA thing more so. Like people may be, I mean, I was a girl Dallas Texas. I didn't really know about it. But the point I guess I'm making is this school of thought. then gets implemented into your movies, your television, your makeup, your beauty, your content creation, social media, all of that.

When, you know, we know, like, when we do it, it's ghetto. When we do what? Like, or what, like our bodies, like, oh, your big butts, your hips, your lips, like, oh, like that's not the ideal thing. But then when they do it, it's okay, right? It's not looked at it's the same way.

It's a lot, their curviness, right? even though they have to maybe add something, not all of them, but just, you know, I'm generalizing here, have to add. They're not built like us and that's okay. But when they do it, it's fine. When we do it, it's like, oh, look at that. Like there's a negative.

It's stigmatized. When we do what? Not when we do it, but our natural bodies. Yes, yes, are stigmatized in that way. And then just, last thing I'll say, because I'm just going to start keep repeating myself because it bothers me. Again, not for me for other people.

younger kids coming up and not seeing themselves is the last thing. I think the thing that got to me the most as they were defining, putting a name on each feature was the skin. You literally are, this is so colorism. You literally, not even just the fact that no monoracial black, monoracial black woman is represented, but also you put skin and you put Jennifer Lopez and you put Julianne Moore.

Like, tell us that our skin is hideous without telling us this as tell us how dark skin brown skin is not beautiful because this is what's ideal like the color is it's crazy I just I'm going to move on

we do I have I could go a whole hour on you making the distinction in here about no monoracial black women I could go an hour on that but I choose not to

I knew when I saw Zendaya on here I laughed I thought about you I choose I choose not to because every time I say it I'm obsessed but I'm speaking for the little black girls how about that and I've been speaking for me you guys don't want to hear from me now you know what I apologize to Krausman that was I told you so and I should not be doing that but yeah fuck it fuck it let's do our own let's do our own you know what how about this let's put our money where I'm out there's here on higher learning let's do our own version of this face but for us what's the

A-list face for us. Okay? Whose lips? Whose freckles? Whose forehead? We're going to put Rach's like, Rachel's like forehead. It's not ideal.

Some people say that it is. I read an article. About big foreheads? Van, when? I'm going to send you this article. I'm shocked you didn't. Like I read an article that talked about the actual people that like forehead size.

We think that we like, it's a smaller forehead is actually less beautiful than a slightly larger forehead. Yeah, too small. Wait, I saw somebody on Twitter say man, Rachel's shitting on y'all with a big forehead in the gap. And that made me laugh.

That made me laugh. I have both. Oh, by the way, just to let you know, so people know, like, this list, you know, you said this. This is what plastic surgeons

are saying, right? This list, so this, the centerpiece is THR's annual list of the top cosmetic doctors and aesthetic gurus in America, New York and L.A. This year's 49 type top surgeons, dermatologists, dentists,

and whatever. So this is, so these are all these people and what they say. The only reason why I say that is because the context there is kind of important because it's directly commodified then. It's like legitimately a capitalist power play, just from that, from that regard in and of itself.

Mm-hmm. So if they're just talking about what those guys are saying, then those guys have a certain cultural purview. It's all culture. Yeah, that's why if you want something done, go to Dr. Truesdale. Truesdale. Go to Dr. Truesdale.

Truesdale. Trusdale. No, no. Dr. Trusdale here in L.A. amazing, like incredible. I can't speak of his work enough. That's who you need to go to because you know what he's not going to do?

Read you off this list. He's going to listen to you and see what you want. And he's going to understand your face and your features. All right, let's talk about Kavanaugh on stage again. Kavon Stage might be one of the most important prophets for modern Christianity that we have. Kavon Stage asks the questions and the black Christian community answers.

Donnie? Yeah, he's trending. after a old, a month's old clip from his, Here's the Thing podcast with co-hosts that chick angel. It resurfaced and it sparked some online debate. Now, this video clip is a little longer side, but we'll play a little bit of it. I'm going to let you talk, Angel, but while we're here,

I don't think gay people is living in sin. I feel like they are, if they just living with a gayness, right? That is how they attracted to people. I don't think it separates them from God's love, agree or disagree. Also, I ain't been paying my ties. Ain't been paying at all in a good amount of you. Not even Easter? You got to give until the-

I give. I give, all free. I put it on- But straight, straight 10% of my income. No, no, no. I mean, when I stream, I put it on on Easter because the QR came up. Let's talk about it. If you're going to drag me, get me for everything.

I give a lot. I give, I give all types of ways. Well, I mean, now 10% straight 10% I'd probably give that throughout my employees and the people in the community easily. But straight to a church, no sir. Also, I don't think masturbation doesn't sit no more.

I beat that me. Oh, I beat that meat. I don't think anybody was wondering how you thought about it. No, we go get all out. That meat get beat. What you know? When I'm on, no, Angel, when I'm on the road, especially,

I'd be beating it. I beat it. I beat it. If I'm going to be gone from this for, five, six, seven days, I'm going to bring my- I'm going to be beating it. Let's talk about it. If you're going to clip me, you're going to get it all on the table now. I just want you go, I want to let you guys know.

I just hope you guys know that it all comes back home. It all comes back home. And that's why slip profits like Kevin State say it. And the black Christian community was none too pleased. Of course. With Kevin on stage saying that he, I mean, he's still a bunch of things, but particularly here that he doesn't think that masturbation is a sin or that masturbation is something that he indulges into.

They weren't very happy with that. Did he go in detail as to, because, okay, I'll play devil's advocate. I'll be one of the Christians in his comments. Did he go into detail as, because I could see somebody saying, okay and are you watching porn to do it? Are you, what are you, are you imagining? Like are you looking at like what, you know, I don't know if he went on later on in the podcast

to say that, but I think, well, let me ask you, do you think it would have made a difference to them if he was like, I mean, yeah, I closed my eyes to think about my wife or I look at pictures or we have video, whatever it may be. Do you think that would have made a difference? Do you think people assumed, Do you think people assume that when you say masturbation that that means porn?

I think people probably do. Even some of our research in this talked about specifically the connection between masturbation and pornography or masturbation and because Kev is married. Masturbation and inspiration for that masturbation that's outside of your relationship. So have your wife, which in the Bible it says that the moment that you look lustfully upon another woman, you have in fact committed adultery. What that means is that for a lot of people, you're committing an adultery every time, all the time, you know, like whatever. Like even, I don't even want to get into the whole, because it's disgusting.

I don't want to even get into the whole thing, like whatever, you know, whatever. So it is what it is. Here's a deal. To me, it doesn't even matter if masturbation is a sin. It doesn't matter. Okay. Because we're not litigating sin. We're litigating societal purity.

Mm-hmm. See, because sin is between you and God. There's a judge for your sin. It's somebody that judges you for your sins. There's somebody whose job it is for you to look at your entire life and then weigh how much you did. And then whether or not you get to enter into the Eternal Country Club of Heaven. Somebody whose job that is. Somebody whose job is, I say that facetiously, to judge your redemption and your salvation.

It's not supposed to be anybody else's judgment. job other than that person. And we can talk about things that are hurtful, and we can talk about things that are harmful, and we can talk about things that we want to make sure that we adjudicate societally in a way that reinforces our belief systems. We can do, we can talk about that. But there is still a shame component and a purity component to church folk that first of all is a lie, right?

because I was amongst the church folk. I am the great-grandson of Reverend Q.T. Ellis. It's always an initial. It's always. It's always. Ten churches around Louisiana and Mississippi, we accepted a lot of things from the men that ran them churches. Because at a certain point, God is their judge.

But what we want to continue to do, We do it here. We do it on this podcast. I'm trying not to get us to do it, but we want to have wrestling matches and at the center of those wrestling matches are people's purity. Like the adherence to societal purity

is a religion onto itself. It's a belief from a belief. The Bible, God, whatever, has very strong. and understandable rules for what's going on. Some of those rules say, hey, treat everybody as if they were me. That's in the Odyssey. Treat everybody as if they were me.

