Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay - The Diddy Saga, Trump’s Bible, and Black Representation in Media
Episode Date: March 29, 2024Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay discuss the Diddy situation including the raid on his house, the lawsuit, and the internet’s reaction to the many revelations of his lawsuit (07:27). Then, they chat ab...out Trump’s new “holy” product (47:58) and the backlash from the new Good Times reboot (1:01:03). Hosts: Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay Producer: Ashleigh Smith Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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Discussion (0)
Yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, phone lawyers.
What is up?
I learned it's all in his eye, Van Lathen, Jr.
And it's me, Rachel and Lindsay.
Orisha, what kind of hat you got right now?
I like it.
I'm shitting on you right now.
No, you're not.
Not even a little bit.
I like your hat, but it's more like an outback hat.
Oh, not even a little bit?
Not even a little bit.
You got like an outback hat.
Like a, like a, it's not like a, it's like a, it's kind of.
It's not like a.
It's not a proper cowboy hat.
It kind of dips in the front, and I got the branding on it.
You see that?
What's that?
Your R.L.
Rachel Lindsay?
R.L.
With the Texas.
With the Texas on it.
It's a Kimosabi hat.
I finally did it.
They broke me down.
I got a Kimosabi hat.
A Kimosabi hat.
That sounds problematic.
You know, I thought about that for a second.
But they have these stores everywhere.
I mean, I think it's okay.
What's your opinion of Tonto?
Of who?
Tonto.
So he's a sidekick, right?
Yeah, sidekick to the Long Ranger.
So I never watched the show.
Don't know anything about it.
But I'm assuming he was offensive.
Because he was, what, Latino?
No, he was a Native American.
he was this so
so
I don't want to do this anymore
I don't want to do it anymore
in my defense I said I'd never watched it
right you didn't watch you never watch
I shouldn't have even taken a guess
I shouldn't have even taken a guess
this is my fault
the years between us
there's some things that expire
because it's only like six years
but there are some things
that expire during that six years
six years, I think.
The Long Ranger is a really old show.
I'm telling you, in the 80s, people was still, it was still kind of around.
I promise you, it was still kind of around.
It was like, there are certain things that don't get talked about anymore, but they culturally
expired in the 80s.
It was still kind of around in the 80s, the lone ranger was.
All right.
But isn't it a black and white show?
Yeah, it definitely was.
Okay.
It definitely was.
Tonto is the one who used to say Kim Osabi.
But he can't.
He's Native American, right?
Yeah.
Yo, it's the green machine.
We're going to rock the town without being seen.
Have you ever seen the turtle?
Get down.
What movie is that from?
Down.
You don't know any.
What movies is that from?
Teenage Mutinyan Ninja Turtles
Two, Secret of those
Yeah, with
Go Ninja, go, ninja, go, go, go, go,
go, go, go, ninja, ninja
See, these are things I was
allowed to watch.
So you think I know that one.
I got to give it up to you, man. I'm impressed.
You guys, let me tell you what's happening right now.
It's 9 o'clock
on the East Coast.
I'm in Orlando right now.
Disneyland?
Disney World?
No, got some business to take care of here in South Florida.
Then I'm moving on to New York.
Okay.
And then I'm moving on to Philly for El WrestleMania.
Won't be back in L.A. for a while.
So.
Actually, good to know that you won't be back for a while.
For my own personal schedule.
Because that means I can move around.
No, no, no.
No, no.
It just means.
they're like, oh, if we're not in person, then I can maybe travel.
Where are you going to go?
Don't worry about it.
Rachel and I had a very interesting conversation about how the playbook will manifest itself.
You call it interesting.
This is being negotiated.
This is being negotiated.
This is being negotiated.
I would love to actually welcome in the thought warriors because the thing is you want to do this for the thought warriors.
And my issue is.
Van calls it interesting.
I call it slightly disturbing.
This is my life.
This is my life, the playbook.
And originally it was about, Rachel,
I'm going to give you the tools you need to succeed in your next chapter.
Now it has become for fun for you.
And I would actually like to find somebody in the next chapter.
And I don't want to get a reputation of,
Rachel's just doing this for show on her podcast.
I really, when I'm ready, because I'm not ready now,
I would like, you know, to take the playbook seriously.
I don't want to be it.
I don't want it to be a joke.
Okay.
This is what, this is what we'll ask the audience this as we dispense and
pleasure trees and get on into the show, which has had a lot of depressing shit in it,
but I'll say this.
It, to me, it seems like a slam dunk to have the playbook.
be a part of the higher learning podcast.
I envision a whole higher learning vertical.
Higher learning presents the playbook,
maybe a limited series where we delve into this
and we really, really get into it.
But Rachel has a point.
And more than anything,
more than my love of content,
I love Rach.
But we do have to figure out
how to get a little bit of playbook in here.
Just a little bit.
Because you're turning it into the fun book.
The fun book.
Yeah.
Like it's becoming something different.
And a year from now,
I don't want to be committed to the fun book and not the playbook.
Yeah, but also, you know, I don't want to,
don't think too far down the line, no.
All right.
Live in the now.
You know, Rach, it's your time, Rach.
Everybody's talking about it.
My mom, everyone's like, oh, my God, Rachel was glowing.
like Rachel looks amazing.
Everyone, everyone feels it.
Rachel, fucking get it.
It's your time.
There's a lot of people out there right now
and they're sitting around in their homes and they're like,
when it's going to be my time?
When is it's going to be my time?
That's your answer now.
It's your time now, Rachel.
Okay, okay, okay.
All right, guys, it happened
as we were getting off from the podcast on Monday
and there's been literally nothing else
that people have been talking about the entire week.
Right.
So we will be talking about it on the other side of this break.
The unfolding ongoing saga with one Sean Diddy Love Combs.
On the other side of this break.
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dash terms. Okay. Literally one of the most annoying and aggravating things that can happen
in a podcaster's career is you get off of your podcast. And look, if it was to happen like 20 minutes
after you finish recording, fine.
10 minutes after you finish recording,
go. But that
two to three hour thing
sucks.
Huge, huge, huge news breaks.
The Department of Homeland Security
raids.
These are feds. So they raid
properties in both Miami
and Los Angeles
that are owned by
Sean Combs.
A dramatic
scene unfolding in both places.
Two of Puff's sons are handcuffed during this time.
It's a raid.
Unclear right now what the purpose of the rate was.
It seems to be a raid that was to find evidence of some sort.
There was a search warrant that warrant was executed both places.
Right away, the internet started going crazy.
There was talk that Puff had hopped on a jet and got out of the country that turned out to not be true.
Another one person connected to him, an ex-basketball player.
from Syracuse was arrested.
They're saying that this guy's Puff's alleged drug mule.
All of this is on the hills, of course, of increased scrutiny that Puff is under
because of not only a lawsuit that was filed and then settled by Cassie,
then another lawsuit, a separate lawsuit that was filed by ex-producer and business partner
of his name Little Rod.
that alleged all types of things.
And we talked about it here.
It is not the most, what I mean?
Credible lawsuit that we've ever seen.
