Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay - Obama’s Birthday Bash and Dee-1 on Celebrity Responsibility

Episode Date: August 3, 2021

Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay address resurfaced tweets from Nick Bosa’s girlfriend and ask the question “Does age excuse insensitivity?” (3:12) Plus Barack Obama’s partying like it’s 2019 (18:07) and Matt Damon doesn’t use the F-word as of a few months ago (31:48). Then Emmy-nominated rapper Dee-1 joins the show to discuss his recent tweet regarding DaBaby and Lil Nas X and the “responsibility of celebrity expression” (36:30). Hosts: Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay Producers: Trudy Joseph and Donnie Beacham Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Yo, yo, yo, thought warriors. What is up? Higher learning is on. It is I, Van Lathen, Jr. Wow. Just kidding. And it's me, Rachel Lindsay. We got to do it again now.

Why? They don't need to pick up your mic. It's just a matter of picking up my audio. Oh, is that true? Yeah. Okay, well, whatever. Look, Rachel, it's Monday. This is called controversial Monday.

This is controversial Monday. Is it? Yeah, it's a lot of... It's a lot of controversies out there. But of course, we have to do the pleasantries. How was your weekend? What did you do? What was my weekend?

What was my weekend? What was my weekend? Oh, I worked. I worked on my book this weekend. And I chill. I had a very relaxing weekend. Brian and I spent some time together. I had a friend come in from Dallas, hung out with her a little bit.

But it was pretty easy. Brian. Productive. Brian. What about you? I watch some more of Brian's TikToks. Okay. Brian's getting really good at TikTok.

He's doing his thing, right? He's getting really good at TikTok. I'm starting to really enjoy the TikToks that are coming from Brian. Okay. I chilled out a little bit here, a little bit in Malibu. Oh, fancy. Bozeman got to run around a little bit. Bozeman, the dog, okay?

Bozeman is, you know, becoming more aggressive in what it is he wants. He's obsessed with the ball to the point to where I want to. You better not have been at Bill's house. I was hanging out with Bozeman. I was hanging out with Bozeman. That's all I'm saying. Noted. It's hanging out with Bozeman.

Noted. That's what I'm saying. Hanging out with Bozeman. Look, we have so much to get through that I know people normally like it. Do we? We have a lot to get through. So we're going to start off with a fundamental difference that Rachel and I have that ended up not being a fundamental difference.

Okay. So we're going to jump right into this. Nick Bosa, I'm not sure if you guys know who he is. He is the problematic defensive player for the 49ers. Now, Nick Bosa is good at defense. He's also good at being on the fringes of racist and Trumpian behavior. Nick Bosa has some of the-Fringe? He's in it.

So he's in it. You're just going right at Nick Bosa. He's in it. You're like an offensive tackle. You're taking Nick Bosa right on. That's right. Okay, fine. Then how would you describe Nick Bosa?

describe it. Let's go through some of Nick Bosa's past problematic stuff right now. Let's go through some of it because at first it was that Nick Bosa was a Trump supporter, which at that particular point made everybody say that, hey, Nick Bosa is racist. But there are also some past tweets by Nick Bosa. Some tweets that Nick Bosa as light. A lot of people look at Nick Bosa and they say, hey, this guy is not a friend of progress here in America. he is one of the ultra-conservative hyper right-wing people that you might find in a group like the three percenters or something like that. Is that fair to say that that's a lot of people's opinion of Nick Bosa? Yes. Okay. Now, Nick Bosa's been seeing a woman named Alexa Berman.

Now, she is a TikTok star. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah, she's on TikTok. You didn't know this about her? I don't know she was a TikTok star. TikTok to TikTok to TikTok to TikTok. Talk, to Tuck and a T-star. That's my Tick-Tock song.

You want to hear it again? No, and I think people are tired of the songs. No. Tick-tok to Tick-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-in-a-tick. So she's on Tick-T-T-T-T-T. She's on T-T-T-T-T-N. Don't edit that out. People like this shit.

Mark that. Mark that. Some recently, some tweets have come up that she sent out. And this is the type of-read them. Read them. Read them out. I will. I will. read them out. This is the type of racism that I like, okay? Like, I would be honest with you. Y'all, you know me. I don't like, oh, I was singing along with Snoop Dog racism. That's boring.

Okay. That's boring racism. The type of racism I like is I like hard ER racism. Because it's funny to me. Nick Bowes's Instagram model GF deletes old account, deletes Twitter after old problem. N-word tweets resurface. Hey, Bro, Bible, you can take out problematic. You can save a little space in your headline there because there's no way that inward tweets are not going to be problematic. So you can just go straight for inward tweets. Okay, this is some of the stuff that Jenna Alexa Berman said.

Jenna Alexa Berman said in 2013, on August 17th, in quotes, I swear to you, I'm a nigger magnet. That's an ER there. Okay. That's an hard ER magnet. And she was apparently quoting her friend Alex Hopkins with a lot of exes right there. She also has different tweets of her. She said, follow my nigger Jordan Berman.

This was in 2013. If you're a real nigger, the fuck with me. Make a nigger reconsider. That doesn't stop. She loves the N word. Okay. She says here it's a lot of stuff. We got to keep you guys over.

We got to she likes the N-word and we got to give you guys all of these N-words. So if you don't like hearing the N-word, you're different than Jenna and you might want to fast forward through this part. In 2013, again, nigger, that's nerve. D. Raw. Last day of school for us, nigger. I'm just a young nigger hustling. Shut up. Kelly, my nigger always has my back.

She loves the N-word even more than Kramer from Seinfeld. She's going even crazy. I'm fucking with you. Tell that nigger he ain't with you. Wasn't about you, bitch, nigger. If you ain't that, you ain't that nigger, you say you is. You are fuck, nigger. It ain't a secret.

All right. Rachel and I had a difference of opinion about these tweets. What I was saying is that if these tweets had happened, because Nick Bowster's like a young kid, he's only 23 or 24 years old, something like that. He's like, hasn't been to leave very long. And I thought, hey, if they're dating, if she's the same age as him, these tweets were when she was in middle school or early high school, I was ready to say I don't want to hold anybody responsible for tweets that they put

out when they were 13, 14, 15 years old. Rachel already has a problem with that. Is this not true? I have a huge problem with that because I don't understand where you draw the line. And I'm tired of people getting a pass just because they were 13, 14, 15, 16, whatever it is.

I didn't talk like that. I don't hang with people, at least that I know, maybe they were covertly. They probably been doing something. I just have a huge issue with, okay, well, they were young. It was okay then. No, it's not because what are you teaching this next generation? You know what?

If you're 13, 14, 15, you can go ahead and say those things because after a certain time, people are going to be able to look past it. It's not okay. We should be correcting this to quote the person in this article, problematic behavior, this racist behavior. We should be correcting it at a young age. I have a huge problem with it. Huge.

I'm not saying that the person has to be canceled for life and can't do anything, you know, like hereafter. But I'm saying it should be recognized as wrong and there should be no passes given. I don't care if you were 13, 14, or 15. But in this case, we don't even have to play with that because she was 23 and 24. Wait a second. I just saw something right here that said she was born in 1996. Let me tell you something. I don't give a fuck if she's 31, 25, 20 fucking six.

she's racist as fuck and I don't care I don't care when she's born my opinion does not change stop giving people passes just because they were teenagers what are you teaching them it's wrong I'm not saying her life should be ruined I'm just saying recognize it is wrong okay so we're so so so so we're seeing right here that Jenna Alexa Berman who is his girlfriend was born March 17th, this is a math, March 17th, 1996. Okay, good year for me. That's the first time somebody ever played with it. So 1996, good year, I was 16.

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Ask your doctor about Tramphia today. Call 1-800-526-7736 to learn more or visit Tramphiator Radio.com. All right. Nick Bolsa's girlfriend, there's some confusion about how old she is, which is the crux of the sort of discord between Rachel and I here.