As if they were me. Treat me like, and you guys go no all the time. Fuck it. You guys go no. All the time. You made the decision all the time to go no. That person is not, I'm not going to treat that person like that. I know that that person is not Jesus.

Even though Jesus says, treat the person like it is me, you go, no, I don't want to do that. Do that all the time. But Kevin on stage starts jacking off and you guys lose your minds. That's because your purity, the societal cultural standard that you've set that you think is grounded in something divine and eternal, that's its own religion. It's a separate religion. It's a religion that you've concocted. Therefore, even when there are rules inside of that that are directly contradicted by greater and grander rules, you still adhere to your thing. But we all do that.

So the reality is it don't matter whether or not he is masturbating to memories of his relationship or whatever, whatever, or to Jenna Jamison smells like sex or Merck, one of the greatest black. achievements in cinema, Merck. Go check it out. It doesn't matter if it's that the act itself, him admitting that he is human, therefore impure, not worthy of these people who stand up, hey, we never do anything until we catch y'all cheating,

until we get into y'all finances, until you guys are humbled, and then you have to go in front of a camera and go, I too have seen, nigga we know we know and we and and and I am like I am I personally always envelop people like that enjoy and understanding because I know that what they felt is not their God in heaven they felt their God on earth and their God on earth to me is this orthodoxy based

around this like purity and perfection and not even a Bible asked you for in my opinion but I'm not a I'm not a theologian or anything like that so to me when I look at this this is just people going you know what our club of people who are pretending like we have to be like super awesome and above everybody else kev on stage doesn't desire to be in that he doesn't not only he's rejecting it this is rebellion from him and this is a guy who has a lot of enroses I'm not speaking for for him. I haven't talked to him about that. I did send him a funny text. We laughed. But this is to me rebellious. Like I am trying to be a brutally human person and I will not be shoved aside by the orthodoxy, the human orthodoxy of purity that seems to litigate everything that we've been discussing,

not just online, but going all the way back. I'm happy for Kev. I feel like we grew up very similar in how we were raised in the church, even though I think it was different denominations. And when I saw this clip, it made me smile because I can tell how liberated he feels and how freeing it is to actually just say it and not keep it within because you fear what some of your followers, which he does have a huge, you know, Christian following. That's how he built his platform. What maybe your parents may say, what maybe some of your other family members may say, what maybe some of your churchgoers may say, it's a real burden that heavily weighs on you when you feel one thing and you want to express it, but you feel maybe confined or burdened by

what you grew up in for such a long time and you don't want to disappoint the people that you love. But at the same time, you feel conflicted because you don't feel like what they're holding. you to is the correct thing. And so when I saw this, it made me think of, and it's crazy, like, you know, I don't know, I don't know how old he is, but it's like at this age, he's starting to, I wouldn't say he's starting to necessarily have the revelation, but he's starting to speak out on it. And I remember how long it took for me to be honest with certain things that I wasn't even comfortable with in my 30 saying out loud for fear for my parents. And we started on this podcast, or just not parents, all the things that I mentioned that I know that probably

Kev thinks about too. When we started this podcast, I was afraid to curse on the podcast. Remember your dad admonished me as a 40-year-old man about cursing? Yes, yes. So you get where I'm coming from. You get where I'm coming from.

Love your personal. Yeah, like I, that's the tip of the iceberg of what I grew up in. But I remember when I was writing my book and I wanted to talk about growing up in purity culture and how problematic I truly feel that that is.

And I, for the first time out loud, obviously, I was not a virgin. But it was the first time out loud that I said it. And I was so scared to put that in the book. In my 30s, when I'm clearly not, I was living with somebody at the time, like my ex, and we weren't married. But I was so afraid, or when I was writing in the book, we weren't married, to put that in there. Because when you grow up in it, you still feel the pressure. So I get happy when I see this because I think there's two schools of thought

when it comes to Christianity. One is somebody like Kevin on stage or who's come to that place or me or even my pastor of my church. I'll never forget when he talked about, one, he's talked about sex before marriage having it. Two, when he talked about his porn addiction. And the elders were pissed.

And I remember even having this conversation with people within the church with my parents and I was like, I love that. I think that when you see somebody talk about what they struggle with, it makes you feel, takes the pressure off of you of feeling like having to achieve this impossible standard of living up to something that feels very impossible because as the Bible teaches you, you are imperfect. Yet you are beating perfection into me, which, you like that? Which is impossible. And I think so there's one people, there's a group of people who are like me or Kev who, who want. want that honesty, want to feel like, oh, it's relatable.

I can make them mistake. That's between me and God. I'm using air quotes. I can, that's between me and God. And it doesn't change the fact that I still can't lead this church. It doesn't make me, you know, or I'm not, it doesn't take away my Christianity or what I believe in because I did something that the Bible, I had a sin or, I mean, I had a sin.

I was sinful or I was imperfect, which the Bible says that we are. And then I think there's the other school of thought that where the burden comes from, who's like, don't talk about that. We don't say that out loud. Because if you say that, then it allows people to feel like they can just go out and do whatever they want. I just think that that's so problematic. So all that to say, when I see this, I'm like, we need more of this. Because to your point, it's happening.

I told you, I grew up in a church, not the same pastor I just talked about. I grew up in a church when I was smaller with a pastor who impregnated one of the congregants while married, had the baby. So it's like, but you're telling us this. You know what I mean? Like we all make mistakes and it's okay to talk about those mistakes. It doesn't make you unchristian. Man, everything you're saying is gospel, but I'll say this.

Kev on stage just celebrated his masturbation. Yeah. So he didn't, the reason why I call this rebellion from him is because, Because Kevin on stage didn't say, hey guys, I'm going to admit, sometimes I masturbate. And it's something that I struggle with. And let's do a whole Kev on stage episode about masturbation and it's hold on me. It holds me. And honestly, I hold it.

That's not what he did. He says he is gone and he jerks off. and he likes it. He doesn't think it's a sin. And he has fun with it. That is a direct challenge to the people who would think and say that that type of thing is sinful, lewd, or wrong. He didn't just look at what masturbation came with in that scenario. That is a personal act that, to be honest with you, like any other thing that's personal,

It's something that you should be a part of a healthy routine. You don't want to do anything unhealthily. But look at what that came in. Look at what that came in. Look at what that came with. It came with challenging the church on their standard and their treatment of gay people, LGBTQ plus people, challenging them on that.

Challenging them from a humanistic standpoint. It's like, I am a human being. living on earth with other human beings, human beings that I don't want to see unalive themselves, human beings that I don't want to see live as non-citizens, human beings who I don't believe in my heart that their design was an eternal curse.

I don't believe in that. I challenge you on that. And not only do I challenge you on that belief, I challenge you every time I beat my meat. Every time I beat my meat, I challenge you. And so I'm coming back and saying, yes, I do it. I like it.

Now, talk about me. Do I think that Kev on stage is one iota less Christian or devoted to God than he was last year? Of course. When his Q rating and approval rating amongst all of these same people was a thousand instead of maybe like 95, right? No, I don't. I do believe, though, that he's a braver man. I believe that he's a more evolved man. I believe that he's a very important man

because what he is is a man showing that you can just try to do your best honestly. And that in and of itself is pleasing to God. And if it's not pleasing to God, let God sort it out. Yes. If it's not, if it's not pleasing to God, let God sort it out. But like I'll say again, There's a separate religion happening and that religion is here.

It's not up there. It's here. But as he also said, don't follow me. Like, people are like, I'm not telling you to follow me and do what I do. Also, like, I just, it's just so hypocritical of like the whole. I'm demanding you. No, he said, don't follow me like that. Or maybe do.

Not on social media, just like, he's just saying, don't follow and model your life after what I'm doing. And it's the hypocrisy of, like, you guys holding him to this perfect standard when we are the very thing that you're saying is telling him to act a certain way also says that we are imperfect. And I'm not saying him masturbating is imperfect, I'm just saying. Like, he doesn't believe it's a sin.

