Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay - Omari Hardwick on the Return of Ghost and LeBron Deletes a Tweet

Episode Date: April 23, 2021

Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay are joined by actor, poet, producer Omari Hardwick to talk everything from self-care in trying times (12:00) to zombie bigotry (34:15). Plus, will Ghost make a return to the world of Power…as a Ghost (40:23)? Also, Van and Rachel react to the killing of Ma’Khia Bryant in the wake of too many similar deaths (56:14). Finally, thoughts on Lil Wayne tying the knot (1:10:17) before opening the mailbag to answer all your queries (1:18:27). 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. And it's me, Rachel Lindsay. It's Van Lathen feeling a little better today. You seem it. There's like a pep in your voice.

You know, you seem a beat. Your eyes seem more full of life. Good. It was Kalika's birthday last night. We did a surprise birthday party. Aw. Yeah, her friend Shara and me, shout to Shara. and Sierra.

Was she surprised? She was definitely surprised. Yeah. Tears, they made a video and all that stuff like that. It was very good. It's very good. The birthday madness is over now. I know you had a birthday yesterday too.

How was your birthday? My birthday was good. It was chill. I worked. And then Brian and I had a nice dinner together. You know, because Brian hasn't been here. I was realizing that we really haven't been on dates.

So it was nice to actually go on a date, has some alone time. And then this weekend, we're going to have a quick getaway. Where are you guys going? It's a surprise. We talked about this. You told me it was Fresno.

You told me it was Fresno. He let it slip. He let it slip. It's not Fresno. It's Santa Barbara, which I've never been. So I'm excited. Yeah. Okay.

No? You don't like Santa Barbara? It's beautiful, but the food is not great. But you know me. I'm not a foodie, so it's like I'm just going to be lit. I'll be honest. There's one place that I go. Santa Barbara's great.

It's a nice little. get away. They got these little bed and breakfasts there, you know? And I always like staying at a place like a bed and breakfast because when you're black, they don't ever expect that you would stay there, right? And they don't. And you could tell because like black people, what's the last time you heard like a brother or sister talking about, man, this is delightful little bed and breakfast that we stayed at? We do. You do. You guys go to a bed and breakfast. Here's a thing. there are all of these delights there are all of these delights

that like white people are hoarding for themselves secret white delights things that they won't share right like okay one is freedom you know obviously top of the list two is just like a bed and breakfast it's like it's almost like where they go

just they just go and they chill like my homies do stuff like my homie was I think I talked about this one time I'm calling one of my homies and he was building a bird feeder for some birds out back in his place. How fucking relaxing does that sound? That actually sounds like my worst nightmare because I have a fear of birds. So in no way, you lost me. You lost me.

Can you think about sipping on a crisp beer in an autumn Louisiana afternoon and building a bird feeder? You're working with your hands. You're smelling the wood. You're doing all kinds of stuff like that. It's just relaxing. Have you done this yet? No, but it felt like something that I should be doing. He's outside.

He's around nature. Other birds are chirping, dogs are barking. That's the kind of shit that keeps your blood pressure low. So you think white people are keeping that from us as well? I think like, I know a lot of people who do crafts, right? But we should do more crafts. But you know what? We don't have a, we don't have really.

It's like trauma takes up a lot of this stuff. and I'm serious so we don't have time to think about bed and breakfast you don't have that's like yeah you don't have the liberty to do that the freedom the space to just relax in that way I get it the Jasmine Inn was the place that me and Kalika stayed in in San Bernardiard

I've heard about that delightful little place they had beds and then the next morning and they had breakfast they had breakfast I love a bed of breakfast they came out and the woman dropped off this little, it was such a, Kalika.

Yes. Come here. Let's get Kalika on this. See if she remembers. See if she remembers this, this delightful moment. Kalika, come here. I'm not making my presence on camera. Okay, that's fine. You don't have to get on camera. Do you remember the bed and breakfast that we stayed at in Santa Barbara?

Uh-huh. Wasn't it nice? Yeah, they left us a little picnic basket. A little picnic basket of breakfast. Sounds beautiful. is what they left us. Kalika, is the food good in Santa Barbara? It's pretty good.

She says pretty good. I say it's whack. I'm going for the experience. Go for the experience. Go out there. I love Santa Barbara. They rage out there. Was the name of that Steakhouse Holdens or something like that?

Yeah. Yeah. But anyway. I'll tell you all about it when we get back. Yes. Tell me all about it. Black people, bed and breakfast. They drop a little basket off and they had the breakfast in it.

and then we ate the breakfast and I felt like I was supposed to be in America it's great. Was it how many people were there? Like how many people did it hold? Was it like really, really small, where it was just you?

I think the rules were it could hold 10 white people and one and a half blacks. They had a rule that you could. Who was half? Who was half the person? Coquillo, of course. Okay, you know what?

She's smaller. No, people were. I'm just joking about the Jasmine Inn. Everybody go to the Jasmine Inn. The people were a lovely, lovely people. I just have never heard of any of my other homies going to a bed and breakfast. I'm like, this is the type of shit that I'm talking about. I just want to live in a country.

We grew up doing it. Hey. Oh, your family grew up going to. You know. You know. Oh. What was this? Well, we would go to Louisiana.

Like, we would take these trips, load up this van. Take these trips to like Atlanta. Right. To go see if either we were dropping my sister off at college or we were going to see, you know, like Martin Luther King Memorial and then we would like take it and go up to D.C. And then we'd take it. We'd go to Dayton, Ohio. And then we come back to.

So you go, wait, wait, you go to Washington, D.C., Atlanta. These are multiple trips. These are multiple trips. Dayton, Ohio. Okay, go ahead. That's where the family reunion was. So we would take the long way to get there. And so we would stop along the way at these places or like when we go to VATN,

visit our family in Homer, North-Homer, Louisiana. Yeah, Homer Louisiana. We stay in a bed and breakfast. Interesting. Yeah. So I can imagine these trips with the judge behind the wheel. You guys are driving and the judges.

We had the TV. This one used to have the TV in the van. This is way back then. And we'd make a bed instead of the seat. We'd all have a bed in the back. Yeah. And then the judge is like, all right, guys, we're off here on the road.

I would like the entire family to join me in this. rendition of Wade in the Water. Daddy, I love Wade. Love to sing Wade in the water, Daddy. That's my favorite. That never happened. Wade in the water. Take it, Rach.

Someone's got to trouble all the water. For children. Y'all just travel along singing. The good old day. Negro spirituals on your way to see Dr. King. That's a movie. The family loads of.

up in a van on the way to see Dr. King. And this is true. And the judge, that's a movie. That's a movie. Shout out to the judge, man. Shout out to the judge. All right, you guys, big show. We got Amari Hardwick on the show today.

He is, this is an amazing talent and the star, one of the stars of the upcoming movie, Army of the Dead, directed by Zach Snyder, starring Dave Batista and our guy. Amari Hartwick. So we're going to get to that interview with Amarie Hartwick right after we come back. For adults with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis symptoms, every choice matters. Tramphia offers self-injection or intravenous infusion from the start. Trimphia is administered as injections under the skin or infusions through a vein every four weeks, followed by injections under the skin every four or eight weeks. If your doctor decides that you can self-inject Tramphia, proper training is required.

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

and liver problems may occur. Before treatment, get checked for infections and tuberculosis. Tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu-like symptoms, or need of a disease. vaccine. Explore what's possible. Ask your doctor about Tramfaya today. Call 1-800-526-7736 to learn more or visit Tramphia Radio.com. Consumant professional Amari Hardwick, listen, listen, you guys know, you know me. You know I love television. I've been watching this brother for such a long time. We've seen them in so many different things. my personal favorite role of his ever, though, is in Sorry to Bother You.

Oh, I love that, bro. A movie that I really, really loved. He's got a new one coming out, Army in the Dead, directed by Zach Snyder. Higher Learning, give a welcome to Amari Harwick. My brother, how are you doing today? Thank you, my brother. I appreciate y'all having me, man.

Higher Learning. It's no better title than that. So I hope you copy wrote that because I might take that. Did we? Did we? Now that we know, now we'll do it after the podcast. Thank you for that. I just know after the podcast.

I just texted somebody. They work on it now. You're like, I got to get that. I got to know that. Got to get that. So, my man, first thing is first, I'll ask you the same question. I ask all of the black people that I talk to these days. First question is, how are you doing mentally, spiritually, physically, everything that's

going on. How are you doing? I'm at a real, that's a great question. I will answer the question with your question, like they tell us to do, right? Like, I'm going to do that for you. So I'm, you ask how I'm doing. I feel like there was never a moment

where I was mistaken that, you know, God in terms of wanting me to use this hefty bag of gifts and tricks that he had given me that equally he wanted me to use with that, most imperatively, of course, the platform that comes with that and actually use the microphone that either literally is in front of me like that which is in front of you presently or figuratively the microphone always in front of me.