Some reports say that she's 31 years old. Some reports say that she's 25 years old. So if she was 25, being that this stuff was like eight years ago, that would make her around what, 17, 18 years old, 17, 18 years old. She was 25. If she's 31, she was 23. My thing is when people are teenagers, all right, even though 18 is a little old, when people are teenagers, I tend to be a little bit less draconian in the way. that I deal with stupid things that they've said or done. If you're a senior in high school,

you give them a pass. I don't give them a pass. I'm just taking it to consideration. And you know why? I know where this ethos comes from? Where? From the fact that a lot of young black men and women make decisions when they're 15 or 16 years old.

Those decisions are bad decisions. And then they get treated that way for the rest of their lives. Whereas white kids at that same age are allowed to do things and have it chalked up as a stupid decision that a kid made and they get to move on and actually do what you're supposed to do, which is grow out of youthful things, right? And you want to keep giving them that. I don't want to keep giving anybody anything. What I'm saying is that if we go back to things that people did, like we didn't have

social media when we were kids. So the fact that we didn't have social media when we were kids, who knows what we would have put on social media if we had social media when we were kids. You know what I mean? I think here's the dip. First of all, I am not aligned with that school of thought at all. She's 17, 18. She's old enough.

And I'm so tired of people excusing bad behavior on the fact that they were teenagers. She knew exactly what she was doing. I mean, I imagine her first date with Nick Bosa was probably like, do you use the hard R or not? Nick Bosa probably sought out these tweets. This is probably what got Nick Bosa going.

She's a winner. That's what exactly what said. Oh, she said the N-word. I'm engorged. But in all seriousness, I'm not saying that her life has to be ruined because she has tweets from a few years ago. I'm saying it's still wrong. It's racist.

She needs to recognize it. She needs to apologize from it. And she needs to figure out how to be better from it. I'm not saying cancel the girl. I'm just saying don't give her, don't excuse it because she was young. Right. I'm not excusing young people for being bad. I'm not saying their life has.

to end either. I'm not excusing young people for being bad. So I guess my question is, number one, I do. I do think she's a public figure, right? And look, she's a public figure. She's going to have to reconcile these things. And I'm not going to make any excuses for it. But I'm saying I would be a hypocrite right now if I didn't say, hey, we're talking about

something that somebody did as a teenager. Now, the fact that she's with Nick Bosa, Nick Bosa, who has a problematic pass, obviously it looks like two peas in the pod, you know, two hoods in a, you know, two hoods in a a clan fucking two hoods in a closet uh it that's how it looks but for me is there's a kids do stupid things i'm not saying they don't do stupid things but you can do something stupid and have consequences that come about for it there i don't think that there is a line you can draw in the sand that said okay so from once you cross over to 18 now it counts no you're a public figure.

That is a line that they have. That's a, there's a, definitely a line. That's a, not for, not for tweets, not for racism.

There's no line. So why would, why would there be, why would there be a racism for crime and not a race? So what's the point of having a line period then? No,

I'm saying for racism, you're talking about a line for like, whether you're not, you're legal or not. Is that what you're talking about? What I'm talking about is, as a society, we understand that under a certain age,

your brain isn't fully developed and you're not making decisions based upon having, all the information of an adult. And that line is there to protect kids from living with their childhood mistakes for the rest of their lives. Then why do they try kids sometimes at 14, 15, 16? Because sometimes they blow people's head off indiscriminately and you can't do it.

But the thing is for most things, are you saying that the N-word is an adult offense that every time the N-WR-WR-N-W comes up, your child is an adult? I'm the one who's not giving kids. And to go towards your point about her being a public video. because she's a TikTok star. Tiki-tok. I, even more so, she should want to be on the right side of this. I'm not saying like she should lose brand sponsorships or anything.

I'm just saying acknowledge what you did was wrong. Unless you wholeheartedly believe it, then open up your closet, throw your hood on and say that, say nigger with the hard art and keep it moving. Yeah. For me, I'm not saying she definitely has to come out and address it. But I am saying that, first of all, everybody delete your old tweets just delete them you know you said it

delete them unless you know unless you stand by I'm like you said this is the racist kind of racism be like if that's what she believes then that's what she believes this is the racism that's amusing to me see all of you passive races out there and just go passive I don't you guys aren't compelling to me I don't like that anymore

you know the races that that you double down on your shit that's the shit that gets me up that's the shit that I like you know what I mean I like that old fashion that all give it give it to me old fashion you know what I mean don't don't don't say

what are you doing can you see my TV yes I can who is that you started talking about who was that oh it's Chris Hanson oh Chris Chris came to play

I love you Chris oh soup kitchen what is he doing what's he hosting that's who wants to be a millionaire syndicate him Soup kitchen is hosting who wants to be a

a millionaire? He used to host it. Yeah. Oh, I never knew that. Oh, no, now I messed up my camera. Yeah, you fucked it up. Um, yeah, so look, give her to, I'm just, I'm, I'm, give her the whole, throw the book at her, I don't care, I'm just saying, whenever somebody digs up old tweets and

the person was a kid, you know, they dug up old tweets about Patrick Mahomes saying that like, you know, something about Trayvon Martin or something like that. Like, I can't remember what it was. He said, oh my God, what he said, he said, he said, he said something. He, Patrick Mahome said something problematic, but he was literally like 13 or 14 years old when it was said.

I'm like, do we really want to jump into a rabbit hole of what Patrick Mahomes thought about the world when he was in the ninth or 10th grade? Is that like a thing? So it's like, it's a weird thing. But look, uh, look, Nick Bosa, you got an issue. You got an issue. Now there's going to have to be an apology. Come out and say that.

Or maybe she'll stick by it. You never know. Rachel's trying to fix her camera. You mess it up by moving it over to see soup kitchen. Yeah, trying to make a funny joke. So what would you like to see happen to her? What's your thing? I just want her to be accountable for what it is that she's done.

That's all I'm asking for. Just acknowledge what you did. Acknowledge. Acknowledge it. Acknowledge it. Acknowledge that it's wrong. Acknowledge that you don't. Because I'm telling you, the way I feel right now, that's what she, that's who she is and

that's what she believes. Until I see you go against those statements, that's who you are. You like to throw around the N-word and casual conversation. and not even casual conversation in public. That's who you are until you show me anything different. She should want to say something. So let me ask you a question here. Do you believe that, do you believe in trying people as juveniles?

Do you think that whenever you commit a crime, whenever you do anything, you should be treated exactly as an adult? Oh, I mean, if I have to give like a hard answer, I definitely do not believe trying people is. juveniles. Wait, what? Like as adults? No, no, no, no. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. What I'm saying, what I'm saying, what I'm saying, do you believe that if you do something at 13 or 14 years old, that you should be tried as a juvenile or as an adult? Oh, yes. That's what, sorry. I mean, as a juvenile, yes, I meant don't try juvenile as adults is what I meant to say. Right. So where does

that line get drawn? So why is it that way in this situation, in, in, in a situation, in involving the law, but it's not in that situation. You're making me give a black or white answer. I think that sometimes it is circumstantial, and I think that there's certain instances where there is a reason why they move towards trying them as an adult. But you're having me give a yes or a no. So if I'm just going to give a blanket answer,

I'm not going to be on the side of 13 and 14-year-olds, and 12-year-olds we've seen at times get tried as an adult. I'm not going to say that. Okay. Kyle Rittenhouse, adult. Kyle Rittenhouse, adult. Carl Rittenhouse knew what he was doing. Kyle Rittenhouse knew what he was doing.

And he did it. Now, I get it. I understand what you're saying. And also, once again, murder is something different. Murder is something totally, totally different. Let's take a break. This episode is brought to you by WeatherTech. Everyone knows winter is the MVP and making a mess.