And I agree with what he's talking about. I don't know. It's not my job to determine what sins are. Well, I'm just telling you what he's saying. Yeah, yeah. But look, once again, everybody, this is a very important thing in people's relationship with God, everybody has their own sort of deal with it.

But shout out to that chick Angel as well who is with Kev or here's the thing podcast. Delta. Delta situation right there. Have you, speaking of our riffs, have you resolved your riff

with alpha kappa alpha? Every time I talk to an AKA, they got bad words for you. They don't like you. Anytime I'm walking through them, I say any AKAs here? I'd like to speak to them first.

Any AKAs here. You're calling for smoke. Yeah. I saw Yvette Nicole around yesterday. You want smoke. And she was like, Rachel? She always is playful about it though.

She gets it. She gets it. But you want to smoke from them? No, I just like to deal with things head on. What? We got any A-KAs? Want to talk about it? All right.

But you know what? No, I told you so. Krausman. If you got Carbwebs in the head, Krausman's your man. I was about to break up a jingle for Dr. You're welcome.

Greatest gift I can give you. Yeah, it is. Crossman. Crossman. Kill the ego. Crossman. Because I could have, okay. Baton Rouge in the crosshairs, man.

God damn it. Donnie. Yeah. Boosie, who earlier this year was sentenced to three years of supervised release for a federal gun charge, reportedly paid two far right operatives to Jacob Wall and Jack Berkman, $600,000 to secure a presidential partner that never happened. His contract reportedly included a $300,000 refund clause if no pardon came through by January 31st of this year.

And on New Year's day, so a month before that, the pair told Boosie's lawyer that Trump had signed the pardon. But when his team checked with prosecutors in the White House, no one had any record of it. A White House aide said that they had never actually seen an application. And so Boosie is currently in arbitration to recover that $300,000. Right, so it looks like this all went because he filed the paperwork, and so he's trying to get the $300,000 back. Man, let me tell you something. So they told Busy that all of these people were down with him getting his back.

There was also no paperwork. They told him that they had submitted an application. No, no, I'm talking about the paperwork. They must, hold on. Was there paperwork between Bootsie and whoever these people were? I don't know. He just paid. Well, there seems to be some sort of contract.

Oh, yeah, there's a contract. Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. Right, right. So there's a contract. That's all I was talking about with paperwork. So they just told him that. So at the very least, the way they looked at it, they rain made them for about $300,000.

Yeah. Because, like, legitimately, the genius thing about how they play Boosie, and they definitely play Boossey. Yeah. The genius thing about how they play Boosy is they never had any connection to these people. And so what they basically, like, this is the Clay Davis situation. I know y'all seen the wire. And what did, I'm just, I'm just.

such like the the lawyer tells stringer what a rainmaker does the lawyer tells stringer in this situation he says well you're dealing with clay davis you give him the 250,000 dollars if he makes it rain wow great for him if he doesn't ah sad what can you do and that's how string got fucked up stop playing them fucking away games at one bar still right leavey is the lawyer's name. And so in this situation, these guys, Jacob Wohl and Jack Berkman, go, okay, $600,000, maybe we can get a pardon because all of this stuff is admission that pardons are being sold. Yep. That's the bigger thing. All of this stuff. That's why when Laura Lumer and the rest of these people came out, they go, hey, the first thing, there's no such thing as actually being

able to buy a pardon. They had to say that first because they know that there is. So this entire case is actually, once again, Baton Rouge ripping the Band-Aid off corruption. Oh, what a positive spin. Baton Rouge ripping the Band-Aid off corruption, right? I think that Busy might have been a double agent. No, they play Boosie. There's no way fucking around it. They play Boosie. He's suing them. They play Boone. Think about what you're suing. for. But these guys go and they say, hey, $600,000 bucks, maybe since we know partners are getting thrown. But at the very least, even if we can't get it, 300,000. So if I was them,

I just get a $300,000 back. They probably already spent it on boats and hoax. Didn't they file for bankruptcy or something like that? Yeah, so they're saying that they don't have it right now, which is why he is suing them, which is crazy. Like, I wonder if Busy thought about it. I mean, I guess his main thing is, I'm thinking about all the money I lost. I don't care how it looks that I was trying to buy a pardon because he's probably like that's what everybody does. But also like you're admitting your words.

He got played. Like that's what I'm saying. Like you by you filing a lawsuit seeking this money, you look stupid. Yeah, they fucked over you. And the reality is now we'll see like where this goes and what happens because if these guys are bankrupt and he down. more than a half a million dollars trying to get this pardon.

Now the situation looks really bad. Also, though, I want people to understand here. Wayne was pardoned. Kodak Black was pardoned. Who else? Who else from the hip-hop world was pardoned? Was NBA Young Boy? I don't think NBA.

What did he do? Because remember his thing is called MAGA? Oh, yeah. So I thought that there was something he did with Trump. I don't know if he parts. There's something. Hold on. Hold on.

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, NBA up, yep. This nigga is going, this nigga is dancing with Baton Rouge, man. Life is so hard. Put your spin on that one. Life is so hard. This nigga is dancing with Baton Rouge.

The only spin that I'll say is this, is that once again, power leverages everything about you. Shout out to Vic Minzaa. I did the Vic Minza podcast. You know what I did at the Vic Minza podcast? I just did. I actually drank.

the orange juice that comes from the orange tree. Nice. Delicious. Of course it is. Fresh squeezed orange juice? I thought it was a candle the way it was sitting in the tall cup. And then he goes, no, that's actually an orange juice. You drink that's from the tree out there.

So, but we talked about this. He actually brought up the fact that every, like, power leverages everything about you. So all of the problems with the law that you'll have, like, they'll end up using that as a carrot to dangle in front of you to, to, to buy you politically. Yeah. Like capitalism buys you with abundance and it also buys you with desperation. Yeah.

That it shows who can be easily bought. Well, but yes, because of desperation, I get what you're saying. I could tell you, I could name some other people who have gotten partners,

but it's just going to feel like I'm, people going to say I'm obsessed. Name one. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm not getting into all of that. I'm not getting into all of that just because if I bring it up,

people are going to be like, and this is somebody that wasn't desperate. But if I bring it up, people just going to be like, van is on the same shit over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again and we're going to talk about some of that shit later anyway but it's not just always uh it's not just always people who are desperate sometimes it's people who are powerful who also pay for these pardons so in this situation the most the fact i mean boosie's probably going to turn this into content like a lot of this stuff will turn this into content all of these people though that we're talking about about had to show some degree of loyalty to Donald Trump after they were pardoned or even before and this also it goes back to what Vic was talking about a lot of our brothers in hip hop you know have legal problems we not a lot enough of them have legal problems these legal problems have been preyed upon by Maga to capture these men and then gain political favor with the community that has allegiance to these guys. Yep.

So if you're talking about Boosie or young boy or pardoning Harry O, which then gets you Snoop, everybody loves Snoop. Now we have to get on a podcast and have a conversation about how we're going to talk about Snoop Dog, a beloved cultural figure for a long time because he wants Harry O out. The Trump administration delivers on that. And because the Trump administration delivers on that, now we have to re-contextualize and have conversations about Snoop. It's to gain these brothers' power and influence, but it's also so discord to make us think that they're not who they are. And I would just, you know, just caution people that while we make space for a lot of this stuff and understand that a lot of people didn't have fantastic choices growing up, that stuff comes back and is leveraged.

which is why maybe, maybe the Democrats should think about handing out some pardons to some people. I'm like, well, we'll find a nigga a pardoned a nigga. Find somebody pardoning them. What if they pardoned, did he? Yeah, okay. I mean, but I'm just saying,

I guess what you're saying, though. Like, in this situation, there's the small thing, which is boozy got beat out by money from these guys. There's the thing that's under that, which is that people are definitely paying operatives around the Trump administration, which I'm sure has probably gone on for a long time for access to get pardons

with the pardons are being sold and then on the last time on the last part of it is some of our vulnerability in the criminal justice system is being leveraged not just for direct monetary payments but also for

you know political expedience of saying all this stuff wrong also for the political gain of the MAGA operation. Last thing.

