Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay - The Democratic Honeymoon Is Over and Prayers for Jelani Day 

Episode Date: October 15, 2021

Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay react to Kyrie Irving’s IG Live regarding his COVID vaccine choice (4:22), discuss Joe Biden’s presidential performance thus far (28:36), and ask an unexpected question about Ruth Bader Ginsburg (39:59). Also, 25-year-old Jelani Day is remembered amid rampant rumors following his mysterious death (48:45).  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. Wow. Sorry I had taken a sip. Van Lathen, Jr. But also, you're breathing into the microphone again,

so I just want to help you out. Is that true? Yeah, like, I don't know if you want to start over, but you were like, it's Van Lathan. Let's do it. Let's leave it. Have you stocked up? I'm not stuffed up.

It's just, at this particular point, I'm holding the mic, so I don't want to, but I'm glad you call. me out on it. I got you back. I don't want people to think that it's a freaky beginning to the podcast. I don't want to do that. I don't want to do that to people. It's not fair to them. But I'm assuming that you're Rachel Lynn Lindsay because you haven't introduced it. Sorry, guys. Yes, I am Rachel Lynn Lindsay. I had to help you out first. Rachel, I'm podcasting from the road right now. I'm in the home of Chip and Dale. I'm at the Lakeincha. Chip and Dell. Do you, do you?

Do you feel their spirit? I feel more so of that, of Yosef, though. Of Yosef? I had to think about who that was for a second. Yeah. More so I feel the presence of Yosef. Okay, well, don't get angry on this podcast then, because that's the energy that he gives out. I don't want to.

What happened to him, by way? Who cares? That's the only correct answer. Who cares? But you know what? It's perfect timing for you to be, you know, in the presence of Lakinta because Bachelorette, a new season, starts Monday. Yeah, the black lady, right? Is that why you're there? No.

Oh my God. How great would it be if they had you do one of the dates? Like do a date, like what? Like be the guy. Like host a date? Host a date. Yeah, yeah. You're like, hey guys, welcome to. Oh my gosh. Hey guys, welcome to Lakinta. You want to know what it's like to be with a black woman. that's the kind of stuff they should be doing one thing because we got a lot of topics to get to so we're going to dispense with the pleasantries here in the second but I will say this batch should lean into it so batch should take so they have a black bachelor right they have another black bachelorette she's because she's going they did two of them um what's her name again Michelle Michelle I like Michelle okay but what they should do is they should uh they should lean into some of the controversy. So they should have all of the non-black bachelor dudes that want Michelle. And they should then put them through the trials of blackness. Oh my gosh.

They should. They should like put. Like a black Olympics or like a black obstacle course? And then the guy who gets the least, he automatically gets the rose, automatically gets sent home. So they should take like four or five white guys and then stereotypical black shit here. They should play a game of 21. Whoever loses minus points. Spades.

Play games, spades, bones. Spades, bones. How do you fry your chicken? How do you fry your chicken? They should do dancing. Oh, shit. They should put on, bum, bum, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, no, no, 36, nine.

Make that song. Oh, my gosh, man. They should put them through the trials of blackness. But see, here's the thing. That's the type of shit that people would really want to watch. But Batch would never do that. No. their audience does not want to watch that.

You don't think so? Maybe there's a few, but as a whole, no. Remember, I got run out of Bachelor Nation. Yeah, that's true. You got run out of Bachelor Nation, but you took some people with you. That's what I like. That's what I like. By the way, I haven't heard anything about the milk of mayonnaise podcast.

No surprise. What was it? Manease and soup? Mandaise Soup podcast. Milk of mayonnaise. Milk of mayonnaise. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

I haven't heard anything about it. But I don't even want Spotify, Courtney N'em. If y'all going to do that, you don't even got to hit me up. You could just have that one. That's a free one. Because I love my people at Spotify.

Maneh soup with Chris Harrison and John Gruden together. And maybe Dave Chappelle, you never know. Did you know about one in three people with plaques psoriasis may also develop psoriotic arthritis, which causes joint pain, stiffness, and swelling? Does this sound like you? Listen to what it sounds like to be a million miles away. Trimphaya, Gucalcumab, taken by injection,

is a prescription medicine for adults with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis, who may benefit from taking injections or pills or phototherapy, and for adults with active psoriotic arthritis. Serious allergic reactions and increased risk of infections and liver problems may occur. Before treatment, your doctor should check. you for infections in tuberculosis. Tell your doctor if you have an infection,

flu-like symptoms, or if you need a vaccine. Imagine being a million miles away. Explore what's possible. Ask your doctor about trimfaya. Tap this ad to learn more about trimfaya, including important safety information. This episode is brought to you by WeatherTech. Everyone knows winter is the MVP and make it a mess.

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All right. Look, Kyrie Irvin has spoken. Yeah. Did you see his Instagram live? I did. Well, I saw the clips. You know, I didn't watch it live when it happened. I saw the clips.

I got the gist of it. So in the Instagram live, Kyrie Irvin speaks to a couple of things. Of course, you guys know Kyrie Irvin is embrolled in a very public standoff. I don't know who, actually, because it's not really the NBA. Well, now it feels like it's Stephen A. Smith.

Now it feels like it's Stephen A. Smith. He doesn't want to get vaccinated. He cannot participate with the Brooklyn Nets until he does get vaccinated. And people have been calling for Kyrie Irvin to speak. Kari Irvin spoke and basically he said this.

Yo, you're going to lose out on money and you're going to lose out on this. Like, so what? It's not about the money, baby. It's not always about the money. It's about choosing what's best for you. You think I really want to lose money? You think I really want to give up

on my dream to go after a championship? You think I really just want to give up my job? You think I really just want to sit at home and not go after the things with my teammates that I've been able to grow with, to learn with, to learn that it takes sacrifice in this space because we could be easily at home chilling with our families, but we're choosing to go out there and perform. You know, and even in that job, like, that's a dream come true. I've been working on that since I was in fourth grade.

You think I want to give up my livelihood because of a mandate? All right, so it says it's not retiring, he's not doing all of that stuff. I guess the question is, did anything that you heard from Kyrie Irvin, change your perception about what's going on with him in the Brooklyn Nets right now? No, because I feel like we've been pretty neutral on this. I feel like we've said it's a personal decision. When you make a decision, there's a reaction to it, right? I know you don't like necessarily consequence, but an outcome.

An outcome. That's the word he used last time. An outcome. He's accepted the outcome. I didn't think that what he had to say was all that bad, to be honest with you. And he actually said something that made a lot of sense to me. When there were talks about COVID and there were talks about the vaccine and how the NBA would handle it, there wasn't going to be a mandate.

And I mean, this was all, of course, the talks were all premature and we didn't know there was going to be a delta variant. And, you know, we're learning about this virus as time goes on and it might change again. But at the time that he had accepted his place in the NBA in this coming up season and started training and getting ready, vaccines weren't going to be mandated. And they're not by the NBA. Let me correct myself. It's by the city. It's by New York City.

So what he said made sense. You know, he's like, this is a decision for me. I've thought about it. I've made it for my family. And I'm going to take time to work out, to stay in shape. And, you know, when they're ready for me to come play or I can play again, I'll be ready. I didn't have a problem with it. I guess I'm not one of those people like Stephen A. Smith, who's so upset and said,

is it's so selfish and how dare you do that? Maybe if he was making more of an uproar, and by he, I mean, Kyrie Irving, maybe I would have a different response. To me, he seems to have accepted what it is and the outcome, and he's got to deal with it if things change. I'm okay with that. Maybe because I'm not a Brooklyn net.