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So there are reports that former president Barack Obama is hosting his 60th birthday bash. It's going to be himself and hundreds of guests on Martha's Vineyard this coming weekend. This is, of course, amid heightened public health concerns both there and across the nation about the UB variant, the Delta variant of COVID. There's so much going on right now with the Delta variant. We don't know how it infects. We don't know how protected vaccinated people are. We do know that vaccinated people are significantly protected from hospitals. and death, but there are so many unknowns about the Delta variant right now, yet Obama is still

doing this party. You saw this. What did you think? I thought Obama's just like us. He said, you know what? It's my 60th. It's a milestone. I want to gather with my closest 500 family and friends. And I want to throw a big party out at Martha's Vineyard, which is not an easy place to get to. I do think it's a little incredible that he is doing this. And so publicly, so many people having a concert, they say Pearl Jam, which I was shocked by, he's supposed to perform. I love how you said Pearl Jam, as if there's not a, it's Pearl Jam.

That's what I said, Pearl Jam. You're saying it wrong. I'm sorry, what's the problem? Take a pause between the Pearl and the Jam. Why? because that's the name of the band okay Pearl Jam that's what I said that's not what you're saying you're saying you're saying you're doing you're doing it weird you're saying like Obama's having a party

and Van Halen Van Halen no it's Van Halen you said Pearl Jam's the name of the band I'm not tomato tomato okay either way you know which band I'm talking about Pearl Jam I'm saying it like it's it's a it's a first and middle name. Yeah. Like Susie Mae. I guess what you're saying. Pearl Jam, Pearl Jam, Lathet.

It's like Pearl Jam. Rachel Lynn. No, it's pretty incredible that he's doing this and he's really giving Zero Fuchs about it at the same time. He said, I want to celebrate. I saw another year and that's what I'm going to do. It also should be noted there's apparently like 200 plus people that are going to be putting this party together or serving at this party.

It's a whole affair. Here's my question. If you got an invite, Would you go? No. Hell no. Like, I definitely wouldn't. See, you'd go?

You would go. I'm vaccinated. Well, you would go. You know what? This is Vance very serious question of the week. I'm vaccinated. I'd wear a mad. This is Rachel's very serious question because I came up with it.

Rachel's very serious question in the week. If you got an invitation right now to Obama's party, you would go. Hands down. I'm vaccinated and I'd be wearing a mask. Okay. So let's talk about this. Number one, the party itself. is reportedly has 475 confirmed guests.

That's not a party. That's a fucking concert at a small venue here in L.A. 475 confirmed guests, friends, family, former, AIDS, and like you said, 200 plus staff. Apparently it's going to be outside. Thank God for that. But there is, we don't know whether or not there's going to be a match. mandated this party just yet.

Or if you have to be vaccinated to attend. Or if you have to be vaccinated. Like they say that the party is the talk of Uber drivers, hotel maids and checking in clerks. This is fucking irresponsible. It's a super spreader. This, you can't. No one, number one, I definitely would not go.

This is fucking irresponsible. And I'm wondering where the outrage on this is from people who should rightly be outraged about this. I think there is outrage, starting with. President Joe Biden. He probably wants to go. He can't go. He can't show his face there.

Yeah. And he's not going. Yeah. He can't go. He can't go. The reason I say I would go to is because, like, I just came back from Cancun from a wedding. No, there were not 500 people there. But I went out the country for a wedding.

And I'm going out of the country again in two weeks for another wedding, a family wedding. So if I got invited to President Obama's party, I did my part. I'm vaccinated and I'd be wearing a mask. I'm not flying across the country just to get a cold. I would not go for sure. Well, I forgot because you know why. You know what?

Of course you wouldn't go because you kicked former President Obama off the list of meaningful people who made a... Of course. You said it earlier about him, no. You said he was a renegade. Remember all those podcasts ago? He called himself a renegade. And why is it Bruce Springsteing performing? That's the question.

Bruce should be there. Do you know it was an event just like this in Cape Cod? They had 60,000 people. What? 965 cases of COVID traced to those gatherings. 60,000 people? Yeah, the 4th of July weekend, there were events across Cape Cod, crowded 60,000 people. They were maskless.

975 cases COVID came from that. 235 of them from the residents of Providence Town, Province Town itself. Here's the deal. I don't get why President Obama would do this at this time. It's the worst thing he possibly do. He doesn't care. He truly doesn't care.

But I mean, one thing I'm just, I'm not going to do to y'all thought Warriors has lied to you. I would go and I'd bring a gift. Wow. I wouldn't go. I condemn this. It's going to be this many people, Obama's going to send us back in

a lockdown. Obama is going to send us back into lockdown. I don't get it, man. You're the president. You're the biggest virtual party. This would be such a chance for Obama to be the change you want to see. Do the biggest virtual party in the world. Everybody democratize your birthday party.

First of all, I don't like this because it's this hoity-toity elite bullshit as well. You're Obama. Democratize your birthday party. Have a huge big birthday party virtually for everybody who can get on Zoom. We all come together. I miss my 59th. I'm celebrating my 60th. I agree with you though.

Listen, I've had two I've had two COVID birthdays. I get it. I get it. I'm not saying I agree with him. I'm just saying if I did get an invite, I would put my feelings to the side. I'm just not going to lie.

I'm not. All right. Did you see this news about Sean King's house? Yeah. Okay, so let's talk about Sean King real quick. If you don't know who Sean King is. Sean King is an effective yet controversial activist for the peoples of colored descent for us black people. Sean King has been criticized by a lot of people in the past about some of his fundraising ethics and tactics.

A lot of people say that Sean King is a grifter. A lot of people say that Sean King is a tireless worker for the black community who is unfairly targeted by white supremacists and people on the far right. There was a article that came out in the New York Post, which seems very, very, very, very interested in the personal lives of people who are in the movement for Black lives. It seems as if they like to really report on what these people are doing with their finances. Remember, it was also the New York Post that ran the story about Patrice Cullors and her homes that she had. Now they're doing a story about Sean King and a home. that he has makes it makes you wonder

why the post is so interested in the personal lives of these people doesn't matter what side of this you fall on you have got to ask yourself what the fuck does the New York Post care about where Sean King lives and knowing that Sean King

is the target of some of the things that he's the target of no matter what you think about Sean King why on God's Green with the New York Post print a picture of his home. Interesting. Has Sean King said anything?

I haven't seen. So apparently earlier this year, they moved from an apartment in New York to a place in New Jersey with a lakefront backyard and a gourmet kitchen. The place is surrounded by big trees or whatever, whatever. It was purchased by his wife in last year. The home is worth 840.

$8,000. Now, if you're living in LA, you're thinking, Jesus Christ, what a dump. But in other places, you can actually get a lot of house for $842,000. People are saying that this is proof that Sean King is, in fact, a grifter. Rachel, what do you say? So I agree with you about the New York Post thing. I believe they're the same people who first reported about Patrice Colors as well.

So here's the thing. You have to draw the line somewhere. Whether you are on the site, you are pro-Shine. or you are against Sean King, or you fall somewhere in the middle. The fact that you're publicizing where he lives when you know he has been threatened, he is hated on, people want to take him down is so irresponsible that the people who put this out there should truly be held responsible for what they're doing because they're putting his well-being and his families.

He's got children. He has got a wife. They're putting them all at risk by posting a picture. It's not hard to find where someone lives, but I also think that this is extremely dramatic. He bought a home, one home, okay? Not even a million dollars. We need to calm down. This isn't a Patrice colors.

This isn't somebody who is taking money and investing it and getting multiple multimillion dollar homes. This is not the same thing. This is a home that he is buying for his family. And I don't understand what people want from Sean King. In this instance, are you saying that you have to struggle? Are you saying that you can only afford a certain amount to live a certain way if you dedicate your life to the cause?