Which undergirds the fact that this type of stuff is always commodified because just like boozy is trying to pay for a pardon or whomever else, you're also paying for jail calls and you're paying an extra price being a formally incarcerated person.

your entire criminal justice era, your whole existence inside of that system is paying somebody. It's somebody is when you call your mom and them and like the call is at this exorbitant fee, when Aramark goes into a prison and makes money feeding the incarcerated people, right? All of this stuff is used to extract money out of what is typically, an under-resourced community. So we can have a big, larger conversation just about the toll

that you pay for being criminalized in America. And then it is that this niggas is a millionaire. Another this has to do with this, but it is kind of like a mascot for it. But also, Boussi need to do better. Like, because, like, they,

they plan with you. They plan with you. If this was anywhere else, he would not allow himself to be played with. Like, don't let them play with you. They plan with you. These people are obviously

playing with you. Don't let them play with you. Like he didn't, he don't let people play with them. I can tell you that, for sure. So don't let these people play with you either. Why we let them play with us? Everybody lets them play with it. Why we let them play with us? He said it. He was desperate. Yeah. Um, okay.

Well, I mean, you know. And he clearly trusted them. For some reason, he thought, I trust them. They won't, they won't fuck me over. 600,000. That's crazy. At least he's doing well, man. It's hard for me.

I'm gonna be, I'll just be honest with y'all, man. I like to see Nevis from Baton Rouge do good, bro. I'm really guys on. I like to see him do good. I do. Well, why would you? Why would you not? I like to see Niggas from Baton Rouge.

But you just gave a couple examples where they might not be. He's like, I love seeing people from Baton Rouge, Sean, man. God damn it, they got us. They got us twice. Okay. Can I play a piece of video for you guys? I got two pieces of video to play for you. Yeah.

We're going to talk about the horrible eye shootings, but before we do, I want to talk about a piece of video. Donnie, can you play the video with Bleak and Mouse? I cut a part of it. Y'all, do you all having it in there? I want to. Ooh, somebody's singing a Negro spiritual? I see.

I see it. Play this video for us real quick. Rage. But look. Everybody album is available. Right. So why would it hold, why would I hope say, hey, I don't have. You know that too.

He don't, oh, y'all niggas, no explanation, my nigga. That's where we split ways. Well, that's going forever be that, my nigga. You got to sound like the old lady in the window. Why y'all outside three in the morning loud? We got to tell her we selling drugs, bitch. That's why?

The fuck. Come on. I don't get the correlation there. She want to know why we outside late doing what we do. You want to know why he did what he did? I don't know. I don't know. The difference is, you mean, unless you paying that old lady rent

or whatever case may be, he's not paying your rent. Right, we, the community at large, the community at large support a hove. The community at large support his ring. Again, the community at large supported Hope. Hope gets the way that because the community support him. First of all, the community know about money right now because of hove. That, to me, was really illuminating.

Why? No, seriously. Like super duper illuminating. Because you have to acknowledge in a back and forth when you're talking. talking to somebody who you just fundamentally see the world differently than. Because that way you can put that issue to the side and see if there's anything else that y'all can work with together. I just know that there are certain things that are fundamental, like for example, he's talking

about a lyric in the record where it's like, bitch, we're selling drugs, right? Well, when I was 16 or 17, I'm out there trying to get it. Their endeavor at that particular point, I mean, I don't come from a community. where I saw too many younger men, even if they was selling drugs, talk to the older women in their community and calling bitches. I think that's just rap record shit. I doubt that they actually... I don't know, but I know that, like, in places that I've been,

it'd be like if your grandmother come around or the woman down the street come around for even the guys that was moving like that, they would show deference and respect. But I am from the South. I don't know how that goes. I would assume that they probably... that that's just rap record bravado. Not everything you hear in these rap records is actually real. So I would assume that that's,

hey, bitch, we're selling drugs. It's just like a, hey, we're going to do whatever we want to do. It's an avatar intellectually, but we're going to do whatever we want to do, and there's nothing that you can do to stop us. So forget about the actual, what was actually being said there, right? Because we older now, we hear these lyrics different. It's not even, you know, they was younger when they wrote them.

That woman's trying to sleep. So you don't even have enough of. expect for her to sell your drugs in silence. You're going to disturb her community and disturb her peace. And so while I get what's happening, we're doing our thing.

We're doing, are we getting our money? Stop talking to us. And I will. We're getting our money. We're doing our thing. We're out here. Bitch, we're selling drugs. Stop talking to us.

Stop talking to us. That's what we're doing. This thing that we're doing, we're doing money. We don't give a fuck how it affects you. We don't give a fuck if you're trying to sleep to wake up and go to work in the next month. We don't care. Bitch, we're selling drugs. Okay.

We don't have the beef about that. That clip is so illuminating because, you know, one thing that we don't give the brothers from hip-hop enough credit for is just how direct and honest their communication is. He's sitting there talking to mouse.

Shout out to mouse. And he says to mouse, he goes, you talking about potential ties between Jay-Z and Target, you sound like someone who's bothering us when we're trying to make our money. Mouse is going, wait a minute now, I thought that we were of the same community.

The woman in the window also thinks that we're in the same community. because remember the woman in the window knows you. You out there doing your thing, but she sees you as Cynthia's son. She sees you as Janice's boy. She's been knowing you. So she thinks that if you're making noise

when she's trying to sleep because she got to get up and go to work or just because you're disturbing her peace, she thinks she can talk to you because she thinks you guys are of the same community and you go, shut the fuck up. You're not. Cool.

I have no problem with that. Cool. So now we compete because there's going to be competition with people who say this community is for selling drugs and there's going to be competition with people who say this community is so that we can sleep in peace. And we have to compete for that. That's worth competition.

That's worth a competition even with people who look like you, people who sound like you, people who come from the same place as you. That's worth the competition. The competition between the people who are trying to sleep and the people who are selling drugs in the community

and keeping them up at night. Now, let me be honest even the way I contextualize selling drugs. I don't even actually have that much of a problem with that. It's a vile thing to do, but it's not more vile than other forms. of capitalism that don't consider the consumer,

I'm not going to take those young men and make them out to be something that is specifically more evil than people who are selling them terrible food, people who are over. I'm not going to make them into the villains of their community unless there's somebody trying to sleep and they say to them,

bitch, we're selling drugs. For me, when I was younger, I got it. older, I don't get it anymore because I need my sleep. And like when I look at that, when I look at that, to reference that right now and say that you sound like that, that is probably how we sound. Now, Jay-Z Target thing wasn't even that big of a deal to me.

Like I can see a million arguments for it. I can see a million arguments against it. I think that he chose to defend it in the freestyle. That is what it is, but that wasn't even that big of a deal to me. But I honestly thought that, honestly, truly thought, And I'm not saying that Bleak speaks for the entire rock nation contingent or that he even speaks for Hove or anything else. But I thought in general that if you had these conversations with curiosity and respect that you could have them because we were all on the same team, that we were all in the same community, which is the entire thing that I attempt to do sometimes. Sometimes I can be hyper-fixated on things.

I get it, right? but sometimes it's like hey when we talk about it on this podcast we always talk about the work that Rod Nation does and how they do great work and they do a lot of great work but now it feels like

that some of that great work is funding the basketball tournament like Avon and them used to do or some of that great work is like giving away free jerseys or like Turkeys on Thanksgiving Nina Brown giving away turkeys on Thanksgiving

so that like so that you can re-hack i don't know i don't know you felt like that after listening to bleak or you felt like that after the freestyle no no no no no like none of this stuff really weighs on me like that because all of this is a conversation right well no i'm just saying like you're no i get it but you're talking about how like when he made that statement it's like oh i thought we were in the same community so i'm asking you when you prior to the freestyle because to me j z kind of said the same thing like the way he was freestyling made it feel like we're not in the same community

and then I see it I hear what Bleak's saying and I'm like oh you're kind of reiterating that yeah so I have a dream of community of course and I think that that dream I keep running up against the fact that that dream is like not like the same way that I talked about go ahead I'm up my back well I was just going to ask you as you're talking do you think Jay Z

how do I want to say this do you think Jay Z puts off a an image or a message to people that he is a part of the community. So this is, I'll tell you something. And despite what people believe, I'm always going to choose to believe the best thing I can about a black man until I have complete evidence otherwise. Not that my belief even really matters that much.