There were mistakes in the lawsuit.
There were things in the lawsuit that were disproven and all of that.
However, that plus some of the allegations that Cassie made and hers that was settled seems to have been more than enough.
that plus other things that I'm hearing,
like there may be an informant involved
or something like that.
There's got to be.
Actually take that out.
Oh, okay, you say that's got to be.
Let me just say this.
What I don't think we know
what evidence they used
or what information I should say
they used to go to a judge
and get the judge to sign off on this.
Whatever it was, it was beyond a reasonable suspicion.
And it was enough for that judge to say,
Hmm, based on the information that you're giving me, there was, I believe that if you search these locations, you can find evidence or fruits of a crime that has been committed or that is being committed.
That's what that says.
And I don't think it has, I don't think it's the lawsuit.
I don't think, because that's usually, that's not usually how it goes.
There is, I would bet money that there is an informant.
There is some type of witness that has convinced.
these attorneys, this judge, that, hey, you need to go in here because this is what you could find.
They've got to have something more than a suspicion.
It's got to be probable cause.
So there absolutely is somebody cooperating.
And it's very important to understand even the mechanism of this, you know, intense, intensified scrutiny on someone with things this serious, with somebody this high profile.
What it does is it makes authorities afraid to ignore it.
Right?
So it makes authorities, particularly federal authorities,
afraid to be the ones that then missed on something that could be this big,
with someone this high profile or could be this far reaching.
So where the lawsuits do come into this is the smoke that starts to billow around someone,
makes people believe that certain things are true.
And then when you have people who come out
and might have information about those things,
law enforcement then goes,
okay, this guy is a credible target.
And because this guy is a credible target
because of things that are being said and a reputation,
we might actually be taking a really powerful offender
out of circulation if we take this super seriously.
And that's important to know.
it's important to know because if anybody is wondering what the results are or the effects from the New York Survivors Act, the Adult Survivors Act, or just a conversation around what we are accepting or not accepting in terms of sexual Congress, in terms of consent, in terms of coercion and all of those things, all allegations.
But when we talk about these things, the conversation around them does matter.
it does matter because a lot of times it incentivizes
law enforcement to move on things. Remember
with a lot of these guys it started off as allegations. Harvey Weinstein started
off not as a criminal indictment as allegations and talk around this guy
that at least is something criminal. Bill Cosby starts off not as
not of a criminal allegation but of talk around him then it becomes criminal.
Of course his stuff was later
overturned because of the way it was gathered.
But my point is that there's going to be such scrutiny on Puff right now and honestly,
such smoke around him that any, any spark will lead to a raging fire.
Yeah, and I would also say that I think to add to that, I think there is more pressure that you
want to have your ducks in a row because this is so high profile that you're not just,
That's why I say it's beyond what the public is privy to, which is why they're being so secretive about the confines of what's in that search warrant.
You know, some people were saying, you know, you saw his sons detain.
We don't know if there's an arrest warrant.
And I think now it's come out that there wasn't, but at the time, people didn't know.
You knew there was a search warrant.
They were searching the property.
We didn't know what they were searching for.
We don't know specifically what the allegations are.
But, and I think there's a reason that they're being so private about it, because,
they because they knew the attention that would come about this, they can't mess it up.
They've got to get it right.
And so that's why I think it's information that we aren't even privy to because I think
they would not have acted on this if they didn't have a really good case in front of them.
What they believe is a really good case.
Very, very, very low chance at this point that Puff doesn't fall.
I think he's already, I think it's.
it's there.
Yeah.
Very low chance that puff.
What's the recovery of this?
You know, it's...
I'm not talking about fall.
I'm not talking about fall in terms of his...
Reputation.
Talking about his criminal.
That's done.
That's like that...
So here's the thing about it.
If you look at the career of Sean Holmes
starts off selling your product, right?
Sales you music.
But that,
there's an attachment to that music.
and the attachment is the lifestyle that goes along with it, right?
It wasn't just rap.
It was the way they did it, how they did it, what they wore, where they went.
It was all white parties in the Hamptons with like the top of celebrity.
Not like this wasn't, you know, sometimes we have the, the tendency to downgrade our own parties and say, oh, the party isn't here.
It's not lit unless Leonardo DiCaprio or Robert DeNiro and Robert DeNiro and all.
those guys are there, but these were the types of people that were at these parties, like the top of the top of the top.
He was not just the biggest mogul, but the biggest social mover as well, right?
What happens is the music part of that fizzles out.
So the product that he starts to sell isn't music anymore.
It's completely lifestyle.
It's all lifestyle.
It's what he was able to, the lifestyle part of it, what he was able to curate and show to people, the lifestyle,
part of it outlived the music, even the
Sorok. The Sorok doesn't taste
that much different than any other thing that you were by,
but the reality of it is
the lifestyle that they
and it's good, but the lifestyle
that they were able to create around
the Sorok is what was being sold.
The
litigation of that lifestyle now
and the investigation into it and what it
entailed is part of why
this story won't go away.
And part of why people are so
intrigued with it because
it was so aspirational for so long.
It was such a big part of the very foundation of the last 30 years of hip hop
and American and partly of black culture, to be honest with you, that aspirational lifestyle.
Really, he was right there on the cusp of it, and then the guys that come after that,
they're kind of chasing what it's like to be puffing away.
And when you start to really investigate that and look at it and see maybe what was behind the veil there, it just makes you ask all kinds of questions about everything that you might have thought when you were in high school, when you're in college, when you're living right now, as an adult.
I mean, do you have to think about the way he positioned himself?
So, like, as you say, we look at him and are like, man, this is a guy who has stayed relevant, culturally relevant, who people still look up to and aspire to be.
decade after decade after decade.
Well, how is it that he's implemented himself
in the culture to where that's continued to happen?
You would hear, you know,
and I guess more so now that I'm connected more
to the industry of like, oh, you know,
he fostered this person's career,
he really mentored them.
And then you start to look at it and it's like,
well, what is a puffy flavor camp?
And then people are, like you're seeing this stuff
kind of fall out now, like an old interview from Usher Raymond
in 2004 with Howard Stern,
where he's saying, I saw things that I've never seen before.
And he's describing some of them, but he's just like, the whole purpose of the camp was to introduce them to a lifestyle.
And without being privy to what that specific lifestyle was that he got at that camp, you just think, oh, he's mentoring him to give him the steps that he needs to succeed for his career to span over decades.
But in reality, it was introducing them to the bad boy lifestyle, the puffy lifestyle.
as stuff is starting to unfold.
And we still don't have the answers.
We may never know really what that all entailed,
but you're realizing it wasn't quite what it was presented to be.
It wasn't what you thought it was.
And that's kind of scary when you start to look at the trajectories,
oh, the trajectory of some of these people's careers and how they've had trouble.
Did I get it?
You got it.
You understand.
And how they've had trouble.
as they've, you know, progressed through Hollywood.
And you wonder if it was because of how it started for them
and how they were, dare I say, groomed into this industry.
So here's the deal.
It's important to point out a couple of things here.
Number one, it's important to point out use the right nomenclature for things, right?