So I was never unaware of that. That was my negotiation with God as it pertained to that whole public figure thing, which I really shot away from for a very long time. One day looked in the mirror and was like, well, shit, I can't really, I can't, if doing this decently, if not good, to great, that being art and storytelling

on whatever form, fashion or format it is, I couldn't do it without embracing that public figure might think. That thing, a public figure might come with it. And so now how I'm feeling more than ever is like, oh, God, you really are asking me to crank up the volume on that, my servitude to the world, my servitude to the narrow specific space, which, quite frankly, is not necessarily that narrow,

of that being our culture, first and foremost, of people that look like me, black and brown boys and girls and young men and young women. And all of these people that have never necessarily had a voice the way that you and I have a voice, the way that your colleague has a voice. So more than ever I feel that, it almost has made me a bit forgetful that I'm even in this thing called preparation for a film number, whatever, or for the studio session that I have tonight after I finished talking to you lovely,

beautiful black people. There's a moment where I go, man, this shit tonight, even the studio session only goes as far as I can sling this thing called service. Denzel always says we're in the business of service and, you know, I kind of am proud that I've always walked at instead of just talking to. But to answer your great leading question, I feel more than ever that it is incumbent upon me to be of servitude, bro, truly. And to follow up on that, a question that we ask a lot, too, is because things are so heavy and because you do feel like you said you have a platform and we feel the same way, there's a level of responsibility to use it for purpose, but then also you just feel

so compelled like you can't help yourself like you have to. So how do you find the balance in it all? That's a great question. You mean the balance in terms of not overdoing that? Correct. Your mental health, yes. It was funny. I had my sister who, I don't remember when it was, and it's so crazy now, right? It could be the same face with a different name or a different face with the same name every other week that we are saying goodbye to, I don't know. And also, I'm so aware and so cognizant of the fact that there are two differing conversations that need to be that of, racism, sexism, and the reality that any isom isom is steeped in fear, any ism, sexism included, racism obviously included, is steeped in fear.

But equally, there's a conversation of us being riddled with self-fear, with fear of actually being as beautiful as we are, fear of actually executing that which maybe God simply put inside your mother's womb, as far back is her just conceiving the concept of conceiving you as a child and what God would make you to be. And we don't talk about it enough, but, you know, analogous to the Jewish star of David or any other indigenous folk, brown, black, yellow or red. They've all maintained an identity that we as black Americans in particular have not necessarily been able to maintain. And so because of that, there is an absolute fear, excuse me, of that which we look and see when we look in the mirror, when we brush our teeth every morning. Hats off.

And God bless those that don't, who are very much in ownership of their beauty as black people and of what we mean to this earth and what we've meant to this country and, you know, beyond even this region. But there's so many of us, as you know, the large majority don't necessarily know our identity enough. And so because of that, the other conversation is black people killing black people. So there's so many conversations being had and at times, or needing to be had, I should say. And at times, I'll have a family member in this one particular time again was my sister. And she was like, I want you to say something about, again, same face, different name, different name, same, you know, whatever it may be, same, different face, same name. It's the same old thing over and over. And it was a killing of one of our beloved, lost black youth at the hands of a white cop wrongly.

And I remember her really getting on me, not necessarily really jumping down my throat because she knows how much of activism I'm about. But she wanted my voice to be on every platform, to your point. Like, here's the platform. You got to speak on everything. And I remember thinking of myself, well, since I equally need to activate that, which the pilot is very correct in stating, when all of us had been on a plane and heard the pilot say, now if the plane starts to go down or yada y'a, put the oxygen mask on oneself prior to putting it on a person to the left or the right.

And truly you have to activate that moment. And so the balance is found in me being able to really go, well, my work ethic is quite insane already. And my desire to be at every single march, figuratively speaking, too, even if we're not, even if we're fucking marching on Zoom. My reality is that I always want to be there, but if I haven't gotten enough restoration to my wings and energy that can reinvigorate that which I'm activating,

which is simply, again, given the voiceless, a piece of my voice, just a piece of it. I'm not pretentious and thinking I'm imbuing them with all that is Omari, but just a piece of it. And I equally got to, you know, like refuel. And so I remember saying that to her, not in those words, but in some semblance of that, And I think she understood it.

I said, I use it for a lot. And I know a lot of friends of mine in the industry and without the industry or outside of the industry, it equally use our voices for a lot. But at some point, it even wears us down. And emotionally speaking, it gets us to the point where we're hampered and beat up and broken just as much as the next man that, or next woman that is looking at the same thing that we could go, hey, let's go out and let's, you know, rah, rah, and really affect change. I get it.

But sometimes I'm just an eight-year-old kid who really 40-some years of age. is equally eight years old. I couldn't make money as an artist if I wasn't eight years old inside this person. So, you know, there is that balance of necessity that you speak of. And sometimes I don't nail that. But I try my heart is to give this raspy-ass-ass voice that's already freaking raspy a moment to figure it out before I, you know, I give whatever that is that comes behind that voice. So I have a great question. Both of those questions are great. Thank you, my man. That's actually very important because when the pilot says, put your mask on first, he's telling you because everybody got a better chance of surviving if you survive.

Right. So everyone on your role has a better chance if one person on your row lives. Right. Because then somebody else can sit their mind to help and solve problems. So you got to live in order to help other people live. All right. So about that is the code switching that you. spoke about loving and sorry to bother you.

Yeah. There's also that. There's the reality that some of us and you two are absolutely in this very small huddle, we truly were given the ability to influence. Now you look at social media. Every other person is an influencer. That's the title. Well, I mean, are they really?

But some of us truly were anointed and ordained to be influencers. And we have, there I say, a younger generation that is being reared and raised in hate. and we were raised in love. And even as far back as Bob Marley literally saying, one love, you know, we were raised in that. And so you got a lot of people that hate on those of us that are anointed by God to truly be of influence. Like, you know, it ain't on me.

It ain't on you too. Like, we were really tapped. Like, we got to go with it. So if you truly are tapped to be of influence, then like, sorry to bother you proved, you sometimes also have to switch the way in which you deliver the message in different rooms. It has to be delivered differently.

So that could wear you out differently is what I'm getting out. You can. Also like sorry to bother you proved and we're growing down now. Also like sorry to bother you proved, you have to make sure that you're giving the message

for the right people. That's right. Because your power, you guys got to see sorry to bother. You have to see it because your power can be taken and then misused and directed in the wrong place and ended up hurting the people that you were trying to help.

All day long. Let me ask you a question about the movie, Army of the Dead, coming out pretty soon. Yes. Zach Snyder, the director of this film, okay? I have a separate question about zombies after this, and I really want to get your take on this, but before we get to the zombies, I want to talk about Zach Snotton. She laughs.

Why is she laughing at you, bro? Why she laughed? Because he knows he's so serious. He's so serious. Because I have a real, I have a real, a legit zombie questions. Okay. Zombie question. I'm going to a second.

All right. So, Zach Snyder directed this movie, obviously directed tons and tons of films just came out with the Snyder cut, which I loved. Yes. He was the,

as the director of Justice League, there was a lot of controversy surrounding the movie based upon people's working relationships that they had under Josh, Josh Whedon, and how they felt more comfortable working with Zach Snyder. And, you know, a lot of people like Ray Fisher

have been very, very vocal about the fact that, that, you know, he had a great, great working relationship with Zach Snyder, Josh Wheaton, and the rest of Warner Brothers, not so much. Ray Fisher is being loud and out there with his voice, letting people know how things are going

over there. What was your experience like working with Zach on the movie? And did all of that stuff and all of the Snyder cut stuff and all of the release of the Snyder cut? Was he talking about that on set? Like how were things making this film? You guys got such a great cast. Man.

You get those moments. moments, milestone moments across your journey. I don't, definitely it hasn't been Omari, but let's make it anybody of massive note that you've interviewed and you go home and you hit uncle, or auntie, or mom or pops or siblings or friends you went to college with, grandma, you hit them and you go, yo, I just interviewed so-and-so.