And so when I see the work that Rock Nation does, and they do do a phenomenal amount of work, right? When I see the work that Rock Nation does, I choose to believe that they threw out a lot of their philanthropic endeavors and their endeavors to make legal change

that they care about outcomes from people in the communities that they come from. They prove that, right? You can see that in what they do. There's another way to look at that which is that they're doing that for the same reason

that Trump will pardon little way. the other way to look at it is that when Trump pardons little wane or when Trump pardons harryo that gets you little wane and that gets you snoop so a cynical read of that would be that they are buying those movements right that they're acquiring them in the business standpoint I actually don't think that's true when I tell you that I just I actually do not think that that's true. I know that there are a lot of people who do believe that I'm not there. I don't believe that that's true. That's why I believe that a lot of these glitches can be solved if these conversations aren't oriented around hierarchy. Meaning if you don't think that forget about me or any

individual, if you don't think that if you think that the community has the right to speak to you, then you will listen. If you think they have the right to speak to you. And even if you don't agree, you'll come away in a better place because you're advocating on someone that you, for someone that you feel a part of. So why wouldn't you talk to him? You know how many times in this podcast?

I've been bad. Super bad. Like ridiculously bad, right? On things. But the reality is that there's nobody that critiques me that doesn't have the right to talk to me if you're black.

Like, if you're black, you have the right to be like, man, you're not doing a good job. It doesn't mean I'm going to agree with you, but you have the right to say that. because part of my self-respect and self-esteem comes from being a part of a community that is much greater than me, that I can never be greater than no matter what I accomplish. I can't be greater than black people.

No matter what I do, I can't be greater than the people who invented their culture on the fly based upon a tradition that came with them over here that survived, that persevered, that built an America. I can't be greater than that. There's not, I ain't no records for it. Ain't no nothing for it. I can't be greater than that. So I'm always a part of it. Sure.

I'm always a part of it. So I got to talk to it. But sometimes without saying it, what ends up getting said is we doing our thing. Don't matter if you're trying to sleep. Don't matter if we're disturbing your peace. You're not worth this conversation. We're selling drugs.

Cool. that's binary all right well well like you know and by the way that i'm not saying in any way saying that that speaks for for everyone i'm not saying that at all but what i'm saying is there is like with no malice no disrespect or nothing once somebody mouse is mouse in that situation is going well as part of the community don't you think we have the right to i mean you're not paying her rent you're not doing anything forward. Don't you think he has the right to? And he's like, no.

He goes, don't do that activism shit. That's what Blake said. Literally said that. Well, I thought that Rock Nation was doing that activism. He goes, don't do that activism. To me, to me, I give Rock Nation a lot of credit for doing that activism shit. It seems like they're doing that activism shit. It just seems like, by the way, it's not the whole community.

Right. Like, it's not the whole community. It's not even, like, it's not the whole community. It's just like, is any of this better done with everyone having a stake in the, okay, whatever, man, I've said it over and over and over again. I seek to be as respectful and understanding of things that sometimes I just cannot fucking understand. I just don't fucking get it. But I don't think that these cultural mandingo fights, I'm going to say it again, I don't think mandingo fights or media beefs or people getting at each other is the way to go about. this. Now, if we're just talking about

whose fucking shit is better, I love listening to the two niggas talk about who rap the best. Right? I love it. I love that. That's cool. That's like low level competition. It's like watching basketball. I don't expect somebody to roll the

ball out there for 21, and somebody goes, hey man, we can do this better together. No, we're competing. We're competing. I understand competition. But I don't understand. when people's lives are in the balance. Sure.

I think that those should be conversations and that that should be community. And so to me, like, I look at this, I'm like, all right, well, all right, cool. Cool. Cool. Bernard, what do you think?

Ah, Bernard, you took to one and get to the mic, dog. Well, you know what? Let me tell you something, Bernard. Bernard, what's on your mind today? Like, what's in Bernard's world before we get to ICE? How long this bus is going to take to get back home? Let's talk about this.

Because that's interesting that he would say that. Bernard, right here, we've talked about this before. We'll get you a little whip. I actually saw one. It was parked on the side of the road, or Baton Rouge style, said, called the number of his cars for sale. Called the guy, talked to the guy, and the fucking guy.

This nigga must be crazy. You bitch. Ain't no fucking way. But I want you how to think about this. But think about this. And this is kind of what I care about. I'm glad that you said that. So Bernard here

Where do you live? Rolling Heights Where's that at? Tell them how far, like give them like a vicinity of how far that is from where we are. 35 miles? 35 miles away. And how many modes of transportation

Do you have to use to get here? Like 3, 4. So Bernard catches the bus What, two hours each way to get here to do his job? Two or three hours, yeah. Two or three hours each way. I had a conversation. I'm going to talk about another.

the gentleman in the community, but the guy who sent me this clip, very well-known rapper, who used to tell me that to get to a studio when he was making his raps back in the way, back in the day, he had to take the bus two hours to do it, right? These are the things that I think are worth a conversation. We're going to get Bernard a car, right? We're going to get Bernard a car. Now, I will be honest with you, Bernard. In getting you this car, I'm trying to work out the best way with my tax guys and all this.

I might be going to bullshit you. Doing a little bit of a capitalist. All right. But we're going to get Bernard a car because it shouldn't it shouldn't take Bernard two hours

on the bus to come here and be his best. It shouldn't take that. He shouldn't have to do that. And if you are in proximity to me someone who's doing your proximity to me should be that that's not your reality. Can't solve everything.

I can get you to work in under two hours, and that's going to happen. It's not like the reality is just a conversation. I didn't even know that you were going through that until we talked about it. So I still believe in the fact that us talking about our visions and versions of freedom is worth it. I still think that that's an actual real thing. One day you're going to come here and it's going to be a car here. Bro, if you wreck that bitch, do some crazy shit, the white women in the car, that's going to be on you. But the reality of the situation is like,

like community has to be the way out of it. Yeah. Anyway, man, I could talk about this all day. And everything. And everything. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And everything. It's like a lot, it could be applied to literally every single thing that we're talking about.

It's a really important message. Yeah. All right. Let's talk about ICE. There were two recent shootings. The first one on, well, this one happened the most recently. On Monday in Bidford, Maine, an ICE officer, fatally shot a man during an immigration enforcement operation.

DHS says agents were conducting surveillance on the last known address of an undocumented immigrant with a final order of removal when someone departed the residence in a vehicle. The victim has been identified as Johann Sebastian Duran Guerrero, a 25-year-old Colombian National, and he was not the target of that operation. The other killing was a Houston man. This happened last week. Lorenzo Salgado Arroyo was shot and killed by ice. He, Arroyo was a business owner and a father of three.