So people have read Little Rod's lawsuit, which we talked about here,
which makes all types.
of accusations and assertions
and they have said that this is the indictment.
There's no indictment.
Right.
There's been no indictment.
That's not an indictment.
It's a lawsuit.
And in a lawsuit,
you make a lot of claims.
We did a story at TMZ
one time about this guy
who sued Johnny Mansell
saying that
that Johnny Mansell
was at
was at Disneyland
and that he jumped out of the It's a Small World Ride
and pulled his penis out and started singing It's a Small, Small World.
No.
And it was running around.
Okay.
So look, what I'm saying is that it was this dude who used to file these joke lawsuits.
And then we would just cover them because they would get thrown out or whatever, whatever.
My point by saying that is that you can.
file a lawsuit,
then put anything in a lawsuit.
That's like,
the standard of that is like this,
it's like whatever.
The lawsuit,
the credibility of the lawsuit is in how deep the investigation in the lawsuit it is,
how deep the investigation in the lawsuit is,
how strong it actually is.
If you have all your facts and your ducks in a row,
you might scare the other side into settling into doing something else.
But,
you know,
a lot of times crazy lawsuits get dismissed and all that type of stuff.
So there's no indictment.
Right now,
formerly, Puff hasn't been accused of any crimes, actually.
He hasn't.
He hasn't been indicted.
He hasn't even been accused on any crimes.
These are allegations that are leading to a deeper criminal investigation.
Now, when the feds come to you, that's never a good sign.
So they have a real belief that something is happening.
But nobody knows what the actual investigation is about.
And when I say what, even if it's a human trafficking investigation, how, what the, what the nuts and bolts of it are or anything like that.
We have to, just so people know that, we have to tell you guys that and say that to you guys so that we protect ourselves here on microphones from anything that anybody else who might be hyper litigious would want to say.
We have to make sure we protect ourselves.
However, having said that, I think it's also important for people to really pay attention to the stuff that Rachel was just saying.
A lot of this stuff from the past, there was an understanding that there was a little bit of weirdness or a little bit of kookiness or a little bit of fluid, sexual shit that will go on in some of these places.
and we accepted it as the basic weirdness of Hollywood or of Manhattan or Miami or of places like that.
Our expectation of what people should be doing and how they should be acting
and how they should be treating, especially people who aren't initiated in some of these lifestyles,
it changed real quick.
And it changed real quick and we're redoing this on the fly.
So as we redo this and ask ourselves, not as we, as we,
enforce things that we always felt like
or knew that
should be true?
Like no one would ever think that a child
should be in a sexualized environment.
But I'll tell you one thing, we ignored it for a long time.
I'm just being honest.
Intellectual, you know a child shouldn't be in a sexualized
environment. A minor shouldn't be in a sexualized environment, but we
ignored it. We did.
Like, that interview comes out
in the past. Nobody basenai.
Nobody goes, oh my God, what's going on?
happening like why it is nobody nobody and if the people that were doing it they they was so quiet
that it was like almost extinguished with ah it's kind of how things go um so now that we're doing this
i won't i won't let people know something the questions won't end here they won't end with here
they won't in with puff they won't because when you start looking back and asking questions
about what was appropriate and what wasn't appropriate they're going to be a ton
of people.
They're going to get called down
to have questions asked of them
and are going to have to answer some questions.
It's going to go forward. It's going to go.
It's going to affect your faith.
It is. There's no way
it doesn't. It's going to affect your faith.
It will. The longer they've been around,
the longer they've been doing everything, particularly
people that were around in the
20, the 2000s,
and the 90s and the early parts of it.
It's going to affect your faith.
Now, I think that we should be responsible about that.
Like a lot of people were throwing Jay Z's name into this going
Jay Z is next, Jay Z is next, Jay Z is next, Jay Z is next.
Yeah, they were.
And I mean, people were making jokes, but I don't know, man.
You guys know that like I'm not the biggest, hugest fan of Jay Z
and the way as far as a rapper and all of that stuff I am.
But that was unfair
on what they were doing.
That's unfair, right?
Is there any evidence to suggest that Jay Z had done anything?
It's not even just unfair.
It's really irresponsible.
And it just shows that people are like making a joke of,
people are making a joke of
very serious allegations.
Like, although we don't know anything,
it is being reported that this is related to sex trafficking.
So to then start being irresponsible
and flipping about just throwing other people's names out there
because they are high profile in the same industry
or they've have a lot of pictures,
they're connected with this person.
I would be terrified to do that.
Why are we in such a rush to find the next person?
Why can't we just wait?
And hopefully this is it,
even though I think we both know it's not.
I think that's why it speaks volumes that so many people.
You know, in addition to Puff being the mogul that he is,
he was super connected to so many people.
He seemed to be everybody's friend.
Everybody's friend, right?
Everybody love pub.
No enemies out there.
And not one person, except for Luke, has come out and said something that was in favor of
Ditty.
Complete silence.
And whether that be because you're scared of public perception of you taking up for
them, whether you're scared that you might be implicated in some way, whatever it may be,
The silence is deafening.
And so I'm going a little bit off track, but back to your point about the Jay-Z.
I just don't understand why we live in a society where people are so eager to then start being the one to be the first to say this or I said this or I think this.
These are huge assumptions, guys.
This is serious.
And we don't even know.
We don't even know how deep this goes.
No, you're right. You're right. And so, look, all the questions have to be had. All the questions have to be answered and they have to be asked. But they have to be asked and answered very seriously. They're going to be jokes. They're going to be nicknames. They're going to be memes. They're going to be all of that stuff. But what it's not funny to do, if there is reason, if there is allegation, if there is a victim saying, hey, this happened to me, we owe it to the victim and we owe it to ourselves to look into it.
that with as much veracity as we can, right?
Yeah.
The veracity of the claim.
Maybe veracity is not the right word.
Ferocity is probably a better word.
Veracity is a little different.
Maybe I got to go over my skee's there.
Anyway.
But just to say things,
allegations of this type of exploitation
are just insanely serious.
It's insanely serious.
And I know we burnt out
book
Come on, y'all.
Just as we move forward,
like, let's try to know stuff as we know it.
All right.
Don't fucking spare nobody.
Don't matter how much you like their music.
Don't matter how much you like their liquor.
Don't matter how much you like whatever they're doing.
If you feel like someone was taking advantage of young women,
young men, whatever,
have to go and get that person and hold them accountable.
but if there's no reason to believe that about somebody
you've got to be better than just
jokes and jokes and jokes.
They had Jay Z's name trended for two days
with absolutely nothing surrounding
not that I know of, nothing that I've ever heard or seen
no, I haven't seen the lawsems or anything like that
and it's just come on man.
Well, part of it is, let's be honest,
part of it was spurred on by 50.
Yeah.
Yeah, like, and he's in the mix.
So, you know, people, whether he's joking or like, just like, whatever it is, people believe him.
They believe him.
Well, I mean, if for whatever reason, I'm not aware of any issues between, but between 50 and Jay.
But if for whatever reason, you are on 50's bad side, you stay there.