Well, see, I think Stephen A. Smith is coming from it, coming from the perspective of, like, from a basketball standpoint, right? These are your teammates, these are your guys. you got everybody together and now you're not you're not available and he asked he actually on first take went through kairi irvin's history and said with some pretty real evidence that this is not the first time that kairi irvin has for whatever reason chosen to be unavailable to his team sure to your point and maybe even to mine i i couldn't care less about whether or not kairi irvin is

affecting the Brooklyn Nets. Right. Like the basketball culture part of this, oh, be a good teammate. That's like saying be a good employee. I never really care whether or not people are being good employees. It doesn't really matter. Like if you want to fuck off at your job, fuck off at your job, those outcomes will be yours. I guess my thing is I don't think he said anything that was wrongheaded.

I don't think he said anything at all. Right. The fact of the matter is the NBA assured him that there wouldn't be a vaccine mandate. and not just the NBA. I think when Kyrie Irvin said that, he was speaking on behalf of the Players Union, which was vehemently against, reportedly, vehemently against a vaccine mandate, right?

And that didn't happen. The NBA didn't give them a vaccine mandate. Well, what happened, Kyrie, the mandate didn't come from the NBA. It came from the municipality, from the city of New York. So that's a whole new problem that you have to attack with a whole new set of solutions and a whole new matrix in which to approach those things.

And he just kind of glossed over that. He was assured that there wasn't going to be a mandate by whom? There isn't an NBA mandate. So the question now that there is a mandate from the city, the question now is, what are you going to do? Does Kyrie Irvin plan to wait until the mandate is lifted? Because that can happen. Two, three months from now, they could say,

hey, we don't need the vaccines anymore. The numbers are what they are, right? Is he going to do that? is he not going to play this season? He can't play basketball as his home arena and the Nets say that he can't play for them until he's participating fully. So the question is, like, what are you going to do?

Everything that he said is shit that we already know. So like what's going to happen? What are you going to do? He's not playing. I mean, I think that's what he's not asking. He didn't say anything about asking. He just said, I'm not retiring, right? There are other options on the table.

Maybe he'll ask for a trade. Maybe he'll sit it out until things change. But in Kyrie's defense, I will, say this to what you're saying. No, there is no NBA mandate. It is the mandate from the city. However, an NBA team made a decision. And so I think that is what he is speaking to. The NBA, not as a whole, did not. But his NBA team decided you can't play for us at all. Because there is, I mean, he could technically go play away. Now, but as more cities, there might be more cities that institute mandates that might fuck them up a little bit more.

But now. From a team standpoint, I think it sets a terrible precedent, like a terrible precedent to let a guy attend some practices, attend some games. And so I don't think that they have very much of a choice in that. And to be honest with you, when you say that the NBA team made that decision, James Hardin and Kevin Durant are right there. There's no way that that went down without them being a, part of whatever was going on.

Well, they kind of alluded to that. Yeah. They kind of alluded that they discussed it with everyone. But of course, they're going to take the fall for it and say, we made the final decision, which they do. But you're right. There's no way that they didn't consult with Kevin Durant and James Hardin before making that decision. But, I mean, I think, what do you think is going to happen?

I think he's just going to, we've seen him sit out a whole year before, a whole season before. He's not getting vaccinated. So what I think the most likely thing that'll happen is he'll stay under contract. I'm not sure how long these mandates in New York will last. But at some point, I expect that they'll be lifted. I don't know that there's a date that they'll be lifted. And at that point, Kyrie Irvin will rejoin the Brooklyn Nets. If the Brooklyn Nets don't make a move before that, it depends really on how much animus there is right now between him, James Harden,

and Kevin Durant. And I think there's probably not a lot of animus. There's probably mild annoyance, but I don't think they're mad at them, you know? Yeah, I don't think, I don't think they're mad at them either. Yeah. What do you think of this whole Kyrie versus Stephen A thing?

It's obviously getting very personal. This whole thing was basically like a Stephen A subliminal shot. He was basically talking to Stephen A, refuting everything that Stephen A had been saying. Stephen A's been the loudest voice. And it's not just that he's giving his opinion, like you and I are having a conversation and we're talking about it. Stephen A is using adjectives like dumb and stupid.

And I mean, he's attacking Kyrie's character as opposed to just speaking to what the issue is and the decision that he's making. And it seems very personal in the things that he's saying. And you saw that in the exchange between Stephen A. Smith and Jay Williams. Because Jay Williams was really trying to give him the perspective of like, hey, the way you're coming at him is like this. I'm trying to just simply tell you another side. And Stephen A didn't want to hear it. And it was a lot. It was almost like, where is this energy?

Why are you so, it's not even your team. Why are you so, so passionate about it? I mean, I get it. We all have certain feelings about COVID-19. We've all been affected by it in various ways. But at the same time, you can only do so much. So I'm not going to get all in a tizzy because Kyrie has made this personal decision for himself. Is it annoying?

Sure. But what can you do about it? What can I do? So I'm not annoyed that he made a personal decision for himself. I'd say that the martyrdom is mildly annoying. Do you think he's doing that? Actually, no, not mildly annoying. The martyrdom is really annoying.

So let me just be honest. It's kind of lame of me to be saying this because when Kyrie Irvin was being this exact same way over an issue that was close to me, I was like, yay, Kyrie. When it was about police brutality and all of that stuff, Kyrie was taking off games to get his mind right. I'm like, you go ahead, Kyrie. And now we're not really on the other side of this issue. I just don't see it as big of a fight as what he sees it. And so now I'm like,

I want to be a voice for the voiceless. I hate that term. That I hate. Right. So, you know, and I'm not going to tell him how to do that. If he feels like it's something that he needs to do, like I don't begrudge him that at all but just the folk heroness of it

when this is really just somebody that's in a dispute about the dress code at their job. I mean, really, this is something that, this is somebody that's in a dispute and I know it's more serious than that because these are materials that you're putting in your body, but there is a requirement for him to be able to perform at his job and he is saying that that's not something that he's going to do.

That's where this begins and ends. If you think vaccine mandates, by the way, I personally think that in the grand scheme of things, vaccine mandates are harmful. I do. But I don't think they're harmful in terms of public health. I think that they're actually very helpful in terms of public health and have always been helpful in terms of public health when we've had vaccine mandates because we've had them for a while, right, in schools and stuff. I think in this particular political climate, the vaccine mandate is going to be using. as a political football that then is going to, in turn,

lower vaccination rates across the board. I think as as, and I've actually heard Dr. Gottlieb say this, so and I agree with them, that in the future, you're going to see just vaccine rates go down, not just for COVID, but for fucking measles

and other things that have been eradicated. So I think a nuanced approach to this is probably the best way to do it. But the reality is that in certain places there are certain things that either you can do or not do like club upscale Baton Rouge Louisiana got to have a collared shirt to go in club upscale you can't say hey I want to come in club upscale with the same wife beaded that I wear the club dreams you can't

say that so you know I don't know so that that I say that part annoys me a little bit you don't feel like he's you don't feel like he's Martin Luther vaccining a little bit Wow. Love that. Love that you just didn't put that term out there. I wasn't expecting that. I guess I know he said the voice for the voiceless, but I don't know if he said it in this IG or if he said it earlier. But he alluded to it basically. I hate that term for this. But in the IG live, I didn't feel like he was putting himself out there to be a martyr. To me, he was just like, this is just my decision and this is why I've come to it. And I feel like I got to speak on it because nobody's heard me speak. Everybody's just assuming why I'm doing. things and they need to hear from me. That's why I didn't have a problem with what he did.