He was shot dead in his vehicle while heading home to a job site with his construction crew. This specific killing, ICE agents said that after the killing, they inspected the vehicle and observed several plastic bags, which they thought would be drugs. the family says that those that bag was not drugs it was an elector like drink mixture and the district attorney's office seems to be siding with the family on that well it's not shocking that we're back here i think because let me just say it this way these ice officers have a blueprint at this point. When Alex Pready, who wasn't in a car, but still, lost his life at the hands of ice, and they made up stories about him. And if there had never been video, we would

never have seen what really happen. And still nothing has been done. Right. Renée Good, driving her car, they told a different, a narrative, and multiple angles and witnesses told another story, which is the truth. But they still shot inside of her car. Now here we are again, two people wrongly killed, gun down, shot through the car. They have a blueprint. Nothing has been done with the officers who are shooting into cars, killing innocent people over an accident. And why would it stop? You're telling people, not people, you're telling ICE, these ICE officers that they can do it.

and this is the excuse you need to use to get out of the situation. And you will not be held accountable in similar ways that the officers in Minnesota weren't held accountable. We've talked about it before. The recruitment in ICE has more than doubled. These officers were not properly trained. I think that there was something that, like, they used this automated resume tool to get, to go through Apple.

replicants resumes and it missed so many different things. So they weren't even properly vetted, which we know that, which is why these mistakes continue. We know that ICE officers aren't even supposed to be in urban areas doing these things. That's not what their, that's not what their purpose has been. And you have two more people, really a third, we're not talking about someone in Florida, who was also killed, who have recently lost their lives. And what is the response? What is the response. Now DHS did say that they were going to suspend traffic stops and then Trump comes out and says, no, you're doing a great job. Keep it going. You have Mike Johnson who's asked about the recent death in Minnesota, sorry, in Maine. And he says, well, I haven't slept in 22 hours, so I'm not really

briefed on it. There is no sense of urgency. There is no care. There is no consideration for, for these people who are losing their lives, particularly the young man in Maine. Here has a Social Security, Social Security card, works two jobs, wife, child. He is doing everything that you are asking him to do as someone who has immigrated here

who is trying to achieve, quote, the American dream. He's working hard, he has a family, he's supporting. And he's doing what's supposed to be American. And how do you reward that? You gun him down. Which one of these at this point feels more American?

That or what happened to him? Like there's, it's just like the response from the Speaker of the House, the response from the president shows what it really feels like to be, what America really represents and what you really value and who you care about. And it's just upsetting all around. around that it continues to happen. It will continue to happen. Like ICE officers are given more power. These politicians are not holding them responsible. You have Susan Collins in Maine who gave money to ICE, who are voted for that, who brags about, oh, well, we're going to have better

protocols and they're going to have body cameras. And then this happens in your very state. And you call for the traffic stops to be suspended. And then here comes President Trump. This says, oh, we're going to open, no, they're doing a great job. Actually, I want them to continue as they were. You don't say anything. You have nothing to say. You know, you know how it's so well said. You ever think about like getting back in the courtroom?

No. Well, yes, but I don't want to do all of that again. You can go there. You could, I could see you. I bet Judge Lindsay still has dreams of you. Oh, he for sure does. I bet he does. You know what I mean?

You know what this makes me think of? I swear, guys, this is the mushrooms. This makes me think of James Bond. You know, I've never seen a James Bond movie. Shocker. You never saw it. So it was a James Bond movie that came out. I was a kid.

It was called License to Kill. And it was just a tough-ass name, a license to kill. What was the name? of the movie. And James Bond was like going to revenge or something like that in the country farm. And so like I remember asking somebody in news like, you know, was licensed to kill or whatever. Well, the double O in James Bond's name, according to Ian Fleming's first novels, that means you've killed somebody. Okay. That's what that's in the first novels, it means you've killed someone.

But when I was a kid, I was like, licensed to kill because everything that I had gotten before then was saying that like, you know, you don't kill, killing his back. But James Bond has a license to kill. That means what it meant for 007 was that like anything that he did that he thought that he had to do was sanctioned by the government. He had a license to kill. He had the power to kill if it was in the line of whatever he was doing. They tell him in the movie one time because he goes off. At 007, your license to kill is revoked. And it's like, you've taken away his power to kill.

And since I was that age, I've thought about the power to kill and not the license to kill, but the right to kill. Because that orientes the different ways that people discuss power. We talk about our right to life. Oppressors talk about their right to kill. Now, I could use this in many, many different areas, right? Did Nat Turner have the right to kill? People that killed his people all the time. Did Nat Turner have the right to say, I'm not going to die.

I'm going to kill you. I'm going to kill you because of what you've been doing. I'm going to kill you because of what you're going to do. I'm going to kill you. I'm going to fight back. I'm going to kill you. Does that Senator have that right? It's a slave rebellion.

It's a brutal massacre and all of that stuff. Do other people in other situations around the world actually have the right to kill their oppressors? Right? Do they have the right to do that? Well, we always litigate that. What I believe in a lot of these situations is that this stuff is by design. The right to kill, the license to kill is being established by hiring ICE agents that we know are insane, like this gentleman is. This particular ICE officer in Maine.

In Maine. David Brouillier Ruliet has a history of terrifying and violent behavior according to his relatives attacking women in his life over the years

one of them shared a voicemail with the Associated Press from last winter from last winter in which he told her that he thought someone should slit her throat so you put a guy like that

you operationalize him put him on a street kill somebody what you are establishing to me when there is absolutely no recourse for that is the right to kill that person

the right to kill them when we are talking about our relationship to policing we are saying that the police shouldn't have the right to kill us the power that we are up against is trying to reinforce and establish that right at all times

you're driving your car to me boom you're dead whatever don't matter what the video show I felt that way so you did it because I have the right to kill you. And then on top of this, you have a zone flooded, right? Donald Trump gave a speech last night

when he was up there slurring his words and rambling about nonsensical election gooblig gawk. So now that is going to dominate everything. Now we have to parse through all of that stuff

that's trying to have the voting rolls. Like all the voting rolls public, like what is actually going into what the president actually said? everybody is moving on that everybody is trying to figure out whether or not he has a point whether or not this talks to the save act how much of this is lost people don't know

what to report how to report it what to do all of that stuff meanwhile ICE is killing people because part of the cover for all it is to make it look like not that big of a deal right so I personally believe like for example Trump established

by partnering the January 6ers the right to resurrection. Absolutely. Because he don't know when he's going to need one. Absolutely. He don't know when he's going to need a bunch of people to get busy.

Mm-hmm. He can't dissuade it. Which going back to the Kaepernick thing, just real quick, just one more time. One more time. One more time. I'm sorry. One more time. It's taking his career from him establishes a chilling effect.

Well, now guys in the NFL know that they don't have the right to protest in that way. You don't have to make a rule. You can make an example. Sure. And so like in these other situations, like with the fucking January 6th, you have the right to do that. These ICE officers are giving, being given some James Bond type shit by the administration, the license to kill, the right to kill. And they will continue to kill. And there's like nothing that's going to be able to stop them from killing.

And I tell you what, the so-called opposition party had better deal with this in the drastic way that the American public, that the human public, should I say, is being dealt with because they're giving their people a license to kill. Ours don't even seem to have a license to stop funding. So I look at all of this and I'm like This is design You take the craziest motherfuckers you can You put them on the streets They do what those type of people do Which is take lives

And then you Help them on the backside Because that's what you want it Yeah Yeah You give them the blueprint You give them the license Like Vance said

And then what does that do? It desensitizes you And it normalizes you and it normalizes it of you're going to keep saying, oh, they were coming after me. Oh, I was in fear of my life. Oh, I'm the officer. They're the immigrant.

What I say holds more weight, holds more value, and they're nothing. Like truly, it continues to happen. We're talking about it again. And it will continue to. And I think that they want it to so that we get used to it. This is what happens. You know, they're out here enforcing,

you know, whatever. Let me say this actually again. ICE is out here protecting the streets from illegal immigrants. They're fighting back. And so we have to take action. That's literally the narrative that they're trying to create, which is absolutely not true. And they want you to think, and even if they do, even if they do for some reason say, oh, the officer, as they're saying with this one, he was newer to the job.

He didn't have as much. Even if they do, this isn't a few bad apples thing because that's another through line they're trying to do. These aren't accidents. This is a structural issue. And this is what happens when you scale enforcement faster than you scale competence and oversight. Something crazy just happened, Rachel.

Does something really crazy happen? It did. Why? Because I just never know. What happened? Like bad crazy or good crazy or fun crazy? Fun crazy. Okay, what happened? B2K just dropped.

Really? Were you a B2K over a pretty... B2K. Oh, that would be a guess. B2K. B2K. Do you watch their verses? Do you watch their verses?

I did not watch it. With Pretty Ricky? I heard Pretty Ricky white floor with them. Some people said, Oh, my niggas is back, dog. What's a video? Oh shit. Good for them.