I don't even know if 50's on his, I don't know if Jay's on his bad side.
It's just like nobody is spared.
It's like nobody is spared.
That's what it seems like.
He's just like anybody could get it.
He would have to be on this bad side.
I don't know.
The thing between 50 and Puff goes a little bit deeper.
And, you know, I'm, you know, I think anybody that's reading into that can kind of read what that's all about.
But I still think that's pretty much just a tip, pretty much just the tip of the iceberg, even with that.
But the reality of it is that.
When you are, if you think that antagonizing or needling or trying to fuck with 50 cent is a good idea, you better play your cars close to the vest.
Now 50 is into it with his baby's mom, Daphne Joy, who was in the comfort of Puff for a while, was named in a lawsuit.
And now there are allegations being thrown back and forth between her and 50.
she's alleging different types of abuse against 50.
50 is saying he's taking her back to family court
because her lifestyle wasn't healthy for their son.
So the tentacles from this are not even close to stopping grabbing around the industry.
They're going everywhere.
The tentacles are going everywhere.
And for as much as we know, there's still a lot more to be now.
And can we just talk about like how deeply disappointing and frustrating this is?
I mean, I'm not saying that Diddy is somebody that, you know, I particularly aspired to be,
but he is somebody that I looked at and was proud of what they had accomplished.
It's somebody that I was like, there's not one area that doesn't go untouch.
whether it's fashion, whether it's TV, scripted, unscripted, movies, producing, business.
Like, people wanted to work for him.
You had a whole show about that.
An entertainer, a dancer, political activism, voter die, community service.
They're just a father.
He really, you know, put himself out there's a father.
There just seemed to be so many things that he had his hand in in such a positive way.
And when you see that whether you knew that there was speculation, whether you didn't, just to see that so much was happening behind the scenes for decades to allegedly, to couple that with other greats, like or other icons and legends.
You've got Russell Simmons.
You've got Michael Jackson.
You've got R. Kelly.
It's just so frustrating.
And this is what we know.
Right? It's just frustrating to see people that have meant so much to the culture who have such ties to the culture just be somebody completely different.
And I think it would be remiss of us to not have this entire conversation and then just talk about how disappointing this all is.
And I don't say that to take away from the victims that are involved. I don't take that. I'm not taking away from that at all.
Just speaking in general about what these people mean to the black community, it's disappointing.
No?
Okay.
It is.
I'm numb to it.
You work to TMZ.
You work the TMZ.
Guys, most people, you never realize most people don't have what you have.
I know, I know.
I'm numb to it.
Y'all, let me tell you the way I look at these people.
you get to a certain level of fame
and you're no longer a human being.
You are an economy.
And just like the economy of any other country,
your ability to feed people and generate for people
becomes paramount over almost anything else.
Your ability to
just think about what you're going to, just think about
happens when somebody falls. When somebody falls, it hits the manager, it hits the label, it hits
the studio, it hits the chef, it hits the trainer, it hits the driver, it hits the people living
off them, it hits the people, it hits the barber, not just the barber, but it hits the barber's
family, right? Yeah. The girl that's getting paid from the guy, it's. It's, it,
hits the other guy
she's fucking with.
So imagine you're paying a girl,
right?
10,000, 15,000,
20,000, 30,000 a month.
You can't see her that often.
You pay her that money.
There's another guy that she's seen
that she probably actually loves.
He gets some of that.
He doesn't want the other guy to fall.
And I'm telling you a situation
that happened like that.
that I know, right?
What it was like, this was her actual man,
and she didn't want the actual guy who was paying her,
who was paying her to fall.
So many people have to fall.
And when that happens, secrets become incredibly valuable.
Super duper valuable.
Super valuable to keep.
Super valuable to tell.
and it dehumanizes people.
And the more that you build, the further that it goes.
And then your appetites.
People stop telling you no.
So you stop accepting no.
Like I think it actually fucks with your brain.
People stop saying no, so you stop hearing no.
Yeah.
So then no doesn't just become something that is a reaction from someone.
It becomes something that enrages you.
Who are you to,
tell me, right?
You know what I mean? And so
over time seeing this,
over time there, of seeing
the length that people will go
to protect
a completely artificial image
and seeing the link
that people will go to destroy someone,
seeing it both,
it disappoints me,
but in a lot of
cases, it's not
if, it's when.
That's why it's important to
make real friends, to foster real relationships, to have real people that will remind you that
you're an actual human being, and to set boundaries for yourself before you morph into something
that's grotesque. And that's not giving it out to any of these people. It's not making it about
anything other than their crimes, the wholeness of their victims, and the need to excise them
out of the culture. But what I am saying is
there's a part
of a lifestyle that you have to say no
to because it is almost entirely
corrosive.
Entirely corrosive. You don't even got to
be on the level of a puff. I've seen
motherfuckers on reality shows
right?
And just watching their friends around them
I might have told this story on here before.
It's playing basketball with somebody.
Right?
Play basketball with them.
playing basketball with this
with this guy him and his homeboy
would come in and hoop with us
his home boy was in the league
he would only come in the summers
he would play around he wouldn't play hard
blah blah blah he was a basketball player
was in and out of the league
but he had been in the league
more than he had been out of it
they were tight
like I knew these guys as being tight
like their friends
I had seen him out before
I've seen his man catch fades for him
I'd seen them they were tight
they were like this
a couple years to me
being on the sports desk, a story comes through about that guy, and I call his man, because
I'm like, yo, I'll let you know your man is about to be in some trouble. He's putting the
story out. Oh, wow. And you would have thought that they fell out. They hadn't. A day before that
shit came across and I had spoke to him, he had posted a picture with him talking about
day day one from where they was back from. I'm like, God damn, this is, they still call. They
Because the guy doesn't know.
Nah, you don't know.
Because the story didn't end up going
or nothing like that.
I'm not going to get in the middle of any shit.
It's like whatever.
But like to me,
like when I started seeing stuff like that,
when the dam starts to crumble,
everybody runs.
But man, when you're in the inner circle of somebody,
they're just all trying to protect
themselves and the economy
that is driving whatever life.
style they've come to got you to get used to.
I have two questions for you.
One, did you hear
stuff about Diddy
when you're at TMZ?
No, not really.
Okay. I mean, the stuff
the stuff that I heard
about him was more just like
it wasn't about anything that had to do with anything like this.
People would just speculate about his sexuality, but it didn't
have anything to do with
there was certainly to talk about.
concrete.
Yeah.
And I mean, you know, and we did the story where he had had, obviously you know about the
Steve Stout thing and that he had had, the thing was that Diddy was a little tougher than people
gave him credit for it.
You know, if you fucked over him, something like that would happen.
But I hadn't heard anything about any abuse of anyone or any sex trafficking or anything
like that.
No.
And then I guess my second question is you're very jaded, rightfully so, for, you know, being
connected and seeing things like this for so many years.
Does anybody get it right?
Does anybody like, are there good stories?
Are there good guys who really just are not powerful,
maybe necessarily on Ditty's level,
but just have a big platform,
have an economy, as you put it,
and really don't get in the fuckery?
Tons of them.