I think the media and those who oppose getting the vaccine or just vaccine mandates are making him out to be the face of this, especially when that face is a black man. That's where I have the problem with it, but I can't say that that's

Kyrie that's doing it. He's making a personal decision. They are using him as a mascot for this. Interesting. Okay. Okay. I mean, that's that's a Zach. A lot of people would think that he was doing that. But I respect that. You know what I will say, though?

Like, I will say that, like, white people still too. I just want to let people know that because they don't think it's true. Like, when they're talking about waste and all of that stuff, it's always a black person, right? I saw this stupid-ass fucking meme that's going around. And by the way, Marjorie Taylor Green and anybody else, you can't fucking catch AIDS from a cough and a sneeze. So comparing Magic Johnson. Oh my God. Playing with HIV to somebody not wanting to get vaccinated from a disease that is airborne,

we are the stupidest fucking culture in the world. Oh my God. I'm not going to be ours with you. I love my people. I love my people. I love me. If you shared that meme, you're dumb. I'm sorry.

You might not be dumb overall, but you're dumb on this. No, no, no, no. You're dumb. If you shared that meme, you're dumb. AIDS to make to make that type of comparison. And the fact that we got people in our government making decisions for us that are sharing that's insane. No, man, you are dumb, period.

You're dumb. You're dumb. Across the board. Dumb! All right, white people steal two. Brett Fah. I was like, where are we going for this? So there's a meme that I saw.

I saw a meme and the meme was of like a black family from back of the day. And they had your mother, father. It's like your family. It was like the lenses. And it was like a real like beautiful, stable black family. And then it said, how do we go from this? And then it had a black woman down there with like a baby and six kids and she didn't have nobody. Her hair was all fucked up.

And it was like to that. Who posted that? I saw it on Baller Alert, but Baller Alert reposted it because the meme was circling around. They were like, do you guys want to have this conversation? First of all, there's not a conversation. There's no conversation. What? What?

I was like, what the fuck conversation do you have about that? What? There's no conversation. age of a half. The image below the lady with all the kids is a white supremacist's wet dream that doesn't exist in reality like they want you to believe. However, I did find this Brett Farf story interesting because of that perception. The perception that black people are this drain on the American fiscal society and we just use up all of these resources, right? And we're living on the government high off the hawk for free. When we don't talk about a

lot of the fucking fraud that people like Brett Favre are either committing or benefiting from. Let's get in the weeds of this Brett Favre story. He has to return $828,000. It's a lot of fucking food stamps that he received from welfare funds that should have gone to needy families. An auditor named Shad White. He said in a statement that Brett Farrf received $1.1 million

dollars in funds from two nonprofits. All right. So this is the way that this went. Brett Favre was scheduled to speak at, I guess, two different events that these alleged fraudulent nonprofits were putting on. He received the money for speaking for these things, but then never actually spoke at them. Okay. And Brett Fav is saying, hey, he didn't know that the money coming in was fraudulent.

Come on now. He had no clue that the money coming in was fraudulent. money was coming from a fraudulent place. Remember, it's not him that's under criminal, civil, whatever. It's these organizations that are. And when they trace the money, some of the money went to Brett Farf. Brett Farf said he didn't know. The reason why I bring this up is because we never talk about the people like this that cut corners and get million dollar bags off of fraud and fiscal wrongdoing. There's always a blackface that they put as this is who's stealing from the government, stealing welfare funds from the government.

This is who defrauding the government. Here you have a guy that's already rich, getting nearly a million dollars of money that should not have come to him, that should have actually gone to needy families. It was supposed to go to the temporary assistance for needy families fund in Mississippi, a state that could really, really use that money. Brett Farf, white thief. I mean, first of all, I don't understand how Brett Faris.

has not been charged. Okay, now if he doesn't return the money, they're going to file a civil suit. So I'm talking about a criminal charge here. Because what the letter with the Mr. White that you referenced said that he knew or had reason to know that the exercise of reasonable diligence,

that the expenditures were illegal and or the dispositions were unlawful. So you're saying that he knew what he was doing or he had reason to know. And he still did it. He still accepted the. money. And even if you say, okay, maybe he didn't know where the money was coming from, he still took the money for doing two speaking events that he never showed up to do.

What did you think? My question is, he still took the money. What do you think? Where did you think the money? Like, what did you think? He's like, oh, yeah. By the way, it's not a little bit of money. It's like a million dollars. A million dollars that went goes for people in need. The more we learn about Brett Favre, I swear we learn how much of a piece say, hey girl. I swear we learn what a piece of shit he is. You said Brett Farv is a piece of shit? Yeah.

The more we hear about his antics off the field, you just learn what a bad guy he is. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. You're saying that Brett Farve is a piece of shit is pretty easy at this point. Yeah. It's like, it's weird. how much of the shit does sports cover up? Sports covers up a lot of shit, man.

I'm not going to lie. Of course they do. It depends, right? I use a light breath off. It depends who you are. When you're the face who's, you know, you know, like you're the face of the team. You're the leader. You're the quarterback.

You're almost looked at as this savior. You can't be exposed for how terrible you are. when you're not playing football. You know what I mean? And we equate the two. Oh, if he's good with this, he's a great leader on the football field, then he's a great leader off the field football field too.

False, but we have no problem exposing other people's antics off the field, but yet when it's somebody who's the face of your organization, you want to cover it up. And since he's retired, since Brad Farr's retired, we are learning more and more who he is. And I'm going to say it again. Even though you hate when I say it, I'm going to use it every single chance I can get. Integrity is who you are with nobody's looking.

And Brett Parv is a thief. He's a thief. He sent his penis to people through text and messages. This is where this man is. Shout to my friend, Jen. That was bad. But see, here's the thing. And this is the thing about the integrity thing that you just said.

So let's stay on this for a second. I'm doing this on purpose for you. Let's say, I know. Let's stay on this for a second. second. Let's send this for a second. First of all, let's go to the Jen Seltter issue and the penis picks one time. When I saw the pictures of Brett Farb's penis, you saw them? Yeah, I saw. When I saw the pictures that he had sent to Jen Seltter, I understood immediately why Brett Farrf threw so many interceptions. I understood immediately because he sees opportunities that aren't there.

Like he sees like Brett Favre Farr's, like Brett Farrs sees opportunities. He sees shit that's not there. And he's so, like he looked at his dick and thought this was a picture worthy dick. That was an interception. And you know who intercepted it? Fucking society. Society. You know what I'm saying?

Like that was a interception. That was a, Brett, don't throw that ball. Like don't throw that ball, Brett. Don't throw that one. When you're throwing in the fucking triple coverage, gosh, high. safety, Brett. You know what I'm thinking? But he did it anyway.

Back to the leadership thing, though. I think this is actually an interesting test of that because if we ask people right now, how many of you would take a million dollars and fraudulent money from speaking engagements if you didn't think you were going to get caught? It is cap if the people listening to this podcast or, you know, anywhere else would say that they wouldn't take that money. Wait, where is that money coming from? Okay. Is it illegal money that you just happen to like get from the government?

What difference does it make? It's still in either way. We're talking about integrity, right? Right. But I think that there are levels to this. I'm going to be honest. I'm going to be honest. Am I robin hood?

Am I stealing from the rich? You know what I mean? Is that what's happening here? Or you know what I mean? Am I not love? Because, you know, I just saw, I just saw the heart of they fall. I seen it like two or three times. It's good.