Good for them. B2K is back. Good for them. You know how people can only work, like, do that dance on one side? Can you only, do you only have a one side? You can only do your right side like that. Of course. Because that's what separates the people that are actually ill at dancing.

What separates, I can do, you know, one side, but I can't do it over here. Marion do it on both sides. a couple of niggas on B2K do it on both sides but it but I'm looking at it right they look good look at the video right now

boy music videos have changed but these guys look good bro these these guys look good let's see if the dance moves are still the dance moves are there they still got it I'm happy for B2K man

there was a lot of stuff throughout the years there was a lot of stuff that happened, but I'm looking at B2K, I'm supportive of this. Look, Razby, Little Fizz. Little Fizz is it. Remember when they said that? Little Fizz is it. Did they say that?

Well, in one of the songs, it was like, Little Fizz is it. How old is B2K now? They haven't hit 40 yet. They gotta be. Amarion's not 40. Amarihan can't be 40 years old. Can he? These niggas was way younger than me. Amarion's 41.

You know what? I keep forgetting, then I'm nearly 50. That 40 is not for me anymore. A Marion is you. You don't like Amari On? You don't like B2K? I've never said that. I've actually been to a concert. I think it's great.

As like the 2000s and all of that is coming back, I like the nostalgia of it. I watch the verses. I was more team Pretty Ricky. But yeah, I want Pretty Ricky to come back too. Okay. Do you think that at the top of B2K, at the height of a Mario's dancing,

I've said this before. I've just said, you don't think that Amarion was close to Chris Brown at any point at the height of debt? I don't. Now, was he popular? That's one of my worst things.

Was he popular? And, like, people enjoyed, like, oh, when is an Amario a Veyon video going to come out? I want to see him dance. Like, yeah, talented, all of that. It made sense from the moment you watched B2K, you were like, Omarion is going to go solo.

But no. Okay, so I just got, I got, here's the touch video. I wonder whatever happened to the girl from the touch video. Look. She was in step up. Oh, she was in step up?

Was she in step up? Or was she in step up to the streets? She was definitely a step up to the streets. I don't remember she was in the other one. Okay, look. Oh, yeah, she was. No, step up to the streets. Can I step up to the streets?

Like, you know what's funny about this? Because I'm watching the touch video and I can make an argument that she kind of out dancing him in the touch video. Okay, her friends came by. I don't want to go with y'all. I want to stay here and dance on the sidewalk with a Marion. So here comes Marion out there.

His jacket is bedazzled. But look at them. Dancing all throughout downtown LA. It's disgusting out there. Oh, is that where they are? See, this is before my... I wouldn't know. This is before my time.

They dancing off like Maine and Grand or some shit like that. Like, what the fuck you doing, bro? It's like some dudes probably asking, you know, you got a dollar? So I'm like, I'm looking at this shit. Yeah. Okay. The touch video. Oh!

Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Rachel! Wait a minute, this nigga cold. What is? Of course he is. Hold on, hold on. Oh.

Look at the- You don't go home and practice that tonight. I can already do that. You said you only have once. No, no, no, no, no. Get up. Turn on the music. We don't need to.

I can slide on the carpet. No, no, no. Well, get it. That I can slide on the carpet. That I can do. I can, like, this part of it, that little thing right there. I mean, I can't get on my toes like that.

I can't. It's 260 on my toes. My toes going break. Well, you know what you can do then for us? Put the touch video on the screen. No. What you can do for us is when you go home, have Kalika record you doing it because you don't have carpet. So that means you can do it at home. And we will watch the video on Monday. Oh, I can already tell where this is going. You can't even get the hand motions together.

All right. In other news, I have my top five finest list. Oh. Is a Mario on there? It's B2K on there? He did not make it. None of them did. Touch ladies She was young now I can't really look at her like that That's not right Okay let's go

Yeah Find out how old the girl in the touch video Was at that point Because like if she's too young You know Take out of any meat See anything You know

She's probably a grown woman But still I'm old All right let's go Top five Finest niggas list Let me find my list The inaugural

This is the inaugural Higher Learning Finest Nikers in the world List Where's my list It's all rage All the time Rache go

Top five Okay, I have some honorable mentions first. Okay, can I Google these people as you were talking about them? You'll know them all. I'll know them all? Yeah. I'll know all of them. Yeah.

Does your runes make it? Huh? This ruin is make it? No. You didn't put your runes on the list. No, but I have an honorable mention list. He's going to feel a certain way about that. It doesn't mean that I don't think he's an attractive man.

He's just to make the list. 6-8, 6-8. So because he's tall, I've had taller. Oh. Oh, oh, oh, daddy. Oh, daddy. Oh, she was 19? 19.

Okay. Yeah, it's still not great. Okay, go ahead. A couple of honorable mentions before I get into my top five. Damson Idris. Okay. Jay Ellis. Jay.

Shout out to Jay. Jay. My nigga Jay. So one of my niggas actually made the list? Keith Powers. Oh, Keith. Keith is a guy who I know, I wouldn't say he's my nigger. Keith is a great guy.

And meth and meth. A lot of ladies on men. He's not old school because, like, I feel like he's had a resurgence. Like, he's always been attractive. but like last 10 years, maybe less than that, it's just like method man. It's like people forgot. All right.

Okay, top five in no particular order. Jude Bellingham. English striker. Mm-hmm. I already gave the other ones. Joshua Anthony. No. Anthony Joshua.

So Jude Bellingham is, is this a top five? This is not in the order. No order. It's not an order. Right. Anthony Joshua. Okay. Michael B. Jordan.

Okay. Oh. Skepta. Scepta. Scepta. And Maduca. Okay. So.

O'Coye. I think that he says last name. Okay. So give me the list again. Okay. Skepta. Anthony Joshua. Uh-huh.

Maduka O'Coye. Okay. Jude Bellingham. Uh-huh. Michael B. Jordan. Okay. So like, just to let you know of your list of your top five, we got one. How many.

One, shout out to Mike. They're not light skins. I don't even want to hear. It's not light skin. Okay. Shout out. It's not light skin. Shout out to Mike.

Mike going crazy. Mike, best actor. Man, that best actor award is just for Mike, but it felt like it was for everybody. Like, shout out to Mike, okay? But other than Mike, no black American guys made the cut on your list. Your list is your list. Because you know why? Because when we were talking about it, it was like, who in 2026?

That was the, you gave me, you were like, I don't want you to do the Denzel. You said, who in 2026? Who are some of these new faces that we're meeting? Who is taking you by surprise? And so that's why a lot of them are not American because I'm getting introduced to them through sports, you know, international sports, boxing, soccer.

And then, I mean, skeptic, I would have put on my list. I knew him. Now, I also will say this. I think, okay, so give me the list one more time. Skepta, Anthony Joshua, Maduca O'Coye, I hope that's how you say his last name. Jude Bellingham, Michael Bjoram. Okay.

So let me look. Is Maduca O'Coye El Baira? I don't know. He, Nigerian father, German mother. I did not know that. Yes. So you got three biratials on his list. Uh-uh.

Yeah, you do. Anthony Joshua's biracial? Hold on. I don't think he is, actually. I don't think he is. Anthony Joshua. I don't think he is. They're black to me.

For the purposes of this list. British Nigerian parents. I didn't know Maduka was. Maduca is and Jude was. I figured Jude might be. But all of these guys. They read black. But all of these, they're black.

Because they are because biracial people are black. They're black. And we're trying to make sure. sure that, you know, okay. But I shouted out my Americans in the honorable mentions. And the honorable mention. But the list remember was 2026. Right. Who's on my radar? Like, who

is your list? Yeah. It doesn't matter that there are no niggas. You try to say that no Americans. Hold on. Hold on. They're not. But that don't matter. I'm telling you why. Because it's your list. Okay. Okay. It's your fucking list. And if anybody out there tries to connect Rachel for her fucking list, you'll incur

my wrath because it's Rachel's list. Thank you. Are there any niggas from Alabama on it? No. If you're from Detroit, fuck you. No. If you grew up in Miami, get the fuck out of here. Well, maybe, because you might be a Jamaican. Right? From Baton Rouge, I don't want to hear you. Fucking Malcolm Jenkins

Jr., the third, fucking Arnold Benson Williams. I'm going from Maduka O'Coye. It's a joke. But, no, those are probably the guys right now. I can't believe Damson didn't crack it.