Okay, I just want a little positivity.
Like when I say,
I'm not going to start naming people
because all it's going to do is but tons of them.
Some of them that y'all act like y'all don't like.
But they actually are really good family, men, and women.
But tons of them.
Tons of people that just stay out of the way.
Tons of people that go, hey, man, work with that person.
But when it get to be about 11 o'clock, get your ass out of that.
Tons of them.
Tons of people you can call.
Tons of people you can talk to.
Tons of people that you go over to their house and fucking play scrabble.
and like play on the
fucking put the big thing
tons of them a bunch of them a bunch of them a bunch of them
but there are those ones though
there are those people
that and by the way it's not a new phenomenon
just go look up your favorite star
of yesteryear
like it there was more
tolerance for things that were
super fucked up back then and we're trying to change things
and we're doing it all at once
and we're coming face and face with some pretty
ugly things. And it's not going to stop.
It's not going to stop. But
look,
to me, this entire
situation, with
getting to the federal level of things,
he is in their
crossings. Unless something comes out
that they were looking for somebody else.
They were looking for someone else. They were looking
for something. Let me ask you this.
Well, it's not a person. It's about
it's about
what they feel like at the house.
Yeah.
So even that though, even though they're looking for evidence to prove something, correct?
Then a crime happens.
So it could not be Diddy.
You don't know if Diddy is the target.
You just know that they're saying something happened here.
And we believe that there is evidence there.
It happened at that location.
Is it illegal to fly somebody across state lines for the purposes of sex?
No. Unless like, unless...
No, no, no, no, no, no. What, wait, wait, wait, wait, no, no. This is what I mean.
Okay, of course...
Like, if it's a child, obviously, no. If you're doing it, if it's like a prostitution thing, no.
The prostitution, wait, the prostitution is illegal, depending on where you are, right?
You can't pay for sex, right? That's what I'm saying.
The process.
I'm saying no, if it's forced, if it's like a, if it's forced, like if you're not paying the, well, paying it's prostitution, but I mean like if it's forced labor, that's illegal.
I'm asking you right now, though, if you, if you are in New York and there is a girl in Miami who is an escort and you fly her from Miami to New York as an escort for the purposes of sex.
You pay her and you fly her.
Did you human traffic that girl?
Because if the answer is yes,
because if the answer is yes,
if the answer is yes,
there are scores of human traffic.
I'm just saying.
I think this is where consent comes in.
Okay.
Right?
Like, it's if you fly them and you force them to do it.
If it's forced,
that's where it's a crime.
But like, if I'm like, hey, you're going to fly me out to Miami and we do the thing?
Wait a second, though.
Remember what I'm saying?
I'm not talking about flying somebody to you for a romantic interlude.
I'm talking about Ashley, get on this for a second.
But just for sex.
You put romance on it.
No, no.
Not, not.
I'm not talking about for the, for sex and payment, I'm saying this is what I'm saying.
So, and by the way, I know that the prostitution part of this is illegal.
I know that that part of is illegal, right?
But are you guilty of, are you breaking a federal law by flying somebody across state
lines to pay them for sex or to pay them to have sex with somebody else?
Or to pay them for sex, period.
Is that a federal crime?
This is what the law says.
It prohibits sex trafficking, trafficking, which is described as a commercial sex
Act induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or recruitment, harboring, transportation, or obtaining someone
for labor or services, or corrosion, I cannot read coercion for the purpose of subjecting them
to involuntary servitude, bondage, or slavery.
So it has to be involuntary then.
Forced or coerced.
force or chorus.
Well, by the way, this is not in,
and this is,
this is just me asking the question because
while I was working at TMT,
there was a whole gaggle of,
you kids,
they would fly around and they would bring them in
and all of that,
all that stuff like that.
And,
uh,
I thought they were accusing him of that.
But I think sex trafficking,
there has to be some coercion or
you have to be like,
basically pimping.
Yeah.
It's,
I mean,
every,
every definition
that I'm looking at
keeps saying
forcible.
Yeah,
but also,
forcible could just be,
I'm a big star.
I'm asking you to do this.
Right.
Power.
Do this.
Yeah.
That's the coercion,
coercion,
the word I can't say.
Coercion.
Coercion.
Coercion.
Look,
sorry,
not going anywhere.
Not going anywhere.
Mm.
Once again,
you guys take it seriously
it's very
very very very seriously
if you're asking me
to make a determination
right now
they're after him
and I
think they'll probably get them
yeah
they want them to get them
either way
you
look at what this means
I think we should sit in the moment
and what you said before is very true
in terms of black culture
in the way that this is.
It should also make us think about
what it is that we're aspiring to
what the tradeoff is.
Nothing wrong with shining.
Nothing wrong with people having fun having sex.
Nothing wrong with all of that stuff
and jet setting and
nothing wrong with any of that stuff.
But I think that at the end of the day,
things have to be things that make people feel good.
And experimentation is fine and all these different stuff is fine.
But if people are leaving with their lives destroyed,
thinking about things forever, there's a price to be paid.
Right.
Anyway, let's like a break.
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Donald Trump selling Bibles.
Former President Donald Trump is bringing together church and state.
Gilded package is selling a $60 Bible.
God bless the USA.
Complete with copies of the nation's founding documents.
Rachel,
when are you getting your Bible from Donald Trump,
your Trump Bible?
Are they sold out?
It wouldn't be surprised.
I don't know.
I don't know.
You know, all the other stuff sells out.
60 other Bible, I will not.
Because as Trump stated, I have many of them.
I don't have this kind of Bible because, you know, it compiles the Constitution and the Pledge of Allegiance, Bill of Rights, Old and New Testament.
Not sure which version, but all the things.
Did you laugh when you saw this?
I did.
I always laugh.
You know what's funny, man?
What?
Is that like, this is the funny part of this.
This is so American to me.
Is this American to you?
Yeah, definitely American to me, right?
This is like, Trump is the most American president that we've ever had.
He's the most American political figure that's ever existed.
He's not the storybook version of America.
right the storybook version of America
go for it
you want to stop me go ahead
no no go ahead go ahead the story book version
of America is
so the storybook version of America is actually
like Barack Obama right
that's the storybook version
the American dream
yeah the story book version is
humble beginnings
you write and talk your way
into the highest office of the land
and you just have to be
like ridiculously exceptional
in every step
that's the storybook version
that's the actual storybook version
of America
but that's not the real America
though
the real America is very simple
the real America is how do we sell it
how do we sell it
right
like we killed
20 million people
people to get the land that we're on. But how do we sell it though? We sell it that these brave
cowboys were facing off against these unbelievable savages that didn't have any God, that didn't
have any culture, that didn't have any reason to live other than us trying to civilize them.
That's how we sold it. We sell it to you in that way. You eat it up.
and then it takes you 150 years to realize that it's bullshit because we sold it in the right way.
We sell that we have the most inventive, the most forward-thinking, the most ironclad system of governance, right?