Yeah. But or am I stealing from families in need like Bradford? Silling from families and need does make it particularly nasty. I'm not going to lie. But I know a lot of people out there. Hey, coming from the welfare, they'll probably still take the money. Jeez. Who are you rolling?

Brough. I never told you to, I never told you the contract killer story. No, but you have to now. So I'm chilling with one of my homies. Close home boy. Close. Wait, I think you did tell me this. I told you a story about $4,000.

$4,000 he'll kill somebody. Yeah. You got to get new friends. Yeah, like $4,000. Be like a $4,000, I'm like for $4,000 you'll kill somebody. Shit. Yeah, I don't know him. He'll fuck with us.

I don't give a fuck. A thousand dollars, nigger. You like, you. Okay. To risk your life. To risk your. life for either lifetime imprisonment or the death penalty. But I'm telling you, that's why people don't know, it's hard out here in these fucking

streets. Baton Rouge, a thousand dollars, man. That's a lot of poble. You should have just written him a check. I did help him out later on. Let me just help you. Let me just give you half. Yeah, a thousand bucks.

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I actually agree with Van Jones. And this is probably not the only time that I would agree with Van Jones. Jones, but I kind of only see Van Jones when I disagree with him. But I completely agree with something that Van Jones said. Van Jones was on Cuomo primetime with Chris embattled Cuomo. All right. And he was talking about Joe Biden's performance thus far, and he said this. I think that right now, you know, the honeymoon's over.

There was a moment where it's like, you know, goodbye Trump, hello vaccines, we're so glad to see you, Joe Biden. That's kind of how this year started. And then, you know, he actually got stuff done. Don't forget, you got 200 million Americans who are vaccinated right now. You got a trillion dollars that he was able to move out

to the economy with the rescue plan. He's, you know, dealing with the coup attempt well. His Department of Justice is going after voter suppression. He's doing a lot of good stuff. The problem is that he's, he put himself in a position where he made big, bold claims about the rest of the agenda. You think this great stuff that we did is good? It's nothing. Wait until this summer when you're going to get all those other stuff. And then he steps on a rake, and then he slips on a banana peel,

and then he falls down the stairs with some marbles, and now people are looking at him in a negative light. Now, can they recover? Yes, they can recover. If at the, this time next year, if gas prices have come down, if cases are going down, jobs going up, you're going to be in a different situation. But right now, the Democratic Party is looking over the edge of a cliff and there's a lot of fear and concern. And you're not seeing that strong Joe Biden leadership that I think people were expecting. So he got his ass tore apart on Twitter for that. But is that not true? Yeah, I don't know what, who was saying?

Was it anybody that was reputable that tore him apart? I mean, I'm not going to come at Black Twitter like that. You kind of shade it. I didn't know it was black Twitter. You didn't say who it was. You said he just got his ass to him. I don't know if it was liberals. Just liberal.

No, a lot of people were super pissed off. He trained it for it. He trended for it because a lot of people look at this as Van Jones taking the opportunity to go on CNN in a primetime spot and kick the teeth in of a Democratic president while a lot of people think that he was old. overly chummy and way too close to Trump when he was in office. That is the latter part is true. Yes, he was all that.

And we dealt with that when when Trump administration was, you know, around. But here's my thing. What Van Jones is saying, people need to wake up to because everything that he's talking about, we, yes, it's 2021. But in 2022, we are halfway there and we, and everybody's going to start talking about who's running for president in 2024 in a more serious way. And what are they going to use as talking point? points, what is currently happening in the Biden administration. And if you aren't aware of what's

happening or the lack of what is happening, then we are doomed to repeat a Trump-type administration. It's going to give rise and voice to those people, those Trumpers who are still out there, even though Trump is not in office. And I think it's important to know what is not being done. So then you can demand one for that, one demand for that to be done. And then, two, figure out how we can get it done, right? How we can be better to get it done or bring it to Biden's attention. I don't understand

why it's bad to call out what Biden administration has not done. Because we're going to hear it again. If it's not from our own people or party or your own side, however you want to look at it, you're going to hear it from the Republicans as talking points and people are going to run

with it in headlines. I agree. We talked about it on this podcast. Specifically when it comes to police reform. There were huge promises made. There was that whole six-point plan. I don't know if it was six-point. Forgive me if it wasn't. The Biden administration rolled out

that they were going to do. And it seems that things are getting worse. Now, yes, some of that is attributed to the Trump administration as it rolls into the Biden administration, but we can't keep saying that. We can't keep blaming it on what was. How are we fixing it for it to be what is to come?

So I'm all about Van Jones, speaking the truth. So, clip that. that. Cut that off. In this moment. No. No. No.

Hey, Donnie. Donnie. Donnie. I need that. Don't you do it. Don't about Van Jones. Like, quote unquote, Rachel Lindsay. First of all, shout out to Van Jones.

Me and Van Jones. Me and Van Strait. No distant. Me and Van Strait. Me and Van and talked it out. Like, we're straight. I understand what Van Jones is trying to do. He's got a very hard job to do there in Washington.

No issue with Van Jones. But Rachel Lindsay. loves Van Jones. Listen, somebody has to agree with what he's saying right now. Can't pretend it's not happening. So let's look at it this way. And let's try to get into the political weeds as much as we can without actually acting like we're legislators

or legislators or we know what's going on in Washington. So we do understand that there are some roadblocks from the Biden administration to get their agenda pass. We do get that. They don't have the votes they need. On their side, there's infighting between the progressives and the moderates and the Democratic wing. And then you have over on the other side of the political aisle, the Republicans,

led by Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy, acting as obstructionists as much as they can. So, the president cannot get his agenda pass. So there are things like the George Floyd Policing Act and the big spending bill that keeps getting volleyed around like a political volleyball that are difficult to do without the Biden administration either caving or straight up losing. And we have voting rights as well. When I say losing, I mean losing on the things that they would want to do. If you pass the George Floyd Policing Act and qualified immunity is not in the act, that's a loss. Now, they could still politically go, hey, we did police reform, but you didn't really do police reform because if we don't

get to qualified immunity, then that's a loss. So it's hard for them. I get it. And the filibuster makes it almost impossible because then you need like 61 votes or you need 60 votes or whatever it is for the filibuster now does that mean though that the president this is the question that you have to ask yourself if you're a Biden supporter or if you're an independent or if you're someone that's passionate about these issues does the fact that it's hard to do give the president an excuse for not doing it correct when it's something that he campaigned on all right police reform is going to be hard. Voting rights are going to be hard.

Getting this spending bill to the point that it makes sense for the average American is going to be hard. Are you okay with voting for well, he tried? And that's a question that people have to ask themselves. And by the way, there are some people that go, hey, that's okay for me. It's not that he's not trying to get these things done, right? And there are people that go, hey, give them some more time. We're eight months in, we're nine months in, we're however months in. He needs to be able to throw his weight around.

He needs to be able to do all this. The only problem I would say with that is that there, like you said, midterm elections coming up next year. And in the midterm elections that come up next year, Joe Biden's agenda and his effectiveness as an executive, it's going to be one of the main things that's on the table for Americans to vote for. And if he hasn't stacked up some Ws and doesn't have some things, then, you know, the Democrats are going to lose the House.

And then you have a really precarious situation with Trump likely coming back to run again in 2024. So the question then becomes, okay, well, what do you want to do about it? Well, I would want him to throw his weight around on the filibuster a little bit. I would want him to pack the court. I would want him to do a whole bunch of things. I understand that I'm not in Washington. I'm not the president. I'm not in session.