He's going to have something to say. We know him too. He's going to have something to say. I did need to put an American on it. Damson's going to, I don't know Damson. If you, so if you, if, I did introduce you to Damson. No, you did not. I've never met him.

Oh, that's Milt's guy. Who? Milt. Milt. Do you know the niggas that we're supposed to, Milt. Milt. I don't know Milt. Milt.

Milt from made entertainment. Milt. You've never introduced me to a Milt. Milt. The greatest guy. These are the greatest guy. This is your fault. Sean, Deverein, Vic, Mark.

I only know Sean on that list. No. You got to know Dev. You don't know Dev? You've talked about these people? I've never met these people. Only know Sean. What?

So I don't know. So no. You know a Devin? No. You know a Deep? You've never introduced me these people. This is your fault. But I do know them by name because you do talk about them.

He's a great guy. He's a great man. So, okay, cool. So that's the list. That's a definitive list. Now, should we do a finest ladies list, or is that, that's too much? I feel like we kind of did one. I feel like we've done it.

Can you get like a napkin or something like that? I like my list, though. That's a good list. It is a good list. I mean, these are the niggas that's doing it right now. These are the guys that are on top of the game right now. This is my 26 list? 2026 list.

Now, is there anybody, besides your honorable mentions, just walking to them. besides your honorable mentions I mean I do this again besides your honorable mentions is there anybody that you see on the attack like you've seen them in something they're out there

and you could see them does like a Tyreek Withers have a chance to make this list at some point are there younger guys that you see they're on the attack they're on the approach and they could score a goal there's some younger guys like the young guy and forever

okay Okay. From Texas. Yeah, from Texas. I'm sorry. I can't. A brilliant, amazing show. Let's give them some.

We haven't done much forever stuff. Yeah. I'm trying to think of some things that I've seen recently. Forever. So many things named Forever, man. Television series, 2025 series. Judy Bloom, but that's not what I'm talking about. We're talking about Mara Brock Kill, you know, based on Julie.

His name is Michael Cooper Jr. Okay. See, Michael Cooper Jr. I'm saying. That's the shit I'm talking about. The names. Michael Cooper Jr. That's a nigger.

Anyway, but that's a good list. That's a good list. Yeah, yeah. So that, so. Put some thought into it. That's the original list. Okay. All right.

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Because we're going to end on a somber note but I hope that this note is not entirely somber so I want to play a video that was sent to me now I will tell you guys that like the guy that sent me this video is to me somebody who I believe to be an actual cultural genius I had a great conversation with him when we talked all about him growing up in LA and stuff like that I'm not going to get into who he is or whatever because the I don't know I didn't tell him I was going to do this. I think that this video is important to play.

Now I'm going to play this video. We're going to play this video here on the podcast. And then we're going to talk about this man's life after this video plays. Donnie, please. You share a little bit about, kind of like, you're talking about, like, your approach and trying to, you know, give them a different perspective and I don't look on life. Like, you know, like, that's hard to do, but it's something that needs to happen, right? This is how I feel about it.

When you got people that come from your same background, and then did something different, right? Hug to the dub. I'm from Compton. Grew up in the Wilmington arms, born and raised. We used to ride our bikes down in Wilmington all the time. They seen me grow up. I didn't grew up with Yang.

I saw a big bro all my life. So I didn't see them. They didn't see me. They're seeing me now working for the housing authorities. Right here they're on community. But I'm from the same background that they're from. I did the same thing they did as they're growing up right now. you gotta make a choice, it got a click for you.

What am I doing the same that ain't getting me nowhere? Let me try to do something different. And then a person that's from my community that I've not seen outside of his working capacity, I know him growing up. Maybe I should listen to him. It's different from them coming to pull by themselves and not knowing nobody over here. But when you got somebody that's born and raised over here,

grew up with them, showing them different, That if he can do it, I can do it too, and it ain't never too late. That's the thing you got to show them. You got to connect with them and meet with them where they at. So when people be like, oh, that's outside of my work hours, then you're not really doing this work for real. Because you got to meet people where they at, and it's going to be outside your workout.

I'm off today. Today my off day. But I'm doing this because I really love my community and I really love my people's over here. And I'm doing it outside of my work hours. That's how you reach the people. and we just gotta have more genuine people. We really gotta have more people from this community

come back and show that I'm from the same community from Building 51 Uni-W-W-W-W-W-W. And now look, and it's just about them related to you. Once they can relate to you and see what you're about and you have a constant steady record because I could be one-foot-in and one-foot-out. They ain't going to respect that. They think they can do it too.

You got to be one-foot-in or you're going to be one-foot-out. And then they can show, okay, he really out. And I can see how his life is progressive. I can see how he's not worried about where his next check will come from. Because it's constant. And then once they see that, they can relate to that, man. And so they'll make that choice, but you got to get an opportunity to feel comfortable to make that choice.

But when I say removing that comfortability from being stagnant, this is what I mean. Be comfortable with working. Be uncomfortable, not working. That is a beautiful video shot by Worldwide Shane on Instagram, who if you go to his Instagram, this gentleman seems to be insanely talented just with his ability to capture emotion and parts of Los Angeles.

The man that is talking is no longer with us. His name was Eric Washington, and he was a community relations space. at the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles. He was killed on the 4th of July in Compton in a shooting. The entire city that cares about the parts of LA that don't get talked about when people talk about LA is more than the death of this man.

He is from the neighborhood there, left the neighborhood there, left the neighborhood, neighborhood and got a bachelor's degree in political science, constitutional law from North Texas, a master's degree from Gremlin University there in North Louisiana, and devoted his life to working in his community, for his community, and being a part of his community. He was killed in his community. Eric Washington has passed away. I did not know him. I did not know who he was or what he was doing.

But everyone seems to have the highest, the utmost respect for him is more than the death. And in doing this, I see a lot of people saying rest in peace, rest in power. It's my hope for all of you guys that you will live in peace, that you will live in power. Because you deserve peace and power while you are here. Eric Washington was trying to deliver

peace and power to people while they are here when you listen to accounts and stories about him he would go places and he would see people and he would be like oh I can't believe you're driving already look at how fast you're growing up like not separated from but of his people

and his community of in the way that I'm not right now here in Los Angeles I'm not from here, from Baton Rouge. But somebody that went and got his education, got the expertise to come back and be a part of the technology of freedom. Gone. I'm not going to get into a whole conversation about, you know, how these people leave us, leave us, what happened. I'm not going to get into all of that.

I'm not going to get into excoriating anything or talking about intercommunity violence or any of that stuff. I'm not going to implore you guys to be better and to do. doing all of that because I don't think it's your fault I honestly don't I think that there are decisions that being are made but I think you have a bad choice matrix I think that he knew that and he understood that which is why he spent his time and gave his life in those communities and those neighborhoods but when we're having conversations when we're talking or getting to the bottom of it there are people out there who are willing to toe the line for you every single day and I hope that you find those people and support

them and reward them while they're here. This man was 37 years old. So I appreciate being sent that video. I heard about the death of Eric Washington before. Then I know Eric Washington. I will say rest and peace to him and hope that his family and the people that loved him. No peace. But I also hope that his life stands as a testament.

to the fact that there are people willing to work on your behalf. Everywhere. And we need to do a better job here on this podcast of highlighting those people and showing them. We can always do better. I'm not saying we're doing bad, but you can always do better. But we all need to do a better job of investing into the people than invests into us. So rest and peace of Eric Washington. All right.

Take the thing caps off, but do not stop learning. I'm Van Gogh, Jr. I'm Rachel Lund. Nancy. Bye guys.