Or I'm prepping to interview so-and-so. Anything you think I should ask so-and-so, I know you've had those moments. And they're not necessarily the end-all be in terms of moments. But if you compile all those moments together, these become seminal moments where you see your career

taking a different trajectory for the better. This movie and this moment of working with a one Zach Snyder for me was definitely one of those moments. Not to, again, not to toss out other moments that were equally important, but when you take this one with you. him bro, I think what you're finding is, uh, for an Omari, I found home. What I mean by that is, I remember Nip used to say to me when I would leave in,

and it's ironic because, uh, Mars from, you know, 1500 band who worked with Nip, Mars. 15,500 and nothing. Those are the guys with the homies over there. Yeah. Incredible. Yeah. Great.

So, Marz and James and Rants and all of them. Yes. That out to Rans and all of them. You know, that's, Florence Tate's cousin, too. So LaFont Roy and all of them. But Marr said to me one time, and Nip used to say this too, when I would be in his presence,

he would say, stay dangerous, oh, stay dangerous. And it's an interesting thing to be given permission by someone whom you know has defined dangerous as cutting across the grain and that of rebellion for a proper reason being rebellious. For the right reasons. And added to the rebellion, of course, is that bag of gift that absolutely only God

can give and curate. Now, of course, you can craft it, have an insane work ethic, what have you. Everybody's got different levels of talent. The limbless friend that I interviewed on IG Live when I was in Australia a month ago, literally no limbs, but obviously he's got a massive voice and he matters in a different way. But when you meet a Zach Snyder, you meet a fellow tribesman. of the dangerous, gifted huddle, who is equally, if not more, humble.

And that for me felt like home. I felt oftentimes that people have expected me to walk in with the bag of arrogance matching my bag of talent. And because I don't carry that, there's a lot of people that shoot darts at me, almost in a way if I flossed on IG, like y'all know I don't. And it matched that which they think in their mind

I should be matching, which is the talent. then, you know, that would be more understandable to folk. And sometimes you're just at a different frequency and nobody's going to understand you anyway, except for those small groups of people who do. I wouldn't be on this interview if you two didn't understand me. So I understand me enough. So in meeting Zach, I went, I see what you're doing, God.

You really, you're trying to, here's a little, a little man who's not a big stature, but probably seven foot presence, one of those guys, if not bigger. Married, family man, you know, lost a daughter, left the world of our industry called entertainment, or specifically the world of filmmaking, which also includes, might I add, director of photography. He freaking gets in the trenches that holds camera A or B.

I mean, it's crazy. He's not just directing. In Spike at times, boss number one for me absolutely grabs a camera while living on my movie that I did with him, movie one. color St. Anna. No, that was movie two with him. Oh, what was the first one? My first movie is 03, and my first roommates, you know, if you want to make castmates' roommates, my first roommates were Anthony Mackey straight off a Papa Dot in 8 Mile, and then Malik Strouder, who had just done a man apart with Ben Diesel, and then Ben Crowley,

Ken LaWang, who was in the X-Man series. Like, those are my first castmate, Lemon, the great poet, who also was a good. an actor from New York, who I know from the poetry scene. So my first castmates of those guys, my first boss is Spike Lee in 03, bro, which is sucker free city, which Jim Brown also was in. Ah, yeah. And O3. So, you know, Spike would do things that made it where it wasn't that unfamiliar to see Zach Snyder grab a camera and go, no, I want to get this shot. Or, you know, lighting and going, no, we needed this, here, we needed that. They were to do all of that while wearing their head of director, and again, to your astute point, while knowing that some of his colleagues

or some of the people around him are seen and perceived in a particular life, that he's this chord. He's a chord. It's like a shout out to LeBron. LeBron galvanized the league in a very important moment to galvanize the league. He truly did that. And a lot of people had never done that. I get it. Charles Barkley, Michael, magic, all of their assessment of like, yo, this younger generation of beatball player, they're too close, they're too chummy-chummy. I get it. I'm super competitive. I get it. But at the same token, we truly only go as far as we go.

There's an operative W.E. on that shit for real. It is big team little eye. It could sound corny, but it is big team little eye. And so Zach, and shout-outs to Braun again for galvanizing the league to go, it's big team little eye. Let's rock. You know, I don't even have to be the voice called the president of the players union,

but I can still be what I am as a voice and as a presence. Zach is like that. It's like, Dave, I know where you are. are. The younger actors, I know where you are. Theo, I know where you are. Theo Rossi. You know, this person, I know where they are, but, O'Mari, I see you. And I know not only where you are, but I truly can see and know where you're going. And if I can aid in that going, then even if the movie has to be specific to the character Van der Roe and you're part of a big team little eye, I still can figure out ways to aid your next steps post this movie after.

then after that movie, after this movie, you could see it happening when we were on set, and it really came from this level of humility, but also having rebellion with a cause, getting Netflix to basically champion whatever he's doing and all the decisions that he's made, influencing my decisions equally and also, you know, in terms of where I'm going in the future.

And I can't say enough good things about Zach and what I've found. He's absolutely a seminal moment for where my career is going from this point on. So can you, for our listeners, can you tell them a little bit about this new movie, what it's about? And then also, you know, there's a lot of speculation because people say Zach Snyder is great at hiding these secret messages and images within the movie. And a lot of people are looking at this Omega symbol. Shout out to my brothers of Omega Sci-Fi Fraternity Incorporated.

Yes, shout out to the cues. Yeah, people are pointing towards that and are saying maybe that you might be a. part of DC. Can you talk a little bit about the movie and that? What can you tell us? I can't, you know, so interesting. They were those fan castings for years and I was having a conversation with Mines and Pops before going to Australia, which was a Netflix gig in Australia, and I was talking to my Pops about, you know, there's a fan casting.

He's like, what? And I say, you know, fans really just kind of like give their heart and give their love and give their support in terms of who they think should play, said parts in DC world and Marvel world, Disney world, the whole thing. You know, you see Anthony Mackie now, people are rushing home to watch Anthony in this space that he's in, in that superhero world where he's actually a military guy, not necessarily of Cape proportion, but he's equally super heroic, which is even perhaps more superheroic because he's simply a soldier, quote unquote simply. And when Pops looked at it, I showed him on Instagram, he looked at it. Never did I think that post-doing the movie in Australia,

the project in Australia with Tony Colette, Bella Heathcote, respectively, Jacob Cipio, Gil Birmingham, never did I think that when coming back and the whole kickoff of the promotion of Army to Dead would happen, I didn't think that it would turn into these secret innuendos that you speak about that are not necessarily a fan casting, but they smell of actual industry casting. before it's happening.

Never. And I never want to speak on something like that, that which is not I don't like to speak on. But I would say that I would look at him sometimes and he would add scenes that I don't even know if my dear castmates were aware of. I'm sure Dave Bautista was because he's our, you know, he's number one on the call sheet.

So for that movie, it's as much as Omar being number one on the call sheet for power, you know. So I think absolutely he was aware of certain things that Zach was doing for my characters specifically. But overall, there were momentary subtle things inserted by Zach that could tip the hat to not perhaps Omari's existence in that DC world or Marvel world you speak of. But definitely that he has a litany of projects that are coming his way and that part of his, I'll use the word that we, you know, for mention galvanized. part of his galvanizing aptitude and ability is to grab a pot of actor, male and female,

let's say female first, since we're both male feminist here and rock for y'all, knowing y'all are the better gender, smarter, quicker, the whole non, stronger. And galvanizing that group of actor, he now gets to do what Spike Lee did for years, right? Spike, you see a same person in this movie and then they'd be in another movie.

So I think there's definitely some truths to the fact that if you impress him enough, then he might pick up the phone and call you again for some things. Now, as it pertains to the shout-out to your brothers of Omega-South 5, which one of my grandfathers was a cue and one was an alpha. And obviously, as you know, I went alpha. But yes, there is the first moment. I'm a former Miss Black and Gold.

I just want to put that out there as well. She says that all the time. That's true. That's her. That's her thing. That's her thing, Omar. And you probably thought to yourself, we got O-11 today. I wonder how quick she'll bring up that she was a former Miss Black and Goal.

I was Miss Black and Gold. I was prom. I was prom queen. He opened the door. I walked through it. He opened the door. I had to. So he ended up having a conversation with me.

And I said, well, you know, Zach, this is going to make a lot of Alpha brothers very confused. He's like, well, I said, I'm actually. he went oh right it's not the same fraternity i said no zach i'm actually an alpha he goes well i want this guy to be an omega i want to be a cue and i said well you know my grandfather who was the cue will be quite happy he will rest in peace he passed season four power he will sit and go that boy finally did it but i was a confusing mess of that which already omari is a confusing mess so it probably is fine that half the world will look at it and go, dog.