But then we leave out the fact that we got an economic advantage from hundreds of years of free labor.
like we actually ran the trail of tears
to kick the Indians out
of Oklahoma and surrounded
excuse me to kick the Native Americans out
of Oklahoma and surrounding areas
so that we would have more space
to bring the black people into work
so they had to walk
so that we could toil
right
but we sell it as
Jefferson and Washington, all of these guys were geniuses who at the same time did a couple of bad things,
like raping people and separating them for their children.
It's like what we can sell, is what we can sell, it's what we can sell.
It's not who we are.
It's what we can sell to you, what we can change and what we can sell.
And that's who Trump is.
It's not who Donald Trump is.
Donald Trump is selling a Bible.
When he was writing for president, he was asked very flatly, Ashley, dropping in.
right here. What his favorite passages for the Bible were. And what did he say?
So when we get into the Bible, I think many, so many. Exactly. He said, I like them all.
He said, I like them all. It's not that he is anything in terms of what you think that America is. It's
what he can sell. He is a huckster. This country has been conning people into believing that their oppression
in their situation isn't real for a long time
so they could sell you religion,
so they could sell you bread,
so they could sell you a car,
so they could sell you a house,
so they could sell it, sell it, sell it, sell it,
built on the back of gangster capitalism,
and it continues the reason why we can't get rid of Donald Trump
is because Donald Trump is who we are.
We can't get rid of Donald Trump
because he's ingrained into our DNA.
He's a grotesque representation
of the real America.
He lost fair and square democracy, right?
No, what did he say?
He said, I'll take it.
That's what we do.
Win or lose, we say we'll take it.
We'll take it.
So when he was selling this Bible,
this like Frankenstein book
mixed with a little bit of American
propaganda in it and a little bit of this
and he's selling the people for $60,
that is the most American thing in the world.
That's the most American thing in the world.
I can't disagree.
with you. I also, I think, I don't know if I looked at it, and I agree with you after hearing you say it. I don't know if I looked at it as like Trump is the most American thing, but I do think that it speaks volumes of who we are as a society and how, I don't know if the word is stupid, but just maybe it's selfish, how more than anything as a group of people, we are motivated by our own self-ish interests and we actually stand on nothing.
particularly you got to talk about Christianity in this sense because we talked about religion
on a podcast and it's moments like this that make me question everything and make me want to have
and which is why I have my absolute own journey and relationship and not just taking what I've
been given over the years. It's moments like this because when I see how evangelists and Christians
react to a Trump when he did what you just said.
about all the books of the Bible was favorite or whatever, when he said, he has never asked God
for forgiveness and called communion, his little cracker and his little wine. When they asked him
his favorite Bible verse, he called it, he refused to name what his favorite verse was and just
kept saying, it's very personal to me. And when instead of singing Second Corinthians at Liberty
University, he said, two Corinthians. And the crowd mocked and laughed at him.
It is very evident, as we've seen him holding a Bible upside down, that this man doesn't represent
anything in regards to Christian values or what Christianity is supposed to stand for.
Yet, as Christians and evangelists, you still continue to vote for him for your own selfish
reasons, whether it's a one-party issue, whether it's because he says things to you and you're
like sheep, that Christianity is under attack and your beliefs and values you're under attack,
and you believe that, and you buy into that like sheep, but don't realize that this person is
literally the antithesis of Christianity. He's a charlatan. He's the Antichrist. If anything,
those stories you used to hear about the antichrist growing up and how he would come and he would
dupe all these people and they would fall for him, that's literally, to me, what Trump does. Everything
he stands for and represents is against what Christians supposedly believe, yet you continue to
support him and uplift him all because he tells you that the liberals are coming after you,
all because he helped overturn Roe v. Wade. I just look at it and I get so frustrated because
something that I have connected myself to when you connect, when they connect themselves to Trump,
it's a joke. It's all a joke to me. Modern Christianity is about who you,
hate more than it is about who you love.
I don't think that's modern.
I think it's modern.
I don't think it's modern.
I think it's been there.
I think right now there's a cultural, religious push-pull that is so afraid of seeding the country to someone, that being Christ-like,
okay, let's think about this for a second.
Throw out whether or not you believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God.
God and that believing in him
will lead you to an eternal kingdom.
Forget about that. Throw that out of the window
for a second. Forget the way of Christ.
Consider patience,
acceptance,
giving people bounty,
being selfless,
second chances,
third chances,
sacrifice,
passivism.
Consider those things.
just consider them for a second.
Think about them.
Forget about,
you know,
as we're taping this Easter's this weekend.
So just, you know,
don't even consider.
Don't even consider that part of it.
Yeah.
Don't consider that.
Just consider the philosophy of it.
Yeah.
Consider the philosophy of it.
And then think about
the people
who live by that philosophy.
Think about the people.
the most judgmental people that you know.
Think about the most self-centered people that you know.
Think about the people that are sure that it must be their way.
Think about the people that are antagonizing you the most.
Think about the people that are the most demanding from you.
That have the least wiggle room that do the most and give the least.
And then tell me who those people are.
even the ones out there that's on the righteous path,
I see through you,
that all you talk is righteousness,
I see through you.
I do.
I'm in no position to judge you,
but it's about you.
I know it is.
It's about you.
It's not about anything other than that.
It's,
it's, uh,
I'm sorry.
I know people don't like when I get off on this,
but you guys are full of shit.
And, and, and,
This, I mean, this particular guy, he fits right in.
I'm just, I'm just being for real.
He fits, he fits right in with all of y'all and y'all horseshit bullshit.
Y'all, fake ass, like, it's not going to be a place hot enough for you.
He fits right in with the rest of you.
So I'm not surprised at all.
Go buy the Bible.
It'll probably become the new Bible for a lot of y'all.
And even the ones of you guys who think,
Think about it right now.
Just think about it.
If you think about the story of itself,
if you think about the story,
forget about whether or not you believe the spirituality.
Think about the goddamn example of it.
The commercial with the We Love Jesus people,
and Jesus watches everybody's feet,
great commercials.
Oh, yeah.
Then go look at who those people are donating to
and what they're propping up in society.
Go look at them.
Horshit.
Horshit bullshit.
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God damn it, we need something.
Now we have to bag on the Good Time show.
I like, I'll go home.
Yeah, you know, I don't want to bag on the Good Time show.
The Good Times clip came out that it didn't piss some people off.
I don't want to bag on the show.
Wait, wait, wait, can I ask, what were people expecting?
And I just, just to be very honest, don't back.
Don't, don't talk about the show.
But when you think of good times the show,
it was always about the struggle.
And they never made it out.
Even right when they were about to,
always came right back.
And maybe, you know, I'm not saying I'm going to agree with every little thing I saw in the trailer,
but it seems to be this show is about the modern day struggle.
So what were people excited?
Were they expecting? I guess they called it a reboot and this is more of a reimagination.
What were they expected? The next generation of the Evans family. Can we just do one thing?
I just have one thing we can do. Can we just watch the show? Just watch it. Yeah, like,
the trailer came out and when I looked at the trailer, I was like, ooh, you know what I mean?
But can we just look at the show? Just watch the show. I did until I read about it. I was like, oh.