Now that these things are harder than they might appear to be. but you do want to feel the urgency and the absolute balls to the walls, feet to the gas pedal, momentum from the White House. And you're fucking lying to yourself if on these issues that we voted on that you feel like you've gotten that.

Like you've gotten a lot of people trying to be good politicians and that's very, very important. But Van Jones is right. Things aren't the best that they've been for Biden right now. Yeah. And we've seen a politician, a president, throw his weight around. You know what I mean? We've seen him sign executive order over executive order, whether it did something or not. But at least if even if you saw Biden doing something like that, right? Well, some of these things you can't executive order. No, some of the things you can't executive order. But I'm just saying, let's just say like police reform or something like that. Right. He can't executive order qualified immunity. But something to say like I, like we're not moving the needle. This is something that I ran on. I want to take a more proactive. Like say something. It seems like he's just sitting back.

And I know he's got a lot on his plate. And I know that there's certain issues. They're working, but we feel uninspired. Correct. Correct. And that, I'm sorry, man. As much as you guys would want to believe, that's on the administration. Here's the thing.

If midterms were right now, we'd be in so much trouble. And I think that's how you look at it. We, I'm not a Democrat. I'm just saying, but I'm not registered. just won either. But I'm just saying if they were, no, but I'm just saying if they were right now, it would be a problem. And I think that's the question. That's what you have to look at right now. Right. And by the way, if the Democrats do lose in 2022 in terms of losing the House, losing the midterms, it wouldn't be very, very surprising. That's, it always happens that way.

That's, that's, that's, the country always comes back and goes, hey, we're not as liberals. We thought we are. We're not as conservatives as we thought we were. That always happens. there are a couple of races including a gubernatorial race in Virginia that are going to let us know a little bit more about how things are going. That's something that we need to pay attention to and higher learning.

That's actually this year. There's a gubernatorial race in Virginia and we'll see whose coattails are stronger right now for Virginia voters, Donald Trump's coattails or Joe Biden's coattails. And that might just give us some insight on how things are going to shake out around the country.

Maybe a little bit. Not just Virginia. Texas has a big governor race next year. Yeah, but we know. Yeah, well, we know Texas. We know what Texas is going to do. People are upset. We'll see.

You know what Texas is going to do. So this next topic is tough for me. I'm not going to lie. What's the topic? Rest and peace, Ruth Barry Ginsburg. But damn, RBG. So I want everybody to take notes in this. This is the type of shit that happens.

Katie Kirk, who is just telling it all in her new book. Katie Kirk is telling it all in her new book. She talks about a time she actually edited the late great Justice Ginsburg to protect her from criticism. Okay, so she was interviewing Justice Ginsburg. They were talking. And Ruth got at Colin Kaepernick in a weird and offensive way. And I got to ask this question Before I say this

And I think it's a question worth asking Was Ruth Bader Ginsburg a racist? No Okay, let me tell you Let me tell you the part of this that makes me ask this Oh, I know where you're going to read, go ahead So It sounds really bad

She's talked about the fact that You know, Colin Kaepernick and Eric Reed This was at the point that they were doing there You know, players all over the league all over sports, all over sports people were taking the name. Kitty Kirk was talking to Ruth Regensberg about it, and RBG said this. She said that the protests showed a contempt for a government that has made it possible for their parents and grandparents to lead a decent life. She went on, which they probably could not have lived in the places they came from,

is what is what Ruth Bader Ginsburg reportedly said of Colin Kaepernick who is a fucking American Yeah Yeah Okay The places that he comes from Colin Kaepernick comes from California I believe

He's an American As they became older and realized that this was youthful folly Kurt quoted Ginsburg And that's why education is important Now, there is a chance that in this situation, RBG is referring to the grandparents of these people as she made his statements, right? You know?

But the reality is that as it reads to me right now, if in fact there is any twinge of go back to you came from or whether or not people respect the fact, like it's a weird go back to Africa thing, which is how it's reading to me right now, then I think it's a fair question to ask whether or not Ruth Barry Ginsburg was a racist or did she just suffer for the same disease

of American whiteness that a lot of Americans suffer from? Do you think that's a fair question? I absolutely think it's a fair question and the reason I say no is because she's dead. I'm just going to be honest with you. And I wish, I almost wish, first of all, this did come out later.

I never had heard this. It did come out. This isn't the first time. Only part of it, though. Only part of it. The fact that she criticized Colin Kaepernick, that came out. That came out. But this specific statement coming from Katie, right?

This is Katie coming. This interview to my knowledge, okay, has not been published. So this is this is Katie Couric who is making these statements. This is all according to her. The reason I'm going to say no is because it can't be refuted, which I do find interesting that you didn't want to tarnish her. her name because you wanted to protect her. But now that she's dead and you need to sell a book, you're going to talk about. Oh, that's top flight Karen right there. You're going to talk about

Ruth Bader Cooper. That's Karen. That's me, but first of all, I just want to acknowledge that, right? Because were you really protecting her? You were protecting her as long as you, it probably didn't serve in your best interest to let that out. You were probably told not to release that. Now that you got to sell a book, you're telling other things. I just want to put that. out there that does not take away from the statement. So the reason I'm going to say she's not racist is because she can't refute it. Now, I will speak in what Katie Kirk is allegedly saying

she said. So let's do this. That's a great point. But now, what if, actually, you know what? No, I want to hear it. My bad. I'm sorry. I stepped on you. So I, no, it's okay. If she said that, all this shows to me is something that we've

talked about again and again on this podcast. People are concerned about the issues that directly affect them. She's not black. I don't know. She got any black people in her family. She is a woman. And what she is known for is being an advocate for the rights of women. It directly impacts her. She gets it. She empathizes with it. She sympathizes with. She feels it. She doesn't do that when it comes to black people. So that statement, if true, shows the lack of understanding that she has when it comes to black people, the community, the struggle, the meaning behind

what Colin Kaepernick was doing, and she wasn't even trying to understand it. That's all if she really said it, which is troubling because this is a person that we've lauded as not just being for women's rights, for being for everything. And we do that. That is problematic. We assume that because you're an advocate for an underrepresented party, that you're an advocate for all underrepresented parties. And if this statement's true, that's not the case. And that proves that. And we see that time and time again, the more we learn about people. So Ruth Barry Ginsburg has, I can't say her name today, rest and be some sorry. She has a, she has a legacy in civil rights. She's all, she's, she's been a proponent of civil rights. Obviously, she's a, she's a liberal judge. She has a

legacy of civil rights. So I want to take that legacy of her champion and supporting civil rights away from her, from her memory. I don't. I don't. But you still make a good point, right? I, this was surprising to me because of the amount of dissonance that it takes. So Ruth Bair Ginsburg challenged America and thumbed America in its eyes. and fought a lifelong battle for the rights of women, and really for the rights of a lot more people than just women, if we're being honest. Was she out of touch at the point that she didn't understand

what Colin Kaepernick was doing? Or did she feel like he didn't have the right to do it? And the last part is what vexed me. The part that, hey, you're in America, you should accept the American status quo because it's worse other places is antithetical to almost everything that I thought Ruth Bader Ginsburg is.