You just betrayed the black and gold, like, horribly. And then all of my brothers that were cues, who I'm super close to to this day, shoutouts to the big ones of Jesse Jackson and Shaq and Michael Jordan and all of them, but even the non-promited ones who I'm so close to, my uncle included, I would say that this is the first time

you've ever seen an alpha in a cube on the same body, on the same flesh, bro. I had a brand. I had the full... I did that shit. I like really... Ah! The whole nine.

The whole nine. Coming there, Amari coming there with some black and gold boots on and... The purple thing with the camo shorts. Ah! That's right. Dude should be crazy. You go to a cute dog and all of a sudden you talk to a girl and then she's up in the air. You get a girl.

Awesome shoulders. Just pick your girl, ah, and they love it. They're like, oh, my God. And the problem is he can play it off. He'd be like, I was just throwing up. Yeah. You got caught in my throat up and you went up. And I'm like, well, I guess, you know, me and her future is done.

Like, get on. I love you, though. I thought it was smooth that Zach even was hip enough to go. Yeah. That is. I think he should be a QO. this is what I've won and do you have a brand as an alpha? I said, no, I got a tattoo.

He said, then we're all good. So you see this big-ass brand on Vanderos chest. And no, it's not O's Chess, but it is O's Chess. So I'm probably going to get a lot of interview questions about that. So I got a couple more questions for you, but the one that I have to ask is I'm happy to see you in this movie fighting zombies, right? I'm happy to see you in this movie fighting zombies because I have a theory about zombies.

Fast or slow or just in general. What do you mean? You got a theory about the fast one slow or just in general zombies. General, great question, by the way, because like that's a huge, that's a great, because you got in Zach Snyder's land, you got the fast zombies, right?

The crazy ones. Then in the Walking Dead, World War Zee, they fast. And in the Walking Dead, they just, you know what I mean? But I'm, what's scary to you? Like, when you think about it, like just the eight, tap into the eight-year-old side of yourself, of which one hides in your closet the most.

There's nothing scarier than the ones from Donna the dead. Oh, because so the walkers, so the walkers in the walking dead, they almost represent like society, the unknown doom that exists. Completely society because they're like, only in numbers are they really,

really super dangerous? But in the Zach Snyder, when all of a sudden somebody turns and then they like Carl Lewis on you, And that's what like, how I'm going to get away. But my question about the zombies is this. This is a real question. I'm asking Amari Harwood about zombies right now.

Are zombies racist? And I'll tell you why. Did you already ask? Can you do a drum roll? Can we do a drum roll for your question? Drum roll, Rachel. Here's the thing. Are zombies racist?

And this is the question. This is why I'm asking. I love this question. I have yet to see a movie where it's a bunch of zombies. bunch of zombies like going in to Compton or South Baton Rouge and trying to kill them. It seems like zombies get zomified and they go straight to the suburbs or to the mall.

What am I missing? Man, that's a dope. This is a dope moment. This is, I don't know if the podcast is going here before. Did your dog leave because of that zombie? Yeah, he just jumped out of here because of the... Right. I feel like, I got to be honest with you.

I feel like, first of all, the zombie is going for everybody bleeds the same blood. So is it so it's not a color thing as it's red then he blooded out. I don't know about I can't know God bless the Crips but his zombie is going for blood? Right. So he could be going

to anybody's neighborhood, but is that racist? Or should we invert that and say that the zombies are actually proving that not only are they afraid to go to the black neighborhoods or go to the hood, but but not only are they afraid. of it, but they are respectfully honoring, right, crossing them lines? That's tough war.

Like, are they in my vision of racism? I actually am very proud to have done this movie on a different level now. I think I'm an alpha cue and I'm a zombie advocate for black people at this. Can I just say that in the Walking Dead, it starts in Atlanta. Does that not count? No, but the suburbs. But the suburbs. though. But they go into the city. It starts off. You don't remember that?

I grew up in the deck. I grew up in Decatur, so I don't know if them niggas would come that way. But I don't go there. Like, I don't know. Like, I don't know. I don't know if they're racist. I don't think, I don't think, I don't think so either. I just want to, you know what I want to see and maybe spin off. I don't know what happens to you in the movie, but maybe spin off. What I want to see is, I want to see a zombie movie and maybe my company should produce this. I want to see a zombie movie from the, from like, I want to see what happens to us when the zombies come.

Yeah, our perspective of the zombie situation. You know what I mean? Because, like, that's funny. There's no movie. There's no movie. As many films as I've watched, there's got to be some, of course, and the listeners are going to let us know,

but I haven't seen him. Right, from the zombie, right, because Eddie Murphy's the Dracula and Vampire and what was it? It was dope. It was vampire in Brooklyn, but it was vampires. Yeah, that was.

I was dope, though. I enjoyed that. You write about that. It hadn't really been that. Zombies, black zombies. But you know what's crazy? You know what's also crazy? We don't typically, and this is maybe going a little severe,

meaning we got serious for a moment. But it's true, we don't really kill in that mass number like that. Yeah. We're not the mass shooters. We kind of go, no, I had a problem with that person. I'm taking that person off there. If I ain't got like, I don't have a problem with these 25 people, zombies seem like they're angry with 25 people.

They like angry. They're just, they just want to kill. It's crazy. And I love the scenes. And I know we're getting deep as a zombie lord, but I love the scenes where somebody is nice, and all of a sudden they get bit.

And then like 25 seconds left, they just looking for somebody to fuck up. The zombies are the most agro. It's so scary, bro. Bro, they're so agro, bro. It's so scary. They get bitten. And then that's,

you know, they running out the kids and stuff like that. I got to think that I talked about, you know, The Walking Dead and definitely that broaches on society in terms of the way society looks and feels about the mob mentality. But maybe also with the zombie world, man, people started really love that genre years ago because the zombie gets to activate what you feel inside, but you know you can't activate.

Everybody feels that level of like, if I could just, I mean, hell, if you could give a dime for every person that you've ever thought about having Ray, road rage with, that you could actually be like, you know, I would go back, get in a car and go hunt that person down. A zombie doesn't like, think about it. A zombie goes, I'm going to get back in the car or I'm going to eat the car and then I'm going to eat the person in the car. So maybe everything that we kind of feel, people are in that space of like, man, they do what we feel like we want to do. And I don't know. I mean, that's why Ghost was like, right? Because Ghost will put a bullet

in you and then be rocking his kid on his lap right after. And you're like, can you do that? Can I get away with that? Yeah. Yeah. All right. Since you brought that up, I will ask, this is my last question. I'm going to ask this for all the power fans out there. A bunch of books that are coming out, we're already in the middle of book two. Will we see you again? Is it possible? Have you closed the door completely on that? No, because I never closed the door. I never did. You know, I wasn't a person with the door knob in hand, nor the key, if you catch my win. Yeah. That was me. So I'm never not open.

Hell, you name the guy ghost. And so there is always to me a possibility of being just that. Since we're on the board of zombie, you're not actually going against the subject. He really lives in a ghost space at this point. So now that we know he's not on earth, there is a reality where you could have flashbacks this or the third. What I always felt sorry to the fans about and I want them to hear this on you guys' podcasts. and they now have heard that that had the door being turned and had none to do with me. But I'll say this.

And I knew it had something to do with God in terms of God going, well, I get things for you, I want you to do. But if you take it out of that God space, that's not really, that's above my pay grade, truly, literally above my pay grade. But I would say to the fans that definitely expected us to go at least the run on the first turn of power that the Sopranos had. That was seven seasons. it's a very unique thing to go six seasons.

It's kind of odd. You have to go five seasons or you go seven seasons. I would say that if the producers, you know, wanted me to come back and be able to be that, which I did not complete, and that being the telling of ghost story a little bit more, not necessarily from Tasha and the kids and Tommy forward, but we don't really know who ghost was behind.

And so what I think the fans are, upset about without absolutely knowing that they're upset. Some of them know, but it's not an absolution in their brain. They're upset because we never flushed ghosts out. We didn't really do that. He flushed out parts of him in the present state as a grown man wearing the greatest of suits, doing what he had to do, trying to cut across the grain and go good, first bad, trying to get Tommy and Tasha to agree with that move and trying to be the best of father, but equally being narcissists at times, but equally humble at times, like all over the place, there's a guy that is, I don't know,

22, 25 and back that would include meeting Tasha, include meeting Tommy, meeting Canaan, that the fans never got to know. You don't really know anything about ghosts. He really was a ghost when you really think about it. Tommy had a father. All of a sudden, the father was introduced. Tommy has a drug-down mother.