And then I read it and I'm like, okay, I understand what you're,
trying to do versus the good times, the original one, it made more sense to me.
So I plan on watching it.
It comes out, I believe, April 12th, all the episodes are going to come out at once.
It just everybody jumped out the window.
They just watched the show, man.
Ashley says she ain't watching it.
I'm going to watch it.
What I'm saying, before we even make our situation,
make our determination about it, can we just look at the show?
Can we just not be hyper-reactive?
I'm going to check it out.
Now I'm going to check it out just to make sure that people didn't
completely overreact to the trailer.
The trailer is not the most flattering trailer ever, right?
You know, some might say it looks like some bullshit.
it. But I can tell you what,
there were a lot of black writers
and people that had worked on the show that were on there
defending their work and saying that
it is satire and that perhaps we should
watch it before we make a
Well, Seth McFarland is an EP on it.
It was, it gave me,
you didn't know that?
I did know that. What did that?
I immediately looked at it as a satire.
And it reminded me
that was a mistake.
It reminded me when as soon as I saw it,
like at first I was thinking Boondocks and I saw his name and I go,
oh, it is giving family guy in a lot of ways.
So once I saw his name,
I was like, oh, this totally makes sense why this trailer is like this.
But here's the thing, though.
So seeing his name right there and then seeing the content,
it's a mistake.
even if he was an EP on it,
they should have got the three blackest motherfuckers
that they could get to put it on there.
They might have softened it a little bit.
Do you know who the other EP is?
Steph Curry.
Yeah, Steph Curry.
Like, Steph wouldn't do anything that was exploitive.
I know that much.
But so what I'm saying is
maybe the show is everything that we think it is,
just watch a little bit.
of it before
like you go off. And I guess
there's another question. Another question is
does
everything
involving black people have to be
tasteful?
No.
Does everything
have to be, can we get
can we
like what
if it's
the theme in this show is the more
things change the more they stay the same.
So to me
So when I read it, that after I watched it, then I went back and I watched it through that lens.
So does everything have to be tasteful?
No.
But if there's a bigger message that you're trying to push behind it, then I can get behind that more.
Obviously, I have to say that because I hate Zeus Network.
You hate Zeus Network, yeah.
And it's not tasteful.
I believe it does not show us in the best way.
So I'd be a hypocrite to say like, no, everything doesn't have to be tasteful.
And I've gotten on here and disparage that network multiple times and certain shows on there.
So I say if there's maybe a bigger purpose behind it, then sure.
I'm still looking to have the Zeus Network conversation with Mule, Plummer, Natalie Nunn,
come on higher learning so we can have this conversation about Zeus' network.
Let me ask you a question.
I don't want to talk about Zeus.
Okay.
Is the real housewives of Atlanta showing us in the best light?
It's not showing you like Zeus.
What's the best light?
No, I don't think it shows this.
I don't think it's bad.
I don't think it shows this bad, right?
You don't think the real housewives of Atlanta.
Do you watch it?
I've seen the real housewives.
But I watch it.
I've seen every single episode.
When I look at Zeus and I look at that, it's light years.
It's like the Jefferson and the Evans.
But here's a thing, though.
The Jefferson's, though, if you watch, this is my point.
I know, but if you watch the Jeffersons,
I don't think George Jefferson is any better than James Evans.
I didn't say better.
I said, that's the point.
I didn't say better.
I'm not talking about these people as individuals.
I'm talking about the situations that they're in.
I don't think Zeus, the show and the situation environment it creates,
shows us in the best light. I'm not talking, I'm not speaking to anybody's individual
character. I've never done that when it comes to Zeus, maybe the creators of it, but I've
not done that when it comes to Zeus specifically. I'm comparing to the Jefferson's, then,
George Jefferson never changed who he was. He just lived in a high rise. He was still the same
person. So I'm not talking about people individually. I'm talking about situations that they're in.
Yeah, he never changed. I watch these shows. He never changed. And I'm telling you, that's what I'm
saying about real housewives.
So to me
To me
Number one
I don't think we have to be shown
In the best life
I think if the person exists
Not if the person is a caricature
And if it's not real
Then that's one thing
But if the person exists
I don't feel embarrassed when you show them
I don't feel embarrassed
When you show somebody
That like the people that act like
Because there's people like that
I just watch this this TikTok
With this girl
And when the camera came on
She started shaking her ass
And the guy asked it
The guy was like, yo, you think you're going to get a husband shaking ass in a camera like that?
And she was like, what?
Don't give a fuck about no motherfucking husband.
And then it was like, but do you care about a ring?
She said, I got a lot of rings, nigger.
And she said, don't you want to be a wife?
And then her friend was like, I'm a lot of niggas wives.
I was like, oh, my God, they lit.
Like they think they go.
See?
So if they have their own.
reality show, I don't have a problem with it.
But I also know that like,
a lot of y'all be caring a lot about how y'all look in front of white people
so y'all don't want them to think that y'all not the best.
So,
y'all get mad on the different stuff for the Zeus Network.
Look, I will say that Zeus Network does.
Oh, you talking to me?
You talking to me?
You're talking to me? You look me dead in the eye.
Oh.
I didn't. Excuse me.
No, I didn't.
Shut up. No. Never. Never. No. No.
But I think that's an interesting.
conversation I have, but if you watch Zeus, which I've watched it, it is a lot, man.
I don't know why.
I'll be right with you.
Because, you know what?
Do you know why I do?
Because I am so, I am so anti-respectability that sometimes I'm on the other, other side of it.
But I'm not saying you got to be full out.
I do think they're caricatures of what they think that they're supposed to be in that.
I don't think they're fully like that.
I think I just,
and I've had conversations with somebody who was on there before
and like right after they had a situation,
and they were talking to me about it,
and I was like, damn.
And I was so upset about the situation that they were put in.
And they were so like,
that's not what I thought it was going to be.
And so this is coming from the people of Zeus
who were supposed to be protecting them or giving them,
you know, they get more, whatever Natalie was saying about that.
Bring them on.
Bring them on.
Bring them on.
Yeah, we got to have Natalie on.
We have Natalie on.
But I just,
you know, a lot of times I just get real like, you know what?
Just everybody loosening up, man.
You know, let's say show that thing.
But they, you know, they fight and people get cut.
This is one.
We're watching Jocelyn's Cabaret one time.
Jocelyn is powerful.
Have you seen her?
I watched her all through love and hip-hop.
I don't watch her own zoos.
But I watched the whole whole progression of,
Jocelyn.
It's different now, man.
Jocelyn,
you ever see like the difference
between Captain America
before he took the Super Soldier serum
and then after he took it?
You ever see that before?
Oh, yes.
Because I've seen the first one.
Yes.
Right.
So if you watch Captain America
the first Avenger,
you know, he's regular
and he like, whatever, whatever,
and he hasn't taken the serum at all.
But then they give him the serum
and this motherfucker comes out like diesel.