And this is why I say it all the time. I don't be wanting to know about people. No. I don't want to know about it. Like I don't want to know about them. Like everybody is basically just a fucking disappointment waiting to happen. Now, we haven't heard anything from Ruth Baer Ginsburg's people,

or at least not of yet. We haven't heard anything from, I'm sure there are people out there that are working to preserve the name and the legacy of RBG. And that'll be interesting to talk to them because if this book comes out and this stuff is indeed in the book,

as it is being reported, then there are a lot of people who are going to want to re-legislate her legacy. And there's also going to be a conversation about white feminism itself and the role that it's always played. Right. or hasn't played in terms of advocating for the rights of black people.

Fucking didn't want to let her join the truth speak. Yes. Susan B. Anthony. Yep. So these are problems that are that are interested and it doesn't seem like we're getting away from them. So it was just, it was weird, but. It was shocking, but go look back what her early career is based off of. It is about civil rights, but mainly on women and gender.

And I'm not saying she didn't advocate for other. things. I'm just saying a lot of times we are guilty of looping in one area of civil rights as for everyone. Interesting. I am going to say a name right now and we're going to talk about a subject. The name is Carmen Bolden Day. That is Jelani Day's mother. Jelani Day's mother wants there to be more discussion and more talk around the horrifying and tragic death of her son, Jolani Day. Jolani Day was a student, a graduate student. He went missing in August.

And he washed up a week later in a river. There was a recent talk, and there's disputed reports, that possibly his organs were harvested. Okay. So this is the crux of the situation right now. there was a report that was going around on Twitter that it's possible that Jalani Day was missing his eyes he was missing other vital parts, his liver, and that he might have been the victim of someone killing him

to harvest his organs. There is literally no way to know whether or not that's true right now. The mom said that's not true. She said it's not true. But then there are other places that are saying, hey, he was, his body was fine without organs. We're not actually sure why. It could have been the fact that he was submerged in water

for such a long time. And that led to some decomposition of organs that, you know, that would happen. I'm not, I don't know. But I urge people to realize that even if, even if Jolani Day did meet his end in that way and for that purpose, but there's still a family that's grieving and suffering. Yeah. So like, before you go through, whatever it is that makes you retweet a story and say, hey, they're doing this and do that. think about the fact that Carmen Bolden Day has lost her son.

And she wants media coverage of this, but she doesn't want media coverage of the ghastly details. She wants media coverage of the fact that her beautiful, handsome, smart boy, man is gone now. There's nothing she can do to get them back. Yeah. So she says no organs we're missing. I want to honor her by saying the name, Janlani Day, Day, on the podcast today. and I want everybody I want to challenge everybody

to go out and learn something about that young brother's life because there's a lot more to his life than how he died. Exactly. And let's make sure that our fascination with true crime podcasts and true crime YouTube things and all of that stuff and that we're watching so much

let's make sure that we're like still true humans. Yeah. And so Carmen Day I'll pray for you. I hope peace. And although the wound will never close, and I know firsthand that it won't, I hope that what did you say, Rachel,

that she grows around the ball of grief. Oh, yes, yes, yes. I've been thinking about that. So, yeah, and they still want to find who's responsible for the death of Jolani Day. So let's keep our focus on things of that nature. Absolutely. All right, let's take a break.

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Okay, Rachel, your favorite topic to talk about Rory and Ma. I saw this on the rundown. Rory and Mall are back. Let's keep it brief. Let's keep a brief. And this is nothing against them. I'd love to meet them one day. I'm sure they're wonderful people.

Two great guys. So go ahead. Go ahead. Talk about your friends. They got a huge deal. They split from Joe Button. Rory and Mall won. and good for them.

Well deserved. That I can say. They won. If there's a such thing as a winner in a situation like this is Rory and Mahl. Think about this. I'll tell you why Rory Moll won.

Okay. They contend that they left Joe Button because they weren't getting the money that they should have gotten from Joe Button. Right. So if you're going to leave,

then what do you have to do? You have to go out and get that money somewhere else. And according to things, that's what they did. They have a brand new deal to be on serious Stitcher, and people have thrown around numbers in the millions of dollars for Rory and Maul. So they got that money that they were owed,

and maybe then some, then some, they bet on themselves and they won. What do you think, Rachel? I think that's amazing. There's no other way to see this. Obviously, they were in an unhappy arrangement with Joe Budden, which sadly seems like they lost money in that situation and a friend. And so the only thing that you can hope for them is that they recover. And I don't know if the friendship can be repaired,

but it seems like they got a bag. They got a bag with serious. And now they did kind of disc podcasting when they talked about. Did you see that? Talking about it. Roy said, I feel like podcast has become pretty static and a little oversaturated where everyone is just sitting up microphones and talking about the same thing every single day. It's become like the new mixtape or merch line. And I'm like, and I'm kind of like, okay, but if Sirius didn't offer you and another podcasting company did gave you the money, I'm sure that you would be down for that as well.

On the other end, should we look into Sirius? No, well, shut up. Well, I think it's still a podcast because it's Sirius and Stitcher. So I think it's still a podcast. I don't really know what it is, but the new show comes out on November 2nd. Because, well, Sirius is only radio. It's only radio. So I really don't know.

I really don't know what it's going to be. I read the Voltre article. Actually, I lie. Sirius does have podcasting because I know somebody else who's offered the deal. So I read the article, the Volture article, very well done. And a couple of things that were interested to me about the Volture article. One was that the very last thing that Maul says, they of course asked about Joe Button and Rory says,

I ran into him once, but, you know, we didn't really speak. We were to talk. And Maul says, I haven't run into Joe Button. I'm paraphrasing here. And if I did run into Joe Button, there would be bad news. Oh. Or it's a good thing that I didn't run into Joe Button because there would be bad news. Now, far be it for me to be messy.

He said it. But God damn, Maul. He said it. Which one's Roaring and which one's Maul? Are you being fucking for real right now? Dead ass. What? What are you being?

Rory is the white guy. Mall is the guy of the black dude from all. Man, I was hoping Maul was the white one. Wow. That's why I asked. makes the story that much more interesting. And one other thing I want to answer, and we can move on from this.

I want to answer a question that they asked. Okay. These are my guys. I love him to death. Love him to death. Told him we'll be talking about him today on the podcast. All right. So.

Oh, you told him we were going to be talking about it. Yeah. I told him we were going to be talking about today on the podcast. Right. Not going to listen and be like, Rachel, I don't even know. So we were going to be talking about it today on the podcast. So this is a good.

question that was asked by either Roy or Ma. And this is something that hasn't really been talked about, but it's important that we talk about this, just in a grand scheme of things. So in the podcast, in the article, Roy says that, or one of them says that they say, I'd say, that things were bad between them and Joe. Things were bad between them and Joe. They felt not just bad personally, bad professionally, and they felt betrayed by Joe. But they continue to go on the podcast and podcast even though that was going on.

Sure. And then they ask, they go, are we phony? No. Are we fake? No. I disagree. Oh, you think, you think they're phony and fake. I don't think they're phony or fake. I think that they're two of the realest guys around. But I think that was, I think that was phony and fake. Yep. Because not only that though, and this is something that we haven't really discussed. Not, not only that, though, they listened to Joe literally kick people's backends about not being creators, like pay the creators. And they were like, we're happy with this. We're happy with that. We did this.

We're cool. We're fine. We won't, like, we're okay turning down this money. We're okay doing this. We're okay doing that. And if we're being real, none of that was true. or at least it's not true to my understanding. So a lot of the stuff that to be honest with you right now,

and far be it for me, I'm certainly squarely on the side of Rory Amal because I'm always on the side of the people that are going up against, I'm always on the side of the underdog and they started off the underdog in this situation. I don't think they're the underdog now. But a lot of the stuff that in this entire situation, credit, blame, or whatever is being given solely to Joe about, there was a we that was involved.