I have no problem with Sean King buying a house. I don't care that the house is six figures. I have no problems with it at all. And I do think that this is, this is, this plays into the narrative of us being against him, of us, you know, questioning the things that he does. You know, again, whatever side you stand on with him, I have heard. good things and I've heard bad things, but I think that this is an exaggeration and New York Post needs to chill out. So here's the thing. I'm not going to vouch for Sean or speak up on behalf of

Sean. You know, I've raised money with Sean before the money got to where it was going, but all of the stuff that other people are talking about, I wasn't there. I have no clue. Right. But I will tell you this, just stop taking your cues from white supremacy. Let's just not do that, right? So New York Post is owned by Rupert Murdoch. and his company, the New York Post is traditionally a very conservative, a very gotcha type paper that would do something like this. The reality is that if you are bothered about the finances of some of these people and where they're coming from, that's fine. You can be bothered about the finances of the people in the church. Everybody who, if you're in the congregation, you have a right

to know where the church is getting their money from and how much of the church money is going to the building fun and how much is going to the pastor's kind of like. If you are in the congregation, you have a right to know that about the pastors of the church. The situation is here is when people raise money and when people raise their profiles, even more than money, around certain issues, then what they do is they make all black people, Rachel just took a bite of a twizzler like she was pissed at that bitch. Rachel just put the twizzler in her mouth and just yank that hole. Like, fuck you Twizzler.

That was funny. If you are like a Sean King or Patrice, then essentially all of Black America becomes your congregation. All of Black America becomes people who go, hey, you're raising money on behalf of a cause that is supposed to be about me. I would like to know where this money is actually going and who's actually getting it and what you're really doing with.

So I have a problem with people asking those questions. What I do have a, What I do have a problem with is people taking something from a source like the post and then running with it and using it against people like Patrice and Sean. If we can't see that playbook coming now, then we don't deserve to really see the playbook. It's Patrice, Sean, and they're going to find somebody next. It's going to be like, hey, all of these people elicit. And then you have white supremacy shaping who our heroes are. And we just simply can't have that.

So if you want to know about Sean, if you want Sean to be more transparent, do the same shit that you do to Sean all the time. Call them all the names, do all the stuff, whatever you got to do, the people who really care, do whatever you have to do to kind of get whatever else you need from Sean King. But also, pay attention to who's asking the questions

about people like Sean and people like Patrice. Pay attention because that matters. All right, let's take a break. This episode is brought to by Nas Energy. Every ounce of dirt, sweat, and gears, every checkered flag and trophy raised, every lap, every race, every hard-fought place. They're all jammed inside every can of Nas energy,

high performance energy for burning the midnight oil in the garage and pedal to the metal human horsepower for the streets. Go ahead, crack open a can of Nas energy and get after it. Oh, Matt Damon. Matt Damon's learning lessons. I couldn't be more happy for him. So, yeah, I could be more happy. I'm happy for Matt Damon.

I'm happy when people get better. People get better. They get better, Rachel. They get better. get better. So Matt Damon has a new movie coming out and so he has to promote this movie so he's got to do some interviews.

This is what you do. You're Matt Damon. You're Jason Bourne. All right? You're Ripley, Tom Ripley. You're all of these people. You're Matt Damon. You've been doing this for a while.

It's Damon, Damon, Damon, Damon. So he talked about the fact that he just recently stopped using the F word. The F word for gay people. He said there was some time ago sitting down. talking about talking to his daughter and he said a line from his movie stuck on you and the line had the f word in it and matt damon's daughter was so outraged that she went to her room and wrote

something and gave it to him and since then he is officially retired the slur known as the f word this came out and people were super pissed off at mad damon saying how could this damn near 50 maybe over 50 year old man, not know that it was time to get rid of the F word way before this. Do you have a problem with this admission by Matt Damon? Well, first of all, I just want to say it wasn't some time ago. It was a couple of months. Yeah, a couple of months ago. So it's why people are upset.

It was basically yesterday. Okay. Well, he said it was like six months ago or something. It was yesterday. It was this year, 2021. So do I have a problem with the admission? I more so have a problem with the audacity. to admit it. I don't know what question you could have been asked that made you want to share that

story. I'm a person who sits in junkins and interviews people all day, every day. I cannot imagine what a reporter could have asked you that made you say, you know what, I got a story to tell you. I'm sure the reporter didn't mention F work. So it wasn't a speaking of the F work. Maybe they asked about the movie. I don't know. Maybe they asked about his kids. But the fact that you had the audacity, as if you can be completely oblivious to how, to the reaction that you would get from the world or the fact that you just don't care. Because as Van said, you're Matt Damon. I don't know. I don't know what kind of privilege bubble you live in or what privileged clouds you sit on that you could share that story and not think that there would be any kind of backlash from it.

And how are we also supposed to believe that you just now realize the F word was a bad word to say? It's 2021. Well, Matt did release a statement. I haven't heard the statement, but changed my mind. This is the statement. He talked about what happened with him as daughter, but the last part of the statement,

to me is the most important part. He says, I've never called anyone blank in my personal life. In this conversation with my daughter was not a personal awakening. I do not use slurs of any kind. I've learned that eradicating prejudice requires active movement towards justice,

rather than finding passive comfort in imagining myself when, of the good guys. And given that open hostility against the LGBTQ community is still not uncommon, I understand why my statement led many to assume the worst. To be as clear as I can be, I stand with the LGBTQ plus community. That's from Matt David. Rache, your thoughts? That statement contradicts his original admission. Wait. It just does. It doesn't. What he said was that earlier he was saying back that he says he's never using his personal life but he was recounted a movie that he had that he had said a line in his personal life didn't he just use it in

his personal life when he was sitting at the table with this family well he said he's never called anyone that okay but you do you he maybe he hasn't but i don't know how he uses it in this line stuck on you so i don't even know what would even make him want to say this line i used it in your personal life. Maybe you didn't call it. But who knows? You didn't even think it was offensive. You thought it was a joke as you quoted to your daughter at the table. So maybe you said you probably don't even remember the times you used it. Apparently, you're just now coming to some type of awakening that it's an offensive word. I don't know. It's an apology after the fact. I'm glad that he is committed to, you know, he made a statement saying he'd do better. Glad he said he stands with the LGBTQ plus community.

At this point, that's all we can ask for. But I'll be damned if I think that he did not know that it was offensive word prior to 2021. So there's been a lot of talk about the baby and Little Nazex and the whole situation that goes back and forth between them, not just with things being said, but also the videos themselves and how Lil Nas X is inspiring all of this homophobia in hip hop. A friend of mine, a guy that I know, a very, very skilled rapper, good dude, put out a tweet this past weekend. I got a lot of people talking about this very interesting.

issue. His name is D1. We are going to have him on the podcast next to talk about why he feels like both Lil Nas X and the baby are making vulgar inappropriate music. All right. Now, we got somebody coming on the podcast and I know. It's a homeboy of mine. He comes from the same place that I come from. Kind of. He's from New Orleans out from Baton Rouge. This guy's been rapping for a long time doing this thing at some of the highest levels. He had a tweet that was very interesting and got a lot of people talking and I want to talk to him about it. His name is D1.D. Thank you for joining us today on How I Learn? How are you feeling, my brother? Man, I feel blessed to be on here. Bro, when Van Lathen DMs you and says,

you got to come on the podcast, you start feeling right about your life. You heard me too. All right. So this is the tweet. All right. The tweet was this. Regarding debate, giving what it's supposed to give and Lil Nas X's industry baby video, it's not that one is more acceptable than the other. Both videos are bad examples of how to use a platform where your content reaches millions, including kids. So the industry baby video is a little Naz's ex's video that has got so many people talking. They are, he's being held by some vilified by others.

the people that are hailing them are saying that, hey, this is him expressing himself. This is him throwing it in the face of people who are homophobic. The people who are against it seem to be leaning on the side of some of that same homophobia and saying that they're offended by the images. They don't want to see the images. They have a problem with the images. When you tweeted this out, what was your point about both of the videos? So I'm stepping on to the scene.