We already knew her. Tasha has a mom, beautifully played by the great actress. We had kids, but that's we having kids at Ghost now. Ghost and Canaan had a relationship, but what did it smell like when they were teenagers? What did Ghost and his father rock out with when the mom left? There's nothing but insinuation to what Ghost was. We don't really know. I was always open to giving the dear, beloved, incomparable fan base, some of whom will never let Ghost go.

I was always open to giving them more of ghosts so that when we were forced to little ago, we actually had earned him being let go. We earned it. Like, okay, I know him now. We don't really know dude. I played the guy. So nobody could say it like me. I don't, I still don't really know the dude because I didn't get to activate the parts

of him prior. And all the spinoffs are those actors activating the parts prior to what their characters were. But what about Ghost? He's the epicenter of the show. We don't really know dude. So I try my hardest to remind fans all the time that I hear them loud and clear. their desires for me to come back and hang out and just be a part of the spinoffs, this, that, and the third.

But, hell, I don't really know why you would need spinoffs if Omar was still a part of the original. The original is the original. Spinoffs are just that spinoffs. So I would come back, but perhaps in the spinoffs just as a space to sort of give leverage to the show to go, okay, ghost is now speaking to Tariq, but we know he's not actually there. Okay, ghost, Tommy's head, but is he really there? you know, leaving that mystique there, but I'd always be open. It changed my life. The show changed my life.

Courtney and 50, the network, hopefully the network can always say that I changed the network's life. I don't think a lot of people knew of stars before Omari and Naturi and Lila and Joseph came and got down. And obviously with 50 cent being at the helm as an EPN actor, I don't think the world of stars was really known. So hopefully they all can look back and feel as appreciative as I am. I haven't necessarily had as many people calling me and going, yo, I don't know where we be without you, but I say it all the time. I wouldn't be talking about them.

As long as I live my space and do my thing, then that's all I can really cover. But I appreciate you. I appreciate the love and the support and the gazillions, a gazillion number of fans that are far and wide, near and dear, 170-plus countries who all rocked out for that show

and that character that I was able to bring to life for six years, for show, for show. All right, so this brings me to my last question, and this has been a fantastic interview, brother. We appreciate your time and all your energy. This is my last question. All right. So there's another show on right now.

It's called Snowfall. I'm sure you're aware of Snowfall, like Snowfall, fantastic show. Shout out to one of my homeboys, mom. Damson, yeah. Dampson. Oh, shout out to Damson. Damsin's like a little bro, and we got a lot of things coming.

So y'all will be interviewing us about other things. Love that. Brilliant young actor. You see him around and beauty in Essex and stuff like that. Good kid. Good kid. good man me little bro in him good man that's a

man it's a powerful man in the actor so a homie of mine mall went viral on Twitter a couple of weeks ago maybe last week because he said that it needs to Is it Jamal or come on in case I need to hunt him down

Is it Jamal or come on in case I need to find him It's just small You're nothing really hard for me to find him my fucking if I got it It's just mall all right He used to be on a podcast but he might be between podcasts right now. We don't know. We're still waiting for answers.

Shout out to you, we're talking about you in good ways, brother. Yeah, good ways, in great ways. He said that in his opinion, snowfall is better than the wire. Then that got people to saying, okay, snowfall, the wire, or power, which show is the best,

which show do we love the most? I'm going to ask you right now, if you were going to rank, one to three, Snowfall, Power, and the Wire. What is your ranking? Awesome question. I think we were dominant as fuck.

So we were dominant AF for four seasons. Dominant. Like, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. I think that Snowfall, shout-out to our beloved late and great John Singleton, which is partly why Damson and I are going to work together. because John was very keen on both of us as young actors. And we decided to continue what John would have wanted us to continue.

So, Dempson, I'll do that. And I can't wait to start to curate work with him. I'll say that it's a fascinating thing story-wise as to what they created. So I'll give it, I'll give it a great ranking, but it can't be in the ranking of those two that are tribe, tributated, and now done. And remember, the spinoffs of power are not necessarily consistent to that, which I've done.

And once my character was over, now I'm counting that show only, to your point. Not goes, not forced with Joseph. I'm so freaking happy he got that, especially Joseph, and not what obviously Michael Rainey's been able to do and keep going with Therique. I can't say that on the list would be snowfall at this point because it's still running and still balling

and still trying to figure out. out the crossover and the fadeaway. They ain't proven all that yet. But I would say consistently speaking, convoluted storyline on both sides, cops, the wiretap, the governmental officials over the cops, the drug dealers, the family members of the drug dealers.

Shoutouts to Avon, played by my dear brother in Wood. Shout out to Idris playing Stringer. Shoutouts to Michael Kay, my brother who played Omar. shoutouts to Jamie Hector. Shoutouts all the way down to Michael B and Mac Wild. Shout out, shout out, shoutouts. What they did, Snoop, what they did to me in consistency

in terms of those shoutouts obviously being relegated to the street side of the show. I'm not obviously forgetting Dominic Lomerozo who also played, as you know, with me on power. But then the other Dominic who played in that. Dominic West. Or our phenomenal brother, who's from New Orleans, who I think is just one of the more underrated actors that they're ever one.

With Bill Pierce. Shoutouts to all of those people that I'm naming. They consistently showed up in the writer's room included, and the acting and the crew and the way it was shot. And to me, they edge us out by a season. Because I think we were dominant for four seasons on a very beautiful, handsome, stunning way. I think the wire went five years. Did they go five? Was it five seasons?

It was five seasons of the wire. It was five seasons. If we talk about it like it was 10 seasons and there's... Right. Talk about it like it was 10 seasons and there's your answer. It was only five. Right. Power gave you six and a half.

I wish we would have been paid more like it was a seventh season, but we weren't. Six and a half. We gave you 15 episodes or 16 in the final run. But I believe that everybody that rocked out, and that's not to say that the guest members that, the guest cast that we had in season and season six weren't incredible. Right. But I'm in terms of our force as crew, as producers, as writers, as actors, as the network, we rocked out in a way that me as an ex-athlet would judge four seasons.

The wire gave us five. So I got to say the wire is there. I would put us number two and I would say that snowfall is a very, which is a compliment, because they're still rocking. I would give them number three good company to be in. That's definitely a good company to be in. Man, look, bro, I'm glad we talked, man. I'll be honest with you. I've done a lot of interviews, right? And it's like, but I'm glad that we actually got a chance to sit down and talk with you for a second, man.

You're putting out all the right vibrations. And of course, we know you're going to continue your success. And I can't wait to see Army of the Dead. The movie's out, what is it, May 14th? So the movie comes in limited theater, select theaters in certain places. You're right, a week before. And then on Netflix, of course, in the coming. confines of your comfortable home on the 21st of May.

21st of May. 21st of May. I will be there. Amari Harwick, bro. We'll be watching, supporting. Thank you. Thank you.

So much for joining us today on higher learning, my man. Higher learning, I won't forget this interview. I won't forget the fast and slow zombie talk. Mall, I'm going to find you. I'm going to find you,

Maul. What did Ma'am say? He said that he said... So Maul said, Maul didn't include power. Maul said that he feels like snowfall is way better than a wire. And then people were like, well, what do you put power in that? And I was like, wow, blah, blah, blah, you know what I mean?

Because I did a wire podcast. And so I'm like, these shows, the shows are all so different totally. It's because it's present, right? Snowfall's on now. So I feel like that's why people are giving it that. But I think y'all make a great point. They are very different. And I guess the point I was making is I can't judge them on that criteria.

I can only judge them on consistency for the time that they ran their lane. But they ran their lane five years to me straight. This is why I will say about power, though. Okay. And I think the wire is the greatest show that's ever existed, right? But this is, I will say about power. When power was hot,

there are few shows ever that people, the culture bullied me into watching power because I was, I was, late on it. Everybody was talking about it so, I was there at the beginning. If you got to say, like your colleagues, you know he's going to go,

yo, if you over tell me or oversell me on a show, later for that, I'm the same way. Like, if you oversell me, let me get to it when I get to it. So I appreciate what people go, yo, I got to a season three, oh, and I'm like, great, you got when you got. And then you went forward and you got.

I got tired of being left out of the conversation. everyone was talking about it. I remember I was saying memes of people holding guns to Tyreek on the thing. I was like, why do y'all hate this kid? And I started watching, I'm like, yo, this show is crazy. Like this show is really crazy. Shout out to me.

So you get my point. Like, we really played hard for four years. Like, wow. It even made me at times go, this is something like Courtney's in her bag, five is in his bag, Joseph Naturi Lila, I'm constantly challenged, And I challenge everybody to be Enrique, Luis Antonio Ramos, honorable, who played Almano, Dominique Colon, like where Timmy came in at it, Shane Johnson, Lorenz. Everybody was really in their bag.