And maybe not a we business wise, but certainly a we in terms of the front facing sentiment of the podcast. The front facing sentiment of the podcast was this is what we did. This is who we are. And they sent that out to the world, maybe the biggest, one of the biggest audiences in black podcasting and hip hop podcasting for sure and they really didn't really get at them

until it was affecting their shit. Everybody else that was having all of these things and saying all of this shit, nah, blah blah blah blah blah blah whatever whatever. This is us, it's us, we're good, we good, we good, we good, we're about the creators, we're about the creators, we're about the creators, we're about the creators, but then it goes bad for them and

now he's public enemy number one. Once again, not at all in any way. defending Joe because I tend to believe them in everything that they're saying. I don't see why they would lie about it. But I will say that they do bear some blame. And they do, part of this is definitely on them. And personally, I would like to hear them discuss sort of some of the capping that was going on as they were, as they were sitting right there.

So wait, let me, let me just understand. Are you saying that they were capping or they were, they were being fake or phony? because they were pretending like things were okay and they weren't? No, they were being, so this is my thing. All right, so everybody does that at their job. Yeah. Okay. Everybody does that at their job.

Everybody goes, hey, well, except for like you. Okay. Like, like, and when I was at TMZ, when I was at TMZ, get on TV, ask me a question about TMZ. I kick TMZ back in, me or Harvey argue on TV the whole night. Like it happens, but those are actually places. They can. Not that you can, but that you're expected to.

Like when I was actually calling out TMZ or calling out all this stuff, let's be honest, that wasn't really me taking the chance. That was the role that I played on the show. So there's no difference there. But when there is a message that's put out, like a narrative that's put out, not a thought or not a cross-purposeful feeling

or anything like that. When there's a message, when the message is, hey, we're the Mavericks, we're this, we're that. We don't take no money. We don't need to take money from Spotify. We don't need to do this. We don't need to do that. This is what we do.

We know who we are. We straight. We this. All the rest of y'all are the suckers. All the rest of y'all are the ones that can be bought. All the rest of y'all are this. All the rest of y'all are that. When behind the scenes, the same issues that other people are talking about that they have,

Roy Amal had them with Joe. Apparently. Was it always that way? And I guess that's why I say they're not. not fake or phoony? Because it's like, was it always that way? Or did it get to the point where...

I'm not saying they're fake or phony. I'm saying that that part of it was definitely fake and definitely fine. And I'm saying you're assuming that there was always an issue. There was always a problem. And I'm saying maybe it just got to the point where it was one. They thought they could work it out because they are friends. And they did come in this and build this up to what it is together. And they thought it could be different.

than when it wasn't is when it started to spill over and we learned about it. So I guess that's why I don't look at it that way. Went on for a long time. Okay. Well, you know more than me. But went on for a long time. So, you know, it's and it's, look, once again, they won. They're talented and talent wins.

So they'll be out there doing their podcast, having a healthy audience doing their thing for a long, long time. but the narratives that people create and the things that people say you got to stand on that shit and the reality is I don't know what the fuck was in they deal with him I don't know what sort of arrangement that they had but I know at least right now they are saying that they got fucked by Joe in a deal right and if they were getting fucked by Joe in a deal at the same time that they were on the podcast saying we don't get fucked by corporations we don't get fucked by people

we the best we trust each other at the same time the nigger next to them they don't feel like it's going well with going well with him that's fake and that's funny you know what I mean so when they asked that question I thought because we talk all the time and they

you know well we talk enough and they've never asked me that but when I thought when I saw that question in the Vulture article I was like well yeah kind of little bit, but I ain't nobody perfect. I've been fake. What's the fake as you've ever been? You ever been fake or phony about something? Yeah, there were times on The Bachelorette where I had to act and be a little fake.

As even as the Bachelorette. I had friends, close friends sometimes that would say to me like, are you good? Are you okay? You don't sleep like yourself. Yeah, yeah. I've been like when I first got to TMZ, I played it up. Yeah. Hey, it's me Van from the hood. Ha ha ha. You know what I mean? Hey, who. I rap music. Ooh, I, E, basketball. So, it happens. I didn't play that person,

but I definitely played up the reason that I was chosen as The Bachelorette in the beginning, right? You know, like walking the straight line and... And by the way, everybody can have a fake or phony moment. It's the people that are fake and phony all the time that we got to deal with. Where it's a defining moment. Where it's a defining moment, of course.

So it happens. Has there ever been an artist that has done more with less than Megan the Stalian. Wow. I'm not answering that question. You go talk to your homie DJ academics for that. I got to be honest with you. Academics is right about

make the stallion, man. Has done more for less. For me to answer that, that would mean I would be agreeing that she has not done enough to warrant the success that she's having. Whether it be in music, whether it be with brand deals, whether it be with awards, whether it be with the tension that she gets.

And I'm not here for that. I don't stand by that. Okay. So this is the only thing I'll say about this. So Megan Estagian has a new team up with Popeyes. She's got a Popeye's hot sauce and she's doing franchise. And this is great work. This is great work by Megan.

She's diversifying herself. She's going out there and she's getting it. She's, it's amazing. This music is not good. And, okay, but. And, and, and, and, and, I'm, I'm, I'm, At this point, I'm starting to wonder a little bit. Like, it, what happened with Tori Lane's?

Megan, I have my support forever. Forever. Forever. She'll have my support forever. But they really pushing Megan. They were pushing Megan. I don't think, are you saying that that incident catapulted Megan? Because here's the thing.

They might really be pushing Megan. They always, the industry always gets behind people, okay? And sometimes it's, you're, it's almost like if you said, if you said have you ever seen somebody do more with less? Nobody said or less than more? More than less. If you were saying that about an Addison Ray or one of these TikTok, those girls? I disagree.

So Addison Ray has more talent than Megan Estallion. Nope. Well, not at all. Megan Estallion is a really good rapper. So she gives more. No, I'm not. This is what I would say. I would say that for whatever reason,

People like to watch Addison Ray do whatever it is. I don't even know what As she's giving us nothing. Right. So, but whoever her audience is, they, she started on TikTok, right? That's not the first. She started on TikTok. So she started on TikTok. So unless there was some company pushing her on TikTok,

what happened for her was organic. And I'm not saying that what happened for Meg wasn't organic. What was your original phrase to me? Have you ever seen somebody? Do more or less. And this is what I mean. When I say less, I mean, like, I really don't think that Meg the Stallion is relevant musically.

You don't, just because you don't like the music that she's putting out, doesn't make her not relevant. Because at this point, Megan is a brand. She's a performer, right? It's the dancing. It's the sound effects. It's the knees. It's the songs.

It's the way she talks about. Right. You know what, like herself and her persona and sex and the way she embodies it. She's more, you're judging her just on the music, but she's more than that now. But it's not more. I'll tell you why, because Megan won a Grammy for a record that, like, she beat Roddy Rich. Roddy Rich had, she beat the box. If there's one thing, so it's not just about this.

It's like a full 360 gammon of things. I'm not a huge Roddy Rich fan. That song, though, is one of the most undeniable songs of the last five years. Was it, what category? Was it an album or a song that she won't for it? Nah, it was Best Rap Record or something like that. I'll look at it. So, like, best rap record.

It was the song. Megan the Stallion was up against Roddy Rich, the box. Let's look it up right now. And... I hate that song. You hate the box? I just don't like the way it starts off. It just annoys me.