When D1 tweets or when D1 expresses himself, people have to understand. understand that I'm stepping on to the scene as a man who views himself as a soldier in God's army. So I'm seeking to do God's will with my platform and with my time here on earth more than anything else. I'm also stepping onto these platforms as an educator turned rapper. Like I was a middle school teacher in Vance hometown of Baton Rouge before becoming D1, the worldwide known hip-hop artist. So I'm coming into it from that scope. And when I make this tweet, it's because whether you are gay, whether you are straight, whether you're black, white, male or female,

I'm looking at what is a responsible way to use your platform overall. So regardless of your sexual orientation or regardless of where you're from or what you've been through, when I see two music videos, one to where there are a bunch of naked men in jail cells who literally have no clothes on and they just are blurred out. I'm like, all, pause right there.

Whether this was women in this image or whether it's a room full of men in that image, That is something to where when it's coming from an artist who has admitted in 2021, gone on a record and said that his core fan base is children. Lil Now, Isaac said that when you admit that this is your core fan base, but you'll put out a music video with this type of imagery, that doesn't help us. That doesn't help us in terms of raising these kids, you know, in a world to where we can shelter them from so much sexually explicit kind of. When the baby is getting hid, you heard me, from the lady, the white lady in his video, you know, giving what is supposed to give.

When the baby has his real life uncle in his video in a church, you know, which I take that serious with a gun in his hand and just kind of the baby spitzing somebody's casket. This is all imagery that I'm like, bro, that's not a cool way to be using your platform, period. And so for me, I'm like, I can cut through a lot of the other stuff that gets people really humble. up on where this is freedom of expression. If entertainment is freedom of expression, then I feel like adulthood is responsibility of expression. And for me, that's where my issue comes into where, regardless of the points you're trying to make, the way that you put these images out there, it's not something that's cool from either of those standpoint. I think, D-Wan, I think what people who, like, didn't agree with your tweet or what they had found a problem with it, is that it seemed

like you were equating what the little baby, what Lil Nas X does or did compared to what the baby did. And they're not just taking it from the music video, taking it from what he said on stage and what he said on the internet afterwards and then what he did in this video. Right. Are you saying that's a great point. No, that's an amazing point, Rachel. Somebody who I actually did go back and forth with a little bit in my Instagram comments, they kind of came at it from that angle.

And I told him, I said, this Lil Nause X video came out before the baby even performed that Rolling Loud. So my issue with his content in his music video isn't something that had anything to do with his back and forth with the baby. I actually did a little personal research in my own, and I looked and I was like, man, when he put out the other video where he was lap dancing with the devil,

you heard me, and had the devil slapping him on his booty and all that, I said something about that video as well. It's something to where in no way shape or form was it related to what the baby has recently said at Rolling Loud. Like I'm a person who the song that brought me from a local rapper in Baton Rouge to a national artist is called J50 and Weas. Where 10 years ago, Rachel and Van, I was calling out Jay Z 50 sending Lil Wayne saying that they should be more responsible with the content that is in their music and with the message they're putting out there. So I've been doing this. This isn't directed at just these two artists. But since these two videos recently came out and came across my timeline, I was like, dang,

I'm seeing their names in the media a lot. And it's not that this video or this video is more acceptable in my eyes. I feel like we can't support a cause, but then hate the effect that it causes. So are we okay with, are we okay with this type of imagery being put out there sometimes and not other times? That's like saying, are we okay with sometimes listening? and I'm guilty of it as well. Are we okay with sometimes listening to music to where gun violence is glorified

and knocking your head off your shoulders or selling dope? Because this artist made it sound more classy, maybe more upper echelon, drug rap or murder talk versus, oh, this dude, he's just a little hood ratchet dude out of South B.R. So, you know, we don't like it when it comes from him. I'm at a point in my adulthood to where I'm like,

yo, we really got to call all of it out if we truly have a problem with it. Well, the answer to your question is yeah we are okay with it sometimes because you know I'm being being from bad rouged the music I was raised on concentration camp boozy even shout out emcey nero even some of the stuff y'all are making down there j electronica guy a bar where he says get the gat get the gat was a popular phrase you know what I mean like that's what we were listening to get the gat get the get and that song still goes hard in my head it feels like to me i'll be honest with you that these

conversations only come up after a little Nas X makes a video because all of the rest the Wap video came out Wop came out people were in people were into it whatever the only people that seem to have a problem with that was the super right every single day rappers are making rap songs and a lot of the rap songs that were talking about a lot of things that are being celebrated in the rap songs aren't of God like we've normalized a lot of the rap that we even listen to even some of the drug and alcohol use, a lot of that stuff, right? It's not, it's not, no, what cares about that?

We'd be calling out people every single day. It seems like we call it out because Lil Nas X is dancing with guys naked in a video. And that seems to get a more visceral response from people to, then we go, okay, well, let's have a conversation about everything because he's doing it now. Did you have a problem with the Watt video when it came out? Yes, indeed. My brother, yes indeed. I'm on a record at, I'm on sway in the morning.

You heard me doing a cyphal with some of the dopest MCC from around the country. And I'm calling Nikki Minaj out. This is when she put out the Anandah video even a few years back. And I'm calling her, I was saying, I don't think young ladies should look up to her. And you know why? Not because I'm a hater. I'm blessed by the best, thankfully. But because I was Mr. Augustine, the middle school teacher before I was D-Won the rapper.

And I saw one of my students come in class with M-O-B tatted on his arm. And I'm like, bro, you in middle school. like, what made you get that tattered on your arm? You know what that means? And he's like, no, sir, I don't know what that means. And I thought he was lying at first. And I said, then why did you get it? And because his favorite rapper, Lil Wayne, at the time,

had M-O-B tatted on his chest. And y'all know that stands for money over BITCHs. So when I'm seeing this effect that everyone's music and everyone's image when you are a celebrity in Western civilization, I'm seeing the immense impact that it has on our impressionable youth, then it is something. to where I have always called it out. Like I said, I can't speak for every other artists.

And it does make it difficult when you see some artists who, oh, they're only speaking up because Lil Nas X, the homie is gay. So now it's like he's an easy target or whatnot. I can understand that. And my thing has been, I feel like you can't have truth without having a standard. And if God is the standard, for me, God's approval is the standard. So I look at all this stuff, gay, straight, black, white, young,

oh, you heard me from the north, south, east, or west. I look at the standard. as no matter who you are or what you are, if it's not something God would approve of, then I can't be sitting here being a fan of it. And you know what, Van and Rachel, that's hard sometimes because me and Van grew up on some of the same music. I know cash money records cataloged, you know,

pre-2005, like the back of my hand, because I grew up on it. So when we develop a taste for something that as adults, we all admit it's poisonous for us. It's not ever positive for us to talk about killing ourselves or us to expose young kids to butt-naked men in a jail cell, butt-naked women in the wide video, whatever. It's all not cool.

But when we've developed a taste for it, it is very tough to figure out, well, are we just too far in, man? Like, are we, you know, my man, Van, like, I rock a van to the fullest. To see Van give me goosebumps when he had that exchange with Kanye West a few years ago, and then to see Van come out and tweet recently, hey, I'm looking forward to some new Kanye, though, F it. You call me a hypocrite, whatever.

I feel it. I understand. I understand that. And it's just like, damn, bro. Like, but you are still, like, I love that you embrace your humanity in that moment. And you're not sitting here saying,

well, nah, I'm not allowed to act like I would ever be looking forward to some new Kanye content because of the exchange we had. The reality is we are, that's why we need one another door. We need a D1 in this moment to be like, hey, not homophobic, not sitting here. All of a sudden wanting to be super. my whole career has been on this. Check my track record. But we need a D1 to be able to speak up in these moments. Just like in certain moments, we're going to need other people to maybe be like,

hey, D, we feel like, you know, you should be more vocal about this or more vocal about that. I think we need one another because I have my moments where you might catch me online bumping some music that's like, oh, D1 rocking to that music where they talk about killing somebody or they talking about, you know, packing guns. Like, hey, D, like, I'm not above being corrected. or being kind of like, come on, Dee, stay sharp. That's why iron is supposed to shove an iron. So I don't feel anything about, you know, calling out content that I know as a rapper. I got into the game to be a rapper so that I could be the change that I wanted to see.