And I think dominantly, Jerry Ferreira, can't leave him out. Dominantly for four years, we just were like, clah. But I feel like the wire almost quietly. They were almost quiet. It was like fanfare of the writers union, you know, going, oh, this is an incredible show, critically acclaim. To me, critically acclaimed is not on accident. When you go to a restaurant, people go, don't yelp. Take your shot.

No, let me yelp. I ain't about to get a stomach because five people went and ate at the shit. At least you see 55 people that say the burger's pretty good. Right. It's massive. And there was a reason that our cultural gravitas was what it was, because we were bangers for four years. And the wire had a subtle, elegant, quiet, critical acclaimed fan fire. following. And that says a lot. That says a lot.

All right, my man. My brother. Brooke, can't wait to do this again, man. Great talking to you. Peace, y'all. Thank you. Thank you. Same to you. Same to you. Same to you. Fans, too. How are learning? Out. This episode is brought to by Weather Tech.

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Two good creamers are available in sweet cream, roasted vanilla and lavender. So which one are you trying first? Find two good creamers at your local retailer in the creamer aisle. Okay. Amari, that was a fantastic interview. Wow. I mean, I was a fan before, but definitely am now.

Deep brother. Definitely am. It was great. Deep. Right? Deep, brother. Had a lot to say. Love that. Love that.

I love what interesting. where you don't have to do much work. You just give somebody a question and they got so many takes and stuff like that. Shout out to him. And because you were just viving. That was the thing. It's just a vibe. Vibing.

Yeah. Also, he made me want to go work out. Did it? Yeah. The niggas well, let's be honest. He was covered up and you could still tell.

Yeah. Be careful, Rach. Okay. I'm just saying. You know, Brian loves. I got Brian into power. Did you?

Brian, I went back and watched it again. He's hooked, loves it. I need to tell him. We were interviewing him. He's going to be. You didn't tell him that you were interviewing. Okay. Don't start.

All right. Wish there were better news to come out of that fantastic and positive interview with, but the reality is that there is not. This is the reality. On the day that Derek Chauvin, George Floyd, by the way, we. talked about the George Floyd verdict in an emergency podcast. That's the reason why you guys are not hearing us refer back to that verdict in this podcast right now. But we will talk about something else that happened.

Micaiah Bryant is a teenager, was a teenager. She was shot and killed by the Columbus Police Department on Tuesday after having called them for help. Apparently, there was a situation there between her and some of the girls. police officers responded and when they responded Mackiah had a knife and this is a video

that's going on around now she had a knife she was going after one girl she then made moves like she was let's be honest winding up with the knife to attack another girl and a police officer shot her

four times she is now dead the police officer has been taken off the streets there is an investigation around this situation that happened there in Columbus. Now, this has obviously troubled people.

It's obviously devastating whenever you lose life, especially life as young as this young woman's life was. But it's also been sort of a divisive issue. Because in this case, it's not a one-to-one and some of the other cases that we've seen. She was armed and she was setting to attack somebody. And there are people who say that, the cop acted in defense of the life of the young black woman that was on the other side of the knife attack.

There are others who say that four shots into her taking her life is excessive and that police officers should be, police officers should be better trained to de-escalate situations like this without using lethal force. LeBron James had tweeted a screenshot of the police officer who fired those shots. We got it off of his body cam footage. we know who he is and said that accountability is coming for him next. He later deleted the tweet saying that he needed to do more research and get more information before he weighed in on it. Rachel, I'm assuming that you've looked at all of this and you've been in the middle

of all this and you've seen everything that there is to see. What are your thoughts about this particular case? Quick question. Did LeBron James say accountability in the first tweet or did he just say you're next? Because I want to be clear why people were so up in arms. He said you're next. The accountability part is, I think, what he clarified later. Yeah.

He said you're next. Yeah. This is a tough situation, especially with it. It is period, but with the timing of it, it just hits even harder. You know, while we're trying to take in the fact that Chauvin has been found guilty on three counts. And, you know, people are, you know, talking about accountability versus justice. and we're focusing on that literally at the same time, this is happening. And it's happening so fast we didn't even know about it to have time to cover it on our emergency

podcast. That's how quickly these things are happening. It's honestly hard to speak on without all the information because as we've seen the video, she is holding a knife. She's wielding a knife. She is going towards someone. and there's obviously this heightened situation of for the police officer, what do you do in that moment? I think the troubling thing is, and this is the side that I lean on, it's the force shots. I understand that use of force may be necessary when there's someone holding a knife, but the fact that she's the one who called 911, I guess I feel like the police came onto the scene with assumptions without understanding the full gravity of what was happening,

the caller who was being attacked, who was defending themselves, and then just firing four shots, not firing maybe to harm, not firing up in the air, firing to kill. He fired at her, 16 years old to kill her. And I think the thing that people are having such issue with as well is when someone, when you see someone who is not a young black woman, who is also in a type of situation like this or worse, there doesn't seem to be that same use of force that's applied. And there was a lot of comparison to Kyle Rittenhouse, who we know killed two people and injured someone else who was strapped with guns and he came out alive. And I think that's the thing that's hard for people. Why was this approach used towards this young black woman?

Yeah. So first of all, just to put it out there, the video and the stills you guys are going to all see, they show what they show. All right. That's just the reality of it. They show what they show. If the knife finds it's marked there, you never know what happens to the other girl. That's a hard reality that we all have to discuss. Okay? Sure.

I'm not in an emotional or an intellectual place to look at a police officer shooting a 16-year-old black girl four times and going, he did the right thing. To be honest about that, I'm not in that place. I don't have that much trust in the system. I don't have that much trust in the police.

I have negative trust in the system and negative trust in the police. Okay? Am I de-intellectualizing this situation? Maybe. But the reality is that I'm tired of seeing black people get killed by the cops. And I'm just, I'm sick of it, right?

And I'm definitely tired of seeing violence, period, but I'm tired of seeing black people getting killed by the cops. I tell you guys a quick story. It's going to be quick. I had a friend who is not with us anymore. His name is George Temple. Okay. George Chimple the third, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

George was a good fighter. People are gifted at things. For whatever reasons that God gifts them with things, G.T. had hands. Like, I've never seen anything like it before. It was a teddy bear. It was a sweet man, right? But, man, when it was time to go like lightning.

And they came hard and fast. He was renowned all over the city for this. But he was my friend. Okay. Gt went through a point to where he was fighting all the time. It was fighting a lot. Okay. Whenever you saw him know, whenever I was around him, he had a big smile on his face. He was the most generous person I ever met.

He wasn't perfect, but he was a friend of mine. First week I was in Los Angeles. I get a call from a friend of mine, Ian Spoon. I think I've talked about him on the podcast. And he says, yo, G.T. got shot. And I'm thinking, damn. Do I need to fly back? Like is it like where'd they get him at?

He goes, no, van, he's dead. And I remember I hung the phone up. And I'm thinking to myself what happened. This is what happened to George Temple. George was driving. He owned a business called Expert Sound, where he would put, like, it was back in the time where everybody was getting 15, 12s and all of that in their car. We all had stupid TVs in our cars and all that stuff like that.

So he was around 24, 25, maybe he was a couple years younger than me. And he had a business called Expert Sound and he would put that stuff into your car. So he was a small business owner at that young age, making a lot of money with a growing reputation around the city of somebody who was able to meet your car audiovisual needs or whatever. So he was driving his Mercedes going somewhere. and the story goes that he cut off a funeral procession. So he cut this funeral procession off. And he was pulled over by a cop. It was pulled over by a cop.

And when he was pulled over, they were inside of a parking lot. Things got tense between George and the cop. Apparently the cop wanted George to step out of the car. George did not want to get out of the car. George started telling the cop that he was just jealous because he saw a black man riding in a Mercedes Benz or whatever, whatever. What ended up happening was the cop at some point either forcibly tried to remove George out of the car or at some point they became entangled.

Now, the cop, most people, they don't stand a chance against GT. And GT was dogging this guy. There's a guy who walked out of the Autozone who had a gun on him, saw the cop in a fight with GT and shot George. I think it was like six times. Okay. So here's my thing. For all of us who lost our friend, the question that we ask and the question that I ask, even still to this day, and you run it back in your head so many times, man, what if George would have left 10 minutes later? What if he'd have left 10 minutes earlier? What if he didn't have something to do that day? just or what if somebody didn't just walk out of the place and execute him? Did that have to happen?