Yeah, see, and then I see people make videos off of it and I was like, stop. What is he saying? I hate that song and you're making me hate it more. I'm a bit better. I'd rather hear high fashion or something. Like, I don't like that. That song was amazing. Okay.

And Meg the Stallion, she won best rap performance. for Savage. And she... That's a better song. Savage is not a better song than the box. Okay. And this is why it's an opinion. It's an opinion.

And put it up on a poll. Put it up on, put it in Reddit, put it on our social. Savage or the box. Which is the better song? Savage or the box? Savage was a good song. But I got to be honest with you, man.

The box was at number one for like, fucking eight weeks or some shit like that. And when I saw it. Who was on the box remix? I don't know. I don't know if the box did have a remix. Okay, but Savage did. And it was Beyonce.

Because that's how good the song was. That's how good the song was. So she won a Grammy's for best rap performance and best rap song, Savage remix. You also won Best New Artist, right? I don't know. I'm just saying. You just, it's fine.

You're not that big of a fan and that's okay. Right. But don't say less. Don't she's not don't don't don't give her that Don't do that thing I'm a fan of success I'm a fan of her success The fact that you said Addison Ray Like it's you said Addison Ray

You asked a question she has Your statement was have you ever seen somebody do more With less that to me applies to an Addison Ray She's got no talent She literally steals other people's she doesn't She stills other people's dances And gets and gets praise And a following because of the way

she looks, not because she's bringing anything special to the table. More less. Now, I want you to, I want you to think about something right now. All right, let's be real. I can't, what I say about Asin-Rae, I can't really speak to it because all I know is she built her shit up from TikTok and it seemed organic and people went to her for some reason.

It is organic, but more than less. I know. So I'm telling you, you said, Addison Ray got what she got because, partly because of the way she looks. Now, you know that that is a very A thief because she stole. Remember we talked about right theft on this planet.

Right theft, right theft. But easily, obviously, and I love, it's fine, it's amazing, it's beautiful. Every time you see Madshe's shaking ass. And so. So is that is. So is Tiana Taylor. So what I'm telling you is that is, there's nothing wrong with it. So I'm saying, but if you're going to bring in the way somebody looks,

obviously that's a fucking gigantic part of Megastatic success. A gigantic part of it. But look, I just, I saw it. Your hater. Your hater. Look, maybe I just, you know what? Maybe I'm a hater or maybe I just want to be able to have conversations that people don't like it anymore. You believe that because when DJ academics found here, you agree with him too and he said it.

I agreed that I don't find her music that good. But the train keeps rolling down the tracks. You know what I mean? The train keeps rolling down the tracks and it just won't stop. I think the breaking part, though, the breaking point was the Grammy because the Grammy is supposed to be judging artistic greatness, and to me. It ain't the box. You don't like the box.

That's crazy. That's actually more of a huge revelation than anything I said. How can you not like that song? I like other songs from Roddy Rich, but that one is a big now for me. All right, mailback time. Mailback time. All the hotties are going to be mad at me after this. But mailback time.

You're going to mail back. What you're sipping on? This is called ice water. Oh. Mailback, let's do a couple of mailbacks. 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. Okay, this is from at this underscore is underscore Carrie. If you knew you would win, who is one famous person or more you would fight on the spot. The rock? The rock? Yeah. If you knew you would win.

But for some reason, just not even if I know, for some reason I want to put hands on the rock, I don't know why. I don't know why. Well, and if you knew you'd win, it would be a big deal, right? It'd be a huge deal. In the real world, for some reason, I want to fight the rock. I'm not sure why I want to fight about it. But you don't dislike them or anything, right?

Not at all. Right. You just want to fight them. Yeah, like, not at all. When I say not at all, I think the, rock is cool. All right. Who would I want to fight?

Hannaby. Never even a thought. Remember the question is if you thought you could win, right? Like, like, because it doesn't seem like you would win. I think I could win that one. Right. Who, what's a famous person I'd want to fight? Oh.

And I knew I could win. But it doesn't mean I, it doesn't mean I dislike this person. Mm-hmm. She doesn't mean just like. So I'm just like. Yeah. So I'm just going to shoot. I'm just going to shoot for the stars.

Yeah, who? Beyonce. Wow. You set the rock. Wow. Wow. I'm like a lie, man. I would never want to lay hands on, I would never want to lay hands on Beyonce.

But just to imagine if Beyonce really wanted to fight and I, and I was the one to fight her and I won, how big of a deal would that be? That would be cool. Now, see, here's the thing. I think most likely if I fought the rock that he'll probably fuck me up. Well, in this scenario, you win. But I feel like you and Beyonce right now, I don't really know who's going to win this fight in real life. I think Beyonce, I mean, you know, it's H-Town, Dallas.

You think Beyonce, you think right now you think? I think she could beat me up. Really? I don't know. I don't know about that. I think she gets some licksing. Yeah, I do. I don't know about that.

I do. All right. Next question. Or Salonge would. Salonge definitely would. Solange would beat me to fuck up. Salon. I'm in honest with you.

I don't want to talk about. this right now. Y'all don't want to talk about this ever, but Solange is 1 and O. Solange is 1 and 0 right now. Like last week, we didn't talk about it on this podcast. I don't know how we missed it, thanks to the producers. But last week, Deontay Wilder fought Tyson Fury.

And God damn, man, that was white supremacy. But that's basically a replay of the elevator video. There's an unstoppable force coming near you and you can't do nothing. but look to the corner for help. That's not what Jason is. That's not what Jay. Now, he did, Jay-Z did exactly what the fuck he was supposed to do. No, absolutely.

Exactly what he was supposed to do. All right. Next question. This is from Natalie Nicole. If you could eat one candy for the rest of your life, what would it be? Nerds. Nerds. I love nerds.

I love the big box of colorful nerds. So much. Why can't you eat those though? You can probably eat those as much as you want, right? I eat them. I eat them, but the question is, one for the rest of your life. I just give me a big old bag of nerds. Rainbow nerds.

World's finest chocolate covered almonds. God damn. The ones you buy from kids? Hell yeah. Yeah. Chocolate covered almonds are crazy and there's almost nothing worse for you than chocolate covered almond. Like all the fat from the almond,

but you get very few of the nutrients covered with sugar throwing on there. But chocolate cover it. Okay, one more. Okay, this is from Ashley Johnson. With your love for housewives, what are your thoughts on Nikki Minaj hosting Real Housewives of Potomac Reunion?

Next. Next. I told you all about Nikki last time. Okay? Bring Rihanna in. Rihanna is a big housewives fan. She is not problematic in any kind of way. She would give it to those women.

She'd have interesting questions. She'd be much more entertaining to watch. Next. I don't want to say Nicky. That was definitely a question for Rachel, because obviously I don't give a fuck. But yeah, that's definitely one for Rachel. All right.

That's enough. Unexpected ally of the week. Do you have one? Wait, I think I did. I had one. I had one. Do you have one? No.

Here it is. This is a stretch, but they usually are. State of California reportedly becomes the first day to make ethnic studies a requirement for high school graduation. I don't know what that entails. I thought it was interesting. Maybe it's like African American studies like you take in college.

But if that's what they have to learn to graduate and it's a requirement, I'm for it. There you go. Stay to California. There it is. There it is. All right. Take 10 camps off, but do not stop learning. That's enough higher learning for today.

I am Van Lathen Jr. And I'm Rachel and Lindsay. We are out.