So my whole career, I've been blessed to form a nationwide fan base over a decade now, go all over the country, doing concerts, people know my lyrics, word for word, doing speaking engagements at colleges, in churches, in prisons, and I can be myself in all these environments because I learned that authenticity is what gets accepted most when you are truly saying, hey, I just want to make God proud.

Like, forget everything else. I'm just going to be my humble self that I am and I'm trying to make God proud. That has opened doors that nothing else has been able to open in my life. And I just feel like there's so many people looking for something to latch on to or looking for a celebrity to cling to and say,

yeah, he speaks for all of us. He speaks for all of us. No, we don't. None of us do as celebrities. You shouldn't hold us as the standard to like someone who you want to be like when you get older. You shouldn't. And I wish this celebrity culture could be, you know, could be crumpled up and torn up and thrown away because we got to have a standard that is never going to change. And the only thing I find that to be is having God.

The absence of God creates all these interpretations of what truth is. And then you get chaos. And that's what we're living in, a bunch of chaos. D1. So I'm not a disagreeing with anything that you're saying. But to play devil's advocate, don't you feel like you have a certain standard for you? But that doesn't mean that these people who are rappers, who are musicians, whatever it is, whoever these public figures are, have the same standard that you have. And so don't you think it's unfair to hold them one to a standard that they don't even hold themselves to? And don't you think it's unfair that because I remember

Rihanna saying something like this. just because I'm a public figure, just because I make music, don't have your children look up to me in that way. How do you hold, like, you have to separate it at some point because just because they're making certain music doesn't mean that children have to necessarily listen to them. Like how they might not be making music for children,

even though children might be listening to their audience. Like just because you're a public figure doesn't mean you're necessarily a mentor. Like you said, we shouldn't be holding these celebrities. You know what I mean? As somebody we should regard as people to look up to necessarily. You just said that. If you can monetize X, if you can monetize the audience of kids by writing a children's book,

and if you can go on record and say that children or your core family, you have embraced that and you're choosing to monetize this audience, so you also have a responsibility to be conscious of the message you're putting out there to this audience. In perpetuity, forever? In perpetuity, if it wasn't in perpetuity, like, when and why would it change? it would change because for this video he said this is not for kids

come on put it out no no I'm asking I'm saying what I'm saying is that if if you make you know Taylor Taylor Swift comes out she makes country music at certain point she wants to go pop

what is it how do we get to tell Taylor Swift when it's okay for her to make a change in her career he might have he did the old town road thing when he did the old town road thing was doing all of that stuff he wasn't even out nobody even knew that he was gay yet he is now embracing who he is fully

and wants to express that, how would you be okay with Lil Nas X expressing his identity, talking about his gayness or his homosexuality? I would be cool. That's a great question. I would be cool with him talking about it. He could rap about it. He could make words rhyme. He could speak about his experiences and what he's going through with that.

But putting imagery out there to where, like, as a Christian, I have a right to be offended and to be upset if it's like, oh, girl, you're making a my career, go, bro. Like, you know, oh, you're going to put a tennis shoe out with 666 on a tennis shoe. Okay. We talked about it. I wasn't in love with it. We talked about it here. I did like it.

Yeah. Yeah. So that type of stuff, bro, it's like I have a right to be upset with that. And that has nothing to do with him still having the right to be homosexual and to express his homosexuality. But it's like when you are crafty enough to go out. on and do things like this that you know are offensive to, so you'll do things that are offensive to another, you know, to another subsection of the population to Christians or men of men and

women of faith, but you will be upset if it seems like someone is upset about, um, about the imagery that you put forth in your video. Like, it's a difference between someone being mad or trying to cancel you because you're gay. We're not trying to do that. I don't, I don't, I don't. I, I haven't heard anyone trying to do that. But my thing is like you can be gay without having naked, fully naked, fully naked people in jail cells with just little blurs over their face and over their, and whatnot, and over their private parts,

not even over their faces. Like, you don't have to go that far. Lil Nile, and y'all know this. Listen, y'all know this. I hope y'all not going to try to act like, y'all know that Lil Nyes X at this point is making a brand off of going above and beyond to throw it in people's face.

Like, I'm going all the way. Why wouldn't he, though? Why wouldn't he? Yeah. Why wouldn't you throw in people's face? I throw my blackness in people's face. Because he, when he's throwing in people, but your blackness shouldn't be offensive to anybody, man.

Neither should his homosexuality. So it's, yeah. No, no, no, no. But what can be offensive is when you throw, when you're not throwing your homosexuality in people's face when you are lap dancing on the devil. You heard of me? Well, the point, so this is my thing.

So this is my thing about that. I've talked about this on the podcast before. Me and Satan, we're not friends. Okay? I don't fuck with them. So if you got Satan in the video, the video is not for me. All right. And it's okay.

Make your videos. Do your whole thing. Me and Satan, that kind of dark energy. Vance a little bit too much of a Louisiana boy for that. However, his point though, even in that video, as it was explained by Lil Nasex, was that he was told over and over and over again. that he was going to go to hell for who he was. And that he was all,

like that because he was gay, because he had come up in a situation, I guess in Georgia where there were a lot of church people around, he was told that he was going to go to hell for it. Now he felt powerful. He feels awake in his purpose of who he is. And he was like, okay, if you guys are going to send me to hell,

me and say, you're going to have a good time. So even that video was rooted in his understanding, his rebellion with his homosexuality and throwing it back to, to the people's faces that were really being ungodly. Okay. Because it's not your job to tell anybody that they're going to hell. To judge.

Right, right. So who were being un-go-so. So that was his explanation of that. So when you say throwing in people's faces, I applaud him throwing it in people's faces. Yeah. Yeah, I can't, like I said, the teacher in me and the man of God in me can't applaud the baby or Lil Nize X when I see stuff.

The baby directed his own video. So when I'm saying like, oh, so everything in that video that I just saw, everything about the video, you signed off on that, baby. You heard me? Like, that wasn't something where the label made you do it or anything. When I see that, but if you also, like, if you also would get up there and thank God when you win an award, you know what I'm saying? Like, come on, man.

Like, at what point do we draw the line and say, yo, so you do things that clearly God is not pleased with this platform, but then when that platform gets you money and fame and success, if you'll thank God. But I don't think God is proud of you in those moments at all. So what do you do if you're a celebrity, right? Because if they don't agree to the same standards that you hold for yourself and I think other people should. I know the baby does.

Like I know the baby is from Charlotte. He's like me and Van. Like you come up in the South, like your mama and your grandma and everything. Like y'all were in church. Y'all are people of faith. Unfortunately, I think the baby lost his brother last year or earlier this year. Like he passed away. and I can feel, you know, it's like black people.

Like we can innately feel one another's pain. And I'm like, oh, my dog gone through it, like for real. And I just think that what it is, Rachel, is that they don't have people in their circles who are holding them accountable. You know what I'm saying? Like, like if Van feels like D1 tweeted something that's like, whoa, Dee, where you going with this? Van going to make a little comment under my post and maybe be like, hey, let's talk on the podcast about it. The baby, they have a bunch of yes men around them. You know what I'm saying?

I know this, the baby and other rappers. and because of that, these people who at the core are not that different from us morally. You know, there's not this moral ambiguity with certain people that we're referencing. Just because we might be at the core similar, they live in this world every day full of gist. Yeah, whatever you say is right.