Yeah. Is that the way that these things are dealt with? And it puts you in a position and I'm imagining that this is the position that this young ladies family is in right now to where you're thinking to yourself yeah sure you're right but is this what had to happen i get it i understand we're not talking about what happens intellectually what we're talking about is the emotional understanding of a situation like that now i remember talking to my father about this i've talked about my father a lot on this podcast my father was like And this was a watershed point

that he's in our relationship He goes, that's why you know, talk to the police like that There's no sir It's yes sir It's all of that and I told my dad I told my father at that age Like you sound like a white man's nigger Like you sound crazy right now

Like you and and the reality is that I wasn't trying to I don't need somebody to explain the way What went wrong I need to somebody explain the consequence Why we always get four shots. Why we always get six shots.

Why we always get, put your hands in a bam, bam, bam. Right. While everybody else gets, hey, calm down. It doesn't have to go this way. We can work this out. Calm down. Seriously. Don't do this.

We get put your hands in a bow, bow, bow, bow, bow, bow. Callambians. And so there's people out there that are watching the video. People out there that are sending a steal around. I'm not saying you're wrong. But you don't have, I'm not saying you're wrong,

but that doesn't mean that that was right. Correct. I think that, I think the hardest part for me is which is why I said. I'm on the side of why did it have to be four shots is because yes, she was, yes, the still images show her with the knife.

But when you shot her four times, You never intended for her to live. Do you know what I mean? Like that's what I think the part, the, the hard part for me to swallow is you shot to kill. You didn't shoot to stop her from doing what you thought she was doing. You shot to kill her, to end her. And that's where I, I think that's what's what's so hard for me. And what I guess I understand what you're saying in your story as well.

There was no other option. Once you, you went, it was to kill. we weren't given anything else. She wasn't given anything else. Your friend wasn't given anything else. And that's what people are struggling with. It's hard. God damn is hard dealing with this shit every fucking day.

And the other part of it is this narrative that we got to be the... Jesus in heaven. God, I believe in you. Please give us a break. Just like, just for a little while, please. give us a break. I can't fucking do this every single. This is fucking crazy. Rachel, this not crazy to you? Yesterday, yes, to answer your question, yes. Yesterday was my birthday. And I, like, I struggle with Brian about it because I was like, I don't even feel, how do,

I don't even feel like celebrating my life when people are continuing who look like me to lose theirs. Yes, it is hard. And it's hard not just because of that. It's because of people using what she did as a scapegoat. this whole perfect victim narrative. Yes, it's hard. It's hard. It's hard. And on that, you are right. We will take a break.

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Great news. I guess Lil Wayne is getting married. Have you seen this? I love that that's the light topic that we're talking about. Good, good for Wayne. Great. What is this gets? Gray.

Donny B. Trudy Joseph and Isaiah Blakely are our producers today. And we're all talking about Lou Wayne. getting married. That's our light topic. That's our change of pace. Did you hear that? Oh, that's a good thing.

Every time we change your pace, we should use that. When we go from light, when we go from dark to light or light to dark, it should be higher learning, change a place. Because we're changing. I got it. I got it. Wayne's getting married.

Has Wayne never been married? Has Wayne never been married? Is this the first? think so. I don't know. I don't know. He's got a lot of kids. He's got a, Wayne's got a. Honestly, he's probably promoting something. Right? He's probably promoting something. That's it. He ain't getting married. He's promoting something. It says, he says, happiest man alive. Today is the beginning of our forever, forever, forever, ever, forever, ever, forever, the carters.

Those are lyrics to a song, y'all. Well, there are lyrics. Forever. You shouldn't be listening to this podcast if you don't know Ms. Jackson. If you don't know this Jackson, man. Go over to the Dan Boingino show. What's that nigga name? Dan, you know what I'm talking about? You know Dan Boingino?

Is he bald? He's like the, he's like a one of the conservatives from over on. Yeah, he's like slow. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He started his own shit. By the way, them,

them sheds be cracking. If you look all around, if you look on like the top charts, Dan Boingingo and then Candice and then Ben Shapiro. I'll be honest with you. Y'all all claim. Like, y'all all claim that y'all not racist. But y'all sure must love them.

Because they be hot. The country voted for Trump, of course. They'll be hot in these streets, man. Yes, they're uniting. They be hot in these streets. Good for them. Good for them, by the way. Not in any way taking away.

I don't want, you know, everybody got their own perspectives and opinions and all of that stuff. Good for them. But Wayne had been going back and forth with. his girlfriend, the on and off again, girlfriend, Benice. You know more than me. Bedou is her name. I kept looking at it and seeing Bigot and I just, I couldn't.

Doesn't it doesn't it look like Bigot? It looks like Bigot. That would be so funny. Wayne, the Bigot family. I wanted to join the Bigot family. I tried to do it with Trump. But now, so Wayne's getting married. He's got a lot of kids.

But that's okay. because he can afford him. Do you, do you have thoughts? Remember, this is the same lady. No. Who had broken up with Wayne after the Donald Trump thing. I guess that's all cleared out. Do you still even care about the Donald Trump thing with Little Wayne?

I'm still trying to figure out if I really care about Wayne, which is why I'm having a hard time, which is, and I told you I used to be a Waynehead. Like big, big, big fan. I'm just kind of indifferent. You know, she did, yeah, she allegedly broke up with him. Do we really know that? I don't know. Got her back.

Whatever. Who that? Congratulations. Congratulations, guys. I'm glad that Wayne is happy. I'm, you know, I'm always going to have a soft spot for Wayne. No matter, I do think it's interesting now, and I don't like to comment on physical appearance too much, but it's just, it's glaring here. We just talked to Amari Harwick, uh, from Army of the Dead.

Wayne could play a zombie in Army of the Dead with no makeup. Zero makeup. It is shocking. Wow. that this man is 38 years old. He can pay a zombie with no makeup. He looks like the zombie version of 2009, Wayne, and that nigga looked dead.

Okay, he's got some color to his face, so I'm not going to let you do that, right? He doesn't look lifeless. He might look withered, but not lifeless. But I'm just saying, man, y'all take care of yourself, man. Before y'all all I hear. looking like some zombies. I'll take care of y'all.

I'll tell you what, though. I'll say this. I'll say this, though. Pound for pound, first of all, the rapper I've listened to the longest, I haven't listened to anybody longer that I've been listening to Lou Wayne. That's true.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Poundful pound, I say the most influential rapper that's ever lived. Wayne? The most influential rapper that has ever. In your life or period? Period.

From what I can tell. The most influential, the single way, but it's define influence. I'm talking about all for, okay, first of all he changed. There are a lot of rappers that come along and change the subject matter. There are a lot of rappers that come along and change the sound.

There are a lot of rappers that come along and change the style. Very few rappers have ever changed the subject matter, the style. I got you. And the sound. and the sound. Like Louis Wayne,

the sound got different. The subject matter changed. And, and the style. The way people wrap, the style totally changed. The style, and then the way they dressed,

all the tight shit, all of that stuff. That's all Wayne. Really? Absolutely. All Wayne. I'm not doubting you. I just never really put that together.

It just kind of happened. Wayne. the crazy tattoos in the face all of that stuff not saying guys didn't have those before but all of that stuff just being a mainstream rapper with that I got you I got you It's a valid argument

Right whatever Like to me I would say the other guys in that situation Are probably These are the most influential rappers Of all time to me Tupac Of course Raq

Okay Kanye I was going to put Kanye. Wayne. I'm going to throw another one out there. Lil Kim. Of course. Lil Kim for sure.

Great list. Lil Kim, because Lil Kim came with the hardcore sexual stuff and it's been about sucking dick ever since. So I'm just saying, I'm just being for real. But you're right. It's the, it's the way she,

what she wrapped about, the way she dressed. Everybody's been emulating that ever since. You were correct. By the way, when I say rap, I mean, oh, one more guy. I got to include Snoop in there. Snoop too. Snoop brought a whole culture to people. So I got to include Snoop too.

He's the one that brought all the game bag. What about L.L? See, the only thing about LL is that LL was... The style, the soft rap, the sink, you know what I mean? Like nobody was doing it before. Maybe, maybe so. And when I say this, I mean mainstream rappers. I'm not talking about the guys who were super influential,

the MF Dooms and the other people like that who... Man, I'm just happy I name somebody on the list that you agree with. I'm really proud of myself for the LL comment. LL is a titan of rap that does not get his just do. He was definitely, definitely very influential. But when I'm saying, the most influential rapper ever, just in all facets of influence. I say it's a little Wayne.

You made your argument. I get it. I get it. Because I'm probably most familiar with Wayne on that whole list than anybody you said. Then probably next Kanye. So I get it. I totally get what you're saying.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, whatever. All right, what's next? What's next? It's a mailbag. It's a mailbag. Trudy Joseph. Come on, man.