He, like,
starts running down the street barefoot
no one can fucking stop this nigga he'll even
know he's just jumping
jumping crazy jumping
swimming crazy
the difference between jocelyn
now and jocelyn
and jocelyn on loving hip hop
is that she then took the super
nigger serum
and it and it didn't
it's like Captain America
it then permeated throughout all
of her fucking she is
fucking powerful
she is she like jocelyn
now is a fucking force
to be wrecking with. I'm afraid of her.
Like when you see her on the show,
she'd be getting people right
and she didn't have a look at her eyes like,
get the choreography right, bitch, bitch.
And you like, if it goes left,
Jocelyn will kill everybody
in this fucking room.
Then they fight. This one girl,
pretty girl, got a big ass cut. She had to go to
a hospital. So it's a lot.
There's a lot on Zuzum saying, but
I'm just anti-respectability
to the point to where I think it's a, it's a
blonde spot probably. It's a blind spot.
You know it.
You ready for mailback?
Let's do it.
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.
All right. Mailbag.
Pull it up real quick.
Okay.
How fuck is that?
I got excited.
Okay.
Anyways, this one comes from underground hippie eight.
Who's the most influential mentor you've had in your life?
And what important lessons did you learn from them?
I always say my parents.
Yeah.
I was my parents, but I still call on my dad for advice.
Like, in different ways they've mentored me.
I think we've kind of had this question before,
but definitely my parents for different reasons.
Yeah, I tried to call my dad for some reason he doesn't pick up.
Tavent.
You're laughing.
Have you seen that guy on social media with stuff like that happens?
And then Jesus comes up on his shoulder.
I'm just letting you know.
Because see, people don't like the dark humor
the way people cope with their shit.
You're laughing.
It was funny.
It was funny.
It was funny.
But the reason I hesitated is because, like, as soon as I said it,
I thought about you and then you made the joke.
And I was like, okay, he's making it easier.
To me, rather than let you sit in that moment, just bail her out.
I know, I felt that.
Just bail her out.
You laugh.
It's funny.
Like, I'll do that.
Like, sometimes I'll do that with mom.
Well, I'll do that with mom and mom will just,
mom and Ebony, they're not there yet.
That's the way I am.
But mom and Ebony,
they're not there yet.
They can't,
they're not there yet.
I get it.
But yeah,
my mom,
the most important,
the single most important,
uh,
I guess influence in my life for better or worse.
Uh,
was my father,
but my mother as well.
Like not,
and I don't even mean to say as well.
Like,
my mom and her compassion and who she is and how she deals with people and how open hearter she is
and how passionate she is and all of that stuff, very, very important to me and who I am and how I am.
So it's definitely my parents.
All right, what else?
The next one is from Bobopetick 33.
Time to make a national holiday.
What new day are you putting on a calendar for America to celebrate?
I got one.
Okay.
You go, Rachel.
Well, my first thought, but this means they would actually have to happen for us, would be like a reparations day.
But that means we would actually have to have, get reparations to celebrate us.
So it's a two-for.
It means we're getting reparations and it's the day we actually celebrate our payout, our rightful pay, I should say.
My holiday is national.
Leave me to fuck alone day.
Isn't that every day for you?
What everybody just gets to be by
their self.
Okay?
Every holiday is about
15 niggas
like all crammed together
eating and breathing on each other.
Farts, burps,
people going to take a shit
and they're clearing out
space so they can come and eat again.
All of that stuff like that, weird smells.
And I like it. It's family.
But just one day
just leave people alone day
discounts if you go to dinner by yourself
discounts if you go to the movies by yourself
discounts on solo stays a whole
to I just want to be by myself day
leave me alone
Vision Pro has a whole thing
just a day of the day of solitude
national we by ourselves day
everybody could take it.
I mean, somebody, you know,
is somebody going to have to babysit,
but just national week by ourselves,
we alone day.
That would be my.
Okay, last one.
All right.
This one's from Mother of Teddy.
And they said,
if you're running for president in 2024,
what would your slogan be?
Who would be your running mate?
And who would perform at your inauguration?
Okay.
So my slogan will be,
it's almost over,
guys.
What's almost over?
Everything.
My slogan would be,
it's almost over.
My slogan would be,
it's almost over, guys.
Van Lakey 2024.
You don't have to do this for too much longer.
Like you.
It's almost over.
It's almost over.
I come out with every,
every fucking press conference I would come out.
Hey, guys, hey, it's me, President Lathin.
Just let you know the water's getting warmer.
It's not a fucking thing anybody's going to do with it.
All right?
Water's getting warmer.
Polar ice caps fucking melting.
But me and Vice President Mark Lamont Hill over here,
we're going to try to get something done.
Not going to happen.
So what you guys should do is tick-tock it
till you can't stop it because you know what?
Mark would never agree to this.
It's almost over.
I like that you pick Mark
because he's going to balance you out.
Mark would be there.
Mark would be trying to convince me.
Vice President Lamont Hill
wants to do something.
Nah, it makes no sense.
You guys aren't going to do it.
Makes no sense.
Fuck you guys.
It's almost over.
Fuck it.
You know what?
Right now,
I release $10 trillion
dollars into the economy,
free money.
Everybody go,
it's almost over.
And the song would probably be
it's over.
It's over.
You don't get to make it.
Move over.
It's my turn now.
Move over.
It's your turn now.
Sorry.
Remember that joint?
That would be the song.
Go ahead.
Well, that doesn't make me feel hopeful
for the future.
You're painting a very bleak future
if that's what we're.
What?
It's almost over?
Like we ain't got, y'all,
got nothing to look forward to.
This is it.
No.
My slogan would be like,
we all we got.
That's what I would be.
Oh, oh.
Oh, okay.
So yours works.
We all got.
It's about us.
It was a few.
Well, that's what I would be trying to create.
That's the thing.
Like, we got to depend on each other.
And I would make you,
this would be a higher learning presidency.
I make you my renaming.
One, I would love to be able to tell you what to do.
That would be great.
Hey, vice president, get over there and do that.
And who's performing?
What?
You marginalized me like they do to Kamala is what probably what you do.
I'll probably be in the back.
You know what I mean?
Well, see, me, I would subvert your presidency if I wasn't getting my Masha.
See, you know what?
But I don't want you anymore.
Just like a man.
Just like a man.
Oh, you would be my running mate.
And the performance would be by sexy red.
That's what I'm talking about.
Get it sexy.
Get it sexy.
Go sexy.
Get sexy.
Get sexy.
By the way, you guys, we'll talk about it on Monday.
Beyonce's dropping the night.
Rachel's excited.
I mean, when it comes, I'm going to listen.
You know, I don't get all up in arms.
about the anticipation of it.
Let me know when it's here, and I'll take a listen.
Taylor Adelaos on the album. Shout out to Taylor. Tanner.
Tanner Adelaos on the album. Shout to Tanner.
Shout to all the black country artists.
I shout out to all of them that have been doing that thing.
I'm naming all of them.
Shout to all the black country artists right there.
She's on the album, Buckle Bunny, all of that stuff.
I'm happy for everybody that's about to get their shine and, you know, we take
country back guitar. Sorry, we got to go.
Take the caps off. We do not stop learning.
I am Van Lathan Jr.
I'm Rachel and Lindsay.
Bye, guys.