Yeah, stray further and further and further from the core of who you are and what you really believe in, but do it for the sake of the likes and the comments and the social currency and they accept the, the acceptance that you'll get from the masses. So that is why, when you say what you say, Rachel,

I know that with a, I have been in the studio, I'm not going to call him out by name. I've been in the studio with a very popular rapper who's having a great conversation about social justice with me, about fatherhood, about marriage, both of which he is involved in. And right after we having this convoy in the studio, he walks eight feet to the left and gets in the booth.

And when the engineer presses play on the beat, he was sitting there rapping about murdering and killing people and selling dope and all this. And I'm just like, oh, yeah, that disconnect that we have grown all too comfortable with in terms of like, well, this is just my music. This is just what I do to give the people what they want or to make money.

You know, this is all I do, but this is who I really am. That's the part where for me as a celebrity, David Augustine Jr. is the same as D1. D1 just has the platform. That's why I wanted to become D1. And I think that that disconnect is what I have. have a problem with. And same thing with Lil Nyes X. I don't think Lil Nize X is sitting here worshiping Satan. I don't think he even wears his own tennis shoes. They have the 666 on. I don't

think he's about all that. I think that he's in a space where there's people around him that's like, you know what's going to really give people talking if we do this? And he's like, yeah, it work. Hey, you ain't really, you ain't really been hot since Old Town Road. You know what we could really do to give people back like, like with your name in their mouth, no pun intended. Um, uh, hey, we should do this. And I know that that's what it is. I know this because I have had the opportunity to be one of those artists. I've had people saying, Dee, you got the swag, you got the look, you got the lyrics, you could be the light skin, Lil Wayne. You just got to start cursing in your music. You got to be cool with making these type of songs that's gone. I know you ain't lived this life all the way, but you come

from the hood, Dee, you're from the night world in New Orleans. You rap about this, da-da-da, and it's going to get you hot over here. And I had to make the tangible decision to say, no, I turned down a deal with cash money records. You know what I mean? And those are my heroes growing up. But I turned down to deal with them because I got to the point where pleasing God

and pleasing my mama and my grandma and my community, the community activists, the van talks about that don't get enough attention. Pleasing those type of people became more important than pleasing the people

at club shenanigans and club rags. Ha ha! Now you speak in my language. Shenatigans and rags, you feel what I'm saying? Hey, I got it. I got in a massive fight in club shenanigans. You shouldn't have been up in that.

You shouldn't have been up in that. I shouldn't have been in shenanigans? I shouldn't have been in that. Shenanigans. Yeah. And when I got in that fight and when this dude was high rolling off them pills, off them jiggers and this dude came across the dance floor and punched me in my nose, right? And in the middle of dance floor, daze me.

Next thing I know we go into the mix and we start swinging. Like in that moment, I had to ask myself, it was that and it was my, best friend getting killed back in New Orleans shortly after that made me be like, what am I even doing in certain places if I'm not trying to change the game? If I'm not trying to change the environment, why am I even in these environments? And I started to move different. You know what I'm saying? And I don't know. That's just, you know, that's just tell, did you just tell me recipes to your home boy, but did you just tell me that a nigger beat the Jesus into you in shenanigans? Is that what you just told us? Did you just tell the whole world breaking news? D1 says that a brother

beat the Jesus into him in shenanigans, man, doing the Lord's work. The Lord works, the Lord works in mysterious ways. He does work in mysterious way, boy. Yeah, like, I mean, in so many words, bro, yeah, like, like, I held my own, you know, I help my own, but honestly, leaving that night being like, man, what the, what the heck am I doing my life? Yeah, like, for real, it's moments like that. And I don't think that, uh, bro, it's a lot of moments like that in all of our lives,

Sure, of course. Some of us choose to say, man, let me just hit this, hit this blunt right quick. Let me hit this drink right quick to forget about this. Instead of sitting in this pain, I had to sit in that pain of my best friend getting killed. I had to sit with that pain of feeling like I'm trying to appeal to people just because I might be insecure with who I really am at the core. I had to sit in that, you know, and grow through that. And there's so many distractions and so much money that keeps people from ever growing through these tough times. man. So how can you be, not to just be calling rappers out, you know, but this is what people are

going to hear and they're going to be like, wow, okay, the way he made that metaphor makes sense, I get it. If you're little Dirk and I never met Dirk personally, but shout out to Dirk as a person because I would love to have a great convo with him. But if your brother just got killed, I know that hurt you, bro. I know that hurt you to the core. How can you feel like at peace getting on stage right after this and going back to spit lyrics? That's just, talking about mercant cats and killing people and da-da-da-da-da-da. Like how, bro? Like how? How, bro? Make it make sense for me. Please. Look, you'd have to talk to dirt. You'd have to talk to dirt. You'd have to talk to dirt. I know I can't ask for a little dirt. I don't know. I can't answer

for her. It's a great question. Yeah. I got you. I don't know. I mean, that's why so for everybody watching this, uh, who might be like, dang, this dude, this dude really passionate or this dude seems you know, really firm and his convictions. Don't trip, because my, my music is all the soundtrack to everything that we're talking about. My music is the soundtrack of, you know, being a, being a dude that beat the odds and come up in one environment and could have easily went this way, but saying, like, ah, like, I know I was called to be different. So check out anything in my catalog. People don't want that real.

J-50 and Weez. My album, Garden Girls, like, everything I do is revolved around telling my story. from the lens of, hey, just because you could do something doesn't mean that you should do it. And that, you know, that's what my platform is built on. Got to respect it, D1. Thank you for joining us today on higher learning. If you were still in L.A., I'll tell you to go out

and get something to eat, but I'm going to be in Atlanta in a couple of weeks. We'll do it then. You good? Man, let's do it. I would love that. And, yeah, because I won't be in L.A. until top of September.

So whichever one happens first, bro, hit my line if you out shit. I would love to sit down with you, bro. Of course, of course. All right, my brother. Appreciate your perspective. Appreciate your time. So nice to meet you.

Yes. I appreciate y'all for the platform. Keep doing what y'all do because honestly, y'all, y'all keep us shocked. You know, y'all keep us shocked. Whether we agree or disagree on everything is. It's less important than the fact that, like, yo, y'all are keeping these important canvos going. And I know y'all come from a place of love.

Like, Van ain't over for no fame. You know what I mean? Like, Rachel, y'all not hungry for just being famous. It's like now we're really trying to say something. So thank you. No problem, brother. Thank you. All right, man.

Appreciate you. Take care. This episode is brought to by the active cash credit card from Wells Fargo. That's a mouthful, but that's because it packs a lot in. Earn unlimited 2% cash rewards on purchases with it big or small. So whether it's buying tickets to the game and grabbing a coffee, it earns unlimited 2% cash rewards on purchases. Say it with me, the active cash credit card from Wells Fargo, be a 2%er.

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which includes gas, floating, rumbling, and abdominal discomfort. All right, it's time for Vance very serious question of the week. It's Van's series

question of the week. Yeah. One of the best songs ever. I'm so good at making up songs. It's really disgusting how talented I am musically. Maybe that would be something I'll get into.

You know, my podcast and days are long behind me. It'll be one of the best jingle writers in this entire industry. All right. So this is a box. So this. This is my question for you.

Yes. One day I'm assuming that you want to have kids. Yes. Okay. So this fans very serious question is not like a crazy hypothetical. It is about an argument that I had with a loved one of mine. So there's these kids that live in the building that I live in. Okay.

They're very young. This is sort of kind of a decent place to live. So it's not, this is not your out of college rent place, okay? It's not sort of, it's a, it's a nice place to live. Okay, it's a nice, it's a nice. Yeah, it's a nice place to live. But these people, these kids who live here, they're literally kids. I'd say maybe like 19 or 20 years old, okay?