Hurry out. You don't even be talking to Trudy like that. You might have done Jackson that way. You're not going to do Trudy. And I need to be all the way of there. Trudy. Okay. Well, first of all, Trudy, before you just jump into it, we got to give time to run the song.

Please cue the song now. Mailback time. Time to read your letters and then we'll reply to them. Oh, it's mailback time. Write us with your queries and we'll chime in. Thank you for the song, Trudy. If you don't mind, people like the song. You'd like to listen to the song.

Could you please get to the mailback questions now? Thank you, Trudy. Okay, this is from Kellyn. What's one thing on your bucket list? I don't have a bucket list, but. Peace. You know what's on my bucket list? I just want to have peace.

I just want peace. Let's start naming those peace, freedom. No, I'm being serious, though. I don't care. Reparations. Hey, you know, what? Fuck all of that. I just want like, I'm just talking about it for myself. I just want peace. I got you.

I got you. I want mental peace. What about you? I'll take my answers as well. Your answers work. I know. I know. Trudy? Next question. Okay. This is from Black Love 81 on Instagram. I didn't have an age. In your marriage or relationship, what is one thing that is non-negotiable? There's nothing. Everything's negotiable. No, honesty. Non-negotiable. Don't lie to me.

People lie to lie. People do lie. Don't lie. But I don't need you to lie to me. Nope. Not negotiable. You would negotiate it. So what was, so what she's telling me right now is if, like, Brian is late and he told you he was somewhere. So let me ask you a question. What if Brian then this one is going to play this game. Trudy's asking the question. It's not you.

Go ahead. Trudy gives it. Nope. Nope. Nope. I'm not playing today. I'm not playing it. Okay. Next question from Kyle Claus, which would you choose? Sharing half your food every time you eat out or eating out alone forever. Sharing half my food when I eat out, right? I'll order, I'll order more. Half the food or eating out of all, first of all, Kyle Claus.

God damn, this is coming from the North Pole. Kyle Claus. This niggas, this niggas name is Kyle Claus. name is Kyle Klaus. His last name. Don't talk about Kyle. It's a great question, Kyle. His last name is C-L-A-U-S.

Sharon, have your food. You know why he asked this question? Because he wants to know for when it's time for him to take over the reins at Santa Claus, whether or not he has full rain to all the cookies on the plate or just have the cookies. We got the air. to the Santa Claus legend listening to higher learning.

Kyle Claus. I don't even hear the name. Santa Claus, Mrs. Claus, a Kyle. He came from the North Pole. He came from the North Pole. This guy is crazy. Kyle Claus asking his questions.

I love how Kyle Claus is trying to act like he's like a normal person. He probably has a job doing something that he likes. He does. Another movie idea. really quickly. You've been really inspired this podcast with movie ideas.

The movie is called Son of Santa. I feel like that exists. This is a movie. Seriously. Santa Claus. All right. Santa Claus actually gets his powers of Santa Claus because he has to do that every single year as the protector of the earth.

Every single year, he has to give presents to all the kids. and all over because he inspires so much joy and that joy, the earth has to be, the earth has to have a significant amount of joy to stop these other people who are trying to invade. They're coming from a different realm. And there's like a joke. This is literally elf.

Just listen. This is elf. Listen. There's something called a joy shield. And that's what's covering the earth. Goodwill. And if the joy shield comes down, this other invading force,

is going to be able to come in and take over to Earth. So Santa Claus's job is to actually inspire so much joy on a yearly basis to keep the joy shield up, right? He has a son, Kyle, Kyle Klaus, okay? But he sends him out into the world so that the people from this other realm can't kill him. Okay. Santa actually, unfortunately, we lose Santa. Unfortunately.

Kyle, son of, son of Klaus, has to take up the mantle of San, Santa Claus and become Santa Claus and keep the joy shield up. So these people from this outer place can't come in and then take over the earth. Santa Claus is saving the worth. But now it's not about Santa. It's about Kyle, son of Santa. Can I tell you something? What?

You can do better. Nah, I like you. You can do better. I like it. Try again. Next week, next week stay tuned for part two. Because you could do better than that. I like it.

I know you can. I know you can. Son of Santa. And at first he's, you know, he's out. It sounds like a scary movie, though, honestly. And that's the direction you should have gone. You should have made this a scary movie. It's R-rated.

And it picks up, Kyle's in a club. He's doing blow. He's like, like, he's in a club. He's, they're giving it. Seriously, that's how it picks up. Santa says, because this is the shot. It goes from, this is the shot. I just put, this just happened in my head.

This is the shot. It goes from Santa's funeral and they're shoveling snow on Santa's Santa, Santa up in the North Pole, right? And it cuts to Kyle in one oak. Like with all it is, he's, he's, I'm fucking raging, man. Yeah. Kyle, bro, you have such a tolerance.

It's almost like you're, you're not, it's like you're not even human you can do. Because he's not human. That's why he can do so much. Because he's son of Santa. Can you go to the, you can do better. Last one,

Rudy last one last last last last last last last last last last last last last answer the question I don't like sharing food so yeah we knew we knew you we knew your answer you'll just eat alone for the rest of your life okay this is from Melissa machiner if you could live in another city or state where would you go and why I don't want to live nowhere else bad enrooge like that's that bad ruse it's just out of this country You know, I'm going Canada Somewhere else I'm not here

I didn't say I was gonna get Racism is everywhere Racism is everywhere I didn't say I didn't say I was going to a place With no racism There's no racism Dunder Bay Ontario Did I did I talk about Bad Rouge

No I'll let you have your moment Let me have mine thank you You guys never You guys never passed through Bad Ruz when you were On the family No we didn't we We're not I've been Bad Rooge

But you don't really pass through Baton Rouge. Nope, nope. That's so crazy. I got to tell you, man, the judge is an amazing person. Everybody else. Family trips. You still stuck on the family trips? Family trips to Disneyland, Yosemite.

He's like, load up the band. And let's go to Dayton, Ohio. Smokey Mountains, Tennessee. Oh, that's nice. Where else did we go? That's very nice. Yeah, we did all that. One time we were driving through the streets saw James Brown. My mom's

scream. Oh, Sam, stop the car. There goes James Brown. Ran out the car. You told me. James Brown. Did I tell you this? Oh, okay. It's great. It's a great story. It's the one work retelling the game. So, uh, no, so no unexpected ally of the week this week. No, not one. No. Hell no. Don't have one yet. Yeah. Uh, everybody is playing their positions until further noted. Uh, look, guys, I appreciate all the messages that you guys have been sending me. Um, I appreciate all the messages that you guys make sure that you follow at Higher Learning

on Instagram and Twitter. Okay? I would like to thank our producers today. Donnie Beecham, Trudy Joseph, and Isaiah Blakely. Isaiah Blakely at the Ringer, who is the biggest Lakers fan that we have at at the Reader. Oh, one more thing before we go.

I had teased on this episode of the show that El Mike L. Michael Rappaport, Michael Rappaport was going to be on the show. Michael Rappaport is, is filming a show that I think is going to be a great show. Love Beth with Amy Schumer. Fantastic. It's going to be so funny.

It'll be so funny. It's going to be so great. Congratulations to everybody that's doing all of that. He said that he cannot make it. He said that he's going to make it in the future. Now, I took Mike on, you know, it was a good faith that he was going to show up. And I'm sure, you know, if he's shooting with Amy, that he can't come out here and make it.

Rachel, you had something to say about this. Rachel, Rachel, I don't have a whole thing to say about this. it's like, listen, this is the second time that we've tried to get Michael on the podcast. And it's not even us trying. It's not like, hey, we're sitting out messages. And it's a no, it's a back and forth. He was supposed to come on during the Katie thing. I was texting with him. He was supposed to come on after you called him out on Instagram. He said he was coming. We announced it on the podcast. And he didn't. And I just find it hard that Michael can't find the time to record 15 minutes, 10, 15 minutes with us and talk about some of the things that he's expressed on social media.

You know, he's all about disruptive behavior. He doesn't seem to be one to shy away from a conversation of an argument. So I'm just a little confused as to why he doesn't want to have one here. That's all. That's all. Michael, we're waiting for you. Love to sit and talk to you. We got a lot to talk about.

Come on. Come on. Come on. All right. It'll happen when it's supposed to happen. If it doesn't happen, we'll interview somebody else. Happens. All right.

Thought Warriors, that's enough for right now. Take 10 caps off, but do not stop learning. I'm Van Lathan. I'm Rachel Lindsay. We are. Bye, guys.