They're influencers. No, they're not. Oh, okay. One of them has a really wealthy parent. Oh. All right. So here is the situation. When it comes,

to kids if you're rich do you want to a give your kids everything and every single advantage possible or do you be hold back from them and make them go out and earn everything just the way that you did i had a very long conversation with a very person with a person very close to me in which I told them, I said, to me personally, I think sometimes us as black people, we're addicted to the struggle narrative. You got to struggle, you got to do all this, you got to do all that.

When really what you should be trying to do is take those things away and give all types of advantages so that kids have a leg up in the world. So, for you, for your children, spoil them or struggle them spoil or struggle there's obviously an answer in between here no there's not there's not an answer in between right somewhere in between this i was not given everything and at the same time i was given some things i think that you have to learn

the value of a dollar and you have to understand it if you if everything is given to you and it's at your fingertips and you don't have to try, you don't have to work, you don't have to understand what it is to like have perseverance and ambition, then you're setting your child up for failure. And that's something that I absolutely never want to do, right? I want to step because life isn't going to give you everything on a silver platter. So you have to teach your child some sort of struggle. You have to show them at some point that life isn't fair. You can't groom them to think that they're always going to get what they want, when they wanted, and how they want it. So you have to teach them some part of the struggle.

And I don't think the struggle means that you're not giving them some sort of advantage in life as well, which is why it's like you can't choose either one. Like it has to fall somewhere in the middle. But I'm definitely not giving my child everything. I've already chosen. Good for you. Can't wait to meet the kids. When I have a child, everything.

My kids won't play with your kids. Everything. I know. because your kids will be somewhere fucking trying to working at TCBY trying to figure out trying to put their summer money together. So like you're not going to make the kids work?

You're not going to make the kids have a job? No, no, no. They will be able to do what it is that they want to do. Like for example, I think personally that if you have the type of relationship with your kids, for example, Jaden, who has more jobs than Jaden and Willow Smith? Jaden and Willow Smith are doing way more.

Who has more jobs in them? What all do they do? Oh, I'm sorry. What all do they do? Both of them are singers and actors, right? On top of that, Jaden runs a foundation. Jaden runs a foundation where he gives water to homeless people.

He's opening up a restaurant to where he wants to feed homeless people. He has all kinds of things. You know why? Because they've been able to take all the free time that they had and explore the world. Jayla's been working since he was a child. Because he wanted. to because he wanted to because he had the kind of relationship

and connection with his parents that made him curious about their world. Y'all, this is a terrible example. No, no, it's not. It's not. It's not. I'm telling you. I'm telling you, seriously, seriously, we're addicted to all of this stuff. These kids, George W. Bush felled his way right into Harvard, right to Yale,

became president of the United States of America. You know what I mean? I'm telling you. You pass the privilege. You pass the privilege. So you won't teach your children. They got to work twice as hard for half as much. Why would they have to, why would they have to work? That's,

that's a thing of the past. Why would they, they won't have to work twice as hard for half as much because they'll be my children. They'll understand that other people have to work twice as hard for half as much,

but they'll know that they don't have to. Do you know what I love about all this? What? You're raising Cosby kids. Yeah, so what? As much shit as you give me about being a Cosby kid, you're raising Cosby kids.

Oh, no. I don't think that there's anything noble and struggle. I think it's a lie. I don't think there's a difference between struggle and teaching lessons, right? Like there's a difference between saying like, no, you can't have anything. No, but there's teaching someone the value of something, what it takes to get there, right? I didn't grow up struggling, but my parents were first generation college students.

I saw my parents talk about what they went through, what they, like my dad, being a kid on the farm, waking up at five years old having to do certain things. My mom being the oldest of seven. Like they tell me stories. They tell me what they went through. To me, that taught me the value and taught me to appreciate what I have and where I come from. So I think that there's a balance to it. To me, the value of knowledge is the knowledge itself, right?

Okay. And I think that so when you're talking to it, to me, it would be stupid for me to have gone through all. Not stupid. I don't want to say to it. But to me, the way. the way I look at it, this is the conversation I was having, is that what's the point of making somebody adhere and be enamored with an experience

that is at such cross purposes with what their life actually really is? I think I wouldn't be going that far. Why squeeze somebody into the tube of, hey, I want you to go out to get a summer job so you understand work? No, I want you. You know what I want you to go to the summer? I want you to spend the summer in Tokyo. I want you to spend the summer in Australia.

Go abroad. Do stuff that people who don't have to worry about whether or not their lights going to get cut on or off a do. I'm not against that. I'm not against that. See, it's like. And also we're going to stun on these holes, man. Okay.

And there we go. And you lost. You know, pull up and whip up to the school. Yo, that's, hey, hey, is that Van Lathen the third? Is that Trey Lathen? Yeah. Hey, poor kid, go park my shit. You know what I mean?

I'm just joking. Shout out. I don't get back. Charitable. We respect people. All of that. But no, man. Come on.

Why are we so addicted to struggle? That's fine. You're going to be like offset and Cardi B. Giving the baby Birkins. No, no, no, no, no. Stand by it. No, no, no, no. That's different.

That's not, the baby doesn't want that. The baby has no idea. That's for Card. See, that's what I'm talking about. That right. there giving the baby a burkin, that's for Cardi being offset. No, it's not. No, it's not.

That right there is for Cardi being offset. Like, they're making the baby into something. The baby doesn't know nothing. That's the got to have. You get the baby one. You know what I mean? Not for me. Not for me.

She said, where's my burkin? Yep, that's going to be your kids. My kids are going to probably have, well, not even a Birkin. He'll probably have like a jacked up like Chevy Nova, 1979. You know, he's like a John Wickmobile. Anyway, that's a man's very serious. question of the week. It was a more serious question. Not one really that's going to go crazy on the twitters because you guys like crazy like scenarios. But for your kids, you want them to

struggle or shine? Which one? Or both. Struggle a stunt. For your kids, struggle a stunt. Which one? You want them to struggle if you have money. Struggle or stunt. All right. So this is my thing. You know, white people, y'all don't have to always do the most. And it's a I have a message to white people. This is my message to white people. Stop doing the most. White people. Stop doing the most.

I know that that's hard. It's difficult for you as a white person not to do the most. You wake up, you look around, you're in America. What do you see around you? The most, the most, the most, the most. You have the most everything. You have the most money. You have the most freedom.

You have the most access. You have the most. sense of well-being. You always got the most. So that leads you as white people to think, for the rest of my life, you know what I have to do? The most. I need to do the most.

Wherever I'm at, I need to be the most. Wherever I go to, I need to do the most. The most is really what whiteness is about. And what we're asking you right now, it's just don't always do the most. What was Matt Damon doing in this situation? the fucking most. You were doing the most again.

We asked you, don't do the most. Just be a person. Nobody asked you about your damn daughter and the time that you said the F word and that she wrote a long moving letter. That's the most. That happens all the time. Do you know kids tell their parents all the time?

Dad, don't say that word. Mom, don't say that word. Do we build monuments to it? No. The kids, they have a different understanding of society than we do. So fucking what? But you have to do the most.

You have to tell a story about how your daughter, who's also probably learning how to do the most, wrote a beautiful long letter, tell everybody how great she is, how woke she is, and now look at you. This reminds me of Liam Neeson. Liam Neeson once told a story. That's exactly what it is.

Liam Neeson once told a story about how he was so mad in his rage over one of his friends being a, allegedly sexually assaulted, that he was walking through neighborhoods looking for black eyes. Now what the fuck what are we supposed to do

with that information? What are we going to do? That white people doing the most shit, it don't work no more. That's flown to coop. We don't want the most from y'all. We actually want to get into some of that most. So stop doing the most.

Just chill with doing the most. All right, now you're doing the most because I got to go. You out of here? All right. All right, Rachel's got to go. White people. I love you guys.

Stop doing the most. Tell you things, caps off, but do not stop learning. I am Van Lathen. I'm Rachel Lindsay. We are. Bye, guys.